RFC 2264
User-based Security Model (USM) for version 3 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv3)
7. HMAC-SHA-96 Authentication Protocol This section describes the HMAC-SHA-96 authentication protocol. This protocol uses the SHA hash-function which is described in [SHA-NIST], in HMAC mode described in [RFC2104], truncating the output to 96 bits. This protocol is identified by usmHMACSHAAuthProtocol. Over time, other authentication protocols may be defined either as a replacement of this protocol or in addition to this protocol. 7.1. Mechanisms - In support of data integrity, a message digest algorithm is required. A digest is calculated over an appropriate portion of an SNMP message and included as part of the message sent to the recipient. - In support of data origin authentication and data integrity, a secret value is prepended to the SNMP message prior to computing the digest; the calculated digest is then partially inserted into the message prior to transmission. The prepended secret is not transmitted. The secret value is shared by all SNMP engines authorized to originate messages on behalf of the appropriate user. 7.1.1. Digest Authentication Mechanism The Digest Authentication Mechanism defined in this memo provides for: - verification of the integrity of a received message, i.e., the the message received is the message sent. The integrity of the message is protected by computing a digest over an appropriate portion of the message. The digest is computed by the originator of the message, transmitted with the message, and verified by the recipient of the message. - verification of the user on whose behalf the message was generated. A secret value known only to SNMP engines authorized to generate messages on behalf of a user is used in HMAC mode (see [RFC2104]). It also recommends the hash-function output used as Message Authentication Code, to be truncated.
This mechanism uses the SHA [SHA-NIST] message digest algorithm. A 160-bit SHA digest is calculated in a special (HMAC) way over the designated portion of an SNMP message and the first 96 bits of this digest is included as part of the message sent to the recipient. The size of the digest carried in a message is 12 octets. The size of the private authentication key (the secret) is 20 octets. For the details see section 7.3. 7.2. Elements of the HMAC-SHA-96 Authentication Protocol This section contains definitions required to realize the authentication module defined in this section of this memo. 7.2.1. Users Authentication using this authentication protocol makes use of a defined set of userNames. For any user on whose behalf a message must be authenticated at a particular SNMP engine, that SNMP engine must have knowledge of that user. An SNMP engine that wishes to communicate with another SNMP engine must also have knowledge of a user known to that engine, including knowledge of the applicable attributes of that user. A user and its attributes are defined as follows: <userName> A string representing the name of the user. <authKey> A user's secret key to be used when calculating a digest. It MUST be 20 octets long for SHA. 7.2.2. msgAuthoritativeEngineID The msgAuthoritativeEngineID value contained in an authenticated message specifies the authoritative SNMP engine for that particular message (see the definition of SnmpEngineID in the SNMP Architecture document [RFC2261]). The user's (private) authentication key is normally different at each authoritative SNMP engine and so the snmpEngineID is used to select the proper key for the authentication process.
7.2.3. SNMP Messages Using this Authentication Protocol Messages using this authentication protocol carry a msgAuthenticationParameters field as part of the msgSecurityParameters. For this protocol, the msgAuthenticationParameters field is the serialized OCTET STRING representing the first 12 octets of HMAC-SHA-96 output done over the wholeMsg. The digest is calculated over the wholeMsg so if a message is authenticated, that also means that all the fields in the message are intact and have not been tampered with. 7.2.4. Services provided by the HMAC-SHA-96 Authentication Module This section describes the inputs and outputs that the HMAC-SHA-96 Authentication module expects and produces when the User-based Security module calls the HMAC-SHA-96 Authentication module for services. 7.2.4.1. Services for Generating an Outgoing SNMP Message HMAC-SHA-96 authentication protocol assumes that the selection of the authKey is done by the caller and that the caller passes the secret key to be used. Upon completion the authentication module returns statusInformation and, if the message digest was correctly calculated, the wholeMsg with the digest inserted at the proper place. The abstract service primitive is: statusInformation = -- success or failure authenticateOutgoingMsg( IN authKey -- secret key for authentication IN wholeMsg -- unauthenticated complete message OUT authenticatedWholeMsg -- complete authenticated message ) The abstract data elements are: statusInformation An indication of whether the authentication process was successful. If not it is an indication of the problem. authKey The secret key to be used by the authentication algorithm. The length of this key MUST be 20 octets. wholeMsg The message to be authenticated.
authenticatedWholeMsg
The authenticated message (including inserted digest) on output.
Note, that authParameters field is filled by the authentication
module and this field should be already present in the wholeMsg
before the Message Authentication Code (MAC) is generated.
7.2.4.2. Services for Processing an Incoming SNMP Message
HMAC-SHA-96 authentication protocol assumes that the selection of the
authKey is done by the caller and that the caller passes the secret
key to be used.
