4 NETWORK WORKING GROUP N. Williams
6 Expires: April 19, 2006 October 16, 2005
9 Stackable Generic Security Service Pseudo-Mechanisms
10 draft-ietf-kitten-stackable-pseudo-mechs-01.txt
14 By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any
15 applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware
16 have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes
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29 The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
30 http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.
32 The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
33 http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.
35 This Internet-Draft will expire on April 19, 2006.
39 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
43 This document defines and formalizes the concept of stackable pseudo-
44 mechanisms, and associated concept of composite mechanisms, for the
45 Generic Security Service Application Programming Interface (GSS-API),
46 as well as several utility functions.
48 Stackable GSS-API pseudo-mechanisms allow for the composition of new
49 mechanisms that combine features from multiple mechanisms. Stackable
50 mechanisms that add support for Perfect Forward Security (PFS), data
51 compression, additional authentication factors, etc... are
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60 facilitated by this document.
65 1. Conventions used in this document . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
66 2. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
67 2.1. Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
68 3. Mechanism Composition Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
69 4. Mechanism Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
70 4.1. Construction of Composed Mechanism OIDs . . . . . . . . . 5
71 4.2. Mechanism Composition Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
72 4.3. Interfacing with Composite Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . 7
73 4.4. Compatibility with the Basic GSS-APIv2u1 Interfaces . . . 7
74 4.5. Processing of Tokens for Composite Mechanisms . . . . . . 8
75 5. New GSS-API Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
76 5.1. New GSS-API Function Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
77 5.1.1. GSS_Compose_oid() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
78 5.1.2. GSS_Decompose_oid() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
79 5.1.3. GSS_Release_oid() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
80 5.1.4. GSS_Indicate_negotiable_mechs() . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
81 5.1.5. GSS_Negotiate_mechs() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
82 5.1.6. C-Bindings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
83 6. Negotiation of Composite Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . 13
84 6.1. Negotiation of Composite Mechanisms Through SPNEGO . . . . 14
85 7. Requirements for Mechanism Designers . . . . . . . . . . . 14
86 8. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
87 9. Security considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
88 10. Normative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
89 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
90 Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . 17
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116 1. Conventions used in this document
118 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
119 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
120 document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
125 Recent discussions within the IETF have shown the need for a
126 refactoring of the features that GSS-API mechanisms may provide and a
127 way to compose new mechanisms from smaller components.
129 One way to do this is to "stack" multiple mechanisms on top of each
130 other such that the features of all of them are summed into a new,
133 One existing GSS-API mechanism, LIPKEY [LIPKEY], is essentially
134 stacked over another, SPKM-3 [LIPKEY] (although LIPKEY does not
135 conform to the stackable pseduo-mechanism framework described
138 The first truly stackable pseudo-mechanism proposed, CCM [CCM], is
139 intended for signalling, during negotiation of mechanisms, the
140 willingness of an initiator and/or acceptor to utilize channel
143 Since then other similar mechanism compositing needs and ideas have
144 come up, along with problems such as "what combinations are possible,
145 useful, reasonable and secure?" This document addresses those
146 problems. It introduces the concepts of stackable pseudo-mechanisms,
147 composite mechanisms and mechanism features or attributes, as well as
148 new inquiry and related interfaces to help in the mechanism
151 (Mechanism features are more formally referred to as "mechanism
152 attributes" below. The terms "feature" and mechanism attribute" are
153 sometimes used interchangeably.)
157 Concrete GSS-API mechanism
158 A mechanism which can be used standalone. Examples include: the
159 Kerberos V mechanism [CFX], SPKM-1/2 [SPKM] and SPKM-3 [LIPKEY].
161 GSS-API Pseudo-mechanism
162 A mechanism which uses other mechanisms in the construction of its
163 context and/or per-message tokens and security contexts. SPNEGO
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172 is an example of this.
174 Stackable GSS-API pseudo-mechanism
175 A mechanism which uses a single other mechanism in the
176 construction of its tokens such that the OID of the composite
177 result can be constructed by prepending the OID of the stackable
178 pseudo-mechanism to the OID of the mechanism to be used by it.
180 Mechanism-negotiation GSS-API pseudo-mechanism
181 A GSS-API mechanism that negotiates the use of GSS-API mechanisms.
182 SPNEGO [SPNEGO] is an example of this.
185 3. Mechanism Composition Issues
187 Interfacing with composite mechanisms through the existing GSS-API
188 interfaces and the handling of composite mechanism tokens is
189 straightforward enough and described in Section 4.
