IP Security (IPsec)

B. R. Chandavarkar
CSE Dept., NITK Surathkal
brcnitk@gmail.com
Contents:

1. IP Security Overview
– Applications of IPsec, Benefits of IPsec, Routing Applications, IPsec
Documents, IPsec Services, Transport and Tunnel Modes
2. IP Security Policy
– Security Associations, Security Association Database, Security Policy
Database, IP Traffic Processing
3. Encapsulating Security Payload
– ESP Format, Encryption and Authentication Algorithms, Padding,
Anti-Replay Service, Transport and Tunnel Modes
4. Combining Security Associations
– Authentication Plus Confidentiality, Basic Combinations of Security
Associations
5. Internet Key Exchange
– Key Determination Protocol, Header and Payload Formats
6 Cryptographic Suites
Key Points

• IP security (IPsec) is a capability that can be added to either

current version of the Internet Protocol (IPv4 or IPv6) by
means of additional headers.
• IPsec encompasses three functional areas: authentication,
confidentiality, and key management.
• Authentication makes use of the HMAC message
authentication code. Authentication can be applied to the
entire original IP packet (tunnel mode) or to all of the packet
except for the IP header (transport mode).
• Confidentiality is provided by an encryption format known
as encapsulating security payload. Both tunnel and
transport modes can be accommodated.
• IKE defines a number of techniques for key management.
• Security at the IP level, ensures secure networking not only
for applications that have security mechanisms but also for
the many security-ignorant applications.
• IP-level security encompasses three functional areas:
authentication, confidentiality, and key management.
– The authentication mechanism assures that a received packet was, in
fact, transmitted by the party identified as the source in the packet
header. In addition, this mechanism assures that the packet has not
been altered in transit.
– The confidentiality facility enables communicating nodes to encrypt
messages to prevent eavesdropping by third parties.
– The key management facility is concerned with the secure exchange
of keys.
1. IP Security Overview
• In 1994, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) issued a
report titled “Security in the Internet Architecture” (RFC
1636).
• The report identified key areas for security mechanisms.
• Among these were the need to secure the network
infrastructure from unauthorized monitoring and control of
network traffic and the need to secure end-user-to-end-user
traffic using authentication and encryption mechanisms.
• To provide security, the IAB included authentication and
encryption as necessary security features in the next-
generation IP, which has been issued as IPv6.
• Fortunately, these security capabilities were designed to be
usable both with the current IPv4 and the future IPv6.
• The IPsec specification now exists as a set of Internet
standards.
1.1 Applications of IPsec
• IPsec provides the capability to secure communications
across a LAN, across private and public WANs, and across
the Internet.
• Examples of its use include:
– Secure branch office connectivity over the Internet: secure virtual
private network over the Internet or over a public WAN
– Secure remote access over the Internet: end user
– Establishing extranet and intranet connectivity with partners: secure
communication with other organizations
– Enhancing electronic commerce security
• The principal feature of IPsec that enables it to support
these varied applications is that it can encrypt and/or
authenticate all traffic at the IP level.
• Thus, all distributed applications (including remote logon,
client/server, e-mail, file transfer, Web access, and so on) can
be secured.
• An IPsec Scenario
1.2 Benefits of IPsec
• Some of the benefits of IPsec:
– When IPsec is implemented in a firewall or router, it provides strong
security that can be applied to all traffic crossing the perimeter.
Traffic within a company or workgroup does not incur the overhead of
security-related processing.
– IPsec in a firewall is resistant to bypass if all traffic from the outside
must use IP and the firewall is the only means of entrance from the
Internet into the organization.
– IPsec is below the transport layer (TCP, UDP) and so is transparent
to applications. There is no need to change software on a user or
server system when IPsec is implemented in the firewall or router.
Even if IPsec is implemented in end systems, upper-layer software,
including applications, is not affected.
– IPsec can be transparent to end users. There is no need to train users
on security mechanisms, issue keying material on a per-user basis, or
revoke keying material when users leave the organization.
– IPsec can provide security for individual users if needed. This is
useful for offsite workers and for setting up a secure virtual
subnetwork within an organization for sensitive applications.
1.3 Routing Applications
• In addition to supporting end users and protecting premises
systems and networks, IPsec can play a vital role in the
routing architecture required for internetworking.
• IPsec can assure that
– A router advertisement (a new router advertises its presence) comes
from an authorized router.
– A neighbor advertisement (a router seeks to establish or maintain a
neighbor relationship with a router in another routing domain) comes
from an authorized router.
– A redirect message comes from the router to which the initial IP
packet was sent.
– A routing update is not forged.
1.4 IPsec Services

