1 .TH STRONGSWAN.CONF 5 "2013-01-25" "@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.
132 Path to database with file measurement information
135 Plugins to load in ipsec attest tool
138 .BR charon.block_threshold " [5]"
139 Maximum number of half-open IKE_SAs for a single peer IP
141 .BR charon.cisco_unity " [no]
142 Send Cisco Unity vendor ID payload (IKEv1 only)
144 .BR charon.close_ike_on_child_failure " [no]"
145 Close the IKE_SA if setup of the CHILD_SA along with IKE_AUTH failed
147 .BR charon.cookie_threshold " [10]"
148 Number of half-open IKE_SAs that activate the cookie mechanism
153 DNS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP)
155 .BR charon.dos_protection " [yes]"
156 Enable Denial of Service protection using cookies and aggressiveness checks
159 Section to define file loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION
161 .BR charon.flush_auth_cfg " [no]"
162 If enabled objects used during authentication (certificates, identities etc.)
163 are released to free memory once an IKE_SA is established.
164 Enabling this might conflict with plugins that later need access to e.g. the
167 .BR charon.fragment_size " [512]"
168 Maximum size (in bytes) of a sent fragment when using the proprietary IKEv1
169 fragmentation extension.
171 .BR charon.half_open_timeout " [30]"
172 Timeout in seconds for connecting IKE_SAs (also see IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
174 .BR charon.hash_and_url " [no]"
175 Enable hash and URL support
177 .BR charon.i_dont_care_about_security_and_use_aggressive_mode_psk " [no]"
178 If enabled responders are allowed to use IKEv1 Aggressive Mode with pre-shared
179 keys, which is discouraged due to security concerns (offline attacks on the
180 openly transmitted hash of the PSK)
182 .BR charon.ignore_routing_tables
183 A space-separated list of routing tables to be excluded from route lookups
185 .BR charon.ikesa_limit " [0]"
186 Maximum number of IKE_SAs that can be established at the same time before new
187 connection attempts are blocked
189 .BR charon.ikesa_table_segments " [1]"
190 Number of exclusively locked segments in the hash table
192 .BR charon.ikesa_table_size " [1]"
193 Size of the IKE_SA hash table
195 .BR charon.inactivity_close_ike " [no]"
196 Whether to close IKE_SA if the only CHILD_SA closed due to inactivity
198 .BR charon.init_limit_half_open " [0]"
199 Limit new connections based on the current number of half open IKE_SAs (see
200 IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
202 .BR charon.init_limit_job_load " [0]"
203 Limit new connections based on the number of jobs currently queued for
204 processing (see IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
206 .BR charon.install_routes " [yes]"
207 Install routes into a separate routing table for established IPsec tunnels
209 .BR charon.install_virtual_ip " [yes]"
210 Install virtual IP addresses
212 .BR charon.install_virtual_ip_on
213 The name of the interface on which virtual IP addresses should be installed.
214 If not specified the addresses will be installed on the outbound interface.
216 .BR charon.interfaces_ignore
217 A comma-separated list of network interfaces that should be ignored, if
218 .B charon.interfaces_use
219 is specified this option has no effect.
221 .BR charon.interfaces_use
222 A comma-separated list of network interfaces that should be used by charon.
223 All other interfaces are ignored.
225 .BR charon.keep_alive " [20s]"
226 NAT keep alive interval
229 Plugins to load in the IKEv2 daemon charon
231 .BR charon.max_packet " [10000]"
232 Maximum packet size accepted by charon
234 .BR charon.multiple_authentication " [yes]"
235 Enable multiple authentication exchanges (RFC 4739)
240 WINS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP)
242 .BR charon.port " [500]"
243 UDP port used locally. If set to 0 a random port will be allocated.
245 .BR charon.port_nat_t " [4500]"
246 UDP port used locally in case of NAT-T. If set to 0 a random port will be
247 allocated. Has to be different from
249 otherwise a random port will be allocated.
251 .BR charon.process_route " [yes]"
252 Process RTM_NEWROUTE and RTM_DELROUTE events
254 .BR charon.receive_delay " [0]"
255 Delay in ms for receiving packets, to simulate larger RTT
257 .BR charon.receive_delay_response " [yes]"
258 Delay response messages
260 .BR charon.receive_delay_request " [yes]"
261 Delay request messages
263 .BR charon.receive_delay_type " [0]"
264 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
266 .BR charon.replay_window " [32]"
267 Size of the AH/ESP replay window, in packets.
269 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
270 Base to use for calculating exponential back off, see IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
272 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]
273 Timeout in seconds before sending first retransmit
275 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
276 Number of times to retransmit a packet before giving up
278 .BR charon.retry_initiate_interval " [0]"
279 Interval to use when retrying to initiate an IKE_SA (e.g. if DNS resolution
280 failed), 0 to disable retries.
