Security Parameters Index: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:22, 14 March 2007

Revision as of 02:55, 2 April 2007

Line 2:

It tells the kernel which encryption rule and algorithm has been used on the traffic tagged with that SPI.

The SPI (as per RFC 2401) is an essential part of an [[IPSec]] SA (Security Association) causebecause it enables the receiving system to select the SA under which a received packet will be processed. An SPI has only local significance, as is defined by the creator of the SA; so an SPI is generally viewed as an opaque bit string. However, the creator of an SA may interpret the bits in an SPI to facilitate local processing.