





INTERNET-DRAFT                           M. Litvin, R. Shamir, T. Zegman
Expires February, 2001                              Check Point Software
Category: Informational                                     August, 2000

                  A Hybrid Authentication Mode for IKE
              <draft-ietf-ipsec-isakmp-hybrid-auth-05.txt>

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

   This document is an Internet-Draft.  Internet Drafts are working
   documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas,
   and its working Groups. Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet Drafts.

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1. Abstract

   This document describes a set of new authentication methods to be
   used within Phase 1 of the Internet Key Exchange (IKE). The proposed
   methods assume an asymmetry between the authenticating entities. One
   entity, typically an Edge Device (e.g. firewall), authenticates using
   standard public key techniques (in signature mode), while the other
   entity, typically a remote User, authenticates using challenge
   response techniques. These authentication methods are used to
   establish, at the end of Phase 1, an IKE SA which is unidirectionally
   authenticated. To make this IKE bi-directionally authenticated, this
   Phase 1 is immediately followed by an X-Auth Exchange [XAUTH]. The
   X-Auth Exchange is used to authenticate the remote User. The use of



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   these authentication methods is referred to as Hybrid Authentication
   mode.

   This proposal is designed to provide a solution for environments
   where a legacy authentication system exists, yet a full public key
   infrastructure is not deployed.

1.1 Reader Prerequisites

   It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the terms and concepts
   described in "Extended Authentication Within ISAKMP/Oakley" [XAUTH]
   and "The ISAKMP Configuration Method" [IKECFG].

1.2 Changes from previous version

1.2.1 Version 5.0

   The document has undergone minor modification to prepare for for
   independent submission as an Informational RFC.

   Authentication method numbers are yet to be assigned by IANA.

1.2.2 Version 4.0

   Authentication method numbers were assigned by IANA without altering
   their values.

1.2.3 Version 3.0

   Draft was renamed and reposted under the IPSRA working group.

1.2.4 Version 2.0

   The authentication methods numbers are now taken from the private use
   range.

   Mutual authentication within Phase 1 is now discussed in [XAUTH].

   Added clarification on the use of DSS signatures.

   Added clarification on the content of ID payloads sent by the Client
   during Phase 1.

   Changed the semantics of the authentication methods so that they will
   correspond to similar authentication methods defined in [XAUTH].






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1.2.5 Version 1.0

   The draft was extensively modified since the last version. The most
   important change is the breaking down of authentication into two
   stages. The first stage is used to authenticate the Edge Device and
   is based on Phase 1 Exchange, while the latter authenticates the
   Client and is based on a Transaction Exchange [IKECFG] with the
   mechanism described in [XAUTH].

2. Discussion

2.1 Background

   Several authentication methods are currently defined within IKE
   [IKE]. These methods use either a secret which is shared by the
   authenticating entities ("pre-shared key" method), or public key
   cryptography ("digital signature" mode, "public key encryption" mode,
   "revised public key encryption mode"). Legacy authentication systems,
   such as Security Dynamics' SecurID and Axent's OmniGuard/Defender,
   are not addressed in the current standard.

   Legacy authentication systems are already deployed in many
   organizations. These organizations may not wish to deploy a public-
   key infrastructure in the near future. Furthermore, even if an
   organization decides to deploy a public key infrastructure, the
   deployment can take a considerable amount of time. Within the
   transition period, organizations may wish to continue using their
   legacy authentication systems.

2.2 Design considerations

   The currently defined IKE authentication methods share two
   properties: the authentication is mutual (both participants
   authenticate each other); and symmetric (both participants use the
   same method for authentication). Mutual authentication is important
   not only for mere identification but also to prevent man in the
   middle attacks.

   In client-server like implementations of IKE, where one of the
   participants in the IKE is a User, while the other is an Edge Device
   (e.g. firewall), it is not always possible to preserve symmetric
   authentication. For example, a User can use an OmniGuard/Defender
   token to answer an authentication challenge, but cannot issue an
   OmniGuard/Defender authentication challenge to the firewall, since
   she cannot check the firewall's response.

   When designing an IKE authentication method that addresses legacy
   authentication systems, it is necessary to preserve the mutual



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   authentication property of IKE, while its symmetric nature may be
   violated.

   The authentication methods currently defined in IKE all use a six
   packet exchange for Main Mode, and a three packet exchange for
   Aggressive Mode. When defining a new authentication method, which is
   based on challenge-response authentication, it is not possible to
   place a limitation on the number of packets that need to be exchanged
   to authenticate a User. Usually, a simple authentication protocol
   consists of three messages: a challenge by the Edge Device; a
   response by the User; and a status message (authentication
   success/failure) sent by the Edge Device. However, in many cases the
   protocol consists of more than a single challenge-response (e.g. new
   PIN mode of SecurID).

