Network Working Group                                         Alan DeKok
INTERNET-DRAFT                                                FreeRADIUS
Category: Informational
<draft-dekok-radius-status-server-00.txt>
6 February 2007


                 Use of Status-Server Packets in RADIUS

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007).

Abstract

   [RFC2865] defines a Status-Server code for use in RADIUS, but labels
   it as "Experimental" without further discussion.  This document
   describes practical uses for Status-Server that have been implemented
   as a method of querying the status of a RADIUS server.









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Table of Contents

1.  Introduction .............................................    2
   1.1.  Terminology .........................................    2
   1.2.  Requirements Language ...............................    3
2.  Problem Statement ........................................    4
   2.1.  Sending Access-Request "pings" ......................    4
      2.1.1.  Recommendation against Access-Request ..........    5
   2.2.  Sending Accounting-Request "pings" ..................    5
      2.2.1.  Recommendation against Accounting-Request ......    6
   2.3.  Status-Server as a Solution .........................    6
      2.3.1.  Status-Server instead of Access-Request ........    6
      2.3.2.  Status-Server instead of Accounting-Request ....    6
3.  Packet Format ............................................    7
   3.1.  Consistent definition for Status-Server .............    9
4.  Implementation notes .....................................    9
   4.1.  Client Requirements .................................   10
   4.2.  Server Requirements .................................   11
   4.3.  More Robust Fail-over with Status-Server ............   11
   4.4.  Proxy Server handling of Status-Server ..............   12
   4.5.  MIB Considerations ..................................   12
      4.5.1.  Interaction with RADIUS Server MIBs ............   13
      4.5.2.  Interaction with RADIUS Client MIBs ............   13
5.  Additional considerations ................................   13
   5.1.  RADIUS over reliable transports .....................   13
   5.2.  Other uses for Status-Server ........................   14
   5.3.  Potential Uses for Status-Client ....................   14
6.  Table of Attributes ......................................   14
7.  IANA Considerations ......................................   15
8.  Security Considerations ..................................   15
9.  References ...............................................   15
   9.1.  Informative references ..............................   15
   9.2.  Normative references ................................   16
Intellectual Property Statement ..............................   16
Disclaimer of Validity .......................................   18
Full Copyright Statement .....................................   18















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1.  Introduction

   The RADIUS Working Group was formed in 1995 to document the protocol
   of the same name, and created a number of standards surrounding the
   protocol.  It also defined experimental commands within the protocol,
   without elaborating further on the potential uses of those commands.

   This document describes how some of the current implementations on
   the market are using Status-Server packets as an application-layer
   method of "pinging" a RADIUS server to see if it is responding to
   requests.  These queries do not affect the normal operation of the
   server, and do not result in any side effects other than incrementing
   internal packet counters.

   These "pings" are not intended to be the application-layer watchdog
   messages described in [RFC3539] Section 3.4.  That document describes
   AAA protocols that run over reliable transports, which handle
   retransmissions internally.  Since RADIUS runs over UDP rather than
   TCP, the full watchdog mechanism is not applicable here.

   The rest of this document is laid out as follows.  Section 2 contains
   the problem statement, and explanations as to why some possible
   solutions have unwanted side effects.  Section 3 defines the Status-
   Server packet format.  Section 4 contains implementation notes with
   detailed client and server requirements.  Section 5 lists additional
   considerations not covered in the other sections.  The remaining text
   lists the typical RADIUS table of attributes, and covers some
   additional security considerations not covered in the rest of the
   document.

1.1.  Terminology

   This document uses the following terms:

Network Access Server (NAS)
     The device providing access to the network.  Also known as the
     Authenticator (IEEE 802.1X or EAP terminology) or RADIUS client.

Home Server
     A RADIUS server that is authoritative for user authorization and
     authentication.

Proxy Server
     A RADIUS server that acts as a Home Server to the NAS, but in turn
     proxies the request to another Proxy Server, or to a Home Server.

silently discard
     This means the implementation discards the packet without further



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     processing.  The implementation SHOULD provide the capability of
     logging the error, including the contents of the silently discarded
     packet, and SHOULD record the event in a statistics counter.

