4 Network Working Group S. Josefsson
6 Intended status: Informational July 31, 2009
7 Expires: February 1, 2010
10 Using Kerberos V5 over the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol
11 draft-josefsson-kerberos5-starttls-07
15 This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the
16 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. This document may contain material
17 from IETF Documents or IETF Contributions published or made publicly
18 available before November 10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the
19 copyright in some of this material may not have granted the IETF
20 Trust the right to allow modifications of such material outside the
21 IETF Standards Process. Without obtaining an adequate license from
22 the person(s) controlling the copyright in such materials, this
23 document may not be modified outside the IETF Standards Process, and
24 derivative works of it may not be created outside the IETF Standards
25 Process, except to format it for publication as an RFC or to
26 translate it into languages other than English.
28 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
29 Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
30 other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
33 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
34 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
35 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
36 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
38 The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
39 http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.
41 The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
42 http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.
44 This Internet-Draft will expire on February 1, 2010.
48 Copyright (c) 2009 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
49 document authors. All rights reserved.
51 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
55 Josefsson Expires February 1, 2010 [Page 1]
57 Internet-Draft Protecting Kerberos V5 with TLS July 2009
60 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents in effect on the date of
61 publication of this document (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info).
62 Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
63 and restrictions with respect to this document.
111 Josefsson Expires February 1, 2010 [Page 2]
113 Internet-Draft Protecting Kerberos V5 with TLS July 2009
118 This document specify how the Kerberos V5 protocol can be transported
119 over the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, to provide
120 additional security features.
125 1. Introduction and Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
126 2. Kerberos V5 STARTTLS Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
127 3. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
128 4. STARTTLS aware KDC Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
129 5. Server Certificates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
130 6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
131 7. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
132 8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
133 9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
134 9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
135 9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
136 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
167 Josefsson Expires February 1, 2010 [Page 3]
169 Internet-Draft Protecting Kerberos V5 with TLS July 2009
172 1. Introduction and Background
174 This document describe how a Kerberos V5 [RFC4120] implementation may
175 upgrade communication between clients and Key Distribution Centers
176 (KDCs) to use the Transport Layer Security (TLS) [RFC5246] protocol.
178 The TLS protocol offer integrity and privacy protected exchanges that
179 can be authentication using X.509 certificates, OpenPGP keys
180 [RFC5081], and user name and passwords via SRP [RFC5054].
182 There are several reasons to use Kerberos V5 over TLS.
184 o Prevents downgrade attacks affecting, e.g., encryption types and
185 pre-auth data negotiation. The encryption type field in KDC-REQ,
186 and the METHOD-DATA field with the requested pre-auth types from
187 the server in KDC_ERR_PREAUTH_REQUIRED errors in KDC-REP, are sent
188 without integrity or privacy protection in Kerberos 5. This
189 allows an active attacker to replace the encryption type with a
190 compromised encryption type, e.g., 56-bit DES, or request that
191 clients should use a broken pre-auth type. Since clients in
192 general cannot know the encryption types other servers support, or
193 the pre-auth types servers prefer or require, it is difficult for
194 the client to detect if there was a man-in-the-middle or if the
195 remote server simply did not support a stronger encryption type or
196 preferred another pre-auth type.
198 o Kerberos exchanges are privacy protected. Part of many Kerberos
199 packets are transferred without privacy protection (i.e.,
200 encryption). That part contains information, such as the client
201 principal name, the server principal name, the encryption types
202 supported by the client, the lifetime of tickets, etc. Revealing
203 such information is, in some threat models, considered a problem.
205 o Additional authentication against the KDC. In some situations,
206 users are equipped with smart cards with a RSA authentication key.
207 In others, users have a OpenPGP client on their desktop, with a
208 public OpenPGP key known to the server.
210 o The TLS protocol has been studied by many parties. In some threat
211 models, the designer prefer to reduce the number of protocols that
212 can hurt the overall system security if they are compromised.
