Network Working Group M. Wasserman Internet-Draft ThingMagic Expires: April 16, 2006 T. Goddard ICEsoft Technologies, Inc. October 13, 2005 Using the NETCONF Configuration Protocol over Secure Shell (SSH) draft-ietf-netconf-ssh-05.txt Status of this Memo By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of BCP 79. 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 inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. This Internet-Draft will expire on April 16, 2006. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005). Abstract This document describes a method for invoking and running the NETCONF protocol within a Secure Shell (SSH) session as an SSH subsystem. Wasserman & Goddard Expires April 16, 2006 [Page 1] Internet-Draft NETCONF over SSH October 2005 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. Requirements Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. Starting NETCONF over SSH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3.1. Capabilities Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4. Using NETCONF over SSH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 5. Exiting the NETCONF Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 8. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 11 Wasserman & Goddard Expires April 16, 2006 [Page 2] Internet-Draft NETCONF over SSH October 2005 1. Introduction The NETCONF protocol [I-D.ietf-netconf-prot] is an XML-based protocol used to manage the configuration of networking equipment. NETCONF is defined to be session-layer and transport independent, allowing mappings to be defined for multiple session-layer or transport protocols. This document defines how NETCONF can be used within a Secure Shell (SSH) session, using the SSH connection protocol [I-D.ietf-secsh-connect] over the SSH transport protocol [I-D.ietf- secsh-transport]. This mapping will allow NETCONF to be executed from a secure shell session by a user or application. Throughout this document, the terms "client" and "server" are used to refer to the two ends of the SSH transport connection. The client actively opens the SSH connection, and the server passively listens for the incoming SSH connection. The terms "manager" and "agent" are used to refer to the two ends of the NETCONF protocol session. The manager issues NETCONF RPC commands, and the agent replies to those commands. When NETCONF is run over SSH using the mapping defined in this document, the client is always the manager, and the server is always the agent. 2. Requirements Terminology The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119]. 3. Starting NETCONF over SSH To run NETCONF over SSH, the client will first establish an SSH transport connection using the SSH transport protocol, and the client and server will exchange keys for message integrity and encryption. The client will then invoke the "ssh-userauth" service to authenticate the user, as described in the SSH authentication protocol [I-D.ietf-secsh-userauth]. Once the user has been successfully authenticated, the client will invoke the "ssh- connection" service, also known as the SSH connection protocol. After the ssh-connection service is established, the client will open a channel of type "session", which will result in an SSH session. Once the SSH session has been established, the user (or application) will invoke NETCONF as an SSH subsystem called "netconf". Running NETCONF as an SSH subsystem avoids the need for the script to recognize shell prompts or skip over extraneous information, such as Wasserman & Goddard Expires April 16, 2006 [Page 3] Internet-Draft NETCONF over SSH October 2005 a system message that is printed at shell start-up. In order to allow NETCONF traffic to be easily identified and filtered by firewalls and other network devices, NETCONF servers MUST default to providing access to the "netconf" SSH subsystem only when the SSH session is established using the IANA-assigned TCP port . Servers SHOULD be configurable to allow access to the netconf SSH subsystem over other ports. A user (or application), could use the following command line to invoke NETCONF as an SSH subsystem on the IANA-assigned port: [user@client]$ ssh -s server.example.org -p netconf Note that the -s option causes the command ("netconf") to be invoked as an SSH subsystem. 3.1. Capabilities Exchange The server MUST indicate its capabilities by sending an XML document containing a element as soon as the NETCONF session is established. The user (or application) can parse this message to determine which NETCONF capabilities are supported by the server. The client must also send an XML document containing a element to indicate the client's capabilities to the server. The document containing the element MUST be the first XML document that the client sends after the NETCONF session is established. The following example shows a capability exchange. Messages sent by the client are marked with "C:" and message sent by the server are marked with "S:". Wasserman & Goddard Expires April 16, 2006 [Page 4] Internet-Draft NETCONF over SSH October 2005 S: S: S: S: S: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0 S: S: S: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0#startup S: S: S: 4 S: S: ]]>]]> C: C: C: C: C: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0 C: C: C: C: ]]>]]> Although the example shows the server sending a message followed by the client's message, both sides will send the message as soon as the NETCONF subsystem is initialized, perhaps simultaneously. As the previous example illustrates, a special character sequence, ]]>]]>, MUST be sent by both the client and the server after each XML document in the NETCONF exchange. This character sequence cannot legally appear in an XML document, so it can be unambigiously used to indentify the end of the current document, allowing resynchronization of the NETCONF exchange in the event of an XML syntax or parsing error. 