RE: [kmip] Additional clarity around KMIP object owner

["Fitzgerald, Indra" <indra.fitzgerald@hp.com>]

Bruce and all,

In the Usage Guide, we currently address the case where clients may include the Credential attribute as additional identification information. We explicitly point out that if the Credential attribute is not part of the chosen authentication suite, the Credential attribute cannot be used to assert that an identity has been authenticated.

Similarly, the profiles spec explicitly points out that the Credential object may be used to pass additional identification information. This should not, however, be used as an alternative authentication mechanism.

Bruce's proposal allows the Credential object to be used to interpret the identity of the requestor. If a Credential object is not specified the certificate shall be used as the identity of the requestor.

There appears to be a disconnect. We cannot use the Credential object as the primary source for interpreting the identity of the requestor, if the Credential object is not part of the authentication suite. The authentication process will determine and authenticate the identity of the requestor. Decoupling the authentication and identity interpretation process could potentially weaken the security of the authentication process and restrict certain use-cases. For example, clients may provide the username inside the certificate and provide additional identification information inside the credential object. According to Bruce's proposal, the identity specified inside the certificate will not be acknowledged if the credential object contains a different username.

To resolve this, we need to explicitly allow the Credential object to be used during the authentication of the requestor. Depending on the server's configuration, this may or may not be required by the server. If both the certificate and Credential object contain the identity of the requestor, the server shall verify that they are the same. If they differ, the authentication fails and the server shall return an error.

We also need to update the KMIP docs (i.e. the profiles spec and Usage Guide) to make sure that they are consistent.

Regards,

Indra

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From: Bruce Rich [mailto:brich@us.ibm.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 6:02 PM
To: kmip@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Fw: [kmip] Additional clarity around KMIP object owner

It's been pointed out that the spec 
uses the term "creator" rather than "owner" (thanks, Steve and Marko), so better 
text might be: 

3.1.4     
   Relationship between credential and object creator 
KMIP objects have a creator. 
 The KMIP server SHALL interpret the Credential object as the identity of 
the requestor if such a Credential is specified in the request.  If a 
Credential object is not specified, KMIP SHALL use the certificate passed in the 
channel binding (or some unique value derived from the certificate or its 
components) as the identity of the requestor.  For those KMIP requests that 
result in new managed objects this identity SHALL be used as the creator of the 
managed object.  For those operations that only access pre-existent managed 
objects, this identity SHALL be checked against the creator, and access SHALL be 
controlled as detailed in section 3.13 of [KMIP]. 

And I'll refrain from talking the "creator endowed 
with certain unalienable rights...", but I really wanted to slip that in there 
somewhere. 

Bruce A Rich
brich 
at-sign us dot ibm dot com

----- Forwarded by Bruce Rich/Austin/IBM on 10/14/2009 07:52 PM 
-----

From:	Bruce Rich/Austin/IBM@IBMUS
To:	kmip@lists.oasis-open.org
Date:	10/14/2009 12:51 PM
Subject:	[kmip] Additional clarity around KMIP object owner

---

Although we've clarified KMIP 
client/server authentication in the KMIP Profiles document, I think the concept 
of "owner of KMIP object" needs to be tied a bit more tightly to the 
authentication. 

I propose this language be added as section 3.1.4 in the Profiles 
doc: 

3.1.4 
       Object Ownership 
KMIP objects have an owner.  The KMIP server 
SHALL interpret the Credential object as the identity of the requestor if such a 
Credential is specified in the request.  If a Credential object is not 
specified, KMIP SHALL use the certificate passed in the channel binding (or some 
unique value derived from the certificate or its components) as the identity of 
the requestor.  For those KMIP requests that result in new managed objects 
this identity SHALL be used as the owner of the managed object.  For those 
operations that only access pre-existent managed objects, this identity SHALL be 
checked against the owner, and access SHALL be controlled as detailed in section 
3.13 of [KMIP].


Bruce A Rich
brich at-sign us dot ibm dot com