Windows Server® 2012 Unleashed

IP Security

IPsec was designed as an end-to-end mechanism for ensuring data security in IP-based communications. Illustrated in Figure 24.7, the IPsec architecture includes an authentication header to verify data integrity and an encapsulation security payload for both data integrity and data encryption. IPsec provides two important functions that ensure confidentiality: data encryption and data integrity. IPsec uses an Authentication Header (AH) to provide source authentication and integrity without encryption and the Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) to provide authentication and integrity along with encryption. With IPsec, only the sender and recipient know the security key. If the authentication data is valid, the recipient knows that ...