IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance » Encapsulating Security Payload

A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part VI

Robert Davis — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 01:58:18 +0000

Why understanding IPv6 is important to end-users

Currently, the dominant internetworking protocol is Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). Yet, each IPv4 address is limited to a thirty-two bit field length, which corresponds to a maximum of approximately four billion unique internetworking addresses. IPv6 is the next generation of IP messaging that uses a one-hundred-twenty-eight bit field length, resulting in an enormous increase of supportable unique addresses. In fact, the new allotment will permit every person on this planet to have over four billion internetworking addresses!

Potential IPv6 conversion issues are internetworking device computational and/or bandwidth overhead, which in turn can impact communication performance. End-users who are planning migration to IPv6 as well as designers and implementers of IPv6, must understand the technology in order to assess the risks associated with this paradigm shift and prepare effective and efficient responses.

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

IBM. Armonk, New York: International Business Machines. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zvm/v5r4/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.zvm.v54.kijl0/hcsk7b3014.htm (accessed: February 5, 2012).

IPv6 Addressing. Na: IP6.com. http://ipv6.com/articles/general/IPv6-Addressing.htm (accessed: January 26, 2011).

Unicast IPv6 addresses. Redmond, WA: Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759208(WS.10).aspx (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Wikipedia. San Francisco, CA: Wikimedia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Post Note: “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part VI” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking”

A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part V

Robert Davis — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 02:54:28 +0000

The IPSec model is an architecture composed of standard rules for protecting IP traffic. IPSec is also a set of protocols utilized to secure IP packet exchanges that operate at the Internet Layer of the TCP/IP reference model. IPSec utilizes certificates and Public Keys to authenticate and validate the sender and receiver.

Tunnel and Transport are the two telecommunication modes supported by IPSec. IPSec standard rules can be incorporated into transport and tunnel mode encapsulation. As a distinctive feature, Tunnel mode provides two additional header records for sending messages, thus requiring more processing. In addition, Tunnel mode is usually implemented between two gateways or a gateway and server.

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

IBM. Armonk, New York: International Business Machines. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zvm/v5r4/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.zvm.v54.kijl0/hcsk7b3014.htm (accessed: February 5, 2012).

IPv6 Addressing. Na: IP6.com. http://ipv6.com/articles/general/IPv6-Addressing.htm (accessed: January 26, 2011).

Unicast IPv6 addresses. Redmond, WA: Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759208(WS.10).aspx (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Wikipedia. San Francisco, CA: Wikimedia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Post Note: “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part V” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking”

A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part IV

Robert Davis — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 02:40:47 +0000

Upon arrival at the destination, the original internetworking message is reassembled in the correct order, based on the imprinted packet sequence number. Thus a virtual connection is established with the end-station through a Transport Layer protocol; though, typically, intermediate network nodes only render connectionless Internet Layer service for packet-switched messages.

IPSec network security capabilities

Internetwork security is integrated into the design of the IPv6 architecture, and the IPv6 ITEF specification mandates support for IPSec as a fundamental interoperability requirement.

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

IBM. Armonk, New York: International Business Machines. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zvm/v5r4/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.zvm.v54.kijl0/hcsk7b3014.htm (accessed: February 5, 2012).

IPv6 Addressing. Na: IP6.com. http://ipv6.com/articles/general/IPv6-Addressing.htm (accessed: January 26, 2011).

Unicast IPv6 addresses. Redmond, WA: Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759208(WS.10).aspx (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Wikipedia. San Francisco, CA: Wikimedia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Post Note: “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part IV” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking”

A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part III

Robert Davis — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 01:20:55 +0000

With connectionless packet switching, each packet includes complete addressing or routing information. In passing through connectionless-enabled networks, each packet is imprinted with: a destination address, a source address, as well as a packet sequence number. Functionally, this precludes the need for a dedicated path to aid the packet in navigating the network to its intended destination.

Datagram transmission across multiple IP networks

Packet switching is commonly employed to optimize available channel capacity in digital networks, to minimize transmission latency in message delivery and to enhance processing reliability in addressing modes.

IPv6 packet-switched addressing encompasses three general categories for transport:

Unicast – protocol fields act as an identifier for a single interface (within the ambit of the unicast address type). An IPv6 packet sent to a Unicast address is delivered to the interface identified by that address.
Multicast – protocol fields act as an identifier for a set of interfaces that can belong to different nodes. An IPv6 packet delivered to a Multicast address is delivered to the interfaces specified by the ambit indicators.
Anycast – protocol fields act as identifiers for a set of interfaces that can belong to the different nodes. An IPv6 packet destined for an Anycast address is delivered to one of the interfaces identified by the protocol fields defined administratively.

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

IBM. Armonk, New York: International Business Machines. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zvm/v5r4/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.zvm.v54.kijl0/hcsk7b3014.htm (accessed: February 5, 2012).

