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RE: [dhcwg] DHCP and FQDN conflicts [Re: Last Call: 'Resolution of FQDN Conflicts among DHCP Clients' to Proposed Standard]

2005-11-27 19:39:20
Pekka:

Regarding your one major issue, the updater is NOT the entity that gets
to decide whether to allow any DNS update to occur or not. It is the DNS
server that restricts who can do updates and what they can update.

We're assuming that the most likely entity to be given fairly open
access to a zone is the DHCP server and that is where the administrative
policy comes in.

A few more comments inline below (prefixed by BV>).

- Bernie

-----Original Message-----
From: dhcwg-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org 
[mailto:dhcwg-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org] 
On Behalf Of Pekka Savola
Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2005 9:27 AM
To: iesg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Cc: dhcwg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org; ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: [dhcwg] DHCP and FQDN conflicts [Re: Last Call: 
'Resolution of FQDN Conflicts among DHCP Clients' to Proposed 
Standard]

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005, The IESG wrote:
The IESG has received a request from the Dynamic Host 
Configuration WG to
consider the following documents:

- 'A DNS RR for Encoding DHCP Information (DHCID RR) '
  <draft-ietf-dnsext-dhcid-rr-10.txt> as a Proposed Standard
- 'Resolution of FQDN Conflicts among DHCP Clients '
  <draft-ietf-dhc-ddns-resolution-10.txt> as a Proposed Standard
- 'The DHCP Client FQDN Option '
  <draft-ietf-dhc-fqdn-option-11.txt> as a Proposed Standard
- 'The DHCPv6 Client FQDN Option '
  <draft-ietf-dhc-dhcpv6-fqdn-03.txt> as a Proposed Standard

I have one major issue with 'Resolution of FQDN Conflicts among DHCP 
Clients', the first issue below.  It fails to properly describe the 
threats caused by DHCP clients requesting updating non-DHCP FQDN's 
(like a random host from example.com requesting "www.example.com"). 
While this may not be a problem if DHCP clients belong to different 
zones from non-DHCP clients, this is not discussed at all in the 
document -- except ruled out of scope.

This discussion needs to be included.

.......

6.3.3.  FQDN in Use by another Client

    As the FQDN appears to be in use by another client or is not
    associated with any client, the updater can decide (based on some
    administrative configuration outside of the scope of this 
document)
    whether to let the existing owner of the FQDN keep that 
FQDN, and to
    (possibly) perform some FQDN disambiguation operation on behalf of
    the current client, or to replace the RRs on the FQDN 
with RRs that
    represent the current client.  [...]

==> this is the biggest short-coming in this specification.  
The choice of
this "administrative configuration outside the scope of this 
document" has
enermous security implications which have not been discussed at all in
Security Considerations section or here.

Specifically, consider the scenario:

1) www.example.com is manually configured (no DHCP) to point 
to 1.1.1.1,
    hence has no DHCID records.
2) a node in example.com zone uses DHCP, and purports its name is
    "www.example.com".  The DHCP server may nor may not 
perform the update
    based on the "admin config outside the scope of this document".

When reading the specification, this specific danger should 
be very clearly
explained, and this should be reflected in the document.  I'd 
also suggest
that by default, the server MUST NOT (or SHOULD NOT) perform 
updates if
there is no DHCID RR.

...

6.3.2.  DNS UPDATE When FQDN in Use

    2.  A delete of the existing AAAA RRs on the FQDN if the 
updater does
        not desire AAAA records on the FQDN or this update is 
adding an
        AAAA and the updater only desires a single IP address on the
        FQDN.

==> how does the code know whether the updates only desires a 
single IP
address on the FQDN or not?   AFAICS, there's no way to 
signal this from the
DHCP client!

Agreed. That is why the language is the way it is. As a DHCP server is
likely to be doing the updates, it would be the entity to implement the
policy. In most DHCPv4 environments today, it is just a single A record
that is allowed.

If the client is doing the updates, it is aware of what it has and
therefore can do the correct thing.


5.  DNS RR TTLs

==> this section describes which TTLs to use in DNS RRs with 
DHCP.  This has
nothing to do with conflict resolution, though it's 
convenient to specify
this (which applies to both DHCPv4 and DHCPv6) here instead 
of duplicating
the same text in both DHCPv4/v6 specifications.  But should 
this still be
moved there?


semi-editorial
--------------

    There are two DNS update situations that require special
    consideration in DHCP environments: cases where more than one DHCP
    client has been configured with the same FQDN and cases where more
    than one DHCP server has been given authority to perform 
DNS updates
    in a zone.

==> the first point is actually more generic than that 
(though you cover it
as well in section 6.3.3), but rewording would be useful.  How about:

    There are two DNS update situations that require special
    consideration in DHCP environments: cases where more than 
one node is
    configured with the same FQDN and cases where more
    than one DHCP server has been given authority to perform 
DNS updates
    in a zone.

(and similar, "s/DHCP clients/nodes/" throughout -- it's 
sufficient that one
node uses DHCP, the others don't need to..)


editorial
---------

    FQDN, or Fully Qualified Domain Name, is the full name of 
a system,
    rather than just its hostname.  For example, "venera" is 
a hostname
    and "venera.isi.edu" is an FQDN.  See RFC 1983 [7].

==> use "example.com", please.

     Through the use of the client
    FQDN option, DHCP clients and servers can negotiate the 
client's FQDN
    and the allocation of responsibility for updating the 
DHCP client's A
    and/or AAAA RRs.

==> also PTR records, not just A/AAAA..

When either a client or server
    adds A, AAAA, or PTR RRs for a client, it also adds a 
DHCID RR that
    specifies a unique client identity, based on data from 
the client's
    DHCPREQUEST message.

==> seems to use DHCPv4-specific terminology, also add DHCPv6 wording?

    The most important consideration in removing DNS entries 
is be sure
    that an entity removing a DNS entry is only removing an 
entry that it
    added, or for which an administrator has explicitly assigned it
    responsibility.

==> s/be/being/ ?

9.2.  Informative References

    [5]   Droms, R., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol", RFC 2131,
          March 1997.

    [6]   Droms, R., Bound, J., Volz, B., Lemon, T., Perkins, 
C., and M.
          Carney, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6
          (DHCPv6)", RFC 3315, July 2003.

==> These should likely be normative references.

    Sites that wish to permit a single FQDN to contain both A and AAAA
    RRs MUST make use of DHCPv4 clients and servers that support using
    the DHCP Unique Identifier (DUID) for DHCPv4 client 
identifiers such
    that this DUID is used in computing the RDATA of the 
DHCID RR by both
    DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 for the client, see Node-Specific Client
    Identifiers for DHCPv4 [14].

==> [14] should likely be a normative reference.  The good 
news is that it's
already in RFC editor's queue! :)

-- 
Pekka Savola                 "You each name yourselves king, yet the
Netcore Oy                    kingdom bleeds."
Systems. Networks. Security. -- George R.R. Martin: A Clash of Kings

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