Updated #284 to clarify the token entropy requirement in the security
considerations section. Thanks for the feedback.

On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 5:30 PM, Daniel McCarney <[email protected]>
wrote:

> I think Daniel's change at https://github.com/ietf-wg-
>> acme/acme/pull/284/files is a nice quick fix to the issue, but I agree
>> it could use a few extra sentences explaining it in security considerations.
>
>
> I will take a crack at amending this PR with a few sentences in the
> security considerations section.
>
> On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 3:24 PM, Jacob Hoffman-Andrews <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> Yep, I think there are two ways of thinking about this, though it's
>> effectively a single problem:
>>
>>  1. Prevent attackers from tricking a validation endpoint into serving a
>> valid challenge response.
>>  2. Prevent ACME clients from implementing a "naive" validation method
>> that would make (1) trivial.
>>
>> I think Daniel's change at https://github.com/ietf-wg-acm
>> e/acme/pull/284/files is a nice quick fix to the issue, but I agree it
>> could use a few extra sentences explaining it in security considerations.
>>
>>
>> On 03/23/2017 10:34 AM, Zach Shepherd wrote:
>>
>> It seems like the goal of this is to ensure that the ACME client is not
>> able to control (or, perhaps, even influence) the choice of token and 
>> requiring
>> that the token be sufficiently random is one way to achieve this. This
>> prevents an attacker from "tricking" the ACME server into using a
>> verification performed by the owner of an identifier as proof that the
>> attacker controls the identifier.
>>
>> Is this accurate? If so, it seems like some version of this explanation
>> should be included in the Security Considerations section.
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* Daniel McCarney <[email protected]> <[email protected]>
>> *Sent:* Wednesday, March 22, 2017 10:30 AM
>> *To:* Zach Shepherd
>> *Cc:* [email protected]
>> *Subject:* Re: [Acme] Entropy requirement for challenge token
>>
>> Hi Zach,
>>
>> > This seems incongruous. If the token must be kept secret an attacker,
>>> it should not be served via an unauthenticated channel.
>>
>>
>> I agree the wording makes it incongruous, I was caught up on this the
>> other week until it was clarified for me by Jacob.
>>
>> The token is random not to prevent a guessing attack but to prevent the
>> implementation of a server that can automatically reply to challenges
>> without being a party to the authorization creation (e.g. knowing the
>> token). It's OK for the token to be served via an unauthenticated channel,
>> it just can't be predictable.
>>
>> I took a crack at rewording this in https://github.com/ietf-wg-
>> acme/acme/pull/284
>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__github.com_ietf-2Dwg-2Dacme_acme_pull_284&d=DwMFaQ&c=uilaK90D4TOVoH58JNXRgQ&r=Z9jmRNJFc0_mrYgZ7k4FWDuC1AsqA1UJKUYIM6ZnnNk&m=-wsi8BGqTPZ2pJgly5Zek9hlFtTALxFUHGs27TMvg1s&s=_Tra8Ezjve5vo2ooWGFKPe2BHELn3kzY0WMkDBK3nLw&e=>
>> - Hopefully if I'm completely off-base someone can correct it to be
>> accurate & understandable.
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 1:12 AM, Zach Shepherd <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> The following feedback is based on 8010a31 (current HEAD of master).
>>>
>>> Section 6.2, Request Authentication, states "Note that authentication
>>> via signed JWS request bodies implies that GET requests are not
>>> authenticated. Servers MUST NOT respond to GET requests for resources that
>>> might be considered sensitive. Account resources are the only sensitive
>>> resources defined in this specification."
>>>
>>> Sections 8.2, HTTP; 8.3, TLS with Server Name Indication (TLS SNI); and
>>> 8.4, DNS, each describe a GET request and specify a "token" value which
>>> "MUST have at least 128 bits of entropy, in order to prevent an attacker
>>> from guessing it."
>>>
>>> This seems incongruous. If the token must be kept secret an attacker, it
>>> should not be served via an unauthenticated channel.
>>>
>>> Assuming secrecy of the token is not important, I would propose removing
>>> the entropy requirement and including some discussion of the token in
>>> Section 10, Security Considerations.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Zach Shepherd
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Acme mailing list
>>> [email protected]
>>> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/acme
>>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.ietf.org_mailman_listinfo_acme&d=DwMFaQ&c=uilaK90D4TOVoH58JNXRgQ&r=Z9jmRNJFc0_mrYgZ7k4FWDuC1AsqA1UJKUYIM6ZnnNk&m=-wsi8BGqTPZ2pJgly5Zek9hlFtTALxFUHGs27TMvg1s&s=aKavTfL1kLx6wAvRKcSMGq_FwERH4NCW4EQ--ipFWts&e=>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>
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