Hi,

I'm in favor of keeping the the "external PSK" option. Just like with
IPSec, PSKs are easier to handle than certificates for most
installations. PSKs simpifiy lab setups, make getting started easier,
and are pretty robust -- no time dependency, and no need for renewals
(right now I'm not quite sure whether the latter's a pro or con).

I don't know about compliance-relevant standards (FIPS?), there might be
conflicts.

On the network access device it might seem advisable to store the PSKs
in some system-only "private storage" (similiar to SNMPv3 credentials or
cert private keys).

Cheers,

Marc


On 08.07.2024 14:51, Joe Clarke (jclarke) wrote:

I am speaking as a contributor and user of TACACS+ in general.  I am
not personally implementing a T+ server or this draft.

I think fully supporting and documenting external PSKs would be
generally useful and would possibly aid in the adoption of this new
modality for T+.  I would be in favor of option 2. I would also like
to hear from people like Rod Persky and Marc Huber who mentioned
possible implementations.

===

As a chair, I’m glad to see this email this morning.  Going into today
I was a bit conflicted as to how to decide this WG LC.  We received
some feedback, but nothing overwhelming to point to consensus.  I was
thinking to push it back to the WG to settle on this and look to do
another WG LC.  It seems you preempted me.  Additionally, I did not
receive any replies to the renewed IPR call.  We want to make sure all
IPR has been disclosed (if there is any) prior to WG LC conclusion.

Joe

*From: *Douglas Gash (dcmgash) <dcmg...@cisco.com>
*Date: *Monday, July 8, 2024 at 04:48
*To: *mohamed.boucad...@orange.com <mohamed.boucad...@orange.com>, Joe
Clarke (jclarke) <jcla...@cisco.com>, Alan DeKok
<al...@deployingradius.com>, opsawg@ietf.org <opsawg@ietf.org>
*Cc: *Thorsten Dahm <thorsten.d...@gmail.com>, John Heasly
<h...@shrubbery.net>, Andrej Ota <and...@ota.si>
*Subject: *Re: OPSAWG Digest, Vol 205, Issue 20

Dear Opsawg et al,

1) Discussion on External  PSK (Related to part of Mohamed’s point 2
below).

Our distillation of the thrust of Alan’s main advice is: The doc needs
to either commit to fully documenting external PSK and its
ramifications or preclude it. The truth is, our doc merely  says: TLS
T+ implementations may support External PSK, and leaves it there.

Background: as this doc has evolved, we have temporized on the topic
for the first TLS version of T+. On one side: we were not convinced
External PSKs are quite established in TLS 1.3. On the other side they
would be very useful for operators. But now  It seems that PSKs have
become better established, through the work of Alan et al, so we may
consider to document use of External for this initial doc, rather than
adding later supplement to cover external PSK. It does mean through
that there may be another round or two to bring in the needed details.

So now would be a good point to gauge the opinion of the group. Based
upon where the doc is in the process, and what changes should be
applied to it at this time::

1) Should we revert the doc to say: “External PSK should not be used
now.  A supplement will follow to address how PSK can be used properly”

Or

2) Keep the option for External PSKs to be used as now, and Commit to
a few rounds of revisions to document to fully flesh out its support.

Authors would be happy either way, probably on balance we would prefer
second option,

If we went for option 2), then below is an outline of the responses
which we believe would cover External PSK:

Note: “RADIUS and TLS-PSK” Provides a wealth of recommendations on PSKs.

1.a new section will be added specific to PSKs  include the following
items, mainly  gleaned from “RADIUS and TLS-PSK”, (note that TLS 1.2
related issues have been filtered out)

General:

It is RECOMMENDED that systems follow the directions of [RFC9257
<https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-dekok-radext-tls-psk-01.html#RFC9257>]
Section 4

PSK length recommendations for both implementation and operations

Fortunately, as we have already removed the MD5 obfuscation,  we do
not have issues in sharing Shared secrets and PSKs

PSK Identity:

RFC9257
<https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-dekok-radext-tls-psk-01.html#RFC9257>
6.1 to be used for PSK  identities

PSK Identity length recommendations for both implementations and
operations.

Per Client Sharing

PSK must be unique per client as configured on server

PSK Identities must be unique per client as configured on server

(Of course references will be updated to acknowledge this doc)

2.The Tacacss draft doc mentions identity specifically in the context
of Certificates. This will be clarified that it applies only to
certificate based, and for PSK it has its own guidance as above.

The following changes are not directly related to External PSK and
will be resolved anyway:

2) Resumption elements from RFC9190 (Related to the balance of
Mohamed’s point 2 below).

