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- CCITT X.800
- THE INTERNATIONAL
- TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE
- CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE
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- DATA COMMUNICATION NETWORKS: OPEN
- SYSTEMS INTERCONNECTION (OSI); SECURITY,
- STRUCTURE AND APPLICATIONS
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- SECURITY ARCHITECTURE FOR OPEN
- SYSTEMS INTERCONNECTION FOR
- CCITT APPLICATIONS
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- Recommendation X.800
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- IMPORT Geneva, 1991
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- Printed in Switzerland
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- FOREWORD
- The CCITT (the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative
- Committee) is a permanent organ of the International Telecommunication Union
- (ITU). CCITT is responsible for studying technical, operating and tariff
- questions and issuing Recommendations on them with a view to standardizing
- telecommunications on a worldwide basis.
- The Plenary Assembly of CCITT which meets every four years, establishes
- the topics for study and approves Recommendations prepared by its Study Groups.
- The approval of Recommendations by the members of CCITT between Plenary
- Assemblies is covered by the procedure laid down in CCITT Resolution No. 2
- (Melbourne, 1988).
- Recommendation X.800 was prepared by Study Group VII and was approved
- under the Resolution No. 2 procedure on the 22nd of March 1991.
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- ___________________
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- CCITT NOTE
- p
- private operating agency.
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- c ITU 1991
- All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in
- any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and
- microfilm, without permission in writing from the ITU.
- PAGE BLANCHE
- Recommendation X.800
- Recommendation X.800
- SECURITY ARCHITECTURE FOR OPEN SYSTEMS
- INTERCONNECTION FOR CCITT APPLICATIONS 1)
- 0 Introduction
- Recommendation X.200 describes the Reference Model for open systems
- interconnection (OSI). It establishes a framework for coordinating the
- development of existing and future Recommendations for the interconnection of
- systems.
- The objective of OSI is to permit the interconnection of heterogeneous
- computer systems so that useful communication between application processes may
- be achieved. At various times, security controls must be established in order to
- protect the information exchanged between the application processes. Such
- controls should make the cost of improperly obtaining or modifying data greater
- than the potential value of so doing, or make the time required to obtain the
- data improperly so great that the value of the data is lost.
- This Recommendation defines the general security-related architectural
- elements which can be applied appropriately in the circumstances for which
- protection of communication between open systems is required. It establishes,
- within the framework of the Reference Model, guidelines and constraints to
- improve existing Recommendations or to develop new Recommendations in the context
- of OSI in order to allow secure communications and thus provide a consistent
- approach to security in OSI.
- A background in security will be helpful in understanding this
- Recommendation. The reader who is not well versed in security is advised to read
- Annex A first.
- This Recommendation extends the Reference Model (Recommendation X.200) to
- cover security aspects which are general architectural elements of communications
- protocols, but which are not discussed in the Reference Model.
- 1 Scope and field of application
- This Recommendation:
- a) provides a general description of security services and related
- mechanisms, which may be provided by the Reference Model; and
- b) defines the positions within the Reference Model where the services and
- mechanisms may be provided.
- This Recommendation extends the field of application of
- Recommendation X.200, to cover secure communications between open systems.
- Basic security services and mechanisms and their appropriate placement
- have been identified for all layers of the Reference Model. In addition, the
- architectural relationships of the security services and mechanisms to the
- Reference Model have been identified. Additional security measures may be needed
- in end systems, installations and organizations. These measures apply in various
- application contexts. The definition of security services needed to support such
- additional security measures is outside the scope of the Recommendation.
- OSI security functions are concerned only with those visible aspects of a
- communications path which permit end systems to achieve the secure transfer of
- information between them. OSI security is not concerned with security measures
- needed in end systems, installations, and organizations, except where these have
- implications on the choice and position of security services visible in OSI.
- These latter aspects of security may be standardized but not within the scope of
- OSI Recommendations.
- This Recommendation adds to the concepts and principles defined in
- Recommendation X.200; it does not modify them. It is not an implementation
- specification, nor is it a basis for appraising the conformance of actual
- implementations.
- 2 References
- Rec. X.200 ù Reference Model of open systems interconnection for CCITT
- applications.
- ISO 7498 ù Information processing systems ù Open systems interconnection ù
- Basic Reference Model (1984).
- ISO 7498-4 ù Information processing systems ù Open systems interconnection
- ù Basic Reference Model ùPart 4: Management framework (1989).
- ISO 7498/AD1 ù Information processing systems ù Open systems
- interconnection ù Basic Reference Model ù Addendum 1: Connectionless-mode
- transmission (1987).
- ISO 8648 ù Information processing systems ù Open systems interconnection ù
- Internal organization of the network layer (1988).
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- 1) Recommendation X.800 and ISO 7498-2 (Information processing systems ù Open systems
- interconnection ù Basic Reference Model ù Part 2: Security architecture) are
- technically aligned.
- styleref head_footRecommendation X.800PAG
- E39
- 3 Definitions and abbreviations
- 3.1 This Recommendation builds on concepts developed in Recommendation X.200
- and makes use of the following terms defined in it:
- a) (N)-connection;
- b) (N)-data-transmission;
- c) (N)-entity;
- d) (N)-facility;
- e) (N)-layer;
- f) Open system;
- g) Peer entities;
- h) (N)-protocol;
- j) (N)-protocol-data-unit;
- k) (N)-relay;
- l) Routing;
- m) Sequencing;
- n) (N)-service;
- p) (N)-service-data-unit;
- q) (N)-user-data;
- r) Sub-network;
- s) OSI resource; and
- t) Transfer syntax.
- 3.2 This Recommendation uses the following terms drawn from the respective
- Recommendations/International standards:
- Connectionless-mode transmission (ISO 7498/AD1)
- End system (Rec. X.200/ISO 7498)
- Relaying and routing function (ISO 8648)
- Management information base (MIB) (ISO 7498-4)
- In addition, the following abbreviations are used:
- OSI open systems interconnection;
- SDU for service data unit;
- SMIB for security management information base; and
- MIB for management information base.
- 3.3 For the purpose of this Recommendation, the following definitions apply:
- 3.3.1 access control
- The prevention of unauthorized use of a resource, including the prevention
- of use of a resource in an unauthorized manner.
- 3.3.2 access control list
- A list of entities, together with their access rights, which are
- authorized to have access to a resource.
- 3.3.3 accountability
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- PAGE24 styleref head_footRecommendation X.800
- The property that ensures that the actions of an entity may be traced
- uniquely to the entity.
- 3.3.4 active threat
- The threat of a deliberate unauthorized change to the state of the system.
- Note ù Examples of security-relevant active threats may be: modification
- of messages, replay of messages, insertion of spurious messages, masquerading as
- an authorized entity and denial of service.
- 3.3.5 audit
- See security audit.
- 3.3.6 audit trail
- See security audit trail.
- 3.3.7 authentication
- See data origin authentication, and peer entity authentication.
- Note ù In this Recommendation the term "authentication" is not used in
- connection with data integrity; the term "data integrity" is used instead.
- 3.3.8 authentication information
- Information used to establish the validity of a claimed identity.
- 3.3.9 authentication exchange
- A mechanism intended to ensure the identity of an entity by means of
- information exchange.
- 3.3.10 authorization
- The granting of rights, which includes the granting of access based on
- access rights.
- 3.3.11 availability
- The property of being accessible and useable upon demand by an authorized
- entity.
- 3.3.12 capability
- A token used as an identifier for a resource such that possession of the
- token confers access rights for the resource.
- 3.3.13 channel
- An information transfer path.
- 3.3.14 ciphertext
- Data produced through the use of encipherment. The semantic content of the
- resulting data is not available.
- Note ù Ciphertext may itself be input to enciphermen , such that super-
- enciphered output is produced.
- 3.3.15 cleartext
- Intelligible data, the semantic content of which is available.
- 3.3.16 confidentiality
- The property that information is not made available or disclosed to
- unauthorized individuals, entities, or processes.
- 3.3.17 credentials
- Data that is transferred to establish the claimed identity of an entity.
- 3.3.18 cryptanalysis
- The analysis of a cryptographic system and/or its inputs and outputs to
- derive confidential variables and/or sensitive data including cleartext.
- 3.3.19 cryptographic checkvalue
- Information which is derived by performing a cryptographic transformation
- (see cryptography) on the data unit.
- Note ù The derivation of the checkvalue may be performed in one or more
- steps and is a result of a mathematical function of the key and a data unit. It
- is usually used to check the integrity of a data unit.
- 3.3.20 cryptography
- The discipline which embodies principles, means, and methods for the
- transformation of data in order to hide its information content, prevent its
- undetected modification and/or prevent its unauthorized use.
- Note ù Cryptography determines the methods used in encipherment and
- decipherment. An attack on a cryptographic principle, means, or method is
- cryptanalysis.
- 3.3.21 data integrity
- The property that data has not been altered or destroyed in an
- unauthorized manner.
- 3.3.22 data origin authentication
- The corroboration that the source of data received is as claimed.
- 3.3.23 decipherment
- The reversal of a corresponding reversible encipherment.
- 3.3.24 decryption
- See decipherment.
- 3.3.25 denial of service
- The prevention of authorized access to resources or the delayi g of time-
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- styleref head_footRecommendation X.800PAG
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- critical operations.
- 3.3.26 digital signature
- Data appended to, or a cryptographic transformation (see cryptography) of
- a data unit that allows a recipient of the data unit to prove the source and
- integrity of the data unit and protect against forgery e.g. by the recipient.
- 3.3.27 encipherment
- The cryptographic transformation of data (see cryptography) to produce
- ciphertext.
- Note ù Encipherment may be irreversible, in which case the corresponding
- decipherment process cannot feasibly be performed.
- 3.3.28 encryption
- See encipherment.
- 3.3.29 end-to-end encipherment
- Encipherment of data within or at the source end system, with the
- corresponding decipherment occurring only within or at the destination end
- system. (See also link-by-link encipherment.)
- 3.3.30 identity-based security policy
- A security policy based on the identities and/or attributes of users, a
- group of users, or entities acting on behalf of the users and the
- resources/objects being accessed.
- 3.3.31 integrity
- See data integrity.
- 3.3.32 key
- A sequence of symbols that controls the operations of encipherment and
- decipherment.
- 3.3.33 key management
- The generation, storage, distribution, deletion, archiving and application
- of keys in accordance with a security policy.
- 3.3.34 link-by-link encipherment
- The individual application of encipherment to data on each link of a
- communications system. (See also end-to-end encipherment.)
- Note ù The implication of link-by-link encipherment is that data will be
- in cleartext form in relay entities.
- 3.3.35 manipulation detection
- A mechanism which is used to detect whether a data unit has been modified
- (either accidentally or intentionally).
- 3.3.36 masquerade
- The pretence by an entity to be a different entity.
- 3.3.37 notarization
- The registration of data with a trusted third party that allows the later
- assurance of the accuracy of its characteristics such as content, origin, time
- and delivery.
- 3.3.38 passive threat
- The threat of unauthorized disclosure of information without changing the
- state of the system.
- 3.3.39 password
- Confidential authentication information, usually composed of a string of
- characters.
- 3.3.40 peer-entity authentication
- The corroboration that a peer entity in an association is the one claimed.
- 3.3.41 physical security
- The measures used to provide physical protection of resources against
- deliberate and accidental threats.
- 3.3.42 policy
- See security policy.
- 3.3.43 privacy
- The right of individuals to control or influence what information related
- to them may be collected and stored and by whom and to whom that information may
- be disclosed.
- Note ù Because this term relates to the right of individuals, it cannot be
- very precise and its use should be avoided except as a motivation for requiring
- security.
- 3.3.44 repudiation
- Denial by one of the entities involved in a communication of having
- participated in all or part of the communication.
- 3.3.45 routing control
- The application of rules during the process of routing so as to chose or
- avoid specific networks, links or relays.
- 3.3.46 rule-based security policy
- A security policy based on global rules imposed for all users. These rules
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- PAGE24 styleref head_footRecommendation X.800
- usually rely on a comparison of the sensitivity of the resources being accessed
- and the possession of corresponding attributes of users, a group of users, or
- entities acting on behalf of users.
- 3.3.47 security audit
- An independent review and examination of system records and activities in
- order to test for adequacy of system controls, to ensure compliance with
- established policy and operational procedures, to detect breaches in security,
- and to recommend any indicated changes in control, policy and procedures.
- 3.3.48 security audit trail
- Data collected and potentially used to facilitate a security audit.
- 3.3.49 security label
- The marking bound to a resource (which may be a data unit) that names or
- designates the security attributes of that resource.
- Note ù The marking and/or binding may be explicit or implicit.
