Security association verification and recovery

A system comprising:

• a first network device comprising:
• a memory;
• a processor;
• a communications interface;
• an interconnection mechanism coupling the memory, the processor and the communications interface;
• and
• wherein the memory is encoded with a security verification application that when executed on the processor provides a security verification process causing the first network device to be capable of performing the operations of:
• transmitting, from the first network device, a secured message to a second network device across a network, the first network device and the second network device having a previous security association including a parent process and a corresponding child process;
• detecting, at the first network device, an incompatibility in the security association between the first network device and the second network device;
• transmitting, from the first network device, a status query to the second network device in order to determine the status of the security association between the first network device and the second network device;
• and
• in response to transmitting the status query, receiving a verifiable reply message that is indicative of the status of the security association between the first network device and the second network device.

A system comprising:

• a first network device comprising:
• a memory;
• a processor;
• a communications interface;
• an interconnection mechanism coupling the memory, the processor and the communications interface;
• and
• wherein the memory is encoded with a security verification application that when executed on the processor provides a security verification process causing the first network device to be capable of performing the operations of:
• receiving, at the first network device, a status query from a second network device, the status query operable to ascertain the status of the security association between the first network device and the second network device;
• determining, at the first network device, the status of the security association between the first network device and the second network device;
• and
• in response, transmitting a verifiable reply message to the second network device, the verifiable message including the status of the security association as determined by the first network device.