1 .TH STRONGSWAN.CONF 5 "2010-09-09" "@IPSEC_VERSION@" "strongSwan"
3 strongswan.conf \- strongSwan configuration file
7 configuration file is well suited to define IPsec related configuration
8 parameters, it is not useful for other strongSwan applications to read options
10 The file is hard to parse and only
12 is capable of doing so. As the number of components of the strongSwan project
13 is continually growing, a more flexible configuration file was needed, one that
14 is easy to extend and can be used by all components. With strongSwan 4.2.1
15 .IR strongswan.conf (5)
16 was introduced which meets these requirements.
19 The format of the strongswan.conf file consists of hierarchical
23 in each section. Each section has a name, followed by C-Style curly brackets
24 defining the section body. Each section body contains a set of subsections
28 settings := (section|keyvalue)*
29 section := name { settings }
30 keyvalue := key = value\\n
33 Values must be terminated by a newline.
35 Comments are possible using the \fB#\fP-character, but be careful: The parser
36 implementation is currently limited and does not like brackets in comments.
38 Section names and keys may contain any printable character except:
44 An example file in this format might look like this:
61 Indentation is optional, you may use tabs or spaces.
66 statement it is possible to include other files into strongswan.conf, e.g.
69 include /some/path/*.conf
72 If the file name is not an absolute path, it is considered to be relative
73 to the directory of the file containing the include statement. The file name
74 may include shell wildcards (see
76 Also, such inclusions can be nested.
78 Sections loaded from included files
80 previously loaded sections; already existing values are
82 It is important to note that settings are added relative to the section the
83 include statement is in.
85 As an example, the following three files result in the same final
86 config as the one given above:
91 somevalue = before include
97 # settings loaded from this file are added to section-one
98 # the following replaces the previous value
106 # this extends section-one and subsection
109 # this replaces the previous value
119 Values are accessed using a dot-separated section list and a key.
120 With reference to the example above, accessing
121 .B section-one.subsection.othervalue
126 The following keys are currently defined (using dot notation). The default
127 value (if any) is listed in brackets after the key.
131 .BR charon.block_threshold " [5]"
132 Maximum number of half-open IKE_SAs for a single peer IP
134 .BR charon.close_ike_on_child_failure " [no]"
135 Close the IKE_SA if setup of the CHILD_SA along with IKE_AUTH failed
137 .BR charon.cookie_threshold " [10]"
138 Number of half-open IKE_SAs that activate the cookie mechanism
143 DNS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP)
145 .BR charon.dos_protection " [yes]"
146 Enable Denial of Service protection using cookies and aggressiveness checks
149 Section to define file loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION
151 .BR charon.flush_auth_cfg " [no]"
154 .BR charon.hash_and_url " [no]"
155 Enable hash and URL support
157 .BR charon.ignore_routing_tables
158 A list of routing tables to be excluded from route lookup
160 .BR charon.ikesa_table_segments " [1]"
161 Number of exclusively locked segments in the hash table
163 .BR charon.ikesa_table_size " [1]"
164 Size of the IKE_SA hash table
166 .BR charon.inactivity_close_ike " [no]"
167 Whether to close IKE_SA if the only CHILD_SA closed due to inactivity
169 .BR charon.install_routes " [yes]"
170 Install routes into a separate routing table for established IPsec tunnels
172 .BR charon.install_virtual_ip " [yes]"
173 Install virtual IP addresses
175 .BR charon.keep_alive " [20s]"
176 NAT keep alive interval
179 Plugins to load in the IKEv2 daemon charon
181 .BR charon.max_packet " [10000]"
182 Maximum packet size accepted by charon
184 .BR charon.multiple_authentication " [yes]"
185 Enable multiple authentication exchanges (RFC 4739)
190 WINS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP)
192 .BR charon.process_route " [yes]"
193 Process RTM_NEWROUTE and RTM_DELROUTE events
195 .BR charon.receive_delay " [0]"
196 Delay for receiving packets, to simulate larger RTT
198 .BR charon.receive_delay_response " [yes]"
199 Delay response messages
201 .BR charon.receive_delay_request " [yes]"
202 Delay request messages
204 .BR charon.receive_delay_type " [0]"
205 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
207 .BR charon.replay_window " [32]"
