Network Working Group                                     T. Bruijnzeels
Internet-Draft                                                NLnet Labs
Updates: 6841, 8182 (if approved)                                R. Bush
Intended status: Standards TrackInternet Initiative Japan & Arrcus, Inc.
Expires: August 26, 2021                                   G. Michaelson
                                                                   APNIC
                                                       February 22, 2021


   Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) Repository Requirements
                   draft-ietf-sidrops-prefer-rrdp-00

Abstract

   This document formulates a plan of a phased transition to a state
   where RPKI repositories and Relying Party software performing RPKI
   Validation will use the RPKI Repository Delta Protocol (RRDP)
   [RFC8182] as the only mandatory to implement access protocol.

   The first objective is to make RRDP the preferred access protocol,
   and require rsync as a fallback option only.  This will greatly
   reduce the operational burden and concerns for RPKI repository
   operators.

   In phase 0, today's deployment, RRDP is supported by most, but not
   all Repositories, and most but not all RP software.

   In the proposed phase 1 RRDP will become mandatory to implement for
   Repositories, in addition to rsync.  This phase can start as soon as
   this document is published.

   Once the proposed updates are implemented by all Repositories phase 2
   will start.  In this phase RRDP will become mandatory to implement
   for all RP software, and rsync will be required as a fallback option
   only.

   It should be noted that although this document currently includes
   descriptions and updates to RFCs for each of these phases, we may
   find that it will be beneficial to have one or more separate
   documents for these phases, so that it might be more clear to all
   when the updates to RFCs take effect.

   Furthermore, this document currently includes an early discussion of
   a future objective, which would be to change the RPKI standards such
   that names in RPKI objects are no longer tightly coupled to rsync.
   By using transport independent names and validation, we will obtain
   the agility needed to phase out rsync altogether and/or introduce
   other future access protocols.



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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
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on August 26, 2021.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2021 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Requirements notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Motivation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Plan to prefer RRDP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.1.  Phase 0 - RPKI repositories support rsync, and optionally
           RRDP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
       3.1.1.  Updates to RFC 8182 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
       3.1.2.  Updates to RFC 6481 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.2.  Phase 1 - RPKI repositories support both rsync and RRDP .   6
       3.2.1.  Updates to RFC 6481 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
       3.2.2.  Measurements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     3.3.  Phase 2 - All RP software prefers RRDP  . . . . . . . . .   7
       3.3.1.  Updates to RFC 8182 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       3.3.2.  Rsync URIs as object identifiers  . . . . . . . . . .   7
       3.3.3.  Measurements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8



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   4.  Future Objective: Remove the dependency on rsync  . . . . . .   8
     4.1.  Phase 3 - RPKI repositories support RRDP, and optionally
           rsync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       4.1.1.  Updates to RFC 6481 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.2.  Transport agnostic RPKI object names  . . . . . . . . . .   9
   5.  Appendix - Implementation Status  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     5.1.  Current RRDP Support in Repository Software . . . . . . .  10
     5.2.  Current RRDP Support in Relying Party software  . . . . .  11
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   8.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12

1.  Requirements notation

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

2.  Motivation

   The Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) [RFC6480] as originally
   defined uses rsync as its distribution protocol, as outlined in
   [RFC6481].  Later, the RPKI Repository Delta Protocol (RRDP)
   [RFC8182] was designed to provide an alternative.  In order to
   facilitate incremental deployment RRDP has been deployed as an
   additional optional protocol, while rsync was still mandatory to
   implement.

   While rsync has been very useful in the initial deployment of RPKI, a
   number of issues observed with it motivated the design of RRDP, e.g.:

   o  rsync is CPU and memory heavy on the server side, and easy to DoS

   o  rsync library support is lacking, complicating RP efficiency and
      error logging

   o  we cannot ensure that RPs get atomic sets of updated objects

   RRDP was designed to leverage HTTPS CDN infrastructure to provide
   RPKI Repository content in a resilient way, while reducing the load
   on the Repository server.  It supports that updates are published as




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   atomic deltas, which can help prevent most of the issues described in
   section 6 of [RFC6486].

   For a longer discussion please see section 1 of [RFC8182].

   In conclusion: we believe that while RRDP is not perfect, and we may
   indeed need future work to improve on it, it is an improvement over
   using rsync in the context of RPKI.  Therefore, this document
   outlines a transition plan where RRDP becomes mandatory to implement,
   and the operational dependency on rsync is reduced to that of a
   fallback option.

3.  Plan to prefer RRDP

   Changing the RPKI infrastructure to rely on RRDP instead of rsync is
   a delicate operation.  There is current deployment of Certification
   Authorities, Repository Servers and Relying Party software which
   relies on rsync, and which may not yet support RRDP.

