[IPsec] RFC 5840 on Wrapped Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) for Traffic Visibility

A new Request for Comments is now available in online RFC libraries.

        RFC 5840

        Title:      Wrapped Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) 
                    for Traffic Visibility 
        Author:     K. Grewal, G. Montenegro,
                    M. Bhatia
        Status:     Standards Track
        Stream:     IETF
        Date:       April 2010
        Mailbox:    ken.grewal@intel.com, 
                    gabriel.montenegro@microsoft.com, 
                    manav.bhatia@alcatel-lucent.com
        Pages:      15
        Characters: 34733
        Updates/Obsoletes/SeeAlso:   None

        I-D Tag:    draft-ietf-ipsecme-traffic-visibility-12.txt

        URL:        http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5840.txt

This document describes the Wrapped Encapsulating Security
Payload (WESP) protocol, which builds on the Encapsulating
Security Payload (ESP) RFC 4303 and is designed to allow
intermediate devices to (1) ascertain if data confidentiality is
being employed within ESP, and if not, (2) inspect the IPsec
packets for network monitoring and access control functions.
Currently, in the IPsec ESP standard, there is no deterministic
way to differentiate between encrypted and unencrypted payloads
by simply examining a packet.  This poses certain challenges to
the intermediate devices that need to deep inspect the packet
before making a decision on what should be done with that packet
(Inspect and/or Allow/Drop).  The mechanism described in this
document can be used to easily disambiguate integrity-only ESP
from ESP-encrypted packets, without compromising on the security
provided by ESP.  [STANDARDS TRACK]

This document is a product of the IP Security Maintenance and Extensions Working Group of the IETF.

This is now a Proposed Standard Protocol.

STANDARDS TRACK: This document specifies an Internet standards track
protocol for the Internet community,and requests discussion and suggestions
for improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the Internet
Official Protocol Standards (STD 1) for the standardization state and
status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

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