Protocol Action: 'Using AES Counter Mode With IPsec ESP' to Proposed Standard

[The IESG <iesg-secretary@ietf.org>]

The IESG has approved the Internet-Draft 'Using AES Counter Mode With IPsec 
ESP' <draft-ietf-ipsec-ciph-aes-ctr-05.txt> as a Proposed Standard. This 
document is the product of the IP Security Protocol Working Group. The IESG 
contact persons are Steve Bellovin and Russ Housley

Technical Summary

This is a new cipher description for IPsec.  In particular, it describes how to 
use AES in counter mode within the ESP framework.  Counter mode is especially 
useful for very high speed implementations, since it can be parallelized very 
easily.  Counter mode is easily misused; however, this draft contains adequate 
warnings, cautions, and requirements to prevent such misue.

Working Group Summary

There was strong working group consensus to advance this document and it has a 
significant pull from the community, including groups that need high-speed IPsec.

Protocol Quality

This document was reviewed for the IESG by Steve Bellovin.