[skex] SKEX charter

[Melchior Aelmans <[e-mail]>]

Hi everyone,

As we work towards organizing a SKEX BOF at IETF120, I'd like to kick off a
discussion regarding the charter for a SKEX Working Group. Below is my
initial draft.

I look forward to your feedback, suggestions, and comments.

Best regards,
Melchior


Asymmetric-key cryptography is a powerful tool for securing communication
but has some shortcomings, including that they are generally
computationally intensive, and their security relies on the difficulty of
solving certain mathematical problems, which may be vulnerable over time
with improvements in computational capacity or mathematical advances, and
in particular, the threat posed by quantum computing to the security of key
exchanges that are based on asymmetric cryptography. This drives the
requirement for the establishment of keys protected by symmetric
cryptography, without dependence on asymmetric algorithms.

Symmetric key establishment mechanisms can be used to semi-statically and
dynamically provide keys for existing protocols that accept such keys, for
example TLS 1.3, IPsec and MACsec. Scalable symmetric key establishment
systems require one or more intermediaries to facilitate the process of
secure key establishment or creation.

Existing work specifying the formats and interfaces for the consumption of
such symmetric keys by networking equipment, often referred to as
pre-shared keys, include
https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gs/QKD/001_099/014/01.01.01_60/gs_qkd014v010101p.pdf,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc6030/,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc6031/ and
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc7517/. Existing work for the
incorporation of dynamic symmetric keys in various protocols include
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc8784/ and
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc9258/. However, a common framework for
the mutual establishment of such symmetric keys, as well as concrete
examples of such protocols, is currently missing.

The goal of the Symmetric Key Establishment and Exchange (SKEX) WG is to
develop a standardised framework document for key establishment and
exchange mechanisms and also to define protocols for such actions.

The framework document is expected to cover the following topics:
 - Privacy and security considerations
 - Operations and management considerations
 - Implementation and deployment considerations
 - Scalability and applicability considerations

The WG does not aim to alter existing protocols. However, it may suggest to
relevant WGs how existing protocols could benefit from symmetric key
establishment mechanisms.

Concrete work items that SKEX may produce include:
- An architectural framework describing a Symmetric Key Establishment and
Exchange architecture.
- One or multiple Symmetric Key Establishment and Exchange protocols