Methods for IP Address Encryption and Obfuscation
draft-denis-ipcrypt-02
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draft-denis-ipcrypt-02
Network Working Group F. Denis
Internet-Draft Fastly Inc.
Intended status: Informational 15 April 2025
Expires: 17 October 2025
Methods for IP Address Encryption and Obfuscation
draft-denis-ipcrypt-02
Abstract
This document specifies methods for encrypting and obfuscating IP
addresses, providing both deterministic format-preserving and
non-deterministic constructions. These methods address privacy
concerns raised in [RFC6973] and [RFC7258] regarding pervasive
monitoring and data collection.
The methods apply uniformly to both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses by
converting them into a 16-byte representation. Two generic
constructions are defined—one using a 128-bit block cipher and the
other using a 128-bit tweakable block cipher—along with three
concrete instantiations:
* *ipcrypt-deterministic:* Deterministic encryption using AES128
(applied as a single-block operation).
* *ipcrypt-nd:* Non-deterministic encryption using the KIASU-BC
tweakable block cipher with an 8-byte tweak.
* *ipcrypt-ndx:* Non-deterministic encryption using the AES-XTS
tweakable block cipher with a 16-byte tweak.
Deterministic mode produces a 16-byte ciphertext (enabling format
preservation), while non-deterministic modes prepend a randomly
sampled tweak (which MUST be uniformly random when generated, as
specified in [RFC4086]) to produce larger ciphertexts that resist
correlation attacks.
Discussion Venues
This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.
Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
https://github.com/jedisct1/draft-denis-ipcrypt.
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Status of This Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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This Internet-Draft will expire on 17 October 2025.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2025 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
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Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1. Use Cases and Motivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. IP Address Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1. Converting to a 16-Byte Representation . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1.1. IPv6 Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1.2. IPv4 Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2. Converting from a 16-Byte Representation to an IP
Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4. Generic Constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. Deterministic Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.1. ipcrypt-deterministic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.2. Format Preservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6. Non-Deterministic Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.1. Encryption Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
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6.2. Decryption Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6.3. Output Format and Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6.4. Concrete Instantiations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6.4.1. ipcrypt-nd (KIASU-BC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.4.2. ipcrypt-ndx (AES-XTS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.4.3. Comparison of Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6.5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6.5.1. Deterministic Mode Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6.5.2. Non-Deterministic Mode Security . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6.5.3. Implementation Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
8.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
8.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Appendix A. Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
A.1. IPv4 Address Conversion Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
A.2. Deterministic Encryption Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
A.3. Non-Deterministic Encryption Flow (ipcrypt-nd) . . . . . 15
A.4. Non-Deterministic Encryption Flow (ipcrypt-ndx) . . . . . 15
Appendix B. Pseudocode and Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
B.1. IPv4 Address Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
B.2. IPv6 Address Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
B.3. Conversion from a 16-Byte Array to an IP Address . . . . 17
B.4. Deterministic Encryption (ipcrypt-deterministic) . . . . 17
B.5. Non-Deterministic Encryption using KIASU-BC
(ipcrypt-nd) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
B.6. Non-Deterministic Encryption using AES-XTS
(ipcrypt-ndx) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Appendix C. Implementing KIASU-BC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
C.1. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
C.2. Tweak Padding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
C.3. Round Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
C.4. Key Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
C.5. Implementation Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
C.6. Example Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Appendix D. Test Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
D.1. ipcrypt-deterministic Test Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . 22
D.2. ipcrypt-nd Test Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
D.3. ipcrypt-ndx Test Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Appendix E. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
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1. Introduction
This document specifies methods for the encryption and obfuscation of
IP addresses for both operational use and privacy preservation. The
objective is to enable network operators, researchers, and privacy
advocates to share or analyze data while protecting sensitive address
information.
This work addresses concerns raised in [RFC7624] regarding
confidentiality in the face of pervasive surveillance. For a
detailed discussion of the security properties of these methods, see
Section 6.5.
1.1. Use Cases and Motivations
The main motivations include:
* *Privacy Protection:* Encrypting IP addresses prevents the
disclosure of user-specific information when data is logged or
measured, as discussed in [RFC6973].
