Hi Richard,

Thanks for posting the diff, I reviewed the changes and they look
good, but I have a couple of questions.  FYI - I had started looking
at the PR, but something came up, sorry for the delay and this was a
good reminder.

On Thu, Oct 19, 2017 at 12:45 PM, Richard Barnes <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Kathleen,
>
> Thanks for the review.  Some responses inline.  I've started a PR to respond
> to these comments here:
>
> https://github.com/ietf-wg-acme/acme/pull/345
>
> I agree with Daniel that we should hold off on IETF LC until we've addressed
> the issues around proactive issuance / caching of CSRs.  That may require a
> re-WGLC, but once that's closed, it should be safe to send to IETF LC.
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 4:14 PM, Kathleen Moriarty
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> Thank you to the editors and WG for your efforts on
>> draft-ietf-acme-acme, it's a well written and easy to understand
>> draft.  I do have a few comments, that need to be address by the
>> editors and SHEPHERD.
>>
>> Please review the idnits.  There are a few warnings that should be
>> correctable and can be addressed, but more importantly, it calls out
>> several downrefs that are not in the shepherd writeup.  These need to
>> be in the writeup and then also mentioned in the IETF last call
>> announcement (I'll make sure the latter happens).
>>
>> Here's my mostly editorial comments:
>>
>> Introduction:
>> It reads very well, but it would be helpful to those unfamiliar with
>> the work to explicitly state that ACME is about DV certificates.  The
>> first sentence of the last paragraph seems like the best place to add
>> this in.
>> Current text:
>>    This document describes an extensible framework for automating the
>>    issuance and domain validation procedure, thereby allowing servers
>>    and infrastructural software to obtain certificates without user
>>    interaction.
>> Proposed:
>>    This document describes an extensible framework for automating the
>>    issuance and domain validation procedure for DV certificates,
>> thereby allowing servers
>>    and infrastructural software to obtain certificates without user
>>    interaction.
>
>
> As others have pointed out, ACME is not just about DV.  PR has some
> clarification on this point.

I see the text on uses in other PKI contexts in the introduction, but
don't see anything on the certificate types and out-of-band processes
(as is the case for the STIR use case Mary mentioned).  Maybe I'm
missing it, can you tell me where to look?

>
>
>>
>> I do like how the introduction is framed as it’s clear the level of
>> security provided by the certificates issued via ACME.  Thanks for
>> that.
>>
>> The introduction should also make it clear that ACME can be used for
>> other services using DV certificates, not just HTTP.  This is
>> mentioned in the Terminology section, but I think a clear sentence
>> upfront would be helpful.
>>
>> Section 2: Nit/suggestion: Change the tense to read as a published RFC
>> in the last paragraph, last sentence (take it or leave it).
>> Current:
>>    Such close integration of ACME with HTTPS
>>    servers would allow the immediate and automated deployment of
>>    certificates as they are issued, sparing the human administrator from
>>    much of the time-consuming work described in the previous section.
>> Proposed:
>>    Such close integration of ACME with HTTPS
>>    servers allows the immediate and automated deployment of
>>    certificates as they are issued, sparing the human administrator from
>>    much of the time-consuming work described in the previous section.
>
>
> Done.
>
>
>>
>> IANA Section:
>> Everything looks good except that RFC5226 has been obsoleted, so the
>> new reference is RFC8126 and “specification required”
>> https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8126#section-4.6 still means the same
>> thing, so using that is fine.
>
>
> Updated reference.
>
>
>>
>> Security considerations:
>> I think it would be good to mention here that they are DV certs so the
>> reader understands from he introduction and this section the level of
>> cert issued through ACME and doesn’t assume a higher level of
>> assurance.
>>
>> s/ACME is a protocol for managing certificates/ACME is a protocol for
>> managing DV certificates/
>
>
> Given the discussion about DV, I don't think this change is appropriate.
>
>
>>
>> 10.1 - I know this is obvious to the people in the WG, but a reference
>> to RFC7525 to properly configure TLS 1.2 should be included to protect
>> against the mentioned attacks.  If you want to also reference TLS 1.3
>> and specify no 0-RTT that would be good too.  It’d be great to see
>> this get widely deployed, so there may be a number of newcomers
>> reading this to make their lives easier with cert
>> issuance/maintenance.
>
>
> I don't see how TLS configuration plays into the security considerations for
> ACME.  How you use the certificates you get from ACME is your business, and
> indeed, several of the envisioned applications have nothing to do with TLS
> (e.g., the email and STIR use cases).
>
> That said, I have added some language to suggest that ACME servers should
> follow the advice in RFC 7525.  0xRTT should be safe here, because there are
> anti-replay protections at the application layer.

Can you add a pointer in your text about the provided anti-replay
protections in the application layer?

Thanks,
Kathleen

>
>
>>
>> 10.2 - what if the server that the account verifier has an account on
>> (client for ACME) is compromised and is used to request new
>> certificates or perform other actions?  I think this is one of the
>> larger risks, so mentioning this is possible and hardening measures
>> should be taken to prevent compromise would be prudent.  Hardening
>> measures or appropriate security controls should be broadly understood
>> terms (I think) so that you wouldn’t need to list out things like
>> turing off unnecessary services.
>
>
> Added a brief note.
>
>
>>
>> 10.5 - I would think you’d see requests for new phishing domains
>> rather than known ones through this process.  What would you look for
>> there as that’s a complex problem - it would be hard to know all legit
>> names to know if one was a play off of the original.  This happened
>> with equifax - they provided a site name with a typo and a ‘white hat’
>> attacker had set up a site that looked just like theirs at that site.
>> But it was announced by equifax.  Tough problem as automating a check
>> on the DNS registration may not detect something unusual, but maybe
>> recommending this check could help?  RDP lessens what needs to be
>> shared from whois though, although I don’t think that’s widely
>> deployed.
>
>
> This is a policy question, not one for the issuance protocol.
>
> --Richard
>
>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Kathleen
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Acme mailing list
>> [email protected]
>> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/acme
>
>



-- 

Best regards,
Kathleen

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