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 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. This document may not be modified, and derivative works of it may not be created, except to format it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other than English. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. 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Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of Harkins Expires May 20, 2012 [Page 1] Internet-Draft Update Ike's Registry November 2011 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 Harkins Expires May 20, 2012 [Page 2] Internet-Draft Update Ike's Registry November 2011 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 Harkins Expires May 20, 2012 [Page 3] Internet-Draft Update Ike's Registry November 2011 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. Harkins Expires May 20, 2012 [Page 4] Internet-Draft Update Ike's Registry November 2011 [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 Harkins Expires May 20, 2012 [Page 5]