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rfc:rfc2627

Network Working Group D. Wallner Request for Comments: 2627 E. Harder Category: Informational R. Agee

                                            National Security Agency
                                                           June 1999
       Key Management for Multicast: Issues and Architectures

Status of this Memo

 This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
 not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
 memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

 This report contains a discussion of the difficult problem of key
 management for multicast communication sessions.  It focuses on two
 main areas of concern with respect to key management, which are,
 initializing the multicast group with a common net key and rekeying
 the multicast group.  A rekey may be necessary upon the compromise of
 a user or for other reasons (e.g., periodic rekey).  In particular,
 this report identifies a technique which allows for secure compromise
 recovery, while also being robust against collusion of excluded
 users.  This is one important feature of multicast key management
 which has not been addressed in detail by most other multicast key
 management proposals [1,2,4].  The benefits of this proposed
 technique are that it minimizes the number of transmissions required
 to rekey the multicast group and it imposes minimal storage
 requirements on the multicast group.

1.0 MOTIVATION

 It is recognized that future networks will have requirements that
 will strain the capabilities of current key management architectures.
 One of these requirements will be the secure multicast requirement.
 The need for high bandwidth, very dynamic secure multicast
 communications is increasingly evident in a wide variety of
 commercial, government, and Internet communities.  Specifically, the
 secure multicast requirement is the necessity for multiple users who
 share the same security attributes and communication requirements to
 securely communicate with every other member of the multicast group
 using a common multicast group net key.  The largest benefit of the

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 1] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

 multicast communication being that multiple receivers simultaneously
 get the same transmission.  Thus the problem is enabling each user to
 determine/obtain the same net key without permitting unauthorized
 parties to do likewise (initializing the multicast group) and
 securely rekeying the users of the multicast group when necessary.
 At first glance, this may not appear to be any different than current
 key management scenarios.  This paper will show, however, that future
 multicast scenarios will have very divergent and dynamically changing
 requirements which will make it very challenging from a key
 management perspective to address.

2.0 INTRODUCTION

 The networks of the future will be able to support gigabit bandwidths
 for individual users, to large groups of users.  These users will
 possess various quality of service options and multimedia
 applications that include video, voice, and data, all on the same
 network backbone.  The desire to create small groups of users all
 interconnected and capable of communicating with each other, but who
 are securely isolated from all other users on the network is being
 expressed strongly by users in a variety of communities.
 The key management infrastructure must support bandwidths ranging
 from kilobits/second to gigabits/second, handle a range of multicast
 group sizes, and be flexible enough for example to handle such
 communications environments as wireless and mobile technologies.  In
 addition to these performance and communications requirements, the
 security requirements of different scenarios are also wide ranging.
 It is required that users can be added and removed securely and
 efficiently, both individually and in bulk.  The system must be
 resistant to compromise, insofar as users who have been dropped
 should not be able to read any subsequent traffic, even if they share
 their secret information.  The costs we seek to minimize are time
 required for setup, storage space for each end user, and total number
 of transmissions required for setup, rekey and maintenance.  It is
 also envisioned that any proposed multicast security mechanisms will
 be implemented no lower than any layer with the characteristics of
 the network layer of the protocol stack.  Bandwidth efficiency for
 any key management system must also be considered.  The trade-off
 between security and performance of the entire multicast session
 establishment will be discussed in further detail later in this
 document.

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 2] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

 The following section will explain several potential scenarios where
 multicast capabilities may be needed, and quantify their requirements
 from both a performance and security perspective.  It will be
 followed in Section 4.0 by a list of factors one must consider when
 designing a potential solution.  While there are several security
 services that will be covered at some point in this document, much of
 the focus of this document has been on the generation and
 distribution of multicast group net keys.  It is assumed that all
 potential multicast participants either through some manual or
 automated, centralized or decentralized mechanism have received
 initialization keying material (e.g. certificates).  This document
 does not address the initialization key distribution issue.  Section
 5 will then detail several potential multicast key management
 architectures, manual (symmetric) and public key based (asymmetric),
 and highlight their relative advantages and disadvantages (Note:The
 list of advantages and disadvantages is by no means all inclusive.).
 In particular, this section emphasizes our technique which allows for
 secure compromise recovery.

3.0 MULTICAST SCENARIOS

 There are a variety of potential scenarios that may stress the key
 management infrastructure.  These scenarios include, but are not
 limited to, wargaming, law enforcement, teleconferencing, command and
 control conferencing, disaster relief, and distributed computing.
 Potential performance and security requirements, particularly in
 terms of multicast groups that may be formed by these users for each
 scenario, consists of the potential multicast group sizes,
 initialization requirements (how fast do users need to be brought
 on-line), add/drop requirements (how fast a user needs to be added or
 deleted from the multicast group subsequent to initialization), size
 dynamics (the relative number of people joining/leaving these groups
 per given unit of time), top level security requirements, and
 miscellaneous special issues for each scenario.  While some scenarios
 describe future secure multicast requirements, others have immediate
 security needs.
 As examples, let us consider two scenarios, distributed gaming and
 teleconferencing.
 Distributed gaming deals with the government's need to simulate a
 conflict scenario for the purposes of training and evaluation.  In
 addition to actual communications equipment being used, this concept
 would include a massive interconnection of computer simulations
 containing, for example, video conferencing and image processing.
 Distributed gaming could be more demanding from a key management
 perspective than an actual scenario for several reasons.  First, the
 nodes of the simulation net may be dispersed throughout the country.

