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Router Keying for BGPsec
draft-ietf-sidrops-rtr-keying-06

The information below is for an old version of the document that is already published as an RFC.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 8635.
Authors Randy Bush , Sean Turner , Keyur Patel
Last updated 2019-08-07 (Latest revision 2019-05-14)
Replaces draft-ietf-sidr-rtr-keying
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Intended RFC status Proposed Standard
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Stream WG state Submitted to IESG for Publication
Document shepherd Chris Morrow
Shepherd write-up Show Last changed 2018-11-05
IESG IESG state Became RFC 8635 (Proposed Standard)
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Consensus boilerplate Yes
Telechat date (None)
Responsible AD Warren "Ace" Kumari
Send notices to Chris Morrow <morrowc@ops-netman.net>
IANA IANA review state Version Changed - Review Needed
IANA action state No IANA Actions
draft-ietf-sidrops-rtr-keying-06
Network Working Group                                            R. Bush
Internet-Draft                             IIJ Lab / Dragon Research Lab
Intended status: Best Current Practice                         S. Turner
Expires: November 15, 2019                                         sn3rd
                                                                K. Patel
                                                            Arrcus, Inc.
                                                            May 14, 2019

                        Router Keying for BGPsec
                    draft-ietf-sidrops-rtr-keying-06

Abstract

   BGPsec-speaking routers are provisioned with private keys in order to
   sign BGPsec announcements.  The corresponding public keys are
   published in the global Resource Public Key Infrastructure, enabling
   verification of BGPsec messages.  This document describes two methods
   of generating the public-private key-pairs: router-driven and
   operator-driven.

Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

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 January 16, 2017.

 

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2019 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.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
   2.  Management / Router Communication  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   3.  Exchange Certificates  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   4.  Set-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   5.  Generate PKCS#10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     5.1.  Router-Generated Keys  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     5.2.  Operator-Generated Keys  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
       5.2.1.  Using PKCS#8 to Transfer Private Key . . . . . . . . .  6
   6.  Send PKCS#10 and Receive PKCS#7  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   7.  Install Certificate  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   8.  Advanced Deployment Scenarios  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   9.  Key Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     9.1.  Key Validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     9.2.  Key Roll-Over  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     9.3.  Key Revocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     9.4.  Router Replacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   10.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   11.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   12.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     12.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     12.1.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
   Appendix A.  Management/Router Channel Security  . . . . . . . . . 16
   Appendix B.  An Introduction to BGPsec Key Management  . . . . . . 16
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

1.  Introduction

   BGPsec-speaking routers are provisioned with private keys, which
   allow them to digitally sign BGPsec announcements.  To verify the
   signature, the public key, in the form of a certificate [RFC8209], is
 

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   published in the Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI).  This
   document describes provisioning of BGPsec-speaking routers with the
   appropriate public-private key-pairs.  There are two methods, router-
   driven and operator-driven.

   These two methods differ in where the keys are generated: on the
   router in the router-driven method, and elsewhere in the
   operator-driven method.

   The two methods also differ in who generates the private/public key
   pair: the operator generates the pair and sends it to the router in
   the operator-driven method, and the router generates its own pair in
   the router-drive method.

   The router-driven method mirrors the model used by traditional PKI
   subscribers; the private key never leaves trusted storage (e.g.,
   Hardware Security Module).  This is by design and supports classic
   PKI Certification Policies for (often human) subscribers which
   require the private key only ever be controlled by the subscriber to
   ensure that no one can impersonate the subscriber.  For non-humans,
   this method does not always work.  The operator-driven model is
   motivated by the extreme importance placed on ensuring the continued
   operation of the network.  In some deployments, the same private key
   needs to be installed in the soon-to-be online router that was used
   by the soon-to-be offline router, since this "hot-swapping" behavior
   can result in minimal downtime, especially compared with the normal
   RPKI procedures to propagate a new key, which can take a day or
   longer to converge.

   For example, when an operator wants to support hot-swappable routers,
   the same private key needs to be installed in the soon-to-be online
   router that was used by the soon-to-be offline router.  This
   motivated the operator-driven method.

   Sections 2 through 7 describe the various steps involved for an
   operator to use the two methods to provision new and existing
   routers.  The methods described involve the operator configuring the
   two end points (i.e., the management station and the router) and
   acting as the intermediary.  Section 8 describes another method that
   requires more capable routers. 

