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rfc:rfc4643

Network Working Group J. Vinocur Request for Comments: 4643 Cornell University Updates: 2980 K. Murchison Category: Standards Track Carnegie Mellon University

                                                          October 2006
               Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
                    Extension for Authentication

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 (2006).

Abstract

 This document defines an extension to the Network News Transfer
 Protocol (NNTP) that allows a client to indicate an authentication
 mechanism to the server, to perform an authentication protocol
 exchange, and optionally to negotiate a security layer for subsequent
 protocol interactions during the remainder of an NNTP session.
 This document updates and formalizes the AUTHINFO USER/PASS
 authentication method specified in RFC 2980 and deprecates the
 AUTHINFO SIMPLE and AUTHINFO GENERIC authentication methods.
 Additionally, this document defines a profile of the Simple
 Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) for NNTP.

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 1] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

Table of Contents

 1. Introduction .............................................  3
    1.1. Conventions Used in This Document ...................  3
 2. The AUTHINFO Extension ...................................  4
    2.1. Advertising the AUTHINFO Extension ..................  4
    2.2. Authenticating with the AUTHINFO Extension ..........  5
    2.3. AUTHINFO USER/PASS Command ..........................  6
         2.3.1. Usage ........................................  7
         2.3.2. Description ..................................  7
         2.3.3. Examples .....................................  9
    2.4. AUTHINFO SASL Command ...............................  9
         2.4.1. Usage ........................................ 10
         2.4.2. Description .................................. 11
         2.4.3. Examples ..................................... 14
 3. Augmented BNF Syntax for the AUTHINFO Extension .......... 16
    3.1. Commands ............................................ 16
    3.2. Command Continuation ................................ 17
    3.3. Responses ........................................... 17
    3.4. Capability Entries .................................. 17
    3.5. General Non-terminals ............................... 18
 4. Summary of Response Codes ................................ 18
 5. Authentication Tracking/Logging .......................... 18
 6. Security Considerations .................................. 19
 7. IANA Considerations ...................................... 20
    7.1. IANA Considerations for SASL/GSSAPI Services ........ 20
    7.2. IANA Considerations for NNTP Extensions ............. 20
 8. Acknowledgements ......................................... 21
 9. References ............................................... 22
    9.1. Normative References ................................ 22
    9.2. Informative References .............................. 22

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 2] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

1. Introduction

 Although NNTP [NNTP] has traditionally been used to provide public
 access to newsgroups, authentication is often useful for several
 purposes; for example, to control resource consumption, to allow
 abusers of the POST command to be identified, and to restrict access
 to "local" newsgroups.
 The ad-hoc AUTHINFO USER and AUTHINFO PASS commands, documented in
 [NNTP-COMMON], provide a very weak authentication mechanism in
 widespread use by the installed base.  Due to their ubiquity, they
 are formalized in this specification but (because of their
 insecurity) only for use in combination with appropriate security
 layers.
 The ad hoc AUTHINFO GENERIC command, also documented in [NNTP-COMMON]
 but much less ubiquitous, provided an NNTP-specific equivalent of the
 generic SASL [SASL] facility.  This document deprecates AUTHINFO
 GENERIC in favor of an AUTHINFO SASL replacement so that NNTP can
 benefit from authentication mechanisms developed for other SASL-
 enabled application protocols, including Simple Mail Transfer
 Protocol (SMTP) [SMTP-AUTH], Post Office Protocol (POP) [POP-AUTH],
 Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) [IMAP], Lightweight Directory
 Access Protocol (LDAP) [LDAP-AUTH], and Blocks Extensive Exchange
 Protocol (BEEP) [BEEP].
 This specification is to be read in conjunction with the NNTP base
 specification [NNTP].  Except where specifically stated otherwise, in
 the case of a conflict between these two documents, [NNTP] takes
 precedence over this one.
 It is also recommended that this specification be read in conjunction
 with the SASL base specification [SASL].

1.1. Conventions Used in This Document

 The notational conventions used in this document are the same as
 those in [NNTP], and any term not defined in this document has the
 same meaning as it does in that one.
 The key words "REQUIRED", "MUST", "MUST NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT",
 "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as
 described in "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
 Levels" [KEYWORDS].
 Terms related to authentication are defined in "On Internet
 Authentication" [AUTH].

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 3] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

 In the examples, commands from the client are indicated with [C], and
 responses from the server are indicated with [S].

2. The AUTHINFO Extension

 The AUTHINFO extension is used to authenticate a user.  Note that
 authorization is a matter of site policy, not network protocol, and
 therefore it is not discussed in this document.  The server
 determines authorization in whatever manner is defined by its
 implementation as configured by the site administrator.
 This extension provides three new commands: AUTHINFO USER, AUTHINFO
 PASS, and AUTHINFO SASL.  The capability label for this extension is
 AUTHINFO.

