new Inet Auth Guidelines draft

Ran Atkinson <atkinson@itd.nrl.navy.mil> Sun, 20 March 1994 20:56 UTC

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From: Ran Atkinson <atkinson@itd.nrl.navy.mil>
Message-Id: <9403202040.AA14933@itd.nrl.navy.mil>
To: cat-ietf@bitsy.mit.edu
Subject: new Inet Auth Guidelines draft

I've sent the revised draft below off to the Internet Drafts folks
for more general release.  Neil and I think that this is probably
ready to go out as an Informational RFC now (well, as soon as I fix
a reference or two that was TBD).  We'd really appreciate it if folks
would take a look at it and point out any remaining problem areas
and suggest any improvements that you all can make.

Thanks,

  Ran
  atkinson@itd.nrl.navy.mil

--- cut here ---






INTERNET DRAFT                                         Neil Haller,
draft-haller-auth-requirements-03.txt                  Bellcore
20 March 1994                                          Randall Atkinson,
                                                       Naval Research Laboratory


                   Internet Authentication Guidelines


STATUS OF THIS MEMO

   This document is an Internet  Draft.   Internet  Drafts  are  working
   documents  of  the  Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its Areas
   and Working Groups.  Note  that  other  groups  may  also  distribute
   working documents as Internet Drafts.

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   To learn the current status of any Internet Draft, please  check  the
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   munnari.oz.au.

   The distribution of this Internet Draft is unlimited.  It is filed as
   <draft-haller-auth-requirements-03.txt>,  and  it replaces an earlier
   Internet Draft "Internet Authentication Requirements".  It expires on
   20 August 1994.


1. ABSTRACT

The  authentication  requirements  of  computing  systems  and   network
protocols vary greatly with their intended use, accessibility, and their
network  connectivity.   This   document   describes   a   spectrum   of
authentication technologies and provides guidance to protocol developers
on what kinds of authentication might be  suitable  for  what  kinds  of
protocols and applications used in the Internet.

Disclosing passwords, which are vulnerable to passive  attack,  are  not
strong  enough  to  be  appropriate  in  the  current Internet. [CERT94]
Further, there is ample evidence that both passive  and  active  attacks
are  not  uncommon  in  the  current Internet.  [Bellovin89, Bellovin92,
Bellovin93, Cheswick, Stoll90] The authors of this  paper  believe  that
many  protocols used in the Internet should have stronger authentication
mechanisms so that they are at least  protected  from  passive  attacks.
Support  for  authentication  mechanisms secure against active attack is
clearly desirable in internetworking protocols.

There are a number of  dimensions  to  the  internetwork  authentication
problem  and,  in the interest of brevity and readability, this document



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only describes some of them.  However, factors that a protocol  designer
should  consider  include  whether authentication is between machines or
between a human and a machine, whether the authentication is local  only
or   distributed  across  a  network,  strength  of  the  authentication
mechanism, and how keys are managed.


2. DEFINITION OF TERMS

This section briefly defines some of the terms used in this paper to aid
the reader in understanding the draft.

   Active  Attack:   An  attempt  to  improperly   modify   data,   gain
          authentication,  or  gain  authorization  by  inserting  false
          packets  into  the  data  stream  or  by   modifying   packets
          transiting  the  data  stream. (See passive attacks and replay
          attacks.)

   Asymmetric Cryptography:  An encryption system  that  uses  different
          keys,  for  encryption  and  decryption.  The two keys have an
          intrinsic  mathematical  relationship  to  each  other.   Also
          called Public Key Cryptography.  (See Symmetric Cryptography)

   Authentication:  The verification of the identity of  the  source  of
          information.

   Authorization:   The  granting  of  access   rights   based   on   an
          authenticated identity.

   Confidentiality: The protection of information so  that  someone  not
          authorized   to   access   the  information  cannot  read  the
          information even though the unauthorized person might see  the
          information's   container   (e.g.  computer  file  or  network
          packet).

   Encryption: A mechanism often used to provide confidentiality.

   Integrity:   The  protection   of   information   from   unauthorized
          modification.

   Key Certificate: TBD

   Passive Attack:  An attack on an authentication system  that  inserts
          no  data  into the stream, but instead relies on being able to
          passively  monitor  information  being  sent   between   other
          parties.   This information could be used a later time in what
          appears to be a valid session.  (See active attack and  replay
          attack)

   Plain-text:  Unencrypted text.

