Keying and Authentication for Routing Protocols (KARP) Design Guidelines
RFC 6518

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                       G. Lebovitz
Request for Comments: 6518                                     M. Bhatia
Category: Informational                                   Alcatel-Lucent
ISSN: 2070-1721                                            February 2012

         Keying and Authentication for Routing Protocols (KARP)
                           Design Guidelines

Abstract

   This document is one of a series concerned with defining a roadmap of
   protocol specification work for the use of modern cryptographic
   mechanisms and algorithms for message authentication in routing
   protocols.  In particular, it defines the framework for a key
   management protocol that may be used to create and manage session
   keys for message authentication and integrity.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   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).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see 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/rfc6518.

Lebovitz & Bhatia             Informational                     [Page 1]
RFC 6518                 KARP Design Guidelines            February 2012

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2012 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.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................3
      1.1. Conventions Used in This Document ..........................4
   2. Categorizing Routing Protocols ..................................5
      2.1. Category: Message Transaction Type .........................5
      2.2. Category: Peer versus Group Keying .........................6
   3. Consider the Future Existence of a Key Management Protocol ......6
      3.1. Consider Asymmetric Keys ...................................7
      3.2. Cryptographic Keys Life Cycle ..............................8
   4. Roadmap .........................................................9
      4.1. Work Phases on Any Particular Protocol .....................9
      4.2. Work Items per Routing Protocol ...........................11
   5. Routing Protocols in Categories ................................13
   6. Supporting Incremental Deployment ..............................16
   7. Denial-of-Service Attacks ......................................17
   8. Gap Analysis ...................................................18
   9. Security Considerations ........................................20
      9.1. Use Strong Keys ...........................................21
      9.2. Internal versus External Operation ........................22
      9.3. Unique versus Shared Keys .................................22
      9.4. Key Exchange Mechanism ....................................24
   10. Acknowledgments ...............................................26
   11. References ....................................................26
       11.1. Normative References ....................................26
       11.2. Informative References ..................................26

Lebovitz & Bhatia             Informational                     [Page 2]
RFC 6518                 KARP Design Guidelines            February 2012

1.  Introduction

   In March 2006, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) held a workshop
   on the topic of "Unwanted Internet Traffic".  The report from that
   workshop is documented in RFC 4948 [RFC4948].  Section 8.1 of that
   document states that "A simple risk analysis would suggest that an
   ideal attack target of minimal cost but maximal disruption is the
   core routing infrastructure".  Section 8.2 calls for "[t]ightening
   the security of the core routing infrastructure".  Four main steps
   were identified for that tightening:

   o  Increase the security mechanisms and practices for operating
      routers.

   o  Clean up the Internet Routing Registry [IRR] repository, and
      securing both the database and the access, so that it can be used