2.1. Advertising the AUTHINFO Extension

 A server MUST implement at least one of the AUTHINFO USER or AUTHINFO
 SASL commands in order to advertise the "AUTHINFO" capability label
 in response to the CAPABILITIES command ([NNTP] Section 5.2).
 However, this capability MUST NOT be advertised after successful
 authentication (see Section 2.2).  This capability MAY be advertised
 both before and after any use of the MODE READER command ([NNTP]
 Section 5.3), with the same semantics.
 The AUTHINFO capability label contains an argument list detailing
 which authentication commands are available.
 The "USER" argument indicates that AUTHINFO USER/PASS is supported as
 defined by Section 2.3 of this document.  The "USER" argument MUST
 NOT be advertised, and the AUTHINFO USER/PASS commands SHOULD NOT be
 provided, unless a strong encryption layer (e.g., Transport Layer
 Security (TLS) [NNTP-TLS]) is in use or backward compatibility
 dictates otherwise.
 The "SASL" argument indicates that AUTHINFO SASL is supported as
 defined by Section 2.4 of this document.  If the server advertises
 the "SASL" argument, then it MUST also advertise the "SASL"
 capability in response to the CAPABILITIES command.  The SASL
 capability is followed by a whitespace-separated list of available
 SASL mechanism names.
 The server MAY list the AUTHINFO capability with no arguments, which
 indicates that it complies with this specification and does not
 permit any authentication commands in its current state.  In this
 case, the client MUST NOT attempt to utilize any AUTHINFO commands,
 even if it contains logic that might otherwise cause it to do so

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 4] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

 (e.g., for backward compatibility with servers that are not compliant
 with this specification).
 Future extensions may add additional arguments to this capability.
 Unrecognized arguments MUST be ignored by the client.
 As the AUTHINFO command is related to security, cached results of
 CAPABILITIES from a previous session MUST NOT be relied on, as per
 Section 12.6 of [NNTP].  However, a client MAY use such cached
 results in order to detect active down-negotiation attacks.
 Example of AUTHINFO capabilities before and after the use of the
 STARTTLS [NNTP-TLS] extension:
    [C] CAPABILITIES
    [S] 101 Capability list:
    [S] VERSION 2
    [S] READER
    [S] IHAVE
    [S] STARTTLS
    [S] AUTHINFO SASL
    [S] SASL CRAM-MD5 DIGEST-MD5 GSSAPI
    [S] LIST ACTIVE NEWSGROUPS
    [S] .
    [C] STARTTLS
    [S] 382 Continue with TLS negotiation
    [TLS negotiation proceeds, further commands protected by TLS]
    [C] CAPABILITIES
    [S] 101 Capability list:
    [S] VERSION 2
    [S] READER
    [S] IHAVE
    [S] AUTHINFO USER SASL
    [S] SASL CRAM-MD5 DIGEST-MD5 GSSAPI PLAIN EXTERNAL
    [S] LIST ACTIVE NEWSGROUPS
    [S] .

2.2. Authenticating with the AUTHINFO Extension

 An NNTP server responds to a client command with a 480 response to
 indicate that the client MUST authenticate and/or authorize in order
 to use that command or access the indicated resource.  Use of the
 AUTHINFO command as described below is one such way that a client can
 authenticate/authorize to the server.  The client MAY therefore use
 an AUTHINFO command after receiving a 480 response.  A client
 intending to use an AUTHINFO command SHOULD issue the CAPABILITIES
 command to obtain the available authentication commands and
 mechanisms before attempting authentication.

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 5] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

 If a server advertises the AUTHINFO capability, a client MAY attempt
 the first step of authentication at any time during a session to
 acquire additional privileges without having received a 480 response.
 Servers SHOULD accept such unsolicited authentication requests.  A
 server MUST NOT under any circumstances reply to an AUTHINFO command
 with a 480 response.
 A client MUST NOT under any circumstances continue with any steps of
 authentication beyond the first, unless the response code from the
 server indicates that the authentication exchange is welcomed.  In
 particular, anything other than a 38x response code indicates that
 the client MUST NOT continue the authentication exchange.
 After a successful authentication, the client MUST NOT issue another
 AUTHINFO command in the same session.  A server MUST NOT return the
 AUTHINFO capability in response to a CAPABILITIES command, and a
 server MUST reject any subsequent AUTHINFO commands with a 502
 response.  Additionally, the client MUST NOT issue a MODE READER
 command after authentication, and a server MUST NOT advertise the
 MODE-READER capability.
 In agreement with [SASL], the server MUST continue to advertise the
 SASL capability in response to a CAPABILITIES command with the same
 list of SASL mechanisms that it did before authentication (thereby
 enabling the client to detect a possible active down-negotiation
 attack).  Other capabilities returned in response to a CAPABILITIES
 command received after authentication MAY be different from those
 returned before authentication.  For example, an NNTP server may not
 want to advertise support for a specific extension unless a client
 has been authenticated.
 Note that a server may perform a successful authentication exchange
 with a client and yet still deny access to some or all resources; the
 permanent 502 response indicates that a resource is unavailable even
 though authentication has been performed (this is in contrast to the
 temporary 480 error, which indicates that a resource is unavailable
 now but may become available after authentication).

2.3. AUTHINFO USER/PASS Command

 This section supersedes the definition of the AUTHINFO USER and
 AUTHINFO PASS commands as documented in Section 3.1.1 of
 [NNTP-COMMON].

