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SunScreen SKIP User's Guide, Release 1.1

An Overview of SunScreen SKIP

SunScreen SKIP is Sun Microsystems' implementation of Simple Key-Management for Internet Protocols (SKIP) for use on computers running Solaris, Versions 2.4, 2.5, and 2.5.1 or Solaris for the Intel Platform Edition, Versions 2.4 and 2.5. SunScreen SKIP is part of the SunScreen product line, offered by Sun Microsystems.

SKIP is an IP-layer encryption package that provides a system with the ability to encrypt any protocol within the TCP/IP suite efficiently. Once installed, systems running SKIP can encrypt all traffic to any SKIP-enabled product including SunScreen products.

SKIP Is Unique

SKIP is independent of any application and can be used with many applications, such as FTP, Mosaic, and Telnet. SKIP was invented by Ashar Aziz at Sun Microsystems, Inc. SKIP uses the principles of Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange to generate unique keys that only the source and destination nodes can use.

The Engineering Data About SKIP

The following is a series of the technical reports that are available from the Internet Commerce Group of Sun Microsystems, Inc.

  1. A. Aziz, T. Markson, and H. Prafullchandra, Simple Key-Management For Internet Protocols (SKIP), ICG Technical Report Series, Internet Commerce Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc., October 1996.

  2. A. Aziz, T. Markson, H. Prafullchandra and G. Caronni, Certificate Discovery Protocol, ICG Technical Report Series, Internet Commerce Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc., October 1996.

  3. A. Aziz, T. Markson, and H. Prafullchandra, Encoding of an Unsigned Diffie-Hellman Public Value, ICG Technical Report Series, Internet Commerce Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc., October 1996.

  4. A. Aziz, T. Markson, and H. Prafullchandra, SKIP Extensions for IP Multicast, ICG Technical Report Series, Internet Commerce Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc., October 1996.

  5. A. Aziz, T. Markson, and H. Prafullchandra, SKIP Algorithm Discovery Protocol, ICG Technical Report Series, Internet Commerce Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc., October 1996.

  6. A. Aziz, T. Markson, and H. Prafullchandra, X.509 Encoding of Diffie-Hellman Public Values, ICG Technical Report Series, Internet Commerce Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc., October 1996.

  7. A. Aziz, SKIP Extension for Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS), ICG Technical Report Series, Internet Commerce Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc., October 1996.

How SKIP Has Evolved

Sun Microsystems, Inc. is continuously developing SKIP. The first products to use this technology were the SunScreen SPF-100 and SunScreen SPF-100G, which were developed from the October 1995 draft of SKIP, also known as SKIP, Version 1.

Since the October 1995 draft, SKIP and the other related protocols have evolved so that now a whole set of new features is available. This new protocol is known as Version 2.

To maintain backwards compatibility, products such as SunScreen SKIP have a Version 1 mode that enables them to communicate with products like a SunScreen SPF-100 unit, which uses the earlier version.

The tools for configuring and managing SunScreen SKIP use the "SKIP Version 1" label to denote SunScreen SPF-100 compatibility and the "SKIP" label for the new definition of the protocol.