Network Working Group S. Drach
Request for Comments: 2485 Sun Microsystems
Category: Standards Track January 1999
DHCP Option for The Open Group's User Authentication Protocol
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document defines a DHCP [1] option that contains a list of
pointers to User Authentication Protocol servers that provide user
authentication services for clients that conform to The Open Group
Network Computing Client Technical Standard [2].
Introduction
The Open Group Network Computing Client Technical Standard, a product
of The Open Group's Network Computing Working Group (NCWG), defines a
network computing client user authentication facility named the User
Authentication Protocol (UAP).
UAP provides two levels of authentication, basic and secure. Basic
authentication uses the Basic Authentication mechanism defined in the
HTTP 1.1 [3] specification. Secure authentication is simply basic
authentication encapsulated in an SSLv3 [4] session.
In both cases, a UAP client needs to obtain the IP address and port
of the UAP service. Additional path information may be required,
depending on the implementation of the service. A URL [5] is an
excellent mechanism for encapsulation of this information since many
UAP servers will be implemented as components within legacy HTTP/SSL
servers.
Drach Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 2485 DCHP Option for the Open Group's UAP January 1999 Most UAP clients have no local state and are configured when booted through DHCP. No existing DHCP option [6] has a data field that contains a URL. Option 72 contains a list of IP addresses for WWW servers, but it is not adequate since a port and/or path can not be specified. Hence there is a need for an option that contains a list of URLs. User Authentication Protocol Option This option specifies a list of URLs, each pointing to a user authentication service that is capable of processing authentication requests encapsulated in the User Authentication Protocol (UAP). UAP servers can accept either HTTP 1.1 or SSLv3 connections. If the list includes a URL that does not contain a port component, the normal default port is assumed (i.e., port 80 for http and port 443 for https). If the list includes a URL that does not contain a path component, the path /uap is assumed. 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Code | Length | URL list +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Code 98 Length The length of the data field (i.e., URL list) in bytes. URL list A list of one or more URLs separated by the ASCII space character (0x20). References [1] Droms, R., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol", RFC 2131, March 1997. [2] Technical Standard: Network Computing Client, The Open Group, Document Number C801, October 1998. [3] Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Frystyk, H., and T. Berners-Lee, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1", RFC 2068, January 1997. [4] Freier, A., Karlton, P., and P. Kocher, "The SSL Protocol, Version 3.0", Netscape Communications Corp., November 1996. Standards Information Base, The Open Group, http://www.db.opengroup.org/sib.htm#SSL_3. Drach Standards Track [Page 2]
RFC 2485 DCHP Option for the Open Group's UAP January 1999 [5] Berners-Lee, T., Masinter, L., and M. McCahill, "Uniform Resource Locators (URL)", RFC 1738, December 1994. [6] Alexander, S. and R. Droms, "DHCP Options and BOOTP Vendor Extensions", RFC 2132, March 1997. Security Considerations DHCP currently provides no authentication or security mechanisms. Potential exposures to attack are discussed in section 7 of the DHCP protocol specification. The User Authentication Protocol does not have a means to detect whether or not the client is communicating with a rogue authentication service that the client contacted because it received a forged or otherwise compromised UAP option from a DHCP service whose security was compromised. Even secure authentication does not provide relief from this type of attack. This security exposure is mitigated by the environmental assumptions documented in the Network Computing Client Technical Standard. Author's Address Steve Drach Sun Microsystems, Inc. 901 San Antonio Road Palo Alto, CA 94303 Phone: (650) 960-1300 EMail: drach@sun.com Drach Standards Track [Page 3]
RFC 2485 DCHP Option for the Open Group's UAP January 1999
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Drach Standards Track [Page 4]
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