Upon completion the authentication module returns statusInformation
and, if the message digest was correctly calculated, the wholeMsg as
it was processed. The abstract service primitive is:
statusInformation = -- success or failure
authenticateIncomingMsg(
IN authKey -- secret key for authentication
IN authParameters -- as received on the wire
IN wholeMsg -- as received on the wire
OUT authenticatedWholeMsg -- complete authenticated message
)
The abstract data elements are:
statusInformation
An indication of whether the authentication process was
successful. If not it is an indication of the problem.
authKey
The secret key to be used by the authentication algorithm.
The length of this key MUST be 20 octets.
authParameters
The authParameters from the incoming message.
wholeMsg
The message to be authenticated on input and the authenticated
message on output.
authenticatedWholeMsg
The whole message after the authentication check is complete.
7.3. Elements of Procedure
This section describes the procedures for the HMAC-SHA-96
authentication protocol.
7.3.1. Processing an Outgoing Message This section describes the procedure followed by an SNMP engine whenever it must authenticate an outgoing message using the usmHMACSHAAuthProtocol. 1) The msgAuthenticationParameters field is set to the serialization, according to the rules in [RFC1906], of an OCTET STRING containing 12 zero octets. 2) From the secret authKey, two keys K1 and K2 are derived: a) extend the authKey to 64 octets by appending 44 zero octets; save it as extendedAuthKey b) obtain IPAD by replicating the octet 0x36 64 times; c) obtain K1 by XORing extendedAuthKey with IPAD; d) obtain OPAD by replicating the octet 0x5C 64 times; e) obtain K2 by XORing extendedAuthKey with OPAD. 3) Prepend K1 to the wholeMsg and calculate the SHA digest over it according to [SHA-NIST]. 4) Prepend K2 to the result of the step 4 and calculate SHA digest over it according to [SHA-NIST]. Take the first 12 octets of the final digest - this is Message Authentication Code (MAC). 5) Replace the msgAuthenticationParameters field with MAC obtained in the step 5. 6) The authenticatedWholeMsg is then returned to the caller together with statusInformation indicating success. 7.3.2. Processing an Incoming Message This section describes the procedure followed by an SNMP engine whenever it must authenticate an incoming message using the usmHMACSHAAuthProtocol. 1) If the digest received in the msgAuthenticationParameters field is not 12 octets long, then an failure and an errorIndication (authenticationError) is returned to the calling module. 2) The MAC received in the msgAuthenticationParameters field is saved. 3) The digest in the msgAuthenticationParameters field is replaced by the 12 zero octets.
4) From the secret authKey, two keys K1 and K2 are derived:
a) extend the authKey to 64 octets by appending 44 zero
octets; save it as extendedAuthKey
b) obtain IPAD by replicating the octet 0x36 64 times;
c) obtain K1 by XORing extendedAuthKey with IPAD;
d) obtain OPAD by replicating the octet 0x5C 64 times;
e) obtain K2 by XORing extendedAuthKey with OPAD.
5) The MAC is calculated over the wholeMsg:
a) prepend K1 to the wholeMsg and calculate the SHA digest
over it;
b) prepend K2 to the result of step 5.a and calculate the
SHA digest over it;
c) first 12 octets of the result of step 5.b is the MAC.
The msgAuthenticationParameters field is replaced with the MAC
value that was saved in step 2.
6) The the newly calculated MAC is compared with the MAC saved in
step 2. If they do not match, then a failure and an
errorIndication (authenticationFailure) are returned to the
calling module.
7) The authenticatedWholeMsg and statusInformation indicating
success are then returned to the caller.
8. CBC-DES Symmetric Encryption Protocol
This section describes the CBC-DES Symmetric Encryption Protocol.
This protocol is the first privacy protocol defined for the User-
based Security Model.
This protocol is identified by usmDESPrivProtocol.
Over time, other privacy protocols may be defined either as a
replacement of this protocol or in addition to this protocol.
8.1. Mechanisms
- In support of data confidentiality, an encryption algorithm is
required. An appropriate portion of the message is encrypted prior
to being transmitted. The User-based Security Model specifies that
the scopedPDU is the portion of the message that needs to be
encrypted.
- A secret value in combination with a timeliness value is used
to create the en/decryption key and the initialization vector. The
secret value is shared by all SNMP engines authorized to originate
messages on behalf of the appropriate user.
8.1.1. Symmetric Encryption Protocol
The Symmetric Encryption Protocol defined in this memo provides
support for data confidentiality. The designated portion of an SNMP
message is encrypted and included as part of the message sent to the
recipient.
