Thanks, Panos! We'll take care of these:
https://github.com/smyslov/ikev2-downgrade-prevention/issues/17

Chris P.

On Fri, Feb 27, 2026 at 8:01 AM Kampanakis, Panos <kpanos=
[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi Chris,
>
>
>
> I think it is ready, but I have some nits/suggestions:
>
> - s/ that are not common, but still not unrealistic/ that are not common,
> but still plausible/
>
> - s/ break authentication algorithm used by one of the peers in real time/
> break the authentication algorithm used by one of the peers in real time/
>
> - s/ has a long-term authentication key for the responder./ has the
> responder’s long-term authentication key./
>
> - s/ authentication key of initiator A./ authentication key of a different
> initiator, A./
>
> - Last paragraph of section 4. Mention that this attack used to be less
> relevant when cryptographic algorithms were considered secure or insecure
> because peers would disable the insecure ones and not negotiate them. But
> now with any migration where algorithms co-exist and peers do not know if
> their peer supports the “strong” algorithm, it becomes more relevant. Or
> something to that effect. You mention it in Security Consideration, but I
> think it is important to be in the motivation too.
>
> - s/ at least one non-compromised authentication key is used by the peers/
> at least one peer’s authentication key is not compromised/
>
> - s/ then the protocol runs as defined in [RFC7296
> <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-ipsecme-ikev2-downgrade-prevention-01.html#RFC7296>]./
> then the IKEv2 negotiation runs as defined in [RFC7296
> <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-ipsecme-ikev2-downgrade-prevention-01.html#RFC7296>
> ].
>
> - s/ in the IKE SA establishing,/ in the IKE SA establishment,/
>
> - For clarity, add a sentence in Section 7 to mention that subsequent
> messages like CREATE_CHILD_SA IKE_FOLLOW_UP do not apply to the new signed
> octets because they follow IKE_AUTH.
>
> - s/ It is therefore necessary for each of the peers to mandate the use of
> a pre-shared key (and abort the connection if negotiation fails)./ It is
> therefore necessary for peers configured to use a pre-shared key with
> another peer to abort the connection if the peer does not negotiate the
> USE_PPK extension./
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Christopher Patton <[email protected]>
> *Sent:* Thursday, February 26, 2026 1:55 PM
> *To:* Tero Kivinen <[email protected]>
> *Cc:* [email protected];
> [email protected]; [email protected]
> *Subject:* [EXTERNAL] [IPsec] Re: WG Last Call:
> draft-ietf-ipsecme-ikev2-downgrade-prevention-01 (Ends 2026-03-02)
>
>
>
> *CAUTION*: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not
> click links or open attachments unless you can confirm the sender and know
> the content is safe.
>
>
>
> Hi all, I just wanted to add that we implemented this feature in our
> internal implementation of IKEv2 and have confirmed interop with
> strongswan's experimental branch:
>
>
>
> git clone --depth 1 --branch downgrade-prevention
> https://github.com/strongswan/strongswan.git
>
>
>
> One thing we noticed is that the draft doesn't explicitly specify how to
> handle a malformed IKE_SA_INIT_FULL_TRANSCRIPT_AUTH notification (i.e., one
> that has a non-empty payload, a non-zero Protocol ID, or a non-zero SPI
> Size [1]). Our responder handles this case by sending an INVALID_SYNTAX
> error. (We don't implement an initiator.) My understanding is that this
> behavior is allowed by IKEv2, but other behaviors are allowed as well. If
> my understanding is correct, then I don't see a need to make the behavior
> explicit.
>
>
>
> Apart from that, I have no more changes for the WG to consider and I think
> this is ready to go. We look forward to getting a codepoint!
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Chris P.
>
>
>
> [1]
> https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-ipsecme-ikev2-downgrade-prevention-01.html#section-6-1
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 16, 2026 at 9:49 AM Tero Kivinen via Datatracker <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
> This message starts a WG Last Call for:
> draft-ietf-ipsecme-ikev2-downgrade-prevention-01
>
> This Working Group Last Call ends on 2026-03-02
>
> Abstract:
>    This document describes an extension to the Internet Key Exchange
>    protocol version 2 (IKEv2) that aims to prevent some kinds of
>    downgrade attacks on this protocol by having the peers confirm they
>    have participated in the same conversation.
>
> File can be retrieved from:
>
> Please review and indicate your support or objection to proceed with the
> publication of this document by replying to this email keeping
> [email protected]
> in copy. Objections should be explained and suggestions to resolve them are
> highly appreciated.
>
> Authors, and WG participants in general, are reminded of the Intellectual
> Property Rights (IPR) disclosure obligations described in BCP 79 [1].
> Appropriate IPR disclosures required for full conformance with the
> provisions
> of BCP 78 [1] and BCP 79 [2] must be filed, if you are aware of any.
> Sanctions available for application to violators of IETF IPR Policy can be
> found at [3].
>
> Thank you.
>
> [1] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/bcp78/
> [2] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/bcp79/
> [3] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc6701/
>
> The IETF datatracker status page for this Internet-Draft is:
>
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-ipsecme-ikev2-downgrade-prevention/
>
> There is also an HTMLized version available at:
>
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-ipsecme-ikev2-downgrade-prevention-01
>
> A diff from the previous version is available at:
>
> https://author-tools.ietf.org/iddiff?url2=draft-ietf-ipsecme-ikev2-downgrade-prevention-01
>
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