Network Working Group J. Linn Request for Comments: 2743 RSA Laboratories Obsoletes: 2078 January 2000 Category: Standards Track Generic Security Service Application Program Interface Version 2, Update 1 Status of this Memo This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved. Abstract The Generic Security Service Application Program Interface (GSS-API), Version 2, as defined in [RFC-2078], provides security services to callers in a generic fashion, supportable with a range of underlying mechanisms and technologies and hence allowing source-level portability of applications to different environments. This specification defines GSS-API services and primitives at a level independent of underlying mechanism and programming language environment, and is to be complemented by other, related specifications: documents defining specific parameter bindings for particular language environments documents defining token formats, protocols, and procedures to be implemented in order to realize GSS-API services atop particular security mechanisms This memo obsoletes [RFC-2078], making specific, incremental changes in response to implementation experience and liaison requests. It is intended, therefore, that this memo or a successor version thereto will become the basis for subsequent progression of the GSS-API specification on the standards track. Linn Standards Track [Page 1] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1: GSS-API Characteristics and Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.1: GSS-API Constructs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1.1.1: Credentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1.1.1.1: Credential Constructs and Concepts . . . . . . . . . . 6 1.1.1.2: Credential Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1.1.1.3: Default Credential Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 1.1.2: Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1.1.3: Security Contexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 1.1.4: Mechanism Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 1.1.5: Naming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 1.1.6: Channel Bindings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 1.2: GSS-API Features and Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 1.2.1: Status Reporting and Optional Service Support . . . . 17 1.2.1.1: Status Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 1.2.1.2: Optional Service Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 1.2.2: Per-Message Security Service Availability . . . . . . . 20 1.2.3: Per-Message Replay Detection and Sequencing . . . . . . 21 1.2.4: Quality of Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 1.2.5: Anonymity Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 1.2.6: Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 1.2.7: Per-Message Protection During Context Establishment . . 26 1.2.8: Implementation Robustness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 1.2.9: Delegation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 1.2.10: Interprocess Context Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 2: Interface Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 2.1: Credential management calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 2.1.1: GSS_Acquire_cred call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 2.1.2: GSS_Release_cred call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 2.1.3: GSS_Inquire_cred call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 2.1.4: GSS_Add_cred call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 2.1.5: GSS_Inquire_cred_by_mech call . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 2.2: Context-level calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 2.2.1: GSS_Init_sec_context call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 2.2.2: GSS_Accept_sec_context call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 2.2.3: GSS_Delete_sec_context call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 2.2.4: GSS_Process_context_token call . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 2.2.5: GSS_Context_time call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 2.2.6: GSS_Inquire_context call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 2.2.7: GSS_Wrap_size_limit call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 2.2.8: GSS_Export_sec_context call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 2.2.9: GSS_Import_sec_context call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 2.3: Per-message calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 2.3.1: GSS_GetMIC call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 2.3.2: GSS_VerifyMIC call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 2.3.3: GSS_Wrap call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 2.3.4: GSS_Unwrap call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Linn Standards Track [Page 2] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 2.4: Support calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 2.4.1: GSS_Display_status call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 2.4.2: GSS_Indicate_mechs call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 2.4.3: GSS_Compare_name call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 2.4.4: GSS_Display_name call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 2.4.5: GSS_Import_name call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 2.4.6: GSS_Release_name call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 2.4.7: GSS_Release_buffer call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 2.4.8: GSS_Release_OID_set call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 2.4.9: GSS_Create_empty_OID_set call . