Network Working Group                                          J. Schaad
Internet-Draft                                   Soaring Hawk Consulting
Intended status: Standards Track                       November 22, 2010
Expires: May 26, 2011

               Signer Info Algorithm Protection Attribute
               draft-schaad-smime-algorithm-attribute-02
               draft-schaad-smime-algorithm-attribute-03

Abstract

   A new attribute is defined that allows for protection of the digest
   and signature algorithm structures in an authenticated data or a
   signer info structure.  Using the attribute includes the algorithm
   definition information in the integrity protection process.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     1.1.  Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.  Attribute Structure  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.  Verification Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.1.  Signed Data Verification Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.2.  Authenticated Data Verification Changes  . . . . . . . . .  7
   4.  Security  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   5.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   6.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     5.1. 10
     6.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     5.2. 10
     6.2.  Informational References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9 10
   Appendix A.  ASN.1 Module  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 11
   Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 13

1.  Introduction

   In the current definition of [CMS], there are some fields that are
   not protected in the process of doing either a signature validation
   or an authentication validation.  In this document a new signed or
   authenticated attribute is defined which permits these fields to be
   validated.

   Taking the SignerInfo structure from CMS, let's look at each of the
   fields and discuss what is and is not protected by the signature.
   The ASN.1 is included here for convenience.  (The analysis of
   AuthenticatedData is similar.)

         SignerInfo ::= SEQUENCE {
           version CMSVersion,
           sid SignerIdentifier,
           digestAlgorithm DigestAlgorithmIdentifier,
           signedAttrs [0] IMPLICIT SignedAttributes OPTIONAL,
           signatureAlgorithm SignatureAlgorithmIdentifier,
           signature SignatureValue,
           unsignedAttrs [1] IMPLICIT UnsignedAttributes OPTIONAL }

   version  is not protected by the signature.  Many implementations of
      CMS today actually ignore the value of this field.  If the
      structure decodes then this is considered sufficient to continue
      processing.  Using most decoders on the market the value of this
      field does not control how the decoding is actually processed.

   sid  can be protected by the use of either version of the signing
      certificate authenticated attribute.  SigningCertificateV2 is
      defined in [RFC5035].  SigningCertificate is defined in [RFC2634].
      In addition to allowing for the protection of the signer
      identifier, the specific certificate is protected by including a
      hash of the certificate to be used for validation.

   digestAlgorithm  the digest algorithm used has been implicitly
      protected by the fact that CMS has only defined one digest
      algorithm for each hash value length.  (The algorithm RIPEM-160
      was never standardized).  If newer digest algorithms are defined
      where there are multiple algorithms for a given hash length, or
      where parameters are defined for a specific algorithm, this
      implicit protection will no longer exist.

   signedAttributes  are directly protected by the signature when they
      are present.  The DER encoding of this value is what is actually
      hashed for the signature computation.

   signatureAlgorithm  has been protected by implication in the past.
      The use of an RSA public key implied that the RSA v 1.5 signature
      algorithm was being used.  The hash algorithm and this fact could
      be checked by the internal padding defined.  This is no longer
      true with the addition of the RSA-PSS signature algorithms.  The
      use of a DSA public key implied the SHA-1 hash algorithm as that
      was the only possible hash algorithm and the DSA was the public
      signature algorithm.  This is longer true with the addition of the
      SHA2 signature algorithms.

   signature  is not directly protected by any other value unless a
      counter signature is present.  However this represents the
      cryptographically computed value that protects the rest of the
      signature information.

   unsignedAttrs  is not protected by the signature value.  It is also
      explicitly designed not to be protected by the signature value.

   As can be seen above, the digestAlgorithm and signatureAlgorithm
   fields have been indirectly rather than explicitly protected in the
   past.  With new algorithms that have been or are being defined this
   will no longer be the case.  This document defines and describes a
   new attribute that will explicitly protect these fields along with
   the macAlgorithm field of the AuthenticatedData structure.

1.1.  Notation

   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].

2.  Attribute Structure

   The following defines the algorithm protection attribute:

   The algorithm-protection attribute has the ASN.1 type
   CMSAlgorithmProtection:

       aa-cmsAlgorithmProtection ATTRIBUTE ::= {
           TYPE CMSAlgorithmProtection
           IDENTIFIED BY { id-aa-CMSAlgorithmProtection }
       }

   The following object identifier identifies the algorithm-protection
   attribute:

       id-aa-CMSAlgorithmProtection OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { iso(1)
            member-body(2) us(840) rsadsi(113549) pkcs(1) pkcs9(9) 52 }

   The algorithm-protection attribute uses the following ASN.1 type:

      CMSAlgorithmProtection ::= SEQUENCE {
          digestAlgorithm         DigestAlgorithmIdentifier,
          signatureAlgorithm  [1] SignatureAlgorithmIdentifier OPTIONAL,
          macAlgorithm        [2] MessageAuthenticationCodeAlgorithm
                                           OPTIONAL
      }
      (WITH COMPONENTS { signatureAlgorithm PRESENT,
                         macAlgorithm ABSENT } |
       WITH COMPONENTS { signatureAlgorithm ABSENT,
                         macAlgorithm PRESENT })

   The fields are defined as follows:

   digestAlgorithm  contains a copy of the SignerInfo.digestAlgorithm
      field or the AuthenticatedData.digestAlgorithm field including any
      parameters associated with it.

   signatureAlgorithm  contains a copy of the signature algorithm
      identifier and any parameters associated with it.  This field is
      only populated if the attribute is placed in a
      SignerInfo.signedAttrs sequence.

   macAlgorithm  contains a copy of the message authentication code
      algorithm identifier and any parameters associated with it.  This
      field is only populated if the attribute is placed in an
      AuthenticatedData.authAttrs sequence.

   Exactly one of signatureAlgorithm and macAlgorithm SHALL be present.

   An algorithm-protection attribute MUST have a single attribute value,
   even though the syntax is defined as a SET OF AttributeValue.  There
   MUST NOT be zero or multiple instances of AttributeValue present.

   The algorithm-protection attribute MUST be a signed attribute or an
   authenticated attribute; it MUST NOT be an unsigned attribute, an
   unauthenticated attribute or an unprotected attribute.

   The SignedAttributes and AuthAttributes syntax are each defined as a
   SET of Attributes.  The SignedAttributes in a signerInfo MUST include
   only one instance of the algorithm protection attribute.  Similarly,
   the AuthAttributes in an AuthenticatedData MUST include only one
   instance of the algorithm protection attribute.

3.  Verification Process

   The exact verification process depends on the structure being dealt
   with.

   When doing comparisons of the fields, a field whose value is a
   default value and one which is explicitly provided MUST compare as
   equivalent.  It is not required that a field which is absent in one
   case and present in another case be compared as equivalent.  (This
   means that an algorithm identifier with absent parameters and one
   with NULL parameters are not expected to compare as equivalent.)

3.1.  Signed Data Verification Changes

   If a CMS validator supports this attribute, the following additional
   verification steps MUST be performed:

   1.  The SignerInfo.digestAlgorithm field MUST be compared to the
   digestAlgorithm field in the attribute.  If the fields are not the
   same (modulo encoding) then signature validation MUST fail.

   2.  The SignerInfo.signatureAlgorithm field MUST be compared to the
   signatureAlgorithm field in the attribute.  If the fields are not the
   same (modulo encoding) then the signature validation MUST fail.

3.2.  Authenticated Data Verification Changes

   If a CMS validator supports this attribute, the following additional
   verification steps MUST be performed:

   1.  The AuthenticatedData.digestAlgorithm field MUST be compared to
   the digestAlgorithm field in the attribute.  If the fields are not
   same (modulo encoding) then signature validation MUST fail.

   2.  The AuthenticatedData.macAlgorithm field MUST be compared to the
   macAlgorithm field in the attribute.  If the fields are not the same
   (modulo encoding) then the signature validation MUST fail.

4.  IANA Considerations

   There are no IANA considerations.  All identifiers are assigned out
   of the S/MIME OID arc.

