Internet DRAFT - draft-vvv-tls-alps

draft-vvv-tls-alps







TLS Working Group                                            D. Benjamin
Internet-Draft                                               V. Vasiliev
Intended status: Standards Track                                  Google
Expires: 25 March 2021                                 21 September 2020


           TLS Application-Layer Protocol Settings Extension
                         draft-vvv-tls-alps-01

Abstract

   This document describes a Transport Layer Security (TLS) extension
   for negotiating application-layer protocol settings (ALPS) within the
   TLS handshake.  Any application-layer protocol operating over TLS can
   use this mechanism to indicate its settings to the peer in parallel
   with the TLS handshake completion.

Discussion Venues

   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.

   Discussion of this document takes place on the TLS Working Group
   mailing list (tls@ietf.org), which is archived at
   https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/tls/
   (https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/tls/).

   Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
   https://github.com/vasilvv/tls-alps (https://github.com/vasilvv/tls-
   alps).

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 25 March 2021.





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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2020 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
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   extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text
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   provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Conventions and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Wire Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.1.  Client Encrypted Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.2.  0-RTT Handshakes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

1.  Introduction

   An application-layer protocol often starts with both parties
   negotiating parameters under which the protocol operates; for
   instance, HTTP/2 [RFC7540] uses a SETTINGS frame to exchange the list
   of protocol parameters supported by each endpoint.  This is usually
   achieved by waiting for TLS handshake [RFC8446] to complete and then
   performing the application-layer handshake within the application
   protocol itself.  This approach, despite its apparent simplicity at
   first, has multiple drawbacks:

   1.  While the server is technically capable of sending configuration
       to the peer as soon as it sends its Finished message, most TLS
       implementations do not allow any application data to be sent
       until the Finished message is received from the client.  This
       adds an extra round-trip to the time of when the server settings
       are available to the client.




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   2.  In QUIC, any settings delivered within the application layer can
       arrive after other application data; thus, the application has to
       operate under the assumption that peer's settings are not always
       available.

   3.  If the application needs to be aware of the server settings in
       order to send 0-RTT data, the application has to manually
       integrate with the TLS stack to associate the settings with TLS
       session tickets.

   This document introduces a new TLS extension, "application_settings",
   that allows applications to exchange settings within the TLS
   handshake.  Through doing that, the settings can be made available to
   the application as soon as the handshake completes, and can be
   associated with TLS session tickets automatically at the TLS layer.
   This approach allows the application protocol to be designed with the
   assumption that it has access to the peer's settings whenever it is
   able to send data.

2.  Conventions and Definitions

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

3.  Semantics

   Settings are defined to be an opaque blob that is specified by the
   application when initiating a TLS connection.  The settings are meant
   to be a _declaration_ of the protocol parameters supported by the
   sender.  While in this version of the extension the server settings
   are always sent first, this may change in future versions; thus, the
   application MUST NOT vary client settings based on the ones received
   from the server.

   ALPS is _not_ a negotiation mechanism: there is no notion of
   rejecting peer's settings, and the settings are not responses to one
   another.  Nevertheless, it is possible for parties to coordinate
   behavior by, for instance, requiring a certain parameter to be
   present in both client and server settings.  This makes ALPS
   mechanism similar to QUIC transport parameters
   [I-D.ietf-quic-transport] or HTTP/2 SETTINGS frame [RFC7540], but
   puts it in contrast to similar mechanisms in TLS.






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   Settings are exchanged as a part of the TLS handshake that is
   encrypted with the handshake keys.  When the server settings are
   sent, the identity of the client has not been yet established;
   therefore, an application MUST NOT use ALPS if it requires the
   settings to be available only to the authenticated clients.

   The ALPS model provides applications with a guarantee that the
   settings are available before any application data can be written.
   Note that this implies that when the full handshake is performed, the
   server can no longer send data immediately after sending its Finished
   message; it has to wait for the client to respond with its settings.
   This may negatively impact the latency of the protocols where the
   server sends the first message, however it should be noted that
   sending application data before receiving has not been widely
   supported by TLS implementations, nor has it been allowed in
   situations when establishing client identity through TLS is required.