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 2.4.10: GSS_Add_OID_set_member call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 2.4.11: GSS_Test_OID_set_member call . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 2.4.12: GSS_Inquire_names_for_mech call . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 2.4.13: GSS_Inquire_mechs_for_name call . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 2.4.14: GSS_Canonicalize_name call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 2.4.15: GSS_Export_name call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 2.4.16: GSS_Duplicate_name call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 3: Data Structure Definitions for GSS-V2 Usage . . . . . . . . 81 3.1: Mechanism-Independent Token Format . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 3.2: Mechanism-Independent Exported Name Object Format . . . . 84 4: Name Type Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 4.1: Host-Based Service Name Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 4.2: User Name Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 4.3: Machine UID Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 4.4: String UID Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 4.5: Anonymous Nametype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 4.6: GSS_C_NO_OID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 4.7: Exported Name Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 4.8: GSS_C_NO_NAME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 5: Mechanism-Specific Example Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . 88 5.1: Kerberos V5, single-TGT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 5.2: Kerberos V5, double-TGT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 5.3: X.509 Authentication Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 6: Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 7: Related Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 8: Referenced Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Appendix A: Mechanism Design Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Appendix B: Compatibility with GSS-V1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Appendix C: Changes Relative to RFC-2078 . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 Linn Standards Track [Page 3] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 1: GSS-API Characteristics and Concepts GSS-API operates in the following paradigm. A typical GSS-API caller is itself a communications protocol, calling on GSS-API in order to protect its communications with authentication, integrity, and/or confidentiality security services. A GSS-API caller accepts tokens provided to it by its local GSS-API implementation and transfers the tokens to a peer on a remote system; that peer passes the received tokens to its local GSS-API implementation for processing. The security services available through GSS-API in this fashion are implementable (and have been implemented) over a range of underlying mechanisms based on secret-key and public-key cryptographic technologies. The GSS-API separates the operations of initializing a security context between peers, achieving peer entity authentication (GSS_Init_sec_context() and GSS_Accept_sec_context() calls), from the operations of providing per-message data origin authentication and data integrity protection (GSS_GetMIC() and GSS_VerifyMIC() calls) for messages subsequently transferred in conjunction with that context. (The definition for the peer entity authentication service, and other definitions used in this document, corresponds to that provided in [ISO-7498-2].) When establishing a security context, the GSS-API enables a context initiator to optionally permit its credentials to be delegated, meaning that the context acceptor may initiate further security contexts on behalf of the initiating caller. Per-message GSS_Wrap() and GSS_Unwrap() calls provide the data origin authentication and data integrity services which GSS_GetMIC() and GSS_VerifyMIC() offer, and also support selection of confidentiality services as a caller option. Additional calls provide supportive functions to the GSS-API's users. The following paragraphs provide an example illustrating the dataflows involved in use of the GSS-API by a client and server in a mechanism-independent fashion, establishing a security context and transferring a protected message. The example assumes that credential acquisition has already been completed. The example also assumes that the underlying authentication technology is capable of authenticating a client to a server using elements carried within a single token, and of authenticating the server to the client (mutual authentication) with a single returned token; this assumption holds for some presently-documented CAT mechanisms but is not necessarily true for other cryptographic technologies and associated protocols. The client calls GSS_Init_sec_context() to establish a security context to the server identified by targ_name, and elects to set the mutual_req_flag so that mutual authentication is performed in the course of context establishment. GSS_Init_sec_context() returns an Linn Standards Track [Page 4] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 output_token