Policy Pages Reference : Optimization policy settings : Secure peering (IPSEC)
  
Secure peering (IPSEC)
You configure secure peering for the selected optimization policy in the Secure Peering (IPSEC) page.
Enabling IPSec encryption makes it difficult for a third party to view your data or pose as a computer you expect to receive data from. To enable IPSec, you must specify at least one encryption and authentication algorithm. Only optimized data is protected, pass-through traffic isn’t.
Enabling IPSec support is optional.
RiOS doesn’t support IPSec over IPv6.
In RiOS 9.0 and later, IPSec secure peering and the secure transport service are mutually exclusive. The secure transport service is enabled by default. Before you enable IPSec secure peering, you must disable the secure transport service by entering the no stp-client enable command at the system prompt.
Note: You must set IPSec support on each peer SteelHead in your network for which you want to establish a secure connection. You must also specify a shared secret on each peer SteelHead.
Note: If you NAT traffic between SteelHeads, you can’t use the IPSec channel between the SteelHeads because the NAT changes the packet headers, causing IPSec to reject them.
For details about secure peering, see the SteelHead Management Console User’s Guide for SteelHead CX.
The Secure Peering (IPSEC) page contains the following groups of settings:
•  General settings
•  Secure peers
General settings
Complete the configuration as described in this table.
Control
Description
Enable Authentication and Encryption
Enables authentication between appliance. By default, this option is disabled.
Enable Prefetch Forward Secrecy
Enables additional security by renegotiating keys at specified intervals. If one key is compromised, subsequent keys are secure because they’re not derived from previous keys. By default, this option is enabled.
Encryption Policy
Select one of the following encryption methods from the drop-down list:
•  DES - Encrypts data using the Data Encryption Standard algorithm. DES is the default value.
•  NULL - Specifies the null encryption algorithm.
•  None Doesn’t apply an encryption policy.
•  3DES - Appears when a valid Enhanced Cryptography License Key is installed on the appliance. Encrypts data using the Triple Digital Encryption Standard with a 168-bit key length. This standard is supported for environments where AES hasn’t been approved, but is both slower and less secure than AES.
•  AES - Appears when a valid Enhanced Cryptography License Key is installed on the appliance. Encrypts data using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) cryptographic key length of 128 bits.
•  AES256 - Appears when a valid Enhanced Cryptography License Key is installed. Encrypts data using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) cryptographic key length of 256 bits. Provides the highest security.
Optionally, select an algorithm from the method 2, 3, 4, or 5 drop-down lists to create a prioritized list of encryption policies for negotiating between peers.
Note: Peer appliances must both have a valid Enhanced Cryptography License Key installed to use 3DES, AES, or AES256. When an appliance has the valid Enhanced Cryptography License Key installed and an IPSec encryption level is set to 3DES or AES, and a peer SCC doesn’t have a valid Enhanced Cryptography License Key installed, the appliances uses the highest encryption level set on the appliance without the key.
Authentication Policy
Select one of the following authentication methods from the drop-down list:
MD5 - Specifies the Message-Digest 5 algorithm, a widely-used cryptographic hash function with a 128-bit hash value. This is the default value.
SHA-1 - Specifies the Secure Hash Algorithm, a set of related cryptographic hash functions. SHA-1 is considered to be the successor to MD5.
Optionally, select an algorithm from the method 2 drop-down list to create a secondary policy for negotiating the authentication method to use between peers. If the first authentication policy negotiation fails, the peer appliances use the secondary policy to negotiate authentication
Time Between Key Renegotiations
Specify the number of minutes between quick-mode renegotiation of keys using the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocol.
IKE uses public key cryptography to provide the secure transmission of a secret key to a recipient so that the encrypted data can be decrypted at the other end. The default value is 240 minutes.
Enter the Shared Secret
Specify the shared secret. All the appliances in a network for that you want to use IPsec must have the same shared secret.
Confirm the Shared Secret
Confirm the shared secret.
Secure peers
Complete the configuration as described in this table.
Control
Description
Add a New Secure Peer
Displays the controls to add a new secure peer.
Peer IP Address
Specify the IP address for the peer appliance (in-path interface) for that you want to make a secure connection.
Add
Adds the peer specified in the Peer IP Address text box. If a connection hasn’t been established between the two appliances that are configured to use IPsec security, the peers list doesn’t display the peer appliance status as mature.
Note: Adding a peer causes a short service disruption (3-4 seconds) to the peer that’s configured to use IPsec security.