This generally seems like a good idea.

> However, included in the document is a new feature that we propose for 
> discussion: Support for TLS using
> a new packet type allows the TACACS protocol to upgrade itself to a TLS 
> tunnel. Please see section 3.6.2.
> This is added in a way that is intended not to interfere with any current 
> implementations of TACACS+.

I think this feature is a good addition.  The draft currently lacks a Security 
Considerations section - that would a good place to say that TLS is preferable 
to legacy TACACS encryption (3.6.1) *when there is a choice* and discuss the 
circumstances under which there is no choice (e.g., interoperability required 
with deployed systems).

Please consider the design alternative of using a separate port for 
TACACS-over-TLS (NB: "consider" *not* "change to").  There is no 
protocol-independent IETF consensus on whether separate ports should be used 
for secure and insecure variants of the same protocol, see section 7.4 of 
draft-ietf-tsvwg-port-use, currently at the RFC Editor:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-tsvwg-port-use-11#section-7.4

Hence, using a single port is fine, and is preferable in the absence of other 
considerations, as one less port is used.

I also see no IANA Considerations section - at a minimum, the AVPs in Section 7 
should be put into a new IANA registry, as that's an intended area of 
extensibility.  I also see a number of lists of values in Sections 4-6 that may 
also benefit from being put into IANA registries if there's a reasonable 
possibility of future additions.

> TACACS+ is a protocol widely deployed, based upon a draft specification that 
> Cisco submitted in 1998, but never completed to RFC status.
> The original draft has been tidied and lightly enhanced and resubmitted, with 
> the intent to finally get it published as a standard.

Some sort of reference to that original draft should be provided.  The current 
[TheDraft] reference to RFC 2200 for this purpose doesn't get that job done.  
It looks like that expired draft is draft-grant-tacacs-02.  Is RFC 1492 also 
relevant?

Thanks,
--David

From: OPSAWG [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Benoit Claise
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2015 8:52 AM
To: Douglas Gash (dcmgash); [email protected]
Subject: Re: [OPSAWG] TACACS+ RFC: Regarding submission

For information, the draft is at: 
http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-dahm-opsawg-tacacs/

Regards, B;
Please note the following concerning the document content:

The majority of the document is a cleaned and tidied refresh of the original 
draft.
However, included in the document is a new feature that we propose for 
discussion: Support for TLS using a new packet type allows the TACACS protocol 
to upgrade itself to a TLS tunnel. Please see section 3.6.2. This is added in a 
way that is intended not to interfere with any current implementations of 
TACACS+.

Also, a note in relation to TACACS+ and RADIUS. Although the protocols were 
probably about equivalent in 1998, the addition of EAP and other enhancements 
mean that RADIUS is the default protocol for Network Access. By reviving the 
TACACS+ draft we have no intention of influencing this status quo. However, 
TACACS+ does have a continued and widely deployed use case for Device 
Administration. This is due to its strict separation of authorisation from 
authentication which allows per-command authorisation, and its TCP transport 
for allowing effective accounting. It is to support this use case that TACACS+ 
is proposed for progress to a standard, and informed the thoughts for the 
potential selection of a workgroup, however if this selection is misguided, 
please let us know.

Many thanks,

Regards,

Doug.



From: Douglas Gash <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Date: Friday, 12 June 2015 08:23
To: "[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>" 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Cc: Thorsten Dahm <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>, 
Andrej Ota <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>, "Michael Keenan 
(mikeenan)" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>, "Satyanarayana 
Danda (sdanda)" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>, "John Delaney 
(jodelane)" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Subject: TACACS+ RFC

Hi,

TACACS+ is a protocol widely deployed, based upon a draft specification that 
Cisco submitted in 1998, but never completed to RFC status. The original draft 
has been tidied and lightly enhanced and resubmitted, with the intent to 
finally get it published as a standard.

The best fit that we could see was for the opsawg.

Many thanks,

Regards,

Doug.




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