Re: [Netconf] WGLC for draft-ietf-netconf-tls-04.txt

>> 4. Cipher Suite Requirements
>>
>>      Implementation of the protocol specified in this document MAY
>>      implement any TLS cipher suite that provides mutual authentication.
>>
>>      Implementations MUST support TLS 1.2 [RFC5246] and are REQUIRED to
>>      support the mandatory to implement cipher suite, which is
>>      TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA.  This document is assumed to apply to
>>      future versions of TLS, in which case the mandatory to implement
>>      cipher suite for the implemented version MUST be supported.
>>
>>      In the case of the pre-shared key authentication (described in
>>      Section 3.3), implementations are REQUIRED to support the cipher
>>      suite TLS_DHE_PSK_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA RFC4279].
>>
>> Comments?
>> Best regards,
>> Badra
>>
>
> I think that you need more than this, somewhere in the document, giving
> the
> applicability of the two very different suites, when is one appropriate,
> when
> the other.  As it stands, I get the feeling that I am being told that you
> really
> should be using PSK but that someone, perhaps that nasty old security
> directorate, has insisted we conform to BCP0061 and so have had to include
> the
> other as well:-)

I think the "applicability" or the benefits of using pre-shared key based
authentication have been explained in the Introduction of [RFC4279]. To
recall of them, would be sufficient to insert the following text at the
end of the first paragraph of Section 3? (The use of PSK is a MAY, not a
SHOULD)

"The benefits of pre-shared symmetric-key vs. public-/private-key pair
based authentication for the key exchange in TLS have been explained in
the Introduction of [RFC4279]".

Best regards
Badra
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