Re: [perpass] NULL Cipher RFC 2410 to HISTORIC ???

[Stephen Kent <[e-mail]>]

Phillip,
> On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 12:11 AM, Merike Kaeo 
> <[e-mail] <mailto:[e-mail]>> 
> wrote:
>
>     And so I reply to myself but got curious and wanted evidence.  I
>     found first references of AH/ESP and NULL in 1996 June IPsec
>     archives.
>     http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/ipsec/1996/06/msg00030.html
>
>     And while  some interesting tidbits, the joggle for my memory
>     banks was that there was a bunch of discussion on where AH would
>     be used with ESP and whether ESP only would also be relevant.  And
>     while I couldn't find exact reference to the March 1998 interop
>     testing in North Carolina that showed issues with AH not
>     traversing NATs I am fairly certain that was the case and why in
>     practice people starting using ESP-Null.  (it wasn't in the notes
>     for the follow-up IETF IPsec meeting).
>
>     Someone else from that time may also be able to chime in.
>
>
> The wording of the RFC does not help. It suggests that the cipher is 
> something of a joke and it states the original requirement came out of 
> a meeting for interop testing.
I like to think of the text in RFC 2410 as delightfully tongue in cheek.

Steve