   Replay Attack:  An attack on an authentication  system  by  recording
          and  replaying  previously  sent  valid  messages (or parts of
          messages).  Any constant authentication information, such as a



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          password  or electronically transmitted biometric data, can be
          recorded and used later to forge messages that  appear  to  be
          authentic.

   Symmetric Cryptography: An encryption system that uses the  same  key
          for  encryption  and  decryption.   Sometimes  referred  to as
          Secret Key Cryptography.



3.0 AUTHENTICATION TECHNOLOGIES

There are a number of different classes of authentication, ranging  from
no    authentication   to   very   strong   authentication.    Different
authentication mechanisms are appropriate for addressing different kinds
of  authentication  problems,  so  this  is  not  a  strict hierarchical
ordering.  The CCITT's Recommendation X.509 provides one  definition  of
the difference between "strong" and "weak" authentication, but different
user communities have different views on this. [X.509]

3.1 No Authentication

For completeness, the simplest authentication system is not to have any.
A non-networked PC in a private (secure) location is an example of where
no authentication is acceptable.  Another case is a  stand-alone  public
workstation,  such  as  "mail  reading"  workstations  provided  at some
conferences,  on which the  data  is  not  sensitive  to  disclosure  or
modification.


3.2 Authentication Mechanisms Vulnerable to Passive Attacks

The  simple  password  check  is  by  far  the  most  common   form   of
authentication.   Simple  authentication  checks come in many forms: the
key may be a password memorized by the user, it may  be  a  physical  or
electronic  item possessed by the user, or it may be a unique biological
feature.  Simple authentication systems  are  said  to  be  "disclosing"
because  if  the  key  is  transmitted over a network it is disclosed to
eavesdroppers.  There have been widespread reports of successful passive
attacks  in  the  current Internet using already compromised machines to
engage  in  passive  attacks  against  additional   machines.   [CERT94]
Disclosing  authentication  mechanisms are vulnerable to replay attacks.
Access keys may be stored on the target system, in which case  a  single
breach   in   system   security   may  gain  access  to  all  passwords.
Alternatively, as on most systems, the data stored on the system can  be
enough to verify passwords but not to generate them.

3.3 Authentication Mechanisms Vulnerable to Active Attacks

Non-disclosing password systems have been  designed  to  prevent  replay
attacks.   Several systems have been invented to generate non-disclosing
passwords.  For example, the SecurID Card from  Security  Dynamics  uses
synchronized  clocks for authentication information.  The card generates
a visual display and thus must  be  in  the  possession  of  the  person



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seeking  authentication.   The  S/KEY authentication system developed at
Bellcore generates multiple single use passwords from  a  single  secret
key. [Haller94] It does not use a physical token, so it is also suitable
for machine-machine authentication.  In addition  there  are  challenge-
response  systems  in  which  a  device  or  computer program is used to
generate a verifiable response from a  non-repeating  challenge.   S/Key
doesn't store the user's secret key anyplace, which is an advantage when
dealing with current untrustworthy computing systems.  However,  in  its
current  form,  S/Key  is vulnerable to a dictionary attack.  The Point-
to-Point Protocol's CHAP challenge-response system is non-disclosing but
only  useful  locally.  [LS92,  Simpson93]  These  systems  vary  in the
sensitivity of the information stored in the  authenticating  host,  and
thus vary in the security requirements that must be placed on that host.

3.4 Authentication Mechanisms Not Vulnerable to Active Attacks

The growing use of networked computing environments has led to the  need
for  stronger  authentication.   In  open  networks, many users can gain
access to any information flowing over the network, and with  additional
effort,  a  user  can send information that appears to come from another
user.

More  powerful  authentication  systems  make  use  of  the  computation
capability  of  the  two  authenticating parties.  Authentication may be
unidirectional, for example authenticating  users  to  a  host  computer
system,  or  it  may  be  mutual  in which case the entity logging in is
assured of the identity of the host.  Some  authentication  systems  use
cryptographic  techniques and establish (as a part of the authentication
process) a shared secret (e.g. session key) that can be used for further
exchanges.   For example, a user, after completion of the authentication
process, might be granted an authorization ticket that can  be  used  to
obtain   other   services   without   further   authentication.    These
authentication  systems  might  also  provide   confidentiality   (using
encryption) over insecure networks when required.

