David,

> Hi,
> 
> [Posting as a contributor]
> 
> I am involved in a number of NM and Security WGs, and I can make these
> observations:
> 
> Running an NM protocol over SSH has been done in both netconf and
> ISMS. I suspect it would be fairly easy to adapt the netconf-over-SSH
> draft to work for syslog-over-SSH. I suspect it would take a week or
> so to write a syslog-over-SSH draft since most could be cut-and-paste
> from the netconf-over-SSH draft. 

I have gone throught the netconf-over-ssh draft with syslog on my mind.
I agree, it should be fairly easy to adapt.

> 
> I am the author of the ISMS drafts, and I adapted the netconf/SSH
> draft for ISMS purposes. Syslog and netconf seem to be closer in their
> requirements than syslog and ISMS. ISMS has this whole model of access
> control to deal with that is not part of the threat model for syslog
> or for netconf at this time. 
> 
> There is a parallel discussion of running syslog messages over
> netconf. As Rainer has pointed out to Phil, having a consistent
> terminology would be very helpful. I think having a consistent
> security solution would probably be helpful in that situation as well.
> 
> I have concerns about 3195bis as the only alternative we consider,
> because I have not seen much interest in RFC3195 yet, nor has there
> been much expresseed interest in netconf over BEEP.

I agree it is questionable if RFC 3195 will succeed. I have seen some
companies (also at least one of the big guys) make investment in 3195. I
am not sure if it simply is too early to abandon it. If we do not want
to abandon it, we need to create a 3195bis, because 3195 will not be
usable together with syslog-protocol (because it mandates a different
format).

> 
> Since there may be delay involved in this WG no matter what, would
> somebody be willing to volunteer to write a syslog-over-SSH draft, so
> the WG can compare the three approaches? 

After my review, I think I am able to do that. So I volunteer.

> 
> There are other possibilities as well (and I am being serious here,
> not "let's make this absurd by proposing a whole slew of alteratives
> documents").
> 1) Tom mentioned DTLS, which might be a viable alternative given
> syslog's UDP roots. Tom would you, or somebody else, be willing to
> write a proposal for syslog/DTLS?
> 2) Andy Bierman observed that if syslog messages are going to be
> transported over netconf, then why not simply use syslog/netconf and
> let netconf deal with the security issues. That could be an
> alternative proposal. Is anybody willing to write a draft proposing
> that as a syslog secure transport solution?

I, too, think this is an option. Wouldn't it be sufficient to adopt
draft-shafer-netconf-syslog-00.txt as a WG document? (Provided Phil
would be happy with that...). I guess that would obviously involve some
coordination between the syslog and netconf WG, which I hope is not a
big problem.

Rainer
> 
> My $.02 as a contributor,
> 
> David Harrington
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Rainer Gerhards [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 9:44 AM
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: [Syslog] IESG secure transport requirement can be 
> > quickly solved...
> > 
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > I propose to update RFC 3195 in the spirit of syslog-protocol 
> > to satisfy
> > the IESG secure transport requirement (I will call this 
> > derivative work
> > RFC3195bis below). I sincerely believe that this option would 
> > enable us
> > to submit syslog-protocol, -transport-UDP and RFC3195bis within a
> few
> > weeks. 
> > 
> > My reasoning for this proposal is as follows:
> > 
> > We all know that 3195 has limited acceptance in the community and
> very
> > few implementations. However, it satisfies all IESG criteria 
> > we have in
> > our charter. Also, it *is* something that can be used in practice
> and
> > implementing it becomes easier as support libraries become visible.
> I
> > know it is not an optimal choice. On the other hand, we have
> > syslog-transport-tls, which has been encrumbered by a patent claim.
> As
> > it looks, this will need months to solve. RFC3195bis can not be
> taken
> > hostage by any patent claims, because there is well-defined 
> > prior art in
> > RFC 3195. Focussing on RFC 3195bis would enable us to complete our
> > mission and finsh work that is in the queue for many years 
> > now. I think
> > this is urgently needed. We might even put the netconf WG with their
> > syslog gateway on hold (because syslog-protocol can not be published
> > without resolving the secure transport). Or netconf might 
> > choose to drop
> > syslog-protocol in order to publish.
> > 
> > And the good news is that 3195bis can definitely very quickly 
> > be done. I
> > am saying this on the assumption that we do not revisit the basics
> of
> > 3195 but just adopt it to syslog-protocol. I've gone through 
> > 3195 today
> > and the changes are absolutely minimal:
> > 
> > Section 2:
> > Most of it simply needs to be removed because the entity roles are
> > defined in syslog-protocol.
> > 
> > Section 3:
> > - the message samples must be upgraded to -protocol-format
> > - syslog-framing in section 3.3 must be changed (could be 
> > octet-counting
> > or disallow of multiple messages per ANS, what I recommend)
> > 
> > Section 4:
> > 4.4.2 
> >  - needs to be updated with the new HEADER fields and
> STRUCTURED-DATA 
> >  - some work on "deviceFQDN" and "deviceIP" needed
> >  - some transformation rules (page 15) need to be removed
> >  - handling of invalid message formatting must be removed (no longer
> a
> > concern)
> >  - samples must be adjusted
> > 
> > 4.4.3
> >  - sample on page 24 (top) must be checked and/or adjusted
> > 
> > Section 7:
> > - DTD needs to be adjusted
> > 
> > Section 9:
> > - new URIs for 3195bis (also in some other places)
> > [we can reuse well-known port 601 for -protocol]
> > 
> > Overall
> > References to 3164 must be changed to -syslog-protocol. This 
> > seems quite
> > trivial, because the  references are easy to spot and do not touch
> any
> > substance (except outlined above).
> > 
> > Other than these minor things, there are *NO* other changes
> necessary.
> > I'd expect that an initial version of 3195bis can be created within
> a
> > single working day. Add some quick review and a very limited number
> of
> > edits to change discovered nits - and we have something to publish
> by
> > summer.
> > 
> > I find this extremely tempting. It breaks the deadlock 
> > situation we are
> > currently in. Especially as we have planned to do 3195bis some time
> > later anyhow. I don't know if the authors of 3195 would 
> > volunteer to do
> > the edit. But I hope so.
> > 
> > I would appreciate if the chairs could try to reach consensus on my
> > proposal.
> > 
> > Comments are appreciated.
> > Thanks,
> > Rainer
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Syslog mailing list
> > Syslog@lists.ietf.org
> > https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/syslog
> > 
> 
> 

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