SAAG

Summary

The Security Area Advisory Group (SAAG) meeting at IETF 125 focused on administrative transitions within the Security Area leadership, updates from various working groups, and technical presentations covering BGP security, next-generation cryptographic algorithms, and security requirements for space networking. Notably, the area welcomed Chris Wood as the new Security Area Director, succeeding Paul Wouters.

Key Discussion Points

Area Updates and WG Status

Leadership Changes: Paul Wouters is stepping down as Area Director; Chris Wood was elected by the NomCom to fill the position.
Working Group Movements:
- PLANTS was recently chartered.
- OHAI and TEEP have been closed.
- PQUIP is nearing closure with one document remaining post-Working Group Last Call. Future presentations relevant to PQUIP may be hosted in SAAG.
- COSE: Progressing on SPHINCS+ (SLH-DSA), Falcon, and COSE-HPKE (draft-ietf-cose-hpke).
- SCITT: Moving toward adoption calls for the Use Cases document; three competing protocol proposals are under evaluation.
- ACME: Continuing work on Web PKI/CAB Forum alignment while exploring new use cases like OpenID Federation, on-premise video conferencing, and government ID validation.
Dispatch: The SEC-DISPATCH session experienced Meetecho technical difficulties. Chairs and ADs will review the session to determine outcomes or move discussions to the mailing list.

Technical Presentations

TLS Authentication for BGP

Presenters: Bob Beck and Jeff Haas

Motivation: To provide a robust authentication and integrity mechanism for BGP over TCP/QUIC as an alternative to TCP-AO or MD5, specifically avoiding the complexities of WebPKI.
Proposal: A BGP-specific PKI where certificates bind Autonomous System (AS) numbers and IP addresses using Subject Alternative Names (SAN). It suggests an architecture using long-lived AS intermediates and short-lived session certificates.
Discussion:
- Eric Rescorla questioned the revocation model and the "trusted introducer" concept.
- Jeff Haas emphasized that this is intended for point-to-point peering, not a global PKI.
- There was discussion regarding whether this adds unnecessary complexity to highly manual peering relationships, with some participants suggesting simple certificate fingerprints or PSKs might suffice.

Introduction to the Next Generation Commercial Cryptographic Algorithms Program

Presenter: Laying Hua

Overview: The Institute of Commercial Cryptography Standards (ICCS) launched the NGCC program to develop next-generation public key, hash, and block cipher algorithms resilient to quantum computing.
Timeline: The global call for proposals for public key and hash algorithms is open from October 2025 through June 2026.
Discussion: Paul Hoffman inquired whether the program would accept existing international standards (e.g., ML-KEM) to promote interoperability or if only novel designs were sought. The presenter encouraged following up via email for detailed criteria.

Security Considerations for Space Settings

Presenter: Ben Dowling

Problem Space: Space networking involves intermittent connectivity, high latency, and significant packet loss, making traditional interactive handshakes (like TLS) difficult.
Security Goals: The objective is to achieve Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) and Post-Compromise Security (PCS) in Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN) environments.
Proposed Direction: The use of asynchronous handshakes (similar to MLS) to allow keys to be refreshed without requiring a synchronous round-trip.
Discussion:
- John Mattsson and Ben Kaduk discussed the trade-offs between session longevity and the overhead of post-quantum cryptographic updates.
- David Schinazi cautioned against major modifications to QUIC/TLS and suggested using MLS to exchange certificates for use in standard QUIC sessions.

Decisions and Action Items

Dispatch Outcomes: Deb Cooley and Art/Sec/WIT chairs will review the Dispatch transcript/logs to resolve the outcome of topics affected by Meetecho issues.
BGP-TLS: Discussion to continue on the SAAG mailing list to determine if there is a path forward for a certificate profile draft.
S-frame: Transition of draft-ietf-sframe-enc to AD-sponsorship is in progress.

Next Steps

Participants are encouraged to review the NGCC program requirements and provide feedback via the ICCS-provided contact channels.
The community is urged to engage with space-related working groups (DTN, TIP-TOP) to ensure robust security architectures for deep space communications.
Security Directorate (SecDir) reviews will continue; working group chairs are reminded to assist in errata processing for their respective groups.

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