
DNSIND Working Group                          Brian Wellington (Nominum)
INTERNET-DRAFT                                                  May 2000

<draft-ietf-dnsext-signing-auth-01.txt>

Updates: RFC 2535



         Domain Name System Security (DNSSEC) Signing Authority


Status of this Memo

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

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
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   Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
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   Comments should be sent to the authors or the DNSIND WG mailing list
   namedroppers@internic.net.

   This draft expires on November 12, 2000.

   Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000).  All rights reserved.


Abstract

   This document proposes a revised model of Domain Name System Security
   (DNSSEC) Signing Authority.  The revised model is designed to clarify
   earlier documents and add additional restrictions to simplify the



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   secure resolution process.  Specifically, this affects the
   authorization of keys to sign sets of records.


1 - Introduction

This document defines additional restrictions on DNSSEC signatures (SIG)
records relating to their authority to sign associated data.  The intent
is to establish a standard policy followed by a secure resolver; this
policy can be augmented by local rules.  This builds upon [RFC2535],
updating section 2.3.6 of that document.

The most significant change is that in a secure zone, zone data is
required to be signed by the zone key.

Familiarity with the DNS system [RFC1034, RFC1035] and the DNS security
extensions [RFC2535] is assumed.

2 - The SIG Record

A SIG record is normally associated with an RRset, and ``covers'' (that
is, demonstrates the authenticity and integrity of) the RRset.  This is
referred to as a ``data SIG''.  Note that there can be multiple SIG
records covering an RRset, and the same validation process should be
repeated for each of them.  Some data SIGs are considered ``material'',
that is, relevant to a DNSSEC capable resolver, and some are
``immaterial'' or ``extra-DNSSEC'', as they are not relevant to DNSSEC
validation.  Immaterial SIGs may have application defined roles.  SIG
records may exist which are not bound to any RRset; these are also
considered immaterial.  The validation process determines which SIGs are
material; once a SIG is shown to be immaterial, no other validation is
necessary.

SIGs may also be used for transaction security.  In this case, a SIG
record with a type covered field of 0 is attached to a message, and is
used to protect message integrity.  This is referred to as a SIG(0)
[RFC2535].

The following sections define requirements for all of the fields of a
SIG record.  These requirements MUST be met in order for a DNSSEC
capable resolver to process this signature.  If any of these
requirements are not met, the SIG cannot be further processed.
Additionally, once a KEY has been identified as having generated this
SIG, there are requirements that it MUST meet.







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2.1 - Type Covered

For a data SIG, the type covered MUST be the same as the type of data in
the associated RRset.  For a SIG(0), the type covered MUST be 0.


2.2 - Algorithm Number

The algorithm specified in a SIG MUST be recognized by the client, and
it MUST be an algorithm that has a defined SIG rdata format.


2.3 - Labels

The labels count MUST be less than or equal to the number of labels in
the SIG owner name, as specified in [RFC2535, section 4.1.3].


2.4 - Original TTL

The original TTL MUST be greater than or equal to the TTL of the SIG
record itself, since the TTL cannot be increased by intermediate
servers.  This field can be ignored for SIG(0) records.


2.5 - Signature Expiration and Inception

The current time at the time of validation MUST lie within the validity
period bounded by the inception and expiration times.


2.6 - Key Tag

There are no restrictions on the Key Tag field, although it is possible
that future algorithms will impose contraints.


2.7 - Signer's Name

The signer's name field of a data SIG MUST contain the name of the zone
to which the data and signature belong.  The combination of signer's
name, key tag, and algorithm MUST identify a zone key if the SIG is to
be considered material.  This document defines a standard policy for
DNSSEC validation; local policy may override the standard policy.

There are no restrictions on the signer field of a SIG(0) record.  The
combination of signer's name, key tag, and algorithm MUST identify a key
if this SIG(0) is to be processed.



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2.8 - Signature

There are no restrictions on the signature field.  The signature will be
verified at some point, but does not need to be examined prior to
verification unless a future algorithm imposes constraints.

3 - The Signing KEY Record

Once a signature has been examined and its fields validated (but before
the signature has been verified), the resolver attempts to locate a KEY
that matches the signer name, key tag, and algorithm fields in the SIG.
If one is not found, the SIG cannot be verified and is considered
immaterial.  If KEYs are found, several fields of the KEY record MUST
have specific values if the SIG is to be considered material and
authorized.  If there are multiple KEYs, the following checks are
performed on all of them, as there is no way to determine which one
generated the signature until the verification is performed.