4.0 CRYPTOGRAPHY

  Cryptographic mechanisms are widely used  to  provide  authentication,
either  with  or  without  confidentiality,  in  computer  networks  and
internetworks.  There are two basic kinds of cryptography and these  are
described  in  this  section.   A fundamental and recurring problem with
cryptographic mechanisms is how  to  securely  distribute  keys  to  the
communicating  parties.   Key  distribution is addressed in Section 6 of
this document.

4.1 Symmetric Cryptography

Symmetric Cryptography includes all systems that use the  same  key  for
encryption  and  decryption.  Thus if anyone improperly obtains the key,
they can both decrypt and read data encrypted using that  key  and  also
encrypt  false  data  and  make  it  appear to be valid. This means that
knowledge of the key by an undesired third party fully  compromises  the
confidentiality  of  the  system.   Therefore,  the keys used need to be
distributed securely, either by courier or  perhaps  by  use  of  a  key



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distribution  protocol, of which the best known is perhaps that proposed
by Needham and Schroeder. [NS78, NS87] The widely used  Data  Encryption
Standard  (DES) algorithm, that has been standardized for use to protect
unclassified civilian US Government information,  is  perhaps  the  best
known symmetric encryption algorithm. [NBS77]

A well known system that addresses insecure open networks as a part of a
computing  environment  is  the Kerberos Authentication Service that was
developed as part  of  Project  Athena  at  MIT.   [SNS88,  BM91,  KN93]
Kerberos  is  based  on  Data  Encryption  Standard  (DES) symmetric key
encryption and uses a trusted (third party) host that knows  the  secret
keys  of  all users and services, and thus can generate credentials that
can be used by users and servers to  prove  their  identities  to  other
systems.    As   with   any  distributed  authentication  scheme,  these
credentials  will  be  believed  by  any  computer  within   the   local
administrative  domain  or  realm.   Hence,  if  a  user's  password  is
disclosed, an attacker would be able to masquerade as that user  on  any
system  which  trusts Kerberos.  As the Kerberos server knows all secret
keys, it must be physically secure.  Kerberos session keys can  be  used
to  provide  confidentiality  between  any  entities  that trust the key
server.

4.2 Asymmetric Cryptography

In the late 1970s,  a  major  breakthrough  in  cryptology  led  to  the
availability   of  Asymmetric  Cryptography.   This  is  different  from
Symmetric Cryptography because different keys are  used  for  encryption
and  decryption,  which greatly simplifies the key distribution problem.
The best known asymmetric system is based on work by Rivest, Shamir, and
Adleman  and  is often referred to as "RSA" after the authors' initials.
[RSA78]

SPX is an experimental system that  overcomes  the  limitations  of  the
trusted  key  distribution  center  of  Kerberos by using RSA Public Key
Cryptography. [TA91]  SPX  assumes  a  global  hierarchy  of  certifying
authorities  at  least  one  of which is trusted by each party.  It uses
digital signatures that consist of a token encrypted in the private  key
of  the  signing  entity  and  that  are validated using the appropriate
public key.  The public keys  are  known  to  be  correct  as  they  are
obtained  under  the  signature  of the trusted certification authority.
Critical parts of the  authentication  exchange  are  encrypted  in  the
public keys of the receivers, thus preventing a replay attack.

4.3 Cryptographic Checksums

Cryptographic checksums are one of the most useful near term  tools  for
protocol  designers.   A  cryptographic  checksum  or  message integrity
checksum (MIC) provides data integrity and authentication but  not  non-
repudiation.   For  example, Secure SNMP and SNMPv2 both calculate a MD5
cryptographic checksum over  a  shared  secret  item  of  data  and  the
information  to  be  authenticated.   [Rivest92,  GM93]  This  serves to
authenticate the data origin and is believed to  be  very  difficult  to
forge.   It  does  not  authenticate  that the data being sent is itself
valid, only that it was actually sent by the party that claims  to  have



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sent it. Crytographic checksums can be used to provide relatively strong
authentication   and   are   particularly   useful    in    host-to-host
communications.   The  main implementation difficulty with cryptographic
checksums is key distribution.

4.4 Digital Signatures

A digital signature is a cryptographic mechanism which is the electronic
equivalent of a written signature.  It serves to authenticate a piece of
data as to the sender.   Digital  signatures  provide  not  only  origin
authentication  and data integrity, but also non-repudiation.  A digital
signature using asymmetric cryptology (public key) can also be useful in
proving  that  data  in  fact  originated with a party even if the party
denies having sent it, a property  called  non-repudiation.   A  digital
signature  provides  authentication  without confidentiality and without
incurring  some  of  the  difficulties  in  full  encryption.    Digital
signatures  are  being  used  with key certificates for Privacy Enhanced
Mail.