Two organizations have published specifications defining the DES: the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) [DES-NIST] and
the American National Standards Institute [DES-ANSI]. There is a
companion Modes of Operation specification for each definition
([DESO-NIST] and [DESO-ANSI], respectively).
The NIST has published three additional documents that implementors
may find useful.
- There is a document with guidelines for implementing and using
the DES, including functional specifications for the DES and its
modes of operation [DESG-NIST].
- There is a specification of a validation test suite for the DES
[DEST-NIST]. The suite is designed to test all aspects of the DES
and is useful for pinpointing specific problems.
- There is a specification of a maintenance test for the DES
[DESM-NIST]. The test utilizes a minimal amount of data and
processing to test all components of the DES. It provides a simple
yes-or-no indication of correct operation and is useful to run as
part of an initialization step, e.g., when a computer re-boots.
8.1.1.1. DES key and Initialization Vector.
The first 8 octets of the 16-octet secret (private privacy key) are
used as a DES key. Since DES uses only 56 bits, the Least
Significant Bit in each octet is disregarded.
The Initialization Vector for encryption is obtained using the
following procedure.
The last 8 octets of the 16-octet secret (private privacy key) are
used as pre-IV.
In order to ensure that the IV for two different packets encrypted by the same key, are not the same (i.e., the IV does not repeat) we need to "salt" the pre-IV with something unique per packet. An 8-octet string is used as the "salt". The concatenation of the generating SNMP engine's 32-bit snmpEngineBoots and a local 32-bit integer, that the encryption engine maintains, is input to the "salt". The 32-bit integer is initialized to an arbitrary value at boot time. The 32-bit snmpEngineBoots is converted to the first 4 octets (Most Significant Byte first) of our "salt". The 32-bit integer is then converted to the last 4 octet (Most Significant Byte first) of our "salt". The resulting "salt" is then XOR-ed with the pre-IV. The 8- octet "salt" is then put into the privParameters field encoded as an OCTET STRING. The "salt" integer is then modified. We recommend that it be incremented by one and wrap when it reaches the maximum value. How exactly the value of the "salt" (and thus of the IV) varies, is an implementation issue, as long as the measures are taken to avoid producing a duplicate IV. The "salt" must be placed in the privParameters field to enable the receiving entity to compute the correct IV and to decrypt the message. 8.1.1.2. Data Encryption. The data to be encrypted is treated as sequence of octets. Its length should be an integral multiple of 8 - and if it is not, the data is padded at the end as necessary. The actual pad value is irrelevant. The data is encrypted in Cipher Block Chaining mode. The plaintext is divided into 64-bit blocks. The plaintext for each block is XOR-ed with the ciphertext of the previous block, the result is encrypted and the output of the encryption is the ciphertext for the block. This procedure is repeated until there are no more plaintext blocks. For the very first block, the Initialization Vector is used instead of the ciphertext of the previous block.
8.1.1.3. Data Decryption Before decryption, the encrypted data length is verified. If the length of the OCTET STRING to be decrypted is not an integral multiple of 8 octets, the decryption process is halted and an appropriate exception noted. When decrypting, the padding is ignored. The first ciphertext block is decrypted, the decryption output is XOR-ed with the Initialization Vector, and the result is the first plaintext block. For each subsequent block, the ciphertext block is decrypted, the decryption output is XOR-ed with the previous ciphertext block and the result is the plaintext block. 8.2. Elements of the DES Privacy Protocol This section contains definitions required to realize the privacy module defined by this memo. 8.2.1. Users Data en/decryption using this Symmetric Encryption Protocol makes use of a defined set of userNames. For any user on whose behalf a message must be en/decrypted at a particular SNMP engine, that SNMP engine must have knowledge of that user. An SNMP engine that wishes to communicate with another SNMP engine must also have knowledge of a user known to that SNMP engine, including knowledge of the applicable attributes of that user. A user and its attributes are defined as follows: <userName> An octet string representing the name of the user. <privKey> A user's secret key to be used as input for the DES key and IV. The length of this key MUST be 16 octets. 8.2.2. msgAuthoritativeEngineID The msgAuthoritativeEngineID value contained in an authenticated message specifies the authoritative SNMP engine for that particular message (see the definition of SnmpEngineID in the SNMP Architecture document [RFC2261]).
