E. Rescorla
                                                              RTFM, Inc.
INTERNET-DRAFT                                                       IAB
draft-iab-model-02.txt               September 2004 (Expires March 2005)

                        Writing Protocol Models

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999-2004). All Rights Reserved.


Abstract

   The IETF process depends on peer review. However, IETF documents
   are generally written to be useful for implementors, not for
   reviewers. In particular, while great care is generally taken to
   provide a complete description of the state machines and bits on
   the wire, this level of detail tends to get in the way of initial
   understanding. This document describes an approach for providing
   protocol "models" that allow reviewers to quickly grasp the essence
   of a system.






Rescorla                                                       [Page 1]


Contents

   1           Introduction                                          2
   2           The Purpose of a Protocol Model                       3
   3           Basic Principles                                      3
     3.1         Less is more                                        4
     3.2         Abstraction is good                                 4
     3.3         A few well-chosen details sometimes helps           4
   4           Writing Protocol Models                               4
     4.1         Describe the problem you're trying to solve         4
       4.1.1       Example: STUN (RFC 3489)                          5
     4.2         Describe the protocol in broad overview             7
     4.3         State Machines                                      8
     4.4         Example: DCCP                                       8
       4.4.1       Initiation                                        8
       4.4.2       Feature Negotiation                               9
       4.4.3       Data Transfer                                    10
         4.4.3.1     CCID-2                                         10
         4.4.3.2     CCID-3                                         10
       4.4.4       Termination                                      10
   5           Describe any important protocol features             11
     5.1         Example: WebDAV COPY and MOVE                      11
   6           Formatting Issues                                    12
   7           A Complete Example: Internet Key Exchange (IKE)      12
     7.1         Operating Environment                              12
       7.1.1       Initiator and Responder                          13
       7.1.2       Perfect Forward Secrecy                          13
       7.1.3       Denial of Service Resistance                     14
       7.1.4       Keying Assumptions                               14
       7.1.5       Identity Protection                              14
     7.2         Protocol Overview                                  14
       7.2.1       Stage 1                                          15
         7.2.1.1     Main Mode                                      15
         7.2.1.2     Aggressive Mode                                17
       7.2.2       Stage 2                                          18
     7.3         Other Considerations                               19
       7.3.1       Cookie Generation                                19
       7.3.2       Endpoint Identities                              19
         7.3.2.1     Shared Key                                     19
         7.3.2.2     Pre-configured public key                      20
         7.3.2.3     Certificate                                    20


1. Introduction

   The IETF process depends on peer review. However, in many cases,
   the documents submitted for publication are extremely difficult to
   review. Since reviewers have only limited amounts of time, this



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   leads to extremely long review times, inadequate reviews, or both.
   In my view, a large part of the problem is that most documents fail
   to present an architectural model for how the protocol operates,
   opting instead to simply describe the protocol and let the reviewer
   figure it out.

   This is acceptable when documenting a protocol for implementors,
   because they need to understand the protocol in any case, but
   dramatically increases the strain on reviewers. Reviewers
   necessarily need to get the big picture of the system and then
   focus on particular points. They simply do not have time to give
   the entire document the attention an implementor would.

   One way to reduce this load is to present the reviewer with a
   MODEL--a short description of the system in overview form. This
   provides the reviewer with the context to identify the important or
   difficult pieces of the system and focus on them for review. As a
   side benefit, if the model is done first, it can be serve as an aid
   to the detailed protocol design and a focus for early review prior
   to protocol completion. The intention is that the model would
   either be the first section of the protocol document or be a
   separate document provided with the protocol.

2. The Purpose of a Protocol Model

   A protocol model needs to answer three basic questions:

     1. What problem is the protocol trying to achieve?
     2. What messages are being transmitted and what do they
        mean?
     3. What are the important but un-obvious features of the
        protocol?


   The basic idea is to provide enough information that the reader
   could design a protocol which was roughly isomorphic to the
   protocol being described. This doesn't, of course, mean that the
   protocol would be identical, but merely that it would share most
   important features. For instance, the decision to use a KDC-based
   authentication model is an essential feature of Kerberos
   [KERBEROS]. By constrast, the use of ASN.1 is a simple
   implementation decision. S-expressions--or XML, had it existed at
   the time--would have served equally well.

3. Basic Principles

   In this section we discuss basic principles that should guide your
   presentation.