1.2.  Requirements Language

   In this document, several words are used to signify the requirements
   of the specification.  The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED",
   "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED",  "MAY",
   and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
   [RFC2119].








































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2.  Problem Statement

   It is often useful know if a RADIUS server is alive and responding to
   requests.  The most accurate way to obtain this information is to
   query the server via via normal protocol traffic, as other methods
   are either less accurate, or cannot be performed remotely.

   The reasons for wanting to know the status of a server are many.  The
   administrator may simply by curious of the server is responding, and
   may not have access to NAS or traffic data that would give him that
   information.  The queries may also be performed automatically by a
   NAS or proxy server, which is configured to send packets to a RADIUS
   server, and where that server may not be responding.  That is, while
   [RFC2865] Section 2.6 indicates that sending Keep-Alives is harmful,
   it is useful to send "Are you Alive" queries to a server once it has
   been marked "dead" due to unresponsiveness.

   The occasional query to a "dead" server has little impact on the
   network or server load, and permits clients to more quickly discover
   when the server returns to a responsive state.  In all, status
   queries are a useful part of a network server deployment.

2.1.  Sending Access-Request "pings"

   One possible solution to the problem of querying server status is to
   send Access-Request packets as a kind of application-level "ping" to
   the RADIUS port (1812), and then to look for an Access-Accept
   response.  However, the server may then conclude that a real user has
   logged onto a NAS, and perform local site actions that are
   undesirable for a simple status qeury.

   The server may otherwise respond with an Access-Challenge, indicating
   that it believes that it is engaging in an extended RADIUS
   authentication conversation with a user via the NAS.  This side
   effect is also unwanted, as the request was intended as a simple
   status query, rather than a desire to start a longer protocol
   conversation.

   Or, the server may respond with an Access-Reject, indicating that the
   user is not authorized to gain access to network.  As above, the
   server may also perform local site actions, such as warning an
   administrator of failed login attempts.  The server may also delay
   the Access-Reject response, in the traditional manner of of rate-
   limiting failed authentication attempts.  This delay in response to
   the "ping" means that for a period of time, the querying
   administrator is unsure as to whether or not the server is down, is
   slow to respond, or is intentionally delaying its response to the
   query.



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   In addition, using Access-Request packets as "pings" may mean that
   the server has to have local users configured whose sole reason for
   existence is to enable the "ping" requests.  Unless the server policy
   is carefully designed for those users, it may be possible for an
   attacker to use that users credentials to gain unauthorized network
   access.

   We note that some NAS implementations currently use Access-Request
   packets as described above, with fixed (and non configurable)
   username and password.  Issues with those implementations sometimes
   mean that if a RADIUS server does not respond to those "ping"
   request, the server may be marked as unresponsive, even though it is
   actively responding to other Access-Requests.  This behavior is
   confusing to administrators who have to understand why a live server
   is marked "unresponsive".

2.1.1.  Recommendation against Access-Request

   For the reasons outlined above, NAS implementors SHOULD NOT use
   Access-Request packets as "pings" to see if a server is alive.
   Similarly, site administrators SHOULD NOT configure test users whose
   sole reason for existence is to enable "pings" via Access-Request
   packets.

   Note that it still may be useful to configure test users for the
   purpose of performing end-to-end or in-depth testing of a servers
   policy.  We do not recommend against this practice, though we do warn
   administrators to use it with caution.

2.2.  Sending Accounting-Request "pings"

   A similar solution for problem of querying server status may be to
   send Accounting-Request packets as a kind of application-level "ping"
   to the RADIUS accounting port (1813), and then to look for an
   Accounting-Response packet.  As above, the server may then conclude
   that a real user has logged onto a NAS, and perform local site
   actions that are an undesirable for a simple status qeury.

   In addition, some attributes are mandatory to include in an
   Accounting-Request.  This requirement forces the administrator who
   desires to query the server to create "fake" values for those
   attributes in a test packet.  These "fake" values increase the work
   required to perform a simple query, and may pollute the servers
   accounting database with invalid data.







