Skip to main content

A Profile for Traffic Origin Authorizations (TOAs)
draft-qin-savnet-toa-02

Document Type Active Internet-Draft (individual)
Authors Lancheng Qin , Ben Maddison , Dan Li , Igor Lubashev
Last updated 2026-08-17
Replaces draft-qin-sidrops-toa
RFC stream (None)
Intended RFC status (None)
Formats
Stream Stream state (No stream defined)
Consensus boilerplate Unknown
RFC Editor Note (None)
IESG IESG state I-D Exists
Telechat date (None)
Responsible AD (None)
Send notices to (None)
draft-qin-savnet-toa-02
SAVNET                                                            L. Qin
Internet-Draft                                   Zhongguancun Laboratory
Intended status: Standards Track                             B. Maddison
Expires: 18 February 2027                                     Workonline
                                                                   D. Li
                                                     Tsinghua University
                                                             I. Lubashev
                                                                  Akamai
                                                          17 August 2026

           A Profile for Traffic Origin Authorizations (TOAs)
                        draft-qin-savnet-toa-02

Abstract

   This document defines a standard profile for Traffic Origin
   Authorizations (TOAs), a Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS) protected
   content type for use with the Resource Public Key Infrastructure
   (RPKI).  A TOA is a digitally signed object that provides a means of
   verifying that an IP address block holder has authorized an
   Autonomous System (AS) to originate traffic using source IP addresses
   within the address block.

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 18 February 2027.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2026 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027                [Page 1]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

   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  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   2.  The TOA Content Type  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.  The TOA eContent  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.1.  The version Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.2.  The asSet Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     3.3.  The ipAddrBlocks Element  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       3.3.1.  TOAIPAddressFamily  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       3.3.2.  TOAIPAddress  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       3.3.3.  Canonical Form for ipAddrBlocks . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   4.  TOA Validation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   5.  Implementation Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   7.  Operational Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     7.1.  When to Register a TOA  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     7.2.  Enhancing SAV with TOAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
       7.2.1.  SAV Processing with TOAs and ROAs . . . . . . . . . .  11
       7.2.2.  Handling Overlapping Prefixes in TOAs . . . . . . . .  11
   8.  Summary of Discussions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   9.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     9.1.  SMI Security for S/MIME CMS Content Type
           (1.2.840.113549.1.9.16.1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     9.2.  RPKI Signed Objects Registry  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     9.3.  File Extension  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     9.4.  SMI Security for S/MIME Module Identifier
           (1.2.840.113549.1.9.16.0) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     9.5.  Media Type Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   10. Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   11. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
     11.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
     11.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027                [Page 2]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

1.  Introduction

   Source Address Validation (SAV) aims to detect and discard data
   packets that use a spoofed source IP address.  The fundamental
   concept of the current practice is directionality: for data packets
   using a given source IP address, only those coming from a specific
   direction are considered legitimate.  BCP84 [RFC8704] introduces a
   more structured direction-based logic, i.e., identifying the incoming
   directions for traffic of a given source AS and determining the
   source prefix space that the AS is authorized to use.

   To support such validation, a mechanism is needed to allow entities
   to verify that an AS has been authorized to originate traffic using
   one or more prefixes as the source IP address.  One of the main
   challenges is that the current infrastructure for validating the
   right to originate traffic with a given source address has so far
   been built almost entirely on top of mechanisms designed to validate
   the right to originate routing information for destination-based
   routing.  In most cases, where the two use cases overlap, this
   approach works reasonably well.  However, when the traffic origin
   diverges from the route origin, ambiguity and misalignment arise
   between the intended use case and the mechanisms being applied.