5.0 USER TO HOST AUTHENTICATION

There are a number of different approaches to  authenticating  users  to
remote or networked hosts.  Two types of hazard are created by remote or
networked access: First an intruder can eavesdrop  on  the  network  and
obtain  user  ids and passwords for a later replay attack. Even the form
of existing passwords provides a potential intruder with a head start in
guessing  new  ones.  Attacks based on eavesdropping are called "passive
attacks".  Second, an  intruder  can  "take  over"  a  connection  after
authentication; this is an example of an "active attack".

Currently, most systems use plain-text disclosing  passwords  sent  over
the  network  (typically  using  telnet  or rlogin) from the user to the
remote host. [Anderson84  ,  Kantor91]  This  system  does  not  provide
adequate  protection  from  replay  attacks  where an eavesdropper gains
remote user ids and remote passwords.

5.1 Protection Against Passive Attack Is Necessary

Failure to use at least a  non-disclosing  password  system  means  that
unlimited  access  is  unintentionally  granted  to anyone with physical
access to the network.  For example, anyone with physical access to  the
Ethernet  cable can impersonate any user on that portion of the network.
Thus, when one has plain-text disclosing passwords on an  Ethernet,  the
primary  security  system  is the guard at the door (if any exist).  The
same problem exists in other LAN  technologies  such  as  Token-Ring  or
FDDI.   In  some  small  internal  Local  Area Networks (LANs) it may be
acceptable to take this risk, but it  is  an  unacceptable  risk  in  an
Internet.[CERT94]

The minimal defense against passive attacks, such as  eavesdropping,  is
to  use a non-disclosing password system.  Such a system can be run from
a dumb terminal or a simple communications program  (e.g.  Versaterm  or
PROCOMM)  that  emulates a dumb terminal on a PC class computer. Using a
stronger authentication system would certainly  defend  against  passive



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attacks  against remotely accessed systems, but at the cost of not being
able to use simple terminals.  It  is  reasonable  to  expect  that  the
vendors  of  communications programs and non user-programmable terminals
(such as X-Terminals) would build in non-disclosing password or stronger
authentication  systems  if  they were standardized or if a large market
were offered.  One of the  advantages  of  Kerberos  is  that,  if  used
properly, the user's password never leaves his/her workstation.  Instead
they are used to decrypt his/her Kerberos tickets, which are  themselves
encrypted  information  which  are  sent over the network to application
servers.

5.2 Perimeter Defenses as Short Term Tool

Perimeter defenses are becoming more common.  In these systems, the user
first  authenticates to an entity on an externally accessible portion of
the network, possibly a "firewall" host on the Internet,  using  a  non-
disclosing  password  system.  The  user  then  uses  a second system to
authenticate to each host, or group of  hosts,  from  which  service  is
desired.   This  decouples  the  problem  into  two  more easily handled
situations.

There are several disadvantages to the perimeter defense, so  it  should
be  thought of as a short term solution.  The gateway is not transparent
at the IP level, so it must treat every service independently.  The  use
of   double  authentication  is, in general, difficult or impossible for
computer-computer communication.  End to end protocols, which are common
on  the  connectionless  Internet,  could  easily  break.  The perimeter
defense must be tight and complete, because if it is broken,  the  inner
defenses tend to be too weak to stop a potential intruder.  For example,
if disclosing passwords are used  internally,  these  passwords  can  be
learned  by  an  external intruder (eavesdropping).  If that intruder is
able to penetrate the  perimeter,  the  internal  system  is  completely
exposed.   Finally,  a  perimeter  defense  may be open to compromise by
internal users looking for shortcuts.

A frequent form of perimeter defense is the application relay.  As these
relays  are  protocol  specific, the IP connectivity of the hosts inside
the perimeter with the outside world is broken and part of the power  of
the Internet is lost.

An administrative advantage of the perimeter defense is that the  number
of  machines  that are on the perimeter and thus vulnerable to attack is
small.  These machines may be carefully checked  for  security  hazards,
but  it  is difficult (or impossible) to guarantee that the perimeter is
leak-proof.  The security of a perimeter defense is complicated  as  the
gateway  machines  must  pass  some  types of traffic such as electronic
mail.  Other network services such as the Network  Time  Protocol  (NTP)
and  the  File  Transfer Protocol (FTP) may also be desirable. [Mills92,
PR85, Bishop] Furthermore the perimeter gateway system must be  able  to
pass without bottleneck the entire traffic load for its security domain.







