RFC 2261
An Architecture for Describing SNMP Management Frameworks
4. Abstract Service Interfaces Abstract service interfaces have been defined to describe the conceptual interfaces between the various subsystems within an SNMP entity. These abstract service interfaces are defined by a set of primitives that define the services provided and the abstract data elements that are to be passed when the services are invoked. This section lists the primitives that have been defined for the various subsystems. 4.1. Dispatcher Primitives The Dispatcher typically provides services to the SNMP applications via its PDU Dispatcher. This section describes the primitives provided by the PDU Dispatcher. 4.1.1. Generate Outgoing Request or Notification The PDU Dispatcher provides the following primitive for an application to send an SNMP Request or Notification to another SNMP entity: statusInformation = -- sendPduHandle if success -- errorIndication if failure sendPdu( IN transportDomain -- transport domain to be used IN transportAddress -- transport address to be used IN messageProcessingModel -- typically, SNMP version IN securityModel -- Security Model to use IN securityName -- on behalf of this principal IN securityLevel -- Level of Security requested IN contextEngineID -- data from/at this entity IN contextName -- data from/in this context IN pduVersion -- the version of the PDU IN PDU -- SNMP Protocol Data Unit IN expectResponse -- TRUE or FALSE ) 4.1.2. Process Incoming Request or Notification PDU The PDU Dispatcher provides the following primitive to pass an incoming SNMP PDU to an application: processPdu( -- process Request/Notification PDU IN messageProcessingModel -- typically, SNMP version IN securityModel -- Security Model in use IN securityName -- on behalf of this principal
IN securityLevel -- Level of Security
IN contextEngineID -- data from/at this SNMP entity
IN contextName -- data from/in this context
IN pduVersion -- the version of the PDU
IN PDU -- SNMP Protocol Data Unit
IN maxSizeResponseScopedPDU -- maximum size of the Response PDU
IN stateReference -- reference to state information
) -- needed when sending a response
4.1.3. Generate Outgoing Response
The PDU Dispatcher provides the following primitive for an
application to return an SNMP Response PDU to the PDU Dispatcher:
returnResponsePdu(
IN messageProcessingModel -- typically, SNMP version
IN securityModel -- Security Model in use
IN securityName -- on behalf of this principal
IN securityLevel -- same as on incoming request
IN contextEngineID -- data from/at this SNMP entity
IN contextName -- data from/in this context
IN pduVersion -- the version of the PDU
IN PDU -- SNMP Protocol Data Unit
IN maxSizeResponseScopedPDU -- maximum size of the Response PDU
IN stateReference -- reference to state information
-- as presented with the request
IN statusInformation -- success or errorIndication
) -- error counter OID/value if error
4.1.4. Process Incoming Response PDU
The PDU Dispatcher provides the following primitive to pass an
incoming SNMP Response PDU to an application:
processResponsePdu( -- process Response PDU
IN messageProcessingModel -- typically, SNMP version
IN securityModel -- Security Model in use
IN securityName -- on behalf of this principal
IN securityLevel -- Level of Security
IN contextEngineID -- data from/at this SNMP entity
IN contextName -- data from/in this context
IN pduVersion -- the version of the PDU
IN PDU -- SNMP Protocol Data Unit
IN statusInformation -- success or errorIndication
IN sendPduHandle -- handle from sendPdu
)
4.1.5. Registering Responsibility for Handling SNMP PDUs Applications can register/unregister responsibility for a specific contextEngineID, for specific pduTypes, with the PDU Dispatcher according to the following primitives. The list of particular pduTypes that an application can register for is determined by the Message Processing Model(s) supported by the SNMP entity that contains the PDU Dispatcher. statusInformation = -- success or errorIndication registerContextEngineID( IN contextEngineID -- take responsibility for this one IN pduType -- the pduType(s) to be registered ) unregisterContextEngineID( IN contextEngineID -- give up responsibility for this one IN pduType -- the pduType(s) to be unregistered ) Note that realizations of the registerContextEngineID and unregisterContextEngineID abstract service interfaces may provide implementation-specific ways for applications to register/deregister responsiblity for all possible values of the contextEngineID or pduType parameters. 4.2. Message Processing Subsystem Primitives The Dispatcher interacts with a Message Processing Model to process a specific version of an SNMP Message. This section describes the primitives provided by the Message Processing Subsystem. 4.2.1. Prepare Outgoing SNMP Request or Notification Message The Message Processing Subsystem provides this service primitive for preparing an outgoing SNMP Request or Notification Message: statusInformation = -- success or errorIndication prepareOutgoingMessage( IN transportDomain -- transport domain to be used IN transportAddress -- transport address to be used IN messageProcessingModel -- typically, SNMP version IN securityModel -- Security Model to use IN securityName -- on behalf of this principal IN securityLevel -- Level of Security requested IN contextEngineID -- data from/at this entity IN contextName -- data from/in this context IN pduVersion -- the version of the PDU
IN PDU -- SNMP Protocol Data Unit
IN expectResponse -- TRUE or FALSE
