4 NETWORK WORKING GROUP L. Zhu
5 Internet-Draft K. Jaganathan
6 Expires: September 3, 2006 K. Lauter
11 ECC Support for PKINIT
12 draft-zhu-pkinit-ecc-01
16 By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any
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21 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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34 The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
35 http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.
37 This Internet-Draft will expire on September 3, 2006.
41 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
45 This document describes the use of Elliptic Curve certificates,
46 Elliptic Curve signature schemes and Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman
47 (ECDH) key agreement within the framework of PKINIT - the Kerberos
48 Version 5 extension that provides for the use of public key
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62 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
63 2. Conventions Used in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
64 3. Using Elliptic Curve Certificates and Elliptic Curve
65 Signature Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
66 4. Using ECDH Key Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
67 5. Choosing the Domain Parameters and the Key Size . . . . . . . 5
68 6. Interoperability Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
69 7. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
70 8. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
71 9. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
72 10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
73 10.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
74 10.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
75 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
76 Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 11
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118 Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is emerging as an attractive
119 public-key cryptosystem that provides security equivalent to
120 currently popular public-key mechanisms such as RSA and DSA with
121 smaller key sizes [LENSTRA] [NISTSP80057].
123 Currently [PKINIT] permits the use of ECC algorithms but it does not
124 specify how ECC parameters are chosen and how to derive the shared
125 key for key delivery using Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH)
128 This document describes how to use Elliptic Curve certificates,
129 Elliptic Curve signature schemes, and ECDH with [PKINIT]. However,
130 it should be noted that there is no syntactic or semantic change to
131 the existing [PKINIT] messages. Both the client and the KDC
132 contribute one ECDH key pair using the key agrement protocol
133 described in this document.
136 2. Conventions Used in This Document
138 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
139 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
140 document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
143 3. Using Elliptic Curve Certificates and Elliptic Curve Signature
146 ECC certificates and signature schemes can be used in the
147 Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS) [RFC3369] content type
150 X.509 certificates [RFC3280] containing ECC public keys or signed
151 using ECC signature schemes MUST comply with [RFC3279].
153 The elliptic curve domain parameters recommended in [X9.62],
154 [FIPS186-2], and [SECG] SHOULD be used.
156 The signatureAlgorithm field of the CMS data type SignerInfo can
157 contain one of the following ECC signature algorithm identifiers:
159 ecdsa-with-Sha1 [ECCPKALGS]
160 ecdsa-with-Sha256 [ECCPKALGS]
161 ecdsa-with-Sha384 [ECCPKALGS]
162 ecdsa-with-Sha512 [ECCPKALGS]
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172 The corresponding digestAlgorithm field contains one of the following
173 hash algorithm identifiers respectively:
176 id-sha256 [ECCPKALGS]
177 id-sha384 [ECCPKALGS]
178 id-sha512 [ECCPKALGS]
180 Namely id-sha1 MUST be used in conjunction with ecdsa-with-Sha1, id-
181 sha256 MUST be used in conjunction with ecdsa-with-Sha256, id-sha384
182 MUST be used in conjunction with ecdsa-with-Sha384, and id-sha512
183 MUST be used in conjunction with ecdsa-with-Sha512.
185 Implementations of this specfication MUST support ecdsa-with-Sha256
186 and SHOULD support ecdsa-with-Sha1.
189 4. Using ECDH Key Exchange
191 This section describes how ECDH can be used as the AS reply key
192 delivery method [PKINIT]. Note that the protocol description here is
193 similar to that of Modular Exponential Diffie-Hellman (MODP DH), as
194 described in [PKINIT].
196 If the client wishes to use ECDH key agreement method, it encodes its
197 ECDH public key value and the domain parameters [IEEE1363] [X9.63]
198 for its ECDH public key in clientPublicValue of the PA-PK-AS-REQ
201 As described in [PKINIT], the ECDH domain parameters for the client's
202 public key are specified in the algorithm field of the type
203 SubjectPublicKeyInfo [RFC3279] and the client's ECDH public key value
204 is mapped to a subjectPublicKey (a BIT STRING) according to
207 The following algorithm identifier is used to identify the client's
208 choice of the ECDH key agreement method for key delivery.
