Network Working Group P Metzger Internet Draft Piermont W A Simpson DayDreamer expires in six months April 1996 IP Authentication using Keyed SHA1 with Data Padding draft-simpson-ah-sha-kdp-00.txt Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft. Internet Drafts are working doc- uments of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its Areas, and its Working Groups. Note that other groups may also distribute work- ing 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 not appropriate to use Internet Drafts as refer- ence material, or to cite them other than as a ``working draft'' or ``work in progress.'' To learn the current status of any Internet-Draft, please check the ``1id-abstracts.txt'' listing contained in the internet-drafts Shadow Directories on: ftp.is.co.za (Africa) nic.nordu.net (Europe) ds.internic.net (US East Coast) ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast) munnari.oz.au (Pacific Rim) Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Abstract This document describes the use of keyed SHA1 with the IP Authentica- tion Header. Metzger & Simpson expires in six months [Page i] DRAFT AH SHA April 1996 1. Introduction The Authentication Header (AH) [RFC-1826] provides integrity and authentication for IP datagrams. This specification describes the AH use of keys with the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA1) [FIPS-180-1]. This SHA1-KDP algorithm uses a leading and trailing key (a variant of the "envelope method"), with alignment padding between both keys and data. It should be noted that this document specifies a newer version of the SHA than that described in [FIPS-180], which was flawed. The older version is not interoperable with the newer version. This document assumes that the reader is familiar with the related document "Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol" [RFC-1825], that defines the overall security plan for IP, and pro- vides important background for this specification. 1.1. Keys The secret authentication key shared between the communicating par- ties SHOULD be a cryptographically strong random number, not a guess- able string of any sort. The shared key is not constrained by this transform to any particular size. Lengths of 160-bits (20 octets) MUST be supported by the implementation, although any particular key may be shorter. Longer keys are encouraged. 1.2. Data Size SHA1's 160-bit output is naturally 32-bit aligned. However, many implementations require 64-bit alignment of the following headers. Therefore, several options are available for data alignment (most preferred to least preferred): 1) only the most significant 128-bits (16 octets) of output are used. 2) an additional 32-bits (4 octets) of padding is added before the SHA1 output. 3) an additional 32-bits (4 octets) of padding is added after the SHA1 output. Metzger & Simpson expires in six months [Page 1] DRAFT AH SHA April 1996 4) the SHA1 output is variably bit-positioned within 192-bits (24 octets). The size and position of the output are negotiated as part of the key management. Padding bits are filled with unspecified implementation dependent (random) values, which are ignored on receipt. Discussion: Although truncation of the output for alignment purposes may appear to reduce the effectiveness of the algorithm, some analysts of attack verification suggest that this may instead improve the overall robustness [PO95a]. 1.3. Performance Preliminary results indicate that SHA1 is 62% as fast as MD5, and 80% as fast as DES hashing. That is: SHA1 < DES < MD5 This appears to be a reasonable performance tradeoff, as SHA1 inter- nal chaining is significantly longer than either DES or MD5: DES < MD5 < SHA1 Nota Bene: Suggestions are sought on alternative authentication algorithms that have significantly faster throughput, are not patent- encumbered, and still retain adequate cryptographic strength. 2. Calculation The 160-bit digest is calculated as described in [FIPS-180-1]. A portable C language implementation of SHA1 is available via FTP from ftp://rand.org/pub/jim/sha.tar.gz. The form of the authenticated message is: SHA1( key, keyfill, datagram, datafill, key, sha1fill ) First, the variable length secret authentication key is filled to the next 512-bit boundary, using the same pad-with-length technique defined for SHA1. The padding technique includes a length that pro- tects arbitrary length keys. Metzger & Simpson expires in six months [Page 2] DRAFT AH SHA April 1996 Next, the filled key is concatenated with (immediately followed by) the invariant fields of the entire IP datagram (variant fields are zeroed). This is also filled to the next 512-bit boundary, using the same pad-with-length technique defined for SHA1. The length includes the leading key and data. Then, the filled data is concatenated with (immediately followed by) the original variable length key again. A trailing pad-with-length to the next 512-bit boundary for the entire message is added by SHA1 