Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) C. Holmberg Request for Comments: 8055 Ericsson Category: Standards Track Y. Jiang ISSN: 2070-1721 China Mobile January 2017
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Via Header Field Parameter to Indicate Received Realm
Abstract
This specification defines a new Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Via header field parameter, 'received-realm', which allows a SIP entity acting as an entry point to a transit network to indicate from which adjacent upstream network a SIP request is received by using a network realm value associated with the adjacent network.
Status of This Memo
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has received public review and has been approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8055.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2017 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://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 Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.
When Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) [RFC3261] sessions are established between networks belonging to different operators or between interconnected networks belonging to the same operator (or enterprise), the SIP requests associated with the session might traverse transit networks.
Such transit networks might provide different kinds of services. In order to provide such services, a transit network often needs to know to which operator (or enterprise) the adjacent upstream network from which the SIP session initiation request is received belongs.
This specification defines a new SIP Via header field parameter, 'received-realm', which allows a SIP entity acting as an entry point to a transit network to indicate from which adjacent upstream network a SIP request is received by using a network realm value associated with the adjacent network.
NOTE: As the adjacent network can be an enterprise network, an Inter Operator Identifier (IOI) cannot be used to identify the network because IOIs are not defined for enterprise networks.
The following sections describe use cases where the information is needed.
1.2. Use Case: Transit Network Application Services
The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) TS 23.228 [TS.3GPP.23.228] specifies how an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network can be used to provide transit functionality. An operator can use its IMS network to provide transit functionality, e.g., to non-IMS customers, to enterprise networks, and to other network operators.
The transit network operator can provide application services to the networks for which it is providing transit functionality. Transit application services are typically not provided on a per user basis, as the transit network does not have access to the user profiles of the networks for which the application services are provided. Instead, the application services are provided per served network.
When a SIP entity that provides application services (e.g., an Application Server) within a transit network receives a SIP request, in order to apply the correct services, it needs to know the adjacent upstream network from which the SIP request is received.
A transit network operator normally interconnects to many different operators, including other transit network operators, and provides transit routing of SIP requests received from one operator network towards the destination. The destination can be within an operator network to which the transit network operator has a direct interconnect or within an operator network that only can be reached via one or more interconnected transit operators.
For each customer (i.e., interconnected network operator) for which the transit network operator routes SIP requests towards the requested destination, a set of transit routing policies are defined. These policies are used to determine how a SIP request shall be routed towards the requested destination to meet the agreement the transit network operator has with its customer.
When a SIP entity that performs the transit routing functionality receives a SIP request, in order to apply the correct set of transit routing policies, it needs to know from which of its customers (i.e., adjacent upstream network) the SIP request is received.
The mechanism defined in this specification MUST only be used by SIP entities that are able to verify from which adjacent upstream network a SIP request is received.
The mechanism for verifying from which adjacent upstream network a SIP request is received is outside the scope of this specification. Such a mechanism might be based on, for instance, receiving the SIP request on an authenticated Virtual Private Network (VPN), on a specific IP address, or on a specific network access.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14, RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
The Via 'received-realm' header field parameter value is represented as a combination of an operator identifier whose value represents the adjacent network and a serialized JSON Web Signature (JWS) [RFC7515]. The JWS Payload consists of the operator identifier and other SIP information element values.
The procedures for encoding the JWS and calculating the signature are defined in [RFC7515]. As the JWS Payload information is found in other SIP information elements, the JWS Payload is detached from the serialized JWS conveyed in the header field parameter, as described in Appendix F of [RFC7515]. The operator identifier and the serialized JWS are separated using a colon character.
The operator identifier is a token value that represents the adjacent operator. The scope of the value is only within the network that inserts the value.
The operator identifier value is case insensitive.
The following header parameters MUST be included in the JWS.
o The "typ" parameter MUST have a "JWT" value.
o The "alg" parameter MUST have the value of the algorithm used to calculate the JWS.
NOTE: Operators need to agree on the set of supported algorithms for calculating the JWT signature.
NOTE: The "alg" parameter values for specific algorithms are listed in the IANA JSON Web Signature and Encryption Algorithms sub-registry of the JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) registry. Operators need to use algorithms for which an associated "alg" parameter value has been registered. The procedures for defining new values are defined in [RFC7518].
The following claims MUST be included in the JWS Payload:
o The "sip_from_tag" claim has the value of the From 'tag' header field parameter of the SIP message.
o The "sip_date" claim has the value of the Date header field in the SIP message, encoded in JSON NumericDate format [RFC7519].
o The "sip_callid" claim has the value of the Call-ID header field in the SIP message.
o The "sip_cseq_num" claim has the numeric value of the CSeq header field in the SIP message.
o The "sip_via_branch" claim has the value of the Via branch header field parameter of the Via header field, in the SIP message, to which the 'received-realm' header field parameter is attached.