210 id-ecPublicKey (Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman [ECCPKALGS])
212 If the domain parameters are not accepted by the KDC, the KDC sends
213 back an error message [RFC4120] with the code
214 KDC_ERR_DH_KEY_PARAMETERS_NOT_ACCEPTED [PKINIT]. This error message
215 contains the list of domain parameters acceptable to the KDC. This
216 list is encoded as TD-DH-PARAMETERS [PKINIT], and it is in the KDC's
217 decreasing preference order. The client can then pick a set of
218 domain parameters from the list and retry the authentication.
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228 Both the client and the KDC MUST have local policy that specifies
229 which set of domain parameters are acceptable if they do not have a
230 priori knowledge of the chosen domain parameters. The need for such
231 local policy is explained in Section 7.
233 If the ECDH domain parameters are accepted by the KDC, the KDC sends
234 back its ECDH public key value in the subjectPublicKey field of the
235 PA-PK-AS-REP message [PKINIT].
237 As described in [PKINIT], the KDC's ECDH public key value is encoded
238 as a BIT STRING according to [RFC3279].
240 Note that in the steps above, the client can indicate to the KDC that
241 it wishes to reuse ECDH keys or to allow the KDC to do so, by
242 including the clientDHNonce field in the request [PKINIT], and the
243 KDC can then reuse the ECDH keys and include serverDHNonce field in
244 the reply [PKINIT]. This logic is the same as that of the Modular
245 Exponential Diffie-Hellman key agreement method [PKINIT].
247 If ECDH is negotiated as the key delivery method, then the PA-PK-AS-
248 REP and AS reply key are generated as in Section 3.2.3.1 of [PKINIT]
249 with the following difference: The DHSharedSecret is the x-coordinate
250 of the shared secret value (an elliptic curve point); DHSharedSecret
251 is the output of operation ECSVDP-DH as described in Section 7.2.1 of
254 Both the client and KDC then proceed as described in [PKINIT] and
257 Lastly it should be noted that ECDH can be used with any certificates
258 and signature schemes. However, a significant advantage of using
259 ECDH together with ECC certificates and signature schemes is that the
260 ECC domain parameters in the client or KDC certificates can be used.
261 This obviates the need of locally preconfigured domain parameters as
262 described in Section 7.
265 5. Choosing the Domain Parameters and the Key Size
267 The domain parameters and the key size should be chosen so as to
268 provide sufficient cryptographic security [RFC3766]. The following
269 table, based on table 2 on page 63 of NIST SP800-57 part 1
270 [NISTSP80057], gives approximate comparable key sizes for symmetric-
271 and asymmetric-key cryptosystems based on the best-known algorithms
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284 Symmetric | ECC | RSA
285 -------------+----------- +------------
286 80 | 160 - 223 | 1024
287 112 | 224 - 255 | 2048
288 128 | 256 - 383 | 3072
289 192 | 384 - 511 | 7680
292 Table 1: Comparable key sizes (in bits)
294 Thus, for example, when securing a 128-bit symmetric key, it is
295 prudent to use 256-bit Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), e.g. group
296 P-256 (secp256r1) as described below.
298 A set of ECDH domain parameters is also known as a curve. A curve is
299 a named curve if the domain paratmeters are well known and can be
300 identified by an Object Identifier, otherwise it is called a custom
301 curve. [PKINIT] supports both named curves and custom curves, see
302 Section 7 on the tradeoff of choosing between named curves and custom
305 The named curves recommended in this document are also recommended by
306 NIST [FIPS186-2]. These fifteen ECC curves are given in the
307 following table [FIPS186-2] [SECG].
309 Description SEC 2 OID
310 ----------------- ---------
312 ECPRGF192Random group P-192 secp192r1
313 EC2NGF163Random group B-163 sect163r2
314 EC2NGF163Koblitz group K-163 sect163k1
316 ECPRGF224Random group P-224 secp224r1
317 EC2NGF233Random group B-233 sect233r1
318 EC2NGF233Koblitz group K-233 sect233k1
320 ECPRGF256Random group P-256 secp256r1
321 EC2NGF283Random group B-283 sect283r1
322 EC2NGF283Koblitz group K-283 sect283k1
324 ECPRGF384Random group P-384 secp384r1
325 EC2NGF409Random group B-409 sect409r1
326 EC2NGF409Koblitz group K-409 sect409k1
328 ECPRGF521Random group P-521 secp521r1
329 EC2NGF571Random group B-571 sect571r1
330 EC2NGF571Koblitz group K-571 sect571k1
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340 6. Interoperability Requirements
342 Implementations conforming to this specification MUST support curve
346 7. Security Considerations
348 Kerberos error messages are not integrity protected, as a result, the
349 domain parameters sent by the KDC as TD-DH-PARAMETERS can be tampered
350 with by an attacker so that the set of domain parameters selected
351 could be either weaker or not mutually preferred. Local policy can
352 configure sets of domain parameters acceptable locally, or disallow
353 the negotiation of ECDH domain parameters.
