Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) Transport over QUIC
draft-ietf-regext-epp-quic-03
| Document | Type | Active Internet-Draft (regext WG) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | Jiankang Yao , Hongtao Li , Zhang , Dan Keathley , James Gould | ||
| Last updated | 2026-02-02 | ||
| Replaces | draft-yao-regext-epp-quic | ||
| RFC stream | Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) | ||
| Intended RFC status | Proposed Standard | ||
| Formats | |||
| Additional resources | Mailing list discussion | ||
| Stream | WG state | WG Document | |
| Associated WG milestone |
|
||
| Document shepherd | Zaid AlBanna | ||
| IESG | IESG state | I-D Exists | |
| Consensus boilerplate | Yes | ||
| Telechat date | (None) | ||
| Responsible AD | (None) | ||
| Send notices to | gavin.brown@icann.org, zalbanna@verisign.com |
draft-ietf-regext-epp-quic-03
Internet Engineering Task Force J. Yao
Internet-Draft H. Li
Intended status: Standards Track M. Zhang
Expires: 6 August 2026 CNNIC
D. Keathley
J. Gould
VeriSign, Inc.
2 February 2026
Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) Transport over QUIC
draft-ietf-regext-epp-quic-03
Abstract
This document describes how an Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)
session is mapped onto a QUIC connection. EPP over QUIC (EoQ)
leverages the performance and security features of the QUIC protocol
as an EPP transport.
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/.
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 6 August 2026.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2026 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
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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. Conventions Used in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Session Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Message Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. Data Unit Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6. EoQ Connection Start Packet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
7. Transport Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
8. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
8.1. EPP Extension Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
8.2. Registration of an EoQ Identification String . . . . . . 9
8.3. Registration of Port Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
9. Implementation Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
9.1. Verisign EPP SDK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
10. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
11. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
12. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Appendix A. Change History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
A.1. Change from 00 to 01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
A.2. Change from 01 to 02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
A.3. Change from 02 to 03 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
A.4. draft-ietf-regext-epp-quic-00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
A.5. draft-ietf-regext-epp-quic-01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
A.6. draft-ietf-regext-epp-quic-02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
A.7. draft-ietf-regext-epp-quic-03 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1. Introduction
This document describes how the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP
[RFC5730]) is mapped onto the QUIC transport [RFC9000]. QUIC is a
network protocol that is based on UDP and incorporates native
encryption support using TLS [RFC9001]. Though based on UDP, QUIC
provides connection semantics like other stateful protocols. This
document discusses how EPP implementations can work with this and
other features of QUIC while preserving the core EPP semantics.
Commonly used terms in this document are described below.
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EoQ: The acronym used for the EPP over QUIC transport that defines
the use of QUIC as an EPP transport following the considerations
in Section 2.1 of [RFC5730].
EoQ connection: Is a client-initiated bidirectional QUIC stream
established on a QUIC connection using the "eoq/0.1" ALPN. The
EoQ connection maps to the client-server connection defined in
Section 2.1 of [RFC5730], where the server returns an EPP
greeting. A QUIC connection supports many EoQ connections.
EoQ session: Is an authenticated EoQ connection, which occurs after
a successful EPP <login>.
EoQ Connection Start Packet: Used by the client to complete the
creation of an EoQ connection by signaling the server to create
the QUIC stream and return the EPP greeting needed for an EPP
connection. Section 6 formally defines the EoQ Connection Start
Packet.
2. Conventions Used in This Document
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
[BCP14] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown
here.
3. Session Management
Mapping EPP session management facilities onto the QUIC service is
accomplished with a combination of a QUIC connection with the
"eoq/0.1" ALPN value and client-initiated, bidirectional QUIC
streams. QUIC supports four stream types, but EoQ only supports the
client-initiated, bidirectional stream type. An EPP session first
requires creation of a QUIC connection between two peers, one that
initiates the connection request and one that responds to the
connection request. The initiating peer is called the "client", and
the responding peer is called the "server". An EPP server MUST
listen for QUIC connection requests on a standard UDP port assigned
by IANA.
A successfully established QUIC connection is automatically secured
by the native TLS support that QUIC provides using the "eoq/1.0" ALPN
value.
Once the QUIC connection is established, the EPP client MUST then
create a bidirectional QUIC stream by sending the EoQ Connection
Start Packet (Section 6). [RFC9000] states that "streams are created
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by sending data". Once the EPP server accepts the QUIC stream, it
reads the EoQ Connection Start Packet (Section 6) and returns an EPP
<greeting> to the client on same QUIC stream. After reading the EPP
<greeting> message, the EPP client sends EPP commands and receives
EPP responses on the same stream. A QUIC stream corresponds to an
EPP connection, which is referred to as a EoQ connection. An
authenticated QUIC stream, via a successful EPP <login>, corresponds
to an EPP session, which is referred to as a EoQ session.
An EPP session is normally ended by the client issuing an EPP
<logout> command. A server receiving an EPP <logout> command MUST
end the EPP session and close the QUIC stream. A client MAY end an
EoQ session by closing the QUIC stream and the server MUST end the
EoQ session by closing the QUIC stream.
EoQ connections are established as described in the QUIC transport
specification [RFC9000]. During connection establishment, EoQ
support is indicated by selecting the Application-Layer Protocol
Negotiation (ALPN) token "eoq/0.1" in the crypto handshake.
A single QUIC connection may allow multiple QUIC streams. This means
that a single QUIC connection may support multiple EoQ sessions. A
server MAY limit the life span of an established EoQ session. EoQ
sessions that are inactive for more than a server-defined period MAY
be ended by a server closing the QUIC stream. A server MAY close EoQ
sessions that have been open and active for longer than a server-
defined limit. Once the last QUIC stream for a QUIC connection is
closed, the server MAY end the QUIC connection immediately.
4. Message Exchange
Except for the EPP server greeting, EPP messages are initiated by the
EPP client in the form of EPP commands. An EPP server MUST return an
EPP response to an EPP command on the same QUIC stream that carried
the command. If the QUIC stream is closed after a server receives
and successfully processes a command but before the response can be
returned to the client, the server MAY attempt to undo the effects of
the command to ensure a consistent state between the client and the
server. EPP commands are idempotent, so processing a command more
than once produces the same net effect on the repository as
successfully processing the command once.
An EPP client streams EPP commands to an EPP server on an established
QUIC stream. A client MAY establish multiple QUIC streams to support
multiple EoQ sessions with each EoQ session mapped to a single QUIC
stream. A server SHOULD limit a client to a maximum number of QUIC
streams per QUIC connection based on server capabilities and
operational load.
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EPP describes client-server interaction as a command-response
exchange where the client sends one command to the server and the
server returns one response to the client.
Each EPP data unit MUST contain a single EPP message. Commands MUST
be processed independently.
A server SHOULD impose a limit on the amount of time required for a
client to issue a well-formed EPP command to reduce the risk
associated with a resource exhaustion attack. A server SHOULD end an
EoQ session and close the QUIC stream if a well-formed command is not
received within the time limit.
A general state machine for an EPP server is described in Section 2
of [RFC5730]. A general client-server message exchange using QUIC
transport is illustrated in Figure 1. It shows the exchange over a
single QUIC stream of a QUIC connection. Many QUIC streams may open
and close during the life of a QUIC connection.
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Client Server
| |
| Successful QUIC Connection |
| <<------------------------------->> |
| |
| Successful QUIC Stream with |
| EoQ Connection Start Packet |
| <<------------------------------->> |
| |
| Send Greeting |
| <<-------------------------------<< |
| |
| Send <login> |
| >>------------------------------->> |
| |
| Send Response |
| <<-------------------------------<< |
| |
| Send Command X |
| >>------------------------------->> |
| |
| Send Response X |
| <<-------------------------------<< |
| |
| Send Command Y |
| >>------------------------------->> |
| |
| Send Response Y |
| <<-------------------------------<< |
| . |
.