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 3] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

 Second, very large bandwidth communications, which enable the
 possibility for real time simulation capabilities, will drive the
 need to drop users in and out of the simulation quickly.  This is
 potentially the most demanding scenario of any considered.
 This scenario may involve group sizes of potentially 1000 or more
 participants, some of which may be collected in smaller subgroups.
 These groups must be initialized very rapidly, for example, in a ten
 second total initialization time.  This scenario is also very
 demanding in that users may be required to be added or dropped from
 the group within one second.  From a size dynamics perspective, we
 estimate that approximately ten percent of the group members may
 change over a one minute time period.  Data rate requirements are
 broad, ranging from kilobits per second (simulating tactical users)
 to gigabits per second (multicast video). The distributed gaming
 scenario has a fairly thorough set of security requirements covering
 access control, user to user authentication, data confidentiality,
 and data integrity.  It also must be "robust" which implies the need
 to handle noisy operating environments that are typical for some
 tactical devices.  Finally, the notion of availability is applied to
 this scenario which implies that the communications network supplying
 the multicast capability must be up and functioning a specified
 percentage of the time.
 The teleconference scenario may involve group sizes of potentially
 1000 or more participants.  These groups may take up to minutes to be
 initialized.  This scenario is less demanding in that users may be
 required to be added or dropped from the group within seconds.  From
 a size dynamics perspective, we estimate that approximately ten
 percent of the group members may change over a period of minutes.
 Data rate requirements are broad, ranging from kilobits per second to
 100's of Mb per second.  The teleconference scenario also has a
 fairly thorough set of security requirements covering access control,
 user to user authentication, data confidentiality, data integrity,
 and non-repudiation.  The notion of availability is also applicable
 to this scenario.  The time frame for when this scenario must be
 provided is now.

4.0 ARCHITECTURAL ISSUES

 There are many factors that must be taken into account when
 developing the desired key management architecture.  Important issues
 for key management architectures include level (strength) of
 security, cost, initializing the system, policy concerns, access
 control procedures, performance requirements and support mechanisms.
 In addition, issues particular to multicast groups include:

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 4] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

    1. What are the security requirements of the group members? Most
       likely there will be some group controller, or controllers.  Do
       the other members possess the same security requirements as the
       controller(s)?
    2. Interdomain issues - When crossing from one "group domain" to
       another domain with a potentially different security policy,
       which policy is enforced?  An example would be two users
       wishing to communicate, but having different cryptoperiods
       and/or key length policies.
    3. How does the formation of the multicast group occur?  Will the
       group controller initiate the user joining process, or will the
       users initiate when they join the formation of the multicast
       group?
    4. How does one handle the case where certain group members have
       inferior processing capabilities which could delay the
       formation of the net key?  Do these users delay the formation
       of the whole multicast group, or do they come on-line later
       enabling the remaining participants to be brought up more
       quickly?
    5. One must minimize the number of bits required for multicast
       group net key distribution.  This greatly impacts bandwidth
       limited equipments.
 All of these and other issues need to be taken into account, along
 with the communication protocols that will be used which support the
 desired multicast capability.  The next section addresses some of
 these issues and presents some candidate architectures that could be
 used to tackle the key management problem for multicasting.

5.0 CANDIDATE ARCHITECTURES

 There are several basic functions that must be performed in order for
 a secure multicast session to occur.  The order in which these
 functions will be performed, and the efficiency of the overall
 solution results from making trade-offs of the various factors listed
 above.  Before looking at specific architectures, these basic
 functions will be outlined, along with some definition of terms that
 will be used in the representative architectures. These definitions
 and functions are as follows:

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 5] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

    1. Someone determines the need for a multicast session, sets the
       security attributes for that particular session (e.g.,
       classification levels of traffic, algorithms to be used, key
       variable bit lengths, etc.), and creates the group access
       control list which we will call the initial multicast group
       participant list.  The entity which performs these functions
       will be called the INITIATOR.  At this point, the multicast
       group participant list is strictly a list of users who the
       initiator wants to be in the multicast group.
    2. The initiator determines who will control the multicast group.
       This controller will be called the ROOT (or equivalently the
       SERVER). Often, the initiator will become the root, but the
       possibility exists where this control may be passed off to
       someone other than the initiator. (Some key management
       architectures employ multiple roots, see [4].) The root's job
       is to perform the addition and deletion of group participants,
       perform user access control against the security attributes of
       that session, and distribute the traffic encryption key for the
       session which we will call the multicast group NET KEY.  After
       initialization, the entity with the authority to accept or
       reject the addition of future group participants, or delete
       current group participants is called the LIST CONTROLLER.
       This may or may not be the initiator. The list controller has
       been distinguished from the root for reasons which will become
       clear later.  In short, it may be desirable for someone to have
       the authority to accept or reject new members, while another
       party (the root) would actually perform the function.
    3. Every participant in the multicast session will be referred to
       as a GROUP PARTICIPANT.  Specific group participants other than
       the root or list controller will be referred to as LEAVES.
    4. After the root checks the security attributes of the
       participants listed on the multicast group participant list to
       make sure that they all support the required security
       attributes, the root will then pass the multicast group list to
       all other participants and create and distribute the Net Key.
       If a participant on the multicast group list did not meet the
       required security attributes, the leaf must be deleted from the
       list.
       Multiple issues can be raised with the distribution of the
       multicast group list and Net Key.

