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Structure of the GSS Negotiation Loop
draft-ietf-kitten-gss-loop-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 7546.
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Author Benjamin Kaduk
Last updated 2014-11-11 (Latest revision 2014-05-10)
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draft-ietf-kitten-gss-loop-00
Network Working Group                                           B. Kaduk
Internet-Draft                                                       MIT
Intended status: Informational                               May 8, 2014
Expires: November 9, 2014

                 Structure of the GSS Negotiation Loop
                     draft-ietf-kitten-gss-loop-00

Abstract

   This document specifies the generic structure of the negotiation loop
   to establish a GSS security context between initiator and acceptor.
   The control flow of the loop is indicated for both parties, including
   error conditions, and indications are given for where application-
   specific behavior must be specified.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on November 9, 2014.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

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1.  Introduction

   The Generic Security Service Application Program Intervace version 2
   [RFC2743] provides a generic interface for security services, in the
   form of an abstraction layer over the underlying security mechanisms
   that an application may use.  A GSS initiator and acceptor exchange
   messages, called tokens, until a security context is established.
   Such a security context allows for mutual authentication of the two
   parties, the passing of confidential or integrity-protected messages
   between the initiator and acceptor, the generation of identical
   pseudo-random bit strings by both participants [RFC4401], and more.
   The number of tokens which must be exchanged between initiator and
   acceptor in order to establish the security context is dependent on
   the underlying mechanism as well as the desired properties of the
   security context, and is in general not known to the application.
   Accordingly, the application's control flow must include a loop
   within which GSS security context tokens are exchanged, which
   terminates upon successful establishment of a security context (or an
   error condition).

   The GSS-API C bindings [RFC2744] provide some example code for such a
   negotiation loop, but this code does not specify the application's
   behavior on unexpected or error conditions.  As such, individual
   application protocol specifications have had to specify the structure
   of their GSS negotiation loops, including error handling, on a per-
   protocol basis.  [RFC4462], [RFC3645], [RFC5801], [RFC4752],
   [RFC2203] This represents a substantial duplication of effort, and
   the various specifications go into different levels of detail and
   describe different possible error conditions.  It is therefore
   preferable to have the structure of the GSS negotiation loop,
   including error conditions and token passing, described in a single
   specification, which can then be referred to from other documents in
   lieu of repeating the structure of the loop each time.  This document
   will perform that role.

   The necessary requirements for correctly performing a GSS negotiation
   loop are essentially all included in [RFC2743], but they are
   scattered in many different places.  This document brings all the
   requirements together into one place for the convenience of
   implementors, even though the normative requirements remain in
   [RFC2743].  In a few places, this document notes additional behavior
   which is useful for applications but is not mandated by [RFC2743].

2.  Loop Structure

   The loop is begun by the appropriately named initiator, which calls
   GSS_Init_sec_context() with an empty (zero-length) input_token and a
   fixed set of input flags containing the desired attributes for the

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   security context.  The initiator should not change any of the input
   parameters to GSS_Init_sec_context() between calls to it during the
   loop, with the exception of the input_token parameter, which will
   contain a message from the acceptor after the initial call, and the
   input_context_handle, which must be the result returned in the
   output_context_handle of the previous call to GSS_Init_sec_context()
   (GSS_C_NO_CONTEXT for the first call).  (In the C bindings, there is
   only a single read/modify context_handle argument, so the same
   variable should be passed for each call in the loop.)  RFC 2743 only
   requires that the claimant_cred_handle argument remain constant over
   all calls in the loop, but the other non-excepted arguments should
   also remain fixed for reliable operation.

   The following subsections will describe the various steps of the
   loop, without special consideration to whether a call to
   GSS_Init_sec_context() or GSS_Accept_sec_context() is the first such
   call in the loop.  For the first call to each routine in the loop,
   the major status code from the previous call to
   GSS_Init_sec_context() or GSS_Accept_sec_context() should be taken as
   GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED.

2.1.  Anonymous Initiators

   If the initiator is requesting anonymity by setting the anon_req_flag
   input to GSS_Init_sec_context(), then on non-error returns from
   GSS_Init_sec_context() (that is, when the major status is
   GSS_S_COMPLETE or GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED), the initiator must verify
   that the output value of anon_state from GSS_Init_sec_context() is
   true before sending the security context token to the acceptor.
   Failing to perform this check could cause the initiator to lose
   anonymity.