IN sendPduHandle -- the handle for matching
-- incoming responses
OUT destTransportDomain -- destination transport domain
OUT destTransportAddress -- destination transport address
OUT outgoingMessage -- the message to send
OUT outgoingMessageLength -- its length
)
4.2.2. Prepare an Outgoing SNMP Response Message
The Message Processing Subsystem provides this service primitive for
preparing an outgoing SNMP Response Message:
result = -- SUCCESS or FAILURE
prepareResponseMessage(
IN messageProcessingModel -- typically, SNMP version
IN securityModel -- same as on incoming request
IN securityName -- same as on incoming request
IN securityLevel -- same as on incoming request
IN contextEngineID -- data from/at this SNMP entity
IN contextName -- data from/in this context
IN pduVersion -- the version of the PDU
IN PDU -- SNMP Protocol Data Unit
IN maxSizeResponseScopedPDU -- maximum size of the Response PDU
IN stateReference -- reference to state information
-- as presented with the request
IN statusInformation -- success or errorIndication
-- error counter OID/value if error
OUT destTransportDomain -- destination transport domain
OUT destTransportAddress -- destination transport address
OUT outgoingMessage -- the message to send
OUT outgoingMessageLength -- its length
)
4.2.3. Prepare Data Elements from an Incoming SNMP Message
The Message Processing Subsystem provides this service primitive for
preparing the abstract data elements from an incoming SNMP message:
result = -- SUCCESS or errorIndication
prepareDataElements(
IN transportDomain -- origin transport domain
IN transportAddress -- origin transport address
IN wholeMsg -- as received from the network
IN wholeMsgLength -- as received from the network
OUT messageProcessingModel -- typically, SNMP version
OUT securityModel -- Security Model to use
OUT securityName -- on behalf of this principal
OUT securityLevel -- Level of Security requested
OUT contextEngineID -- data from/at this entity
OUT contextName -- data from/in this context
OUT pduVersion -- the version of the PDU
OUT PDU -- SNMP Protocol Data Unit
OUT pduType -- SNMP PDU type
OUT sendPduHandle -- handle for matched request
OUT maxSizeResponseScopedPDU -- maximum size of the Response PDU
OUT statusInformation -- success or errorIndication
-- error counter OID/value if error
OUT stateReference -- reference to state information
-- to be used for possible Response
)
4.3. Access Control Subsystem Primitives
Applications are the typical clients of the service(s) of the Access
Control Subsystem.
The following primitive is provided by the Access Control Subsystem
to check if access is allowed:
statusInformation = -- success or errorIndication
isAccessAllowed(
IN securityModel -- Security Model in use
IN securityName -- principal who wants to access
IN securityLevel -- Level of Security
IN viewType -- read, write, or notify view
IN contextName -- context containing variableName
IN variableName -- OID for the managed object
)
4.4. Security Subsystem Primitives
The Message Processing Subsystem is the typical client of the
services of the Security Subsystem.
4.4.1. Generate a Request or Notification Message
The Security Subsystem provides the following primitive to generate a
Request or Notification message:
statusInformation =
generateRequestMsg(
IN messageProcessingModel -- typically, SNMP version
IN globalData -- message header, admin data
IN maxMessageSize -- of the sending SNMP entity
IN securityModel -- for the outgoing message
IN securityEngineID -- authoritative SNMP entity
IN securityName -- on behalf of this principal
IN securityLevel -- Level of Security requested
IN scopedPDU -- message (plaintext) payload
OUT securityParameters -- filled in by Security Module
OUT wholeMsg -- complete generated message
OUT wholeMsgLength -- length of the generated message
)
4.4.2. Process Incoming Message
The Security Subsystem provides the following primitive to process an
incoming message:
statusInformation = -- errorIndication or success
-- error counter OID/value if error
processIncomingMsg(
IN messageProcessingModel -- typically, SNMP version
IN maxMessageSize -- of the sending SNMP entity
IN securityParameters -- for the received message
IN securityModel -- for the received message
IN securityLevel -- Level of Security
IN wholeMsg -- as received on the wire
IN wholeMsgLength -- length as received on the wire
OUT securityEngineID -- identification of the principal
OUT securityName -- identification of the principal
OUT scopedPDU, -- message (plaintext) payload
OUT maxSizeResponseScopedPDU -- maximum size of the Response PDU
OUT securityStateReference -- reference to security state
) -- information, needed for response
4.4.3. Generate a Response Message
The Security Subsystem provides the following primitive to generate a
Response message:
statusInformation =
generateResponseMsg(
IN messageProcessingModel -- typically, SNMP version
IN globalData -- message header, admin data
IN maxMessageSize -- of the sending SNMP entity
IN securityModel -- for the outgoing message
IN securityEngineID -- authoritative SNMP entity
IN securityName -- on behalf of this principal
IN securityLevel -- for the outgoing message
IN scopedPDU -- message (plaintext) payload
IN securityStateReference -- reference to security state
-- information from original request
OUT securityParameters -- filled in by Security Module
OUT wholeMsg -- complete generated message
OUT wholeMsgLength -- length of the generated message
)
4.5. Common Primitives
These primitive(s) are provided by multiple Subsystems.