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 6] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

        a.  An issue exists with the time ordering of these functions.
            The multicast group list could be distributed before or
            after the link is secured (i.e. the Net Key is
            distributed).
        b.  An issue exists when a leaf refuses to join the session.
            If a leaf refuses to join a session, we can send out a
            modified list before sending out the Net Key, however
            sending out modified lists, potentially multiple times,
            would be inefficient.  Instead, the root could continue
            on, and would not send the Net Key to those participants
            on the list who rejected the session.
        For the scenario architectures which follow, we assume the
        multicast group list will be distributed to the group
        participants once before the Net Key is distributed.  Unlike
        the scheme described in [4], we recommend that the multicast
        group participant list be provided to all leaves.  By
        distributing this list to the leaves, it allows them to
        determine upfront whether they desire to participate in the
        multicast group or not, thus saving potentially unnecessary
        key exchanges.
 Four potential key management architectures to distribute keying
 material for multicast sessions are presented.  Recall that the
 features that are highly desirable for the architecture to possess
 include the time required to setup the multicast group should be
 minimized, the number of transmissions should be minimized, and
 memory/storage requirements should be minimized. As will be seen, the
 first three proposals each fall short in a different aspect of these
 desired qualities, whereas the fourth proposal appears to strike a
 balance in the features desired.  Thus, the fourth proposal is the
 one recommended for general implementation and use.
 Please note that these approaches also address securely eliminating
 users from the multicast group, but don't specifically address adding
 new users to the multicast group following initial setup because this
 is viewed as evident as to how it would be performed.

5.1 MANUAL KEY DISTRIBUTION

 Through manual key distribution, symmetric key is delivered without
 the use of public key exchanges.  To set up a multicast group Net Key
 utilizing manual key distribution would require a sequence of events
 where Net Key and spare Net Keys would be ordered by the root of the
 multicast session group. Alternate (supersession) Net Keys are
 ordered (by the root) to be used in case of a compromise of a group
 participant(s). The Net Keys would be distributed to each individual

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 7] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

 group participant, often through some centralized physical
 intermediate location. At some predetermined time, all group
 participants would switch to the new Net Key.  Group participants use
 this Net Key until a predetermined time when they need another new
 Net Key. If the Net Key is compromised during this time, the
 alternate Net Key is used. Group participants switch to the alternate
 Net Key as soon as they receive it, or upon notification from the
 root that everyone has the new Net Key and thus the switch over
 should take place. This procedure is repeated for each cryptoperiod.
 A scheme like this may be attractive because the methods exist today
 and are understood by users.  Unfortunately, this type of scheme can
 be time consuming to set up the multicast group based on time
 necessary to order keying material and having it delivered.  For most
 real time scenarios, this method is much too slow.

5.2 N Root/Leaf Pairwise Keys Approach

 This approach is a brute force method to provide a common multicast
 group Net Key to the group participants. In this scheme, the
 initiator sets the security attributes for a particular session,
 generates a list of desired group participants and transmits the list
 to all group participants.  The leaves then respond with an initial
 acceptance or rejection of participation.  By sending the list up
 front, time can be saved by not performing key exchanges with people
 who rejected participation in the session.  The root (who for this
 and future examples is assumed to be the initiator) generates a
 pairwise key with one of the participants (leaves) in the multicast
 group using some standard public key exchange technique (e.g., a
 Diffie-Hellman public key exchange.)  The root will then provide the
 security association parameters of the multicast (which may be
 different from the parameters of the initial pairwise key) to this
 first leaf.  Parameters may include items such as classification and
 policy.  Some negotiation (through the use of a Security Association
 Management Protocol, or SAMP) of the parameters may be necessary.
 The possibility exists for the leaf to reject the connection to the
 multicast group based on the above parameters and  multicast group
 list.  If the leaf rejects this session, the root will repeat this
 process with another leaf.
 Once a leaf accepts participation in the multicast session, these two
 then choose a Net Key to be used by the multicast group.  The Net Key
 could be generated through another public key exchange between the
 two entities, or simply chosen by the root, depending upon the policy
 which is in place for the multicast group ( i.e. this policy decision
 will not be a real time choice).  The issue here is the level of
 trust that the leaf has in the root.  If the initial pairwise key
 exchange provides some level of user authentication, then it seems

