Middleware Initiatives: Early Harvest to Early Adopters and Beyond

1. Internet2 Middleware Initiatives:Early Harvest to Early Adopters and Beyond Renee Woodten Frost Project Manager, Middleware Early Adopters, Internet2 Project Liaison, University of Michigan May 15, 2000

2. Internet2 Overview Middleware Application requirements - Digital libraries, Grids, IMS, Portals Early Harvest best practices Early Adopters Mace (Middleware Architectural Committee for Education) Experiments: the Directory of Directories, Eduperson, and Shibboleth PKI Medical middleware International Efforts Topics Middleware Initiatives

3. Internet2 Overview • Mission: • Develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies, accelerating the creation of tomorrow’s Internet. • Goals: • Enable new generation of applications • Re-create leading edge R&E network capability • Transfer technology and experience to the global production Internet Middleware Initiatives

4. Core Middleware • A layer of software between the network and the applications • Authentication - how you prove or establish that you are that identity each time you connect • Identification - the first characteristics of who you (person, machine, service, group) are • Directories - where the rest of an identity’s characteristics are kept • Authorization - what an identity is permitted to do • Security - ie, PKI - emerging tools for security services Middleware Initiatives

5. Application Requirements • Digital libraries need scalable, interoperable authentication and authorization. • The Grid as the new paradigm for a computational resource, with Globus the middleware, including security, location and allocation of resources, scheduling, etc. built on top of campus infrastructures. • Instructional Management Systems (IMS) need authentication and directories • Next-generation portals want common authentication and storage Middleware Initiatives

6. Partnerships • EDUCAUSE • CREN • Globus, Legion, etc. • Campuses • Professional associations - AACRAO, NACUA, etc. Middleware Initiatives

7. Identifiers for people, objects, groups Authentication for people, objects and groups Directories to store common information Authorization services Applications that use all of the above Complex design and implementation tradeoffs at technical and policy levels The Early Harvest experiences Middleware Initiatives

8. Identifier mapping Good practice documents on middleware web site, to guide campus IT organizations Informational RFC in June May form part of the basis for an assurance model for higher ed PKI Early Harvest Outputs Middleware Initiatives

9. Identifier Mapping • Map campus identifiers against a canonical set of functional needs • For each identifier, establish its key characteristics, including revocation, reassignment, privileges, and opacity • Shine a light on some of the shadowy underpinnings of middleware Middleware Initiatives

10. UUID Student and/or emplid Person registry id Account login id Enterprise-lan id Netid Email address Library/deptl id Publicly visible id (and pseudossn) Pseudonymous id Major campus identifiers Middleware Initiatives

11. Identifier Characteristics • Revocation - can the subject ever be given a different value for the identifier • Reassignment - can the identifier ever be given to another subject • Privileges - what accesses does the authenticated identifier have • Opacity - is the real world subject easily deduced from the identifier - privacy and use issues Middleware Initiatives

12. Identifier relationships Library ID PubVis ID Enterprise-LAN ID ISO card ID Student ID Email address UUID Empl ID Pseudo ID Acct login Departmental IDs Person registry ID Middleware Initiatives

13. Authentication Options • Password based • Clear text • LDAP • Kerberos • Certificate based • Others - challenge-response, biometrics Middleware Initiatives

14. Typical Good Practices • Have a UUID that is non-revocable, non-reassignable, opaque • No clear text passwords • Precrack new passwords using foreign dictionaries as well as US • Confirm new passwords are different than old • Require password change if possibly compromised • Use shared secrets or positive photo-id to reset forgotten passwords Middleware Initiatives

15. Typical Interoperability Standards • Use of dc (domain component) instead of X.500 for naming of directory suffixes, certificate subjects, etc. • Use of certain object class • Future standardization of certificate profiles Middleware Initiatives

16. Directories: Core of the Core • Overall campus directory services model • Enterprise directory design and implementation • Departmental directories • Security and directories Middleware Initiatives

17. Enterprise directory issues • Schema, referrals and redundancy • Naming • Attributes • Replication and synchronization • Groups Middleware Initiatives

18. Early Adopters: The Campus Testbed Phase • A variety of roles and missions • Commitment to move implementation forward • Provided some training and facilitated support • Develop national models of deployment alternatives • Address policy standards Middleware Initiatives

19. Dartmouth Univ of Hawaii Johns Hopkins Univ Univ of Maryland, BC Univ of Memphis Univ of Michigan Michigan Tech Univ Univ of Pittsburgh Univ of Southern California Tufts Univ Univ of Tennessee, Memphis Early Adopter Participants Middleware Initiatives

20. Primary Goals • To facilitate the campus deployments of core middleware technologies • To identify reasonable approaches - both technical and policy - and design issues and factors that influence institutional selection of a particular approach • To enrich the technical contents of Early Harvest • To inform larger community (NSF, Education, NIH, etc) of requirements for deployment and interoperability Middleware Initiatives

21. Secondary Goals • Explore medical middleware issues • Generic - how is this expressed in the core deployment • Specific - what medical data structures need integration into campus environment • Outreach to encourage other institutions • Research into options for authorization services • Evaluate new tools and technologies Middleware Initiatives

