Subject: [AAA-WG]: [issue] OctetString with null value

From: Paul Funk <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2001 13:18:18 -0400

OctetString with null value

[This is a new issue, and has not been assigned a number.]

Submitter name: Paul Funk 
Submitter email address: [email-masked] 
Date first submitted: May, 20001 
Reference: 
Document: Base
Comment Type: Technical 
Priority: 2
Section: 4.3
Rationale/Explanation of issue: 

The base draft calls for the value of an OctetString to be at least one 
octet long (9 or 13 octets in entire AVP). This conflicts with the NASREQ 
requirement for a NULL EAP-Payload to signify EAP-Start.

Either we must change NASREQ or we must change the definition of 
OctetString.

Requested change:

Note that RADIUS also uses an empty EAP-Message attribute to signify 
EAP-Start, and it would be wise to preserve that mechanism.

Presumably, the motivation for requiring at least one data octet is the 
notion that if the value were empty the AVP shouldn't be present at all.
But there is clearly a use for a distinction between empty AVPs vs. 
absent AVPs, as evidenced by EAP-Start.

I suggest we allow OctetString to have 0-length values, and say that 
the AVP length must be at least 8 or 12.

Paul

Paul Funk
Funk Software, Inc.
617 497-6339
[email-masked]