   This distinction is particularly important in scenarios where traffic
   is unidirectional and there is no need to attract return traffic via
   route announcements, or where the return traffic is intentionally
   directed to another location.  Examples include:

   *  Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) using Direct Server Return (DSR)
      (see [I-D.ietf-savnet-inter-domain-problem-statement] and
      [I-D.ietf-sidrops-bar-sav]): An ingress AS originates a BGP route
      for an anycast service prefix and thereby attracts requests sent
      by users to the corresponding anycast address.  The requests are
      then delivered to a content server located in another AS.  Using
      DSR, the content server sends responses directly to the users with
      the anycast service address as the source address.  Thus, the
      ingress AS is the route origin, whereas the AS hosting the content
      server is a traffic origin for the prefix.  The latter does not
      originate a BGP route for the prefix because it is not intended to
      attract user requests.

   *  DDoS mitigation with Direct Server Return (DSR) [CLOUDFLARE-MT]:
      The scrubber AS originates a BGP route for the protected prefix to
      attract incoming traffic to its scrubbing infrastructure.  After
      traffic has been cleaned, the scrubber AS delivers the legitimate
      traffic to the customer AS, for example through a tunnel.  Return
      traffic follows a different path: the customer AS sends it
      directly to the original sender through its regular upstream

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027                [Page 3]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

      provider, using an address from the protected prefix as the source
      address.  Therefore, the scrubber AS is the route origin, whereas
      the customer AS is a traffic origin for the protected prefix
      without originating the corresponding BGP route.

   *  Unidirectional or asymmetric delivery systems: Some multicast or
      satellite delivery systems use a data channel that is
      unidirectional or asymmetric with respect to the return or control
      channel.  When such traffic crosses AS boundaries, the source AS
      may originate traffic using source addresses from a prefix for
      which it does not originate a BGP route.

   The purpose of a Traffic Origin Authorization (TOA) is to explicitly
   authorize an AS to originate traffic using a given prefix as a source
   address, even when that AS is not authorized to originate any BGP
   routes to that prefix.  A conventional ROA [RFC9582] for that AS
   would also authorize the AS to originate routes for the prefix from
   the ROV perspective.  A TOA provides a clear separation between the
   authorization to originate routing information and the authorization
   to originate data traffic.

   The TOA makes use of the template for RPKI digitally signed object
   [RFC6488], which defines a Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS) wrapper
   [RFC5652] for a generic validation procedure for RPKI signed objects.
   Therefore, to complete the specification of the TOA (see Section 4 of
   [RFC6488]), this document defines:

   *  The OID that identifies the signed object as being a TOA.  (This
      OID appears within the eContentType in the encapContentInfo object
      as well as the content-type signed attribute in the signerInfo
      object.)

   *  The ASN.1 syntax for the TOA eContent.  (This is the payload that
      specifies the ASes being authorized to originate traffic as well
      as the prefixes that the ASes may use as the source IP address.)
      The TOA eContent is ASN.1 encoded using the Distinguished Encoding
      Rules (DER) [X.690].

   *  Additional steps required to validate TOAs (in addition to the
      validation steps specified in [RFC6488]).

   The content of a TOA identifies a list of one or more ASes that have
   been authorized by the IP address block holder to originate traffic
   and a list of one or more IP address prefixes within the address
   block that will be used as the source IP address.  The IP address
   block holder can register one or more TOAs to authorize which ASes
   can originate traffic using specific prefixes within the block as the
   source IP address.  By registering TOAs, IP address block holders can

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027                [Page 4]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

   prevent their source IP addresses from being forged by unauthorized
   ASes, while allowing legitimate but non-announcing ASes to originate
   traffic.  AS operators can leverage TOAs to improve the accuracy and
   robustness of SAV, thereby enhancing protection against source
   address spoofing attacks.

1.1.  Requirements Language

   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
   BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

2.  The TOA Content Type

   The content-type for a TOA is defined as id-ct-trafficOriginAuthz and
   has the numerical value of 1.2.840.113549.1.9.16.1.TBD.

   This OID MUST appear within both the eContentType in the
   encapContentInfo object and the content-type signed attribute in the
   signerInfo object (see [RFC6488]).

