Re: SACRED Protocol (long!)

   From: "Linn, John" <[email protected]>
   Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 11:37:41 -0500

   I'd like to observe a point that hasn't been too visible in this discussion,
   but which seems significant. Relative to most applications, SACRED is quite
   a special case. As far as security (its reason for existence) is concerned,
   SACRED is a bootstrap protocol; by necessity, many of the prerequisites that
   many underlying security mechanism candidates need in order to provide
   protection won't be in place until after the SACRED exchange is completed.
   To protect the SACRED exchange itself, only a restricted set of mechanisms
   can be applicable; SACRED's requirements are sufficiently special that the
   mechanisms it needs and uses may not be used for any other purposes.  As
   such, there'll be limited independence in practice between the SACRED
   application and its underlying mechanism.  

I disagree.  The current SACRED draft makes use of SRP.  SRP is an
interesting SASL mechanism that might be used by other applications,
and defining it as a SASL mechanism or GSS mechanism will prevent
people from redefining it and allow reuse of code.

Further, having SACRED leverage SASL allows individual sites to decide
on exact security policies (if a new great SASL mechanism comes out,
the protocol doesn't need to be changed for a site to make use of it).

Larry