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RE: [secdir] Review of draft-ietf-l2vpn-oam-req-frmk-09

2007-12-13 08:10:31
Dear Tobias,

First of all apologies for inadvertent delay in response due to various factors 
(vacation, travel and some sickness). However, the authors will work to address 
all the comments in a separate email to follow soon. 

Regards,
----
Dinesh 
-----Original Message-----
From: Tobias Gondrom [mailto:tobias(_dot_)gondrom(_at_)gondrom(_dot_)org] 
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 8:28 AM
To: Mohan, Dinesh (CAR:NP02); sajassi(_at_)cisco(_dot_)com; 
sdelord(_at_)uecomm(_dot_)com(_dot_)au; 
philippe(_dot_)niger(_at_)francetelecom(_dot_)com
Cc: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org; secdir(_at_)mit(_dot_)edu; 
iesg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org; l2vpn-chairs(_at_)tools(_dot_)ietf(_dot_)org; 
tgondrom(_at_)opentext(_dot_)com
Subject: RE: [secdir] Review of draft-ietf-l2vpn-oam-req-frmk-09

Hello authors and WG chairs,

On my review comments from Nov-10, 2007, I did not receive answers to my 
comments from you, yet.
As this draft is planned to be discussed on the IESG telechat, could you please 
clarify how you intend to answer to these things (correct, reject or whether we 
shall raise a "DISCUSS" during the LC to halt the document process until the 
issues have been resolved).

Best regards, Tobias


Ps.: Please note: my main email address changed to:
tobias(_dot_)gondrom(_at_)gondrom(_dot_)org


_____________________________________________
From: Tobias Gondrom
Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 12:02 AM
To: secdir(_at_)mit(_dot_)edu; iesg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Cc: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org; 'mohand(_at_)nortel(_dot_)com'; 
'sajassi(_at_)cisco(_dot_)com'; 'sdelord(_at_)uecomm(_dot_)com(_dot_)au'; 
'philippe(_dot_)niger(_at_)francetelecom(_dot_)com'
Subject: [secdir] Review of draft-ietf-l2vpn-oam-req-frmk-09

Hello,

I have reviewed this document as part of the security directorate's ongoing 
effort to review all IETF documents being processed by the IESG. 
These comments were written primarily for the benefit of the security area 
directors.  Document editors and WG chairs should treat these comments just 
like any other last call comments.


I studied the draft and a have the following COMMENTS and leave it at the 
discretion of the ADs whether they want to raise any DISCUSS based on these 
COMMENTS:


1. a few editorial:
Section 1:
s/relationship between two layered networks; Fault Detection at the server/ 
relationship between two layered networks, Fault Detection at the server

s/associated Pseudowires (PWs)/ associated Pseudo Wires (PWs)


unclear statements:
Section 1:
I found the following sentence imprecise and hard to understand:
"Performance Management deals with mechanism(s) that allow determining and 
measuring the performance of network/services under consideration and 
notification of them."


Section 1.1: I would suggest to add CE and PE to the terminology of this 
document. It can only be derived from following a two-step indirect reference 
(via RFC4664 and then the reference mentioned there, which is stated as "work 
in progress"). For improved convenience the terminology should be referred 
directly from the document, or even better and more simple just add those two 
(CE and PE) to its Terminology.


2. the document does not state its intended status: based on its content and 
its relationship to the two other referred RFCs 4664 and 4665, I would assume 
it is Informational.
If this assumption is wrong, the intended status should be clarified ASAP.


3. The document does not seem to use RFC-2119 coherently. Throughout the 
document there are numerous places where I do not understand why authors use 
"must" instead of "MUST". One example:
Section 6.10:
Security implies that an OAM domain must be capable of filtering OAM frames.
=> should be: "Security implies that an OAM domain MUST be capable of filtering 
OAM frames."

And:
"Also, OAM frames from outside the OAM domains should be either discarded (when 
such OAM frames belong to same or lower-level OAM domain) or transparently 
passed (when such OAM frames belong to a higher-level OAM domain)."
=> Should be at least:
"Also, OAM frames from outside the OAM domains SHOULD be either discarded (when 
such OAM frames belong to same or lower-level OAM domain) or transparently 
passed (when such OAM frames belong to a higher-level OAM domain)."
In the context of the sentence I even wonder if "MUST" isn't more precise, as 
it MUST either be the first or the second.

Equivalent in Section 7.10.:
"Security implies that an OAM domain must be capable of filtering OAM frames."
=> should become: ""Security implies that an OAM domain MUST be capable of 
filtering OAM frames."
And: "Also,VPWS OAM frames from outside the OAM domains should be either 
discarded"
=> should become: "Also,VPWS OAM frames from outside the OAM domains MUST be 
either discarded"


Please note, my personal opinion is that RFC-2119-language usage seems 
incoherently throughout large parts of the document and not only in these two 
sections. But maybe my personal expectation is not correct for an Informational 
Draft in the context of this area.


4. The security Considerations (section 11) states that it does not need 
further security considerations as it only imposes requirements to solutions 
but does not describe the solutions themselves. In fact I believe this 
statement to be wrong in even two ways:
1. the initial abstract declares this draft is about the requirements AND a 
framework 2. even if the document would only be talking about requirements (and 
not about any implications on a framework), it should still clearly include 
security considerations for the requirements as they are already partially done 
in section 6.10 and section 7.10.

Last but not least, if the authors would still like to keep this section
(11) as it is - which I would not recommend - they should consider to correct 
the following spelling errors:
s/ For additional levels of security, the solutions may be required deploy to 
encrypt and/or authenticate OAM frames inside an OAM domain however solutions 
are out of the scope of this draft./For additional levels of security, the 
solutions may be required to deploy encryption and/or authentication of OAM 
frames inside an OAM domain, however solutions are out of the scope of this 
draft.


5. Question: as the draft is heavily based on RFC4664 and 4665, I wonder 
whether they should not better be normative references instead of informative 
ones?


Best regards, Tobias


__________________________________________
Tobias Gondrom
Head of Open Text Security Team
Director, Product Security

Open Text
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