   Useful References: [RFC8205] describes details of BGPsec, [RFC8209]
   specifies the format for the PKCS#10 certification request, and
   [RFC8208] specifies the algorithms used to generate the PKCS#10
   signature.

2.  Management / Router Communication

 

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   Operators are free to use either the router-driven or operator-driven
   method as supported by the platform.  Prudent security practice
   recommends router-generated keying, if the delay in replacing a
   router (or router engine) is acceptable to the operator.  Regardless
   of the method chosen, operators first establish a protected channel
   between the management system and the router; this protected channel
   prevents eavesdropping, tampering, and message forgery as well as
   provides mutual authentication. How this protected channel is
   established is router-specific and is beyond scope of this document. 
   Though other configuration mechanisms might be used, e.g.  NETCONF
   (see [RFC6470]), the protected channel used between the management
   platform and the router is assumed to be an SSH-protected CLI.  See
   Appendix A for security considerations for this protected channel.

   The previous paragraph assumes the management system-to-router
   communications are over a network.  When the management system has a
   direct physical connection to the router, e.g., via the craft port,
   there is no assumption that there is a protected channel between the
   two.

   To be clear: for both of these methods, an initial leap-of-faith is
   required because the router has no keying material that it can use to
   protect communications with anyone or anything. Because of this
   initial leap of faith, a direct physical connection is safer than
   connecting via a network connection because there is less chance of a
   man in the middle.  Once keying material is established on the
   router, the communications channel must prevent eavesdropping,
   tampering, and message forgery.  This initial leap-of-faith will no
   longer be required once routers are delivered to operators with
   operator-trusted keying material

3.  Exchange Certificates

   A number of options exist for the operator management station to
   exchange PKI-related information with routers and with the RPKI
   including:

   - Using application/pkcs10 media type [RFC5967] to extract
   certificate requests and application/pkcs7-mime [I-D.lamps-rfc5751-
   bis] to return the issued certificate,

   - Using FTP or HTTP per [RFC2585], and

   - Using Enrollment over Secure Transport (EST) protocol per
   [RFC7030].

   Despite the fact that Certificates are integrity-protected and do not
   necessarily need additional protection, transports that also provide
 

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   integrity protection are RECOMMENDED.

4.  Set-Up

   To start, the operator uses the protected channel to install the
   appropriate RPKI Trust Anchor's Certificate (TA Cert) in the router.
   This will later enable the router to validate the router certificate
   returned in the PKCS#7 certs-only message [I-D.lamps-rfc5751-bis].

   The operator configures the Autonomous System (AS) number to be used
   in the generated router certificate.  This may be the sole AS
   configured on the router, or an operator choice if the router is
   configured with multiple ASs.  A router with multiple ASs can be
   configured with multiple router certificates by following the process
   of this document for each desired certificate. This configured AS
   number is also used during verification of keys, if generated by the
   operator (see Section 5.2), as well as during certificate
   verification steps (see Sections 6, 7, and 8).

   The operator configures or extracts from the router the BGP
   Identifier [RFC6286] to be used in the generated router certificate. 
   In the case where the operator has chosen not to use unique
   per-router certificates, a BGP Identifier of 0 MAY be used.

   The operator configures the router's access control mechanism to
   ensure that only authorized users are able to later access the
   router's configuration.

5.  Generate PKCS#10

   The private key, and hence the PKCS#10 certification request, which
   is sometimes referred to as a Certificate Signing Request (CSR), may
   be generated by the router or by the operator.

   Retaining the CSR allows for verifying that the returned public key
   in the certificate corresponds to the private key used to generate
   the signature on the CSR.

   NOTE: The PKCS#10 certification request does not include the AS
   number or the BGP Identifier for the router certificate.  Therefore,
   the operator transmits the AS it has chosen on the router and the BGP
   Identifier as well when it sends the CSR to the CA.

5.1.  Router-Generated Keys

   In the router-generated method, once the protected channel is
   established and the initial Set-Up (Section 4) performed, the
   operator issues a command or commands for the router to generate the
 

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   public/private key pair, to generate the PKCS#10 certification
   request, and to sign the PKCS#10 certification request with the
   private key.  Once the router has generated the PKCS#10 certification
   request, it returns it to the operator over the protected channel.

   The operator includes the chosen AS number and the BGP Identifier
   when it sends the CSR to the CA.

   Even if the operator cannot extract the private key from the router,
   this signature still provides a linkage between a private key and a
   router.  That is, the operator can verify the proof of possession
   (POP), as required by [RFC6484].