* *Format Preservation:* Ensuring that the encrypted output remains
a valid IP address allows network devices to process the data
without modification. See Section 5.2 for details.
* *Mitigation of Correlation Attacks:* Deterministic encryption
reveals repeated inputs; non-deterministic modes use a random
tweak to obscure linkability while keeping the underlying input
confidential. See Section 6 for implementation details.
* *Privacy-Preserving Analytics:* Many common operations like
counting unique clients or implementing rate limiting can be
performed using encrypted IP addresses without ever accessing the
original values. This enables privacy-preserving analytics while
maintaining functionality.
* *Third-Party Service Integration:* IP addresses are private
information that should not be sent in cleartext to potentially
untrusted third-party services or cloud providers. Using
encrypted IP addresses as keys or identifiers allows integration
with external services while protecting user privacy.
For implementation examples, see Appendix B.
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2. Terminology
The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”,
“SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “NOT RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and
“OPTIONAL” in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
14 [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as
shown here.
Throughout this document, the following terms and conventions apply:
* *IP Address:* An IPv4 or IPv6 address as defined in [RFC4291].
* *16-Byte Representation:* A fixed-length representation used for
both IPv4 (via IPv4-mapped IPv6) and IPv6 addresses.
* *Tweak:* A non-secret, additional input to a tweakable block
cipher that further randomizes the output.
* *Deterministic Encryption:* Encryption that always produces the
same ciphertext for a given input and key.
* *Non-Deterministic Encryption:* Encryption that produces different
ciphertexts for the same input due to the inclusion of a randomly
sampled tweak.
* *(Input, Tweak) Collision:* A scenario where the same input is
encrypted with the same tweak; this reveals that the input was
repeated but not the input’s value.
3. IP Address Conversion
This section describes the conversion of IP addresses to and from a
16-byte representation. This conversion is necessary to operate a
128-bit cipher on both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
3.1. Converting to a 16-Byte Representation
3.1.1. IPv6 Addresses
IPv6 addresses are natively 128 bits and are converted directly using
network-byte order (big-endian) as specified in [RFC4291].
_Example:_
IPv6 Address: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334
16-Byte Representation: [20 01 0d b8 85 a3 00 00 00 00 8a 2e 03 70 73 34]
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3.1.2. IPv4 Addresses
IPv4 addresses (32 bits) are mapped using the IPv4-mapped IPv6 format
as specified in [RFC4291]:
IPv4 Address: 192.0.2.1
16-Byte Representation: [00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF FF C0 00 02 01]
3.2. Converting from a 16-Byte Representation to an IP Address
The conversion algorithm is as follows:
1. Examine the first 12 bytes of the 16-byte representation
2. If they match the IPv4-mapped prefix (10 bytes of 0x00 followed
by 0xFF,0xFF``):
* Interpret the last 4 bytes as an IPv4 address in
dotted-decimal notation
3. Otherwise:
* Interpret the 16 bytes as an IPv6 address in colon-hexadecimal
notation
(For additional illustration, see Appendix A)
4. Generic Constructions
This specification defines two generic cryptographic constructions:
1. *128-bit Block Cipher Construction:*
* Used in deterministic encryption (see Section 5)
* Operates on a single 16-byte block
* Example: AES-128 treated as a permutation
2. *128-bit Tweakable Block Cipher (TBC) Construction:*
* Used in non-deterministic encryption (see Section 6)
* Accepts a key, a tweak, and a message
* The tweak is typically randomly sampled (and MUST be uniformly
random when generated)
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* Reuse of the same tweak on different inputs does not
compromise confidentiality
Valid options for implementing a tweakable block cipher include, but
are not limited to:
* *SKINNY* (see [SKINNY])
* *DEOXYS-BC* (see [DEOXYS-BC])
* *KIASU-BC* (see Appendix C for implementation details)
* *AES-XTS* (see Section 6.4.2 for usage)
Implementers MUST choose a cipher that meets the required security
properties and provides robust resistance against related-tweak and
other cryptographic attacks.