to be passed to the server, and indicates GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED status pending completion of the mutual authentication sequence. Had mutual_req_flag not been set, the initial call to GSS_Init_sec_context() would have returned GSS_S_COMPLETE status. The client sends the output_token to the server. The server passes the received token as the input_token parameter to GSS_Accept_sec_context(). GSS_Accept_sec_context indicates GSS_S_COMPLETE status, provides the client's authenticated identity in the src_name result, and provides an output_token to be passed to the client. The server sends the output_token to the client. The client passes the received token as the input_token parameter to a successor call to GSS_Init_sec_context(), which processes data included in the token in order to achieve mutual authentication from the client's viewpoint. This call to GSS_Init_sec_context() returns GSS_S_COMPLETE status, indicating successful mutual authentication and the completion of context establishment for this example. The client generates a data message and passes it to GSS_Wrap(). GSS_Wrap() performs data origin authentication, data integrity, and (optionally) confidentiality processing on the message and encapsulates the result into output_message, indicating GSS_S_COMPLETE status. The client sends the output_message to the server. The server passes the received message to GSS_Unwrap(). GSS_Unwrap() inverts the encapsulation performed by GSS_Wrap(), deciphers the message if the optional confidentiality feature was applied, and validates the data origin authentication and data integrity checking quantities. GSS_Unwrap() indicates successful validation by returning GSS_S_COMPLETE status along with the resultant output_message. For purposes of this example, we assume that the server knows by out-of-band means that this context will have no further use after one protected message is transferred from client to server. Given this premise, the server now calls GSS_Delete_sec_context() to flush context-level information. Optionally, the server-side application may provide a token buffer to GSS_Delete_sec_context(), to receive a context_token to be transferred to the client in order to request that client-side context-level information be deleted. If a context_token is transferred, the client passes the context_token to GSS_Process_context_token(), which returns GSS_S_COMPLETE status after deleting context-level information at the client system. Linn Standards Track [Page 5] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 The GSS-API design assumes and addresses several basic goals, including: Mechanism independence: The GSS-API defines an interface to cryptographically implemented strong authentication and other security services at a generic level which is independent of particular underlying mechanisms. For example, GSS-API-provided services have been implemented using secret-key technologies (e.g., Kerberos, per [RFC-1964]) and with public-key approaches (e.g., SPKM, per [RFC-2025]). Protocol environment independence: The GSS-API is independent of the communications protocol suites with which it is employed, permitting use in a broad range of protocol environments. In appropriate environments, an intermediate implementation "veneer" which is oriented to a particular communication protocol may be interposed between applications which call that protocol and the GSS-API (e.g., as defined in [RFC-2203] for Open Network Computing Remote Procedure Call (RPC)), thereby invoking GSS-API facilities in conjunction with that protocol's communications invocations. Protocol association independence: The GSS-API's security context construct is independent of communications protocol association constructs. This characteristic allows a single GSS-API implementation to be utilized by a variety of invoking protocol modules on behalf of those modules' calling applications. GSS-API services can also be invoked directly by applications, wholly independent of protocol associations. Suitability to a range of implementation placements: GSS-API clients are not constrained to reside within any Trusted Computing Base (TCB) perimeter defined on a system where the GSS-API is implemented; security services are specified in a manner suitable to both intra-TCB and extra-TCB callers. 1.1: GSS-API Constructs This section describes the basic elements comprising the GSS-API. 1.1.1: Credentials 1.1.1.1: Credential Constructs and Concepts Credentials provide the prerequisites which permit GSS-API peers to establish security contexts with each other. A caller may designate that the credential elements which are to be applied for context initiation or acceptance be selected by default. Alternately, those GSS-API callers which need to make explicit selection of particular Linn Standards Track [Page 6] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 credentials structures may make references to those credentials through GSS-API-provided credential handles ("cred_handles"). In all cases, callers' credential references are indirect, mediated by GSS- API implementations and not requiring callers to access the selected credential elements. A single credential structure may be used to initiate outbound contexts and to accept inbound contexts. Callers needing to operate in only one of these modes may designate this fact when credentials are acquired for use, allowing underlying mechanisms to optimize their processing and storage requirements. The credential elements defined by a