RADIUS EXTensions Working Group                          A. Perez-Mendez
Internet-Draft                                            R. Marin-Lopez
Updates: 2865, 6158, 6929                           F. Pereniguez-Garcia
(if approved)                                            G. Lopez-Millan
Intended status: Experimental                       University of Murcia
Expires: July 13, 2015                                          D. Lopez
                                                          Telefonica I+D
                                                                A. DeKok
                                                          Network RADIUS
                                                         January 9, 2015


               Support of fragmentation of RADIUS packets
               draft-ietf-radext-radius-fragmentation-10

Abstract

   The Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) protocol is
   limited to a total packet size of 4096 octets.  Provisions exist for
   fragmenting large amounts of authentication data across multiple
   packets, via Access-Challenge.  No similar provisions exist for
   fragmenting large amounts of authorization data.  This document
   specifies how existing RADIUS mechanisms can be leveraged to provide
   that functionality.  These mechanisms are largely compatible with
   existing implementations, and are designed to be invisible to
   proxies, and "fail-safe" to legacy RADIUS Clients and Servers.

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on July 13, 2015.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.



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   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.


Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.1.  Requirements Language  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   2.  Status of this document  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   3.  Scope of this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   4.  Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   5.  Fragmentation of packets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     5.1.  Pre-authorization  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     5.2.  Post-authorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   6.  Chunk size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   7.  Allowed large packet size  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
   8.  Handling special attributes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
     8.1.  Proxy-State attribute  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
     8.2.  State attribute  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
     8.3.  Service-Type attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
     8.4.  Rebuilding the original large packet . . . . . . . . . . . 24
   9.  New flag T field for the Long Extended Type attribute
       definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
   10. New attribute definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
     10.1. Frag-Status attribute  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
     10.2. Proxy-State-Len attribute  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
     10.3. Table of attributes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
   11. Operation with proxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
     11.1. Legacy proxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
     11.2. Updated proxies  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
   12. General considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
     12.1. Flag T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
     12.2. Violation of RFC2865 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
     12.3. Proxying based on User-Name  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
     12.4. Transport behaviour  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
   13. Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
   14. IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
   15. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
   16. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
     16.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
     16.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33



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   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34


















































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1.  Introduction

   The RADIUS [RFC2865] protocol carries authentication, authorization,
   and accounting information between a RADIUS Client and an RADIUS
   Server.  Information is exchanged between them through RADIUS
   packets.  Each RADIUS packet is composed of a header, and zero or
   more attributes, up to a maximum packet size of 4096 octets.  The
   protocol is a request/response protocol, as described in the
   operational model ([RFC6158], Section 3.1).

   The intention of the above packet size limitation was to avoid as
   much as possible UDP fragmentation.  Back then, 4096 seemed large
   enough for any purpose.  Now, new scenarios are emerging that require
   the exchange of authorization information exceeding this 4096 limit.
   For instance, the Application Bridging for Federated Access Beyond
   web (ABFAB) IETF WG defines the transport of Security Assertion
   Markup Language (SAML) sentences from the RADIUS server to the RADIUS
   client [I-D.ietf-abfab-aaa-saml].  This assertion is likely to be
   larger than 4096 octets.

   This means that peers desiring to send large amounts of data must
   fragment it across multiple packets.  For example, RADIUS-EAP
   [RFC3579] defines how an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)
   exchange occurs across multiple Access-Request / Access-Challenge
   sequences.  No such exchange is possible for accounting or
   authorization data.  [RFC6158] Section 3.1 suggests that exchanging
   large amounts authorization data is unnecessary in RADIUS.  Instead,
   the data should be referenced by name.  This requirement allows large
   policies to be pre-provisioned, and then referenced in an Access-
   Accept.  In some cases, however, the authorization data sent by the
   RADIUS Server is large and highly dynamic.  In other cases, the
   RADIUS Client needs to send large amounts of authorization data to
   the RADIUS Server.  Both of these cases are un-met by the
   requirements in [RFC6158].  As noted in that document, the practical
   limit on RADIUS packet sizes is governed by the Path MTU (PMTU),
   which may be significantly smaller than 4096 octets.  The combination
   of the two limitations means that there is a pressing need for a
   method to send large amounts of authorization data between RADIUS
   Client and Server, with no accompanying solution.

   [RFC6158] section 3.1 recommends three approaches for the
   transmission of large amount of data within RADIUS.  However, they
   are not applicable to the problem statement of this document for the
   following reasons:

   o  The first approach (utilization of a sequence of packets) does not
      talk about large amounts of data sent from the RADIUS Client to a
      RADIUS Server.  Leveraging EAP (request/challenge) to send the



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      data is not feasible, as EAP already fills packet to PMTU, and not
      all authentications use EAP.  Moreover, as noted for NAS-Filter-
      Rule ([RFC4849]), this approach does not entirely solve the
      problem of sending large amounts of data from a RADIUS Server to a
      RADIUS Client, as many current RADIUS attributes are not permitted
      in an Access-Challenge packets.

   o  The second approach (utilization of names rather than values) is
      not usable either, as using names rather than values is difficult
      when the nature of the data to be sent is highly dynamic (e.g.
      SAML statement or NAS-Filter-Rule attributes).  URLs could be used
      as a pointer to the location of the actual data, but their use
      would require them to be (a) dynamically created and modified, (b)
      securely accessed and (c) accessible from remote systems.
      Satisfying these constraints would require the modification of
      several networking systems (e.g. firewalls and web servers).
      Furthermore, the setup of an additional trust infrastructure (e.g.
      Public Key Infrastructure - PKI) would be required to allow secure
      retrieving of the information from the web server.

   o  PMTU discovery does not solve the problem, as it does not allow to
      send data larger than the minimum of (PMTU or 4096) octets.

   This document provides a mechanism to allow RADIUS peers to exchange
   large amounts of authorization data exceeding the 4096 octet limit,
   by fragmenting it across several exchanges.  The proposed solution
   does not impose any additional requirements to the RADIUS system
   administrators (e.g. need to modify firewall rules, set up web
   servers, configure routers, or modify any application server).  It
   maintains compatibility with intra-packet fragmentation mechanisms
   (like those defined in [RFC3579] or in [RFC6929]).  It is also
   transparent to existing RADIUS proxies, which do not implement this
   specification.  The only systems needing to implement this RFC are
   the ones which either generate, or consume the fragmented data being
   transmitted.  Intermediate proxies just pass the packets without
   changes.  Nevertheless, if a proxy supports this specification, it
   may re-assemble the data in order to either examine and/or modify it.

   A different approach to deal with RADIUS packets above the 4096 octet
   limit is described in [I-D.ietf-radext-bigger-packets], which
   proposes to extend RADIUS over TCP by allowing the length field in
   the RADIUS header to take values up to 65535 octets.  This provides a
   simpler operation, but it has the drawback of requiring every RADIUS
   proxy in the path between the RADIUS client and the RADIUS server to
   implement the extension as well.






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1.1.  Requirements Language

   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 [RFC2119].
   When these words appear in lower case, they have their natural
   language meaning.


2.  Status of this document

   This document is an Experimental RFC.  It defines a proposal to allow
   sending and receiving data exceeding the 4096 octet limit in RADIUS
   packets imposed by [RFC2865], without requiring the modification of
   intermediary proxies.