3.  The TOA eContent

   The content of a TOA identifies a list of one or more ASes that have
   been authorized by the address block holder to originate traffic and
   a list of one or more IP address prefixes within the address block
   that will be used as the source IP address.  A TOA is formally
   defined as:

RPKI-TOA-2026
     { iso(1) member-body(2) us(840) rsadsi(113549)
       pkcs(1) pkcs9(9) smime(16) mod(0)
       id-mod-rpkiTOA-2026(TBD) }

DEFINITIONS EXPLICIT TAGS ::=
BEGIN

IMPORTS
  CONTENT-TYPE
  FROM CryptographicMessageSyntax-2010 -- in [RFC6268]
    { iso(1) member-body(2) us(840) rsadsi(113549) pkcs(1)
      pkcs-9(9) smime(16) modules(0) id-mod-cms-2009(58) } ;

ct-trafficOriginAttestation CONTENT-TYPE ::=
  { TYPE TrafficOriginAttestation
    IDENTIFIED BY id-ct-trafficOriginAuthz }

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027                [Page 5]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

id-ct-trafficOriginAuthz  OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::=
  { iso(1) member-body(2) us(840) rsadsi(113549) pkcs(1)
    pkcs-9(9) id-smime(16) id-ct(1) trafficOriginAuthz(TBD) }

TrafficOriginAttestation ::= SEQUENCE {
  version [0]   INTEGER DEFAULT 0,
  asSet         SEQUENCE (SIZE(1..10000)) OF ASID,
  ipAddrBlocks  SEQUENCE (SIZE(1..2)) OF TOAIPAddressFamily }

ASID ::= INTEGER (0..4294967295)

TOAIPAddressFamily ::= SEQUENCE {
  addressFamily  ADDRESS-FAMILY.&afi ({AddressFamilySet}),
  addresses      ADDRESS-FAMILY.&Addresses
                                             ({AddressFamilySet}{@addressFamily}) }

ADDRESS-FAMILY ::= CLASS {
  &afi              OCTET STRING (SIZE(2)) UNIQUE,
  &Addresses
  } WITH SYNTAX { AFI &afi ADDRESSES &Addresses }

AddressFamilySet ADDRESS-FAMILY ::=
  { addressFamilyIPv4 | addressFamilyIPv6 }

addressFamilyIPv4 ADDRESS-FAMILY ::=
  { AFI afi-IPv4 ADDRESSES TOAAddressesIPv4 }
addressFamilyIPv6 ADDRESS-FAMILY ::=
  { AFI afi-IPv6 ADDRESSES TOAAddressesIPv6 }

afi-IPv4 OCTET STRING ::= '0001'H
afi-IPv6 OCTET STRING ::= '0002'H

TOAAddressesIPv4 ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE(1..MAX)) OF TOAIPAddress{ub-IPv4}
TOAAddressesIPv6 ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE(1..MAX)) OF TOAIPAddress{ub-IPv6}

ub-IPv4 INTEGER ::= 32
ub-IPv6 INTEGER ::= 128

TOAIPAddress {INTEGER: ub} ::= BIT STRING (SIZE(0..ub))

END

3.1.  The version Element

   The version number of the TrafficOriginAttestation entry MUST be 0.

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027                [Page 6]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

3.2.  The asSet Element

   The asSet element contains a set of AS numbers that are authorized to
   originate traffic using source IP addresses within the given IP
   address prefixes.

   The ASIDs in the asSet element MUST be listed in strictly increasing
   numeric order.  The asSet element MUST NOT contain duplicate ASIDs.

3.3.  The ipAddrBlocks Element

   The ipAddrBlocks element encodes the set of IP address prefixes that
   the specified set of ASes is authorized to use as source addresses
   when originating traffic.

