of security gateways, or between a security gateway and a host.  (The
   term "security gateway" is used throughout the IPsec documents to
   refer to an intermediate system that implements IPsec protocols.  For
   example, a router or a firewall implementing IPsec is a security
   gateway.)

   The set of security services that IPsec can provide includes access
   control, connectionless integrity, data origin authentication,
   rejection of replayed packets (a form of partial sequence integrity),
   confidentiality (encryption), and limited traffic flow
   confidentiality.  Because these services are provided at the IP
   layer, they can be used by any higher layer protocol, e.g., TCP, UDP,
   ICMP, BGP, etc.

   The IPsec DOI also supports negotiation of IP compression [SMPT98],
   motivated in part by the observation that when encryption is employed
   within IPsec, it prevents effective compression by lower protocol
   layers.

3.2 How IPsec Works

   IPsec uses two protocols to provide traffic security --
   Authentication Header (AH) and Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP).
   Both protocols are described in more detail in their respective RFCs
   [KA98a, KA98b].

        o The IP Authentication Header (AH) [KA98a] provides
          connectionless integrity, data origin authentication, and an
          optional anti-replay service.
        o The Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) protocol [KA98b] may
          provide confidentiality (encryption), and limited traffic flow
          confidentiality.  It also may provide connectionless






 
RFC 2401              Security Architecture for IP         November 1998


          integrity, data origin authentication, and an anti-replay
          service.  (One or the other set of these security services
          must be applied whenever ESP is invoked.)
        o Both AH and ESP are vehicles for access control, based on the
          distribution of cryptographic keys and the management of
          traffic flows relative to these security protocols.

   These protocols may be applied alone or in combination with each
   other to provide a desired set of security services in IPv4 and IPv6.
   Each protocol supports two modes of use: transport mode and tunnel
   mode.  In transport mode the protocols provide protection primarily
   for upper layer protocols; in tunnel mode, the protocols are applied
   to tunneled IP packets.  The differences between the two modes are
   discussed in Section 4.

   IPsec allows the user (or system administrator) to control the
   granularity at which a security service is offered.  For example, one
   can create a single encrypted tunnel to carry all the traffic between
   two security gateways or a separate encrypted tunnel can be created
   for each TCP connection between each pair of hosts communicating
   across these gateways.  IPsec management must incorporate facilities
   for specifying:

        o which security services to use and in what combinations
        o the granularity at which a given security protection should be
          applied
        o the algorithms used to effect cryptographic-based security

   Because these security services use shared secret values
   (cryptographic keys), IPsec relies on a separate set of mechanisms
   for putting these keys in place. (The keys are used for
   authentication/integrity and encryption services.)  This document
   requires support for both manual and automatic distribution of keys.
   It specifies a specific public-key based approach (IKE -- [MSST97,
   Orm97, HC98]) for automatic key management, but other automated key
   distribution techniques MAY be used.  For example, KDC-based systems
   such as Kerberos and other public-key systems such as SKIP could be
   employed.

3.3 Where IPsec May Be Implemented

   There are several ways in which IPsec may be implemented in a host or
   in conjunction with a router or firewall (to create a security
   gateway).  Several common examples are provided below:

        a. Integration of IPsec into the native IP implementation.  This
           requires access to the IP source code and is applicable to
           both hosts and security gateways.




 
RFC 2401              Security Architecture for IP         November 1998


        b. "Bump-in-the-stack" (BITS) implementations, where IPsec is
           implemented "underneath" an existing implementation of an IP