I-D Action:draft-ietf-btns-connection-latching-02.txt

A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line
Internet-Drafts directories.
This draft is a work item of the Better-Than-Nothing
Security Working Group of the IETF.


	Title           : IPsec Channels: Connection Latching
	Author(s)       : N. Williams
	Filename        :
draft-ietf-btns-connection-latching-02.txt
	Pages           : 18
	Date            : 2007-09-12

This document specifies, abstractly, how to interface
applications
and transport protocols with IPsec so as to create
"channels" by
"latching" "connections" (packet flows)
to certain IPsec Security
Association (SA) parameters for the lifetime of the
connections.
This can be used to protect applications against
accidentally
exposing live packet flows to unintended peers, whether as
the result
of a reconfiguration of IPsec or as the result of using weak
peer
identity to peer address associations.

Weak association of peer ID and peer addresses is at the
core of
Better Than Nothing Security (BTNS), thus connection
latching can add
a significant measure of protection to BTNS IPsec nodes.  A
model of
of connection latching based on a modification to the child
SA
authorization process is given.

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s/draft-ietf-btns-connection-latching-02.txt

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_______________________________________________

On Fri, Sep 14, 2007 at 12:41:33PM -0500, Nicolas Williams
wrote:
> I'd appreciate some feedback on this version of the
connection latching
> I-D.
> 
>  - In particular I'm looking for feedback on section
2.1, whether the
>    proposed modification to the child SA authorization
process is
>    reasonable.  (Note: the child SA authorization
process is modified
>    only when connection latching is used; see also the
note in section
>    2.3 about a PAD entry flag to preserve traditional
semantics.)

I've found a way around that.  I've submitted -03 just now.

>  - Neither section 2.1 nor 2.2 talks about when to
initiate SAs.  But it
>    should be obvious that the right time is when a
latch is initiated.

Fixed.

>  - Section 3 doesn't say much about the SPD.
> 
>    In particular, when an application requests that
traffic be PROTECTED
>    that would otherwise have been BYPASSed (or when a
locally privileged
>    app requests the opposite) then the SPD should be
temporarily
>    modified accordingly.  This should be described in
detail.

Sections 2.1 and 3 now both deal with this properly,
methinks.

Comments welcome.
_______________________________________________