191 However, the concepts of stackable and composite mechanisms do give
192 rise to several minor problems:
194 o How to determine allowable combinations of mechanisms;
195 o How to encode composite mechanism OIDs;
196 o How to decompose the OID of a composite mechanism and process its
198 o Application interfacing issues such as:
200 * Whether and/or which composite mechanisms should be listed by
201 GSS_Indicate_mechs();
202 * Whether and/or which composite mechanisms not listed by
203 GSS_Indicate_mechs() may nonetheless be available for use by
204 applications and how applications can detect their
206 * What additional, if any, interfaces should be provided to help
207 applications select appropriate mechanisms;
210 Mechanism negotiation issues (related to the application interface
211 issues listed above), such as: vspace blankLines='1'/>
212 * Should applications advertise composite mechanisms in SPNEGO or
213 other application-specific mechanism negotiation contexts?
214 * Or should applications implicitly advertise composite
215 mechanisms by advertising concrete and stackable pseudo-
216 mechanisms in SPNEGO or other application-specific mechanism
217 negotiation contexts?
219 Section 4 addresses the OID composition, decomposition and encoding
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228 issues, as well as basic interfacing and token handling issues.
230 Section 5 addresses interfacing issues more generally through the
231 specification of additional, optional APIs.
233 Section 6 addresses mechanism negotiation issues.
236 4. Mechanism Composition
238 Mechanism composition by stacking pseudo-mechanisms on a concrete
239 mechanism is conceptually simple: join the OIDs of the several
240 mechanisms in question and process GSS-API tokens and routine calls
241 through the top-most pseudo-mechanism in a stack, which can then, if
242 necessary, recursively call the GSS-API to process any tokens for the
243 remainder of the stack.
245 Some stackable pseudo-mechanisms may do nothing more than perform
246 transformations on application data (e.g., compression); such pseudo-
247 mechanisms will generally chain the processing of tokens and routine
248 calls to the mechanisms below them in the stack.
250 Other stackable pseudo-mechanisms may utilize the mechanisms below
251 them only during security context setup. For example, a stackable
252 pseudo-mechanism could perform a Diffie-Hellman key exchange and
253 authenticate it by binding a security context established with the
254 mechanism stacked below it; such a mechanism would provide its own
257 4.1. Construction of Composed Mechanism OIDs
259 Composition of mechanism OIDs is simple: prepend the OID of one
260 pseudo-mechanism to the OID of another mechanism (composite or
261 otherwise), but there MUST always be at least one final mechanism OID
262 and it MUST be useful standalone (i.e., it MUST NOT be a pseudo-
263 mechanism). A composite mechanism OID forms, essentially, a stack.
265 The encoding of composed mechanism OIDs is not quite the
266 concatenation of the component OIDs' encodings, however. This is
267 because the first two arcs of ASN.1 OIDs are encoded differently from
268 subsequent arcs (the first two arcs have a limited namespace and are
269 encoded as a single octet), so were composite mechanism OIDs to be
270 encoded as the concatenation of the component OIDs the result would
271 not decode as the concatenation of the component OIDs. To avoid this
272 problem the first two arcs of each component of a composite mechanism
273 OID, other than the leading component, will be encoded as other arcs
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284 Decomposition of composite mechanism OIDs is similar, with each
285 pseudo-mechanism in the stack being able to determine the OID suffix
286 from knowledge of its own OID(s).
288 New pseudo-mechanisms MAY be allocated OIDs from the prefix given
289 below as follows by assignment of a sub-string of OID arcs to be
290 appended to this prefix. This prefix OID is:
292 <TBD> [1.3.6.1.5.5.11 appears to be available, registration w/ IANA
295 All OID allocations below this OID MUST be for stackable pseudo-
296 mechanisms and MUST consist of a single arc. This will make it
297 possible to decompose the OIDs of composite mechanisms without
298 necessarily knowing a priori the OIDs of the component stackable
301 4.2. Mechanism Composition Rules
303 All new stackable pseudo-mechanisms MUST specify the rules for
304 determining whether they can stack above a given mechanism, composite
305 or otherwise. Such rules may be based on specific mechanism
306 attribute OID sets [EXTENDED-INQUIRY] and/or specific mechanism OIDs
307 (composite and otherwise).
309 All stackable pseudo-mechanisms MUST have the following mechanism
310 composition rule relating to unknown mechanism attributes:
312 o composition with mechanisms supporting unknown mechanism
313 attributes MUST NOT be permitted.
