CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_

Reported by Steve Alexander/Lachman Technology

Minutes of the TELNET Working Group (TELNET)


Proposed Agenda

   o Charter
   o Authentication Option
   o Transfer of Control Proposal


Summary

The agenda was augmented with a presentation from John Klensin, one of
the Area Directors for the Applications Area.  John discussed the IESG's
views on the environment option controversy.

This shifted the primary focus of the meeting to the environment option.
In Columbus, the group had proposed to re-issue RFC 1408 with the VAR
and VALUE definitions corrected to match the BSD implementation.
Additionally, a document was produced that explained heuristics that
could be used to handle implementations that did not agree.

Upon further reflection it was decided that since the heuristics were
not 100% deterministic that it would be better to re-issue RFC 1408
using a different option value.  In this way, two systems implementing
the new option could determine that heuristics were not needed.  Most
working group members felt that in the long run this would be cleaner.
There is a further advantage in that an earlier change requested by the
IESG (USERVAR) means that systems using the current option values and
the BSD definitions don't work with implementations deployed prior to
the introduction of USERVAR.

This issue will be re-discussed on the mailing list in order to reach
the widest possible audience.

The group briefly discussed the proposed revisions to the charter.  The
general consensus is that we don't want to remain as a clearing-house
for TELNET documents.  The charter will be revised to only cover the
authentication work that is going on.

The group reviewed a proposal for a ``TELNET Transfer of Control''
option.  The group feels that there are some security issues with the
document.  Various people will forward their comments directly to the
author.  At this time the group does not wish to formally work on this
specification.

Finally, the group briefly discussed Dave Borman's new option that
merged authentication and encryption.  The initial feedback is

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favorable, but the group is waiting to see the results of an initial
implementation using Kerberos IV.


Attendees

Steve Alexander          stevea@lachman.com
Jim Barnes               barnes@xylogics.com
Julian Bates             bates@xylogics.com
David Borman             dab@cray.com
Peter Cameron            cameron@xylint.co.uk
Sun-Kwan Kimn            sunkimn@hp.com
John Klensin             Klensin@infoods.unu.edu
Kent Malave              kent@bach.austin.ibm.com
Marjo Mercado            marjo@cup.hp.com
Greg Minshall            minshall@wc.novell.com
Clifford Neuman          bcn@isi.edu
Sam Sjogren              sjogren@tgv.com
Theodore Ts'o            tytso@mit.edu
Gordon Young             young@xylogics.com



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