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Unable to set OSPF plaintext authentication on specific interface in one area
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Description

Unable to set OSPF plain-text authentication on a specific interface in one area.

Example:
R1(eth0)<---->(eth1)R2(eth2)<------>(eth0)R3

All routers are in area 0.
R1 is configured as plaintext authentication with key "test".
R3 does not use authentication.

We need to set eth1 with plain-text authentication and eth2 without authentication on the router R2.

Command

set protocols ospf interface <interface> authentication plaintext-password <password>

does not enable plaintext authentication.
I have tested it using OSPF between two routers. One was with this command, and the other was without any OSPF authentication commands.
Neighbour adjacency was formed.
The next solution was to add the next command.

set protocols ospf area 0 authentication plaintext-password

But, after that, all interfaces in area 0 use plaintext authentication.

If we look into FRR CLI, we can see the following possible commands.

vyos(config-if)# ip ospf authentication
  <cr>
  A.B.C.D         Address of interface
  key-chain       Use a key-chain for cryptographic authentication keys
  message-digest  Use message-digest authentication
  null            Use null authentication

The ip ospf authentication command under an interface enables plain-text authentication on that specific interface.

The same story using OSPF virtual-link.

vyos(config-router)# area 1 virtual-link 1.1.1.1 authentication
  <cr>
  authentication-key  Authentication password (key)
  key-chain           Use a key-chain for cryptographic authentication keys
  message-digest      Use message-digest authentication
  message-digest-key  Message digest authentication password (key)
  null                Use null authentication

I did not find any notes in the FRR documentation about this command. However, without it, we cannot implement the example that I mentioned at the beginning.

Details

Version
VyOS 2025.08.01-0024-rolling, Vyos 1.4.3
Is it a breaking change?
Perfectly compatible
Issue type
Bug (incorrect behavior)