   The experiment consists in verifying whether the approach is usable
   on a large scale environment, by observing the uptake, usability, and
   operational behavior it shows in large-scale, real-life deployments.
   In that sense, so far the main use case for this specification is the
   transportation of large SAML sentences defined within the ABFAB
   architecture [I-D.ietf-abfab-arch].  Hence, it can be tested wherever
   an ABFAB deployment is being piloted.

   Besides, this proposal defines some experimental features that will
   need to be tested and verified before the document can be considered
   for Standards Track.  The first one of them is the requirement of
   updating [RFC2865] in order to relax the sentence defined in Section
   4.1 and stating that "An Access-Request MUST contain either a User-
   Password or a CHAP- Password or a State".  This specification might
   generate Access-Request packets without any of these attributes.
   Although all known implementations have chosen the philosophy of "be
   liberal in what you accept", we need to gain more operational
   experience to verify that unmodified proxies do not drop this kind of
   packets.  More details on this aspect can be found in Section 12.2.

   Another experimental feature of this specification is that it
   requires proxies to base their routing decisions on the value of the
   RADIUS User-Name attribute.  Our experience is that this is the
   common behaviour, thus no issues are expected.  However, it needs to
   be confirmed after using different implementations of intermediate
   proxies.  More details on this aspect can be found in Section 12.3.

   Moreover, this document requires two minor updates to Standards Track
   documents.  First, it modifies the definition of the "Reserved" field
   of the "Long Extended Type" attribute [RFC6929], by allocating an
   additional flag "T".  No issues are expected with this update,
   although some proxies might drop packets that does not have the



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   "Reserved" field set to 0.  More details on this aspect can be found
   in Section 12.1.

   The other Standards Track document that requires a minor update is
   [RFC6158].  It states that "attribute designers SHOULD NOT assume
   that a RADIUS implementation can successfully process RADIUS packets
   larger than 4096 octets", something no longer true if this document
   advances.


3.  Scope of this document

   This specification describes how a RADIUS Client and a RADIUS Server
   can exchange data exceeding the 4096 octet limit imposed by one
   packet.  However, the mechanism described in this specification
   SHOULD NOT be used to exchange more than 100 kilo-octets of data.
   Any more than this may turn RADIUS into a generic transport protocol,
   such as TCP or SCTP, which is undesired.  Experience shows that
   attempts to transport bulk data across the Internet with UDP will
   inevitably fail, unless they re-implement all of the behavior of TCP.
   The underlying design of RADIUS lacks the proper retransmission
   policies or congestion control mechanisms which would make it a
   competitor to TCP.

   Therefore, RADIUS/UDP transport is by design unable to transport bulk
   data.  It is both undesired and impossible to change the protocol at
   this point in time.  This specification is intended to allow the
   transport of more than 4096 octets of data through existing RADIUS/
   UDP proxies.  Other solutions such as RADIUS/TCP MUST be used when a
   "green field" deployment requires the transport of bulk data.

   Section 7, below, describes with further details the reasoning for
   this limitation, and recommends administrators to adjust it according
   to the specific capabilities of their existing systems in terms of
   memory and processing power.

   Moreover, its scope is limited to the exchange of authorization data,
   as other exchanges do not require of such a mechanism.  In
   particular, authentication exchanges have already been defined to
   overcome this limitation (e.g.  RADIUS-EAP).  Moreover, as they
   represent the most critical part of a RADIUS conversation, it is
   preferable to not introduce any modification to their operation that
   may affect existing equipment.

   There is no need to fragment accounting packets either.  While the
   accounting process can send large amounts of data, that data is
   typically composed of many small updates.  That is, there is no
   demonstrated need to send indivisible blocks of more than 4 kilo-



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   octets of data.  The need to send large amounts of data per user
   session often originates from the need for flow-based accounting.  In
   this use-case, the RADIUS Client may send accounting data for many
   thousands of flows, where all those flows are tied to one user
   session.  The existing Acct-Multi-Session-Id attribute defined in
   [RFC2866] Section 5.11 has been proven to work here.

   Similarly, there is no need to fragment Change of Authorization (CoA)
   [RFC5176] packets.  Instead, the CoA client MUST send a CoA-Request
   packet containing session identification attributes, along with
   Service-Type = Additional-Authorization, and a State attribute.
   Implementations not supporting fragmentation will respond with a CoA-
   NAK, and an Error-Cause of Unsupported-Service.

   The above requirement does not assume that the CoA client and the
   RADIUS Server are co-located.  They may, in fact be run on separate
   parts of the infrastructure, or even by separate administrators.
   There is, however, a requirement that the two communicate.  We can
   see that the CoA client needs to send session identification
   attributes in order to send CoA packets.  These attributes cannot be
   known a priori by the CoA client, and can only come from the RADIUS
   Server.  Therefore, even when the two systems are not co-located,
   they must be able to communicate in order to operate in unison.  The
   alternative is for the two systems to have differing views of the
   users authorization parameters, which is a security disaster.

   This specification does not allow for fragmentation of CoA packets.
   Allowing for fragmented CoA packets would involve changing multiple
   parts of the RADIUS protocol, with the corresponding possibility for
   implementation issues, mistakes, etc.

   Where CoA clients (i.e.  RADIUS Servers) need to send large amounts
   of authorization data to a CoA server (i.e.  RADIUS Client), they
   need only send a minimal CoA-Request packet, containing Service-Type
   of Authorize-Only, as per RFC 5176, along with session identification
   attributes.  This CoA packet serves as a signal to the RADIUS Client
   that the users' session requires re-authorization.  When the RADIUS
   Client re-authorizes the user via Access-Request, the RADIUS Server
   can perform fragmentation, and send large amounts of authorization
   data to the RADIUS Client.

   The assumption in the above scenario is that the CoA client and
   RADIUS Server are co-located, or at least strongly coupled.  That is,
   the path from CoA client to CoA server SHOULD be the exact reverse of
   the path from RADIUS Client to RADIUS Server.  The following diagram
   will hopefully clarify the roles:





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                               +---------------------+
                               | RADIUS              |
                               | Client  CoA Server  |
                               +---------------------+
                                  |        ^
                  Access-Request  |        |   CoA-Request
                                  v        |
                               +---------------------+
                               | RADIUS   CoA client |
                               | Server              |
                               +---------------------+

   Where there is a proxy involved:

                               +---------------------+
                               | RADIUS              |
                               | Client  CoA Server  |
                               +---------------------+
                                  |        ^
                  Access-Request  |        |   CoA-Request
                                  v        |
                               +---------------------+
                               | RADIUS    CoA       |
                               | Proxy    Proxy      |
                               +---------------------+
                                  |        ^
                  Access-Request  |        |   CoA-Request
                                  v        |
                               +---------------------+
                               | RADIUS   CoA client |
                               | Server              |
                               +---------------------+

   That is, the RADIUS and CoA subsystems at each hop are strongly
   connected.  Where they are not strongly connected, it will be
   impossible to use CoA-Request packets to transport large amounts of
   authorization data.

   This design is more complicated than allowing for fragmented CoA
   packets.  However, the CoA client and the RADIUS Server must
   communicate even when not using this specification.  We believe that
   standardizing that communication, and using one method for exchange
   of large data is preferred to unspecified communication methods and
   multiple ways of achieving the same result.  If we were to allow
   fragmentation of data over CoA packets, the size and complexity of
   this specification would increase significantly.