4.5.1. Release State Reference Information
All Subsystems which pass stateReference information also provide a
primitive to release the memory that holds the referenced state
information:
stateRelease(
IN stateReference -- handle of reference to be released
)
4.6. Scenario Diagrams
4.6.1. Command Generator or Notification Originator
This diagram shows how a Command Generator or Notification Originator
application requests that a PDU be sent, and how the response is
returned (asynchronously) to that application.
Command Dispatcher Message Security Generator | Processing Model | | Model | | sendPdu | | | |------------------->| | | | | prepareOutgoingMessage | | : |----------------------->| | : | | generateRequestMsg | : | |-------------------->| : | | | : | |<--------------------| : | | | : |<-----------------------| | : | | | : |------------------+ | | : | Send SNMP | | | : | Request Message | | | : | to Network | | | : | v | | : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : | | | | : | Receive SNMP | | | : | Response Message | | | : | from Network | | | : |<-----------------+ | | : | | | : | prepareDataElements | | : |----------------------->| | : | | processIncomingMsg | : | |-------------------->| : | | | : | |<--------------------| : | | | : |<-----------------------| | | processResponsePdu | | | |<-------------------| | | | | | | 4.6.2. Scenario Diagram for a Command Responder Application This diagram shows how a Command Responder or Notification Receiver application registers for handling a pduType, how a PDU is dispatched to the application after a SNMP message is received, and how the Response is (asynchronously) send back to the network.
Command Dispatcher Message Security Responder | Processing Model | | Model | | | | | | registerContextEngineID | | | |------------------------>| | | |<------------------------| | | | | | Receive SNMP | | | : | Message | | | : | from Network | | | : |<-------------+ | | : | | | : |prepareDataElements | | : |------------------->| | : | | processIncomingMsg | : | |------------------->| : | | | : | |<-------------------| : | | | : |<-------------------| | | processPdu | | | |<------------------------| | | | | | | : : : : : : : : | returnResponsePdu | | | |------------------------>| | | : | prepareResponseMsg | | : |------------------->| | : | |generateResponseMsg | : | |------------------->| : | | | : | |<-------------------| : | | | : |<-------------------| | : | | | : |--------------+ | | : | Send SNMP | | | : | Message | | | : | to Network | | | : | v | |
5. Managed Object Definitions for SNMP Management Frameworks SNMP-FRAMEWORK-MIB DEFINITIONS ::= BEGIN IMPORTS MODULE-IDENTITY, OBJECT-TYPE, OBJECT-IDENTITY, snmpModules FROM SNMPv2-SMI TEXTUAL-CONVENTION FROM SNMPv2-TC MODULE-COMPLIANCE, OBJECT-GROUP FROM SNMPv2-CONF; snmpFrameworkMIB MODULE-IDENTITY LAST-UPDATED "9711200000Z" -- 20 November 1997 ORGANIZATION "SNMPv3 Working Group" CONTACT-INFO "WG-email: snmpv3@tis.com Subscribe: majordomo@tis.com In message body: subscribe snmpv3 Chair: Russ Mundy Trusted Information Systems postal: 3060 Washington Rd Glenwood MD 21738 USA email: mundy@tis.com phone: +1 301-854-6889 Co-editor Dave Harrington Cabletron Systems, Inc. postal: Post Office Box 5005 Mail Stop: Durham 35 Industrial Way Rochester, NH 03867-5005 USA email: dbh@ctron.com phone: +1 603-337-7357 Co-editor Randy Presuhn BMC Software, Inc. postal: 1190 Saratoga Avenue Suite 130 San Jose, CA 95129 USA email: rpresuhn@bmc.com phone: +1 408-556-0720 Co-editor: Bert Wijnen IBM T.J. Watson Research postal: Schagen 33
3461 GL Linschoten
Netherlands
email: wijnen@vnet.ibm.com
phone: +31 348-432-794
"
DESCRIPTION "The SNMP Management Architecture MIB"
::= { snmpModules 2 }
-- Textual Conventions used in the SNMP Management Architecture ***
SnmpEngineID ::= TEXTUAL-CONVENTION
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION "An SNMP engine's administratively-unique identifier.
The value for this object may not be all zeros or
all 'ff'H or the empty (zero length) string.
The initial value for this object may be configured
via an operator console entry or via an algorithmic
function. In the latter case, the following
example algorithm is recommended.
In cases where there are multiple engines on the
same system, the use of this algorithm is NOT
appropriate, as it would result in all of those
engines ending up with the same ID value.
1) The very first bit is used to indicate how the
rest of the data is composed.
0 - as defined by enterprise using former methods
that existed before SNMPv3. See item 2 below.
1 - as defined by this architecture, see item 3
below.
Note that this allows existing uses of the
engineID (also known as AgentID [RFC1910]) to
co-exist with any new uses.
