Internet Engineering Task Force

Common Authentication Technology Next Generation (kitten)

Last Modified: 2011-08-18

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

Chair(s):

Security Area Director(s):

Security Area Advisor:

Stephen Farrell <stephen.farrell@cs.tcd.ie>

Mailing Lists:

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

Description of Working Group:

The Generic Security Services (GSS) API and Simple Authentication and
Security Layer (SASL) provide various applications with a security
framework for secure network communication. The purpose of the Common
Authentication Technology Next Generation (Kitten) working group (WG) is
to develop extensions/improvements to the GSS-API, shepherd specific
GSS-API security mechanisms, and provide guidance for any new SASL-
related submissions.

This working is chartered to specify the following extensions and
improvements (draft-yu-kitten-api-wishlist-00) to the GSS-API:

* Provide new interfaces for credential management, which include the
following:
initializing credentials
iterating credentials
exporting/importing credentials

* Specify interface for asynchronous calls.

* Negotiable replay cache avoidance

* Define interfaces for better error message reporting.

* Provide a more programmer friendly GSS-API for application developers.
This could include reducing the number of interface parameters, for
example, by eliminating parameters which are commonly used with the
default values.

* Specify an option for exporting partially-established security
contexts and possibly a utility function for exporting security
contexts in an encrypted form, as well as a corresponding utility
function to decrypt and import such security context tokens.

This WG is also chartered to finalize proposed SASL mechanisms as
GSS-API mechanisms (based on RFC 5801):

* A SASL Mechanism for OpenID

draft-ietf-kitten-sasl-openid

* SASL Mechanisms for SAML:

draft-ietf-kitten-sasl-saml
draft-cantor-ietf-kitten-saml-ec

The SAML mechanism drafts will include applicability
statement text to highlight when each is appropriate
for use.

* A SASL Mechanism for OAuth

draft-mills-kitten-sasl-oauth

The transition from SASL to GSS-API mechanisms will allow a greater set
of applications to utilize said mechanisms with SASL implementations
that support the use of GSS-API mechanisms in SASL (RFC 5801).

This WG should review proposals for new SASL and GSS-API mechanisms, but
may take on work on such mechanisms only through a revision of this
charter. The WG should also review non-mechanism proposals related to
SASL and the GSS-API. However, work that adds SASL or GSS-API support in
application protocols is out of scope and should be handled by the
corresponding application's WG.

Deliverables:

* GSS-API: initializing credentials

* GSS-API: iterating credentials

* GSS-API: exporting/importing credentials

* GSS-API: specification for asynchronous calls

* GSS-API: interfaces/improvements for better error message reporting

* GSS-API: programmer friendly interfaces

* SASL: SASL mechanism for OpenID

* SASL: SASL mechanisms for SAML

* SASL: SASL mechanism for OAuth

* GSS-API: publish draft-ietf-kitten-gssapi-extensions-iana

Goals and Milestones:

Jul 2011		Submit SASL OpenID mechanism to the IESG as Proposed Standard
Jul 2011		Submit naming-exts to the IESG as Proposed Standard
Jul 2011		WGLC on gssapi-extensions-iana
Aug 2011		Submit SASL SAML mechanisms to the IESG as Proposed Standard
Sep 2011		Submit gssapi-extensions-iana to the IESG as Proposed Standard

Internet-Drafts:

Namespace Considerations and Registries for GSS-API Extensions (22430 bytes)
GSS-API Naming Extensions (34523 bytes)
A SASL & GSS-API Mechanism for OpenID (44346 bytes)
A SASL and GSS-API Mechanism for SAML (43637 bytes)
SAML Enhanced Client SASL and GSS-API Mechanisms (46198 bytes)

Request For Comments: