4.3. Keyed MD5 and Meticulous Keyed MD5 Authentication Section Format

The use of MD5-based authentication is strongly discouraged. However, it is documented here for compatibility with existing implementations.

If the Authentication Present (A) bit is set in the header, and the Authentication Type field contains 2 (Keyed MD5) or 3 (Meticulous Keyed MD5), the Authentication Section has the following 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
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|   Auth Type   |   Auth Len    |  Auth Key ID  |   Reserved    |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                        Sequence Number                        |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                      Auth Key/Digest...                       |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                              ...                              |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Field Definitions

Auth Type

The Authentication Type, which in this case is 2 (Keyed MD5) or 3 (Meticulous Keyed MD5).

Auth Len

The length of the Authentication Section, in bytes. For Keyed MD5 and Meticulous Keyed MD5 authentication, the length is 24.

Auth Key ID

The authentication key ID in use for this packet. This allows multiple keys to be active simultaneously.

Reserved

This byte MUST be set to zero on transmit, and ignored on receipt.

Sequence Number

The sequence number for this packet. For Keyed MD5 Authentication, this value is incremented occasionally. For Meticulous Keyed MD5 Authentication, this value is incremented for each successive packet transmitted for a session. This provides protection against replay attacks.

Auth Key/Digest

This field carries the 16-byte MD5 digest for the packet. When the digest is calculated, the shared MD5 key is stored in this field, padded to 16 bytes with trailing zero bytes if needed. The shared key MUST be encoded and configured to section 6.7.3.