SMTP security via opportunistic DANE TLS
draft-ietf-dane-smtp-with-dane-13
The information below is for an old version of the document.
| Document | Type | Active Internet-Draft (dane WG) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | Viktor Dukhovni , Wes Hardaker | ||
| Last updated | 2014-10-25 | ||
| Stream | Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) | ||
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draft-ietf-dane-smtp-with-dane-13
DANE V. Dukhovni
Internet-Draft Two Sigma
Intended status: Standards Track W. Hardaker
Expires: April 29, 2015 Parsons
October 26, 2014
SMTP security via opportunistic DANE TLS
draft-ietf-dane-smtp-with-dane-13
Abstract
This memo describes a downgrade-resistant protocol for SMTP transport
security between Mail Transfer Agents (MTAs) based on the DNS-Based
Authentication of Named Entities (DANE) TLSA DNS record. Adoption of
this protocol enables an incremental transition of the Internet email
backbone to one using encrypted and authenticated Transport Layer
Security (TLS).
Status of This Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on April 29, 2015.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
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the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3. SMTP channel security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3.1. STARTTLS downgrade attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3.2. Insecure server name without DNSSEC . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3.3. Sender policy does not scale . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.4. Too many certification authorities . . . . . . . . . 8
2. Identifying applicable TLSA records . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1. DNS considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.1. DNS errors, bogus and indeterminate responses . . . . 9
2.1.2. DNS error handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1.3. Stub resolver considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2. TLS discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.1. MX resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2.2. Non-MX destinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2.3. TLSA record lookup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3. DANE authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.1. TLSA certificate usages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.1.1. Certificate usage DANE-EE(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1.2. Certificate usage DANE-TA(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.1.3. Certificate usages PKIX-TA(0) and PKIX-EE(1) . . . . 23
3.2. Certificate matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2.1. DANE-EE(3) name checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2.2. DANE-TA(2) name checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2.3. Reference identifier matching . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4. Server key management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5. Digest algorithm agility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
6. Mandatory TLS Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
7. Note on DANE for Message User Agents . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
8. Interoperability considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
8.1. SNI support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
8.2. Anonymous TLS cipher suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
9. Operational Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
9.1. Client Operational Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
9.2. Publisher Operational Considerations . . . . . . . . . . 30
10. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
11. IANA considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
12. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
13. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
13.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
13.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
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1. Introduction
This memo specifies a new connection security model for Message
Transfer Agents (MTAs). This model is motivated by key features of
inter-domain SMTP delivery, in particular the fact that the
destination server is selected indirectly via DNS Mail Exchange (MX)
records and that neither email addresses nor MX hostnames signal a
requirement for either secure or cleartext transport. Therefore,
aside from a few manually configured exceptions, SMTP transport
security is of necessity opportunistic.
This specification uses the presence of DANE TLSA records to securely
signal TLS support and to publish the means by which SMTP clients can
successfully authenticate legitimate SMTP servers. This becomes
"opportunistic DANE TLS" and is resistant to downgrade and man-in-
the-middle (MITM) attacks. It enables an incremental transition of
the email backbone to authenticated TLS delivery, with increased
global protection as adoption increases.
With opportunistic DANE TLS, traffic from SMTP clients to domains
that publish "usable" DANE TLSA records in accordance with this memo
is authenticated and encrypted. Traffic from legacy clients or to
domains that do not publish TLSA records will continue to be sent in
the same manner as before, via manually configured security, (pre-
DANE) opportunistic TLS or just cleartext SMTP.
Problems with existing use of TLS in MTA to MTA SMTP that motivate
this specification are described in Section 1.3. The specification
itself follows in Section 2 and Section 3 which describe respectively
how to locate and use DANE TLSA records with SMTP. In Section 6, we
discuss application of DANE TLS to destinations for which channel
integrity and confidentiality are mandatory. In Section 7 we briefly
comment on potential applicability of this specification to Message
User Agents.
1.1. Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
[RFC2119].
The following terms or concepts are used through the document:
Man-in-the-middle or MITM attack: Active modification of network
traffic by an adversary able to thereby compromise the
confidentiality or integrity of the data.
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secure, bogus, insecure, indeterminate: DNSSEC validation results,
as defined in Section 4.3 of [RFC4035].
Validating Security-Aware Stub Resolver and Non-Validating
Security-Aware Stub Resolver:
Capabilities of the stub resolver in use as defined in [RFC4033];
note that this specification requires the use of a Security-Aware
Stub Resolver.
(pre-DANE) opportunistic TLS: Best-effort use of TLS that is
generally vulnerable to DNS forgery and STARTTLS downgrade
attacks. When a TLS-encrypted communication channel is not
available, message transmission takes place in the clear. MX
record indirection generally precludes authentication even when
TLS is available.
opportunistic DANE TLS: Best-effort use of TLS, resistant to
downgrade attacks for destinations with DNSSEC-validated TLSA
records. When opportunistic DANE TLS is determined to be
unavailable, clients should fall back to opportunistic TLS.
Opportunistic DANE TLS requires support for DNSSEC, DANE and
STARTTLS on the client side and STARTTLS plus a DNSSEC published
TLSA record on the server side.
reference identifier: (Special case of [RFC6125] definition). One
of the domain names associated by the SMTP client with the
destination SMTP server for performing name checks on the server
certificate. When name checks are applicable, at least one of the
reference identifiers MUST match an [RFC6125] DNS-ID (or if none
are present the [RFC6125] CN-ID) of the server certificate (see
Section 3.2.3).
MX hostname: The RRDATA of an MX record consists of a 16 bit
preference followed by a Mail Exchange domain name (see [RFC1035],
Section 3.3.9). We will use the term "MX hostname" to refer to
the latter, that is, the DNS domain name found after the
preference value in an MX record. Thus an "MX hostname" is
specifically a reference to a DNS domain name, rather than any
host that bears that name.
delayed delivery: Email delivery is a multi-hop store & forward
process. When an MTA is unable forward a message that may become
deliverable later the message is queued and delivery is retried
periodically. Some MTAs may be configured with a fallback next-
hop destination that handles messages that the MTA would otherwise
queue and retry. When a fallback next-hop is configured, messages
that would otherwise have to be delayed may be sent to the
fallback next-hop destination instead. The fallback destination
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may itself be subject to opportunistic or mandatory DANE TLS as
though it were the original message destination.
original next hop destination: The logical destination for mail
delivery. By default this is the domain portion of the recipient
address, but MTAs may be configured to forward mail for some or
all recipients via designated relays. The original next hop
destination is, respectively, either the recipient domain or the
associated configured relay.
MTA: Message Transfer Agent ([RFC5598], Section 4.3.2).
MSA: Message Submission Agent ([RFC5598], Section 4.3.1).
MUA: Message User Agent ([RFC5598], Section 4.2.1).
RR: A DNS Resource Record
RRset: A set of DNS Resource Records for a particular class, domain
and record type.
1.2. Background
The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) add data origin
authentication, data integrity and data non-existence proofs to the
Domain Name System (DNS). DNSSEC is defined in [RFC4033], [RFC4034]
and [RFC4035].
As described in the introduction of [RFC6698], TLS authentication via
the existing public Certification Authority (CA) PKI suffers from an
over-abundance of trusted parties capable of issuing certificates for
any domain of their choice. DANE leverages the DNSSEC infrastructure
to publish trusted public keys and certificates for use with the
Transport Layer Security (TLS) [RFC5246] protocol via a new "TLSA"
DNS record type. With DNSSEC each domain can only vouch for the keys
of its directly delegated sub-domains.
The TLS protocol enables secure TCP communication. In the context of
this memo, channel security is assumed to be provided by TLS. Used
without authentication, TLS provides only privacy protection against
eavesdropping attacks. With authentication, TLS also provides data
integrity protection to guard against MITM attacks.
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1.3. SMTP channel security
With HTTPS, Transport Layer Security (TLS) employs X.509 certificates
[RFC5280] issued by one of the many Certificate Authorities (CAs)
bundled with popular web browsers to allow users to authenticate
their "secure" websites. Before we specify a new DANE TLS security
model for SMTP, we will explain why a new security model is needed.