   Due to these limitation, we divide the authentication process into
   two stages. In the first stage, Phase 1 Exchange is being utilized to
   authenticate the Edge Device and to establish an IKE SA. In the
   second stage, a Transaction Exchange [IKECFG] with the mechanism
   described in [XAUTH] is used to authenticate the Client. Even though
   the two stages could have been integrated into a single exchange, we
   feel that this separation, being based on existing exchanges without
   modifying them, is easier to implement.

   This proposal is suitable for environments where a legacy
   authentication system is deployed, yet public key cryptography can be
   used by the Edge Devices. In that case, the situation resembles the
   way authentication is implemented in the World Wide Web using SSL.
   The servers use public-key techniques to authenticate themselves to
   the Users, and establish an encrypted connection. The User can then
   authenticate herself (or send other identification information, such
   as a credit card number). The assumption in this mode is that
   deploying public key for a small number of entities (web servers or
   Edge Devices) is possible without a full-public key infrastructure
   deployment.

   In some scenarios, security policy on the Edge Device might call for
   authentication of both the User and the User's Device. In such a case
   the Phase 1 authentication methods described in [XAUTH] should be
   used.

2.3 The hybrid authentication mode in a nut-shell

   The participants in the hybrid authentication mode are typically a
   User and an Edge Device. The participants start to negotiate, using
   either Main Mode or Aggressive Mode, an SA in which the
   authentication method is of a new type, indicating it is a hybrid
   authentication method. At the end of Phase 1 the established IKE SA



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   is used by the Edge Device to start a Transaction Exchange [CFG] in
   order to authenticate the User. Upon the successful completion of the
   exchange the participants can proceed to use the IKE SA for other
   purposes (e.g. Quick Mode).

3. Terms and Definitions

3.1 Requirements Terminology

   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 [Bra97].

3.2 Definitions

   The following terms are used in this document:

   Edge Device - Gateway, router or firewall protecting a corporate
   network.

   User - A person trying to gain access to a corporate network
   protected by an Edge Device.

   User's Device - user's device.

   Client - Denotes both the User and the User's Device. Used whenever a
   distinction between the two terms is not necessary.

3.2.1 Authentication Methods Types

   The following values relate to hybrid mode authentication. Their use
   is detailed in following sections. These values are pending
   assignment by IANA.

      Type                                        Value
      ------------------------------              ----------------
       HybridInitRSA                              64221
       HybridRespRSA                              64222
       HybridInitDSS                              64223
       HybridRespDSS                              64224


3.3 Notation

   This document follows the notations defined in [IKE].

4. Description of the Hybrid Authentication Mode




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   The hybrid authentication mode is divided into two stages. The first
   stage is a Phase 1 Exchange used to authenticate the Edge Device. The
   exchange follows the same structure and rules as described in [IKE]
   with some exceptions as described in the following sub-sections. The
   Phase 1 Exchange can use either Aggressive Mode or Main Mode. The
   initiator of the Phase 1 Exchange can be either the Client or the
   Edge Device. The initiator of the following Transaction Exchange MUST
   be the Edge Device.

   The Phase 1 Exchange MUST be immediately followed by a Transaction
   Exchange whose initiator is the Edge Device. The Transaction Exchange
   MUST be protected by the IKE SA negotiated in the preceding Phase 1
   Exchange. This IKE SA MUST NOT be used for any other exchange before
   the Transaction Exchange terminates successfully and the User is
   authenticated. If the User fails to authenticate the IKE SA MUST be
   discarded.

   There are two characteristics that uniquely identify a hybrid
   authentication method:

   The first is the direction of the authentication. The latter
   determines the authentication method used to authenticate the Edge
   Device (i.e. RSA or DSA).

   For example, HybridInitRSA denotes Hybrid authentication that
   utilizes RSA signatures in Phase 1 to authenticate the Edge Device.
   The initiator of the Phase1 exchange is to be authenticated using
   XAUTH.




4.1 Bidirectional Authentication

   For a discussion on how to use Bidirectional authentication together
   with legacy authentication systems see [XAUTH].

4.2 Unidirectional Authentication

   If the Client's side is not to be authenticated during the Phase 1
   Exchange, the Phase 1 Exchange is slightly modified in the following
   manner:

   The signature payload sent by the Client SIG_I (or SIG_R) is replaced
   with HASH_I (HASH_R), where HASH_I (HASH_R) contains the hash of the
   data that would have otherwise be signed in SIG_I (SIG_R). Note
   however that even if the Edge Device uses a signature scheme tied to
   a particular hash algorithm (i.e. DSS with SHA), the negotiated prf



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   or the HMAC version of the negotiated hash function MUST be used by
   the Client when computing HASH_I (HASH_R).

