TLS Working Group                                             A. Langley
Internet-Draft                                               N. Modadugu
Intended status: Experimental                                 B. Moeller
Expires: November 8, 2015                                         Google
                                                             May 7, 2015


               Transport Layer Security (TLS) False Start
                      draft-ietf-tls-falsestart-00

Abstract

   This document specifies an optional behavior of TLS implementations,
   dubbed False Start.  It affects only protocol timing, not on-the-wire
   protocol data, and can be implemented unilaterally.  The TLS False
   Start feature leads to a latency reduction of one round trip for
   certain handshakes.

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
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   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 November 8, 2015.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 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
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
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   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of




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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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  False Start Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   4.  Client-side False Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Server-side False Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     6.1.  Symmetric Cipher  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     6.2.  Protocol Version  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     6.3.  Key Exchange and Client Certificate Type  . . . . . . . .   8
   7.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Appendix A.  Implementation Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

1.  Requirements Notation

   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].

2.  Introduction

   A full TLS handshake as specified in [RFC5246] requires two full
   protocol rounds (four flights) before the handshake is complete and
   the protocol parties may begin to send application data.  Thus, using
   TLS can add a latency penalty of two network round-trip times for
   application protocols in which the client sends data first, such as
   HTTP [RFC2616].  An abbreviated handshake (resuming an earlier TLS
   session) is complete after three flights, thus adding just one round-
   trip time if the client sends application data first.













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      Client                                               Server

      ClientHello                  -------->
                                                      ServerHello
                                                     Certificate*
                                               ServerKeyExchange*
                                              CertificateRequest*
                                   <--------      ServerHelloDone
      Certificate*
      ClientKeyExchange
      CertificateVerify*
      [ChangeCipherSpec]
      Finished                     -------->
                                               [ChangeCipherSpec]
                                   <--------             Finished
      Application Data             <------->     Application Data

        Figure 1 [RFC5246].  Message flow for a full handshake

































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      Client                                                Server

      ClientHello                   -------->
                                                       ServerHello
                                                [ChangeCipherSpec]
                                    <--------             Finished
      [ChangeCipherSpec]
      Finished                      -------->
      Application Data              <------->     Application Data

     Figure 2 [RFC5246].  Message flow for an abbreviated handshake

   This document describes a technique that alleviates the latency
   burden imposed by TLS: the TLS False Start.  If certain conditions
   are met, application data can be sent when the handshake is only
   partially complete -- i.e., when the sender has sent its own
   "ChangeCipherSpec" and "Finished" messages (thus having updated its
   TLS Record Protocol write state as negotiated in the handshake), but
   has yet to receive the other side's "ChangeCipherSpec" and "Finished"
   messages.  (By section 7.4.9 of [RFC5246], each party would have to
   delay sending application data until it has received and validated
   the other side's "Finished" message.)  This achieves an improvement
   of one round-trip time

   o  for full handshakes if the client sends application data first,

   o  for abbreviated handshakes if the server sends application data
      first.

   Accordingly, the latency penalty for using TLS with HTTP can be kept
   at one round-trip time regardless of whether a full handshake or an
   abbreviated handshake takes place.

   In a False Start, when a party sends application data before it has
   received and verified the other party's "Finished" message, there are
   two possible outcomes:

   o  The handshake completes successfully: Once both "Finished"
      messages have been received and verified, this retroactively
      validates the handshake.  In this case, the transcript of protocol
      data carried over the transport underlying TLS will look as usual,
      apart from the different timing.

   o  The handshake fails: If a party does not receive the other side's
      "Finished" message, or if the "Finished" message's contents are
      not correct, the handshake never gets validated.  This means that
      an attacker may have removed, changed, or injected handshake




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      messages.  In this case, data has been sent over the underlying
      transport that would not have been sent without the False Start.

   The latter scenario makes it necessary to restrict when a False Start
   is allowed, as described in this document.  Section 3 considers basic
   requirements for using False Start.  Section 4 and Section 5 specify
   the behavior for clients and servers, respectively, referring to
   important security considerations in Section 6.

3.  False Start Compatibility

   TLS False Start as described in detail in the subsequent sections, if
   implemented, is an optional feature.

   A TLS implementation (not necessarily offering the False Start option
   itself) is defined to be "False Start compatible" if it tolerates
   receiving TLS records on the transport connection early, before the
   protocol has reached the state to process these.  To successfully use
   False Start in a TLS connection, the other side has to be False Start
   compatible.  Out-of-band knowledge that the peer is False Start
   compatible may be available, e.g. if this is mandated by specific
   application profile standards.  As discussed in Appendix A, the
   requirement for False Start compatibility does not pose a hindrance
   in practice.

4.  Client-side False Start

   This section specifies a change to the behavior of TLS client
   implementations in full TLS handshakes.