In the process, we will explain why the familiar HTTPS security model
is inadequate to protect inter-domain SMTP traffic.
The subsections below outline four key problems with applying
traditional PKI to SMTP that are addressed by this specification.
Since SMTP channel security policy is not explicitly specified in
either the recipient address or the MX record, a new signaling
mechanism is required to indicate when channel security is possible
and should be used. The publication of TLSA records allows server
operators to securely signal to SMTP clients that TLS is available
and should be used. DANE TLSA makes it possible to simultaneously
discover which destination domains support secure delivery via TLS
and how to verify the authenticity of the associated SMTP services,
providing a path forward to ubiquitous SMTP channel security.
1.3.1. STARTTLS downgrade attack
The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) [RFC5321] is a single-hop
protocol in a multi-hop store & forward email delivery process. An
SMTP envelope recipient address does not correspond to a specific
transport-layer endpoint address, rather at each relay hop the
transport-layer endpoint is the next-hop relay, while the envelope
recipient address typically remains the same. Unlike the Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and its corresponding secured version,
HTTPS, where the use of TLS is signaled via the URI scheme, email
recipient addresses do not directly signal transport security policy.
Indeed, no such signaling could work well with SMTP since TLS
encryption of SMTP protects email traffic on a hop-by-hop basis while
email addresses could only express end-to-end policy.
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With no mechanism available to signal transport security policy, SMTP
relays employ a best-effort "opportunistic" security model for TLS.
A single SMTP server TCP listening endpoint can serve both TLS and
non-TLS clients; the use of TLS is negotiated via the SMTP STARTTLS
command ([RFC3207]). The server signals TLS support to the client
over a cleartext SMTP connection, and, if the client also supports
TLS, it may negotiate a TLS encrypted channel to use for email
transmission. The server's indication of TLS support can be easily
suppressed by an MITM attacker. Thus pre-DANE SMTP TLS security can
be subverted by simply downgrading a connection to cleartext. No TLS
security feature, such as the use of PKIX, can prevent this. The
attacker can simply disable TLS.
1.3.2. Insecure server name without DNSSEC
With SMTP, DNS Mail Exchange (MX) records abstract the next-hop
transport endpoint and allow administrators to specify a set of
target servers to which SMTP traffic should be directed for a given
domain.
A PKIX TLS client is vulnerable to MITM attacks unless it verifies
that the server's certificate binds the public key to a name that
matches one of the client's reference identifiers. A natural choice
of reference identifier is the server's domain name. However, with
SMTP, server names are not directly encoded in the recipient address,
instead they are obtained indirectly via MX records. Without DNSSEC,
the MX lookup is vulnerable to MITM and DNS cache poisoning attacks.
Active attackers can forge DNS replies with fake MX records and can
redirect email to servers with names of their choice. Therefore,
secure verification of SMTP TLS certificates matching the server name
is not possible without DNSSEC.
One might try to harden TLS for SMTP against DNS attacks by using the
envelope recipient domain as a reference identifier and requiring
each SMTP server to possess a trusted certificate for the envelope
recipient domain rather than the MX hostname. Unfortunately, this is
impractical as email for many domains is handled by third parties
that are not in a position to obtain certificates for all the domains
they serve. Deployment of the Server Name Indication (SNI) extension
to TLS (see [RFC6066] Section 3) is no panacea, since SNI key
management is operationally challenging except when the email service
provider is also the domain's registrar and its certificate issuer;
this is rarely the case for email.
Since the recipient domain name cannot be used as the SMTP server
reference identifier, and neither can the MX hostname without DNSSEC,
large-scale deployment of authenticated TLS for SMTP requires that
the DNS be secure.
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Since SMTP security depends critically on DNSSEC, it is important to
point out that consequently SMTP with DANE is the most conservative
possible trust model. It trusts only what must be trusted and no
more. Adding any other trusted actors to the mix can only reduce
SMTP security. A sender may choose to further harden DNSSEC for
selected high-value receiving domains by configuring explicit trust
anchors for those domains instead of relying on the chain of trust
from the root domain. However, detailed discussion of DNSSEC
security practices is out of scope for this document.
1.3.3. Sender policy does not scale
Sending systems are in some cases explicitly configured to use TLS
for mail sent to selected peer domains. This requires sending MTAs
to be configured with appropriate subject names or certificate
content digests to expect in the presented server certificates.
Because of the heavy administrative burden, such statically
configured SMTP secure channels are used rarely (generally only
between domains that make bilateral arrangements with their business
partners). Internet email, on the other hand, requires regularly
contacting new domains for which security configurations cannot be
established in advance.
The abstraction of the SMTP transport endpoint via DNS MX records,
often across organization boundaries, limits the use of public CA PKI
with SMTP to a small set of sender-configured peer domains. With
little opportunity to use TLS authentication, sending MTAs are rarely
configured with a comprehensive list of trusted CAs. SMTP services
that support STARTTLS often deploy X.509 certificates that are self-
signed or issued by a private CA.
1.3.4. Too many certification authorities
Even if it were generally possible to determine a secure server name,
the SMTP client would still need to verify that the server's
certificate chain is issued by a trusted Certification Authority (a
trust anchor). MTAs are not interactive applications where a human
operator can make a decision (wisely or otherwise) to selectively
disable TLS security policy when certificate chain verification
fails. With no user to "click OK", the MTA's list of public CA trust
anchors would need to be comprehensive in order to avoid bouncing
mail addressed to sites that employ unknown Certification
Authorities.
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On the other hand, each trusted CA can issue certificates for any
domain. If even one of the configured CAs is compromised or operated
by an adversary, it can subvert TLS security for all destinations.
Any set of CAs is simultaneously both overly inclusive and not
inclusive enough.
2. Identifying applicable TLSA records
2.1. DNS considerations
2.1.1. DNS errors, bogus and indeterminate responses
An SMTP client that implements opportunistic DANE TLS per this
specification depends critically on the integrity of DNSSEC lookups,
as discussed in Section 1.3.2. This section lists the DNS resolver
requirements needed to avoid downgrade attacks when using
opportunistic DANE TLS.
A DNS lookup may signal an error or return a definitive answer. A
security-aware resolver must be used for this specification.
Security-aware resolvers will indicate the security status of a DNS
RRset with one of four possible values defined in Section 4.3 of
[RFC4035]: "secure", "insecure", "bogus" and "indeterminate". In
[RFC4035] the meaning of the "indeterminate" security status is:
An RRset for which the resolver is not able to determine whether
the RRset should be signed, as the resolver is not able to obtain
the necessary DNSSEC RRs. This can occur when the security-aware
resolver is not able to contact security-aware name servers for
the relevant zones.
Note, the "indeterminate" security status has a conflicting
definition in section 5 of [RFC4033].
There is no trust anchor that would indicate that a specific
portion of the tree is secure.
To avoid further confusion, the adjective "anchorless" will be used
below to refer to domains or RRsets that are "indeterminate" in the
[RFC4033] sense, and the term "indeterminate" will be used
exclusively in the sense of [RFC4035].
SMTP clients following this specification SHOULD NOT distinguish
between "insecure" and "anchorless" DNS responses. Both "insecure"
and "anchorless" RRsets MUST be handled identically: in either case
unvalidated data for the query domain is all that is and can be
available, and authentication using the data is impossible. In what
follows, the term "insecure" will also include the case of
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"anchorless" domains that lie in a portion of the DNS tree for which
there is no applicable trust anchor. With the DNS root zone signed,
we expect that validating resolvers used by Internet-facing MTAs will
be configured with trust anchor data for the root zone, and that
therefore "anchorless" domains should be rare in practice.
As noted in section 4.3 of [RFC4035], a security-aware DNS resolver
MUST be able to determine whether a given non-error DNS response is
"secure", "insecure", "bogus" or "indeterminate". It is expected
that most security-aware stub resolvers will not signal an
"indeterminate" security status (in the sense of RFC4035) to the
application, and will signal a "bogus" or error result instead. If a
resolver does signal an RFC4035 "indeterminate" security status, this
MUST be treated by the SMTP client as though a "bogus" or error
result had been returned.
