



Internet Engineering Task Force                                   J. Yao
Internet-Draft                                                     H. Li
Intended status: Standards Track                                M. Zhang
Expires: 03 April  2025                                            CNNIC
                                                             D. Keathley
                                                                J. Gould
                                                          VeriSign, Inc.
                                                       30 September 2024


       Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) Transport over QUIC
	                 draft-yao-regext-epp-quic-03

Abstract

   This document describes how an Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)
   session is mapped onto a QUIC connection.  EPP over QUIC (EoQ)
   leverages the performance and security features of the QUIC protocol
   as an EPP transport.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 03 April  2025.

Copyright Notice

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










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   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components
   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Conventions Used in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Session Management  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Message Exchange  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   5.  Data Unit Format  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  EoQ Connection Start Packet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   7.  Transport Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     8.1.  Registration of an EoQ Identification String  . . . . . .   7
     8.2.  Registration of Port Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   9.  Implementation Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     9.1.  Verisign EPP SDK  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   10. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   11. Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   12. Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Appendix A.  Change History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     A.1.  Change from 00 to 01  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Appendix B.  Change History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     B.1.  Change from 01 to 02  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     B.2.  Change from 02 to 03  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11

1.  Introduction

   This document describes how the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP
   [RFC5730]) is mapped onto the QUIC transport [RFC9000].  QUIC is a
   network protocol that is based on UDP and incorporates native
   encryption support using TLS [RFC9001].  Though based on UDP, QUIC
   provides connection semantics similar to other stateful protocols.
   This document discusses how EPP implementations can work with this
   and other features of QUIC while preserving the core EPP semantics.









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2.  Conventions Used in This Document

   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
   [BCP14] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown
   here.

3.  Session Management

   Mapping EPP session management facilities onto the QUIC service is
   accomplished with a combination of a QUIC connection and QUIC
   streams.  An EPP session first requires creation of a QUIC connection
   between two peers, one that initiates the connection request and one
   that responds to the connection request.  The initiating peer is
   called the "client", and the responding peer is called the "server".
   An EPP server MUST listen for QUIC connection requests on a standard
   UDP port assigned by IANA.

   A successfully established QUIC connection is automatically secured
   by the native TLS support that QUIC provides.

   Once the QUIC connection is established, the EPP client MUST then
   create a QUIC stream by sending the EoQ Connection Start Packet
   (Section 6).  [RFC9000] states that "streams are created by sending
   data".  Once the EPP server accepts the QUIC stream, it reads the EoQ
   Connection Start Packet (Section 6) and returns an EPP <greeting> to
   the client on same QUIC stream.  After reading the EPP <greeting>
   message, the EPP client sends EPP commands and receives EPP responses
   on the same stream.  A QUIC stream corresponds to an EPP connection,
   which is referred to as a EoQ connection.  An authenticated QUIC
   stream, via a successful EPP <login>, corresponds to an EPP session,
   which is referred to as a EoQ session.

   An EPP session is normally ended by the client issuing an EPP
   <logout> command.  A server receiving an EPP <logout> command MUST
   end the EPP session and close the QUIC stream.  A client MAY end an
   EoQ session by closing the QUIC stream.

   EoQ connections are established as described in the QUIC transport
   specification [RFC9000].  During connection establishment, EoQ
   support is indicated by selecting the Application-Layer Protocol
   Negotiation (ALPN) token "eoq" in the crypto handshake.

   A single QUIC connection may allow multiple QUIC streams.  This means
   that a single QUIC connection may support multiple EoQ sessions.  A
   server MAY limit the life span of an established EoQ session.  EoQ
   sessions that are inactive for more than a server-defined period MAY



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   be ended by a server closing the QUIC stream.  A server MAY close EoQ
   sessions that have been open and active for longer than a server-
   defined limit.  Once the last QUIC stream for a QUIC connection is
   closed, the server MAY end the QUIC connection immediately.

4.  Message Exchange

   With the exception of the EPP server greeting, EPP messages are
   initiated by the EPP client in the form of EPP commands.  An EPP
   server MUST return an EPP response to an EPP command on the same QUIC
   stream that carried the command.  If the QUIC stream is closed after
   a server receives and successfully processes a command but before the
   response can be returned to the client, the server MAY attempt to
   undo the effects of the command to ensure a consistent state between
   the client and the server.  EPP commands are idempotent, so
   processing a command more than once produces the same net effect on
   the repository as successfully processing the command once.