The user's (private) privacy key is normally different at each authoritative SNMP engine and so the snmpEngineID is used to select the proper key for the en/decryption process. 8.2.3. SNMP Messages Using this Privacy Protocol Messages using this privacy protocol carry a msgPrivacyParameters field as part of the msgSecurityParameters. For this protocol, the msgPrivacyParameters field is the serialized OCTET STRING representing the "salt" that was used to create the IV. 8.2.4. Services provided by the DES Privacy Module This section describes the inputs and outputs that the DES Privacy module expects and produces when the User-based Security module invokes the DES Privacy module for services. 8.2.4.1. Services for Encrypting Outgoing Data This DES privacy protocol assumes that the selection of the privKey is done by the caller and that the caller passes the secret key to be used. Upon completion the privacy module returns statusInformation and, if the encryption process was successful, the encryptedPDU and the msgPrivacyParameters encoded as an OCTET STRING. The abstract service primitive is: statusInformation = -- success of failure encryptData( IN encryptKey -- secret key for encryption IN dataToEncrypt -- data to encrypt (scopedPDU) OUT encryptedData -- encrypted data (encryptedPDU) OUT privParameters -- filled in by service provider ) The abstract data elements are: statusInformation An indication of the success or failure of the encryption process. In case of failure, it is an indication of the error. encryptKey The secret key to be used by the encryption algorithm. The length of this key MUST be 16 octets. dataToEncrypt The data that must be encrypted. encryptedData The encrypted data upon successful completion.
privParameters
The privParameters encoded as an OCTET STRING.
8.2.4.2. Services for Decrypting Incoming Data
This DES privacy protocol assumes that the selection of the privKey
is done by the caller and that the caller passes the secret key to be
used.
Upon completion the privacy module returns statusInformation and, if
the decryption process was successful, the scopedPDU in plain text.
The abstract service primitive is:
statusInformation =
decryptData(
IN decryptKey -- secret key for decryption
IN privParameters -- as received on the wire
IN encryptedData -- encrypted data (encryptedPDU)
OUT decryptedData -- decrypted data (scopedPDU)
)
The abstract data elements are:
statusInformation
An indication whether the data was successfully decrypted
and if not an indication of the error.
decryptKey
The secret key to be used by the decryption algorithm.
The length of this key MUST be 16 octets.
privParameters
The "salt" to be used to calculate the IV.
encryptedData
The data to be decrypted.
decryptedData
The decrypted data.
8.3. Elements of Procedure.
This section describes the procedures for the DES privacy protocol.
8.3.1. Processing an Outgoing Message
This section describes the procedure followed by an SNMP engine
whenever it must encrypt part of an outgoing message using the
usmDESPrivProtocol.
1) The secret cryptKey is used to construct the DES encryption key,
the "salt" and the DES pre-IV (as described in section 8.1.1.1).
2) The privParameters field is set to the serialization according
to the rules in [RFC1906] of an OCTET STRING representing the the
"salt" string.
3) The scopedPDU is encrypted (as described in section 8.1.1.2)
and the encrypted data is serialized according to the rules in
[RFC1906] as an OCTET STRING.
4) The serialized OCTET STRING representing the encrypted
scopedPDU together with the privParameters and statusInformation
indicating success is returned to the calling module.
8.3.2. Processing an Incoming Message
This section describes the procedure followed by an SNMP engine
whenever it must decrypt part of an incoming message using the
usmDESPrivProtocol.
1) If the privParameters field is not an 8-octet OCTET STRING,
then an error indication (decryptionError) is returned to the
calling module.
2) The "salt" is extracted from the privParameters field.
3) The secret cryptKey and the "salt" are then used to construct the
DES decryption key and pre-IV (as described in section 8.1.1.1).
4) The encryptedPDU is then decrypted (as described in
section 8.1.1.3).
5) If the encryptedPDU cannot be decrypted, then an error
indication (decryptionError) is returned to the calling module.
6) The decrypted scopedPDU and statusInformation indicating
success are returned to the calling module.
9. Intellectual Property
The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to
pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it
has made any effort to identify any such rights. Information on the
IETF's procedures with respect to rights in standards-track and
standards-related documentation can be found in BCP-11. Copies of
claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of
licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to
obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementors or users of this specification can be obtained from the IETF Secretariat. The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights which may cover technology that may be required to practice this standard. Please address the information to the IETF Executive Director. 10. Acknowledgements This document is the result of the efforts of the SNMPv3 Working Group. Some special thanks are in order to the following SNMPv3 WG members: Dave Battle (SNMP Research, Inc.) Uri Blumenthal (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center) Jeff Case (SNMP Research, Inc.) John Curran (BBN) T. Max Devlin (Hi-TECH Connections) John Flick (Hewlett Packard) David Harrington (Cabletron Systems Inc.) N.C. Hien (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center) Dave Levi (SNMP Research, Inc.) Louis A Mamakos (UUNET Technologies Inc.) Paul Meyer (Secure Computing Corporation) Keith McCloghrie (Cisco Systems) Russ Mundy (Trusted Information Systems, Inc.) Bob Natale (ACE*COMM Corporation) Mike O'Dell (UUNET Technologies Inc.) Dave Perkins (DeskTalk) Peter Polkinghorne (Brunel University) Randy Presuhn (BMC Software, Inc.) David Reid (SNMP Research, Inc.) Shawn Routhier (Epilogue) Juergen Schoenwaelder (TU Braunschweig) Bob Stewart (Cisco Systems) Bert Wijnen (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center) The document is based on recommendations of the IETF Security and Administrative Framework Evolution for SNMP Advisory Team. Members of that Advisory Team were: David Harrington (Cabletron Systems Inc.) Jeff Johnson (Cisco Systems) David Levi (SNMP Research Inc.) John Linn (Openvision)
Russ Mundy (Trusted Information Systems) chair
Shawn Routhier (Epilogue)
Glenn Waters (Nortel)
Bert Wijnen (IBM T. J. Watson Research Center)
As recommended by the Advisory Team and the SNMPv3 Working Group
Charter, the design incorporates as much as practical from previous
RFCs and drafts. As a result, special thanks are due to the authors
of previous designs known as SNMPv2u and SNMPv2*:
Jeff Case (SNMP Research, Inc.)