• IPsec provides security services at the IP layer by enabling a

system to select required security protocols, determine the
algorithm(s) to use for the service(s), and put in place any
cryptographic keys required to provide the requested
services.
• Two protocols are used to provide security:
– an authentication protocol designated by the header of the protocol,
Authentication Header (AH);
– and a combined encryption/authentication protocol designated by the
format of the packet for that protocol, Encapsulating Security
Payload (ESP).
• RFC 4301 lists the following services:
– Access control
– Connectionless integrity
– Data origin authentication
– Rejection of replayed packets (a form of partial sequence integrity)
– Confidentiality (encryption)
– Limited traffic flow confidentiality
1.5 Transport and Tunnel Modes
• Both AH and ESP support two modes of use: transport and
tunnel mode.
• Transport Mode
– Transport mode provides protection primarily for upper-layer
protocols.
– That is, transport mode protection extends to the payload of an IP
packet. Examples include a TCP or UDP segment or an ICMP packet,
all of which operate directly above IP in a host protocol stack.
– Typically, transport mode is used for end-to-end communication
between two hosts (e.g., a client and a server, or two workstations).
– When a host runs AH or ESP over IPv4, the payload is the data that
normally follow the IP header.
– For IPv6, the payload is the data that normally follow both the IP
header and any IPv6 extensions headers that are present, with the
possible exception of the destination options header, which may be
included in the protection.
– ESP in transport mode encrypts and optionally authenticates the IP
payload but not the IP header.
– AH in transport mode authenticates the IP payload and selected
portions of the IP header.
• Tunnel Mode
– Tunnel mode provides protection to the entire IP packet.
– To achieve this, after the AH or ESP fields are added to the IP packet,
the entire packet plus security fields is treated as the payload of new
outer IP packet with a new outer IP header.
– The entire original, inner, packet travels through a tunnel from one
point of an IP network to another; no routers along the way are able
to examine the inner IP header. Because the original packet is
encapsulated, the new, larger packet may have totally different
source and destination addresses, adding to the security.
– Tunnel mode is used when one or both ends of a security association
(SA) are a security gateway, such as a firewall or router that
implements IPsec.
– With tunnel mode, a number of hosts on networks behind firewalls
may engage in secure communications without implementing IPsec.
– The unprotected packets generated by such hosts are tunnelled
through external networks by tunnel mode SAs set up by the IPsec
software in the firewall or secure router at the boundary of the local
network.
 – ESP in tunnel mode encrypts and optionally authenticates the entire
inner IP packet, including the inner IP header.
– AH in tunnel mode authenticates the entire inner IP packet and
selected portions of the outer IP header.
• Tunnel Mode and Transport Mode Functionality:
• IPsec Transport Mode:
• IPsec Tunnel Mode:
• Transport Mode Vs Tunnel Mode
• Scope of ESP
IP Security Policy
• Fundamental to the operation of IPsec is the concept of a
security policy applied to each IP packet that transits from a
source to a destination.
• IPsec policy is determined primarily by the interaction of two
databases, the security association database (SAD) and the
security policy database (SPD).
• Security Associations
– A key concept that appears in both the authentication and
confidentiality mechanisms for IP is the security association (SA).
– An association is a one-way logical connection between a sender and a
receiver that affords security services to the traffic carried on it.
– If a peer relationship is needed for two-way secure exchange, then
two security associations are required.
– Security services are afforded to an SA for the use of AH or ESP, but
not both.
• Security Association Database:
– In each IPsec implementation, there is a nominal Security
Association Database that defines the parameters associated with
each SA.
• Security Policy Database
– The means by which IP traffic is related to specific SAs (or no SA in
the case of traffic allowed to bypass IPsec) is the nominal Security
Policy Database (SPD).
– In its simplest form, an SPD contains entries, each of which defines a
subset of IP traffic and points to an SA for that traffic.
– Each SPD entry is defined by a set of IP and upper-layer protocol
field values, called selectors.
– In effect, these selectors are used to filter outgoing traffic in order to
map it into a particular SA.
• Processing of outbound packets
• Processing of inbound packets
Internet Key Exchange
• The key management portion of IPsec involves the
determination and distribution of secret keys.
• A typical requirement is four keys for communication
between two applications: transmit and receive pairs for
both integrity and confidentiality.
• The IPsec Architecture document mandates support for two
types of key management: Automated and Manual.
• The default automated key management protocol for IPsec is
referred to as ISAKMP/Oakley and consists of the following
elements:
• Oakley Key Determination Protocol:
– Oakley is a key exchange protocol based on the Diffie-Hellman
algorithm but providing added security. Oakley is generic in that it
does not dictate specific formats.
• Internet Security Association and Key Management
Protocol (ISAKMP):
– ISAKMP provides a framework for Internet key management and
provides the specific protocol support, including formats, for
negotiation of security attributes.
– ISAKMP by itself does not dictate a specific key exchange algorithm;
rather, ISAKMP consists of a set of message types that enable the use
of a variety of key exchange algorithms.
– Oakley is the specific key exchange algorithm mandated for use with
the initial version of ISAKMP.
• In IKEv2, the terms Oakley and ISAKMP are no longer
used, and there are significant differences from the use of
Oakley and ISAKMP in IKEv1.
• Nevertheless, the basic functionality is the same.
Cryptographic Suites
• RFC 4308 defines two cryptographic suites for establishing
virtual private networks.
• Suite VPN-A matches the commonly used corporate VPN
security used in older IKEv1 implementations at the time of
the issuance of IKEv2 in 2005.
• Suite VPN-B provides stronger security and is recommended
for new VPNs that implement IPsecv3 and IKEv2.