- 3.3.50 security policy
- The set of criteria for the provision of security services (see also
- identity-based and rule-based security policy).
- Note ù A complete security policy will necessarily address many concerns
- which are outside of the scope of OSI.
- 3.3.51 security service
- A service, provided by a layer of communicating open systems, which
- ensures adequate security of the systems or of data transfers.
- 3.3.52 selective field protection
- The protection of specific fields within a message which is to be
- transmitted.
- 3.3.53 sensitivity
- The characteristic of a resource which implies its value or importance,
- and may include its vulnerability.
- 3.3.54 signature
- See digital signature.
- 3.3.55 threat
- A potential violation of security.
- 3.3.56 traffic analysis
- The inference of information from observation of traffic flows (presence,
- absence, amount, direction and frequency).
- 3.3.57 traffic flow confidentiality
- A confidentiality service to protect against traffic analysis.
- 3.3.58 traffic padding
- The generation of spurious instances of communication, spurious data units
- and/or spurious data within data units.
- 3.3.59 trusted functionality
- Functionality perceived to be correct with respect to some criteria, e.g.
- as established by a security policy.
- 4 Notation
- The layer notation used is the same as that defined in
- Recommendation X.200.
- The term "service" where not otherwise qualified, is used to refer to a
- security service.
- 5 General description of security services and mechanisms
- 5.1 Overview
- Security services that are included in the OSI security architecture and
- mechanisms which implement those services are discussed in this section. The
- security services described below are basic security services. In practice they
- will be invoked at appropriate layers and in appropriate combinations, usually
- with non-OSI services and mechanisms, to satisfy security policy and/or user
- requirements. Particular security mechanisms can be used to implement
- combinations of the basic security services. Practical realizations of systems
- may implement particular combinations of the basic security services for direct
- invocation.
- 5.2 Security services
- The following are considered to be the security services which can be
- provided optionally within the framework of the OSI Reference Model. The
- authentication services require authentication information comprising locally
- stored information and data that is transferred (credentials) to facilitate the
- authentication.
- 5.2.1 Authentication
- These services provide for the authentication of a communicating peer
- entity and the source of data as described below.
- 5.2.1.1 Peer entity authentication
- This service, when provided by the (N)-layer, provides corroboration to
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- the (N + 1)-entity that the peer entity is the claimed (N + 1)-entity.
- This service is provided for use at the establishment of, or at times
- during, the data transfer phase of a connection to confirm the identities of one
- or more of the entities connected to one or more of the other entities. This
- service provides confidence, at the time of usage only, that an entity is not
- attempting a masquerade or an unauthorized replay of a previous connectio . One-
- way and mutual peer entity authentication schemes, with or without a liveness
- check, are possible and can provide varying degrees of protection.
- 5.2.1.2 Data origin authentication
- This service, when provided by the (N)-layer, provides corroboration to an
- (N + 1)-entity that the source of the data is the claimed peer (N + 1)-entity.
- The data origin authentication service provides the corroboration of the
- source of a data unit. The service does not provide protection against
- duplication or modification of data units.
- 5.2.2 Access control
- This service provides protection against unauthorized use of resources
- accessible via OSI. These may be OSI or non-OSI resources accessed via OSI
- protocols. This protection service may be applied to various types of access to a
- resource (e.g., the use of a communications resource; the reading, the writing,
- or the deletion of an information resource; the execution of a processing
- resource) or to all accesses to a resource.
- The control of access will be in accordance with various security policies
- (see S 6.2.1.1).
- 5.2.3 Data confidentiality
- These services provide for the protection of data from unauthorized
- disclosure as described below.
- 5.2.3.1 Connection confidentiality
- This service provides for the confidentiality of all (N)-user-data on an
- (N)-connection.
- Note ù Depending on use and layer, it may not be appropriate to protect
- all data, e.g. expedited data or data in a connection request.
- 5.2.3.2 Connectionless confidentiality
- This service provides for the confidentiality of all (N)-user-data in a
- single connectionless (N)-SDU.
- 5.2.3.3 Selective field confidentiality
- This service provides for the confidentiality of selected fields within
- the (N)-user-data on an (N)-connection or in a single connectionless (N)-SDU.
- 5.2.3.4 Traffic flow confidentiality
- This service provides for the protection of the information which might be
- derived from observation of traffic flows.
- 5.2.4 Data integrity
- These services counter active threats and may take one of the forms
- described below.
- Note ù On a connection, the use of the peer entity authentication service
- at the start of the connection and the data integrity service during the life of
- the connection can jointly provide for the corroboration of the source of all
- data units transfered on the connection, the integrity of those data units, and
- may additionally provide for the detection of duplication of data units, e.g. by
- the use of sequence numbers.
- 5.2.4.1 Connection integrity with recovery
- This service provides for the integrity of a l (N)-user-data on an (N)-
- connection and detects any modification, insertion, deletion or replay of any
- data within an entire SDU sequence (with recovery attempted).
- 5.2.4.2 Connection integrity without recovery
- As for S 5.2.4.1 but with no recovery attempted.
- 5.2.4.3 Selective field connection integrity
- This service provides for the integrity of selected fields within t e (N)-
- user data of an (N)-SDU transferred over a connection and takes the form of
- determination of whether the selected fields have been modified, inserted,
- deleted or replayed.
- 5.2.4.4 Connectionless integrityx
- This service, when provided by the (N)-layer, provides integrity assurance
- to the requesting (N + 1)-entity.
- This service provides for the integrity of a single connectionless SDU and
- may take the form of determination of whether a received SDU has been modified.
- Additionally, a limited form of detection of replay may be provided.
- 5.2.4.5 Selective field connectionless integrity
- This service provides for the integrity of selected fields within a single
- connectionless SDU and takes the form of determination of whether the selected
- fields have been modified.
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- PAGE24 styleref head_footRecommendation X.800
- 5.2.5 Non-repudiation
- This service may take one or both of two forms.
- 5.2.5.1 Non-repudiation with proof of origin
- The recipient of data is provided with proof of the origin of data. This
- will protect against any attempt by the sender to falsely deny sending the data
- or its contents.
- 5.2.5.2 Non-repudiation with proof of delivery
- The sender of data is provided with proof of delivery of data. This will
- protect against any subsequent attempt by the recipient to falsely deny receiving
- the data or its contents.
- 5.3 Specific security mechanisms
- The following mechanisms may e incorporated into the appropriate (N)-
- layer in order to provide some of the services described in S 5.2.
- 5.3.1 Encipherment
- 5.3.1.1 Encipherment can provide confidentiality of either data or traffic flow
- information and can play a part in or complement a number of other security
- mechanisms as described in the following sections.
- 5.3.1.2 Encipherment algorithms may be reversible or irreversible. There are
- two general classifications of reversible encipherment algorithm:
- a) symmetric (i.e. secret key) encipherment, in which knowledge of the
- encipherment key implies knowledge of the decipherment key and vice
- versa; and
- b) asymmetric (e.g. public key) encipherment, in which knowledge of the
- encipherment key does not imply knowledge of the decipherment key, or
- vice versa. The two keys of such a system are sometimes referred to as
- the "public key" and the "private key".
- Irreversible encipherment algorithms may or may not use a key. When they
- use a key, this key may be public or secret.
- 5.3.1.3 The existence of an encipherment mechanism implies the use of a key
- management mechanism except in the case of some irreversible encipherment
- algorithms. Some guidelines on key management methodologies are given in S 8.4.
- 5.3.2 Digital signature mechanisms
- These mechanisms define two procedures:
- a) signing a data unit, and
- b) verifying a signed data unit.
- The first process uses information which is private (i.e. unique and
- confidential) to the signer. The second process uses procedures and information
- which are publicly available but from which the signer's private information
- cannot be deduced.
- 5.3.2.1 The signing process involves either an encipherment of the data unit or
- the production of a cryptographic checkvalue of the data unit, using the signer's
- private information as a private key.
- 5.3.2.2 The verification process involves using the public procedures and
- information to determine whether the signature was produced with the signer's
- private information.
- 5.3.2.3 The essential characteristic of the signature mechanism is that the
- signature can only be produced using the signer's private information. Thus when
- the signature is verified, it can subsequently be proven to a third party (e.g. a
- judge or arbitrator) at any time that only the unique holder of the private
- information could have produced the signature.
- 5.3.3 Access control mechanisms
- 5.3.3.1 These mechanisms may use the authenticated identity of an entity or
- information about the entity (such as membership in a known set of entities) or
- capabilities of the entity, in order to determine and enforce the access rights
- of the entity. If the entity attempts to use an unauthorized resource, or an
- authorized resource with an improper type of access, then the access control
- function will reject the attempt and may additionally report the incident for the
- purposes of generating an alarm and/or recording it as part of a security audit
- trail. Any notification to the sender of a denial of access for a connectionless
- data transmission can be provided only as a result of access controls imposed at
- the origin.
- 5.3.3.2 Access control mechanisms may, for example, be based on use of one or
- more of the following:
- a) Acess control information bases, where the access rights of peer
- entities are maintained. This information may be maintained by
- authorization centres or by the entity being accessed, and may be in
- the form of an access control list or matrix of hierarchical or
- distributed structure. This presupposes that peer entity authentication
- has been assured.
- b) Authentication information such as passwords, possession and subsequent
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- presentation of which is evidence of the accessing entity's
- authorization;
- c) Capabilities, possession and subsequent presentation of which is
- evidence of the right to access the entity or resource defined by the
- capability.
- Note ù A capability should be unforceable and should be conveyed in a
- trusted manner.
- d) Security labels, which when associated with an entity may be used to
- grant or deny access, usually according to a security policy.
- e) Time of attempted access.
- f) Route of attempted access, and
- g) Duration of access.
- 5.3.3.3 Access control mechanisms may be applied at either end of a
- communications association and/or at any intermediate point.
- Access controls involved at the origin or any intermediate point are used
- to determine whether the sender is authorized to communicate with the recipient
- and/or to use the required communications resources.
- The requirements of the peer level access control mechanisms at the
- destination end of a connectionless data transmission must be known a priori at
- the origin, and must be recorded in the security management information base (see
- SS 6.2 and 8.1).
- 5.3.4 Data integrity mechanisms
- 5.3.4.1 Two aspects of data integrity are: the integrity of a single data unit
- or field; and the integrity of a stream of data units or fields. In general,
- different mechanisms are used to provide these two types of integrity service,
- although provision of the second without the first is not practical.
- 5.3.4.2 Determining the integrity of a single data unit involves two processes,
- one at the sending entity and one at the receiving entity. The sending entity
- appends to a data unit a quantity which is a function of the data itself. This
- quantity may be supplementary information such as a block check code or a
- cryptographic checkvalue and may itself be enciphered. The receiving entity
- generates a corresponding quantity and compares it with the received quantity to
- determine whether the data has been modified in transit. This mechanism alone
- will not protect against the replay of a single data unit. In appropriate layers
- of the architecture, detection of manipulation may lead to recovery action (for
- example, via retransmissions or error correction) at that or a higher layer.
- 5.3.4.3 For connection-mode data transfer, protecting the integrity of a
- sequence of data units (i.e. protecting against misordering, losing, replaying
- and inserting or modifying data) requires additionally some form of explicit
- ordering such as sequence numbering, time stamping, or cryptographic chaining.
- 5.3.4.4 For connectionless data transmission, time stamping may be used to
- provide a limited form of protection against replay of individual data units.
- 5.3.5 Authentication exchange mechanism
- 5.3.5.1 Some of the techniques which may be applied to authentication exchanges
- are:
- a) use of authentication information, such as passwords supplied by a
- sending entity and checked by the receiving entity;
- b) cryptographic techniques; and
- c) use of characteristics and/or possessions of the entity.
- 5.3.5.2 The mechanisms may be incorporated into the (N)-layer in order to
- provide peer entity authentication. If the mechanism does not succeed in
- authenticating the entity, this will result in rejection or termination of the
- connection and may also cause an entry in the security audit trail and/or a
- report to a security management centre.
- 5.3.5.3 When cryptographic techniques are used, they may be combined with
- "handshaking" protocols to protect against replay (i.e. to ensure liveness).
- 5.3.5.4 The choices of authentication exchange techniques will depend upon the
- circumstances in which they will need to be used with:
- a) time stamping and synchronized clocks;
- b) two and three way handshakes (for unilateral and mutual authentication
- respectively); and
- c) non-repudiation services achieved by digital signature and/or
- notarization mechanisms.
- 5.3.6 Traffic padding mechanism
- Traffic padding mechanisms can be used to provide various levels of
- protection against traffic analysis. This mechanism can be effective only if the
- traffic padding is protected by a confidentiality service.