   The above requirement solves a number of issues.  It clearly



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   separates session identification from authorization.  Without this
   separation, it is difficult to both identify a session, and change
   its authorization using the same attribute.  It also ensures that the
   authorization process is the same for initial authentication, and for
   CoA.


4.  Overview

   Authorization exchanges can occur either before or after end user
   authentication has been completed.  An authorization exchange before
   authentication allows a RADIUS Client to provide the RADIUS Server
   with information that MAY modify how the authentication process will
   be performed (e.g. it may affect the selection of the EAP method).
   An authorization exchange after authentication allows the RADIUS
   Server to provide the RADIUS Client with information about the end
   user, the results of the authentication process and/or obligations to
   be enforced.  In this specification we refer to the "pre-
   authorization" as the exchange of authorization information before
   the end user authentication has started (from the RADIUS Client to
   the RADIUS Server), whereas the term "post-authorization" is used to
   refer to an authorization exchange happening after this
   authentication process (from the RADIUS Server to the RADIUS Client).

   In this specification we refer to the "size limit" as the practical
   limit on RADIUS packet sizes.  This limit is the minimum between 4096
   octets and the current PMTU.  We define below a method which uses
   Access-Request and Access-Accept in order to exchange fragmented
   data.  The RADIUS Client and server exchange a series of Access-
   Request / Access-Accept packets, until such time as all of the
   fragmented data has been transported.  Each packet contains a Frag-
   Status attribute which lets the other party know if fragmentation is
   desired, ongoing, or finished.  Each packet may also contain the
   fragmented data, or instead be an "ACK" to a previous fragment from
   the other party.  Each Access-Request contains a User-Name attribute,
   allowing the packet to be proxied if necessary (see Section 11.1).
   Each Access-Request may also contain a State attribute, which serves
   to tie it to a previous Access-Accept.  Each Access-Accept contains a
   State attribute, for use by the RADIUS Client in a later Access-
   Request.  Each Access-Accept contains a Service-Type attribute with
   the "Additional-Authorization" value.  This indicates that the
   service being provided is part of a fragmented exchange, and that the
   Access-Accept should not be interpreted as providing network access
   to the end user.

   When a RADIUS Client or RADIUS Server need to send data that exceeds
   the size limit, the mechanism proposed in this document is used.
   Instead of encoding one large RADIUS packet, a series of smaller



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   RADIUS packets of the same type are encoded.  Each smaller packet is
   called a "chunk" in this specification, in order to distinguish it
   from traditional RADIUS packets.  The encoding process is a simple
   linear walk over the attributes to be encoded.  This walk preserves
   the order of the attributes of the same type, as required by
   [RFC2865].  The number of attributes encoded in a particular chunk
   depends on the size limit, the size of each attribute, the number of
   proxies between the RADIUS Client and RADIUS Server, and the overhead
   for fragmentation signalling attributes.  Specific details are given
   in Section 6.  A new attribute called Frag-Status (Section 10.1)
   signals the fragmentation status.

   After the first chunk is encoded, it is sent to the other party.  The
   packet is identified as a chunk via the Frag-Status attribute.  The
   other party then requests additional chunks, again using the Frag-
   Status attribute.  This process is repeated until all the attributes
   have been sent from one party to the other.  When all the chunks have
   been received, the original list of attributes is reconstructed and
   processed as if it had been received in one packet.

   When multiple chunks are sent, a special situation may occur for
   Extended Type attributes as defined in [RFC6929].  The fragmentation
   process may split a fragmented attribute across two or more chunks,
   which is not permitted by that specification.  We address this issue
   by using the newly defined flag "T" in the Reserved field of the
   "Long Extended Type" attribute format (see Section 9 for further
   details on this flag).

   This last situation is expected to be the most common occurrence in
   chunks.  Typically, packet fragmentation will occur as a consequence
   of a desire to send one or more large (and therefore fragmented)
   attributes.  The large attribute will likely be split into two or
   more pieces.  Where chunking does not split a fragmented attribute,
   no special treatment is necessary.

   The setting of the "T" flag is the only case where the chunking
   process affects the content of an attribute.  Even then, the "Value"
   fields of all attributes remain unchanged.  Any per-packet security
   attributes such as Message-Authenticator are calculated for each
   chunk independently.  There are neither integrity nor security checks
   performed on the "original" packet.

   Each RADIUS packet sent or received as part of the chunking process
   MUST be a valid packet, subject to all format and security
   requirements.  This requirement ensures that a "transparent" proxy
   not implementing this specification can receive and send compliant
   packets.  That is, a proxy which simply forwards packets without
   detailed examination or any modification will be able to proxy



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   "chunks".


5.  Fragmentation of packets

   When the RADIUS Client or the RADIUS Server desires to send a packet
   that exceeds the size limit, it is split into chunks and sent via
   multiple client/server exchanges.  The exchange is indicated via the
   Frag-Status attribute, which has value More-Data-Pending for all but
   the last chunk of the series.  The chunks are tied together via the
   State attribute.

   The delivery of a large fragmented RADIUS packet with authorization
   data can happen before or after the end user has been authenticated
   by the RADIUS Server.  We can distinguish two phases, which can be
   omitted if there is no authorization data to be sent:

   1.  Pre-authorization.  In this phase, the RADIUS Client MAY send a
       large packet with authorization information to the RADIUS Server
       before the end user is authenticated.  Only the RADIUS Client is
       allowed to send authorization data during this phase.

   2.  Post-authorization.  In this phase, the RADIUS Server MAY send a
       large packet with authorization data to the RADIUS Client after
       the end user has been authenticated.  Only the RADIUS Server is
       allowed to send authorization data during this phase.

   The following subsections describe how to perform fragmentation for
   packets for these two phases, pre-authorization and post-
   authorization.  We give the packet type, along with a RADIUS
   Identifier, to indicate that requests and responses are connected.
   We then give a list of attributes.  We do not give values for most
   attributes, as we wish to concentrate on the fragmentation behaviour,
   rather than packet contents.  Attribute values are given for
   attributes relevant to the fragmentation process.  Where "long
   extended" attributes are used, we indicate the M (More) and T
   (Truncation) flags as optional square brackets after the attribute
   name.  As no "long extended" attributes have yet been defined, we use
   example attributes, named as "Example-Long-1", etc.  The maximum
   chunk size is established in term of number of attributes (11), for
   sake of simplicity.

5.1.  Pre-authorization

   When the RADIUS Client needs to send a large amount of data to the
   RADIUS Server, the data to be sent is split into chunks and sent to
   the RADIUS Server via multiple Access-Request / Access-Accept
   exchanges.  The example below shows this exchange.



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   The following is an Access-Request which the RADIUS Client intends to
   send to a RADIUS Server.  However, due to a combination of issues
   (PMTU, large attributes, etc.), the content does not fit into one
   Access-Request packet.

   Access-Request
       User-Name
       NAS-Identifier
       Calling-Station-Id
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1
       Example-Long-2 [M]
       Example-Long-2 [M]
       Example-Long-2

                     Figure 1: Desired Access-Request

   The RADIUS Client therefore must send the attributes listed above in
   a series of chunks.  The first chunk contains eight (8) attributes
   from the original Access-Request, and a Frag-Status attribute.  Since
   last attribute is "Example-Long-1" with the "M" flag set, the
   chunking process also sets the "T" flag in that attribute.  The
   Access-Request is sent with a RADIUS Identifier field having value
   23.  The Frag-Status attribute has value More-Data-Pending, to
   indicate that the RADIUS Client wishes to send more data in a
   subsequent Access-Request.  The RADIUS Client also adds a Service-
   Type attribute, which indicates that it is part of the chunking
   process.  The packet is signed with the Message-Authenticator
   attribute, completing the maximum number of attributes (11).















