INTERNET DRAFT                                               R. Housley
Intended Status: Standards Track                         Vigil Security
                                                                T. Polk
                                                                   NIST
Expires: 21 March 2010                                21 September 2009

               Database of Long-Lived Cryptographic Keys
              <draft-housley-saag-crypto-key-table-00.txt>

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Abstract

   This document specifies the information contained in a database of
   long-lived cryptographic keys used by many different security
   protocols.  The database design supports both manual and automated
   key management.  In many instances, the security protocols do not
   directly use the long-lived key, but rather a key derivation function
   is used to derive a short-lived key from a long-lived key.



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1. Introduction

   This document specifies the information that needs to be included in
   a database of long-lived cryptographic keys.  This conceptual
   database is designed to support both manual key management and
   automated key management.  The intent is to allow many different
   implementation approaches to the specified cryptographic key
   database.

   Security protocols are expected to use an application program
   interface (API) to select a long-lived key from the database.  In
   many instances, the long-lived keys are not used directly in security
   protocols, but rather a key derivation function is used to derive
   short-lived key from the long-lived keys in the database.

2. Conceptual Database Structure

   The database is characterized as a table, where each row represents a
   single long-lived symmetric cryptographic key.  Each key should only
   have one row; however, in the (hopefully) very rare cases where the
   same key is used for more than one purpose, multiple rows will
   contain the same key value.  The columns in the table represent the
   key value and attributes of the key.

   To accommodate manual key management, then formatting of the fields
   has been purposefully chosen to allow updates with a plain text
   editor.

   The table has the following columns:

      LocalKeyID
         LocalKeyID is a 16-bit integer in hexadecimal, and the integer
         value must be unique in the context of the database.  The
         LocalKeyID can be used by a peer to identify this entry in the
         database. For pairwise keys, the most significant bit in
         LocalKeyID is set to zero. For group keys, the most significant
         bit in LocalKeyID is set to one.

      PeerKeyID
         For pairwise keys, the peersKeyID field is a 16 bit integer in
         hexadecimal provided by the peer.  If the peer has not yet
         provided this value, the PeerKeyID is set to "unknown".  For
         group keying, the PeerKeyID field is set to "group", which
         easily accommodates group keys generated by a third party.

      KDF
         The KDF field indicates which key derivation function is used
         to generate short-lived keys from the long-lived value in the



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         Key field.  When the long-lived value in the Key field is
         intended for direct use, the KDF field is set to "none".

      KDFInputs
         The KDFInputs field is used when supplementary public or
         private data is supplied to the KDF.  For protocols that do not
         require additional information for the KDF, the KDFInputs field
         is set to "none".  The Protocol field will determine the format
         of this field if it is not "none".

      AlgID
         The AlgID field indicates which cryptographic algorithm to be
         used with the security protocol for the specified peer.  The
         algorithm may be an encryption algorithm, and authentication
         algorithm, or any other symmetric cryptographic algorithm
         needed by a security protocol.  If the KDF field contains
         "none", then the long-lived key is used directly with this
         algorithm, otherwise the derived short-lived key is used with
         this algorithm.  When the long-lived key is used to generate a
         set of short-lived keys for use with the security protocol, the
         AlgID field identifies a ciphersuite rather than a single
         cryptographic algorithm.

      Key
         The Key is a hexadecimal string representing a ling-lived
         symmetric cryptographic key.  The size of the Key depends on
         the KDF and the AlgID.  For example, a KDF=none and
         AlgID=AES128 requires a 128-bit key, which is represented by 32
         hexadecimal digits.

      Direction
         The Direction field indicates whether this key may be used for
         inbound traffic, outbound traffic, or both.  The supported
         values are "in", "out", and "both", respectively.  The Protocol
         field will determine which of these values are valid.

      NotBefore
         The NotBefore field specifies the earliest date and time in
         Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) at which this key should be
         considered for use.  The format is YYYYMMDDHHSSZ, where four
         digits specify the year, two digits specify the month, two
         digits specify the day, two digits specify the hour, and two
         digits specify the minute.  The "Z" is included as a clear
         indication that the time is in UTC.

      NotAfter
         The NotAfter field specifies the latest date and time at which
         this key should be considered for use.  The format is the same



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         as the NotBefore field.

      Peers
         The Peers field identifies the peer system or set of systems
         that have this key configured in their own database of long-
         lived keys.  For pairwise keys, the database on the peer system
         LocalKeyID field will contain the value specified in the
         PeerKeyID field in the local database.

      Protocol
         The Protocol field identifies a single security protocol where
         this key may be used to provide cryptographic protection.