208 Size of the AH/ESP replay window, in packets.
210 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
211 Base to use for calculating exponential back off, see IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
213 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]
214 Timeout in seconds before sending first retransmit
216 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
217 Number of times to retransmit a packet before giving up
219 .BR charon.reuse_ikesa " [yes]
220 Initiate CHILD_SA within existing IKE_SAs
222 .BR charon.routing_table
223 Numerical routing table to install routes to
225 .BR charon.routing_table_prio
226 Priority of the routing table
228 .BR charon.send_delay " [0]"
229 Delay for sending packets, to simulate larger RTT
231 .BR charon.send_delay_response " [yes]"
232 Delay response messages
234 .BR charon.send_delay_request " [yes]"
235 Delay request messages
237 .BR charon.send_delay_type " [0]"
238 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
240 .BR charon.send_vendor_id " [no]
241 Send strongSwan vendor ID payload
244 Section to define syslog loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION
246 .BR charon.threads " [16]"
247 Number of worker threads in charon
248 .SS charon.plugins subsection
250 .BR charon.plugins.android.loglevel " [1]"
251 Loglevel for logging to Android specific logger
253 .BR charon.plugins.attr
254 Section to specify arbitrary attributes that are assigned to a peer via
255 configuration payload (CP)
257 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.identity_lease " [no]"
258 Derive user-defined MAC address from hash of IKEv2 identity
260 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.server " [255.255.255.255]"
261 DHCP server unicast or broadcast IP address
263 .BR charon.plugins.duplicheck.enable " [yes]"
264 enable loaded duplicheck plugin
266 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka.request_identity " [yes]"
269 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka-3ggp2.seq_check
272 .BR charon.plugins.eap-gtc.pam_service " [login]"
273 PAM service to be used for authentication
276 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.fragment_size " [1024]"
277 Maximum size of an EAP-PEAP packet
279 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.max_message_count " [32]"
280 Maximum number of processed EAP-PEAP packets
282 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.include_length " [no]"
283 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-PEAP packets
285 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_method " [mschapv2]"
286 Phase2 EAP client authentication method
288 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_piggyback " [no]"
289 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Finished message
291 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_tnc " [no]"
292 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authentication
294 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.request_peer_auth " [no]"
295 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate
298 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.class_group " [no]"
301 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
302 is compared to the groups specified in the
307 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.eap_start " [no]"
308 Send EAP-Start instead of EAP-Identity to start RADIUS conversation
310 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.filter_id " [no]"
317 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
318 is compared to the groups specified in the
323 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.id_prefix
324 Prefix to EAP-Identity, some AAA servers use a IMSI prefix to select the
327 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.nas_identifier " [strongSwan]"
328 NAS-Identifier to include in RADIUS messages
330 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.port " [1812]"
331 Port of RADIUS server (authentication)
333 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.secret
334 Shared secret between RADIUS and NAS
336 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.server
337 IP/Hostname of RADIUS server
339 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.servers
340 Section to specify multiple RADIUS servers. The
346 options can be specified for each server. A server's IP/Hostname can be
349 option. For each RADIUS server a priority can be specified using the
350 .BR preference " [0]"
353 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.sockets " [1]"
354 Number of sockets (ports) to use, increase for high load
356 .BR charon.plugins.eap-sim.request_identity " [yes]"
359 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.database
362 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.remove_used
365 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.fragment_size " [1024]"
366 Maximum size of an EAP-TLS packet