282 .BR charon.reuse_ikesa " [yes]
283 Initiate CHILD_SA within existing IKE_SAs
285 .BR charon.routing_table
286 Numerical routing table to install routes to
288 .BR charon.routing_table_prio
289 Priority of the routing table
291 .BR charon.send_delay " [0]"
292 Delay in ms for sending packets, to simulate larger RTT
294 .BR charon.send_delay_response " [yes]"
295 Delay response messages
297 .BR charon.send_delay_request " [yes]"
298 Delay request messages
300 .BR charon.send_delay_type " [0]"
301 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
303 .BR charon.send_vendor_id " [no]
304 Send strongSwan vendor ID payload
307 Section to define syslog loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION
309 .BR charon.threads " [16]"
310 Number of worker threads in charon
311 .SS charon.plugins subsection
313 .BR charon.plugins.android_log.loglevel " [1]"
314 Loglevel for logging to Android specific logger
316 .BR charon.plugins.attr
317 Section to specify arbitrary attributes that are assigned to a peer via
318 configuration payload (CP)
320 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.cron
321 Cron style string specifying CSV export times
323 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.local
324 strftime(3) format string for the CSV file name to export local certificates to
326 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.remote
327 strftime(3) format string for the CSV file name to export remote certificates to
329 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.separator " [,]"
332 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.empty_string
333 String to use in empty intermediate CA fields
335 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.format " [%d:%m:%Y]"
336 strftime(3) format string to export expiration dates as
338 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.fixed_fields " [yes]"
339 Use a fixed intermediate CA field count
341 .BR charon.plugins.coupling.file
342 File to store coupling list to
344 .BR charon.plugins.coupling.hash " [sha1]"
345 Hashing algorithm to fingerprint coupled certificates
347 .BR charon.plugins.coupling.max " [1]"
348 Maximum number of coupling entries to create
350 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.force_server_address " [no]"
351 Always use the configured server address. This might be helpful if the DHCP
352 server runs on the same host as strongSwan, and the DHCP daemon does not listen
353 on the loopback interface. In that case the server cannot be reached via
354 unicast (or even 255.255.255.255) as that would be routed via loopback.
355 Setting this option to yes and configuring the local broadcast address (e.g.
356 192.168.0.255) as server address might work.
358 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.identity_lease " [no]"
359 Derive user-defined MAC address from hash of IKEv2 identity
361 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.server " [255.255.255.255]"
362 DHCP server unicast or broadcast IP address
364 .BR charon.plugins.duplicheck.enable " [yes]"
365 Enable duplicheck plugin (if loaded)
367 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka.request_identity " [yes]"
370 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka-3ggp2.seq_check
373 .BR charon.plugins.eap-dynamic.preferred
374 The preferred EAP method(s) to be used. If it is not given the first
375 registered method will be used initially. If a comma separated list is given
376 the methods are tried in the given order before trying the rest of the
379 .BR charon.plugins.eap-dynamic.prefer_user " [no]"
380 If enabled the EAP methods proposed in an EAP-Nak message sent by the peer are
381 preferred over the methods registered locally.
383 .BR charon.plugins.eap-gtc.backend " [pam]"
384 XAuth backend to be used for credential verification
386 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.fragment_size " [1024]"
387 Maximum size of an EAP-PEAP packet
389 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.max_message_count " [32]"
390 Maximum number of processed EAP-PEAP packets (0 = no limit)
392 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.include_length " [no]"
393 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-PEAP packets
395 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_method " [mschapv2]"
396 Phase2 EAP client authentication method
398 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_piggyback " [no]"
399 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Finished message
401 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_tnc " [no]"
402 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authentication
404 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.request_peer_auth " [no]"
405 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate
407 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.accounting " [no]"