   NOTE: The CA needs to know that the router-generated CSR is
   authorized.  The easiest way to accomplish this for the operator to
   mediate the communication with the CA.  Other workflows are possible,
   e.g., where the router sends the CSR to the CA but the operator logs
   in to the CA independently and is presented with a list of pending
   requests to approve.  See Section 8 for an additional workflow.

   If a router were to communicate directly with a CA to have the CA
   certify the PKCS#10 certification request, there would be no way for
   the CA to authenticate the router.  As the operator knows the
   authenticity of the router, the operator mediates the communication
   with the CA.

5.2.  Operator-Generated Keys

   In the operator-generated method, the operator generates the
   public/private key pair on a management station and installs the
   private key into the router over the protected channel.  Beware that
   experience has shown that copy-and-paste from a management station to
   a router can be unreliable for long texts.

   The operator then creates and signs the PKCS#10 certification request
   with the private key; the operator includes the chosen AS number and
   the BGP Identifier when it sends the CSR to the CA.

5.2.1.  Using PKCS#8 to Transfer Private Key

   A private key can be encapsulated in a PKCS#8 Asymmetric Key Package
   [RFC5958] and SHOULD be further encapsulated in Cryptographic Message
   Syntax (CMS) SignedData [RFC5652] and signed with the operators's End
   Entity (EE) private key.

   The router SHOULD verify the signature of the encapsulated PKCS#8 to
   ensure the returned private key did in fact come from the operator,
   but this requires that the operator also provision via the CLI or
 

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   include in the SignedData the RPKI CA certificate and relevant
   operators' EE certificate(s).  The router SHOULD inform the operator
   whether or not the signature validates to a trust anchor; this
   notification mechanism is out of scope.

6.  Send PKCS#10 and Receive PKCS#7

   The operator uses RPKI management tools to communicate with the
   global RPKI system to have the appropriate CA validate the PKCS#10
   certification request, sign the key in the PKCS#10 (i.e., certify it)
   and generate a PKCS#7 certs-only message, as well as publishing the
   certificate in the Global RPKI.  External network connectivity may be
   needed if the certificate is to be published in the Global RPKI.

   After the CA certifies the key, it does two things:

   1.  Publishes the certificate in the Global RPKI.  The CA must have
       connectivity to the relevant publication point, which in turn
       must have external network connectivity as it is part of the
       Global RPKI.

   2.  Returns the certificate to the operator's management station,
       packaged in a PKCS#7 certs-only message, using the corresponding
       method by which it received the certificate request.  It SHOULD
       include the certificate chain below the TA Certificate so that
       the router can validate the router certificate.

   In the operator-generated method, the operator SHOULD extract the
   certificate from the PKCS#7 certs-only message, and verify that the
   public key the operator holds corresponds to the returned public key
   in the PKCS#7 certs-only message.  If the operator saved the PKCS#10
   it can check this correspondence by comparing the public key in the
   CSR to the public key in the returned certificate.  If the operator
   has not saved the PKCS#10, it can check this correspondence by
   regenerating the public key from the private key and then verifying
   that the regenerated public key matches the public key returned in
   the certificate.

   In the operator-generated method, the operator has already installed
   the private key in the router (see Section 5.2).

7.  Install Certificate

   The operator provisions the PKCS#7 certs-only message into the router
   over the protected channel.

   The router SHOULD extract the certificate from the PKCS#7 certs-only
   message and verify that the public key corresponds to the stored
 

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   private key.  If the router stored the PKCS#10, it can check this
   correspondence by comparing the public key in the CSR to the public
   key in the returned certificate.  If the router did not store the
   PKCS#10, it can check this correspondence by generating a signature
   on any data and then verifying the signature using the returned
   certificate.  The router SHOULD inform the operator whether it
   successfully received the certificate and whether or not the keys
   correspond; the mechanism is out of scope.

   The router SHOULD also verify that the returned certificate validates
   back to the installed TA Certificate, i.e., the entire chain from the
   installed TA Certificate through subordinate CAs to the BGPsec
   certificate validate.  To perform this verification, the CA
   certificate chain needs to be returned along with the router's
   certificate in the PKCS#7 certs-only message.  The router SHOULD
   inform the operator whether or not the signature validates to a trust
   anchor; this notification mechanism is out of scope.

   NOTE: The signature on the PKCS#8 and Certificate need not be made by
   the same entity.  Signing the PKCS#8 permits more advanced
   configurations where the entity that generates the keys is not the
   direct CA.