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 8] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

 adequate to just have the root select the Net Key at this stage.
 Another issue is the level of trust in the strength of the security
 of the generated key.  Through a cooperative process, both entities
 (leaf and root) will be providing information to be used in the
 formation of the Net Key.
 The root then performs a pairwise key exchange with another leaf and
 optionally performs the negotiation discussed earlier.  Upon
 acceptance by the leaf to join the multicast group, the root sends
 the leaf the Net Key.
 This pairwise key exchange and Net Key distribution continues for all
 N users of the multicast group.
 Root/leaves cache pairwise keys for future use.  These keys serve as
 Key Encryption Keys (KEKs) used for rekeying leaves in the net at a
 later time.  Only the root will cache all of the leaves' pairwise
 keys.  Each individual leaf will cache only its own unique pairwise
 Key Encryption Key.
 There are two cases to consider when caching the KEKs.  The first
 case is when the Net key and KEK are per session keys. In this case,
 if one wants to exclude a group participant from the multicast
 session (and rekey the remaining participants with a new Net Key),
 the root would distribute a new Net key encrypted with each
 individual KEK to every legitimate remaining participant.  These KEKs
 are deleted once the multicast session is completed.
 The second case to consider is when the KEKs are valid for more than
 one session.  In this case, the Net Key may also be valid for
 multiple sessions, or the Net Key may still only be valid for one
 session as in the above case.  Whether the Net Key is valid for one
 session or more than one session, the KEK will be cached.  If the Net
 Key is only valid per session, the KEKs will be used to encrypt new
 Net Keys for subsequent multicast sessions.  The deleting of group
 participants occurs as in the previous case described above,
 regardless of whether the Net Key is per session or to be used for
 multiple sessions.
 A scheme like this may be attractive to a user because it is a
 straightforward extension of certifiable public key exchange
 techniques. It may also be attractive because it does not involve
 third parties.  Only the participants who are part of the multicast
 session participate in the keying mechanism.  What makes this scheme
 so undesirable is that it will be transmission intensive as we scale

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 9] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

 up in numbers, even for the most computationally efficient
 participants, not to mention those with less capable hardware
 (tactical, wireless, etc.).  Every time the need arises to drop an
 "unauthorized" participant, a new Net Key must be distributed.
 This distribution requires a transmission from the Root to each
 remaining participant, whereby the new Net Key will be encrypted
 under the cover of each participant's unique pairwise Key Encryption
 Key (KEK).
 Note: This approach is essentially the same as one proposal to the
 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Security Subworking Group [Ref
 1,2].
 Also note that there exist multiple twists to an approach like this.
 For example, instead of having the root do all N key exchanges, the
 root could pass some of this functionality (and control) to a number
 of leaves beneath him.  For example, the multicast group list could
 be split in half and the root tells one leaf to take half of the
 users and perform a key exchange with them (and then distribute the
 Net key) while the root will take care of the other half of the list.
 (The chosen leaves are thus functioning as a root and we can call
 them "subroots."  These subroots will have leaves beneath them, and
 the subroots will maintain the KEK of each leaf beneath it.)  This
 scales better than original approach as N becomes large.
 Specifically, it will require less time to set up (or rekey) the
 multicast net because the singular responsibility of performing
 pairwise key exchanges and distributing Net Key will be shared among
 multiple group participants and can be performed in parallel, as
 opposed to the root only distributing the Net Key to all of the
 participants.
 This scheme is not without its own security concerns.  This scheme
 pushes trust down to each subgroup controller - the root assumes that
 these "subroot" controllers are acting in a trustworthy way.  Every
 control element (root and subroots) must remain in the system
 throughout the multicast.  This effectively makes removing someone
 from the net (especially the subroots) harder and slower due to the
 distributed control.  When removing a participant from the multicast
 group which has functioned on behalf of the root, as a subroot, to
 distribute Net Key, additional steps will be necessary.  A new
 subroot must be delegated by the root to replace the removed subroot.
 A key exchange (to generate a new pairwise KEK) must occur between
 the new subroot and each leaf the removed subroot was responsible
 for.  A new Net Key will now be distributed from the root, to the
 subroots, and to the leaves.  Note that this last step would have
 been the only step required if the removed party was a leaf with no
 controlling responsibilities.

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 10] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

