Skip to main content

Updating the NTP Registries
draft-ietf-ntp-update-registries-04

The information below is for an old version of the document.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Active".
Author Rich Salz
Last updated 2022-07-19 (Latest revision 2022-06-03)
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Formats
Reviews
Additional resources Mailing list discussion
Stream WG state WG Consensus: Waiting for Write-Up
Document shepherd Dieter Sibold
IESG IESG state I-D Exists
Consensus boilerplate Unknown
Telechat date (None)
Responsible AD (None)
Send notices to dsibold.ietf@gmail.com
draft-ietf-ntp-update-registries-04
ntp                                                              R. Salz
Internet-Draft                                       Akamai Technologies
Updates: 5905, 5906, 8573, 7822, 7821 (if                    3 June 2022
         approved)                                                      
Intended status: Informational                                          
Expires: 5 December 2022

                      Updating the NTP Registries
                  draft-ietf-ntp-update-registries-04

Abstract

   The Network Time Protocol (NTP) and Network Time Security (NTS)
   documents define a number of assigned number registries, collectively
   called the NTP registries.  Some registries have wrong values, some
   registries do not follow current common practice, and some are just
   right.  For the sake of completeness, this document reviews all NTP
   and NTS registries.

   This document updates RFC 5905, RFC 5906, RFC 8573, RFC 7822, and RFC
   7821.

Notes

   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.

   This document is a product of the NTP Working Group
   (https://dt.ietf.org/wg/ntp).  Source for this draft and an issue
   tracker can be found at https://github.com/richsalz/draft-rsalz-
   update-registries.

   RFC Editor: Please update 'this RFC' to refer to this document, once
   its RFC number is known, through the document.

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 https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

Salz                     Expires 5 December 2022                [Page 1]
Internet-Draft         Updating the NTP Registries             June 2022

   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 5 December 2022.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2022 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 (https://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 Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Existing Registries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Reference ID, Kiss-o'-Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.2.  Extension Field Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.3.  Network Time Security Registries  . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  Updated Registries  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.1.  NTP Reference Identifier Codes  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.2.  NTP Kiss-o'-Death Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.3.  NTP Extension Field Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   6.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

1.  Introduction

   The Network Time Protocol (NTP) and Network Time Security (NTS)
   documents define a number of assigned number registries, collectively
   called the NTP registries.  Some registries have wrong values, some
   registries do not follow current common practice, and some are just
   right.  For the sake of completeness, this document reviews all NTP
   and NTS registries.

   The bulk of this document can be divided into two parts:

Salz                     Expires 5 December 2022                [Page 2]
Internet-Draft         Updating the NTP Registries             June 2022

   *  First, each registry, its defining document, and a summary of its
      syntax is defined.

   *  Second, the revised format and entries for each registry that is
      being modified is specified.

2.  Existing Registries

   This section describes the registries and the rules for them.  It is
   intended to be a short summary of the syntax and registration
   requirements for each registry.  The semantics and protocol
   processing rules for each registry -- that is, how an implementation
   acts when sending or receiving any of the fields -- are not described
   here.

2.1.  Reference ID, Kiss-o'-Death

   [RFC5905] defined two registries; the Reference ID in Section 7.3,
   and the Kiss-o'-Death in Section 7.4.  Both of these are allowed to
   be four ASCII characters; padded on the right with all-bits-zero if
   necessary.  Entries that start with 0x58, the ASCII letter uppercase
   X, are reserved for Private or Experimental Use. Both registries are
   first-come first-served.  The formal request to define the registries
   is in Section 16.

   [RFC5905], Section 7.5 defined the on-the-wire format of extension
   fields but did not create a registry for it.

2.2.  Extension Field Types

   [RFC5906] mentioned the Extension Field Types registry, and defined
   it indirectly by defining 30 extensions (15 each for request and
   response) in Section 13.  It did not provide a formal definition of
   the columns in the registry.  [RFC5906], Section 10 splits the Field
   Type into four subfields, only for use within the Autokey extensions.

   [RFC7821] added a new entry, Checksum Complement, to the Extension
   Field Types registry.

   [RFC7822] clarified the processing rules for Extension Field Types,
   particularly around the interaction with the Message Authentication
   Code (MAC) field.

   [RFC8573] changed the cryptography used in the MAC field.