2.2.  GSS_Init_sec_context

   The initiator calls GSS_Init_sec_context(), using the
   input_context_handle for the current proto-security-context and its
   fixed set of input parameters, and the input_token received from the
   acceptor (if not the first iteration of the loop).  The presence of a
   nonempty output_token and the value of the major status code are the
   indicators for how to proceed:

      If the major status code is GSS_S_COMPLETE and the output_token is
      empty, then the context negotiation is fully complete and ready
      for use by the initiator with no further actions.

      If the major status code is GSS_S_COMPLETE and the output_token is
      nonempty, then the initiator's portion of the security context
      negotiation is complete but the acceptor's is not.  The initiator

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      must send the output_token to the acceptor so that the acceptor
      can establish its half of the security context.

      If the major status code is GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED and the
      output_token is nonempty, the context negotiation is incomplete.
      The initiator must send the output_token to the acceptor and await
      another input_token from the acceptor.

      If the major status code is GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED and the
      output_token is empty, the mechanism has produced an output which
      is not compliant with [RFC2743].  However, there are some known
      implementations of certain mechanisms which do produce empty
      context negotiation tokens.  For maximum interoperability,
      applications should be prepared to accept such tokens, and should
      transmit them to the acceptor if they are generated.

      If the major status code is any other value, the context
      negotiation has failed.  If the output_token is nonempty, it is an
      error token, and the initiator should send it to the acceptor.  If
      the output_token is empty, then the initiator should indicate the
      failure to the acceptor if an appropriate channel to do so is
      available.

2.3.  Sending from Initiator to Acceptor

   The establishment of a GSS security context between initiator and
   acceptor requires some communication channel by which to exchange the
   context negotiation tokens.  The nature of this channel is not
   specified by the GSS specification -- it could be a synchronous TCP
   channel, a UDP-based RPC protocol, or any other sort of channel.  In
   many cases, the channel will be multiplexed with non-GSS application
   data; the application protocol must provide some means by which the
   GSS context tokens can be identified and passed through to the
   mechanism accordingly.  It is in such cases where the application
   protocol has a means to indicate error conditions that the initiator
   could indicate a failure to the acceptor, as mentioned in some of the
   above cases conditional on "an appropriate channel to do so".

   However, even the presence of a communication channel does not
   necessarily indicate that it is appropriate for the initiator to
   indicate such errors.  For example, if the acceptor is a stateless or
   near-stateless UDP server, there is probably no need for the
   initiator to explicitly indicate its failure to the acceptor.
   Conditions such as this can be treated in individual application
   protocol specifications.

   If a regular security context output_token is produced by the call to
   GSS_Init_sec_context(), the initiator must transmit this token to the

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   acceptor over the application's communication channel.  If the call
   to GSS_Init_sec_context() returns an error token as output_token, it
   is recommended that the intiator transmit this token to the acceptor
   over the application's communication channel.

2.4.  Acceptor Sanity Checking

   The acceptor's half of the negotiation loop is triggered by the
   receipt of a context token from the initiator.  Before calling
   GSS_Accept_sec_context(), the acceptor may find it useful to perform
   some sanity checks on the state of the negotiation loop.

   If the acceptor receives a context token but was not expecting such a
   token (for example, if the acceptor's previous call to
   GSS_Accept_sec_context() returned GSS_S_COMPLETE), this is probably
   an error condition indicating that the initiator's state is invalid.
   See Section 3.2 for some exceptional cases.  It is likely appropriate
   for the acceptor to report this error condition to the acceptor via
   the application's communication channel.

   If the acceptor is expecting a context token (e.g., if the previous
   call to GSS_Accept_sec_context() returned GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED), but
   does not receive such a token within a reasonable amount of time
   after transmitting the previous output_token to the initiator, the
   acceptor should assume that the initiator's state is invalid and fail
   the GSS negotiation.  Again, it is likely appropriate for the
   acceptor to report this error condition to the initiator via the
   application's communication channel.

