A Technical Guide to IPSec Virtual Private Networks

Chapter 15: Report on IPSec

In February 1999, Niels Ferguson and Bruce Schneier, of Counterpane Internet Security, Inc., produced a document detailing the results of a report on the state of the security provided by IPSec requested by the NSA. The report is anything but flattering and represents Ferguson and Schneier’s disenchantment with the resulting protocol. In the introduction, it stated, “IPSec was a great disappointment to us,” which sets the tone for the remainder of the report. Shortly after the report was made available to the community, there was a great deal of discussion in the IETF IPSec workgroup. Everything ranging from anger to agreement was shared among the group’s participants. During the process, Stephen Kent, one of the ...