Subject: [secdir] Secdir review of draft-ietf-nsis-y1541-qosm-09

From: Brian Weis <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2010 15:33:43 -0800

I have reviewed this document as part of the security directorate's  
ongoing effort to review all IETF documents being processed by the  
IESG. These comments were written primarily for the benefit of the  
security area directors. Document editors and WG chairs should treat  
these comments just like any other last call comments.

This document defines additional NSIS QSPEC objects, fitting into the  
NSIS QSPEC framework. This document simply adds new objects to that  
framework. While there are many security considerations to the use of  
the QSPEC framework, they seem to be covered by the reference to draft- 
ietf-nsis-qspec-24. The new objects do not inherently add any  
additional risks other than the ones mentioned. I believe the current  
Security Considerations text is sufficient.

However, I did notice the following nits that the authors should  
address:

1. Section 3.1 introduces a QSPEC extension (Figure 1) without  
actually saying which protocol is being extended. This is very  
confusing for a reader not familiar with NSIS. It needs to name that  
protocol. (I see that Russ Housley has a current DISCUSS making this  
same comment.)

2. Section 4.4 refers to "the example given in Section 4.4 of [I- 
D.ietf-nsis-qspec]". Is that the right section? It discusses  
extensibility of QSPEC, but there's no example.

3. Reference [Y.1221] has "Y.1541" in its title rather than "Y.1221".

4. Reference [Y.2172] has "Y.1540" in its title rather than "Y.2172".