8.  Advanced Deployment Scenarios

   More PKI-capable routers can take advantage of increased
   functionality and lighten the operator's burden.  Typically, these
   routers include either pre-installed manufacturer-generated
   certificates (e.g., IEEE 802.1 AR [802.1AR]) or pre-installed
   manufacturer-generated Pre-Shared Keys (PSK) as well as
   PKI-enrollment functionality and transport protocol, e.g., CMC's
   "Secure Transport" [RFC7030] or the original CMC transport protocol's
   [RFC5273].  When the operator first establishes a protected channel
   between the management system and the router, this pre-installed key
   material is used to authenticate the router.

   The operator's burden shifts here to include:

   1.  Securely communicating the router's authentication material to
       the CA prior to operator initiating the router's CSR.  CAs use
       authentication material to determine whether the router is
       eligible to receive a certificate. Authentication material at a
       minimum includes the router's AS number and BGP Identifier as
       well as the router's key material, but can also include
       additional information. Authentication material can be
       communicated to the CA (i.e., CSRs signed by this key material
       are issued certificates with this AS and BGP Identifier) or to
       the router (i.e., the operator uses the vendor-supplied
 

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       management interface to include the AS number and BGP Identifier
       in the router-generated CSR).  The CA stores this authentication
       material in an account entry for the router so that it can later
       be compared against the CSR prior to the CA issuing a certificate
       to the router.

   2.  Enabling the router to communicate with the CA.  While the
       router-to-CA communications are operator-initiated, the
       operator's management interface need not be involved in the
       communications path.  Enabling the router-to-CA connectivity
       requires connections to external networks (i.e., through
       firewalls, NATs, etc.).

   3.  Ensuring the cryptographic chain of custody from the
       manufacturer.  For the pre-installed key material, the operator
       needs guarantees that either no one has accessed the private key
       or an authenticated log of those who have accessed it has been
       provided to the operator.

   Once configured, the operator can begin the process of enrolling the
   router.  Because the router is communicating directly with the CA,
   there is no need for the operator to retrieve the PKCS#10
   certification request from the router as in Section 5 or return the
   PKCS#7 certs-only message to the router as in Section 6.  Note that
   the checks performed by the router in Section 7, namely extracting
   the certificate from the PKCS#7 certs-only message, verifying the
   public key corresponds to the private key, and that the returned
   certificate validated back to an installed trust anchor, SHOULD be
   performed.  Likewise, the router SHOULD notify the operator if any of
   these fail, but this notification mechanism is out of scope.

   When a router is so configured, the communication with the CA SHOULD
   be automatically re-established by the router at future times to
   renew the certificate automatically when necessary (See Section 9).
   This further reduces the tasks required of the operator. 

9.  Key Management

   Key management does not only include key generation, key
   provisioning, certificate issuance, and certificate distribution.  It
   also includes assurance of key validity, key roll-over, and key
   preservation during router replacement.  All of these
   responsibilities persist for as long as the operator wishes to
   operate the BGPsec-speaking router.

9.1.  Key Validity

   It is critical that a BGPsec-speaking router is signing with a valid
 

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   private key at all times.  To this end, the operator needs to ensure
   the router always has a non-expired certificate.  I.e. the key used
   to sign BGPsec announcements always has an associated certificate
   whose expiry time is after the current time.

   Ensuring this is not terribly difficult but requires that either:

   1.  The router have a mechanism to notify the operator that the
       certificate has an impending expiration, and/or

   2.  The operator note the expiry time of the certificate and uses a
       calendaring program to remind them of the expiry time, and/or

   3.  The RPKI CA warn the operator of pending expiration, and/or

   4.  The operator use some other kind of automated process to search
       for and track the expiry times of router certificates.

   It is advisable that expiration warnings happen well in advance of
   the actual expiry time.

   Regardless of the technique used to track router certificate expiry
   times, it is advisable to notify additional operators in the same
   organization as the expiry time approaches, thereby ensuring that the
   forgetfulness of one operator does not affect the entire
   organization.

   Depending on inter-operator relationship, it may be helpful to notify
   a peer operator that one or more of their certificates are about to
   expire.

9.2.  Key Roll-Over

   Routers that support multiple private keys also greatly increase the
   chance that routers can continuously speak BGPsec because the new
   private key and certificate can be obtained and distributed prior to
   expiration of the operational key.  Obviously, the router needs to
   know when to start using the new key.  Once the new key is being
   used, having the already distributed certificate ensures continuous
   operation.