368 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.max_message_count " [32]"
369 Maximum number of processed EAP-TLS packets
371 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.include_length " [yes]"
372 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TLS packets
374 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.fragment_size " [50000]"
375 Maximum size of an EAP-TNC packet
377 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.max_message_count " [10]"
378 Maximum number of processed EAP-TNC packets
380 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.include_length " [yes]"
381 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TNC packets
383 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.fragment_size " [1024]"
384 Maximum size of an EAP-TTLS packet
386 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.max_message_count " [32]"
387 Maximum number of processed EAP-TTLS packets
389 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.include_length " [yes]"
390 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TTLS packets
392 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_method " [md5]"
393 Phase2 EAP client authentication method
395 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_piggyback " [no]"
396 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Finished message
398 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_tnc " [no]"
399 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authentication
401 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.request_peer_auth " [no]"
402 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate
404 .BR charon.plugins.ha.fifo_interface " [yes]"
407 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_delay " [1000]"
410 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_timeout " [2100]"
413 .BR charon.plugins.ha.local
416 .BR charon.plugins.ha.monitor " [yes]"
419 .BR charon.plugins.ha.pools
422 .BR charon.plugins.ha.remote
425 .BR charon.plugins.ha.resync " [yes]"
428 .BR charon.plugins.ha.secret
431 .BR charon.plugins.ha.segment_count " [1]"
434 .BR charon.plugins.led.activity_led
437 .BR charon.plugins.led.blink_time " [50]"
440 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_count " [4]"
441 Number of ipsecN devices
443 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_mtu " [0]"
444 Set MTU of ipsecN device
446 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester
447 Section to configure the load-tester plugin, see LOAD TESTS
449 .BR charon.plugins.resolve.file " [/etc/resolv.conf]"
450 File where to add DNS server entries
452 .BR charon.plugins.sql.database
453 Database URI for charons SQL plugin
455 .BR charon.plugins.sql.loglevel " [-1]"
456 Loglevel for logging to SQL database
458 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.preferred_language " [en]"
459 Preferred language for TNC recommendations
461 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.tnc_config " [/etc/tnc_config]"
462 TNC IMC configuration directory
464 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imv.tnc_config " [/etc/tnc_config]"
465 TNC IMV configuration directory
467 .BR charon.plugins.whitelist.enable " [yes]"
468 enable loaded whitelist plugin
469 .SS libstrongswan section
471 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench " [no]"
474 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_size " [1024]"
477 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_time " [50]"
480 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_add " [no]"
481 Test crypto algorithms during registration
483 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_create " [no]"
484 Test crypto algorithms on each crypto primitive instantiation
486 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.required " [no]"
487 Strictly require at least one test vector to enable an algorithm
489 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.rng_true " [no]"
490 Whether to test RNG with TRUE quality; requires a lot of entropy
492 .BR libstrongswan.dh_exponent_ansi_x9_42 " [yes]"
493 Use ANSI X9.42 DH exponent size or optimum size matched to cryptographical
496 .BR libstrongswan.ecp_x_coordinate_only " [yes]"
497 Compliance with the errata for RFC 4753
499 .BR libstrongswan.integrity_test " [no]"
500 Check daemon, libstrongswan and plugin integrity at startup
502 .BR libstrongswan.leak_detective.detailed " [yes]"
503 Includes source file names and line numbers in leak detective output
505 .BR libstrongswan.x509.enforce_critical " [yes]"
506 Discard certificates with unsupported or unknown critical extensions
507 .SS libstrongswan.plugins subsection
509 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.database
510 Database URI for attr-sql plugin used by charon and pluto
512 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.lease_history " [yes]"
513 Enable logging of SQL IP pool leases
515 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.gcrypt.quick_random " [no]"