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5.3 Protection Against Active Attacks Highly Desirable

In the foreseeable future,  the  use  of  stronger  techniques  will  be
required  to  protect  against  active attacks.  Many corporate networks
based on broadcast  technology  such  as  Ethernet  probably  need  such
techniques.   To defend against an active attack, or to provide privacy,
it is necessary to use a protocol with session encryption,  for  example
Kerberos,  or  use  an  authentication  mechanism  that protects against
replay attacks, perhaps using time stamps.  In  Kerberos,  users  obtain
credentials  from the Kerberos server and use them for authentication to
obtain services from other computers  on  the  network.   The  computing
power of the local workstation can be used to decrypt credentials (using
a key derived from the user-provided  password)  and  store  them  until
needed.   If  the  security protocol relies on synchronized clocks, then
NTPv3 will be useful because it distributes time amongst a large  number
of  computers  and  is  one  of the few existing Internet protocols that
includes solid authentication mechanisms. [Bishop, Mills92]

Another approach to remotely accessible networks of computers is for all
externally  accessible machines to share a secret with the Kerberos KDC.
In a sense, this makes these machines "servers" instead of  general  use
workstations.    This  shared  secret  can  then  be  used  encrypt  all
communication  between  the  two  machines   enabling   the   accessible
workstation  to  relay authentication information to the KDC in a secure
way.

Finally, workstations that are remotely accessible could use  asymmetric
cryptographic  technology  to encrypt communications.  The workstation's
public key would be published and well known to  all  clients.   A  user
could  use  the  public  key to encrypt a simple password and the remote
system can decrypt the password to authenticate the user without risking
disclosure of the password while it is in transit.  A limitation of this
workstation-oriented  security  is  that  it   does   not   authenticate
individual  users  only  individual workstations.  In some environments,
for  example  government  multi-level  secure  or   compartmented   mode
workstations,  user  to  user authentication and confidentiality is also
needed.

6. KEY DISTRIBUTION & MANAGEMENT

The discussion thus far has  periodically  mentioned  keys,  either  for
encryption  or  for authentication (e.g. as input to a digital signature
function).  Key management is perhaps the  hardest  problem  faced  when
seeking  to  provide  authentication in large internetworks.  Hence this
section provides a very brief overview of key management technology that
might be used.

The Needham & Schroeder protocol, which is used by Kerberos, relies on a
central  key  server.   In  a large internetwork, there would need to be
significant numbers of these key servers, at least one  key  server  per
administrative  domain.   There  would  also  need  to be mechanisms for
separately administered key servers to cooperate in generating a session
key  for  parties  in  different  administrative domains.  These are not
impossible problems, but  this  approach  clearly  involves  significant



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infrastructure changes.

Most public-key encryption algorithms are computationally expensive  and
so  are  not  ideal  for  encrypting packets in a network.  However, the
asymmetric property makes them very useful for  setup  and  exchange  of
symmetric  session  keys.   In  practice, the commercial sector probably
uses asymmetric algorithms primarily  for  digital  signatures  and  key
exchange,  but  not  for bulk data encryption.  Both RSA and the Diffie-
Hellman techniques can be used for this. [DH76] One advantage  of  using
asymmetric  techniques is that the central key server can be eliminated.
The difference in key  management  techniques  is  perhaps  the  primary
difference  between Kerberos and SPX.  Privacy Enhanced Mail has trusted
key authorities use digital signatures  to  sign  and  authenticate  the
public  keys  of  users.  [Kent93] The result of this operation is a key
certificates  which  contains  the  public  key  of   some   party   and
authentication  that  the public key in fact belongs to that party.  Key
certificates can be distributed in many ways.  One way to distribute key
certificates  might  be  to add them to existing directory services, for
example by extending the existing Domain Name System to hold each host's
the key certificate in a new record type.

For multicast sessions, key management is harder because the  number  of
exchanges  required by the widely used techniques is proportional to the
number of participating  parties.   Thus  there  is  a  serious  scaling
problem  with current published multicast key management techniques.  If
one considers existing symmetric algorithms to be 1-key techniques,  and
existing  asymmetric  algorithms such as RSA to be 2-key techniques, one
might wonder whether N-key techniques will be developed  in  the  future
(i.e. for values of N larger than 2).  If such N-key technology existed,
it might be useful  in  creating  scalable  multicast  key  distribution
protocols.