5.3 COMPLEMENTARY VARIABLE APPROACH

 Let us suppose we have N leaves.  The Root performs a public key
 exchange with each leaf i (i= 1,2, ..., N).  The Root will cache each
 pairwise KEK. Each leaf stores their own KEK.  The root would provide
 the multicast group list of participants and attributes to all users.
 Participants would accept or reject participation in the multicast
 session as described in previous sections.  The root encrypts the Net
 Key for the Multicast group to each leaf, using their own unique
 KEK(i).  (The Root either generated this Net Key himself, or
 cooperatively generated with one of the leaves as was discussed
 earlier).  In addition to the encrypted Net Key, the root will also
 encrypt something called complementary variables and send them to the
 leaves.
 A leaf will NOT receive his own complementary variable, but he will
 receive the other N-1 leaf complementary variables.  The root sends
 the Net Key and complementary variables j, where j=1,2,...,N and j
 not equal to i, encrypted by KEK(i) to each leaf. Thus, every leaf
 receives and stores N variables which are the Net key, and N-1
 complementary variables.
 Thus to cut a user from the multicast group and get the remaining
 participants back up again on a new Net Key would involve the
 following. Basically, to cut leaf number 20 out of the net, one
 message is sent out that says "cut leaf 20 from the net." All of the
 other leaves (and Root) generate a new Net Key based on the current
 Net Key and Complementary variable 20.  [Thus some type of
 deterministic key variable generation process will be necessary for
 all participants of the multicast group]. This newly generated
 variable will be used as the new Net Key by all remaining
 participants of the multicast group.  Everyone except leaf 20 is able
 to generate the new Net Key, because they have complementary variable
 20, but leaf 20 does not.
 A scheme like this seems very desirable from the viewpoint of
 transmission savings since a rekey message encrypted with each
 individual KEK to every leaf does not have to be sent to delete
 someone from the net.  In other words, there will be one plaintext
 message to the multicast group versus N encrypted rekey messages.
 There exists two major drawbacks with this scheme.  First are the
 storage requirements necessary for the (N-1) complementary variables.
 Secondly, when deleting multiple users from the multicast group,
 collusion will be a concern.  What this means is that these deleted
 users could work together and share their individual complementary
 variables to regain access to the multicast session.

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 11] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

5.4 HIERARCHICAL TREE APPROACH

 The Hierarchical Tree Approach is our recommended approach to address
 the multicast key management problem.  This approach provides for the
 following requisite features:
    1. Provides for the secure removal of a compromised user from the
       multicast group
    2. Provides for transmission efficiency
    3. Provides for storage efficiency
 This approach balances the costs of time, storage and number of
 required message transmissions, using a hierarchical system of
 auxiliary keys to facilitate distribution of new Net Key. The result
 is that the storage requirement for each user and the transmissions
 required for key replacement are both logarithmic in the number of
 users, with no background transmissions required. This approach is
 robust against collusion of excluded users. Moreover, while the
 scheme is hierarchical in nature, no infrastructure is needed beyond
 a server (e.g., a root), though the presence of such elements could
 be used to advantage (See Figure 1).
  1. ————————-

| |

                     |        S E R V E R       |
                     |                          |
                      --------------------------
                      |    |                   |
                      |    |     .  .  .  .    |
                      -    -                   -
                     |1|  |2|                 |n|
                      -    -                   -
                Figure 1: Assumed Communication Architecture
 The scheme, advantages and disadvantages are enumerated in more
 detail below.  Consider Figure 2 below.  This figure illustrates the
 logical key distribution architecture, where keys exist only at the
 server and at the users.  Thus, the server in this architecture would
 hold Keys A through O, and the KEKs of each user.  User 11 in this
 architecture would hold its own unique KEK, and Keys F, K, N, and O.

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 12] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

net key                         Key O
                 -------------------------------------
intermediate    |                                     |
keys            |                                     |
            Key M                                 Key N
      -----------------                   --------------------
     |                 |                 |                    |
     |                 |                 |                    |
   Key I             Key J             Key K               Key L
 --------          --------         ---------           ----------
|        |        |        |       |         |         |          |
|        |        |        |       |         |         |          |

Key A Key B Key C Key D Key E Key F Key G Key H

  1. – — — — — —- —- —-

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - - - - - - - - - – – – – – – –

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

- - - - - - - - - – – – – – – –

                             users
             Figure 2: Logical Key Distribution Architecture
 We now describe the organization of the key hierarchy and the setup
 process.  It will be clear from the description how to add users
 after the hierarchy is in place; we will also describe the removal of
 a user.  Note: The passing of the multicast group list and any
 negotiation protocols is not included in this discussion for
 simplicity purposes.
 We construct a rooted tree (from the bottom up) with one leaf
 corresponding to each user, as in Figure 2. (Though we have drawn a
 balanced binary tree for convenience, there is no need for the tree
 to be either balanced or binary - some preliminary analysis on tree
 shaping has been performed.) Each user establishes a unique pairwise
 key with the server. For users with transmission capability, this can
 be done using the public key exchange protocol. The situation is more
 complicated for receive-only users; it is easiest to assume these
 users have pre-placed key.
 Once each user has a pairwise key known to the server, the server
 generates (according to the security policy in place for that
 session) a key for each remaining node in the tree.  The keys
 themselves should be generated by a robust process.  We will also
 assume users have no information about keys they don't need.  (Note:
 There are no users at these remaining nodes, (i.e., they are logical
 nodes) and the key for each node need only be generated by the server

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 13] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

 via secure means.)  Starting with those nodes all of whose children
 are leaves and proceeding towards the root, the server transmits the
 key for each node, encrypted using the keys for each of that node's
 children.  At the end of the process, each user can determine the
 keys corresponding to those nodes above her leaf.  In particular, all
 users hold the root key, which serves as the common Net Key for the
 group.  The storage requirement for a user at depth d is d+1 keys
 (Thus for the example in Figure 2, a user at depth d=4 would hold
 five keys.  That is, the unique Key Encryption Key generated as a
 result of the pairwise key exchange, three intermediate node keys -
 each separately encrypted and transmitted, and the common Net Key for
 the multicast group which is also separately encrypted.)
 It is also possible to transmit all of the intermediate node keys and
 root node key in one message, where the node keys would all be
 encrypted with the unique pairwise key of the individual leaf.  In
 this manner, only one transmission (of a larger message) is required
 per user to receive all of the node keys (as compared to d
 transmissions).  It is noted for this method, that the leaf would
 require some means to determine which key corresponds to which node
 level.
 It is important to note that this approach requires additional
 processing capabilities at the server where other alternative
 approaches may not.  In the worst case, a server will be responsible
 for generating the intermediate keys required in the architecture.

