RFC 9519

Update to the IANA SSH Protocol Parameters Registry Requirements

📅 published January 2024, from ietf

RFC 9519: Update to the IANA SSH Protocol Parameters Registry Requirements ✨

okay bestie, this one is by P. Yee from AKAYLA 🦋 It was published in January 2024 and it's a Standards Track doc, so it's an actual Internet standard, not just a vibe. It sits in the IETF series with ISSN 2070-1721 💜 It updates RFCs 4250, 4716, 4819, and 8308. Its title block doesn't list anything it obsoletes.

Abstract 🌸

So this spec is all about the rules for adding new entries to the IANA "Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Parameters" group of registries 🔐 Before this, the rule was generally IETF Review, as defined in [RFC8126], with a few registries needing Standards Action. This doc switches the rule from IETF Review to Expert Review ✨ It also updates [RFC4250], [RFC4716], [RFC4819], and [RFC8308] 🫶

Status of This Memo 🎀

This is an Internet Standards Track document 👑

It's a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and it represents the consensus of the IETF community 🌈 It got public review and was approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) 💅 If you want more on Internet Standards, check out Section 2 of RFC 7841.

For the current status, errata, and feedback, go to https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9519 🧚

Copyright (c) 2024 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. 🎀

This doc is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) as they stood on the publication date 📜 Read those carefully, bestie, because they explain your rights and restrictions. Code Components pulled out of this doc must include the Revised BSD License text described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions, and they come without warranty as described in that license 🔥

Table of Contents 🗂️

   1.  Introduction
     1.1.  Requirements Language
   2.  SSH Protocol Parameters Affected
   3.  Designated Expert Pool
   4.  IANA Considerations
   5.  Security Considerations
   6.  References
     6.1.  Normative References
     6.2.  Informative References
   Acknowledgements
   Author's Address

1. Introduction 🦋

So the IANA "Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Parameters" registry got filled in by a bunch of RFCs, including [RFC4250], [RFC4716], [RFC4819], and [RFC8308] 🌸 Outside of some narrow value ranges that need Standards Action to add new values, or that are marked for Private Use, everything else in the registry used IETF Review [RFC8126] 💅 This spec changes that policy from IETF Review to Expert Review ✨ It's giving consistency, because this change matches similar ones made for certain IPsec and TLS registries 🫶

1.1. Requirements Language 🎀

Here's the key words bit 🤓 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here 💜 So if they're not in all caps, they're just regular words, no cap 😭

2. SSH Protocol Parameters Affected 💅

This is the table of registries whose registration policy went from IETF Review to Expert Review 🔥 If the change only hit a specific range of values inside a parameter, that range is listed in the notes column 🍓 All the affected registries now list this document as a reference ✨

   +===============================+===========+=======================+
   |         Parameter Name        |    RFC    |         Notes         |
   +===============================+===========+=======================+
   |     Authentication Method     | [RFC4250] |                       |
   |             Names             |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |       Channel Connection      | [RFC4250] | 0x00000001-0xFDFFFFFF |
   |      Failure Reason Codes     |           |      (inclusive)      |
   |        and Descriptions       |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |     Compression Algorithm     | [RFC4250] |                       |
   |             Names             |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |      Connection Protocol      | [RFC4250] |                       |
   |     Channel Request Names     |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |      Connection Protocol      | [RFC4250] |                       |
   |         Channel Types         |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |      Connection Protocol      | [RFC4250] |                       |
   |      Global Request Names     |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |      Connection Protocol      | [RFC4250] |                       |
   |        Subsystem Names        |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |     Disconnection Messages    | [RFC4250] | 0x00000001-0xFDFFFFFF |
   |        Reason Codes and       |           |      (inclusive)      |
   |          Descriptions         |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |      Encryption Algorithm     | [RFC4250] |                       |
   |             Names             |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |     Extended Channel Data     | [RFC4250] | 0x00000001-0xFDFFFFFF |
   |    Transfer data_type_code    |           |      (inclusive)      |
   |            and Data           |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |        Extension Names        | [RFC8308] |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |      Key Exchange Method      | [RFC4250] |                       |
   |             Names             |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |      MAC Algorithm Names      | [RFC4250] |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |    Pseudo-Terminal Encoded    | [RFC4250] |                       |
   |         Terminal Modes        |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |      Public Key Algorithm     | [RFC4250] |                       |
   |             Names             |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |      Publickey Subsystem      | [RFC4819] |                       |
   |           Attributes          |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |      Publickey Subsystem      | [RFC4819] |                       |
   |         Request Names         |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |      Publickey Subsystem      | [RFC4819] |                       |
   |         Response Names        |           |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |         Service Names         | [RFC4250] |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |          Signal Names         | [RFC4250] |                       |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
   |      SSH Public-Key File      | [RFC4716] | Excluding header-tags |
   |          Header Tags          |           |   beginning with x-   |
   +-------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+

          Table 1: Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Parameters Affected

The only IANA SSH protocol parameter registries that didn't get affected are "Message Numbers" and "Publickey Subsystem Status Codes" 🙈 They stay on Standards Action because they only have limited resources, since their registry values are one byte each 🥺

Heads up: the two registries that stayed on Standards Action are the one-byte ones, so don't go looking for a change there, bestie 💀

6.1. Normative References ✨

okay so these are the docs you literally can't skip, bestie 📚💅 if you're implementing this stuff, you need all of these, no cap 🫶

6.2. Informative References 🎀

these ones are more like the backstage pass 🎟️ good for context, not strictly needed to implement

Acknowledgements 🫶

the whole thing started with a February 2021 discussion on the CURDLE mailing list [CURDLE-MA]. iconic origin story, honestly 💖

Author's Address 💌

  • Peter E. Yee
  • AKAYLA
  • Mountain View, CA 94043
  • United States of America
  • Email: peter@akayla.com
📦 where this page comes from