RADIUS Design Guidelines
RFC 6158

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                     A. DeKok, Ed.
Request for Comments: 6158                                    FreeRADIUS
BCP: 158                                                        G. Weber
Category: Best Current Practice                   Individual Contributor
ISSN: 2070-1721                                               March 2011

                        RADIUS Design Guidelines

Abstract

   This document provides guidelines for the design of attributes used
   by the Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) protocol.
   It is expected that these guidelines will prove useful to authors and
   reviewers of future RADIUS attribute specifications, within the IETF
   as well as other Standards Development Organizations (SDOs).

Status of This Memo

   This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   BCPs is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6158.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2011 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.

DeKok & Weber             Best Current Practice                 [Page 1]
RFC 6158                RADIUS Design Guidelines              March 2011

   This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
   Contributions published or made publicly available before November
   10, 2008.  The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
   material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
   modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
   Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
   the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
   outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
   not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
   it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
   than English.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................3
      1.1. Terminology ................................................4
      1.2. Requirements Language ......................................4
      1.3. Applicability ..............................................5
           1.3.1. Reviews .............................................5
   2. Guidelines ......................................................6
      2.1. Data Types .................................................8
      2.2. Vendor Space ...............................................9
      2.3. Service Definitions and RADIUS .............................9
      2.4. Translation of Vendor Specifications ......................10
   3. Rationale ......................................................11
      3.1. RADIUS Operational Model ..................................11
      3.2. Data Model Issues .........................................14
           3.2.1. Issues with Definitions of Types ...................15
           3.2.2. Tagging Mechanism ..................................16
           3.2.3. Complex Data Types .................................16
           3.2.4. Complex Data Type Exceptions .......................18
      3.3. Vendor Space ..............................................19
           3.3.1. Interoperability Considerations ....................20
           3.3.2. Vendor Allocations .................................20
           3.3.3. SDO Allocations ....................................20
      3.4. Polymorphic Attributes ....................................21
   4. IANA Considerations ............................................22
   5. Security Considerations ........................................22
      5.1. New Data Types and Complex Attributes .....................23
   6. References .....................................................24
      6.1. Normative References ......................................24
      6.2. Informative References ....................................24
   Appendix A.  Design Guidelines Checklist ..........................27