Signed Syslog Messages
RFC 5848

• Status
• IESG evaluation record
• IESG writeups
• Email expansions
• History

• Versions
• 29

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                         J. Kelsey
Request for Comments: 5848                                          NIST
Category: Standards Track                                      J. Callas
ISSN: 2070-1721                                          PGP Corporation
                                                                A. Clemm
                                                           Cisco Systems
                                                                May 2010

                         Signed Syslog Messages

Abstract

   This document describes a mechanism to add origin authentication,
   message integrity, replay resistance, message sequencing, and
   detection of missing messages to the transmitted syslog messages.
   This specification is intended to be used in conjunction with the
   work defined in RFC 5424, "The Syslog Protocol".

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5848.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2010 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.

Kelsey, et al.               Standards Track                    [Page 1]
RFC 5848                 Signed Syslog Messages                 May 2010

   This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
   Contributions published or made publicly available before November
   10, 2008.  The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
   material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
   modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
   Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
   the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
   outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
   not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
   it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
   than English.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Conventions Used in This Document  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.  Syslog Message Format  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   4.  Signature Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     4.1.  Syslog Messages Containing a Signature Block . . . . . . .  7
     4.2.  Signature Block Format and Fields  . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
       4.2.1.  Version  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       4.2.2.  Reboot Session ID  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       4.2.3.  Signature Group and Signature Priority . . . . . . . . 10
       4.2.4.  Global Block Counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       4.2.5.  First Message Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       4.2.6.  Count  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       4.2.7.  Hash Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       4.2.8.  Signature  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       4.2.9.  Example  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   5.  Payload and Certificate Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     5.1.  Preliminaries: Key Management and Distribution Issues  . . 15
     5.2.  Payload Block  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
       5.2.1.  Block Format and Fields  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
       5.2.2.  Signer Authentication and Authorization  . . . . . . . 18
     5.3.  Certificate Block  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
       5.3.1.  Syslog Messages Containing a Certificate Block . . . . 19
       5.3.2.  Certificate Block Format and Fields  . . . . . . . . . 20
   6.  Redundancy and Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
     6.1.  Configuration Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
       6.1.1.  Configuration Parameters for Certificate Blocks  . . . 24
       6.1.2.  Configuration Parameters for Signature Blocks  . . . . 26