I-D Action: draft-helmprotocol-tttps-07.txt

Internet-Draft draft-helmprotocol-tttps-07.txt is now available.

   Title:   The TLS TimeToken Secure Protocol (tttps://)
   Author:  Heime Jorgen
   Name:    draft-helmprotocol-tttps-07.txt
   Pages:   44
   Dates:   2026-07-26

Abstract:

   This document specifies the TLS TimeToken Secure Protocol (tttps://),
   a protocol extension that augments TLS 1.3 with cryptographically
   verifiable temporal ordering.  TTTPS introduces Proof-of-Time (PoT):
   a multi-source synthesised timestamp bound to a holder identity and
   to a live TLS session through an explicit holder-proof construction,
   verified in constant time independent of network size.

   Internet infrastructure conventionally assumes ordering-neutral
   channels.  NTP servers, BGP routing authorities, DNS resolvers, and
   transaction sequencers all have an operational incentive to
   misrepresent event ordering; this document formalises that condition
   as the Strategic Channel Controller Problem (SCCP).  PoT detects
   Byzantine time-source manipulation with probability at least 1 minus
   2 to the negative 61st power, and an AdaptiveSwitch mechanism makes
   sustained ordering manipulation economically self-defeating; the
   equilibrium threshold is derived in closed form and empirically
   calibrated from deployed auction data.

   This document has Experimental status.  A reference deployment has
   produced over 70,000 verified records, 55 percent of which were
   generated by autonomous AI agents.  The mandatory-to-implement
   integrity mode (SHA-256) is completely and publicly specified in
   Appendix B; the optional high-assurance integrity mode (GRG) remains
   subject to pending patent proceedings and is specified only at the
   abstract-interface level pending their conclusion.

Discussion Note

   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.

   This document is being discussed on the [email protected] mailing
   list.  Comments and participation are welcome.

   Changes from -06:

   *  Header: revision -06 -> -07; submissionType corrected from "IETF"
      to "independent" (this document is an Independent Submission, not
      an IETF Working Group product); dates updated.

   *  Section 2 / Section 5.1 (the former binding_key construction): the
      -06 construction let any participant in the TLS session --
      including an attacker in its own session with the Issuer --
      recompute binding_key and pass verification without proving
      possession of any holder key material, because binding_key was
      derived solely from public TLS Exporter output and the public PoT
      bytes.  This is replaced with a PoT Record v2 (180 octets)
      carrying an explicit holder_auth_type (Ed25519 public key, MTI, or
      a pre-shared secret, OPTIONAL) and a binding_proof computed by the
      holder over the TLS Exporter output at binding time.  Verification
      now performs integrity-tag interpretation first, in a single
      fixed-cost pass with a three-way intact/resolved/unresolvable
      verdict; in -06 the equivalent check was ordered after five other
      checks.  The full 8-step order is specified in Section 2.5.

   *  Appendix B: removed the "(Placeholder)" designation.  Appendix B
      now specifies a public Integrity Algorithm Registry: alg_id 0x0001
      (SHA-256, detection-only) is the Mandatory-to-Implement algorithm
      and is completely and publicly specified, free of any licensing
      condition. alg_id 0x0100 (GRG, detection-and-correction) remains
      OPTIONAL and interface-only pending conclusion of the patent
      proceedings referenced in Section 10.

   *  IANA Considerations, HTTP/3 Stream Types: renamed from "HTTP/3 and
      QUIC Stream Types".  The "QUIC Stream Types" registry entry is
      removed; no such IANA registry exists, and QUIC stream
      identification for TTTPS is carried entirely by the HTTP/3-layer
      frame registration.

   *  Abstract: shortened from six paragraphs to three; removed inline
      document citations (an abstract is conventionally self-contained
      and does not carry bracketed references).

   *  Scope reduced to the core protocol: satellite communication, SS7
      legacy infrastructure, 5G/6G core network ordering, and deep-
      space/SAGIN deployment material are removed from this revision as
      out of scope; see 3GPP and CCSDS/TIPTOP for domain-specific
      profiles.  The former Appendix E (a regulated therapeutic-design
      motivating scenario) is removed as non-normative and out of scope
      for a protocol specification.

   *  Sections 1 through 4 of -06 (Introduction, Use Cases, Requirements
      Language, Problem Statement) are consolidated into a single
      Section 1, removing a duplicated BCP 14 paragraph and shortening
      the document.

   *  The former Section 4.3 (Shannon Gap / SCCP) and Section 7.4 (V*
      equilibrium) are shortened; the full economic and information-
      theoretic derivations remain in the companion paper [POT2026],
      which this document now points to rather than reproduces.

   *  IANA Time Source Type Registry: named operators (NIST, Google,
      Cloudflare, Apple) are replaced with source classes (national
      metrology laboratory, GNSS-disciplined, Roughtime-authenticated,
      NTS-authenticated, PTP grandmaster); the same replacement is
      applied to the worked examples in Sections 1.3, 2.2, and 7.1.
      This document does not depend on, or endorse, any specific named
      operator.

   *  References [RFC8915], [RFC5705], and [RFC8126] are unchanged from
      -06.

   Changes from -02 through -05 (compressed; see prior revisions of this
   draft for the full itemised changelog): -03 added Use Cases, the SS7/
   SCCP instance analysis, path manipulation scenarios, the trust model,
   and the Implementation Status section (RFC 7942). -04 added the
   Formal Verification Artifacts subsection and the former Appendix E.
   -05 is not separately archived. -06 added Oracle Confidence Gating
   (the G-Score), corrected IPR licensing language per ISE guidance, and
   recorded the provisional "tttps" URI scheme registration.

The IETF datatracker status page for this Internet-Draft is:
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-helmprotocol-tttps/

There is also an HTMLized version available at:
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-helmprotocol-tttps-07

A diff from the previous version is available at:
https://author-tools.ietf.org/iddiff?url2=draft-helmprotocol-tttps-07

Internet-Drafts are also available by rsync at:
rsync.ietf.org::internet-drafts


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