Minutes of the June 18-19, 1997, Meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee to Develop a Federal Information Processing Standard for the Federal Key Management Infrastructure June 18, 1997 A quorum being present, the fourth meeting of the Committee was called to order at 9:00 a.m. by the Chairman, Dr. Stephen Kent. In addition to the Chairman, members present were: Josh Benaloh, Tom Cahill, David Carman, Santosh Chokhani, Paul Clark, Dorothy Denning, John Edwards, Mark Etzel, Roger French, Richard Hite, Russ Housley, Ken Konechy, and Mike Matyas. Government liaisons in attendance were: Michael Gilmore, Barbara Kirsch, Jan Manning, Patricia Sefcik, Miles Smid, and Richard Sweeney. Also attending was Mark Bohannon of the Department of Commerce. Ed Roback, Executive Secretary, welcomed everyone and reviewed the agenda for the two day meeting, which would be comprised of a series of working group briefings, followed by detailed discussion and work planning. (See Reference #1.) He asked whether any of the members or federal liaisons had any announcements to make. There being none, the floor was turned over to the Chairman. Dr. Kent began by discussing the need for working groups (WGs) to make more progress between meetings. At the last meeting, the Committee agreed that the WGs would get their work products out to the entire Committee at least a week before the meeting, so that it could be reviewed in detail. However, this schedule was not met by any of the WGs. The Chairman expressed his expectation that the Committee would do better in preparation for the August meeting. Next, each of the WGs was asked to provide a briefing on their activities since the April meeting. Note that the WGs do not act independently of the Committee. They function solely to gather information or conduct research of the Committee, analyze relevant issues and facts, or draft position papers for consideration by the Committee. Framework Briefing, WG#1, Mr. Roger French Since the last meeting WG#1 has had teleconference calls, exchanges of e-mail and drafts of the model via fax. Mr. French described the need to outline the draft Federal Infomation Processing Standard (FIPS) and then start "filling in the pieces." The WG has been working on the "Announcement Section" of the standard (which was discussed following all the WG presentations). Mr. French then asked Dr. Matyas to discuss progress on the key recovery framework model. (See Reference #2). Dr. Matyas reviewed the overall structure of the model, and then specific details of the enablement and recovery components. The enablement components identified included: System A/System B (crypto-enabled); recovery information medium; and encryption data medium. The recovery components identified were: requestor and recovery agent. Discussion occurred regarding the generality of the model. Also in the outline presented were the proposed components of the key recovery infrastructure model. They were: product vendors, registration agent, authentic public key source, licensing agent and key recovery system. Before proceeding to the next WG briefing, the Chairman discussed the nature of the standard to be produced. He observed that many FIPS tend to be proscriptive in nature and pointed to their interoperability features. However, FIPS 140-1, which is based on performance specifications, was identified an example of one standard that was completely different from the majority. Dr. Kent asked the federal liaisons what sort of standard they wanted in this area. There should be some degree of consensus on whether the focus is on interoperability or assurance of security. No immediate answer was forthcoming, although it was observed that a performance specification might be all that the Committee could produce given its December timeframe. Mr. Mark Bohannon stated that every ten days he briefs senior Administration officials, including the Secretary of Commerce, on the status of this Committee's activities. Under Secretary Mary Good left the Department in early June (a vacancy still open), resulting in more interaction directly with Secretary Daley, who has personally been receiving calls from his Cabinet colleagues about the activities and status of this Committee. Scheduled briefings to the White House, OMB, Justice, and other interested agencies will be taking place in the next few weeks, with Dr. Kent representing the Committee. The Secretary continues to believe that this be an industry led effort and he hopes to receive the Committee's recommendation by end of the year Security Models Briefing, WG#2, Dr. Josh Benaloh Dr. Josh Benaloh, representing the Security Models Working Group, presented a briefing on the activities of their group. (See Reference #3.) This covered the NSA security requirements; it should not be possible for unauthorized individuals to obtain keys and other data. The decision of who is authorized to obtain keys and other data should be made solely by the owner of the product. This generated some discussion. Further security requirements included key recovery agent requirements. Discussion ensued regarding the use of the term "owner" and how it refers to who has permission to determine how the information will be used. There is a need for more detailed guidance from the federal agencies as to what the overall federal requirements are. Interoperability Briefing, WG#5, Mr. Paul Clark Mr. Clark outlined the interoperability issues and addressed what information the requestor conveys to the registration agent. (See Reference #4.) He provided examples of interoperability between components of the key recovery model, including between the product vendor and the registration agent, the vendor and the crypto-enabled system, and between two enabled systems. Discussion of Draft Announcement Section of the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS), Roger French Since the last meeting, WG#1 has reviewed a draft of the "Announcement Section" of the draft FIPS that the Committee is endeavoring to produce. Note that this section is integral to the FIPS, and includes sections discussing, for example, the applicability of the standard. A draft was distributed for Committee review and comment. (See Reference #5.) The Committee reviewed this document in some detail. The Chairman volunteered to revise the draft for discussion at the August meeting. Among the many suggestions was one to add additional examples of how organizations such as SBA, SSN, HCFA have a need to protect sensitive data. The meeting then recessed for the day. June 19, 1997 Discussion of Draft FIPS Outline The Committee reconvened and focused its attention on the outline of the main body of the standard. The initial outline was: 1. CKRS model o encryption process o recovery process o supporting emphasis (Above would draw upon Dr. Matyas' diagrams and should include some concrete examples.) 2. CKRS security o confidentility o integrity o authenticity o authoritization (access control) o non-repudiation o survivabilty o availability 3. Interoperability System A-B Requestor and Key Recovery Agent Requestor and Registration Agent 4. Documentation Description of Components and Interactions Security Compliance Interoperability Compliance 5. Assurance Component Testing System Testing Lifecycle Testing Audits (field) Appendix System examples After further discussion, it was agreed that the existing WGs would be redirected to focus on addressing various sections of the outline, as follows: Section WG Chair 1 #1 - Framework/Model/KRA/Non-KRA French 2 #2 - Security TBD 3 #5 - Interoperability TBD 4/5 #8 - Assurance Chokani Each WG is to have an expanded draft outline of their section to the Secretary by June 23, who will consolidate and distribute a complete outline to the entire group. Additionally, each WG is to complete draft text for their section by August 18th for submission to the Secretary. The membership imbalance among the WGs was discussed. Members were asked to contact the appropriate WG chair to volunteer, and to notify the Secretariat so that the e-mail addresses could be updated accordingly. Having no further business, Dr. Kent adjourned the meeting at noon on June 19, 1997. References (on file with the Secretariat): #1 - Agenda & Federal Register Announcement #2 - Framework WG Recovery Models #3 - Security Model WG #4 - Interoperability WG #5 - CDRS FIPS (DRAFT) Announcement Section