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2.2.1.  Recommendation against Accounting-Request

   For the reasons outlined above, NAS implementors SHOULD NOT use
   Accounting-Request packets as "pings" to see if a server is alive.
   Similarly, site administrators SHOULD NOT configure accounting
   policies whose sole reason for existence is to enable "pings" via
   Accounting-Request packets.

   Note that it still may be useful to configure test users for the
   purpose of performing end-to-end or in-depth testing of a servers
   policy.  We do not recommend against this practice, though we do warn
   administrators to use it with caution.

2.3.  Status-Server as a Solution

   A better solution to the problem is to use Status-Server.  The name
   appears to be intended for packets that query the status of a server,
   the packets are previously undefined, and the problem statement
   outlined in Section 3 indicates that administrators need the ability
   to qury the a servers status.  The difficulty before now has been an
   interoperable method of performing these queries.

2.3.1.  Status-Server instead of Access-Request

   Status-Server SHOULD be used instead of Access-Request to query the
   responsiveness of a server.  In this use-case, the protocol exchange
   between client and server is similar to the normal exchange of
   Access-Request and Access-Accept, as diagrammed below.

           NAS                          RADIUS server
           ---                          -------------
           Status-Server/
            Message-Authenticator ->
                                     <- Access-Accept/
                                         Reply-Message
   With this design, the Status-Server packet replaces an Access-Request
   packet, without the previously mentioned side effects.

2.3.2.  Status-Server instead of Accounting-Request

   Status-Server may be used instead of Accounting-Request to query the
   responsiveness of a server.  In this use-case, the protocol exchange
   between client and server is similar to the normal exchange of
   Accounting-Request and Accounting-Response, as diagrammed below.

           NAS                          RADIUS server
           ---                          -------------
           Status-Server/



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            Message-Authenticator ->
                                     <- Accounting-Response

   With this design, the Status-Server packet replaces an
   Accounting-Request packet, without the previously mentioned side
   effects.

3.  Packet Format

   Status-Server packets have the normal RADIUS packet form, with the
   fields and values for those fields as defined [RFC2865] Section 3.
   We do not include all of the text or diagrams of that section here,
   but instead document the details specific to implementing Status-
   Server.

   The Authenticator field of Status-Server packets MUST be generated
   using the same method as that used for the Request Authenticator
   field of Access-Request packets.  In more detail, the definition of
   Request Authenticator for Status-Server packets is given below.

   The role of the Identifier field is the same for Status-Server as for
   other packets.  However, as Status-Server is taking the role of
   Access-Request or Accounting-Request packets, there is the potential
   for Status-Server requests to be in conflict with Access-Request or
   Accounting-Request packets with the same Identifier.  In Section 4.2,
   below, we describe how these problems can be avoided.

      Request Authenticator

         In Status-Server Packets, the Authenticator value is a 16 octet
         random number, called the Request Authenticator.  The value
         SHOULD be unpredictable and unique over the lifetime of a
         secret (the password shared between the client and the RADIUS
         server), since repetition of a request value in conjunction
         with the same secret would permit an attacker to reply with a
         previously intercepted response.  Since it is expected that the
         same secret MAY be used to authenticate with servers in
         disparate geographic regions, the Request Authenticator field
         SHOULD exhibit global and temporal uniqueness.

         The Request Authenticator value in a Status-Server packet
         SHOULD also be unpredictable, lest an attacker trick a server
         into responding to a predicted future request, and then use the
         response to masquerade as that server to a future Status-
         Server.

         Although protocols such as RADIUS are incapable of protecting
         against theft of an authenticated session via realtime active



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         wiretapping attacks, generation of unique unpredictable
         requests can protect against a wide range of active attacks
         against authentication.

   Similarly, the Response Authenticator field of Access-Accept packets
   sent in response to Status-Server queries MUST be generated using the
   normal method for calculating the Response Authenticator of the
   Access-Accept, with the Status-Server Request Authenticator taking
   the place of the Access-Request Request Authenticator.

