IRIS over BEEP: Using the Internet Registry Information Service (IRIS) over the Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP)
How registry lookups from IRIS ride on top of BEEP sessions over TCP, with TLS-based server checks.
Newton, A. and M. Sanz, "Using the Internet Registry Information Service (IRIS) over the Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP)", RFC 3983, DOI 10.17487/RFC3983, January 2005, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3983>.
@misc{rfc3983,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 3983,
howpublished = {RFC 3983},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC3983},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3983},
author = {A. Newton and M. Sanz},
title = {{Using the Internet Registry Information Service (IRIS) over the Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP)}},
pagetotal = 12,
year = 2005,
month = jan,
} RFC text
Contents
Network Working Group A. Newton
Request for Comments: 3983 VeriSign, Inc.
Category: Standards Track M. Sanz
DENIC eG
January 2005
Using the Internet Registry Information Service (IRIS) over
the Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP)
Status of This Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
Abstract
This document specifies how to use the Blocks Extensible Exchange
Protocol (BEEP) as the application transport substrate for the
Internet Registry Information Service (IRIS).
Table of Contents
1. Introduction and Motivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Document Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. BEEP Profile Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. IRIS Message Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. IRIS Message Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5.1. Registry Dependent Patterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5.2. Default Pattern. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6. Server Authentication Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6.1. Registry Dependent Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6.2. Basic Server Authentication Method. . . . . . . . . . . 5
7. IRIS Transport Mapping Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7.1. URI Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7.2. Application Protocol Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7.3. Allowable Character Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7.4. BEEP Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
8. Registrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
8.1. BEEP Profile Registration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
8.2. URI Scheme Registration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
8.3. Well-Known TCP Port Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
8.4. S-NAPTR Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
9. Registry Definition Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
10. Internationalization Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
11. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
12. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
13. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
13.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
13.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1. Introduction and Motivations
The proposal in this document describes the IRIS [6] application
transport binding that uses BEEP [2]. Requirements for IRIS and the
specification in this document are outlined in CRISP [19].
The choice of BEEP as the transport substrate is primarily driven by
the need to reuse an existing, well-understood protocol with all the
necessary features to support the requirements. This would give
implementers a wealth of toolkits and debugging gear for use in
constructing both servers and clients and allow operators to apply
existing experience in issues of deployment. The construction of a
simple application transport for the specific purpose of IRIS would
yield a similar standard, though likely smaller and less complete,
after taking into consideration matters such as framing and
authentication.
Precedents for using other transport mechanisms in layered
applications do not seem to fit with the design goals of IRIS. HTTP
[15] offers many features employed for use by similar applications.
However, IRIS is not intended to be put to uses such as bypassing
firewalls, commingling URI schemes, or any other methods that might
lead to confusion between IRIS and traditional World Wide Web
applications. Beyond adhering to the guidelines spelled out in RFC
3205 [16], the use of HTTP also offers many other challenges that
quickly erode its appeal. For example, the appropriate use of TLS
[4] with HTTP is defined by RFC 2817 [14], but the common use, as
described in RFC 2818 [18], is usually the only method in most
implementations.
Finally, the use of IRIS directly over TCP, such as that specified by
EPP-TCP [17], does not offer the client negotiation characteristics
needed by a referral application in which a single client, in
processing a query, may traverse multiple servers operating with
different parameters.
2. Document Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14, RFC 2119 [5].
3. BEEP Profile Identification
The BEEP profile identifier for IRIS is a URI composed of the IRIS
schema URN, followed by a slash, followed by an IRIS registry type
(which is a URN).
In this profile identifier, the IRIS schema MUST be abbreviated
according to the rules of IRIS. This is possible because the IRIS
schema URN is compliant with XML_URN [20].
The registry type URN MUST be abbreviated according to the rules of
IRIS (see [6]). This is possible because the registry type URN is
compliant with XML_URN [20].
The following is an example of an IRIS profile identifier for BEEP.
It identifies the version of IRIS to match that specified by
"urn:iana:params:xml:ns:iris1" with a registry type URN of
"urn:iana:params:xml:ns:dreg1":
http://iana.org/beep/iris1/dreg1
The full ABNF [8] follows, with certain values included from IRIS
[6]:
profile = profile-uri "/" iris-urn-abbrev
"/" registry-urn-abbrev
profile-uri = "http://iana.org/beep/"
iris-urn-abbrev = // as specified by IRIS
registry-urn-abbrev = // as specified by IRIS
This URI is used in the "profile" element in BEEP during channel
creation. According to the rules of BEEP, multiple "profile"
elements may be offered, thus allowing negotiation of the version of
IRIS to be used for every registry type being served.