Rescorla                                                       [Page 3]


3.1. Less is more

   Humans are only capable of keeping a very small number of pieces of
   information in their head at once. Since we're interested in
   ensuring that people get the big picture, we therefore have to
   dispense with a lot of detail. That's good, not bad. The simpler
   you can make things the better.

3.2. Abstraction is good

   A key technique for representing complex systems is to try to
   abstract away pieces. For instance, maps are better than
   photographs for finding out where you want to go because they
   provide an abstract, stylized, view of the information you're
   interested in. Don't be afraid to compress multiple protocol
   elements into a single abstract piece for pedagogical purposes.

3.3. A few well-chosen details sometimes helps

   The converse of the previous principle is that sometimes details
   help to bring a description into focus. Many people work better
   when given examples. Thus, it's often a good approach to talk about
   the material in the abstract and then provide a concrete
   description of one specific piece to bring it into focus. Authors
   should focus on the normal path. Error cases and corner cases
   should only be discussed where they help illustrate some important
   point.

4. Writing Protocol Models

   Our experience indicates that it's easiest to grasp protocol models
   when they're presented in visual form. We recommend a presentation
   format that is centered around a few key diagrams with explanatory
   text for each. These diagrams should be simple and typically
   consist of "boxes and arrows"--boxes representing the major
   components, arrows representing their relationships and labels
   indicating important features.

   We recommend a presentation structured in three parts to match the
   three questions mentioned in the previous sections. Each part
   should contain 1-3 diagrams intended to illustrate the relevant
   points.

4.1. Describe the problem you're trying to solve







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     First, figure out what you are trying to do (this is good
     advice under most circumstances, and it is especially apropos here.
     --NNTP Installation Guide


   The absolutely most critical task that a protocol model must
   perform is to explain what the protocol is trying to achieve. This
   provides crucial context for understanding how the protocol works
   and whether it meets its goals. Given the desired goals, in most
   cases an experienced reviewer will have an idea of how they would
   approach the problem and be able to compare that to the approach
   taken by the protocol under review.

   The "Problem" section of the model should start out with a short
   statement of the environments in which the protocol is expected to
   be used. This section should describe the relevant entities and the
   likely scenarios under which they participate in the protocol. The
   Problem section should feature a diagram showing the major
   communicating parties and their inter-relationships. It is
   particularly important to lay out the trust relationships between
   the various parties as these are often un-obvious.


4.1.1. Example: STUN (RFC 3489)

   Network Address Translation (NAT) makes it difficult to run a
   number of classes of service from behind the NAT gateway. This is a
   particular problem when protocols need to advertise address/port
   pairs as part of the application layer protocol. Although the NAT
   can be configured to accept data destined for that port, address
   translation means that the address that the application knows about
   is not the same as the one that it is reachable on.

   Consider the scenario represented in the figure below. A SIP client
   is initiating a session with a SIP server in which it wants the SIP
   server to send it some media. In its Session Description Protocol
   (SDP) [SDP] request it provides the IP address and port on which it
   is listening. However, unbeknownst to the client, a NAT is in the
   way. It translates the IP address in the header, but unless it is
   SIP aware, it doesn't change the address in the request. The result
   is that the media goes into a black hole.










Rescorla                                                       [Page 5]


                   +-----------+
                   |    SIP    |
                   |  Server   |
                   |           |
                   +-----------+
                        ^
                        | [FROM: 192.0.2.1:8954]
                        | [MSG: SEND MEDIA TO 10.0.10.5:6791]
                        |
                        |
                   +-----------+
                   |           |
                   |    NAT    |
     --------------+  Gateway  +----------------
                   |           |
                   +-----------+
                        ^
                        | [FROM: 10.0.10.5:6791]
                        | [MSG: SEND MEDIA TO 10.0.10.5:6791]
                        |
                     10.0.10.5
                   +-----------+
                   |    SIP    |
                   |  Client   |
                   |           |
                   +-----------+


The purpose of STUN [STUN] is to allow clients to detect this
situation and determine the address mapping. They can then place the
appropriate address in their application-level messages. This is done
by making use of an external STUN server. That server is able to
determine the translated address and tell the STUN client, as shown
below.

















