eap Mailing List: Re: Issue 235: (Key Framework) Rewrite of Section 1

[Bernard Aboba (aboba]

> I would thus rather have something like: "Should an EAP method have
> knowledge of the lower layer over which it is transported and should it
> wish to utilize identifiers associated with a particular media
> environment - for instance to provide channel binding, it MAY do so but
> it SHOULD support all media types EAP is commonly run over to avoid
> specializing EAP to a particular media type".

Media independence is one of the fundamental properties of EAP.  It is not
a "nice to have".

Had this advice been taken in 1998 when EAP was first implemented,
operation over 802.11 would not be possible today since that was not one
of the media on which EAP was commonly run over at the time.

Similarly, 802.16 is not common today, but it has adopted EAP as its
authentication framework.

I am not aware of a case in which media independence needs to be
compromised in order to provide for identification or channel binding.
For example, an EAP method need not necessarily be aware of the content
of an Identifier in order to use it.  In terms of channel binding, it can
pass the Called or Calling-Station-Id to the AAA server as an opaque blob
and receive back a confirmation of whether it matched or not, again
without having knowledge of media.