ETSI TS 104 107 V9.0.0 (2025-05)

Publicly Available Specification (PAS); O-RAN Security Protocols Specifications (O-RAN.WG11.Security-Protocols-Specification.O-R003-v09.00)

DTS/MSG-001159

General Information

• Status: Not Published
• Technical Committee: MSG - Mobile Standards Group
• Current Stage: 12 - Citation in the OJ (auto-insert)
• Due Date: 30-May-2025
• Completion Date: 27-May-2025

Standards Content (Sample)

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
Publicly Available Specification (PAS);
O-RAN Security Protocols Specifications
(O-RAN.WG11.Security-Protocols-Specification.O-R003-v09.00)
CAUTION
The present document has been submitted to ETSI as a PAS produced by O-RAN Alliance and
approved by the ETSI Technical Committee Mobile Standards Group (MSG).
ETSI had been assigned all the relevant copyrights related to the document O-RAN.WG11.Security-Protocols-Specification.O-
R003-v09.00 on an "as is basis". Consequently, to the fullest extent permitted by law, ETSI disclaims all warranties whether
express, implied, statutory or otherwise including but not limited to merchantability, non-infringement of any intellectual property
rights of third parties. No warranty is given about the accuracy and the completeness of the content of the present document.

2 ETSI TS 104 107 V9.0.0 (2025-05)

Reference
DTS/MSG-001159
Keywords
O-RAN, protocol, security
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ETSI
3 ETSI TS 104 107 V9.0.0 (2025-05)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Modal verbs terminology . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 References . 6
2.1 Normative references . 6
2.2 Informative references . 9
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations . 9
3.1 Terms . 9
3.2 Symbols . 9
3.3 Abbreviations . 10
4 Security protocols specifications for O-RAN compliant implementation . 10
4.1 SSH . 10
4.1.1 General requirements . 10
4.1.2 Required ciphers . 11
4.1.2.0 Introduction . 11
4.1.2.1 Key agreement . 11
4.1.2.2 Symmetric algorithms for encrypting transferred data . 11
4.1.2.3 Key exchange algorithms (KexAlgorithms) . 11
4.1.2.4 Message Authentication Codes (MACs) . 12
4.2 TLS . 12
4.2.1 General requirements . 12
4.2.1.0 Introduction . 12
4.2.1.1 Specific requirements . 12
4.2.2 TLS Protocol profiles specifications . 13
4.2.3 Certificate Profile for TLS Entity . 13
4.3 Support NETCONF over secure Transport . 15
4.4 DTLS . 15
4.4.1 General requirements . 15
4.4.2 DTLS 1.2 profiling . 15
4.4.3 Certificate profiling. 15
4.5 IPSec . 16
4.5.1 Overview . 16
4.5.1.0 Supported IPsec capabilities. 16
4.5.1.1 Supported IPsec capabilities. 16
4.5.2 Parallel usage of IPsec and other secure transport protocols . 17
4.5.3 Responder mode and Initiator/Responder mode support . 17
4.6 CMPv2 . 17
4.7 OAuth 2.0 . 18
4.7.1 Overview . 18
4.7.2 Basic Parameterization . 18
4.7.2.1 General . 18
4.7.2.2 Registration process . 18
4.7.2.3 Access Token request process . 19
4.7.2.3.0 Server requirements . 19
4.7.2.3.1 Server requirements . 19
4.7.2.4 Service access request based on token verification . 19
5 Cryptographic operations . 20
6 Secure File Transfer protocols . 22
6.1 General . 22
6.2 SFTP . 22
6.2.1 General Requirements . 22
6.3 FTPES . 22
ETSI
4 ETSI TS 104 107 V9.0.0 (2025-05)
6.3.1 General Requirements . 22
6.4 HTTPS . 22
6.4.1 General Requirements . 22
Annex A (informative): Change history . 23
History . 24

