Network Working Group V. Smyslov
Internet-Draft ELVIS-PLUS
Intended status: Standards Track July 1, 2014
Expires: January 2, 2015
The NULL Authentication Method in IKEv2 Protocol
draft-smyslov-ipsecme-ikev2-null-auth-02
Abstract
This document introduces the NULL Authentication Method for the IKEv2
Protocol. This method provides a way to omit peer authentication in
the IKEv2. It may be used to preserve anonymity of or in the
situations, where no trust relationship exists between the parties.
Status of this Memo
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. Conventions Used in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Using the NULL Authentication Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1. Authentication Payload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2. Identity Payload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
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1. Introduction
The Internet Key Exchange Protocol version 2 (IKEv2), specified in
[IKEv2], provides a way for two parties to perform authenticated key
exchange. Mutual authentication is mandatory in the IKEv2, so that
each party must be authenticated by the other. However the
authentication methods, used by the peers, need not be the same.
In some situations mutual authentication is undesirable, superfluous
or impossible. For example:
o User wants to get anonymous access to some server. In this
situation he/she should be able to authenticate the server, but to
leave out his/her own authentication to preserve anonymity. In
this case one-way authentication is desirable.
o User wants to get some simple action from the remote device.
Consider garage door opener: it must authenticate user to open the
door, but it is not necessary for the user to authenticate the
door opener. In this case one-way authentication is sufficient.
o Two peers without any trust relationship want to get some level of
security in their communications. Without trust relationship they
cannot prevent active Man-in-the-Middle attacks, but it is still
possible to prevent passive eavesdropping with opportunistic
encryption. In this case they can use unauthenticated key
exchange.
To meet these needs the document introduces the NULL Authentication
Method, which is a "dummy" method, that provides no authentication.
This allows peer to explicitly indicate to the other side that it is
unwilling or unable to certify its identity.
1.1. Conventions Used in This Document
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 [RFC2119].
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2. Using the NULL Authentication Method
In IKEv2 each peer independently selects the method to authenticate
itself to the other side. It means that any of the peers may choose
to omit its authentication by using the NULL Authentication Method.
If it is not acceptable for the other peer, it MUST return
AUTHENTICATION_FAILED Notification. Note, that when the Initiator
uses EAP, the Responder MUST NOT use the NULL Authentication Method
(in conformance with the section 2.16 of [IKEv2]).
The NULL Authentication Method affects how the Authentication and the
Identity payloads are formed in the IKE_AUTH Exchange.
2.1. Authentication Payload
Despite the fact that the NULL Authentication Method provides no
authentication, the AUTH Payload must still be present in the
IKE_AUTH Exchange messages and must be properly formed, as it
cryptographically links the IKE_SA_INIT Exchange messages with the
other messages sent over the IKE SA.
With the NULL Authentication Method the content of the AUTH Payload
MUST be computed using the syntax for pre-shared secret
authentication, described in Section 2.15 of [IKEv2]. The values
SK_pi and SK_pr MUST be used as shared secrets for the content of the
AUTH Payloads generated by Initiator and Responder respectively.
Note, that this is exactly how the content of the two last AUTH
Payloads is calculated for non-key generating EAP Method (see Section
2.16 of [IKEv2] for details). The Auth Method field MUST be set to
<TBA by IANA>.
2.2. Identity Payload
The NULL Authentication Method provides no authentication of the
party using it. For that reason the Identity Payload content cannot
be verified by the peer and MUST be ignored by the IKE. Since peer
identity is meaningless in this case, Identification Data SHOULD be
omitted from the ID Payload and ID Type SHOULD be set to 0.
Implementations supporting the NULL Authentication Method MUST NOT
fail if they receive such "empty" ID Payload.
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3. Security Considerations
IKEv2 protocol provides mutual authentication of the peers. If one
peer uses the NULL Authentication Method, then this peer cannot be
authenticated by the other side, and it makes authentication in IKEv2
to be one-way. If both peers use the NULL Authentication method, key
exchange becomes unauthenticated, that makes it subject to the Man-
in-the-Middle attack.
The identity of the peer using the NULL Authenticated Method cannot
be verified by the other side and, therefore, MUST NOT be used
neither for authorization purposes, nor for policy decisions. All
peers who use the NULL Authenticated Method should be considered by
the other party as "guests" and get the least possible privileges.
If the peer uses the NULL Authenticated Method, then the content of
its Traffic Selector Payloads must be treated with care. In
particular, implementations are advised not to trust blindly that the
public IP addresses the peer put into TS Payload are really belong to
it. It is RECOMMENDED for security gateways to always assign
internal IP addresses to unauthenticated clients as described in
Section 2.19 of [IKEv2].
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4. Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Paul Wouters, Yaron Sheffer and Tero
Kivinen for their reviews and valuable comments.
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5. IANA Considerations
This document defines new value in the "IKEv2 Authentication Method"
registry:
<TBA> NULL Authentication Method
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6. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[IKEv2] Kaufman, C., Hoffman, P., Nir, Y., Eronen, P., and T.
Kivinen, "Internet Key Exchange Protocol Version 2
(IKEv2)", draft-kivinen-ipsecme-ikev2-rfc5996bis-04 (work
in progress), June 2014.
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Author's Address
Valery Smyslov
ELVIS-PLUS
PO Box 81
Moscow (Zelenograd) 124460
Russian Federation
Phone: +7 495 276 0211
Email: svan@elvis.ru
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