Internet DRAFT - draft-harkins-ike-iana-update

draft-harkins-ike-iana-update






Network Working Group                                         D. Harkins
Internet-Draft                                            Aruba Networks
Intended status: Informational                         November 17, 2011
Expires: May 20, 2012


            A Modest Proposal to Update IKE's IANA Registry
                    draft-harkins-ike-iana-update-00

Abstract

   The "IPSEC Authentication Methods" registry created by IKE states
   that it can only be updated by Standards Track RFC.  In practice,
   this has not been the case.  This memo proposed to relax that
   requirement.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on May 20, 2012.

Copyright Notice

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   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   3.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   5.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4









































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1.  Introduction

   [RFC2409], also known as IKEv1, is a widely-deployed protocol for
   establishing an authenticated secret key between two peers and for
   negotiating security associations between them to faccilitate the use
   of IPsec.  This protocol has been deprecated by [RFC4306] but still
   enjoys widespread use in the Internet today.

   The IANA Registry created by [RFC2409] for adding new authentication
   methods, IPSEC Authentication Methods (Value 3), indicates it can
   only be updated by a Standards Track RFC.  In spite of this
   requirement, there are currently two methods in the registry which
   were added as a result of an email exchange with John Gilmore (values
   6 and 7), and one that was assigned to an individual for ECDSA
   authentication (value 8).  Values 6 and 7 appeared in
   draft-ietf-ipsec-ike-00.txt but were removed in subsequent versions
   and did not appear in [RFC4306].

   [RFC2409] has a very clumsy way of dealing with pre-shared keys.
   They are required to be based on a peer's IP address and the exchange
   that uses them is susceptible to off-line dictionary attack.  As a
   result a plethora of insecure protocols and techniques have arisen to
   handle per-user pre-shared keys (or passwords), many of which
   continue to be used today.  Therefore, it would be a service to the
   Internet community to have a way of easily and securely using pre-
   shared keys (or passwords) that did not require upgrading an
   implementation to [RFC5996] (the latest version of IKE), the obsolete
   status of [RFC2409] notwithstanding.

   There is currently a proposal to add a new authentication protocol to
   both [RFC2409] and [RFC5996] that authenticates the peers using a
   pre-shared key (or password) and is resistant to off-line dictionary
   attack.  Due to various machinations in the IPsecme Working Group,
   the draft specifying these changes will probably be advanced as
   Experimental.  As a result, the requirment that changes to the
   authentication protocol registry be the result of a Standards Track
   RFC poses a problem.

   One could argue that the horse (and the cow, and goat too) left that
   barn long ago given the fact that the registry has, traditionally,
   been updated on the slimest of reasons, and against the specified
   requirement, but rules are rules.  And therefore it is needed to
   modify the IANA Registry to relax the requirement for updating.

2.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this



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   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

3.  IANA Considerations

   IANA SHALL modify the "IPSEC Authentication Methods (Value 3)" by
   changing "Standards Track" to "Specification Required".  The
   resulting registry SHALL look like:

Registry Name: IPSEC Authentication Methods (Value 3)
Reference: [RFC2409]
Range        Registration Procedures
-----------  -----------------------------------------------------------
1-65000      Specification Required
65001-65535  Reserved for private use among mutually consenting parties.

Registry:
Value         Method                                  Reference
------------  --------------------------------------  ---------
0             Reserved
1             pre-shared key                          [RFC2409]
2             DSS signatures                          [RFC2409]
3             RSA signatures                          [RFC2409]
4             Encryption with RSA                     [RFC2409]
5             Revised encryption with RSA             [RFC2409]
6             Encryption with El-Gamal
7             Revised encryption with El-Gamal
8             ECDSA signatures                        [Fahn]
9             ECDSA with SHA-256 on the P-256 curve   [RFC4754]
10            ECDSA with SHA-384 on the P-384 curve   [RFC4754]
11            ECDSA with SHA-512 on the P-521 curve   [RFC4754]
12-65000      Unassigned
65001-65535   Reserved for private use

                 New IPSEC Authentication Methods Registry

4.  Security Considerations

   This memo does not introduce any security considerations, per se.  It
   enables the addition of a protocol that fixes a fundamental security
   issue with a widely-deployed, but obsoleted, protocol and, therefore,
   can indirectly yet beneficially influence the security of the
   Internet.

5.  Informative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.




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   [RFC2409]  Harkins, D. and D. Carrel, "The Internet Key Exchange
              (IKE)", RFC 2409, November 1998.

   [RFC4306]  Kaufman, C., "Internet Key Exchange (IKEv2) Protocol",
              RFC 4306, December 2005.

   [RFC5996]  Kaufman, C., Hoffman, P., Nir, Y., and P. Eronen,
              "Internet Key Exchange Protocol Version 2 (IKEv2)",
              RFC 5996, September 2010.

Author's Address

   Dan Harkins
   Aruba Networks
   1322 Crossman Avenue
   Sunnyvale, CA  94089-1113
   United States of America

   EMail: dharkins@arubanetworks.com
































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