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   Access-Request (ID = 23)
       User-Name
       NAS-Identifier
       Calling-Station-Id
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [MT]
       Frag-Status = More-Data-Pending
       Service-Type = Additional-Authorization
       Message-Authenticator

                    Figure 2: Access-Request (chunk 1)

   Compliant RADIUS Servers (i.e. servers implementing fragmentation)
   receiving this packet will see the Frag-Status attribute, and
   postpone all authorization and authentication handling until all of
   the chunks have been received.  This postponement also affects to the
   verification that the Access-Request packet contains some kind of
   authentication attribute (e.g.  User-Password, CHAP-Password, State
   or other future attribute), as required by [RFC2865] (see
   Section 12.2 for more information on this).

   Non-compliant RADIUS Servers (i.e. servers not implementing
   fragmentation) should also see the Service-Type requesting
   provisioning for an unknown service, and return Access-Reject.  Other
   non-compliant RADIUS Servers may return an Access-Reject, Access-
   Challenge, or an Access-Accept with a particular Service-Type other
   than Additional-Authorization.  Compliant RADIUS Client
   implementations MUST treat these responses as if they had received
   Access-Reject instead.

   Compliant RADIUS Servers who wish to receive all of the chunks will
   respond with the following packet.  The value of the State here is
   arbitrary, and serves only as a unique token for example purposes.
   We only note that it MUST be temporally unique to the RADIUS Server.

   Access-Accept (ID = 23)
       Frag-Status = More-Data-Request
       Service-Type = Additional-Authorization
       State = 0xabc00001
       Message-Authenticator

                     Figure 3: Access-Accept (chunk 1)

   The RADIUS Client will see this response, and use the RADIUS
   Identifier field to associate it with an ongoing chunking session.



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   Compliant NASes will then continue the chunking process.  Non-
   compliant NASes will never see a response such as this, as they will
   never send a Frag-Status attribute.  The Service-Type attribute is
   included in the Access-Accept in order to signal that the response is
   part of the chunking process.  This packet therefore does not
   provision any network service for the end user.

   The RADIUS Client continues the process by sending the next chunk,
   which includes an additional six (6) attributes from the original
   packet.  It again includes the User-Name attribute, so that non-
   compliant proxies can process the packet (see Section 11.1).  It sets
   the Frag-Status attribute to More-Data-Pending, as more data is
   pending.  It includes a Service-Type for reasons described above.  It
   includes the State attribute from the previous Access-accept.  It
   signs the packet with Message-Authenticator, as there are no
   authentication attributes in the packet.  It uses a new RADIUS
   Identifier field.

   Access-Request (ID = 181)
       User-Name
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1
       Example-Long-2 [M]
       Example-Long-2 [MT]
       Frag-Status = More-Data-Pending
       Service-Type = Additional-Authorization
       State = 0xabc000001
       Message-Authenticator

                    Figure 4: Access-Request (chunk 2)

   Compliant RADIUS Servers receiving this packet will see the Frag-
   Status attribute, and look for a State attribute.  Since one exists
   and it matches a State sent in an Access-Accept, this packet is part
   of a chunking process.  The RADIUS Server will associate the
   attributes with the previous chunk.  Since the Frag-Status attribute
   has value More-Data-Request, the RADIUS Server will respond with an
   Access-Accept as before.  It MUST include a State attribute, with a
   value different from the previous Access-Accept.  This State MUST
   again be globally and temporally unique.









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   Access-Accept (ID = 181)
       Frag-Status = More-Data-Request
       Service-Type = Additional-Authorization
       State = 0xdef00002
       Message-Authenticator

                     Figure 5: Access-Accept (chunk 2)

   The RADIUS Client will see this response, and use the RADIUS
   Identifier field to associate it with an ongoing chunking session.
   The RADIUS Client continues the chunking process by sending the next
   chunk, with the final attribute(s) from the original packet, and
   again includes the original User-Name attribute.  The Frag-Status
   attribute is not included in the next Access-Request, as no more
   chunks are available for sending.  The RADIUS Client includes the
   State attribute from the previous Access-accept.  It signs the packet
   with Message-Authenticator, as there are no authentication attributes
   in the packet.  It again uses a new RADIUS Identifier field.

   Access-Request (ID = 241)
       User-Name
       Example-Long-2
       State = 0xdef00002
       Message-Authenticator

                    Figure 6: Access-Request (chunk 3)

   On reception of this last chunk, the RADIUS Server matches it with an
   ongoing session via the State attribute, and sees that there is no
   Frag-Status attribute present.  It then processes the received
   attributes as if they had been sent in one RADIUS packet.  See
   Section 8.4 for further details of this process.  It generates the
   appropriate response, which can be either Access-Accept or Access-
   Reject.  In this example, we show an Access-Accept.  The RADIUS
   Server MUST send a State attribute, which permits link the received
   data with the authentication process.

   Access-Accept (ID = 241)
       State = 0x98700003
       Message-Authenticator

                     Figure 7: Access-Accept (chunk 3)

   The above example shows in practice how the chunking process works.
   We re-iterate the implementation and security requirements here.

   Each chunk is a valid RADIUS packet (see Section 12.2 for some
   considerations about this), and all RADIUS format and security



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   requirements MUST be followed before any chunking process is applied.

   Every chunk except for the last one from a RADIUS Client MUST include
   a Frag-Status attribute, with value More-Data-Pending.  The last
   chunk MUST NOT contain a Frag-Status attribute.  Each chunk except
   for the last from a RADIUS Client MUST include a Service-Type
   attribute, with value Additional-Authorization.  Each chunk MUST
   include a User-Name attribute, which MUST be identical in all chunks.
   Each chunk except for the first one from a RADIUS Client MUST include
   a State attribute, which MUST be copied from a previous Access-
   Accept.

   Each Access-Accept MUST include a State attribute.  The value for
   this attribute MUST change in every new Access-Accept, and MUST be
   globally and temporally unique.

5.2.  Post-authorization

   When the RADIUS Server wants to send a large amount of authorization
   data to the RADIUS Client after authentication, the operation is very
   similar to the pre-authorization one.  The presence of Service-Type =
   Additional-Authorization attribute ensures that a RADIUS Client not
   supporting this specification will treat that unrecognized Service-
   Type as though an Access-Reject had been received instead ([RFC2865]
   Section 5.6).  If the original large Access-Accept packet contained a
   Service-Type attribute, it will be included with its original value
   in the last transmitted chunk, to avoid confusion with the one used
   for fragmentation signalling.  It is RECOMMENDED that RADIUS Servers
   include a State attribute on their original Access-Accept packets,
   even if fragmentation is not taking place, to allow the RADIUS Client
   to send additional authorization data in subsequent exchanges.  This
   State attribute would be included in the last transmitted chunk, to
   avoid confusion with the ones used for fragmentation signalling.

   Client supporting this specification MUST include a Frag-Status =
   Fragmentation-Supported attribute in the first Access-Request sent to
   the RADIUS Server, in order to indicate they would accept fragmented
   data from the sever.  This is not required if pre-authorization
   process was carried out, as it is implicit.

