1 TLS Working Group Mohamad Badra
2 Internet Draft LIMOS Laboratory
3 Intended status: Standards Track February 24, 2008
8 Password Extension for the TLS Client Authentication
9 draft-badra-tls-password-ext-01.txt
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35 This Internet-Draft will expire on August 24, 2008.
39 Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2008).
43 This document specifies a new Transport Layer Security (TLS)
44 extension and a new TLS message providing TLS client authentication
45 using passwords. It provides client credential protection.
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60 1. Introduction...................................................3
61 1.1. Conventions used in this document.........................3
62 2. Password Extension.............................................3
63 2.1. Encrypted Password........................................3
64 3. Conformance Requirements.......................................6
65 3.1. Requirements for Management Interfaces....................6
66 4. Security Considerations........................................6
67 5. IANA Considerations............................................6
68 6. References.....................................................7
69 6.1. Normative References......................................7
70 6.2. Informative References....................................7
71 Author's Addresses................................................7
72 Intellectual Property Statement...................................7
73 Disclaimer of Validity............................................8
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113 This document defines a new extension and a new TLS message to the
114 Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol to enable TLS client
115 authentication using passwords. It provides client credential
118 1.1. Conventions used in this document
120 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
121 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
122 document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
124 2. Password Extension
126 In order to negotiate the use of client password-based
127 authentication, clients MAY include an extension of type "password"
128 in the extended client hello. The "extension_data" field of this
129 extension SHALL be empty. The extension_type field is to be assigned
132 For servers aware of the password extension but not wishing to use
133 it, it will gracefully revert to an ordinary TLS handshake or stop
136 Servers that receive an extended hello containing a "password"
137 extension MAY agree to authenticate the client using passwords by
138 including an extension of type "password", with empty
139 "extension_data", in the extended server hello. The
140 CertificateRequest payload is omitted from the server response.
142 Clients return a response along with their credentials by sending a
143 "EncryptedPassword" message immediately after the "ClientKeyExchange"
144 message. The encrypted password message is sent symmetrically
145 encrypted with the key client_write_key and the cipher algorithm
146 selected by the server in the ServerHello.cipher_suite.
148 The Certificate and CertificateVerify payloads are omitted from the
151 2.1. Encrypted Password
153 When this message will be sent:
155 The client MUST send this message immediately after the client key
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165 Structure of this message:
169 select (CipherSpec.cipher_type) {
171 stream-ciphered struct {
172 opaque fresh_random<16..2^16-1>;
173 opaque username<1..2^16-1>;
174 opaque password<1..2^16-1>;
177 block-ciphered struct {
178 opaque IV[CipherSpec.block_length];
179 opaque username<1..2^16-1>;
180 opaque password<1..2^16-1>;
181 uint8 adding[EncryptedPassword.padding_length];
182 uint8 padding_length;
188 A vector contains at least 16 bytes random value. It is RECOMMENDED
189 that implementations provide functionality for generating this
190 random, taking [RFC4086] into account.
194 The length (in bytes) of the EncryptedPassword structure.
198 Padding that is added to force the length of the EncryptedPassword
199 structure to be an integral multiple of the block cipher's block
200 length. The padding MAY be any length up to 255 bytes, as long as
201 it results in the EncryptedPassword.length being an integral
202 multiple of the block length. Lengths longer than necessary might
203 be desirable to frustrate attacks on a protocol that are based on
204 analysis of the lengths of exchanged messages. Each uint8 in the
205 padding data vector MUST be filled with the padding length value.
206 The receiver MUST check this padding and SHOULD use the
207 bad_record_mac alert to indicate padding errors.
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221 The padding length MUST be such that the total size of the
222 EncryptedPassword structure is a multiple of the cipher's block
223 length. Legal values range from zero to 255, inclusive. This
224 length specifies the length of the padding field exclusive of the
225 padding_length field itself.
227 BulkCipherAlgorithm.null (e.g. TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_MD5 and
228 RSA_WITH_NULL_SHA) MUST NOT be negotiated when password extension is
229 deployed, as it provides no more protection than an unsecured
232 Upon receipt of this message, the server symmetrically decrypts the
233 EncryptedPassword using the same key as the client to retrieve the
234 username and the password in clear text.
236 Next, the server will then check the authentication database to see
237 if the received username/password and those stored in the database
238 match. If a match is found, the server sends its change cipher spec
239 message and proceeds directly to finished message. If no match is
240 found, the server MUST send a fatal alert, results in the immediate
241 termination of the connection.
243 This documents doesn't specify how exactly the server checks the
244 username/password for a match. However, the server MAY consider
245 using of an AAA or RADIUS infrastructures. In this case, the server
246 calls into the local AAA client, which in turn contacts the AAA
247 server. The client's credentials (username and password) are
248 validated at the AAA server, which in turn responds to the AAA client
249 with an accept/reject message.
253 ExtendedClientHello -------->
257 <-------- ServerHelloDone
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273 3. Conformance Requirements
275 This document does not specify how the server stores the password and
276 the username, or how exactly it verifies the password and the
277 username it receives. It is RECOMMENDED that before looking up the
278 password, the server processes the username with a SASLprep profile
279 [RFC4013] appropriate for the username in question.
281 3.1. Requirements for Management Interfaces
283 In the absence of an application profile specification specifying
284 otherwise, a management interface for entering the password and/or
285 the username MUST support the following:
287 o Entering usernames consisting of up to 128 printable Unicode
290 o Entering passwords up to 64 octets in length as ASCII strings
291 and in hexadecimal encoding. The management interface MAY
292 accept other encodings if the algorithm for translating the
293 encoding to a binary string is specified.
295 4. Security Considerations
297 The security considerations described throughout [RFC4346] and
298 [RFC4366] apply here as well.
300 5. IANA Considerations
302 This document defines a new TLS extension "password", assigned the
303 value to be allocated from the TLS ExtensionType registry defined in
306 This document defines a new handshake message, encrypted password,
307 whose value is to be allocated from the TLS HandshakeType registry
308 defined in [RFC4346].
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329 6.1. Normative References
331 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
332 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
334 [RFC4086] Eastlake, D., 3rd, Schiller, J., and S. Crocker,
335 "Randomness Requirements for Security", BCP 106, RFC 4086,
338 [RFC4346] Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer Security
339 (TLS) Protocol 1.1", RFC 4346, April 2006.
341 [RFC4366] Blake-Wilson, S., Nystrom, M., Hopwood, D., Mikkelsen, J.,
342 and T. Wright, "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Extensions",
343 RFC 4366, April 2006.
345 6.2. Informative References
347 [RFC4013] Zeilenga, K., "SASLprep: Stringprep Profile for User Names
348 and Passwords", RFC 4013, February 2005.
355 LIMOS Laboratory - UMR6158, CNRS
358 Email: badra@isima.fr
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