516 Use faster random numbers in gcrypt; for testing only, produces weak keys!
518 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.openssl.engine_id " [pkcs11]"
519 ENGINE ID to use in the OpenSSL plugin
521 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.modules
523 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_hasher " [no]"
527 List of TLS encryption ciphers
529 .BR libtls.key_exchange
530 List of TLS key exchange methods
533 List of TLS MAC algorithms
536 List of TLS cipher suites
540 Credential database URI for manager
542 .BR manager.debug " [no]"
543 Enable debugging in manager
546 Plugins to load in manager
549 FastCGI socket of manager, to run it statically
551 .BR manager.threads " [10]"
552 Threads to use for request handling
554 .BR manager.timeout " [15m]"
555 Session timeout for manager
556 .SS mediation client section
559 Mediation client database URI
561 .BR medcli.dpd " [5m]"
562 DPD timeout to use in mediation client plugin
564 .BR medcli.rekey " [20m]"
565 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation client plugin
566 .SS mediation server section
569 Mediation server database URI
571 .BR medsrv.debug " [no]"
572 Debugging in mediation server web application
574 .BR medsrv.dpd " [5m]"
575 DPD timeout to use in mediation server plugin
578 Plugins to load in mediation server plugin
580 .BR medsrv.password_length " [6]"
581 Minimum password length required for mediation server user accounts
583 .BR medsrv.rekey " [20m]"
584 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation server plugin
587 Run Mediation server web application statically on socket
589 .BR medsrv.threads " [5]"
590 Number of thread for mediation service web application
592 .BR medsrv.timeout " [15m]"
593 Session timeout for mediation service
597 Plugins to load in ipsec openac tool
601 Plugins to load in ipsec pki tool
607 DNS servers assigned to peer via Mode Config
610 Plugins to load in IKEv1 pluto daemon
615 WINS servers assigned to peer via Mode Config
617 .BR pluto.threads " [4]"
618 Number of worker threads in pluto
619 .SS pluto.plugins section
621 .BR pluto.plugins.attr
622 Section to specify arbitrary attributes that are assigned to a peer via
625 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_count " [4]"
626 Number of ipsecN devices
628 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_mtu " [0]"
629 Set MTU of ipsecN device
633 Plugins to load in ipsec pool tool
634 .SS scepclient section
637 Plugins to load in ipsec scepclient tool
640 .BR starter.load_warning " [yes]"
641 Disable charon/pluto plugin load option warning
643 .SH LOGGER CONFIGURATION
644 The options described below provide a much more flexible way to configure
645 loggers for the IKEv2 daemon charon than using the
651 that if any loggers are specified in strongswan.conf,
653 does not have any effect.
655 There are currently two types of loggers defined:
658 Log directly to a file and are defined by specifying the full path to the
659 file as subsection in the
661 section. To log to the console the two special filenames
662 .BR stdout " and " stderr
666 Log into a syslog facility and are defined by specifying the facility to log to
667 as the name of a subsection in the
669 section. The following facilities are currently supported:
670 .BR daemon " and " auth .
672 Multiple loggers can be defined for each type with different log verbosity for
673 the different subsystems of the daemon.
676 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.default " [1]"
678 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.default
679 Specifies the default loglevel to be used for subsystems for which no specific
682 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.<subsystem> " [<default>]"
684 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.<subsystem>
685 Specifies the loglevel for the given subsystem.
687 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.append " [yes]"
688 If this option is enabled log entries are appended to the existing file.
690 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.flush_line " [no]"
691 Enabling this option disables block buffering and enables line buffering.
693 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.ike_name " [no]"
695 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.ike_name
696 Prefix each log entry with the connection name and a unique numerical
697 identifier for each IKE_SA.
699 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.time_format
700 Prefix each log entry with a timestamp. The option accepts a format string as
707 Main daemon setup/cleanup/signal handling
710 IKE_SA manager, handling synchronization for IKE_SA access
719 Jobs queueing/processing and thread pool management
722 Configuration management and plugins
725 IPsec/Networking kernel interface
728 IKE network communication
731 Packet encoding/decoding encryption/decryption operations
734 libtls library messages
737 libstrongwan library messages
744 Very basic auditing logs, (e.g. SA up/SA down)
747 Generic control flow with errors, a good default to see whats going on
750 More detailed debugging control flow
753 Including RAW data dumps in Hex
756 Also include sensitive material in dumps, e.g. keys
762 /var/log/charon.log {
763 time_format = %b %e %T
774 # enable logging to LOG_DAEMON, use defaults
777 # minimalistic IKE auditing logging to LOG_AUTHPRIV
787 To do stability testing and performance optimizations, the IKEv2 daemon charon
788 provides the load-tester plugin. This plugin allows to setup thousands of
789 tunnels concurrently against the daemon itself or a remote host.
792 Never enable the load-testing plugin on productive systems. It provides
793 preconfigured credentials and allows an attacker to authenticate as any user.
