IPv4 OSPF includes authentication as part of the OSPF protocol. OMPROUTE supports both password authentication and MD5 cryptographic authentication for IPv4 OSPF. For IPv6 OSPF, authentication has been removed from OSPF itself. Instead, IPv6 OSPF relies on IPSec to ensure integrity and authentication of routing exchanges. As a result, OMPROUTE does not include any explicit authentication support, but instead relies on the underlying support provided by the z/OS® TCP/IP stack.

To use IPSec to authenticate IPv6 OSPF routing exchanges on a link over which OMPROUTE establishes adjacencies, you must create a single manual security association (SA) for all traffic on that link, with corresponding filter definitions to permit the OSPF traffic. Use the interface SECCLASS to define different security associations for different links. This procedure is described in z/OS Communications Server: IP Configuration Guide.