5.4.1 The Exclusion Principle

 Suppose that User 11 (marked on Figure 2 in black) needs to be
 deleted from the multicast group. Then all of the keys held by User
 11 (bolded Keys F, K, N, O) must be changed and distributed to the
 users who need them, without permitting User 11 or anyone else from
 obtaining them. To do this, we must replace the bolded keys held by
 User 11, proceeding from the bottom up.  The server chooses a new key
 for the lowest node, then transmits it encrypted with the appropriate
 daughter keys (These transmissions are represented by the dotted
 lines).  Thus for this example, the first key replaced is Key F, and
 this new key will be sent encrypted with User 12's unique pairwise
 key.
 Since we are proceeding from the bottom up, each of the replacement
 keys will have been replaced before it is used to encrypt another
 key. (Thus, for the replacement of Key K, this new key will be sent
 encrypted in the newly replaced Key F (for User 12) and will also be
 sent as one multicast transmission encrypted in the node key shared
 by Users 9 and 10 (Key E). For the replacement of Key N, this new key
 will be sent encrypted in the newly replaced Key K (for Users 9, 10,

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 14] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

 and 12) and will also be encrypted in the node key shared by Users
 13, 14, 15, and 16 (Key L).  For the replacement of Key O, this new
 key will be sent encrypted in the newly replaced Key N (for Users 9,
 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16) and will also be encrypted in the node
 key shared by Users 1, 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 (Key M).)  The number
 of transmissions required is the sum of the degrees of the replaced
 nodes. In a k-ary tree in which a sits at depth d, this comes to at
 most kd-1 transmissions.  Thus in this example, seven transmissions
 will be required to exclude User 11 from the multicast group and to
 get the other 15 users back onto a new multicast group Net Key that
 User 11 does not have access to.  It is easy to see that the system
 is robust against collusion, in that no set of users together can
 read any message unless one of them could have read it individually.
 If the same strategy is taken as in the previous section to send
 multiple keys in one message, the number of transmissions required
 can be reduced even further to four transmissions.  Note once again
 that the messages will be larger in the number of bits being
 transmitted.  Additionally, there must exist a means for each leaf to
 determine which key in the message corresponds to which node of the
 hierarchy.  Thus, in this example, for the replacement of keys F, K,
 N, and O to User 12, the four keys will be encrypted in one message
 under User 12's unique pairwise key.  To replace keys K, N, and O for
 Users 9 and 10, the three keys will be encrypted in one message under
 the node key shared by Users 9 and 10 (Key E).  To replace keys N and
 O for Users  13, 14, 15, 16, the two keys will be encrypted in one
 message under the node key shared by Users 13, 14, 15, and 16 (Key
 L). Finally, to replace key O for Users 1, 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8,
 key O will be encrypted under the node key shared by Users 1, 2 , 3,
 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 (Key M).  Thus the number of transmission required
 is at most (k-1)d.
 The following table demonstrates the removal of a user, and how the
 storage and transmission requirements grow with the number of users.

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 15] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

Table 1: Storage and Transmission Costs

Number Degree Storage per user Transmissions to Transmissions of users (k) (d+1) rekey remaining to rekey

                                   participants of     remaining
                                   multicast group-    participants of
                                   one key per message multicast
                                       (kd-1)          group -
                                                       multiple keys
                                                       per message
                                                          (k-1)d
   8       2            4                 5                 3
   9       3            3                 5                 4
  16       2            5                 7                 4
2048       2           12                21                11
2187       3            8                20                14

131072 2 18 33 17 177147 3 12 32 22

The benefits of a scheme such as this are:

    1. The costs of user storage and rekey transmissions are balanced
       and scalable as the number of users increases.  This is not the
       case for [1], [2], or [4].
    2. The auxiliary keys can be used to transmit not only other keys,
       but also messages. Thus the hierarchy can be designed to place
       subgroups that wish to communicate securely (i.e. without
       transmitting to the rest of the large multicast group) under
       particular nodes, eliminating the need for maintenance of
       separate Net Keys for these subgroups. This works best if the
       users operate in a hierarchy to begin with (e.g., military
       operations), which can be reflected by the key hierarchy.
    3. The hierarchy can be designed to reflect network architecture,
       increasing efficiency (each user receives fewer irrelevant
       messages). Also, server responsibilities can be divided up
       among subroots (all of which must be secure).
    4. The security risk associated with receive-only users can be
       minimized by collecting such users in a particular area of the
       tree.
    5. This approach is resistant to collusion among arbitrarily many
       users.