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                               +-----------+
                               |   STUN    |
                               |  Server   |
                               |           |
                               +-----------+
                                 ^      |
[IP HDR FROM: 192.0.2.1:8954]  |        | [IP HDR TO: 192.0.2.1:8954]
      [MSG: WHAT IS MY ADDRESS?] |      | [MSG: YOU ARE 192.0.2.1:8954]
                                 |      v
                               +-----------+
                               |           |
                               |    NAT    |
                 --------------+  Gateway  +----------------
                               |           |
                               +-----------+
                                 ^      |
[IP HDR FROM: 10.0.10.5:6791]    |      | [IP HDR TO: 10.0.10.5:6791]
      [MSG: WHAT IS MY ADDRESS?] |      | [MSG: YOU ARE 192.0.2.1:8954]
                                 |      v
                                 10.0.10.5
                               +-----------+
                               |    SIP    |
                               |  Client   |
                               |           |
                               +-----------+



4.2. Describe the protocol in broad overview

   Once you've described the problem, the next task is to describe the
   protocol in broad overview. This means showing, either in "ladder
   diagram" or "boxes and arrows" form, the protocol messages that
   flow between the various networking agents. This diagram should be
   accompanied with explanatory text that describes the purpose of
   each message and the MAJOR data elements.

   This section SHOULD NOT contain detailed descriptions of the
   protocol messages or of each data element. In particular, bit
   diagrams, ASN.1 modules and XML schema SHOULD NOT be shown. The
   purpose of this section is explicitly not to provide a complete
   description of the protocol. Instead, it is to provide enough of a
   map so that a person reading the full protocol document can see
   where each specific piece fits.







Rescorla                                                       [Page 7]


4.3. State Machines

   In certain cases, it may be helpful to provide a state machine
   description of the behavior of network elements. However, such
   state machines should be kept as minimal as possible. Remember that
   the purpose is to promote high-level comprehension, not complete
   understanding.

4.4. Example: DCCP

   Although DCCP [DCCP] is datagram oriented like UDP, it is stateful
   like TCP. Connections go through the following phases:
   1. Initiation
   2. Feature negotiation
   3. Data transfer
   4. Termination

4.4.1. Initiation

   As with TCP, the initiation phase of DCCP involves a three-way
   handshake, shown below.
   Client                                      Server
   ------                                      ------
   DCCP-Request            ->
   [Ports, Service,
   Features]
                           <-           DCCP-Response
                                           [Features,
                                              Cookie]
   DCCP-Ack                ->
   [Features,
   Cookie]

                          DCCP 3-way handshake

   In the DCCP-Request message, the client tells the server the name
   of the service it wants to talk to and the ports it wants to
   communicate on. Note that ports are not tightly bound to services
   the way they are in TCP or UDP common practice. It also starts
   feature negotiation. For pedagogical reasons, we will present
   feature negotiation separately in the next section. However,
   realize that the early phases of feature negotiation happen
   concurrently with initiation.

   In the DCCP-Response message, the server tells the client that it
   is willing to accept the connection and continues feature
   negotiation. In order to prevent SYN-flood style DOS attacks, DCCP
   incorporates an IKE-style cookie exchange. The server can provide



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   the client with a cookie that contains all the negotiation state.
   This cookie must be echoed by the client in the DCCP-Ack, thus
   removing the need for the server to keep state.

   In the DCCP-Ack message, the client acknowledges the DCCP-Response
   and returns the cookie to permit the server to complete its side of
   the connection. As indicated above this message may also include
   feature negotiation messages.

4.4.2. Feature Negotiation

   In DCCP, feature negotiation is performed by attaching options to
   other DCCP packets. Thus feature negotiation can be piggybacked on
   any other DCCP message. This allows feature negotiation during
   connection initiation as well as feature renegotiation during data
   flow.

   Somewhat unusually, DCCP features are one-sided. Thus, it's
   possible to have a different congestion control regime for data
   sent from client to server than from server to client.

   Feature negotiation is done with the Change and Confirm options.
   There are four feature negotiation options in all: Change L,
   Confirm L, Change R, and Confirm R. The "L" options are sent by the
   feature location, where the feature is maintained, and the "R"
   options are sent by the feature remote.