- 5.3.7 Routing control mechanism
- 5.3.7.1 Routes can be chosen either dynamically or by prearrangement so as to
- use only physically secure sub-networks, relays or links.
-
- PAGE24 styleref head_footRecommendation X.800
- 5.3.7.2 End-systems may, on detection of persistent manipulation attacks, wish
- to instruct the network service provider to establish a connection via a
- different route.
- 5.3.7.3 Data carrying certain security labels may be forbidden by the security
- policy to pass through certain sub-networks, relays or links. Also the initiator
- of a connection (or the sender of a connectionless data unit) may specify routing
- caveats which request that specific sub-networks, links or relays be avoided.
- 5.3.8 Notarization mechanism
- 5.3.8.1 Properties about the data communicated between two or more entities,
- such as its integrity, origin, time and destination, can be assured by the
- provision of a notarization mechanism. The assurance is provided by a third party
- notary, which is trusted by the communicating entities, and which holds the
- necessary information to provide the required assurance in a testifiable manner.
- Each instance of communication may use digital signature, encipherment, and
- integrity mechanisms as appropriate to the service being provided by the notary.
- When such a notarization mechanism is invoked, the data is communicated between
- the communicating entities via the protected instances of communication and the
- notary.
- 5.4 Pervasive security mechanisms
- This subsection describes a number of mechanisms which are not specific to
- any particular service. Thus, in S 7, they are not explicitly described as being
- in any particular layer. Some of these pervasive security mechanisms can be
- regarded as aspects of security management (see also S 8). The importance of
- these mechanisms is, in general, directly related to the level of security
- required.
- 5.4.1 Trusted functionality
- 5.4.1.1 Trusted functionality may be used to extend the scope, or to establish
- the effectiveness, of other security mechanisms. Any functionality which directly
- provides, or provides access to, security mechanisms, should be trustworthy.
- 5.4.1.2 The procedures used to ensure that trust may be placed in such hardware
- and software are outside the scope of this Recommendation and, in any case, vary
- with the level of perceived threat and value of information to be protected.
- 5.4.1.3 These procedures are, in general, costly and difficult to implement.
- The problems can be minimized by choosing an architecture which permits
- implementation of security functions in modules which can be made separate from,
- and provided from, non-security-related functions.
- 5.4.1.4 Any protection of associations above the layer at which the protection
- is applied must be provided by other means, e.g. by appropriate trusted
- functionality.
- 5.4.2 Security labels
- 5.4.2.1 Resources including data items, may have security labels associated
- with them, e.g. to indicate a sensitivity level. It is often necessary to convey
- the appropriate security label with data in transit. A security label may be
- additional data associated with the data transferred or may be implicit, e.g.
- implied by the use of a specific key to encipher data or implied by the context
- of the data such as the source or route. Explicit security labels must be clearly
- identifiable in order that they can be appropriately checked. In addition they
- must be securely bound to the data with which they are associated.
- 5.4.3 Event detection
- 5.4.3.1 Security-relevant event detection includes the detection of apparent
- violations of security and may also include detection of "normal" events, such as
- a successful access (or log on). Security-relevant events may be detected by
- entities within OSI including security mechanisms. The specification of what
- constitutes an event is maintained by event handling management (see S 8.3.1).
- Detection of various security-relevant events may, for example, cause one or more
- of the following actions:
- a) local reporting of the event;
- b) remote reporting of the event;
- c) logging the event (see S 5.4.3); and
- d) recovery action (see S 5.4.4)
- Examples of such security-relevant events are:
- a) a specific security violation;
- b) a specific selected event; and
- c) an overflow on a count of a number of occurrences.
- 5.4.3.2 Standardization in this field will take into consideration the
- transmission of relevant information for event reporting and event logging, and
- the syntactic and semantic definition to be used for the transmission of event
- reporting and event logging.
- 5.4.4 Security audit trail
- 5.4.4.1 Security audit trails provide a valuable security mechanism as
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- E39
- potentially they permit detection and investigation of breaches of security by
- permitting a subsequent security audit. A security audit is an independent review
- and examination of system records and activities in order to test for adequacy of
- system controls, to ensure compliance with established policy and operational
- procedures, to aid in damage assessment, and to recommend any indicated changes
- in controls, policy and procedures. A security audit requires the recording of
- security-relevant information in a security audit trail, and the analysis and
- reporting of information from the security audit trail. The logging or recording
- is considered to be a security mechanism and is described in this section. The
- analysis and report generation is considered a security management function (see
- S 8.3.2).
- 5.4.4.2 Collection of security audit trail information may be adapted to
- various requirements by specifying the kind(s) of security-relevant events to be
- recorded (e.g. apparent security violations or completion of successful
- operations).
- The known existence of a security audit trail may serve as a deterrent to
- some potential sources of security attacks.
- 5.4.4.3 OSI security audit trail considerations will take into account what
- information shall optionally be logged, under what conditions that information
- shall be logged, and the syntactic and semantic definition to be used for the
- interchange of the security audit trail information.
- 5.4.5 Security recovery
- 5.4.5.1 Security recovery deals with requests from mechanisms such as event
- handling and management functions, and takes recovery actions as the result of
- applying a set of rules. These recovery actions may be of three kinds:
- a) immediate;
- b) temporary; and
- c) long term.
- For example:
- Immediate actions may create an immediate abort of operations, like
- disconnection.
- Temporary actions may produce temporary invalidation of an entity.
- Long term actions may be an introduction of an entity into a "black list"
- or the changing of a key.
- 5.4.5.2 Subjects for standardization include protocols for recovery actions and
- for security recovery management (see S 8.3.3).
- 5.5 Illustration of relationship of security services and mechanisms
- Table 1/X.800 illustrates which mechanisms, alone or in combination with
- others, are considered to be sometimes appropriate for the provision of each
- service. This table presents an overview of these relationships and is not
- definitive. The services and mechanisms referred to in this table are described
- in SS 5.2 and 5.3. The relationships are more fully described in S 6.
- include 800-T01ETABLE 1/X.800
- Illustration of relationship of security services and mechanisms
- Digital Acces Data Authenti- Traffi Routing Notar
- Mechanism Encipherme signatu contro integri cation c control i-
- nt re l ty exchange paddin zatio
- Service g n
- Peer entity Y Y ╖ ╖ Y ╖ ╖ ╖
- authentication
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- authentication Y Y ╖ ╖
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- service
- Connection
- confidentiality Y . ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ Y ╖
- Connectionless
- confidentiality Y ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ Y ╖
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- confidentiality Y ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ Y Y ╖
- Connection
- Integrity with Y ╖ ╖ Y ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖
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- connection Y ╖ ╖ Y ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖
- integrity
- Connectionless Y Y ╖ Y ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖
- integrity
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- Non-repudiation.
- Delivery ╖ Y ╖ Y ╖ ╖ ╖ Y
- ╖ The mechanism is considered not to be appropriate.
- Y Yes: the mechanism is considered to be appropiate, either on its own or in combination
- with other mechanisms.
- Note ù In some instances, the mechanism provides more than is necessary for the relevant
- service but could nevertheless be used.
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- 6 The relationship of services, mechanisms and layers
- 6.1 Security layering principles
- 6.1.1 The following principles were used in order to determine the allocation of
- security services to layers and the consequent placement of security mechanisms
- in the layers:
- a) the number of alternative ways of achieving a service should be
- minimized;
- b) it is acceptable to build secure systems by providing security services
- in more than one layer;
- c) additional functionality required for security should not unnecessarily
- duplicate the existing OSI functions;
- d) violation of layer independence should be avoided;
- e) the amount of trusted functionality should be minimized;
- f) wherever an entity is dependent on a security mechanism provided by an
- entity in a lower layer, any intermediate layers should be constructed
- in such a way that security violation is impracticable;
- g) wherever possible, the additional security functions of a layer should
- be defined in such a way that implementation as a self-contained
- module(s) is not precluded; and
- h) this Recommendation is assumed to apply to open systems consisting of
- end systems containing all seven layers and to relay systems.
- 6.1.2 Service definitions at each layer may require modification to provide for
- requests for security services whether the services requested are provided
- at that layer or below.
- 6.2 Model of invocation, management and use of protected (N)-services
- This subsection should be read in conjunction with S 8 which contains a
- general discussion of security management issues. It is intended that security
- services and mechanisms can be activated by the management entity through the
- management interface and/or by service invocation.
- 6.2.1 Determination of protection features for an instance of communication
- 6.2.1.1 General
- This subsection describes t e invocation of protection for connection-
- oriented and connectionless instances of communication. In the case of connection
- oriented communication, the protection services are usually requested/granted at
- connection establishment time. In the case of a connectionless service
- invocation, the protection is requested/granted for each instance of a
- connectionless service request.
- In order to simplify the following description, the term "service request"
- will be used to mean either a connection establishment or a connectionless
- service request. The invocation of protection for selected data can be achieved
- by requesting selective field protection. For example, this can be done by
- establishing several connections, each with a different type or level of
- protection.
- This security architecture accommodates a variety of security policies
- including those which are rule-based, those which are identity-based and those
- which are a mixture of both. The security architecture also accommodates
- protection which is administratively imposed, that which is dynamically selected
- and a mixture of both.
- 6.2.1.2 Service requests
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- For each (N)-service request, the (N + 1)-entity may request the desired
- target security protection. The (N)-service request will specify the security
- services together with parameters and any additional relevant information (such
- as sensitivity information and/or security labels) to achieve the target security
- protection.
- Prior to each instance of communication, the (N)-layer has to access the
- security management information base (SMIB) (see S 8.1). The SMIB will contain
- information on the administratively-imposed protection requirements associated
- with the (N + 1)-entity. Trusted functionality is required to enforce these
- administratively-imposed security requirements.
- The provision of the security features during n instance of connection-
- oriented communication may require the negotiation of the security services that
- are required. The procedures required for negotiating mechanisms and parameters
- can either be carried out as a separate procedure or as an integral part of the
- normal connection establishment procedure.
- When the negotiation is carried out as a separate procedure, the results
- of the agreement (i.e. on the type of security mechanisms and the security
- parameters that are necessary to provide such security services) are entered in
- the security management information base (see S 8.1).
- When the negotiation is carried out as an integral part of the normal
- connection establishment procedure, the results of the negotiation between the
- (N)-entities, will be temporarily stored in the SMIB. Prior to the negotiation
- each (N)-entity will access the SMIB for information required for the
- negotiation.
- The (N)-layer will reject the service request if it violates
- administratively-imposed requirements that are registered in the SMIB for the (N
- + 1)-entity.
- The (N)-layer will also add to the requested protection services any
- security services which are defined in the SMIB as mandatory to obtain the target
- security protection.
- If the (N + 1)-entity does not specify a target security protection, the
- (N)-layer will follow a security policy in accordance with the SMIB. This could
- be to proceed with communication using a default security protection within the
- range defined for the (N + 1)-entity in the SMIB.
- 6.2.2 Provision of protection services
- After the combination of administratively-imposed and dynamically selected
- security requirements has been determined, as described in S 6.2.1, the (N)-layer
- will attempt to achieve, as a minimum, the target protection. This will be
- achieved by either, or both, of the following methods:
- a) invoking security mechanisms directly within the (N)-layer; and/or
- b) requesting protection services from the (N - 1)-layer. In this case,
- the scope of protection must be extended to the (N)-service by a
- combination of trusted functionality and/or specific security
- mechanisms in the (N)-layer.
- Note ù This does not necessarily imply that all the functionality in
- the (N)-layer has to be trusted.
- Thus, the (N)-layer determines if it is able to achieve the requested
- target protection. If it is not able to achieve this, no instance of
- communication occurs.
- 6.2.2.1 Establishment of a protected (N)-connection
- The following discussion addresses the provision of services within the
- (N)-layer, (as opposed to relying on (N - 1)-services).
- In certain protocols, to achieve a satisfactory target protection, the
- sequence of operations is crucial.
- a) Outgoing Access Control
- The (N)-layer may impose outgoing access controls, i.e. it may
- determine locally (from the SMIB) whether the protected (N)-connection
- establishment may be attempted or is forbidden.
- b) Peer Entity Authentication
- If the target protection includes Peer Entity Authentication, or if it
- is known (from the SMIB) that the destination (N)-entity will require
- Peer Entity Authentication, then an authentication exchange must take
- place. This may employ two- or three-way handshakes to provide
- unilateral or mutual authentication, as required.
- Sometimes, the authentication exchange may be integrated into the usual
- (N)-connection establishment procedures. Under other circumstances, the
- authentication exchan e may be accomplished separately from (N)-
- connection establishment.
- c) Access Control service
- The destination (N)-entity or intermediate entities may impose access
-
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- control restrictions. If specific information is required by a remote
- access control mechanism then the initiating (N)-entity supplies this
- information within the (N)-layer protocol or via management channels.
- d) Confidentiality
- If a total or selective confidentiality service has been selected, a
- protected (N)-connection must be established. This must include the
- establishment of the proper working key(s) and negotiation of
- cryptographic parameters for the connection. This may have been done by
- prearrangement, in the authentication exchange, or by a separate
- protocol.
- e) Data Integrity
- If integrity of all (N)-user-data, with or without recovery, or
- integrity of selective fiel s has been selected, a protected (N)-
- connection must be established. This may be the same connection as that
- established to provide the confidentiality service and may provide
- authentication. The same considerations apply as for the
- confidentiality service for a protected (N)-connection.
- f) Non-repudiation services
- If Non-repudiation with Proof of Origin has been selected, the proper
- cryptographic parameters must be established, or a protected connection
- with a notarization entity must be established.
- If Non-repudiation with Proof of Delivery is selected, the proper
- parameters (which are different from those required for non-repudiation
- with proof of origin) must be established, or a protected connection
- with a notarization entity must be established.
- Note ù The establishment of the protected (N)-connection may fail due
- to the lack of agreement on cryptographic parameters (possibly
- including the non-possession of the proper keys) or through rejection
- by an access control mechanism.
- 6.2.3 Operation of a protected (N)-connection
- 6.2.3.1 During the data transfer phase of a protected (N)-connection, the
- protection services negotiated must be provided.
- The following will be visible at the (N)-service boundary:
- a) Peer Entity Authentication (at intervals);
- b) Protection of Selective Fields; and
- c) Reporting of Active Attack (for example, when a manipulation of data
- has occurred and the service being provided is "connection integrity
- without recovery" ù see S 5.2.4.2).
- In addition, the following may be needed:
- a) security audit trail recording, and
- b) event detection and handling.
- 6.2.3.2 Those services which are amenable to selective application are:
- a) Confidentiality;
- b) Data Integrity (possibly with authentication); and
- c) Non-repudiation (by receiver or by sender).
- Note 1 ù Two techniques are suggested for marking those data items
- selected for the application of a service. The first involves using strong
- typing. It is anticipated that the presentation layer will recognize certain
- types as those which require certain protection services to be applied. The
- second involves some form of flagging the individual data items to which
- specified protection services should be applied.
- Note 2 ù It is assumed that one reason for providing the selective
- application of non-repudiation services may arise from the following scenario.
- Some form of negotiating dialogue occurs over an association prior to both
- (N)-entities agreeing that a final version of a data item is mutually acceptable.
- At that point, the intended recipient may ask the sender to apply non-repudiation
- services (of both origin and delivery) to the final agreed version of the data
- item. The sender asks for and obtains these services, transmits the data item,
- and subsequently receives notice that the data item has been received and
- acknowledged by the recipient. The non-repudiation services assure both the
- originator and recipient of the data item that it has been successfully
- transmitted.
- Note 3 ù Both the non-repudiation services (i.e. of origin and of
- delivery) are invoked by the originator.
- 6.2.4 Provision of protected connectionless data transmission
- Not all the security services available in connection-oriented protocols
- are available in connectionless protocols. Specifically, protection against
- deletion, insertion and replay attacks, if required, must be provided at
- connection-oriented higher layers. Limited protection against replay attacks can
- be provided by a time stamp mechanism. In a ddition, a number of other security
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- PAGE24 styleref head_footRecommendation X.800
- services are unable to provide the same degree of security enforcement that can
- be achieved by connection-oriented protocols.
- The protection services which are appropriate to connectionless data
- transmission are the following:
- a) Peer Entity Authentication (see S 5.2.1.1);
- b) Data Origin Authentication (see S 5.2.1.2);
- c) Access Control service (see S 5.2.2);
- d) Connectionless Confidentiality (see S 5.2.3.2);
- e) Selective Field Confidentiality (see S 5.2.3.3);
- f) Connectionless Integrity (see S 5.2.4.4);
- g) Selective Field Connectionless Integrity (see S 5.2.4.5); and
- h) Non-repudiation, Origin (see S 5.2.5.1).
- The services are provided by encipherment, signature mechanisms, access
- control mechanisms, routing mechanisms, data integrity mechanisms and/or
- notarization mechanisms (see S 5.3).
- The originator of a connectionless data transmission will have to ensure
- that his single SDU contains all the information required to make it acceptable
- at the destination.
- 7 Placement of security services and mechanisms
- This section defines the security services to be provided within the
- framework of the OSI Basic Reference Model, and outlines the manner in which they
- are to be achieved. The provision of any security service is optional, depending
- upon requirements.
- Where a specific security service is identified in this section as being
- optionally provided by a particular layer, then that security service is provided
- by security mechanisms operating within that layer, unless otherwise specified.
- As described in S 6, many layers will offer to provide particular security
- services. Such layers may not always provide the security services from within
- themselves, but may make use of appropriate security services being provided
- within lower layers. Even when no security services are being provided within a
- layer, the service definitions of that layer may require modification to permit
- requests for security services to be passed to a lower layer.
- Note 1 ù Pervasive security mechanisms (see S 5.4) are not discussed in
- this section.
- Note 2 ù The choice of position of encipherment mechanisms for
- applications is discussed in Annex C.
- 7.1 Physical layer
- 7.1.1 Services
- The only security services provided at the physical layer, either singly
- or in combination, are as follows:
- a) Connection Confidentiality, and
- b) Traffic Flow Confidentiality.
- The Traffic Flow Confidentiality service takes two forms:
- 1) Full Traffic Flow Confidentiality which can be provided only in certain
- circumstances e.g., two-way simultaneous, synchronous, point-to-point
- transmission; and
- 2) Limited Traffic Flow Confidentiality which can be provided for other
- types of transmission e.g., asynchronous transmission.
- These security services are restricted to passive threats and can be
- applied to point-to-point or multi-peer communications.
- 7.1.2 Mechanisms
- Total encipherment of the data stream is the principal security mechanism
- at the physical layer.
- A specific form of encipherment, applicable at the physical layer only, is
- transmission security (i.e. spread spectrum security).
- Physical layer protection is provided by means of an encipherment device
- which operates transparently. The objective of physical layer protection is to
- protect the entire physical service data bit stream and to provide traffic flow
- confidentiality.
- 7.2 Data link layer
- 7.2.1 Services
- The only security services provided at the data link layer are:
- a) Connection Confidentiality, and
- b) Connectionless Confidentiality.
- 7.2.2 Mechanisms
- The encipherment mechanism is used to provide the security services in the
- data link layer (see Annex C).
- The additional security protection functionality of the link layer is
- performed before the normal layer functions for transmission and after the normal
- layer functions for receipt, i.e. security mechanisms build on and use all of the
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- normal layer functions.
- Encipherment mechanisms at the data link layer are sensitive to the link
- layer protocol.
- 7.3 Network layer
- The network layer is internally organized to provide protocol(s) to
- perform the following operations:
- a) sub-network access;
- b) sub-network-dependent convergence;
- c) sub-network-independent convergence; and
- d) relaying and routing.
- 7.3.1 Services
- The security services that may be provided by the protocol which performs
- the sub-network access functions associated with the provision of the OSI network
- service are as follows:
- a) Peer Entity Authentication;
- b) Data Origin Authentication;
- c) Access Control service;
- d) Connection Confidentiality;
- e) Connectionless Confidentiality;
- f) Traffic Flow Confidentiality;
- g) Connection Integrity without recovery; and
- h) Connectionless Integrity.
- These security services may be provided singly or in combination. The
- security services that may be provided by the protocol which performs the
- relaying and routing operations associated with the provision of the OSI network
- service, from end system to end system, are the same as those provided by the
- protocol which performs the sub-network access operations.
- 7.3.2 Mechanisms
- 7.3.2.1 Identical security mechanisms are used by the protocol(s) which perform
- the sub-network access and relaying and routing operations associated with
- providing the OSI network service from end system to end system. Routing is
- performed in this layer and, therefore, routing control is located in this layer.
- The identified security services are provided as follows:
- a) the Peer Entity Authentication service is provided by an appropriate
- combination of cryptographically-derived or protected authentication
- exchanges, protected password exchange and signature mechanisms;
- b) the Data Origin Authentication service can be provided by encipherment
- or signature mechanisms;
- c) the Access Control service is provided through the appropriate use of
- specific access control mechanisms;
- d) the Connection Confidentiality service is provided by an encipherment
- mechanism and/or routing control;
- e) the Connectionless Confidentiality service is provided by an
- encipherment mechanism and/or routing control;
- f) the Traffic Flow Confidentiality service is achieved by a traffic
- padding mechanism, in conjunction with a confidentiality service at or
- below the network layer and/or routing control;
- g) the Connection Integrity without Recovery service is provided by using
- a data integrity mechanism, sometimes in connection with an
- encipherment mechanism; and
- h) the Connectionless Integrity service is provided by using a data
- integrity mechanism, sometimes in conjunction with an encipherment
- mechanism.
- 7.3.2.2 Mechanisms in the protocol which performs the sub-network access
- operations associated with providing the OSI network service from end system to
- end system, offer services across a single sub-network.
- Protection of a sub-network impos d by the administration of the sub-
- network will be applied as dictated by the sub-network access protocols but will
- normally be applied before the normal sub-network functions on transmission and
- after the normal sub-network functions on receipt.
- 7.3.2.3 Mechanisms provided by the protocol which performs the relaying and
- routing operations associated with providing the OSI network service, from end
- system to end system, offer services across one or more interconnected networks.
- These mechanisms will be invoked before the relaying and routing functions
- on transmission and after the relaying and routing functions on receipt. In the
- case of the routing control mechanism, the appropriate routing constraints are
- derived from the SMIB before the data, along with the necessary routing
- constraints, is passed to the relaying and routing functions.
- 7.3.2.4 Access control in the network layer can serve many purposes. For
- example, it allows an end system to control establishment of network connections
-
- PAGE24 styleref head_footRecommendation X.800
- and to reject unwanted calls. It also allows one or more sub-networks to control
- usage of network layer resources. In some cases, this latter purpose is related
- to charging for network usage.
- Note ù The establishment of a network connection may often result in
- charges by the sub-network administration. Cost minimization can be performed by
- controlling access and by selecting reverse charging or other network-specific
- parameters.
- 7.3.2.5 The requirement of a particular sub-network may impose access control
- mechanisms on the protocol which performs the sub-network access operations
- associated with the provision of the OSI network service, from end system to end
- system. When access control mechanisms are provided by the protocol which
- performs the relaying and routing operations associated with the provision of the
- OSI network service, from end system to end system, they can be used both to
- control access to sub-networks by relay entities and to control access to end
- systems. Clearly, the extent of isolation of access control is fairly coarse,
- distinguishing only between network layer entities.
- 7.3.2.6 If traffic padding is used in conjunction with an encipherment
- mechanism in the network layer (or a confidentiality service from the physical
- layer), then a reasonable level of traffic flow confidentiality may be achieved.
- 7.4 Transport layer
- 7.4.1 Services
- The security services that may be provided, singly or in combination, in
- the transport layer are:
- a) Peer Entity Authentication;
- b) Data Origin Authentication;
- c) Access Control service;
- d) Connection Confidentiality;
- e) Connectionless Confidentiality;
- f) Connection Integrity with Recovery;
- g) Connection Integrity without Recovery; and
- h) Connectionless Integrity.
- 7.4.2 Mechanisms
- The identified security services are provided as follows:
- a) the Peer Entity Authentication service is provided by an appropriate
- combination of cryptographically-derived or protected authentication
- exchanges, protected password exchange and signature mechanisms;
- b) the Data Origin Authentication service can be provided by encipherment
- or signature mechanisms;
- c) the Access Control service is provided through the appropriate use of
- specific access control mechanisms;
- d) the Connection Confidentiality service is provided by an encipherment
- mechanism;
- e) the Connectionless Confidentiality service is provided by an
- encipherment mechanism;
- f) the Connection Integrity Recovery service is provided by using a data
- integrity mechanism, sometimes in conjunction with an encipherment
- mechanism;
- g) the Connection Integrity without Recovery service is provided by using
- a data integrity mechanism, sometimes in conjunction with an
- encipherment mechanism; and
- h) the Connectionless Integrity service is provided by using a data
- integrity mechanism, sometimes in conjunction with an encipherment
- mechanism.
- The protection mechanisms will operate in such a manner that the security
- services may be invoked for individual transport connections. The protection will
- be such that individual transport connections can be isolated from all other
- transport connections.
- 7.5 Session layer
- 7.5.1 Services
- No security services are provided in the session layer.
- 7.6 Presentation layer
- 7.6.1 Services
- Facilities will be provided by the presentation layer in support of the
- provision of the following security services by the application layer to the
- application process:
- a) Connection Confidentiality;
- b) Connectionless Confidentiality; and
- c) Selective Field Confidentiality.
- Facilities in the presentation layer may also support the provision of the
- following security services by the application layer to the application process:
-
- styleref head_footRecommendation X.800PAG
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- d) Traffic Flow Confidentiality;
- e) Peer Entity Authentication;
- f) Data Origin Authentication;
- g) Connection Integrity with Recovery;
- h) Connection Integrity without Recovery;
- j) Selective Field Connection Integrity;
- k) Connectionless Integrity;
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- m) Selective Field Connectionless Integrity;
- n) Non-repudiation with Proof or Origin; and
- p) Non-repudiation with Proof of Delivery.
- Note ù The facilities provided by the presentation layer will be those
- that rely on mechanisms which can only operate on a transfer syntax encoding of
- data and will, for example, include those based on cryptographic techniques.
- 7.6.2 Mechanisms
- For the following security services, supporting mechanisms may be located
- within the presentation layer, and if so, may be used in conjunction with
- application layer security mechanisms to provide application layer security
- services:
- a) Peer Entity Authentication service can be supported by syntactic
- transformation mechanisms (e.g. encipherment);
- b) Data Origin Authentication service can be supported by encipherment or
- signature mechanisms;
- c) Connection Confidentiality service can be supported by an encipherment
- mechanism;
- d) Connectionless Confidentiality service can be supported by an
- encipherment mechanism;
- e) Selective Field Confidentiality service can be supported by an
- encipherment mechanism;
- f) Traffic Flow Confidentiality service can be supported by an
- encipherment mechanism;
- g) Connection Integrity with Recovery service can be supported by a data
- integrity mechanism, sometimes in conjunction with an encipherment
- mechanism;
- h) Connection Integrity without Recovery service can be supported by a
- data integrity mechanism, sometimes in conjunction with an encipherment
- mechanism;
- j) Selective Field Connection Integrity service can be supported by a data
- integrity mechanism, sometimes in conjunction with an encipherment
- mechanism;
- k) Connectionless Integrity service can be supported by a data integrity
- mechanism, sometimes in conjunction with an encipherment mechanism;
- m) Selective Field Connectionless Integrity service can be supported by a
- data integrity mechanism, sometimes in conjunction with an encipherment
- mechanism;
- n) Non-repudiation with Proof of Origin service can be supported by an
- appropriate combination of data integrity, signature and notarization
- mechanisms; and
- p) Non-repudiation with Proof of Delivery service can be supported by an
- appropriate combination of data integrity, signature and notarization
- mechanisms.
- Encipherment mechanisms applied to data transfers, when located in the
- upper layers, will be contained in the presentation layer.
- Some of the security services in the list above can alternatively be
- provided by security mechanisms contained entirely within the application layer.
- Only the confidentiality security services can be wholly provided by
- security mechanisms contained within the presentation layer.
- Security mechanisms in the presentation layer operate as the final stage
- of transformation to the transfer syntax on transmission, and as the initial
- stage of the transformation process on receipt.
- 7.7 Application layer
- 7.7.1 Services
- The application layer may provide one or more of the following basic
- security services either singly or in combination:
- a) Peer Entity Authentication;
- b) Data Origin Authentication;
- c) Access Control Service;
- d) Connection Confidentiality;
- e) Connectionless Confidentiality;
- f) Selective Field Confidentiality;
- g) Traffic Flow Confidentiality;
- h) Connection Integrity with Recovery;
- j) Connection Integrity without Recovery;
- k) Selective Field Connection Integrity;
- m) Connectionless Integrity;
- n) Selective Field Connectionless Integrity;
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- p) Non-repudiation with Proof of Origin; and
- q) Non-repudiation with Proof of Delivery.
- The authentication of intended communications partners provides support
- for access controls to both OSI and non-OSI resources (e.g. files, software,
- terminals, printers) in real open systems.
- The determination of specific security requirements in an instance of
- communication, including data confidentiality, integrity, and authentication, may
- be made by OSI security management or application layer management on the basis
- of information in the SMIB in addition to requests made by the application
- process.
- 7.7.2 Mechanisms
- The security services in the application layer are provided by means of
- the following mechanisms:
- a) Peer Entity Authentication service can be provided using authentication
- information transferred between application entities, protected by
- presentation or lower layer encipherment mechanisms;
- b) Data Origin Authentication service can be supported by using signature
- mechanisms or lower layer encipherment mechanisms;
- c) Access Control service to those aspects of a real open system that are
- pertinent to OSI, such as the ability to communicate with specific
- systems or remote application entities, may be provided by a
- combination of access control mechanisms in the application layer and
- in lower layers;
- d) Connection Confidentiality service can be supported by using a lower
- layer encipherment mechanism;
- e) Connectionless Confidentiality service can be supported by using a
- lower layer encipherment mechanism;
- f) Selective Field Confidentiality service can be supported by using an
- encipherment mechanism at the presentation layer;
- g) a limited Traffic Flow Confidentiality service can be supported by the
- use of a traffic padding mechanism at the application layer in
- conjunction with a confidentiality service at a lower layer;
- h) Connection Integrity with Recovery service can be supported using a
- lower layer data integrity mechanism (sometimes in conjunction with an
- encipherment mechanism);
- j) Connection Integrity without Recovery service can be supported using a
- lower layer data integrity mechanism (sometimes in conjunction with an
- encipherment mechanism);
- k) Selective Field Connection Integrity service can be supported using a
- data integrity mechanism (sometimes in conjunction with an encipherment
- mechanism) at the presentation layer;
- m) Connectionless Integrity service can be supported using a lower layer
- data integrity mechanism (sometimes in conjunction with an encipherment
- mechanism);
- n) Selective Field Connectionless Integrity service can be supported using
- a data integrity mechanism (sometimes in conjunction with an
- encipherment mechanism) at the presentation layer;
- p) Non-repudiation with Proof of Origin service can be supported by an
- appropriate combination of signature and lower layer data integrity
- mechanisms possibly in conjunction with third party notaries; and
- q) Non-repudiation with Proof of Delivery service can be supported by an
- appropriate combination of signature and lower layer data integrity
- mechanisms possibly in conjunction with third party notaries.
- If a notarization mechanism is used to provide a non-repudiation service,
- it will be acting as a trusted third party. It may have a record of data units
- relayed in their transferred form (i.e. transfer syntax) in order to resolve
- disputes. It may use protection services from the lower layers.
- 7.7.3 Non-OSI security services
- Application processes themselves may provide essentially all of the
- services, and use the same kinds of mechanisms, that are described in this
- Recommendation, as appropriately placed in various layers of the architecture.
- Such use is outside of the scope of, but not inconsistent with, the OSI service
- and protocol definitions and the OSI architecture.
- 7.8 Illustration of the relationship of security services and layers
- Table 2/X.800 illustrates the layers of the Reference Model in which
- particular security services can be provided. Descriptions of the security
- services are found in S 5.2. Justifications for the placement of a service at a
- particular layer are given in Annex B.
- include 800-T02ETABLE 2/X.800
- Illustration of the relationship of security services and layers
- Service Layer
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- *
- Peer entity authentication
- PAGE24 styleref head_footRecommendation X.800
- ╖ ╖ Y Y ╖ ╖ Y
- Data origen authentication ╖ ╖ Y Y ╖ ╖ Y
- Access control service ╖ ╖ Y Y ╖ ╖ Y
- Connection confidentiality Y Y Y Y ╖ Y Y
- Connectionless confidentiality ╖
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- Y Y Y ╖ Y Y
- Selective field confidentiality ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ Y Y
- Traffic flow confidentiality Y ╖ Y ╖ ╖ ╖ Y
- Connection Integrity with recovery ╖ ╖ ╖ Y ╖ ╖ Y
- Connection integrity without recovery ╖ ╖
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- Y Y ╖ ╖ Y
- Selective field connection integrity ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ Y
- Connectionless integrity ╖ ╖ Y Y ╖ ╖ Y
- Selective field connectionless ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ Y
- integrity
- Non-repudiation Origin ╖ ╖ ╖
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- ╖ ╖ ╖ Y
- Non-repudiation. Delivery ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ Y
- Y Yes, service should be incorporated in the standards for the
- layer as a provider option.
- ╖ Not provided.
- * It should be noted, with respect to layer 7, that the
- application process may, itself, provide security services.
- Note 1 ù Table 2/X.800 makes no attempt to indicte that entries
- are of equal weight or importance; on the contrary there is a
- considerable gradation of scale within the table entries.
- Note 2 ù The placement of security services within the network
- layer is described in S 7.3.2. The position of the security
- services within the network layer significantly affects the nature
- and scope of the services that will be provided.
- Note 3 ù The presentation layer contains a number of security
- facilities which support the provision of security services by the
- application layer.
-
-
- 8 Security management
- 8.1 General
- 8.1.1 OSI security management is concerned with those aspects of security
- management relative to OSI and to security of OSI management. Management aspects
- of OSI security are concerned with those operations which are outside normal
- instances of communication but which are needed to support and control the
- security aspects of those communications.
- Note ù The availability of communication service is determined by network
- design and/or network management protocols. Appropriate choices for these are
- needed to protect against denial of service.
- 8.1.2 There can be many security policies imposed by the administration(s) of
- distributed open systems and OSI security management recommendations should
- support such policies. Entities that are subject to a single security policy,
- administered by a single authority, are sometimes collected into what has been
- called a "security domain". Security domains and their interactions are an
- important area for future extensions.
- 8.1.3 OSI security management is concerned with the management of OSI security
- services and mechanisms. Such management requires distribution of management
- information to these services and mechanisms as well as the collection of
- information concerning the operation of these services and mechanisms. Examples
- are the distribution of cryptograph c keys, the setting of administratively-
- imposed security selection parameters, the reporting of both normal and abnormal
- security events (audit trails), and service activation and deactivation. Security
- management does not address the passing of security-relevant information in
- protocols which call up specific security services (e.g., in parameters in
- connection requests).
- 8.1.4 The security management information base (SMIB) is the conceptual
- repository for all security-relevant information needed by open systems. This
- concept does not suggest any form for the storage of the information or its
- implementation. However, each end system must contain the necessary local
- information to enable it to enforce an appropriate security policy. The SMIB is a
- distributed information base to the extent that it is necessary to enforce a
- consistent security policy in a (logical or physical) grouping of end systems. In
- practice, parts of the SMIB may or may not be integrated with the MIB.
- Note ù There can be many realizations of the SMIB, e.g.:
- a) a table of data;
- b) a file;
- c) data or rules embedded within the software or hardware of the real open
- system.
- 8.1.5 Management protocols, especially security management protocols, and the
- communication channels carrying the management information, are potentially
- vulnerable. Particular care shall therefore be taken to ensure that the
- management protocols and information are protected such that the security
- protection provided for usual instances of communication is not weakened.
- 8.1.6 Security management may require the exchange of security-relevant
- information between various system administrations, in order that the SMIB can be
- established or extended. In some cases, the security-relevant information will be
- passed through non-OSI communication paths, and the local systems administrators
- will update the SMIB through methods not standardized by OSI. In other cases, it
- may be desirable to exchange such information over an OSI communication path in
- which case the information will be passed between two security management
- applications running in the real open systems. The security management
- application will use the communicated information to update the SMIB. Such
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- PAGE24 styleref head_footRecommendation X.800
- updating of the SMIB may require the prior authorization of the appropriate
- security administrator.
- 8.1.7 Application protocols wi l be defined for the exchange of security-
- relevant information over OSI communications channels.
- 8.2 Categories of OSI security management
- There are three categories of OSI security management activities:
- a) system security management;
- b) security service management; and
- c) security mechanism management.
- In addition, security of OSI management itself must be considered (see
- S 8.2.4). The key functions performed by these categories of security management
- are summarized below.
- 8.2.1 System security management
- System security management is concerned with the management of security
- aspects of the overall OSI environment. The following list is typical of the
- activities which fall into this category of security management:
- a) overall security policy management, including updates and maintenance
- of consistency;
- b) interaction with other OSI management functions;
- c) interaction with security service management and security mechanism
- management;
- d) event handling management (see S 8.3.1);
- e) security audit management (see S 8.3.2); and
- f) security recovery management (see S 8.3.3).