Once this profile is accepted and the channel is created, the channel
is considered ready to exchange IRIS messages. A server MUST honor
queries for all advertised registry types on any channel opened with
an IRIS profile URI.
4. IRIS Message Packages
The BEEP profile for IRIS transmits XML [1] containing the requests
and responses for IRIS registries. These XML instances MUST be
encoded as Unicode [9] using the media-type of "application/xml"
according to RFC 3023 [11].
XML processors are obliged to recognize both UTF-8 and UTF-16 [9]
encodings. XML allows mechanisms to identify and use other character
encodings by means of the "encoding" attribute in the declaration.
Absence of this attribute or a byte order mark (BOM) indicates a
default of UTF-8 encoding. Thus, for compatibility reasons, and per
RFC 2277 [12], use of UTF-8 is RECOMMENDED with this transport
mapping. UTF-16 is OPTIONAL. Other encodings MUST NOT be used.
A registry type MAY define other message packages that are not IRIS
XML instances (e.g., binary images referenced by an IRIS response).
5. IRIS Message Patterns
5.1. Registry Dependent Patterns
Because each registry type is defined by a separate BEEP profile (see
[6]), each registry type MAY define a different message pattern.
These patterns MUST be within the allowable scope of BEEP [2]. If a
registry type does not explicitly define a message pattern, the
default pattern is used (see Section 5.2).
However, each registry type MUST be capable of supporting the default
pattern (Section 5.2) for use with the <lookupEntity> query in IRIS.
5.2. Default Pattern
The default BEEP profile for IRIS only has a one-to-one request/
response message pattern. This exchange involves sending an IRIS XML
instance, which results in a response of an IRIS XML instance.
The client sends the request by using an "MSG" message containing a
valid IRIS XML instance. The server responds with an "RPY" message
containing a valid IRIS XML instance. The "ERR" message is used for
sending fault codes. The list of allowable fault codes is listed in
BEEP [2].
6. Server Authentication Methods
6.1. Registry Dependent Methods
When the TLS [4] tuning profile in BEEP is used, it is possible to
verify the authenticity of the server. However, a convention is
needed to conduct this authentication. This convention dictates the
name of the authority a client uses to ask for authentication
credentials so that the server knows which set of credentials to pass
back. Because this is dependent on the authority component of the
URI, each registry type SHOULD define a server authentication method.
If a registry type does not explicitly define a server authentication
method, the basic server authentication method (Section 6.2) is used.
6.2. Basic Server Authentication Method
The basic server authentication method is as follows:
1. When connecting to a server, the client MUST present the name of
the authority to the server by using the BEEP [2] serverName
mechanism. For instance, if the URI "iris:dreg1//com/domain/
example.com" is being resolved, the client would use the
serverName="com" attribute during the BEEP session instantiation.
2. During TLS negotiation, the server presents to the client a
certificate for the authority given in serverName. This
certificate MUST be an X.509 certificate [10]. This certificate
MUST contain the authority in either the subjectDN or the
subjectAltName extension of type dNSName.
3. The certificate MUST be cryptographically verified according to
the procedures of TLS.
4. The client then checks the subject of the certificate for a case
insensitive match in the following order:
1. Any of the dNSName types in the subjectAltName.
2. The subjectDN consisting solely of 'dc' components, in which
each 'dc' component represents a label from the authority
name (e.g., example.com is dc=example, dc=com).
3. A subjectDN in which the left-most component is a 'cn'
component containing the name of the authority. A wildcard
character ('*') MAY be used as the left-most label of the
name in the 'cn' component.
If the subject of the certificate does not match any of these
name components, then the certificate is invalid for representing
the authority.
7. IRIS Transport Mapping Definitions
This section lists the definitions required by IRIS [6] for transport
mappings.
7.1. URI Scheme
The URI scheme name specific to BEEP over IRIS MUST be "iris.beep".
7.2. Application Protocol Label
The application protocol label MUST be "iris.beep".
7.3. Allowable Character Sets
See Sections 4 and 10.
7.4. BEEP Mapping
The mapping of IRIS in this document is specific to RFC 3080 [2].
This mapping MUST use TCP as specified by RFC 3081 [3].