2.5.  GSS_Accept_sec_context

   The GSS acceptor responds to the actions of an initiator; as such,
   there should always be a nonempty input_token to calls to
   GSS_Accept_sec_context().  The input_context_handle parameter will
   always be given as the output_context_handle from the previous call
   to GSS_Accept_sec_context() in a given negotiation loop (or
   GSS_C_NO_CONTEXT on the first call), but the acceptor_cred_handle and
   chan_bindings arguments should remain fixed over the course of a
   given GSS negotiation loop.  [RFC2743] only requires that the
   acceptor_cred_handle remain fixed throughout the loop, but the
   chan_bindings argument should also remain fixed for reliable
   operation.

   The GSS acceptor calls GSS_Accept_sec_context(), using the
   input_context_handle for the current proto-security-context and the
   input_token received from the initiator.  The presence of a nonempty
   output_token and the value of the major status code are the
   indicators for how to proceed:

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      If the major status code is GSS_S_COMPLETE and the output_token is
      empty, then the context negotiation is fully complete and ready
      for use by the acceptor with no further actions.

      If the major status code is GSS_S_COMPLETE and the output_token is
      nonempty, then the acceptor's portion of the security context
      negotiation is complete but the initiator's is not.  The acceptor
      must send the output_token to the initiator so that the initiator
      can establish its half of the security context.

      If the major status code is GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED and the
      output_token is nonempty, the context negotiation is incomplete.
      The acceptor must send the output_token to the initiator and await
      another input_token from the initiator.

      If the major status code is GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED and the
      output_token is empty, the mechanism has produced an output which
      is not compliant with [RFC2743].  However, there are some known
      implementations of certain mechanisms which do produce empty
      context negotiation tokens.  For maximum interoperability,
      applications should be prepared to accept such tokens, and should
      transmit them to the initiator if they are generated.

      If the major status code is any other value, the context
      negotiation has failed.  If the output_token is nonempty, it is an
      error token, and the acceptor should send it to the initiator.  If
      the output_token is empty, then the acceptor should indicate the
      failure to the initiator if an appropriate channel to do so is
      available.

2.6.  Sending from Acceptor to Initiator

   The mechanism for sending the context token from acceptor to
   initiator will depend on the nature of the communication channel
   between the two parties.  For a synchronous bidirectional channel, it
   can be just another piece of data sent over the link, but for a
   stateless UDP RPC acceptor, the token will probably end up being sent
   as an RPC output parameter.  Application protocol specifications will
   need to specify the nature of this behavior.

   If the application protocol has the initiator driving the
   application's control flow (with the acceptor just responding to
   actions from the initiator), it is particularly helpful for the
   acceptor to indicate a failure to the initiator, as mentioned in some
   of the above cases conditional on "an appropriate channel to do so".

   If a regular security context output_token is produced by the call to
   GSS_Accept_sec_context(), the acceptor must transmit this token to

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   the initiator over the application's communication channel.  If the
   call to GSS_Accept_sec_context() returns an error token as
   output_token, it is recommended that the acceptor transmit this token
   to the initiator over the application's communication channel.

2.7.  Initiator input validation

   The initiator's half of the negotiation loop is triggered (after the
   first call) by receipt of a context token from the acceptor.  Before
   calling GSS_Init_sec_context(), the initiator may find it useful to
   perform some sanity checks on the state of the negotiation loop.

   If the initiator receives a context token but was not expecting such
   a token (for example, if the initiator's previous call to
   GSS_Init_sec_context() returned GSS_S_COMPLETE), this is probably an
   error condition indicating that the acceptor's state is invalid.  See
   Section 3.2 for some exceptional cases.  It may be appropriate for
   the initiator to report this error condition to the acceptor via the
   application's communication channel.

   If the initiator is expecting a context token (that is, the previous
   call to GSS_Init_sec_context() returned GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED), but
   does not receive such a token within a reasonable amount of time
   after transmitting the previous output_token to the acceptor, the
   initiator should assume that the acceptor's state is invalid and fail
   the GSS negotiation.  Again, it may be appropriate for the initiator
   to report this error condition to the acceptor via the application's
   communication channel.

2.8.  Continue the Loop

   If the loop is in neither a success or failure condition, then the
   loop must continue.  Control flow returns to Section 2.2.

3.  After Security Context Negotiation

   Once a party has completed its half of the security context and
   fulfilled its obligations to the other party, the context is
   complete, but it is not necessarily ready and appropriate for use.
   (In some cases the context may be ready for use earlier than this,
   see Section 3.1.)  In particular, the security context flags may not
   be appropriate for the given application's use.