408 Send RADIUS accounting information to RADIUS servers.
410 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.class_group " [no]"
413 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
414 is compared to the groups specified in the
419 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.enable " [no]"
420 Enables support for the Dynamic Authorization Extension (RFC 5176)
422 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.listen " [0.0.0.0]"
423 Address to listen for DAE messages from the RADIUS server
425 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.port " [3799]"
426 Port to listen for DAE requests
428 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.secret
429 Shared secret used to verify/sign DAE messages
431 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.eap_start " [no]"
432 Send EAP-Start instead of EAP-Identity to start RADIUS conversation
434 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.filter_id " [no]"
441 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
442 is compared to the groups specified in the
447 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.ike_to_radius
448 RADIUS attributes to be forwarded from IKEv2 to RADIUS (can be defined by
449 name or attribute number, a colon can be used to specify vendor-specific
450 attributes, e.g. Reply-Message, or 11, or 36906:12).
452 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.radius_to_ike
454 .B charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.ike_to_radius
456 IKEv2, a strongSwan specific private notify (40969) is used to transmit the
459 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.id_prefix
460 Prefix to EAP-Identity, some AAA servers use a IMSI prefix to select the
463 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.nas_identifier " [strongSwan]"
464 NAS-Identifier to include in RADIUS messages
466 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.port " [1812]"
467 Port of RADIUS server (authentication)
469 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.secret
470 Shared secret between RADIUS and NAS
472 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.server
473 IP/Hostname of RADIUS server
475 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.servers
476 Section to specify multiple RADIUS servers. The
484 options can be specified for each server. A server's IP/Hostname can be
488 .BR acct_port " [1813]"
489 option can be used to specify the port used for RADIUS accounting.
490 For each RADIUS server a priority can be specified using the
491 .BR preference " [0]"
494 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.sockets " [1]"
495 Number of sockets (ports) to use, increase for high load
497 .BR charon.plugins.eap-sim.request_identity " [yes]"
500 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.database
503 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.remove_used " [no]"
506 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.fragment_size " [1024]"
507 Maximum size of an EAP-TLS packet
509 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.max_message_count " [32]"
510 Maximum number of processed EAP-TLS packets (0 = no limit)
512 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.include_length " [yes]"
513 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TLS packets
515 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.max_message_count " [10]"
516 Maximum number of processed EAP-TNC packets (0 = no limit)
518 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.protocol " [tnccs-1.1]"
519 IF-TNCCS protocol version to be used (tnccs-1.1, tnccs-2.0, tnccs-dynamic)
521 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.fragment_size " [1024]"
522 Maximum size of an EAP-TTLS packet
524 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.max_message_count " [32]"
525 Maximum number of processed EAP-TTLS packets (0 = no limit)
527 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.include_length " [yes]"
528 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TTLS packets
530 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_method " [md5]"
531 Phase2 EAP client authentication method
533 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_piggyback " [no]"
534 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Finished message
536 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_tnc " [no]"
537 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authentication
539 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.request_peer_auth " [no]"
540 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate
542 .BR charon.plugins.ha.fifo_interface " [yes]"
545 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_delay " [1000]"
548 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_timeout " [2100]"
551 .BR charon.plugins.ha.local
554 .BR charon.plugins.ha.monitor " [yes]"
557 .BR charon.plugins.ha.pools
560 .BR charon.plugins.ha.remote
563 .BR charon.plugins.ha.resync " [yes]"
566 .BR charon.plugins.ha.secret
569 .BR charon.plugins.ha.segment_count " [1]"
572 .BR charon.plugins.led.activity_led
575 .BR charon.plugins.led.blink_time " [50]"
578 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_count " [4]"
579 Number of ipsecN devices
581 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_mtu " [0]"
582 Set MTU of ipsecN device
584 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester
585 Section to configure the load-tester plugin, see LOAD TESTS
587 .BR charon.plugins.radattr.dir
588 Directory where RADIUS attributes are stored in client-ID specific files.
590 .BR charon.plugins.radattr.message_id " [-1]"
591 Attributes are added to all IKE_AUTH messages by default (-1), or only to the
592 IKE_AUTH message with the given IKEv2 message ID.
594 .BR charon.plugins.resolve.file " [/etc/resolv.conf]"
595 File where to add DNS server entries
597 .BR charon.plugins.resolve.resolvconf.iface_prefix " [lo.inet.ipsec.]"
598 Prefix used for interface names sent to resolvconf(8). The nameserver address
599 is appended to this prefix to make it unique. The result has to be a valid
600 interface name according to the rules defined by resolvconf. Also, it should
601 have a high priority according to the order defined in interface-order(5).
