Hi again,

On 8/23/20 7:12 PM, Alan DeKok wrote:
> On Aug 23, 2020, at 9:48 AM, Mohit Sethi M <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Sorry, but you are missing context here. The discussion was no longer
>> about sending an EAP failure when no suitable EAP methods are available.
>> Terry and I were discussing the direction of NAK messages in an EAP
>> conversation. I highlighted that a NAK is only sent by the peer to the
>> server (and not in the reverse direction). To this, Terry pointed to the
>> following text in RFC 3579 Section 2.6.2 titled "Role Reversal":
>    Ok.
>
>>>      Since EAP is a peer-to-peer protocol, an independent and simultaneous
>>>      authentication may take place in the reverse direction.  Both peers
>>>      may act as authenticators and authenticatees at the same time.
>>>
>>>      However, role reversal is not supported by this specification.  A
>>>      RADIUS server MUST respond to an Access-Request encapsulating an
>>>      EAP-Request with an Access-Reject.  In order to avoid retransmissions
>>>      by the peer, the Access-Reject SHOULD include an EAP-Response/Nak
>>>      packet indicating no preferred method, encapsulated within
>>>      EAP-Message attribute(s).
>    FreeRADIUS allows EAP-Request, largely for LEAP.  Tho TBH that should 
> probably be deleted.
>
>> It may seem from this text that a NAK is sent in the reverse direction
>> (i.e. from server to peer). But I was pointing to Terry that this NAK is
>> sent by the RADIUS server (and not the EAP server). So the fact that NAK
>> messages are sent by the EAP peer only still holds true. This protection
>> against retransmissions is not implemented in hostap ( as you can see in
>> https://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/tree/src/radius/radius_server.c#n1437) or
>> FreeRADIUS. I suspect because deployments don't encounter this kind of
>> role reversal in practice.
>    Yes, I haven't seen EAP -Request sent to RADIUS servers, other than for 
> LEAP.
>
>    I'm not sure what you mean by "protection against retransmissions" though.

Well. I am referring to the text from the RFC 3579: "In order to avoid 
retransmissions by the peer, the Access-Reject SHOULD include an 
EAP-Response/Nak packet indicating no preferred method, encapsulated 
within EAP-Message attribute(s)." It is clear that hostap does not (yet) 
implement this SHOULD. I suspect that FreeRADIUS doesn't either. Maybe 
that's because it needs to allow role reversal (i.e. peer sending an 
EAP-Request) for LEAP?

--Mohit

>
>    Alan DeKok.
>
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