Practical Considerations and Implementation Experiences in Securing Smart Object Networks
RFC 8387

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                          M. Sethi
Request for Comments: 8387                                      J. Arkko
Category: Informational                                       A. Keranen
ISSN: 2070-1721                                                 Ericsson
                                                                 H. Back
                                                                   Nokia
                                                                May 2018

       Practical Considerations and Implementation Experiences in
                     Securing Smart Object Networks

Abstract

   This memo describes challenges associated with securing resource-
   constrained smart object devices.  The memo describes a possible
   deployment model where resource-constrained devices sign message
   objects, discusses the availability of cryptographic libraries for
   resource-constrained devices, and presents some preliminary
   experiences with those libraries for message signing on resource-
   constrained devices.  Lastly, the memo discusses trade-offs involving
   different types of security approaches.

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 candidates for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 7841.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8387.

Sethi, et al.                 Informational                     [Page 1]
RFC 8387            Smart Object Security Experiences           May 2018

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 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
   (https://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
   2.  Related Work  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Challenges  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Proposed Deployment Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.1.  Provisioning  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.2.  Protocol Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   5.  Code Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   6.  Implementation Experiences  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   7.  Example Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
   8.  Design Trade-Offs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
     8.1.  Feasibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
     8.2.  Freshness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
     8.3.  Layering  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
     8.4.  Symmetric vs. Asymmetric Crypto . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
   9.  Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
   10. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
   11. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
   12. Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
   Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  33
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  33

Sethi, et al.                 Informational                     [Page 2]
RFC 8387            Smart Object Security Experiences           May 2018

1.  Introduction

   This memo describes challenges associated with securing smart object
   devices in constrained implementations and environments.  In
   Section 3, we specifically discuss three challenges: the
   implementation difficulties encountered on resource-constrained
   platforms, the problem of provisioning keys, and making the choice of
   implementing security at the appropriate layer.

   Section 4 discusses a potential deployment model for constrained
   environments.  The model requires a minimal amount of configuration,
   and we believe it is a natural fit with the typical communication
   practices in smart object networking environments.