7 Network Working Group L. Zhu
8 Request for Comments: 4557 K. Jaganathan
9 Category: Standards Track Microsoft Corporation
15 Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) Support for
16 Public Key Cryptography for
17 Initial Authentication in Kerberos (PKINIT)
21 This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
22 Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
23 improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
24 Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
25 and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
29 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
33 This document defines a mechanism to enable in-band transmission of
34 Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) responses in the Kerberos
35 network authentication protocol. These responses are used to verify
36 the validity of the certificates used in Public Key Cryptography for
37 Initial Authentication in Kerberos (PKINIT), which is the Kerberos
38 Version 5 extension that provides for the use of public key
43 1. Introduction ....................................................2
44 2. Conventions Used in This Document ...............................2
45 3. Message Definition ..............................................2
46 4. Security Considerations .........................................3
47 5. Acknowledgements ................................................4
48 6. References ......................................................4
49 6.1. Normative References .......................................4
50 6.2. Informative References .....................................4
58 Zhu, et al. Standards Track [Page 1]
60 RFC 4557 OCSP Support for PKINIT June 2006
65 Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) [RFC2560] enables
66 applications to obtain timely information regarding the revocation
67 status of a certificate. Because OCSP responses are well bounded and
68 small in size, constrained clients may wish to use OCSP to check the
69 validity of the certificates for Kerberos Key Distribution Center
70 (KDC) in order to avoid transmission of large Certificate Revocation
71 Lists (CRLs) and therefore save bandwidth on constrained networks
74 This document defines a pre-authentication type [RFC4120], where the
75 client and the KDC MAY piggyback OCSP responses for certificates used
76 in authentication exchanges, as defined in [RFC4556].
78 By using this OPTIONAL extension, PKINIT clients and the KDC can
79 maximize the reuse of cached OCSP responses.
81 2. Conventions Used in This Document
83 In this document, the key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED",
84 "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY",
85 and "OPTIONAL" are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
89 A pre-authentication type identifier is defined for this mechanism:
91 PA-PK-OCSP-RESPONSE 18
93 The corresponding padata-value field [RFC4120] contains the DER [X60]
94 encoding of the following ASN.1 type:
96 PKOcspData ::= SEQUENCE OF OcspResponse
97 -- If more than one OcspResponse is
98 -- included, the first OcspResponse
99 -- MUST contain the OCSP response
100 -- for the signer's certificate.
101 -- The signer refers to the client for
102 -- AS-REQ, and the KDC for the AS-REP,
105 OcspResponse ::= OCTET STRING
106 -- Contains a complete OCSP response,
107 -- as defined in [RFC2560].
109 The client MAY send OCSP responses for certificates used in PA-PK-
110 AS-REQ [RFC4556] via a PA-PK-OCSP-RESPONSE.
114 Zhu, et al. Standards Track [Page 2]
116 RFC 4557 OCSP Support for PKINIT June 2006
119 The KDC that receives a PA-PK-OCSP-RESPONSE SHOULD send a PA-PK-
120 OCSP-RESPONSE containing OCSP responses for certificates used in the
121 KDC's PA-PK-AS-REP. The client can request a PA-PK-OCSP-RESPONSE by
122 using a PKOcspData containing an empty sequence.
124 The KDC MAY send a PA-PK-OCSP-RESPONSE when it does not receive a
125 PA-PK-OCSP-RESPONSE from the client.
127 The PA-PK-OCSP-RESPONSE sent by the KDC contains OCSP responses for
128 certificates used in PA-PK-AS-REP [RFC4556].
130 Note the lack of integrity protection for the empty or missing OCSP
131 response; lack of an expected OCSP response from the KDC for the
132 KDC's certificates SHOULD be treated as an error by the client,
133 unless it is configured otherwise.