2) The snmpEngineID has a length of 12 octets.
The first four octets are set to the binary
equivalent of the agent's SNMP management
private enterprise number as assigned by the
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
For example, if Acme Networks has been assigned
{ enterprises 696 }, the first four octets would
be assigned '000002b8'H.
The remaining eight octets are determined via
one or more enterprise-specific methods. Such
methods must be designed so as to maximize the
possibility that the value of this object will
be unique in the agent's administrative domain.
For example, it may be the IP address of the SNMP
entity, or the MAC address of one of the
interfaces, with each address suitably padded
with random octets. If multiple methods are
defined, then it is recommended that the first
octet indicate the method being used and the
remaining octets be a function of the method.
3) The length of the octet strings varies.
The first four octets are set to the binary
equivalent of the agent's SNMP management
private enterprise number as assigned by the
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
For example, if Acme Networks has been assigned
{ enterprises 696 }, the first four octets would
be assigned '000002b8'H.
The very first bit is set to 1. For example, the
above value for Acme Networks now changes to be
'800002b8'H.
The fifth octet indicates how the rest (6th and
following octets) are formatted. The values for
the fifth octet are:
0 - reserved, unused.
1 - IPv4 address (4 octets)
lowest non-special IP address
2 - IPv6 address (16 octets)
lowest non-special IP address
3 - MAC address (6 octets)
lowest IEEE MAC address, canonical
order
4 - Text, administratively assigned
Maximum remaining length 27
5 - Octets, administratively assigned
Maximum remaining length 27
6-127 - reserved, unused
127-255 - as defined by the enterprise
Maximum remaining length 27
"
SYNTAX OCTET STRING (SIZE(1..32))
SnmpSecurityModel ::= TEXTUAL-CONVENTION
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION "An identifier that uniquely identifies a
securityModel of the Security Subsystem within the
SNMP Management Architecture.
The values for securityModel are allocated as
follows:
- The zero value is reserved.
- Values between 1 and 255, inclusive, are reserved
for standards-track Security Models and are
managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
(IANA).
- Values greater than 255 are allocated to
enterprise-specific Security Models. An
enterprise-specific securityModel value is defined
to be:
enterpriseID * 256 + security model within
enterprise
For example, the fourth Security Model defined by
the enterprise whose enterpriseID is 1 would be
260.
This scheme for allocation of securityModel
values allows for a maximum of 255 standards-
based Security Models, and for a maximum of
255 Security Models per enterprise.
It is believed that the assignment of new
securityModel values will be rare in practice
because the larger the number of simultaneously
utilized Security Models, the larger the
chance that interoperability will suffer.
Consequently, it is believed that such a range
will be sufficient. In the unlikely event that
the standards committee finds this number to be
insufficient over time, an enterprise number
can be allocated to obtain an additional 255
possible values.
Note that the most significant bit must be zero;
hence, there are 23 bits allocated for various
organizations to design and define non-standard
securityModels. This limits the ability to
define new proprietary implementations of Security
Models to the first 8,388,608 enterprises.
It is worthwhile to note that, in its encoded
form, the securityModel value will normally
require only a single byte since, in practice,
the leftmost bits will be zero for most messages
and sign extension is suppressed by the encoding
rules.
As of this writing, there are several values
of securityModel defined for use with SNMP or
reserved for use with supporting MIB objects.
They are as follows:
0 reserved for 'any'
1 reserved for SNMPv1
2 reserved for SNMPv2c
3 User-Based Security Model (USM)
"
SYNTAX INTEGER(0..2147483647)
SnmpMessageProcessingModel ::= TEXTUAL-CONVENTION
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION "An identifier that uniquely identifies a Message
Processing Model of the Message Processing
Subsystem within a SNMP Management Architecture.
The values for messageProcessingModel are
allocated as follows:
- Values between 0 and 255, inclusive, are
reserved for standards-track Message Processing
Models and are managed by the Internet Assigned
Numbers Authority (IANA).
- Values greater than 255 are allocated to
enterprise-specific Message Processing Models.
An enterprise messageProcessingModel value is
defined to be:
enterpriseID * 256 +
messageProcessingModel within enterprise
For example, the fourth Message Processing Model
defined by the enterprise whose enterpriseID
is 1 would be 260.
This scheme for allocation of securityModel
values allows for a maximum of 255 standards-
based Message Processing Models, and for a
maximum of 255 Message Processing Models per
enterprise.
It is believed that the assignment of new
messageProcessingModel values will be rare
in practice because the larger the number of
simultaneously utilized Message Processing Models,
the larger the chance that interoperability
will suffer. It is believed that such a range
will be sufficient. In the unlikely event that
the standards committee finds this number to be
insufficient over time, an enterprise number
can be allocated to obtain an additional 256
possible values.
Note that the most significant bit must be zero;
hence, there are 23 bits allocated for various
organizations to design and define non-standard
messageProcessingModels. This limits the ability
to define new proprietary implementations of
Message Processing Models to the first 8,388,608
enterprises.
