3 NETWORK WORKING GROUP L. Zhu
4 Internet-Draft Microsoft Corporation
5 Updates: 4120 (if approved) October 17, 2006
6 Intended status: Standards Track
7 Expires: April 20, 2007
10 Kerberos for Web Services
15 By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any
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36 This Internet-Draft will expire on April 20, 2007.
40 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
44 This document defines extensions to the Kerberos protocol and the
45 GSS-API Kerberos mechanism that enable a GSS-API Kerberos client to
46 exchange messages with the KDC using the GSS-API server as the proxy,
47 by encapsulating the Kerberos messages inside GSS-API tokens. With
48 these extensions, Kerberos is suitable for securing communication
49 between the client and web services over the Internet.
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61 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
62 2. Conventions Used in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
63 3. GSS-API Encapsulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
64 4. Addresses in Tickets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
65 5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
66 6. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
67 7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
68 8. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
69 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
70 Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 9
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117 The Kerberos [RFC4120] pre-authentication framework [KRB-PAFW]
118 promises minimal or no exposure of weak client keys and strong client
119 authentication. The Kerberos support of anonymity [KRB-ANON]
120 provides for privacy. These advancements make Kerberos suitable over
123 The traditional client-push Kerberos protocol does not work well in
124 the Web services environments where the KDC is not accessible to the
125 client, but is accessible to the web server. For example, the KDC is
126 commonly placed behind a firewall together with the application
127 server. The lack of accessibility to the KDC by the client could
128 also occur are when the client does not have an IP address prior to
129 authenticating to an access point.
131 Generic Security Service Application Program Interface (GSS-API)
132 [RFC2743] allows security mechanisms exchange arbitrary messages
133 between the client and the server via the application traffic,
134 independent of the underlying transports. A protocol based on
135 [RFC4121] is thus defined to allow the GSS-API client to exchange
136 Kerberos messages with the KDC by using the GSS-API server as the
137 proxy. The server-pull model defined in this specification is
138 benefical for clients with limited processing power such as mobile
139 devices, or when the client and the server message exchange has high
142 Client <---------> WS-KERB proxy <----------> KDC
144 The Kerberos client MUST use a pre-authentication mechanism such as
145 FAST [KRB-PAFW] to avoid exposure of long term client keys to the
146 server, before and after the server is authenticated, and hide the
147 client identity from adversary who can eavesdrop the application
148 traffic if such level of privacy is desirable.
151 2. Conventions Used in This Document
153 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
154 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
155 document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
158 3. GSS-API Encapsulation
160 The mechanism Objection Identifier (OID) for GSS-API WS-KERB, in
161 accordance with the mechanism proposed by [RFC4178] for negotiating
162 protocol variations, is id-kerberos-ws:
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172 { iso(1) org(3) dod(6) internet(1) security(5) kerberosV5(2)
175 The first token of the GSS-API WS-KERB mechanism MUST have the
176 generic token framing described in section 3.1 of [RFC2743] with the
177 mechanism OID being id-kerberos-ws, and any subsequent GSS-API WS-
178 KERB token MUST NOT have this framing.
180 The GSS-API WS-KERB mechanism MUST always provide server
181 authentication, even if the client does not ask for it. When server-
182 authentication is performed, the GSS-API server will always send back
183 an AP-REP, and as described later in this section this mechanism
184 provides integrity protection for all client-server proxy message
187 The innerToken described in section 3.1 of [RFC2743] and subsequent
188 GSS-API tokens have the following formats: it starts with a two-octet
189 token-identifier (TOK_ID), followed by a WS-KERB message or a
193 Token/Message TOK_ID Value in Hex
194 -----------------------------------------
197 Only one WS-KERB specific message, namely the WS_KRB_PROXY message,
198 is defined in this document. The TOK_ID values for [RFC4120]
