RFC 8750

Implicit Initialization Vector (IV) for Counter-Based Ciphers in Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP), March 2020

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Also available: XML file for editing
 
Status:
PROPOSED STANDARD
Authors:
D. Migault
T. Guggemos
Y. Nir
Stream:
IETF
Source:
ipsecme (sec)

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DOI:  https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC8750

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Abstract

Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) sends an initialization vector (IV) in each packet. The size of the IV depends on the applied transform and is usually 8 or 16 octets for the transforms defined at the time this document was written. When used with IPsec, some algorithms, such as AES-GCM, AES-CCM, and ChaCha20-Poly1305, take the IV to generate a nonce that is used as an input parameter for encrypting and decrypting. This IV must be unique but can be predictable. As a result, the value provided in the ESP Sequence Number (SN) can be used instead to generate the nonce. This avoids sending the IV itself and saves 8 octets per packet in the case of AES-GCM, AES-CCM, and ChaCha20-Poly1305. This document describes how to do this.


For the definition of Status, see RFC 2026.

For the definition of Stream, see RFC 8729.




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