   A Change R message says to the peer "change this option setting on
   your side". The peer can respond with a Confirm L, meaning "I've
   changed it". Some features allow Change R options to contain
   multiple values, sorted in preference order. For example:

          Client                                        Server
          ------                                        ------
          Change R(CCID, 2) -->
                                        <-- Confirm L(CCID, 2)
                     * agreement that CCID/Server = 2 *

          Change R(CCID, 3 4) -->
                                   <-- Confirm L(CCID, 4, 4 2)
                     * agreement that CCID/Server = 4 *
                           <-           Confirm(CC,2)

   In the second exchange, the client requests that the server use
   either CCID 3 or CCID 4, with 3 preferred. The server chooses 4 and
   supplies its preference list, "4 2".





Rescorla                                                       [Page 9]


   The Change L and Confirm R options are used for feature
   negotiations initiated by the feature location. In the following
   example, the server requests that CCID/Server be set to 3 or 2,
   with 3 preferred, and the client agrees.

          Client                                       Server
          ------                                       ------
                                      <-- Change L(CCID, 3 2)
          Confirm R(CCID, 3, 3 2)  -->
                     * agreement that CCID/Server = 3 *

4.4.3. Data Transfer

   Rather than have a single congestion control regime as in TCP, DCCP
   offers a variety of negotiable congestion control regimes. The DCCP
   documents describe two congestion control regimes: additive
   increase, multiplicative decrease (CCID-2 [CCID2]) and TCP-friendly
   rate control (CCID-3 [CCID3]). CCID-2 is intended for applications
   which want maximum throughput. CCID-3 is intended for real-time
   applications which want smooth response to congestion.

4.4.3.1. CCID-2

   CCID-2's congestion control is extremely similar to that of TCP.
   The sender maintains a congestion window and sends packets until
   that window is full. Packets are Acked by the receiver. Dropped
   packets and ECN [ECN] are used to indicate congestion. The response
   to congestion is to halve the congestion window. One subtle
   diference between DCCP and TCP is that the Acks in DCCP must
   contain the sequence numbers of all received packets (within a
   given window) not just the highest sequence number as in TCP.

4.4.3.2. CCID-3

   CCID-3 is an equation-based form of rate control which is intended
   to provide smoother response to congestion than CCID-2. The sender
   maintains a "transmit rate". The receiver sends ACK packets which
   also contain information about the receiver's estimate of packet
   loss. The sender uses this information to update its transmit rate.
   Although CCID-3 behaves somewhat differently from TCP in its short-
   term congestion response, it is designed to operate fairly with TCP
   over the long term.

4.4.4. Termination

   Connection termination in DCCP is initiated by sending a Close
   message. Either side can send a Close message. The peer then
   responds with a Reset message, at which point the connection is



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   closed. The side that sent the Close message must quietly preserve
   the socket in TIMEWAIT state for 2MSL.

   Client                                      Server
   ------                                      ------
   Close                    ->
                            <-                  Reset
   [Remains in TIMEWAIT]

   Note that the server may wish to close the connection but not
   remain in TIMEWAIT (e.g., due to a desire to minimize server-side
   state.) In order to accomplish this, the server can elicit a Close
   from the client by sending a CloseReq message and thus keeping the
   TIMEWAIT state on the client.

5. Describe any important protocol features

   The final section (if there is one) should contain an explanation
   of any important protocol features which are not obvious from the
   previous sections. In the best case, all the important features of
   the protocol would be obvious from the message flow. However, this
   isn't always the case. This section is an opportunity for the
   author to explain those features. Authors should think carefully
   before writing this section. If there are no important points to be
   made they should not populate this section.

   Examples of the kind of feature that belongs in this section
   include: high-level security considerations, congestion control
   information and overviews of the algorithms that the network
   elements are intended to follow. For instance, if you have a
   routing protocol you might use this section to sketch out the
   algorithm that the router uses to determine the appropriate routes
   from protocol messages.

5.1. Example: WebDAV COPY and MOVE

   WebDAV [WEBDAV] includes both a COPY method and a MOVE method.
   While a MOVE can be thought of as a COPY followed by DELETE,
   COPY+DELETE and MOVE aren't entirely equivalent.

   The use of COPY+DELETE as a MOVE substitute is problematic because
   of the creation of the intermediate file. Consider the case where
   the user is approaching some quota boundary. A COPY+DELETE should
   be forbidden because it would temporarily exceed the quota.
   However, a simple rename should work in this situation.

   The second issue is permissions. The WebDAV permissions model
   allows the server to grant users permission to rename files but not



Rescorla                                                      [Page 11]


   to create new ones--this is unusual in ordinary filesystems but
   nothing prevents it in WebDAV. This is clearly not possible if a
   client uses COPY+DELETE to do a MOVE.