5. Deterministic Encryption
Deterministic encryption applies a 128-bit block cipher directly to
the 16-byte representation of an IP address. For implementation
details, see Appendix B.
*Note:* All instantiations documented in this specification
(ipcrypt-deterministic, ipcrypt-nd, and ipcrypt-ndx) are
invertible - encrypted IP addresses can be decrypted back to their
original values using the same key. For non-deterministic modes,
the tweak must be preserved along with the ciphertext to enable
decryption.
5.1. ipcrypt-deterministic
The ipcrypt-deterministic instantiation employs AES128 in a
single-block operation. Since AES128 is a permutation, every
distinct 16-byte input maps to a unique 16-byte ciphertext,
preserving the IP address format.
For test vectors, see Appendix D.1.
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+---------------------+
| IP Address |
| (IPv4 or IPv6) |
+---------------------+
|
v
+---------------------+
| Convert to 16 Bytes |
+---------------------+
|
v
+---------------------+
| AES128 Encrypt |
| (Single Block) |
+---------------------+
|
v
+---------------------+
| 16-Byte Output |
+---------------------+
|
v
+---------------------+
| Convert to IP Format|
+---------------------+
5.2. Format Preservation
* If the 16-byte ciphertext begins with an IPv4-mapped prefix, it
*MUST* be rendered as a dotted-decimal IPv4 address.
* Otherwise, it is interpreted as an IPv6 address.
*Note:* To ensure IPv4 format preservation, implementers *MUST*
consider using cycle-walking, a 32-bit random permutation, or an
FPE mode if required.
6. Non-Deterministic Encryption
Non-deterministic encryption leverages a tweakable block cipher
together with a random tweak. For implementation details, see
Appendix B.
6.1. Encryption Process
The encryption process for non-deterministic modes consists of the
following steps:
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1. Generate a random tweak using a cryptographically secure random
number generator
2. Convert the IP address to its 16-byte representation
3. Encrypt the 16-byte representation using the key and the tweak
4. Concatenate the tweak with the encrypted output to form the final
ciphertext
The tweak is not considered secret and is included in the ciphertext.
This allows the same tweak to be used for decryption.
6.2. Decryption Process
The decryption process consists of the following steps:
1. Split the ciphertext into the tweak and the encrypted IP
2. Decrypt the encrypted IP using the key and the tweak
3. Convert the resulting 16-byte representation back to an IP
address
Although the tweak is generated uniformly at random (and thus may
occasionally collide per birthday bounds), such collisions are benign
when they occur with different inputs. An (input, tweak) collision
reveals that the same input was encrypted with the same tweak but
does not disclose the input’s value.
The usage limits discussed below apply per cryptographic key;
rotating keys can extend secure usage beyond these bounds.
6.3. Output Format and Encoding
The output of non-deterministic encryption is binary data. For
applications that require text representation (e.g., logging, JSON
encoding, or text-based protocols), the binary output MUST be
encoded. Common encoding options include hexadecimal and Base64.
The choice of encoding is application-specific and outside the scope
of this specification. However, implementations SHOULD document
their chosen encoding method clearly.
6.4. Concrete Instantiations
This document defines two concrete instantiations:
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* *ipcrypt-nd:* Uses the KIASU-BC tweakable block cipher with an
8-byte (64-bit) tweak. See [KIASU-BC] for details.
* *ipcrypt-ndx:* Uses the AES-XTS tweakable block cipher with a
16-byte (128-bit) tweak. See [XTS-AES] for background. Since
only a single block is encrypted, only the first tweak needs to be
computed, avoiding the need for a full key schedule.
In both cases, if a tweak is generated randomly, it *MUST be
uniformly random*. Reusing the same randomly generated tweak on
different inputs is acceptable from a confidentiality standpoint.
For test vectors, see Appendix D.2 and Appendix D.3.
6.4.1. ipcrypt-nd (KIASU-BC)
The ipcrypt-nd instantiation uses the KIASU-BC tweakable block cipher
with an 8-byte (64-bit) tweak. The output is 24 bytes total,
consisting of an 8-byte tweak concatenated with a 16-byte ciphertext.