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 6] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

2.3.1. Usage

 These commands MUST NOT be pipelined.
 Syntax
   AUTHINFO USER username
   AUTHINFO PASS password
 Responses
   281 Authentication accepted
   381 Password required [1]
   481 Authentication failed/rejected
   482 Authentication commands issued out of sequence
   502 Command unavailable [2]
   [1] Only valid for AUTHINFO USER.  Note that unlike traditional 3xx
       codes, which indicate that the client may continue the current
       command, the legacy 381 code means that the AUTHINFO PASS
       command must be used to complete the authentication exchange.
   [2] If authentication has already occurred, AUTHINFO USER/PASS are
       not valid commands (see Section 2.2).
       NOTE: Notwithstanding Section 3.2.1 of [NNTP], the server MUST
       NOT return 480 in response to AUTHINFO USER/PASS.
 Parameters
   username = string identifying the user/client
   password = string representing the user's password

2.3.2. Description

 The AUTHINFO USER and AUTHINFO PASS commands are used to present
 clear text credentials to the server.  These credentials consist of a
 username or a username plus a password (the distinction is that a
 password is expected to be kept secret, whereas a username is not;
 this does not directly affect the protocol but may have an impact on
 user interfaces).  The username is supplied through the AUTHINFO USER
 command, and the password through the AUTHINFO PASS command.
 If the server requires only a username, it MUST NOT give a 381
 response to AUTHINFO USER and MUST give a 482 response to AUTHINFO
 PASS.
 If the server requires both username and password, the former MUST be
 sent before the latter.  The server will need to cache the username
 until the password is received; it MAY require that the password be

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 7] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

 sent in the immediately next command (in other words, only caching
 the username until the next command is sent).  The server:
  1. MUST return a 381 response to AUTHINFO USER;
  1. MUST return a 482 response to AUTHINFO PASS if there is no cached

username;

  1. MUST use the argument of the most recent AUTHINFO USER for

authentication; and

  1. MUST NOT return a 381 response to AUTHINFO PASS.
 The server MAY determine whether a password is needed for a given
 username.  Thus the same server can respond with both 381 and other
 response codes to AUTHINFO USER.
 Should the client successfully present proper credentials, the server
 issues a 281 reply.  If the server is unable to authenticate the
 client, it MUST reject the AUTHINFO USER/PASS command with a 481
 reply.  If an AUTHINFO USER/PASS command fails, the client MAY
 proceed without authentication.  Alternatively, the client MAY try
 another authentication mechanism or present different credentials by
 issuing another AUTHINFO command.
 The AUTHINFO PASS command permits the client to use a clear-text
 password to authenticate.  A compliant implementation MUST NOT
 implement this command without also implementing support for TLS
 [NNTP-TLS].  Use of this command without an active strong encryption
 layer is deprecated, as it exposes the user's password to all parties
 on the network between the client and the server.  Any implementation
 of this command SHOULD be configurable to disable it whenever a
 strong encryption layer (such as that provided by [NNTP-TLS]) is not
 active, and this configuration SHOULD be the default.  The server
 will use the 483 response code to indicate that the datastream is
 insufficiently secure for the command being attempted (see Section
 3.2.1 of [NNTP]).
 Note that a server MAY (but is not required to) allow white space
 characters in usernames and passwords.  A server implementation MAY
 blindly split command arguments at white space and therefore may not
 preserve the exact sequence of white space characters in the username
 or password.  Therefore, a client SHOULD scan the username and
 password for white space and, if any is detected, warn the user of
 the likelihood of problems.  The SASL PLAIN [PLAIN] mechanism is
 recommended as an alternative, as it does not suffer from these
 issues.

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 8] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

 Also note that historically the username is not canonicalized in any
 way.  Servers MAY use the [SASLprep] profile of the [StringPrep]
 algorithm to prepare usernames for comparison, but doing so may cause
 interoperability problems with legacy implementations.  If
 canonicalization is desired, the SASL PLAIN [PLAIN] mechanism is
 recommended as an alternative.

2.3.3. Examples

 Example of successful AUTHINFO USER:
    [C] AUTHINFO USER wilma
    [S] 281 Authentication accepted
 Example of successful AUTHINFO USER/PASS:
    [C] AUTHINFO USER fred
    [S] 381 Enter passphrase
    [C] AUTHINFO PASS flintstone
    [S] 281 Authentication accepted
 Example of AUTHINFO USER/PASS requiring a security layer:
    [C] AUTHINFO USER fred@stonecanyon.example.com
    [S] 483 Encryption or stronger authentication required
 Example of failed AUTHINFO USER/PASS:
    [C] AUTHINFO USER barney
    [S] 381 Enter passphrase
    [C] AUTHINFO PASS flintstone
    [S] 481 Authentication failed
 Example of AUTHINFO PASS before AUTHINFO USER:
    [C] AUTHINFO PASS flintstone
    [S] 482 Authentication commands issued out of sequence

2.4. AUTHINFO SASL Command

 This section defines a formal profile of the Simple Authentication
 and Security Layer [SASL].  The use of the AUTHINFO GENERIC command
 as documented in Section 3.1.3 of [NNTP-COMMON], as a way to perform
 SASL authentication, is deprecated in favor of the AUTHINFO SASL
 command.  A server SHOULD NOT advertise AUTHINFO GENERIC in the list
 of capabilities returned by CAPABILITIES.

