Network Working Group Senthil K Balasubramanian
Internet-Draft Hewlett-Packard Company
Expires: December 2004 Michael Alexander
Gustaf Neumann
Wirtschaftsuniversitaet Wien
July 2004
DHCP Option for Proxy Server Configuration
draft-ietf-dhc-proxyserver-opt-01.txt
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document defines a new Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
(DHCP) option, which can be used to configure the TCP/IP host's Proxy
Server configuration for standard protocols like HTTP, FTP, NNTP,
SOCKS, Gopher, SLL and etc. Proxy Server provides controlled and
efficient access to the Internet by access control mechanism for
different types of user requests and caching frequently accessed
information (Web pages and possibly files that might have been
downloaded using FTP and other protocols).
1. Terminologies Used
DHCP Client: A DHCP [RFC-2131] client is an Internet host that
uses DHCP to obtain configuration information such as
network address.
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DHCP Server: A DHCP server [RFC-2131] is an Internet host that
returns configuration parameters to DHCP clients.
Proxy Server: In a enterprise network that connects to Internet,
a proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary
between a workstation user and the Internet so that the
enterprise can ensure security, administrative control,
and caching service. A Proxy server MAY be associated with
or part of a gateway server that separates the enterprise
network from the outside network (Usually Internet)
and a firewall server that protects the enterprise network
from outside intrusion.
RDF:A language (Resource Description Framework [RDF-SYN]) for
describing properties of web resources.
2. Introduction
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol [RFC-2131] provides a
framework for passing configuration information to hosts on a TCP/IP
network. This document describes a DHCP configuration option that
can be used to inform a DHCP client, the IP addresses of one or more
proxy services that are either available to it or that must be used
in order to access internet services, for example through a coporate
firewall.
The following diagram depicts the typical setup providing proxy
service to clients on a network that is protected by a firewall.
+---------------------------+ +-----------+
| | |Remote HTTP|
| | HTTP |Server |
| +------------+ +-------------+<--->+-----------+
| | Clients | |Proxy Server |
| | Inside the |<------>| + | FTP +-----------+
| | Firewall | |Firewall |<--->|Remote FTP |
| +------------+ +-------------+ |Server |
| | ^ +-----------+
| | |
| | | +-----------+
+---------------------------+ | NNTP |Remote NNTP|
+------------>|Server |
+-----------+
The primary use of proxies is to allow access to the World Wide Web
from within a firewall. A proxy service typically runs on firewall
machine. It waits for a request from inside the firewall, forwards
the request to the remote server outside the firewall, reads the
response and then sends it back to the client. Usually, all the
clients use the same proxy within a given network, which helps in
efficient caching of documents that are requested by a number of
clients. This behavior makes proxies attractive to clients not
inside a firewall.
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A proxy server increases the network security and user productivity
by content filtering and controlling both internal and external
access to information. Also, it provides several other
functionalities that are not discussed here.
3. Requirements terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC 2119].
4. Proxy Server Configuration Option
This document defines a new DHCP Option called the Proxy Server
Configuration Option. The format of the Proxy Server configuration
option is:
Code Len Proxy Server Configuration Entry
+-------+------+------+------+------+------+-....-+------+
| TBD | N | e1 | e2 | e3 | e4 | | en |
+-------+------+------+------+------+------+-....-+------+
Code is TBD and will be assigned by IANA according to [RFC-2939].
The length N gives the total number of octets in the Proxy Server
Configuration entries.
The format of Proxy Server Configuration Entry can be either
protocol/encoding/Address/port tuple or RDF [RDF-SYN] Metadata type.
The minimum length is 8 octets.
The Proxy Server Configuration entry consists of a sequence of
Protocol Type (p), Encoding (e), IP address and port.
+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|p |e |IP address |port |
+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
The Protocol(p) and encodig (e) are on octet each; each IP address is
four octets, and each port number is a two-octet integer encoded in
network byte order.
The protocol type(p) specifies the type of Protocol and MUST be
one of the following assigned numbers.
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+-------------------------------+
| protocol | Number |
+-------------------------------+
| HTTP | 80 |
+-------------------------------+
| FTP | 21 |
+-------------------------------+
| NNTP | 119 |
+-------------------------------+
| Gopher | 70 |
+-------------------------------+
| SSL | TBD |
+-------------------------------+
| SOCKS | 1080 |
+-------------------------------+
| WAIS | 210 |
+-------------------------------+
| IMAP | 220 |
+-------------------------------+
| RDF | TBD |
+-------------------------------+
The encoding field (e) is by default 0. Otherwise, it can either
have "-" or "#".
If it is "-", then the entry becomes a destination address for
exclusion from forwarding to the proxy. If it is "#", then the proxy
requires authentication.
In cases where it makes sense to specify more than one proxy server
for a given protocol, these proxy servers MUST be specifies as
additional IP addresses and ports within the same entry. The list is
ordered by precedence, with the most preferred proxy server appearing
first in the list, andthe least preferred proxy server appearing last
in the list. The DHCP client SHOULD honor this ordering.
More than one Proxy Server Configuration Entries MAY be specified in
the option. In that case, the list is ordered by precedence, with
the most preferred proxy server appearing first in the list, and the
least preferred proxy server appearing last in the list. The DHCP
client SHOULD honor this ordering.
The format of the Proxy Server Configuration using Metadata type is:
p Len RDF Metadata for the Proxy
+-------+------+----------------------------------+
| RDF | N | RDF |
+-------+------+----------------------------------+
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The RDF payload is freeform RDF metadata for describing proxy
properties. The length N gives the number of octets in the RDF
metadata field.