It is worthwhile to note that, in its encoded
form, the securityModel value will normally
require only a single byte since, in practice,
the leftmost bits will be zero for most messages
and sign extension is suppressed by the encoding
rules.
As of this writing, there are several values of
messageProcessingModel defined for use with SNMP.
They are as follows:
0 reserved for SNMPv1
1 reserved for SNMPv2c
2 reserved for SNMPv2u and SNMPv2*
3 reserved for SNMPv3
"
SYNTAX INTEGER(0..2147483647)
SnmpSecurityLevel ::= TEXTUAL-CONVENTION
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION "A Level of Security at which SNMP messages can be
sent or with which operations are being processed;
in particular, one of:
noAuthNoPriv - without authentication and
without privacy,
authNoPriv - with authentication but
without privacy,
authPriv - with authentication and
with privacy.
These three values are ordered such that
noAuthNoPriv is less than authNoPriv and
authNoPriv is less than authPriv.
"
SYNTAX INTEGER { noAuthNoPriv(1),
authNoPriv(2),
authPriv(3)
}
SnmpAdminString ::= TEXTUAL-CONVENTION
DISPLAY-HINT "255a"
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION "An octet string containing administrative
information, preferably in human-readable form.
To facilitate internationalization, this
information is represented using the ISO/IEC
IS 10646-1 character set, encoded as an octet
string using the UTF-8 transformation format
described in [RFC2044].
Since additional code points are added by
amendments to the 10646 standard from time
to time, implementations must be prepared to
encounter any code point from 0x00000000 to
0x7fffffff.
The use of control codes should be avoided.
When it is necessary to represent a newline,
the control code sequence CR LF should be used.
The use of leading or trailing white space should
be avoided.
For code points not directly supported by user
interface hardware or software, an alternative
means of entry and display, such as hexadecimal,
may be provided.
For information encoded in 7-bit US-ASCII,
the UTF-8 encoding is identical to the
US-ASCII encoding.
Note that when this TC is used for an object that
is used or envisioned to be used as an index, then
a SIZE restriction must be specified so that the
number of sub-identifiers for any object instance
does not exceed the limit of 128, as defined by
[RFC1905].
"
SYNTAX OCTET STRING (SIZE (0..255))
-- Administrative assignments ***************************************
snmpFrameworkAdmin
OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { snmpFrameworkMIB 1 }
snmpFrameworkMIBObjects
OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { snmpFrameworkMIB 2 }
snmpFrameworkMIBConformance
OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { snmpFrameworkMIB 3 }
-- the snmpEngine Group ********************************************
snmpEngine OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { snmpFrameworkMIBObjects 1 }
snmpEngineID OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX SnmpEngineID
MAX-ACCESS read-only
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION "An SNMP engine's administratively-unique identifier.
"
::= { snmpEngine 1 }
snmpEngineBoots OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX INTEGER (1..2147483647)
MAX-ACCESS read-only
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION "The number of times that the SNMP engine has
(re-)initialized itself since its initial
configuration.
"
::= { snmpEngine 2 }
snmpEngineTime OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX INTEGER (0..2147483647)
MAX-ACCESS read-only
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION "The number of seconds since the SNMP engine last
incremented the snmpEngineBoots object.
"
::= { snmpEngine 3 }
snmpEngineMaxMessageSize OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX INTEGER (484..2147483647)
MAX-ACCESS read-only
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION "The maximum length in octets of an SNMP message
which this SNMP engine can send or receive and
process, determined as the minimum of the maximum
message size values supported among all of the
transports available to and supported by the engine.
"
::= { snmpEngine 4 }
-- Registration Points for Authentication and Privacy Protocols **
snmpAuthProtocols OBJECT-IDENTITY
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION "Registration point for standards-track
authentication protocols used in SNMP Management
Frameworks.
"
::= { snmpFrameworkAdmin 1 }
snmpPrivProtocols OBJECT-IDENTITY
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION "Registration point for standards-track privacy
protocols used in SNMP Management Frameworks.
"
::= { snmpFrameworkAdmin 2 }
-- Conformance information ******************************************
snmpFrameworkMIBCompliances
OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= {snmpFrameworkMIBConformance 1}
snmpFrameworkMIBGroups
OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= {snmpFrameworkMIBConformance 2}
-- compliance statements
snmpFrameworkMIBCompliance MODULE-COMPLIANCE
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION "The compliance statement for SNMP engines which
implement the SNMP Management Framework MIB.
"
MODULE -- this module
MANDATORY-GROUPS { snmpEngineGroup }
::= { snmpFrameworkMIBCompliances 1 }
-- units of conformance
snmpEngineGroup OBJECT-GROUP
OBJECTS {
snmpEngineID,
snmpEngineBoots,
snmpEngineTime,
snmpEngineMaxMessageSize
}
STATUS current
DESCRIPTION "A collection of objects for identifying and
determining the configuration and current timeliness
values of an SNMP engine.