An MTA making use of a non-validating security-aware stub resolver
MAY use the stub resolver's ability, if available, to signal DNSSEC
validation status based on information the stub resolver has learned
from an upstream validating recursive resolver. Security-Oblivious
stub-resolvers MUST NOT be used. In accordance with section 4.9.3 of
[RFC4035]:
... a security-aware stub resolver MUST NOT place any reliance on
signature validation allegedly performed on its behalf, except
when the security-aware stub resolver obtained the data in question
from a trusted security-aware recursive name server via a secure
channel.
To avoid much repetition in the text below, we will pause to explain
the handling of "bogus" or "indeterminate" DNSSEC query responses.
These are not necessarily the result of a malicious actor; they can,
for example, occur when network packets are corrupted or lost in
transit. Therefore, "bogus" or "indeterminate" replies are equated
in this memo with lookup failure.
There is an important non-failure condition we need to highlight in
addition to the obvious case of the DNS client obtaining a non-empty
"secure" or "insecure" RRset of the requested type. Namely, it is
not an error when either "secure" or "insecure" non-existence is
determined for the requested data. When a DNSSEC response with a
validation status that is either "secure" or "insecure" reports
either no records of the requested type or non-existence of the query
domain, the response is not a DNS error condition. The DNS client
has not been left without an answer; it has learned that records of
the requested type do not exist.
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Security-aware stub resolvers will, of course, also signal DNS lookup
errors in other cases, for example when processing a "ServFail"
RCODE, which will not have an associated DNSSEC status. All lookup
errors are treated the same way by this specification, regardless of
whether they are from a "bogus" or "indeterminate" DNSSEC status or
from a more generic DNS error: the information that was requested
cannot be obtained by the security-aware resolver at this time. A
lookup error is thus a failure to obtain the relevant RRset if it
exists, or to determine that no such RRset exists when it does not.
In contrast to a "bogus" or an "indeterminate" response, an
"insecure" DNSSEC response is not an error, rather it indicates that
the target DNS zone is either securely opted out of DNSSEC validation
or is not connected with the DNSSEC trust anchors being used.
Insecure results will leave the SMTP client with degraded channel
security, but do not stand in the way of message delivery. See
section Section 2.2 for further details.
2.1.2. DNS error handling
When a DNS lookup failure (error or "bogus" or "indeterminate" as
defined above) prevents an SMTP client from determining which SMTP
server or servers it should connect to, message delivery MUST be
delayed. This naturally includes, for example, the case when a
"bogus" or "indeterminate" response is encountered during MX
resolution. When multiple MX hostnames are obtained from a
successful MX lookup, but a later DNS lookup failure prevents network
address resolution for a given MX hostname, delivery may proceed via
any remaining MX hosts.
When a particular SMTP server is securely identified as the delivery
destination, a set of DNS lookups (Section 2.2) MUST be performed to
locate any related TLSA records. If any DNS queries used to locate
TLSA records fail (be it due to "bogus" or "indeterminate" records,
timeouts, malformed replies, ServFails, etc.), then the SMTP client
MUST treat that server as unreachable and MUST NOT deliver the
message via that server. If no servers are reachable, delivery is
delayed.
In what follows, we will only describe what happens when all relevant
DNS queries succeed. If any DNS failure occurs, the SMTP client MUST
behave as described in this section, by skipping the problem SMTP
server, or the problem destination. Queries for candidate TLSA
records are explicitly part of "all relevant DNS queries" and SMTP
clients MUST NOT continue to connect to an SMTP server or destination
whose TLSA record lookup fails.
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2.1.3. Stub resolver considerations
SMTP clients that employ opportunistic DANE TLS to secure connections
to SMTP servers MUST NOT use Security-Oblivious stub-resolvers.
A note about DNAME aliases: a query for a domain name whose ancestor
domain is a DNAME alias returns the DNAME RR for the ancestor domain
along with a CNAME that maps the query domain to the corresponding
sub-domain of the target domain of the DNAME alias [RFC6672].
Therefore, whenever we speak of CNAME aliases, we implicitly allow
for the possibility that the alias in question is the result of an
ancestor domain DNAME record. Consequently, no explicit support for
DNAME records is needed in SMTP software; it is sufficient to process
the resulting CNAME aliases. DNAME records only require special
processing in the validating stub-resolver library that checks the
integrity of the combined DNAME + CNAME reply. When DNSSEC
validation is handled by a local caching resolver, rather than the
MTA itself, even that part of the DNAME support logic is outside the
MTA.
When a stub resolver returns a response containing a CNAME alias that
does not also contain the corresponding query results for the target
of the alias, the SMTP client will need to repeat the query at the
target of the alias, and should do so recursively up to some
configured or implementation-dependent recursion limit. If at any
stage of CNAME expansion an error is detected, the lookup of the
original requested records MUST be considered to have failed.
Whether a chain of CNAME records was returned in a single stub
resolver response or via explicit recursion by the SMTP client, if at
any stage of recursive expansion an "insecure" CNAME record is
encountered, then it and all subsequent results (in particular, the
final result) MUST be considered "insecure" regardless of whether any
earlier CNAME records leading to the "insecure" record were "secure".
Note that a security-aware non-validating stub resolver may return to
the SMTP client an "insecure" reply received from a validating
recursive resolver that contains a CNAME record along with additional
answers recursively obtained starting at the target of the CNAME. In
this case, the only possible conclusion is that some record in the
set of records returned is "insecure", and it is in fact possible
that the initial CNAME record and a subset of the subsequent records
are "secure".
If the SMTP client needs to determine the security status of the DNS
zone containing the initial CNAME record, it may need to issue a
separate query of type "CNAME" that returns only the initial CNAME
record. In particular in Section 2.2.2 when insecure A or AAAA
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records are found for an SMTP server via a CNAME alias, it may be
necessary to perform an additional CNAME query to determine whether
the DNS zone in which the alias is published is signed.
2.2. TLS discovery
As noted previously (in Section 1.3.1), opportunistic TLS with SMTP
servers that advertise TLS support via STARTTLS is subject to an MITM
downgrade attack. Also some SMTP servers that are not, in fact, TLS
capable erroneously advertise STARTTLS by default and clients need to
be prepared to retry cleartext delivery after STARTTLS fails. In
contrast, DNSSEC validated TLSA records MUST NOT be published for
servers that do not support TLS. Clients can safely interpret their
presence as a commitment by the server operator to implement TLS and
STARTTLS.
This memo defines four actions to be taken after the search for a
TLSA record returns secure usable results, secure unusable results,
insecure or no results or an error signal. The term "usable" in this
context is in the sense of Section 4.1 of [RFC6698]. Specifically,
if the DNS lookup for a TLSA record returns:
A secure TLSA RRset with at least one usable record: A connection to
the MTA MUST be made using authenticated and encrypted TLS, using
the techniques discussed in the rest of this document. Failure to
establish an authenticated TLS connection MUST result in falling
back to the next SMTP server or delayed delivery.
A secure non-empty TLSA RRset where all the records are unusable: A
connection to the MTA MUST be made via TLS, but authentication is
not required. Failure to establish an encrypted TLS connection
MUST result in falling back to the next SMTP server or delayed
delivery.
An insecure TLSA RRset or DNSSEC validated proof-of-non-existent TLSA
records:
A connection to the MTA SHOULD be made using (pre-DANE)
opportunistic TLS, this includes using cleartext delivery when the
remote SMTP server does not appear to support TLS. The MTA MAY
retry in cleartext when delivery via TLS fails either during the
handshake or even during data transfer.
Any lookup error: Lookup errors, including "bogus" and
"indeterminate", as explained in Section 2.1.1 MUST result in
falling back to the next SMTP server or delayed delivery.
An SMTP client MAY be configured to require DANE verified delivery
for some destinations. We will call such a configuration "mandatory
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DANE TLS". With mandatory DANE TLS, delivery proceeds only when
"secure" TLSA records are used to establish an encrypted and
authenticated TLS channel with the SMTP server.