Finally, key management mechanisms described in  the  public  literature
have  a  long history of subtle flaws.  There is ample evidence of this,
even for well-known techniques such as the Needham & Schroeder  protocol
[NS78,  NS87].  In some cases, subtle flaws have only become known after
formal methods  techniques  were  used  in  an  attempt  to  verify  the
protocol.   Hence, it is highly desirable that key management mechanisms
be kept separate from authentication or encryption mechanisms as much as
is  possible.   For  example,  it  is  probably  better  to  have  a key
management protocol that is distinct  from  and  does  not  depend  upon
another security protocol.

7. AUTHENTICATION OF NETWORK SERVICES

In addition to needing to authenticate users and hosts  to  each  other,
many  network  services need or could benefit from authentication.  This
section describes some approaches to authentication  in  protocols  that
are  primarily  host  to  host  in  orientation.  As in the user to host
authentication  case,  there  are  several  techniques  that  might   be
considered.

The most common case at  present  is  to  not  have  any  authentication
support  in  the protocol.  Bellovin and others have documented a number



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of cases where existing protocols can be used to attack a remote machine
because there is no authentication in the protocols.  [Bellovin89]

Some protocols provide for disclosing passwords to be passed along  with
the  protocol information.  The original SNMP protocols used this method
and a number of the routing  protocols  continue  to  use  this  method.
[Moy91,  LR91,  CFSD88]  This  method is useful as a transitional aid to
slightly increase security and might be appropriate when there is little
risk in having a completely insecure protocol.

There are many protocols that need to  support  stronger  authentication
mechanisms.   For example, there was widespread concern that SNMP needed
stronger authentication  than  it  originally  had.   This  led  to  the
publication   of  the  Secure  SNMP  protocols  which  support  optional
authentication,  using  a  digital  signature  mechanism,  and  optional
confidentiality,  using  DES encryption.  The digital signatures used in
Secure SNMP are based on appending a cryptographic checksum to the  SNMP
information.   The  cryptographic  checksum  is  computed  using the MD5
algorithm and a secret shared between the communicating  parties  so  is
believed to be difficult to forge or invert.

Digital signature technology has evolved in recent years and  should  be
considered   for   applications   requiring   authentication   but   not
confidentiality.  Digital signatures may  use  a  single  secret  shared
among  two  or  more  communicating  parties  or  it  might  be based on
asymmetric encryption technology.  The former case would require the use
of  predetermined keys or the use of a secure key distribution protocol,
such as that devised by Needham and Schroeder.  In the latter case,  the
public keys would need to be distributed in an authenticated manner.  If
a  general  key  distribution  mechanism  were  available,  support  for
optional digital signatures could be added to most protocols with little
additional expense.  Each protocol could address the  key  exchange  and
setup problem, but that might make adding support for digital signatures
more complicated and  effectively  discourage  protocol  designers  from
adding digital signature support.

For cases where both authentication and confidentiality are required  on
a  host-to-host  basis,  session  encryption  could  be  employed  using
symmetric cryptography, asymmetric cryptography,  or  a  combination  of
both.   Use  of  the  asymmetric cryptography simplifies key management.
Each host would encrypt the information while in transit  between  hosts
and  the  existing  operating system mechanisms would provide protection
within each host.

In some cases, possibly including electronic mail, it might be desirable
to  provide  the  security properties within the application itself in a
manner that was truly user-to-user rather than being host-to-host.   The
Privacy  Enhanced  Mail  (PEM) work is employing this approach. [Linn93,
Kent93,  Balenson93,  Kaliski93]  The  recent  IETF   work   on   Common
Authentication  Technology  might  make  it easier to implement a secure
distributed or networked application through use  of  standard  security
programming interfaces. [Linn93a]





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8. FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Systems are moving towards the cryptographically stronger authentication
mechanisms described earlier.  This move has two implications for future
systems.  We can  expect  to  see  the  introduction  of  non-disclosing
authentication  systems  in  the  near  term  and  eventually  see  more
widespread use of public key  crypto-systems.   Session  authentication,
integrity,  and  privacy  issues are growing in importance. As computer-
to-computer communication becomes more important, protocols that provide
simple  human  interfaces will become less important. This is not to say
that human interfaces are unimportant;  they  are  very  important.   It
means  that these interfaces are the responsibility of the applications,
not the underlying protocol.  Human interface design is beyond the scope
of this memo.

