NYC LOCAL: Wednesday 26 May 2010 UNIGROUP: Maritza Johnson on IPsec Configuration and EZ-VPN

[secretary]

<blockquote
  what="official UNIGROUP announcement"
  rsvp="requested, see below"
  entrance-fee="for non-members yes, see below"
  location="Cooper Union on the Island of the Manahattoes, see below"
  info="http://www.unigroup.org";
  edits="some paragraphs removed so notice fits in mailboxen">

 Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 07:10:12 -0400 (EDT)
 From: Unigroup_of_NY <unilist@unigroup.org>
 Subject: UNIGROUP 26-MAY-2010 (Wed): EZ-VPN and IPsec Configuration

 ================================================================
 UNIGROUP OF NEW YORK - UNIX USERS GROUP - MAY 2010 ANNOUNCEMENTS
 ================================================================

    ----------------------------------
 1. UNIGROUP'S MAY 2010 MEETING NOTICE
    ----------------------------------

       When:  WEDNESDAY, May 26th, 2010    (** Special 4th Wednesday **)

      Where:  The Cooper Union  <http://www.cooper.edu>
              School of Engineering  (*** New Building ***)
              41 Cooper Square  (3rd Avenue @ 7th St, between 6th & 7th Streets)
              East Village, Manhattan
              New York City
              Meeting Room: 504CS   (Note: Room Changes Month-to-Month)
              ** Please RSVP **

       Time:  6:15 PM - 6:30 PM  Registration
              6:30 PM - 6:45 PM  Ask the Wizard, Questions,
                                 Answers and Current Events
              6:45 PM - 7:00 PM  Unigroup Business and Announcements
              7:00 PM - 9:30 PM  Main Presentation

       Cost:  See the Meeting+Membership Fee Schedule Below.

              ---------------------------------------------------------
      Topic:  Computer Network Security: IPsec Configuration and EZ-VPN
              ---------------------------------------------------------

    Speaker:  Maritza Johnson,
              Graduate Research Assistant and PhD Student,
              Department Computer Science, Columbia University.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    INTRODUCTION:
    -------------

    Unigroup's May 2010 presentation will be on "EZ-VPN", which is
    an IPsec Configuration Tool described in the paper "EZ-VPN: Simple
    IPsec Configuration" by Shreyas Srivatsan and Stephen M. Bellovin.
    Our speaker, Maritza Johnson, has been working with these
    individuals on an empirical evaluation of this tool as part of
    a research project at Columbia University.

    The abstract of the EZ-VPN paper says:
    The IPsec protocol promised easy, ubiquitous encryption.  That has
    never happened.  For the most part, IPsec usage is confined to VPNs
    for road warriors, largely due to needless configuration complexity
    and incompatible implementations.  We have designed a simple VPN
    configuration language that hides the unwanted complexities.
    Virtually no options are necessary or possible.  The administrator
    specifies the absolute minimum of information: the authorized hosts,
    their operating systems, and a little about the network topology;
    everything else, including certificate generation, is automatic.
    Our implementation includes a multi-target compiler, which generates
    implementation-specific configuration files for two different
    platforms; others are easy to add.

    Maritza Johnson intends to do a hands-on demonstration of the
    EZ-VPN tool, with audience participation regarding downloading and
    using the tool, then having a subsequent review of the generated
    IPsec configurations.  If you bring a notebook computer with
    WiFi Internet Access to the Unigroup meeting, we hope to have you
    participate in downloading and using the EZ-VPN tool.
      Requirements to participate in the demo: gcc, lex, yacc (bison),
      openssl.  Optional: graphviz to display generated topology.


    Unigroup's Planned Meeting Calendar:
      Wed 26-MAY-2010  ** Special 4th Wednesday meeting on IPsec **
      Thu 17-JUN-2010  (Regular 3rd Thursday meeting)
      Thu 15-JUL-2010  (Regular 3rd Thursday meeting)

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS:
    ---------------------

    To REGISTER for this event, please RSVP by using the Unigroup
    Registration Page:
          http://www.unigroup.org/unigroup-rsvp.html

    This will allow us to automate the registration process.
    (Registration will also add you to our mailing list.)
    Please avoid Emailed RSVPs.

    Please continue to check the Unigroup web site and meeting page,
    for any last minute updates concerning this meeting.  If you
    registered for this meeting, please check your Email for any last
    minute announcements as the meeting approaches.  Also make sure
    any anti-spam white-lists are updated to _ALLOW_ Unigroup traffic!
    If you block Unigroup Emails, your address will be dropped from
    our mailing list.

    Also, if you have an interest in Unigroup, be sure to receive
    Unigroup information DIRECTLY from Unigroup, via direct receipt
    of Emails and by visiting the Unigroup Web Site.  NO OTHER SOURCE
    provides timely, accurate and complete Unigroup information.

    Please RSVP as soon as possible, preferably at least 2-3 days
    prior to the meeting date, so we can plan the food order.
    RSVP deadline is usually the night before the meeting day.

    Note: RSVP is requested for this location to make sure the guard
          will let you into the building.  RSVP also helps us to
          properly plan the meeting (food, drinks, handouts,
          seating, etc.) and speed up your sign-in at the meeting.
          If you forget to RSVP prior to the meeting day, you may
          still be able to show up and attend our meeting, however,
          we cannot guarantee what building security will do if
          you are "not on the list".

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    MAIN PRESENTATION
    -----------------

    Topic: Computer Network Security: IPsec Configuration and EZ-VPN

    Talk Outline:
    -------------

    The EZ-VPN tool provides a simple configuration language to
    generate IPsec configuration files.  A primary goal was to
    reduce the overhead and decisions involved in configuring
    IPsec.  The tool makes "smarter" default decisions and
    provides a configuration language for changing the defaults.

     1) Introduce EZ-VPN: Motivate the development of the tool,
        give a brief description, and give an outline of the talk.

     2) Hands-on Demonstration: Attendees download EZ-VPN and try
        it out on a sample topology, then discuss the generated
        configurations.

     3) Discuss the sample task, initial impressions, and answer
        questions.  (The project is looking for feedback regarding
        the tool.)

     4) Begin the tech talk: Give a brief overview of IPsec, discuss
        terminology that will be used in the talk.

     5) Describe EZ-VPN: Goals, Design, and Background.

     6) Discuss the EZ-VPN Configuration Language: Goals and Features.

     7) Present the EZ-VPN Architecture.

     8) Extending EZ-VPN.

     9) Discuss some of the configurations files from the hands-on
        portion, and compare them to Racoon configuration files.

    10) Empirical evaluation of EZ-VPN.

    11) Addition of GraphVIZ functionality.

    12) Q & A


    References & Web Resources:
    ---------------------------

    1) Maritza Johnson:
         http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~maritzaj/

    2) GraphViz:
         http://graphviz.org
         http://graphviz.org/Download..php

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Speaker Biography:
    ------------------

    Maritza Johnson is a PhD student in the Department of Computer
    Science at Columbia University.  Her research interests are in
    Security and Human-Computer Interaction, more specifically usable
    policy management.  Her research adviser is Steve Bellovin and
    she's a member of the Systems Security Center (SSC) at Columbia.
    She's also the president of Columbia Women in Computer Science
    and the finance chair for GSAC.  She studied computer science
    at University of San Diego as an undergrad.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Company Biography:
    ------------------

    The Systems Security Center (SSC) is a research organization in
    network/systems security at Columbia University.  SSC's research
    emphasis spans a wide diversity of security-related topics, with
    an objective to provide security and robustness guarantees for
    systems and networks in response to anomalous conditions and
    malicious attacks.

    For more information about Columbia University, visit:
      http://www.cs.columbia.edu.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Giveaways:
    ----------

    Addison-Wesley Professional/Prentice Hall PTR, and O'Reilly have
    been kind enough to provide us with review copies of some of their
    books, which we will continue to raffle off as giveaways at our
    meetings.  The publishers always ask that the persons receiving
    the books provide a review and/or feedback about their books.

    Unigroup would like to thank both companies for the support
    provided by their User Group programs.

    As always, all of the books will be available for review at the
    start of the meeting.

    We have some Solaris Related CD-ROMs from our friends at the
    local NYC Sun Microsystems Office.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Fee Schedule:
    -------------

    Unigroup is a Professional Technical Organization and User Group,
    and its members pay a yearly membership fee.  For Unigroup members,
    there is usually no additional charges (ie. no meeting fees) during
    their membership year.  Non-members who wish to attend Unigroup
    meetings are usually required to pay a "Single Meeting Fee".

        Yearly Membership (includes all meetings):      $ 50.00
        Student Yearly Membership (with current! ID):   $ 25.00
        Non-Member Single Meeting Fee:                  $ 20.00
        Non-Member Student Single Meeting (with! ID):   $  5.00

      * Payment Methods: Cash, Check, American Express.

      ! Students: We are looking for proof that you are
        currently enrolled in classes (rather than working
        full-time), and as such, your Student ID should show
        a CURRENT date.  We have been presented Student IDs
        containing NO dates whatsoever, and in the
        current environment, perpetual/non-expiring access
        to university facilities just does not feel right.
        If your ID contains no date, please bring
        additional proof of current enrollment.  Thanks,

    NOTE: Simply receiving Unigroup Email Announcements does
          NOT indicate membership in Unigroup.

    Members: Remember to bring your Unigroup membership card with
             you to the meeting, to confirm your yearly renewal date!

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Food:
    -----

    Complimentary Food and Refreshments will be served.  This
    includes "wraps" such as turkey, roast beef, chicken, tuna
    and grilled vegetables as well as assorted salads (potato,
    tossed, pasta, etc), cookies, brownies, bottled water and
    assorted SOFT beverages.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Directions:
    -----------

      The Cooper Union  <http://www.cooper.edu>
      School of Engineering  (*** New Building ***)
      41 Cooper Square (3rd Avenue @ 7th St, between 6th & 7th Streets)
      East Village, Manhattan
      New York City
      Meeting Room: ** (See Above, Room Changes Month-to-Month)

    Located on the East side of Cooper Square.  Look for the
    new building with the non-traditional appearance.
    Entrance is at the corner of 3rd Avenue and 7 Street.

    Building lobby sign-in is required at the guard's desk.
    Enter the building, check in with the guard at the lobby for
      directions to Unigroup (the room varies from month-to-month).

    Nearest mass transit stations are:
      '6'           to Astor Place (stops right at The Cooper Union),
                    then walk 1 block East and 1 block South.
      'R'           to 8th Street, then walk about 2 blocks East
                    then 1 block South.
      '4/5/6/R/N/Q' to Union Square, then walk South and East.
      'B/D/F/V'     to Broadway-Lafayette, then walk North and East.

    Free street parking in the area becomes available at 6pm.

    There are also parking lots on Broadway, at (or just south of)
      Astor Place (8th Street).

    -----

    Please mark this meeting on your calendar and join us!
    Please tell your friends about Unigroup!

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 < ... />

    --------------------
 5. UNIGROUP INFORMATION
    --------------------

    Unigroup is one of the oldest and largest Unix User's Groups serving
    the Greater New York City Regional Area since the early 1980s.
    Unigroup is a not-for-profit, vendor-neutral and member funded
    volunteer organization.  Unigroup holds regular and special event
    meetings throughout the year on technical topics relating to Unix
    and the Unix/Linux/BSD User Community.

    Unigroup holds regular meetings planned for (at a minimum) the Third
    THURSDAY of Odd Months.  We generally try to hold Field Trip or
    Vendor Specific Meetings on the Even Months, although we do have the
    ability to hold monthly meetings at our regular meeting location.

    Planned regular meeting dates are (usually 3rd Thursdays):
      5/26/2010, 6/17/2010, 7/15/2010, 9/??/2010, 11/18/2010, ...
    Also watch for Special Event meetings and "Field Trips" to the
    facilities of local hardware and software vendors.

    =========================================================================
    = For Unigroup Information, Events and Meeting Announcements be sure to =
    = visit our World Wide Web Home Page:                                   =
    =       http://www.unigroup.org                                         =
    =========================================================================

    For further information or to get on the Unigroup Electronic Mail Mailing
    List send an EMail message to:
         unilist (-a_t-) unigroup.org

    To contact the Board of Directors of Unigroup, send an EMail message to:
         uniboard (-a_t-) unigroup.org

    If you have recently attended a meeting and you are not receiving
    Email announcements, please send us an Email and we will make
    corrections to our lists.

    Please Email the Board with any suggestions, especially potential
    meeting topics and speakers.  Unigroup welcomes contributions and
    content suggestions for our newsletter.  Unigroup is a volunteer
    organization and we need your assistance!  Please let us know if you
    can help!

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 -Rob Weiner
  Unigroup Executive Director
  unilist (-a_t-) unigroup.org
  http://www.unigroup.org
  
</blockquote>


Distributed poC TINC:

Jay Sulzberger <secretary@lxny.org>
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org