`Request for Comments: 2420 Nentec GmbH
`Category: Standards Track September 1998
`
` The PPP Triple-DES Encryption Protocol (3DESE)
`Status of this Memo
` This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
` Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
` improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
` Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
` and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
`Copyright Notice
` Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
`Abstract
` The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) [1] provides a standard method for
` transporting multi-protocol datagrams over point-to-point links.
` The PPP Encryption Control Protocol (ECP) [2] provides a method to
` negotiate and utilize encryption protocols over PPP encapsulated
` links.
` This document provides specific details for the use of the Triple-DES
` standard (3DES) [6] for encrypting PPP encapsulated packets.
`Table of Contents
` 1. Introduction .............................................. 2
` 1.1 Algorithm ................................................. 2
` 1.2 Keys ...................................................... 3
` 2. 3DESE Configuration Option for ECP ........................ 3
` 3. Packet format for 3DESE ................................... 4
` 4. Encryption ................................................ 5
` 4.1 Padding ................................................... 5
` 4.2 Recovery after packet loss ................................ 6
` 5. Security Considerations ................................... 6
` 6. References ................................................ 7
` 7. Acknowledgements .......................................... 7
` 8. Author's Address .......................................... 7
` 9. Full Copyright Statement .................................. 8
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`RFC 2420 PPP Triple-DES Encryption September 1998
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`1. Introduction
` The purpose of encrypting packets exchanged between two PPP
` implementations is to attempt to insure the privacy of communication
` conducted via the two implementations. There exists a large variety
` of encryption algorithms, where one is the DES algorithm. The DES
` encryption algorithm is a well studied, understood and widely
` implemented encryption algorithm. Triple-DES means that this
` algorithm is applied three times on the data to be encrypted before
` it is sent over the line. The variant used is the DES-EDE3-CBC, which
` is described in more detail in the text. It was also chosen to be
` applied in the security section of IP [5].
` This document shows how to send via the Triple-DES algorithm
` encrypted packets over a point-to-point-link. It lies in the context
` of the generic PPP Encryption Control Protocol [2].
` Because of the use of the CBC-mode a sequence number is provided to
` ensure the right order of transmitted packets. So lost packets can be
` detected.
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` The padding section reflects the result of the discussion on this
` topic on the ppp mailing list.
` In this document, the key words "MUST", "SHOULD", and "recommended"
` are to be interpreted as described in [3].
`1.1 Algorithm
` The DES-EDE3-CBC algorithm is a simple variant of the DES-CBC
` algorithm. In DES-EDE3-CBC, an Initialization Vector (IV) is XOR'd
` with the first 64-bit (8 octet) plaintext block (P1). The keyed DES
` function is iterated three times, an encryption (E) followed by a
` decryption (D) followed by an encryption (E), and generates the
` ciphertext (C1) for the block. Each iteration uses an independent
` key: k1, k2 and k3.
` For successive blocks, the previous ciphertext block is XOR'd with
` the current 8-octet plaintext block (Pi). The keyed DES-EDE3
` encryption function generates the ciphertext (Ci) for that block.
`
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` P1 P2 Pi
` | | |
` IV--->(X) +------>(X) +-------->(X)
` v | v | v
` +-----+ | +-----+ | +-----+
` k1->| E | | k1->| E | : k1->| E |
` +-----+ | +-----+ : +-----+
` | | | : |
` v | v : v
` +-----+ ^ +-----+ ^ +-----+
` k2->| D | | k2->| D | | k2->| D |
` +-----+ | +-----+ | +-----+
` | | | | |
` v | v | v
` +-----+ | +-----+ | +-----+
` k3->| E | | k3->| E | | k3->| E |
` +-----+ | +-----+ | +-----+
` | | | | |
` +---->+ +------>+ +---->
` | | |
` C1 C2 Ci
` To decrypt, the order of the functions is reversed: decrypt with k3,
` encrypt with k2, decrypt with k1, and XOR with the previous cipher-
` text block.
` When all three keys (k1, k2 and k3) are the same, DES-EDE3-CBC is
` equivalent to DES-CBC.
`1.2 Keys
` The secret DES-EDE3 key shared between the communicating parties is
` effectively 168-bits long. This key consists of three independent
` 56-bit quantities used by the DES algorithm. Each of the three 56-
` bit subkeys is stored as a 64-bit (8 octet) quantity, with the least
` significant bit of each octet used as a parity bit.
` When configuring keys for 3DESE those with incorrect parity or so-
` called weak keys [6] SHOULD be rejected.
`2. 3DESE Configuration Option for ECP
` Description
` The ECP 3DESE Configuration Option indicates that the issuing
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` implementation is offering to employ this specification for
` decrypting communications on the link, and may be thought of as
` a request for its peer to encrypt packets in this manner. The
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`RFC 2420 PPP Triple-DES Encryption September 1998
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` ECP 3DESE Configuration Option has the following fields, which
` are transmitted from left to right:
` Figure 1: ECP 3DESE Configuration Option
` 0 1 2 3
` 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
` +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
` | Type | Length | Initial Nonce ...
` +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
` Type
` 2, to indicate the 3DESE protocol.
` Length
` 10
` Initial Nonce
` This field is an 8 byte quantity which is used by the peer
` implementation to encrypt the first packet transmitted
` after the sender reaches the opened state. To guard
` against replay attacks, the implementation SHOULD offer a
` different value during each ECP negotiation.
`3. Packet format for 3DESE
` Description
` The 3DESE packets that contain the encrypted payload have the
` following fields:
` Figure 2: 3DESE Encryption Protocol Packet Format
` 0 1 2 3
` 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
` +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
` | Address | Control | 0000 | Protocol ID |
` +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
` | Seq. No. High | Seq. No. Low | Ciphertext ...
