IETF - Working Group Charters

EAP Method Update (emu)

Last Modified: 2009-02-11

Additional information is available at tools.ietf.org/wg/emu

Chair(s):

Security Area Director(s):

Security Area Advisor:

Pasi Eronen <pasi.eronen@nokia.com>

Mailing Lists:

General Discussion: emu@ietf.org
To Subscribe: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/emu
Archive: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/emu/current/maillist.html

Description of Working Group:

The Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) [RFC 3748] is a network
access authentication framework used in the PPP, 802.11, 802.16, VPN,
PANA, and in some functions in 3G networks. EAP itself is a simple
protocol and actual authentication happens in EAP methods.

Over 40 different EAP methods exist. Most of these methods are
proprietary methods, but some are documented in informational RFCs. In
the past the lack of documented, open specifications has been a
deployment and interoperability problem. There are currently only two
EAP methods in the standards track that implement features such as key
derivation that are required for many modern applications.
Authentication types and credentials continue to evolve as do
requirements for EAP methods.

This group is chartered to work on the following types of mechanisms
to meet requirements relevant to EAP methods in RFC 3748, RFC 4017,
RFC 4962 and EAP Keying:

- A mechanism based on strong shared secrets. This mechanism should
strive to be simple and compact for implementation in resource
constrained environments.

- A document that defines EAP channel bindings and provides guidance
for establishing EAP channel bindings within EAP methods.

- Enable TLS-based EAP methods to support channel bindings. This item
will not generate a new method; rather, it will focus on adding
support for EAP channel bindings to the tunneled method (described
below), and if possible, other TLS-based EAP methods. Potential
mechanisms for adding channel binding support will be investigated,
including tunneling of channel binding parameters, or a TLS extension,
or other standard TLS mechanism

- A mechanism to support extensible communication within a TLS
protected tunnel. This mechanism will support meeting the requirements
of an enhanced TLS mechanism, a password based authentication
mechanism, and additional inner authentication mechanisms. It will
also support channel bindings (as described above) in order to meet
RFC 4962 requirements.

- A mechanism that makes use of existing password databases such as AAA
databases. This item will be based on the above tunnel method.

Goals and Milestones:

Done		Form design team to work on strong shared secret mechanism
Done		Submit 2716bis I-D
Jun 2006		Submit first draft of enhanced EAP-TLS I-D
Done		Submit first draft of shared secret mechanism I-D
Done		Form password based mechanism design team
Aug 2006		Submit 2716bis draft to IESG for Proposed Standard
Nov 2006		Submit 2716bis draft to IESG for draft standard
Dec 2006		Submit first draft password based method I-D
Jan 2007		Submit Strong Shared Secret Mechanism to IESG
Jan 2007		Submit enhanced EAP-TLS to IESG
Aug 2007		Submit password Based Mechanism to IESG
Jun 2008		Submit Tunnel and Password Method requirements first Draft
Sep 2008		Submit EAP Channel Bindings First Draft
Sep 2008		Submit Tunnel Method first draft
Oct 2008		Submit TLS based method channel binding first draft
Oct 2008		Submit Password Method first draft
Jan 2009		Send EAP Channel Bindings to IESG
Mar 2009		Send Tunnel Method to IESG
Apr 2009		Send TLS based method channel binding to IESG
Apr 2009		Send Password based method to IESG

Internet-Drafts:

Requirements for a Tunnel Based EAP Method (0 bytes)
Channel Binding Support for EAP Methods (0 bytes)

Request For Comments:

The EAP TLS Authentication Protocol (RFC 5216) (71599 bytes) obsoletes RFC 2716
Extensible Authentication Protocol - Generalized Pre-Shared Key (EAP-GPSK) Method (RFC 5433) (80452 bytes)