   The following is an Access-Accept which the RADIUS Server intends to
   send to a RADIUS Client.  However, due to a combination of issues
   (PMTU, large attributes, etc.), the content does not fit into one
   Access-Accept packet.







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   Access-Accept
       User-Name
       EAP-Message
       Service-Type(Login)
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1
       Example-Long-2 [M]
       Example-Long-2 [M]
       Example-Long-2
       State = 0xcba00003

                      Figure 8: Desired Access-Accept

   The RADIUS Server therefore must send the attributes listed above in
   a series of chunks.  The first chunk contains seven (7) attributes
   from the original Access-Accept, and a Frag-Status attribute.  Since
   last attribute is "Example-Long-1" with the "M" flag set, the
   chunking process also sets the "T" flag in that attribute.  The
   Access-Accept is sent with a RADIUS Identifier field having value 30
   corresponding to a previous Access-Request not depicted.  The Frag-
   Status attribute has value More-Data-Pending, to indicate that the
   RADIUS Server wishes to send more data in a subsequent Access-Accept.
   The RADIUS Server also adds a Service-Type attribute with value
   Additional-Authorization, which indicates that it is part of the
   chunking process.  Note that the original Service-Type is not
   included in this chunk.  Finally, a State attribute is included to
   allow matching subsequent requests with this conversation, and the
   packet is signed with the Message-Authenticator attribute, completing
   the maximum number of attributes of 11.















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   Access-Accept (ID = 30)
       User-Name
       EAP-Message
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [MT]
       Frag-Status = More-Data-Pending
       Service-Type = Additional-Authorization
       State = 0xcba00004
       Message-Authenticator

                     Figure 9: Access-Accept (chunk 1)

   Compliant RADIUS Clients receiving this packet will see the Frag-
   Status attribute, and suspend all authorization handling until all of
   the chunks have been received.  Non-compliant RADIUS Clients should
   also see the Service-Type indicating the provisioning for an unknown
   service, and will treat it as an Access-Reject.

   RADIUS Clients who wish to receive all of the chunks will respond
   with the following packet, where the value of the State attribute is
   taken from the received Access-Accept.  They also include the User-
   Name attribute so that non-compliant proxies can process the packet
   (Section 11.1).

   Access-Request (ID = 131)
       User-Name
       Frag-Status = More-Data-Request
       Service-Type = Additional-Authorization
       State = 0xcba00004
       Message-Authenticator

                    Figure 10: Access-Request (chunk 1)

   The RADIUS Server receives this request, and uses the State attribute
   to associate it with an ongoing chunking session.  Compliant ASes
   will then continue the chunking process.  Non-compliant ASes will
   never see a response such as this, as they will never send a Frag-
   Status attribute.

   The RADIUS Server continues the chunking process by sending the next
   chunk, with the final attribute(s) from the original packet.  The
   value of the Identifier field is taken from the received Access-
   Request.  A Frag-Status attribute is not included in the next Access-
   Accept, as no more chunks are available for sending.  The RADIUS
   Server includes the original State attribute to allow the RADIUS



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   Client to send additional authorization data.  The original Service-
   Type attribute is included as well.

   Access-Accept (ID = 131)
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1 [M]
       Example-Long-1
       Example-Long-2 [M]
       Example-Long-2 [M]
       Example-Long-2
       Service-Type = Login
       State = 0xfda000003
       Message-Authenticator

                    Figure 11: Access-Accept (chunk 2)

   On reception of this last chunk, the RADIUS Client matches it with an
   ongoing session via the Identifier field, and sees that there is no
   Frag-Status attribute present.  It then processes the received
   attributes as if they had been sent in one RADIUS packet.  See
   Section 8.4 for further details of this process.


6.  Chunk size

   In an ideal scenario, each intermediate chunk would be exactly the
   size limit in length.  In this way, the number of round trips
   required to send a large packet would be optimal.  However, this is
   not possible for several reasons.

   1.  RADIUS attributes have a variable length, and must be included
       completely in a chunk.  Thus, it is possible that, even if there
       is some free space in the chunk, it is not enough to include the
       next attribute.  This can generate up to 254 octets of spare
       space on every chunk.

   2.  RADIUS fragmentation requires the introduction of some extra
       attributes for signalling.  Specifically, a Frag-Status attribute
       (7 octets) is included on every chunk of a packet, except the
       last one.  A RADIUS State attribute (from 3 to 255 octets) is
       also included in most chunks, to allow the RADIUS Server to bind
       an Access-Request with a previous Access-Challenge.  User-Name
       attributes (from 3 to 255 octets) are introduced on every chunk
       the RADIUS Client sends as they are required by the proxies to
       route the packet to its destination.  Together, these attributes
       can generate from up to 13 to 517 octets of signalling data,
       reducing the amount of payload information that can be sent on



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       each chunk.

   3.  RADIUS packets SHOULD be adjusted to avoid exceeding the network
       MTU.  Otherwise, IP fragmentation may occur, having undesirable
       consequences.  Hence, maximum chunk size would be decreased from
       4096 to the actual MTU of the network.

   4.  The inclusion of Proxy-State attributes by intermediary proxies
       can decrease the availability of usable space into the chunk.
       This is described with further detail in Section 8.1.


7.  Allowed large packet size

   There are no provisions for signalling how much data is to be sent
   via the fragmentation process as a whole.  It is difficult to define
   what is meant by the "length" of any fragmented data.  That data can
   be multiple attributes, which includes RADIUS attribute header
   fields.  Or it can be one or more "large" attributes (more than 256
   octets in length).  Proxies can also filter these attributes, to
   modify, add, or delete them and their contents.  These proxies act on
   a "packet by packet" basis, and cannot know what kind of filtering
   actions they take on future packets.  As a result, it is impossible
   to signal any meaningful value for the total amount of additional
   data.

   Unauthenticated end users are permitted to trigger the exchange of
   large amounts of fragmented data between the RADIUS Client and the
   RADIUS Server, having the potential to allow Denial of Service (DoS)
   attacks.  An attacker could initiate a large number of connections,
   each of which requests the RADIUS Server to store a large amount of
   data.  This data could cause memory exhaustion on the RADIUS Server,
   and result in authentic users being denied access.  It is worth
   noting that authentication mechanisms are already designed to avoid
   exceeding the size limit.

   Hence, implementations of this specification MUST limit the total
   amount of data they send and/or receive via this specification.  Its
   default value SHOULD be 100 kilo-octets.  Any more than this may turn
   RADIUS into a generic transport protocol, which is undesired.  This
   limit SHOULD be configurable, so that it can be changed if necessary.

   Implementations of this specification MUST limit the total number of
   round trips used during the fragmentation process.  Its default value
   SHOULD be to 25.  Any more than this may indicate an implementation
   error, misconfiguration, or a denial of service (DoS) attack.  This
   limit SHOULD be configurable, so that it can be changed if necessary.




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   For instance, let's imagine the RADIUS Server wants to transport an
   SAML assertion which is 15000 octets long, to the RADIUS Client.  In
   this hypothetical scenario, we assume there are 3 intermediate
   proxies, each one inserting a Proxy-State attribute of 20 octets.
   Also we assume the State attributes generated by the RADIUS Server
   have a size of 6 octets, and the User-Name attribute take 50 octets.
   Therefore, the amount of free space in a chunk for the transport of
   the SAML assertion attributes is: Total (4096) - RADIUS header (20) -
   User-Name (50 octets) - Frag-Status (7 octets) - Service-Type (6
   octets) - State (6 octets) - Proxy-State (20 octets) - Proxy-State
   (20) - Proxy-State (20) - Message-Authenticator (18 octets),
   resulting in a total of 3929 octets, that is, 15 attributes of 255
   bytes.