22. Basic Approaches • Technology sharing and workshops • Policy sharing • champions • data owners • professional associations - EDUCAUSE, CUMREC, CNI, NACUA, NACUBO, AACRAO, ALA • External experts • Vendor interactions Middleware Initiatives

23. MACE (Middleware Architecture Committee for Education) • Purpose - to provide advice, create experiments, foster standards, etc. on key technical issues for core middleware within higher ed • Membership - Bob Morgan (UW) Chair, Steven Carmody (Brown), Michael Gettes (Georgetown), Keith Hazelton (Wisconsin), Paul Hill (MIT), Mark Mara (Cornell), Mark Poepping (CMU) • Current working Groups • DIR - eduperson, the Uber-directory experiment • PKI - campus operational issues, trust models, fPKI involvement • Shibboleth - inter-institutional resource sharing Middleware Initiatives

24. A Directory of Directories • An experiment, now encompassing 10 schools, to build a combined directory search service • to show the power of coordination • to show the existing barriers to cooperation • standard object classes • standard display formats • standard meta-data • to investigate load and scaling issues - on the clients and the servers • to suggest the service to follow Middleware Initiatives

25. Edu-person • An objectclass for higher education • Contains suggested attributes for instructional, research and administrative inter-institutional use • Presumes campuses to add local person objectclass. • A joint effort of EDUCAUSE and I2 Middleware Initiatives

26. Edu-person 0.9a • Parent objectclass=inetorgperson • Intends to integrate with Grid, IMS, and other upper-middleware • Includes: • primary affiliation (fac/stu/staff) • enrolledcurrentterm (binary true/false) • withdrawnpreviousterm (binary) • schoolcollegename, (multivalued case ignore strings) Middleware Initiatives

27. Shibboleth • Inter-institutional web authentication and perhaps authorization • Use local credentials for remote services; enable user@ logins; fosters best practices; encourage transition from simple ht controls to LDAP-based • Uses records in DNS and several forms of authentication; authorization via directories • IBM to analyze, several schools to participate in pilot Middleware Initiatives

28. Authorization • How an individual’s attributes are carried from an individual or a central store to an application • Move from a per-application basis to an infrastructural service • Options include • Kerberos tickets • LDAP calls • RPC’s • long-term certificates • attribute certificates Middleware Initiatives

29. PKI • Public Key Certificates are a remarkably simple and powerful tool for • signing documents, authentication, encrypting email, building secure channels across the Internet, non-repudiation, conveying authorizations, and more • Infrastructure to support this is little understood • mobility, user interface, internal formats, trust chains, revocation, policy expression Middleware Initiatives

30. Uses for Certificates • Authentication and pseudo-authentication • Signing docs • Encrypting docs and mail • Non-repudiation • Secure channels across a network • Authorization and attributes • and more... Middleware Initiatives

31. Certificate Profiles • Per field description of certificate contents - both standard and extension fields, including criticality flags • Syntax of values permitted per field • Semantics specified • Spreadsheet format by R. Moskowitz, XML and ANS alternatives for machine use • Centralized repository for higher ed being set up Middleware Initiatives

32. Certificate Policies • Legal responsibilities and liabilities (indemnification issues) • Operations of Certificate Management systems • Best practices for core middleware • Assurance levels - varies according to I/A processes and other operational factors Middleware Initiatives

33. Certificate Practice Statements • Operational aspects that allow lawyers to decide who to trust • must cover I/A, Cert Management, underlying operations Middleware Initiatives

34. PKI Activities • DLF: UCOP, Columbia, soon Minnesota • FPKI (http://csrc.nist.gov/pki/twg/welcome.html) • PKI for NGI, Globus • net@edu within EDUCAUSE • CREN CA • In-sources - MIT, Michigan • Out-sources - Pittsburgh, Texas • PKIforum • W2K Middleware Initiatives

35. Next Steps • PKI Labs • long-term research agenda, includes path math, open standards and reference implementations • ATT catalyst funding with other investments expected • a national advisory board • RFP next month • Net@edu • Fed-ed meetings • workshops Middleware Initiatives

36. Next Steps • HEPKI - Technical Activities Group • universities actively working on technical issues • topics include kerberos-PKI integration, public domain CA, profiles • will sponsor regular conference calls, email archives • HEPKI - Policy Activities Group • universities actively deploying PKI topics include certificate policies, RFP sharing, interactions with state governments • will sponsor regular conference calls, email archives Middleware Initiatives

37. Medical Middleware • The intersection of higher ed and health care services • Worst case requirements in I/A • HIPAA - new privacy and security requirements • Must integrate with higher level objects - CORBA Med • Work will consist of problem structuring, technologies, and policy/process issues Middleware Initiatives

38. International Aspects • Identifier agreements • International trust models • Shared expertise • Workshop this summer in Europe Middleware Initiatives

39. Where to watch • www.internet2.edu/middleware • net@edu • www.cren.org • fPKI work • www.Globus.org Middleware Initiatives