Network Working Group                                    A. Adamantiadis
Internet-Draft                                                    libssh
Intended status: Informational                              S. Josefsson
Expires: May 9, 2016                                              SJD AB
                                                        November 6, 2015


  Secure Shell (SSH) Key Exchange Method using Curve25519 and Curve448
                     draft-josefsson-ssh-curves-00

Abstract

   How to implement the Curve25519 and Curve448 key exchange methods in
   the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol is described.

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 May 9, 2016.

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
   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.





Adamantiadis & Josefsson   Expires May 9, 2016                  [Page 1]


Internet-Draft           Curve25519/448 for SSH            November 2015


Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Key Exchange Methods  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     6.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     6.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   Appendix A.  Copying conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4

1.  Introduction

   In [Curve25519], a new elliptic curve function for use in
   cryptographic applications was introduced.  In [Ed448-Goldilocks] the
   Ed448-Goldilocks curve (also known as Curve448) is described.  In
   [I-D.irtf-cfrg-curves], the Diffie-Hellman functions using Curve25519
   and Curve448 are specified.

   Secure Shell (SSH) [RFC4251] is a secure remote login protocol.  The
   key exchange key exchange protocol described in [RFC4253] supports an
   extensible set of methods.  In [RFC5656] it is described how elliptic
   curves are integrated in SSH, and this document re-use those protocol
   messages.

   This document describe how key exchange is achieved based on
   Curve25519 and Curve448 in SSH.  For Curve25519 what we described is
   identical to an already implemented (in libssh and OpenSSH) and
   widely deployed proposal registered in the private namespace
   ("curve25519-sha256@libssh.org").  The Curve448 key exchange method
   is novel but similar in spirit.

   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.  Key Exchange Methods

   The key exchange procedure is identical to the one described RFC 5656
   chapter 4 of [RFC5656].  Public ephemeral keys are transmitted over
   SSH encapsulated into standard SSH strings.

   The method names registered by this document are "curve25519-sha256"
   and "curve448-sha256".





Adamantiadis & Josefsson   Expires May 9, 2016                  [Page 2]


Internet-Draft           Curve25519/448 for SSH            November 2015


   The whole method is based on the Curve25519 and Curve448 scalar
   multiplication, as described in [I-D.irtf-cfrg-curves].  Private and
   public keys are generated as described therein, and no special
   validation is required beyond what is discussed there.  Public keys
   are defined as strings of 32 bytes for Curve25519 and 56 bytes for
   Curve448.  The derived shared secret is is 32 bytes when Curve25519
   is used and 56 bytes when Curve448 is used.

   The shared secret, k, is defined in SSH specifications to be a big
   integer.  This number is calculated as follows.  X is the 32 bytes
   point obtained by the scalar multiplication of the other side's
   public key and the local private key scalar.  The whole 32 bytes of
   the number X are then converted into a big integer k.  This
   conversion follows the network byte order.  This step differs from
   [RFC5656].

3.  Acknowledgements

   The "curve25519-sha256" key exchange method is identical to the
   "curve25519-sha256@libssh.org" key exchange method created by Aris
   Adamantiadis and implemented in libssh and OpenSSH.

4.  Security Considerations

   The security considerations of [RFC4251], [RFC5656], and
   [I-D.irtf-cfrg-curves] are inherited.

5.  IANA Considerations

   IANA is requested to add "curve25519-sha256" and "curve448-sha256" to
   the "Key Exchange Method Names" registry for SSH that was created in
   RFC 4250 section 4.10 [RFC4250].

6.  References

6.1.  Normative References

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

   [RFC4250]  Lehtinen, S. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure Shell (SSH)
              Protocol Assigned Numbers", RFC 4250, DOI 10.17487/
              RFC4250, January 2006,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4250>.

   [RFC4251]  Ylonen, T. and C. Lonvick, "The Secure Shell (SSH)
              Protocol Architecture", RFC 4251, January 2006.




Adamantiadis & Josefsson   Expires May 9, 2016                  [Page 3]


Internet-Draft           Curve25519/448 for SSH            November 2015


   [RFC4253]  Ylonen, T. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure Shell (SSH)
              Transport Layer Protocol", RFC 4253, DOI 10.17487/RFC4253,
              January 2006, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4253>.

   [RFC5656]  Stebila, D. and J. Green, "Elliptic Curve Algorithm
              Integration in the Secure Shell Transport Layer", RFC
              5656, DOI 10.17487/RFC5656, December 2009,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5656>.

   [I-D.irtf-cfrg-curves]
              Langley, A. and M. Hamburg, "Elliptic Curves for
              Security", draft-irtf-cfrg-curves-10 (work in progress),
              October 2015.

6.2.  Informative References

   [Curve25519]
              Bernstein, J., "Curve25519: New Diffie-Hellman Speed
              Records", LNCS 3958, pp. 207-228, February 2006,
              <http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/11745853_14>.

   [Ed448-Goldilocks]
              Hamburg, , "Ed448-Goldilocks, a new elliptic curve", June
              2015, <https://eprint.iacr.org/2015/625>.

Appendix A.  Copying conditions

   Regarding this entire document or any portion of it, the authors
   makes no guarantees and is not responsible for any damage resulting
   from its use.  The authors grants irrevocable permission to anyone to
   use, modify, and distribute it in any way that does not diminish the
   rights of anyone else to use, modify, and distribute it, provided
   that redistributed derivative works do not contain misleading author
   or version information.  Derivative works need not be licensed under
   similar terms.

Authors' Addresses

   Aris Adamantiadis
   libssh

   Email: aris@badcode.be


   Simon Josefsson
   SJD AB

   Email: simon@josefsson.org



Adamantiadis & Josefsson   Expires May 9, 2016                  [Page 4]