OWE Transfer to IEEE: Transferring Opportunistic Wireless Encryption to the IEEE 802.11 Working Group

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                         W. Kumari
Request for Comments: 9672                                   Google, LLC
Updates: 8110                                                 D. Harkins
Category: Informational                       Hewlett-Packard Enterprise
ISSN: 2070-1721                                            December 2024


   Transferring Opportunistic Wireless Encryption to the IEEE 802.11
                             Working Group

Abstract

   RFC 8110 describes Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE), a mode
   that allows unauthenticated clients to connect to a network using
   encrypted traffic.  This document transfers the ongoing maintenance
   and further development of the protocol to the IEEE 802.11 Working
   Group.

   This document updates RFC 8110 by noting that future work on the
   protocol described therein will occur in the IEEE 802.11 Working
   Group.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are candidates for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 7841.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9672.

Copyright Notice

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   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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   in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction
   2.  Transfer of Maintenance
   3.  Security Considerations
   4.  IANA Considerations
   5.  References
     5.1.  Normative References
     5.2.  Informative References
   Acknowledgments
   Authors' Addresses

1.  Introduction

   Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE) [RFC8110] is a mode of
   opportunistic security [RFC7435] for IEEE Std 802.11 that provides
   encryption of the wireless medium without authentication.

   Since publication, [RFC8110] (also known as "[Wi-Fi_Enhanced_Open]")
   has been widely implemented and deployed.

   The IEEE 802.11 Working Group [IEEE_802.11] has requested the ability
   to maintain and develop OWE (see [IEEE_LS]) to ensure that the
   protocol remains in sync with the IEEE protocols.  This document
   represents concurrence that future work on OWE [RFC8110] will now
   occur in the IEEE 802.11 Working Group.

2.  Transfer of Maintenance

   This document represents concurrence that future work on OWE
   [RFC8110] will now occur in the IEEE 802.11 Working Group
   [IEEE_802.11] to ensure that the protocol remains in sync with the
   IEEE protocols.

   The OWE protocol [RFC8110] will be duplicated by the IEEE 802.11
   Working Group [IEEE_802.11] such that the document alone will be
   enough to implement, maintain, and modify the protocol within the
   IEEE under its policies and procedures.

3.  Security Considerations

   This document simply notes that future work on the protocol described
   in [RFC8110] will now occur in the IEEE.  As such, it does not
   introduce any new security considerations.

4.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.

5.  References

5.1.  Normative References

   [RFC8110]  Harkins, D., Ed. and W. Kumari, Ed., "Opportunistic
              Wireless Encryption", RFC 8110, DOI 10.17487/RFC8110,
              March 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8110>.

5.2.  Informative References

   [IEEE_802.11]
              IEEE, IEEE 802.11 Working Group,
              <https://www.ieee802.org/11/>.

   [IEEE_LS]  "Liaison statement: OWE (RFC8110) now in 802.11", IETF
              Liaison Statement, May 2024,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/liaison/1929/>.

   [RFC7435]  Dukhovni, V., "Opportunistic Security: Some Protection
              Most of the Time", RFC 7435, DOI 10.17487/RFC7435,
              December 2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7435>.

   [Wi-Fi_Enhanced_Open]
              Harkins, D., "Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Enhanced Open: Transparent
              Wi-Fi protections without complexity", Wi-Fi Alliance, The
              Beacon Blog, <https://www.wi-fi.org/beacon/dan-harkins/wi-
              fi-certified-enhanced-open-transparent-wi-fi-protections-
              without-complexity>.

Acknowledgments

   The authors would like to thank the IEEE 802.11 Working Group for
   their work, and for taking on the responsibility for future work on
   the protocol described in RFC 8110.

   In addition, we would like to thank Stephen Farrell, the AD that
   sponsored the original work, as well as Clemens Schimpe, Dorothy
   Stanley, Paul Wouters, Eric Vyncke, Mike Montemurro, and Peter Yee.

   Apologies to anyone we forgot to acknowledge; RFC 8110 was written 7+
   years ago and we have had many conversations with many people since
   then...

Authors' Addresses

   Warren Kumari
   Google, LLC
   Email: warren@kumari.net


   Dan Harkins
   Hewlett-Packard Enterprise
   Email: daniel.harkins@hpe.com