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rfc:rfc3436

Network Working Group A. Jungmaier Request for Comments: 3436 University of Essen Category: Standards Track E. Rescorla

                                                             RTFM Inc.
                                                             M. Tuexen
                                                            Siemens AG
                                                         December 2002
                   Transport Layer Security over
                Stream Control Transmission Protocol

Status of this Memo

 This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
 Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
 improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
 Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
 and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

 This document describes the usage of the Transport Layer Security
 (TLS) protocol, as defined in RFC 2246, over the Stream Control
 Transmission Protocol (SCTP), as defined in RFC 2960 and RFC 3309.
 The user of TLS can take advantage of the features provided by SCTP,
 namely the support of multiple streams to avoid head of line blocking
 and the support of multi-homing to provide network level fault
 tolerance.
 Additionally, discussions of extensions of SCTP are also supported,
 meaning especially the support of dynamic reconfiguration of IP-
 addresses.

Jungmaier, et al. Standards Track [Page 1] RFC 3436 TLS over SCTP December 2002

1. Introduction

1.1. Overview

 This document describes the usage of the Transport Layer Security
 (TLS) protocol, as defined in [RFC2246], over the Stream Control
 Transmission Protocol (SCTP), as defined in [RFC2960] and [RFC3309].
 TLS is designed to run on top of a byte-stream oriented transport
 protocol providing a reliable, in-sequence delivery.  Thus, TLS is
 currently mainly being used on top of the Transmission Control
 Protocol (TCP), as defined in [RFC793].
 Comparing TCP and SCTP, the latter provides additional features and
 this document shows how TLS should be used with SCTP to provide some
 of these additional features to the TLS user.
 This document defines:
  1. how to use the multiple streams feature of SCTP.
  1. how to handle the message oriented nature of SCTP.
 It should be noted that the TLS user can take advantage of the multi-
 homing support of SCTP.  The dynamic reconfiguration of IP-addresses,
 as currently being discussed, can also be used with the described
 solution.
 The method described in this document does not require any changes of
 TLS or SCTP.  It is only required that SCTP implementations support
 the optional feature of fragmentation of SCTP user messages.

1.2. Terminology

 This document uses the following terms:
    Association:
       An SCTP association.
    Connection:
       A TLS connection.
    Session:
       A TLS session.
    Stream:
       A unidirectional stream of an SCTP association.  It is uniquely
       identified by a stream identifier.

Jungmaier, et al. Standards Track [Page 2] RFC 3436 TLS over SCTP December 2002

1.3. Abbreviations

 MTU:  Maximum Transmission Unit
 SCTP: Stream Control Transmission Protocol
 TCP:  Transmission Control Protocol
 TLS:  Transport Layer Security

2. Conventions

 The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
 "OPTIONAL", in this document are to be interpreted as described in
 BCP 14, RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

3. SCTP Requirements

3.1. Number of Inbound and Outbound Streams

 An association between the endpoints A and Z provides n streams from
 A to Z and m streams from Z to A.
 A pair consisting of two streams with the same stream identifier is
 considered and used as one bi-directional stream.
 Thus an SCTP association can be considered as a set of min(n,m) bi-
 directional streams and (max(n,m) - min(n,m)) uni-directional
 streams.

3.2. Fragmentation of User Messages

 To avoid the knowledge and handling of the MTU inside TLS, SCTP MUST
 provide fragmentation of user messages, which is an optional feature
 of [RFC2960].  Since SCTP is a message oriented protocol, it must be
 able to transmit all TLS records as SCTP user messages.  Thus the
 supported maximum length of SCTP user messages MUST be at least 2^14
 + 2048 + 5 = 18437 bytes, which is the maximum length of a
 TLSCiphertext, as defined in [RFC2246].
 Please note that an SCTP implementation might need to support the
 partial delivery API to be able to support the transport of user
 messages of this size.
 Therefore, SCTP takes care of fragmenting and reassembling the TLS
 records in order to avoid IP-fragmentation.