135 When using OCSP, the response is signed by the OCSP server, which is
136 trusted by the receiver. Depending on local policy, further
137 verification of the validity of the OCSP servers may be needed
139 The client and the KDC SHOULD ignore invalid OCSP responses received
140 via this mechanism, and they MAY implement CRL processing logic as a
141 fall-back position, if the OCSP responses received via this mechanism
142 alone are not sufficient for the verification of certificate
143 validity. The client and/or the KDC MAY ignore a valid OCSP response
144 and perform its own revocation status verification independently.
146 4. Security Considerations
148 The pre-authentication data in this document do not actually
149 authenticate any principals, but are designed to be used in
150 conjunction with PKINIT.
152 There is no binding between PA-PK-OCSP-RESPONSE pre-authentication
153 data and PKINIT pre-authentication data other than a given OCSP
154 response corresponding to a certificate used in a PKINIT pre-
155 authentication data element. Attacks involving removal or
156 replacement of PA-PK-OCSP-RESPONSE pre-authentication data elements
157 are, at worst, downgrade attacks, where a PKINIT client or KDC would
158 proceed without use of CRLs or OCSP for certificate validation, or
159 denial-of-service attacks, where a PKINIT client or KDC that cannot
160 validate the other's certificate without an accompanying OCSP
161 response might reject the AS exchange or might have to download very
162 large CRLs in order to continue. Kerberos V does not protect against
163 denial-of-service attacks; therefore, the denial-of-service aspect of
164 these attacks is acceptable.
170 Zhu, et al. Standards Track [Page 3]
172 RFC 4557 OCSP Support for PKINIT June 2006
175 If a PKINIT client or KDC cannot validate certificates without the
176 aid of a valid PA-PK-OCSP-RESPONSE, then it SHOULD fail the AS
177 exchange, possibly according to local configuration.
181 This document was based on conversations among the authors, Jeffrey
182 Altman, Sam Hartman, Martin Rex, and other members of the Kerberos
187 6.1. Normative References
189 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
190 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
192 [RFC2560] Myers, M., Ankney, R., Malpani, A., Galperin, S., and
193 C. Adams, "X.509 Internet Public Key Infrastructure
194 Online Certificate Status Protocol - OCSP", RFC 2560,
197 [RFC4120] Neuman, C., Yu, T., Hartman, S., and K. Raeburn, "The
198 Kerberos Network Authentication Service (V5)", RFC
201 [RFC4556] Zhu, L. and B. Tung, "Public Key Cryptography for
202 Initial Authentication in Kerberos (PKINIT)", RFC
205 [X690] ASN.1 encoding rules: Specification of Basic Encoding
206 Rules (BER), Canonical Encoding Rules (CER) and
207 Distinguished Encoding Rules (DER), ITU-T
208 Recommendation X.690 (1997) | ISO/IEC International
209 Standard 8825-1:1998.
211 6.2. Informative References
213 [OCSP-PROFILE] Deacon, A. and R. Hurst, "Lightweight OCSP Profile for
214 High Volume Environments", Work in Progress, May 2006.
226 Zhu, et al. Standards Track [Page 4]
228 RFC 4557 OCSP Support for PKINIT June 2006
234 Microsoft Corporation
239 EMail: lzhu@microsoft.com
243 Microsoft Corporation
248 EMail: karthikj@microsoft.com
257 EMail: Nicolas.Williams@sun.com
282 Zhu, et al. Standards Track [Page 5]
284 RFC 4557 OCSP Support for PKINIT June 2006
287 Full Copyright Statement
289 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
291 This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
292 contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
293 retain all their rights.
295 This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
296 "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
297 OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
298 ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
299 INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
300 INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
301 WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
303 Intellectual Property
305 The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
306 Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
307 pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
308 this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
309 might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
310 made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information
311 on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
312 found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.
314 Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
315 assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
316 attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
317 such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
318 specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
319 http://www.ietf.org/ipr.
321 The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
322 copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
323 rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
324 this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at
329 Funding for the RFC Editor function is provided by the IETF
330 Administrative Support Activity (IASA).
338 Zhu, et al. Standards Track [Page 6]