3.1 - Type Flags

The signing KEY record MUST have a flags value of 00 or 01
(authentication allowed, confidentiality optional) [RFC2535, 3.1.2].  A
DNSSEC resolver MUST only trust signatures generated by keys that are
permitted to authenticate data.


3.2 - Name Flags

The interpretation of this field is considerably different for data SIGs
and SIG(0) records.


3.2.1 - Data SIG

If the SIG record covers an RRset, the name type of the associated KEY
MUST be 01 (zone) [RFC2535, 3.1.2].  This updates RFC 2535, section
2.3.6.  The DNSSEC validation process performed by a resolver MUST
ignore all keys that are not zone keys unless local policy dictates
otherwise.

The primary reason that RFC 2535 allows host and user keys to generate
material DNSSEC signatures is to allow dynamic update without online
zone keys; that is, avoid storing private keys in an online server.  The
desire to avoid online signing keys cannot be achieved, though, because
they are necessary to sign NXT and SOA sets [SSU].  These online zone
keys can sign any incoming data.  Removing the goal of having no online
keys removes the reason to allow host and user keys to generate material



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signatures.  in the DNS.

Limiting material signatures to zone keys simplifies the validation
process.  The length of the verification chain is bounded by the name's
label depth.  The authority of a key is clearly defined; a resolver does
not need to make a potentially complicated decision to determine whether
a key can sign data.  amount of work to determine if all such keys have
the proper authority.

Finally, there is no additional flexibility granted by allowing
host/user key generated material signatures.  As long as users and hosts
have the ability to authenticate update requests to the primary zone
server, signatures by zone keys are sufficient to protect the integrity
of the data to the world at large.


3.2.2 - SIG(0)

If the SIG record is a SIG(0) protecting a message, the name type of the
associated KEY SHOULD be 00 (user) or 10 (host/entity).  Transactions
are initiated by a host or user, not a zone, so zone keys SHOULD not
generate SIG(0) records.

A client is either explicitly executed by a user or on behalf of a host,
therefore the name type of a SIG(0) generated by a client SHOULD be
either user or host.  A nameserver is associated with a host, and its
use of SIG(0) is not associated with a particular zone, so the name type
of a SIG(0) generated by a nameserver SHOULD be host.


3.3 - Signatory Flags

This document does not assign any values to the signatory field, nor
require any values to be present.


3.4 - Protocol

The signing KEY record MUST have a protocol value of 3 (DNSSEC) or 255
(ALL).  If a key is not specified for use with DNSSEC, a DNSSEC resolver
MUST NOT trust any signature that it generates.


3.5 - Algorithm Number

The algorithm field MUST be identical to that of the generated SIG
record, and MUST meet all requirements for an algorithm value in a SIG
record.



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4 - Security considerations

This document defines a standard baseline for a DNSSEC capable resolver.
This is necessary for a thorough security analysis of DNSSEC, if one is
to be done.

Specifically, this document places additional restrictions on SIG
records that a resolver must validate before the signature can be
considered worthy of DNSSEC trust.  This simplifies the protocol, making
it more robust and able to withstand scrutiny by the security community.


5 - Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the following people for review and
informative comments (in alphabetical order):

   Olafur Gudmundsson
   Ed Lewis


6 - References

[RFC1034]  P. Mockapetris, ``Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities,''
           RFC 1034, ISI, November 1987.

[RFC1035]  P. Mockapetris, ``Domain Names - Implementation and
           Specification,'' RFC 1035, ISI, November 1987.

[RFC2136]  P. Vixie (Ed.), S. Thomson, Y. Rekhter, J. Bound ``Dynamic
           Updates in the Domain Name System,'' RFC 2136, ISC & Bellcore
           & Cisco & DEC, April 1997.

[RFC2535]  D. Eastlake, ``Domain Name System Security Extensions,'' RFC
           2065, IBM, March 1999.

[SSU]      B. Wellington, ``Simple Secure Domain Name System (DNS)
           Dynamic Update,'' draft-ietf-dnsext-simple-secure-
           update-01.txt, Nominum, May 2000.












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7 - Author's Address


   Brian Wellington
       Nominum, Inc.
       950 Charter Street
       Redwood City, CA 94063
       +1 650 779 6022
       <Brian.Wellington@nominum.com>


8 - Full Copyright Statement

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

This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or
assist in its implmentation may be prepared, copied, published and
distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included
on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this document itself
may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice
or references to the Internet Society or other Internet organizations,
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The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
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IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK
FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT
INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE."














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