Generic Security Service Application Program Interface (GSS-API) Internationalization and Domain-Based Service Names and Name Type
RFC 5178

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Network Working Group                                        N. Williams
Request for Comments: 5178                                           Sun
Category: Standards Track                                    A. Melnikov
                                                              Isode Ltd.
                                                                May 2008

    Generic Security Service Application Program Interface (GSS-API)
   Internationalization and Domain-Based Service Names and Name Type

Status of This Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   This document describes domain-name-based service principal names and
   the corresponding name type for the Generic Security Service
   Application Programming Interface (GSS-API).  Internationalization of
   the GSS-API is also covered.

   Domain-based service names are similar to host-based service names,
   but using a domain name (not necessarily an Internet domain name) in
   addition to a hostname.  The primary purpose of domain-based names is
   to provide a measure of protection to applications that utilize
   insecure service discovery protocols.  This is achieved by providing
   a way to name clustered services after the "domain" which they
   service, thereby allowing their clients to authorize the service's
   servers based on authentication of their service names.

Williams & Melnikov         Standards Track                     [Page 1]
RFC 5178                 GSS Domain-Based Names                 May 2008

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.  Conventions Used in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   3.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     3.1.  Name Type OID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     3.2.  Name Type OID and Symbolic Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   4.  Query and Display Syntaxes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     4.1.  Examples of Domain-Based Names  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   5.  Internationalization (I18N) Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . 5
     5.1.  Importing Internationalized Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     5.2.  Displaying Internationalized Names  . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   6.  Application Protocol Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
     6.1.  NFSv4 Domain-Wide Namespace Root Server Discovery . . . . . 6
     6.2.  LDAP Server Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Williams & Melnikov         Standards Track                     [Page 2]
RFC 5178                 GSS Domain-Based Names                 May 2008

1.  Introduction

   Some applications need to discover the names of servers for a
   specific resource.  Some common methods for server discovery are
   insecure, e.g., queries for DNS [RFC1035] SRV resource records
   [RFC2782] without using DNSSEC [RFC4033], and are subject to attacks
   whereby a client can be re-directed to incorrect and possibly
   malicious servers.  A client may even be re-directed to a server that
   has credentials for itself and thus may authenticate itself to the
   client, and yet it could be incorrect or malicious (because it has
   been compromised, say).

   Domain-based names allow for GSS-API [RFC2743] initiator applications
   (clients) to authorize acceptor principals (servers) to serve the
   resource for which the client used insecure server discovery without
   either securing the server discovery method or requiring an
   additional protocol for server authorization.  That is, either a
   discovered server has credentials for authenticating the domain-based
   service names that it is intended to respond to, or it does not.
   Availability of valid credentials for authenticating domain-based
   names embodies the authorization of a given server to a domain-wide
   service.

   A domain-based name consists of three required elements:

   o  a service name

   o  a domain name

   o  a hostname

   The domain name and the hostname should be Domain Name System (DNS)
   names, though domain-based names could be used in non-DNS
   environments.  Because of the use of DNS names we must also provide
   for internationalization of the GSS-API.

   Note that domain-based naming isn't new.  According to a report to
   the KITTEN WG mailing list, there exists at least one implementation