particular mechanism may contain multiple cryptographic keys, e.g., to enable authentication and message encryption to be performed with different algorithms. A GSS-API credential structure may contain multiple credential elements, each containing mechanism-specific information for a particular underlying mechanism (mech_type), but the set of elements within a given credential structure represent a common entity. A credential structure's contents will vary depending on the set of mech_types supported by a particular GSS-API implementation. Each credential element identifies the data needed by its mechanism in order to establish contexts on behalf of a particular principal, and may contain separate credential references for use in context initiation and context acceptance. Multiple credential elements within a given credential having overlapping combinations of mechanism, usage mode, and validity period are not permitted. Commonly, a single mech_type will be used for all security contexts established by a particular initiator to a particular target. A major motivation for supporting credential sets representing multiple mech_types is to allow initiators on systems which are equipped to handle multiple types to initiate contexts to targets on other systems which can accommodate only a subset of the set supported at the initiator's system. 1.1.1.2: Credential Management It is the responsibility of underlying system-specific mechanisms and OS functions below the GSS-API to ensure that the ability to acquire and use credentials associated with a given identity is constrained to appropriate processes within a system. This responsibility should be taken seriously by implementors, as the ability for an entity to utilize a principal's credentials is equivalent to the entity's ability to successfully assert that principal's identity. Linn Standards Track [Page 7] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 Once a set of GSS-API credentials is established, the transferability of that credentials set to other processes or analogous constructs within a system is a local matter, not defined by the GSS-API. An example local policy would be one in which any credentials received as a result of login to a given user account, or of delegation of rights to that account, are accessible by, or transferable to, processes running under that account. The credential establishment process (particularly when performed on behalf of users rather than server processes) is likely to require access to passwords or other quantities which should be protected locally and exposed for the shortest time possible. As a result, it will often be appropriate for preliminary credential establishment to be performed through local means at user login time, with the result(s) cached for subsequent reference. These preliminary credentials would be set aside (in a system-specific fashion) for subsequent use, either: to be accessed by an invocation of the GSS-API GSS_Acquire_cred() call, returning an explicit handle to reference that credential to comprise default credential elements to be installed, and to be used when default credential behavior is requested on behalf of a process 1.1.1.3: Default Credential Resolution The GSS_Init_sec_context() and GSS_Accept_sec_context() routines allow the value GSS_C_NO_CREDENTIAL to be specified as their credential handle parameter. This special credential handle indicates a desire by the application to act as a default principal. In support of application portability, support for the default resolution behavior described below for initiator credentials (GSS_Init_sec_context() usage) is mandated; support for the default resolution behavior described below for acceptor credentials (GSS_Accept_sec_context() usage) is recommended. If default credential resolution fails, GSS_S_NO_CRED status is to be returned. GSS_Init_sec_context: (i) If there is only a single principal capable of initiating security contexts that the application is authorized to act on behalf of, then that principal shall be used, otherwise Linn Standards Track [Page 8] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 (ii) If the platform maintains a concept of a default network- identity, and if the application is authorized to act on behalf of that identity for the purpose of initiating security contexts, then the principal corresponding to that identity shall be used, otherwise (iii) If the platform maintains a concept of a default local identity, and provides a means to map local identities into network-identities, and if the application is authorized to act on behalf of the network-identity image of the default local identity for the purpose of initiating security contexts, then the principal corresponding to that identity shall be used, otherwise (iv) A user-configurable default identity should be used. GSS_Accept_sec_context: (i) If there is only a single authorized principal identity capable of accepting security contexts, then that principal shall be used, otherwise (ii) If the mechanism can determine the identity of the target principal by examining the context-establishment token, and if the accepting application is authorized to act as that principal for the purpose of accepting security contexts, then that principal identity shall be used, otherwise (iii) If the mechanism supports context acceptance by any principal, and mutual authentication was not requested, any principal that the application is authorized to accept security contexts under may be used, otherwise (iv) A user-configurable default identity shall be used. The purpose of the above rules is to allow security contexts to be established by both initiator and acceptor using the default behavior wherever possible. Applications requesting default behavior are likely to be more portable across mechanisms and platforms than those that use GSS_Acquire_cred() to request a specific identity. 