4. Using NETCONF over SSH A NETCONF over SSH session consists of the manager and agent exchanging complete XML documents. Once the session has been established and capabilities have been exchanged, the manager will send complete XML documents to the server containing elements, and the agent will respond with complete XML documents containing elements. To continue the example given above, an NETCONF over SSH session to retrieve a set of configuration information might look like this: Wasserman & Goddard Expires April 16, 2006 [Page 5] Internet-Draft NETCONF over SSH October 2005 C: C: C: C: C: C: C: C: C: C: ]]>]]> S: S: S: S: S: rootsuperuser S: fredadmin S: barneyadmin S: S: S: S: ]]>]]> 5. Exiting the NETCONF Subsystem Exiting NETCONF is accomplished using the operation. An agent will processe RPC messages from the manager in the order in which the are received. When the agent processes a command, the agent shall respond, terminate the SSH session, and close the TCP connection. The agent MUST NOT process any RPC commands received on the current session after the command. To continue the example used in previous sections, an existing NETCONF subsystem session could be closed as follows: Wasserman & Goddard Expires April 16, 2006 [Page 6] Internet-Draft NETCONF over SSH October 2005 C: C: C: C: C: ]]>]]> S: S: S: S: S: ]]>]]> 6. Security Considerations NETCONF is used to access configuration and state information and to modify configuration information, so the ability to access this protocol should be limited to users and systems that are authorized to view the agent's configuration and state or to modify the agent's configuration. The identity of the server MUST be verified and authenticated by the client according to local policy before password-based authentication data or any configuration or state data is sent to or received from the server. The identity of the client MUST also be verified and authenticated by the server according to local policy to ensure that the incoming client request is legitimate before any configuration or state data is sent to or received from the client. Neither side should establish a NETCONF over SSH connection with an unknown, unexpected or incorrect identity on the opposite side. Configuration or state data may include sensitive information, such as usernames or security keys. So, NETCONF should only be used over communications channels that provide strong encryption for data privacy. This document defines a NETCONF over SSH mapping which provides for support of strong encryption and authentication. If the NETCONF server provides remote shell access through insecure protocols, such as rsh or Telnet, care should be taken to prevent execution of the NETCONF program when strong user authentication or data privacy is not available. Because it may be difficult or impossible in some operating environments to determine whether a shell command was accessed over a secure protocol such as SSH or an insecure protocol such as Telnet, it may be necessary to disable insecure shell access to the system to prevent insecure access to the NETCONF program. Alternatively, it would be possible to disable Wasserman & Goddard Expires April 16, 2006 [Page 7] Internet-Draft NETCONF over SSH October 2005 NETCONF access from the command line, only allowing NETCONF to be accessed through invocation of the SSH "netconf" subsystem. This document requires that servers default to allowing access to the "netconf" SSH subsystem only when using a specific TCP port assigned by IANA for this purpose. This will allow NETCONF over SSH traffic to be easily identified and filtered by firewalls and other network nodes. However, it will also allow NETCONF over SSH traffic to be more easily identified by attackers. This document also recommends that servers be configurable to allow access to the "netconf" SSH subsystem over other ports. Use of that configuration option without corresponding changes to firewall or network device configuration may unintentionally result in the ability for nodes outside of the firewall or other administrative boundary to gain access to "netconf" SSH subsystem. 7. IANA Considerations IANA is requested to assign a TCP port number which will be the default port for NETCONF over SSH sessions as defined in this document. IANA is also requested to assign "netconf" as an SSH Service Name as defined in [I-D.ietf-secsh-assignednumbers], as follows: Service Name Reference ------------- --------- netconf [This Document] 8. Acknowledgements This document was written using the xml2rfc tool described in RFC 2629 [RFC2629]. Extensive input was received from the members of the NETCONF design team, including: Andy Bierman, Weijing Chen, Rob Enns, Wes Hardaker, David Harrington, Eliot Lear, Simon Leinen, Phil Shafer, Juergen Schoenwaelder and Steve Waldbusser. The following people have also reviewed this document and provided valuable input: Bill Sommerfeld, Bert Wijnen. Wasserman & Goddard Expires April 16, 2006 [Page 8] Internet-Draft NETCONF over SSH October 2005 9. References 9.1. Normative References [I-D.ietf-netconf-prot] Enns, R., "NETCONF Configuration Protocol", draft-ietf-netconf-prot-09 (work in progress), October 2005. [I-D.ietf-secsh-assignednumbers] Lehtinen, S. and C. Lonvick, "SSH Protocol Assigned Numbers", draft-ietf-secsh-assignednumbers-12 (work in progress), March 2005. [I-D.ietf-secsh-connect] Lonvick, C. and T. Ylonen, "SSH Connection Protocol", draft-ietf-secsh-connect-25 (work in progress), March 2005. [I-D.ietf-secsh-transport] Lonvick, C., "SSH Transport Layer Protocol", draft-ietf-secsh-transport-24 (work in progress), March 2005. [I-D.ietf-secsh-userauth] Lonvick, C. and T. Ylonen, "SSH Authentication Protocol", draft-ietf-secsh-userauth-27 (work in progress), March 2005. [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 9.2. Informative References [RFC2629] Rose, M., "Writing I-Ds and RFCs using XML", RFC 2629, June 1999. Wasserman & Goddard Expires April 16, 2006 [Page 9] Internet-Draft NETCONF over SSH October 2005 Authors' Addresses Margaret Wasserman ThingMagic One Broadway, 5th Floor Cambridge, MA 02142 USA Phone: +1 617 758-4177 Email: margaret@thingmagic.com URI: http://www.thingmagic.com Ted Goddard ICEsoft Technologies, Inc. Suite 300, 1717 10th St. NW Calgary, AB T2M 4S2 Canada Phone: +1 403 663-3322 Email: ted.goddard@icesoft.com URI: http://www.icesoft.com Wasserman & Goddard Expires April 16, 2006 [Page 10] Internet-Draft NETCONF over SSH October 2005 Intellectual Property Statement The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be found in BCP 78 and BCP 79. 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