Re: Last Call: <draft-ietf-uta-email-tls-certs-05.txt> (Updated TLS Server Identity Check Procedure for Email Related Protocols) to Proposed Standard

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Speaking as sergeant-at-arms.

There is any real need to cross-post to the general area explorer ?

Unless I don’t see a good justification, please stop it.

Regards,
Jordi









-----Mensaje original-----
De: ietf <ietf-bounces@xxxxxxxx> en nombre de Viktor Dukhovni <ietf-dane@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Responder a: <ietf-dane@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Fecha: martes, 24 de noviembre de 2015, 6:51
Para: <ietf@xxxxxxxx>, <uta@xxxxxxxx>
Asunto: Re: Last Call: <draft-ietf-uta-email-tls-certs-05.txt> (Updated TLS Server Identity Check Procedure for Email Related Protocols) to Proposed Standard

>On Fri, Nov 20, 2015 at 04:36:41PM -0500, Russ Housley wrote:
>
>> I support this document going forward.  Below I suggest four improvements to the document.
>
>I also have some suggested improvements:
>
>Section 2:
>
>   reference identifier:  (as defined in [RFC6125]) One of the domain
>      names associated by the email (i.e., an SMTP, IMAP, POP3 or
>      ManageSieve) client with the destination email server and
>      optionally an application service type for performing name checks
>      on the server certificate.  When name checks are applicable, at
>      least one of the reference identifiers MUST match an [RFC6125]
>      DNS-ID or SRV-ID (or if none are present the [RFC6125] CN-ID) of
>      the server certificate.
>
>This speaks of a "destination email server", but none of the
>protocols in question deliver email to its "destination".  These
>are submission and mailstore access protocols.  So the phrase
>"destination email server" is perhaps misleading.  I would
>suggest replacing "destination" with "target".
>
>Section 3:
>
>   1.  For DNS-ID and CN-ID identifier types the client MUST use one or
>       more of the following as "reference identifiers": (a) the right
>       hand side of the email address, (b) the hostname it used to open
>       the connection (without CNAME canonicalization).  The client MAY
>       also use (c) a value securely derived from (a) or (b), such as
>       using "secure" DNSSEC validated lookup.
>
>The problem here is that "the right hand side of the email address"
>is not clearly defined, which email address?  It seems that the
>email address in question here is that of the user (performing mail
>submission or accessing his own mailbox).  Also I would replace
>"right hand side" with "domain part" (RFC 5322 email addresses are
><localpart@domainpart>).
>
>   2.  When using email service discovery procedure specified in
>       [RFC6186] the client MUST also use the right hand side of the
>       email address as another "reference identifier" to compare
>       against SRV-ID identifier in the server certificate.
>
>As noted in Section 7 of RFC7672, when (don't know of any MUAs that
>do this now) MUAs start using DNS SRV records to indirectly map
>service domains to target servers, the WebPKI security model breaks
>down in some of the same ways as it does for SMTP with MX records
>(https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7672#section-1.3.2).  In particular,
>using the target server hostname from from the SRV record is not
>secure unless that SRV record is protected with DNSSEC.  Once
>it is protected with DNSSEC and the client has the capacity to
>perform the verification, it may as well do DANE (since it
>then unavodably trusts the DNS).
>
>The upshot is that once 6186 comes into play the text from part
>"1" is no longer applicable as-is.  This is because (b) is no longer
>securely obtained (absent DNSSEC it is the result of an insecure
>SRV lookup).  So part (b) of "1" only applies when DNSSEC is
>available.  However SRV-ID is fine, because it is the domainpart
>of the user's email address and not subject to active attacks on
>DNS.  This is why in the second numbered list we have (without
>the rationale):
>
>   2.  Support for the SRV-ID identifier type (subjectAltName of SRVName
>       type [RFC4985]) is REQUIRED for email client software
>       implementations that support [RFC6186].  List of SRV-ID types for
>       email services is specified in [RFC6186].  For the ManageSieve
>       protocol the service name "sieve" is used.
>
>and then correspondingly in section 5:
>
>
>   2.  If the email services provided are discoverable using DNS SRV as
>       specified in [RFC6186], the Mail Service Provider MUST include
>       the SRV-ID identifier type (subjectAltName of SRVName type
>       [RFC4985]) for each type of email service in Certificate Signing
>       Requests.
>
>and in the examples in Section 6, which describe only SRV-IDs and
>not (insecure) DNS-IDs in combination with services discovered via
>RFC 6186 SRV records.
>
>Section 6:
>
>More instances of "right hand side" rather than "domainpart".
>
>Section 8:
>
>   TLS Server Identity Check for Email relies on use of trustworthy DNS
>   hostnames when constructing "reference identifiers" that are checked
>   against an email server certificate.  Such trustworthy names are
>   either entered manually (for example if they are advertised on a Mail
>   Service Provider's website), explicitly confirmed by the user (e.g.
>   if they are a target of a DNS SRV lookup) or derived using a secure
>   third party service (e.g.  DNSSEC-protected SRV records which are
>   verified by the client or trusted local resolver).  Future work in
>   this area might benefit from integration with DANE [RFC6698], but it
>   is not covered by this document.
>
>This repeats RFC 6186's waving of the "explicitly confirmed by the
>user" magic wand to make a fundamental gap in the security model
>appear to go away.  The rest of the document seems to require
>SRV-IDs to avoid this trap, but here suddenly we're back to accepting
>DNS-IDs arrived at via insecure SRV records, and we just "ask the
>user".
>
>So the question is whether in fact that's the approach, in which
>case the earlier insistence on SRV-IDs is weakened and perhaps too
>strong, or whether this is not the case, and the security considerations
>should specifically explain the issue and state that asking the
>user is not a good idea, and the the solution is the new SRV-IDs
>as specified in this document.
>
>[ Other options might be DANE 7671/7671, or POSH 7711. ]
>
>--
>	Viktor.
>
>






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