David Harrington (Cabletron Systems Inc.)
David Levi (SNMP Research, Inc.)
Keith McCloghrie (Cisco Systems)
Brian O'Keefe (Hewlett Packard)
Marshall T. Rose (Dover Beach Consulting)
Jon Saperia (BGS Systems Inc.)
Steve Waldbusser (International Network Services)
Glenn W. Waters (Bell-Northern Research Ltd.)
11. Security Considerations
11.1. Recommended Practices
This section describes practices that contribute to the secure,
effective operation of the mechanisms defined in this memo.
- An SNMP engine must discard SNMP Response messages that do not
correspond to any currently outstanding Request message. It is the
responsibility of the Message Processing module to take care of
this. For example it can use a msgID for that.
An SNMP Command Generator Application must discard any Response PDU
for which there is no currently outstanding Request PDU; for
example for SNMPv2 [RFC1905] PDUs, the request-id component in the
PDU can be used to correlate Responses to outstanding Requests.
Although it would be typical for an SNMP engine and an SNMP Command
Generator Application to do this as a matter of course, when using
these security protocols it is significant due to the possibility
of message duplication (malicious or otherwise).
- If an SNMP engine uses a msgID for correlating Response messages
to outstanding Request messages, then it MUST use different msgIDs
in all such Request messages that it sends out during a Time Window
(150 seconds) period.
A Command Generator or Notification Originator Application MUST use
different request-ids in all Request PDUs that it sends out during
a TimeWindow (150 seconds) period.
This must be done to protect against the possibility of message
duplication (malicious or otherwise).
For example, starting operations with a msgID and/or request-id
value of zero is not a good idea. Initializing them with an
unpredictable number (so they do not start out the same after each
reboot) and then incrementing by one would be acceptable.
- An SNMP engine should perform time synchronization using
authenticated messages in order to protect against the possibility
of message duplication (malicious or otherwise).
- When sending state altering messages to a managed authoritative
SNMP engine, a Command Generator Application should delay sending
successive messages to that managed SNMP engine until a positive
acknowledgement is received for the previous message or until the
previous message expires.
No message ordering is imposed by the SNMP. Messages may be
received in any order relative to their time of generation and each
will be processed in the ordered received. Note that when an
authenticated message is sent to a managed SNMP engine, it will be
valid for a period of time of approximately 150 seconds under
normal circumstances, and is subject to replay during this period.
Indeed, an SNMP engine and SNMP Command Generator Applications must
cope with the loss and re-ordering of messages resulting from
anomalies in the network as a matter of course.
However, a managed object, snmpSetSerialNo [RFC1907], is
specifically defined for use with SNMP Set operations in order to
provide a mechanism to ensure that the processing of SNMP messages
occurs in a specific order.
- The frequency with which the secrets of a User-based Security
Model user should be changed is indirectly related to the frequency
of their use.
Protecting the secrets from disclosure is critical to the overall
security of the protocols. Frequent use of a secret provides a
continued source of data that may be useful to a cryptanalyst in
exploiting known or perceived weaknesses in an algorithm. Frequent
changes to the secret avoid this vulnerability.
Changing a secret after each use is generally regarded as the most
secure practice, but a significant amount of overhead may be
associated with that approach.
Note, too, in a local environment the threat of disclosure may be
less significant, and as such the changing of secrets may be less
frequent. However, when public data networks are used as the
communication paths, more caution is prudent.