Random sampling of an 8-byte tweak yields an expected collision for a
specific tweak value after about 2^(64/2) = 2^32 operations. If an
(input, tweak) collision occurs, it indicates that the same input was
processed with that tweak without revealing the input’s value.
These collision bounds apply per cryptographic key. By rotating keys
regularly, secure usage can be extended well beyond these bounds.
Ultimately, the effective security is determined by the underlying
block cipher’s strength (≈2^128 for AES-128).
6.4.2. ipcrypt-ndx (AES-XTS)
The ipcrypt-ndx instantiation uses the AES-XTS tweakable block cipher
with a 16-byte (128-bit) tweak. The output is 32 bytes total,
consisting of a 16-byte tweak concatenated with a 16-byte ciphertext.
Since only a single block is encrypted, only the first tweak needs to
be computed, avoiding the need for a full key schedule. Independent
sampling of a 16-byte tweak results in an expected collision after
about 2^(128/2) = 2^64 operations.
As with ipcrypt-nd, an (input, tweak) collision reveals repetition
without compromising the input value. These limits are per key, and
regular key rotation further extends secure usage. The effective
security is governed by the strength of AES-128 (approximately 2^128
operations).
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*Technical Note:* For a single block of AES-XTS, the key is split
into two halves (K1, K2). The tweak is first encrypted using
AES128 with K2 to produce an encrypted tweak (ET). The IP address
is then encrypted as: AES128(IP ⊕ ET, K1) ⊕ ET (where ⊕ denotes
the bitwise XOR operation). This construction provides the
security properties of XTS while only requiring two AES operations
per block.
function AES_XTS_encrypt(key, tweak, block):
// Split the key into two halves
K1, K2 = split_key(key)
// Encrypt the tweak with the second half of the key
ET = AES128_encrypt(K2, tweak)
// Encrypt the block: AES128(block ⊕ ET, K1) ⊕ ET
return AES128_encrypt(K1, block ⊕ ET) ⊕ ET
6.4.3. Comparison of Modes
* *Deterministic (ipcrypt-deterministic):* Produces a 16-byte
output; preserves format but reveals repeated inputs.
* *Non-Deterministic:*
- *ipcrypt-nd (KIASU-BC):* Produces a 24-byte output using an
8-byte tweak; (input, tweak) collisions reveal repeated inputs
(with the same tweak) but not their values.
- *ipcrypt-ndx (AES-XTS):* Produces a 32-byte output using a
16-byte tweak; supports higher secure operation counts per key.
Since only a single block is encrypted, it avoids the need for
a full key schedule.
6.5. Security Considerations
For a detailed discussion of the security properties of each mode,
see:
* Section 5 for deterministic mode security considerations
* Section 6.4.1 and Section 6.4.2 for non-deterministic mode
security considerations
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6.5.1. Deterministic Mode Security
A permutation ensures distinct inputs yield distinct outputs.
However, repeated inputs result in identical ciphertexts, thereby
revealing repetition.
This property makes deterministic encryption suitable for
applications where format preservation is required, but linkability
of repeated inputs is acceptable.
6.5.2. Non-Deterministic Mode Security
The inclusion of a random tweak ensures that encrypting the same
input generally produces different outputs. In cases where an
(input, tweak) collision occurs, an attacker learns only that the
same input was processed with that tweak, not the value of the input
itself.
Security is determined by the underlying block cipher (≈2^128 for
AES-128) on a per-key basis. Key rotation is recommended to extend
secure usage beyond the per-key collision bounds.
6.5.3. Implementation Security
Implementations MUST ensure that:
1. Keys are generated using a cryptographically secure random number
generator
2. Tweak values are uniformly random for non-deterministic modes
3. Side-channel attacks are mitigated through constant-time
operations
4. Error handling does not leak sensitive information
7. IANA Considerations
This document does not require any IANA actions.
8. References
8.1. Normative References
[FIPS-197] NIST, "Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)", FIPS PUB 197,
26 November 2001, <https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/FIPS/
NIST.FIPS.197.pdf>.