8. Registrations
8.1. BEEP Profile Registration
Profile Identification: http://iana.org/beep/iris1
Messages exchanged during Channel Creation: none
Messages starting one-to-one exchanges: IRIS XML instance
Messages in positive replies: IRIS XML instance
Messages in negative replies: none
Messages in one-to-many exchanges: none
Message Syntax: IRIS XML instances as defined by IRIS [6]
Message Semantics: request/response exchanges as defined by IRIS [6]
Contact Information: Andrew Newton <andy@hxr.us> and Marcos Sanz
<sanz@denic.de>
8.2. URI Scheme Registration
URL scheme name: iris.beep
URL scheme syntax: defined in Section 7.1 and [6]
Character encoding considerations: as defined in RFC 2396 [7]
Intended usage: identifies an IRIS entity made available using the
BEEP profile for IRIS
Applications using this scheme: defined in IRIS [6]
Interoperability considerations: n/a
Security Considerations: defined in Section 12.
Relevant Publications: BEEP [2] and IRIS [6]
Contact Information: Andrew Newton <andy@hxr.us> and Marcos Sanz
<sanz@denic.de>
Author/Change controller: the IESG
8.3. Well-Known TCP Port Registration
Protocol Number: TCP
Message Formats, Types, Opcodes, and Sequences: defined in Sections
3, 4, and 5.
Functions: defined in IRIS [6]
Use of Broadcast/Multicast: none
Proposed Name: IRIS over BEEP
Short name: iris.beep
Contact Information: Andrew Newton <andy@hxr.us> and Marcos Sanz
<sanz@denic.de>
8.4. S-NAPTR Registration
Application Protocol Label: iris.beep
Intended usage: identifies an IRIS server using BEEP
Interoperability considerations: n/a
Security Considerations: defined in Section 12
Relevant Publications: BEEP [2] and IRIS [6]
Contact Information: Andrew Newton <andy@hxr.us> and Marcos Sanz
<sanz@denic.de>
Author/Change controller: the IESG
9. Registry Definition Checklist
Specifications of registry types MUST include the following explicit
definitions:
o message pattern -- a definition of the message pattern for use
with BEEP, or a declaration to use the default message pattern in
Section 5.2.
o server authentication method -- a definition of the method to use
for server authentication with TLS, a declaration to use the basic
server authentication method in Section 6.2, or a declaration to
use no server authentication at all.
10. Internationalization Considerations
See Section 4.
11. IANA Considerations
Registrations with the IANA are described in Section 8.
12. Security Considerations
Implementers should be fully aware of the security considerations
given by IRIS [6], BEEP [2], and TLS [4]. With respect to server
authentication with the use of TLS, see Section 6.
Clients SHOULD be prepared to use the following BEEP tuning profiles:
o http://iana.org/beep/SASL/DIGEST-MD5 -- for user authentication
without the need of session encryption.
o http://iana.org/beep/SASL/OTP -- for user authentication without
the need of session encryption.
o http://iana.org/beep/TLS using the TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
cipher -- for encryption.
o http://iana.org/beep/TLS using the TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
cipher with client-side certificates -- for encryption and user
authentication.
o http://iana.org/beep/TLS using the TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
cipher -- for encryption. See [13].
o http://iana.org/beep/TLS using the TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
cipher with client-side certificates -- for encryption and user
authentication. See [13].
o http://iana.org/beep/TLS using the TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
cipher -- for encryption. See [13].
o http://iana.org/beep/TLS using the TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
cipher with client-side certificates -- for encryption and user
authentication. See [13].
Anonymous client access SHOULD be considered in one of two methods:
1. When no authentication tuning profile has been used.
2. Using the SASL anonymous profile:
http://iana.org/beep/SASL/ANONYMOUS
IRIS contains a referral mechanism as a standard course of operation.
However, care should be taken that user authentication mechanisms do
not hand user credentials to untrusted servers. Therefore, clients
SHOULD NOT use the http://iana.org/beep/SASL/PLAIN tuning profile.
As specified by SASL/PLAIN, clients MUST NOT use the
http://iana.org/beep/SASL/PLAIN tuning profile without first
encrypting the TCP session (e.g. such as with the
http://iana.org/beep/TLS tuning profile).
13. References
13.1. Normative References
[1] World Wide Web Consortium, "Extensible Markup Language (XML)
1.0", W3C XML, February 1998, <http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-
xml-19980210>.
[2] Rose, M., "The Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol Core", RFC
3080, March 2001.
[3] Rose, M., "Mapping the BEEP Core onto TCP", RFC 3081, March
2001.