Holmberg & Jiang Standards Track [Page 6]
RFC 8055 Received Realm January 2017
o The "sip_via_opid" claim has the value of the operator identifier part of the Via 'received-realm' header field parameter of the Via header field, in the SIP message, to which the 'received-realm' header field parameter is attached.
As the JWS Payload is not carried in the 'received-realm' parameter, in order to make sure that the sender and the receiver construct the JWS Payload object in the same way, the JSON representation of the JWS Payload object MUST be computed as follows:
o All claims MUST be encoded using lowercase characters.
o The claims MUST be in the same order as listed in Section 5.4.
o All claims except "sip_date" MUST be encoded as StringOrURI JSON string value [RFC7519].
o The "sip_date" claim MUST be encoded as a JSON NumericDate value [RFC7519].
o The JWS Payload MUST follow the rules for the construction of the thumbprint of a JSON Web Key (JWK) as defined in Section 3, Step 1 only, of [RFC7638].
This section describes the syntax extensions to the ABNF syntax defined in [RFC3261] by defining a new Via header field parameter, 'received-realm'. The ABNF defined in this specification is conformant to RFC 5234 [RFC5234]. "EQUAL", "LDQUOT", "RDQUOT", and "ALPHA" are defined in [RFC3261]. "DIGIT" is defined in [RFC5234].
This section describes how a SIP entity, acting as an entry point to a network, uses the 'received-realm' Via header field parameter.
6.2. Behavior of a SIP Entity Acting as a Network Entry Point
When a SIP entity acting as a network entry point forwards a SIP request or initiates a SIP request on its own (e.g., a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) gateway), the SIP entity adds a Via header field to the SIP request, according to the procedures in RFC 3261 [RFC3261]. In addition, if the SIP entity is able to assert the
Holmberg & Jiang Standards Track [Page 8]
RFC 8055 Received Realm January 2017
adjacent upstream network and if the SIP entity is aware of a network realm value defined for that network, the SIP entity can add a 'received-realm' Via header field parameter conveying the network realm value as the operator identifier (Section 5.2) part of the header field parameter, to the Via header field added to the SIP request.
In addition, the SIP entity MUST also calculate a JWS (Section 5.4) and add the calculated JWS Header and JWS Signature as the 'jws' part of the Via header field parameter.
6.3. Behavior of a SIP Entity Consuming the 'received-realm' Value
When a SIP entity receives a Via 'received-realm' header field parameter and intends to perform actions based on the header field parameter value, it MUST first recalculate the JWS and check whether the result matches the JWS received. If there is not a match, the SIP entity MUST discard the received 'received-realm' header field parameter. The SIP entity MAY also take additional actions (e.g., rejecting the SIP request) based on local policy.
This section shows an example of a SIP INVITE request and the associated response, which contains a Via header field (inserted into the request and removed from the response by the T_EP SIP proxy) with a 'received-realm' header field parameter.
This specification defines a new Via header field parameter called 'received-realm' in the "Header Field Parameters and Parameter Values" sub-registry created by [RFC3968]. The syntax is defined in Section 5.6. The required information is:
Predefined Header Field Parameter Name Values Reference ---------------------- --------------------- ---------- --------- Via received-realm No RFC 8055
As the 'received-realm' Via header field parameter can be used to trigger applications, it is important to ensure that the parameter has not been added to the SIP message by an unauthorized SIP entity.
The 'received-realm' Via header field parameter is inserted, signed, verified, and consumed within an operator network. The operator MUST discard parameters received from another network, and the parameter MUST only be inserted by SIP entities that are able to verify from which adjacent upstream network a SIP request is received.
The operator also needs to take great care in ensuring that the key used to calculate the JWS Signature value is only known by the network entities signing and adding the JWS Signature to the 'received-realm' Via header field parameter of a SIP message and to network entities verifying and consuming the parameter value.
The operator MUST use a key management policy that protects against unauthorized access to the stored keys within nodes where the keys associated with the JWS Signature are stored and that protects against cryptoanalysis attacks using captured data sent on the wire.
A SIP entity MUST NOT use the adjacent network information if there is a mismatch between the JWS Signature received in the SIP header field and the JWS Signature calculated by the receiving entity.
Generic security considerations for JWS are defined in [RFC7515].
[RFC3261] Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston, A., Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M., and E. Schooler, "SIP: Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 3261, DOI 10.17487/RFC3261, June 2002, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3261>.
[RFC3968] Camarillo, G., "The Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) Header Field Parameter Registry for the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)", BCP 98, RFC 3968, DOI 10.17487/RFC3968, December 2004, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3968>.