3. Key Selection and Rollover

   When a system desires to communicate with a remote system H using
   security protocol P, the local system selects a long-lived key at
   time T from the database, any key that satisfies the following
   conditions may be used:

      (1)  the Peer field includes H;

      (2)  the PeerKeyID field is not "unknown";

      (3)  the Protocol field matches P; and

      (4)  NotBefore < T < NotAfter.

   During algorithm transition, multiple entries may exist associated
   with different cryptographic algorithms or ciphersuites.  Systems
   should support selection of keys based on algorithm preference.

   In addition, multiple entries with overlapping use periods are
   expected to be employed to implement orderly key rollover.  In these
   cases, the expectation is that systems will transition to the newest
   key available.  To meet this requirement, this specification
   recommends supplementing the key selection algorithm with the
   following differentiator: select the long-lived key specifying the
   most recent time in the NotBefore field.

   When a system participates in a security protocol, and a peer H2 has
   selected a long-lived key, the LocalKeyID should be asserted as part
   of the protocol control information.  When retrieving the long-lived
   key (for direct use or for key derivation), the local system should
   confirm the following conditions are satisfied before use:

      (1)  the Peer field includes H2;



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      (2)  the Protocol field matches P; and

      (3)  NotBefore < T < NotAfter.

   Note that the key usage is loosely bound by the times specified in
   the NotBefore and NotAfter fields.  New security associations should
   not be established except within the period of use specified by these
   fields, with the possible allowance of some grace time for clock
   skew.  However, if a security association has already been
   established based on a particular long-lived key, exceeding the
   lifetime does not have any direct impact.  Implementations of
   protocols that involve long-lived security association should be
   designed to periodically interrogate the database and rollover to new
   keys without tearing down the security association.  To support this
   feature, the PeerKeyID associated with the newly selected long-lived
   key will need to be conveyed to the peers by the security protocol.

4. Operational Considerations

   If usage periods for long-lived keys do not overlap and system clocks
   are inconsistent, it is possible to construct scenarios where systems
   cannot agree upon a long-lived key.  When installing a series of keys
   to be used one after the other (sometimes called a key chain),
   operators should configure the NotAfter field of the preceding key to
   be several days after the NotBefore field of the subsequent key to
   ensure that clock skew is not a concern.

5. Security Considerations

   Management of encryption and authentication keys has been a
   significant operational problem, both in terms of key synchronization
   and key selection.  For example, current guidance [RFC3562] warns
   against sharing TCP MD5 keying material between systems, and
   recommends changing keys according to a schedule.  The same general
   operational issues are relevant for the management of other
   cryptographic keys.

   It is recognized in [RFC4107] that automated key management is not
   viable in some situations.  The conceptual database specified in this
   document is intended to accommodate both manual key management and
   automated key management.  A future specification to automatically
   populate rows in the database is envisioned.

   Designers should recognize the warning provided in [RFC4107]:

      Automated key management and manual key management provide very
      different features.  In particular, the protocol associated with
      an automated key management technique will confirm the liveness of



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      the peer, protect against replay, authenticate the source of the
      short-term session key, associate protocol state information with
      the short-term session key, and ensure that a fresh short-term
      session key is generated.  Further, an automated key management
      protocol can improve interoperability by including negotiation
      mechanisms for cryptographic algorithms.  These valuable features
      are impossible or extremely cumbersome to accomplish with manual
      key management.

6. IANA Considerations

   No IANA actions are required.

   {{{ RFC Editor: Please remove this section prior to publication. }}}

7. Acknowledgments

   This document reflects many discussions with many different people of
   many years.  In particular, the authors thank Jari Arkko, Ron Bonica,
   Ross Callon, Lars Eggert, Pasi Eronen, Adrian Farrel, Sam Hartman,
   Gregory Lebovitz, Sandy Murphy, Eric Rescorla, Dave Ward, and Brian
   Weis for their insights.

8. Informational References

   [RFC3562]  Leech, M., "Key Management Considerations for the TCP MD5
              Signature Option", RFC 3562, July 2003.

   [RFC4107]  Bellovin, S. and R. Housley, "Guidelines for Cryptographic
              Key Management", RFC 4107, BCP 107, June 2005.

Authors' Addresses

   Russell Housley
   Vigil Security, LLC
   918 Spring Knoll Drive
   Herndon, VA 20170
   USA
   EMail: housley@vigilsec.com

   Tim Polk
   National Institute of Standards and Technology
   100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8930
   Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8930
   USA
   EMail: tim.polk@nist.gov





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