[4] Dierks, T. and C. Allen, "The TLS Protocol Version 1.0", RFC
2246, January 1999.
[5] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[6] Newton, A. and M. Sanz, "IRIS: The Internet Registry
Information Service (IRIS) Core Protocol", RFC 3981, January
2005.
[7] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax", RFC 2396, August
1998.
[8] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.
[9] The Unicode Consortium, "The Unicode Standard, Version 3", ISBN
0-201-61633-5, 2000, <The Unicode Standard, Version 3>.
[10] Housley, R., Polk, W., Ford, W., and D. Solo, "Internet X.509
Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate
Revocation List (CRL) Profile", RFC 3280, April 2002.
[11] Murata, M., Laurent, S. St., and D. Kohn, "XML Media Types",
RFC 3023, January 2001.
[12] Alvestrand, H., "IETF Policy on Character Sets and Languages",
BCP 18, RFC 2277, January 1998.
[13] Chown, P., "Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Ciphersuites for
Transport Layer Security (TLS)", RFC 3268, June 2002.
13.2. Informative References
[14] Khare, R. and S. Lawrence, "Upgrading to TLS Within HTTP/1.1",
RFC 2817, May 2000.
[15] Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Frystyk, H., Masinter,
L., Leach, P., and T. Berners-Lee, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol
-- HTTP/1.1", RFC 2616, June 1999.
[16] Moore, K., "On the use of HTTP as a Substrate", BCP 56, RFC
3205, February 2002.
[17] Hollenbeck, S., "EPP TCP Transport", Work in Progress, January
2002.
[18] Rescorla, E., "HTTP Over TLS", RFC 2818, May 2000.
[19] Newton, A., "Cross Registry Internet Service Protocol (CRISP)
Requirements", RFC 3707, February 2004.
[20] Mealling, M., "The IETF XML Registry", BCP 81, RFC 3688,
January 2004.
14. Authors' Addresses
Andrew L. Newton
VeriSign, Inc.
21345 Ridgetop Circle
Sterling, VA 20166
USA
Phone: +1 703 948 3382
EMail: anewton@verisignlabs.com; andy@hxr.us
URI: http://www.verisignlabs.com/
Marcos Sanz
DENIC eG
Wiesenhuettenplatz 26
D-60329 Frankfurt
Germany
EMail: sanz@denic.de
URI: http://www.denic.de/
Full Copyright Statement
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AI ELI5
On this page
§1Why BEEP Carries IRIS
RFC 3983 describes the application transport binding that lets IRIS (the Internet Registry Information Service, defined in RFC 3981) run over BEEP (the Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol, RFC 3080). The requirements come from the CRISP requirements in RFC 3707.
The RFC gives three reasons for choosing BEEP. It is an existing, well-understood protocol with the needed features, so implementers get toolkits and debugging gear and operators can reuse deployment experience. A purpose-built transport would end up similar but probably smaller and less complete once framing and authentication are counted.
It also explains why not the alternatives. HTTP is rejected because IRIS is not meant to bypass firewalls or to be confused with ordinary web applications, and because of the guidelines in RFC 3205 and the muddle over how TLS is used with HTTP. Plain TCP, as in the EPP-TCP draft, lacks the client negotiation that IRIS needs when one client follows referrals across several servers with different parameters.
Instead of building a brand new delivery truck, the authors borrowed a proven one that already has good locks and labels. Other trucks were either too easy to confuse with web traffic or too plain.
§3The BEEP Profile Identifier
A BEEP profile names what a channel is used for. For IRIS, the profile identifier is a URI made of the IRIS schema URN, a slash, and an IRIS registry type URN. Both URNs MUST be abbreviated using the rules of IRIS. The ABNF is profile = profile-uri "/" iris-urn-abbrev "/" registry-urn-abbrev, with profile-uri set to http://iana.org/beep/.
The RFC's example is http://iana.org/beep/iris1/dreg1, which selects IRIS version urn:iana:params:xml:ns:iris1 and the registry type urn:iana:params:xml:ns:dreg1.
This URI goes in the profile element when a BEEP channel is created. BEEP lets a client offer several profile elements, so the IRIS version can be negotiated for each registry type a server offers. Once the profile is accepted, the channel is ready for IRIS messages, and a server MUST honor queries for all advertised registry types on any channel opened with an IRIS profile URI.
The profile name is like a ticket that says which game you want to play and which version of the rules. The client can hand over several tickets, and the server picks one it knows.