1.1.2: Tokens Tokens are data elements transferred between GSS-API callers, and are divided into two classes. Context-level tokens are exchanged in order to establish and manage a security context between peers. Per-message tokens relate to an established context and are exchanged to provide Linn Standards Track [Page 9] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 protective security services (i.e., data origin authentication, integrity, and optional confidentiality) for corresponding data messages. The first context-level token obtained from GSS_Init_sec_context() is required to indicate at its very beginning a globally-interpretable mechanism identifier, i.e., an Object Identifier (OID) of the security mechanism. The remaining part of this token as well as the whole content of all other tokens are specific to the particular underlying mechanism used to support the GSS-API. Section 3.1 of this document provides, for designers of GSS-API mechanisms, the description of the header of the first context-level token which is then followed by mechanism-specific information. Tokens' contents are opaque from the viewpoint of GSS-API callers. They are generated within the GSS-API implementation at an end system, provided to a GSS-API caller to be transferred to the peer GSS-API caller at a remote end system, and processed by the GSS-API implementation at that remote end system. Context-level tokens may be output by GSS-API calls (and should be transferred to GSS-API peers) whether or not the calls' status indicators indicate successful completion. Per-message tokens, in contrast, are to be returned only upon successful completion of per- message calls. Zero-length tokens are never returned by GSS routines for transfer to a peer. Token transfer may take place in an in-band manner, integrated into the same protocol stream used by the GSS-API callers for other data transfers, or in an out-of-band manner across a logically separate channel. Different GSS-API tokens are used for different purposes (e.g., context initiation, context acceptance, protected message data on an established context), and it is the responsibility of a GSS-API caller receiving tokens to distinguish their types, associate them with corresponding security contexts, and pass them to appropriate GSS-API processing routines. Depending on the caller protocol environment, this distinction may be accomplished in several ways. The following examples illustrate means through which tokens' types may be distinguished: - implicit tagging based on state information (e.g., all tokens on a new association are considered to be context establishment tokens until context establishment is completed, at which point all tokens are considered to be wrapped data objects for that context), Linn Standards Track [Page 10] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 - explicit tagging at the caller protocol level, - a hybrid of these approaches. Commonly, the encapsulated data within a token includes internal mechanism-specific tagging information, enabling mechanism-level processing modules to distinguish tokens used within the mechanism for different purposes. Such internal mechanism-level tagging is recommended to mechanism designers, and enables mechanisms to determine whether a caller has passed a particular token for processing by an inappropriate GSS-API routine. Development of GSS-API mechanisms based on a particular underlying cryptographic technique and protocol (i.e., conformant to a specific GSS-API mechanism definition) does not necessarily imply that GSS-API callers using that GSS-API mechanism will be able to interoperate with peers invoking the same technique and protocol outside the GSS- API paradigm, or with peers implementing a different GSS-API mechanism based on the same underlying technology. The format of GSS-API tokens defined in conjunction with a particular mechanism, and the techniques used to integrate those tokens into callers' protocols, may not be interoperable with the tokens used by non-GSS- API callers of the same underlying technique. 1.1.3: Security Contexts Security contexts are established between peers, using credentials established locally in conjunction with each peer or received by peers via delegation. Multiple contexts may exist simultaneously between a pair of peers, using the same or different sets of credentials. Coexistence of multiple contexts using different credentials allows graceful rollover when credentials expire. Distinction among multiple contexts based on the same credentials serves applications by distinguishing different message streams in a security sense. The GSS-API is independent of underlying protocols and addressing structure, and depends on its callers to transport GSS-API-provided data elements. As a result of these factors, it is a caller responsibility to parse communicated messages, separating GSS-API- related data elements from caller-provided data. The GSS-API is independent of connection vs. connectionless orientation of the underlying communications service. No correlation between security context and communications protocol association is dictated. (The optional channel binding facility, discussed