Internet-Draft D. Bider Updates: 4252, 4253 (if approved) Bitvise Limited Intended status: Standards Track August 22, 2017 Expires: February 22, 2018 Use of RSA Keys with SHA-2 256 and 512 in Secure Shell (SSH) draft-ietf-curdle-rsa-sha2-10.txt Abstract This memo updates RFC 4252 and RFC 4253 to define new public key algorithms for use of RSA keys with SHA-2 hashing for server and client authentication in SSH connections. Status This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 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Bider [Page 1] Internet-Draft RSA Keys with SHA-2 in SSH August 2017 This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF Contributions published or made publicly available before November 10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process. Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other than English. 1. Overview and Rationale Secure Shell (SSH) is a common protocol for secure communication on the Internet. In [RFC4253], SSH originally defined the public key algorithms "ssh-rsa" for server and client authentication using RSA with SHA-1, and "ssh-dss" using 1024-bit DSA and SHA-1. These algorithms are now considered deficient. For US government use, NIST has disallowed 1024-bit RSA and DSA, and use of SHA-1 for signing [800-131A]. This memo updates RFC 4252 and RFC 4253 to define new public key algorithms allowing for interoperable use of existing and new RSA keys with SHA-2 hashing. 1.1. Requirements Terminology The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119]. 1.2. Wire Encoding Terminology The wire encoding types in this document - "boolean", "byte", "string", "mpint" - have meanings as described in [RFC4251]. 2. Public Key Format vs. Public Key Algorithm In [RFC4252], the concept "public key algorithm" is used to establish a relationship between one algorithm name, and: A. Procedures used to generate and validate a private/public keypair. B. A format used to encode a public key. C. Procedures used to calculate, encode, and verify a signature. This document uses the term "public key format" to identify only A and B in isolation. The term "public key algorithm" continues to identify all three aspects A, B, and C. Bider [Page 2] Internet-Draft RSA Keys with SHA-2 in SSH August 2017 3. New RSA Public Key Algorithms This memo adopts the style and conventions of [RFC4253] in specifying how use of a public key algorithm is indicated in SSH. The following new public key algorithms are defined: rsa-sha2-256 RECOMMENDED sign Raw RSA key rsa-sha2-512 OPTIONAL sign Raw RSA key These algorithms are suitable for use both in the SSH transport layer [RFC4253] for server authentication, and in the authentication layer [RFC4252] for client authentication. Since RSA keys are not dependent on the choice of hash function, the new public key algorithms reuse the "ssh-rsa" public key format as defined in [RFC4253]: string "ssh-rsa" mpint e mpint n All aspects of the "ssh-rsa" format are kept, including the encoded string "ssh-rsa". This allows existing RSA keys to be used with the new public key algorithms, without requiring re-encoding, or affecting already trusted key fingerprints. Signing and verifying using these algorithms is performed according to the RSASSA-PKCS1-v1_5 scheme in [RFC8017] using SHA-2 [SHS] as hash. For the algorithm "rsa-sha2-256", the hash used is SHA-2 256. For the algorithm "rsa-sha2-512", the hash used is SHA-2 512. The resulting signature is encoded as follows: string "rsa-sha2-256" / "rsa-sha2-512" string rsa_signature_blob The value for 'rsa_signature_blob' is encoded as a string containing S - an octet string which is the output of RSASSA-PKCS1-v1_5, of length equal to the length in octets of the RSA modulus. Bider [Page 3] Internet-Draft RSA Keys with SHA-2 in SSH August 2017 3.1. Use for server authentication To express support and preference for one or both of these algorithms for server authentication, the SSH client or server includes one or both algorithm names, "rsa-sha2-256" and/or "rsa-sha2-512", in the name-list field "server_host_key_algorithms" in the SSH_MSG_KEXINIT packet [RFC4253]. If one of the two host key algorithms is negotiated, the server sends an "ssh-rsa" public key as part of the negotiated key exchange method (e.g. in SSH_MSG_KEXDH_REPLY), and encodes a signature with the appropriate signature algorithm name - either "rsa-sha2-256", or "rsa-sha2-512". 3.2. Use for client authentication To use this algorithm for client authentication, the SSH client sends an SSH_MSG_USERAUTH_REQUEST message [RFC4252] encoding the "publickey" method, and encoding the string field "public key algorithm name" with the value "rsa-sha2-256" or "rsa-sha2-512". The "public key blob" field encodes the RSA public key using the "ssh-rsa" public key format. The signature field, if present, encodes a signature using an algorithm name that MUST match the SSH authentication request - either "rsa-sha2-256", or "rsa-sha2-512". For example, as defined in [RFC4252] and [RFC4253], an SSH "publickey" authentication request using an "rsa-sha2-512" signature would be properly encoded as follows: byte SSH_MSG_USERAUTH_REQUEST string user name string service name string "publickey" boolean TRUE string "rsa-sha2-512" string public key blob: string "ssh-rsa" mpint e mpint n string signature: string "rsa-sha2-512" string rsa_signature_blob 3.3. Discovery of public key algorithms supported by servers Implementation experience has shown that there are servers which apply authentication penalties to clients attempting public key algorithms which the SSH server does not support. Servers that accept rsa-sha2-* signatures for client authentication SHOULD implement the extension negotiation mechanism defined in [EXT-INFO], including especially the "server-sig-algs" extension. Bider [Page 4] Internet-Draft RSA Keys with SHA-2 in SSH August 2017 When authenticating with an RSA key against a server that does not implement the "server-sig-algs" extension, clients MAY default to an "ssh-rsa" signature to avoid authentication penalties. When the new rsa-sha2-* algorithms have been sufficiently widely adopted to warrant disabling "ssh-rsa", clients MAY default to one of the new algorithms. 