.
| Send <logout> |
| >>------------------------------->> |
| |
| Send Response |
| <<-------------------------------<< |
| |
| Close QUIC Stream |
| <<------------------------------->> |
| |
| Close QUIC Connection |
| <<------------------------------->> |
Figure 1: QUIC Client-Server Message Exchange
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The EPP server MUST follow the "EPP Server State Machine" procedure
described in [RFC5730].
5. Data Unit Format
The EPP data unit contains two fields: a 32-bit header that describes
the total length of the data unit, and the EPP XML instance. The
length of the EPP XML instance is determined by subtracting four
octets from the total length of the data unit. A receiver must
successfully read that many octets to retrieve the complete EPP XML
instance before processing the EPP message. EPP Data Unit Format
(one tick mark represents one bit position):
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Total Length |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| EPP XML Instance |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+//-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Total Length (32 bits): The total length of the EPP data unit
measured in octets in network (big endian) byte order. The octets
contained in this field MUST be included in the total length
calculation. EPP XML Instance (variable length): The EPP XML
instance carried in the data unit.
6. EoQ Connection Start Packet
The EoQ Connection Start Packet is written by the client after
creating a QUIC stream to signal the server to create the QUIC
stream. The server accepts the QUIC stream, reads the EoQ Connection
Start Packet, and returns the EPP <greeting> to the client on same
QUIC stream.
The EoQ Connection Start Packet follows the Data Unit Format
(Section 5) with two fields: a 32-bit header that describes the total
length of the data unit, and the constant value of "EoQ Connection
Start" instead of an "EPP XML Instance". The length of the data unit
will be 24 that includes 4 octets for the Total Length and 20 octets
for the "EoQ Connection Start" constant value.
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7. Transport Considerations
Section 2.1 of [RFC5730] describes considerations to be addressed by
protocol transport mappings. This document addresses each of those
considerations using a combination of features of the QUIC protocol
itself and features of this document.
* Command Order: QUIC guarantees ordered processing of data within
each stream. Section 2 of [RFC9000] describes streams in detail.
* Session Mapping: EPP session management utilizes QUIC streams and
is described in Section 3
* Stateful Nature: QUIC supports stateful communications between
endpoints via connection IDs and long-lived streams within each
connection. Sections 2 and 5 of [RFC9000] describe these
features, respectively.
* Frame Data Units: QUIC uses frames as one of its units of
information when sending data over a stream. Part packets-frames
of [RFC9000] describes frames, and packets, in detail.
* Congestion Avoidance: QUIC provides various mechanisms to help
achieve congestion avoidance. [RFC9002] describes these
mechanisms in detail.
* Reliability: QUIC uses message acknowledgement, packet
retransmission, and other features to ensure reliability. Part
packetization of [RFC9000] describes these features in detail.
* Pipelining: Pipelining is allowed in EoQ. QUIC streams support
sending multiple frames without waiting for responses from the
other peer. This does not change the basic single command, single
response operating mode of the core EPP protocol.
8. IANA Considerations
8.1. EPP Extension Registry
The EPP transport described in this document should be registered by
IANA in the "Extensions for the Extensible Provisioning Protocol
(EPP)" registry described in [RFC7451]. The details of the
registration is as follows:
* Name of Extension: "Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)
Transport over QUIC"
* Document status: Standards Track
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* Reference: (This specification)
* Registrant Name and Email Address: IESG, iesg@ietf.org
* Top-Level Domains(TLDs): Any
* IPR Disclosure: None
* Status: Active
* Notes: None
8.2. Registration of an EoQ Identification String
This document creates a new registration for the identification of
EoQ in the "TLS Application-Layer Protocol Negotiation (ALPN)
Protocol IDs" registry [RFC7301].