   The following problems exists with the current registry:

Salz                     Expires 5 December 2022                [Page 3]
Internet-Draft         Updating the NTP Registries             June 2022

   *  Many of the entries in the Extension Field Types registry have
      swapped some of the nibbles; 0x1234 is listed as 0x1432 for
      example.  This was due to documentation errors with the original
      implementation of Autokey.  This document marks the erroneous
      values as reserved.

   *  Some values were mistakenly re-used.

2.3.  Network Time Security Registries

   [RFC8915] defines the NTS protocol.  Its registries are listed here
   for completeness, but no changes to them are specified in this
   document.

   Sections 7.1 through 7.5 (inclusive) added entries to existing
   registries.

   Section 7.6 created a new registry, NTS Key Establishment Record
   Types, that partitions the assigned numbers into three different
   registration policies: IETF Review, Specification Required, and
   Private or Experimental Use.

   Section 7.7 created a new registry, NTS Next Protocols, that
   similarly partitions the assigned numbers.

   Section 7.8 created two new registries, NTS Error Codes and NTS
   Warning Codes.  Both registries are also partitioned the same way.

3.  Updated Registries

   The following general guidelines apply to all registries updated
   here:

   *  Every entry reserves a partition for Private or Experimentatal
      Use.

   *  Registries with ASCII fields are now limited to uppercase letters;
      fields starting with 0x2D, the ASCII minus sign, are reserved for
      Private or Experimental Use..

   *  The policy for every registry is now Specification Required, as
      defined in [RFC8126], Section 4.6.

   The IESG is requested to choose three designated experts, with two
   being required to approve a registry change.

   Each entry described in the sub-sections below is intended to
   completely replace the existing entry with the same name.

Salz                     Expires 5 December 2022                [Page 4]
Internet-Draft         Updating the NTP Registries             June 2022

4.  IANA Considerations

4.1.  NTP Reference Identifier Codes

   The registration procedure is changed to Specification Required.

   The Note is changed to read as follows:

   *  Codes beginning with the character "-" are reserved for
      experimentation and development.  IANA cannot assign them.

   The columns are defined as follows:

   *  ID (required): a four-byte value padded on the right with zeros.
      Each value must be an ASCII uppercase letter or minus sign

   *  Clock source (required): A brief text description of the ID

   *  Reference (required): the publication defining the ID.

   The existing entries are left unchanged.

4.2.  NTP Kiss-o'-Death Codes

   The registration procedure is changed to Specification Required.

   The Note is changed to read as follows:

   *  Codes beginning with the character "-" are reserved for
      experimentation and development.  IANA cannot assign them.

   The columns are defined as follows:

   *  ID (required): a four-byte value padded on the right with zeros.
      Each value must be an ASCII uppercase letter or minus sign.

   *  Meaning source (required): A brief text description of the ID.

   *  Reference (required): the publication defining the ID.

   The existing entries are left unchanged.

4.3.  NTP Extension Field Types

   The registration procedure is changed to Specification Required.

   The reference should be [RFC5906] added, if possible.

Salz                     Expires 5 December 2022                [Page 5]
Internet-Draft         Updating the NTP Registries             June 2022

   The following Note is added:

   *  Field Types in the range 0xF000 through 0xFFFF, inclusive, are
      reserved for experimentation and development.  IANA cannot assign
      them.  Both NTS Cookie and Autokey Message Request have the same
      Field Type; in practice this is not a problem as the field
      semantics will be determined by other parts of the message.

   The columns are defined as follows:

   *  Field Type (required): A two-byte value in hexadecimal.

   *  Meaning (required): A brief text description of the field type.

   *  Reference (required): the publication defining the field type.

   The table is replaced with the following entries.

       +============+===============================+=============+
       | Field Type | Meaning                       | Reference   |
       +============+===============================+=============+
       | 0x0002     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0102     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0104     | Unique Identifier             | RFC 8915,   |
       |            |                               | Section 5.3 |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0200     | No-Operation Request          | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0201     | Association Message Request   | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0202     | Certificate Message Request   | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0203     | Cookie Message Request        | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0204     | NTS Cookie                    | RFC 8915,   |
       |            |                               | Section 5.4 |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0204     | Autokey Message Request       | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0205     | Leapseconds Message Request   | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0206     | Sign Message Request          | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0207     | IFF Identity Message Request  | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0208     | GQ Identity Message Request   | RFC 5906    |