   The initiator specifies as part of its fixed set of inputs to
   GSS_Init_sec_context() values for the following booleans:
   deleg_req_flag, mutual_req_flag, replay_det_req_flag,
   sequence_req_flag, conf_req_flag, and integ_req_flag.  Upon
   completion of security context negotiation, the initiator must verify

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   that the values of the deleg_state, mutual_state, replay_det_state,
   sequence_state, conf_avail, and integ_avail flags from the last call
   to GSS_Init_sec_context() corresponding to the requested flags.  If a
   flag was requested but is not available, and that feature is
   necessary for the appplication protocol, the initiator must destroy
   the security context and not use the security context for application
   traffic.

   Application protocol specifications citing this document should
   indicate which context flags are required for their application
   protocol.

   The acceptor receives as output the following booleans: deleg_state,
   mutual_state, replay_det_state, sequence_state, anon_state,
   trans_state, conf_avail, and integ_avail.  The acceptor must verify
   that any flags necessary for the application protocol are set.  If a
   necessary flag is not set, the acceptor must destroy the security
   context and not use the security context for application traffic.

3.1.  Using Partially Complete Security Contexts

   For mechanism/flag combinations that require multiple token
   exchanges, an application protocol may find it desirable to begin
   sending application data protected with GSS per-message operations
   while continuing to exchange security context tokens to complete the
   security context negotiation.  For example, an application may wish
   to reduce the number of round trips before application data is
   transmitted.  The prot_ready_state output value from
   GSS_Init_sec_context() and GSS_Accept_sec_context() indicates when
   per-message operations are avaialble.  Applications using per-message
   operations on a partially complete security context must ensure that
   there is some mechanism in place to prevent replays of those
   messages.

   Applications requiring confidentiality and/or integrity protection
   from such messages must check the value of the conf_avail and/or
   integ_avail output flags from GSS_Init_sec_context()/
   GSS_Accept_sec_context() as well as the conf_state output of
   GSS_Wrap() (if GSS_Wrap() is used).

3.2.  Additional Context Tokens

   Under some (rare) conditions, a context token will be received by a
   party to a security context negotiation after that party has
   completed the negotiation (i.e., after GSS_Init_sec_context() or
   GSS_Accept_sec_context() has returned GSS_S_COMPLETE).  Such tokens
   must be passed to GSS_Process_context_token() for processing.

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   The most common cause of such tokens is security context deletion
   tokens, emitted when the remote party called GSS_Delete_sec_context()
   with a non-null output_context_token parameter.  With the GSS-API
   version 2, it is not recommended to use security context deletion
   tokens.

   Extra security context tokens can also be emitted if the selected
   mechanism specifies some functionality (such as per-message
   confidentiality protection) as optional-to-implement, and the
   acceptor's implementation does not implement the optional
   functionality, but the functionality was requested by the initiator.
   In this case, the acceptor's GSS implementation is required to emit
   at least one context token (even when one would not otherwise be
   needed to complete the context negotiation), and this can result in
   an "extra" token.

   In the rare case when an application receives an extra context token,
   GSS_Inquire_context() should be used after processing the extra token
   to re-verify that the context does support the features necessary for
   the application protocol.  This will also indicate whether the token
   was a deletion token, in which case the major status will be
   GSS_S_NO_CONTEXT.

4.  Sample Code

   This section gives sample code for the GSS negotiation loop, both for
   a regular application and for an application where the initiator
   wishes to remain anonymous.  Since the code for the two cases is very
   similar, the anonymous-specific additions are wrapped in a
   conditional check; that check and the conditional code may be ignored
   if anonymous processing is not needed.

   Since the communication channel between the initiator and acceptor is
   a matter for individual application protocols, it is inherently
   unspecified at the GSS-API level, which can lead to examples that are
   less satisfying than may be desired.  For example, the sample code in
   [RFC2744] uses an unspecified send_token_to_peer() routine.  Fully
   correct and general code to frame and transmit tokens requires a
   substantial amount of error checking and would detract from the core
   purpose of this document, so we only present the function signature
   for one example of what such functions might be, and leave some
   comments in the otherwise-empty function bodies.