"
::= { snmpFrameworkMIBGroups 1 }
END
6. Intellectual Property
The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to
pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it
has made any effort to identify any such rights. Information on the
IETF's procedures with respect to rights in standards-track and
standards-related documentation can be found in BCP-11. Copies of
claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of
licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to
obtain a general license or permission for the use of such
proprietary rights by implementors or users of this specification can
be obtained from the IETF Secretariat.
The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights which may cover technology that may be required to practice this standard. Please address the information to the IETF Executive Director. 7. Acknowledgements This document is the result of the efforts of the SNMPv3 Working Group. Some special thanks are in order to the following SNMPv3 WG members: Dave Battle (SNMP Research, Inc.) Uri Blumenthal (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center) Jeff Case (SNMP Research, Inc.) John Curran (BBN) T. Max Devlin (Hi-TECH Connections) John Flick (Hewlett Packard) David Harrington (Cabletron Systems Inc.) N.C. Hien (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center) Dave Levi (SNMP Research, Inc.) Louis A Mamakos (UUNET Technologies Inc.) Paul Meyer (Secure Computing Corporation) Keith McCloghrie (Cisco Systems) Russ Mundy (Trusted Information Systems, Inc.) Bob Natale (ACE*COMM Corporation) Mike O'Dell (UUNET Technologies Inc.) Dave Perkins (DeskTalk) Peter Polkinghorne (Brunel University) Randy Presuhn (BMC Software, Inc.) David Reid (SNMP Research, Inc.) Shawn Routhier (Epilogue) Juergen Schoenwaelder (TU Braunschweig) Bob Stewart (Cisco Systems) Bert Wijnen (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center) The document is based on recommendations of the IETF Security and Administrative Framework Evolution for SNMP Advisory Team. Members of that Advisory Team were: David Harrington (Cabletron Systems Inc.) Jeff Johnson (Cisco Systems) David Levi (SNMP Research Inc.) John Linn (Openvision) Russ Mundy (Trusted Information Systems) chair Shawn Routhier (Epilogue) Glenn Waters (Nortel) Bert Wijnen (IBM T. J. Watson Research Center)
As recommended by the Advisory Team and the SNMPv3 Working Group
Charter, the design incorporates as much as practical from previous
RFCs and drafts. As a result, special thanks are due to the authors
of previous designs known as SNMPv2u and SNMPv2*:
Jeff Case (SNMP Research, Inc.)
David Harrington (Cabletron Systems Inc.)
David Levi (SNMP Research, Inc.)
Keith McCloghrie (Cisco Systems)
Brian O'Keefe (Hewlett Packard)
Marshall T. Rose (Dover Beach Consulting)
Jon Saperia (BGS Systems Inc.)
Steve Waldbusser (International Network Services)
Glenn W. Waters (Bell-Northern Research Ltd.)
8. Security Considerations
This document describes how an implementation can include a Security
Model to protect management messages and an Access Control Model to
control access to management information.
The level of security provided is determined by the specific Security
Model implementation(s) and the specific Access Control Model
implementation(s) used.
Applications have access to data which is not secured. Applications
should take reasonable steps to protect the data from disclosure.
It is the responsibility of the purchaser of an implementation to
ensure that:
1) an implementation complies with the rules defined by this
architecture,
2) the Security and Access Control Models utilized satisfy the
security and access control needs of the organization,
3) the implementations of the Models and Applications comply with
the model and application specifications,
4) and the implementation protects configuration secrets from
inadvertent disclosure.
9. References
[RFC1155] Rose, M. and K. McCloghrie, "Structure and Identification
of Management Information for TCP/IP-based internets", STD 16, RFC
1155, May 1990.
[RFC1157] Case, J., Fedor, M., Schoffstall, M. and J. Davin, "The Simple Network Management Protocol", STD 15, RFC 1157, May 1990. [RFC1212] Rose, M. and K. McCloghrie, "Concise MIB Definitions", STD 16, RFC 1212, March 1991. [RFC1901] Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M. and S. Waldbusser, "Introduction to Community-based SNMPv2", RFC 1901, January 1996. [RFC1902] Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M. and S. Waldbusser, "Structure of Management Information for Version 2 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1902, January 1996. [RFC1905] Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M. and S. Waldbusser, "Protocol Operations for Version 2 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1905, January 1996. [RFC1906] Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M. and S. Waldbusser, "Transport Mappings for Version 2 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1906, January 1996. [RFC1907] Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M. and S. Waldbusser, "Management Information Base for Version 2 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv2)", RFC 1907 January 1996. [RFC1908] Case, J., McCloghrie, K., Rose, M. and S. Waldbusser, "Coexistence between Version 1 and Version 2 of the Internet- standard Network Management Framework", RFC 1908, January 1996. [RFC1909] McCloghrie, K., Editor, "An Administrative Infrastructure for SNMPv2", RFC 1909, February 1996. [RFC1910] Waters, G., Editor, "User-based Security Model for SNMPv2", RFC 1910, February 1996. [RFC2028] Hovey, R. and S. Bradner, "The Organizations Involved in the IETF Standards Process", BCP 11, RFC 2028, October 1996. [RFC2044] Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of Unicode and ISO 10646", RFC 2044, October 1996. [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. [RFC2262] Case, J., Harrington, D., Presuhn, R., and B. Wijnen, "Message Processing and Dispatching for the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)", RFC 2262, January 1998.
