eap Mailing List: EMU BOF Summary

[Salowey, Joe (jsalowey]

EAP Method Update (EMU) BOF
Thursday, November 10, 2005
9:00 - 11:00 AM

This was a continuation of the SECMECH BOF from last IETF, but it
focused on the EAP method standardization work item.  The goal of the
BOF was to determine if there was interest to work on the
standardization of a small number of EAP methods.  There were
presentations on requirements for EAP methods and different types of
methods.  We had a discussion on the different types of credentials and
authentication infrastructures that methods can support.  In the end we
reached consensus to create a working group to look at three things: 

(1) an update of EAP-TLS for certificate-based infrastructure 
(2) a method based on strong shared secrets
(3) a method based on using existing password infrastructure such as AAA
servers password databases

It would be better if some of these requirements could be combined into
one mechanism, however it was brought up that this may not be possible
to do and still maintain compact mechanism implementations that are
usable in constrained environments.  After these work items are done it
will be possible to add additional items to the working group charter to
work on additional methods.  The meeting concluded with presentations on
several EAP method drafts.