   This sample code is written in C, using the GSS-API C bindings
   [RFC2744].  It uses the macro GSS_ERROR() to help unpack the various
   sorts of information which can be stored in the major status field;
   supplementary information does not necessarily indicate an error.

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   Applications written in other languages will need to exercise care
   that checks against the major status value are written correctly.

   This sample code should be compilable as a standalone program, linked
   against a GSS-API library.  In addition to supplying implementations
   for the token transmission/receipt routines, in order for the program
   to successfully run when linked against most GSS-API libraries, the
   initiator will need to specify an explicit target name for the
   acceptor (which must match the credentials available to the
   acceptor).  A skeleton for how this may be done is provided, using a
   dummy name.

   This sample code assumes v2 of the GSS-API.  Applications wishing to
   remain compatible with v1 of the GSS-API may need to perform
   additional checks in some locations.

4.1.  GSS Application Sample Code

#include <unistd.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <err.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <gssapi/gssapi.h>

/*
 * This helper is used only on buffers that we allocate ourselves (e.g.,
 * from receive_token()).  Buffers allocated by GSS routines must use
 * gss_release_buffer().
 */
static void
release_buffer(gss_buffer_t buf)
{
    free(buf->value);
    buf->value = NULL;
    buf->length = 0;
}

/*
 * Helper to send a token on the specified fd.
 *
 * If errors are encountered, this routine must not directly cause
 * termination of the process (i.e., by errx()), because compliant GSS
 * applications must release resources allocated by the GSS library
 * before exiting.  (These resources may be non-local to the current
 * process.)
 */

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static int
send_token(int fd, gss_buffer_t token)
{
    /*
     * Supply token framing and transmission code here.
     *
     * It is advisable for the application protocol to specify the
     * length of the token being transmitted, unless the underlying
     * transit does so implicitly.
     *
     * In addition to checking for error returns from whichever
     * syscall(s) are used to send data, applications should have
     * a loop to handle EINTR returns.
     */
    return 1;
}

/*
 * Helper to receive a token on the specified fd.
 *
 * If errors are encountered, this routine must not directly cause
 * termination of the process (i.e., by errx()), because compliant GSS
 * applications must release resources allocated by the GSS library
 * before exiting.  (These resources may be non-local to the current
 * process.)
 */
static int
receive_token(int fd, gss_buffer_t token)
{
    /*
     * Supply token framing and transmission code here.
     *
     * In addition to checking for error returns from whichever
     * syscall(s) are used to receive data, applications should have
     * a loop to handle EINTR returns.
     *
     * This routine is assumed to allocate memory for the local copy
     * of the received token, which must be freed with release_buffer().
     */
    return 1;
}

static void
do_initiator(int readfd, int writefd, int anon)
{
    int initiator_established = 0, ret;
    gss_ctx_id_t ctx = GSS_C_NO_CONTEXT;
    OM_uint32 major, minor, req_flags, ret_flags;

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    gss_buffer_desc input_token, output_token, name_buf;
    gss_name_t target_name = GSS_C_NO_NAME;

    memset(&input_token, 0, sizeof(input_token));
    memset(&output_token, 0, sizeof(output_token));
    memset(&name_buf, 0, sizeof(name_buf));

    /* Applications should set target_name to a real value. */
    name_buf.value = "<service>@<hostname.domain>";
    name_buf.length = strlen(name_buf.value);
    major = gss_import_name(&minor, &name_buf,
                            GSS_C_NT_HOSTBASED_SERVICE, &target_name);

    /* Mutual authentication will require a token from acceptor to
     * initiator, and thus a second call to gss_init_sec_context(). */
    req_flags = GSS_C_MUTUAL_FLAG | GSS_C_CONF_FLAG | GSS_C_INTEG_FLAG;
    if (anon)
        req_flags |= GSS_C_ANON_FLAG;