IPv6 Addressing. Na: IP6.com. http://ipv6.com/articles/general/IPv6-Addressing.htm (accessed: January 26, 2011).

Unicast IPv6 addresses. Redmond, WA: Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759208(WS.10).aspx (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Wikipedia. San Francisco, CA: Wikimedia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Post Note: “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part III” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking”

A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part II

Robert Davis — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 23:13:55 +0000

Packet-switched networking model

As presented in the article A Few Fundamentals of Networking Electronically Encoded Data, data must be organized for transmission. Thus, the creation of usable telecommunication packets requires appending a unique header to the message destined to traverse the internetwork. Technically, in order to send messages utilizing IP addressing, a program must prepare IP datagrams through the encapsulation of received datum.

As a potential delivery option, packet switching is an electronically-based communications method for grouping all transmittable data into suitably-sized packets, without exceeding the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) allocation. To achieve this goal, packets are routed individually, sometimes resulting in different paths and out-of-order delivery; thus requiring accurate message reassembly.

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

IBM. Armonk, New York: International Business Machines. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zvm/v5r4/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.zvm.v54.kijl0/hcsk7b3014.htm (accessed: February 5, 2012).

IPv6 Addressing. Na: IP6.com. http://ipv6.com/articles/general/IPv6-Addressing.htm (accessed: January 26, 2011).

Unicast IPv6 addresses. Redmond, WA: Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759208(WS.10).aspx (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Wikipedia. San Francisco, CA: Wikimedia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Post Note: “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part II” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking”

A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part I

Robert Davis — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 03:28:27 +0000

The Internet is a worldwide system of computer networks in which users at any one computer can, if they have permission, get information from any other connected computer. Internet protocols are a support structure for networking computers.

Internet Protocol (IP) addressing can provide a connectionless service for end systems to communicate across one or more networks. Within this context, during the original development of this communication addressing scheme, the designers assumed that computer networks would be unreliable.

The current Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) sponsored IP specification, IP version six ( IPv6), is an Internet Layer protocol — as defined by the four layer Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) model — for packet-switched internetworking that provides end-to-end datagram transmission across multiple IP networks, and mandates IP Security (IPSec) protocol suite support as a foundational interoperability requirement.

Sources:

Davis, Robert E. IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection. Mission Viejo, CA: Pleier Corporation, 2008. CD-ROM.

IBM. Armonk, New York: International Business Machines. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zvm/v5r4/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.zvm.v54.kijl0/hcsk7b3014.htm (accessed: February 5, 2012).

IPv6 Addressing. Na: IP6.com. http://ipv6.com/articles/general/IPv6-Addressing.htm (accessed: January 26, 2011).

Unicast IPv6 addresses. Redmond, WA: Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759208(WS.10).aspx (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Wikipedia. San Francisco, CA: Wikimedia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching (accessed: February 5, 2012).

Post Note: “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking – Part I” was originally published through Suite101.com under the title “A Few Fundamental Features of IPv6 Internetworking”

Trans-border Communication Protection – Part IV

Robert Davis — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:02:31 +0000

The primary distinguishing feature between IPSec and SSL is their respective OSI reference model protocol communication tier levels. IPSec operates at the network layer of the OSI reference model while SSL operates at the transport layer. Protection mechanism utilization should be determined by information sensitivity. IPSec or SSL can be combined with a VPN to limit data interception, manipulation, and redirection. Standards exist for encryption systems, such as SSL and IPSec, which ensure compatibility among various hardware and software platforms. Comparatively, regarding trans-border privacy issues, SSL VPN can be considered a viable alternative to stand-alone IPSec deployment.

“View Part I of the Trans-border Communication Protection series here“

Trans-border Communication Protection – Part III

Robert Davis — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:12:46 +0000

Generally, a VPN is recognized as a confidential data plexus that employs the public telecommunication infrastructure while maintaining privacy through the utilization of a tunneling protocol and security procedures. A VPN can provide remote offices and telecommuters with secure access to the connected local or wide area networks. When a VPN is introduced to the secure protocol privacy protection equation, IPSec and SSL technologies require mobile users to deploy client software on specific computers for utilization enablement.

Concerning secure access, virtual private networking requires a carrier as well as encapsulating protocol to provide tunneling functionality. Therefore, encryption, authentication, and data packaging usually are incorporated in a SSL VPN. Furthermore, below the OSI transport layer, a VPN can provide additional privacy data protection. This has many manifestations, the most popular being IPSec, typically implemented as a protected ‘tunnel’ between two gateway routers. An IPSec ‘vanilla’ VPN only uses the Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) header record. However, ESP protects against IT communication eavesdropping, forgery, or replay risks.

“View Part I of the Trans-border Communication Protection series here“