* Protocol: EoQ
* Identification Sequence: 0x65 0x6F 0x71 ("eoq/0.1")
* Reference: This document
8.3. Registration of Port Number
The "Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry"
contains an entry for EPP UDP/700 based on [RFC6335]. However, no
known implementations of EPP over UDP exist. The entry will be
reassigned to reference this draft.
* Service Name: epp
* Port Number: 700
* Transport Protocol(s): UDP
* Assignee: IESG
* Contact: IETF Chair
* Description: EPP run over QUIC
* Reference: This document
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9. Implementation Status
Note to RFC Editor: Please remove this section and the reference to
RFC 7942 [RFC7942] before publication.
This section records the status of known implementations of the
protocol defined by this specification at the time of posting of this
Internet-Draft, and is based on a proposal described in RFC 7942
[RFC7942]. The description of implementations in this section is
intended to assist the IETF in its decision processes in progressing
drafts to RFCs. Please note that the listing of any individual
implementation here does not imply endorsement by the IETF.
Furthermore, no effort has been spent to verify the information
presented here that was supplied by IETF contributors. This is not
intended as, and must not be construed to be, a catalog of available
implementations or their features. Readers are advised to note that
other implementations may exist.
According to RFC 7942 [RFC7942], "this will allow reviewers and
working groups to assign due consideration to documents that have the
benefit of running code, which may serve as evidence of valuable
experimentation and feedback that have made the implemented protocols
more mature. It is up to the individual working groups to use this
information as they see fit".
9.1. Verisign EPP SDK
Organization: Verisign Inc.
Name: Verisign EPP SDK
Description: The Verisign EPP SDK includes both a full client
implementation and a full server stub implementation of this
specification.
Level of maturity: Development
Coverage: All aspects of the protocol are implemented with QUIC V1.
Licensing: GNU Lesser General Public License
Contact: jgould@verisign.com
URL: https://www.verisign.com/en_US/channel-resources/domain-
registry-products/epp-sdks
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10. Security Considerations
EPP over QUIC provides the similar security with EPP over TCP with
TLS. Some related security issues have been discussed in [RFC5734]
and [RFC9000].
EoQ servers run the risk of a resource exhaustion attack by allowing
the creation of unlimited QUIC streams per QUIC connection. Servers
SHOULD limit a client to a maximum number of QUIC streams per QUIC
connection based on server capabilities and operational load.
11. Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the following persons for their feedback
and suggestions: Scott Hollenbeck and Lucas Pardue.
12. Normative References
[BCP14] Best Current Practice 14,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/bcp14>.
At the time of writing, this BCP comprises the following:
Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.
[RFC5730] Hollenbeck, S., "Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)",
STD 69, RFC 5730, DOI 10.17487/RFC5730, August 2009,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5730>.
[RFC5734] Hollenbeck, S., "Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)
Transport over TCP", STD 69, RFC 5734,
DOI 10.17487/RFC5734, August 2009,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5734>.
[RFC6335] Cotton, M., Eggert, L., Touch, J., Westerlund, M., and S.
Cheshire, "Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
Procedures for the Management of the Service Name and
Transport Protocol Port Number Registry", BCP 165,
RFC 6335, DOI 10.17487/RFC6335, August 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6335>.
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[RFC7301] Friedl, S., Popov, A., Langley, A., and E. Stephan,
"Transport Layer Security (TLS) Application-Layer Protocol
Negotiation Extension", RFC 7301, DOI 10.17487/RFC7301,
July 2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7301>.
[RFC7451] Hollenbeck, S., "Extension Registry for the Extensible
Provisioning Protocol", RFC 7451, DOI 10.17487/RFC7451,
February 2015, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7451>.