The following entries specifies the sample format of the RDF data
field
HTTP proxy:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE rdf:RDF [<!ENTITY xsd "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#">]>
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
<rdf:Description rdf:about="http://http-proxy.duke.edu:8080">
<dc:title>License Gate Proxy</dc:title>
<dc:creator>John Doe</dc:creator>
<dc:publisher>Duke OIT</dc:publisher>
<dc:subject>Offsite Campus Resource Access Proxy</dc:subject>
<dc:type>Service</dc:subject>
<dc:rights>Current Duke faculty, staff, and students</dc:rights>
<dc:date>2004-06-15</dc:date>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
FTP proxy:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE rdf:RDF [<!ENTITY xsd "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#">]>
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
<rdf:Description rdf:about="ftp://ftp-proxy.duke.edu:8080">
<dc:title>License Gate FTP Proxy</dc:title>
<dc:creator>John Doe</dc:creator>
<dc:publisher>Duke OIT</dc:publisher>
<dc:subject>Offsite Campus Resource Access Proxy</dc:subject>
<dc:type>Service</dc:subject>
<dc:rights>Current Duke faculty, staff, and students</dc:rights>
<dc:date>2004-06-15</dc:date>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
As such there is no minimum length to specify a proxy using RDF
metadata. But the minimum sensible statement would be a literal
description of the proxy (<dc:title>License Gate Proxy</dc:title>)
giving a total of 418 characters including the overhead.
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For example, with a description element of 60 characters, an URI of
80 characters plus a minimum XML/RDF syntax conformation/namespace
declaration of:
21 Octets <?xml version="1.0"?>
70 Octets <!DOCTYPE rdf:RDF [<!ENTITY xsd "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#">]>
64 Octets <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
45 Octets xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
109 Octets <rdf:Description rdf:about="..80 characters..">
81 Octets <dc:title>..60 characters..</dc:title>
18 Octets </rdf:Description>
10 Octets </rdf:RDF>
,the minimum length would be 418 octes.
5. Option Usage
The Proxy Server Configuration entries SHOULD not repeat the same
type of proxy entries. The port MUST be a valid TCP/UDP port.
6. Security Considerations
The DHCP Options defined here allow an intruder DHCP server to
misdirect a client, causing it to access a nonexistent or malicious
proxy server. This allows for a denial of service or man-in-the-middle
attack. This is a well known property of the DCHP protocol; this option
does not create any additional risk of such attacks.
DHCP provides an authentication mechanism, as described in RFC 3118
[3], which may be used if authentication is required.
7. IANA Considerations
IANA is requested to assign an option code to the Proxy Server
Configuration Option and protocol numbers for the SSL and RDF
protocol.
8. Acknowledgements
Thanks to Srinivas Reddy and Sridhar Ramamoorthy of Satyam InfoWay
for their extended help in technical Queries.
9. Normative References
[RFC-2131] Droms, R., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol", RFC 2131,
March 1997.
[RFC-2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
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10. Informative References
[RFC-3118] Droms, R. and W. Arbaugh, "Authentication for DHCP
Messages", RFC 3118, June 2001.
[RFC-2939] Droms, R., "Procedures and IANA Guidelines for Definition
of New DHCP Options and Message Types", BCP 43, RFC 2939,
September 2000.
[RFC-2616] Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Frystyk, H.,
Masinter, L., Leach, P. and T. Berners-Lee, "Hypertext
Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1" RFC 2616, June 1999.
[RFC-959] Postel, J. and J. Reynolds, "File Transfer Protocol
(FTP)", STD 9, RFC 959, October 1985.
[RFC-1436] F. Anklesaria, M. McCahill, P. Lindner, D. Johnson,
D. Torrey and B. Albert, "The Internet Gopher Protocol
(a distributed document search and retrieval protocol)",
RFC 1436, March 1993.
[RFC-977] Kantor, B and P. Lapsley, "Network News Transfer
Protocol", RFC 977, February 1986.
[RFC-1928] Leech, M., Ganis, M., Lee, Y., Kuris, R., Koblas, D., and
L. Jones, "SOCKS Protocol V5", RFC 1928, April 1996.
[SSL2] Hickman, Kipp, "The SSL Protocol", Netscape Communications
Corp., Feb 9, 1995.
[SSL3] A. Frier, P. Karlton, and P. Kocher, "The SSL 3.0
Protocol", Netscape Communications Corp., Nov 18, 1996.
[RFC-1625] M. St. Pierre, J. Fullton, K. Gamiel, J. Goldman, B. Kahle,
J. Kunze, H. Morris, F. Schiettecatte, "WAIS over Z39.50-1988",
RFC 1625, June 1994.
[RDF-SYN] Becket, D. and B. McBride, Ed., "RDF/XML Syntax Specification",
W3C REC-rdf-syntax, February 2004,
<http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-syntax-grammar/>.
Author's Address
Senthil K Balasubramanian
Hewlett Packard
29 Cunnigham Road,
Bangalore
India 560 052
Phone: +91 80 2205 3103
EMail: ksenthil@india.hp.com
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Michael Alexander
Wirtschaftsuniversitaet Wien
Augasse 2-6
A-1090 Vienna, Austria
Phone: +43 31336 4467
Email: malexand@wu-wien.ac.at
Gustaf Neumann
Wirtschaftsuniversitaet Wien
Augasse 2-6
A-1090 Vienna, Austria
Phone: +43 31336 4671
Email: neumann@wu-wien.ac.at
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