4. IANA Considerations IANA is requested to update the "Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Parameters" registry established with [RFC4250], to extend the table Public Key Algorithm Names [IANA-PKA]: - To the immediate right of the column Public Key Algorithm Name, a new column is to be added, titled Public Key Format. For existing entries, the column Public Key Format should be assigned the same value found under Public Key Algorithm Name. - Immediately following the existing entry for "ssh-rsa", two sibling entries are to be added: P. K. Alg. Name P. K. Format Reference Note rsa-sha2-256 ssh-rsa [this document] Section 3 rsa-sha2-512 ssh-rsa [this document] Section 3 5. Security Considerations The security considerations of [RFC4251] apply to this document. 5.1. Key Size and Signature Hash The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-131A [800-131A] disallows the use of RSA and DSA keys shorter than 2048 bits for US government use after 2013. The same document disallows the SHA-1 hash function, as used in the "ssh-rsa" and "ssh-dss" algorithms, for digital signature generation after 2013. 5.2. Transition This document is based on the premise that RSA is used in environments where a gradual, compatible transition to improved algorithms will be better received than one that is abrupt and incompatible. It advises that SSH implementations add support for new RSA public key algorithms along with SSH_MSG_EXT_INFO and the "server-sig-algs" extension to allow coexistence of new deployments with older versions that support only "ssh-rsa". Nevertheless, implementations SHOULD start to disable "ssh-rsa" in their default configurations as soon as they have reason to believe that new RSA signature algorithms have been widely adopted. Bider [Page 5] Internet-Draft RSA Keys with SHA-2 in SSH August 2017 5.3. PKCS#1 v1.5 Padding and Signature Verification This document prescribes RSASSA-PKCS1-v1_5 signature padding because: (1) RSASSA-PSS is not universally available to all implementations; (2) PKCS#1 v1.5 is widely supported in existing SSH implementations; (3) PKCS#1 v1.5 is not known to be insecure for use in this scheme. Implementers are advised that a signature with PKCS#1 v1.5 padding MUST NOT be verified by applying the RSA key to the signature, and then parsing the output to extract the hash. This may give an attacker opportunities to exploit flaws in the parsing and vary the encoding. Verifiers MUST instead apply PKCS#1 v1.5 padding to the expected hash, then compare the encoded bytes with the output of the RSA operation. Bider [Page 6] Internet-Draft RSA Keys with SHA-2 in SSH August 2017 6. References 6.1. Normative References [SHS] National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States of America, "Secure Hash Standard (SHS)", FIPS Publication 180-4, August 2015, . [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. [RFC4251] Lehtinen, S. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Architecture", RFC 4251, January 2006. [RFC4252] Ylonen, T. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure Shell (SSH) Authentication Protocol", RFC 4252, January 2006. [RFC4253] Ylonen, T. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer Protocol", RFC 4253, January 2006. 6.2. Informative References [800-131A] National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), "Transitions: Recommendation for Transitioning the Use of Cryptographic Algorithms and Key Lengths", NIST Special Publication 800-131A, January 2011, . [RFC4250] Lehtinen, S. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Assigned Numbers", RFC 4250, January 2006. [RFC6979] Pornin, T., "Deterministic Usage of the Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) and Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA)", RFC 6979, August 2013. [RFC8017] Moriarty, K., Kaliski, B., Jonsson, J. and Rusch, A., "PKCS #1: RSA Cryptography Specifications Version 2.2", RFC 8017, November 2016. [EXT-INFO] Bider, D., "Extension Negotiation in Secure Shell (SSH)", draft-ietf-curdle-ssh-ext-info-12.txt, August 2017, . [IANA-PKA] "Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Parameters", . Bider [Page 7] Internet-Draft RSA Keys with SHA-2 in SSH August 2017 Author's Address Denis Bider Bitvise Limited 4105 Lombardy Court Colleyville, Texas 76034 United States of America Email: ietf-ssh3@denisbider.com URI: https://www.bitvise.com/ Acknowledgments Thanks to Jon Bright, Niels Moeller, Stephen Farrell, Mark D. Baushke, Jeffrey Hutzelman, Hanno Boeck, Peter Gutmann, Damien Miller, Mat Berchtold, Roumen Petrov, Daniel Migault, and Eric Rescorla for reviews, comments, and suggestions. Bider [Page 8]