Network Working Group M. Oehler (NSA) R. Glenn (NIST) Internet Draft May 1, 1996 HMAC-MD5 IP Authentication with Replay Prevention Status of This Memo Distribution of this memo is unlimited. This document is an Internet-Draft. Internet Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its Areas, and its Working Groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet Drafts. 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 not appropriate to use Internet Drafts as reference material, or to cite them other than as a ``working draft'' or ``work in progress.'' To learn the current status of any Internet-Draft, please check the ``1id-abstracts.txt'' listing contained in the internet-drafts Shadow Directories on: ftp.is.co.za (Africa) nic.nordu.net (Europe) ds.internic.net (US East Coast) ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast) munnari.oz.au (Pacific Rim) Abstract This document describes a keyed-MD5 transform to be used in conjunction with the IP Authentication Header [RFC-1826]. The particular transform is based on [HMAC-MD5]. An option is also specified to guard against replay attacks. Oehler, Glenn [Page 1] INTERNET DRAFT May 1, 1996 Expires November 1996 Contents 1. Introduction...................................................3 1.1 Keys........................................................3 1.2 Data Size...................................................4 2. Packet Format..................................................4 2.1 Replay Prevention...........................................4 2.2 Authentication Data Calculation.............................5 3. Security Considerations........................................6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS....................................................6 REFERENCES.........................................................6 CONTACTS...........................................................6 Oehler, Glenn [Page 2] INTERNET DRAFT May 1, 1996 Expires November 1996 1. Introduction The Authentication Header (AH) [RFC-1826] provides integrity and authentication for IP datagrams. The transform specified in this document uses a keyed-MD5 mechanism [HMAC-MD5]. The mechanism uses the (key-less) MD5 hash function [RFC-1321] which produces a message authentication code. When combined with an AH Key, authentication data is produced. This value is placed in the Authentication Data field of the AH [RFC-1826]. This value is also the basis for the data integrity service offered by the AH protocol. To provide protection against replay attacks, a Replay Prevention field is included as a transform option. The Security Parameters Index (SPI) [RFC-1825] is used to determine whether this option is included in the AH. Familiarity with the following documents is assumed: "Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol" [RFC-1825], "IP Authentication Header" [RFC-1826], and "HMAC-MD5: Keyed-MD5 for Message Authentication" [HMAC-MD5]. 1.1 Keys The "AH Key" is used as a shared secret between two communicating parties. The Key is not a "cryptographic key" as used in a traditional sense. Instead, the AH key (shared secret) is hashed with the transmitted data and thus, assures that an intervening party cannot duplicate the authentication data. Even though an AH key is not a cryptographic key, the rudimentary concerns of cryptographic keys still apply. Consider that the algorithm and most of the data used to produce the output is known. The strength of the transform lies in the singular mapping of the key (which needs to be strong) and the IP datagram (which is known) to the authentication data. Thus, implementations should, and as frequently as possible, change the AH key. Keys need to be chosen at random, or generated using a cryptographically strong pseudo-random generator seeded with a random seed. [HMAC-MD5] There is no mandated key size for the HMAC-MD5 transform. Implementations must support a key length of any size, except zero. It is advised that keys be chosen as the length of the hash output, or 128-bits for MD5. For other key lengths, the following concerns must be considered. A key length of zero is prohibited and implementations should provide an alert, since the authentication data would be identical to that of MD5, solely. Less than 16 bytes is strongly discouraged as it would Oehler, Glenn [Page 3] INTERNET DRAFT May 1, 1996 Expires November 1996 decrease the security strength of the function. Keys longer than 16 bytes are acceptable, but the extra length would not significantly increase the function strength. A longer key may be advisable if the randomness of the key is suspect. MD5 operates on 64-byte blocks. Keys longer than 64 bytes are first hashed using MD5. The resulting hash is then used to calculate the authentication data. 1.2 Data Size MD5 produces a 128-bit value which is used as the authentication data. It is naturally 64 bit aligned and thus, does not need any padding for machines with native double words. 