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[NIST-SP-800-38G]
NIST, "Recommendation for Block Cipher Modes of Operation:
Methods for Format-Preserving Encryption", NIST SP
800-38G, March 2016,
<https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/
NIST.SP.800-38G.pdf>.
[RFC4086] Eastlake 3rd, D., Schiller, J., and S. Crocker,
"Randomness Requirements for Security", BCP 106, RFC 4086,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4086, June 2005,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4086>.
[RFC4291] Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing
Architecture", RFC 4291, DOI 10.17487/RFC4291, February
2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4291>.
[RFC6973] Cooper, A., Tschofenig, H., Aboba, B., Peterson, J.,
Morris, J., Hansen, M., and R. Smith, "Privacy
Considerations for Internet Protocols", RFC 6973,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6973, July 2013,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6973>.
[RFC7258] Farrell, S. and H. Tschofenig, "Pervasive Monitoring Is an
Attack", BCP 188, RFC 7258, DOI 10.17487/RFC7258, May
2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7258>.
[RFC7624] Barnes, R., Schneier, B., Jennings, C., Hardie, T.,
Trammell, B., Huitema, C., and D. Borkmann,
"Confidentiality in the Face of Pervasive Surveillance: A
Threat Model and Problem Statement", RFC 7624,
DOI 10.17487/RFC7624, August 2015,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7624>.
[RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8174>.
8.2. Informative References
[BRW2005] Bellare, M., Rogaway, P., and D. Wagner, "Format-
Preserving Encryption", CRYPTO 2005, 2005,
<https://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/papers/subset.pdf>.
[DEOXYS-BC]
Jean, J., Nikolić, I., and T. Peyrin, "Deoxys-BC: A Highly
Secure Tweakable Block Cipher", Cryptology ePrint
Archive Paper 2014/427, 2014,
<https://eprint.iacr.org/2014/427>.
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[IEEE-P1619]
IEEE, "IEEE Standard for Cryptographic Protection of Data
on Block-Oriented Storage Devices", IEEE 1619-2007, 18
December 2007,
<https://standards.ieee.org/ieee/1619/2041/>.
[IPCRYPT2] Denis, F., "ipcrypt2: IP address encryption/obfuscation
tool", 2025, <https://github.com/jedisct1/ipcrypt2>.
[KIASU-BC] Jean, J., Nikolić, I., and T. Peyrin, "Tweaks and Keys for
Block Ciphers: the TWEAKEY Framework", Cryptology ePrint
Archive Paper 2014/831, 2014,
<https://eprint.iacr.org/2014/831>.
[LRW2002] Liskov, M., Rivest, R., and D. Wagner, "Tweakable Block
Ciphers", Fast Software Encryption 2002, 2002,
<https://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~daw/papers/tweak-
crypto02.pdf>.
[SKINNY] Beierle, C., Biryukov, A., Perrin, L., Udovenko, A.,
Velichkov, V., and Q. Wang, "The SKINNY Family of Block
Ciphers and its Low-Latency Variant MANTIS", CRYPTO 2016,
2016, <https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/660>.
[XTS-AES] Black, J., Dawson, E., Gueron, S., and P. Rogaway, "The
XTS-AES Mode for Disk Encryption", IEEE 1619-2007, 2010.
Appendix A. Diagrams
This appendix provides visual representations of the key operations
described in this document. For implementation details, see
Appendix B.
A.1. IPv4 Address Conversion Diagram
IPv4: 192.0.2.1
|
v
Octets: C0 00 02 01
|
v
16-Byte Array:
[00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | FF FF | C0 00 02 01]
A.2. Deterministic Encryption Flow
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IP Address
|
v
[Convert to 16 Bytes]
|
v
[AES128 Single-Block Encrypt]
|
v
16-Byte Ciphertext
|
v
[Convert to IP Format]
|
v
Encrypted IP Address
A.3. Non-Deterministic Encryption Flow (ipcrypt-nd)
IP Address
|
v
[Convert to 16 Bytes] ---> 16-Byte Representation
|
v
[Generate Random 8-Byte Tweak]
|
v
[KIASU-BC Tweakable Encrypt]
|
v
16-Byte Ciphertext
|
v
[Concatenate Tweak || Ciphertext]
|
v
24-Byte Output (ipcrypt-nd)
A.4. Non-Deterministic Encryption Flow (ipcrypt-ndx)
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IP Address
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v
[Convert to 16 Bytes] ---> 16-Byte Representation
|
v
[Generate Random 16-Byte Tweak]
|
v
[AES-XTS Tweakable Encrypt]
|
v
16-Byte Ciphertext
|
v
[Concatenate Tweak || Ciphertext]
|
v
32-Byte Output (ipcrypt-ndx)
Appendix B. Pseudocode and Examples
This appendix provides detailed pseudocode for key operations
described in this document. For a visual representation of these
operations, see Appendix A.
