Is L2TP as secure as IPSEC for VPNs?

Question

Is it as secure to use L2TP for VPN access, rather than IPSEC? Am I introducing any risks by using L2TP?

Community · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-07 06:58:25Z

4

L2TP does not provide any confidentiality or authentication. A common setup is using L2TP along with IPSEC (see RFC 3193).

EDIT: L2TP does provide tunnel end-point authentication. It does not provide encryption and message authentication.

CommunityBot

1

answered Jan 8, 2011 at 23:10

Giacomo Verticale

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In almost all cases when someone says "L2TP VPN" they mean L2TP/IPSEC VPN. While it is possible to set up a pure L2TP tunnel it is rarely done in practice.
– bahamat
Jan 9, 2011 at 10:30
1

Ah yes I guess I did mean L2TP/IPSEC VPN then.
– Simon Hodgson
Jan 10, 2011 at 13:15

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