When the original next-hop destination is an address literal, rather
than a DNS domain, DANE TLS does not apply. Delivery proceeds using
any relevant security policy configured by the MTA administrator.
Similarly, when an MX RRset incorrectly lists a network address in
lieu of an MX hostname, if an MTA chooses to connect to the network
address in the non-conformant MX record, DANE TLSA does not apply for
such a connection.
In the subsections that follow we explain how to locate the SMTP
servers and the associated TLSA records for a given next-hop
destination domain. We also explain which name or names are to be
used in identity checks of the SMTP server certificate.
2.2.1. MX resolution
In this section we consider next-hop domains that are subject to MX
resolution and have MX records. The TLSA records and the associated
base domain are derived separately for each MX hostname that is used
to attempt message delivery. DANE TLS can authenticate message
delivery to the intended next-hop domain only when the MX records are
obtained securely via a DNSSEC validated lookup.
MX records MUST be sorted by preference; an MX hostname with a worse
(numerically higher) MX preference that has TLSA records MUST NOT
preempt an MX hostname with a better (numerically lower) preference
that has no TLSA records. In other words, prevention of delivery
loops by obeying MX preferences MUST take precedence over channel
security considerations. Even with two equal-preference MX records,
an MTA is not obligated to choose the MX hostname that offers more
security. Domains that want secure inbound mail delivery need to
ensure that all their SMTP servers and MX records are configured
accordingly.
In the language of [RFC5321] Section 5.1, the original next-hop
domain is the "initial name". If the MX lookup of the initial name
results in a CNAME alias, the MTA replaces the initial name with the
resulting name and performs a new lookup with the new name. MTAs
typically support recursion in CNAME expansion, so this replacement
is performed repeatedly (up to the MTA's recursion limit) until the
ultimate non-CNAME domain is found.
If the MX RRset (or any CNAME leading to it) is "insecure" (see
Section 2.1.1), DANE TLS need not apply, and delivery MAY proceed via
pre-DANE opportunistic TLS. That said, the protocol in this memo is
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an "opportunistic security" protocol, meaning that it strives to
communicate with each peer as securely as possible, while maintaining
broad interoperability. Therefore, the SMTP client MAY proceed to
use DANE TLS (as described in Section 2.2.2 below) even with MX hosts
obtained via an "insecure" MX RRset. For example, when a hosting
provider has a signed DNS zone and publishes TLSA records for its
SMTP servers, hosted domains that are not signed may still benefit
from the provider's TLSA records. Deliveries via the provider's SMTP
servers will not be subject to active attacks when sending SMTP
clients elect to make use of the provider's TLSA records.
When the MX records are not (DNSSEC) signed, an active attacker can
redirect SMTP clients to MX hosts of his choice. Such redirection is
tamper-evident when SMTP servers found via "insecure" MX records are
recorded as the next-hop relay in the MTA delivery logs in their
original (rather than CNAME expanded) form. Sending MTAs SHOULD log
unexpanded MX hostnames when these result from insecure MX lookups.
Any successful authentication via an insecurely determined MX host
MUST NOT be misrepresented in the mail logs as secure delivery to the
intended next-hop domain. When DANE TLS is mandatory (Section 6) for
a given destination, delivery MUST be delayed when the MX RRset is
not "secure".
Otherwise, assuming no DNS errors (Section 2.1.1), the MX RRset is
"secure", and the SMTP client MUST treat each MX hostname as a
separate non-MX destination for opportunistic DANE TLS as described
in Section 2.2.2. When, for a given MX hostname, no TLSA records are
found, or only "insecure" TLSA records are found, DANE TLSA is not
applicable with the SMTP server in question and delivery proceeds to
that host as with pre-DANE opportunistic TLS. To avoid downgrade
attacks, any errors during TLSA lookups MUST, as explained in
Section 2.1.1, cause the SMTP server in question to be treated as
unreachable.
2.2.2. Non-MX destinations
This section describes the algorithm used to locate the TLSA records
and associated TLSA base domain for an input domain not subject to MX
resolution. Such domains include:
o Each MX hostname used in a message delivery attempt for an
original next-hop destination domain subject to MX resolution.
Note, MTAs are not obligated to support CNAME expansion of MX
hostnames.
o Any administrator configured relay hostname, not subject to MX
resolution. This frequently involves configuration set by the MTA
administrator to handle some or all mail.
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o A next-hop destination domain subject to MX resolution that has no
MX records. In this case the domain's name is implicitly also its
sole SMTP server name.
Note that DNS queries with type TLSA are mishandled by load balancing
nameservers that serve the MX hostnames of some large email
providers. The DNS zones served by these nameservers are not signed
and contain no TLSA records, but queries for TLSA records fail,
rather than returning the non-existence of the requested TLSA
records.
To avoid problems delivering mail to domains whose SMTP servers are
served by the problem nameservers the SMTP client MUST perform any A
and/or AAAA queries for the destination before attempting to locate
the associated TLSA records. This lookup is needed in any case to
determine whether the destination domain is reachable and the DNSSEC
validation status of the chain of CNAME queries required to reach the
ultimate address records.
If no address records are found, the destination is unreachable. If
address records are found, but the DNSSEC validation status of the
first query response is "insecure" (see Section 2.1.3), the SMTP
client SHOULD NOT proceed to search for any associated TLSA records.
With the problem domains, TLSA queries will lead to DNS lookup errors
and cause messages to be consistently delayed and ultimately returned
to the sender. We don't expect to find any "secure" TLSA records
associated with a TLSA base domain that lies in an unsigned DNS zone.
Therefore, skipping TLSA lookups in this case will also reduce
latency with no detrimental impact on security.
If the A and/or AAAA lookup of the "initial name" yields a CNAME, we
replace it with the resulting name as if it were the initial name and
perform a lookup again using the new name. This replacement is
performed recursively (up to the MTA's recursion limit).
We consider the following cases for handling a DNS response for an A
or AAAA DNS lookup:
Not found: When the DNS queries for A and/or AAAA records yield
neither a list of addresses nor a CNAME (or CNAME expansion is not
supported) the destination is unreachable.
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Non-CNAME: The answer is not a CNAME alias. If the address RRset
is "secure", TLSA lookups are performed as described in
Section 2.2.3 with the initial name as the candidate TLSA base
domain. If no "secure" TLSA records are found, DANE TLS is not
applicable and mail delivery proceeds with pre-DANE opportunistic
TLS (which, being best-effort, degrades to cleartext delivery when
STARTTLS is not available or the TLS handshake fails).
Insecure CNAME: The input domain is a CNAME alias, but the ultimate
network address RRset is "insecure" (see Section 2.1.1). If the
initial CNAME response is also "insecure", DANE TLS does not
apply. Otherwise, this case is treated just like the non-CNAME
case above, where a search is performed for a TLSA record with the
original input domain as the candidate TLSA base domain.
Secure CNAME: The input domain is a CNAME alias, and the ultimate
network address RRset is "secure" (see Section 2.1.1). Two
candidate TLSA base domains are tried: the fully CNAME-expanded
initial name and, failing that, then the initial name itself.
In summary, if it is possible to securely obtain the full, CNAME-
expanded, DNSSEC-validated address records for the input domain, then
that name is the preferred TLSA base domain. Otherwise, the
unexpanded input-MX domain is the candidate TLSA base domain. When
no "secure" TLSA records are found at either the CNAME-expanded or
unexpanded domain, then DANE TLS does not apply for mail delivery via
the input domain in question. And, as always, errors, bogus or
indeterminate results for any query in the process MUST result in
delaying or abandoning delivery.
2.2.3. TLSA record lookup
Each candidate TLSA base domain (the original or fully CNAME-expanded
name of a non-MX destination or a particular MX hostname of an MX
destination) is in turn prefixed with service labels of the form
"_<port>._tcp". The resulting domain name is used to issue a DNSSEC
query with the query type set to TLSA ([RFC6698] Section 7.1).