in Section 1.1.6 of this document, represents an intentional exception to this rule, supporting additional protection Linn Standards Track [Page 11] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 features within GSS-API supporting mechanisms.) This separation allows the GSS-API to be used in a wide range of communications environments, and also simplifies the calling sequences of the individual calls. In many cases (depending on underlying security protocol, associated mechanism, and availability of cached information), the state information required for context setup can be sent concurrently with initial signed user data, without interposing additional message exchanges. Messages may be protected and transferred in both directions on an established GSS-API security context concurrently; protection of messages in one direction does not interfere with protection of messages in the reverse direction. GSS-API implementations are expected to retain inquirable context data on a context until the context is released by a caller, even after the context has expired, although underlying cryptographic data elements may be deleted after expiration in order to limit their exposure. 1.1.4: Mechanism Types In order to successfully establish a security context with a target peer, it is necessary to identify an appropriate underlying mechanism type (mech_type) which both initiator and target peers support. The definition of a mechanism embodies not only the use of a particular cryptographic technology (or a hybrid or choice among alternative cryptographic technologies), but also definition of the syntax and semantics of data element exchanges which that mechanism will employ in order to support security services. It is recommended that callers initiating contexts specify the "default" mech_type value, allowing system-specific functions within or invoked by the GSS-API implementation to select the appropriate mech_type, but callers may direct that a particular mech_type be employed when necessary. For GSS-API purposes, the phrase "negotiating mechanism" refers to a mechanism which itself performs negotiation in order to select a concrete mechanism which is shared between peers and is then used for context establishment. Only those mechanisms which are defined in their specifications as negotiating mechanisms are to yield selected mechanisms with different identifier values than the value which is input by a GSS-API caller, except for the case of a caller requesting the "default" mech_type. The means for identifying a shared mech_type to establish a security context with a peer will vary in different environments and circumstances; examples include (but are not limited to): Linn Standards Track [Page 12] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 use of a fixed mech_type, defined by configuration, within an environment syntactic convention on a target-specific basis, through examination of a target's name lookup of a target's name in a naming service or other database in order to identify mech_types supported by that target explicit negotiation between GSS-API callers in advance of security context setup use of a negotiating mechanism When transferred between GSS-API peers, mech_type specifiers (per Section 3 of this document, represented as Object Identifiers (OIDs)) serve to qualify the interpretation of associated tokens. (The structure and encoding of Object Identifiers is defined in [ISOIEC- 8824] and [ISOIEC-8825].) Use of hierarchically structured OIDs serves to preclude ambiguous interpretation of mech_type specifiers. The OID representing the DASS ([RFC-1507]) MechType, for example, is 1.3.12.2.1011.7.5, and that of the Kerberos V5 mechanism ([RFC- 1964]), having been advanced to the level of Proposed Standard, is 1.2.840.113554.1.2.2. 1.1.5: Naming The GSS-API avoids prescribing naming structures, treating the names which are transferred across the interface in order to initiate and accept security contexts as opaque objects. This approach supports the GSS-API's goal of implementability atop a range of underlying security mechanisms, recognizing the fact that different mechanisms process and authenticate names which are presented in different forms. Generalized services offering translation functions among arbitrary sets of naming environments are outside the scope of the GSS-API; availability and use of local conversion functions to translate among the naming formats supported within a given end system is anticipated. Different classes of name representations are used in conjunction with different GSS-API parameters: - Internal form (denoted in this document by INTERNAL NAME), opaque to callers and defined by individual GSS-API implementations. GSS-API implementations supporting multiple namespace types must maintain internal tags to disambiguate the interpretation of particular names. A Mechanism Name (MN) is a special case of INTERNAL NAME, guaranteed to contain elements Linn Standards Track [Page 13] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 corresponding to one and only one mechanism; calls which are guaranteed to emit MNs or which require MNs as input are so identified within this specification. - Contiguous string ("flat") form (denoted in this document by OCTET STRING); accompanied by OID tags identifying the namespace to which they correspond. Depending on tag value, flat names may or may not be printable strings for direct acceptance from and presentation to users. Tagging of flat names allows GSS-API callers and underlying GSS-API mechanisms