[Openswan Users] Pre-Shared Key Length

[Wolfgang Kueter]

Am 13.07.2013 10:21, schrieb Timmy:

Hello,

> What is the purpose of this Pre-Shared Key?  Is it for the purpose of
> authentication  or encryption?

Authentication in ISAKMP

http://www.networksorcery.com/enp/rfc/rfc2408.txt

> What should be the suitable length of the Pre-Shared Key?  Should it be
> as long as a SSH key?

Usually cyrptic ASCII strings (the usual mixture of letters, numbers and 
special charcters for example something like 'G6d(f&dRmdfb?h+Es7bD2f' 
are used. Length should be at least 8 chracters, strings longer than 25 
chracters are pretty uncommon and hardly neccessary, using strings of 
the 'dog, cat and mouse' type is definitely not a good idea escially if 
the remote gateway is set to 0/0

Wolfgang