The use of public key  crypto-systems  for  user-to-host  authentication
simplifies  many  security issues, but unlike simple passwords, a public
key cannot be memorized.  As of this writing, public  key  sizes  of  at
least  500 bits are commonly used in the commercial world.  It is likely
that larger key sizes will be used in the  future.   Thus,  users  might
have  to  carry  their  private keys in some electrically readable form.
The use of read-only storage, such as a floppy disk or a magnetic stripe
card provides such storage, but it might require the user to trust their
private keys to the reading device.  Use of a  smart  card,  a  portable
device  containing  both storage and program might be preferable.  These
devices have the potential  to  perform  the  authenticating  operations
without  divulging the private key they contain.  They can also interact
with the user requiring a simpler form of authentication to "unlock" the
card.

The use of public key  crypto-systems  for  host-to-host  authentication
appears  not  to  have the same key memorization problem as the user-to-
host case does.   A  multiuser  host  can  store  its  key(s)  in  space
protected  from  users and obviate that problem.  Single user inherently
insecure systems, such as  PCs  and  Macintoshes,  remain  difficult  to
handle but the smart card approach should also work for them.

The implications of  this  taxonomy  are  clear.   Strong  cryptographic
authentication  is needed in the near future for many protocols.  Public
key technology should be used when it is practical  and  cost-effective.
In  the  short  term,  authentication  mechanisms  vulnerable to passive
attack should  be  phased  out  in  favour  of  stronger  authentication
mechanisms.   Additional  research  is  needed  to  develop improved key
management technology and scalable multicast security mechanisms.


SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

  The entire Internet Draft discusses Security Considerations in that it
discusses authentication technologies and needs.







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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  This draft has benefited from  review  by  and  suggestions  from  the
IETF's  Common  Authentication  Technology  (CAT) working group which is
chaired by John Linn, from Marcus J. Ranum, and from  other  members  of
the Internet community.

REFERENCES

[Anderson84]  B. Anderson, TACACS  User  Identification  Telnet  Option,
RFC-927, DDN Network Information Center, December 1984.

[Balenson93]  D. Balenson, Privacy Enhancement for  Internet  Electronic
Mail:  Part  III:  Algorithms,  Modes,  and  Identifiers,  RFC-1423, DDN
Network Information Center, February 1993.

[Bellovin89]  Steven M.  Bellovin,  "Security  Problems  in  the  TCP/IP
Protocol  Suite",  ACM  Computer  Communications Review, Vol. 19, No. 2,
March 1989.

[Bellovin92] Steven M. Bellovin, "There Be Dragons", Proceedings of  the
3rd Usenix UNIX Security Symposium, Baltimore, MD, September 1992.

[Bellovin93] Steven M. Bellovin, "Packets Found  on  an  Internet",  ACM
Computer Communications Review, Vol. 23, No. 3, July 1993, pp. 26-31.

[BM91]  Steven M.  Bellovin  &  Michael  Merritt,  "Limitations  of  the
Kerberos  Authentication  System",  ACM  Computer Communications Review,
October 1990.

[Bishop] Matt  Bishop,  "A  Security  Analysis  of  the  NTP  Protocol",
unpublished  draft  report  to the PSRG, available by anonymous ftp from
louie.udel.edu. (A better reference is pending).

[Cheswick] W.R. Cheswick, "An Evening with Berferd, In Which  a  Cracker
is Lured, Endured, & Studied", unpublished paper, available by anonymous
ftp from research.att.com.

[CCITT88]  X.509 reference is TBD...

[CERT94] Computer Emergency Response Team, "Ongoing  Network  Monitoring
Attacks", CERT Advisory CA-94:01, 3 February 1994.

[CFSD88]  J. Case, M. Fedor, M. Schoffstall, & J. Davin, "Simple Network
Management  Protocol",  RFC-1067, DDN Network Information Center, August
1988.

[DH76] W. Diffie & M.E. Hellman, "New Directions in Cryptography",  IEEE
Transactions  on  Information  Theory,  Volume IT-11, November 1976, pp.
644-654.

[GM93]  J. Galvin & K. McCloghrie, Security Protocols for Version  2  of
the  Simple  Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2), RFC-1446, DDN Network
Information Center, April 1993.



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[Haller94] N. Haller, "The S/Key One-time Password System",  Proceedings
of  the  Symposium  on  Network & Distributed Systems Security, Internet
Society, February 1994, San Diego, CA.