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 9] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

2.4.1. Usage

 This command MUST NOT be pipelined.
 Syntax
    AUTHINFO SASL mechanism [initial-response]
 This command MAY exceed 512 octets.  The maximum length of this
 command is increased to that which can accommodate the largest
 encoded initial response possible for any of the SASL mechanisms
 supported by the implementation.
 Responses
   281             Authentication accepted
   283 challenge   Authentication accepted (with success data) [1]
   383 challenge   Continue with SASL exchange [1]
   481             Authentication failed/rejected
   482             SASL protocol error
   502             Command unavailable [2]
   [1] These responses MAY exceed 512 octets.  The maximum length of
       these responses is increased to that which can accommodate the
       largest encoded challenge possible for any of the SASL
       mechanisms supported by the implementation.
   [2] If authentication has already occurred, AUTHINFO SASL is not a
       valid command (see Section 2.2).
       NOTE: Notwithstanding Section 3.2.1 of [NNTP], the server MUST
       NOT return 480 in response to AUTHINFO SASL.
 Parameters
   mechanism         = String identifying a [SASL] authentication
                       mechanism.
   initial-response  = Optional initial client response.
                       If present, the response MUST be encoded as
                       specified in Section 4 of [BASE64]. [3]
   challenge         = Server challenge.
                       The challenge MUST be encoded as specified
                       in Section 4 of [BASE64].
   [3] This argument MAY exceed 497 octets.  The maximum length of
       this argument is increased to that which can accommodate the
       largest encoded initial response possible for any of the SASL
       mechanisms supported by the implementation.

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 10] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

2.4.2. Description

 The AUTHINFO SASL command initiates a [SASL] exchange between the
 client and the server.  The client identifies the SASL mechanism to
 be used with the first parameter of the AUTHINFO SASL command.  If
 the server supports the requested authentication mechanism, it
 performs the SASL exchange to authenticate the user.  Optionally, it
 also negotiates a security layer for subsequent protocol interactions
 during this session.  If the requested authentication mechanism is
 invalid (e.g., is not supported), the server rejects the AUTHINFO
 SASL command with a 503 reply (see Section 3.2.1 of [NNTP]).  If the
 requested authentication mechanism requires an encryption layer, the
 server rejects the AUTHINFO SASL command with a 483 reply (see
 Section 3.2.1 of [NNTP]).
 The service name specified by this protocol's profile of SASL is
 "nntp".
 The SASL exchange consists of a series of server challenges and
 client responses that are specific to the chosen [SASL] mechanism.
 A server challenge is sent as a 383 reply with a single argument
 containing the [BASE64]-encoded string supplied by the SASL
 mechanism.  A server challenge that has zero length MUST be sent as a
 single equals sign ("=") and MUST be included (in order to comply
 with the [NNTP] requirement that responses always have the same
 number of arguments).
 A client response consists of a line containing a [BASE64]-encoded
 string.  A client response that has zero length MUST be sent as a
 single equals sign ("=") and MUST be included (for consistency with
 the server challenge format).  If the client wishes to cancel the
 authentication exchange, it issues a line with a single "*".  If the
 server receives such a response, it MUST reject the AUTHINFO SASL
 command by sending a 481 reply.
 Note that these [BASE64]-encoded strings can be much longer than
 normal NNTP responses.  Clients and servers MUST be able to handle
 the maximum encoded size of challenges and responses generated by
 their supported authentication mechanisms.  This requirement is
 independent of any line length limitations the client or server may
 have in other parts of its protocol implementation.
 The optional initial response argument to the AUTHINFO SASL command
 is used to save a round trip when using authentication mechanisms
 that support an initial client response.  If the initial response
 argument is omitted and the chosen mechanism requires an initial
 client response, the server MUST proceed as defined in section 5.1 of

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 11] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

 [SASL].  In NNTP, a server challenge that contains no data is
 equivalent to a zero-length challenge and is encoded as a single
 equals sign ("=").
 Note that the [BASE64]-encoded initial response argument can exceed
 497 octets, and therefore that the AUTHINFO SASL command can exceed
 512 octets.  Clients SHOULD and servers MUST be able to handle the
 maximum encoded size of initial responses possible for their
 supported authentication mechanisms.  This requirement is independent
 of any command or argument length limitations the client or server
 may have in other parts of its protocol implementation.
 If use of the initial response argument would cause the AUTHINFO SASL
 command to exceed 512 octets, the client MAY choose to omit the
 initial response parameter (and instead proceed as defined in Section
 5.1 of [SASL]).
 If the client is transmitting an initial response of zero length, it
 MUST instead transmit the response as a single equals sign ("=").
 This indicates that the response is present, but that it contains no
 data.
 If the client uses an initial-response argument to the AUTHINFO SASL
 command with a SASL mechanism that does not support an initial client
 response, the server MUST reject the AUTHINFO SASL command with a 482
 reply.
 If the server cannot [BASE64] decode any client response, it MUST
 reject the AUTHINFO SASL command with a 504 reply (see Section 3.2.1
 of [NNTP]).  If the client cannot BASE64 decode any of the server's
 challenges, it MUST cancel the authentication using the "*" response.
 In particular, servers and clients MUST reject (and not ignore) any
 character not explicitly allowed by the BASE64 alphabet, and they
 MUST reject any sequence of BASE64 characters that contains the pad
 character ('=') anywhere other than the end of the string (e.g.,
 "=AAA" and "AAA=BBB" are not allowed).
 The authorization identity generated by this [SASL] exchange is a
 simple username, and both client and server MUST use the [SASLprep]
 profile of the [StringPrep] algorithm to prepare these names for
 transmission or comparison.  If preparation of the authorization
 identity fails or results in an empty string (unless it was
 transmitted as the empty string), the server MUST fail the
 authentication with a 481 reply.
 Should the client successfully complete the exchange, the server
 issues either a 281 or a 283 reply.  If the server is unable to
 authenticate the client, it MUST reject the AUTHINFO SASL command

