One document matched: draft-ietf-eap-otp-00.txt
EAP Working Group L. Blunk
INTERNET-DRAFT Merit Networks, Inc.
Category: Standards Track J. Vollbrecht
<draft-ietf-eap-otp-00.txt> Interlink Networks, Inc.
12 October 2002 Bernard Aboba
Updates: RFC 2284 Microsoft
The One Time Password (OTP) and Generic Token Card Authentication Protocols
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
EAP is an authentication protocol which supports multiple authentication
mechanisms. EAP typically runs directly over the link layer without
requiring IP and therefore includes its own support for in-order
delivery and re-transmission. While EAP was originally developed for use
with PPP, it is also now in use with IEEE 802. This document defines the
One Time Password (OTP) and Generic Token Card EAP methods, both of
which provide one-way authentication, but not key generation. As a
result, the OTP and Generic Token Card methods, when used by themselves,
are only appropriate for use on networks where physical security can be
assumed. These methods SHOULD NOT be used on wireless networks, or over
the Internet, unless the EAP conversation is protected. This can be
accomplished using technologies such as IPsec or TLS.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction .......................................... 3
1.1 Specification of Requirements ................... 3
1.2 Terminology ..................................... 3
2. Packet Format ......................................... 4
2.1 EAP Request Packet .............................. 5
2.2 EAP Response Packet ............................. 6
2.3 One-Time Password ............................... 6
2.4 Generic Token Card .............................. 7
3. Security considerations ............................... 8
3.1 Threat model .......................................... 8
3.2 Security claims ....................................... 9
3.3 Packet modification attacks ........................... 9
3.4 Mutual authentication ................................. 10
3.5 Confidentiality ...................................... 10
4. Normative references .................................. 11
5. Informative references ................................ 11
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................. 12
AUTHORS' ADDRESSES ........................................... 12
Intellectual property statement .............................. 13
Full Copyright Statement ..................................... 13
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1. Introduction
EAP, defined in [RFC2284], is an authentication protocol which supports
multiple authentication mechanisms. EAP typically runs directly over
the link layer without requiring IP and therefore includes its own
support for in-order delivery and re-transmission. While EAP was
originally developed for use with PPP [RFC1661], it is also now in use
with IEEE 802 [IEEE802]. The encapsulation of EAP on IEEE 802 link
layers is defined in [IEEE8021X]. This document defines the One Time
Password (OTP) and Generic Token Card EAP methods.
1.1. Specification of Requirements
In this document, several words are used to signify the requirements of
the specification. These words are often capitalized. The key words
"MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD
NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be
interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
1.2. Terminology
This document frequently uses the following terms:
Authenticator
The end of the link requiring the authentication.
Peer The other end of the point-to-point link (PPP), point-to-point
LAN segment (IEEE 802.1X) or 802.11 wireless link, which being
authenticated by the Authenticator. In IEEE 802.1X, this end
is known as the Supplicant.
Authentication Server
An Authentication Server is an entity that provides an
Authentication Service to an Authenticator. This service
verifies from the credentials provided by the peer, the claim
of identity made by the peer.
Port Access Entity (PAE)
The protocol entity associated with a physical or virtual
(802.11) Port. A given PAE may support the protocol
functionality associated with the Authenticator, peer or both.
Silently Discard
This means the implementation discards the packet without
further processing. The implementation SHOULD provide the
capability of logging the error, including the contents of the
silently discarded packet, and SHOULD record the event in a
statistics counter.
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Displayable Message
This is interpreted to be a human readable string of
characters, and MUST NOT affect operation of the protocol.
The message encoding MUST follow the UTF-8 transformation
format [RFC2044].
2. Packet Format
A summary of the EAP OTP and Generic Token Card Request/Response packet
format is shown below. The fields are transmitted from left to right.
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 | Identifier | Length |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type | Data...
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Code
1 - Request
2 - Response
Identifier
The identifier field is one octet and aids in matching responses with
requests.
Length
The Length field is two octets and indicates the length of the EAP
packet including the Code, Identifier, Length, Type, and Data fields.
Octets outside the range of the Length field should be treated as
Data Link Layer padding and should be ignored on reception.
Type
5 - OTP 6 - Generic Token Card
Data
The format of the Data field is determined by the Code field.
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2.1. EAP Request Packet
A summary of the EAP Request packet format is shown below. The fields
are transmitted from left to right.
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 | Identifier | Length |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type | Type-Data...
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Code
1
Identifier
The Identifier field is one octet and aids in matching responses with
requests. The Identifier field MUST be changed on each Request
packet.
Length
The Length field is two octets and indicates the length of the EAP
packet including the Code, Identifier, Length, Type, and Type-Data
fields.
Type
5 - OTP 6 - Generic Token Card
Type-Data
The format of the Type-Data field is determined by the Code and Type
fields.
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2.2. EAP Response Packet
A summary of the EAP OTP And Generic Token Card Response packet format
is shown below. The fields are transmitted from left to right.
