Internet-Draft | Registration Interface YANG Data Model | April 2023 |
Hyun, et al. | Expires 14 October 2023 | [Page] |
This document defines an information model and a YANG data model for the Registration Interface between Security Controller and Developer's Management System (DMS) in the Interface to Network Security Functions (I2NSF) framework to register Network Security Functions (NSF) of the DMS with the Security Controller. The objective of these information and data models is to support NSF capability registration and query via I2NSF Registration Interface.¶
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A number of Network Security Functions (NSF) may exist in the Interface to Network Security Functions (I2NSF) framework [RFC8329]. Since each of these NSFs likely has different security capabilities from each other, it is important to register the security capabilities of the NSFs to the Security Controller (i.e., Network Management Operator System). In addition, it is required to search NSFs of some required security capabilities on demand. As an example, if additional security capabilities are required to serve some security service request(s) from an I2NSF User, the security controller SHOULD be able to request the DMS for NSFs that have the required security capabilities.¶
As the main focus of the YANG module defined in [I-D.ietf-i2nsf-capability-data-model] is to define the security capabilities of an NSF, it lacks in some information (e.g., network access information to an NSF) needed by the Security Controller. This information can be provided by the DMS as it is the vendor system that provides and deploys the NSFs. Hence, this document provides extended information for the I2NSF Registration Interface.¶
This document describes an information model (see Section 4) and an extended YANG [RFC7950] data model from I2NSF Capability YANG data model [I-D.ietf-i2nsf-capability-data-model] (see Section 5) for the I2NSF Registration Interface [RFC8329] between the Security Controller and the developer's management system (DMS) to support NSF capability registration and query via the registration interface. It also describes the operations that SHOULD be performed by the Security Controller and the DMS via the Registration Interface using the defined model. Note that in either NETCONF [RFC6241] or RESTCONF [RFC8040] parlance through the I2NSF Registration Interface, the Security Controller is the client, and the DMS is the server because the Security Controller and DMS run the client and server for either NETCONF or RESTCONF, respectively.¶
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.¶
This document uses the following terms defined in [RFC3444], [RFC8329] and [I-D.ietf-i2nsf-capability-data-model].¶
The I2NSF registration interface is used by Security Controller and Developer's Management System (DMS) in I2NSF framework. Figure 1 shows the information model of the I2NSF registration interface, which consists of two submodels: NSF capability registration and NSF capability query. Each submodel is used for the operations listed above. The remainder of this section will provide in-depth explanation of each submodel. The consideration of the design of the data model is based on the procedure and mechanism discussed in Section 8 of [I-D.ietf-i2nsf-applicability], which discusses I2NSF Framework with Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) [nfv-framework].¶
This submodel is used by the DMS to register the capabilities of NSFs with the request of the Security Controller. Figure 2 shows how this submodel is constructed. The most important part in Figure 2 is the NSF capability, and this specifies the set of capabilities that the NSF to be registered can offer. The NSF Name contains a unique name of this NSF with the specified set of capabilities. The NSF name MUST be unique within the registered NSFs in the Security Controller to identify the NSF with the capability. The name can be an arbitrary string including Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN). To make sure each vendor does not provide a duplicated name, the name should include the vendor's detail (e.g., firewall-vendor-series_name-series_number). When registering the NSF, DMS additionally includes the network access information of the NSF which is required to enable network communications with the NSF.¶
The following sections will further explain the NSF capability information and the NSF access information in more detail.¶
NSF Capability Information basically describes the security capabilities of an NSF. In Figure 3, we show capability objects of an NSF. Following the information model of NSF capabilities defined in [I-D.ietf-i2nsf-capability-data-model], we share the same I2NSF security capabilities: Directional Capabilities, Event Capabilities, Condition Capabilities, Action Capabilities, Resolution Strategy Capabilities, Default Action Capabilities. Also, NSF Capability Information additionally contains the specification of an NSF as shown in Figure 3.¶
This information represents the specification information (e.g., CPU, memory, disk, and bandwidth) of an NSF. As illustrated in Figure 4, this information consists of CPU, memory, disk, and bandwidth. The CPU information describes the Central Processing Unit (CPU) used by the NSF. The information consists of model name, cores, clock speed, and threads.¶
The memory information describes the hardware that stores information temporarily, i.e., Random Access Memory (RAM). The information consists of RAM maximum capacity and RAM speed. The disk information describes the storage information, i.e., Hard Disk and Solid-State Drive. The information given is the maximum capacity of the storage available in the NSF.¶