   Finally, a COPY+DELETE does not produce the same logical result as
   would be expected with a MOVE. Because COPY creates a new resource,
   it is permitted (but not required) to use the time of new file
   creation as the creation date property. By contrast, the
   expectation for move is that the renamed file will have the same
   properties as the original.

6. Formatting Issues

   The requirement that Internet-Drafts and RFCs be renderable in
   ASCII is a significant obstacle when writing the sort of graphics-
   heavy document being described here. Authors may find it more
   convenient to do a separate protocol model document in Postscript
   or PDF and simply make it available at review time--though an
   archival version would certainly be handy.

7. A Complete Example: Internet Key Exchange (IKE)

7.1. Operating Environment

   Internet key Exchange (IKE) [IKE] is a key establishment and
   parameter negotiation protocol for Internet protocols. Its primary
   application is for establishing security associations (SAs) [IPSEC]
   for IPsec AH [AH] and ESP [ESP].























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   +--------------------+                       +--------------------+
   |                    |                       |                    |
   |   +------------+   |                       |   +------------+   |
   |   |    Key     |   |         IKE           |   |    Key     |   |
   |   | Management | <-+-----------------------+-> | Management |   |
   |   |  Process   |   |                       |   |  Process   |   |
   |   +------------+   |                       |   +------------+   |
   |         ^          |                       |         ^          |
   |         |          |                       |         |          |
   |         v          |                       |         v          |
   |   +------------+   |                       |   +------------+   |
   |   |   IPsec    |   |        AH/ESP         |   |   IPsec    |   |
   |   |   Stack    | <-+-----------------------+-> |   Stack    |   |
   |   |            |   |                       |   |            |   |
   |   +------------+   |                       |   +------------+   |
   |                    |                       |                    |
   |                    |                       |                    |
   |     Initiator      |                       |     Responder      |
   +--------------------+                       +--------------------+




   The general deployment model for IKE is shown in Figure 1. The
   IPsec engines and IKE engines typically are separate modules. When
   a packet needs to be processed (either sent or received) for which
   no security association exists, the IPsec engine contacts the IKE
   engine and asks it to establish an appropriate SA. The IKE engine
   contacts the appropriate peer and uses IKE to establish the SA.
   Once the IKE handshake is finished it registers the SA with the
   IPsec engine.

   In addition, IKE traffic between the peers can be used to refresh
   keying material or adjust operating parameters such as algorithms.

7.1.1. Initiator and Responder

   Although IPsec is basically symmetrical, IKE is not. The party who
   sends the first message is called the INITIATOR. The other party is
   called the RESPONDER. In the case of TCP connections the INITIATOR
   will typically be the peer doing the active open (i.e. the client).

7.1.2. Perfect Forward Secrecy

   One of the major concerns in IKE design was that traffic be
   protected even if they keying material of the nodes was later
   compromised, provided that the session in question had terminated
   and so the session-specific keying material was gone. This property



Rescorla                                                      [Page 13]


   is often called PERFECT FORWARD SECRECY (PFS) or BACK TRAFFIC
   PROTECTION.

7.1.3. Denial of Service Resistance

   Since IKE allows arbitrary peers to initiate computationally
   expensive cryptographic operations, it potentially allows resource
   consumption denial of service attacks to be mounted against the IKE
   engine. IKE includes countermeasures designed to minimize this
   risk.

7.1.4. Keying Assumptions

   Because Security Associations are essentially symmetric, both sides
   must in general be authenticated. Because IKE needs to be able to
   establish SAs between a broad range of peers with various kinds of
   prior relationships, IKE supports a very flexible keying model.
   Peers can authenticate via shared keys, digital signatures
   (typically from keys vouched for by certificates), or encryption
   keys.

7.1.5. Identity Protection

   Although IKE requires the peers to authenticate to each other, it
   was considered desirable by the working group to provide some
   identity protection for the communicating peers. In particular, the
   peers should be able to hide their identity from passive observers
   and one peer should be able to require the author to authenticate
   before they self-identity. In this case, the designers chose to
   make the party who speaks first (the INITIATOR) identify first.

7.2. Protocol Overview

   At a very high level, there are two kinds of IKE handshake:
     (1) Those which establish an IKE security association.
     (2) Those which establish an AH or ESP security association.

