Re: [P2PSIP] AD evaluation: draft-ietf-p2psip-share-07

[Alissa Cooper <[e-mail]>]

Hi Thomas,

What is the status of this?

Thanks,
Alissa

> On Jan 15, 2016, at 12:49 AM, Thomas C. Schmidt <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> Dear Alissa,
> 
> many thanks for your detailed feedback. We'll address the comments shortly and be back.
> 
> Best,
> Thomas
> 
> On 15.01.2016 00:03, Alissa Cooper wrote:
>> I have reviewed this document in preparation for IETF last call. I have
>> a number of comments and questions that need to be resolved before last
>> call can be initiated. I’ve also included some nits below that should be
>> resolved together with last call comments.
>> 
>> Given the nature of this document, I’d like for the shepherd to request
>> an early SECDIR review after the comments below have been resolved so
>> that the authors and WG can receive security feedback before the
>> document progresses to IESG evaluation.
>> 
>> 
>> == Substantive comments and questions ==
>> 
>> = Section 3.1 =
>> 
>> I think this section requires clarification.
>> 
>> How is the index value supposed to be initialized? Is it supposed to be
>> chosen at random or set to 0 (or 1, as in the figure)?
>> 
>> I don’t understand how this mechanism relates to how SSRCs are chosen.
>> In fact RFC 3550 doesn’t specify a particular algorithm to use, but
>> merely provides one example. Furthermore, I don’t see how the collision
>> probably for the array index value, which selects the least significant
>> three bytes from a cryptographically random Node-Id that must be 16
>> bytes or longer, would be the same as for a randomly chosen 32-bit
>> integer. Could you explain?
>> 
>> = Section 5 =
>> 
>> Are variable resource names expected to be UTF-8 strings? I think
>> somewhere in this section the internationalization expectations for
>> these strings need to be specified.
>> 
>> = Section 5.3 =
>> 
>> (1)
>> I think this section needs to specify normative requirements on the
>> pattern construction to avoid duplicative or substring names as
>> described in 5.1
>> 
>> (2)
>> "Configurations in this overlay document MUST adhere in syntax and
>> semantic of names as defined by the context of use. For example, syntax
>> restrictions apply when using P2PSIP[I-D.ietf-p2psip-sip], while a more
>> general naming is feasible in plain RELOAD."
>> 
>> I don’t understand what the normative requirement is here or why it is
>> needed. How is “the context of use” defined? Shouldn’t it be up to the
>> specific protocol documents to define the required syntax and semantics
>> for specific usages (e.g., the way draft-ietf-p2psip-sip does)?
>> 
>> (3)
>> "In the absence of a <variable-resource-names> element for a Kind using
>> the USER-CHAIN-ACL access policy (see Section 6.6
>> <https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-p2psip-share-07#section-6.6>),
>> implementors SHOULD assume this default value."
>> 
>> Why is this SHOULD and not MUST? Shouldn’t implementations
>> conservatively assume that variable names are not allowed unless
>> explicitly specified?
>> 
>> (4)
>> "If no pattern is defined for a Kind or the "enable" attribute is false,
>> allowable Resource Names are restricted to the username of the signer
>> for Shared Resource.”
>> 
>> I think this needs to account for an error condition where the pattern
>> does not meet the pattern construction requirements, e.g.:
>> 
>> ""If no pattern is defined for a Kind, if the "enable" attribute is
>> false, or if the regular expression does not meet the requirements
>> specified in this section, the allowable Resource Names are restricted
>> to the username of the signer for Shared Resource.”
>> 
>> = Section 6.2 =
>> 
>> For privacy reasons, wouldn’t it be better to overwrite every entry in a
>> subtree when the root of the subtree gets overwritten? Otherwise the
>> list of users who were given write access may remain long after their
>> access has been revoked.
>> 
>> = Section 6.3 =
>> 
>> How strings are to be compared (e.g., as binary objects or whatever it
>> is) needs to be normatively specified.
>> 
>> It is confusing to use normative language only in step 5 here. I would
>> suggest either normatively defining each action or not using SHALL here.
>> 
>> = Section 6.6 =
>> 
>> "Otherwise, the value MUST be written if the certificate of the signer
>> contains a username that matches to one of the variable resource name
>> pattern (c.f. Section 5
>> <https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-p2psip-share-07#section-5>)
>> specified in the configuration document"
>> 
>> It seems to me that matching the pattern is not sufficient — isn’t it
>> the case that both the user and domain portions of the user name in the
>> certificate need to match the user and domain name portions present in
>> the resource name? In general, the document seems to be missing
>> discussion of the implications of having the user name and the resource
>> name diverge. I think this affects every operation that involves
>> comparing the two (or the Resource-Id, right?).
>> 
>> I’m also unclear about why policy for allowing access to shared
>> resources is being strictly coupled with policy for allowing variable
>> resource names. Might there be cases where it makes sense to authorize
>> one but not the other?
>> 
>> = Section 8.2 =
>> 
>> This section misses the threat of a misbehaving peer who is delegated
>> write access — that seems like an important case to cover.
>> 
>> = Section 8.3 =
>> 
>> By “publicly readable” do you mean “readable by any node in the
>> overlay”? Admission to the overlay would still be access controlled,
>> correct?
>> 
>> = Section 9.2 =
>> 
>> What is the significance of 17, other than that it is in the unassigned
>> range?
>> 
>> 
>> == Nits ==
>> 
>> = Section 1 =
>> 
>> The reference to I-D.ietf-p2psip-disco should be removed given that the
>> document is several years old and not expected to advance as far as I know.
>> 
>> s/from one authorized to another (previously unauthorized) user/from one
>> authorized user to another (previously unauthorized) user/
>> 
>> = Section 2 =
>> 
>> s/the peer-to-peer SIP concepts draft [I-D.ietf-p2psip-concepts
>> <https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-p2psip-share-07#ref-I-D.ietf-p2psip-concepts>]/[I-D.ietf-p2psip-concepts
>> <https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-p2psip-share-07#ref-I-D.ietf-p2psip-concepts>]/
>> 
>> = Section 3.1 =
>> 
>> s/Append an 8 bit long short individual index value/Append an 8-bit
>> individual index value/
>> 
>> = Section 4.1 =
>> 
>> s/an Access Control including/an Access Control List including/
>> 
>> = Section 5.1 =
>> 
>> Same comment about I-D.ietf-p2psip-disco
>> <https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-p2psip-share-07#ref-I-D.ietf-p2psip-disco> as
>> in Section 1.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Prof. Dr. Thomas C. Schmidt
> ° Hamburg University of Applied Sciences                   Berliner Tor 7 °
> ° Dept. Informatik, Internet Technologies Group    20099 Hamburg, Germany °
> ° http://www.haw-hamburg.de/inet                   Fon: [phone] °
> ° http://www.informatik.haw-hamburg.de/~schmidt    Fax: [phone] °