   An EPP client streams EPP commands to an EPP server on an established
   QUIC stream.  A client MAY establish multiple QUIC streams to support
   multiple EoQ sessions with each EoQ session mapped to a single QUIC
   stream.  A server SHOULD limit a client to a maximum number of QUIC
   streams per QUIC connection based on server capabilities and
   operational load.

   EPP describes client-server interaction as a command-response
   exchange where the client sends one command to the server and the
   server returns one response to the client.

   Each EPP data unit MUST contain a single EPP message.  Commands MUST
   be processed independently.

   A server SHOULD impose a limit on the amount of time required for a
   client to issue a well-formed EPP command to reduce the risk
   associated with a resource exhaustion attack.  A server SHOULD end an
   EoQ session and close the QUIC stream if a well-formed command is not
   received within the time limit.

   A general state machine for an EPP server is described in Section 2
   of [RFC5730].  A general client-server message exchange using QUIC
   transport is illustrated in Figure 1.  It shows the exchange over a
   single QUIC stream of a QUIC connection.  Many QUIC streams may open
   and close during the life of a QUIC connection.








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                          Client                  Server
                     |                                     |
                     |      Successful QUIC Connection     |
                     | <<------------------------------->> |
                     |                                     |
                     |     Successful QUIC Stream with     |
                     |     EoQ Connection Start Packet     |
                     | <<------------------------------->> |
                     |                                     |
                     |             Send Greeting           |
                     | <<-------------------------------<< |
                     |                                     |
                     |             Send <login>            |
                     | >>------------------------------->> |
                     |                                     |
                     |             Send Response           |
                     | <<-------------------------------<< |
                     |                                     |
                     |            Send Command X           |
                     | >>------------------------------->> |
                     |                                     |
                     |            Send Response X          |
                     | <<-------------------------------<< |
                     |                                     |
                     |            Send Command Y           |
                     | >>------------------------------->> |
                     |                                     |
                     |            Send Response Y          |
                     | <<-------------------------------<< |
                     |                  .                  |
                                        .
                                        .
                     |            Send <logout>            |
                     | >>------------------------------->> |
                     |                                     |
                     |            Send Response            |
                     | <<-------------------------------<< |
                     |                                     |
                     |          Close QUIC Stream          |
                     | <<------------------------------->> |
                     |                                     |
                     |        Close QUIC Connection        |
                     | <<------------------------------->> |

                  Figure 1: QUIC Client-Server Message Exchange






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   The EPP server MUST follow the "EPP Server State Machine" procedure
   described in [RFC5730].

5.  Data Unit Format

   The EPP data unit contains two fields: a 32-bit header that describes
   the total length of the data unit, and the EPP XML instance.  The
   length of the EPP XML instance is determined by subtracting four
   octets from the total length of the data unit.  A receiver must
   successfully read that many octets to retrieve the complete EPP XML
   instance before processing the EPP message.  EPP Data Unit Format
   (one tick mark represents one bit position):


        0                   1                   2                   3
        0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                           Total Length                        |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                         EPP XML Instance                      |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+//-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Total Length (32 bits): The total length of the EPP data unit
   measured in octets in network (big endian) byte order.  The octets
   contained in this field MUST be included in the total length
   calculation.  EPP XML Instance (variable length): The EPP XML
   instance carried in the data unit.

6.  EoQ Connection Start Packet

   The EoQ Connection Start Packet is written by the client after
   creating a QUIC stream to signal the server to create the QUIC
   stream.  The server accepts the QUIC stream, reads the EoQ Connection
   Start Packet, and returns the EPP <greeting> to the client on same
   QUIC stream.

   The EoQ Connection Start Packet follows the Data Unit Format
   (Section 5) with two fields: a 32-bit header that describes the total
   length of the data unit, and the constant value of "EoQ Connection
   Start" instead of an "EPP XML Instance".  The length of the data unit
   will be 24 that includes 4 octets for the Total Length and 20 octets
   for the "EoQ Connection Start" constant value.









