[c-nsp] MACSec Stages

Graham Bartlett (grbartle) grbartle at cisco.com
Fri Apr 20 01:55:09 EDT 2018


Hi

A few of us in Cisco were thinking of writing a CiscoPress book on MACsec, which would include details of the inner workings, including protocol flows and how the various key material is derived etc.

If this was available would there be interest in this ? 

The reason I ask is, I spent a lot of time and effort developing a book on IPsec VPNs and it’s got a very narrow audience. I would imagine that there’s even less interest in MACsec. But if we could produce something that meets your needs and there is interest we could reconsider.

cheers 

On 17/04/2018, 14:18, "cisco-nsp on behalf of Nick Cutting" <cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net on behalf of ncutting at edgetg.com> wrote:

    I agree - I spent weeks with TAC cases open etc. and Cisco has no idea how this works either.
    
    I gave up and built a L3 routed VPN.
    
    I am waiting for the How-to article by Jeremey Stretch!
    -----Original Message-----
    From: cisco-nsp <cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net> On Behalf Of Alex K.
    Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2018 4:13 AM
    To: Alan Buxey <alan.buxey at gmail.com>
    Cc: cisco-nsp <cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net>
    Subject: Re: [c-nsp] MACSec Stages
    
    This message originates from outside of your organisation.
    
    Hello Alan and thank you for answering.
    
    That's the point - all one can find by searching the standard ID, is a bunch of unrelated documents, some from IEEE, some from independent sources
    - none display any coherent picture whatsoever.
    
    Not to mention none provide any overview of the protocol. Just some not connected points.
    
    Such lack of the documentation by all major vendors (white paper stating MACSEC is an encryption protocol, doesn't count as a documentation) hit the hardest when it comes to troubleshooting. No explanation for debugs, no known steps for endpoints to pass through, you're pretty much on your own trying to figure out what's going on.
    
    Alex.
    
    בתאריך יום ג׳, 10 באפר' 2018, 16:06, מאת Alan Buxey ‏<alan.buxey at gmail.com>:
    
    > 802.1AE
    >
    > Look that up for how it works
    >
    > alan
    >
    > On Wed, 4 Apr 2018, 00:32 Alex K., <nsp.lists at gmail.com> wrote:
    >
    >> Hello everyone,
    >>
    >> After a few implementations of MACSec, I began wondering is there a 
    >> complete documentation of that technology out there?
    >>
    >> For example, I have quite an experience with L2TP. Now, SCCRP may 
    >> sound like a bad language to some, but as we all know, it's an 
    >> important step in tunnel setup. The internet is literally brimming 
    >> with information about L2TP. As for MACSec, maybe it's only me - but 
    >> I'm having a hard time finding information on MACSec internal 
    >> workings (beyond packets formats) especially - when it comes to protocols stages and related cisco debugs.
    >>
    >> All I was able to find this far, are some really general sketches of 
    >> MACSec exchanges and seemingly unrelated debug commands.
    >>
    >> Am I missing something? Any help, such as linking to proper 
    >> documentation, successful and unsuccessful debug outputs and such, on 
    >> and off-list, will be gladly appreciated.
    >>
    >>
    >> Thank you,
    >> Alex.
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    >
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