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 | Identifier | Length |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type | Type-Data...
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Code
2
Identifier
The Identifier field is one octet and MUST match the Identifier field
from the corresponding request.
Length
The Length field is two octets and indicates the length of the EAP
packet including the Code, Identifier, Length, Type, and Type-Data
fields.
Type
5 - OTP 6 - Generic Token Card
Type-Data
The format of the Type-Data field is determined by the Code and Type
fields.
2.3. One-Time Password (OTP)
Description
The One-Time Password system is defined in "A One-Time Password
System" [RFC1938]. The Request contains a displayable message
containing an OTP challenge. A Response MUST be sent in reply to the
Request. The Response MUST be of Type 5 (OTP) or Type 3 (Nak). The
Nak reply indicates the peer's desired authentication mechanism
Type(s).
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Type
5
Type-Data
The Type-Data field contains the OTP "challenge" as a displayable
message in the Request. In the Response, this field is used for the
6 words from the OTP dictionary [RFC1938]. The messages MUST not be
null terminated. The length of the field is derived from the Length
field of the Request/Reply packet.
2.4. Generic Token Card
Description
The Generic Token Card Type is defined for use with various Token
Card implementations which require user input. The Request contains
a displayable message and the Reply contains the Token Card
information necessary for authentication. Typically, this would be
information read by a user from the Token card device and entered as
ASCII text.
Type
6
Type-Data
The Type-Data field in the Request contains a displayable message
greater than zero octets in length. The length of the message is
determined by Length field of the Request packet. The message MUST
not be null terminated. A Response MUST be sent in reply to the
Request with a Type field of 6 (Generic Token Card). The Response
contains data from the Token Card required for authentication. The
length is of the data is determined by the Length field of the
Response packet.
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3. Security Considerations
EAP was designed for use with dialup PPP [RFC1661] and wired local area
networks [IEEE802]. On these networks, an attacker would need to gain
physical access to the telephone or switch infrastructure in order to
mount an attack. While such attacks have been documented, such as in
[DECEPTION], they are assumed to be rare.
However, subsequently EAP has been proposed for use on wireless
networks, and over the Internet, where physical security cannot be
assumed. On such networks, the security vulnerabilities are greater, as
are the requirements for EAP security.
This section documents the threats that exist on physically insecure
networks carrying EAP, as well as laying out the consequences of the use
of the OTP and Generic Token Card methods on those networks. We then
discuss mechanisms by which the threats may be mitigated.
3.1. Threat model
On physically insecure networks, it is possible for an attacker to gain
access to the physical medium. This enables a range of attacks,
including the following:
[1] An adversary may try to discover user identities by snooping data
packets.
[2] An adversary may try to modify or spoof EAP packets.
[3] An adversary may launch denial of service attacks by terminating
EAP conversations.
[4] An adversary may attempt to recover the pass-phrase by mounting an
off-line dictionary attack.
[5] An adversary may attempt to convince the Peer to connect to an
untrusted network.
[6] An adversary may attempt to disrupt the EAP negotiation in order to
weaken the authentication, gain access to user passwords or remove
confidentiality protection.
[7] An adversary may attempt to mount a denial of service attack.
[8] An attacker may attempt to take advantage of weak key derivation
techniques used within EAP methods.
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[9] An attacker may attempt to take advantage of weak ciphersuites
subsequently used after EAP authentication has concluded.
Where EAP is used over wireless networks, an attacker needs to be within
the coverage area of the wireless medium in order to carry out these
attacks. However, where EAP is used over the Internet, no such
restrictions apply.
3.2. Security claims
Of the threats described in the previous section, the OTP and Generic
Token Card method only provide protection against dictionary attack
(threat [4]). Since the purpose of the OTP and Generic Token Card
methods is to authenticate "something the user has", neither method
requires a password, and so neither method is vulnerable to dictionary
attack. Identity protection is not provided, nor is authentication and
integrity protection of EAP packets. The OTP and Generic Token card
methods provide one-way authentication only, and therefore do not
prevent the peer from connecting to an untrusted network, although
another method could conceivably be run in the opposite direction. No
protection is provided against "bidding down" attacks, although EAP
peers and authenticators may implement policy to limit the likelihood of
such an attack. No keys are derived by the OTP and Generic Token Card
methods, and so it is not possible to use these methods in order to
provide keying material for a subsequent ciphersuite. Neither the OTP
nor the Generic Token Card method provide for protected ciphersuite
negotiation.
As a result, the OTP and Generic Token Card methods, when used by
themselves, are only appropriate for use on networks where physical
security can be assumed. These methods SHOULD NOT be used on wireless
networks, or over the Internet, unless the EAP conversation is
protected. This can be accomplished using technologies such as IPsec
[RFC2401] or TLS [RFC2246].
