Using Advanced Encryption Standard Counter Mode (AES-CTR) with the Internet Key Exchange version 02 (IKEv2) Protocol
RFC 5930
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) S. Shen
Request for Comments: 5930 Huawei
Category: Informational Y. Mao
ISSN: 2070-1721 Hangzhou H3C Tech. Co., Ltd.
NSS. Murthy
Freescale Semiconductor
July 2010
Using Advanced Encryption Standard Counter Mode (AES-CTR)
with the Internet Key Exchange version 02 (IKEv2) Protocol
Abstract
This document describes the usage of Advanced Encryption Standard
Counter Mode (AES-CTR), with an explicit Initialization Vector, by
the Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) protocol, for encrypting
the IKEv2 exchanges that follow the IKE_SA_INIT exchange.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5930.
Shen, et al. Informational [Page 1]
RFC 5930 AES-CTR for IKEv2 July 2010
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2010 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
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described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................2
1.1. Conventions Used in This Document ..........................3
2. IKEv2 Encrypted Payload .........................................3
3. IKEv2 Conventions ...............................................4
4. Security Considerations .........................................4
5. IANA Considerations .............................................4
6. Acknowledgments .................................................4
7. References ......................................................5
7.1. Normative References .......................................5
7.2. Informative References .....................................5
1. Introduction
The Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) protocol [RFC4306] is a
component of IPsec used for performing mutual authentication and
establishing and maintaining security associations (SAs). [RFC4307]
defines the set of algorithms that are mandatory to implement as part
of IKEv2, as well as algorithms that should be implemented because
they may be promoted to mandatory at some future time. [RFC4307]
requires that an implementation "SHOULD" support Advanced Encryption
Standard [AES] Counter Mode [MODES] (AES-CTR) as a Transform Type 1
algorithm (encryption).
Although [RFC4307] specifies that the AES-CTR encryption algorithm
feature SHOULD be supported by IKEv2, no existing document specifies
how IKEv2 can support the feature. This document provides the
specification and usage of AES-CTR Counter Mode by IKEv2.
Implementers need to carefully consider the use of AES-CTR over the
mandatory-to-implement algorithms in [RFC4307], because the
performance improvements of AES-CTR are minimal in the context of
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RFC 5930 AES-CTR for IKEv2 July 2010
IKEv2. Furthermore, these performance improvements may be offset by
the Counter Mode specific risk of a minor, hard-to-detect
implementation issue resulting in total security failure.
1.1. Conventions Used in This Document
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
2. IKEv2 Encrypted Payload
Section 3.14 of IKEv2 [RFC4306] explains the IKEv2 Encrypted Payload.
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