   When the client has sent its "ChangeCipherSpec" and "Finished"
   messages, its default behavior following [RFC5246] is to not send
   application data until it has received the server's
   "ChangeCipherSpec" and "Finished" messages, which completes the
   handshake.  With the False Start protocol modification, the client
   MAY send application data earlier (under the new Cipher Spec) if each
   of the following conditions is satisfied:

   o  The application layer has requested the TLS False Start option.

   o  The symmetric cipher defined by the cipher suite negotiated in
      this handshake has been whitelisted for use with False Start
      according to the Security Considerations in Section 6.1.

   o  The protocol version chosen by ServerHello.server_version has been
      whitelisted for use with False Start according to the Security
      Considerations in Section 6.2.




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   o  The key exchange method defined by the cipher suite negotiated in
      this handshake has been whitelisted for use with False Start
      according to the Security Considerations in Section 6.3.

   o  In the case of a handshake with client authentication, the client
      certificate type has been whitelisted for use with False Start
      according to the Security Considerations in Section 6.3.

   The rules for receiving application data from the server remain
   unchanged.

   Note that the TLS client cannot infer the presence of an
   authenticated server until all handshake messages have been received.
   With False Start, unlike with the default handshake behavior,
   applications are able to send data before this point has been
   reached: from an application point of view, being able to send data
   does not imply that an authenticated peer is present.  Accordingly,
   it is recommended that TLS implementations allow the application
   layer to query whether the handshake has completed.

5.  Server-side False Start

   This section specifies a change to the behavior of TLS server
   implementations in abbreviated TLS handshakes.

   When the server has sent its "ChangeCipherSpec" and "Finished"
   messages, its default behavior following [RFC5246] is not to send
   application data until it has received the client's
   "ChangeCipherSpec" and "Finished" messages, which completes the
   handshake.  With the False Start protocol modification, the server
   MAY send application data earlier (under the new Cipher Spec) if each
   of the following conditions is satisfied:

   o  The application layer has requested the TLS False Start option.

   o  The symmetric cipher defined by the cipher suite of the session
      being resumed has been whitelisted for use with False Start
      according to the Security Considerations in Section 6.1.

   The rules for receiving application data from the client remain
   unchanged.

   Note that the TLS server cannot infer the presence of an
   authenticated client until all handshake messages have been received.
   With False Start, unlike with the default handshake behavior,
   applications are able to send data before this point has been
   reached: from an application point of view, being able to send data
   does not imply that an authenticated peer is present.  Accordingly,



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   it is recommended that TLS implementations allow the application
   layer to query whether the handshake has completed.

6.  Security Considerations

   In a TLS handshake, the "Finished" messages serve to validate the
   entire handshake.  These messages are based on a hash of the
   handshake so far processed by a PRF keyed with the new master secret
   (serving as a MAC), and are also sent under the new Cipher Spec with
   its keyed MAC, where the MAC key again is derived from the master
   secret.  The protocol design relies on the assumption that any server
   and/or client authentication done during the handshake carries over
   to this.  While an attacker could, for example, have changed the
   cipher suite list sent by the client to the server and thus
   influenced cipher suite selection (presumably towards a less secure
   choice) or could have made other modifications to handshake messages
   in transmission, the attacker would not be able to round off the
   modified handshake with a valid "Finished" message: every TLS cipher
   suite is presumed to key the PRF appropriately to ensure
   unforgeability.  Once the handshake has been validated by verifying
   the "Finished" messages, this confirms that the handshake has not
   been tampered with, thus bootstrapping secure encryption (using
   algorithms as negotiated) from secure authentication.

   Using False Start interferes with this approach of bootstrapping
   secure encryption from secure authentication, as application data may
   have already been sent before "Finished" validation confirms that the
   handshake has not been tampered with -- so there is generally no hope
   to be sure that communication with the expected peer is indeed taking
   place during the False Start.  Instead, the security goal is to
   ensure that if anyone at all can decrypt the application data sent in
   a False Start, this must be the legitimate peer: while an attacker
   could be influencing the handshake (restricting cipher suite
   selection, modifying key exchange messages, etc.), the attacker
   should not be able to benefit from this.  The TLS protocol already
   relies on such a security property for authentication -- with False
   Start, the same is needed for encryption.  This motivates the
   following rules.

6.1.  Symmetric Cipher

   Clients and servers MUST NOT use the False Start protocol
   modification in a handshake unless the cipher suite uses a symmetric
   cipher that is considered cryptographically strong.

   Implementations may have their own classification of ciphers (and may
   additionally allow the application layer to provide a
   classification), but generally only symmetric ciphers with an



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   effective key length of 128 bits or more can be considered strong.
   Also, various ciphers specified for use with TLS are known to have
   cryptographic weaknesses regardless of key length (none of the
   ciphers specified in [RFC4492] and [RFC5246] can be recommended for
   use with False Start).  The AES_128_GCM_SHA256 or AES_256_GCM_SHA384
   ciphers specified in [RFC5288] and [RFC5289] can be considered
   sufficiently strong for most uses.  Implementations that support
   additional cipher suites have to be careful to whitelist only
   suitable symmetric ciphers; if in doubt, False Start should not be
   used with a given symmetric cipher.

   While an attacker can change handshake messages to force a downgrade
   to a less secure symmetric cipher than otherwise would have been
   chosen, this rule ensures that in such a downgrade attack no
   application data will be sent under an insecure symmetric cipher.
   With respect to server-side False Start, if a client has negotiated a
   TLS session using weak symmetric cryptography, this rule prevents
   attackers from seeing the server encrypt more data under this session
   than normally (if an attacker makes up a "ClientHello" message asking
   to resume such a session, no False Start will happen).