[RFC2264] Blumenthal, U., and B. Wijnen, "The User-Based Security Model for Version 3 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv3)", RFC 2264, January 1998. [RFC2265] Wijnen, B., Presuhn, R., and K. McCloghrie, "View-based Access Control Model for the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)", RFC 2265, January 1998. [RFC2263] Levi, D., Meyer, P., and B. Stewart, "SNMPv3 Applications", RFC 2263, January 1998. 10. Editors' Addresses Bert Wijnen IBM T.J. Watson Research Schagen 33 3461 GL Linschoten Netherlands Phone: +31 348-432-794 EMail: wijnen@vnet.ibm.com Dave Harrington Cabletron Systems, Inc Post Office Box 5005 Mail Stop: Durham 35 Industrial Way Rochester, NH 03867-5005 USA Phone: +1 603-337-7357 EMail: dbh@ctron.com Randy Presuhn BMC Software, Inc. 1190 Saratoga Avenue Suite 130 San Jose, CA 95129 USA Phone: +1 408-556-0720 EMail: rpresuhn@bmc.com
APPENDIX A A. Guidelines for Model Designers This appendix describes guidelines for designers of models which are expected to fit into the architecture defined in this document. SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c are two SNMP frameworks which use communities to provide trivial authentication and access control. SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c Frameworks can coexist with Frameworks designed according to this architecture, and modified versions of SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c Frameworks could be designed to meet the requirements of this architecture, but this document does not provide guidelines for that coexistence. Within any subsystem model, there should be no reference to any specific model of another subsystem, or to data defined by a specific model of another subsystem. Transfer of data between the subsystems is deliberately described as a fixed set of abstract data elements and primitive functions which can be overloaded to satisfy the needs of multiple model definitions. Documents which define models to be used within this architecture SHOULD use the standard primitives between subsystems, possibly defining specific mechanisms for converting the abstract data elements into model-usable formats. This constraint exists to allow subsystem and model documents to be written recognizing common borders of the subsystem and model. Vendors are not constrained to recognize these borders in their implementations. The architecture defines certain standard services to be provided between subsystems, and the architecture defines abstract service interfaces to request these services. Each model definition for a subsystem SHOULD support the standard service interfaces, but whether, or how, or how well, it performs the service is dependent on the model definition. A.1. Security Model Design Requirements A.1.1. Threats A document describing a Security Model MUST describe how the model protects against the threats described under "Security Requirements of this Architecture", section 1.4.
A.1.2. Security Processing Received messages MUST be validated by a Model of the Security Subsystem. Validation includes authentication and privacy processing if needed, but it is explicitly allowed to send messages which do not require authentication or privacy. A received message contains a specified securityLevel to be used during processing. All messages requiring privacy MUST also require authentication. A Security Model specifies rules by which authentication and privacy are to be done. A model may define mechanisms to provide additional security features, but the model definition is constrained to using (possibly a subset of) the abstract data elements defined in this document for transferring data between subsystems. Each Security Model may allow multiple security protocols to be used concurrently within an implementation of the model. Each Security Model defines how to determine which protocol to use, given the securityLevel and the security parameters relevant to the message. Each Security Model, with its associated protocol(s) defines how the sending/receiving entities are identified, and how secrets are configured. Authentication and Privacy protocols supported by Security Models are uniquely identified using Object Identifiers. IETF standard protocols for authentication or privacy should have an identifier defined within the snmpAuthProtocols or the snmpPrivProtocols subtrees. Enterprise specific protocol identifiers should be defined within the enterprise subtree. For privacy, the Security Model defines what portion of the message is encrypted. The persistent data used for security should be SNMP-manageable, but the Security Model defines whether an instantiation of the MIB is a conformance requirement. Security Models are replaceable within the Security Subsystem. Multiple Security Model implementations may exist concurrently within an SNMP engine. The number of Security Models defined by the SNMP community should remain small to promote interoperability.
A.1.3. Validate the security-stamp in a received message A Message Processing Model requests that a Security Model: - verifies that the message has not been altered, - authenticates the identification of the principal for whom the message was generated. - decrypts the message if it was encrypted. Additional requirements may be defined by the model, and additional services may be provided by the model, but the model is constrained to use the following primitives for transferring data between subsystems. Implementations are not so constrained. A Message Processing Model uses the processMsg primitive as described in section 4.5. A.1.4. Security MIBs Each Security Model defines the MIB module(s) required for security processing, including any MIB module(s) required for the security protocol(s) supported. The MIB module(s) SHOULD be defined concurrently with the procedures which use the MIB module(s). The MIB module(s) are subject to normal access control rules. The mapping between the model-dependent security ID and the securityName MUST be able to be determined using SNMP, if the model- dependent MIB is instantiated and if access control policy allows access. A.1.5. Cached Security Data For each message received, the Security Model caches the state information such that a Response message can be generated using the same security information, even if the Local Configuration Datastore is altered between the time of the incoming request and the outgoing response. A Message Processing Model has the responsibility for explicitly releasing the cached data if such data is no longer needed. To enable this, an abstract securityStateReference data element is passed from the Security Model to the Message Processing Model. The cached security data may be implicitly released via the generation of a response, or explicitly released by using the stateRelease primitive, as described in section 4.1.