[Kaufman93] C.  Kaufman,  Distributed  Authentication  Security  Service
(DASS), RFC-1507, DDN Network Information Center, September 1993.

[Kaliski93]  B. Kaliski, Privacy  Enhancement  for  Internet  Electronic
Mail:  Part  IV:  Key  Certification and Related Services, RFC-1424, DDN
Network Information Center, February 1993.

[Kantor91]  B. Kantor, BSD Rlogin,  RFC-1258,  DDN  Network  Information
Center, September 1991.

[Kent93]  S. Kent, Privacy Enhancement  for  Internet  Electronic  Mail:
Part   II:  Certificate-Based  Key  Management,  RFC-1422,  DDN  Network
Information Center, February 1993.

[KN93] J.Kohl & C. Neuman, The Kerberos Network  Authentication  Service
(V5), RFC-1510, DDN Network Information Center, September 1993.

[Linn93]  J. Linn, Privacy Enhancement  for  Internet  Electronic  Mail:
Part  I: Message Encryption and Authentication Procedures, RFC-1421, DDN
Network Information Center, February 1993.

[Linn93a] J. Linn, Common Authentication Technology Overview,  RFC-1511,
DDN Network Information Center, September 1993.

[LS92] B. Lloyd & W. Simpson, "PPP Authentication Protocols",  RFC-1334,
DDN Network Information Center, October 1992.

[LR91]  K. Lougheed & Y. Rekhter, "A Border Gateway protocol 3 (BGP-3)",
RFC-1267, DDN Network Information Center, October 1991.

[Mills92]  D. Mills, Network Time Protocol  (Version  3)  Specification,
Implementation,  and Analysis, RFC-1305, DDN Network Information Center,
March 1992.

[NBS77]  National  Bureau  of  Standards,  "Data  Encryption  Standard",
_F_e_d_e_r_a_l  _I_n_f_o_r_m_a_t_i_o_n  _P_r_o_c_e_s_s_i_n_g  _S_t_a_n_d_a_r_d_s  _P_u_b_l_i_c_a_t_i_o_n  _4_6, Government
Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1977.

[NS78]   R.M.  Needham  &  M.D.   Schroeder,   "Using   Encryption   for
Authentication  in  Large  Networks of Computers", Communications of the
ACM, Vol. 21, No. 12, December 1978.

[NS87]  R.M. Needham & M.D. Schroeder, "Authentication  Revisited",  ACM
Operating Systems Review, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1987.

[PR85]  J. Postel & J. Reynolds, File Transfer  Protocol,  RFC-959,  DDN
Network Information Center, October 1985.

[Moy91]  J. Moy, "OSPF  Routing  Protocol,  Version  2",  RFC-1247,  DDN
Network Information Center, July 1991.



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[RSA78]  R.L. Rivest, A. Shamir, & L. Adleman, "A Method  for  Obtaining
Digital Signatures and Public Key Crypto-systems", Communications of the
ACM, Vol. 21, No. 2, February 1978.

[Simpson93] W. Simpson, "The Point to  Point  Protocol",  RFC-1548,  DDN
Network Information Center, December 1993.

[SNS88]  J.G.  Steiner,  C.  Neuman,  &  J.I.  Schiller,  Kerberos:  "An
Authentication  Service  for  Open  Network  Systems", USENIX Conference
Proceedings, Dallas, Texas, February 1988.

[Stoll90] Clifford Stoll, _T_h_e _C_u_c_k_o_o'_s _E_g_g: _T_r_a_c_k_i_n_g _a _S_p_y  _T_h_r_o_u_g_h  _t_h_e
_M_a_z_e _o_f _C_o_m_p_u_t_e_r _E_s_p_i_o_n_a_g_e, Pocket Books, New York, NY, 1990.

[TA91]  J. Tardo &  K.  Alagappan,  "SPX:  Global  Authentication  Using
Public  Key Certificates", Proceedings of the 1991 Symposium on Research
in Security & Privacy, IEEE Computer Society,  Los  Amitos,  California,
1991. pp.232-244.

EXPIRATION

  This Internet Draft expires on 20 August 1994.

AUTHORS' ADDRESSES

   Neil Haller              <nmh@thumper.bellcore.com>
   Bell Communications Research
   445 South Street  -- MRE 2Q-280
   Morristown, NJ 07962-1910

   Randall Atkinson         <atkinson@itd.nrl.navy.mil>
   Information Technology Division
   Naval Research Laboratory
   Washington, DC 20375-5337























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