315 This rule protects against compositions which cannot be considered
316 today but which might nonetheless arise due to the introduction of
317 new mechanisms and which might turn out to be insecure or otherwise
320 Mechanism composition rules for stackable pseudo-mechanisms MAY and
321 SHOULD be updated as new GSS-API mechanism attributes and mechanisms
322 sporting them are introduced. The specifications of mechanisms that
323 introduce new mechanism attributes or which otherwise should not be
324 combined with others in ways which would be permitted under existing
325 rules SHOULD also update the mechanism composition rules of affected
328 A RECOMMENDED way to describe the stacking rules for stackable
329 mechanisms is as an ordered sequence of "MAY stack above X
330 mechanism," "REQUIRES Y mechanism feature(s)," "MUST NOT stack above
331 Z mechanism," and/or "MUST NOT stack above a mechanism with Z
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340 mechanism feature(s)."
342 For example a stackable mechanism that provides its own per-msg
343 tokens and does not use the underlying mechnism's per-msg token
344 facilities might require a rule such as "MUST NOT stack above a
345 mechanism with the GSS_C_MA_COMPRESS mechanism feature."
347 4.3. Interfacing with Composite Mechanisms
349 The basic GSS-API [RFC2743] interfaces MUST NOT accept as input or
350 provide as output the OID of any stackable pseudo-mechanism.
351 Composite mechanisms MUST be treated as concrete mechanisms by the
352 basic GSS-API interfaces [RFC2743].
354 Thus the way in which a composite mechanism is used by applications
355 with the basic GSS-API (version 2, update 1) is straightforward:
356 exactly as if composite mechanisms were normal GSS-API mechanisms.
358 This is facilitated by the fact that in all cases where the GSS-API
359 implementation might need to know how to process or create a token it
360 has the necessary contextual information, that is, the mechanism OID,
361 available and can decompose composite mechanism OIDs as necessary.
363 For example, for initial GSS_Init_sec_context() calls the
364 implementation knows the desired mechanism OID, and if it should be
365 left unspecified, it can pick a default mechanism given the initiator
366 credentials provided by the application (and if none are provided
367 other default mechanism and credential selections can still be made).
368 For subsequent calls to GSS_Init_sec_context() the implementation
369 knows which mechanism to use from the given [partially established]
370 security context. Similarly for GSS_Accept_sec_context, where on
371 initial calls the mechanism OID can be determined from the given
372 initial context token's framing.
374 The manner in which GSS-API implementations and the various
375 mechanisms and pseudo-mechanisms interface with one another is left
376 as an excercise to implementors.
378 4.4. Compatibility with the Basic GSS-APIv2u1 Interfaces
380 In order to preserve backwards compatibility with applications that
381 use only the basic GSS-API interfaces (version 2, update 1), several
382 restrictions are imposed on the use of composite and stackable
383 pseduo-mechanisms with the basic GSS-API interfaces:
385 o GSS_Indicate_mechs() MUST NOT indicate support for any stackable
386 pseduo-mechanisms under any circumstance.
387 o GSS_Indicate_mechs() MAY indicate support for some, all or none of
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396 the available composite mechanisms.
397 o Which composite mechanisms, if any, are indicated through
398 GSS_Indicate_mechs() SHOULD be configurable.
399 o Composite mechanisms which are not indicated by
400 GSS_Indicate_mechs() MUST NOT be considered as the default
401 mechanism (GSS_C_NULL_OID) or as part of the default mechanism set
402 (GSS_C_NULL_OID_SET).
403 o The OIDs of *stackable* (not composite) pseudo-mechanisms MUST NOT
404 be accepted as inputs or produced in the output of any of the
405 basic GSS-APIv2, update 1 API functions, except for any OID set
406 construction/iteration functions. And, if present in any OID SET
407 input parameters of GSS-APIv2, update 1 functions, they MUST be
409 o The OIDs of *stackable* (not composite) pseudo-mechanisms MAY only
410 be used as inputs or produced as outputs of functions whose
411 specification explicitly allows for them or which are concerned
412 with the creation/iteration of OID containters, such as OID SETs.
414 4.5. Processing of Tokens for Composite Mechanisms
416 The initial context token for any standard mechanism, including
417 mechanisms composited from standard pseudo- and concrete mechanisms,
418 MUST be encapsulated as described in section 3.1 of rfc2743
419 [RFC2743], and the OID used in that framing MUST be that of the
420 mechanism, but in the case of composite mechanisms this OID MUST be
421 the OID of the leading component of the composite mechanism.