A.2. Message Processing Model Design Requirements An SNMP engine contains a Message Processing Subsystem which may contain multiple Message Processing Models. The Message Processing Model MUST always (conceptually) pass the complete PDU, i.e., it never forwards less than the complete list of varBinds. A.2.1. Receiving an SNMP Message from the Network Upon receipt of a message from the network, the Dispatcher in the SNMP engine determines the version of the SNMP message and interacts with the corresponding Message Processing Model to determine the abstract data elements. A Message Processing Model specifies the SNMP Message format it supports and describes how to determine the values of the abstract data elements (like msgID, msgMaxSize, msgFlags, msgSecurityParameters, securityModel, securityLevel etc). A Message Processing Model interacts with a Security Model to provide security processing for the message using the processMsg primitive, as described in section 4.5. A.2.2. Sending an SNMP Message to the Network The Dispatcher in the SNMP engine interacts with a Message Processing Model to prepare an outgoing message. For that it uses the following primitives: - for requests and notifications: prepareOutgoingMessage, as described in section 4.4 - for response messages: prepareResponseMessage, as described in section 4.4 A Message Processing Model, when preparing an Outgoing SNMP Message, interacts with a Security Model to secure the message. For that it uses the following primitives: - for requests and notifications: generateRequestMsg, as described in section 4.5. - for response messages: generateResponseMsg as described in section 4.5.
Once the SNMP message is prepared by a Message Processing Model,
the Dispatcher sends the message to the desired address using the
appropriate transport.
A.3. Application Design Requirements
Within an application, there may be an explicit binding to a specific
SNMP message version, i.e., a specific Message Processing Model, and
to a specific Access Control Model, but there should be no reference
to any data defined by a specific Message Processing Model or Access
Control Model.
Within an application, there should be no reference to any specific
Security Model, or any data defined by a specific Security Model.
An application determines whether explicit or implicit access control
should be applied to the operation, and, if access control is needed,
which Access Control Model should be used.
An application has the responsibility to define any MIB module(s)
used to provide application-specific services.
Applications interact with the SNMP engine to initiate messages,
receive responses, receive asynchronous messages, and send responses.
A.3.1. Applications that Initiate Messages
Applications may request that the SNMP engine send messages
containing SNMP commands or notifications using the sendPdu primitive
as described in section 4.2.
If it is desired that a message be sent to multiple targets, it is
the responsibility of the application to provide the iteration.
The SNMP engine assumes necessary access control has been applied to
the PDU, and provides no access control services.
The SNMP engine looks at the "expectResponse" parameter, and if a
response is expected, then the appropriate information is cached such
that a later response can be associated to this message, and can then
be returned to the application. A sendPduHandle is returned to the
application so it can later correspond the response with this message
as well.
A.3.2. Applications that Receive Responses The SNMP engine matches the incoming response messages to outstanding messages sent by this SNMP engine, and forwards the response to the associated application using the processResponsePdu primitive, as described in section 4.2. A.3.3. Applications that Receive Asynchronous Messages When an SNMP engine receives a message that is not the response to a request from this SNMP engine, it must determine to which application the message should be given. An Application that wishes to receive asynchronous messages registers itself with the engine using the primitive registerContextEngineID as described in section 4.2. An Application that wishes to stop receiving asynchronous messages should unregister itself with the SNMP engine using the primitive unregisterContextEngineID as described in section 4.2. Only one registration per combination of PDU type and contextEngineID is permitted at the same time. Duplicate registrations are ignored. An errorIndication will be returned to the application that attempts to duplicate a registration. All asynchronously received messages containing a registered combination of PDU type and contextEngineID are sent to the application which registered to support that combination. The engine forwards the PDU to the registered application, using the processPdu primitive, as described in section 4.2. A.3.4. Applications that Send Responses Request operations require responses. An application sends a response via the returnResponsePdu primitive, as described in section 4.2. The contextEngineID, contextName, securityModel, securityName, securityLevel, and stateReference parameters are from the initial processPdu primitive. The PDU and statusInformation are the results of processing.
A.4. Access Control Model Design Requirements An Access Control Model determines whether the specified securityName is allowed to perform the requested operation on a specified managed object. The Access Control Model specifies the rules by which access control is determined. The persistent data used for access control should be manageable using SNMP, but the Access Control Model defines whether an instantiation of the MIB is a conformance requirement. The Access Control Model must provide the primitive isAccessAllowed.
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