355 Beyond elliptic curve size, the main issue is elliptic curve
356 structure. As a general principle, it is more conservative to use
357 elliptic curves with as little algebraic structure as possible - thus
358 random curves are more conservative than special curves such as
359 Koblitz curves, and curves over F_p with p random are more
360 conservative than curves over F_p with p of a special form (and
361 curves over F_p with p random might be considered more conservative
362 than curves over F_2^m as there is no choice between multiple fields
363 of similar size for characteristic 2). Note, however, that algebraic
364 structure can also lead to implementation efficiencies and
365 implementors and users may, therefore, need to balance conservatism
366 against a need for efficiency. Concrete attacks are known against
367 only very few special classes of curves, such as supersingular
368 curves, and these classes are excluded from the ECC standards such as
369 [IEEE1363] and [X9.62].
371 Another issue is the potential for catastrophic failures when a
372 single elliptic curve is widely used. In this case, an attack on the
373 elliptic curve might result in the compromise of a large number of
374 keys. Again, this concern may need to be balanced against efficiency
375 and interoperability improvements associated with widely-used curves.
376 Substantial additional information on elliptic curve choice can be
377 found in [IEEE1363], [X9.62] and [FIPS186-2].
380 8. IANA Considerations
382 No IANA actions are required for this document.
387 The following people have made significant contributions to this
391 Zhu, et al. Expires September 3, 2006 [Page 7]
393 Internet-Draft ECC Support for PKINIT March 2006
396 draft: Paul Leach, Dan Simon, Kelvin Yiu, David Cross, Sam Hartman,
397 Tolga Acar, and Stefan Santesson.
402 10.1. Normative References
405 RFC-Editor: To be replaced by RFC number for draft-ietf-
406 pkix-ecc-pkalgs. Work in Progress.
409 NIST, "Digital Signature Standard", FIPS 186-2, 2000.
412 IEEE, "Standard Specifications for Public Key Cryptography",
416 NIST, "Recommendation on Key Management",
417 http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/, SP 800-57,
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428 [PKINIT] RFC-Editor: To be replaced by RFC number for draft-ietf-
429 cat-kerberos-pk-init. Work in Progress.
431 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
432 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
434 [RFC3279] Bassham, L., Polk, W., and R. Housley, "Algorithms and
435 Identifiers for the Internet X.509 Public Key
436 Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List
437 (CRL) Profile", RFC 3279, April 2002.
439 [RFC3280] Housley, R., Polk, W., Ford, W., and D. Solo, "Internet
440 X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and
441 Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile", RFC 3280,
444 [RFC3369] Housley, R., "Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)",
445 RFC 3369, August 2002.
447 [RFC3766] Orman, H. and P. Hoffman, "Determining Strengths For
448 Public Keys Used For Exchanging Symmetric Keys", BCP 86,
449 RFC 3766, April 2004.
451 [RFC4120] Neuman, C., Yu, T., Hartman, S., and K. Raeburn, "The
452 Kerberos Network Authentication Service (V5)", RFC 4120,
455 [X9.62] ANSI, "Public Key Cryptography For The Financial Services
456 Industry: The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm
457 (ECDSA)", ANSI X9.62, 1998.
459 [X9.63] ANSI, "Public Key Cryptography for the Financial Services
460 Industry: Key Agreement and Key Transport using Elliptic
461 Curve Cryptography", ANSI X9.63, 2001.
464 9.2. Informative References
466 [LENSTRA] Lenstra, A. and E. Verheul, "Selecting Cryptographic Key
467 Sizes", Journal of Cryptology 14 (2001) 255-293.
469 [SECG] SECG, "Elliptic Curve Cryptography", SEC 1, 2000,
470 <http://www.secg.org/>.
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505 Microsoft Corporation
510 Email: lzhu@microsoft.com
514 Microsoft Corporation
519 Email: karthikj@microsoft.com
523 Microsoft Corporation
528 Email: klauter@microsoft.com
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609 Zhu, et al. Expires September 3, 2006 [Page 11]