For SMTP, the destination TCP port is typically 25, but this may be
different with custom routes specified by the MTA administrator in
which case the SMTP client MUST use the appropriate number in the
"_<port>" prefix in place of "_25". If, for example, the candidate
base domain is "mx.example.com", and the SMTP connection is to port
25, the TLSA RRset is obtained via a DNSSEC query of the form:
_25._tcp.mx.example.com. IN TLSA ?
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The query response may be a CNAME, or the actual TLSA RRset. If the
response is a CNAME, the SMTP client (through the use of its
security-aware stub resolver) restarts the TLSA query at the target
domain, following CNAMEs as appropriate and keeping track of whether
the entire chain is "secure". If any "insecure" records are
encountered, or the TLSA records don't exist, the next candidate TLSA
base domain is tried instead.
If the ultimate response is a "secure" TLSA RRset, then the candidate
TLSA base domain will be the actual TLSA base domain and the TLSA
RRset will constitute the TLSA records for the destination. If none
of the candidate TLSA base domains yield "secure" TLSA records then
delivery MAY proceed via pre-DANE opportunistic TLS. SMTP clients
MAY elect to use "insecure" TLSA records to avoid STARTTLS downgrades
or even to skip SMTP servers that fail authentication, but MUST NOT
misrepresent authentication success as either a secure connection to
the SMTP server or as a secure delivery to the intended next-hop
domain.
TLSA record publishers may leverage CNAMEs to reference a single
authoritative TLSA RRset specifying a common Certification Authority
or a common end entity certificate to be used with multiple TLS
services. Such CNAME expansion does not change the SMTP client's
notion of the TLSA base domain; thus, when _25._tcp.mx.example.com is
a CNAME, the base domain remains mx.example.com and this is still the
reference identifier used together with the next-hop domain in peer
certificate name checks.
Note that shared end entity certificate associations expose the
publishing domain to substitution attacks, where an MITM attacker can
reroute traffic to a different server that shares the same end entity
certificate. Such shared end entity TLSA records SHOULD be avoided
unless the servers in question are functionally equivalent or employ
mutually incompatible protocols (an active attacker gains nothing by
diverting client traffic from one such server to another).
A better example, employing a shared trust anchor rather than shared
end-entity certificates, is illustrated by the DNSSEC validated
records below:
example.com. IN MX 0 mx1.example.com.
example.com. IN MX 0 mx2.example.com.
_25._tcp.mx1.example.com. IN CNAME tlsa201._dane.example.com.
_25._tcp.mx2.example.com. IN CNAME tlsa201._dane.example.com.
tlsa201._dane.example.com. IN TLSA 2 0 1 e3b0c44298fc1c149a...
The SMTP servers mx1.example.com and mx2.example.com will be expected
to have certificates issued under a common trust anchor, but each MX
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hostname's TLSA base domain remains unchanged despite the above CNAME
records. Correspondingly, each SMTP server will be associated with a
pair of reference identifiers consisting of its hostname plus the
next-hop domain "example.com".
If, during TLSA resolution (including possible CNAME indirection), at
least one "secure" TLSA record is found (even if not usable because
it is unsupported by the implementation or support is
administratively disabled), then the corresponding host has signaled
its commitment to implement TLS. The SMTP client MUST NOT deliver
mail via the corresponding host unless a TLS session is negotiated
via STARTTLS. This is required to avoid MITM STARTTLS downgrade
attacks.
As noted previously (in Section Section 2.2.2), when no "secure" TLSA
records are found at the fully CNAME-expanded name, the original
unexpanded name MUST be tried instead. This supports customers of
hosting providers where the provider's zone cannot be validated with
DNSSEC, but the customer has shared appropriate key material with the
hosting provider to enable TLS via SNI. Intermediate names that
arise during CNAME expansion that are neither the original, nor the
final name, are never candidate TLSA base domains, even if "secure".
3. DANE authentication
This section describes which TLSA records are applicable to SMTP
opportunistic DANE TLS and how to apply such records to authenticate
the SMTP server. With opportunistic DANE TLS, both the TLS support
implied by the presence of DANE TLSA records and the verification
parameters necessary to authenticate the TLS peer are obtained
together. In contrast to protocols where channel security policy is
set exclusively by the client, authentication via this protocol is
expected to be less prone to connection failure caused by
incompatible configuration of the client and server.
3.1. TLSA certificate usages
The DANE TLSA specification [RFC6698] defines multiple TLSA RR types
via combinations of 3 numeric parameters. The numeric values of
these parameters were later given symbolic names in [RFC7218]. The
rest of the TLSA record is the "certificate association data field",
which specifies the full or digest value of a certificate or public
key. The parameters are:
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The TLSA Certificate Usage field: Section 2.1.1 of [RFC6698]
specifies four values: PKIX-TA(0), PKIX-EE(1), DANE-TA(2), and
DANE-EE(3). There is an additional private-use value:
PrivCert(255). All other values are reserved for use by future
specifications.
The selector field: Section 2.1.2 of [RFC6698] specifies two values:
Cert(0) and SPKI(1). There is an additional private-use value:
PrivSel(255). All other values are reserved for use by future
specifications.
The matching type field: Section 2.1.3 of [RFC6698] specifies three
values: Full(0), SHA2-256(1) and SHA2-512(2). There is an
additional private-use value: PrivMatch(255). All other values
are reserved for use by future specifications.
We may think of TLSA Certificate Usage values 0 through 3 as a
combination of two one-bit flags. The low bit chooses between trust
anchor (TA) and end entity (EE) certificates. The high bit chooses
between public PKI issued and domain-issued certificates.
The selector field specifies whether the TLSA RR matches the whole
certificate: Cert(0), or just its subjectPublicKeyInfo: SPKI(1). The
subjectPublicKeyInfo is an ASN.1 DER ([X.690]) encoding of the
certificate's algorithm id, any parameters and the public key data.
The matching type field specifies how the TLSA RR Certificate
Association Data field is to be compared with the certificate or
public key. A value of Full(0) means an exact match: the full DER
encoding of the certificate or public key is given in the TLSA RR. A
value of SHA2-256(1) means that the association data matches the
SHA2-256 digest of the certificate or public key, and likewise
SHA2-512(2) means a SHA2-512 digest is used.
Since opportunistic DANE TLS will be used by non-interactive MTAs,
with no user to "press OK" when authentication fails, reliability of
peer authentication is paramount. Server operators are advised to
publish TLSA records that are least likely to fail authentication due
to interoperability or operational problems. Because DANE TLS relies
on coordinated changes to DNS and SMTP server settings, the best
choice of records to publish will depend on site-specific practices.
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The certificate usage element of a TLSA record plays a critical role
in determining how the corresponding certificate association data
field is used to authenticate server's certificate chain. The next
two subsections explain the process for certificate usages DANE-EE(3)
and DANE-TA(2). The third subsection briefly explains why
certificate usages PKIX-TA(0) and PKIX-EE(1) are not applicable with
opportunistic DANE TLS.
In summary, we recommend the use of either "DANE-EE(3) SPKI(1)
SHA2-256(1)" or "DANE-TA(2) Cert(0) SHA2-256(1)" TLSA records
depending on site needs. Other combinations of TLSA parameters are
either explicitly unsupported, or offer little to recommend them over
these two.
The mandatory to support digest algorithm in [RFC6698] is
SHA2-256(1). When the server's TLSA RRset includes records with a
matching type indicating a digest record (i.e., a value other than
Full(0)), a TLSA record with a SHA2-256(1) matching type SHOULD be
provided along with any other digest published, since some SMTP
clients may support only SHA2-256(1). If at some point the SHA2-256
digest algorithm is tarnished by new cryptanalytic attacks,
publishers will need to include an appropriate stronger digest in
their TLSA records, initially along with, and ultimately in place of,
SHA2-256.
3.1.1. Certificate usage DANE-EE(3)
Authentication via certificate usage DANE-EE(3) TLSA records involves
simply checking that the server's leaf certificate matches the TLSA
record. In particular the binding of the server public key to its
name is based entirely on the TLSA record association. The server
MUST be considered authenticated even if none of the names in the
certificate match the client's reference identity for the server.