   More information on how to proceed with a Key Roll-Over is described
   in [I-D.sidrops-bgpsec-rollover].

9.3.  Key Revocation

   In certain circumstances, a router's BGPsec certificate may need to
   be revoked.  When this occurs, the operator needs to use the RPKI CA
 

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   system to revoke the certificate by placing the router's BGPsec
   certificate on the Certificate Revocation List (CRL) as well as
   re-keying the router's certificate.

   When an active router key is to be revoked, the process of requesting
   the CA to revoke, the process of the CA actually revoking the
   router's certificate, and then the process of re-keying/renewing the
   router's certificate, (possibly distributing a new key and
   certificate to the router), and distributing the status, takes time
   during which the operator must decide how they wish to maintain
   continuity of operations, with or without the compromised private
   key, or whether they wish to bring the router offline to address the
   compromise.

   Keeping the router operational and BGPsec-speaking is the ideal goal;
   but, if operational practices do not allow this, then reconfiguring
   the router to disable BGPsec is likely preferred to bringing the
   router offline.

   Routers which support more than one private key, where one is
   operational and other(s) are soon-to-be-operational, facilitate
   revocation events because the operator can configure the router to
   make a soon-to-be-operational key operational, request revocation of
   the compromised key, and then make a next generation
   soon-to-be-operational key.  Hopefully, all this can be done without
   needing to take offline or reboot the router.  For routers which
   support only one operational key, the operators should create or
   install the new private key, and then request revocation of the
   certificate corresponding to the compromised private key.

9.4.  Router Replacement

   Currently routers often generate private keys for uses such as SSH,
   and the private keys may not be seen or exported from the router.
   While this is good security, it creates difficulties when a routing
   engine or whole router must be replaced in the field and all software
   which accesses the router must be updated with the new keys.  Also,
   any network based initial contact with a new routing engine requires
   trust in the public key presented on first contact.

   To allow operators to quickly replace routers without requiring
   update and distribution of the corresponding public keys in the RPKI,
   routers SHOULD allow the private BGPsec key to be inserted via a
   protected channel, e.g., SSH, NetConf (see [RFC6470]), SNMP.  This
   lets the operator escrow the old private key via the mechanism used
   for operator-generated keys, see Section 5.2, such that it can be re-
   inserted into a replacement router.  The router MAY allow the private
   key to be to be exported via the protected channel after key
 

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   generation, but this SHOULD be paired with functionality that sets
   the newly generated key into a permanent non-exportable state to
   ensure that it is not exported at a future time by unauthorized
   operations.

10.  Security Considerations

   The router's manual will describe whether the router supports one,
   the other, or both of the key generation options discussed in the
   earlier sections of this draft as well as other important security-
   related information (e.g., how to SSH to the router).  After
   familiarizing one's self with the capabilities of the router, an
   operator is encouraged to ensure that the router is patched with the
   latest software updates available from the manufacturer.

   This document defines no protocols.  So, in some sense, it introduces
   no new security considerations.  However, it relies on many others
   and the security considerations in the referenced documents should be
   consulted; notably, those document listed in Section 1 should be
   consulted first.  PKI-relying protocols, of which BGPsec is one, have
   many issues to consider - so many, in fact, entire books have been
   written to address them; so listing all PKI-related security
   considerations is neither useful nor helpful.  Regardless, some boot-
   strapping-related issues are listed here that are worth repeating:

   Public-Private key pair generation: Mistakes here are, for all,
      practical purposes catastrophic because PKIs rely on the pairing
      of a difficult to generate public-private key pair with a signer;
      all key pairs MUST be generated from a good source of non-
      deterministic random input [RFC4086].

   Private key protection at rest: Mistakes here are, for all, practical
      purposes catastrophic because disclosure of the private key allows
      another entity to masquerade as (i.e., impersonate) the signer;
      all private keys MUST be protected when at rest in a secure
      fashion.  Obviously, how each router protects private keys is
      implementation specific.  Likewise, the local storage format for
      the private key is just that, a local matter.

   Private key protection in transit: Mistakes here are, for all,
      practical purposes catastrophic because disclosure of the private
      key allows another entity to masquerade as (i.e., impersonate) the
      signer; transport security is therefore strongly RECOMMENDED.  The
      level of security provided by the transport layer's security
      mechanism SHOULD be at least as good as the strength of the BGPsec
      key; there's no point in spending time and energy to generate an
      excellent public-private key pair and then transmit the private
      key in the clear or with a known-to-be-broken algorithm, as it
 

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      just undermines trust that the private key has been kept private.
      Additionally, operators SHOULD ensure the transport security
      mechanism is up to date, in order to addresses all known
      implementation bugs.