   Therefore we need to have a plan that ultimately updates the relevant
   RFCs, but which uses a phased approach combined with measurements to
   limit the operational impact of doing this to (almost) zero.

   The general outline of the plan is as follows.  We will describe each
   step in more detail below.

     +-------+------------------------------------------------------+
     | Phase |                     Description                      |
     +-------+------------------------------------------------------+
     |   0   | RPKI repositories support rsync, and optionally RRDP |
     |   1   |    RPKI repositories support both rsync and RRDP     |
     |   2   |             All RP software prefers RRDP             |
     +-------+------------------------------------------------------+

3.1.  Phase 0 - RPKI repositories support rsync, and optionally RRDP

   This is the situation at the time of writing this document.  Relying
   Parties can prefer RRDP over rsync today, but they need to support
   rsync until all RPKI repositories support RRDP.  Therefore all
   repositories should support RRDP at their earliest convenience.

3.1.1.  Updates to RFC 8182

   Repositories which support RRDP MUST ensure that RRDP resources are
   available to Relying Parties (section 3.3 of [RFC8182]).
   Furthermore, the RRDP repository MUST include all current repository
   objects.  Because of this the choice of falling back to alternative




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   repository access mechanisms was left as a local policy choice of RP
   software.

   However, following discussions on this subject it has become clear
   that there is a preference to instruct RP software to make use of all
   possible data sources.  The main motivation being that because of
   RPKI object security using a secondary source of data can never lead
   to a worse outcome in terms of validation.

   The following update is therefore applicable to section 3.4.5
   "Considerations Regarding Operational Failures in RRDP" of [RFC8182]:

   OLD: Relying Parties could attempt to use alternative repository
   access mechanisms, if they are available, according to the
   accessMethod element value(s) specified in the SIA of the associated
   certificate (see Section 4.8.8 of [RFC6487]).

   NEW: Relying Parties MUST attempt to use alternative repository
   access mechanisms, if they are available, according to the
   accessMethod element value(s) specified in the SIA of the associated
   certificate (see Section 4.8.8 of [RFC6487]).

3.1.2.  Updates to RFC 6481

   As noted above section 3.3 of [RFC8182] already stipulates that RRDP
   files MUST be made available by repositories which support RRDP.  In
   other words the RRDP service must be treated as a critical service
   wherever it is supported.

   During this phase the updates are applied to section 3 of [RFC6481],
   to make this abundantly clear:

   OLD:

   o  The publication repository SHOULD be hosted on a highly available
      service and high-capacity publication platform.

   o  The publication repository MUST be available using rsync [RFC5781]
      [RSYNC].  Support of additional retrieval mechanisms is the choice
      of the repository operator.  The supported retrieval mechanisms
      MUST be consistent with the accessMethod element value(s)
      specified in the SIA of the associated CA or EE certificate.

   NEW:

   o  The publication repository MAY be available using the RPKI
      Repository Delta Protocol [RFC8182].  If RPDP is provided, it
      SHOULD be hosted on a highly available platform.



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   o  The publication repository MUST be available using rsync [RFC5781]
      [RSYNC].  The rsync server SHOULD be hosted on a highly available
      platform.

   o  Support of additional retrieval mechanisms is the choice of the
      repository operator.  The supported retrieval mechanisms MUST be
      consistent with the accessMethod element value(s) specified in the
      SIA of the associated CA or EE certificate.

3.2.  Phase 1 - RPKI repositories support both rsync and RRDP

   During this phase we will make RRDP mandatory to support for
   Repository Servers, and measure whether the deployed Repository
   Servers have been upgraded to do so, in as far as they don't support
   RRDP already.

3.2.1.  Updates to RFC 6481

   During this phase the updates are applied to section 3 of [RFC6481].

   OLD:

   o  The publication repository SHOULD be hosted on a highly available
      service and high-capacity publication platform.

   o  The publication repository MUST be available using rsync [RFC5781]
      [RSYNC].  Support of additional retrieval mechanisms is the choice
      of the repository operator.  The supported retrieval mechanisms
      MUST be consistent with the accessMethod element value(s)
      specified in the SIA of the associated CA or EE certificate.

   NEW:

   o  The publication repository MUST be available using the RPKI
      Repository Delta Protocol [RFC8182].  The RRDP server SHOULD be
      hosted on a highly available platform.

   o  The publication repository MUST be available using rsync [RFC5781]
      [RSYNC].  The rsync server SHOULD be hosted on a highly available
      platform.

   o  Support of additional retrieval mechanisms is the choice of the
      repository operator.  The supported retrieval mechanisms MUST be
      consistent with the accessMethod element value(s) specified in the
      SIA of the associated CA or EE certificate.






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3.2.2.  Measurements

   We can find out whether all RPKI repositories support RRDP by running
   (possibly) modified Relying Party software that keeps track of this.