Similarly, the expiration date of the server certificate MUST be
ignored, the validity period of the TLSA record key binding is
determined by the validity interval of the TLSA record DNSSEC
signature.
With DANE-EE(3) servers need not employ SNI (may ignore the client's
SNI message) even when the server is known under independent names
that would otherwise require separate certificates. It is instead
sufficient for the TLSA RRsets for all the domains in question to
match the server's default certificate. Of course with SMTP servers
it is simpler still to publish the same MX hostname for all the
hosted domains.
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For domains where it is practical to make coordinated changes in DNS
TLSA records during SMTP server key rotation, it is often best to
publish end-entity DANE-EE(3) certificate associations. DANE-EE(3)
certificates don't suddenly stop working when leaf or intermediate
certificates expire, and don't fail when the server operator neglects
to configure all the required issuer certificates in the server
certificate chain.
TLSA records published for SMTP servers SHOULD, in most cases, be
"DANE-EE(3) SPKI(1) SHA2-256(1)" records. Since all DANE
implementations are required to support SHA2-256, this record type
works for all clients and need not change across certificate renewals
with the same key.
3.1.2. Certificate usage DANE-TA(2)
Some domains may prefer to avoid the operational complexity of
publishing unique TLSA RRs for each TLS service. If the domain
employs a common issuing Certification Authority to create
certificates for multiple TLS services, it may be simpler to publish
the issuing authority as a trust anchor (TA) for the certificate
chains of all relevant services. The TLSA query domain (TLSA base
domain with port and protocol prefix labels) for each service issued
by the same TA may then be set to a CNAME alias that points to a
common TLSA RRset that matches the TA. For example:
example.com. IN MX 0 mx1.example.com.
example.com. IN MX 0 mx2.example.com.
_25._tcp.mx1.example.com. IN CNAME tlsa201._dane.example.com.
_25._tcp.mx2.example.com. IN CNAME tlsa201._dane.example.com.
tlsa201._dane.example.com. IN TLSA 2 0 1 e3b0c44298fc1c14....
With usage DANE-TA(2) the server certificates will need to have names
that match one of the client's reference identifiers (see [RFC6125]).
The server MAY employ SNI to select the appropriate certificate to
present to the client.
SMTP servers that rely on certificate usage DANE-TA(2) TLSA records
for TLS authentication MUST include the TA certificate as part of the
certificate chain presented in the TLS handshake server certificate
message even when it is a self-signed root certificate. At this
time, many SMTP servers are not configured with a comprehensive list
of trust anchors, nor are they expected to at any point in the
future. Some MTAs will ignore all locally trusted certificates when
processing usage DANE-TA(2) TLSA records. Thus even when the TA
happens to be a public Certification Authority known to the SMTP
client, authentication is likely to fail unless the TA certificate is
included in the TLS server certificate message.
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TLSA records with matching type Full(0) are discouraged. While these
potentially obviate the need to transmit the TA certificate in the
TLS server certificate message, client implementations may not be
able to augment the server certificate chain with the data obtained
from DNS, especially when the TLSA record supplies a bare key
(selector SPKI(1)). Since the server will need to transmit the TA
certificate in any case, server operators SHOULD publish TLSA records
with a matching type other than Full(0) and avoid potential
interoperability issues with large TLSA records containing full
certificates or keys.
TLSA Publishers employing DANE-TA(2) records SHOULD publish records
with a selector of Cert(0). Such TLSA records are associated with
the whole trust anchor certificate, not just with the trust anchor
public key. In particular, the SMTP client SHOULD then apply any
relevant constraints from the trust anchor certificate, such as, for
example, path length constraints.
While a selector of SPKI(1) may also be employed, the resulting TLSA
record will not specify the full trust anchor certificate content,
and elements of the trust anchor certificate other than the public
key become mutable. This may, for example, allow a subsidiary CA to
issue a chain that violates the trust anchor's path length or name
constraints.
3.1.3. Certificate usages PKIX-TA(0) and PKIX-EE(1)
As noted in the introduction, SMTP clients cannot, without relying on
DNSSEC for secure MX records and DANE for STARTTLS support signaling,
perform server identity verification or prevent STARTTLS downgrade
attacks. The use of PKIX CAs offers no added security since an
attacker capable of compromising DNSSEC is free to replace any PKIX-
TA(0) or PKIX-EE(1) TLSA records with records bearing any convenient
non-PKIX certificate usage.
SMTP servers SHOULD NOT publish TLSA RRs with certificate usage PKIX-
TA(0) or PKIX-EE(1). SMTP clients cannot be expected to be
configured with a suitably complete set of trusted public CAs.
Lacking a complete set of public CAs, clients would not be able to
verify the certificates of SMTP servers whose issuing root CAs are
not trusted by the client.
Opportunistic DANE TLS needs to interoperate without bilateral
coordination of security settings between client and server systems.
Therefore, parameter choices that are fragile in the absence of
bilateral coordination are unsupported. Nothing is lost since the
PKIX certificate usages cannot aid SMTP TLS security, they can only
impede SMTP TLS interoperability.
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SMTP client treatment of TLSA RRs with certificate usages PKIX-TA(0)
or PKIX-EE(1) is undefined. SMTP clients should generally treat such
TLSA records as unusable.
3.2. Certificate matching
When at least one usable "secure" TLSA record is found, the SMTP
client MUST use TLSA records to authenticate the SMTP server.
Messages MUST NOT be delivered via the SMTP server if authentication
fails, otherwise the SMTP client is vulnerable to MITM attacks.
3.2.1. DANE-EE(3) name checks
The SMTP client MUST NOT perform certificate name checks with
certificate usage DANE-EE(3); see Section 3.1.1 above.
3.2.2. DANE-TA(2) name checks
To match a server via a TLSA record with certificate usage DANE-
TA(2), the client MUST perform name checks to ensure that it has
reached the correct server. In all DANE-TA(2) cases the SMTP client
MUST include the TLSA base domain as one of the valid reference
identifiers for matching the server certificate.
TLSA records for MX hostnames: If the TLSA base domain was obtained
indirectly via a "secure" MX lookup (including any CNAME-expanded
name of an MX hostname), then the original next-hop domain used in
the MX lookup MUST be included as as a second reference
identifier. The CNAME-expanded original next-hop domain MUST be
included as a third reference identifier if different from the
original next-hop domain. When the client MTA is employing DANE
TLS security despite "insecure" MX redirection the MX hostname is
the only reference identifier.
TLSA records for Non-MX hostnames: If MX records were not used
(e.g., if none exist) and the TLSA base domain is the CNAME-
expanded original next-hop domain, then the original next-hop
domain MUST be included as a second reference identifier.
Accepting certificates with the original next-hop domain in addition
to the MX hostname allows a domain with multiple MX hostnames to
field a single certificate bearing a single domain name (i.e., the
email domain) across all the SMTP servers. This also aids
interoperability with pre-DANE SMTP clients that are configured to
look for the email domain name in server certificates. For example,
with "secure" DNS records as below:
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exchange.example.org. IN CNAME mail.example.org.
mail.example.org. IN CNAME example.com.
example.com. IN MX 10 mx10.example.com.
example.com. IN MX 15 mx15.example.com.
example.com. IN MX 20 mx20.example.com.
;
mx10.example.com. IN A 192.0.2.10
_25._tcp.mx10.example.com. IN TLSA 2 0 1 ...
;
mx15.example.com. IN CNAME mxbackup.example.com.
mxbackup.example.com. IN A 192.0.2.15
; _25._tcp.mxbackup.example.com. IN TLSA ? (NXDOMAIN)
_25._tcp.mx15.example.com. IN TLSA 2 0 1 ...
;
mx20.example.com. IN CNAME mxbackup.example.net.
mxbackup.example.net. IN A 198.51.100.20
_25._tcp.mxbackup.example.net. IN TLSA 2 0 1 ...