   According to [RFC6929], a Long-Extended-Type provides a payload of
   251 octets.  Therefore, the SAML assertion described above would
   result into 60 attributes, requiring of 4 round-trips to be
   completely transmitted.


8.  Handling special attributes

8.1.  Proxy-State attribute

   RADIUS proxies may introduce Proxy-State attributes into any Access-
   Request packet they forward.  If they are unable to add this
   information to the packet, they may silently discard forwarding it to
   its destination, leading to DoS situations.  Moreover, any Proxy-
   State attribute received by a RADIUS Server in an Access-Request
   packet MUST be copied into the reply packet to it.  For these
   reasons, Proxy-State attributes require a special treatment within
   the packet fragmentation mechanism.

   When the RADIUS Server replies to an Access-Request packet as part of
   a conversation involving a fragmentation (either a chunk or a request
   for chunks), it MUST include every Proxy-State attribute received
   into the reply packet.  This means that the RADIUS Server MUST take
   into account the size of these Proxy-State attributes in order to
   calculate the size of the next chunk to be sent.

   However, while a RADIUS Server will always know how much space MUST
   be left on each reply packet for Proxy-State attributes (as they are
   directly included by the RADIUS Server), a RADIUS Client cannot know
   this information, as Proxy-State attributes are removed from the
   reply packet by their respective proxies before forwarding them back.
   Hence, RADIUS Clients need a mechanism to discover the amount of
   space required by proxies to introduce their Proxy-State attributes.
   In the following we describe a new mechanism to perform such a



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   discovery:

   1.  When a RADIUS Client does not know how much space will be
       required by intermediate proxies for including their Proxy-State
       attributes, it SHOULD start using a conservative value (e.g. 1024
       octets) as the chunk size.

   2.  When the RADIUS Server receives a chunk from the RADIUS Client,
       it can calculate the total size of the Proxy-State attributes
       that have been introduced by intermediary proxies along the path.
       This information MUST be returned to the RADIUS Client in the
       next reply packet, encoded into a new attribute called Proxy-
       State-Len.  The RADIUS Server MAY artificially increase this
       quantity in order to handle with situations where proxies behave
       inconsistently (e.g. they generate Proxy-State attributes with a
       different size for each packet), or for situations where
       intermediary proxies remove Proxy-State attributes generated by
       other proxies.  Increasing this value would make the RADIUS
       Client to leave some free space for these situations.

   3.  The RADIUS Client SHOULD react upon the reception of this
       attribute by adjusting the maximum size for the next chunk
       accordingly.  However, as the Proxy-State-Len offers just an
       estimation of the space required by the proxies, the RADIUS
       Client MAY select a smaller amount in environments known to be
       problematic.

8.2.  State attribute

   This RADIUS fragmentation mechanism makes use of the State attribute
   to link all the chunks belonging to the same fragmented packet.
   However, some considerations are required when the RADIUS Server is
   fragmenting a packet that already contains a State attribute for
   other purposes not related with the fragmentation.  If the procedure
   described in Section 5 is followed, two different State attributes
   could be included into a single chunk, incurring into two problems.
   First, [RFC2865] explicitly forbids that more than one State
   attribute appears into a single packet.

   A straightforward solution consists on making the RADIUS Server to
   send the original State attribute into the last chunk of the sequence
   (attributes can be re-ordered as specified in [RFC2865]).  As the
   last chunk (when generated by the RADIUS Server) does not contain any
   State attribute due to the fragmentation mechanism, both situations
   described above are avoided.

   Something similar happens when the RADIUS Client has to send a
   fragmented packet that contains a State attribute on it.  The RADIUS



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   Client MUST assure that this original State is included into the
   first chunk sent to the RADIUS Server (as this one never contains any
   State attribute due to fragmentation).

8.3.  Service-Type attribute

   This RADIUS fragmentation mechanism makes use of the Service-Type
   attribute to indicate an Access-Accept packet is not granting access
   to the service yet, since additional authorization exchange needs to
   be performed.  Similarly to the State attribute, the RADIUS Server
   has to send the original Service-Type attribute into the last Access-
   Accept of the RADIUS conversation to avoid ambiguity.

8.4.  Rebuilding the original large packet

   The RADIUS Client stores the RADIUS attributes received on each chunk
   in order to be able to rebuild the original large packet after
   receiving the last chunk.  However, some of these received attributes
   MUST NOT be stored in this list, as they have been introduced as part
   of the fragmentation signalling and hence, they are not part of the
   original packet.

   o  State (except the one in the last chunk, if present)

   o  Service-Type = Additional-Authorization

   o  Frag-Status

   o  Proxy-State-Len

   Similarly, the RADIUS Server MUST NOT store the following attributes
   as part of the original large packet:

   o  State (except the one in the first chunk, if present)

   o  Service-Type = Additional-Authorization

   o  Frag-Status

   o  Proxy-State (except the ones in the last chunk)

   o  User-Name (except the one in the first chunk)


9.  New flag T field for the Long Extended Type attribute definition

   This document defines a new field in the "Long Extended Type"
   attribute format.  This field is one bit in size, and is called "T"



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   for Truncation.  It indicates that the attribute is intentionally
   truncated in this chunk, and is to be continued in the next chunk of
   the sequence.  The combination of the flags "M" and "T" indicates
   that the attribute is fragmented (flag M), but that all the fragments
   are not available in this chunk (flag T).  Proxies implementing
   [RFC6929] will see these attributes as invalid (they will not be able
   to reconstruct them), but they will still forward them as [RFC6929]
   section 5.2 indicates they SHOULD forward unknown attributes anyway.

   As a consequence of this addition, the Reserved field is now 6 bits
   long (see Section 12.1 for some considerations).  The following
   figure represents the new attribute format.

        0                   1                   2                   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
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |     Type      |    Length     | Extended-Type |M|T| Reserved  |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |     Value ...
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

          Figure 12: Updated Long Extended Type attribute format


10.  New attribute definition

   This document proposes the definition of two new extended type
   attributes, called Frag-Status and Proxy-State-Len.  The format of
   these attributes follows the indications for an Extended Type
   attribute defined in [RFC6929].

10.1.  Frag-Status attribute

   This attribute is used for fragmentation signalling, and its meaning
   depends on the code value transported within it.  The following
   figure represents the format of the Frag-Status attribute.

                            1                   2                   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
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |   Type        |    Length     | Extended-Type |     Code
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                         Code (cont)                   |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                       Figure 13: Frag-Status format

   Type



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      To be assigned (TBA)

   Length

      7

   Extended-Type

      To be assigned (TBA).

   Code

      4 byte.  Integer indicating the code.  The values defined in this
      specifications are:

         0 - Reserved

         1 - Fragmentation-Supported

         2 - More-Data-Pending

         3 - More-Data-Request

   This attribute MAY be present in Access-Request, Access-Challenge and
   Access-Accept packets.  It MUST NOT be included in Access-Reject
   packets.  RADIUS Clients supporting this specification MUST include a
   Frag-Status = Fragmentation-Supported attribute in the first Access-
   Request sent to the RADIUS Server, in order to indicate they would
   accept fragmented data from the sever.

