Re: [IPsec] I-D Action: draft-ietf-ipsecme-ikev1-algo-to-historic-00.txt

[Dan Harkins <[e-mail]>]

   Hi Tero,

   Thanks for the clarification. I don't want to resurrect the idea
here but I feel compelled to respond to this:

On 5/9/21 4:21 AM, Tero Kivinen wrote:
> And also I think shared key authentication also offeres exactly same
> benefits than authentication with public key encryption for the
> deniability point of view (i.e., either end can calculate everything
> as long as they know the shared secret).

   With public key encryption, anyone is able to construct what looks
like a valid IKE conversation between any two participants by using
publicly available information (i.e. their certificates). For that
capability to be done with shared key authentication it would require
the shared key used for "authentication" to be known by everyone, which
sort of voids the whole security of the protocol.

   Basically, the shared key authentication mode would only be the
equivalent of public key encryption authentication mode when using
the Pre-shared Key for the Internet [1], which was an April Fools draft
and (I think this bears repeating these days) was not intended to be
taken seriously.

   regards,

   Dan.

[1] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-ipsec-internet-key

-- 
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to
escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius