The Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is a distance-vector routing protocol. RIP version 1 (as classical RIP) uses unauthenticated packets to deliver routing information. RIP version 2 adds route tag, subnet mask and next hop -fields to earlier specification and provides also possibility to password authenticated routing service. RIPV2 packets can be cryptographic authenticated using keyed MD5 or SHA1 fingerprints over sent data. Cryptographic authentication improves security and greatly reduces the vulnerability of the RIPv2-based routing system from a passive attack. In nutshell, RIP is stable, widely supported and easy to configure protocol. It's implemented on top of the User Datagram Protocol as its transport protocol. It is assigned the reserved port number 520.
Used specifications
Specification
Title
Notes
RFC2453
RIP Version 2
Obsoletes RFC1723, RFC1388 and updates RFC1058: Routing Information Protocol
RFC4822
RIPv2 Cryptographic Authentication
Obsoletes RFC2082: RIP-2 MD5 Authentication, Updates RFC2453: RIP Version 2 and RFC1058: Routing Information Protocol
Tool-specific information
Tested messages
Specifications
Notes
Request
A request for the responding system to send all or part of its routing table.
RFC2453, RFC4822
Response
A message containing all or part of the sender's routing table. This message may be sent in response to a request, or it may be an unsolicited routing update generated by the sender.