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 12] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

 with a 481 reply.  If an AUTHINFO SASL command fails, the client MAY
 proceed without authentication.  Alternatively, the client MAY try
 another authentication mechanism, or present different credentials by
 issuing another AUTHINFO command.
 If the SASL mechanism returns additional data on success (e.g.,
 server authentication), the NNTP server issues a 283 reply with a
 single argument containing the [BASE64]-encoded string supplied by
 the SASL mechanism.  If no additional data is returned on success,
 the server issues a 281 reply.
 If a security layer is negotiated during the SASL exchange, it takes
 effect for the client on the octet immediately following the CRLF
 that concludes the last response generated by the client.  For the
 server, it takes effect immediately following the CRLF of its success
 reply.
 When a security layer takes effect, the NNTP protocol is reset to the
 state immediately after the initial greeting response (see 5.1 of
 [NNTP]) has been sent, with the exception that if a MODE READER
 command has been issued, the effects of it (if any) are not reversed.
 The server MUST discard any knowledge obtained from the client, such
 as the current newsgroup and article number, that was not obtained
 from the SASL negotiation itself.  Likewise, the client SHOULD
 discard and MUST NOT rely on any knowledge obtained from the server,
 such as the capability list, that was not obtained from the SASL
 negotiation itself.  (Note that a client MAY compare the advertised
 SASL mechanisms before and after authentication in order to detect an
 active down-negotiation attack.)
 When both TLS [NNTP-TLS] and SASL security layers are in effect, the
 TLS encoding MUST be applied after the SASL encoding (the cleartext
 data is always SASL encoded first, and then the resultant data is TLS
 encoded).
 To ensure interoperability, client and server implementations of this
 extension MUST implement the [DIGEST-MD5] SASL mechanism.
 If AUTHINFO USER/PASS and AUTHINFO SASL are both implemented, the
 SASL [PLAIN] mechanism SHOULD also be implemented, as the
 functionality of DIGEST-MD5 is insufficient for some environments
 (e.g., the server may need to pass off the plaintext password to an
 external authentication service).  The SASL PLAIN mechanism is
 preferred over AUTHINFO USER, even if there is not a strong
 encryption layer active, because it eliminates limitations that
 AUTHINFO USER/PASS has with regards to the use of white space
 characters being used in usernames and passwords.

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 13] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

2.4.3. Examples

 Example of the [PLAIN] SASL mechanism under a TLS layer, using an
 initial client response:
    [C] CAPABILITIES
    [S] 101 Capability list:
    [S] VERSION 2
    [S] READER
    [S] STARTTLS
    [S] AUTHINFO SASL
    [S] SASL CRAM-MD5 DIGEST-MD5 GSSAPI
    [S] LIST ACTIVE NEWSGROUPS
    [S] .
    [C] STARTTLS
    [S] 382 Continue with TLS negotiation
    [TLS negotiation proceeds, further commands protected by TLS]
    [C] CAPABILITIES
    [S] 101 Capability list:
    [S] VERSION 2
    [S] READER
    [S] AUTHINFO USER SASL
    [S] SASL CRAM-MD5 DIGEST-MD5 GSSAPI PLAIN EXTERNAL
    [S] LIST ACTIVE NEWSGROUPS
    [S] .
    [C] AUTHINFO SASL PLAIN AHRlc3QAMTIzNA==
    [S] 281 Authentication accepted
 Example of the EXTERNAL SASL mechanism under a TLS layer, using the
 authorization identity derived from the client TLS certificate, and
 thus a zero-length initial client response (commands prior to
 AUTHINFO SASL are the same as the previous example and have been
 omitted):
    [C] AUTHINFO SASL EXTERNAL =
    [S] 281 Authentication accepted
 Example of the [DIGEST-MD5] SASL mechanism, which includes a server
 challenge and server success data (white space has been inserted for
 clarity; base64-encoded data is actually sent as a single line with
 no embedded white space):
    [C] AUTHINFO SASL DIGEST-MD5
    [S] 383 bm9uY2U9InNheUFPaENFS0dJZFBNSEMwd3RsZUxxT0ljT0kyd1FZSWU0
        enplQXR1aVE9IixyZWFsbT0iZWFnbGUub2NlYW5hLmNvbSIscW9wPSJhdXRo
        LGF1dGgtaW50LGF1dGgtY29uZiIsY2lwaGVyPSJyYzQtNDAscmM0LTU2LHJj
        NCxkZXMsM2RlcyIsbWF4YnVmPTQwOTYsY2hhcnNldD11dGYtOCxhbGdvcml0
        aG09bWQ1LXNlc3M=

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 14] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