   When two peers which have never communicated before need to
   establish an AH/ESH SA, they must first establish an IKE SA. This
   allows them to exchange an arbitrary amount of protected IKE
   traffic. They can then use that SA to do a second handshake to
   establish SAs for AH and ESP. This process is shown in schematic
   form below. The notation E(SA,XXXX) is used to indicate that
   traffic is encrypted under a given SA.







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   Initiator                                  Responder
   ---------                                  ---------

   Handshake MSG            ->                           \ Stage 1:
                            <-            Handshake MSG   \ Establish IKE
                                                          / SA (IKEsa)
                           [...] /

                                                            Stage 2:
   E(IKEsa, Handshake MSG)  ->                           \  Establish AH/ESP
                            <-  E(IKEsa, Handshake MSG)  /  SA

                The two kinds of IKE handshake

   IKE terminology is somewhat confusing, referring under different
   circumstances to "phases" and "modes". For maximal clarity we will
   refer to the Establishment of the IKE SA as "Stage 1" and the
   Establishment of AH/ESP SAs as "Stage 2". Note that it's quite
   possible for there to be more than one Stage 2 handshake, once
   Stage 1 has been finished. This might be useful if you wanted to
   establish multiple AH/ESP SAs with different cryptographic
   properties.

   The Stage 1 and Stage 2 handshakes are actually rather different,
   because the Stage 2 handshake can of course assume that its traffic
   is being protected with an IKE SA. Accordingly, we will first
   discuss Stage 1 and then Stage 2.

7.2.1. Stage 1

   There are a large number of variants of the IKE Stage 1 handshake,
   necessitated by use of different authentication mechanisms.
   However, broadly speaking they fall into one of two basic
   categories: MAIN MODE, which provides identity protection and DoS
   resistance, and AGGRESSIVE MODE, which does not. We will cover MAIN
   MODE first.

7.2.1.1. Main Mode

   Main Mode is a six message (3 round trip) handshake which offers
   identity protection and DoS resistance. An overview of the
   handshake is below.









Rescorla                                                      [Page 15]


   Initiator                                   Responder
   ---------                                   ---------
   CookieI, Algorithms      ->                           \  Parameter
                            <-       CookieR, Algorithms /  Establishment

   CookieR,
   Nonce, Key Exchange      ->
                            <-        Nonce, Key Exchange\  Establish
                                                         /  Shared key

   E(IKEsa, Auth Data)      ->
                            <-        E(IKEsa, Auth data)\  Authenticate
                                                         /      Peers

                    IKE Main Mode handshake (stage 1)


   In the first round trip, the Initiator offers a set of algorithms
   and parameters. The Responder picks out the single set that it
   likes and responds with that set. It also provides CookieR, which
   will be used to prevent DoS attacks. At this point, there is no
   secure association but the peers have tentatively agreed upon
   parameters. These parameters include a Diffie-Hellman group, which
   will be used in the second round trip.

   In the second round trip, the Initiator sends the key exchange
   information. This generally consists of the Initiator's Diffie-
   Hellman public share (Yi). He also supplies CookieR, which was
   provided by the responder. The Responder replies with his own DH
   share (Yr). At this point, both Initiator and Responder can compute
   the shared DH key (ZZ). However, there has been no authentication
   and so they don't know with any certainty that the connection
   hasn't been attacked. Note that as long as the peers generate fresh
   DH shares for each handshake than PFS will be provided.

   Before we move on, let's take a look at the cookie exchange. The
   basic anti-DoS measure used by IKE is to force the peer to
   demonstrate that they can receive traffic from you. This foils
   blind attacks like SYN floods [SYNFLOOD] and also makes it somewhat
   easier to track down attackers. The cookie exchange serves this
   role in IKE. The Responder can verify that the Initiator supplied a
   valid CookieR before doing the expensive DH key agreement. This
   does not totally eliminate DoS attacks, since an attacker who was
   willing to reveal his location could still consume server
   resources, but it does protect against a certain class of blind
   attack.





