Re: [mpls] Stephen Farrell's No Objection on draft-ietf-mpls-lsp-ping-mpls-tp-oam-conf-15: (with COMMENT)

[Stephen Farrell <[e-mail]>]

Hiya,

On 19/11/15 04:03, Gregory Mirsky wrote:
> Hi Stephen,
> 
> thank you for your review and comments. Please find my answers
> in-line and tagged GIM>>. Hope we can find good solution to address
> your concern with BFD security.
> 
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Greg
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: Stephen Farrell
> [mailto:[e-mail]] Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2015
> 4:33 PM To: The IESG Cc:
> [e-mail];
> [e-mail];
> [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail] Subject:
> Stephen Farrell's No Objection on
> draft-ietf-mpls-lsp-ping-mpls-tp-oam-conf-15: (with COMMENT)
> 
> 
> 
> Stephen Farrell has entered the following ballot position for
> 
> draft-ietf-mpls-lsp-ping-mpls-tp-oam-conf-15: No Objection
> 
> 
> 
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> The document, along with other ballot positions, can be found here:
> 
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-mpls-lsp-ping-mpls-tp-oam-conf/
>
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  COMMENT:
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> 
> - 2.1.1, is there any chance of moving on from the "Keyed SHA1"
> 
> from RFC5880 to e.g. HMAC-SHA256 for this? We're generally trying to
> get that kind of transition done as we can and moving to use of a
> standard integrity check rather than a more home-grown one has some
> benefits. The HMAC-SHA1-like thing you're doing is still probably ok,
> (though could maybe do with crypto eyeballs on it as there may have
> been relevant new results since 2010) but future-proofing would
> suggest moving to HMAC-SHA256 if we can. (I can imagine such a change
> might require a new document, but am asking anyway:-)
> 
> GIM>> The fact is that we're bound by what is defined in RFC 5880.

I wonder for how long though, that's now a five year old RFC.
Assuming it takes a few years for new deployments to pick up
new algorithms, isn't it time that a whole bunch of algorithm
choices were revisited?

> There was a proposal to strengthen BFD security BFD Generic
> Cryptographic
> Authentication<http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-bhatia-bfd-crypto-auth-03>
> but the document had expired.

Pity that.

> - 2.1.1, I'd recommend saying any password auth-type MUST NOT be used
> - would that be possible?
> 
> GIM>> I think that we’ll need to make changes to RFC 5880 first
> (5880bis?). 

I don't see any reason why that is true. This document can easily
say "you MUST NOT use the horribly weak option specified in that
old RFC" with changing that old RFC.

> Besides, there’s RFC 7487 that describes RSVP-TE
> extensions to configure MPLS-TP OAM.


> 
> 
> 
> - section 6 - what "established secure key-exchange protocol"
> 
> is available to use here?
> 
> GIM>> The document considers key exchange mechanisms being outside
> its scope. Mechanisms used only assumed and not discussed at length
> in the document.

I did not ask if you should specify something here. I asked what
exists that is usable? If the answer is "nothing" then the text
in the draft would be misleading wouldn't it?

> - (this is sort of off-topic) I find an architecture like this where
> a packet traversing a network has quite so many side-effects a bit
> hard to grok. Do you have a pointer to something (not too long:-)
> that explains the consequences of that?
> 
> GIM>> The first paragraph of the Security Considerations section
> refers to some scenarios that may suffice due to conditions
> (overload) in the management plane. The third paragraph of the same
> section notes need to have sufficient security mechanism for LSP Ping
> communication.

You're mis-interpreting me, I guess because my question wasn't
clear. My question above was a simple request for some background
information about the consequences of this architecture, and was
not a direct criticism of or comment on this draft. (Now if it
turns out there is no background material on the consequences of
this architecture, then that would be very interesting.)

Cheers,
S.


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