Information, Computer and Network Security Terms Glossary and Dictionary

ESP: Encapsulating Security Payload

Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP), a key protocol in the IPsec (Internet Security) architecture, is designed to provide a mix of security services in IPv4 and IPv6. The IP Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) seeks to provide confidentiality and integrity by encrypting data to be protected and by placing the encrypted data in the data portion of the IP ESP. Depending on the user's security requirements, this mechanism may be used to encrypt either a transport-layer segment (e.g., TCP, UDP, ICMP, IGMP) or an entire IP datagram. Encapsulating the protected data is necessary to provide confidentiality for the entire original datagram.

Related Terms

ESP: Encapsulating Security Payload