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7.  Transport Considerations

   Section 2.1 of [RFC5730] describes considerations to be addressed by
   protocol transport mappings.  This document addresses each of those
   considerations using a combination of features of the QUIC protocol
   itself and features of this document.

   *  Command Order: QUIC guarantees ordered processing of data within
      each stream.  Section 2 of [RFC9000] describes streams in detail.

   *  Session Mapping: EPP session management utilizes QUIC streams and
      is described in Section 3

   *  Stateful Nature: QUIC supports stateful communications between
      endpoints via connection IDs and long-lived streams within each
      connection.  Sections 2 and 5 of [RFC9000] describe these
      features, respectively.

   *  Frame Data Units: QUIC uses frames as one of its units of
      information when sending data over a stream.  Part packets-frames
      of [RFC9000] describes frames, and packets, in detail.

   *  Congestion Avoidance: QUIC provides various mechanisms to help
      achieve congestion avoidance.  [RFC9002] describes these
      mechanisms in detail.

   *  Reliability: QUIC uses message acknowledgement, packet
      retransmission, and other features to ensure reliability.  Part
      packetization of [RFC9000] describes these features in detail.

   *  Pipelining: Pipelining is allowed in EoQ.  QUIC streams support
      sending multiple frames without waiting for responses from the
      other peer.  This does not change the basic single command, single
      response operating mode of the core EPP protocol.

8.  IANA Considerations

8.1.  Registration of an EoQ Identification String

   This document creates a new registration for the identification of
   EoQ in the "TLS Application-Layer Protocol Negotiation (ALPN)
   Protocol IDs" registry [RFC7301].

   *  Protocol: EoQ

   *  Identification Sequence: 0x65 0x6F 0x71 ("eoq")

   *  Reference: This document



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8.2.  Registration of Port Number

   The "Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number Registry"
   contains an entry for EPP UDP/700 based on [RFC6335].  However, no
   known implementations of EPP over UDP exist.  The entry will be
   reassigned to reference this draft.

   *  Service Name: epp

   *  Port Number: 700

   *  Transport Protocol(s): UDP

   *  Assignee: IESG

   *  Contact: IETF Chair

   *  Description: EPP run over QUIC

   *  Reference: This document

9.  Implementation Status

   Note to RFC Editor: Please remove this section and the reference to
   RFC 7942 [RFC7942] before publication.

   This section records the status of known implementations of the
   protocol defined by this specification at the time of posting of this
   Internet-Draft, and is based on a proposal described in RFC 7942
   [RFC7942].  The description of implementations in this section is
   intended to assist the IETF in its decision processes in progressing
   drafts to RFCs.  Please note that the listing of any individual
   implementation here does not imply endorsement by the IETF.
   Furthermore, no effort has been spent to verify the information
   presented here that was supplied by IETF contributors.  This is not
   intended as, and must not be construed to be, a catalog of available
   implementations or their features.  Readers are advised to note that
   other implementations may exist.

   According to RFC 7942 [RFC7942], "this will allow reviewers and
   working groups to assign due consideration to documents that have the
   benefit of running code, which may serve as evidence of valuable
   experimentation and feedback that have made the implemented protocols
   more mature.  It is up to the individual working groups to use this
   information as they see fit".






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9.1.  Verisign EPP SDK

   Organization: Verisign Inc.

   Name: Verisign EPP SDK

   Description: The Verisign EPP SDK includes both a full client
   implementation and a full server stub implementation of draft-yao-
   regext-epp-quic.

   Level of maturity: Development

   Coverage: All aspects of the protocol are implemented with QUIC V1.

   Licensing: GNU Lesser General Public License

   Contact: jgould@verisign.com

   URL: https://www.verisign.com/en_US/channel-resources/domain-
   registry-products/epp-sdks

10.  Security Considerations

   EPP over QUIC provides the similary securtiy with EPP over TCP with
   TLS.  Some related security issues have been discussed in [RFC5734]
   and [RFC9000].

   EoQ servers run the risk of a resource exhaustion attack by allowing
   the creation of unlimited QUIC streams per QUIC connection.  Servers
   SHOULD limit a client to a maximum number of QUIC streams per QUIC
   connection based on server capabilities and operational load.