199 Kerberos messages are the same as those defined for the GSS-API
200 Kerberos mechanism [RFC4121].
202 The message of the WS_KRB_PROXY type is defined as a WS-KRB-HEADER
203 structure immediately followed by a Kerberos message. The Kerberos
204 message can be an AS-REQ, an AS-REP, a TGS-REQ, a TGS-REP, or a KRB-
205 ERROR as defined in [RFC4120].
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227 WS-KRB-HEADER ::= SEQUENCE {
228 pvno [1] INTEGER (5) ,
229 msg-type [2] INTEGER (23),
230 proxy-data [3] ProxyData,
234 ProxyData :: = SEQUENCE {
236 cookie [3] OCTET STRING OPTIONAL,
237 -- opaque data, if sent by the server,
238 -- MUST be copied by the client unchanged into
239 -- the next WS-KERB message.
244 The WS-KRB-HEADER structure and all the Kerberos messages MUST be
245 encoded using Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) Distinguished
246 Encoding Rules (DER) [X680] [X690].
248 The GSS-API WS-KERB client fills out the realm field in the ProxyData
249 of the first request with the client realm. If the client does not
250 know the client realm [REFERALS], it MUST fill it out using the
251 client's default realm name such as the realm of the client host.
252 Typically the Kerberos message in the first WS_KRB_PROXY message from
253 the client is an AS-REQ message.
255 Upon receipt of the WS_KRB_PROXY message, the GSS-API WS-KERB server
256 MUST use the proxy-data in the message from the client to locate the
257 KDC and sends the encapsulated Kerberos message to that KDC. In
258 order to reduce the number of roundtrips between the client and the
259 server, the server SHOULD process any message exchange with the KDC
260 if the exchange is unauthenticated, such as client-referral message
261 exchange [REFERALS]. If the server can not process the KDC response
262 by itself, for example when the knowledge of the client keys is
263 required, it sends back to the client the KDC reply message
264 encapsulated in a WS_KRB_PROXY message. The server MUST fill out the
265 realm name whose KDC produced the response. The server SHOULD use
266 the XKDC mechanism described in [KRB-PAFW] to allow the client's KDC
267 to obtain a service ticket to the server, thus further reduce the
268 number of roundtrips between the GSS-API client and the GSS-API
269 server. The GSS-API server can send opaque data in the cookie field
270 of the WS-KRB-HEADER structure in the server reply to the client, in
271 order to, for example, reduce the amount of state information kept by
272 the GSS-API server. The content and the encoding of the cookie field
273 is a local matter of the server. The client MUST copy the verbatim
274 cookie from the previous server response, when the cookie is present,
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283 whenever it sends an additional WS-KRB-PROXY message to the server.
284 The client processes the KDC response, and fills out the realm name
285 it believes to whom the server should send the encapsulated Kerberos
288 When the client obtains a service ticket, the client then sends a
289 KRB_AP_REQ message to the server, and proceed as defined in
290 [RFC4121]. A GSS-API authenticator extension [GSS-EXTS] MUST be sent
291 by the client. The extension type is 2 and the content is the ASN.1
292 DER encoding of the type Checksum. The checksum is performed over
293 all GSS-API messages as exchanged between the client and the server
294 before the KRB_AP_REQ message, and in the order of the exchange. The
295 checksum type is the required checksum type for the enctype of the
296 subkey in the authenticator, the protocol key is the authenticator
297 subkey, and the key usage number is TBA-1. The server MUST verify
298 this checksum in the GSS-API authenticator extension, then respond
299 with an AP-REP extension [GSS-EXTS]. The AP-REP extension type is 2
300 and the the content is the ASN.1 DER encoding of the type Checksum.
301 This checksum is performed over all GSS-API messages as exchanged
302 between the client and the server before the KRB_AP_REQ message, and
303 in the order of the exchange. The checksum type is the required
304 checksum type for the enctype of the authenticator subkey in the
305 request, and the protocol key is the authenticator subkey, and the
306 key usage number is TBA-2. The client MUST then verify this
310 4. Addresses in Tickets
312 In WS-KERB, the machine sending requests to the KDC is the GSS-API
313 server and not the client. As a result, the client should not
314 include its addresses in any KDC requests for two reasons. First,
315 the KDC may reject the forwarded request as being from the wrong
316 client. Second, in the case of initial authentication for a dial-up
317 client, the client machine may not yet possess a network address.