` +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
` Address and Control
` These fields MUST be present unless the PPP Address and
` Control Field Compression option (ACFC) has been
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` negotiated.
` Protocol ID
` The value of this field is 0x53 or 0x55; the latter
` indicates the use of the Individual Link Encryption
` Control Protocol and that the ciphertext contains a
` Multilink fragment. Protocol Field Compression MAY be
` applied to the leading zero if negotiated.
` Sequence Number
` These 16-bit numbers are assigned by the encryptor
` sequentially starting with 0 (for the first packet
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` transmitted once ECP has reached the opened state).
` Ciphertext
` The generation of this data is described in the next
` section.
`4. Encryption
` Once the ECP has reached the Opened state, the sender MUST NOT apply
` the encryption procedure to LCP packets nor ECP packets.
` If the async control character map option has been negotiated on the
` link, the sender applies mapping after the encryption algorithm has
` been run.
` The encryption algorithm is generally to pad the Protocol and
` Information fields of a PPP packet to some multiple of 8 bytes, and
` apply 3DES as described in section 1.1 with the three 56-bit keys k1,
` k2 and k3.
` The encryption procedure is only applied to that portion of the
` packet excluding the address and control field.
` When encrypting the first packet after ECP stepped into opened state
` the Initial Nonce is encrypted via 3DES-algorithm before its use.
`4.1 Padding
` Since the 3DES algorithm operates on blocks of 8 octets, plain text
` packets which are of length not a multiple of 8 octets must be padded
` prior to encrypting. If this padding is not removed after decryption
` this can be injurious to the interpretation of some protocols which
` do not contain an explicit length field in their protocol headers.
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`RFC 2420 PPP Triple-DES Encryption September 1998
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` Therefore all packets not already a multiple of eight bytes in length
` MUST be padded prior to encrypting using the unambiguous technique of
` Self Describing Padding with a Maximum Pad Value (MPV) of 8. This
` means that the plain text is padded with the sequence of octets 1, 2,
` 3, .. 7 since its length is a multiple of 8 octets. Negotiation of
` SDP is not needed. Negotiation of the LCP Self Describing Option may
` be negotiated independently to solve an orthogonal problem.
` Plain text which length is already a multiple of 8 octets may require
` padding with a further 8 octets (1, 2, 3 ... 8). These additional
` octets MUST only be appended, if the last octet of the plain text had
` a value of 8 or less.
` When using Multilink and encrypting on individual links it is
` recommended that all non-terminating fragments have a length
` divisible by 8. So no additional padding is needed on those
` fragments.
` After the peer has decrypted the ciphertext, it strips off the Self
` Describing Padding octets to recreate the original plain text. The
` peer SHOULD discard the frame if the octets forming the padding do
` not match the Self Describing Padding scheme just described.
` Note that after decrypting, only the content of the last byte needs
` to be examined to determine the presence or absence of a Self
` Described Pad.
`4.2 Recovery after packet loss
` Packet loss is detected when there is a discontinuity in the sequence
` numbers of consecutive packets. Suppose packet number N - 1 has an
` unrecoverable error or is otherwise lost, but packets N and N + 1 are
` received correctly.
` Since the previously described algorithm requires the last Ci of
` packet N - 1 to decrypt C1 of packet N, it will be impossible to
` decrypt packet N. However, all packets N + 1 and following can be
` decrypted in the usual way, since all that is required is the last
` block of ciphertext of the previous packet (in this case packet N,
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` which WAS received).
`5. Security Considerations
` This proposal is concerned with providing confidentiality solely. It
` does not describe any mechanisms for integrity, authentication or
` nonrepudiation. It does not guarantee that any message received has
` not been modified in transit through replay, cut-and-paste or active
` tampering. It does not provide authentication of the source of any
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`RFC 2420 PPP Triple-DES Encryption September 1998
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` packet received, or protect against the sender of any packet denying
` its authorship.
` Security issues are the primary subject of this memo. This proposal
` relies on exterior and unspecified methods for retrieval of shared
` secrets. It proposes no new technology for privacy, but merely
` describes a convention for the application of the 3DES cipher to data
` transmission between PPP implementations. Any methodology for the
` protection and retrieval of shared secrets, and any limitations of
` the 3DES cipher are relevant to the use described here.
`6. References
` [1] Simpson, W., Editor, "The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)", STD
` 51, RFC 1661, July 1994.
`
` [2] Meyer, G., "The PPP Encryption Control Protocol (ECP)", RFC
` 1968, June 1996.
` [3] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
` Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
` [4] Sklower, K., and G. Meyer, "The PPP DES Encryption Protocol,
` Version 2 (DESE-bis)", RFC 2419, September 1998.
` [5] Doraswamy, N., Metzger, P., Simpson, W., "The ESP Triple DES
` Transform", Work in Progress, June 1997.
` [6] Schneier, B., "Applied Cryptography", Second Edition, John Wiley
` & Sons, New York, NY, 1995, ISBN 0-471-12845-7.
`7. Acknowledgements
` Many portions of this document were taken from [4] and [5]. Bill
` Simpson gave useful hints on the initial revision.
`8. Author's Address
` Holger Kummert
` Nentec Gesellschaft fuer Netzwerktechnologie
` 76227 Karlsruhe, Killisfeldstr. 64, Germany
` Phone: +49 721 9495 0
` EMail: kummert@nentec.de
`
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`9. Full Copyright Statement
` Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
` This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
` others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
` or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
` and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
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` kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
` included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
` document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
` the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
` Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
` developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
` copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
` followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
` English.
` The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
` revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
` This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
` "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
` TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
` BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
` HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
` MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
`
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