    while (!initiator_established) {
        /* The initiator_cred_handle, mech_type, time_req,
         * input_chan_bindings, actual_mech_type, and time_rec
         * parameters are not needed in many cases.  We pass
         * GSS_C_NO_CREDENTIAL, GSS_C_NO_OID, 0, NULL, NULL, and NULL
         * for them, respectively. */
        major = gss_init_sec_context(&minor, GSS_C_NO_CREDENTIAL, &ctx,
                                     target_name, GSS_C_NO_OID,
                                     req_flags, 0, NULL, &input_token,
                                     NULL, &output_token, &ret_flags,
                                     NULL);
        /* This was allocated by receive_token() and is no longer
         * needed.  Free it now to avoid leaks if the loop continues. */
        release_buffer(&input_token);
        if (anon) {
            /* Initiators which wish to remain anonymous must check
             * whether their request has been honored before sending
             * each token. */
            if (!(ret_flags & GSS_C_ANON_FLAG)) {
                warnx("Anonymous requested but not available\n");
                goto cleanup;
            }
        }
        /* Always send a token if we are expecting another input token
         * (GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED is set) or if it is nonempty. */
        if ((major & GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED) ||
            output_token.length > 0) {
            ret = send_token(writefd, &output_token);
            if (ret != 0)

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                goto cleanup;
        }
        /* Check for errors after sending the token so that we will send
         * error tokens. */
        if (GSS_ERROR(major)) {
            warnx("gss_init_sec_context() error major 0x%x\n", major);
            goto cleanup;
        }
        /* Free the output token's storage; we don't need it anymore.
         * gss_release_buffer() is safe to call on the output buffer
         * from gss_int_sec_context(), even if there is no storage
         * associated with that buffer. */
        (void)gss_release_buffer(&minor, &output_token);

        if (major & GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED) {
            ret = receive_token(readfd, &input_token);
            if (ret != 0)
                goto cleanup;
        } else if (major == GSS_S_COMPLETE) {
            initiator_established = 1;
        } else {
            /* This situation is forbidden by RFC 2743.  Bail out. */
            warnx("major not complete or continue but not error\n");
            goto cleanup;
        }
    }   /* while(!initiator_established) */
    if ((ret_flags & req_flags) != req_flags) {
        warnx("Negotiated context does not support requested flags\n");
        goto cleanup;
    }
    printf("Initiator's context negotiation successful\n");
cleanup:
    /* We are required to release storage for nonzero-length output
     * tokens.  gss_release_buffer() zeros the length, so we are
     * will not attempt to release the same buffer twice. */
    if (output_token.length > 0)
        (void)gss_release_buffer(&minor, &output_token);
    /* Do not request a context deletion token; pass NULL. */
    (void)gss_delete_sec_context(&minor, &ctx, NULL);
    (void)gss_release_name(&minor, &target_name);
}

static void
do_acceptor(int readfd, int writefd)
{
    int acceptor_established = 0, ret;
    gss_ctx_id_t ctx = GSS_C_NO_CONTEXT;
    OM_uint32 major, minor, ret_flags;

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    gss_buffer_desc input_token, output_token;
    gss_name_t client_name;

    memset(&input_token, 0, sizeof(input_token));
    memset(&output_token, 0, sizeof(output_token));

    major = GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED;

    while(!acceptor_established) {
        if (major & GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED) {
            ret = receive_token(readfd, &input_token);
            if (ret != 0)
                goto cleanup;
        } else if (major == GSS_S_COMPLETE) {
            acceptor_established = 1;
            break;
        } else {
            /* This situation is forbidden by RFC 2743.  Bail out. */
            warnx("major not complete or continue but not error\n");
            goto cleanup;
        }
        /* We can use the default behavior or do not need the returned
         * information for the parameters acceptor_cred_handle,
         * input_chan_bindings, mech_type, time_rec, and
         * delegated_cred_handle and pass the values
         * GSS_C_NO_CREDENTIAL, NULL, NULL, NULL, and NULL,
         * respectively.  In some cases the src_name will not be
         * needed, but most likely it will be needed for some
         * authorization or logging functionality. */
        major = gss_accept_sec_context(&minor, &ctx,
                                       GSS_C_NO_CREDENTIAL,
                                       &input_token, NULL,
                                       &client_name, NULL,
                                       &output_token, &ret_flags, NULL,
                                       NULL);
        /* This was allocated by receive_token() and is no longer
         * needed.  Free it now to avoid leaks if the loop continues. */
        release_buffer(&input_token);
        /* Always send a token if we are expecting another input token
         * (GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED is set) or if it is nonempty. */
        if ((major & GSS_S_CONTINUE_NEEDED) ||
            output_token.length > 0) {
            ret = send_token(writefd, &output_token);
            if (ret != 0)
                goto cleanup;
        }
        /* Check for errors after sending the token so that we will send
         * error tokens. */