   The Response Authenticator field of Accounting-Response packets sent
   in response to Status-Server queries MUST be generated using the
   normal method for calculating the Response Authenticator of the
   Accounting-Response, with the Status-Server Request Authenticator
   taking the place of the Accounting-Request Request Authenticator.

   In more detail, the definition of Response Authenticator is given
   below.

      Response Authenticator

         The value of the Authenticator field in Access-Accept, or
         Accounting-Response packets is called the Response
         Authenticator, and contains a one-way MD5 hash calculated over
         a stream of octets consisting of: the RADIUS packet, beginning
         with the Code field, including the Identifier, the Length, the
         Request Authenticator field from the Status-Server packet, and
         the response Attributes (if any), followed by the shared
         secret.  That is, ResponseAuth =
         MD5(Code+ID+Length+RequestAuth+Attributes+Secret) where +
         denotes concatenation.

   In addition to the above requiremets, all Status-Server packets MUST
   include a Message-Authenticator attribute.  Failure to do so would
   mean that the packets could be trivially spoofed.

   Status-Server packets MAY include NAS-Identifier, and/or NAS-IP-
   Address or NAS-IPv6-Address.  These attributes are not necessary for
   the operation of Status-Server, but may be useful information to a
   server that receives those packets.

   Other attributes SHOULD NOT be included in a Status-Server packet.
   User authentication or authorization credentials such as User-Name,
   User-Password, CHAP-Password, etc. MUST NOT appear in a Status-Server
   packet sent to a server authentication port.  User or NAS accounting
   attributes such as User-Name, Acct-Session-Id, or Acct-Status-Type
   MUST NOT appear in a Status-Server packet sent to a server accounting
   port.



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   Similarly, the Access-Accept MAY include a Reply-Message attribute.
   The Access-Accept or Accounting-Response packets sent in response to
   a Status-Server query SHOULD NOT contain any attributes.  As the
   intent is to implement a simple "ping" instead of user authentication
   or accounting, there is no reason to include other attributes in
   either the query or the corresponding response.

   Detailed examples are given in Section XX, below.

3.1.  Consistent definition for Status-Server

   When sent to a RADIUS accounting port, Status-Server packets are
   calculated as described above.  That is, even though the packets are
   being sent to an accounting port, they are not created via the same
   method as Accounting-Request packets.  This difference from the
   normal Accounting-Request handling has a number of benefits.

   Having one definition for Status-Server is simpler than defining the
   packet differently when it is sent to different ports.  In addition,
   if we were to define Status-Server as a similar to Accounting-
   Request, but containing no attributes, then the packets could be
   trivially spoofed.

   We therefore define Status-Server consistently, and vary the response
   packets depending on the port to which the request is sent.  When
   sent to an authentication port, the response to a Status-Server query
   is an Access-Accept packet.  When sent to an accounting port, the
   response to a Status-Server query is an Accounting-Response packet.

4.  Implementation notes

   There are a number of considerations to take into account when
   implementing support for Status-Server.  This section describes
   implementation details and requirements for RADIUS clients and
   servers that support Status-Server.

   The following text applies to both authentication and accounting
   ports.  We use the generic term "request packets" to mean "Access-
   Request packets sent to an authentication port, or Accounting-Request
   packets sent to an accounting port."  We also use the generic term
   "response packets" to mean "Access-Accept, Access-Challenge, or
   Access-Reject packets sent from an authentication port, or
   Accounting-Response packets sent from an accounting port."

   Using generic terms to describe the Status-Server conversations is
   simpler than duplicating the text for both authentication and
   accounting ports.




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4.1.  Client Requirements

   Clients SHOULD permit administrators to globally enable or disable
   the generation of Status-Server packets.  The default SHOULD be to
   globally disable it.  As it is undesirable to send queries to servers
   that do not support Status-Server, clients SHOULD also have a per-
   server configuration indicating whether or not the server support
   Status-Server.  The default SHOULD be that the server does not
   support Status-Server.