   When it is found that Repositories do not yet support RRDP, outreach
   should be done to them individually.  Since the number of
   Repositories is fairly low, and it is in their interest to run RRDP
   because it addresses availability concerns, we have confidence that
   we will find these Repositories willing to make changes.

3.3.  Phase 2 - All RP software prefers RRDP

   Once all Repositories support RRDP we can proceed to make RRDP
   mandatory to implement for Relying Party software.

3.3.1.  Updates to RFC 8182

   From this phase onwards the updates are applied to section 3.4.1 of
   [RFC8182].

   OLD: When a Relying Party performs RPKI validation and learns about a
   valid certificate with an SIA entry for the RRDP protocol, it SHOULD
   use this protocol as follows.

   NEW: When a Relying Party performs RPKI validation and learns about a
   valid certificate with an SIA entry for the RRDP protocol, it MUST
   use this protocol with preference.

   Relying Parties MUST NOT attempt to fetch objects using alternate
   access mechanisms, if object retrieval through this protocol is
   successful.

   However, as stipulated in section 3.4.5, Relying Parties MUST attempt
   to use alternative repository access mechanisms, if object retrieval
   through this protocol is unsuccessful.

3.3.2.  Rsync URIs as object identifiers

   Rsync URIs are used in the RPKI to name objects and hierarchies, and
   they are as such very useful when doing RPKI object validation, as
   well as for error reporting on validation issues.

   Note that RRDP includes rsync URIs in its structure.  See section 3.5
   of [RFC8182].  Theoretically, RRDP servers could include any rsync
   URI.  However, Relying Party software knows which RRDP server to is
   expected to include the rsync URIs for RPKI objects issued under any




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   given CA certificate, because of the id-ad-rpkiNotify SIA extenion,
   see section 3.2 of [RFC8182].

   Thus, objects retrieved through RRDP can be mapped easily to files
   and URIs, similar to as though rsync would have been used to retrieve
   them.

3.3.3.  Measurements

   Although the tools may support RRDP, users will still need to install
   updated versions of these tools in their infrastructure.  Any
   Repository operator can measure this transition by observing access
   to their RRDP and rsync repositories respectively.

   But even after new versions have been available, it is expected that
   there will be long, low volume, tail of users who did not upgrade and
   still depend on rsync.

   It is hard to quantify here now, what would be an acceptable moment
   to conclude that it's safe to move to the next phase and make rsync
   optional.  A parallel to the so-called DNS Flag Day comes to mind.

4.  Future Objective: Remove the dependency on rsync

   Note that, while we discuss this here, we would probably do well to
   separate this section into a separate follow-up document.

4.1.  Phase 3 - RPKI repositories support RRDP, and optionally rsync

   The end goal of this phase would be that there will be no operational
   dependencies on rsync for Repositories, although they MAY still
   choose to operate rsync at a best effort basis.

   The most pragmatic way to deal with rsync URIs in the RPKI would be
   to continue to use them as namespaces, but no longer require that
   rsync is available.  Much like how https based namespaces are used in
   XML.

4.1.1.  Updates to RFC 6481

   From this phase onwards these updates are applied to section 3 of
   [RFC6481] as it was updated during Phase 2 described above:

   OLD:

   o  The publication repository MUST be available using the RPKI
      Repository Delta Protocol [RFC8182].  The RRDP server SHOULD be
      hosted on a highly available platform.



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   o  The publication repository MUST be available using rsync [RFC5781]
      [RSYNC].  The rsync server SHOULD be hosted on a highly available
      platform.

   o  Support of additional retrieval mechanisms is the choice of the
      repository operator.  The supported retrieval mechanisms MUST be
      consistent with the accessMethod element value(s) specified in the
      SIA of the associated CA or EE certificate.

   NEW:

   o  The publication repository MUST be available using the RPKI
      Repository Delta Protocol [RFC8182].  The RRDP server SHOULD be
      hosted on a highly available platform.

   o  The publication repository MAY be available using rsync [RFC5781]
      [RSYNC].

   o  Support of additional retrieval mechanisms is the choice of the
      repository operator.  The supported retrieval mechanisms MUST be
      consistent with the accessMethod element value(s) specified in the
      SIA of the associated CA or EE certificate.

   Note that this means that RP software is still required to try to
   fall back to rsync if RRDP is unavailable, but it may find that the
   rsync repository is not available.

