Of course I forgot to ask the question: Is anyone using the extension
fields for anything outside of Autokey?

Danny

On 12/12/2011 8:36 PM, Danny Mayer wrote:
> Dave,
> 
> You are talking about the current specification. Tal is talking about
> changing the specification.
> 
> I see no reason why it cannot be done, provided we can find a way for it
> to be specified in a backward compatible way. The real question is
> whether or not it should be made optional. The parsing rules can always
> be changed, not necessarily easily, but it can be done.
> 
> RFC 5906 (autokey) should require it whatever is decided.
> 
> Can you remind everyone why we might like to make it not mandatory? Also
> we need to have a MAC can we specify the algorithm/size for the MAC
> since we shouldn't make assumptions about this as has been done so far.
> 
> Danny
> 
> On 12/12/2011 1:53 PM, David L. Mills wrote:
>> Tai,
>>
>> All I can say is read my message again. Doing without the MAC is a very
>> special case and unintended by the specification.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>> Tal Mizrahi wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Dave,
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> So you are saying that according to the current spec it is possible in
>>> some configurations to have an extension field without the existence
>>> of a MAC?
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> Tal.
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> *From:*David L. Mills [mailto:[email protected]]
>>> *Sent:* Monday, December 12, 2011 6:01 AM
>>> *To:* Tal Mizrahi
>>> *Cc:* [email protected]; [email protected]
>>> *Subject:* Re: [ntpwg] [TICTOC] NTP Extension Field without Authentication
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> Tal ,
>>>
>>> It's a little more complicated than it seems. The parsing rules assume
>>> that a message digest is always present if an extension field is
>>> present. The NT$ packet header, extension fields and MAC are multiples
>>> of 32-bit words. The minimum MAC length is 5 words and maximum length
>>> is 6 words. The minimum extension field length is 2 words. If the
>>> remaining number of words during the parse is less than 7, the
>>> remainder is the MAC. If not, an extension field is present. The
>>> parser updates the parser pointer folloowing the extension field and
>>> tries again.
>>>
>>> Thus, if there are at least 7 words remaining and the extension field
>>> eats up all those words, the MAC could be assumed absent . This is a
>>> rather hokey design, but would in principle work.
>>>
>>> Dave
>>>
>>> Tal Mizrahi wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> Revisiting an issue that was raised a few months ago and is yet to be
>>> resolved:
>>>
>>> RFC 5905 defines an extension field. The RFC states that a MAC must be
>>> present when there is an extension field.
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> Obviously, it would be beneficial for various purposes to allow
>>> Extension Fields independent of whether the MAC is present.
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> Some people thought this is a mistake in the spec, and that it should
>>> be included in the errata. Others thought that Extension Fields
>>> without MAC are something new that needs to be defined in a new document.
>>>
>>> This was discussed in IETF 81, and then revisited in the ad-hoc
>>> meeting in October, but no conclusion was reached.
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> It would be great to hear the opinion of the WG and the chairs about
>>> how to proceed with this.
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Tal.
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