3.3.1.  TOAIPAddressFamily

   Within the TOAIPAddressFamily structure, the addressFamily element
   contains the Address Family Identifier (AFI) of an IP address family.
   Each addressFamily MUST be either 0001 or 0002.  There MUST be only
   one instance of TOAIPAddressFamily per unique AFI in the TOA.

   The addresses field contains IP prefixes as a sequence of type
   TOAIPAddress.

3.3.2.  TOAIPAddress

   This element is of type BIT STRING and represents a single IP address
   prefix [RFC3779].

3.3.3.  Canonical Form for ipAddrBlocks

   The ipAddrBlocks element MUST be encoded in canonical form.  This
   canonicalization procedure builds upon the canonicalization procedure
   specified in Section 2.2.3.6 of [RFC3779] and takes inspiration from
   Section 4.3.3 of [RFC9582].

   In order to compare, sort, and remove duplicate IP prefixes from the
   contents of the ipAddrBlocks element, each TOAIPAddress element is
   mapped to an abstract data element composed of three integer values:

   afi:
      The AFI value appearing in the addressFamily element of the
      containing TOAIPAddressFamily, represented as an integer.

   addr:

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027                [Page 7]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

      The first IP address of the IP prefix appearing in the
      TOAIPAddress element, represented as a 32-bit integer for IPv4 or
      a 128-bit integer for IPv6.

   plen:
      The length of the IP prefix appearing in the TOAIPAddress element,
      represented as an integer.

   The set of TOAIPAddress elements is totally ordered.  The order of
   two TOAIPAddress elements is determined by the first non-equal
   comparison in the following list:

   1.  Data elements with a lower afi value precede data elements with a
       higher afi value.

   2.  Data elements with a lower addr value precede data elements with
       a higher addr value.

   3.  Data elements with a lower plen value precede data elements with
       a higher plen value.

   Data elements for which all three values compare equal are duplicates
   of one another.

   Within each address family, CAs MUST sort the TOAIPAddress elements
   according to the order defined above.  Duplicate IP prefixes MUST NOT
   appear.

4.  TOA Validation

   To validate a TOA, the Relying Party (RP) MUST perform all the
   validation checks specified in [RFC6488] as well as the following
   additional specific validation steps:

   *  The IP address delegation extension [RFC3779] is present in the
      end-entity (EE) certificate (contained within the TOA), and every
      IP address prefix in the TOA payload is contained within the set
      of IP addresses specified by the EE certificate's IP address
      delegation extension.

   *  The EE certificate's IP address delegation extension MUST NOT
      contain "inherit" elements as described in [RFC3779].

   *  The Autonomous System identifier delegation extension described in
      [RFC3779] is not used in TOAs and MUST NOT be present in the EE
      certificate.

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027                [Page 8]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

   *  The TOA content fully conforms with all requirements specified in
      Sections 2 and 3.

   If any of the above checks fail, the TOA MUST be considered invalid
   and an error SHOULD be logged.

5.  Implementation Considerations

   CAs are RECOMMENDED to generate a new key pair for each new TOA and
   only sign one TOA with each EE certificate.  This type of EE
   certificate is termed a "one-time-use" EE certificate; see Section 3
   of [RFC6487].

   TOA object filenames use the ".toa" extension.  CAs are RECOMMENDED
   to follow the guidelines for naming TOA objects based on Section 2.2
   of [RFC6481], i.e., convert the 160-bit hash of the EE's public key
   value into a 27-character string using Base 64 Encoding with the URL
   and Filename Safe Alphabet; see Section 5 of [RFC4648].  See
   Section 7.7 of [I-D.ietf-sidrops-publication-server-bcp] for more
   information and considerations.

6.  Security Considerations

   The security considerations of [RFC6481], [RFC6485], [RFC6488], and
   [RFC9582] also apply to the TOA object.

