GUARD MACsec Toolkit enables developers to quickly add complete MACsec support in new and existing products such as switches, routers or hosts. it includes a full C source code implementation of the control plane, especially the MACsec Key Agreement (MKA) protocol, as well as the data plane.

GUARD MACsec Toolkit (previously QuickSec MACsec Toolkit) implements all the functionalities defined in IEEE standards 802.1AE, and 802.1X-2010. In particular, it supports MKA, Network Announcements, EAPOL, PACP logic, virtual ports, extended sequence numbers and AES-GCM-256. In addition, it reuses proven components from the QuickSec® product family such as EAP-TLS, RADIUS client, certificate manager, and cryptographic libraries.

It is delivered in highly portable ANSI C source code, suitable for a wide range of platforms. It provides well-documented APIs to integrate with existing software and hardware components. It is easy to compile on a standard Linux server as a reference implementation for testing. MACsec Toolkit has been interoperability-tested as both a supplicant and an authenticator with existing products.

GUARD MACsec Toolkit has been designed to easily integrate with an existing product. In particular both the 802.1X-2010 and the 802.1AE specifications are implemented within their own modules with well-defined APIs.

A typical switch manufacturer may only integrate the 802.1X-2010 port access entity module to its hardware implementation of MACsec data plane (e.g. INSIDE EIP-160).

A typical host such as an IP phone has low data throughput requirements and can then integrate both the 802.1X-2010 port access entity module and the 802.1AE SoftSec module.