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        if (GSS_ERROR(major)) {
            warnx("gss_accept_sec_context() error major 0x%x\n", major);
            goto cleanup;
        }
        /* Free the output token's storage; we don't need it anymore.
         * gss_release_buffer() is safe to call on the output buffer
         * from gss_accept_sec_context(), even if there is no storage
         * associated with that buffer. */
        (void)gss_release_buffer(&minor, &output_token);
    }   /* while(!acceptor_established) */
    if (!(ret_flags & GSS_C_INTEG_FLAG)) {
        warnx("Negotiated context does not support integrity\n");
        goto cleanup;
    }
    printf("Acceptor's context negotiation successful\n");
cleanup:
    release_buffer(&input_token);
    /* We are required to release storage for nonzero-length output
     * tokens.  gss_release_buffer() zeros the length, so we are
     * will not attempt to release the same buffer twice. */
    if (output_token.length > 0)
        (void)gss_release_buffer(&minor, &output_token);
    /* Do not request a context deletion token, pass NULL. */
    (void)gss_delete_sec_context(&minor, &ctx, NULL);
    (void)gss_release_name(&minor, &client_name);
}

int
main(void)
{
    pid_t pid;
    int fd1 = -1, fd2 = -1;

    /* Create fds for reading/writing here. */
    pid = fork();
    if (pid == 0)
        do_initiator(fd1, fd2, 0);
    else if (pid > 0)
        do_acceptor(fd2, fd1);
    else
        err(1, "fork() failed\n");
    exit(0);
}

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5.  Security Considerations

   This document provides a (reasonably) concise description and example
   for correct construction of the GSS-API security context negotiation
   loop.  Since everything relating to the construction and use of a GSS
   security context is security-related, there are security-relevant
   considerations throughout the document.  It is useful to call out a
   few things in this section, though.

   The GSS-API uses a request-and-check model for features.  An
   application using the GSS-API requests that certain features
   (confidentiality protection for messages, or anonymity), but such a
   request does not require the GSS implementation to provide that
   feature.  The application must check the returned flags to verify
   whether a requested feature is present; if the feature was non-
   optional for the application, the application must generate an error.
   Phrased differently, the GSS-API will not generate an error if it is
   unable to satisfy the features requested by the application.

6.  References

6.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2743]  Linn, J., "Generic Security Service Application Program
              Interface Version 2, Update 1", RFC 2743, January 2000.

   [RFC2744]  Wray, J., "Generic Security Service API Version 2 :
              C-bindings", RFC 2744, January 2000.

6.2.  Informational References

   [RFC4462]  Hutzelman, J., Salowey, J., Galbraith, J., and V. Welch,
              "Generic Security Service Application Program Interface
              (GSS-API) Authentication and Key Exchange for the Secure
              Shell (SSH) Protocol", RFC 4462, May 2006.

   [RFC4401]  Williams, N., "A Pseudo-Random Function (PRF) API
              Extension for the Generic Security Service Application
              Program Interface (GSS-API)", RFC 4401, February 2006.

   [RFC3645]  Kwan, S., Garg, P., Gilroy, J., Esibov, L., Westhead, J.,
              and R. Hall, "Generic Security Service Algorithm for
              Secret Key Transaction Authentication for DNS (GSS-TSIG)",
              RFC 3645, October 2003.

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   [RFC5801]  Josefsson, S. and N. Williams, "Using Generic Security
              Service Application Program Interface (GSS-API) Mechanisms
              in Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL): The
              GS2 Mechanism Family", RFC 5801, July 2010.

   [RFC4752]  Melnikov, A., "The Kerberos V5 ("GSSAPI") Simple
              Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) Mechanism", RFC
              4752, November 2006.

   [RFC2203]  Eisler, M., Chiu, A., and L. Ling, "RPCSEC_GSS Protocol
              Specification", RFC 2203, September 1997.

Appendix A.  Acknowledgements

   Thanks to Nico Williams and Jeff Hutzleman for prompting me to write
   this document.

Author's Address

   Benjamin Kaduk
   MIT Kerberos Consortium

   Email: kaduk@mit.edu

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