B.1. IPv4 Address Conversion
For a diagram of this conversion process, see Appendix A.1.
function IPv4To16Bytes(ipv4_address):
// Split the IPv4 address into its octets
parts = ipv4_address.split(".")
if length(parts) != 4:
raise Error("Invalid IPv4 address")
// Create a 16-byte array with the IPv4-mapped prefix
bytes16 = [0x00] * 10 // 10 bytes of 0x00
bytes16.append(0xFF) // 11th byte: 0xFF
bytes16.append(0xFF) // 12th byte: 0xFF
// Append each octet (converted to an 8-bit integer)
for part in parts:
bytes16.append(int(part))
return bytes16
_Example:_ For "192.0.2.1", the function returns
[00, 00, 00, 00, 00, 00, 00, 00, 00, 00, FF, FF, C0, 00, 02, 01]
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B.2. IPv6 Address Conversion
function IPv6To16Bytes(ipv6_address):
// Parse the IPv6 address into eight 16-bit words.
words = parseIPv6(ipv6_address) // Expands shorthand notation and returns 8 words
bytes16 = []
for word in words:
high_byte = (word >> 8) & 0xFF
low_byte = word & 0xFF
bytes16.append(high_byte)
bytes16.append(low_byte)
return bytes16
_Example:_ For "2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334", the output
is the corresponding 16-byte sequence.
B.3. Conversion from a 16-Byte Array to an IP Address
function Bytes16ToIP(bytes16):
if length(bytes16) != 16:
raise Error("Invalid byte array")
// Check for the IPv4-mapped prefix
if bytes16[0:10] == [0x00]*10 and bytes16[10] == 0xFF and bytes16[11] == 0xFF:
ipv4_parts = []
for i from 12 to 15:
ipv4_parts.append(str(bytes16[i]))
ipv4_address = join(ipv4_parts, ".")
return ipv4_address
else:
words = []
for i from 0 to 15 step 2:
word = (bytes16[i] << 8) | bytes16[i+1]
words.append(format(word, "x"))
ipv6_address = join(words, ":")
return ipv6_address
B.4. Deterministic Encryption (ipcrypt-deterministic)
function ipcrypt_deterministic(ip_address, key):
bytes16 = convertTo16Bytes(ip_address)
ciphertext = AES128_encrypt(key, bytes16)
encrypted_ip = Bytes16ToIP(ciphertext)
return encrypted_ip
B.5. Non-Deterministic Encryption using KIASU-BC (ipcrypt-nd)
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function ipcrypt_nd_encrypt(ip_address, key):
// Step 1: Generate random tweak
tweak = random_bytes(8) // MUST be uniformly random
// Step 2: Convert IP to 16-byte representation
bytes16 = convertTo16Bytes(ip_address)
// Step 3: Encrypt using key and tweak
ciphertext = KIASU_BC_encrypt(key, tweak, bytes16)
// Step 4: Concatenate tweak and ciphertext
result = concatenate(tweak, ciphertext) // 8 bytes || 16 bytes = 24 bytes total
return result
function ipcrypt_nd_decrypt(ciphertext, key):
// Step 1: Split ciphertext into tweak and encrypted IP
tweak = ciphertext[0:8] // First 8 bytes
encrypted_ip = ciphertext[8:24] // Remaining 16 bytes
// Step 2: Decrypt using key and tweak
bytes16 = KIASU_BC_decrypt(key, tweak, encrypted_ip)
// Step 3: Convert back to IP address
ip_address = Bytes16ToIP(bytes16)
return ip_address
B.6. Non-Deterministic Encryption using AES-XTS (ipcrypt-ndx)
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function ipcrypt_ndx_encrypt(ip_address, key):
// Step 1: Generate random tweak
tweak = random_bytes(16) // MUST be uniformly random
// Step 2: Convert IP to 16-byte representation
bytes16 = convertTo16Bytes(ip_address)
// Step 3: Encrypt using key and tweak
// Since only a single block is encrypted, only the first tweak needs to be computed
ciphertext = AES_XTS_encrypt(key, tweak, bytes16)
// Step 4: Concatenate tweak and ciphertext
result = concatenate(tweak, ciphertext) // 16 bytes || 16 bytes = 32 bytes total
return result
function ipcrypt_ndx_decrypt(ciphertext, key):
// Step 1: Split ciphertext into tweak and encrypted IP
tweak = ciphertext[0:16] // First 16 bytes
