Re: risks of MACs associated with packets

smb@research.att.com Mon, 30 January 1995 21:14 UTC

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To: Derrell Piper <PIPER@bilbo.tgv.com>
Cc: ipsec@ans.net
Subject: Re: risks of MACs associated with packets
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 15:41:21 -0500

	 I also think the authentication info should be outside of the ESP 
	 so that bogus packets can be detected without having to decrypt the
	 whole packet...

I don't think this makes much differences.  While MD5 and the like are
cheaper than DES, they're not that much cheaper.  Philosophically, a
denial of service attack can occur when it's cheaper for your enemy
to send messages than it is for you to process them.  But in this
case, the enemy's transmission process is very cheap:  a random packet
generator.  That's true whether the verification is done by decryption
or by MD5.  In either case, your machine will take a tremendous hit.