423 Note that this has implications for pluggable multi-mechanism
424 implementations of the GSS-API, namely that acceptors must route
425 initial context tokens to the appropriate mechanism and they must
426 allow that mechanism to determine the composite mechanism OID (such
427 as by allowing that mechanism's GSS_Accept_sec_context() to output
428 the actual mechanism to the application.
430 In all other cases the mechanism that produced or is to produce a
431 given token can be determined internally through the given security
435 5. New GSS-API Interfaces
439 Utility functions for mechanism OID composition and decomposition are
440 given in sections 5.1.1, 5.1.2 and 5.1.3.
442 Two utility functions, GSS_Indicate_negotiable_mechs() and
443 GSS_Negotiate_mechs(), to aid applications in mechanism negotiation
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452 are described in sections 5.1.4 and 5.1.5. These two interfaces may
453 be implemented entirely in terms of the other interfaces described
456 5.1. New GSS-API Function Interfaces
458 Several new interfaces are given by which, for example, GSS-API
459 applications may determine what features are provided by a given
460 mechanism, what mechanisms provide what features and what
461 compositions are legal.
463 These new interfaces are all OPTIONAL.
465 In order to preserve backwards compatibility with applications that
466 do not use the new interfaces GSS_Indicate_mechs() MUST NOT indicate
467 support for any stackable pseduo-mechanisms. GSS_Indicate_mechs()
468 MAY indicate support for some, all or none of the available composite
469 mechanisms; which composite mechanisms, if any, are indicated through
470 GSS_Indicate_mechs() SHOULD be configurable. GSS_Acquire_cred() and
471 GSS_Add_cred() MUST NOT create credentials for composite mechanisms
472 not explicitly requested or, if no desired mechanism or mechanisms
473 are given, for composite mechanisms not indicated by
474 GSS_Indicate_mechs().
476 Applications SHOULD use GSS_Indicate_mechs_by_mech_attrs() instead of
477 GSS_Indicate_mechs() wherever possible.
479 Applications can use GSS_Indicate_mechs_by_mech_attrs() to determine
480 what, if any, mechanisms provide a given set of features.
482 GSS_Indicate_mechs_by_mech_attrs() can also be used to indicate (as
483 in GSS_Indicate_mechs()) the set of available mechanisms of each type
484 (concrete, mechanism negotiation pseudo-mechanism, stackable pseudo-
485 mechanism and composite mechanisms).
487 Applications may use GSS_Inquire_mech_attrs_for_mech() to test
488 whether a given composite mechanism is available and the set of
489 features that it offers.
491 GSS_Negotiate_mechs() may be used to negotiate the use of mechanisms
492 such that composite mechanisms need not be advertised but instead be
493 implied by offering stackable pseudo-mechanisms.
495 5.1.1. GSS_Compose_oid()
498 o mech1 OBJECT IDENTIFIER, -- mechanism OID
499 o mech2 OBJECT IDENTIFIER -- mechanism OID
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509 o major_status INTEGER,
510 o minor_status INTEGER,
511 o composite OBJECT IDENTIFIER -- OID composition of mech1 with mech2
514 Return major_status codes:
515 o GSS_S_COMPLETE indicates success.
516 o GSS_S_BAD_MECH indicates that mech1 is not supported.
517 o GSS_S_FAILURE indicates that the request failed for some other
518 reason. The minor status will be specific to mech1 and may
519 provide further information.
521 5.1.2. GSS_Decompose_oid()
524 o input_mech OBJECT IDENTIFIER, -- mechanism OID.
525 o mechs SET OF OBJECT IDENTIFIER -- mechanism OIDs (if
526 GSS_C_NULL_OID_SET defaults to the set of stackable pseudo-
527 mechanism OIDs indicated by GSS_Indicate_mechs_by_mech_attrs()).
530 o major_status INTEGER,
531 o minor_status INTEGER,
532 o lead_mech OBJECT IDENTIFIER, -- leading stackable pseudo-
534 o trail_mech OBJECT IDENTIFIER -- input_mech with lead_mech removed
537 Return major_status codes:
538 o GSS_S_COMPLETE indicates success.
539 o GSS_S_BAD_MECH indicates that the input_mech could not be
540 decomposed as no stackable pseudo-mechanism is available whose OID
541 is a prefix of the input_mech.