7.  Operational Considerations

7.1.  When to Register a TOA

   Operators should exercise care when deciding to register a Traffic
   Origin Authorization (TOA).  A TOA is primarily useful in scenarios
   where the traffic origin AS and the route origin AS differ.  In such
   cases, registering a TOA provides the necessary authorization for
   traffic origination while avoiding ambiguity between routing and
   traffic authorization.

   Conversely, when the same AS is both authorized to originate routes
   (via an existing Route Origin Authorization (ROA) [RFC9582]) and to
   originate traffic from a given prefix, creating a duplicated TOA
   would add unnecessary storage and transmission overhead in the RPKI
   system.

   Therefore, operators are RECOMMENDED to follow these practices:

   *  Operators SHOULD NOT register a TOA that is identical to or
      covered by an existing ROA, unless there are valid operational
      reasons.

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027                [Page 9]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

   *  TOA registrations SHOULD be periodically reviewed and updated to
      reflect current operational practices.

   For the purpose of determining whether a TOA is identical to or
   covered by an existing ROA, a TOA is evaluated as a set of (ASID, IP
   prefix) pairs formed by combining each ASID in the asSet element with
   each IP prefix in the ipAddrBlocks element.  A TOA pair is considered
   identical to an existing ROA if the ASID is identical and the IP
   prefix is identical to a prefix in that ROA.  A TOA pair is
   considered covered by an existing ROA if there exists a ROA whose
   ASID is identical to the ASID in the TOA pair and whose ipAddrBlocks
   field covers the IP prefix in the TOA pair.  A TOA is considered
   identical to or covered by existing ROAs only if all such pairs are
   identical to or covered by existing ROAs.

   Another operational consideration concerns situations where a prefix
   holder has already signed a ROA for an AS and intends to register a
   TOA that covers multiple ASNs and prefixes.  For example, suppose a
   prefix holder has an existing ROA {AS1, Prefix1} and wishes to create
   a TOA {(AS1, AS2, AS3), (Prefix1, Prefix2, Prefix3)}. In this case,
   the portion {AS1, Prefix1} is already covered by the ROA and is
   therefore redundant within the TOA.  A straightforward way to avoid
   redundancy would be to split the TOA into smaller objects, such as
   {(AS1), (Prefix2, Prefix3)} and {(AS2, AS3), (Prefix1, Prefix2,
   Prefix3)}. However, doing so may unnecessarily increase operational
   complexity and management overhead.  Therefore, it is RECOMMENDED to
   register a single consolidated TOA covering all relevant ASNs and
   prefixes.  The existence of an overlapping ROA does not invalidate
   the TOA but should be understood in its respective scope: the ROA
   authorizes route origin, while the TOA authorizes traffic origin.
   This approach maintains clear semantics between routing and traffic
   authorization while minimizing operational burden.

   Following these recommendations minimizes overhead on the RPKI system
   while ensuring that TOAs are deployed effectively to enhance Source
   Address Validation (SAV).

7.2.  Enhancing SAV with TOAs

   Without TOAs, current SAV mechanisms (e.g., BAR-SAV
   [I-D.ietf-sidrops-bar-sav]) typically use BGP data, ROAs, or IRR
   route objects to determine the legitimate source IP address space of
   a given AS.  However, due to the asymmetry between prefixes used as
   the source IP address and prefixes advertised into the routing system
   (as mentioned in Section 1), using BGP data, ROAs, and IRR route
   objects to perform SAV may cause improper blocks (i.e., blocking
   legitimate data packets).

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027               [Page 10]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

   By registering TOAs, IP address block holders can prevent their
   source addresses from being spoofed by unauthorized ASes, while
   allowing authorized but non-announcing ASes to originate traffic
   using these source addresses.  AS operators can leverage TOAs to
   improve the accuracy and robustness of SAV, thereby enhancing
   protection against source address spoofing attacks.

7.2.1.  SAV Processing with TOAs and ROAs

   When performing SAV, both TOAs and ROAs should be used to determine
   which prefixes a specific AS is authorized to use as source
   addresses.  For a given AS, the set of prefixes listed in all TOAs
   and ROAs that include the AS is considered authorized for use as
   source addresses.