11.  Acknowledgements

   The authors wish to thank the following persons for their feedback
   and suggestions: Scott Hollenbeck.

12.  Normative References

   [BCP14]    Best Current Practice 14,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/bcp14>.
              At the time of writing, this BCP comprises the following:

              Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.




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              Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

   [RFC5730]  Hollenbeck, S., "Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)",
              STD 69, RFC 5730, DOI 10.17487/RFC5730, August 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5730>.

   [RFC5734]  Hollenbeck, S., "Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)
              Transport over TCP", STD 69, RFC 5734,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5734, August 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5734>.

   [RFC6335]  Cotton, M., Eggert, L., Touch, J., Westerlund, M., and S.
              Cheshire, "Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
              Procedures for the Management of the Service Name and
              Transport Protocol Port Number Registry", BCP 165,
              RFC 6335, DOI 10.17487/RFC6335, August 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6335>.

   [RFC7301]  Friedl, S., Popov, A., Langley, A., and E. Stephan,
              "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Application-Layer Protocol
              Negotiation Extension", RFC 7301, DOI 10.17487/RFC7301,
              July 2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7301>.

   [RFC7942]  Sheffer, Y. and A. Farrel, "Improving Awareness of Running
              Code: The Implementation Status Section", BCP 205,
              RFC 7942, DOI 10.17487/RFC7942, July 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7942>.

   [RFC9000]  Iyengar, J., Ed. and M. Thomson, Ed., "QUIC: A UDP-Based
              Multiplexed and Secure Transport", RFC 9000,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC9000, May 2021,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9000>.

   [RFC9001]  Thomson, M., Ed. and S. Turner, Ed., "Using TLS to Secure
              QUIC", RFC 9001, DOI 10.17487/RFC9001, May 2021,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9001>.

   [RFC9002]  Iyengar, J., Ed. and I. Swett, Ed., "QUIC Loss Detection
              and Congestion Control", RFC 9002, DOI 10.17487/RFC9002,
              May 2021, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9002>.

Appendix A.  Change History

A.1.  Change from 00 to 01





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   1.  Added Dan Keathley and James Gould as co-authors and aligned the
       draft with EPP RFC 5734.

Appendix B.  Change History

B.1.  Change from 01 to 02

   1.  Make the clear distinction between an EPP connection and an EPP
       session for EoQ in the Session Management section.
   2.  Align the handling of the EPP <logout> command with RFC 5734, by
       including "A client MAY end an EoQ session by closing the QUIC
       stream" in the Session Management section.
   3.  Ensure that the relationship of the EoQ connection and the EoQ
       stream is maintained with the sentence "This means that a single
       QUIC connection may support multiple EoQ sessions" in the Session
       Management section.
   4.  Leverage the EoQ session in place of the more generic EPP session
       in the Message Exchange section.

B.2.  Change from 02 to 03

   1.  Added the definition and use of the EoQ Connection Start Packet
       to explicitly trigger the creation of the QUIC stream and the EoQ
       connection to the server.
   2.  Added the Implementation Status section with the Verisign EPP SDK
       implementation.

Authors' Addresses

   Jiankang Yao
   CNNIC
   4 South 4th Street,Zhongguancun,Haidian District
   Beijing
   Beijing, 100190
   China
   Phone: +86 10 5881 3007
   Email: yaojk@cnnic.cn


   Hongtao Li
   CNNIC
   4 South 4th Street,Zhongguancun,Haidian District
   Beijing
   Beijing, 100190
   China
   Email: lihongtao@cnnic.cn





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   Man Zhang
   CNNIC
   4 South 4th Street,Zhongguancun,Haidian District
   Beijing
   Beijing, 100190
   China
   Email: zhangman@cnnic.cn


   Daniel Keathley
   VeriSign, Inc.
   12061 Bluemont Way
   Reston, VA 20190
   United States of America
   Email: dkeathley@verisign.com
   URI:   http://www.verisigninc.com


   James Gould
   VeriSign, Inc.
   12061 Bluemont Way
   Reston, VA 20190
   United States of America
   Email: jgould@verisign.com
   URI:   http://www.verisigninc.com


























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