214 o Explicit server authentication of the KDC to the client. In
215 traditional Kerberos 5, authentication of the KDC is proved as a
216 side effect that the KDC knows your encryption key (i.e., your
219 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
223 Josefsson Expires February 1, 2010 [Page 4]
225 Internet-Draft Protecting Kerberos V5 with TLS July 2009
228 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
229 document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
279 Josefsson Expires February 1, 2010 [Page 5]
281 Internet-Draft Protecting Kerberos V5 with TLS July 2009
284 2. Kerberos V5 STARTTLS Extension
286 The STARTTLS extension uses the Kerberos V5 TCP extension mechanism
287 [RFC5021]. The extension uses bit #TBD in the extension bitmask.
289 The protocol is as follows. After the server has sent the 4-octet
290 value 0x00000000 to indicate support of this extension, the stream
291 will be controlled by the TLS protocol and its framing. The TLS
292 protocol is initiated by the client.
294 Typically, the client initiate the TLS handshake protocol by sending
295 a client hello, and the server responds, and the handshake continues
296 until it either succeed or fails.
298 If for any reason the handshake fails, the STARTTLS protocol will
299 also fail, and the TLS error is used as the error indication. In
300 this case, no further messages can be exchanged over the same TCP
303 If the handshake succeeds, the Kerberos V5 authentication protocol is
304 performed within the protected TLS channel, like a normal TCP
305 Kerberos V5 exchange. In particular, this means that every Kerberos
306 V5 packet will be prefixed by a 4-octet length field, that indicate
307 the length of the Kerberos V5 packet.
309 When no further Kerberos V5 messages needs to be transferred in the
310 TLS session, the TLS session MUST be shut down properly using the
311 close_notify alert. When the TLS session is shut down, the TCP
312 connection cannot be re-used to send any further data and MUST be
335 Josefsson Expires February 1, 2010 [Page 6]
337 Internet-Draft Protecting Kerberos V5 with TLS July 2009
342 A complete packet flow for a successful AS-REQ/REP exchange protected
343 by this mechanism will be as follows. The "STARTTLS-bit" is a
344 4-octet value with only the bit allocated for this extension set.
348 [ Kerberos V5 TCP extension mechanism negotiation starts ]
350 [0x70000000 & STARTTLS-bit] -------->
354 [ TLS negotiation starts ]
357 ClientHello -------->
362 <-------- ServerHelloDone
371 [ Kerberos V5 negotiation starts ]
374 Kerberos V5 AS-REQ -------->
379 * Indicates optional or situation-dependent messages that are not
391 Josefsson Expires February 1, 2010 [Page 7]
393 Internet-Draft Protecting Kerberos V5 with TLS July 2009
396 4. STARTTLS aware KDC Discovery
398 Section 7.2.3 of Kerberos V5 [RFC4120] describe how Domain Name
399 System (DNS) SRV records [RFC2782] can be used to find the address of
400 an KDC. We define a new Proto of "tls" to indicate that the
401 particular KDC is intended to support this STARTTLS extension. The
402 Service, Realm, TTL, Class, SRV, Priority, Weight, Port and Target
403 have the same meaning as in RFC 4120.
407 _kerberos._tls.EXAMPLE.COM. IN SRV 0 0 88 kdc1.example.com.
408 _kerberos._tls.EXAMPLE.COM. IN SRV 1 0 88 kdc2.example.com.
447 Josefsson Expires February 1, 2010 [Page 8]
449 Internet-Draft Protecting Kerberos V5 with TLS July 2009
452 5. Server Certificates
454 The TLS protocol may be used in a mode that provides server
455 authentication using, for example, X.509 and OpenPGP.
457 The Kerberos V5 STARTTLS protocol do not require clients to verify
458 the server certificate. The goal is that support for TLS in Kerberos
459 V5 clients should be as easy to implement and deploy as support for
460 UDP/TCP. Use of TLS, even without server certificate validation,
461 protects against some attacks that Kerberos V5 over UDP/TCP do not.
462 Requiring server certificates to be used at all times would enable
463 attacks in those situations.
465 Many client environments do not have secure long-term storage, which
466 is required to validate certificates. This makes it impossible to
467 use server certificate validation on a large number of client
470 When clients have the ability, they need to be able to validate the
471 server certificate. For this reason, if a KDC presents a X.509
472 server certificate over TLS, it MUST contain an otherName Subject
473 Alternative Name (SAN) identified using a type-id of id-krb5starttls-
474 san. The intention is to bind the server certificate to the Kerberos
475 realm for the purpose of using Kerberos V5 STARTTLS. The value field
476 of the otherName should contain the realm as the "Realm" ASN.1 type.
