RFC 3552 inline-errata, "Guidelines for Writing RFC Text on Security Considerations", July 2003

Source of RFC: IAB

Updated by: RFC8996, RFC9416

Errata-ID: 7610

Status:
Verified
Type:
Editorial
Reported By:
Pete Jorgensen
Date Reported:
2023-08-19
Verified by:
Mirja Kühlewind
Date Verified:
2024-01-11

Section 3.3.5 says:

Note that it is only necessary to authenticate one side of the
   transaction in order to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.  In such a
   situation the the peers can establish an association in which only
   one peer is authenticated.  In such a system, an attacker can
   initiate an association posing as the unauthenticated peer but cannot
   transmit or access data being sent on a legitimate connection.  This
   is an acceptable situation in contexts such as Web e-commerce where
   only the server needs to be authenticated (or the client is
   independently authenticated via some non-cryptographic mechanism such
   as a credit card number).

It should say:

Note that it is only necessary to authenticate one side of the
   transaction in order to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.  In such a
   situation the peers can establish an association in which only
   one peer is authenticated.  In such a system, an attacker can
   initiate an association posing as the unauthenticated peer but cannot
   transmit or access data being sent on a legitimate connection.  This
   is an acceptable situation in contexts such as Web e-commerce where
   only the server needs to be authenticated (or the client is
   independently authenticated via some non-cryptographic mechanism such
   as a credit card number).

Notes:

2nd sentence fix "the the".