Jungmaier, et al. Standards Track [Page 3] RFC 3436 TLS over SCTP December 2002

4. TLS Requirements

4.1 Supported Ciphersuites

 A TLS implementation for TLS over SCTP MUST support at least the
 ciphersuite TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA as defined in [RFC3268].

5. Connections and Bi-directional Streams

 TLS makes use of a bi-directional stream by establishing a connection
 over it.  This means that the number of connections for an
 association is limited by the number of bi-directional streams.
 The TLS handshake protocol is used on each bi-directional stream
 separately.  Each handshake can be:
  1. a full handshake or
  1. an abbreviated handshake that resumes a TLS session with a session

id from another connection (on the same or another association).

 After completing the handshake for a connection, the bi-directional
 stream can be used for TLS-based user data transmission.  It should
 also be noted that the handshakes for the different connections are
 independent and can be delayed until the bi-directional stream is
 used for user data transmission.

6. Usage of bi-directional streams

 It is not required that all bi-directional streams are used for TLS-
 based user data transmission.  If TLS is not used, it is called SCTP-
 based user data transmission.

6.1. SCTP-based user data transmission

 If a bi-directional stream is not used for TLS-based communication
 there are no restrictions on the features provided by SCTP for SCTP-
 based user data transmission.

6.2. TLS-based user data transmission

 In general, the bi-directional stream will be used for TLS-based user
 data transmission and it SHOULD NOT be used for SCTP-based user data
 transmission.  The exception to this rule is for protocols which
 contain upgrade-to-TLS mechanisms, such as those of HTTP upgrade
 [RFC2817] and SMTP over TLS [RFC3207].

Jungmaier, et al. Standards Track [Page 4] RFC 3436 TLS over SCTP December 2002

 TLS requires that the underlying transport delivers TLS records in
 strict sequence.  Thus, the 'unordered delivery' feature of SCTP MUST
 NOT be used on streams which are used for TLS based user data
 transmission.  For the same reason, TLS records delivered to SCTP for
 transmission MUST NOT have limited lifetimes.

7. Usage of uni-directional streams

 The uni-directional streams can not be used for TLS-based user data
 transmission.  Nevertheless, they can be used without any
 restrictions for SCTP-based communication.

8. Examples

 In these examples we consider the case of an association with two
 bi-directional streams.

8.1. Two Bi-directional Streams with Full Handshake

 Just after the association has been established, the client sends two
 ClientHello messages on the bi-directional streams 0 and 1.  After a
 full handshake has been completed on each bi-directional stream,
 TLS-based user data transmission can take place on that stream.  It
 is possible that on the bi-directional stream 0, the handshake has
 been completed, and user data transmission is ongoing, while on the
 bi-directional stream 1, the handshake has not been completed, or
 vice versa.

8.2. Two Bi-directional Streams with an Abbreviated Handshake

 After establishing the association, the client starts a full
 handshake on the bi-directional stream 0.  The server provides a
 session identifier which allows session resumption.  After the full
 handshake has been completed, the client initiates an abbreviated
 handshake on the bi-directional stream 1, using the session
 identifier from the handshake on the bi-directional stream 0.  User
 data can be transmitted on the bi-directional stream 0, but not on
 the bi-directional stream stream 1 in that state.  After completion
 of the abbreviated handshake on the bi-directional stream 1, user
 data can be transmitted on both streams.
 Whether or not to use abbreviated handshakes during the setup phase
 of a TLS connection over an SCTP association depends on several
 factors:
  1. the complexity and duration of the initial handshake processing

(also determined by the number of connections),

Jungmaier, et al. Standards Track [Page 5] RFC 3436 TLS over SCTP December 2002

  1. the network performance (round-trip times, bandwidth).
 Abbreviated handshakes can reduce computational complexity of the
 handshake considerably, in case this is a limiting resource.  If a
 large number of connections need to be established, it may be
 advantageous to use the TLS session resumption feature.  On the other
 hand, before an abbreviated handshake can take place, a full
 handshake needs to have been completed.  In networks with large
 round-trip time delays, it may be favorable to perform a number of
 full handshakes in parallel. Therefore, both possibilities are
 allowed.