   ALPS can only be used in conjunction with Application-Layer Protocol
   Negotiation: the client MUST offer ALPN [RFC7301] if advertising ALPS
   support, and the server MUST NOT reply with ALPS unless it is also
   negotiating ALPN.  The ALPS payload is protocol-dependent, and as
   such it MUST be specified with respect to a selected ALPN.

4.  Wire Protocol

   ALPS is only supported in TLS version 1.3 or later, as the earlier
   versions do not provide any confidentiality protections for the
   handshake data.  The exchange is performed in three steps:

   1.  The client sends an extension in ClientHello that enumerates all
       ALPN values for which ALPS is supported.

   2.  The server sends an encrypted extension containing the server
       settings.

   3.  The client sends an encrypted extension containing the client
       settings.














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          Client                                               Server

          ClientHello
          + alpn
          + alps                    -------->

                                                          ServerHello
                                                {EncryptedExtensions}
                                                               + alpn
                                                               + alps
                                                                  ...
                                    <--------              {Finished}

          {EncryptedExtensions}
          + alps
          {Certificate*}
          {CertificateVerify*}
          {Finished}                -------->

                      +  Indicates extensions sent in the
                         previously noted message.

                      {} Indicates messages protected using
                         the handshake keys.

                      *  Indicates optional messages that are
                         not related to ALPS.

              Figure 1: ALPS exchange in a full TLS handshake

   A TLS client can enable ALPS by specifying an "application_settings"
   extension in the ClientHello message.  The value of the
   "extension_data" field for this extension SHALL be a
   ApplicationSettingsSupport struct:

       struct {
           ProtocolName supported_protocols<2..2^16-1>;
       } ApplicationSettingsSupport;

   Here, the "supported_protocols" field indicates the names of the
   protocols (as defined in [RFC7301]) for which ALPS exchange is
   supported; this is necessary for the situations when the client
   offers multiple ALPN values but only supports ALPS in some of them.








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   If the server chooses an ALPN value for which the client has offered
   ALPS support, the server MAY negotiate ALPS by sending an
   "application_settings" extension in its EncryptedExtensions message.
   The value of the "extension_data" field in that case SHALL be an
   opaque blob containing the server settings as specified by the
   application protocol.

   If the client receives an EncryptedExtensions message containing an
   "application_settings" extension from the server, it MUST send an
   EncryptedExtensions message (see Section 4.1) containing an
   "application_extensions" extension.  The value of the
   "extension_data" in this extension SHALL be an opaque blob containing
   the client settings as specified by the application protocol.  A
   server which negotiates ALPS MUST abort the handshake with a
   "missing_extension" alert if the client's EncryptedExtensions is
   missing this extension.

4.1.  Client Encrypted Extensions

   This specification introduces the client EncryptedExtensions message.
   The format and HandshakeType code point match the server
   EncryptedExtensions message.  When sent, it is encrypted with
   handshake traffic keys and sent by the client after receiving the
   server Finished message and before the client sends the Certificate,
   CertificateVerify (if any), and Finished messages.  It SHALL be
   appended to the Client Handshake Context, as defined Section 4.4 of
   [RFC8446].  It additionally SHALL be inserted after the server
   Finished in the Post-Handshake Handshake Context.

   The client MUST send the EncryptedExtensions message if any extension
   sent in the server EncryptedExtension message contains the CEE token
   in the TLS 1.3 column of the TLS ExtensionType Values registry.
   Otherwise, the client MUST NOT send the message.  The server MUST
   abort the handshake with a "unexpected_message" alert if the message
   was sent or omitted incorrectly.

   The client MAY send an extension in the client EncryptedExtension
   message if that extension's entry in the registry contains a CEE
   token and the server EncryptedExtensions message included the
   extension.  Otherwise, the client MUST NOT send the extension.  If a
   server receives an extension which does not meet this criteria, it
   MUST abort the handshake with an "unsupported_extension" alert.

