IP Sec

IP Sec (Internet Protocol Security) is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard suite of protocols that provide data authentication, integrity, confidentiality, and replay detection at IP layer.

• It is the capability that can be added to present versions of Internet Protocol (IPv4 and IPv6) by means of additional headers for secure communication across LAN, WAN and Internet.
• It also defines the encrypted, decrypted, and authenticated packets.
• The protocols needed for secure key exchange and key management are defined in it.

It has the following components:

1. Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP): It provides data integrity, encryption, authentication, and anti-replay.
   1. It also provides authentication for payload.
2. Authentication Header (AH): It also provides data integrity, authentication, and anti-replay and it does not provide encryption.
   1. The anti-replay protection protects against the unauthorized transmission of packets.
   2. It does not protect data confidentiality.
3. Internet Key Exchange (IKE): It is a network security protocol designed to dynamically exchange encryption keys and find a way over Security Association (SA) between 2 devices.

The Security Association (SA) establishes shared security attributes between 2 network entities to support secure communication.

The Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP) and Internet Security Association provides a framework for authentication and key exchange.

• ISAKMP tells how the setup of the Security Associations (SAs) and how direct connections between two hosts are using IPsec.

IPSec (IP Security) architecture uses two protocols to secure the traffic or data flow.

• ESP (Encapsulation Security Payload)
• AH (Authentication Header)

IPSec Architecture includes protocols, algorithms, DOI, and Key Management. All these components are very important in order to provide the three main services:

• Confidentiality
• Authenticity
• Integrity