Rescorla                                                      [Page 16]Internet-Draft          Writing Protocol Models                 9/2004


   In the final round trip, the peers establish their identities.
   Since they share an (unauthenticated) key, they can send their
   identities encrypted, thus providing identity protection from
   eavesdroppers. The exact method of proving identity depends on what
   form of credential is being used (signing key, encryption key,
   shared secret, etc.), but in general you can think of it as a
   signature over some subset of the handshake messages. So, each side
   would supply its certificate and then sign using the key associated
   with that certificate. If shared keys are used, the authentication
   data would be a key id and a MAC. Authentication using public key
   encryption follows similar principles but is more complicated.
   Refer to the IKE document for more details.

   At the end of the Main Mode handshake, the peers share:
   (1) A set of algorithms for encryption of further IKE traffic.
   (2) Traffic encryption and authentication keys.
   (3) Mutual knowledge of the peer's identity.

7.2.1.2. Aggressive Mode

   Although IKE Main Mode provides the required services, there was
   concern that the large number of round trips required added
   excessive latency. Accordingly, an Aggressive Mode was defined.
   Aggressive mode packs more data into fewer messages and thus
   reduces latency. However, it does not provide protection against
   DoS or identity protection.
   Initiator                                   Responder
   ---------                                   ---------
   Algorithms, Nonce,
   Key Exchange,            ->
                            <-         Algorithms, Nonce,
                                  Key Exchange, Auth Data
   Auth Data                ->

                 IKE Aggressive Mode handshake (stage 1)


   After the first round trip, the peers have all the required
   properties except that the Initiator has not authenticated to the
   Responder. The third message closes the loop by authenticating the
   Initiator. Note that since the authentication data is sent in the
   clear, no identity protection is provided and since the Responder
   does the DH key agreement without a round trip to the Initiator,
   there is no DoS protection







Rescorla                                                      [Page 17]


7.2.2. Stage 2

   Stage 1 on its own isn't very useful. The purpose of IKE, after
   all, is to establish associations to be used to protect other
   traffic, not just to establish IKE SAs. Stage 2 (what IKE calls
   "Quick Mode") is used for this purpose. The basic Stage 2 handshake
   is shown below.

      Initiator                                    Responder
      ---------                                    ---------
      AH/ESP parameters,
      Algorithms, Nonce,
      Handshake Hash          ->

                               <-          AH/ESP parameters,
                                           Algorithms, Nonce,
                                               Handshake Hash
      Handshake Hash           ->

                     The basic IKE Quick Mode (stage 2)


   As with quick mode, the first two messages establish the algorithms
   and parameters while the final message is a check over the previous
   messages. In this case, the parameters also include the transforms
   to be applied to the traffic (AH or ESP) and the kinds of traffic
   which are to be protected. Note that there is no key exchange
   information shown in these messages.

   In this version of Quick Mode, the peers use the pre-existing Stage
   1 keying material to derive fresh keying material for traffic
   protection (with the nonces to ensure freshness). Quick mode also
   allows for a new Diffie-Hellman handshake for per-traffic key PFS.
   In that case, the first two messages shown above would also include
   Key Exchange payloads, as shown below.
















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      Initiator                                    Responder
      ---------                                    ---------
      AH/ESP parameters,
      Algorithms, Nonce,
      Key Exchange,            ->
      Handshake Hash

                               <-          AH/ESP parameters,
                                           Algorithms, Nonce,
                                                Key Exchange,
                                               Handshake Hash
      Handshake Hash           ->

                 A variant of Quick Mode with PFS (stage 2)

7.3. Other Considerations

   There are a number of features of IKE that deserve special
   consideration. These are discussed here.

7.3.1. Cookie Generation

   As mentioned previously, IKE uses cookies as a partial defense
   against DoS attacks. When the responder receives Main Mode message
   3 containing the Key Exchange data and the cookie, it verifies that
   the cookie is correct. However, this verification must not involve
   having a list of valid cookies. Otherwise, an attacker could
   potentially consume arbitrary amounts of memory by repeatedly
   requesting cookies from a responder. The recommended way to
   generate a cookie, suggested by Phil Karn, is by having a single
   master key and compute a hash of the secret and the initiator's
   address information. This cookie can be verified by recomputing the
   cookie value based on information in the third message and seeing
   if it matches.

7.3.2. Endpoint Identities

   So far we have been rather vague about what sorts of endpoint
   identities are used. In principle, there are three ways a peer
   might be identified: by a shared key, a pre-configured public key,
   and a certificate.

