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Re: [Iotops] Error categories in constrained IoT authentication

Michael Richardson <mcr+ietf@sandelman.ca> Fri, 19 February 2021 17:13 UTC

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From: Michael Richardson <mcr+ietf@sandelman.ca>
To: "iotops@ietf.org" <iotops@ietf.org>, Esko Dijk <esko.dijk@iotconsultancy.nl>
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Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2021 12:13:06 -0500
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Subject: Re: [Iotops] Error categories in constrained IoT authentication
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Esko Dijk <esko.dijk@iotconsultancy.nl> wrote:
    > And one security consideration just to keep in mind: too much detail in
    > the error reporting is not good if it reveals information that an
    > attacker can use to do a next, more targeted attack.

Too little is useless.
I think that you explained it very well, and perhaps we can call this the
"Law of Dijk" in the future :-)

    > The HTTP/CoAP,
    > Netconf, or (D)TLS error definitions could indeed provide some
    > inspiration on what to include.  I found also an example of an error
    > code registry here:
    > https://www.iana.org/assignments/alto-protocol/alto-protocol.xhtml#error-codes
    > this kind of registry could be used to keep track of the codes and any
    > extensions to it.

How do you feel about non-failures, like, "I am trying to do X, but I am
timing out. I am still trying"


--
Michael Richardson <mcr+IETF@sandelman.ca>   . o O ( IPv6 IøT consulting )
           Sandelman Software Works Inc, Ottawa and Worldwide

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