Authentication and Authorization for Constrained Environments
charter-ietf-ace-01-00

The Authentication and Authorization for Constrained Environments (ace) WG
has defined a standardized solution framework for authentication and
authorization to enable authorized access to resources identified by a URI
and hosted on a resource server in constrained environments.

The access to the resource is mediated by an authorization server, which is
not considered to be constrained.

Profiles of this framework for application to security protocols commonly
used in constrained environments, including CoAP+DTLS and CoAP+OSCORE, have
also been standardized. The Working Group is charged with maintenance of
the framework and existing profiles thereof, and may undertake work to
specify profiles of the framework for additional secure communications
protocols and for additional support services providing authorized access
to crypto keys (that are not necessarily limited to constrained endpoints,
though the focus remains on deployment in ecosystems with a substantial
portion of constrained devices).

In addition to the ongoing maintenance work, the Working Group will extend
the framework as needed for applicability to group communications, with
initial focus on (D)TLS and (Group) OSCORE as the underlying group
communication security protocols. The Working Group will standardize
procedures for requesting and distributing group keying material using the
ACE framework as well as appropriated management interfaces.

The Working Group will standardize a format for expressing authorization
information for a given authenticated principal as received from an
authorization manager.

The Working Group will examine how to use Constrained Application Protocol
(CoAP) as a transport medium for certificate enrollment protocols, such as
EST and CMPv2, as well as a transport for authentication protocols such as
EAP, and standardize as needed.