478 id-krb5starttls-san OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::=
479 { iso(1) identified-organization(3) dod(6) internet(1)
480 private(4) enterprise(1) gnu(11591)
481 shishi(6) krb5starttls-san(1) }
483 To validate a server certificate, the client MAY use local
484 configuration (e.g., a list that map realm names to a copy of the
485 server's certificate) and compare that with the authentication
486 information provided from the server via TLS. For illustration, the
487 server certificate could be a X.509 certificate or an OpenPGP key.
488 In this mode, the client need no processing related to id-
491 When the server presents a X.509 server certificate, clients MAY use
492 "Certification Path Validation" as described in [RFC5280] to validate
493 the KDC server certificate. In addition, unless the client can
494 otherwise verify that the server certificate is bound to the KDC of
495 the target realm, the client MUST verify that the server certificate
496 contains the id-krb5starttls-san SAN and that the value is identical
497 to the intended Kerberos realm.
503 Josefsson Expires February 1, 2010 [Page 9]
505 Internet-Draft Protecting Kerberos V5 with TLS July 2009
508 6. IANA Considerations
510 The IANA is requested to allocate a bit in the "Kerberos TCP
511 Extensions" registry for the extension described in this document, as
559 Josefsson Expires February 1, 2010 [Page 10]
561 Internet-Draft Protecting Kerberos V5 with TLS July 2009
566 Jeffrey Hutzelman and Sam Hartman provided comments that improved the
567 protocol and document.
615 Josefsson Expires February 1, 2010 [Page 11]
617 Internet-Draft Protecting Kerberos V5 with TLS July 2009
620 8. Security Considerations
622 The security considerations in Kerberos V5, TLS, and the Kerberos V5
623 TCP extension mechanism are inherited.
625 Note that TLS does not protect against Man-In-The-Middle (MITM)
626 attacks unless clients verify the KDC's credentials (X.509
627 certificate, OpenPGP key, etc) correctly.
629 If server authentication is used, some information about the server
630 (such as its name) is visible to passive attackers.
632 To protect against the inherent downgrade attack in the extension
633 framework, implementations SHOULD offer a policy mode that requires
634 this extension to always be successfully negotiated, for a particular
635 realm, or generally. For interoperability with implementations that
636 do not support this extension, the policy mode SHOULD be disabled by
671 Josefsson Expires February 1, 2010 [Page 12]
673 Internet-Draft Protecting Kerberos V5 with TLS July 2009
678 9.1. Normative References
680 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
681 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
683 [RFC2782] Gulbrandsen, A., Vixie, P., and L. Esibov, "A DNS RR for
684 specifying the location of services (DNS SRV)", RFC 2782,
687 [RFC4120] Neuman, C., Yu, T., Hartman, S., and K. Raeburn, "The
688 Kerberos Network Authentication Service (V5)", RFC 4120,
691 [RFC5246] Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer Security
692 (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2", RFC 5246, August 2008.
694 [RFC5021] Josefsson, S., "Extended Kerberos Version 5 Key
695 Distribution Center (KDC) Exchanges over TCP", RFC 5021,
698 [RFC5280] Cooper, D., Santesson, S., Farrell, S., Boeyen, S.,
699 Housley, R., and W. Polk, "Internet X.509 Public Key
700 Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List
701 (CRL) Profile", RFC 5280, May 2008.
703 9.2. Informative References
705 [RFC5054] Taylor, D., Wu, T., Mavrogiannopoulos, N., and T. Perrin,
706 "Using the Secure Remote Password (SRP) Protocol for TLS
707 Authentication", RFC 5054, November 2007.
709 [RFC5081] Mavrogiannopoulos, N., "Using OpenPGP Keys for Transport
710 Layer Security (TLS) Authentication", RFC 5081,
727 Josefsson Expires February 1, 2010 [Page 13]
729 Internet-Draft Protecting Kerberos V5 with TLS July 2009
735 Simon Josefsson Datakonsult AB
740 Email: simon@josefsson.org
741 URI: http://josefsson.org/
783 Josefsson Expires February 1, 2010 [Page 14]