draft-lcurley-moq-e2ee-00 | Individual submission | submitted 2026-09-24 | Author: L. Curley | Datatracker
First look. This page records the draft’s own abstract and scope as published; the text has not been reviewed in depth here yet.
Abstract (as published)
This document specifies moq-e2ee-00, a versioned profile for end-to-end encryption of MoQ application payloads. Authorized publishers and subscribers share a 32-byte broadcast secret out of band. Each publisher instance mints an epoch and publishes under an opaque broadcast path ending in it. HKDF-SHA-256 derives opaque physical track names and per-track AES-128-GCM keys from the secret and the epoch; grouped frames and datagrams use separate key domains.
What it defines
A versioned profile, not a general key-management framework. The design trades flexibility for simplicity:
- Key material: a single 32-byte broadcast secret, shared out of band between authorized publishers and subscribers. There is no in-band key distribution.
- Epochs: each publisher instance mints an epoch and publishes under an opaque broadcast path ending in it — so a relay sees an opaque path, not a track identity.
- Derivation: HKDF-SHA-256 derives both the opaque physical track names and the per-track AES-128-GCM keys from the secret plus the epoch.
- Separate key domains for grouped frames and for datagrams.
How it differs from moq-secure-objects (the WG document covering the same problem space): encryption binds to epochs rather than Key IDs; there are no in-band headers; the nonce doubles as an identity counter; and the datagram and grouped-frame key domains are split. The stated aim is relay-opaque content protection that is simpler to deploy, compatible with both moq-lite and MoQ Transport.
Implementation preceded publication: moq had been landing this profile in-tree since roughly 2026-09-13 — the same code-before-draft pattern as moq-cluster and the moq-lite wire revisions.
Context
Submitted in Luke Curley’s eight-document batch of 2026-09-24, at the IETF-127 (Seattle) submission cutoff — four brand-new drafts (moq-e2ee, moq-solicit, moq-flate, moq-mpegts) plus revisions of hang-03, lite-06, msfts-01 and cluster-01. Individual submission, not WG-adopted. See moq-dev, discussions-2026-09.
Related
- moq-secure-objects — the WG’s object-encryption document, which this profile deliberately diverges from
- moq-lite — one of the two transports this profile targets
- moq-transport — the other
- moq-dev — reference implementation (shipped before the draft)