Internet Engineering Task Force                                M. Badra
INTERNET DRAFT                                         LIMOS Laboratory

November 9, 2006                                    Expires: April 2007

                              NETCONF over TLS
                      <draft-badra-tls-netconf-01.txt>


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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

Abstract

   The NETCONF configuration protocol provides mechanisms to install,
   manipulate, and delete the configuration of network devices. This
   document describes how to use TLS to secure NETCONF exchanges.

 Introduction

   The NETCONF protocol [NETCONF] defines a simple mechanism through
   which a network device can be managed.  NETCONF is connection-
   oriented, requiring a persistent connection between peers.  This



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   connection must provide reliable, sequenced data delivery, integrity
   and confidentiality and peers authentication. This document
   describes how to use TLS [TLS] to secure NETCONF connections.

1.2 Requirements language and Terminologies

   The key words "MUST", "SHALL", "SHOULD", and "MAY", in this document
   are to be interpreted as described in RFC-2119.

1.3 Terminology

   This document uses the following terms:

   manager
   It refers to the end initiating the NETCONF connection. It issues
   the NETCONF RPC commands.

   agent
   It refers to the end replying to the manager's commands during the
   NETCONF connection.

. NETCONF over TLS

   Since TLS is application protocol-independent, NETCONF can operate
   on top of the TLS protocol transparently. Therefore, use NETCONF
   over TLS precisely as we would use NETCONF over the transport layer.

2.1. Connection Initiation

   The agent acting as the NETCONF client SHOULD also act as the TLS
   client. It SHOULD initiate a connection to the server on the
   appropriate port and then send the TLS ClientHello to begin the TLS
   handshake. Once the TLS handshake has been finished, the client or
   the server MAY then send their NETCONF messages. All these messages
   are encapsulated into TLS records of type "application data". These
   records are protected using the TLS material keys.

2.2. Connection Closure

   The NETCONF agent MAY stop the NETCONF connection at any time and
   therefore notify the receiver that no more data on this channel will
   be sent and that any data received after a closure request will be
   ignored. TLS has the ability for secure connection closure using the
   Alert protocol. When the agent processes a closure request of the
   NETCONF, the agent SHALL respond, terminate the TLS session, and
   close the transport connection. The agent MUST NOT process any RPC
   commands received on the current session after receiving the closure
   request and the manager MUNT NOT send any RPC command after sending




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   the closure request. The agent MUST respond with a confirmation of
   the closure and close down the channel immediately.

. Security Considerations

   The security considerations described throughout [TLS] apply here as
   well.

. IANA Considerations

   This section provides guidance to the IANA to assign a TCP port
   number which will be the default port for NETCONF over TLS.

References

   [TLS]      Dierks, T., et al., "The TLS Protocol Version 1.0", RFC
              2246, January 1999.

   [NETCONF]  Enns, R., "NETCONF Configuration Protocol",
              draft-ietf-netconf-prot-09 (work in progress), October
              2005.

Author's Addresses

   Mohamad Badra
   LIMOS Laboratory - UMR (6158), CNRS
   France                    Email: badra@isima.fr

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   this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-
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   Acknowledgment

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   Internet Society.





























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