Internet Engineering Task Force

Operational Security Capabilities for IP Network Infrastructure (opsec)

Last Modified: 2009-04-20

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

Chair(s):

Operations and Management Area Director(s):

Operations and Management Area Advisor:

Ronald Bonica <rbonica@juniper.net>

Mailing Lists:

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

Description of Working Group:

Goals:

The OPSEC WG will document best current practices with regard to network
security. In particular an effort will be made to clarify the rationale
supporting current operational practice, address gaps in currently
understood best practices for forwarding, control plane, and management
plane security and make clear the liabilities inherent in security
practices where they exist.

Scope:

The scope of the OPSEC WG is intended to include the protection and
secure operation of the forwarding, control and management planes.

Documentation of best common practices, revision of existing operational
security practices documents and proposals for new approaches to
operational challenges are in scope.

Method:

It is expected that the work product of the working group will fall into
the category of best current practices documents. Taxonomy or problem
statement documents may provide a basis for best current practices
documents.

Best Current Practices Document

For each topic addressed, a document will be produced that attempts to
capture current practices related to secure operation. This will be
primarily based on operational experience. Each entry will list:

* threats addressed,
* current practices for addressing the threat,
* protocols, tools and technologies extant at the time of writing that
are used to address the threat,
* the possibility that a solution does not exist within existing tools
or technologies.

Taxonomy and Problem Statement Documents

A document which attempts to describe the scope of particular
operational security challenge or problem space without necessarily
coming to a conclusion or proposing a solution. Such a document might be
a precursor to a best common practices document.

While the principal input of the Working Group are operational
experience and needs, the output should be directed both to provide
guidance to the operators community as well as to Working Groups that
develop protocols or the community of protocol developers at large, as
well as to the implementers of these protocols.

Non-Goals:

The Operations security working group is not the place to do new
protocols.

New protocol work should be addressed in a working group chartered in
the appropriate area or as individual submissions. The OPSEC WG may take
on documents related to the practices of using such work.

Goals and Milestones:

Done		Complete Charter
Done		First draft of Framework Document as Internet Draft
Done		First draft of Standards Survey Document as Internet Draft
Done		First draft of Packet Filtering Capabilities
Done		First draft of Event Logging Capabilities
Done		First draft of Network Operator Current Security Practices
Done		First draft of In-Band management capabilities
Done		First draft of Out-of-Band management capabilities
Done		First draft of Configuration and Management Interface Capabilities
Feb 2005		First draft of Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) Capabilities
Feb 2005		First draft of Documentation and Assurance capabilities
Done		First draft of Miscellaneous capabilities
Mar 2005		First draft of Deliberations Summary document
Mar 2005		Submit Framework to IESG
Mar 2005		Submit Standards Survey to IESG
Done		Submit Network Operator Current Security Practices to IESG
May 2005		First draft of ISP Operational Security Capabilities Profile
May 2005		First draft of Enterprise Operational Security Capabilities Profile
Jun 2005		Submit Packet Filtering capabilities to IESG
Jun 2005		Submit Event Logging Capabilities document to IESG
Jul 2005		Submit In-Band management capabilities to IESG
Jul 2005		Submit Out-of-Band management capabilities to IESG
Aug 2005		Submit Configuration and Management Interface Capabilities to IESG
Aug 2005		Submit Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) capabilities document to IESG
Sep 2005		Submit Documentation and Assurance capabilities to IESG
Sep 2005		Submit Miscellaneous capabilities document to IESG
Dec 2005		Submit ISP Operational Security Capabilities Profile to IESG
Dec 2005		Submit Large Enterprise Operational Security Capabilities Profile to IESG
Dec 2005		Submit OPSEC Deliberation Summary document to IESG
Nov 2008		Submit a draft to the IESG regarding filtering of ICMP messages in the backbone
Mar 2009		Submit a draft to the IESG regarding backbone threats and mitigations
Mar 2009		Submit a draft to the IESG regarding BGP Session Security

Internet-Drafts:

Security Best Practices Efforts and Documents (59864 bytes)
Recommendations for filtering ICMP messages (86523 bytes)
Issues with existing Cryptographic Protection Methods for Routing Protocols (44886 bytes)
Security Assessment of the Internet Protocol version 4 (172363 bytes)
Cryptographic Authentication Algorithm Implementation Best Practices for Routing Protocols (25342 bytes)

Request For Comments:

Operational Security Current Practices in Internet Service Provider Environments (RFC 4778) (88344 bytes)
Remote Triggered Black Hole Filtering with Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding (uRPF) (RFC 5635) (30232 bytes)