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Re: ICMP Security Failures



 
 
>Tunnelling is a very useful mode.  It's most useful for routers, 
>bump-in-the-stack encryptors, IP forwarding (e.g. IP  
>``remailers''), and perhaps also firewalls...but I don't  
>think the utility is limited to those situations. 
 
>It's important that implementors realize they must support this mode 
>of operation. 
 
The intent has always been to mandate support in all implementations of both 
"end-system" and "router-like" (a.k.a. firewalls, intermediate systems, etc.) 
signaling.  Several approaches are viable to support the necessary remapping 
of addresses and the group has had a strong consensus on the use of the 
"tunneling" (e.g. IP/ESP/IP) to provide this functionality. 
 
Obviously minor tweaks in the next release of the specification could help 
clarify these interoperability requirements. 
 
Paul 
 
 
PS - Implementations that allow multiple encapsulation (ESP/ESP/IP, or 
ESP/ESP/ESP/IP, etc.) may not be exportable as a product from the US.  
Exportable implementations may be required to block ESP over ESP :-( 
 
 
-------------------------------------------------------------- 
Paul Lambert                     Director of Security Products 
Oracle Corporation                       Phone: (415) 506-0370 
500 Oracle Parkway, Box 659410             Fax: (415) 413-2963 
Redwood Shores, CA  94065               palamber@us.oracle.com 
-------------------------------------------------------------- 
  


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>
>I'd like to expunge use of the terms "transport-mode" and
>"tunnel-mode" from IPSEC documents. Not because the modes they
>describe aren't useful, but because I really consider them completely
>orthogonal to the security mechanisms IPSEC provides.
>

Hrmm, I don't have any comments on the wisdom of this change, but...

Even if the words "transport-mode" and "tunnel-mode" are expunged,
I hope the documents will clearly explain this type of usage and its
importance somewhere.

Tunnelling is a very useful mode.  It's most useful for routers,
bump-in-the-stack encryptors, IP forwarding (e.g. IP ``remailers''),
and perhaps also firewalls...but I don't think the utility is limited
to those situations.

It's important that implementors realize they must support this mode
of operation.  The tunnel/transport modes aren't orthogonal, from
the implementation perspective: to support tunnel-mode, the IPSEC
modules must be re-entrant, and must deal with remembered security
state when processing IP headers.  Implementors probably won't think
to support all this if it's not described explicitly in the spec.


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