11.2 Defining Users
The mechanisms defined in this document employ the notion of users on
whose behalf messages are sent. How "users" are defined is subject
to the security policy of the network administration. For example,
users could be individuals (e.g., "joe" or "jane"), or a particular
role (e.g., "operator" or "administrator"), or a combination (e.g.,
"joe-operator", "jane-operator" or "joe-admin"). Furthermore, a user
may be a logical entity, such as an SNMP Application or a set of SNMP
Applications, acting on behalf of an individual or role, or set of
individuals, or set of roles, including combinations.
Appendix A describes an algorithm for mapping a user "password" to a
16 octet value for use as either a user's authentication key or
privacy key (or both). Note however, that using the same password
(and therefore the same key) for both authentication and privacy is
very poor security practice and should be strongly discouraged.
Passwords are often generated, remembered, and input by a human.
Human-generated passwords may be less than the 16 octets required by
the authentication and privacy protocols, and brute force attacks can
be quite easy on a relatively short ASCII character set. Therefore,
the algorithm is Appendix A performs a transformation on the
password. If the Appendix A algorithm is used, SNMP implementations
(and SNMP configuration applications) must ensure that passwords are
at least 8 characters in length.
Because the Appendix A algorithm uses such passwords (nearly)
directly, it is very important that they not be easily guessed. It
is suggested that they be composed of mixed-case alphanumeric and
punctuation characters that don't form words or phrases that might be
found in a dictionary. Longer passwords improve the security of the
system. Users may wish to input multiword phrases to make their
password string longer while ensuring that it is memorable.
Since it is infeasible for human users to maintain different
passwords for every SNMP engine, but security requirements strongly
discourage having the same key for more than one SNMP engine, the
User-based Security Model employs a compromise proposed in
[Localized-key]. It derives the user keys for the SNMP engines from
user's password in such a way that it is practically impossible to either determine the user's password, or user's key for another SNMP engine from any combination of user's keys on SNMP engines. Note however, that if user's password is disclosed, then key localization will not help and network security may be compromised in this case. Therefore a user's password or non-localized key MUST NOT be stored on a managed device/node. Instead the localized key SHALL be stored (if at all) , so that, in case a device does get compromised, no other managed or managing devices get compromised. 11.3. Conformance To be termed a "Secure SNMP implementation" based on the User-based Security Model, an SNMP implementation MUST: - implement one or more Authentication Protocol(s). The HMAC-MD5-96 and HMAC-SHA-96 Authentication Protocols defined in this memo are examples of such protocols. - to the maximum extent possible, prohibit access to the secret(s) of each user about which it maintains information in a Local Configuration Datastore (LCD) under all circumstances except as required to generate and/or validate SNMP messages with respect to that user. - implement the key-localization mechanism. - implement the SNMP-USER-BASED-SM-MIB. In addition, an authoritative SNMP engine SHOULD provide initial configuration in accordance with Appendix A.1. Implementation of a Privacy Protocol (the DES Symmetric Encryption Protocol defined in this memo is one such protocol) is optional. 12. References [RFC1321] Rivest, R., "Message Digest Algorithm MD5", RFC 1321, April 1992. [RFC1903] Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M. and S. Waldbusser, "Textual Conventions for Version 2 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1903, January 1996. [RFC1905] Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M. and S. Waldbusser, "Protocol Operations for Version 2 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1905, January 1996.
[RFC1906] Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M. and S. Waldbusser, "Transport Mappings for Version 2 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1906, January 1996. [RFC1907] Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M. and S. Waldbusser, "Management Information Base for Version 2 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1907 January 1996. [RFC2104] Krawczyk, H., Bellare, M., and R. Canetti, "HMAC: Keyed-Hashing for Message Authentication", RFC 2104, February 1997. [RFC2028] Hovey, R., and S. Bradner, "The Organizations Involved in the IETF Standards Process", BCP 11, RFC 2028, October 1996. [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. [RFC2261] Harrington, D., Presuhn, R., and B. Wijnen, "An Architecture for describing SNMP Management Frameworks", RFC 2261, January 1998. [RFC2262] Case, J., Harrington, D., Presuhn, R., and B. Wijnen, "Message Processing and Dispatching for the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)", RFC 2262, January 1998. [Localized-Key] U. Blumenthal, N. C. Hien, B. Wijnen "Key Derivation for Network Management Applications" IEEE Network Magazine, April/May issue, 1997. [DES-NIST] Data Encryption Standard, National Institute of Standards and Technology. Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 46-1. Supersedes FIPS Publication 46, (January, 1977; reaffirmed January, 1988). [DES-ANSI] Data Encryption Algorithm, American National Standards Institute. ANSI X3.92-1981, (December, 1980). [DESO-NIST] DES Modes of Operation, National Institute of Standards and Technology. Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 81, (December, 1980). [DESO-ANSI] Data Encryption Algorithm - Modes of Operation, American National Standards Institute. ANSI X3.106-1983, (May 1983). [DESG-NIST] Guidelines for Implementing and Using the NBS Data Encryption Standard, National Institute of Standards and Technology. Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS)
Publication 74, (April, 1981).