   Though the CA's certificate is installed on the router and used to
   verify that the returned certificate is in fact signed by the CA, the
   revocation status of the CA's certificate is rarely checked as the
   router may not have global connectivity or CRL-aware software.  The
   operator MUST ensure that the installed CA certificate is valid.

11.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA Considerations.

12.  References

12.1.  Normative References

   [I-D.sidrops-bgpsec-rollover]
              Weis, B, R. Gagliano, and K. Patel, "BGPsec Router
              Certificate Rollover", draft-ietf-sidrops-bgpsec-
              rollover (work in progress), December 2017.

   [I-D.lamps-rfc5751-bis]
              Schaad, J., Ramsdell, B, S. Turner,
              "Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (S/MIME)
              Version 4.0", draft-ietf-lamps-rfc5751-
              bis (work in progress), July 2018.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI
              10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC4086]  Eastlake 3rd, D., Schiller, J., and S. Crocker,
              "Randomness Requirements for Security", BCP 106, RFC 4086,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4086, June 2005, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc4086>.

   [RFC4253]  Ylonen, T. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure Shell (SSH)
              Transport Layer Protocol", RFC 4253, DOI 10.17487/RFC4253,
              January 2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4253>.

   [RFC5652]  Housley, R., "Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)", STD 70,
              RFC 5652, DOI 10.17487/RFC5652, September 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5652>.

 

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   [RFC5958]  Turner, S., "Asymmetric Key Packages", RFC 5958, DOI
              10.17487/RFC5958, August 2010, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc5958>.

   [RFC6286]  Chen, E. and J. Yuan, "Autonomous-System-Wide Unique BGP
              Identifier for BGP-4", RFC 6286, DOI 10.17487/RFC6286,
              June 2011, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6286>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in
              RFC 2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI
              10.17487/RFC8174, May 2017, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

   [RFC8208]  Turner, S. and O. Borchert, "BGPsec Algorithms, Key
              Formats, and Signature Formats", RFC 8208, DOI
              10.17487/RFC8208, September 2017, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc8208>.

   [RFC8209]  Reynolds, M., Turner, S., and S. Kent, "A Profile for
              BGPsec Router Certificates, Certificate Revocation Lists,
              and Certification Requests", RFC 8209, DOI
              10.17487/RFC8209, September 2017, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc8209>.

   [802.1AR]  IEEE SA-Standards Board, "IEEE Standard for Local and
              metropolitan area networks - Secure Device Identity",
              December 2009,
              <http://standards.ieee.org/findstds/standard/802.1AR-
              2009.html>.

12.1.  Informative References

   [RFC2585]  Housley, R. and P. Hoffman, "Internet X.509 Public Key
              Infrastructure Operational Protocols: FTP and HTTP",
              RFC 2585, DOI 10.17487/RFC2585, May 1999,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2585>.

   [RFC3766]  Orman, H. and P. Hoffman, "Determining Strengths For
              Public Keys Used For Exchanging Symmetric Keys", BCP 86,
              RFC 3766, DOI 10.17487/RFC3766, April 2004,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3766>.

   [RFC5273]  Schaad, J. and M. Myers, "Certificate Management over CMS
              (CMC): Transport Protocols", RFC 5273, DOI
              10.17487/RFC5273, June 2008, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc5273>.

 

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   [RFC5480]  Turner, S., Brown, D., Yiu, K., Housley, R., and T. Polk,
              "Elliptic Curve Cryptography Subject Public Key
              Information", RFC 5480, DOI 10.17487/RFC5480, March 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5480>.

   [RFC5647]  Igoe, K. and J. Solinas, "AES Galois Counter Mode for the
              Secure Shell Transport Layer Protocol", RFC 5647, DOI
              10.17487/RFC5647, August 2009, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc5647>.

   [RFC5656]  Stebila, D. and J. Green, "Elliptic Curve Algorithm
              Integration in the Secure Shell Transport Layer",
              RFC 5656, DOI 10.17487/RFC5656, December 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5656>.

   [RFC5967]  Turner, S., "The application/pkcs10 Media Type", RFC 5967,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5967, August 2010, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc5967>.