Bandwidth describes the information about available network amount in two cases, such as outbound and inbound. Assuming that the current throughput status of each NSF is being collected through NSF monitoring [I-D.ietf-i2nsf-nsf-monitoring-data-model], this capability information of the NSF can be used to determine whether the NSF is in congestion or not by comparing it with the current throughput of the NSF.¶
NSF Access Information contains the following that are required to communicate with an NSF through NETCONF [RFC6241] or RESTCONF [RFC8040]: an IP address (i.e., IPv4 or IPv6 address) and a port number. Note that TCP is used as a transport layer protocol due to either NETCONF or RESTCONF. In this document, NSF Access Information is used to identify a specific NSF instance. That is, NSF Access Information is the signature (i.e., unique identifier) of an NSF instance in the overall I2NSF system.¶
The deployed NSFs may require to be updated to improve the quality of the security service. The Security Controller can request for an update of NSFs to the DMS. In this case, Security Controller makes a description of the NSFs to be updated by giving the name of the NSF and its current version. The DMS can reply using the NSF capability information submodel in Section 4.1.1 for updating the capabilities of the NSF.¶
This section provides the YANG Tree diagram of the I2NSF registration interface.¶
A simplified graphical representation of the data model is used in this section. The meaning of the symbols used in the following diagrams [RFC8340] is as follows:¶
The I2NSF Registration Interface is used by the Developer's Management System (DMS) to register NSFs and their capabilities with the Security Controller. Also, in case that the Security Controller fails to find any NSF among the registered NSFs which can provide some required capabilities, Security Controller uses the registration interface to query DMS about NSF(s) having the required capabilities. The following sections describe the YANG data models to support these operations.¶
This section describes the YANG tree for the NSF capability registration and capability query.¶
When a Security Controller requests security services to the DMS, DMS uses the I2NSF Capability YANG Data Model [I-D.ietf-i2nsf-capability-data-model] to describe what capabilities the NSFs can offer. Security Controller makes a description of the required capabilities and then queries DMS about which NSF(s) can provide these capabilities. DMS includes the access information of the NSF which is required to make a network connection with the NSF as well as the specification of the NSFs. The NSF access information consists of ip, port, and management-protocol. The field of ip can have either an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address. The port field is used to get the transport protocol port number. As I2NSF uses a YANG data model, the management protocol can be either NETCONF or RESTCONF.¶
The credential management for accessing the NSFs is handled by pre-negotiation with every DMS. This management is out of the scope of this document.¶
The DMS can also include the resource information in terms of CPU, memory, disk, and network bandwidth of the NSF. Detailed overview of NSF specification can be seen in Section 4.1.1.1.¶
This section describes the YANG tree for the NSF capability update.¶
This YANG data model is used to update the registered NSFs. The update operation started by the Security Controller requesting an updated version of the existing NSFs. This request can be done periodically to get a new update for the NSFs.¶
To request for an update, the Security Controller can send the registered NSF's name and its current version. If an update is available, the DMS can update the NSF and inform the Security Controller about the changes from the update with positive response. If no such update, the DMS can reply with a negative response (i.e., rpc-error).¶
This section provides a YANG module of the data model for the registration interface between Security Controller and Developer's Management System, as defined in Section 4.¶
This YANG module imports from [RFC6991] and [I-D.ietf-i2nsf-capability-data-model]. It makes references to [RFC6241] [RFC8040]¶
This document requests IANA to register the following URI in the "IETF XML Registry" [RFC3688]:¶
URI: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-i2nsf-registration-interface Registrant Contact: The IESG. XML: N/A; the requested URI is an XML namespace.¶
This document requests IANA to register the following YANG module in the "YANG Module Names" registry [RFC7950][RFC8525]:¶
Name: ietf-i2nsf-registration-interface Namespace: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-i2nsf-registration-interface Prefix: i2nsfri Reference: RFC XXXX // RFC Ed.: replace XXXX with actual RFC number and remove // this note¶
The YANG module specified in this document defines a data schema designed to be accessed through network management protocols such as NETCONF [RFC6241] or RESTCONF [RFC8040]. The lowest NETCONF layer is the secure transport layer, and the required secure transport is Secure Shell (SSH) [RFC6242]. The lowest RESTCONF layer is HTTPS, and the required secure transport is TLS [RFC8446].¶
The NETCONF access control model [RFC8341] provides a means of restricting access to specific NETCONF or RESTCONF users to a preconfigured subset of all available NETCONF or RESTCONF protocol operations and content.¶
