[ntpwg] WG Last Call - Autokey Specification

[Odonoghue, Karen F CIV NSWCDD, W13]

Danny,

This has a somewhat long history.

We started with wanting to incorporate autokey into the base
specification.
This was complicated by two issues: concerns about the approach within
the
IETF security community and the difficulty we were having with
generating
the basic protocol specification. 

We felt the first priority was to get the basic protocol specification
published and that by breaking it into multiple pieces this would be
more achievable. 

So, now we have a separate autokey specification and the question
becomes
what document track to proceed with. Given that there were concerns
within
the IETF about autokey, and given that the ntp protocol specification is
designed now where autokey is an optional extension, it was felt that a
reasonable approach would be to produce this as an Informational RFC.
This provides the open specification for implementors, and it provides
the opportunity for work to continue to address IESG concerns and
develop
IETF consensus on a standard approach. 

Another approach that might make sense would be to produce an
experimental
RFC and when there was critical mass and consensus within the IETF to
proceed
to a standards track RFC. I haven't really investigated that option with

our ADs or IETF security advisors. 

The reality is that we currently don't have enough resources helping to 
produce the IETF documentation and deal with the IETF process. 
At this point, it is taking too long to get ntp products out the door
and 
this is impacting future ntp work in the IETF. Given that, we make
choices
that will hopefully result in some progress.

Karen

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Danny Mayer [mailto:mayer at ntp.isc.org] 
> Sent: Friday, November 02, 2007 7:57
> To: Odonoghue, Karen F CIV NSWCDD, W13
> Cc: ntpwg at lists.ntp.isc.org
> Subject: Re: [ntpwg] WG Last Call - Autokey Specification
> 
> Odonoghue, Karen F CIV NSWCDD, W13 wrote:
> > This message initiates a NTP working group last call on the 
> document:
> > Title: Network Time Protocol Version 4 Autokey Specification
> > Filename: <draft-ietf-ntp-autokey-00.txt>
> > 
> > The purpose of this WG last call is to ensure that this document is 
> > ready to be forwarded to the IESG for approval and 
> publication as an 
> > Informational RFC.
> > 
> 
> Before I start digging into the details (and my apologies for 
> not reading through it yet, it's been really busy) can 
> someone state why this is an informational RFC rather than 
> standards track? While it is not a required part of NTP it is 
> important that it interoperates with all implementations of autokey.
> 
> Danny
>