- 8.2.2 Security service management
- Security service management is concerned with the management of particular
- security services. The following list is typical of the activities which may be
- performed in managing a particular security service:
- a) determination and assignment of the target security protection for the
- service;
- b) assignment and maintenance of rules for the selection (where
- alternatives exist) of the specific security mechanism to be employed
- to provide the requested security service;
- c) negotiation (locally and remotely) of available security mechanisms
- which require prior management agreement;
- d) invocation of specific security mechanisms via the appropriate security
- mechanism management function, e.g. for the provision of
- administratively-imposed security services; and
- e) interaction with other security service management functions and
- security mechanism management functions.
- 8.2.3 Security mechanism management
- Security mechanism management is concerned with the management of
- particular security mechanisms. The following list of security mechanism
- management functions is typical but not exhaustive:
- a) key management;
- b) encipherment management;
- c) digital signature management;
- d) access control management;
- e) data integrity management;
- f) authentication management;
- g) traffic padding management;
- h) routing control management; and
- j) notarization management.
- Each of the listed security mechanism management functions is discussed in
- more detail in S 8.4.
- 8.2.4 Security of OSI management
- Security of all OSI management functions and of the communication of OSI
- management information are important parts of OSI security. This category of
- security management will invoke appropriate choices of the listed OSI security
- services and mechanisms in order to ensure that OSI management protocols and
- information are adequately protected (see S 8.1.5). For example, communications
- between management entities involving the management information base will
- generally require some form of protection.
- 8.3 Specific system security management activities
- 8.3.1 Event handling management
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- The management aspects of event handling visible in OSI are the remote
- reporting of apparent attempts to violate system security and the modification of
- thresholds used to trigger event reporting.
- 8.3.2 Security audit management
- Security audit management may include:
- a) the selection of events to be logged and/or remotely collected;
- b) the enabling and disabling of audit trail logging of selected events;
- c) the remote collection of selected audit records; and
- d) the preparation of security audit reports.
- 8.3.3 Security recovery management
- Security recovery management may include:
- a) maintenance of the rules used to react to real or suspected security
- violations;
- b) the remote reporting of apparent violations of system security;
- c) security administrator interactions.
- 8.4 Security mechanism management functions
- 8.4.1 Key management
- Key management may involve:
- a) generating suitable keys at intervals commensurate with the level of
- security required;
- b) determination, in accordance with access control requirements, of which
- entities should receive a copy of each key; and
- c) making available or distributing the keys in a secure manner to entity
- instances in real open systems.
- It is understood that some key management functions will be performed
- outside the OSI environment. These include the physical distribution of keys by
- trusted means.
- Exchange of working keys for use during an association is a normal layer
- protocol function. Selection of working keys may also be accomplished by access
- to a key distribution centre or by pre-distribution via management protocols.
- 8.4.2 Encipherment management
- Encipherment management may involve:
- a) interaction with key management;
- b) establishment of cryptographic parameters;
- c) cryptographic synchronization.
- The existence of an encipherment mechanism implies the use of key
- management and of common ways to reference the cryptographic algorithms.
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- The degree of discrimination of protection afforded by encipherment is
- determined by which entities within the OSI environment are independently keyed.
- This is in turn determined, in general, by the security architecture and
- specifically by the key management mechanism.
- A common reference for cryptographic algorithms can be obtained by using a
- register for cryptographic algorithms or by prior agreements between entities.
- 8.4.3 Digital signature management
- Digital signature management may involve:
- a) interaction with key management;
- b) establishment of cryptographic parameters and algorithms; and
- c) use of protocol between communicating entities and possibly a third
- party.
- Note ù Generally, there exist strong similarities between digital
- signature management and encipherment management.
- 8.4.4 Access control management
- Access control management may involve distribution of security attributes
- (including passwords) or updates to access control lists or capabilities lists.
- It may also involve the use of a protocol between communicating entities and
- other entities providing access control services.
- 8.4.5 Data integrity management
- Data integrity management may involve:
- a) interaction with key management;
- b) establishment of cryptographic parameters and algorithms; and
- c) use of protocol between communicating entities.
- Note ù When using cryptographic techniques for data integrity, there exist
- strong similarities between data integrity management and encipherment
- management.
- 8.4.6 Authentication management
- Authentication management may involve distribution of descriptive
- information, passwords or keys (using key management) to entities required to
- perform authentication. It may also involve use of a protocol between
- communicating entities and other entities providing authentication services.
- 8.4.7 Traffic padding management
- Traffic padding management may include maintenance of the rules to be used
- for traffic padding. For example this may include:
- a) pre-specified data rates;
- b) specifying random data rates;
- c) specifying message characteristics such as length; and
- d) variation of the specification, possibly in accordance with time of day
- and/or calendar.
- 8.4.8 Routing control management
- Routing control management may involve the definition of the links r sub-
- networks which are considered to be either secured or trusted with respect to
- particular criteria.
- 8.4.9 Notarization management
- Notarization management may include:
- a) the distribution of information about notaries;
- b) the use of a protocol between a notary and the communicating entities;
- and
- c) interaction with notaries.
- ANNEX A
- Background information on security in OSI
- (This annex does not form an integral part of this Recommendation)
- A.1 Background
- This annex provides:
- a) information on OSI security in order to give some perspective to this
- Recommendation; and
- b) background on the architectural implications of various security
- features and requirements.
- Security in an OSI environment is just one aspect of data processing/data
- communications security. If they are to be effective the protective measures used
- in an OSI environment require supporting measures which lie outside OSI. For
- example, information flowing between systems may be enciphered but if no physical
- security restrictions are placed on access to the systems themselves,
- encipherment may be in vain. Also, OSI is concerned only with the interconnection
- of systems. For OSI security measures to be effective they shall be used in
- conjunction with measures that fall outside the scope of OSI.
- A.2 The requirement for security
- A.2.1 What is meant by security?
- The term "security" is used in the sense of minimizing the vulnerabilities
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- of assets and resources. An asset is anything of value. A vulnerability is any
- weakness that could be exploited to violate a system or the information it
- contains. A threat is a potential violation of security.
- A.2.2 The motivation for security in open systems
- CCITT has identified a need for a series of Recommendations to enhance
- security within the Open Systems Interconnection architecture. This stems from:
- a) society's increasing dependence on computers that are accessed by, or
- linked by, data communications and which require protection against
- various threats;
- b) the appearance in several countries of "data protection" legislation
- which obliges suppliers to demonstrate system integrity and privacy;
- and
- c) the wish of various organizations to use OSI recommendations, enhanced
- as needed, for existing and future secure systems.
- A.2.3 What is to be protected?
- In general, the following may require protection:
- a) information and data (including software and passive data related to
- security measures such as passwords);
- b) communication and data processing services; and
- c) equipment and facilities.
- A.2.4 Threats
- The threats to a data communication system include the following:
- a) destruction of information and/or other resources;
- b) corruption or modification of information;
- c) theft, removal or loss of information and/or other resources;
- d) disclosure of information; and
- e) interruption of services.
- Threats can be classified as accidental or intentional and may be active
- or passive.
- A.2.4.1 Accidental threats
- Accidental threats are those that exist with no premeditated intent.
- Examples of realized accidental threats include system malfunctions, operational
- blunders and software bugs.
- A.2.4.2 Intentional threats
- Intentional threats may range from casual examination using easily
- available monitoring tools to sophisticated attacks using special system
- knowledge. An intentional threat, if realized, may be considered to be an
- "attack".
- A.2.4.3 Passive threats
- Passive threats are those which, if realized, would not result in any
- modification to any information contained in the system(s) and where neither the
- operation nor the state of the system is changed. The use of passive wire tapping
- to observe information being transmitted over a communications line is a
- realization of a passive threat.
- A.2.4.4 Active threats
- Active threats to a system involve the alteration of information contained
- in the system, or changes to the state or operation of the system. A malicious
- change to the routing tables of a system by an unauthorized user is an example of
- an active threat.
- A.2.5 Some specific types of attack
- The following briefly reviews some of the attacks of particular concern in
- a data processing/data communications environment. In the following sections, the
- terms authorized and unauthorized appear. "Authorization" means "the granting of
- rights". Two things implied by this definition are: that the rights are rights to
- perform some activity (such as to access data); and that they have been granted
- to some entity, human agent, or process. Authorized behaviour, then, is the
- performance of those activities for which rights have been granted (and not
- revoked). For more about the concept of authorization see S A.3.3.1.
- A.2.5.1 Masquerade
- A masquerade is where an entity pretends to be a different entity. A
- masquerade is usually used with some other forms of active attack, especially
- replay and modification of messages. For instance, authentication sequences can
- be captured and replayed after a valid authentication sequence has taken place.
- An authorized entity with few privileges may use a masquerade to obtain extra
- privileges by impersonating an entity that has those privileges.
- A.2.5.2 Replay
- A replay occurs when a message, or part of a message, is repeated to
- produce an unauthorized effect. For example, a valid message containing
- authentication information may be replayed by another entity in order to
- authenticate itself (as something that it is not).
-
- PAGE24 styleref head_footRecommendation X.800
- A.2.5.3 Modification of messages
- Modification of a message occurs when the content of a data transmission
- is altered without detection and results in an unauthorized effect, as when, for
- example, a message "Allow 'John Smith' to read confidential file 'Accounts'" is
- changed to "Allow 'Fred Brown' to read confidential file 'Accounts'".
- A.2.5.4 Denial of service
- Denial of service occurs when an entity fails to perform its proper
- function or acts in a way that prevents other entities from performing their
- proper functions. The attack may be general, as when an entity suppresses all
- messages, or there may be a specific target, as when an entity suppresses all
- messages directed to a particular destination, such as the security audit
- service. The attack may involve suppressing traffic as described in this example
- or it may generate extra traffic. It is also possible to generate messages
- intended to disrupt the operation of the network, especially if the network has
- relay entities that make routing decisions based upon status reports received
- from other relay entities.
- A.2.5.5 Insider attacks
- Insider attacks occur when legitimate users of a system behave in
- unintended or unauthorized ways. Most known computer crime has involved insider
- attacks that compromised the security of the system. Protection methods that can
- be used against insider attacks include:
- a) careful vetting of staff;
- b) scrutinization of hardware, software, security policy and system
- configurations so that there is a degree of assurance that they will
- operate correctly (called trusted functionality); and
- c) audit trails to increase the likelihood of detecting such attacks.
- A.2.5.6 Outsider attacks
- Outsider attacks may use techniques such as:
- a) wire tapping (active and passive);
- b) intercepting emissions;
- c) masquerading as authorized users of the system or as components of the
- system; and
- d) bypassing authentication or access control mechanisms.
- A.2.5.7 Trapdoor
- When an entity of a system is altered to allow an attacker to produce an
- unauthorized effect on command or at a predetermined event or sequence of events,
- the result is called a trapdoor. For example, a password validation could be
- modified so that, in addition to its normal effect, it also validates an
- attacker's password.
- A.2.5.8 Trojan horse
- When introduced to the system, a Trojan horse has an unauthorized function
- in addition to its authorized function. A relay that also copies messages to an
- unauthorized channel is a Trojan Horse.
- A.2.6 Assessment of threats, risks and countermeasures
- Security features usually increase the cost of a system and may make it
- harder to use. Before designing a secure system, therefore, one should identify
- the specific threats against which protection is required. This is known as
- threat assessment. A system is vulnerable in many ways but only some of them are
- exploitable because the attacker lacks the opportunity, or because the result
- does not justify the effort and risk of detection. Although detailed issues of
- threat assessment are beyond the scope of this annex, in broad outline they
- include:
- a) identifying the vulnerabilities of the system;
- b) analysing the likelihood of threats aimed at exploiting these
- vulnerabilities;
- c) assessing the consequences if each threat were to be successfully
- carried out;
- d) estimating the cost of each attack;
- e) costing out potential countermeasures; and
- f) selecting the security mechanisms that are justified (possibly by using
- cost benefit analysis).
- Non-technical measures, such as insurance coverage, may be cost effective
- alternatives to technical security measures. Perfect technical security, like
- perfect physical security, is not possible. The objective, therefore, should be
- to make the cost of an attack high enough to reduce the risk to acceptable
- levels.
- A.3 Security policy
- This section discusses security policy: the need for a suitably defined
- security policy; its role; policy approaches in use; and refinements to apply in
- specific situations. The concepts are then applied to communications systems.
-
- styleref head_footRecommendation X.800PAG
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- A.3.1 The need for and purpose of security policy
- The whole field of security is both complex and far-reaching. Any
- reasonably complete analysis will yield a daunting variety of details. A suitable
- security policy should focus attention on those aspects of a situation that the
- highest level of authority considers should receive attention. Essentially, a
- security policy states, in general terms, what is and is not permitted in the
- field of security during the general operation of the system in question. Policy
- is usually not specific; it suggests what is of paramount importance without
- saying precisely how the desired results are to be obtained. Policy sets the
- topmost level of a security specification.
