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authorThomas Voss <mail@thomasvoss.com> 2024-11-27 20:54:24 +0100
committerThomas Voss <mail@thomasvoss.com> 2024-11-27 20:54:24 +0100
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+Independent Submission R. Hartmann
+Request for Comments: 7194 August 2014
+Updates: 1459
+Category: Informational
+ISSN: 2070-1721
+
+
+ Default Port for Internet Relay Chat (IRC) via TLS/SSL
+
+Abstract
+
+ This document describes the commonly accepted practice of listening
+ on TCP port 6697 for incoming Internet Relay Chat (IRC) connections
+ encrypted via TLS/SSL.
+
+Status of This Memo
+
+ This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
+ published for informational purposes.
+
+ This is a contribution to the RFC Series, independently of any other
+ RFC stream. The RFC Editor has chosen to publish this document at
+ its discretion and makes no statement about its value for
+ implementation or deployment. Documents approved for publication by
+ the RFC Editor are not a candidate for any level of Internet
+ Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
+
+ Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
+ and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
+ http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7194.
+
+Copyright Notice
+
+ Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
+ document authors. All rights reserved.
+
+ This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
+ Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
+ (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
+ publication of this document. Please review these documents
+ carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
+ to this document.
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+Hartmann Informational [Page 1]
+
+RFC 7194 Default Port for IRC via TLS/SSL August 2014
+
+
+Table of Contents
+
+ 1. Rationale .......................................................2
+ 2. Technical Details ...............................................2
+ 2.1. Connection Establishment ...................................2
+ 2.2. Certificate Details ........................................3
+ 2.2.1. Server Certificate ..................................3
+ 2.2.2. Client Certificate ..................................3
+ 3. Security Considerations .........................................3
+ 4. IANA Considerations .............................................4
+ 5. Normative References ............................................4
+ 6. Informative References ..........................................4
+ 7. Acknowledgements ................................................5
+ Appendix A. Supporting Data ........................................6
+
+1. Rationale
+
+ Although system port assignments exist for IRC traffic that is plain
+ text (TCP/UDP port 194) or TLS/SSL encrypted (TCP/UDP port 994)
+ [IANALIST], it is common practice amongst IRC networks not to use
+ them for reasons of convenience and general availability on systems
+ where no root access is granted or desired.
+
+ IRC networks have defaulted to listening on TCP port 6667 for plain
+ text connections for a considerable time now. This is covered by the
+ IRCU assignment of TCP/UDP ports 6665-6669.
+
+ Similar consensus has been reached within the IRC community about
+ listening on TCP port 6697 for incoming IRC connections encrypted via
+ TLS/SSL [RFC5246].
+
+2. Technical Details
+
+2.1. Connection Establishment
+
+ An IRC client connects to an IRC server. Immediately after that, a
+ normal TLS/SSL handshake takes place. Once the TLS/SSL connection
+ has been established, a normal IRC connection is established via the
+ tunnel. Optionally, the IRC server may set a specific user mode
+ (umode) for the client, marking it as using TLS/SSL. Again,
+ optionally, an IRC server might offer the option to create channels
+ in such a way that only clients connected via TLS/SSL may join.
+
+ For details on how IRC works, see [RFC1459], [RFC2810], [RFC2811],
+ [RFC2812], and [RFC2813]. Please note that IRC is extremely
+ fragmented, and implementation details can vary wildly. Most
+ implementations regard the latter RFCs as suggestions, not as
+ binding.
+
+
+
+Hartmann Informational [Page 2]
+
+RFC 7194 Default Port for IRC via TLS/SSL August 2014
+
+
+2.2. Certificate Details
+
+2.2.1. Server Certificate
+
+ The IRC server's certificate should be issued by a commonly trusted
+ certification authority (CA).
+
+ The Common Name should match the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)
+ of the IRC server or have appropriate wildcards, if applicable.
+
+ The IRC client should verify the certificate.
+
+2.2.2. Client Certificate
+
+ If the client is using a certificate as well, it should be issued by
+ a commonly trusted CA or a CA designated by the IRC network.
+
+ The certificate's Common Name should match the main IRC nickname.
+
+ If the network offers nick registration, this nick should be used.
+
+ If the network offers grouped nicks, the main nick or account name
+ should be used.