ETSI
5 ETSI TS 104 107 V9.0.0 (2025-05)
Intellectual Property Rights
Essential patents
IPRs essential or potentially essential to normative deliverables may have been declared to ETSI. The declarations
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, are publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be
found in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to
ETSI in respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the
ETSI IPR online database.
Pursuant to the ETSI Directives including the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation regarding the essentiality of IPRs,
including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not
referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web server) which are, or may be, or may become,
essential to the present document.
Trademarks
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ETSI claims no ownership of these except for any which are indicated as being the property of ETSI, and conveys no
right to use or reproduce any trademark and/or tradename. Mention of those trademarks in the present document does
not constitute an endorsement by ETSI of products, services or organizations associated with those trademarks.
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Members. 3GPP™, LTE™ and 5G™ logo are trademarks of ETSI registered for the benefit of its Members and of the
3GPP Organizational Partners. oneM2M™ logo is a trademark of ETSI registered for the benefit of its Members and of ®
the oneM2M Partners. GSM and the GSM logo are trademarks registered and owned by the GSM Association.
Foreword
This Technical Specification (TS) has been produced by O-RAN Alliance and approved by ETSI Technical Committee
Mobile Standards Group (MSG).
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "shall", "shall not", "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and
"cannot" are to be interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of
provisions).
"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.

