Subject: WG Review: Recharter of Simple Authentication and Security Layer (sasl)

From: IESG Secretary <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:00:01 -0700 (PDT)

A modified charter has been submitted for the Simple Authentication and
Security Layer (sasl) working group in the Security Area of the IETF.  The
IESG has not made any determination as yet.  The modified charter is
provided below for informational purposes only.  Please send your comments
to the IESG mailing list ([email-masked]) by Tuesday, October 21, 2008.

Simple Authentication and Security Layer (sasl)

===============================================

Last Revision 10/3/2008

Current Status: Active Working Group

Additional information is available at tools.ietf.org/wg/sasl

Chair(s):
Kurt Zeilenga [[email-masked]]
Tom Yu [[email-masked]]

Security Area Director(s):
Tim Polk [[email-masked]]
Pasi Eronen [[email-masked]] 

Security Area Advisor:
Pasi Eronen [[email-masked]]

Mailing Lists:

General Discussion: [email-masked]
To Subscribe: [email-masked]
In Body: subscribe
Archive: http://www.imc.org/ietf-sasl/mail-archive/

Description of Working Group:

The Simple Authentication and Security Layer [RFC4422] provides key
security services to a number of application protocols including BEEP,
IMAP, LDAP, POP, and SMTP. The purpose of this working group is to
shepherd SASL, including select SASL mechanisms, through the Internet
Standards process.

This group will work to progress the SASL Technical Specification
toward Draft Standard.

The group has determined that DIGEST-MD5 [RFC2831] is not suitable for
progression on the Standards Track due to interoperability,
internationalization, and security concerns. The group will deliver a
technical specification for a suitable password-based challenge/
response replacement mechanism for Standard Track consideration.

The replacement mechanism is expected to be "better than" DIGEST-MD5
from a number of perspectives including interoperability,
internationalization, and security. The replacement mechanism is not
expected to (but may) provide a security layer itself, instead relying
on security services provided at a lower layer (e.g., TLS) and channel
bindings. The WG is expected to strike a consensus-supported balance
between the many qualities desired in the replacement. Desired
qualities include (but are not limited to) negotiated key hardening
iteration count, downgrade attack protection, and mutual authentication.
The group intends to consider a number of approaches, including
draft-newman-auth-scam and draft-josefsson-password-auth, as input.
Additionally, the WG will deliver a document summarizing its
DIGEST-MD5 concerns and requesting RFC 2831 be moved to Historic
status. This document will be based upon draft-ietf-sasl-digest-to-
historic.

This group will deliver a revised Technical Specification suitable for
publication as Proposed Standard for the GSS-API family of SASL
mechanisms. This work will be based upon draft-ietf-sasl-gs2.

The group will produce a successor document for the CRAM-MD5
specification, RFC 2195. The outcome can be a Standards Track
specification replacing RFC 2195, an Informational document moving RFC
2195 to Historic, or an Informational document that documents existing
implementation practice.

The following areas are not within the scope of work of this WG:

- new features,

- SASL Mechanisms not specifically mentioned above, and

- SASL "profiles".

However, the SASL WG is an acceptable forum for review of SASL-related
submissions produced by others as long as such review does not impede
progress on the WG objectives listed above.

Milestones:

Done initial I-D for RFC4422bis
Nov 08 initial RFC4422bis implementation report
Dec 08 WGLC RFC4422bis and implementation report I-D
Done initial I-D for DIGEST-MD5 to Historic
Done WGLC I-D for DIGEST-MD5 to Historic
Done initial DIGEST-MD5 replacement I-D
Jan 09 WGLC DIGEST-MD5 replacement I-D
Done initial GS2 I-D
Jan 09 WGLC GS2 I-D
Nov 08 Reach consensus on CRAM-MD5 successor approach (and update
milestones accordingly)

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From: Simon Josefsson <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 09:50:20 +0200

> Nov 08 Reach consensus on CRAM-MD5 successor approach (and update

Given that GS2 is apparently stalled pending decisions on the CRAM-MD5
successor, either that decisions needs to be revisited, or these
milestones appears backwards.

/Simon

---

From: Jeffrey Hutzelman <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 09:14:54 -0400

> milestones appears backwards.

No, the milestones look right, if a bit agressive.
They are just not sorted.

---

From: Simon Josefsson <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:36:28 +0200

> They are just not sorted.

Ah.  Then let me alter my comment into a request to sort the entries. ;)

/Simon