+
+ If the network offers nick registration, the client certificate
+ should be used to identify the user against the nick database. See
+ [CERTFP] for a possible implementation.
+
+3. Security Considerations
+
+ The lack of a common, well-established listening port for IRC via
+ TLS/SSL could lead to end users being unaware of their IRC network of
+ choice supporting TLS/SSL. Thus, they might not use encryption even
+ if they wanted to.
+
+ It should be noted that this document merely describes client-to-
+ server encryption. There are still other attack vectors like
+ malicious administrators, compromised servers, insecure server-to-
+ server communication, channels that do not enforce encryption for all
+ channel members, malicious clients, or comprised client machines on
+ which logs are stored.
+
+ Those attacks can by their very nature not be addressed by client-to-
+ server encryption. Additional safeguards are needed if a user fears
+ any of the threats above.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Hartmann Informational [Page 3]
+
+RFC 7194 Default Port for IRC via TLS/SSL August 2014
+
+
+ This document does not address server links as there are no commonly
+ accepted ports or even back-end protocols. Ports and back-end
+ protocols are normally established in a bilateral agreement. All
+ operators are encouraged to use strong encryption for back-end
+ traffic, no matter if they offer IRC via TLS/SSL to end users.
+
+4. IANA Considerations
+
+ An assignment of TCP port 6697 for IRC via TLS/SSL has been made.
+ The service name is "ircs-u" and the description "Internet Relay Chat
+ via TLS/SSL":
+
+ ircs-u 6697/tcp Internet Relay Chat via TLS/SSL
+
+5. Normative References
+
+ [RFC1459] Oikarinen, J. and D. Reed, "Internet Relay Chat Protocol",
+ RFC 1459, May 1993.
+
+ [RFC2810] Kalt, C., "Internet Relay Chat: Architecture", RFC 2810,
+ April 2000.
+
+ [RFC2811] Kalt, C., "Internet Relay Chat: Channel Management", RFC
+ 2811, April 2000.
+
+ [RFC2812] Kalt, C., "Internet Relay Chat: Client Protocol", RFC
+ 2812, April 2000.
+
+ [RFC2813] Kalt, C., "Internet Relay Chat: Server Protocol", RFC
+ 2813, April 2000.
+
+ [RFC5246] Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer Security
+ (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2", RFC 5246, August 2008.
+
+6. Informative References
+
+ [IANALIST] IANA, "Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number
+ Registry", <http://www.iana.org/assignments/
+ service-names-port-numbers>.
+
+ [TOP100] netsplit.de, "IRC Networks - Top 100",
+ <http://irc.netsplit.de/networks/top100.php>.
+
+ [MAVERICK] netsplit.de, "IRC Networks - in alphabetical order",
+ <http://irc.netsplit.de/networks/
+ lists.php?query=maverick>.
+
+
+
+
+
+Hartmann Informational [Page 4]
+
+RFC 7194 Default Port for IRC via TLS/SSL August 2014
+
+
+ [CERTFP] The Open and Free Technology Community, "OFTC -
+ NickServ/CertFP",
+ <http://www.oftc.net/oftc/NickServ/CertFP>.
+
+7. Acknowledgements
+
+ Thanks go to the IRC community at large for reaching a consensus.
+
+ Special thanks go to the IRC operators who were eager to support port
+ 6697 on their respective networks.
+
+ Special thanks also go to Nevil Brownlee and James Schaad for working
+ on this document in their capacities as Independent Submissions
+ Editor and Reviewer, respectively.
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+Hartmann Informational [Page 5]
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+RFC 7194 Default Port for IRC via TLS/SSL August 2014
+
+
+Appendix A. Supporting Data
+
+ As of October 2010, out of the top twenty IRC networks [TOP100]
+ [MAVERICK], ten support TLS/SSL. Only one of those networks does not
+ support TLS/SSL via port 6697 and has no plans to support it. All
+ others supported it already or are supporting it since being
+ contacted by the author. A more detailed analysis is available but
+ does not fit within the scope of this document.
+
+Authors' Address
+
+ Richard Hartmann
+ Munich
+ Germany
+
+ EMail: richih.mailinglist@gmail.com
+ URI: http://richardhartmann.de
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+Hartmann Informational [Page 6]
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