encrypted_ip = ciphertext[16:32] // Remaining 16 bytes
// Step 2: Decrypt using key and tweak
bytes16 = AES_XTS_decrypt(key, tweak, encrypted_ip)
// Step 3: Convert back to IP address
ip_address = Bytes16ToIP(bytes16)
return ip_address
Appendix C. Implementing KIASU-BC
This appendix provides a detailed guide for implementing the KIASU-BC
tweakable block cipher. KIASU-BC is based on AES-128 with
modifications to incorporate a tweak. For more information about the
security properties of KIASU-BC, see [KIASU-BC].
C.1. Overview
KIASU-BC extends AES-128 by incorporating an 8-byte tweak into each
round. The tweak is padded to 16 bytes and XORed with the round key
at each round of the cipher. This construction is used in the
ipcrypt-nd instantiation.
C.2. Tweak Padding
The 8-byte tweak is padded to 16 bytes using the following method:
1. Split the 8-byte tweak into four 2-byte pairs
2. Place each 2-byte pair at the start of each 4-byte group
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3. Fill the remaining 2 bytes of each group with zeros
Example:
8-byte tweak: [T0 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7]
16-byte padded: [T0 T1 00 00 T2 T3 00 00 T4 T5 00 00 T6 T7 00 00]
C.3. Round Structure
Each round of KIASU-BC consists of the following standard AES
operations:
1. *SubBytes:* Apply the AES S-box to each byte of the state
2. *ShiftRows:* Rotate each row of the state matrix
3. *MixColumns:* Mix the columns of the state matrix (except in the
final round)
4. *AddRoundKey:* XOR the state with the round key and padded tweak
For details about these operations, see [FIPS-197].
C.4. Key Schedule
The key schedule follows the standard AES-128 key expansion:
1. The initial key is expanded into 11 round keys
2. Each round key is XORed with the padded tweak before use
3. The first round key is used in the initial AddRoundKey operation
C.5. Implementation Steps
1. *Key Expansion:*
* Expand the 16-byte key into 11 round keys using the standard
AES key schedule
* Each round key is 16 bytes
2. *Tweak Processing:*
* Pad the 8-byte tweak to 16 bytes as described above
* XOR the padded tweak with each round key before use
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3. *Encryption Process:*
* Perform initial AddRoundKey with the first tweaked round key
* For rounds 1-9:
- SubBytes
- ShiftRows
- MixColumns
- AddRoundKey (with tweaked round key)
* For round 10 (final round):
- SubBytes
- ShiftRows
- AddRoundKey (with tweaked round key)
C.6. Example Implementation
The following pseudocode illustrates the core operations of KIASU-BC:
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function pad_tweak(tweak):
// Input: 8-byte tweak
// Output: 16-byte padded tweak
padded = [0] * 16
for i in range(0, 8, 2):
padded[i*2] = tweak[i]
padded[i*2+1] = tweak[i+1]
return padded
function kiasu_bc_encrypt(key, tweak, plaintext):
// Input: 16-byte key, 8-byte tweak, 16-byte plaintext
// Output: 16-byte ciphertext
// Expand key and pad tweak
round_keys = expand_key(key)
padded_tweak = pad_tweak(tweak)
// Initial round
state = plaintext
state = add_round_key(state, round_keys[0] ^ padded_tweak)
// Main rounds
for round in range(1, 10):
state = sub_bytes(state)
state = shift_rows(state)
if round < 9:
state = mix_columns(state)
state = add_round_key(state, round_keys[round] ^ padded_tweak)
// Final round
state = sub_bytes(state)
state = shift_rows(state)
state = add_round_key(state, round_keys[10] ^ padded_tweak)
return state
Appendix D. Test Vectors
This appendix provides test vectors for all three variants of
ipcrypt. Each test vector includes the key, input IP address, and
encrypted output. For non-deterministic variants (ipcrypt-nd and
ipcrypt-ndx), the tweak value is also included.