Salz                     Expires 5 December 2022                [Page 6]
Internet-Draft         Updating the NTP Registries             June 2022

       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0209     | MV Identity Message Request   | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0302     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0304     | NTS Cookie Placeholder        | RFC 8915,   |
       |            |                               | Section 5.5 |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0402     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0404     | NTS Authenticator and         | RFC 8915,   |
       |            | Encrypted Extension Fields    | Section 5.6 |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0502     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0602     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0702     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x2005     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8002     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8102     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8200     | No-Operation Response         | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8201     | Association Message Response  | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8202     | Certificate Message Response  | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8203     | Cookie Message Response       | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8204     | Autokey Message Response      | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8205     | Leapseconds Message Response  | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8206     | Sign Message Response         | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8207     | IFF Identity Message Response | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8208     | GQ Identity Message Response  | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8209     | MV Identity Message Response  | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8302     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8402     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |

Salz                     Expires 5 December 2022                [Page 7]
Internet-Draft         Updating the NTP Registries             June 2022

       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8502     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8602     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8702     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8802     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC002     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC102     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC200     | No-Operation Error Response   | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC201     | Association Message Error     | RFC 5906    |
       |            | Response                      |             |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC202     | Certificate Message Error     | RFC 5906    |
       |            | Response                      |             |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC203     | Cookie Message Error Response | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC204     | Autokey Message Error         | RFC 5906    |
       |            | Response                      |             |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC205     | Leapseconds Message Error     | RFC 5906    |
       |            | Response                      |             |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC206     | Sign Message Error Response   | RFC 5906    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC207     | IFF Identity Message Error    | RFC 5906    |
       |            | Response                      |             |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC208     | GQ Identity Message Error     | RFC 5906    |
       |            | Response                      |             |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC209     | MV Identity Message Error     | RFC 5906    |
       |            | Response                      |             |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC302     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC402     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC502     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC602     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+

Salz                     Expires 5 December 2022                [Page 8]
Internet-Draft         Updating the NTP Registries             June 2022

       | 0xC702     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC802     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x0902     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0x8902     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+
       | 0xC902     | Reserved for historic reasons | This RFC    |
       +------------+-------------------------------+-------------+

                                 Table 1

5.  Acknowledgements

   The members of the NTP Working Group helped a great deal.  Notable
   contributors include:

   *  Miroslav Lichvar, Red Hat

   *  Daniel Franke, Akamai Technologies

   *  Danny Mayer, Network Time Foundation

   *  Michelle Cotton, IANA

6.  Normative References

   [RFC5905]  Mills, D., Martin, J., Ed., Burbank, J., and W. Kasch,
              "Network Time Protocol Version 4: Protocol and Algorithms
              Specification", RFC 5905, DOI 10.17487/RFC5905, June 2010,
              <https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC5905>.

   [RFC5906]  Haberman, B., Ed. and D. Mills, "Network Time Protocol
              Version 4: Autokey Specification", RFC 5906,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5906, June 2010,
              <https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC5906>.

   [RFC7821]  Mizrahi, T., "UDP Checksum Complement in the Network Time
              Protocol (NTP)", RFC 7821, DOI 10.17487/RFC7821, March
              2016, <https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC7821>.

   [RFC7822]  Mizrahi, T. and D. Mayer, "Network Time Protocol Version 4
              (NTPv4) Extension Fields", RFC 7822, DOI 10.17487/RFC7822,
              March 2016, <https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC7822>.

Salz                     Expires 5 December 2022                [Page 9]
Internet-Draft         Updating the NTP Registries             June 2022

   [RFC8126]  Cotton, M., Leiba, B., and T. Narten, "Guidelines for
              Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26,
              RFC 8126, DOI 10.17487/RFC8126, June 2017,
              <https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC8126>.

   [RFC8573]  Malhotra, A. and S. Goldberg, "Message Authentication Code
              for the Network Time Protocol", RFC 8573,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8573, June 2019,
              <https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC8573>.

   [RFC8915]  Franke, D., Sibold, D., Teichel, K., Dansarie, M., and R.
              Sundblad, "Network Time Security for the Network Time
              Protocol", RFC 8915, DOI 10.17487/RFC8915, September 2020,
              <https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC8915>.

Author's Address

   Rich Salz
   Akamai Technologies
   Email: rsalz@akamai.com

Salz                     Expires 5 December 2022               [Page 10]