4.2.  Transport agnostic RPKI object names

   We could develop a new naming scheme for RPKI objects.  Perhaps based
   on Universal Resource Names ([RFC8141]).  Doing so, would allow us to
   use names which are independent from retrieval mechanisms, and thus
   they could be less confusing in some regards, and provide more
   agility with regards to future changes in those mechanisms.  However,
   this would require that many updates are made to existing RFCs.  An
   incomplete list:

   o  RFC6487 New names would have be allowed in the SIA, or perhaps an
      X509 extension, could be used.  But, the latter would have a
      direct impact on the deployability of updated CA certificates - RP
      software would reject these certificates if the extension is
      marked as critical by the CA and not understood by the RP.

   o  RFC6492 New names (in whatever form) would need to be included
      certificate sign requests sent to a parent CA.  The parent CA will
      need to include a 'cert_url', indicating where an issued
      certificate is published, in a different format.




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   o  RFC8181 The RPKI publication protocol is based rsync URIs, and it
      assumes that publishers have access to a specific directory in
      rsync space.  This would need to be changed.

   o  RFC8183 This RFC defines the identity exchange between an RPKI CA
      and Publication Server.  The server's response includes an
      'sia_base', in the form of an rsync directory, under which a CA is
      supposed to name its objects.

   o  RFC8182 The RRDP protocol uses rsync URIs for compatibility with
      rsync as a retrieval method.  This would need to be updated.

   Obviously this needs more discussion.

   The exercise would not be trivial.  But, arguably doing this work
   will not become easier by postponing it, and once done would leave
   the RPKI better positioned to use alternative access methods in
   future as well.

5.  Appendix - Implementation Status

   Note that this section is included for tracking purposes during the
   discussion phase of this document and is not intended to be included
   in an RFC.

5.1.  Current RRDP Support in Repository Software

   The currently known support for RRDP for repositories is as follows:

             +---------------------------+------------------+
             | Repository Implementation | Support for RRDP |
             +---------------------------+------------------+
             |          afrinic          |       yes        |
             |           apnic           |       yes        |
             |            arin           |       yes        |
             |           lacnic          |     ongoing      |
             |          ripe ncc         |       yes        |
             |    Dragon Research Labs   |     yes(1,2)     |
             |           krill           |      yes(1)      |
             +---------------------------+------------------+

   (1) in use at various National Internet Registries, as well as other
   resource holders under RIRs. (2) not all organizations using this
   software have upgraded to using RRDP.







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5.2.  Current RRDP Support in Relying Party software

   The currently known support for RRDP in Relying Party software is as
   follows:

      +------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+
      | Relying Party Implementation |   RRDP  | version |  since  |
      +------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+
      |             FORT             |   yes   |  1.2.0  | 02/2021 |
      |           OctoRPKI           |   yes   |  1.0.0  | 02/2019 |
      |            rcynic            |   yes   |    ?    |    ?    |
      | RIPE NCC RPKI Validator 2.x  |   yes   |   2.18  | 07/2015 |
      | RIPE NCC RPKI Validator 3.x  |   yes   |   3.0   | 03/2018 |
      |          Routinator          |   yes   |  0.6.0  | 09/2019 |
      |         rpki-client          | ongoing |    ?    |    ?    |
      |           RPSTIR2            |   yes   |   2.0   | 04/2020 |
      +------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+

   The authors kindly request Relying Party software implementers to let
   us know in which version of their tool support for RRDP was
   introduced, and when that version was released.

6.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.

7.  Security Considerations

   TBD

8.  Acknowledgements

   TBD

9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC5781]  Weiler, S., Ward, D., and R. Housley, "The rsync URI
              Scheme", RFC 5781, DOI 10.17487/RFC5781, February 2010,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5781>.





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   [RFC6480]  Lepinski, M. and S. Kent, "An Infrastructure to Support
              Secure Internet Routing", RFC 6480, DOI 10.17487/RFC6480,
              February 2012, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6480>.

   [RFC6481]  Huston, G., Loomans, R., and G. Michaelson, "A Profile for
              Resource Certificate Repository Structure", RFC 6481,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6481, February 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6481>.

   [RFC6486]  Austein, R., Huston, G., Kent, S., and M. Lepinski,
              "Manifests for the Resource Public Key Infrastructure
              (RPKI)", RFC 6486, DOI 10.17487/RFC6486, February 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6486>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

   [RFC8182]  Bruijnzeels, T., Muravskiy, O., Weber, B., and R. Austein,
              "The RPKI Repository Delta Protocol (RRDP)", RFC 8182,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8182, July 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8182>.

9.2.  Informative References

   [RFC8141]  Saint-Andre, P. and J. Klensin, "Uniform Resource Names
              (URNs)", RFC 8141, DOI 10.17487/RFC8141, April 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8141>.

Authors' Addresses

   Tim Bruijnzeels
   NLnet Labs

   Email: tim@nlnetlabs.nl
   URI:   https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/


   Randy Bush
   Internet Initiative Japan & Arrcus, Inc.

   Email: randy@psg.com









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   George Michaelson
   APNIC

   Email: ggm@apnic.net
   URI:   http://www.apnic.net














































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