5.  Security Considerations

   This document is designed to address the security issue of algorithm
   substitutions of the algorithms used by the validator.  At this time
   there is no known method to exploit this type of attack.  If the
   attack could be successful, then either a weaker algorithm could be
   substituted for a stronger algorithm or the parameters could be
   modified by an attacker to change the behavior of the hashing
   algorithm used.  (One example would be changing the initial parameter
   value for [I-D.schaad-smime-hash-experiment].)

   The attribute defined in this document is to be placed in a location
   that is protected by the signature or message authentication code.
   This attribute does not provide any additional security if placed in
   an un-signed or un-authenticated location.

5.

6.  References

5.1.

6.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC2634]  Hoffman, P., "Enhanced Security Services for S/MIME",
              RFC 2634, June 1999.

   [RFC5035]  Schaad, J., "Enhanced Security Services (ESS) Update:
              Adding CertID Algorithm Agility", RFC 5035, August 2007.

   [CMS]      Housley, R., "Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)",
              RFC 5652, September 2009.

   [RFC5912]  Hoffman, P. and J. Schaad, "New ASN.1 Modules for the
              Public Key Infrastructure Using X.509 (PKIX)", RFC 5912,
              June 2010.

5.2.

6.2.  Informational References

   [I-D.schaad-smime-hash-experiment]
              Schaad, J., "Experiment: Hash functions with parameters in
              CMS and S/MIME", draft-schaad-smime-hash-experiment-01
              (work in progress), December 2009.

Appendix A.  ASN.1 Module

  CMSAlgorithmProtectionAttribute
    { iso(1) member-body(2) us(840) rsadsi(113549)
      pkcs(1) pkcs-9(9) smime(16) modules(0)
      id-mod-cms-algorithmProtect(52) }
  DEFINITIONS IMPLICIT TAGS ::=
  BEGIN
   IMPORTS

     -- Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS) [RFC5652] [CMS]

     DigestAlgorithmIdentifier, MessageAuthenticationCodeAlgorithm,
     SignatureAlgorithmIdentifier
     FROM  CryptographicMessageSyntax-2009
       { iso(1) member-body(2) us(840) rsadsi(113549)
         pkcs(1) pkcs-9(9) smime(16) modules(0) id-mod-cms-2004-02(41) }

     -- Common PKIX structures [RFC5912]

     ATTRIBUTE
     FROM PKIX-CommonTypes-2009
       { iso(1) identified-organization(3) dod(6) internet(1)
         security(5) mechanisms(5) pkix(7) id-mod(0)
         id-mod-pkixCommon-02(57)};

     --
     --  The CMS Algorithm Protection attribute is a Signed Attribute or
     --  an Authenticated Attribute.
     --
     --  Add this attribute to SignedAttributesSet in [RFC5652] [CMS]
     --  Add this attribute to AuthAttriuteSet AuthAttributeSet in [RFC5652] [CMS]
     --

     aa-cmsAlgorithmProtection ATTRIBUTE ::= {
        TYPE CMSAlgorithmProtection
        IDENTIFIED BY { id-aa-cmsAlgorithmProtect }
     }

     id-aa-cmsAlgorithmProtect OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= {
        iso(1) member-body(2) us(840) rsadsi(113549) pkcs(1)
        pkcs9(9) 52 }

     CMSAlgorithmProtection ::= SEQUENCE {
        digestAlgorithm         DigestAlgorithmIdentifier,
        signatureAlgorithm  [1] SignatureAlgorithmIdentifier OPTIONAL,
        macAlgorithm        [2] MessageAuthenticationCodeAlgorithm
                                          OPTIONAL

     }
     (WITH COMPONENTS { signatureAlgorithm PRESENT,
                        macAlgorithm ABSENT } |
      WITH COMPONENTS { signatureAlgorithm ABSENT,
                        macAlgorithm PRESENT })

  END

Author's Address

   Jim Schaad
   Soaring Hawk Consulting
   PO Box 675
   Gold Bar, WA  98251

   Email: ietf@augustcellars.com