   Note: The source authorization information provided by TOAs, together
   with the implicit source authorization derived from ROAs, is intended
   to be used in conjunction with other path authorization/validation
   methods to construct a complete inter-domain SAV solution.

7.2.2.  Handling Overlapping Prefixes in TOAs

   In cases where multiple TOAs authorize different ASes for overlapping
   prefixes, all applicable authorizations apply.  For example, if there
   are two TOAs {AS1, 203.0.113.0/24} and {AS2, 203.0.113.0/28}, both
   AS1 and AS2 are considered authorized for the more specific prefix.
   If the intention is to restrict AS1 from the more specific prefix,
   the first TOA must be modified to explicitly exclude that prefix.

8.  Summary of Discussions

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

   Discussions on the SAVNET mailing list have considered whether it
   would be feasible to create a special ROA for an AS that is not
   authorized to originate a route to a given prefix, as an alternative
   to implementing TOA.  Doing so would require extending ROAs or
   overloading their semantics to cover this use case, and may require
   modifications to existing Route Origin Validation (ROV) processing to
   prevent these special ROAs from being used.  The TOA authors
   consulted ASN.1 experts on this approach, who strongly advised
   against it.  Other participants also recommended against overloading
   ROA semantics.  Accordingly, the current consensus among the TOA
   authors and some SAVNET participants is that defining a dedicated TOA
   object represents a more appropriate and robust solution.

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027               [Page 11]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

   Some discussions have also proposed creating a conventional ROA for
   such scenarios, even though the AS is not authorized to originate
   routes to the given prefix.  However, registering such a ROA may
   introduce an additional risk of forged-origin hijacking.  For
   example, consider a scenario where AS1 is the legitimate route origin
   for prefix P and has a ROA for P, while AS2 is authorized only to
   originate traffic using P as a source address.  If the prefix holder
   creates a conventional ROA authorizing AS2 for P, then BGP
   announcements originated by AS2 for P would be considered RPKI-valid,
   even though AS2 was not intended to originate routes to P.  This risk
   may remain even when path validation mechanisms are deployed.
   Suppose AS1 has deployed ASPA, while AS2 has not yet deployed ASPA,
   which may be common when AS2 is a small edge AS or otherwise outside
   the prefix holder's operational control.  An attacker, ASX, could
   announce a path such as ASX AS2 for prefix P, claiming to be a
   provider of AS2.  Because the conventional ROA authorizes AS2 as a
   route origin for P, and because AS2 has no ASPA object that can be
   used to reject the forged provider relationship, the route may not be
   rejected by the combination of ROV and ASPA-based path validation.  A
   TOA avoids this ambiguity by authorizing AS2 only as a traffic origin
   for P, without authorizing AS2 as a route origin for P.

   Fundamentally, the choice of how to authorize the traffic origin
   rests with the prefix holder.  If the prefix holder wishes ROAs to
   include only ASes authorized to originate routes to its prefix, there
   is a clear need to register a TOA to authorize other ASes to only
   source traffic from the prefix.  Conversely, if the prefix holder is
   unconcerned about forged-origin hijacking or other potential risks,
   they may instead choose to register a conventional ROA.

   Overall, this document makes three main contributions:

   *  It analyzes the semantic limitation of the current ROA mechanism:
      a ROA cannot express that an AS is authorized to originate traffic
      using a prefix as a source address, while not being authorized to
      announce routes to that prefix.

   *  It recognizes that existing ROAs can still be used by SAV
      mechanisms as implicit source-address authorization information,
      although the original semantics of a ROA are to authorize route
      origination.

