proposed charter for TLS working group

Jeff,

Here is the proposed charter for the IETF TLS working group.

Charter for TLS (Transport Layer Security) WG:

Current status:  drafts

Chair(s):  Win Treese <treese@OpenMarket.com>

Security Area Director(s):
        Jeffrey Schiller  <jis@mit.edu>

Mailing lists:
        General discussion:     ietf-tls@w3.org
        To subscribe:           ietf-tls-request@w3.org
        Archive:                http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-tls/

Description and charter of the TLS Working Group:

Several methods of providing a secure and authenticated channel
between hosts on the Internet above the transport layer have appeared.
The objective of this proposed working group is to write standards
track RFC(s) for protocols using the currently available Internet
drafts as a basis.  The SSL, PCT and SSH protocols are examples of
mechanisms of establishing a secure channel for general purpose or
special purpose Internet applications running over a reliable
transport, usually TCP.

The TLS working group is a focused effort on providing security
features at the transport layer, rather than general purpose security
and key management mechanisms.  The standard track protocol
specification will provide methods for implementing privacy,
authentication, and integrity above the transport layer.

The work currently under way in the area of secure IP is outside the 
scope of this working group. Also, general authentication mechanism 
discussions are outside the focus of this group. However, best efforts 
will be made to utilize as much as possible of the already existing 
technologies and methodologies in the IETF and other places to solve 
common problems, such as key management.

The group may also produce an informational RFC to describe conventions for 
the interface to a Socket (or transport) layer secure library to build 
specific applications as well as TCP port number conventions for running 
secure versions of network applications.
 
Goals and Milestones

April 96 Agreement on charter and issues in current draft.

July 96  Final draft for Secure Transport Layer Protocol ("STLP")

Nov 96   Working group "Last Call"

Dec 96   Offer to IESG for IETF "Last Call"

Received on Monday, 6 May 1996 22:43:23 UTC