Ilari Liusvaara wrote:
>> - Normal MTLS 1.3 performs authentication in flights 2 and 3. This
>>   draft moves it earlier (flights 1 and 2). The draft should describe
>>   this change.
>
>Doesn't this expose client certificate in plaintext if using mTLS?

Indeed. This could perhaps be addressed by mandating ECH.

>> - The draft should emphasize that it introduces much-needed in-band
>>   reauthentication to TLS 1.3. As highlighted in RFC 4478,
>>   reauthentication is a valuable property on its own and is likely
>>   critical for achieving strong rekeying guarantees. Forcing rekeying
>>   and reauthentication to be used together, as this draft and MLS do,
>>   appears to be a particularly sound design choice.
>
>Unfortunately, the mechanism allows updating credentials, which is a
>major problem for many applications (e.g., HTTP/2 and HTTP/3).
>
>The biggest reason why HTTP/2 totally bans TLS 1.2 renegotiation and TLS
>1.3 post-handshake authentication is those mechanisms allowing updating
>credentials. The specification requires client to send a fatal error if
>the server sends a post-handshake certificate request, even if the
>client indicated that it supports post-handshake authentication.

Seems this could be mitigated by disallowing credential updates.

>> - Are the MLS and TLS ciphersuites independent of each other, or
>>   should the TLS ciphersuite be at least as strong as the MLS
>>   ciphersuite? The draft should explicitly distinguish between
>>   “MLS cipher suite” and “TLS cipher suite” rather than using the
>>   generic term “cipher suite,” to avoid ambiguity.
>
>MLS and TLS cipher suites should not be tied to each other, as that
>would cause great deal of complexity. For similar reasons as to why
>TLS 1.2 ciphersuite negotiation is much more complex than TLS 1.3
>ciphersuite negotiation (I have implemented both).

I was a bit unclear. I just meant a recommendation to, for example, choose the 
same AEAD, without introducing any technical changes.

>It gets worse: There is seemingly only space for one KeyPacakge,
>and since there is only one ciphersuite per KeyPackage, that means that
>client can only send one MLS cipher suite. So the client must guess
>the signature algorithm the server is using (and for mTLS, have
>certificate with the same algorithm).

This seems problematic. The client and server would need to agree beforehand, 
or the client would have to keep trying until it finds a supported one. The 
draft should describe this and specify what kind of error message is sent in 
case of a mismatch.

Cheers,
John Preuß Mattsson
_______________________________________________
TLS mailing list -- [email protected]
To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]

Reply via email to