   If a certificate request payload is sent from the Edge Device the
   Client MUST respond with an empty certificate payload, i.e. with a
   certificate payload whose Certificate Data field has zero length.

   The ID payload sent by the Client SHOULD be left empty (i.e. with an
   empty Identification Data field and with an ID type of zero) thus
   providing identity protection for the Client even if Aggressive Mode
   is used.

   Examples:

      Main Mode with hybrid authentication, Client initiator:
           Initiator                          Responder
          ----------                         -----------
           HDR, SA                     -->

                                       <--    HDR, SA

           HDR, KE, Ni                 -->

                                       <--    HDR, KE, Nr

           HDR*, IDii, HASH_I          -->

                                       <--    HDR*, IDir, [ CERT, ]
                                                    SIG_R

                                   XAUTH-Exchange

      Aggressive Mode hybrid authentication, Edge Device initiator:

           Initiator                          Responder
          -----------                        -----------
           HDR, SA, KE, Ni, IDii       -->

                                       <--    HDR, SA, KE, Nr, IDir,
                                                   HASH_R

             HDR, [ CERT, ] SIG_I        -->

                                   XAUTH-Exchange

5. Implementation hints

   Since the Edge Device always initiates the Transaction Exchange, when



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   a Client initiates the Phase 1 Exchange, the authentication methods
   included in the Client's proposal should be either HybridInitRSA or
   HybridInitDSS, whereas if the Edge Device is the initiator of the
   Phase 1 Exchange the authentication methods included in the Edge
   Device's proposal should be either HybridRespRSA or HybridRespDSS.

6. Security Considerations

   This document describes a protocol to be used to establish an IKE SA.
   The level of security the protocol provides, relies among other
   things, on the strength of the authentication mechanism used to
   authenticate the Client.

   While pre-shared key authentication for mobile users can be done only
   in Aggressive Mode, thus revealing the identity of the User, these
   proposed methods provide, when used in conjunction with Aggressive
   Mode, User's identity protection and when used in conjunction with
   Main Mode, provide identity protection for both parties.

   While the authors greatly discourage the use of fixed passwords,
   these methods have another advantage over the pre-shared key method:
   The password is not prone to offline dictionary attacks, since the
   password is encrypted using a derivative of the Diffie-Hellman shared
   key. Only the participants in the IKE protocol know the shared key.

   NB: When using standard IKE authentication methods both parties can
   (and must) detect man-in-the-middle attacks. When one uses hybrid
   authentication to establish unidirectional authenticated IKE SA's,
   only the Client can (and must) detect these kinds of attacks.

   This proposal does not provide protection against denial of service
   attacks in which an attacker, impersonating a User, repeatedly tries
   to authenticate, eventually causing the User's account to be revoked.
   Nonetheless, this kind of weakness is inherent to challenge-response
   techniques and should not be considered a weakness of this protocol
   but of the authentication methods it utilizes.

7. Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank Roy Pereira, Tim Jenkins, Paul
   Kierstead and Stephen Kent for their comments and contributions to
   this document.









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8. References

   [Bra97]   S. Bradner, "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
   Requirement Levels", RFC2119

   [IKE]     D. Harkins, D. Carrel, "The Internet Key Exchange (IKE)",
   RFC2409

   [ISAKMP]   Maughhan, D., Schertler, M., Schneider, M., and Turner,
   J., "Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol
   (ISAKMP)", RFC2408.

   [IKECFG]   R. Pereira, S. Anand, B. Patel, "The ISAKMP Configuration
   Method", draft-ietf-ipsec-isakmp-mode-cfg-05.txt, work in progress.

   [XAUTH]    R. Pereira, S. Beaulieu, "Extended Authentication Within
   ISAKMP/Oakley", draft-ietf-ipsec-isakmp-xauth-06.txt, work in
   progress.


Author Addresses:

   Moshe Litvin <moshe@checkpoint.com>
   Check Point
   3A Jabotinsky St.
   Ramat-Gan 52520
   ISRAEL


   Roy Shamir <roy@checkpoint.com>
   Check Point
   3A Jabotinsky St.
   Ramat-Gan 52520
   ISRAEL


   Tamir Zegman <zegman@checkpoint.com>
   Check Point
   3A Jabotinsky St.
   Ramat-Gan 52520
   ISRAEL


Full Copyright Statement:

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000).  All Rights Reserved.

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