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IPsec IKEv1 Phase 1 and 2 in Detail

1. A Phase 1 policy establishes the authentication, encryption, hashing, and Diffie-Hellman methods as well as lifetime for negotiating a shared secret key between VPN peers. 2. The peers use Diffie-Hellman key exchange to generate the same shared secret key without transmitting it directly by each selecting a random number and public value. 3. Phase 1 completes when the peers successfully authenticate each other using hashes incorporating the newly generated shared keys.

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Swapnil Deshmukh
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178 views10 pages

IPsec IKEv1 Phase 1 and 2 in Detail

1. A Phase 1 policy establishes the authentication, encryption, hashing, and Diffie-Hellman methods as well as lifetime for negotiating a shared secret key between VPN peers. 2. The peers use Diffie-Hellman key exchange to generate the same shared secret key without transmitting it directly by each selecting a random number and public value. 3. Phase 1 completes when the peers successfully authenticate each other using hashes incorporating the newly generated shared keys.

Uploaded by

Swapnil Deshmukh
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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A Phase 1 policy consists of,

1. The Authentication method (either a pre shared key or


an RSA signature is usual).
2. The Encryption method (DES, 3DES, AES, AES-192, or AES-256).
3. The Hashing Method (MD5 or SHA).
4. The Diffie Helman Group (1, 2 or 5 usually).
5. Lifetime (In seconds before phase 1 should be re-established - usually
86400 seconds [1 day]).

MESSAGE 1

The Initiator sends policies that it proposes to use, for phase 1 to the
other ASA.

MESSAGE 2

Providing the responder has a matching policy it will accept one of those
proposed by the initiator and send it back in message 2.
Now the two ends have agreed HOW they will establish phase 1, they
then need to agree on a "Shared Key" both ends must use the same
shared key, but the shared key cant be sent between them because the
network link is not secure. To do this they use a Diffie Hellman key
exchange, this uses a mathematical process called modular
exponentiation, a simple example of how that works (The math's involved
in a real key exchange are much more complicated!).

How Diffie Hellman works (simply)

Problem Site A and Site B need to use the same secret key (which will
be a big long number). they cant send that number to each other because
if they do it will be seen.

Solution:
Both sites pick a random number, and they have a common number, this
common number can be passed between sites, In our example Site A
chooses 4 and Site B chooses 5
Both sites use the common number and raise it by the power of the
random number they are using so Site A arrives at 16, and Site B at 32.
The sites then send the number they have arrived at, to the other site.
Each site uses the other sites total and raises it to the power of their
original random number, this results in them both having the same key,
with only the numbers 2, 16 and 32 being passed between them.

Back to our VPN Tunnel

The next two messages are the initiator and responder swapping their
Diffie Hellman information, Each side produces a DH Public Key, and
mathematically computes a long number called a "Nonce"

MESSAGE 3

The initiator generates a "Public Key" also called the DH Public Value or
Xa It also generates a Nonce or Ni and sends both of them to the
responder.
MESSAGE 4

The responder generates a "Public Key" also called the DH Public Value or
Xb It also generates a Nonce or Nr and sends both of them to the
initiator.

At this point both the initiator and the responder can calculate
the DH Shared secret key, they then use the DH Secret Key, the "Shared
Secret" that is manually entered onto both peers, and the Nonce from the
other peer to create 3 DIGITAL KEYS, because of the nature of Diffie
Hellman each end will produce the same keys.

Key 1 = SKEYID_d Used to work out any future IPsec keying


Key 2 = SKEYID_a Used for data integrity and authentication (IKE)
Key 3 = SKEYID_e Used to encrypt all further IKE traffic.

MESSAGE 5

The initiator now sends its ID to the responder (this is either


its IP address or a hostname). It also sends a "Hash" this authenticates
the initiator to the responder as its made from the SKEYID, the pre-
shared key and other information only known to the two peers.
MESSAGE 6

Message 6 is basically the mirror of Message 5, the responder sends its ID


(IP or Hostname) Back the the initiator with its "Hash" and authenticates
itself back to the initiator.

At this point both peers recalculate the hash they have received from the
other peer, and they should both come out the same, if this happens then
the IKE SA's are established and phase 1 is complete.

So what's PFS?

Perfect Forward Secrecy is a method by which new keys are generated,


each new key is mathematically linked to the key that came before it, the
prior key being a "Grandfather" key. With PFS enabled this link is broken
so a key cannot be forward/reverse engineered to guess a previous/new
key value). Every new negotiation produces a new fresh key.
VPN Phase 2

Once Phase 1 has completed the second stage of the VPN can start. Like
phase 1 this state also requires messages to be sent between the
peers, IPsec usually executes in "Quick mode" this means that there are
only 3 MESSAGES.

Note: If PFS is configured only on one end then it will fail at this point
with an "Attribute not supported" error.

MESSAGE 1

The Initiator sends another Hash to the responder, this is similar to the
one used in phase 1 but also includes info within this message to
guarantee integrity.

The Phase 2 proposal includes

1. Encapsulation method either ESP or AH.


2. Hashing method (Integrity checking) either SHA-HMAC or MD5-HMAC.
3. Diffie Hellman Group (1, 2, or 5).
4. The SPI - This number is the LABEL for the end of the tunnel the
initiator will use for outbound traffic.

Tunnel mode (Tunnel or Transport). A timeout in seconds is specified, as


is the ID (usually the subnet of both ends of the tunnel).

MESSAGE 2

The Responder replies with its own "Hash" with the accepted proposal and
its own SPI for outgoing encrypted traffic from the responder, and finally
its own Key Exchange Payload.
Once this is complete both peers generate new DH secret keys and
combine them with the SKEYID_d key from phase 1 to create keys
for IPsec encryption.

MESSAGE 3

The final Message is sent from imitator to responder, and serves to inform
the responder that its previous message was received.

Once phase 2 is complete IPsec SA's have been established and the
tunnel is up.

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