[DEST-NIST] Validating the Correctness of Hardware Implementations of
the NBS Data Encryption Standard, National Institute of Standards
and Technology. Special Publication 500-20.
[DESM-NIST] Maintenance Testing for the Data Encryption Standard,
National Institute of Standards and Technology. Special
Publication 500-61, (August, 1980).
[SHA-NIST] Secure Hash Algorithm. NIST FIPS 180-1, (April, 1995)
http://csrc.nist.gov/fips/fip180-1.txt (ASCII)
http://csrc.nist.gov/fips/fip180-1.ps (Postscript)
13. Editors' Addresses
Uri Blumenthal
IBM T. J. Watson Research
30 Saw Mill River Pkwy,
Hawthorne, NY 10532
USA
EMail: uri@watson.ibm.com
Phone: +1-914-784-7064
Bert Wijnen
IBM T. J. Watson Research
Schagen 33
3461 GL Linschoten
Netherlands
EMail: wijnen@vnet.ibm.com
Phone: +31-348-432-794
APPENDIX A - Installation A.1. SNMP engine Installation Parameters During installation, an authoritative SNMP engine SHOULD (in the meaning as defined in [RFC2119]) be configured with several initial parameters. These include: 1) A security posture The choice of security posture determines if initial configuration is implemented and if so how. One of three possible choices is selected: minimum-secure, semi-secure, very-secure (i.e., no-initial-configuration) In the case of a very-secure posture, there is no initial configuration, and so the following steps are irrelevant. 2) one or more secrets These are the authentication/privacy secrets for the first user to be configured. One way to accomplish this is to have the installer enter a "password" for each required secret. The password is then algorithmically converted into the required secret by: - forming a string of length 1,048,576 octets by repeating the value of the password as often as necessary, truncating accordingly, and using the resulting string as the input to the MD5 algorithm [MD5]. The resulting digest, termed "digest1", is used in the next step. - a second string is formed by concatenating digest1, the SNMP engine's snmpEngineID value, and digest1. This string is used as input to the MD5 algorithm [MD5]. The resulting digest is the required secret (see Appendix A.2). With these configured parameters, the SNMP engine instantiates the following usmUserEntry in the usmUserTable:
no privacy support privacy support
------------------ ---------------
usmUserEngineID localEngineID localEngineID
usmUserName "initial" "initial"
usmUserSecurityName "initial" "initial"
usmUserCloneFrom ZeroDotZero ZeroDotZero
usmUserAuthProtocol usmHMACMD5AuthProtocol usmHMACMD5AuthProtocol
usmUserAuthKeyChange "" ""
usmUserOwnAuthKeyChange "" ""
usmUserPrivProtocol none usmDESPrivProtocol
usmUserPrivKeyChange "" ""
usmUserOwnPrivKeyChange "" ""
usmUserPublic "" ""
usmUserStorageType anyValidStorageType anyValidStorageType
usmUserStatus active active
A.2. Password to Key Algorithm
A sample code fragment (section A.2.1) demonstrates the password to
key algorithm which can be used when mapping a password to an
authentication or privacy key using MD5. The reference source code of
MD5 is available in [RFC1321].
Another sample code fragment (section A.2.2) demonstrates the
password to key algorithm which can be used when mapping a password
to an authentication or privacy key using SHA (documented in SHA-
NIST).
An example of the results of a correct implementation is provided
(section A.3) which an implementor can use to check if his
implementation produces the same result.
