Use this document to resolve one bounded operational decision: Rotate TCP-AO keys without breaking authenticated connection segments. Only the official source and traced locations below supply facts. Confirm applicability before acting.
\nThe official RFC 5925 — The TCP Authentication Option from RFC Editor / Internet Engineering Task Force supports the following bounded statements:
\nKeep the evidence boundary at these traced claims. They support a review of address plans, interfaces, routes, peers, protocol roles, timers, middleboxes, and intended failure domains; they do not support conclusions outside the source’s stated conditions.
\nThis RFC evidence supports only the named network-protocol decision; it does not select vendor settings, topology, capacity, or an acceptable failure mode. A correct source interpretation can still be inapplicable to a particular design. Confirm DNS, Active Directory authentication, PKI, time, routing policy, transport reachability, and monitoring, ownership, and change authority instead of treating documented behavior as a deployment guarantee.
\nDSE recommends using the cited source as the evidence anchor for this decision. Anchor the review in the cited section and keep observation separate from interpretation. Record the source location, examined part of address plans, interfaces, routes, peers, protocol roles, timers, middleboxes, and intended failure domains, observed and expected states, owner, and reason for deviation.
\nDo not move from citation to production in one step. Pilot the decision where practical, observe agreed signals, retain a reversal point, and verify DNS, Active Directory authentication, PKI, time, routing policy, transport reachability, and monitoring. Handle credentials, keys, recovery data, and personal information through approved secure channels.
\nKeep the source locations Section 3.1 (Master Key Tuple), connection-lifetime rules; Sections 6.1 (Coordinating MKT Changes) and 7.5 (Receiving TCP Segments); Section 7.3 (TCP Segments) adjacent to the sanitized artifacts used for comparison. Prefer configuration snapshots, route or neighbor state, packet captures, counters, topology records, and controlled failover results, with enough identity and timing data for an independent recheck.
\nRetain the starting state, authorization, execution record, outcome, deviation, and final state as one review package. Move disruptive checks to an approved test path. Reopen the decision when versions, design, dependencies, ownership, or official guidance changes.
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