542 o GSS_S_FAILURE indicates that the request failed for some other
545 5.1.3. GSS_Release_oid()
547 The following text is adapted from the obsoleted rfc2078 [RFC2078].
550 o oid OBJECT IDENTIFIER
553 o major_status INTEGER,
554 o minor_status INTEGER
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564 Return major_status codes:
565 o GSS_S_COMPLETE indicates successful completion
566 o GSS_S_FAILURE indicates that the operation failed
568 Allows the caller to release the storage associated with an OBJECT
569 IDENTIFIER buffer allocated by another GSS-API call, specifically
570 GSS_Compose_oid() and GSS_Decompose_oid(). This call's specific
571 behavior depends on the language and programming environment within
572 which a GSS-API implementation operates, and is therefore detailed
573 within applicable bindings specifications; in particular, this call
574 may be superfluous within bindings where memory management is
577 5.1.4. GSS_Indicate_negotiable_mechs()
580 o input_cred_handle CREDENTIAL HANDLE, -- credential handle to be
581 used with GSS_Init_sec_context(); may be GSS_C_NO_CREDENTIAL.
582 o peer_type_known BOOLEAN, -- indicates whether the peer is known to
583 support or not supprot the stackable pseudo-mechanism framework.
584 o peer_has_mech_stacking BOOLEAN -- indicates whether the peer
585 supports the stackable pseudo-mechanism framework; ignore if
586 peer_type_known is FALSE.
589 o major_status INTEGER,
590 o minor_status INTEGER,
591 o offer_mechs SET OF OBJECT IDENTIFIER, -- mechanisms to offer.
593 Return major_status codes:
594 o GSS_S_COMPLETE indicates success.
595 o GSS_S_NO_CREDENTIAL indicates that the caller's credentials are
596 expired or, if input_cred_handle is GSS_C_NO_CREDENTIAL, that no
597 credentials could be acquired for GSS_C_NO_NAME.
598 o GSS_S_FAILURE indicates that the request failed for some other
601 This function produces a set of mechanism OIDs, optimized for space,
602 that its caller should advertise to peers during mechanism
605 The output offer_mechs parameter will include all of the mechanisms
606 for which the input_cred_handle has elements (as indicated by
607 GSS_Inquire_cred()), but composite mechanisms will be included either
608 implicitly or implicitly as per the following rules:
609 o if peer_type_known is TRUE and peer_has_mech_stacking is FALSE
610 then no composite mechanisms not indicated by GSS_Indicate_mechs()
611 will be advertised, explictly or implicitly;
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620 o if peer_type_known is FALSE then all composite mechanisms
621 indicated by GSS_Indicate_mechs() for which input_cred_handle has
622 elements will be indicated in offer_mechs explicitly and all
623 others may be indicated in offer_mechs implicitly, by including
624 their component stackable pseduo-mechanism OIDs (see below);
625 o if peer_type_known is TRUE and peer_has_mech_stacking is TRUE
626 composite mechanisms will generally not be advertised explicitly,
627 but will be advertised implicitly, by including their component
628 stackable pseduo-mechanism OIDs (see below); no composite
629 mechanisms will be advertised explicitly
630 o if the input_cred_handle does not have elements for all of the
631 possible composite mechanisms that could be constructed from the
632 its elements' decomposed mechanisms, then all composite mechanisms
633 for which the input_cred_handle does have elements will be
634 advertised explicitly in offer_mechs.
636 5.1.5. GSS_Negotiate_mechs()
639 o input_credential_handle CREDENTIAL HANDLE, -- mechanisms offered
641 o peer_mechs SET OF OBJECT IDENTIFIER -- mechanisms offered by the
645 o major_status INTEGER,
646 o minor_status INTEGER,
647 o mechs SET OF OBJECT IDENTIFIER -- mechanisms common to the
648 caller's credentials and the caller's peer.
650 Return major_status codes:
651 o GSS_S_COMPLETE indicates success; the output mechs parameter MAY
652 be the empty set (GSS_C_NO_OID_SET).
653 o GSS_S_NO_CREDENTIAL indicates that the caller's credentials are
654 expired or, if input_cred_handle is GSS_C_NO_CREDENTIAL, that no
655 credentials could be acquired for GSS_C_NO_NAME.
656 o GSS_S_FAILURE indicates that the request failed for some other
659 This function matches the mechanisms for which the caller has
660 credentials with the mechanisms offered by the caller's peer and
661 returns the set of mechanisms in common to both, accounting for any
662 composite mechanisms offered by the peer implicitly.