2. Packet Format +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+ | Next Header | Length | RESERVED | +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+ | SPI | +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+ + Replay Prevention (optional) | +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+ | | + Authentication Data | | | +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 The Next Header, RESERVED, and SPI fields are specified in [RFC- 1826]. The Length field is the length of the Replay Prevention field and the Authentication Data in 32-bit words. 2.1 Replay Prevention The Replay Prevention field is a 32 bit value used to guarantee that each packet exchanged between two parties is different. This field is similar to the one specified in [ESP-DES-MD5]. The SPI is used to determine whether or not the field is included in the packet (i.e. if it is not included, the header will have the SPI directly followed by the Authentication Data). Without this field it is possible to attack a system by retransmitting packets. The 32-bit field is an up counter starting at a value of 1. The secret shared key must not be used for a period of time that allows the counter to wrap, that is, to transmit more than 2^32 packets using a single key. Oehler, Glenn [Page 4] INTERNET DRAFT May 1, 1996 Expires November 1996 Upon receipt, the replay value is assured to be increasing. The implementation may accept of out of order packets. The number of packets to accept out of order is an implementation detail. If a "out of order window" is supported, the implementation shall ensure that any and all packets accepted out of order are guaranteed not to have arrived before. That is, the implementation will accept any packet at most once. [ESP-DES-MD5] provides example code that implements a 32 packet replay window and a test routine to show how it works. 2.2 Authentication Data Calculation The authentication data is the output of the authentication algorithm (MD5). This value is calculated over the entire IP datagram. Fields within the datagram that are variant during transit and the authentication data field itself, must contain all zeros [RFC-1826]. The Replay Prevention field if present, is included in the calculation. The definition and reference implementation of MD5 appears in [RFC- 1321]. Let 'text' denote the data to which HMAC-MD5 is to be applied and K be the message authentication secret key shared by the parties. We define two fixed and different strings ipad and opad as follows (the 'i' and 'o' are mnemonics for inner and outer): ipad = the byte 0x36 repeated 64 times opad = the byte 0x5C repeated 64 times. To compute HMAC-MD5 over the data `text' we perform MD5(K XOR opad, MD5(K XOR ipad, text)) Namely, (1) append zeros to the end of K to create a 64 byte string (e.g., if K is of length 16 bytes it will be appended with 48 zero bytes 0x00) (2) XOR (bitwise exclusive-OR) the 64 byte string computed in step (1) with ipad (3) append the data stream 'text' to the 64 byte string resulting from step (2) (4) apply MD5 to the stream generated in step (3) (5) XOR (bitwise exclusive-OR) the 64 byte string computed in step (1) with opad (6) append the MD5 result from step (4) to the 64 byte string resulting from step (5) (7) apply MD5 to the stream generated in step (6) and output the result This computation is described in more detail, along with example code and performance improvements, in [HMAC-MD5]. Oehler, Glenn [Page 5] INTERNET DRAFT May 1, 1996 Expires November 1996 3. Security Considerations The security of this transform depends heavily on the strength of MD5 and the associated secret key. [HMAC-MD5] contains a detailed discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of MD5. Acknowledgments This document is largely based on text written by Hugo Krawczyk. The format used was derived from work by William Simpson and Perry Metzger. The text on replay prevention is derived directly from work by Jim Hughes. References [RFC-1825] R. Atkinson, "Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol", RFC-1852, Naval Research Laboratory, July 1995. [RFC-1826] R. Atkinson, "IP Authentication Header", RFC-1826, August 1995. [RFC-1828] P. Metzger, W. A. Simpson, "IP Authentication using Keyed MD5", RFC-1828, August 1995. [RFC-1321] R. Rivest, "The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm", RFC-1321, April 1992. [HMAC-MD5] H. Krawczyk, M. Bellare, R. Canetti, "HMAC-MD5: Keyed-MD5 for Message Authentication", Internet Draft, March, 1996. [ESP-DES-MD5] J. Hughes, "Combined DES-CBC, MD5, and Replay Prevention Security Transform", Internet Draft, April, 1996. Contacts Michael J. Oehler National Security Agency Atn: R23, INFOSEC Research and Development 9800 Savage Road Fort Meade, MD 20755 mjo@tycho.ncsc.mil Robert Glenn NIST Building 820, Room 455 Gaithersburg, MD 20899 rob.glenn@nist.gov Oehler, Glenn [Page 6]