A.2.1. Password to Key Sample Code for MD5
void password_to_key_md5(
u_char *password, /* IN */
u_int passwordlen, /* IN */
u_char *engineID, /* IN - pointer to snmpEngineID */
u_int engineLength /* IN - length of snmpEngineID */
u_char *key) /* OUT - pointer to caller 16-octet buffer */
{
MD5_CTX MD;
u_char *cp, password_buf[64];
u_long password_index = 0;
u_long count = 0, i;
MD5Init (&MD); /* initialize MD5 */
/**********************************************/
/* Use while loop until we've done 1 Megabyte */
/**********************************************/
while (count < 1048576) {
cp = password_buf;
for (i = 0; i < 64; i++) {
/*************************************************/
/* Take the next octet of the password, wrapping */
/* to the beginning of the password as necessary.*/
/*************************************************/
*cp++ = password[password_index++ % passwordlen];
}
MD5Update (&MD, password_buf, 64);
count += 64;
}
MD5Final (key, &MD); /* tell MD5 we're done */
/*****************************************************/
/* Now localize the key with the engineID and pass */
/* through MD5 to produce final key */
/* May want to ensure that engineLength <= 32, */
/* otherwise need to use a buffer larger than 64 */
/*****************************************************/
memcpy(password_buf, key, 16);
memcpy(password_buf+16, engineID, engineLength);
memcpy(password_buf+engineLength, key, 16);
MD5Init(&MD);
MD5Update(&MD, password_buf, 32+engineLength);
MD5Final(key, &MD);
return;
}
A.2.2. Password to Key Sample Code for SHA
void password_to_key_sha(
u_char *password, /* IN */
u_int passwordlen, /* IN */
u_char *engineID, /* IN - pointer to snmpEngineID */
u_int engineLength /* IN - length of snmpEngineID */
u_char *key) /* OUT - pointer to caller 20-octet buffer */
{
SHA_CTX SH;
u_char *cp, password_buf[72];
u_long password_index = 0;
u_long count = 0, i;
SHAInit (&SH); /* initialize SHA */
/**********************************************/
/* Use while loop until we've done 1 Megabyte */
/**********************************************/
while (count < 1048576) {
cp = password_buf;
for (i = 0; i < 64; i++) {
/*************************************************/
/* Take the next octet of the password, wrapping */
/* to the beginning of the password as necessary.*/
/*************************************************/
*cp++ = password[password_index++ % passwordlen];
}
SHAUpdate (&SH, password_buf, 64);
count += 64;
}
SHAFinal (key, &SH); /* tell SHA we're done */
/*****************************************************/
/* Now localize the key with the engineID and pass */
/* through SHA to produce final key */
/* May want to ensure that engineLength <= 32, */
/* otherwise need to use a buffer larger than 72 */
/*****************************************************/
memcpy(password_buf, key, 20);
memcpy(password_buf+20, engineID, engineLength);
memcpy(password_buf+engineLength, key, 20);
SHAInit(&SH);
SHAUpdate(&SH, password_buf, 40+engineLength);
SHAFinal(key, &SH);
return;
}
A.3. Password to Key Sample Results
A.3.1. Password to Key Sample Results using MD5
The following shows a sample output of the password to key algorithm
for a 16-octet key using MD5.
With a password of "maplesyrup" the output of the password to key
algorithm before the key is localized with the SNMP engine's
snmpEngineID is:
'9f af 32 83 88 4e 92 83 4e bc 98 47 d8 ed d9 63'H
After the intermediate key (shown above) is localized with the
snmpEngineID value of:
'00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02'H
the final output of the password to key algorithm is:
'52 6f 5e ed 9f cc e2 6f 89 64 c2 93 07 87 d8 2b'H
A.3.2. Password to Key Sample Results using SHA
The following shows a sample output of the password to key
algorithm for a 20-octet key using SHA.
With a password of "maplesyrup" the output of the password to key
algorithm before the key is localized with the SNMP engine's
snmpEngineID is:
'f1 be a9 ae 66 7f 4f b6 34 1e 51 af 06 80 7e 91 e4 3b 01 ac'H
After the intermediate key (shown above) is localized with the
snmpEngineID value of:
'00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02'H
the final output of the password to key algorithm is:
'8a a3 d9 9e 3e 30 56 f2 bf e3 a9 ee f3 45 d5 39 54 91 12 be'H
A.4. Sample encoding of msgSecurityParameters
The msgSecurityParameters in an SNMP message are represented as an
OCTET STRING. This OCTET STRING should be considered opaque outside a
specific Security Model.
The User-based Security Model defines the contents of the OCTET
STRING as a SEQUENCE (see section 2.4).
Given these two properties, the following is an example of the
msgSecurityParameters for the User-based Security Model, encoded as
an OCTET STRING:
04 <length>
30 <length>
04 <length> <msgAuthoritativeEngineID>
02 <length> <msgAuthoritativeEngineBoots>
02 <length> <msgAuthoritativeEngineTime>
04 <length> <msgUserName>
04 0c <HMAC-MD5-96-digest>
04 08 <salt>
Here is the example once more, but now with real values (except for
the digest in msgAuthenticationParameters and the salt in
msgPrivacyParameters, which depend on variable data that we have not
defined here):
Hex Data Description
-------------- -----------------------------------------------
04 39 OCTET STRING, length 57
30 37 SEQUENCE, length 55
04 0c 80000002 msgAuthoritativeEngineID: IBM
01 IPv4 address
09840301 9.132.3.1
02 01 01 msgAuthoritativeEngineBoots: 1
02 02 0101 msgAuthoritativeEngineTime: 257
04 04 62657274 msgUserName: bert
04 0c 01234567 msgAuthenticationParameters: sample value
89abcdef
fedcba98
04 08 01234567 msgPrivacyParameters: sample value
89abcdef
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