796 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.child_rekey " [600]"
797 Seconds to start CHILD_SA rekeying after setup
799 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delay " [0]"
800 Delay between initiatons for each thread
802 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delete_after_established " [no]"
803 Delete an IKE_SA as soon as it has been established
805 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.dynamic_port " [0]"
806 Base port to be used for requests (each client uses a different port)
808 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.enable " [no]"
809 Enable the load testing plugin
811 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.fake_kernel " [no]"
812 Fake the kernel interface to allow load-testing against self
814 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.ike_rekey " [0]"
815 Seconds to start IKE_SA rekeying after setup
817 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiators " [0]"
818 Number of concurrent initiator threads to use in load test
820 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_auth " [pubkey]"
821 Authentication method(s) the intiator uses
823 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.iterations " [1]"
824 Number of IKE_SAs to initate by each initiator in load test
826 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.pool
827 Provide INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRs from a named pool
829 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.proposal " [aes128-sha1-modp768]"
830 IKE proposal to use in load test
832 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.remote " [127.0.0.1]"
833 Address to initiation connections to
835 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_auth " [pubkey]"
836 Authentication method(s) the responder uses
838 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.request_virtual_ip " [no]"
839 Request an INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDR from the server
841 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.shutdown_when_complete " [no]"
842 Shutdown the daemon after all IKE_SAs have been established
843 .SS Configuration details
844 For public key authentication, the responder uses the
845 .B \(dqCN=srv, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq
846 identity. For the initiator, each connection attempt uses a different identity
848 .BR "\(dqCN=c1-r1, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq" ,
849 where the first number inidicates the client number, the second the
850 authentication round (if multiple authentication is used).
852 For PSK authentication, FQDN identities are used. The server uses
853 .BR srv.strongswan.org ,
854 the client uses an identity in the form
855 .BR c1-r1.strongswan.org .
857 For EAP authentication, the client uses a NAI in the form
858 .BR 100000000010001@strongswan.org .
860 To configure multiple authentication, concatenate multiple methods using, e.g.
862 initiator_auth = pubkey|psk|eap-md5|eap-aka
865 The responder uses a hardcoded certificate based on a 1024-bit RSA key.
866 This certificate additionally serves as CA certificate. A peer uses the same
867 private key, but generates client certificates on demand signed by the CA
868 certificate. Install the Responder/CA certificate on the remote host to
869 authenticate all clients.
871 To speed up testing, the load tester plugin implements a special Diffie-Hellman
872 implementation called modpnull. By setting
874 proposal = aes128-sha1-modpnull
876 this wicked fast DH implementation is used. It does not provide any security
877 at all, but allows to run tests without DH calculation overhead.
880 In the simplest case, the daemon initiates IKE_SAs against itself using the
881 loopback interface. This will actually establish double the number of IKE_SAs,
882 as the daemon is initiator and responder for each IKE_SA at the same time.
883 Installation of IPsec SAs would fails, as each SA gets installed twice. To
884 simulate the correct behavior, a fake kernel interface can be enabled which does
885 not install the IPsec SAs at the kernel level.
887 A simple loopback configuration might look like this:
891 # create new IKE_SAs for each CHILD_SA to simulate
894 # turn off denial of service protection
901 # use 4 threads to initiate connections
904 # each thread initiates 1000 connections
906 # delay each initiation in each thread by 20ms
908 # enable the fake kernel interface to
916 This will initiate 4000 IKE_SAs within 20 seconds. You may increase the delay
917 value if your box can not handle that much load, or decrease it to put more
918 load on it. If the daemon starts retransmitting messages your box probably can
919 not handle all connection attempts.
921 The plugin also allows to test against a remote host. This might help to test
922 against a real world configuration. A connection setup to do stress testing of
923 a gateway might look like this:
933 # 10000 connections, ten in parallel
936 # use a delay of 100ms, overall time is:
937 # iterations * delay = 100s
939 # address of the gateway
941 # IKE-proposal to use
942 proposal = aes128-sha1-modp1024
943 # use faster PSK authentication instead
947 # request a virtual IP using configuration
949 request_virtual_ip = yes
950 # enable CHILD_SA every 60s
957 .SH IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
958 Retransmission timeouts in the IKEv2 daemon charon can be configured globally
959 using the three keys listed below:
963 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
964 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]"
965 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
969 The following algorithm is used to calculate the timeout:
972 relative timeout = retransmit_timeout * retransmit_base ^ (n-1)
977 is the current retransmission count.
979 Using the default values, packets are retransmitted in:
985 Retransmission Relative Timeout Absolute Timeout
998 ipsec.conf(5), ipsec.secrets(5), ipsec(8)
1001 .UR http://www.strongswan.org
1004 by Tobias Brunner, Andreas Steffen and Martin Willi.