| Internet-Draft | MLS Out-Of-Band AAD | July 2026 |
| Mahy | Expires 22 January 2027 | [Page] |
This document specifies an explicit way to signal that the Additional Authenticated Data does include or should include data elements that are conveyed out-of-band (ex: are not in the MLS message).¶
This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.¶
The latest revision of this draft can be found at https://rohanmahy.github.io/mls-oob-aad/draft-mahy-oob-aad.html. Status information for this document may be found at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-mahy-oob-aad/.¶
Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at https://github.com/rohanmahy/mls-oob-aad.¶
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.¶
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The Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol includes message types with Additional Authenticated Data.¶
[I-D.pham-mls-additional-wire-formats] defined new MLS Wire Formats for a similar purpose, however the Wire Format should be orthogonal to out-of-band AAD functionality.¶
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.¶
Out-Of-Band AAD and In-Band AAD.¶
struct {
opaque group_id<V>;
uint64 epoch;
ContentType content_type;
SafeAADItem oob_aad<V>; /* <== this is new */
opaque authenticated_data<V>; /* usually just SafeAAD */
} PrivateContentAAD;
struct {
ProtocolVersion version = mls10;
WireFormat wire_format;
FramedContent content; /* can contain SafeAAD */
SafeAADItem oob_aad<V>; /* <== this is new */
select (FramedContentTBS.content.sender.sender_type) {
case member:
case new_member_commit:
GroupContext context;
case external:
case new_member_proposal:
struct{};
};
} FramedContentTBS;
¶
Consists of:¶
a oob-aad extension type. This specification cannot be a "safe" extension according to [I-D.ietf-mls-extensions] since it requires the MLS stack to modify its behavior outside of the concept of the specific components it also defines. The presence of the oob-aad extension type in the GroupContext means that all members of the group support the extensions and that if an out-of-band AAD component is signaled, the members of the room will include its actual value in Out-Of-Band AAD, without communicating it in the authenticated_data.¶
an default-oob-aad-component component type. When present in the app_data_dictionary in the GroupContext, the out-of-band value of each signaled as-needed component is also included in the Out-Of-Band AAD.¶
an as-needed-oob-aad-component component type.¶
When present in the app_data_dictionary in the GroupContext it enumerates OOB AAD that can be signaled on a per-message basis.¶
When present as a SafeAadItem in the aad_items list in the authenticated_content, the out-of-band value of each signaled as-needed component is also included in the Out-Of-Band AAD.¶
TODO Security¶
This document has no IANA actions.¶
TODO acknowledge.¶