- A.3.2 Implications of policy definition: the refinement process
- Because policy is so general it is not at all clear at the outset how the
- policy can be married to a given application. Often, the best way to accomplish
- this is to subject the policy to a successive refinement adding more details from
- the application at each stage. To know what those details ought to be requires a
- detailed study of the application area in the light of the general policy. This
- examination should define the problems arising from trying to impose the
- conditions of the policy on the application. The refinement process will produce
- the general policy restated in very precise terms directly drawn from the
- application. This re-stated policy makes it easier to determine the
- implementation detail.
- A.3.3 Security policy components
- There are two aspects to existing security policies. Both depend on the
- concept of authorized behaviour.
- A.3.3.1 Authorization
- The threats already discussed all involve the notion of authorized or
- unauthorized behaviour. The statement as to what constitutes authorization is
- embodied in the security policy. A generic security policy might say "information
- may not be given to, accessed by, or permitted to be inferred by, nor may any
- resource be used by, those not appropriately authorized." The nature of
- authorization is what distinguishes various policies. Policies can be divided
- into two separate components, based upon the nature of the authorization
- involved, as either rule-based policies or identity-based policies. The first of
- these uses of rules based on a small number of general attributes or sensitivity
- classes, that are universally enforced. The second involves authorization
- criteria based on specific, individualized attributes. Some attributes are
- assumed to be permanently associated with the entity to which they apply; others
- may be possessions, (such as capabilities) that can be transmitted to other
- entities. One can also distinguish between administratively-imposed and
- dynamically-selected authorization service. A security policy will determine
- those elements of system security that are always applied and in force (for
- example, the rule-based and identity-based security policy components, if any)
- and those that the user may choose to use as he sees fit.
- A.3.3.2 Identity-based security policy
- The identity-based aspect of security policies corresponds, in part, to
- the security concept known as "need-to-know". The goal is to filter access to
- data or resources. There are essentially two fundamental ways of implementing
- identity-based policies, depending on whether the information about access rights
- is held by the accessors or is part of the data that are accessed. The former is
- exemplified by the ideas of privileges or capabilities, given to users and used
- by processes acting on their behalf. Access control lists (ACLs) are examples of
- the latter. In both cases, the size of the data item (from a full file to a data
- element) that may be named in a capability or that carried its own ACL may be
- highly variable.
- A.3.3.3 Ruled-based security policy
- Authorization in rule-based security policy usually rests on sensitivity.
- In a secure system, data and/or resources should be marked with security labels.
- Processes acting on behalf of human users may acquire the security label
- appropriate to their originators.
- A.3.4 Security policy, communications and labels
- The concept of labelling is important in a data communications
- environment. Labels carrying attributes play a variety of roles. There are data
- items that move during communication; there are processes and entities that
- initiate communication, and those that respond; and there are channels and other
- resources of the system itself, used during communication. All may be labelled,
- one way or another, with their attributes. Security policies must indicate how
- the attributes of each can be used to provide requisite security. Negotiations
- may be necessary to establish the proper security significance of particular
- labelled attributes. When security labels are attached both to accessing
- processes and to accessed data, the additional information needed to apply
-
- PAGE24 styleref head_footRecommendation X.800
- identity-based access control should be in relevant labels. When a security
- policy is based upon the identity of the user accessing the data, either directly
- or through a process, then security labels should include information about the
- user's identity. The rules for particular labels should be expressed in a
- security policy in the security management information base (SMIB) and/or
- negotiated with end systems, as required. The label may be suffixed by attributes
- that qualify its sensitivity, specify handling and distribution caveats,
- constrain timing and disposition, and spell out requirements specific to the end
- system.
- A.3.4.1 Process labels
- In authentication, the full identification of those processes or entities
- initiating and responding to an instance of communication, together with all
- appropriate attributes are, typically, of fundamental importance. SMIBs will
- therefore contain sufficient information about those attributes important to any
- Administration-imposed policy.
- A.3.4.2 Data item labels
- As data items move during instances of communication, each will be tightly
- bound to its label. (This binding is significant and, in some instances f rule-
- based policies, it is a requirement that the label be made a special part of the
- data item before it is presented to the application.) Techniques to preserve the
- integrity of the data item will also maintain the accuracy and the coupling of
- the label. These attributes can be used by the routing control functions in the
- data link layer of the OSI Basic Reference Model.
- A.4 Security mechanisms
- A security policy may be implemented using various mechanisms, singly or
- in combination, depending on the policy objectives and the mechanisms used. In
- general, a mechanism will belong to one of three (overlapping) classes:
- a) prevention;
- b) detection; and
- c) recovery.
- Security mechanisms appropriate to a data communications environment are
- discussed below.
- A.4.1 Cryptographic techniques and encipherment
- Cryptography underlies many security services and mechanisms.
- Cryptographic functions may be used as part of encipherment, decipherment, data
- integrity, authentication exchanges, password storage and checking, etc. to help
- achieve confidentiality, integrity, and/or authentication. Encipherment, used for
- confidentiality, transforms sensitive data (i.e. data to be protected) to less
- sensitive forms. When used for integrity or authentication, cryptographic
- techniques are used to compute unforceable functions.
- Encipherment is performed initially on cleartext to produce ciphertext.
- The result of decipherment is either cleartext, or ciphertext under some cover.
- It is computationally feasible to use cleartext for general-purpose processing;
- its semantic content is accessible. Except in specified ways, (e.g. primarily
- decipherment, or exact matching) it is not computationally feasible to process
- ciphertext as its semantic content is hidden. Encipherment is sometimes
- intentionally irreversible (e.g. by truncation or data loss) when it is
- undesirable ever to derive original cleartext such as passwords.
- Cryptographic functions use cryptovariables and operate over fields, data
- units, and/or streams of data units. Two cryptovariables are the key, which
- directs specific transformations, and the initialization variable, which is
- required in certain cryptographic protocols to preserve the apparent randomness
- of ciphertext. The key must usually remain confidential and both the
- cryptographic function and the initialization variable may increase delay and
- bandwidth consumption. This complicates "transparent" or "drop-in" cryptographic
- add-ons to existing systems.
- Cryptographic variables can be symmetric or asymmetric over both
- encipherment and decipherment. Keys used in asymmetric algorithms are
- mathematically related; one key cannot be computed from the other. These
- algorithms are sometimes called "public key" algorithms because one key can be
- made public while the other kept secret.
- Ciphertext can be cryptoanalysed when it is computationally feasible to
- recover cleartext without knowing the key. This may happen if a weak or defective
- cryptographic function is used. Interceptions and traffic analysis can lead to
- attacks on the cryptosystem including message/field insertion, deletion and
- change, playback of previously valid ciphertext and masquerade.
- Therefore, cryptographic protocols are designed to resist attacks and
- also, sometimes, traffic analysis. A specific traffic analysis countermeasure,
- "traffic flow confidentiality", aims to conceal the presence or absence of data
- and its characteristics. If ciphertext is relayed, the address must be in the
-
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- E39
- clear at relays and gateways. If the data are enciphered only on each link, and
- are deciphered (and thus vulnerable) in the relay or gateway, the architecture is
- said to use "link-by-link encipherment". If only the address (and similar control
- data) are in the clear in the relay or gateway, the architecture is said to use
- Tend-to-end encipherment". End-to-end encipherment is more desirable from a
- security point of view, but considerably more complex architecturally, especially
- if in-band electronic key distribution (a function of key management) is
- included. Link-by-link encipherment and end-to-end encipherment may be combined
- to achieve multiple security objectives. Data integrity is often achieved by
- calculating a cryptographic checkvalue. The checkvalue may be derived in one or
- more steps and is a mathematical function of the cryptovariables and the data.
- These checkvalues are associated with the data to be guarded. Cryptographic
- checkvalues are sometimes called manipulation detection codes.
- Cryptographic techniques can provide, or help provide, protection against:
- a) message stream observation and/or modification;
- b) traffic analysis;
- c) repudiation;
- d) forgery;
- e) unauthorized connection; and
- f) modification of messages.
- A.4.2 Aspects of key management
- Key management is implied by the use of cryptographic algorithms. Key
- management encompasses the generation, distribution and control of cryptographic
- keys. The choice of a key management method is based upon the participants'
- assessment of the environment in which it is to be used. Considerations of this
- environment include the threats to be protected against (both internal to the
- organization and external), the technologies used, the architectural structure
- and location of the cryptographic services provided, and the physical structure
- and location of the cryptographic service providers.
- Points to be considered concerning key management include:
- a) the use of a "lifetime" based on time, use, or other criteria, for each
- key defined, implicitly or explicitly;
- b) the proper identification of keys according to their function so that
- their use may be reserved only for their function, e.g., keys intended
- to be used for a confidentiality service should not be used for an
- integrity service or vice versa; and
- c) non-OSI considerations, such as the physical distribution of keys and
- archiving of keys.
- Points to be considered concerning key management for symmetric key
- algorithms include:
- a) the use of a confidentiality service in the key management protocol to
- convey the keys;
- b) the use of a key hierarchy. Different situations should be allowed such
- as:
- 1) "flat" key hierarchies using only data-enciphering keys, implicitly
- or explicitly selected from a set by key identity or index;
- 2) multilayer key hierarchies; and
- 3) key-encrypting keys should never be used to protect data a d data-
- encrypting keys should never be used to protect key-encrypting
- keys;
- c) the division of responsibilities so that no one person has a complete
- copy of an important key.
- Points to be considered concerning key management for asymmetric key
- algorithms include:
- a) the use of a confidentiality service in the key management protocol to
- convey the secret keys; and
- b) the use of an integrity service, or of a non-repudiation service with
- proof of origin, in the key management protocol to convey the public
- keys. These services may be provided through the use of symmetric
- and/or asymmetric cryptographic algorithms.
- A.4.3 Digital signature mechanisms
- The term digital signature is used to indicate a particular technique
- which can be used to provide security services such as non-repudiation and
- authentication. Digital signature mechanisms require the use of asymmetric
- cryptographic algorithms. The essential characteristic of the digital signature
- mechanism is that the signed data unit cannot be created without using the
- private key. This means that:
- a) the signed data unit cannot be created by any individual except the
- holder of the private key, and
- b) the recipient cannot create the signed data unit.
-
- PAGE24 styleref head_footRecommendation X.800
- Therefore, using publicly available information only, it is possible to
- identify the signer of a data unit uniquely as the possessor of the private key.
- In the case of later conflict between participants it is thus possible to prove
- the identity of the signer of a data unit to a reliable third party, who is
- called upon to judge the authenticity of the signed data unit. This type of
- digital signature is called direct signature scheme (see Figure A-1/X.800). In
- other cases, an additional property c) might be needed:
- c) the sender cannot deny sending the signed data unit.
- A reliable third party (arbitrator) proves to the recipient the source and
- integrity of the information in this case. This type of digital signature is
- sometimes arbitrated signature scheme (see Figure A-2/X.800).
- Note ù The sender may require that the recipient cannot later deny
- receiving the signed data unit. This can be accomplished with a non-repudiation
- service with proof of delivery by means of an appropriate combination of digital
- signature, data integrity and notarization mechanisms.
- Figure 1/X.800 =
-
- Figrue 2/X.800 =
-
- A.4.4 Access control mechanisms
- Access control mechanisms are those mechanisms which are used to enforce a
- policy of limiting access to a resource to only those users who are authorized.
- Techniques include the use of access control lists or matrices (which usually
- contain the identities of controlled items and authorized users e.g. people or
- processes), passwords, and capabilities, labels or tokens, the possession of
- which may be used to indicate access rights. Where capabilities are used, they
- should be unforceable and should be conveyed in a trusted manner.
- A.4.5 Data integrity mechanisms
- Data integrity mechanisms are of two types: those used to protect the
- integrity of a single data unit and those that protect both the integrity of
- single data units and the sequence of an entire stream of data units on a
- connection.
- A.4.5.1 Message stream modification detection
- Corruption detection techniques, normally associated with detection of bit
- errors, block errors and sequencing errors introduced by communications links and
- networks, can also be used to detect message stream modification. However, if
- protocol headers and trailers are not protected by integrity mechanisms, an
- informed intruder can successfully bypass these checks. Successful detection of
- message stream modification can thus be achieved only by using corruption
- detection techniques in conjunction with sequence information. This will not
- prevent message stream modification but will provide notification of attacks.
- A.4.6 Authentication exchange mechanisms
- A.4.6.1 Choice of mechanism
- There are many choices and combinations of authentication exchange
- mechanisms appropriate to different circumstances. For instance:
- a) When peer entities and the means of communication are both trusted, the
- identification of a peer entity can be confirmed by a password. The
- password protects against error, but is not proof against malevolence,
- (specifically, not against replay). Mutual authentication may be
- accomplished by using a distinct password in each direction.
