INTERNET-DRAFT Kurt D. Zeilenga Intended Category: Informational OpenLDAP Foundation Expires in six months 22 April 2002 CLDAP to Historic Status Status of Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026. This document is intended to be, after appropriate review and revision, submitted to the RFC Editor as an Informational document. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Technical discussion of this document will take place on the IETF LDAP Extensions Working Group (LDAPext) mailing list . Please send editorial comments directly to the document editor . Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as ``work in progress.'' The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at . The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at . Copyright 2002, The Internet Society. All Rights Reserved. Please see the Copyright section near the end of this document for more information. Abstract The Connection-less Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (CLDAP) technical specification, RFC 1798, was published in 1995 as a Proposed Standard. This document discusses the reasons why the CLDAP technical specification has not been furthered on the Standard Track. This Zeilenga CLDAP to Historic Status [Page 1] INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-cldap-02.txt 22 April 2002 document recommends that RFC 1798 be moved to Historic status. 1. Background Connection-less Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (CLDAP) [RFC1798] was published in 1995 as a Proposed Standard. The protocol was targeted at applications which require lookup of small amounts of information held in the directory. The protocol avoids the overhead of establishing (and closing) a connection and the session bind and unbind operations needed in connection-oriented directory access protocols. The CLDAP was designed to complement version 2 of the Lightweight Directory Access Protcol (LDAPv2) [RFC1777], now Historic [HISTORIC]. In the seven years since its publication, CLDAP has not become widely deployed on the Internet. There are a number of probable reasons for this: - Limited functionality: + anonymous only, + read only, + small result sizes only, and - Insufficient security capabilities: + no integrity protection, + no confidentiality protection - Inadequate internationalization support; - Insufficient extensibility; and - Lack of multiple independently developed implementations. The CLDAP technical specification has normative references to multiple obsolete technical specifications including X.501(88), X.511(88), RFC 1487 (the predecessor to RFC 1777, the now Historic LDAPv2 technical specification). Unless the technical specification were to be updated, CLDAP can not remain on the standards track because of the normative reference to a Historic RFC." The community recognized in the mid-1990s that CLDAP needed to be updated. In response to this, the IETF chartered the LDAP Extensions Working Group (LDAPext WG) in 1997 to undertake this update. The LDAPext WG is concluding without producing an update to CLDAP. Currently, there is no standardization effort to update CLDAP. It should be noted that the community still has interest in developing a "connection-less" directory access protocol. However, based on operational experience, has determined that further experimentation is necessary to address outstanding technical issues. In particular, Zeilenga CLDAP to Historic Status [Page 2] INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-cldap-02.txt 22 April 2002 security considerations associated with "connection-less" services need to be addressed. 2. Recommendation As there is no viable standardization effort to update CLDAP as necessary to keep it on the standards track and the community currently considers this an area requiring further experimentation, RFC 1798 must be moved to Historic status. It is recommended that those interested in connection-less access to X.500-based directory services experiment with [LDAPUDP] and other alternatives which might become available. 3. Security Considerations The security of the Internet will not be impacted by the retirement of CLDAP. 4. Acknowledgment The author would like to thank the designers of CLDAP for their contribution to the Internet community. 5. Author's Address Kurt D. Zeilenga OpenLDAP Foundation Email: Kurt@OpenLDAP.org 6. Normative References [CLDAP] Young, A. "Connection-less Lightweight Directory Access Protocol," RFC 1798, June 1995. 7. Informative References [HISTORIC] K. Zeilenga, "LDAPv2 to Historic Status", draft-zeilenga- Zeilenga CLDAP to Historic Status [Page 3] INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-cldap-02.txt 22 April 2002 ldapv2-xx.txt (a work in progress). [LDAPUDP] Johansson, L. and R. Hedberg, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol over UDP/IP," draft-ietf-ldapext-ldapudp-00.txt, a work in progress. [RFC1777] Yeong, W., T. Howes, and S. Kille, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol", RFC 1777, March 1995. [RFC2251] Wahl, M., T. Howes and S. Kille, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3)", RFC 2251, December 1997. [X501] The Directory: Models. CCITT Recommendation X.501 ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC21; International Standard 9594-2, 1988. [X511] The Directory: Abstract Service Definition. CCITT Recommendation X.511, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC21; International Standard 9594-3, 1988. [RFC1487] Yeong, W., Howes, T., and S. Kille, "X.500 Lightweight Directory Access Protocol", RFC 1487, Performance Systems International, University of Michigan, ISODE Consortium, July 1993. Copyright 2002, The Internet Society. All Rights Reserved. This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than English. The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns. This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE AUTHORS, THE INTERNET SOCIETY, AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED Zeilenga CLDAP to Historic Status [Page 4] INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-cldap-02.txt 22 April 2002 WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Zeilenga CLDAP to Historic Status [Page 5]