to disambiguate name types and to determine whether an associated name's type is one which they are capable of processing, avoiding aliasing problems which could result from misinterpreting a name of one type as a name of another type. - The GSS-API Exported Name Object, a special case of flat name designated by a reserved OID value, carries a canonicalized form of a name suitable for binary comparisons. In addition to providing means for names to be tagged with types, this specification defines primitives to support a level of naming environment independence for certain calling applications. To provide basic services oriented towards the requirements of callers which need not themselves interpret the internal syntax and semantics of names, GSS-API calls for name comparison (GSS_Compare_name()), human-readable display (GSS_Display_name()), input conversion (GSS_Import_name()), internal name deallocation (GSS_Release_name()), and internal name duplication (GSS_Duplicate_name()) functions are defined. (It is anticipated that these proposed GSS-API calls will be implemented in many end systems based on system-specific name manipulation primitives already extant within those end systems; inclusion within the GSS-API is intended to offer GSS-API callers a portable means to perform specific operations, supportive of authorization and audit requirements, on authenticated names.) GSS_Import_name() implementations can, where appropriate, support more than one printable syntax corresponding to a given namespace (e.g., alternative printable representations for X.500 Distinguished Names), allowing flexibility for their callers to select among alternative representations. GSS_Display_name() implementations output a printable syntax selected as appropriate to their operational environments; this selection is a local matter. Callers desiring portability across alternative printable syntaxes should refrain from implementing comparisons based on printable name forms and should instead use the GSS_Compare_name() call to determine whether or not one internal-format name matches another. Linn Standards Track [Page 14] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 When used in large access control lists, the overhead of invoking GSS_Import_name() and GSS_Compare_name() on each name from the ACL may be prohibitive. As an alternative way of supporting this case, GSS-API defines a special form of the contiguous string name which may be compared directly (e.g., with memcmp()). Contiguous names suitable for comparison are generated by the GSS_Export_name() routine, which requires an MN as input. Exported names may be re- imported by the GSS_Import_name() routine, and the resulting internal name will also be an MN. The symbolic constant GSS_C_NT_EXPORT_NAME identifies the "export name" type. Structurally, an exported name object consists of a header containing an OID identifying the mechanism that authenticated the name, and a trailer containing the name itself, where the syntax of the trailer is defined by the individual mechanism specification. The precise format of an exported name is defined in Section 3.2 of this specification. Note that the results obtained by using GSS_Compare_name() will in general be different from those obtained by invoking GSS_Canonicalize_name() and GSS_Export_name(), and then comparing the exported names. The first series of operations determines whether two (unauthenticated) names identify the same principal; the second whether a particular mechanism would authenticate them as the same principal. These two operations will in general give the same results only for MNs. The following diagram illustrates the intended dataflow among name- related GSS-API processing routines. Linn Standards Track [Page 15] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 GSS-API library defaults | | V text, for text --------------> internal_name (IN) -----------> display only import_name() / display_name() / / / accept_sec_context() / | / | / | / canonicalize_name() | / | / | / | / | / | | V V <--------------------- single mechanism import_name() exported name: flat internal_name (MN) binary "blob" usable ----------------------> for access control export_name() 1.1.6: Channel Bindings The GSS-API accommodates the concept of caller-provided channel binding ("chan_binding") information. Channel bindings are used to strengthen the quality with which peer entity authentication is provided during context establishment, by limiting the scope within which an intercepted context establishment token can be reused by an attacker. Specifically, they enable GSS-API callers to bind the establishment of a security context to relevant characteristics (e.g., addresses, transformed representations of encryption keys) of the underlying communications channel, of protection mechanisms applied to that communications channel, and to application-specific data. The caller initiating a security context must determine the appropriate channel binding values to provide as input to the GSS_Init_sec_context() call, and consistent values must be provided to GSS_Accept_sec_context() by the context's target, in order for both peers' GSS-API mechanisms to validate that received tokens possess correct channel-related characteristics. Use or non-use of the GSS-API channel binding facility is a caller option. GSS-API mechanisms can operate in an environment where NULL channel bindings are presented; mechanism implementors are encouraged, but not Linn Standards Track [Page 16] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 