7.3.2.1. Shared Key

   In a shared key scheme, the peers share some symmetric key. This
   key is associated with a key identifier which is known to both
   parties. It is assumed that the party verifying that identity also
   has some sort of table that indicates what sorts of traffic (e.g.



Rescorla                                                      [Page 19]


   what addresses) that identity is allowed to negotiate SAs for.

7.3.2.2. Pre-configured public key

   A pre-configured public key scheme is the same as a shared key
   scheme except that the verifying party has the authenticating
   party's public key instead of a shared key.

7.3.2.3. Certificate

   In a certificate scheme, authenticating party presents a
   certificate containing their public key. It's straightforward to
   establish that that certificate matches the authentication data
   provided by the peer. What's less straightforward is to determine
   whether a given peer is entitled to negotiate for a given class of
   traffic. In theory, one might be able to determine this from the
   name in the certificate (e.g. the subject name contains an IP
   address that matches the ostensible IP address). In practice, this
   is not clearly specified in IKE and therefore not really
   interoperable. The more likely case at the moment is that there is
   a configuration table mapping certificates to policies, as with the
   other two authentication schemes.

Normative References

   There are no normative references for this document.

Informative References
  [AH]       Kent, S., and Atkinson, R., "IP Authentication Header",
             RFC 2402, November 1998.

  [CCID2]    Floyd, S., Kohler, E., "Profile for DCCP Congestion Control ID 2:
             TCP-like Congestion Control", draft-ietf-dccp-ccid2-04.txt,
             October 2003.

  [CCID3]    Floyd, S., Kohler, E., Padhye, J. "Profile for DCCP Congestion
             Control ID 3: TFRC Congestion Control",
             draft-ietf-dccp-ccid3-05.txt, February 2004.

  [DCCP]     Kohler, E., Handley, M., Floyd, S., "Datagram Congestion
             Control Protocol (DCCP)", draft-ietf-dccp-spec-06.txt,
             February 2004.

  [ECN]      Ramakrishnan, K. Floyd, S., Black D., "The Addition of
             Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) to IP",
             RFC 3168, September 2001.

  [ESP]      Kent, S., and Atkinson, R., "IP Encapsulating Security



Rescorla                                                      [Page 20]Internet-Draft          Writing Protocol Models                 9/2004


             Payload (ESP)", RFC 2406, November 1998.


  [IKE]      Harkins, D., Carrel, D., "The Internet Key Exchange (IKE)",
             RFC 2409, November 1998.

  [IPSEC]    Kent, S., Atkinson, R., "Security Architecture for the Internet
             Protocol", RFC 2401, November 1998.

  [KERBEROS] Kohl, J., Neuman, C., "The Kerberos Network Authentication
             Service (V5)", RFC 1510, September 1993.

  [SDP]      Handley, M., Jacobson, V., "SDP: Session Description Protocol"
             RFC 2327, April 1998.

  [STUN]     Rosenberg, J., Weinberger, J., Huitema, C., Mahy, R.,
             "STUN - Simple Traversal of User Datagram Protocol (UDP)",
             RFC 3489, March 2003.

  [WEBDAV]   Goland, Y., Whitehead, E., Faizi, A., Carter, S., Jensen, D.
             "HTTP Extensions for Distributed Authoring -- WEBDAV",
             RFC 2518, February 1999.

Security Considerations

   This document does not define any protocols and therefore has no
   security considerations.

Full Copyright Statement

   The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
   Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
   pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
   this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
   might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
   made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information
   on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
   found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
   assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
   attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
   such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
   specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
   http://www.ietf.org/ipr.

   The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
   copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary



Rescorla                                                      [Page 21]


   rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
   this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-
   ipr@ietf.org.

Copyright Notice
   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). This document is subject
   to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and
   except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights.

   This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
   OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
   ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
   INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
   INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
   WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Author's Address
Eric Rescorla <ekr@rtfm.com>
RTFM, Inc.
2064 Edgewood Drive
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Phone: (650)-320-8549

Internet Architecture Board <iab@iab.org>
IAB


Appendix A. IAB Members at the time of this writing

Bernard Aboba
Harald Alvestrand
Rob Austein
Leslie Daigle
Patrik Falstrom
Sally Floyd
Jun-ichiro Itojun Hagino
Mark Handley
Bob Hinden
Geoff Huston
Eric Rescorla
Pete Resnick
Jonathon Rosenberg








Rescorla                                                      [Page 22]