    [C] dXNlcm5hbWU9InRlc3QiLHJlYWxtPSJlYWdsZS5vY2VhbmEuY29tIixub25j
        ZT0ic2F5QU9oQ0VLR0lkUE1IQzB3dGxlTHFPSWNPSTJ3UVlJZTR6emVBdHVp
        UT0iLGNub25jZT0iMFkzSlFWMlRnOVNjRGlwK08xU1ZDMHJoVmcvLytkbk9J
        aUd6LzdDZU5KOD0iLG5jPTAwMDAwMDAxLHFvcD1hdXRoLWNvbmYsY2lwaGVy
        PXJjNCxtYXhidWY9MTAyNCxkaWdlc3QtdXJpPSJubnRwL2xvY2FsaG9zdCIs
        cmVzcG9uc2U9ZDQzY2Y2NmNmZmE5MDNmOWViMDM1NmMwOGEzZGIwZjI=
    [S] 283 cnNwYXV0aD1kZTJlMTI3ZTVhODFjZGE1M2Q5N2FjZGEzNWNkZTgzYQ==
 Example of a failed authentication due to bad [GSSAPI] credentials.
 Note that although the mechanism can utilize the initial response,
 the client chooses not to use it because of its length, resulting in
 a zero-length server challenge (here, white space has been inserted
 for clarity; base64-encoded data is actually sent as a single line
 with no embedded white space):
    [C] AUTHINFO SASL GSSAPI
    [S] 383 =
    [C] YIICOAYJKoZIhvcSAQICAQBuggInMIICI6ADAgEFoQMCAQ6iBwMFACAAAACj
        ggE/YYIBOzCCATegAwIBBaEYGxZURVNULk5FVC5JU0MuVVBFTk4uRURVoiQw
        IqADAgEDoRswGRsEbmV3cxsRbmV0bmV3cy51cGVubi5lZHWjge8wgeygAwIB
        EKEDAgECooHfBIHcSQfLKC8vm2i17EXmomwk6hHvjBY/BnKnvvDTrbno3198
        vlX2RSUt+CjuAKhcDcj4DW0gvZEqH7t5v9yWedzztlpaThebBat6hQNr9NJP
        ozh1/+74HUwhGWb50KtjuftO/ftQ8q0nTuYKgIq6PM4tp2ddo1IfpjfdNR9E
        95GFi3y1uBT7lQOwtQbRJUjPSO3ijdue9V7cNNVmYsBsqNsaHhvlBJEXf4WJ
        djH8yG+Dw/gX8fUTtC5fDpB5zLt01mkSXh6Wc4UhqQtwZBI2t/+TpX1okbg6
        Hr1ZZupeH6SByjCBx6ADAgEQooG/BIG8GnCmcXWtqhXh48dGTLHQgJ04K5Fj
        RMMq2qPSbiha9lq0osqR2KAnQA6LioWYxU+6yPKpBDSC5WOT441fUfkM8iAL
        kW3uNc+luFCGcnDsacrmoVU7Y6Akcp9m7Fm7orRc+TWSWPpBg3OR2oG3ATW0
        0NAz8TT06VOLVxIMUTINKdYVI/Ja7f3sy+/N4LGkJqScCQOwlo5tfDWn/UQF
        iTWo5Zw435rH8pjy2smQCnqC14v3NMAWTu4j+dzHUNw=
    [S] 481 Authentication error
 Example of a client aborting in the midst of an exchange:
    [C] AUTHINFO SASL GSSAPI
    [S] 383 =
    [C] *
    [S] 481 Authentication aborted as requested
 Example of attempting to use a mechanism that is not supported by the
 server:
    [C] AUTHINFO SASL EXAMPLE
    [S] 503 Mechanism not recognized

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 15] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

 Example of attempting to use a mechanism that requires a security
 layer:
    [C] AUTHINFO SASL PLAIN
    [S] 483 Encryption or stronger authentication required
 Example of using an initial response with a mechanism that doesn't
 support it (the server must start the exchange when using
 [CRAM-MD5]):
    [C] AUTHINFO SASL CRAM-MD5 AHRlc3QAMTIzNA==
    [S] 482 SASL protocol error
 Example of an authentication that failed due to an incorrectly
 encoded response:
    [C] AUTHINFO SASL CRAM-MD5
    [S] 383 PDE1NDE2NzQ5My4zMjY4MzE3QHRlc3RAZXhhbXBsZS5jb20+
    [C] abcd=efg
    [S] 504 Base64 encoding error

3. Augmented BNF Syntax for the AUTHINFO Extension

 This section describes the formal syntax of the AUTHINFO extension
 using ABNF [ABNF].  It extends the syntax in Section 9 of [NNTP], and
 non-terminals not defined in this document are defined there.  The
 [NNTP] ABNF should be imported first before attempting to validate
 these rules.

3.1. Commands

 This syntax extends the non-terminal "command", which represents an
 NNTP command.
 command =/ authinfo-sasl-command /
      authinfo-user-command /
      authinfo-pass-command
 authinfo-sasl-command = "AUTHINFO" WS "SASL" WS mechanism
      [WS initial-response]
 authinfo-user-command = "AUTHINFO" WS "USER" WS username
 authinfo-pass-command = "AUTHINFO" WS "PASS" WS password
 initial-response = base64-opt
 username = 1*user-pass-char
 password = 1*user-pass-char
 user-pass-char = B-CHAR

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 16] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

 NOTE: a server implementation MAY parse AUTHINFO USER and AUTHINFO
 PASS specially so as to allow white space to be used within the
 username or password.  Such implementations accept the additional
 syntax (making these two items inconsistent with "token" in Section
 9.8 of [NNTP]):
 user-pass-char =/ SP / TAB
 In doing so, the grammar can become ambiguous if the username or
 password begins or ends with white space.  To solve this ambiguity,
 such implementations typically treat everything after the first white
 space character following "USER"/"PASS", up to, but not including,
 the CRLF, as the username/password.

