Hi Terry,

It would be a misinterpretation to say that everything from the 
authenticator is an EAP-Request hence EAP-Failure is also a Request. 
It's an EAP packet with a different Code. Thus, it is wrong to say that 
text "the authenticator SHOULD NOT send another Request" also implies 
that the authenticator SHOULD NOT send an EAP-Failure.

Also, Section 5 of RFC 3748 says that NAK is response only. So I don't 
understand what you mean by 'NAK is just a "Type" of Request / Response 
(depending on direction)'. NAKs are only sent by the peer to the 
authenticator/server. Sending a NAK in the other direction would be a 
violation of RFC 3748 and is not supported or implemented.

--Mohit

On 8/20/20 4:26 PM, Terry Burton wrote:
> On Thu, 20 Aug 2020 at 13:34, Mohit Sethi M
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> <...snip...>
>> It's also contrary to...
>>
>>        Type zero (0) is used to indicate that the sender has
>>        no viable alternatives, and therefore the authenticator SHOULD NOT
>>        send another Request after receiving a Nak Response containing a
>>        zero value.
>>
>> .... unless the language is loose and we say that an EAP-Failure
>> request isn't actually a "Request", but that's hard to argue due to
>> capital "R"equest.
>>
>> Why is EAP-Failure a request? It's an EAP packet with a different Code? So 
>> the SHOULD NOT doesn't forbid the server from sending an EAP-Failure. RFC 
>> 3748 even calls Failure as a response: "An authenticator MAY wish to issue 
>> multiple Requests before sending a Failure response in order to allow for 
>> human typing mistakes."
> That's a small "r"esponse and I'd dare to say that even that usage
> isn't particularly helpful! :-)
>
> I think it's well established that any message from the authenticator
> to the peer (Code = 1) is an "R"equest and that any message from the
> peer to the authenticator (Code = 2) is an EAP "R"esponse. NAK is just
> a "Type" of Request / Response (depending on direction). So when the
> above text mentions "R"equest it actually refers to EAP packets with
> Code = 1, i.e. it says (seemingly erroneously as Alan points out) that
> no further messages of any type should be sent from the authenticator
> to the peer within the conversation.

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