itself. Finally, the 160-bit SHA1 digest is calculated, and the result is inserted into the Authentication Data field. Discussion: The leading copy of the key is padded in order to facilitate copy- ing of the key at machine boundaries without requiring re- alignment of the following datagram. Filling to the SHA1 block size also allows the key to be prehashed to avoid the physical copy in some implementations. The trailing copy of the key is not necessary to protect against appending attacks, as the IP datagram already includes a total length field. It reintroduces mixing of the entire key, providing protection for very long and very short datagrams, and robustness against possible attacks on the IP length field itself. When the implementation adds the keys and padding in place before and after the IP datagram, care must be taken that the keys and/or padding are not sent over the link by the link driver. A. Changes Changes from RFC-1852: Use of SHA1 term (as always intended). Added shortened 128-bit output, and clarify output text. Added tradeoff text. Changed padding technique to comply with Crypto '95 recommendations. Updated references. Updated contacts. Metzger & Simpson expires in six months [Page 3] DRAFT AH SHA April 1996 Minor editorial changes. Security Considerations Users need to understand that the quality of the security provided by this specification depends completely on the strength of the SHA1 hash function, the correctness of that algorithm's implementation, the security of the key management mechanism and its implementation, the strength of the key, and upon the correctness of the implementa- tions in all of the participating nodes. The SHA algorithm was originally derived from the MD4 algorithm [RFC-1320]. A flaw was apparently found in the original specifica- tion of SHA [FIPS-180], and this document specifies the use of a cor- rected version [FIPS-180-1]. At the time of writing of this document, there are no known flaws in the SHA1 algorithm. That is, there are no known attacks on SHA1 or any of its components that are better than brute force, and the 160-bit hash size of SHA1 is substantially more resistant to brute force attacks than the 128-bit hash size of MD4 and MD5. However, as the flaw in the original SHA1 algorithm shows, cryptogra- phers are fallible, and there may be substantial deficiencies yet to be discovered in the algorithm. Acknowledgements Some of the text of this specification was derived from work by Ran- dall Atkinson for the SIP, SIPP, and IPv6 Working Groups. Preliminary performance analysis was provided by Joe Touch. Padding the leading copy of the key to a hash block boundary for increased performance was originally suggested by William Allen Simp- son. Padding the leading copy of the key to a hash block boundary for increased security was suggested by [KR95]. Including the key length for increased security was suggested by David Wagner. Padding the datagram to a hash block boundary to avoid (an impracti- cal) key recovery attack was suggested by [PO95b]. Metzger & Simpson expires in six months [Page 4] DRAFT AH SHA April 1996 References [FIPS-180] "Secure Hash Standard", Computer Systems Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Depart- ment Of Commerce, May 1993. Also known as: 58 Fed Reg 27712 (1993). [FIPS-180-1] "Secure Hash Standard", National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department Of Commerce, April 1995. Also known as: 59 Fed Reg 35317 (1994). [KR95] Kaliski, B., and Robshaw, M., "Message authentication with MD5", CryptoBytes (RSA Labs Technical Newsletter), vol.1 no.1, Spring 1995. [PO95a] Preneel, B., and van Oorshot, P., "MDx-MAC and Building Fast MACs from Hash Functions", Advances in Cryptology -- Crypto '95 Proceedings, Santa Barbara, California, August 1995. [PO95b] Preneel, B., and van Oorshot, P., "On the Security of Two MAC Algorithms", Presented at the Rump Session of Crypto '95, Santa Barbara, California, August 1995. [RFC-1320] Ronald Rivest, "The MD4 Message-Digest Algorithm", RFC-1320, April 1992. [RFC-1700] Reynolds, J., and Postel, J., "Assigned Numbers", STD 2, RFC 1700, USC/Information Sciences Institute, October 1994. [RFC-1825] Atkinson, R., "Security Architecture for the Internet Proto- col", RFC-1825, Naval Research Laboratory, July 1995. [RFC-1826] Atkinson, R., "IP Authentication Header", RFC-1826, Naval Research Laboratory, July 1995. Contacts Metzger & Simpson expires in six months [Page 5] DRAFT AH SHA April 1996 Comments about this document should be discussed on the ipsec- dev@terisa.com mailing list. Questions about this document can also be directed to: Perry Metzger Piermont Information Systems Inc. 160 Cabrini Blvd., Suite #2 New York, NY 10033 perry@piermont.com William Allen Simpson Daydreamer Computer Systems Consulting Services 1384 Fontaine Madison Heights, Michigan 48071 wsimpson@UMich.edu wsimpson@GreenDragon.com (preferred) bsimpson@MorningStar.com Metzger & Simpson expires in six months [Page 6]