Certificate name checks for delivery of mail to exchange.example.org
via any of the associated SMTP servers MUST accept at least the names
"exchange.example.org" and "example.com", which are respectively the
original and fully expanded next-hop domain. When the SMTP server is
mx10.example.com, name checks MUST accept the TLSA base domain
"mx10.example.com". If, despite the fact that MX hostnames are
required to not be aliases, the MTA supports delivery via
"mx15.example.com" or "mx20.example.com" then name checks MUST accept
the respective TLSA base domains "mx15.example.com" and
"mxbackup.example.net".
3.2.3. Reference identifier matching
When name checks are applicable (certificate usage DANE-TA(2)), if
the server certificate contains a Subject Alternative Name extension
([RFC5280]), with at least one DNS-ID ([RFC6125]) then only the DNS-
IDs are matched against the client's reference identifiers. The CN-
ID ([RFC6125]) is only considered when no DNS-IDs are present. The
server certificate is considered matched when one of its presented
identifiers ([RFC5280]) matches any of the client's reference
identifiers.
Wildcards are valid in either DNS-IDs or the CN-ID when applicable.
The wildcard character must be entire first label of the DNS-ID or
CN-ID. Thus, "*.example.com" is valid, while "smtp*.example.com" and
"*smtp.example.com" are not. SMTP clients MUST support wildcards
that match the first label of the reference identifier, with the
remaining labels matching verbatim. For example, the DNS-ID
"*.example.com" matches the reference identifier "mx1.example.com".
SMTP clients MAY, subject to local policy allow wildcards to match
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multiple reference identifier labels, but servers cannot expect broad
support for such a policy. Therefore any wildcards in server
certificates SHOULD match exactly one label in either the TLSA base
domain or the next-hop domain.
4. Server key management
Two TLSA records MUST be published before employing a new EE or TA
public key or certificate, one matching the currently deployed key
and the other matching the new key scheduled to replace it. Once
sufficient time has elapsed for all DNS caches to expire the previous
TLSA RRset and related signature RRsets, servers may be configured to
use the new EE private key and associated public key certificate or
may employ certificates signed by the new trust anchor.
Once the new public key or certificate is in use, the TLSA RR that
matches the retired key can be removed from DNS, leaving only RRs
that match keys or certificates in active use.
As described in Section 3.1.2, when server certificates are validated
via a DANE-TA(2) trust anchor, and CNAME records are employed to
store the TA association data at a single location, the
responsibility of updating the TLSA RRset shifts to the operator of
the trust anchor. Before a new trust anchor is used to sign any new
server certificates, its certificate (digest) is added to the
relevant TLSA RRset. After enough time elapses for the original TLSA
RRset to age out of DNS caches, the new trust anchor can start
issuing new server certificates. Once all certificates issued under
the previous trust anchor have expired, its associated RRs can be
removed from the TLSA RRset.
In the DANE-TA(2) key management model server operators do not
generally need to update DNS TLSA records after initially creating a
CNAME record that references the centrally operated DANE-TA(2) RRset.
If a particular server's key is compromised, its TLSA CNAME SHOULD be
replaced with a DANE-EE(3) association until the certificate for the
compromised key expires, at which point it can return to using a
CNAME record. If the central trust anchor is compromised, all
servers need to be issued new keys by a new TA, and an updated DANE-
TA(2) TLSA RRset needs to be published containing just the new TA.
SMTP servers cannot expect broad CRL or OCSP support from SMTP
clients. As outlined above, with DANE, compromised server or trust
anchor keys can be "revoked" by removing them from the DNS without
the need for client-side support for OCSP or CRLs.
5. Digest algorithm agility
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While [RFC6698] specifies multiple digest algorithms, it does not
specify a protocol by which the SMTP client and TLSA record publisher
can agree on the strongest shared algorithm. Such a protocol would
allow the client and server to avoid exposure to any deprecated
weaker algorithms that are published for compatibility with less
capable clients, but should be ignored when possible. Such a
protocol is specified in [I-D.ietf-dane-ops]. SMTP clients and
servers that implement this specification MUST comply with the
requirements outlined under "Digest Algorithm Agility" in
[I-D.ietf-dane-ops].
6. Mandatory TLS Security
An MTA implementing this protocol may require a stronger security
assurance when sending email to selected destinations. The sending
organization may need to send sensitive email and/or may have
regulatory obligations to protect its content. This protocol is not
in conflict with such a requirement, and in fact can often simplify
authenticated delivery to such destinations.
Specifically, with domains that publish DANE TLSA records for their
MX hostnames, a sending MTA can be configured to use the receiving
domains's DANE TLSA records to authenticate the corresponding SMTP
server. Authentication via DANE TLSA records is easier to manage, as
changes in the receiver's expected certificate properties are made on
the receiver end and don't require manually communicated
configuration changes. With mandatory DANE TLS, when no usable TLSA
records are found, message delivery is delayed. Thus, mail is only
sent when an authenticated TLS channel is established to the remote
SMTP server.
Administrators of mail servers that employ mandatory DANE TLS, need
to carefully monitor their mail logs and queues. If a partner domain
unwittingly misconfigures their TLSA records, disables DNSSEC, or
misconfigures SMTP server certificate chains, mail will be delayed
and may bounce if the issue is not resolved in a timely manner.
7. Note on DANE for Message User Agents
We note that the SMTP protocol is also used between Message User
Agents (MUAs) and Message Submission Agents (MSAs) [RFC6409]. In
[RFC6186] a protocol is specified that enables an MUA to dynamically
locate the MSA based on the user's email address. SMTP connection
security considerations for MUAs implementing [RFC6186] are largely
analogous to connection security requirements for MTAs, and this
specification could be applied largely verbatim with DNS MX records
replaced by corresponding DNS Service (SRV) records
[I-D.ietf-dane-srv].
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However, until MUAs begin to adopt the dynamic configuration
mechanisms of [RFC6186] they are adequately served by more
traditional static TLS security policies. Specification of DANE TLS
for Message User Agent (MUA) to Message Submission Agent (MSA) SMTP
is left to future documents that focus specifically on SMTP security
between MUAs and MSAs.
8. Interoperability considerations
8.1. SNI support
To ensure that the server sends the right certificate chain, the SMTP
client MUST send the TLS SNI extension containing the TLSA base
domain. This precludes the use of the backward compatible SSL 2.0
compatible SSL HELLO by the SMTP client. The minimum SSL/TLS client
HELLO version for SMTP clients performing DANE authentication is SSL
3.0, but a client that offers SSL 3.0 MUST also offer at least TLS
1.0 and MUST include the SNI extension. Servers that don't make use
of SNI MAY negotiate SSL 3.0 if offered by the client.
Each SMTP server MUST present a certificate chain (see [RFC5246]
Section 7.4.2) that matches at least one of the TLSA records. The
server MAY rely on SNI to determine which certificate chain to
present to the client. Clients that don't send SNI information may
not see the expected certificate chain.
If the server's TLSA records match the server's default certificate
chain, the server need not support SNI. In either case, the server
need not include the SNI extension in its TLS HELLO as simply
returning a matching certificate chain is sufficient. Servers MUST
NOT enforce the use of SNI by clients, as the client may be using
unauthenticated opportunistic TLS and may not expect any particular
certificate from the server. If the client sends no SNI extension,
or sends an SNI extension for an unsupported domain, the server MUST
simply send some fallback certificate chain of its choice. The
reason for not enforcing strict matching of the requested SNI
hostname is that DANE TLS clients are typically willing to accept
multiple server names, but can only send one name in the SNI
extension. The server's fallback certificate may match a different
name acceptable to the client, e.g., the original next-hop domain.
8.2. Anonymous TLS cipher suites
Since many SMTP servers either do not support or do not enable any
anonymous TLS cipher suites, SMTP client TLS HELLO messages SHOULD
offer to negotiate a typical set of non-anonymous cipher suites
required for interoperability with such servers. An SMTP client
employing pre-DANE opportunistic TLS MAY in addition include one or
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more anonymous TLS cipher suites in its TLS HELLO. SMTP servers,
that need to interoperate with opportunistic TLS clients SHOULD be
prepared to interoperate with such clients by either always selecting
a mutually supported non-anonymous cipher suite or by correctly
handling client connections that negotiate anonymous cipher suites.