   The client SHOULD also have a configurable global timer (Tw) that is
   used when sending periodic Status-Server queries during server fail-
   over.  The default value SHOULD be 30 seconds, and the value MUST NOT
   be permitted to be set below 6 seconds.  If a response has not been
   received within the timeout period, the request is deemed to have no
   response, and MUST be discarded.

   When Status-Server packets are sent from a client, they MUST NOT be
   retransmitted.  Instead, the Identity field MUST be changed for every
   Status-Server packet.  The old request should be discarded, and a new
   Status-Server packet should be generated and sent, with new Identity
   and Authenticator fields.

   Clients MUST include the Message-Authenticator attribute in all
   Status-Server packets.  Failure to do so would mean that the packets
   could be trivially spoofed, leading to potential denial of service
   (DoS) attacks.  Other attributes SHOULD NOT appear in a Status-Server
   packet.  As the intent of the packet is a simple status query, there
   is no reason for any additional attributes to appear in Status-Server
   packets.

   The client MAY increment packet counters as a result of sending a
   Status-Server, or receiving a response packet.  The client MUST NOT
   perform any other action that is normally performed when it receives
   a response packet, such as permitting a user login access to a port.

   When a client sends Status-Server packets, those requests MUST NOT be
   sent from a source port that is used to send Access-Request or
   Accounting-Request packets.  Clients SHOULD dedicate a source port
   solely for sending Status-Server requests.  Clients MAY send Status-
   Server requests to both authentication and accounting destination
   ports from the same source port.

   The above requirement for a unique source port aids in matching
   responses to requests.  Since the response to a Status-Server packet
   is an Access-Accept or Accounting-Response packet, those responses
   are indistinguishable from normal packets sent in response to an
   Access-Request or Accounting-Request.  Therefore, the best way to



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   distinguish them from normal traffic is to have a unique port.

4.2.  Server Requirements

   Servers SHOULD permit administrators to globally enable or disable
   the acceptance of Status-Server packets.  The default SHOULD be to
   globally enable it.

   Status-Server packets originating from clients that are not permitted
   to send the server request packets MUST be silently discarded.  If a
   server does not support Status-Server packets, or is configured to
   not respond to them, then it MUST silently discard the packet.

   Servers SHOULD silently discard Status-Server packets if they
   determine that a client is sending too many Status-Server requests in
   a particular time period.  Note that the server MAY discard the
   packet without first validating the Message-Authenticator attribute.
   The method used by a server to make this determination is
   implementation-specific, and out of scope of this document.

   If a server supports Status-Server packets, and is configured to
   respond to them, and receives a packet from a known client, it MUST
   validate the Message-Authenticator attribute as defined in [RFC3579]
   Section 3.2.  Packets failing validation MUST be silently discarded.

   Servers SHOULD NOT otherwise discard Status-Server packets if they
   have recently sent the client a response packet.  The query may have
   originated from an administrator who does not have access to the
   response packet stream, or who is interested in obtaining additional
   information about the server.

   The server SHOULD prioritize the handling Status-Server queries over
   normal request handling, subject to the rate limiting described
   above.  As the intent of Status-Server is to qeury the responsiveness
   of the server, it is unhelpful for the server to queue Status-Server
   packets for later handling.  Such queuing may lead a client to
   believe that a server is unresponsive.

   The server MAY increment packet counters as a result of receiving a
   Status-Server, or sending a response packet.  The server MUST NOT
   perform any other action that is normally performed when it receives
   a request, other than sending a response packet.

4.3.  More Robust Fail-over with Status-Server

   A common problem in RADIUS client implementations is the
   implementation of a robust fail-over mechanism.  A client may have
   multiple servers configured for examplem with one server marked as



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   primary and another marked as secondary.  If the client determines
   that the primary is unresponsive, it "fails over" to the secondary,
   and begins to send requests to the secondary instead of the primary.

   However, it is difficult to know when the client should start sending
   requests to the primary again.  Sending test Access-Requests or
   Accounting-Requests to see if the server is alive has all of the
   issues outlined above.  Clients could alternately send real traffic
   to the primary, on the hope that it is responsive.  If the server is
   still unresponsive, however, the result may be lost accounting data
   or user login failures.  This problem is one that the Status-Server
   solution can address.