3.2. Command Continuation

 This syntax extends the non-terminal "command-continuation", which
 represents the further material sent by the client in the case of
 multi-stage commands.
 command-continuation =/ authinfo-sasl-383-continuation
 authinfo-sasl-383-continuation = ("*" / base64-opt) CRLF

3.3. Responses

 This syntax extends the non-terminal "initial-response-content",
 which represents an initial response line sent by the server.
 initial-response-content =/ response-283-content /
      response-383-content
 response-283-content = "283" SP base64
 response-383-content = "383" SP base64-opt

3.4. Capability Entries

 This syntax extends the non-terminal "capability-entry", which
 represents a capability that may be advertised by the server.
 capability-entry =/ authinfo-capability /
      sasl-capability
 authinfo-capability = "AUTHINFO" *(WS authinfo-variant)
 authinfo-variant = "USER" / "SASL"
 sasl-capability = "SASL" 1*(WS mechanism)

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 17] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

3.5. General Non-terminals

 base64-opt = "=" / base64
 mechanism = 1*20mech-char
 mech-char = UPPER / DIGIT / "-" / "_"

4. Summary of Response Codes

 This section contains a list of each new response code defined in
 this document and indicates whether it is multi-line, which commands
 can generate it, what arguments it has, and what its meaning is.
 Response code 281
    Generated by: AUTHINFO USER, AUTHINFO PASS, AUTHINFO SASL
    Meaning: authentication accepted
 Response code 283
    Generated by: AUTHINFO SASL
    1 argument: challenge
    Meaning: authentication accepted (with success data)
 Response code 381
    Generated by: AUTHINFO USER
    Meaning: password required via AUTHINFO PASS command.  Note
    that this code is used for backwards compatibility and does
    not conform to the traditional use of 3xx codes.
 Response code 383
    Generated by: AUTHINFO SASL
    1 argument: challenge
    Meaning: continue with SASL exchange
 Response code 481
    Generated by: AUTHINFO USER, AUTHINFO PASS, AUTHINFO SASL
    Meaning: authentication failed/rejected
 Response code 482
    Generated by: AUTHINFO USER, AUTHINFO PASS, AUTHINFO SASL
    Meaning: authentication commands issued out of sequence or
    SASL protocol error

5. Authentication Tracking/Logging

 This section contains implementation suggestions and notes of best
 current practice; it does not specify further network protocol
 requirements.

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 18] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

 Once authenticated, the authorization identity presented in the
 AUTHINFO exchange (username when using USER/PASS) SHOULD be included
 in an audit trail associating the identity with any articles supplied
 during a POST operation, and this configuration SHOULD be the
 default.  This may be accomplished, for example, by inserting headers
 in the posted articles or by a server logging mechanism.  The server
 MAY provide a facility for disabling the procedure described above,
 as some users or administrators may consider it a violation of
 privacy.

6. Security Considerations

 Security issues are discussed throughout this memo.
 In general, the security considerations of [SASL] and any implemented
 SASL mechanisms are applicable here; only the most important are
 highlighted specifically below.  Also, this extension is not intended
 to cure the security considerations described in section 12 of
 [NNTP]; those considerations remain relevant to any NNTP
 implementation.
 Before the [SASL] negotiation has begun, any protocol interactions
 may have been performed in the clear and may have been modified by an
 active attacker.  For this reason, clients and servers MUST discard
 any sensitive knowledge obtained prior to the start of the SASL
 negotiation upon the establishment of a security layer.  Furthermore,
 the CAPABILITIES command SHOULD be re-issued upon the establishment
 of a security layer, and other protocol state SHOULD be re-negotiated
 as well.
 Servers MAY implement a policy whereby the connection is dropped
 after a number of failed authentication attempts.  If they do so,
 they SHOULD NOT drop the connection until at least 3 attempts at
 authentication have failed.
 Implementations MUST support a configuration where authentication
 mechanisms that are vulnerable to passive eavesdropping attacks (such
 as AUTHINFO USER/PASS and SASL [PLAIN]) are not advertised or used
 without the presence of an external security layer such as TLS
 [NNTP-TLS], and this configuration SHOULD be the default.
 When multiple authentication mechanisms are permitted by both client
 and server, an active attacker can cause a down-negotiation to the
 weakest mechanism.  For this reason, both clients and servers SHOULD
 be configurable to forbid use of weak mechanisms.  The minimum
 strength acceptable is a policy decision that is outside the scope of
 this specification.

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 19] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

7. IANA Considerations

7.1. IANA Considerations for SASL/GSSAPI Services

 The IANA has registered the SASL/GSSAPI service name "nntp".  This
 service name refers to authenticated use of Usenet news service when
 it is provided via the [NNTP] protocol.
 o  Published Specification: This document.
 o  Contact for Further Information: Authors of this document.
 o  Change Controller: IESG <iesg@ietf.org>.

7.2. IANA Considerations for NNTP Extensions

 This section gives a formal definition of the AUTHINFO extension, as
 required by Section 3.3.3 of [NNTP] for the IANA registry.
 o  This extension provides an extensible mechanism for NNTP
    authentication via a variety of methods.
 o  The capability label for this extension is "AUTHINFO".
 o  The "AUTHINFO" capability label has two possible optional
    arguments, "USER" and "SASL" (as defined in Section 2.1),
    indicating which variants of the AUTHINFO command are supported.
 o  This extension also provides the "SASL" capability label, whose
    arguments list the available SASL mechanisms.
 o  This extension defines three new commands, AUTHINFO USER, AUTHINFO
    PASS, and AUTHINFO SASL, whose behavior, arguments, and responses
    are defined in Sections 2.3 and 2.4.
 o  This extension does not associate any new responses with pre-
    existing NNTP commands.
 o  This extension may affect the overall behavior of both server and
    client in that the AUTHINFO SASL command may require that
    subsequent communication be transmitted via an intermediary
    security layer.
 o  The length of the AUTHINFO SASL command (as defined in this
    document) may exceed 512 octets.  The maximum length of this
    command is increased to that which can accommodate the largest
    initial response possible for any of the SASL mechanisms supported
    by the implementation.

