RFC 2623 (rfc2623) - Page 1 of 19

NFS Version 2 and Version 3 Security Issues and the NFS Protocol's Use of RPCSEC_GSS and Kerberos V5

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Network Working Group                                          M. Eisler
Request for Comments: 2623                        Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Category: Standards Track                                      June 1999


   NFS Version 2 and Version 3 Security Issues and the NFS Protocol's
                   Use of RPCSEC_GSS and Kerberos V5

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This memorandum clarifies various security issues involving the NFS
   protocol (Version 2 and Version 3 only) and then describes how the
   Version 2 and Version 3 of the NFS protocol use the RPCSEC_GSS
   security flavor protocol and Kerberos V5.  This memorandum is
   provided so that people can write compatible implementations.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
   1.1.  Overview of RPC Security Architecture  . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.  Overview of NFS Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.1.  Port Monitoring  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.1.1.  MOUNT Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   2.2.  RPC Security Flavors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   2.2.1.  AUTH_SYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   2.2.2.  AUTH_DH and AUTH_KERB4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   2.2.3.  RPCSEC_GSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   2.3.  Authentication for NFS Procedures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   2.3.1.  NULL Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   2.3.2.  NFS Procedures Used at Mount Time  . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   2.4.  Binding Security Flavors to Exports  . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
   2.5.  Anonymous Mapping  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
   2.6.  Host-based Access Control  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
   2.7.  Security Flavor Negotiation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
   2.8.  Registering Flavors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
   3.  The NFS Protocol's Use of RPCSEC_GSS . . . . . . . . . . . .   9



Eisler                      Standards Track
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