   When a client fails over from one server to another because of a lack
   of responsiveness, it SHOULD send periodic Status-Server packets to
   the unresponsive server, using the timer (Tw) defined above.

   Once three time periods have passed where Status-Server messages have
   been sent and responded to, the server should be deemed responsive
   and RADIUS requests may sent to it again.  This determination should
   be made separately for each server that the client has a relationship
   with, though the same algorithm applies to both authentiction and
   accounting servers.

   The above behavior is modelled after [RFC3539] Section 3.4.1.  We
   note that if a reliable transport is used for RADIUS, then the
   algorithms specified in [RFC3539] MUST be used in preference to the
   ones given here.

4.4.  Proxy Server handling of Status-Server

   Many RADIUS servers can act as proxy servers.  Such servers MUST NOT
   proxy Status-Server packets.  The purpose of Status-Server as
   specified here is to permit the client to query the responsiveness of
   a server.  Proxying Status-Server queries negates any usefulness that
   may be gained by implementing support for them.

   Proxy servers MAY be configured to respond to Status-Server queries
   from clients, and MAY act as clients sending Status-Server queries to
   other servers.  However, those operations MUST be independent of one
   another.

4.5.  MIB Considerations








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4.5.1.  Interaction with RADIUS Server MIBs

   Since Status-Server packets are sent to the normal RADIUS ports, the
   question arises of how these packets affect the [RFC4669] and
   [RFC4671] RADIUS server MIBs.  [RFC4669] defines a counter named
   radiusAuthServTotalUnknownTypes, that counts "The number of RADIUS
   packets of unknown type that were received".  [RFC4671] defines a
   similar counter named radiusAcctServTotalUnknownTypes.
   Implementations not supporting Status-Server, or implementations that
   are configured to not respond to Status-Server packets MUST use these
   counters to track received Status-Server packets.

   If, however, Status-Server is supported and the server is configured
   to respond as described above, then the counters defined in [RFC4669]
   and [RFC4671] MUST NOT be used to track Status-Server requests or
   responses to those requests.  That is, the [RFC4669] and [RFC4671]
   counters MUST be unaffected by the transmission or reception of
   packets relating to Status-Server.

   If an implementation supports Status-Server and the [RFC4669] or
   [RFC4671] MIBs, then it SHOULD also support vendor-specific MIBs
   containing similar information as those MIBs, but which are instead
   dedicated solely to tracking Status-Server requests and responses.
   The exact definition of the server MIBs for Status-Server is outside
   of the scope of this document.

4.5.2.  Interaction with RADIUS Client MIBs

   Clients implementing Status-Server MUST NOT increment [RFC4668] or
   [RFC4670] counters upon reception of response packets to Status-
   Server queries.  That is, the [RFC4668] and [RFC4670] counters MUST
   be unaffected by the transmission or reception of packets relating to
   Status-Server.

   If an implementation supports Status-Server and the [RFC4668] or
   [RFC4670] MIBs, then it SHOULD also support vendor-specific MIBs
   containing similar information as those MIBs, but which are instead
   dedicated solely to tracking Status-Server requests and responses.
   The exact definition of the clients MIBs for Status-Server is outside
   of the scope of this document.

5.  Additional considerations


5.1.  RADIUS over reliable transports

   Although RADIUS has been assigned two TCP ports (1812/tcp and
   1812/tcp) in addition to the normally used UDP ports, there has been



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   as yet no implementations using TCP as a reliable transport for
   RADIUS.  If an implementation were to be created, then the transport
   issues discussed in [RFC3539] would apply.

   Further, when RADIUS is run over reliable transports, the watchdog
   algorithm described in [RFC3539] Section 3.4 MUST be used rather than
   the algorithm described above.  Status-Server SHOULD be the packet
   used as the watchdog request, in prefence to Access-Request or
   Accounting-Request.