ETSI
6 ETSI TS 104 107 V9.0.0 (2025-05)
1 Scope
The present document specifies security protocols as to be used for O-RAN compliant implementation.
2 References
2.1 Normative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found in the
ETSI docbox.
NOTE 1: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long-term validity.
The following referenced documents are necessary for the application of the present document.
NOTE 2: All specifications issued by IETF referenced in the present document are valid in the latest version which
the IETF declares as valid. Any updates to valid RFCs have to be considered and implemented, if
applicable.
[1] Void.
[2] IETF RFC 4252: "The Secure Shell (SSH) Authentication Protocol".
[3] Void.
[4] Void.
[5] IANA: "Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Parameters".
[6] O-RAN ALLIANCE TS: "O-RAN Management Plane Specification".
[7] Void.
[8] IANA: "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Parameters", Retrieved 2021-01-21.
[9] Void.
[10] O-RAN-WG1.O1-Interface-v04.00: "O-RAN Operations and Maintenance Interface Specification
v04.00".
[11] IETF RFC 6668: "SHA-2 Data Integrity Verification for the Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer
Protocol", July 2012.
[12] IETF RFC 8268: "More Modular Exponentiation (MODP) Diffie-Hellman (DH) Key Exchange
(KEX) Groups for Secure Shell (SSH)", December 2017.
[13] IETF RFC 8308: "Extension Negotiation in the Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol", March 2018.
[14] IETF RFC 8332: "Use of RSA Keys with SHA-256 and SHA-512 in the Secure Shell (SSH)
Protocol", March 2018.
[15] IETF RFC 8709: "Ed25519 and Ed448 Public Key Algorithms for the Secure Shell (SSH)
Protocol", February 2020.
[16] Void.
[17] Void.
ETSI
7 ETSI TS 104 107 V9.0.0 (2025-05)
[18] IETF RFC 8446: "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.3".
[19] Void.
[20] ETSI TS 133 210: "Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+) (GSM); Universal
Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); LTE; 5G; Network Domain Security (NDS); IP
network layer security (3GPP TS 33.210)".
[21] Void.
[22] IETF RFC 6066: "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Extensions: Extension Definitions".
[23] IETF RFC 9147: "The Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) Protocol Version 1.3".
[24] IETF RFC 6083: "Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) for Stream Control Transmission
Protocol (SCTP)".
[25] Void.
[26] ETSI TS 133 310: "Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); LTE; 5G; Network
Domain Security (NDS); Authentication Framework (AF) (3GPP TS 33.310)".
[27] IETF RFC 4301: "Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol".
[28] 3GPP TS 33.401 (V16.0.0): "3GPP System Architecture Evolution (SAE); Security architecture
(Release 15)".
[29] ETSI TS 133 501 (V16.6.0): "5G; Security architecture and procedures for 5G System (3GPP TS
33.501 version 16.6.0 Release 16)".
[30] Void.
[31] IETF RFC 4303: "IP Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP)".
[32] Void.
[33] IETF RFC 4306: "Internet Key Exchange (IKEv2) Protocol".
[34] IETF RFC 7296: "Internet Key Exchange Protocol Version 2 (IKEv2)".
[35] IETF RFC 6749: "The OAuth 2.0 Authorization framework".
[36] IETF RFC 7519: "JSON Web Token (JWT)".
[37] IETF RFC 7515: "JSON Web Signature (JWS)".
[38] IETF RFC 4210: "Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate Management Protocol
(CMP)".
[39] IETF RFC 4211: "Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate Request Message Format
(CRMF)".
[40] NIST: "Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines".
[41] Void.
[42] FIPS 186 series: "Digital Signature Standard (DSS)", National Institute of Standards and
Technology.
[43] Void.
[44] FIPS 197: "Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)", National Institute of Standards and
Technology.
[45] Void.
[46] Void.
ETSI
8 ETSI TS 104 107 V9.0.0 (2025-05)
[47] FIPS 202: "NIST Permutation-Based Hash and Extendable-Output Function".
[48] NIST SP 800-131A: "Transitioning the Use of Cryptographic Algorithms and Key Lengths".
[49] Void.
[50] IETF RFC 8017: "PKCS #1: RSA Cryptography Specifications Version 2.2".
[51] Void.
[52] IANA: "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Parameters", Accessed May 7, 2022.
[53] Void.
[54] IETF RFC 6125: "Representation and Verification of Domain-Based Application Service Identity
within Internet Public Key Infrastructure Using X.509 (PKIX) Certificates in the Context of
Transport Layer Security (TLS)".
[55] IETF RFC 7633: "X.509v3 Transport Layer Security (TLS) Feature Extension".
[56] CA-Browser-Forum-BR-1.8.0: "Baseline Requirements for the Issuance and Management of
Publicly‐Trusted Certificates", August 2021.
[57] Void.
[58] Void.
[59] Void.
[60] IETF RFC 7093: "Additional Methods for Generating Key Identifiers Values".
[61] Void.
[62] IETF RFC 6960: "X.509 Internet Public Key Infrastructure Online Certificate Status Protocol -
OCSP".
[63] IETF RFC 3647: "Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate Policy and Certification
Practices Framework".
[64] IETF RFC 5280: "Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation
List (CRL) Profile".
[65] SFTPv3: "SFTP Industry Best Practice".
[66] IETF RFC 4217: "Securing FTP with TLS".
[67] ETSI TS 128 532: "5G; Management and orchestration; Generic management services (3GPP
TS 28.532)".
[68] ETSI TS 128 537: "5G; Management and orchestration; Management capabilities (3GPP
TS 28.537)".
[69] IETF RFC 9110: "HTTP Semantics".
[70] IETF RFC 4253: "The Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer Protocol".
[71] IETF RFC 9325: "Recommendations for Secure Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) and
Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS)".
[72] IETF RFC 3279: "Algorithms and Identifiers for the Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure
Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile".
[73] FIPS 180-4: "Secure Hash Standard (SHS)", National Institute of Standards and Technology.
ETSI
9 ETSI TS 104 107 V9.0.0 (2025-05)
2.2 Informative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long-term validity.
The following referenced documents may be useful in implementing an ETSI deliverable or add to the reader's
understanding, but are not required for conformance to the present document.
[i.1] ETSI TR 121 905: "Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+) (GSM); Universal
Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); LTE; 5G; Vocabulary for 3GPP Specifications
(3GPP TR 21.905)".
[i.2] Mozilla Wiki: "Security/Server Side TLS", 2 January 2020. .
[i.3] OWASP Cheat Sheet Series: "TLS Cipher String Cheat Sheet", 2020.
[i.4] NIST Special Publication 800-52.2: "Guidelines for the Selection, Configuration, and Use of
Transport Layer Security (TLS) Implementations", Kerry McKay (NIST), David Cooper (NIST),
August 2019. .
[i.5] 3GPP TR 33.821 (V9.0.0): "Rationale and track of security decisions in Long Term Evolved
(LTE) RAN / 3GPP System Architecture Evolution (SAE) (Release 9)".
[i.6] BSI TR-02102-1: "BSI Technical Guideline - Designation: Cryptographic Mechanisms:
Recommendations and Key Lengths", 2022-01.
[i.7] NIST SP 800-38 series: "Recommendation for Block Cipher Modes of Operation".
[i.8] NIST SP 800-186: "Recommendations for Discrete Logarithm-based Cryptography: Elliptic Curve
Domain Parameters".
[i.9] NIST SP 800-57: "Recommendation for Key management".
[i.10] Recommendation ITU-T X.509: "Information technology - Open Systems Interconnection - The
Directory: Public-key and attribute certificate frameworks".
[i.11] Void.
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations
3.1 Terms
Void.
3.2 Symbols
Void.
ETSI
10 ETSI TS 104 107 V9.0.0 (2025-05)
3.3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the abbreviations given in ETSI TR 121 905 [i.1] and the following apply.
NOTE: An abbreviation defined in the present document takes precedence over the definition of the same
abbreviation, if any, in ETSI TR 121 905 [i.1].
CA Certification Authority
CMP Certificate Management Protocol
DH Diffie–Hellman
DPD Dead Peer Detection
DTLS Datagram Transport Layer Security
ESP Encapsulating Security Payload
FTPES Explicit SSL File Transfer Protocol
HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure
IKE Internet Key Exchange
IPsec Internet Protocol security
NAT Network Address Translation
NE Network Element
NETCONF Network Configuration protocol
PKI Public Key Infrastructure
RA Registration Authority
SA Security Association
SFTP SSH File Transfer Protocol
SPD Security Policy Database
SSH Secure Shell
TLS Transport Layer Security
4 Security protocols specifications for O-RAN
compliant implementation
4.1 SSH
4.1.1 General requirements
O-RAN and 3GPP interfaces that implement authentication, confidentiality and integrity using SSH shall:
• Support SSHv2 [1] and [70].
• Disable by default cryptographically insecure ciphers as specified in clauses 4.1.2.1, 4.1.2.3 and 4.1.2.4 of the
present document.
• Enable an O-RAN deployer to configure SSH to offer less secure ciphers using standard SSH configurations to
enable backward compatibility with older SSH implementations.
• Enable remote shell access only if required by the interface. If remote shell access is enabled, disable remote
login as root or equivalent highest privileged user. Such access shall be limited to the local system console
only. Root user shall not be allowed to login to the system remotely.
Entities providing O-RAN components that support SSH for authentication, confidentiality or integrity shall:
• Stay current with SSH [5].
• Provide an upgrade path for changes to the SSH protocol and ciphers [5].
ETSI
11 ETSI TS 104 107 V9.0.0 (2025-05)
4.1.2 Required ciphers
4.1.2.0 Introduction
O-RAN requires the following ciphers when using SSH. For more information see [2], [5], [11], [12], [13], [14] and
[15]. See the Security chapter of the O-RAN Working Group 4 Management Plane Specification for the M-plane
mandated SSH ciphers [6].
4.1.2.1 Key agreement
Note that the present document uses the IANA cipher naming convention [5].
• Required
a. ecdsa-sha2-nistp256
b. ecdsa-sha2-nistp384
c. ecdsa-sha2-nistp521
d. ssh-ed25519
• Optional
a. ssh-ed448
• Shall not be implemented
a. ssh-rsa
b. ssh-dss
4.1.2.2 Symmetric algorithms for encrypting transferred data
• Required
a. aes256-gcm
b. aes128-gcm
c. aes256-ctr
d. aes192-ctr
e. aes128-ctr
4.1.2.3 Key exchange algorithms (KexAlgorithms)
• Required
a. ecdh-sha2-nistp521
b. ecdh-sha2-nistp384
c. ecdh-sha2-nistp256
d. diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256
e. curve25519-sha256
• Shall not be implemented
a. Diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
ETSI
12 ETSI TS 104 107 V9.0.0 (2025-05)
4.1.2.4 Message Authentication Codes (MACs)
• Required
a. hmac-sha2-512-etm
b. hmac-sha2-512
c. hmac-sha2-256-etm
d. hmac-sha2-256
e. umac-128
• Shall not be implemented
a. hmac-sha1
4.2 TLS
4.2.1 General requirements
4.2.1.0 Introduction
O-RAN interfaces that implement authentication, confidentiality and integrity using Transport Layer Security (TLS)
shall:
• Support TLS 1.2 [18].
• Configure the TLS 1.2 Intermediate server ciphers as specified in [i.2] and [8].
• Support TLS 1.3 [18] and [i.4].
• Enable an O-RAN deployer to configure TLS 1.2 to offer less secure ciphers using standard TLS
configurations to enable backward compatibility with weaker TLS ciphers.
• Disable by default cryptographically insecure ciphers identified in [8] and [i.3].
Entities providing O-RAN components that support TLS for authentication, confidentiality or integrity shall:
• Stay current with the latest release of the TLS software used to implement the
...