10.2.  Proxy-State-Len attribute

   This attribute indicates to the RADIUS Client the length of the
   Proxy-State attributes received by the RADIUS Server.  This
   information is useful to adjust the length of the chunks sent by the
   RADIUS Client.  The format of this Proxy-State-Len attribute is the
   following:

                            1                   2                   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
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |   Type        |    Length     | Extended-Type |     Value
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                   Value (cont)                        |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                     Figure 14: Proxy-State-Len format




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   Type

      To be assigned (TBA)

   Length

      7

   Extended-Type

      To be assigned (TBA).

   Value

      4 octets.  Total length (in octets) of received Proxy-State
      attributes (including headers).

   This attribute MAY be present in Access-Challenge and Access-Accept
   packets.  It MUST NOT be included in Access-Request or Access-Reject
   packets.

10.3.  Table of attributes

   The following table shows the different attributes defined in this
   document related with the kind of RADIUS packets where they can be
   present.

                            |     Kind of packet    |
                            +-----+-----+-----+-----+
      Attribute Name        | Req | Acc | Rej | Cha |
      ----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
      Frag-Status           | 0-1 | 0-1 |  0  | 0-1 |
      ----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
      Proxy-State-Len       | 0   | 0-1 |  0  | 0-1 |
      ----------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+


11.  Operation with proxies

   The fragmentation mechanism defined above is designed to be
   transparent to legacy proxies, as long as they do not want to modify
   any fragmented attribute.  Nevertheless, updated proxies supporting
   this specification can even modify fragmented attributes.

11.1.  Legacy proxies

   As every chunk is indeed a RADIUS packet, legacy proxies treat them
   as the rest of packets, routing them to their destination.  Proxies



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   can introduce Proxy-State attributes to Access-Request packets, even
   if they are indeed chunks.  This will not affect how fragmentation is
   managed.  The RADIUS Server will include all the received Proxy-State
   attributes into the generated response, as described in [RFC2865].
   Hence, proxies do not distinguish between a regular RADIUS packet and
   a chunk.

11.2.  Updated proxies

   Updated proxies can interact with RADIUS Clients and Servers in order
   to obtain the complete large packet before starting forwarding it.
   In this way, proxies can manipulate (modify and/or remove) any
   attribute of the packet, or introduce new attributes, without
   worrying about crossing the boundaries of the chunk size.  Once the
   manipulated packet is ready, it is sent to the original destination
   using the fragmentation mechanism (if required).  The following
   example shows how an updated proxy interacts with the RADIUS Client
   to obtain a large Access-Request packet, modify an attribute
   resulting into an even more large packet, and interacts with the
   RADIUS Server to complete the transmission of the modified packet.


      +-+-+-+-+-+                                          +-+-+-+-+-+
      | RADIUS  |                                          | RADIUS  |
      | Client  |                                          | Proxy   |
      +-+-+-+-+-+                                          +-+-+-+-+-+
          |                                                    |
          | Access-Request(1){User-Name,Calling-Station-Id,    |
          |        Example-Long-1[M],Example-Long-1[M],        |
          |        Example-Long-1[M],Example-Long-1[M],        |
          |        Example-Long-1[MT],Frag-Status(MDP)}        |
          |--------------------------------------------------->|
          |                                                    |
          |                     Access-Challenge(1){User-Name, |
          |                           Frag-Status(MDR),State1} |
          |<---------------------------------------------------|
          |                                                    |
          | Access-Request(2)(User-Name,State1,                |
          |        Example-Long-1[M],Example-Long-1[M],        |
          |        Example-Long-1[M],Example-Long-1}           |
          |--------------------------------------------------->|

               PROXY MODIFIES ATTRIBUTE Data INCREASING ITS
                  SIZE FROM 9 FRAGMENTS TO 11 FRAGMENTS


           Figure 15: Updated proxy interacts with RADIUS Client




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     +-+-+-+-+-+                                          +-+-+-+-+-+
     | RADIUS  |                                          | RADIUS  |
     | Proxy   |                                          | Server   |
     +-+-+-+-+-+                                          +-+-+-+-+-+
         |                                                    |
         | Access-Request(3){User-Name,Calling-Station-Id,    |
         |        Example-Long-1[M],Example-Long-1[M],        |
         |        Example-Long-1[M],Example-Long-1[M],        |
         |        Example-Long-1[MT],Frag-Status(MDP)}        |
         |--------------------------------------------------->|
         |                                                    |
         |                     Access-Challenge(1){User-Name, |
         |                           Frag-Status(MDR),State2} |
         |<---------------------------------------------------|
         |                                                    |
         | Access-Request(4){User-Name,State2,                |
         |        Example-Long-1[M],Example-Long-1[M],        |
         |        Example-Long-1[M],Example-Long-1[M],        |
         |        Example-Long-1[MT],Frag-Status(MDP)}        |
         |--------------------------------------------------->|
         |                                                    |
         |                     Access-Challenge(1){User-Name, |
         |                           Frag-Status(MDR),State3} |
         |<---------------------------------------------------|
         |                                                    |
         | Access-Request(5){User-Name,State3,Example-Long-1} |
         |--------------------------------------------------->|

           Figure 16: Updated proxy interacts with RADIUS Server


12.  General considerations

12.1.  Flag T

   As described in Section 9, this document modifies the definition of
   the "Reserved" field of the "Long Extended Type" attribute [RFC6929],
   by allocating an additional flag "T".  The meaning and position of
   this flag is defined in this document, and nowhere else.  This might
   generate an issue if subsequent specifications want to allocate a new
   flag as well, as there would be no direct way for them to know which
   parts of the "Reserved" field have already been defined.

   An immediate and reasonable solution for this issue would be
   declaring that this RFC updates [RFC6929].  In this way, [RFC6929]
   would include an "Updated by" clause that will point readers to this
   document.  Another alternative would be creating an IANA registry for
   the "Reserved" field.  However, the working group thinks that would



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   be overkill, as not such a great number of specifications extending
   that field are expected.

   Hence, we have decided to include the "Updates" clause in the
   document so far.  Note that if this experiment does not succeed, the
   "T" flag allocation would not persist, as it is tightly associated to
   this document.

12.2.  Violation of RFC2865

   Section 5.1 indicates that all authorization and authentication
   handling will be postponed until all the chunks have been received.
   This postponement also affects to the verification that the Access-
   Request packet contains some kind of authentication attribute (e.g.
   User-Password, CHAP-Password, State or other future attribute), as
   required by [RFC2865].  This checking will therefore be delayed until
   the original large packet has been rebuilt, as some of the chunks may
   not contain any of them.

   The authors acknowledge that this specification violates the "MUST"
   requirement of [RFC2865] Section 4.1 that states that "An Access-
   Request MUST contain either a User-Password or a CHAP- Password or a
   State".  We note that a proxy which enforces that requirement would
   be unable to support future RADIUS authentication extensions.
   Extensions to the protocol would therefore be impossible to deploy.
   All known implementations have chosen the philosophy of "be liberal
   in what you accept".  That is, they accept traffic which violates the
   requirement of [RFC2865] Section 4.1.  We therefore expect to see no
   operational issues with this specification.  After we gain more
   operational experience with this specification, it can be re-issued
   as a standards track document, and update [RFC2865].

12.3.  Proxying based on User-Name

   This proposal assumes legacy proxies to base their routing decisions
   on the value of the User-Name attribute.  For this reason, every
   packet sent from the RADIUS Client to the RADIUS Server (either
   chunks or requests for more chunks) MUST contain a User-Name
   attribute.