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027               [Page 12]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

   *  It defines a new RPKI signed object, the Traffic Origin
      Authorization (TOA), which explicitly authorizes an AS to
      originate traffic using a prefix as a source address.  TOA
      provides prefix holders with a safer way to express this
      authorization in scenarios where traffic-origin authorization
      differs from route-origin authorization, without introducing the
      additional route-origin security risks associated with registering
      a conventional ROA for that AS.

9.  IANA Considerations

9.1.  SMI Security for S/MIME CMS Content Type (1.2.840.113549.1.9.16.1)

   IANA is requested to allocate the following in the "SMI Security for
   S/MIME CMS Content Type (1.2.840.113549.1.9.16.1)" registry:

       +=========+==========================+======================+
       | Decimal | Description              | Reference            |
       +=========+==========================+======================+
       | TBD     | id-ct-trafficOriginAuthz | draft-qin-savnet-toa |
       +---------+--------------------------+----------------------+

                                  Table 1

9.2.  RPKI Signed Objects Registry

   Please add an item for the TOA file extension to the RPKI Signed
   Object registry (https://www.iana.org/assignments/rpki/
   rpki.xhtml#signed-objects) as follows:

   +==============+=============================+======================+
   |Name          | OID                         | Reference            |
   +==============+=============================+======================+
   |Traffic       | 1.2.840.113549.1.9.16.1.TBD | draft-qin-savnet-toa |
   |Origin        |                             |                      |
   |Authorization |                             |                      |
   +--------------+-----------------------------+----------------------+

                                  Table 2

9.3.  File Extension

   Please add an item for the TOA file extension to the "RPKI Repository
   Name Scheme" registry created by [RFC6481] as follows:

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027               [Page 13]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

      +====================+================+======================+
      | Filename Extension | RPKI Object    | Reference            |
      +====================+================+======================+
      | .toa               | Traffic Origin | draft-qin-savnet-toa |
      |                    | Authorization  |                      |
      +--------------------+----------------+----------------------+

                                 Table 3

9.4.  SMI Security for S/MIME Module Identifier
      (1.2.840.113549.1.9.16.0)

   IANA is requested to allocate the following in the "SMI Security for
   S/MIME Module Identifier (1.2.840.113549.1.9.16.0)" registry:

         +=========+=====================+======================+
         | Decimal | Description         | Reference            |
         +=========+=====================+======================+
         | TBD     | id-mod-rpkiTOA-2026 | draft-qin-savnet-toa |
         +---------+---------------------+----------------------+

                                 Table 4

9.5.  Media Type Registry

   The IANA is requested to register the media type application/rpki-toa
   in the "Media Type" registry as follows:

Type name: application
Subtype name: rpki-toa
Required parameters: N/A
Optional parameters: N/A
Encoding considerations: binary
Security considerations: Carries an RPKI TOA. This media type contains no active content. See Section 5 of draft-qin-savnet-toa for further information.
Interoperability considerations: None
Published specification: draft-qin-savnet-toa
Applications that use this media type: RPKI operators
Additional information:
  Content: This media type is a signed object, as defined in [RFC6488], which contains a payload of a list of prefixes and an AS identifier as defined in draft-qin-savnet-toa.
  Magic number(s): None
  File extension(s): .toa
  Macintosh file type code(s): None
Person & email address to contact for further information:
  Lancheng Qin <qinlc@mail.zgclab.edu.cn>
Intended usage: COMMON
Restrictions on usage: None
Change controller: IETF

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027               [Page 14]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

10.  Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank Jeffrey Haas for his valuable
   contributions in enriching the use cases and clarifying the
   challenges described in Section 1.  Special thanks also go to Job
   Snijders, who provided expert feedback on the ASN.1 considerations
   discussed in Section 8.

11.  References

11.1.  Normative References

   [RFC8174]  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>.

   [RFC5652]  Housley, R., "Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)", STD 70,
              RFC 5652, DOI 10.17487/RFC5652, September 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5652>.

