Figure 9.2. The ESP protocol
9.3.5. NAT Traversal
Both IKE and IPsec protocols present a problem in the functioning of NAT. Both protocols were
not designed to function with NAT and because of this, the technique called
NAT traversal
has
evolved. NAT traversal is an add-on to the IKE and IPsec protocols that allows them to function
when being NATed. NetDefendOS supports the RFC 3947 standard for NAT-Traversal with IKE.
NAT traversal is divided into two parts:
•
Additions to IKE that lets IPsec peers tell each other that they support NAT traversal, and the
specific versions supported. NetDefendOS supports the RFC 3947 standard for NAT-Traversal
with IKE.
•
Changes to the ESP encapsulation. If NAT traversal is used, ESP is encapsulated in UDP, which
allows for more flexible NATing.
Below, is a more detailed description of the changes made to the IKE and IPsec protocols.
NAT traversal is only used if both ends have support for it. For this purpose, NAT traversal aware
VPNs send out a special "vendor ID" to tell the other end of the tunnel that it understands NAT
traversal, and which specific versions of the draft it supports.
Achieving NAT Detection
To achieve NAT detection both IPsec peers send hashes of their own IP addresses along with the
source UDP port used in the IKE negotiations. This information is used to see whether the IP
address and source port each peer uses is the same as what the other peer sees. If the source
address and port have not changed, then the traffic has not been NATed along the way, and NAT
traversal is not necessary. If the source address and/or port has changed, then the traffic has
been NATed, and NAT traversal is used.
Changing Ports
Once the IPsec peers have decided that NAT traversal is necessary, the IKE negotiation is moved
away from UDP port 500 to port 4500. This is necessary since certain NAT devices treat UDP
packet on port 500 differently from other UDP packets in an effort to work around the NAT
problems with IKE. The problem is that this special handling of IKE packets may in fact break the
IKE negotiations, which is why the UDP port used by IKE has changed.
Chapter 9: VPN
693
Summary of Contents for NetDefendOS
Page 30: ...Figure 1 3 Packet Flow Schematic Part III Chapter 1 NetDefendOS Overview 30 ...
Page 32: ...Chapter 1 NetDefendOS Overview 32 ...
Page 144: ...Chapter 2 Management and Maintenance 144 ...
Page 284: ...Chapter 3 Fundamentals 284 ...
Page 392: ...Chapter 4 Routing 392 ...
Page 419: ... Host 2001 DB8 1 MAC 00 90 12 13 14 15 5 Click OK Chapter 5 DHCP Services 419 ...
Page 420: ...Chapter 5 DHCP Services 420 ...
Page 573: ...Chapter 6 Security Mechanisms 573 ...
Page 607: ...Chapter 7 Address Translation 607 ...
Page 666: ...Chapter 8 User Authentication 666 ...
Page 775: ...Chapter 9 VPN 775 ...
Page 819: ...Chapter 10 Traffic Management 819 ...
Page 842: ...Chapter 11 High Availability 842 ...
Page 866: ...Default Enabled Chapter 13 Advanced Settings 866 ...
Page 879: ...Chapter 13 Advanced Settings 879 ...