The following security issues are discussed in more depth in the
sections that follow:
Identity protection
Packet modification attacks
Mutual authentication
Confidentiality
3.3. Identity protection
Both the OTP and Generic Token Card methods assume that an Identity
exchange has taken place prior to invoking the method, so that
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parameters unique to the user's claimed identity can be retrieved by the
authenticator and used in the authentication. Since EAP Identity
Request and Response methods are sent in the clear, an attacker may
obtain the user identity.
3.4. Packet modification attacks
Neither the Generic Token Card nor the OTP method provide for
authentication and integrity protection of material sent within the data
portion of an EAP message. EAP also does not provide built-in support
for authentication or integrity protection. This means that an attacker
may modify all or portions of EAP messages, including Request and
Response messages of types Identity, Notification, Nak, OTP, and Generic
Token Card as well as Success and Failure messages. Therefore the
Generic Token card and OTP methods assume that physical access to the
link is restricted, so that such attacks are unlikely.
However, where EAP is run over wireless networks or over IP, such as
within protocols supporting PPP or Ethernet tunneling [RFC2661],
physical security can no longer be assumed. In this case, the Generic
Token card and OTP methods SHOULD be authenticated and integrity
protected by alternate means. This can be achieved, for example, by
encapsulating the EAP exchange within protocols such as IPsec [RFC2401]
or TLS [RFC2246].
3.5. Mutual authentication
In EAP there is no requirement that authentication be full duplex or
that the same protocol be used in both directions. It is perfectly
acceptable for different protocols to be used in each direction. This
will, of course, depend on the specific protocols negotiated.
The OTP and Generic Token Card methods only provide for one-way
authentication; that is, they authenticate the EAP peer to the
authenticator. Therefore the authenticator's identity remains
unverified.
Where physical security can be assumed, such one-way authentication may
be acceptable; however, for wireless media such as 802.11 [IEEE80211] or
for EAP use over IP, where physical security can no longer be assumed,
mutual authentication is necessary to guard against rogue
authenticators. As a result, in these situations, the OTP and Generic
Token Card methods cannot by themselves provide adequate security.
3.6. Confidentiality
Neither the OTP nor the Generic Token card methods derive session keys
for use with per-packet authentication, integrity protection or
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confidentiality. Typically, this means that subsequent data traffic
will either utilize static session keys, or will be unprotected. Where
EAP is run over wireless networks, such as 802.11 [IEEE80211], there may
be an expectation that keys for link layer ciphersuites will be provided
by the EAP method. This implies that the OTP and Generic Token Card
methods will not be acceptable for use in such situations, since if they
are used, then data traffic will be vulnerable to a wide variety of
attacks, including traffic insertion, snooping and session hijacking.
4. Normative References
[RFC1661] Simpson, W., "The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)", STD 51,
RFC 1661, July 1994.
[RFC1938] Haller, N. and C. Metz, "A One-Time Password System", RFC
1938, May 1996.
[RFC2044] Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of Unicode
and ISO 10646", RFC 2044, October 1996.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC2284] Blunk, L., Vollbrecht, J., "Extensible Authentication
Protocol (EAP)", RFC 2284, March 1998.
5. Informative References
[RFC2246] Dierks, T., Allen, C., "The TLS Protocol", RFC 2246,
January 1999.
[RFC2401] Atkinson, R., Kent, S., "Security Architecture for the
Internet Protocol", RFC 2401, November 1998.
[RFC2661] Townsley, W., Valencia, A., Rubens, A., Pall, G., Zorn,
G., and Palter, B., "Layer Two Tunneling Protocol L2TP",
RFC 2661, August 1999.
[DECEPTION] Slatalla, M., and Quittner, J., "Masters of Deception,"
HarperCollins, New York, 1995.
[IEEE802] IEEE Standards for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks:
Overview and Architecture, ANSI/IEEE Std 802, 1990.
[IEEE8021X] IEEE Standards for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks:
Port based Network Access Control, IEEE Std 802.1X-2001,
June 2001.
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[IEEE80211] Information technology - Telecommunications and
information exchange between systems - Local and
metropolitan area networks - Specific Requirements Part
11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and
Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications, IEEE Std.
802.11-1999, 1999.
Acknowledgments
Al Rubens (Merit) also provided valuable feedback on this document, as
did Glen Zorn (Cisco) and Ashwin Palekar (Microsoft).
Authors' Addresses
Larry J. Blunk
Merit Network, Inc.
4251 Plymouth Rd., Suite C
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
EMail: ljb@merit.edu
Phone: 734-763-6056
FAX: 734-647-3185
John R. Vollbrecht
Interlink Networks, Inc.
775 Technology Drive, Suite 200
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
USA
Phone: +1 734 821 1205
Fax: +1 734 821 1235
EMail: jrv@interlinknetworks.com
Bernard Aboba
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
EMail: bernarda@microsoft.com
Phone: +1 425 706 6605
Fax: +1 425 936 7329
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Expiration Date
This memo is filed as <draft-ietf-eap-otp-00.txt>, and expires April
19, 2003.
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