DNS Extentions                                                O. Kolkman
Internet-Draft                                                  RIPE NCC
Expires: March 4, 2003                                 September 3, 2002


                      KEY RR Key Signing (KS) Flag
            draft-ietf-dnsext-keyrr-key-signing-flag-00.txt

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on March 4, 2003.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   The Introduction of the DS [1] record has introduced the concept of
   KEY signing and zone signing keys.  In general, KEY signing keys are
   the keys that are pointed to by DS records and are the secure entry
   points to a zone.  The key signing keys only sign the KEY RRset at
   the apex of a zone, zone signing keys sign all data in a zone.  We
   propose a flag to distinguish the KEY signing key from other keys in
   the KEY RR set during DNSSEC operations.

   The key words "MAY","MAY NOT", "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED",
   "RECOMMENDED", "SHOULD", and "SHOULD NOT" in this document are to be
   interpreted as described in RFC2119.




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Table of Contents

   1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2. The Key Signing flag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   3. DNSSEC Protocol changes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   4. Operational Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   5. Security considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   6. Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
      References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
      Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
      Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6








































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1. Introduction

   The Introduction of the DS record has introduced the concept of KEY
   signing keys.  In general these are the keys that are pointed to by
   DS records and are the secure entry points to a zone.  These key
   signing keys may also be configured in resolver systems that use
   zones as a root for a secure island.

   Early deployment tests have shown that during DNSSEC parent-child
   interactions it is useful to indicate which keys are to be used as
   the secure entry point to a zone.  We introduce the Key Signing Key
   flag to indicate this special 'administrative' status of the key.

   During DNSSEC parent-child interactions it is useful to indicate
   which keys are to be used as the secure entry point to a zone.
   During key rollovers the KS-flag can be used by the parent to
   determine from which key the DS RR is to be generated from.

2. The Key Signing flag


                           1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |              flags          |K|   protocol    |   algorithm   |
      |                             |S|               |               |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                                                               /
      /                        public key                             /
      /                                                               /
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                                KEY RR Format



   The bit 15th bit (TBD) in the flags field is assigned to be the key
   signing flag.  If set the key is intended to be used as key signing
   key.  If the bit is not set then no special meaning should be
   assigned.  The 15th bit is currently reserved [2].

3. DNSSEC Protocol changes

   The use of the KS flag does NOT change the DNS resolution and
   resolution protocol.  The KS flag is only used to provide a hint
   about the different administrative properties and MUST NOT be used
   during the resolving process.




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4. Operational Guidelines

   By setting the KS-flag on a particular key, zone administrators
   indicate that that key should be used as the secure entry point for
   their zone.  Therefore zone administrators SHOULD set the bit only
   for zone keys that are used to sign the KEY RRset and are intended to
   act as the top of the chain of trust for their zone.

   Parent zone administrators and resolver administrators MAY choose to
   ignore the flag.

   Even with the KS-flag there is no mechanism to distinguish between
   keys that should be used by the parent to point DS records to or keys
   to be used by resolver administrators as statically configured keys.

   If the bit is modified during the lifetime of the key then this would
   have impact on the keytag and on the hash data in the DS RRs
   intending to point to this key.  The bit SHOULD NOT be modified once
   the key has been put into use.

5. Security considerations

   The flag MUST NOT be used in the resolution protocol or to determine
   the security status of a key.  The flag is to be used for
   administrative purposes only.

   If the flag is used to determine which key is to be used as the
   secure entry point then the trust in the key should be inferred from
   an existing DNS chain of trust or by an out of band key exchange.

6. Acknowledgments

   The ideas documented in this draft are inspired by communications we
   had with numerous people and ideas published by other folk, Jakob
   Schlyter and Olafur Gudmundsson and Dan Massey have been most
   substantial in providing ideas and feedback.

   This document saw the light during a workshop on DNSSEC operations
   hosted by USC/ISI.

   "Animal Farm; a Fairy Story" was first published by George Orwell in
   1945, The version illustrated by Ralph Steadman is one we recommend (
   ISBN: 0151002177 ).

References

   [1]   Gudmundsson, "Delegation Signer Resource Record", work in
        progress draft-ietf-dnsext-delegation-signer-08.txt, June 2002.



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   [2]  Massey and Rose, "Limiting the Scope of the KEY Resource
        Record", work in progress draft-ietf-dnsext-restrict-key-for-
        dnssec-03, June 28 2002.


Author's Address

   Olaf M. Kolkman
   RIPE NCC
   Singel 256
   Amsterdam  1016 AB
   NL

   Phone: +31 20 535 4444
   EMail: olaf@ripe.net
   URI:   http://www.ripe.net/



































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Full Copyright Statement

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Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
   Internet Society.



















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