Internet Info 1994 March/Internet Info CD-ROM (Walnut Creek) (March 1994).iso/inet/ietf/snmpauth/snmpauth-minutes-90feb.txt

Text File | 1993-02-17 | 5KB | 120 lines

CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_


Reported by James Davin/MIT

AGENDA

The business of the meeting was the consideration of three documents
describing proposed mechanisms for authenticating SNMP management
operations:

  1. Galvin, McCloghrie, and Davin.  Authentication and Privacy in the
     SNMP.
  2. Davin, Galvin, and McCloghrie.  Administration of SNMP Communities.
  3. McCloghrie, Davin, and Galvin.  Experimental Definitions of Managed
     Objects for Administration of SNMP Communities.

MINUTES

The first portion of the meeting was devoted to presentations by Jim
Galvin and Keith McCloghrie that summarized the substance of the three
documents.

These presentations were followed by a lively discussion of relevant
issues:

  1. Timeliness --- The single issue that elicited the most discussion
     was the problem of ensuring the "timeliness" of messages exchanged
     in the protocol.  Concerns were voiced about several aspects of
     this problem:

     (a) The implications of the described timeliness mechanisms with
         respect to authentication communities of more than one
         management station need to be clarified.
     (b) Concern was voiced about potential problems involved with the
         setting of community clock values as described in the
         administration document.  The idea was expressed that this
         mechanism for clock synchronization may be suboptimal in terms
         of both the state required in an agent and vulnerability to
         denial of service attack.
     (c) The possibility that subnet duplication of protocol messages
         could entail reversal of a community clock was suggested.
     (d) The implications of clock drift for the protocol were
         discussed.  Although some concern remains on this topic, many
         felt that signficant problems are associated only with clock
         drifts several orders of magnitude larger than those typically
         experienced.

  2. Key Distribution Options --- The limitations of using SNMP as a key
     distribution mechanism were recognized, and the possibility of
     exploring other mechanisms was suggested.  In particular, the role
     of multiple management stations in the key distribution process

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     needs clarification.
  3. Algorithm Correctness --- The desirability of algorithms with
     either sound formal foundations or reputations based on broad
     review and experience was noted.  The desirability of citing
     relevant literature was also noted.
  4. Liability Issues --- Concern was raised about the legal liabilities
     that may accrue to a promulgating standards body by its choice of
     an algorithm.
  5. Coordination --- the desirability of coordinating this effort with
     other relevant efforts was acknowledged.

The meeting concluded with a consensus that the three documents should
be introduced into the IETF process for consideration as possible
standards with Elective status.

Action Items:

  1. Chuck agreed to prepare minutes and be responsible for augmenting
     the AWG mailing list ([e-mail]) to reflect any newcomers
     to the effort.
  2. The document authors agreed to revise their documents to reflect
     the concerns raised at this meeting and to (re-)introduce them into
     the IETF Drafts repository for further review.

ATTENDEES

    Doug Bagnall                  [e-mail]
    Scott Bradner                 [e-mail]
    Ted Brunner                   [e-mail]
    Jeff Case                     [e-mail]
    Steve Crocker                 [e-mail]
    James R. Davin                [e-mail]
    Stan Froyd                    [e-mail]
    James M. Galvin               [e-mail]
    Steven Hunter                 [e-mail]
    Phil Jensen                   [e-mail]
    Tony Lauck                    [e-mail]
    Walt Lazear                   [e-mail]
    Keith McCloghrie              sytek![e-mail]
    Greg Minshall                 [e-mail]
    Jeff Mogul                    [e-mail]
    Dave Monaebello               [e-mail]
    Oscar Newkerk                 [e-mail]
    Dave Perkins                  [e-mail]
    Jim Robertson                 [e-mail]
    Jon Saperia                   [e-mail]
    Tom Seaver                    [e-mail]
    Frank Solensky                [e-mail]
    Mike St.  Johns               [e-mail]
    Dean Throop                   [e-mail]
    Sudhanshu Verma               [e-mail]
    Steve Waldbusser              [e-mail]
    Brian Yasaki                  [e-mail]



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