D.1. ipcrypt-deterministic Test Vectors
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# Test vector 1
Key: 0123456789abcdeffedcba9876543210
Input IP: 0.0.0.0
Encrypted IP: bde9:6789:d353:824c:d7c6:f58a:6bd2:26eb
# Test vector 2
Key: 1032547698badcfeefcdab8967452301
Input IP: 255.255.255.255
Encrypted IP: aed2:92f6:ea23:58c3:48fd:8b8:74e8:45d8
# Test vector 3
Key: 2b7e151628aed2a6abf7158809cf4f3c
Input IP: 192.0.2.1
Encrypted IP: 1dbd:c1b9:fff1:7586:7d0b:67b4:e76e:4777
D.2. ipcrypt-nd Test Vectors
# Test vector 1
Key: 0123456789abcdeffedcba9876543210
Input IP: 0.0.0.0
Tweak: 08e0c289bff23b7c
Output: 08e0c289bff23b7cb349aadfe3bcef56221c384c7c217b16
# Test vector 2
Key: 1032547698badcfeefcdab8967452301
Input IP: 192.0.2.1
Tweak: 21bd1834bc088cd2
Output: 21bd1834bc088cd2e5e1fe55f95876e639faae2594a0caad
# Test vector 3
Key: 2b7e151628aed2a6abf7158809cf4f3c
Input IP: 2001:db8::1
Tweak: b4ecbe30b70898d7
Output: b4ecbe30b70898d7553ac8974d1b4250eafc4b0aa1f80c96
D.3. ipcrypt-ndx Test Vectors
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# Test vector 1
Key: 0123456789abcdeffedcba98765432101032547698badcfeefcdab8967452301
Input IP: 0.0.0.0
Tweak: 21bd1834bc088cd2b4ecbe30b70898d7
Output: 21bd1834bc088cd2b4ecbe30b70898d782db0d4125fdace61db35b8339f20ee5
# Test vector 2
Key: 1032547698badcfeefcdab89674523010123456789abcdeffedcba9876543210
Input IP: 192.0.2.1
Tweak: 08e0c289bff23b7cb4ecbe30b70898d7
Output: 08e0c289bff23b7cb4ecbe30b70898d7766a533392a69edf1ad0d3ce362ba98a
# Test vector 3
Key: 2b7e151628aed2a6abf7158809cf4f3c3c4fcf098815f7aba6d2ae2816157e2b
Input IP: 2001:db8::1
Tweak: 21bd1834bc088cd2b4ecbe30b70898d7
Output: 21bd1834bc088cd2b4ecbe30b70898d76089c7e05ae30c2d10ca149870a263e4
Note: For non-deterministic variants (ipcrypt-nd and ipcrypt-ndx),
the tweak values shown are examples. In practice, tweaks MUST be
randomly generated for each encryption operation.
Implementations SHOULD verify their correctness against these test
vectors before deployment.
Appendix E. Acknowledgments
The author gratefully acknowledges the contributions and insightful
comments from members of the IETF independent stream community and
the broader cryptographic community that have helped shape this
specification.
Author's Address
Frank Denis
Fastly Inc.
Email: fde@00f.net
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