318 Hence, as allowed by [RFC4120], the addresses field of the AS-REQ and
319 TGS-REQ requests SHOULD be blank and the caddr field of the ticket
320 SHOULD similarly be left blank.
323 5. Security Considerations
325 Similar to other network access protocols, WS-KERB allows an
326 unauthenticated client (possibly outside the security perimeter of an
327 organization) to send messages that are proxied to interior servers.
329 In a scenario where DNS SRV RR's are being used to locate the KDC,
330 WS-KERB is being used, and an external attacker can modify DNS
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339 responses to the WS-KERB proxy, there are several countermeasures to
340 prevent arbitrary messages from being sent to internal servers:
342 1. KDC port numbers can be statically configured on the WS-KERB
343 proxy. In this case, the messages will always be sent to KDC's.
344 For an organization that runs KDC's on a static port (usually
345 port 88) and does not run any other servers on the same port,
346 this countermeasure would be easy to administer and should be
349 2. The proxy can do application level sanity checking and filtering.
350 This countermeasure should eliminate many of the above attacks.
352 3. DNS security can be deployed. This countermeasure is probably
353 overkill for this particular problem, but if an organization has
354 already deployed DNS security for other reasons, then it might
355 make sense to leverage it here. Note that Kerberos could be used
356 to protect the DNS exchanges. The initial DNS SRV KDC lookup by
357 the proxy will be unprotected, but an attack here is at most a
358 denial of service (the initial lookup will be for the proxy's KDC
359 to facilitate Kerberos protection of subsequent DNS exchanges
360 between itself and the DNS server).
365 The server-proxy idea is based on the early revisions of this
366 document written by Jonathan Trostle, Michael Swift, Bernard Aboba
369 The rest of the ideas mostly came from hallway conversations between
370 the author and Nicolas Williams.
373 7. IANA Considerations
375 There is no IANA action required for this document.
378 8. Normative References
380 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
381 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
383 [RFC2743] Linn, J., "Generic Security Service Application Program
384 Interface Version 2, Update 1", RFC 2743, January 2000.
386 [RFC4120] Neuman, C., Yu, T., Hartman, S., and K. Raeburn, "The
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395 Kerberos Network Authentication Service (V5)", RFC 4120,
398 [RFC4121] Zhu, L., Jaganathan, K., and S. Hartman, "The Kerberos
399 Version 5 Generic Security Service Application Program
400 Interface (GSS-API) Mechanism: Version 2", RFC 4121,
403 [RFC4178] Zhu, L., Leach, P., Jaganathan, K., and W. Ingersoll, "The
404 Simple and Protected Generic Security Service Application
405 Program Interface (GSS-API) Negotiation Mechanism",
406 RFC 4178, October 2005.
408 [KRB-ANON] Zhu, L., Leach, P. and Jaganathan, K., "Kerberos Anonymity
409 Support", draft-ietf-krb-wg-anon, work in progress.
412 [KRB-PAFW] Zhu, etl, "Kerberos Pre-Authentication framework",
413 draft-ietf-krb-wg-preauth-framework, work in progress.
415 [GSS-EXTS] Emery, S., draft-ietf-krb-wg-gss-cb-hash-agility, work in
418 [REFERALS] Raeburn, K., "Generating KDC Referrals to Locate Kerberos
419 Realms", draft-ietf-krb-wg-kerberos-referrals, work in
422 [X680] ITU-T Recommendation X.680 (2002) | ISO/IEC 8824-1:2002,
423 Information technology - Abstract Syntax Notation One
424 (ASN.1): Specification of basic notation.
426 [X690] ITU-T Recommendation X.690 (2002) | ISO/IEC 8825-1:2002,
427 Information technology - ASN.1 encoding Rules:
428 Specification of Basic Encoding Rules (BER), Canonical
429 Encoding Rules (CER) and Distinguished Encoding Rules
436 Microsoft Corporation
441 Email: lzhu@microsoft.com
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