A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories. This draft is a work item of the Simple Authentication and Security Layer Working Group of the IETF.
Abstract: “The Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) provides a method for adding authentication support with an optional security layer to connection-based protocols. It also describes a structure for authentication mechanisms. The result is an abstraction layer between protocols and authentication mechanisms such that any SASL-compatible authentication mechanism can be used with any SASL-compatible protocol.
This document describes how a SASL authentication mechanism is structured, describes how a protocol adds support for SASL, defines the protocol for carrying a security layer over a connection, and defines the EXTERNAL SASL authentication mechanism.”
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-sasl-rfc2222bis-05.txt