8.3. Two Bi-directional Streams with a Delayed Abbreviated Handshake

 This example resembles the last one, but after the completion of the
 full handshake on the bi-directional stream 0, the abbreviated
 handshake on the bi-directional stream 1 is not started immediately.
 The bi-directional stream 0 can be used for user data transmission.
 It is only when the user also wants to transmit data on the bi-
 directional stream 1 that the abbreviated handshake for the bi-
 directional stream 1 is initiated.
 This allows the user of TLS to request a large number of bi-
 directional streams without having to provide all the resources at
 association start-up if not all bi-directional streams are used right
 from the beginning.

8.4. Two Bi-directional Streams without Full Handshakes

 This example is like the second and third one, but an abbreviated
 handshake is used for both bi-directional streams.  This requires the
 existence of a valid session identifier from connections handled by
 another association.

9. Security Considerations

 Using TLS on top of SCTP does not provide any new security issues
 beside the ones discussed in [RFC2246] and [RFC2960].
 It is possible to authenticate TLS endpoints based on IP-addresses in
 certificates.  Unlike TCP, SCTP associations can use multiple
 addresses per SCTP endpoint.  Therefore it is possible that TLS
 records will be sent from a different IP-address than that originally
 authenticated.  This is not a problem provided that no security
 decisions are made based on that IP-address.  This is a special case
 of a general rule:  all decisions should be based on the peer's
 authenticated identity, not on its transport layer identity.

Jungmaier, et al. Standards Track [Page 6] RFC 3436 TLS over SCTP December 2002

10. Acknowledgements

 The authors would like to thank P. Calhoun, J. Wood, and many others
 for their invaluable comments and suggestions.

11. References

11.1. Normative References

 [RFC2119]   Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
             Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
 [RFC2246]   Diercks, T. and  C. Allen, "The TLS Protocol Version
             1.0", RFC 2246, January 1999.
 [RFC2960]   Stewart, R., Xie, Q., Morneault, K., Sharp, C.,
             Schwarzbauer, H., Taylor, T., Rytina, I., Kalla, M.,
             Zhang, L. and V. Paxon, "Stream Control Transmission
             Protocol", RFC 2960, October 2000.
 [RFC3268]   Chown, P., "Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
             Ciphersuites for Transport Layer Security (TLS)", RFC
             3268, June 2002.
 [RFC3309]   Stone, J., Stewart, R., Otis, D., "Stream Control
             Transmission Protocol (SCTP) Checksum Change", RFC 3309,
             September 2002.

11.2. Informative References

 [RFC793]    Postel, J. (ed.), "Transmission Control Protocol", STD 7,
             RFC 793, September 1981.
 [RFC2026]   Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
             3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.
 [RFC2817]   Khare, R. and S. Lawrence, "Upgrading to TLS Within
             HTTP/1.1", RFC 2817, May 2000.
 [RFC3207]   Hoffman, P., "SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over
             TLS", RFC 3207, February 2002.

Jungmaier, et al. Standards Track [Page 7] RFC 3436 TLS over SCTP December 2002

12. Authors' Addresses

 Andreas Jungmaier
 University of Essen
 Networking Technology Group at the IEM
 Ellernstrasse 29
 D-45326 Essen
 Germany
 Phone: +49 201 1837667
 EMail: ajung@exp-math.uni-essen.de
 Eric Rescorla
 RTFM, Inc.
 2064 Edgewood Drive
 Palo Alto, CA 94303
 USA
 Phone: +1 650-320-8549
 EMail: ekr@rtfm.com
 Michael Tuexen
 Siemens AG
 D-81359 Munich
 Germany
 Phone: +49 89 722 47210
 EMail: Michael.Tuexen@siemens.com

Jungmaier, et al. Standards Track [Page 8] RFC 3436 TLS over SCTP December 2002

13. Full Copyright Statement

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.
 This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
 and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
 kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
 developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
 copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
 followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
 English.
 The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
 This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
 "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
 TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
 BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
 HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
 MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

 Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
 Internet Society.

Jungmaier, et al. Standards Track [Page 9]

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