Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives

Basic Practical IPSec Documentation?


From: Mike Lococo <mike.lococo () NYU EDU>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:22:39 -0400

Hi Folks,

Is anyone aware of a good practical tutorial on implementing IPSec on
windows in the trivially simple case?  In particular I'm looking for
something that covers:

  * Short introduction to IPSec concepts, not more than a page.
  * Short introduction to IPSec on windows concepts, again, less than a
    page.  Here I'm looking for a high-level overview of a policy vs a
    filter vs an action, and any other absolutely critical windows
    specific concepts that would prevent you from implementing even
    if you more or less understand IPSec.
  * A couple of pages of mid-level tutorial on actually setting up a
    simple connection.  In particular, I think the "right" connection
    for such a tutorial is a host-to-host filter for any protocol/port
    between two IP's using transport mode that requires integrity and
    encryption and uses IKE+PSK for authentication.  This configuration
    allows a relative beginner to use IPSec to protect almost any kind
    of communication between two hosts, and doesn't require delving
    into certificates which more than double implementation complexity.

I'm often recommending that folks use IPSec to protect some network
communication that fails to implement (or properly implement)
authentication, encryption, or integrity controls, and after getting
enough complaints from admins that they couldn't figure out how to
implement I actually went poking around for instructions on how to do
this in windows.  I was astounded at the excessive length and poor
quality of documentation for what is not *that* complex a task.  Has
anyone found the diamond in the rough, or am I going to have to go digging?

Thanks,
Mike Lococo

Current thread: