IETF Temporary Moratorium on VPN Protocol Extensions for IKE Security Risks

The protocol widely used to set up VPN tunnels is potentially insecure and work on extending its use should be halted, according to The Internet Engineering Task Force. Administrative groups within the IETF have put a temporary moratorium on extensions to Internet Key Exchange (IKE) without saying how long that moratorium should last.. . . The protocol widely used to set up VPN tunnels is potentially insecure and work on extending its use should be halted, according to The Internet Engineering Task Force. Administrative groups within the IETF have put a temporary moratorium on extensions to Internet Key Exchange (IKE) without saying how long that moratorium should last.

"It is fairly clear that work on IKE should focus on fixing identified weaknesses in the protocol rather than adding features that detract from the goal of simplicity and correctness," according to a memo posted to the IPSec mailing list Thursday by the directors of the IETF's Security Area. The memo is also attributed to a member of the IETF Internet Architecture Board, an appellate body within the IETF.

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