- IRISXML requests and responses for a registry type
- BEEP profile for IRISDefined by this RFC
- BEEP coreRFC 3080, with optional TLS and SASL tuning profiles
- TCPRFC 3081 mapping
§4Message Packages and Encoding
The profile carries XML that holds IRIS requests and responses. These XML instances MUST be encoded as Unicode and use the media type application/xml according to RFC 3023.
On character encodings the RFC is specific. XML processors must recognize UTF-8 and UTF-16. With no encoding attribute and no byte order mark, the default is UTF-8. For compatibility, and per RFC 2277, UTF-8 is RECOMMENDED, UTF-16 is OPTIONAL, and other encodings MUST NOT be used.
A registry type MAY also define message packages that are not IRIS XML, for example binary images referenced by an IRIS response.
The messages are written in a standard text format, and everybody should use the same alphabet so letters do not get scrambled on the way.
§5Message Patterns
Each registry type is defined by its own BEEP profile, so each MAY define a different message pattern, as long as it stays within what BEEP allows. If a registry type defines none, the default pattern applies. Every registry type MUST be able to support the default pattern for the <lookupEntity> query in IRIS.
The default pattern is a single one-to-one request and response. The client sends an IRIS XML instance in a BEEP MSG message. The server answers with an RPY message that also holds an IRIS XML instance. The ERR message is used for fault codes, and the allowed codes are those listed in BEEP.
The normal conversation is one question and one answer. If something goes wrong, the server sends a special error note instead of an answer.
- MSGCarries a valid IRIS XML instance (the request).
- RPYCarries a valid IRIS XML instance (the response).
§6Server Authentication
When the BEEP TLS tuning profile is used, a client can verify the server, but a convention must say which authority name the client asks credentials for. Because that depends on the authority part of the URI, each registry type SHOULD define a server authentication method. If it does not, the basic server authentication method applies.
The basic method works in four steps:
- The client MUST present the authority name using the BEEP
serverNamemechanism. Resolvingiris:dreg1//com/domain/example.commeans usingserverName="com". - During TLS negotiation the server presents an X.509 certificate for that authority. It MUST contain the authority in the
subjectDNor in adNSNameentry of thesubjectAltNameextension. - The certificate MUST be cryptographically verified under the TLS procedures.
- The client then checks the subject for a case-insensitive match, in this order: a
dNSNameinsubjectAltName; asubjectDNmade only ofdccomponents (example.com isdc=example, dc=com); or asubjectDNwhose left-most component is acnholding the authority name, where an asterisk wildcard MAY be the left-most label.
If no component matches, the certificate is invalid for that authority.
Before trusting a server, the client asks for its ID card and checks that the name on it matches the place it meant to visit. If the names do not match, the card is rejected.
§7Transport Mapping and Registrations
IRIS requires each transport mapping to define a few items. Here the URI scheme name and the application protocol label are both iris.beep. Allowed character sets are covered by the encoding rules in the message section and the internationalization section. The mapping is specific to RFC 3080 and MUST use TCP as specified by RFC 3081.
The RFC then lists registrations for IANA: the BEEP profile (http://iana.org/beep/iris1, with IRIS XML instances starting exchanges and in positive replies, and no messages in negative replies or one-to-many exchanges), the iris.beep URI scheme, a well-known TCP port entry named "IRIS over BEEP" with no broadcast or multicast, and an S-NAPTR application protocol label.
Finally, specifications of registry types MUST state a message pattern (their own, or the default) and a server authentication method (their own, the basic one, or none at all).
The memo fills in the official forms that give the new service its name and labels, and gives future registry designers a checklist of what they have to decide.
§8Security Considerations
Implementers are told to know the security considerations of IRIS, BEEP and TLS, and to see the server authentication rules above. Clients SHOULD be prepared to use several BEEP tuning profiles: SASL DIGEST-MD5 or OTP for user authentication without session encryption, and TLS for encryption, optionally with client-side certificates. The listed TLS cipher suites are TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA and TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA.
Anonymous client access SHOULD be done either with no authentication tuning profile or with the SASL ANONYMOUS profile.
Because IRIS uses referrals as a normal part of operation, user credentials must not be handed to untrusted servers. So clients SHOULD NOT use SASL PLAIN, and MUST NOT use it unless the TCP session is first encrypted, for example with the TLS tuning profile.
Since a lookup can send you on to other servers, you should not tell your secret password in the open. Use locked channels, and only show a password where it is safe.