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 20] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

 o  This extension defines two new responses, 283 and 383, whose
    lengths may exceed 512 octets.  The maximum length of these
    responses is increased to that which can accommodate the largest
    challenge possible for any of the SASL mechanisms supported by the
    implementation.
 o  This extension does not alter pipelining, but AUTHINFO commands
    cannot be pipelined.
 o  Use of this extension may alter the capabilities list; once the
    AUTHINFO command has been used successfully, the AUTHINFO
    capability can no longer be advertised by CAPABILITIES.
    Additionally, the MODE-READER capability MUST NOT be advertised
    after successful authentication.
 o  This extension does not cause any pre-existing command to produce
    a 401, 480, or 483 response.
 o  This extension is unaffected by any use of the MODE READER
    command; however, the MODE READER command MUST NOT be used in the
    same session following successful authentication.
 o  Published Specification: This document.
 o  Contact for Further Information: Authors of this document.
 o  Change Controller: IESG <iesg@ietf.org>.

8. Acknowledgements

 This RFC originated from a document initially written by Chris
 Newman.
 A significant amount of the authentication text was originally from
 the NNTP revision or common authentication specs written by Stan
 Barber.  A significant amount of the SASL text was lifted from the
 revisions to RFC 1734 and RFC 2554 by Rob Siemborski.
 Special acknowledgement also goes to Russ Allbery, Clive Feather, and
 others who commented privately on intermediate revisions of this
 document, as well as the members of the IETF NNTP Working Group for
 continual (yet sporadic) insight in discussion.

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 21] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

9. References

9.1. Normative References

 [ABNF]        Crocker, D., Ed. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for
               Syntax Specifications: ABNF", RFC 4234, October 2005.
 [AUTH]        Haller, N. and R. Atkinson, "On Internet
               Authentication", RFC 1704, October 1994.
 [BASE64]      Josefsson, S., "The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data
               Encodings", RFC 4648, October 2006.
 [DIGEST-MD5]  Leach, P. and C. Newman, "Using Digest Authentication
               as a SASL Mechanism", RFC 2831, May 2000.
 [KEYWORDS]    Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
               Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
 [NNTP]        Feather, C., "Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)",
               RFC 3977, October 2006.
 [NNTP-TLS]    Murchison, K., Vinocur, J., and C. Newman, "Using
               Transport Layer Security (TLS) with Network News
               Transfer Protocol (NNTP)", RFC 4642, October 2006.
 [SASL]        Melnikov, A. and K. Zeilenga, "Simple Authentication
               and Security Layer (SASL)", RFC 4422, June 2006.
 [SASLprep]    Zeilenga, K., "SASLprep: Stringprep Profile for User
               Names and Passwords", RFC 4013, February 2005.
 [StringPrep]  Hoffman, P. and M. Blanchet, "Preparation of
               Internationalized Strings ("stringprep")", RFC 3454,
               December 2002.

9.2. Informative References

 [BEEP]        Rose, M., "The Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol
               Core", RFC 3080, March 2001.
 [CRAM-MD5]    Nerenberg, L., "The CRAM-MD5 SASL Mechanism", Work in
               Progress.
 [GSSAPI]      Melnikov, A., "SASL GSSAPI mechanisms", Work in
               Progress.

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 22] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

 [IMAP]        Crispin, M., "INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL -
               VERSION 4rev1", RFC 3501, March 2003.
 [LDAP-AUTH]   Harrison, R., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
               (LDAP): Authentication Methods and Security
               Mechanisms", RFC 4513, June 2006.
 [NNTP-COMMON] Barber, S., "Common NNTP Extensions", RFC 2980, October
               2000.
 [PLAIN]       Zeilenga, K., Ed., "The PLAIN Simple Authentication and
               Security Layer (SASL) Mechanism", RFC 4616, August
               2006.
 [POP-AUTH]    Myers, J., "POP3 AUTHentication command", RFC 1734,
               December 1994.
 [SMTP-AUTH]   Myers, J., "SMTP Service Extension for Authentication",
               RFC 2554, March 1999.

Authors' Addresses

 Jeffrey M. Vinocur
 Department of Computer Science
 Upson Hall
 Cornell University
 Ithaca, NY 14853 USA
 EMail: vinocur@cs.cornell.edu
 Kenneth Murchison
 Carnegie Mellon University
 5000 Forbes Avenue
 Cyert Hall 285
 Pittsburgh, PA  15213 USA
 EMail: murch@andrew.cmu.edu

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 23] RFC 4643 NNTP Authentication October 2006

Full Copyright Statement

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
 This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
 contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
 retain all their rights.
 This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
 "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
 OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
 ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM 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.

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Acknowledgement

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 Administrative Support Activity (IASA).

Vinocur, et al. Standards Track [Page 24]

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