Re: [TLS] Working Group Last Call fordraft-ietf-tls-ssl2-must-not-02

In the same vein as 1), I would like this to update RFC4347; there is a
presumption that updates to TLS should specify their applicability to DTLS and
it would be a shame if SSL continued to be used with DTLS.

Tom Petch

----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Rex" <mrex@sap.com>
To: "Joe Salowey" <jsalowey@cisco.com>
Cc: <tls@ietf.org>
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2010 9:52 PM
Subject: Re: [TLS] Working Group Last Call fordraft-ietf-tls-ssl2-must-not-02

> Joe Salowey wrote:
> >
> > This is an announcement of WGLC for draft-ietf-tls-ssl2-must-not-02.  The
draft and its revisions can be found here:
> >
> > http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-tls-ssl2-must-not-02
> >
> > Please send comments to the TLS list by November 17, 2010.
>
> This WGLC is about publication of the document, I assume.
>
> In principle I'm OK with publication.
>
> Re-reading it, I'd like to make two observations:
>
> 1. Per document header:
>        Updates: 5246 (once approved)
>    this document intends to update rfc-5246 _only_.  The text in
>    Sections 1 and 3 does not limit itself to implementations of TLSv1.2,
>    and I would support to similarily discourage the use of SSLv2 for
>    existing implementations of TLSv1.0 and TLSv1.1.
>
>    How about listing TLSv1.0 (rfc2246) and TLSv1.1 (rfc4346)
>    as well in the Updates: of the document header,
>    just like RFC5746 (TLS extension RI) does.
>
>
> 2. SSLv2 deficiencies: "Sessions can be easily terminated"
>
>     o Sessions can be easily terminated.  A man-in-the-middle can easily
>      insert a TCP FIN to close the session and the peer is unable to
>      determine whether or not it was a legitimate end of the session.
>
>    I think this exaggerates the usefulness of the closy_notify(0)
>    warning level alert as used in practice.  By using an application
>    level framing protocol to mark boundaries of data, it is fairly
>    easy for application callers to compensate for this "lack" of SSLv2.
>    Many applications that use a framing protocol look only at their
>    own framing rather than waiting for the close_notify alert exchange
>    to _complete_.
>
>
> -Martin
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