Technical Summary
DHCPv4 has no guidance for how to secure messages exchanged between
servers and relay agents. The DHCPv6 states that IPsec should be
used to secure messages exchanged between servers and relay agents,
but does not require encryption. And, with recent concerns about
pervasive monitoring and other attacks, it is appropriate to
require securing relay to relay and relay to server communication
for DHCPv4 and DHCPv6. This draft codifies how to use IPsec with
encryption to secure that communication.
Working Group Summary
This draft was created as a result of a concern raised by during
IESG review of draft-ietf-dhc-access-network-identifier (https://
mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/dhcwg/17b2yzdJOS1hif95kRIQXidudI8).
The issue was the DHCP options could reveal user identifying
information when a client communicates with a server via
relay(s). This was a generic DHCP issue, so the decision was made to
write a separate draft. Using IPsec for that purpose seems to be an
obvious choice and that is what the draft proposes.
This draft was first presented in Buenos Aires (April 2016) and
later in Berlin (July 2016) and got unanimous support in the room on
both occasions. It was adopted in Sep. 2016. The draft is very short
(a bit over 2 pages of actual content) and changed very little
between its first individual revision and the rev that passed
WGLC. That is understandable, as it codifies the obvious solution
implied by RFC3315 and was written by two experienced engineers (one
of them being DHC co-chair). This is also the reason why this draft
received fewer comments than average. There were a large number of
messages related to this draft posted to DHC list and a handful more
circulated off the list.
Document Quality
This document is of high quality. The reviews it received may seem
like not too thorough, but that's because of the draft's shortness
and a high quality of its initial version. The document shepherd
reviewed -01 version of this draft had some minor comments. They were
addressed in -02.
Personnel
Tomek Mrugalski is the document shepherd. Suresh Krishnan is the responsible AD.