Authentication and Encryption Algorithms (System Administration Guide: IP Services) (2024)

Authentication and Encryption Algorithms

IPsec uses two types of algorithms, authentication and encryption. Theauthentication algorithms and the DES encryption algorithms are part of coreSolaris installation. If you plan to use other algorithms that are supportedfor IPsec, you must install the Solaris Encryption Kit, which is providedon a separate CD.

Authentication Algorithms

Authentication algorithms producean integrity checksum value or digest that is based onthe data and a key. The authentication algorithm man pages describe the sizeof both the digest and key. The following table lists the authentication algorithmsthat are supported in the Solaris operating environment. The table also liststhe format of the algorithms when they are used as security options to theIPsec utilities and their man page names.

Table 19–1 Supported Authentication Algorithms

Encryption Algorithms

Encryption algorithmsencrypt data with a key. The algorithms operate on data in units of a block size. The encryption algorithm man pages describe the sizeof both the block size and the key size. By default, the DES-CBC and 3DES-CBCalgorithms are installed. You must install the Solaris Encryption Kit to makethe AES and Blowfish algorithms available to IPsec. The kit is available ona separate CD that is not part of the Solaris 9 installationbox. The EncryptionKit Installation Guide describes how to install the SolarisEncryption Kit.

The following table lists the encryption algorithms that are supportedin the Solaris operating environment. The table also lists the format of thealgorithms when they are used as security options to the IPsec utilities,their man page names, and the package that contains them.

Table 19–2 Supported Encryption Algorithms