667 OM_uint32 gss_compose_oid(
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676 OM_uint32 *minor_status,
681 OM_uint32 gss_decompose_oid(
682 OM_uint32 *minor_status,
683 const gss_OID input_mech,
684 const gss_OID_set mechs,
686 gss_OID *trail_mech);
688 OM_uint32 gss_release_oid(
689 OM_uint32 *minor_status,
692 OM_uint32 gss_indicate_negotiable_mechs(
693 OM_uint32 *minor_status,
694 const gss_cred_id_t input_cred_handle,
695 OM_uint32 peer_type_known,
696 OM_uint32 peer_has_mech_stacking,
697 gss_OID_set *offer_mechs);
699 OM_uint32 gss_negotiate_mechs(
700 OM_uint32 *minor_status,
701 const gss_cred_id_t input_cred_handle,
702 const gss_OID_set peer_mechs,
703 const gss_OID_set *mechs);
709 6. Negotiation of Composite Mechanisms
711 Where GSS-API implementations do not support the stackable mechanism
712 framework interfaces applications may only negotiate explicitly from
713 a set of concrete and composite mechanism OIDs as indicated by
714 GSS_Indicate_mechs() and for which suitable credentials are
715 available. GSS_Indicate_mechs(), as described in Section 4.4, MUST
716 NOT indicate support for individual stackable pseudo-mechanisms, so
717 there will not be any composite mechanisms implied but not explicitly
718 offered in the mechanism negotiation.
720 Applications that support the stackable mechanism framework SHOULD
721 use GSS_Indicate_negotiable_mechs() to construct the set of mechanism
722 OIDs to offer to their peers. GSS_Indicate_negotiable_mechs()
723 optimizes for bandwidth consumption by using decomposed OIDs instead
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732 of composed OIDs, where possible. See Section 5.1.4.
734 Peers that support the stackable mechanism framework interfaces
735 SHOULD use GSS_Negotiate_mechs() to select a mechanism as that
736 routine accounts for composite mechanisms implicit in the mechanism
739 6.1. Negotiation of Composite Mechanisms Through SPNEGO
741 SPNEGO applications MUST advertise either the set of mechanism OIDs
742 for which they have suitable credentials or the set of mechanism OIDs
743 produced by calling GSS_Indicate_negotiable_mechs() with the
744 available credentials and the peer_type_known parameter as FALSE.
747 7. Requirements for Mechanism Designers
749 Stackable pseudo-mechanisms specifications MUST:
750 o list the set of GSS-API mechanism attributes associated with them
751 o list their initial mechanism composition rules
752 o specify a mechanism for updating their mechanism composition rules
754 All other mechanism specifications MUST:
755 o list the set of GSS-API mechanism attributes associated with them
758 8. IANA Considerations
760 Allocation of arcs in the namespace of OIDs relative to the base
761 stackable pseduo-mechanism OID specified in Section 4.1 is reserved
765 9. Security considerations
767 Some composite mechanisms may well not be secure. The mechanism
768 composition rules of pseudo-mechanisms (including the default
769 composition rule given in Section 4 for unknown mechanism attributes)
770 should be used to prevent the use of unsafe composite mechanisms.
772 Designers of pseudo-mechanisms should study the possible combinations
773 of their mechanisms with others and design mechanism composition
776 Similarly, pseudo-mechanism designers MUST specify, and implementors
777 MUST implement, composite mechanism attribute set determination rules
778 appropriate to the subject pseduo-mechanism, as described in section
779 4.2. Failure to do so may lead to inappropriate composite mechanisms
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788 being deemed permissible by programmatic application of flawed
789 mechanism composition rules or to by their application with incorrect
790 mechanism attribute sets.
795 Williams, N., "Extended Generic Security Service Mechanism
797 draft-ietf-kitten-extended-mech-inquiry-00.txt (work in
800 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
801 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
803 [RFC2743] Linn, J., "Generic Security Service Application Program
804 Interface Version 2, Update 1", RFC 2743, January 2000.
806 [RFC2744] Wray, J., "Generic Security Service API Version 2 :
807 C-bindings", RFC 2744, January 2000.
839 Williams Expires April 19, 2006 [Page 15]
841 Internet-Draft Stackable GSS Mechs October 2005
852 Email: Nicolas.Williams@sun.com
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897 Internet-Draft Stackable GSS Mechs October 2005
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