required, to make use of caller-provided channel binding data within their mechanisms. Callers should not assume that underlying mechanisms provide confidentiality protection for channel binding information. When non-NULL channel bindings are provided by callers, certain mechanisms can offer enhanced security value by interpreting the bindings' content (rather than simply representing those bindings, or integrity check values computed on them, within tokens) and will therefore depend on presentation of specific data in a defined format. To this end, agreements among mechanism implementors are defining conventional interpretations for the contents of channel binding arguments, including address specifiers (with content dependent on communications protocol environment) for context initiators and acceptors. (These conventions are being incorporated in GSS-API mechanism specifications and into the GSS-API C language bindings specification.) In order for GSS-API callers to be portable across multiple mechanisms and achieve the full security functionality which each mechanism can provide, it is strongly recommended that GSS-API callers provide channel bindings consistent with these conventions and those of the networking environment in which they operate. 1.2: GSS-API Features and Issues This section describes aspects of GSS-API operations, of the security services which the GSS-API provides, and provides commentary on design issues. 1.2.1: Status Reporting and Optional Service Support 1.2.1.1: Status Reporting Each GSS-API call provides two status return values. Major_status values provide a mechanism-independent indication of call status (e.g., GSS_S_COMPLETE, GSS_S_FAILURE, GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED), sufficient to drive normal control flow within the caller in a generic fashion. Table 1 summarizes the defined major_status return codes in tabular fashion. Sequencing-related informatory major_status codes (GSS_S_DUPLICATE_TOKEN, GSS_S_OLD_TOKEN, GSS_S_UNSEQ_TOKEN, and GSS_S_GAP_TOKEN) can be indicated in conjunction with either GSS_S_COMPLETE or GSS_S_FAILURE status for GSS-API per-message calls. For context establishment calls, these sequencing-related codes will be indicated only in conjunction with GSS_S_FAILURE status (never in Linn Standards Track [Page 17] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 conjunction with GSS_S_COMPLETE or GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED), and, therefore, always correspond to fatal failures if encountered during the context establishment phase. Table 1: GSS-API Major Status Codes FATAL ERROR CODES GSS_S_BAD_BINDINGS channel binding mismatch GSS_S_BAD_MECH unsupported mechanism requested GSS_S_BAD_NAME invalid name provided GSS_S_BAD_NAMETYPE name of unsupported type provided GSS_S_BAD_STATUS invalid input status selector GSS_S_BAD_SIG token had invalid integrity check GSS_S_BAD_MIC preferred alias for GSS_S_BAD_SIG GSS_S_CONTEXT_EXPIRED specified security context expired GSS_S_CREDENTIALS_EXPIRED expired credentials detected GSS_S_DEFECTIVE_CREDENTIAL defective credential detected GSS_S_DEFECTIVE_TOKEN defective token detected GSS_S_FAILURE failure, unspecified at GSS-API level GSS_S_NO_CONTEXT no valid security context specified GSS_S_NO_CRED no valid credentials provided GSS_S_BAD_QOP unsupported QOP value GSS_S_UNAUTHORIZED operation unauthorized GSS_S_UNAVAILABLE operation unavailable GSS_S_DUPLICATE_ELEMENT duplicate credential element requested GSS_S_NAME_NOT_MN name contains multi-mechanism elements INFORMATORY STATUS CODES GSS_S_COMPLETE normal completion GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED continuation call to routine required GSS_S_DUPLICATE_TOKEN duplicate per-message token detected GSS_S_OLD_TOKEN timed-out per-message token detected GSS_S_UNSEQ_TOKEN reordered (early) per-message token detected GSS_S_GAP_TOKEN skipped predecessor token(s) detected Minor_status provides more detailed status information which may include status codes specific to the underlying security mechanism. Minor_status values are not specified in this document. Linn Standards Track [Page 18] RFC 2743 GSS-API January 2000 GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED major_status returns, and optional message outputs, are provided in GSS_Init_sec_context() and GSS_Accept_sec_context() calls so that different mechanisms' employment of different numbers of messages within their authentication sequences need not be reflected in separate code paths within calling applications. Instead, such cases are accommodated with sequences of continuation calls to GSS_Init_sec_context() and GSS_Accept_sec_context(). The same facility is used to encapsulate mutual authentication within the GSS-API's context initiation calls. For mech_types which require interactions with third-party servers in order to establish a security context, GSS-API context establishment calls may block pending completion of such third-party interactions. On the other hand, no GSS-API calls pend on serialized interactions with GSS-API peer entities. As a result, local GSS-API status returns cannot reflect unpredictable or asynchronous exceptions occurring at remote peers, and reflection of such status information is a caller responsibility outside the GSS-API. 1.2.1.2: Optional Service Support A context initiator may request various optional services at context establishment time. Each of these services is requested by setting a flag in the req_flags input parameter to GSS_Init_sec_con