49. IPsec Packet Processing Library

DPDK provides a library for IPsec data-path processing. The library utilizes the existing DPDK crypto-dev and security API to provide the application with a transparent and high performant IPsec packet processing API. The library is concentrated on data-path protocols processing (ESP and AH), IKE protocol(s) implementation is out of scope for this library.

49.1. SA level API

This API operates on the IPsec Security Association (SA) level. It provides functionality that allows user for given SA to process inbound and outbound IPsec packets.

To be more specific:

  • for inbound ESP/AH packets perform decryption, authentication, integrity checking, remove ESP/AH related headers
  • for outbound packets perform payload encryption, attach ICV, update/add IP headers, add ESP/AH headers/trailers,
  • setup related mbuf fields (ol_flags, tx_offloads, etc.).
  • initialize/un-initialize given SA based on user provided parameters.

The SA level API is based on top of crypto-dev/security API and relies on them to perform actual cipher and integrity checking.

Due to the nature of the crypto-dev API (enqueue/dequeue model) the library introduces an asynchronous API for IPsec packets destined to be processed by the crypto-device.

The expected API call sequence for data-path processing would be:

/* enqueue for processing by crypto-device */
rte_ipsec_pkt_crypto_prepare(...);
rte_cryptodev_enqueue_burst(...);
/* dequeue from crypto-device and do final processing (if any) */
rte_cryptodev_dequeue_burst(...);
rte_ipsec_pkt_crypto_group(...); /* optional */
rte_ipsec_pkt_process(...);

For packets destined for inline processing no extra overhead is required and the synchronous API call: rte_ipsec_pkt_process() is sufficient for that case.

Note

For more details about the IPsec API, please refer to the DPDK API Reference.

The current implementation supports all four currently defined rte_security types:

49.1.1. RTE_SECURITY_ACTION_TYPE_NONE

In that mode the library functions perform

  • for inbound packets:
    • check SQN
    • prepare rte_crypto_op structure for each input packet
    • verify that integrity check and decryption performed by crypto device completed successfully
    • check padding data
    • remove outer IP header (tunnel mode) / update IP header (transport mode)
    • remove ESP header and trailer, padding, IV and ICV data
    • update SA replay window
  • for outbound packets:
    • generate SQN and IV
    • add outer IP header (tunnel mode) / update IP header (transport mode)
    • add ESP header and trailer, padding and IV data
    • prepare rte_crypto_op structure for each input packet
    • verify that crypto device operations (encryption, ICV generation) were completed successfully

49.1.2. RTE_SECURITY_ACTION_TYPE_INLINE_CRYPTO

In that mode the library functions perform

  • for inbound packets:
    • verify that integrity check and decryption performed by rte_security device completed successfully
    • check SQN
    • check padding data
    • remove outer IP header (tunnel mode) / update IP header (transport mode)
    • remove ESP header and trailer, padding, IV and ICV data
    • update SA replay window
  • for outbound packets:
    • generate SQN and IV
    • add outer IP header (tunnel mode) / update IP header (transport mode)
    • add ESP header and trailer, padding and IV data
    • update ol_flags inside struct rte_mbuf to indicate that inline-crypto processing has to be performed by HW on this packet
    • invoke rte_security device specific set_pkt_metadata() to associate security device specific data with the packet

49.1.3. RTE_SECURITY_ACTION_TYPE_INLINE_PROTOCOL

In that mode the library functions perform

  • for inbound packets:
    • verify that integrity check and decryption performed by rte_security device completed successfully
  • for outbound packets:
    • update ol_flags inside struct rte_mbuf to indicate that inline-crypto processing has to be performed by HW on this packet
    • invoke rte_security device specific set_pkt_metadata() to associate security device specific data with the packet

49.1.4. RTE_SECURITY_ACTION_TYPE_LOOKASIDE_PROTOCOL

In that mode the library functions perform

  • for inbound packets:
    • prepare rte_crypto_op structure for each input packet
    • verify that integrity check and decryption performed by crypto device completed successfully
  • for outbound packets:
    • prepare rte_crypto_op structure for each input packet
    • verify that crypto device operations (encryption, ICV generation) were completed successfully

To accommodate future custom implementations function pointers model is used for both crypto_prepare and process implementations.

49.2. Supported features

  • ESP protocol tunnel mode both IPv4/IPv6.
  • ESP protocol transport mode both IPv4/IPv6.
  • ESN and replay window.
  • algorithms: 3DES-CBC, AES-CBC, AES-CTR, AES-GCM, HMAC-SHA1, NULL.

49.3. Limitations

The following features are not properly supported in the current version:

  • ESP transport mode for IPv6 packets with extension headers.
  • Updates of the fields in inner IP header for tunnel mode (as described in RFC 4301, section 5.1.2).
  • Hard/soft limit for SA lifetime (time interval/byte count).