12.4.  Transport behaviour

   This proposal does not modify the way RADIUS interacts with the
   underlying transport (UDP).  That is, RADIUS keeps following a lock-
   step behaviour, that requires receiving an explicit acknowledge for
   each chunk sent.  Hence, bursts of traffic which could congest links
   between peers are not an issue.




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13.  Security Considerations

   As noted in many earlier specifications ([RFC5080], [RFC6158], etc.)
   RADIUS security is problematic.  This specification changes nothing
   related to the security of the RADIUS protocol.  It requires that all
   Access-Request packets associated with fragmentation are
   authenticated using the existing Message-Authenticator attribute.
   This signature prevents forging and replay, to the limits of the
   existing security.

   The ability to send bulk data from one party to another creates new
   security considerations.  RADIUS Clients and Servers may have to
   store large amounts of data per session.  The amount of this data can
   be significant, leading to the potential for resource exhaustion.  We
   therefore suggest that implementations limit the amount of bulk data
   stored per session.  The exact method for this limitation is
   implementation-specific.  Section 7 gives some indications on what
   could be reasonable limits.

   The bulk data can often be pushed off to storage methods other than
   the memory of the RADIUS implementation.  For example, it can be
   stored in an external database, or in files.  This approach mitigates
   the resource exhaustion issue, as RADIUS Servers today already store
   large amounts of accounting data.


14.  IANA Considerations

   The authors request that Attribute Types and Attribute Values defined
   in this document be registered by the Internet Assigned Numbers
   Authority (IANA) from the RADIUS namespaces as described in the "IANA
   Considerations" section of [RFC3575], in accordance with BCP 26
   [RFC5226].  For RADIUS packets, attributes and registries created by
   this document IANA is requested to place them at
   http://www.iana.org/assignments/radius-types.

   In particular, this document defines two new RADIUS attributes,
   entitled "Frag-Status" and "Proxy-State-Len" (see section 9),
   assigned values of TBD1 and TBD2 from the Long Extended Space of
   [RFC6929]:

       Tag    Name            Length  Meaning
       ----   ----            ------  -------
       TBD1   Frag-Status     7       Signals fragmentation
       TBD2   Proxy-State-Len 7       Indicates the length of the
                                      received Proxy-State attributes

   The Frag-Status attribute also defines a 8-bit "Code" field, for



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   which the IANA is to create and maintain a new sub-registry entitled
   "Code values" under the RADIUS "Frag-Status" attribute.  Initial
   values for the RADIUS Frag-Status "Code" registry are given below;
   future assignments are to be made through "RFC required" [RFC5226].
   Assignments consist of a Frag-Status "Code" name and its associated
   value.

          Value    Frag-Status Code Name           Definition
          ----     ------------------------        ----------
          0        Reserved                        See Section 9.1
          1        Fragmentation-Supported         See Section 9.1
          2        More-Data-Pending               See Section 9.1
          3        More-Data-Request               See Section 9.1
          4-255    Unassigned

   Additionally, allocation of a new Service-Type value for "Additional-
   Authorization" is requested.

          Value    Service Type Value              Definition
          ----     ------------------------        ----------
          TBA      Additional-Authorization        See section 4.1


15.  Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank the members of the RADEXT working
   group who have contributed to the development of this specification,
   either by participating on the discussions on the mailing lists or by
   sending comments about our RFC.

   The authors also thank David Cuenca (University of Murcia) for
   implementing a proof of concept implementation of this RFC that has
   been useful to improve the quality of the specification.

   This work has been partly funded by the GEANT GN3+ SA5 and CLASSe
   (http://sec.cs.kent.ac.uk/CLASSe/) projects.


16.  References

16.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC2865]  Rigney, C., Willens, S., Rubens, A., and W. Simpson,
              "Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)",
              RFC 2865, June 2000.



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   [RFC3575]  Aboba, B., "IANA Considerations for RADIUS (Remote
              Authentication Dial In User Service)", RFC 3575,
              July 2003.

   [RFC5226]  Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
              IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226,
              May 2008.

   [RFC6158]  DeKok, A. and G. Weber, "RADIUS Design Guidelines",
              BCP 158, RFC 6158, March 2011.

   [RFC6929]  DeKok, A. and A. Lior, "Remote Authentication Dial In User
              Service (RADIUS) Protocol Extensions", RFC 6929,
              April 2013.

16.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.ietf-abfab-aaa-saml]
              Howlett, J. and S. Hartman, "A RADIUS Attribute, Binding,
              Profiles, Name Identifier Format, and Confirmation Methods
              for SAML", draft-ietf-abfab-aaa-saml-09 (work in
              progress), February 2014.

   [I-D.ietf-abfab-arch]
              Howlett, J., Hartman, S., Tschofenig, H., Lear, E., and J.
              Schaad, "Application Bridging for Federated Access Beyond
              Web (ABFAB) Architecture", draft-ietf-abfab-arch-13 (work
              in progress), July 2014.

   [I-D.ietf-radext-bigger-packets]
              Hartman, S., "Larger Packets for RADIUS over TCP",
              draft-ietf-radext-bigger-packets-01 (work in progress),
              July 2014.

   [RFC2866]  Rigney, C., "RADIUS Accounting", RFC 2866, June 2000.

   [RFC3579]  Aboba, B. and P. Calhoun, "RADIUS (Remote Authentication
              Dial In User Service) Support For Extensible
              Authentication Protocol (EAP)", RFC 3579, September 2003.

   [RFC4849]  Congdon, P., Sanchez, M., and B. Aboba, "RADIUS Filter
              Rule Attribute", RFC 4849, April 2007.

   [RFC5080]  Nelson, D. and A. DeKok, "Common Remote Authentication
              Dial In User Service (RADIUS) Implementation Issues and
              Suggested Fixes", RFC 5080, December 2007.

   [RFC5176]  Chiba, M., Dommety, G., Eklund, M., Mitton, D., and B.



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              Aboba, "Dynamic Authorization Extensions to Remote
              Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)", RFC 5176,
              January 2008.


Authors' Addresses

   Alejandro Perez-Mendez (Ed.)
   University of Murcia
   Campus de Espinardo S/N, Faculty of Computer Science
   Murcia,   30100
   Spain

   Phone: +34 868 88 46 44
   Email: alex@um.es


   Rafa Marin-Lopez
   University of Murcia
   Campus de Espinardo S/N, Faculty of Computer Science
   Murcia,   30100
   Spain

   Phone: +34 868 88 85 01
   Email: rafa@um.es


   Fernando Pereniguez-Garcia
   University of Murcia
   Campus de Espinardo S/N, Faculty of Computer Science
   Murcia,   30100
   Spain

   Phone: +34 868 88 78 82
   Email: pereniguez@um.es


   Gabriel Lopez-Millan
   University of Murcia
   Campus de Espinardo S/N, Faculty of Computer Science
   Murcia,   30100
   Spain

   Phone: +34 868 88 85 04
   Email: gabilm@um.es






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   Diego R. Lopez
   Telefonica I+D
   Don Ramon de la Cruz, 84
   Madrid,   28006
   Spain

   Phone: +34 913 129 041
   Email: diego@tid.es


   Alan DeKok
   Network RADIUS
   15 av du Granier
   Meylan,   38240
   France

   Phone: +34 913 129 041
   Email: aland@networkradius.com
   URI:   http://networkradius.com
































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