Guidelines for Writing RFC Text on Security Considerations
RFC 3552
| Document | Type |
RFC - Best Current Practice
(July 2003; Errata)
Also known as BCP 72
Was draft-iab-sec-cons (iab)
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | Eric Rescorla , Brian Korver | ||
| Last updated | 2020-01-21 | ||
| Stream | IAB | ||
| Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized with errata bibtex | ||
| Stream | IAB state | (None) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| RFC Editor Note | (None) | ||
Network Working Group E. Rescorla
Request for Comments: 3552 RTFM, Inc.
BCP: 72 B. Korver
Category: Best Current Practice Xythos Software
Internet Architecture Board
IAB
July 2003
Guidelines for Writing RFC Text on Security Considerations
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
All RFCs are required to have a Security Considerations section.
Historically, such sections have been relatively weak. This document
provides guidelines to RFC authors on how to write a good Security
Considerations section.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. The Goals of Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1. Communication Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1.1. Confidentiality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1.2. Data Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1.3. Peer Entity authentication . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2. Non-Repudiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3. Systems Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3.1. Unauthorized Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.2. Inappropriate Usage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.3. Denial of Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3. The Internet Threat Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.1. Limited Threat Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2. Passive Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2.1. Confidentiality Violations . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2.2. Password Sniffing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2.3. Offline Cryptographic Attacks. . . . . . . . . 9
Rescorla & Korver Best Current Practice [Page 1]
RFC 3552 Security Considerations Guidelines July 2003
3.3. Active Attacks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.3.1. Replay Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.3.2. Message Insertion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.3.3. Message Deletion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.3.4. Message Modification . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.3.5. Man-In-The-Middle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.4. Topological Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.5. On-path versus off-path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.6. Link-local. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4. Common Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.1. User Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.1.1. Username/Password. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.1.2. Challenge Response and One Time Passwords. . . 14
4.1.3. Shared Keys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.1.4. Key Distribution Centers . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.1.5. Certificates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.1.6. Some Uncommon Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.1.7. Host Authentication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.2. Generic Security Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.3. Non-repudiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.4. Authorization vs. Authentication. . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.4.1. Access Control Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.4.2. Certificate Based Systems. . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.5. Providing Traffic Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.5.1. IPsec. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.5.2. SSL/TLS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.5.3. Remote Login . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.6. Denial of Service Attacks and Countermeasures . . . . 22
4.6.1. Blind Denial of Service. . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.6.2. Distributed Denial of Service. . . . . . . . . 23
4.6.3. Avoiding Denial of Service . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.6.4. Example: TCP SYN Floods. . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.6.5. Example: Photuris. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.7. Object vs. Channel Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.8. Firewalls and Network Topology. . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5. Writing Security Considerations Sections . . . . . . . . . 26
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