   Future extensions MAY use the client EncryptedExtensions message by
   including the CEE token in the TLS 1.3 registry.  The above rules
   ensure clients will not send EncryptedExtensions messages to older
   servers, but will send EncryptedExtensions when some negotiated
   extension uses it.



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   [[TODO: Section 4.6.1 of RFC8446 allows the server to predict the
   client Finished flight and send a ticket early.  This is still
   possible with 0-RTT handshakes here because we omit rather than
   repeat the redudant ALPS information, but, in the general extension
   case, client EncryptedExtensions breaks this.  Extension order is
   unpredictable.  We should resolve this conflict, either by dropping
   that feature or removing flexibility here.]]

4.2.  0-RTT Handshakes

   ALPS ensures settings are available before reading and writing
   application data, so handshakes which negotiate early data instead
   use application settings from the PSK.  To use early data with a PSK,
   the TLS implementation MUST associate both client and server
   application settings, if any, with the PSK.  For a resumption PSK,
   these values are determined from the original connection.  For an
   external PSK, this values should be configured with it.  Existing
   PSKs are considered to not have application settings.

   If the server accepts early data, the server SHALL NOT send an
   "application_settings" extension, and thus the client SHALL NOT send
   a "application_settings" extension in its EncryptedExtensions
   message.  Unless the server has sent some other extension which uses
   client EncryptedExtensions, the client SHALL NOT send an
   EncryptedExtensions message.  Instead, the connection implicitly uses
   the PSK's application settings, if any.

   If the server rejects early data, application settings are negotiated
   independently of the PSK, as if early data were not offered.

   If the client wishes to send different client settings for the
   connection, it MUST NOT offer 0-RTT.  Conversely, if the server
   wishes to use send different server settings, it MUST reject 0-RTT.
   Note that the ALPN itself is similarly required to match the one in
   the original connection, thus the settings only need to be remembered
   or checked for a single application protocol.  Implementations are
   RECOMMENDED to first determine the desired application protocol and
   settings independent of early data, and then decline to offer or
   accept early data if the values do not match the PSK.  This preserves
   any ALPN and ALPS configuration specified by the calling application.

5.  Security Considerations

   ALPS is protected using the handshake keys, which are the secret keys
   derived as a result of (EC)DHE between the client and the server.






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   In order to ensure that the ALPS values are authenticated, the TLS
   implementation MUST NOT reveal the contents of peer's ALPS until
   peer's Finished message is received, with exception of cases where
   the ALPS has been carried over from the previous connection.

6.  IANA Considerations

   IANA will update the "TLS ExtensionType Values" registry to include
   "application_settings" with the value of TBD; the list of messages in
   which this extension may appear is "CH, EE, CEE".

7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC7301]  Friedl, S., Popov, A., Langley, A., and E. Stephan,
              "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Application-Layer Protocol
              Negotiation Extension", RFC 7301, DOI 10.17487/RFC7301,
              July 2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7301>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

   [RFC8446]  Rescorla, E., "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol
              Version 1.3", RFC 8446, DOI 10.17487/RFC8446, August 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8446>.

7.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.ietf-quic-transport]
              Iyengar, J. and M. Thomson, "QUIC: A UDP-Based Multiplexed
              and Secure Transport", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft,
              draft-ietf-quic-transport-30, 9 September 2020,
              <http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-quic-
              transport-30.txt>.

   [RFC7540]  Belshe, M., Peon, R., and M. Thomson, Ed., "Hypertext
              Transfer Protocol Version 2 (HTTP/2)", RFC 7540,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7540, May 2015,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7540>.





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Acknowledgments

   This document has benefited from contributions and suggestions from
   Nick Harper, David Schinazi, Renjie Tang and many others.

Authors' Addresses

   David Benjamin
   Google

   Email: davidben@google.com


   Victor Vasiliev
   Google

   Email: vasilvv@google.com


































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