Dynamic Host Configuration
Network Working Group                     Steve                                           S. Drach
INTERNET-DRAFT                                          Sun Microsystems, Inc.
                                                             August Microsystems
Obsoletes: draft-ietf-dhc-options-uap-00.txt              September 1998
                                                      Expires February March 1999

              DHCP Option for User Authentication Protocol
                  <draft-ietf-dhc-options-uap-00.txt>
                  <draft-ietf-dhc-options-uap-01.txt>

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft.  Internet-Drafts are working
   documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas,
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Abstract

   This document defines a DHCP [1] option that contains a pointer list of
   pointers to a User Authentication Protocol server servers that provides provide user
   authentication services for clients that conform to The Open Group
   Network Computer Computing Client Technical Standard. Standard [2].

Introduction

   The Open Group Network Computer Computing Client Technical Standard, a product
   of The Open Group's Network Computer Computing Working Group (NCWG), defines a
   network
   computer computing client user authentication facility named the User
   Authentication Protocol (UAP).

   UAP provides two levels of authentication, basic and secure.  Basic
   authentication uses the Basic Authentication mechanism defined in the
   HTTP 1.1 [2] [3] specification.  Secure authentication is simply basic
   authentication encapsulated in an SSLv3 [3] [4] session.

   In both cases, a UAP client needs to obtain the IP address and port
   of the UAP service.  Additional path information may be required,
   depending on the implementation of the service.  A URL [4] [5] is an
   excellent mechanism for encapsulation of this information since many
   UAP servers will be implemented as components within legacy HTTP/SSL
   servers.

   Most UAP clients have no local state and are configured when booted
   through DHCP.  No existing DHCP option [5] [6] has a data field that
   contains a URL.  Option 72 contains a list of IP addresses for WWW
   servers, but it is not adequate since a port and/or path can not be
   specified.  Hence there is a need for an option that contains a URL. list
   of URLs.

User Authentication Protocol Option

   This option specifies a URL list of URLs, each pointing to a user
   authentication service that will process is capable of processing authentication
   requests encapsulated in the User Authentication Protocol (UAP).  UAP
   servers can accept either HTTP 1.1 or SSLv3 connections.  If the list
   includes a URL that does not contain a port component, the normal
   default port is assumed (i.e., port 80 for http and port 443 for
   https).  If the list includes a URL that does not contain a path
   component, the path /uap is assumed.

   0                   1                   2                   3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |     Code      |    Length     |   URL list
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

      Code            TBD

      Length          The length of the data field (i.e., URL) URL list) in
                      bytes.

      URL     URL pointing to list        A list of one or more URLs separated by the UAP service. ASCII
                      space character (0x20).

References

   [1]

   Droms, R., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol", RFC-2131, March
   1997.

   [2]

   Technical Standard: Network Computing Client, The Open Group,
   Document Number C801, October 1998.

   Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Frystyk, H., and T. Berners-Lee,
   "Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1", RFC-
        2068, RFC-2068, January 1997.

   [3]

   Freier, A., Karlton, P., and P. Kocher, "The SSL Protocol, Ver-
        sion Version
   3.0", Internet Draft, November 1996.

   [4]

   Berners-Lee, T., Masinter, L., and M. McCahill, "Uniform Resource
   Locators (URL)", RFC-1738, December 1994.

   [5]

   Alexander, S. and R. Droms, "DHCP Options and BOOTP Vendor
   Extensions", RFC-2132, March 1997.

Security Considerations

   DHCP currently provides no authentication or security mechanisms.
   Potential exposures to attack are discussed in section 7 of the DHCP
   protocol specification.

Author's Address

   Steve Drach
   Sun Microsystems, Inc.
   901 San Antonio Road
   Palo Alto, CA 94303

   Phone: (650) 960-1300

   EMail: drach@sun.com