Authentication; Configure An Ipsec Tunnel - Digi Connect IT 4 User Manual

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Virtual Private Networks (VPN)

Main mode is the default mode. It is slower than aggressive mode, but more secure, in that all

sensitive information sent between the device and its peer is encrypted.

Aggressive mode

Aggressive mode is faster than main mode, but is not as secure as main mode, because the device

and its peer exchange their IDs and hash information in clear text instead of being encrypted.

Aggressive mode is usually used when one or both of the devices have a dynamic external IP

In phase 2, IKE negotiates the SAs for IPsec. This creates two unidirectional SAs, one for each

direction. Once the phase 2 negotiation is complete, the IPsec tunnel should be fully functional.

IPsec and IKE renegotiation

To reduce the chances of an IPsec tunnel being compromised, the IPsec SAs and IKE SA are

renegotiated at a regular interval. This results in different encryption keys being used in the IPsec

Authentication

Client authenticaton

XAUTH (extended authentication) pre-shared key authentication mode provides additional security by

using client authentication credentials in addition to the standard pre-shared key. The Connect IT 4

device can be configured to authenticate with the remote peer as an XAUTH client.

RSA Signatures

With RSA signatures authentication, the Connect IT 4 device uses a private RSA key to authenticate

with a remote peer that is using a corresponding public key.

Certificate-based Authentication

X.509 certificate-based authentication makes use of private keys on both the server and client which

are secured and never shared. Both the server and client have a certificate which is generated with

their respective private key and signed by a Certificate Authority (CA).

The Connect IT 4 implementation of IPsec can be configured to use X.509 certificate-based

authentication using the private keys and certificates, along with a root CA certificate from the

signing authority and, if available, a Certificate Revocation List (CRL).

Configuring an IPsec tunnel with a remote device involves configuring the following items:

Digi Connect IT® 4 User Guide