6.2.  Protocol Version

   Clients MUST NOT use the False Start protocol modification in a
   handshake unless the protocol version chosen by
   ServerHello.server_version has been whitelisted for this use.

   Generally, implementations should whitelist only the protocol
   version(s) for which they would not send TLS_FALLBACK_SCSV [RFC7507].

   The details of nominally identical cipher suites can differ between
   protocol versions, so this reinforces Section 6.1.

6.3.  Key Exchange and Client Certificate Type

   Clients MUST NOT use the False Start protocol modification in a
   handshake unless the cipher suite uses a key exchange method that has
   been whitelisted for this use.  Furthermore, when using client
   authentication, clients MUST NOT use the False Start protocol
   modification unless the client certificate type has been whitelisted
   for this use.

   Implementations may have their own whitelists of key exchange methods
   and client certificate types (and may additionally allow the
   application layer to specify whitelists).  Generally, out of the
   options from [RFC5246] and [RFC4492], the following whitelists are
   recommended:




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   o  Key exchange methods: DHE_RSA, ECDHE_RSA, DHE_DSS, ECDHE_ECDSA

   o  Client certificate types: rsa_sign, dss_sign, ecdsa_sign (or no
      client authentication)

   However, if an implementation that supports only key exchange methods
   from [RFC5246] and [RFC4492] does not support any of the above key
   exchange methods, all of its supported key exchange methods can be
   whitelisted for False Start use.  Care is required with any
   additional key exchange methods or client certificate types, as these
   may not have similar properties.

   The recommended whitelists are such that if cryptographic algorithms
   suitable for forward secrecy would possibly be negotiated, no False
   Start will take place if the current handshake fails to provide
   forward secrecy.  (Forward secrecy can be achieved using ephemeral
   Diffie-Hellman or ephemeral Elliptic-Curve Diffie-Hellman; there is
   no forward secrecy when a using key exchange method of RSA, RSA_PSK,
   DH_DSS, DH_RSA, ECDH_ECDSA, or ECDH_RSA, or a client certificate type
   of rsa_fixed_dh, dss_fixed_dh, rsa_fixed_ecdh, or ecdsa_fixed_ecdh.)
   As usual, the benefits of forward secrecy may need to be balanced
   against efficiency, and accordingly even implementations that support
   the above key exchange methods might whitelist further key exchange
   methods and client certificate types from [RFC5246] and [RFC4492].

7.  Acknowledgments

   The authors wish to thank Wan-Teh Chang, Ben Laurie, Eric Rescorla,
   and Brian Smith for their input.

8.  IANA Considerations

   None.

9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

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

   [RFC4492]  Blake-Wilson, S., Bolyard, N., Gupta, V., Hawk, C., and B.
              Moeller, "Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) Cipher Suites
              for Transport Layer Security (TLS)", RFC 4492, May 2006.

   [RFC5246]  Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer Security
              (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2", RFC 5246, August 2008.




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   [RFC5288]  Salowey, J., Choudhury, A., and D. McGrew, "AES Galois
              Counter Mode (GCM) Cipher Suites for TLS", RFC 5288,
              August 2008.

   [RFC5289]  Rescorla, E., "TLS Elliptic Curve Cipher Suites with
              SHA-256/384 and AES Galois Counter Mode (GCM)", RFC 5289,
              August 2008.

9.2.  Informative References

   [RFC2616]  Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Frystyk, H.,
              Masinter, L., Leach, P., and T. Berners-Lee, "Hypertext
              Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1", RFC 2616, June 1999.

   [RFC7507]  Moeller, B. and A. Langley, "TLS Fallback Signaling Cipher
              Suite Value (SCSV) for Preventing Protocol Downgrade
              Attacks", RFC 7507, April 2015.

Appendix A.  Implementation Notes

   TLS False Start is a modification to the TLS protocol, and some
   implementations that conform to [RFC5246] may have problems
   interacting with implementations that use the False Start
   modification.  If the peer uses a False Start, application data
   records may be received directly following the peer's "Finished"
   message, before the TLS implementation has sent its own "Finished"
   message.  False Start compatibility as defined in Section 3 ensures
   that these records with application data will simply remain buffered
   for later processing.

   A False Start compatible TLS implementation does not have to be aware
   of the False Start concept, and is certainly not expected to detect
   whether a False Start handshake is currently taking place: thanks to
   transport layer buffering, typical implementations will be False
   Start compatible without having been designed for it.

Authors' Addresses

   Adam Langley
   Google Inc.
   345 Spear St
   San Francisco, CA  94105
   USA

   Email: agl@google.com






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   Nagendra Modadugu
   Google Inc.
   1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
   Mountain View, CA  94043
   USA

   Email: nagendra@cs.stanford.edu


   Bodo Moeller
   Google Switzerland GmbH
   Brandschenkestrasse 110
   Zurich  8002
   Switzerland

   Email: bmoeller@acm.org



































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