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 16] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

 As noted earlier, in the rekeying process after one user is
 compromised, in the case of one key per message, each replaced key
 must be decrypted successfully before the next key can be replaced
 (unless users can cache the rekey messages).  This bottleneck could
 be a problem on a noisy or slow network. (If multiple users are being
 removed, this can be parallelized, so the expected time to rekey is
 roughly independent of the number of users removed.)
 By increasing the valences and decreasing the depth of the tree, one
 can reduce the storage requirements for users at the price of
 increased transmissions.  For example, in the one key per message
 case, if n users are arranged in a k-ary tree, each user will need
 storage. Rekeying after one user is removed now requires
 transmissions.  As k approaches n, this approaches the pairwise key
 scheme described earlier in the paper.

5.4.2 Hierarchical Tree Approach Options

5.4.2.1 Distributed Hierarchical Tree Approach

 The Hierarchical Tree Approach outlined in this section could be
 distributed as indicated in Section 5.2 to more closely resemble the
 proposal put forth in [4].  Subroots could exist at each of the nodes
 to handle any joining or rekeying that is necessary for any of the
 subordinate users.  This could be particularly attractive to users
 which do not have a direct connection back to the Root.  Recall as
 indicated in Section 5.2, that the trust placed in these subroots to
 act with the authority and security of a Root, is a potentially
 dangerous proposition.  This thought is also echoed in [4].
 Some practical recommendations that might be made for these subroots
 include the following.  The subroots should not be allowed to change
 the multicast group participant list that has been provided to them
 from the Root.  One method to accomplish this, would be for the Root
 to sign the list before providing it to the subroots.  Authorized
 subroots could though be allowed to set up new multicast groups for
 users below them in the hierarchy.
 It is important to note that although this distribution may appear to
 provide some benefits with respect to the time required to initialize
 the multicast group (as compared to the time required to initialize
 the group as described in Section 5.4) and for periodic rekeying, it
 does not appear to provide any benefit in rekeying the multicast
 group when a user has been compromised.
 It is also noted that whatever the key management scheme is
 (hierarchical tree, distributed hierarchical tree, core based tree,
 GKMP, etc.), there will be a "hit" incurred to initialize the

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 17] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

 multicast group with the first multicast group net key.  Thus, the
 hierarchical tree approach does not suffer from additional complexity
 with comparison to the other schemes with respect to initialization.

5.4.2.2 Multicast Group Formation

 Although this paper has presented the formation of the multicast
 group as being Root initiated, the hierarchical approach is
 consistent with user initiated joining.  User initiated joining is
 the method of multicast group formation presented in [4].  User
 initiated joining may be desirable when some core subset of users in
 the multicast group need to be brought up on-line and communicating
 more quickly.  Other participants in the multicast group can then be
 brought in when they wish.  In this type of approach though, there
 does not exist a finite period of time by when it can be ensured all
 participants will be a part of the multicast group.
 For example, in the case of a single root, the hierarchy is set up
 once, in the beginnning, by the initiator (also usually the root) who
 also generates the group participant list. The group of keys for each
 participant can then be individually requested (pulled) as soon as,
 but not until, each participant wishes to join the session.

5.4.2.3 Sender Specific Authentication

 In the multicast environment, the possibility exists that
 participants of the group at times may want to uniquely identify
 which participant is the sender of a multicast group message.  In the
 multicast key distribution system described by Ballardie [4], the
 notion of "sender specific keys" is presented.
 Another option to allow participants of a multicast group to uniquely
 determine the sender of a message is through the use of a signature
 process.  When a member of the multicast group signs a message with
 their own private signature key, the recipients of that signed
 message in the multicast group can use the sender's public
 verification key to determine if indeed the message is from who it is
 claimed to be from.
 Another related idea to this is the case when two users of a
 multicast group want to communicate strictly with each other, and
 want no one else to listen in on the communication.  If this
 communication relationship is known when the multicast group is
 originally set up, then these two participants could simply be placed
 adjacent to one another at the lowest level of the hierarchy (below a
 binary node).  Thus, they would naturally share a secret pairwise
 key.  Otherwise, a simple way to accomplish this is to perform a
 public key based pairwise key exchange between the two users to

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 18] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

 generate a traffic encryption key for their private unicast
 communications.  Through this process, not only will the encrypted
 transmissions between them be readable only by them, but unique
 sender authentication can be accomplished via the public key based
 pairwise exchange.

5.4.2.4 Rekeying the Multicast Group and the Use of Group Key

       Encryption Keys
 Reference [4] makes use of a Group Key Encryption Key that can be
 shared by the multicast group for use in periodic rekeys of the
 multicast group. Aside from the potential security drawbacks of
 implementing a shared key for encrypting future keys, the use of a
 Group Key Encryption Key is of no benefit to a multicast group if a
 rekey is necessary due to the known compromise of one of the members.
 The strategy for rekeying the multicast group presented in Section
 5.4.1 specifically addresses this critical problem and offers a means
 to accomplish this task with minimal message transmissions and
 storage requirements.
 The question though can now be asked as to whether the rekey of a
 multicast group will be necessary in a non-compromise scenario.  For
 example, if a user decides they do not want to participate in the
 group any longer, and requests the list controller to remove them
 from the multicast group participant list, will a rekey of the
 multicast group be necessary?  If the security policy of the
 multicast group mandates that deleted users can no longer receive
 transmissions, than a rekey of a new net key will be required.  If
 the multicast group security policy does not care that the deleted
 person can still decrypt any transmissions (encrypted in the group
 net key that they might still hold), but does care that they can not
 encrypt and transmit messages, a rekey will once again be necessary.
 The only alternative to rekeying the multicast group under this
 scenario would require a recipient to check every received message
 sender, against the group participant list.  Thus rejecting any
 message sent by a user not on the list.  This is not a practical
 option.  Thus it is recommended to always rekey the multicast group
 when someone is deleted, whether it is because of compromise reasons
 or not.