Note that while SMTP server operators are under no obligation to
enable anonymous cipher suites, no security is gained by sending
certificates to clients that will ignore them. Indeed support for
anonymous cipher suites in the server makes audit trails more
informative. Log entries that record connections that employed an
anonymous cipher suite record the fact that the clients did not care
to authenticate the server.
9. Operational Considerations
9.1. Client Operational Considerations
An operational error on the sending or receiving side that cannot be
corrected in a timely manner may, at times, lead to consistent
failure to deliver time-sensitive email. The sending MTA
administrator may have to choose between letting email queue until
the error is resolved and disabling opportunistic or mandatory DANE
TLS for one or more destinations. The choice to disable DANE TLS
security should not be made lightly. Every reasonable effort should
be made to determine that problems with mail delivery are the result
of an operational error, and not an attack. A fallback strategy may
be to configure explicit out-of-band TLS security settings if
supported by the sending MTA.
SMTP clients may deploy opportunistic DANE TLS incrementally by
enabling it only for selected sites, or may occasionally need to
disable opportunistic DANE TLS for peers that fail to interoperate
due to misconfiguration or software defects on either end. Some
implementations MAY support DANE TLS in an "audit only" mode in which
failure to achieve the requisite security level is logged as a
warning and delivery proceeds at a reduced security level. Unless
local policy specifies "audit only" or that opportunistic DANE TLS is
not to be used for a particular destination, an SMTP client MUST NOT
deliver mail via a server whose certificate chain fails to match at
least one TLSA record when usable TLSA records are found for that
server.
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9.2. Publisher Operational Considerations
SMTP servers that publish certificate usage DANE-TA(2) associations
MUST include the TA certificate in their TLS server certificate
chain, even when that TA certificate is a self-signed root
certificate.
TLSA Publishers MUST follow the guidelines in the "TLSA Publisher
Requirements" section of [I-D.ietf-dane-ops].
TLSA Publishers SHOULD follow the TLSA publication size guidance
found in [I-D.ietf-dane-ops] under "DANE DNS Record Size Guidelines".
TLSA Publishers SHOULD follow the TLSA record TTL and signature
lifetime recommendations found in [I-D.ietf-dane-ops] under
"Operational Considerations".
10. Security Considerations
This protocol leverages DANE TLSA records to implement MITM resistant
opportunistic security ([I-D.dukhovni-opportunistic-security]) for
SMTP. For destination domains that sign their MX records and publish
signed TLSA records for their MX hostnames, this protocol allows
sending MTAs to securely discover both the availability of TLS and
how to authenticate the destination.
This protocol does not aim to secure all SMTP traffic, as that is not
practical until DNSSEC and DANE adoption are universal. The
incremental deployment provided by following this specification is a
best possible path for securing SMTP. This protocol coexists and
interoperates with the existing insecure Internet email backbone.
The protocol does not preclude existing non-opportunistic SMTP TLS
security arrangements, which can continue to be used as before via
manual configuration with negotiated out-of-band key and TLS
configuration exchanges.
Opportunistic SMTP TLS depends critically on DNSSEC for downgrade
resistance and secure resolution of the destination name. If DNSSEC
is compromised, it is not possible to fall back on the public CA PKI
to prevent MITM attacks. A successful breach of DNSSEC enables the
attacker to publish TLSA usage 3 certificate associations, and
thereby bypass any security benefit the legitimate domain owner might
hope to gain by publishing usage 0 or 1 TLSA RRs. Given the lack of
public CA PKI support in existing MTA deployments, avoiding
certificate usages 0 and 1 simplifies implementation and deployment
with no adverse security consequences.
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Implementations must strictly follow the portions of this
specification that indicate when it is appropriate to initiate a non-
authenticated connection or cleartext connection to a SMTP server.
Specifically, in order to prevent downgrade attacks on this protocol,
implementation must not initiate a connection when this specification
indicates a particular SMTP server must be considered unreachable.
11. IANA considerations
This specification requires no support from IANA.
12. Acknowledgements
The authors would like to extend great thanks to Tony Finch, who
started the original version of a DANE SMTP document. His work is
greatly appreciated and has been incorporated into this document.
The authors would like to additionally thank Phil Pennock for his
comments and advice on this document.
Acknowledgments from Viktor: Thanks to Paul Hoffman who motivated me
to begin work on this memo and provided feedback on early drafts.
Thanks to Patrick Koetter, Perry Metzger and Nico Williams for
valuable review comments. Thanks also to Wietse Venema who created
Postfix, and whose advice and feedback were essential to the
development of the Postfix DANE implementation.
13. References
13.1. Normative References
[I-D.ietf-dane-ops]
Dukhovni, V. and W. Hardaker, "Updates to and Operational
Guidance for the DANE Protocol", draft-ietf-dane-ops-06
(work in progress), August 2014.
[RFC1035] Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation and
specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, November 1987.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC3207] Hoffman, P., "SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over
Transport Layer Security", RFC 3207, February 2002.
[RFC4033] Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S.
Rose, "DNS Security Introduction and Requirements", RFC
4033, March 2005.
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[RFC4034] Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S.
Rose, "Resource Records for the DNS Security Extensions",
RFC 4034, March 2005.
[RFC4035] Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S.
Rose, "Protocol Modifications for the DNS Security
Extensions", RFC 4035, March 2005.
[RFC5246] Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer Security
(TLS) Protocol Version 1.2", RFC 5246, August 2008.
[RFC5280] Cooper, D., Santesson, S., Farrell, S., Boeyen, S.,
Housley, R., and W. Polk, "Internet X.509 Public Key
Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List
(CRL) Profile", RFC 5280, May 2008.
[RFC5321] Klensin, J., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", RFC 5321,
October 2008.
[RFC6066] Eastlake, D., "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Extensions:
Extension Definitions", RFC 6066, January 2011.
[RFC6125] Saint-Andre, P. and J. Hodges, "Representation and
Verification of Domain-Based Application Service Identity
within Internet Public Key Infrastructure Using X.509
(PKIX) Certificates in the Context of Transport Layer
Security (TLS)", RFC 6125, March 2011.
[RFC6186] Daboo, C., "Use of SRV Records for Locating Email
Submission/Access Services", RFC 6186, March 2011.
[RFC6672] Rose, S. and W. Wijngaards, "DNAME Redirection in the
DNS", RFC 6672, June 2012.
[RFC6698] Hoffman, P. and J. Schlyter, "The DNS-Based Authentication
of Named Entities (DANE) Transport Layer Security (TLS)
Protocol: TLSA", RFC 6698, August 2012.
[RFC7218] Gudmundsson, O., "Adding Acronyms to Simplify
Conversations about DNS-Based Authentication of Named
Entities (DANE)", RFC 7218, April 2014.
[X.690] International Telecommunications Union, "Recommendation
ITU-T X.690 (2002) | ISO/IEC 8825-1:2002, Information
technology - ASN.1 encoding rules: Specification of Basic
Encoding Rules (BER), Canonical Encoding Rules (CER) and
Distinguished Encoding Rules (DER)", July 2002.
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13.2. Informative References
[I-D.dukhovni-opportunistic-security]
Dukhovni, V., "Opportunistic Security: Some Protection
Most of the Time", draft-dukhovni-opportunistic-
security-04 (work in progress), August 2014.
[I-D.ietf-dane-srv]
Finch, T., Miller, M., and P. Saint-Andre, "Using DNS-
Based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE) TLSA Records
with SRV Records", draft-ietf-dane-srv-08 (work in
progress), October 2014.
[RFC5598] Crocker, D., "Internet Mail Architecture", RFC 5598, July
2009.
[RFC6409] Gellens, R. and J. Klensin, "Message Submission for Mail",
STD 72, RFC 6409, November 2011.
Authors' Addresses
Viktor Dukhovni
Two Sigma
Email: ietf-dane@dukhovni.org
Wes Hardaker
Parsons
P.O. Box 382
Davis, CA 95617
US
Email: ietf@hardakers.net
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