- b) When each entity trusts its peer entities but does not trust the means
- of communication, protection against active attacks can be provided by
- combinations of passwords and encipherment or by cryptographic means.
- Protection against replay attacks requires two-way handshakes (with
- protection parameters) or time stamping (with trusted clocks). Mutual
- authentication with replay protection can be achieved using three-way
- handshakes.
- c) When entities do not (or feel that they may not in the future) trust
- their peers or the means of communication, non-repudiation services can
- be used. The non-repudiation service can be achieved using digital
- signature and/or notarization mechanisms. These mechanisms can be used
- with the mechanisms described in b) above.
- A.4.7 Traffic padding mechanisms
- Generating spurious traffic and padding protocol data units to a constant
- length can provide limited protection against traffic analysis. To be successful,
- the level of spurious traffic must approximate to the highest anticipated level
- of real traffic. In addition, the contents of the protocol data units must be
- enciphered or disguised so that spurious traffic cannot be identified and
- differentiated from real traffic.
- A.4.8 Routing control mechanism
-
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- The specification of routing caveats for the transfer of data (including
- the specification of an entire route) may be used to ensure that data is conveyed
- only over routes that are physically secure or to ensure that sensitive
- information is carried only over routes with an appropriate level of protection.
- A.4.9 Notarization mechanism
- The notarization mechanism is based on the concept of a trusted third
- party (a notary) to assure certain properties about information exchanged between
- two entities, such as its origin, its integrity, or the time it was sent or
- received.
- A.4.10 Physical and personnel security
- Physical security measures will always be necessary to ensure complete
- protection. Physical security is costly, and attempts are often made to minimize
- the need for it by using other (cheaper) techniques. Physical and personnel
- security considerations are outside the scope of OSI, although all systems will
- ultimately rely on some form of physical security and on the trustworthiness of
- the personnel operating the system. Operating procedures should be defined to
- ensure proper operation and to delineate personnel responsibilities.
- A.4.11 Trusted hardware/software
- Methods used to gain confidence in the correct functioning of an entity
- include formal proof methods, verification and validation, detection and logging
- of known attempted attacks, and the construction of the entity by trusted
- personnel in a secure environment. Precautions are also needed to ensure that the
- entity is not accidentally or deliberately modified so as to compromise security
- during its operational life, for example, during maintenance or upgrade. Some
- entities in the system must also be trusted to function correctly if security is
- to be maintained. The methods used to establish trust are outside the scope of
- OSI.
- ANNEX B
- Justification for security service and
- mechanisms placement in S 7
- (This annex does not form an integral part of this Recommendation)
- B.1 General
- This annex provides some reasons for providing the identified security
- services within the various layers as indicated in S 7. The security layering
- principles identified in S 6.1.1 of the standard have governed this selection
- process.
- A particular security service is provided by more than one layer if the
- effect on general communication security can be considered as different (e.g.
- connection confidentiality at layers 1 and 4). Nevertheless, considering existing
- OSI data communication functionalities, (e.g. multilink procedures, multiplexing
- function, different ways to enhance a connectionle s service to a connection-
- oriented one) and in order to allow these transmission mechanisms to operate, it
- may be necessary to allow a particular service to be provided at another layer,
- though the effect on security cannot be considered as different.
- B.2 Peer entity authentication
- ù Layers 1 and 2: No, peer entity authentication is not considered useful
- in these layers.
- ù Layer 3: Yes, over individual sub-networks and for routing and/or over
- the internetwork.
- ù Layer 4: Yes, end system to end system authentication in layer 4 can
- serve to mutually authenticate two or more session entities, prior to
- the commencement of a connection, and for the duration of that
- connection.
- ù Layer 5: No, there are no benefits over providing this at layer 4
- and/or higher layers.
- ù Layer 6: No, but encipherment mechanisms can support this service in
- the application layer.
- ù Layer 7: Yes, peer entity authentication should be provided by the
- application layer.
- B.3 Data origin authentication
- ù Layers 1 and 2: No, data origin authentication is not considered useful
- in these layers.
- ù Layers 3 and 4: Data origin authentication can be provided end-to-end
- in the relaying and routing role of layer 3 and/or in layer 4 as
- follows:
- a) the provision of peer entity authentication at connection
- establishment time together with encipherment-based continuous
- authentication during the life of a connection provides, de facto,
- the data origin authentication service; and
- b) even where a) is not provided, encipherment-based data origin
-
- PAGE24 styleref head_footRecommendation X.800
- authentication can be provided with very little additional overhead
- to the data integrity mechanisms already placed in these layers.
- ù Layer 5: No, there are no benefits over providing this at layer 4 or
- layer 7.
- ù Layer 6: No, but encipherment mechanisms can support this in the
- application layer.
- ù Layer 7: Yes, possibly in conjunction with mechanisms in the
- presentation layer.
- B.4 Access control
- ù Layers 1 and 2: Access control mechanisms cannot be provided at
- layers 1 or 2 in a system conforming to full OSI protocols, since there
- are no end facilities available for such a mechanism.
- ù Layer 3: Access control mechanisms may be imposed on the sub-network
- access role by the requirements of a particular sub-network. When
- performed by the relaying and routing role, access mechanisms in the
- network layer can be used both to control accesses to sub-networks by
- relay entities and to control access to end systems. Clearly, the
- granularity of access is fairly coarse, distinguishing only between
- network layer entities.
- The establishment of a network connection may often result in charges
- by the sub-network administration. Cost minimization can be performed
- by controlling access and by selecting reverse charging or other
- network or sub-network specific parameters.
- ù Layer 4: Yes, access control mechanisms can be employed upon a per
- transport connection end-to-end basis.
- ù Layer 5: No, there are no benefits over providing this at layer 4
- and/or layer 7.
- ù Layer 6: No, this is not appropriate at layer 6.
- ù Layer 7: Yes, application protocols and/or application processes can
- provide application-oriented access control facilities.
- B.5 Confidentiality of all (N)-user-data on an (N)-connection
- ù Layer 1: Yes, should be provided since the electrical insertion of
- transparent pairs of transformation devices can give complete
- confidentiality upon a physical connection.
- ù Layer 2: Yes, but it provides no additional security benefits over
- confidentiality at layer 1 or layer 3.
- ù Layer 3: Yes, for sub-network access role over individual sub-networks
- and for relaying and routing roles over the internetwork.
- ù Layer 4: Yes, since the individual transport connection gives an end-to-
- end transport mechanism and can provide isolation of session
- connections.
- ù Layer 5: No, since it provides no additional benefit over
- confidentiality at layers 3, 4 and 7. It does not appear appropriate to
- provide this service at this layer.
- ù Layer 6: Yes, since encipherment mechanisms provide purely syntactic
- transformations.
- ù Layer 7: Yes, in conjunction with mechanisms at lower layers.
- B.6 Confidentiality of all (N)-user-data in a single, connectionless (N)-SDU
- The justification is as for confidentiality of all (N)-user-data except
- for layer 1 where there is no connectionless service.
- B.7 Confidentiality of selective fields within the (N)-user-data of an SDU
- This confidentiality service is provided by encipherment in the
- presentation layer and is invoked by mechanisms in the application layer
- according to the semantics of the data.
- B.8 Traffic flow confidentiality
- Full traffic flow confidentiality can be achieved only at layer 1. This
- can be achieved by the physical insertion of a pair of encipherment devices into
- the physical transmission path. It is assumed that the transmission path will be
- two-way simultaneous and synchronous so that the insertion of the devices will
- render all transmissions (and even their presence) upon the physical media
- unrecognizable.
- Above the physical layer, full traffic flow security is not possible. Some
- of its effects can be partly produced by the use of a complete SDU
- confidentiality service at one layer and the injection of spurious traffic at a
- high layer. Such a mechanism is costly, and potentially consumes large amounts of
- carrier and switching capacity.
- If traffic flow confidentiality is provided at layer 3, traffic padding
- and/or routing control will be used. Routing control may provide limited traffic
- flow confidentiality by routing messages around insecure links or sub-networks.
- However, the incorporation of traffic padding into layer 3 enables better use of
-
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- the network to be achieved, for example, by avoiding unnecessary padding and
- network congestion.
- Limited traffic flow confidentiality can be provided at the application
- layer by the generation of spurious traffic, in conjunction with confidentiality
- to prevent identification of the spurious traffic.
- B.9 Integrity of all (N)-user-data on an (N)-connection (with error recovery)
- ù Layers 1 and 2: Layers 1 and 2 are not able to provide this service.
- Layer 1 has no detection or recovery mechanisms, and the layer 2
- mechanism operates only on a point-to-point basis, not an end-to-end
- basis and, therefore, is not considered appropriate to provide this
- service.
- ù Layer 3: No, since error recovery is not universally available.
- ù Layer 4: Yes, since this provides the true end-to-end transport
- connection.
- ù Layer 5: No, since error recovery is not a function of layer 5.
- ù Layer 6: No, but encipherment mechanisms can support this service in
- the application layer.
- ù Layer 7: Yes, in conjunction with mechanisms in the presentation layer.
- B.10 Integrity of all (N)-user-data on an (N)-connection (no error recovery)
- ù Layers 1 and 2: Layers 1 and 2 are not able to provide this service.
- Layer 1 has no detection or recovery mechanisms, and the layer 2
- mechanism operates only on a point-to-point basis, not an end-to-end
- basis and, therefore, is not considered appropriate to provide this
- service.
- ù Layer 3: Yes, for sub-network access role over individual sub-networks
- and for routing and relay roles over the internetwork.
- ù Layer 4: Yes, for those cases of use where it is acceptable to cease
- communication after detection of an active attack.
- ù Layer 5: No, since it provides no additional benefit over data
- integrity at layers 3, 4 or 7.
- ù Layer 6: No, but encipherment mechanisms can support this service in
- the application layer.
- ù Layer 7: Yes, in conjunction with mechanisms in the presentation layer.
- B.11 Integrity of selected fields within the (N)-user-data of (N)-SDU
- transferred over an (N)-connection (without recovery)
- Integrity of selected fields can be provided by encipherment mechanisms in
- the presentation layer in conjunction with invocation and checking mechanisms in
- the application layer.
- B.12 Integrity of all (N)-user-data in a single connectionless (N)-SDU
- In order to minimize the duplication of functions, the integrity of
- connectionless transfers should be provided only at the same layers as for
- integrity without recovery, i.e. at the network, transport and application
- layers. Such integrity mechanisms can be of only very limited effectiveness, and
- this must be realized.
- B.13 Integrity of selected fields in a single connectionless (N)-SDU
- Integrity of selected fields can be provided by encipherment mechanisms in
- the presentation layer in conjunction with invocation and checking mechanisms in
- the application layer.
- B.14 Non-repudiation
- Origin and delivery non-repudiation services can be provided by a
- notarization mechanism which will involve a relay at layer 7.
- Use of the digital signature mechanism for non-repudiation requires a
- close cooperation between layers 6 and 7.
-
-
-
- ANNEX C
- Choice of position of encipherment for applications
- (This annex does not form an integral part of this Recommendation)
-
- C.1 Most applications will not require encipherment to be used at more than
- one layer. The choice of layer depends on some major issues as described below:
- 1) If full traffic flow confidentiality is required, physical layer
- encipherment or transmission security (e.g. suitable spread spectrum
- techniques) will be chosen. Adequate physical security and trusted
- routing and similar functionality at relays can satisfy all
- confidentiality requirements.
- 2) If a high granularity of protection is required (i.e. potentially a
- separate key for each application association) and nonrepudiation or
- selective field protection then presentation layer encipherment will be
-
- PAGE24 styleref head_footRecommendation X.800
- chosen. Selective field protection can be important because
- encipherment algorithms consume large amounts of processing power.
- Encipherment in the presentation layer can provide integrity without
- recovery, non-repudiation, and all confidentiality.
- 3) If simple bulk protection of all end-system to end-system
- communications and/or an external encipherment device is desired (e.g.
- in order to give physical protection to algorithm and keys or
- protection against faulty software), then network layer encipherment
- will be chosen. This can provide confidentiality and integrity without
- recovery.
- Note ù Although recovery is not provided in the network layer, the
- normal recovery mechanisms of the transport layer can be used to
- recover from attacks detected by the network layer.
- 4) If integrity with recovery is required together with a high granularity
- of protection, then transport layer encipherment will be chosen. This
- can provide confidentiality and integrity, with or without recovery.
- 5) Encipherment at the data link layer is not recommended for future
- implementations.
- C.2 When two or more of these key issues are of concern, encipherment may need
- to be provided in more than one layer.
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