The architecture of I2NSF Framework presents a risk to the implementation of security detection and mitigation activities. The risks of externally operated NSFs are discussed in Section 4 (Threats Associated with Externally Provided NSFs) of [RFC8329]. It is important to have an authentication and authorization method between the communication of the Security Controller and the DMS. The following are threats that need to be considered and mitigated:¶
The YANG module defined in this document extends the YANG module described in [I-D.ietf-i2nsf-capability-data-model]. Hence, this document shares all the security issues that are specified in Section 9 of [I-D.ietf-i2nsf-capability-data-model].¶
There are a number of extended data nodes defined in this YANG module that are writable/creatable/deletable (i.e., config true, which is the default). These data nodes MAY be considered sensitive or vulnerable in some network environments. Write operations (e.g., edit-config) to these data nodes without proper protection can have a negative effect on network operations. These are the subtrees and data nodes and their sensitivity/vulnerability:¶
Some of the readable extended data nodes in this YANG module MAY be considered sensitive or vulnerable in some network environments. It is thus important to control read access (e.g., via get, get-config, or notification) to these data nodes. These are the subtrees and data nodes and their sensitivity/vulnerability:¶
The RPC operation in this YANG module MAY be considered sensitive or vulnerable in some network environments. It is thus important to control access to this operation. The following is the operation and its sensitivity/vulnerability:¶
This section shows XML examples of the I2NSF Registration Interface data model for registering the capabilities in either IPv4 networks [RFC5737] or IPv6 networks [RFC3849] with Security Controller.¶
Figure 8 shows the query for NSF(s) that can inspect IPv4 source address, destination address, and URL. Figure 9 shows the reply for the configuration XML for registering a general firewall and a web filter in an IPv4 network [RFC5737] and their capabilities.¶
The general firewall registered is as follows.¶
The web filter registered is as follows.¶
In addition, Figure 10 and Figure 11 shows the query and reply message for the configuration XML for registering a general firewall in an IPv6 network [RFC3849] and webfilter with their capabilities.¶
The web filter registered is as follows.¶
This section shows an XML example of the Security Controller requesting an update for an NSF. In this example, the Security Controller requests an update for the registered General Firewall for the IPv4 network. To do so, it makes a query as follows:¶
After receiving a query given in Figure 12, the DMS can reply with following XML:¶
Figure 12 shows the XML for requesting an update for the NSF named ipv4_general_firewall. In the reply shown in Figure 13, the NSF has been updated with a new version (i.e., 2.0.0) and extended capabilities (i.e., inspect the port number(s) for UDP packets).¶
Network Functions Virtualization (called NFV) can be used to implement I2NSF framework. In NFV environments, NSFs are deployed as virtual network functions (VNFs). Security Controller can be implemented as an Element Management (EM) of the NFV architecture, and is connected with the VNF Manager (VNFM) via the Ve-Vnfm interface [nfv-framework]. Security Controller can use this interface for the purpose of the lifecycle management of NSFs. If some NSFs need to be instantiated to enforce security policies in the I2NSF framework, Security Controller could request the VNFM to instantiate them through the DMS having the Ve-Vnfm interface with the VNFM. Refer to Section 8 of [I-D.ietf-i2nsf-applicability] for the detailed description on I2NSF Framework with NFV. Or if an NSF, running as a VNF, is not used by any flows for a time period, Security Controller may request deinstantiating it through the DMS having the Ve-Vnfm interface with the VNFM for efficient resource utilization.¶
This document is a product by the I2NSF Working Group (WG) including WG Chairs (i.e., Linda Dunbar and Yoav Nir) and Diego Lopez. This document took advantage of the review and comments from the following people: Roman Danyliw, Reshad Rahman (YANG doctor), and Tom Petch. We authors sincerely appreciate their sincere efforts and kind help.¶
This work was supported by Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) grant funded by the Korea MSIT (Ministry of Science and ICT) (No. 2016-0-00078, Cloud Based Security Intelligence Technology Development for the Customized Security Service Provisioning). This work was supported in part by the IITP (2020-0-00395-003, Standard Development of Blockchain based Network Management Automation Technology).¶
The following are co-authors of this document:¶
Patrick Lingga - Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, 2066 Seo-ro Jangan-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do 16419, Republic of Korea. EMail: patricklink@skku.edu¶
Jinyong (Tim) Kim - Department of Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, 2066 Seo-ro Jangan-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do 16419, Republic of Korea. EMail: timkim@skku.edu¶
Chaehong Chung - Department of Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, 2066 Seo-ro Jangan-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do 16419, Republic of Korea. EMail: darkhong@skku.edu¶
Susan Hares - Huawei, 7453 Hickory Hill, Saline, MI 48176, USA. EMail: shares@ndzh.com¶
Diego R. Lopez - Telefonica I+D, Jose Manuel Lara, 9, Seville, 41013, Spain. EMail: diego.r.lopez@telefonica.com¶
The following changes are made from draft-ietf-i2nsf-registration-interface-dm-23:¶