References from RFC9190. The doc primarily adresses the use of TLS as
an EAP option, which has extra concerns as it is used for
authorization information. The concerns that were apprehended form the
text are listed below with our  evaluation of relevance when used for
the tacacss security wrapper.

Authorization on resumption mased on cached data rather than the data
in the resumption:

Regarded: Not Relevant as the data is not used for authorization for
tacacss

Verification of certificates revoked during the period since the last
“New Session Ticket Message”

Regarded: Relevant, and we will update. RFC 8446 is not silent on this
topic, so we will prefer to cover this by  refererence to section
4.6.1 which says:

         Note that in principle it is possible to continue issuing new
tickets

               which indefinitely extend the lifetime of the keying
material

               originally derived from an initial non-PSK handshake
(which was most

               likely tied to the peer's certificate).  It is
RECOMMENDED that

implementations place limits on the total lifetime of such keying

         material; these limits should take into account the lifetime
of the

               peer's certificate, */the likelihood of intervening
revocation/*, and the

               time since the peer's online CertificateVerify signature.

Maximum lifetime:

Regarded Relevant, we will update by reference to its coveragein RFC 8446

“time-of-check time-of-use” issues

Regarded: Not Relevant as the data is not used for authorization for
tacacss

Re evaluation of authorization on resumption:

Regarded: Not Relevant as the data is not used for authorization for
tacacss

3) Regarding 3) below, thanks for the catch, We’re proposing the
following change:

Current:

   To ensure separation of TACACS+ traffic that uses TLS from that which

   does not (Section 5.3), they will be deployed on different ports.

   Due to the widespread use of default port number settings in numerous

   existing TACACS+ client configurations, a well-known system TCP/IP

   port number will be requested from IANA.  Client implementations can

   ensure traffic is kept separate.  The designated port number is [TBD]

   (Section 7) with the service name [TBDN] (Section 7).

Proposal:

   To ensure separation of TACACS+ traffic that uses TLS from that which

   does not (Section 5.3), they must be deployed on different server
ports.

   Further, because of the widespread use of default port number

   settings in numerous existing TACACS+ client configurations, a well-

   known system TCP/IP port number is assigned: the designated port

   number is [TBD] (Section 7) with the service name [TBDN] (Section 7).

   This way the client can ensure that TLS and non TLS traffic are

   separated even where default ports are omitted from its server
connection

   configuration.


Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2024 13:36:42 +0000
From: mohamed.boucad...@orange.com
Subject: [OPSAWG]Re: WG LC: draft-ietf-opsawg-tacacs-tls13
To: Alan DeKok <al...@deployingradius.com>, "opsawg@ietf.org"
        <opsawg@ietf.org>
Cc: "u...@ietf.org" <u...@ietf.org>, "Joe Clarke (jclarke)"
<jclarke=40cisco....@dmarc.ietf.org>
Message-ID: <du2pr02mb10160c69e1af8e95168d5cc6a88...@du2pr02mb10160.eu
        rprd02.prod.outlook.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi all,

FWIW, we had an offline discussion with Alan and the authors to
clarify the concerns.

I'm reporting the main outcome of that discussion, fwiw:

(1) Alan  agreed that:

* It is good practice to leverage existing standards
* Repeating details isn't useful

(2) Still, the key comment from Alan is:

>   My point was that the RFCs I referenced had substantial text over
> and above 8446 / 9525.  I asked that the authors double- check the
> documents I mentioned, to see how these issues were addressed.  The
> result was a few minor changes.

The shepherd agrees that this is a reasonable comment that should be
adequately addressed.

The authors engaged to have a look into the various RFCs cited by Alan
and grab applicable items to tacacs+ context. It would be helpful to
share the rationale for the items that they picked vs. those they
considered as not relevant.

(3) As a bonus, Alan provided the following comments and summary

==
Some grammar / clarity comments:


Section 3.1:
...
To ensure separation of TACACS+ traffic that uses TLS from that which
does not (Section 5.3), they will be deployed on different ports. Due
to the widespread use of default port number settings in numerous
existing TACACS+ client configurations, a well-known system TCP/IP
port number will be requested from IANA ...

  The text is ambiguous: "will" be requested?  When?  Does this
document allocate the port?

  The usual text is to say "port TBD has been assigned for this
protocol".


 In short:  I'm not objecting to the publication of this document.  My
concern is that it doesn't give a lot of guidance to implementing
TACACS+ over TLS.  I can see basic implementations working, just by
wrapping TACACS+ in TLS.  But the operational considerations outlined
above will have to be discovered piece-meal by implementors.
==


Cheers,
Med
***************************************


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