   [RFC6488]  Lepinski, M., Chi, A., and S. Kent, "Signed Object
              Template for the Resource Public Key Infrastructure
              (RPKI)", RFC 6488, DOI 10.17487/RFC6488, February 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6488>.

   [RFC3779]  Lynn, C., Kent, S., and K. Seo, "X.509 Extensions for IP
              Addresses and AS Identifiers", RFC 3779,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC3779, June 2004,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3779>.

   [RFC6485]  Huston, G., "The Profile for Algorithms and Key Sizes for
              Use in the Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI)",
              RFC 6485, DOI 10.17487/RFC6485, February 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6485>.

   [RFC6481]  Huston, G., Loomans, R., and G. Michaelson, "A Profile for
              Resource Certificate Repository Structure", RFC 6481,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6481, February 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6481>.

   [RFC6487]  Huston, G., Michaelson, G., and R. Loomans, "A Profile for
              X.509 PKIX Resource Certificates", RFC 6487,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6487, February 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6487>.

   [RFC4648]  Josefsson, S., "The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data
              Encodings", RFC 4648, DOI 10.17487/RFC4648, October 2006,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4648>.

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027               [Page 15]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

   [X.690]    "Information Technology - ASN.1 encoding rules:
              pecification of Basic Encoding Rules (BER), Canonical
              Encoding Rules (CER) and Distinguished Encoding Rules
              (DER)", 2021.

   [RFC2119]  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>.

11.2.  Informative References

   [RFC8704]  Sriram, K., Montgomery, D., and J. Haas, "Enhanced
              Feasible-Path Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding", BCP 84,
              RFC 8704, DOI 10.17487/RFC8704, February 2020,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8704>.

   [RFC9582]  Snijders, J., Maddison, B., Lepinski, M., Kong, D., and S.
              Kent, "A Profile for Route Origin Authorizations (ROAs)",
              RFC 9582, DOI 10.17487/RFC9582, May 2024,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9582>.

   [I-D.ietf-savnet-inter-domain-problem-statement]
              Li, D., Qin, L., Liu, L., Huang, M., and K. Sriram,
              "Problem Statement, Gap Analysis, and Requirements for
              Inter-Domain Source Address Validation", Work in Progress,
              Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-savnet-inter-domain-problem-
              statement-21, 19 July 2026,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-savnet-
              inter-domain-problem-statement-21>.

   [I-D.ietf-sidrops-bar-sav]
              Sriram, K., Lubashev, I., and D. Montgomery, "Source
              Address Validation Using BGP UPDATEs, ASPA, and ROA (BAR-
              SAV)", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-
              sidrops-bar-sav-10, 19 July 2026,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-sidrops-
              bar-sav-10>.

   [I-D.ietf-sidrops-publication-server-bcp]
              Bruijnzeels, T., de Kock, T., Hill, F., Harrison, T., and
              J. Snijders, "Best Practices for Operating Resource Public
              Key Infrastructure (RPKI) Publication Services", Work in
              Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-sidrops-publication-
              server-bcp-09, 29 May 2026,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-sidrops-
              publication-server-bcp-09>.

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027               [Page 16]
Internet-Draft        Traffic Origin Authorization           August 2026

   [CLOUDFLARE-MT]
              "Magic Transit Reference Architecture", 2026,
              <https://developers.cloudflare.com/reference-
              architecture/architectures/magic-transit/#default-
              configuration-ingress-only-direct-server-return>.

Authors' Addresses

   Lancheng Qin
   Zhongguancun Laboratory
   Beijing
   China
   Email: qinlc@mail.zgclab.edu.cn

   Ben Maddison
   Workonline
   Cape Town
   South Africa
   Email: benm@workonline.africa

   Dan Li
   Tsinghua University
   Beijing
   China
   Email: tolidan@tsinghua.edu.cn

   Igor Lubashev
   Akamai
   Cambridge,
   United States of America
   Email: ilubashe@akamai.com

Qin, et al.             Expires 18 February 2027               [Page 17]