   [RFC6187]  Igoe, K. and D. Stebila, "X.509v3 Certificates for Secure
              Shell Authentication", RFC 6187, DOI 10.17487/RFC6187,
              March 2011, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6187>.

   [RFC6470]  Bierman, A., "Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF)
              Base Notifications", RFC 6470, DOI 10.17487/RFC6470,
              February 2012, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6470>.

   [RFC6484]  Kent, S., Kong, D., Seo, K., and R. Watro, "Certificate
              Policy (CP) for the Resource Public Key Infrastructure
              (RPKI)", BCP 173, RFC 6484, DOI 10.17487/RFC6484, February
              2012, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6484>.

   [RFC6668]  Bider, D. and M. Baushke, "SHA-2 Data Integrity
              Verification for the Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer
              Protocol", RFC 6668, DOI 10.17487/RFC6668, July 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6668>.

   [RFC7030]  Pritikin, M., Ed., Yee, P., Ed., and D. Harkins, Ed.,
              "Enrollment over Secure Transport", RFC 7030, DOI
              10.17487/RFC7030, October 2013, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc7030>.

   [RFC8205]  Lepinski, M., Ed., and K. Sriram, Ed., "BGPsec Protocol
              Specification", RFC 8205, DOI 10.17487/RFC8205, September
              2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8205>.

   [SP800-57] National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),
 

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              Special Publication 800-57: Recommendation for Key
              Management - Part 1 (Revised), March 2007.

Appendix A.  Management/Router Channel Security

   Encryption, integrity, authentication, and key exchange algorithms
   used by the protected channel should be of equal or greater strength
   than the BGPsec keys they protect, which for the algorithm specified
   in [RFC8208] is 128-bit; see [RFC5480] and by reference [SP800-57]
   for information about this strength claim as well as [RFC3766] for
   "how to determine the length of an asymmetric key as a function of a
   symmetric key strength requirement."  In other words, for the
   encryption algorithm, do not use export grade crypto (40-56 bits of
   security), do not use Triple DES (112 bits of security).  Suggested
   minimum algorithms would be AES-128: aes128-cbc [RFC4253] and
   AEAD_AES_128_GCM [RFC5647] for encryption, hmac-sha2-256 [RFC6668] or
   AESAD_AES_128_GCM [RFC5647] for integrity, ecdsa-sha2-nistp256
   [RFC5656] for authentication, and ecdh-sha2-nistp256 [RFC5656] for
   key exchange.

   Some routers support the use of public key certificates and SSH.  The
   certificates used for the SSH session are different than the
   certificates used for BGPsec.  The certificates used with SSH should
   also enable a level of security at least as good as the security
   offered by th BGPsec keys; x509v3-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 [RFC6187] could
   be used for authentication.

   The protected channel must provide confidentiality, authentication,
   and integrity and replay protection.

Appendix B.  An Introduction to BGPsec Key Management

   This appendix is informative.  It attempts to explain some of the PKI
   lingo in plainer language.

   BGPsec speakers send signed BGPsec updates that are verified by other
   BGPsec speakers.  In PKI parlance, the senders are referred to as
   signers and the receivers are referred to as relying parties.  The
   signers with which we are concerned here are routers signing BGPsec
   updates.  Signers use private keys to sign and relying parties use
   the corresponding public keys, in the form of X.509 public key
   certificates, to verify signatures.  The third party involved is the
   entity that issues the X.509 public key certificate, the
   Certification Authority (CA).  Key management is all about making
   these key pairs and the certificates, as well as ensuring that the
   relying parties trust that the certified public keys in fact
   correspond to the signers' private keys.

 

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   The specifics of key management greatly depend on the routers as well
   as management interfaces provided by the routers' vendor.  Because of
   these differences, it is hard to write a definitive "how to," but
   this guide is intended to arm operators with enough information to
   ask the right questions.  The other aspect that makes this guide
   informative is that the steps for the do-it-yourself (DIY) approach
   involve arcane commands while the GUI-based vendor-assisted
   management console approach will likely hide all of those commands
   behind some button clicks.  Regardless, the operator will end up with
   a BGPsec-enabled router.  Initially, we focus on the DIY approach and
   then follow up with some information about the GUI-based approach.

   The first step in the DIY approach is to generate a private key; but
   in fact what you do is create a key pair; one part, the private key,
   is kept very private and the other part, the public key, is given out
   to verify whatever is signed.  The two methods for how to create the
   key pair are the subject of this document, but it boils down to
   either doing it on-router (router-driven) or off-router (operator-
   driven).