   Clients sending Status-Server over reliable transport MUST ensure
   that the Identifier field is unique for all requests on a particular
   connection, independent of the packet code.  That is, if a Status-
   Server with a particular value in the Identifier field is sent to a
   server, the client MUST NOT simultaneously send an Access-Request or
   Accounting-Request packet with that same Identifier value, on that
   connection.  Once the client has either received a response to the
   Status-Server packet, or has determined that the Status-Server packet
   has timed out, it may re-use that Identifier in an Access-Request or
   Accounting-Request.

5.2.  Other uses for Status-Server

   While other uses of Status-Server are possible, uses beyond those
   specified here are beyond the scope of this document.  It may be
   tempting to increase the utility of Status-Server by having the
   responses carry additional information, implementors are warned that
   such used have not been analysed for potential security issues or
   network problems.

5.3.  Potential Uses for Status-Client

   RADIUS currently defines an experimental Status-Client packet type,
   in addition to Status-Server.  It could be possible to define Status-
   Client similar to Status-Server, except that it would be applicable
   to Change of Authorization, and Disconnect Request packets, currently
   sent to a NAS on port 3799 [RFC3576].

   We do no more than mention the possibility here.  Any definition of
   Status-Client is outside of the scope of this document.

6.  Table of Attributes

   The following tables provide a guide to which attributes may be found
   in which kinds of packets, and in what quantity.

   Status-Server   #    Attribute
   0-1             4    NAS-IP-Address



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   0               18   Reply-Message
   0-1             32   NAS-Identifier
   1               80   Message-Authenticator
   0-1             95   NAS-IPv6-Address



   The following table defines the meaning of the above table entries.

0     This attribute MUST NOT be present in packet.
0-1   Zero or one instance of this attribute MAY be present in packet.
1     Exactly one instance of this attribute MUST be present in packet.


7.  IANA Considerations

   This specification does not create any new registries, nor does it
   require assignment of any protocol parameters.

8.  Security Considerations

   This document defines the Status-Server packet as being similar in
   treatment to the Access-Request packet, and is therefore subject to
   the same security considerations as described in [RFC2865], Section
   8.  Status-Server packets also use the Message-Authenticator
   attribute, and are therefore subject to the same security
   considerations as [RFC3579], Section 4.

   Where this document differs from the above specifications is that it
   defines a new request/response method in RADIUS; the Status-Server
   "ping".  As this use is based on previously described and implemented
   standards, we know of no additional security considerations that
   arise from the use of Status-Server as described herein.

9.  References

9.1.  Informative references

[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
          Requirement Levels", RFC 2119, March, 1997.

[RFC3539] Aboba, B., Wood, J., "Authentication, Authorization, and
          Accounting (AAA) Transport Profile", RFC 3539, June 2003.

[RFC3576] Chiba, M., Dommety, G., Eklund, M., Mitton, D., Aboba, B.,
          "Dynamic Authorization Extensions to Remote Authentication
          Dial In User Service (RADIUS)", RFC 3576, July 2003.




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[RFC4668] Nelson, D., "RADIUS Authentication Client MIB for IPv6", RFC
          4668, August 2006.

[RFC4669] Nelson, D., "RADIUS Authentication Server MIB for IPv6", RFC
          4669, August 2006.

[RFC4670] Nelson, D., "RADIUS Accounting Client MIB for IPv6", RFC 4670,
          August 2006.

[RFC4671] Nelson, D., "RADIUS Accounting Server MIB for IPv6", RFC 4671,
          August 2006.

9.2.  Normative references

[RFC2865] Rigney, C., Willens, S., Rubens, A. and W. Simpson, "Remote
          Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)", RFC 2865, June
          2000.

[RFC3579] Abova, B., Calhoun, P., "RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial In
          User Service) Support For Extensible Authentication Protocol
          (EAP)", RFC 3579, September 2003.

Acknowledgments

   Parts of the text in Section 3 defining the Request and Response
   Authenticators were taken with minor edits from [RFC2865] Section 3.

Authors' Addresses

   Alan DeKok
   The FreeRADIUS Server Project
   http://freeradius.org

   Email: aland@freeradius.org


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   Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any



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   assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
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Disclaimer of Validity

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Acknowledgment

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