5.4.2.5 Bulk Removal of Participants

 As indicated in Section 2, the need may arise to remove users in
 bulk.  If the users are setup as discussed in Section 5.4.1 into
 subgroups that wish to communicate securely all being under the same
 node, bulk user removal can be done quite simply if the whole node is
 to be removed.  The same technique as described in Section 5.4.1 is
 performed to rekey any shared node key that the remaining

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 19] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

 participants hold in common with the removed node.
 The problem of bulk removal becomes more difficult when the
 participants to be removed are dispersed throughout the tree.
 Depending on how many participants are to be removed, and where they
 are located within the hierarchy, the number of transmissions
 required to rekey the multicast group could be equivalent to brute
 force rekeying of the remaining participants. Also the question can
 be raised as to at what point the remaining users are restructured
 into a new hierarchical tree, or should a new multicast group be
 formed.  Restructuring of the hierarchical tree would most likely be
 the preferred option, because it would not necessitate the need to
 perform pairwise key exchanges again to form the new user unique
 KEKs.

5.4.2.6 ISAKMP Compatibility

 Thus far this document has had a major focus on the architectural
 trade-offs involved in the generation, distribution, and maintenance
 of traffic encryption keys (Net Keys) for multicast groups.  There
 are other elements involved in the establishment of a secure
 connection among the multicast participants that have not been
 discussed in any detail.  For example, the concept of being able to
 "pick and choose" and negotiating the capabilities of the key
 exchange mechanism and various other elements is a very important and
 necessary aspect.
 The NSA proposal to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
 Security Subworking Group [Ref. 3] entitled "Internet Security
 Association and Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP)" has attempted to
 identify the various functional elements required for the
 establishment of a secure connection for the largest current network,
 the Internet.  While the proposal has currently focused on the
 problem of point to point connections, the functional elements should
 be the same for multicast connections, with appropriate changes to
 the techniques chosen to implement the individual functional
 elements.  Thus the implementation of ISAKMP is compatible with the
 use of the hierarchical tree approach.

6.0 SUMMARY

 As discussed in this report, there are two main areas of concern when
 addressing solutions for the multicast key management problem.  They
 are the secure initialization and rekeying of the multicast group
 with a common net key.  At the present time, there are multiple
 papers which address the initialization of a multicast group, but
 they do not adequately address how to efficiently and securely remove
 a compromised user from the multicast group.

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 20] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

 This paper proposed a hierarchical tree approach to meet this
 difficult problem.  It is robust against collusion, while at the same
 time, balancing the number of transmissions required and storage
 required to rekey the multicast group in a time of compromise.
 It is also important to note that the proposal recommended in this
 paper is consistent with other multicast key management solutions
 [4], and allows for multiple options for its implementation.

7.0 Security Considerations

 Security concerns are discussed throughout this memo.

8.0 REFERENCES

 1. Harney, H., Muckenhirn, C. and T. Rivers, "Group Key Management
    Protocol Architecture", RFC 2094, September 1994.
 2. Harney, H., Muckenhirn, C. and T. Rivers, "Group Key Management
    Protocol Specification", RFC 2093,  September 1994.
 3. Maughan, D., Schertler, M. Schneider, M. and J.Turner, "Internet
    Security Association and Key Management Protocol, Version 7",
    February 1997.
 4. Ballardie, T., "Scalable Multicast Key Distribution", RFC 1949,
    May 1996.
 5. Wong, C., Gouda, M. and S. Lam, "Secure Group Communications Using
    Key Graphs", Technical Report TR 97-23, Department of Computer
    Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, July 1997.

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 21] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

Authors' Addresses

 Debby M. Wallner
 National Security Agency
 Attn: R2
 9800 Savage Road  STE 6451
 Ft. Meade, MD.  20755-6451
 Phone: 301-688-0331
 EMail: dmwalln@orion.ncsc.mil
 Eric J. Harder
 National Security Agency
 Attn: R2
 9800 Savage Road  STE 6451
 Ft. Meade, MD.  20755-6451
 Phone: 301-688-0850
 EMail: ejh@tycho.ncsc.mil
 Ryan C. Agee
 National Security Agency
 Attn: R2
 9800 Savage Road  STE 6451
 Ft. Meade, MD.  20755-6451

Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 22] RFC 2627 Key Management for Multicast June 1999

Full Copyright Statement

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Wallner, et al. Informational [Page 23]

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