---
title: "Last Call: SASL EXTERNAL"
date: 2007-01-31
author: stpeter
categories: ["Miscellaneous"]
---

Today we [issued](https://mail.jabber.org/pipermail/standards/2007-January/013676.html) a Last Call regarding [XEP-0178: Best Practices for Use of SASL EXTERNAL](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0178.html). This specification is part of our [continuing effort](/2007/01/continuing-the-conversation-at-the-ietf) to advance the XMPP RFCs to Draft Standard within the IETF.

Although XEP-0178 does not contain any proposed changes to [RFC 3920](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3920) for inclusion in [rfc3920bis](https://xmpp.org/internet-drafts/draft-saintandre-rfc3920bis-01.html), it does document best practices regarding a particular [SASL](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4422.txt) authentication mechanism, in particular the SASL EXTERNAL mechanism as it relates to the X.509 public key infrastructure.

We've gained quite a bit of experience with SASL EXTERNAL recently given our [launch](https://xmpp.org/xsf/press/2006-12-06.shtml) of an [intermediate certification authority](https://www.xmpp.net/) for the XMPP network, and XEP-0178 incorporates some lessons learned.

The Last Call ends 2007-02-13, so if you see any problems with the spec send feedback to the [standards discussion list](https://mail.jabber.org/mailman/listinfo/standards).