[RFC7942] Sheffer, Y. and A. Farrel, "Improving Awareness of Running
Code: The Implementation Status Section", BCP 205,
RFC 7942, DOI 10.17487/RFC7942, July 2016,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7942>.
[RFC9000] Iyengar, J., Ed. and M. Thomson, Ed., "QUIC: A UDP-Based
Multiplexed and Secure Transport", RFC 9000,
DOI 10.17487/RFC9000, May 2021,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9000>.
[RFC9001] Thomson, M., Ed. and S. Turner, Ed., "Using TLS to Secure
QUIC", RFC 9001, DOI 10.17487/RFC9001, May 2021,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9001>.
[RFC9002] Iyengar, J., Ed. and I. Swett, Ed., "QUIC Loss Detection
and Congestion Control", RFC 9002, DOI 10.17487/RFC9002,
May 2021, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9002>.
Appendix A. Change History
A.1. Change from 00 to 01
1. Added Dan Keathley and James Gould as co-authors and aligned the
draft with EPP RFC 5734.
A.2. Change from 01 to 02
1. Make the clear distinction between an EPP connection and an EPP
session for EoQ in the Session Management section.
2. Align the handling of the EPP <logout> command with RFC 5734, by
including "A client MAY end an EoQ session by closing the QUIC
stream" in the Session Management section.
3. Ensure that the relationship of the EoQ connection and the EoQ
stream is maintained with the sentence "This means that a single
QUIC connection may support multiple EoQ sessions" in the Session
Management section.
4. Leverage the EoQ session in place of the more generic EPP session
in the Message Exchange section.
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A.3. Change from 02 to 03
1. Added the definition and use of the EoQ Connection Start Packet
to explicitly trigger the creation of the QUIC stream and the EoQ
connection to the server.
2. Added the Implementation Status section with the Verisign EPP SDK
implementation.
A.4. draft-ietf-regext-epp-quic-00
1. updated to WG document
A.5. draft-ietf-regext-epp-quic-01
1. add section 8.1. EPP Extension Registry
A.6. draft-ietf-regext-epp-quic-02
Incorporated feedback from Lucas Pardue:
1. Added a list of terms in Section 2 "Conventions Used in This
Document".
2. Changed APLN "eoq" value to "eoq/0.1" to support versioning,
which will be changed to "eoq/1.0" once passing WGLC.
3. Changed "A client MAY end an EoQ session by closing the QUIC
stream" to "A client MAY end an EoQ session by closing the QUIC
stream and the server MUST end the EoQ session by closing the
QUIC stream".
4. Added language to Section 3 "Session Management" to make it clear
that a bidirectional QUIC stream is client-initiated and
inclusion of the "eoq/0.1" ALPN was added for the QUIC
connection.
5. Added "QUIC supports four stream types, but EoQ only supports the
client-initiated, bidirectional stream type." to Section 3
"Session Management" to be clear the stream types supported by
EoQ.
A.7. draft-ietf-regext-epp-quic-03
Nit fixes, such as spelling fixes and small wording changes.
Authors' Addresses
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Jiankang Yao
CNNIC
4 South 4th Street,Zhongguancun,Haidian District
Beijing
Beijing, 100190
China
Phone: +86 10 59116505
Email: yaojk@cnnic.cn
Hongtao Li
CNNIC
4 South 4th Street,Zhongguancun,Haidian District
Beijing
Beijing, 100190
China
Email: lihongtao@cnnic.cn
Man Zhang
CNNIC
4 South 4th Street,Zhongguancun,Haidian District
Beijing
Beijing, 100190
China
Email: zhangman@cnnic.cn
Daniel Keathley
VeriSign, Inc.
12061 Bluemont Way
Reston, VA 20190
United States of America
Email: dkeathley@verisign.com
URI: http://www.verisigninc.com
James Gould
VeriSign, Inc.
12061 Bluemont Way
Reston, VA 20190
United States of America
Email: jgould@verisign.com
URI: http://www.verisigninc.com
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