   If you are generating keys on the router (router-driven), then you
   will need to access the router.  Again, how you access the router is
   router-specific, but generally the DIY approach uses the CLI and
   accessing the router either directly via the router's craft port or
   over the network on an administrative interface.  If accessing the
   router over the network be sure to do it securely (i.e., use SSHv2). 
   Once logged into the router, issue a command or a series of commands
   that will generate the key pair for the algorithms referenced in the
   main body of this document; consult your router's documentation for
   the specific commands.  The key generation process will yield one or
   more files the private key and the public key; the file format varies
   depending on the arcane command you issued, but generally the files
   are DER or PEM-encoded.

   The second step is to generate the certification request, which is
   often referred to as a certificate signing request (CSR) or PKCS#10
   certification request, and to send it to the CA to be signed.  To
   generate the CSR, you issue some more arcane commands while logged
   into the router; using the private key just generated to sign the
   certification request with the algorithms referenced in the main body
   of this document; the CSR is signed to prove to the CA that the
   router has possession of the private key (i.e., the signature is the
   proof-of-possession).  The output of the command is the CSR file; the
   file format varies depending on the arcane command you issued, but
   generally the files are DER or PEM-encoded.

   The third step is to retrieve the signed CSR from the router and send
   it to the CA.  But before sending it, you need to also send the CA
 

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   the subject name (i.e., "ROUTER-" followed by the AS number) and
   serial number (i.e., the 32-bit BGP Identifier) for the router.  The
   CA needs this information to issue the certificate.  How you get the
   CSR to the CA, is beyond the scope of this document.  While you are
   still connected to the router, install the Trust Anchor (TA) for the
   root of the PKI.  At this point, you no longer need access to the
   router for BGPsec-related initiation purposes.

   The fourth step is for the CA to issue the certificate based on the
   CSR you sent; the certificate will include the subject name, serial
   number, public key, and other fields as well as being signed by the
   CA.  After the CA issues the certificate, the CA returns the
   certificate, and posts the certificate to the RPKI repository.  Check
   that the certificate corresponds to the public key contained in the
   certificate by verifying the signature on the CSR sent to the CA;
   this is just a check to make sure that the CA issued a certificate
   that includes a public key that is the pair of the private key (i.e.,
   the math will work when verifying a signature generated by the
   private with the returned certificate).

   If generating the keys off-router (operator-driven), then the same
   steps are used as the on-router key generation, (possibly with the
   same arcane commands as those used in the on-router approach), but no
   access to the router is needed the first three steps are done on an
   administrative workstation: o Step 1: Generate key pair; o Step 2:
   Create CSR and sign CSR with private key, and; o Step 3: Send CSR
   file with the subject name and serial number to CA.

   After the CA has returned the certificate and you have checked the
   certificate, you need to put the private key and TA in the router. 
   Assuming the DIY approach, you will be using the CLI and accessing
   the router either directly via the router's craft port or over the
   network on an admin interface; if accessing the router over the
   network make doubly sure it is done securely (i.e., use SSHv2)
   because the private key is being moved over the network.  At this
   point, access to the router is no longer needed for BGPsec-related
   initiation purposes.

   NOTE: Regardless of the approach taken, the first three steps could
   trivially be collapsed by a vendor-provided script to yield the
   private key and the signed CSR.

   Given a GUI-based vendor-assisted management console, then all of
   these steps will likely be hidden behind pointing and clicking the
   way through BGPsec-enabling the router.

   The scenarios described above require the operator to access each
   router, which does not scale well to large networks.  An alternative
 

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   would be to create an image, perform the necessary steps to get the
   private key and trust anchor on the image, and then install the image
   via a management protocol.

   One final word of advice; certificates include a notAfter field that
   unsurprisingly indicates when relying parties should no longer trust
   the certificate.  To avoid having routers with expired certificates
   follow the recommendations in the Certification Policy (CP) [RFC6484]
   and make sure to renew the certificate at least one week prior to the
   notAfter date.  Set a calendar reminder in order not to forget!

Authors' Addresses

   Randy Bush
   IIJ / Dragon Research Labs
   5147 Crystal Springs
   Bainbridge Island, Washington  98110
   US

   Email: randy@psg.com

   Sean Turner
   sn3rd

   Email: sean@sn3rd.com

   Keyur Patel
   Arrcus, Inc.

   Email: keyur@arrcus.com

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