Features of IPSec
- Authentication: IPSec provides authentication of IP packets using digital signatures or shared secrets. This helps ensure that the packets are not tampered with or forged.
- Confidentiality: IPSec provides confidentiality by encrypting IP packets, preventing eavesdropping on the network traffic.
- Integrity: IPSec provides integrity by ensuring that IP packets have not been modified or corrupted during transmission.
- Key management: IPSec provides key management services, including key exchange and key revocation, to ensure that cryptographic keys are securely managed.
- Tunneling: IPSec supports tunneling, allowing IP packets to be encapsulated within another protocol, such as GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation) or L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol).
- Flexibility: IPSec can be configured to provide security for a wide range of network topologies, including point-to-point, site-to-site, and remote access connections.
- Interoperability: IPSec is an open standard protocol, which means that it is supported by a wide range of vendors and can be used in heterogeneous environments.
IP security (IPSec)
Pre-Requisite: Types of Internet Protocol
IP Sec (Internet Protocol Security) is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard suite of protocols between two communication points across the IP network that provide data authentication, integrity, and confidentiality. It also defines the encrypted, decrypted, and authenticated packets. The protocols needed for secure key exchange and key management are defined in it.