603 .BR charon.plugins.socket-default.set_source " [yes]"
604 Set source address on outbound packets, if possible.
606 .BR charon.plugins.sql.database
607 Database URI for charons SQL plugin
609 .BR charon.plugins.sql.loglevel " [-1]"
610 Loglevel for logging to SQL database
612 .BR charon.plugins.stroke.ignore_missing_ca_basic_constraint " [no]"
613 Treat certificates in ipsec.d/cacerts and ipsec.conf ca sections as CA
614 certificates even if they don't contain a CA basic constraint.
616 .BR charon.plugins.stroke.max_concurrent " [4]"
617 Maximum number of stroke messages handled concurrently
619 .BR charon.plugins.tnccs-11.max_message_size " [45000]"
620 Maximum size of a PA-TNC message (XML & Base64 encoding)
622 .BR charon.plugins.tnccs-20.max_batch_size " [65522]"
623 Maximum size of a PB-TNC batch (upper limit via PT-EAP = 65529)
625 .BR charon.plugins.tnccs-20.max_message_size " [65490]"
626 Maximum size of a PA-TNC message (upper limit via PT-EAP = 65497)
628 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.device_name
629 Unique name of strongSwan as a PEP and/or PDP device
631 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.key_file
632 Concatenated client certificate and private key
634 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.password
635 Authentication password of strongSwan MAP client
637 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.server_cert
638 Certificate of MAP server
640 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.ssl_passphrase
641 Passphrase protecting the private key
643 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.username
644 Authentication username of strongSwan MAP client
646 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.dlclose " [yes]"
649 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.preferred_language " [en]"
650 Preferred language for TNC recommendations
652 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imv.dlclose " [yes]"
655 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.method " [ttls]"
656 EAP tunnel method to be used
658 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.port " [1812]"
659 RADIUS server port the strongSwan PDP is listening on
661 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.secret
662 Shared RADIUS secret between strongSwan PDP and NAS
664 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.server
665 Name of the strongSwan PDP as contained in the AAA certificate
667 .BR charon.plugins.updown.dns_handler " [no]"
668 Whether the updown script should handle DNS serves assigned via IKEv1 Mode
669 Config or IKEv2 Config Payloads (if enabled they can't be handled by other
670 plugins, like resolve)
672 .BR charon.plugins.whitelist.enable " [yes]"
673 Enable loaded whitelist plugin
675 .BR charon.plugins.xauth-eap.backend " [radius]"
676 EAP plugin to be used as backend for XAuth credential verification
678 .BR charon.plugins.xauth-pam.pam_service " [login]"
679 PAM service to be used for authentication
680 .SS libstrongswan section
682 .BR libstrongswan.cert_cache " [yes]"
683 Whether relations in validated certificate chains should be cached in memory
685 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench " [no]"
688 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_size " [1024]"
691 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_time " [50]"
694 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_add " [no]"
695 Test crypto algorithms during registration
697 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_create " [no]"
698 Test crypto algorithms on each crypto primitive instantiation
700 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.required " [no]"
701 Strictly require at least one test vector to enable an algorithm
703 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.rng_true " [no]"
704 Whether to test RNG with TRUE quality; requires a lot of entropy
706 .BR libstrongswan.dh_exponent_ansi_x9_42 " [yes]"
707 Use ANSI X9.42 DH exponent size or optimum size matched to cryptographical
710 .BR libstrongswan.ecp_x_coordinate_only " [yes]"
711 Compliance with the errata for RFC 4753
713 .BR libstrongswan.host_resolver.max_threads " [3]"
714 Maximum number of concurrent resolver threads (they are terminated if unused)
716 .BR libstrongswan.host_resolver.min_threads " [0]"
717 Minimum number of resolver threads to keep around
719 .BR libstrongswan.integrity_test " [no]"
720 Check daemon, libstrongswan and plugin integrity at startup
722 .BR libstrongswan.leak_detective.detailed " [yes]"
723 Includes source file names and line numbers in leak detective output
725 .BR libstrongswan.leak_detective.usage_threshold " [10240]"
726 Threshold in bytes for leaks to be reported (0 to report all)
728 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads
729 Subsection to configure the number of reserved threads per priority class
730 see JOB PRIORITY MANAGEMENT
732 .BR libstrongswan.x509.enforce_critical " [yes]"
733 Discard certificates with unsupported or unknown critical extensions
734 .SS libstrongswan.plugins subsection
736 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.database
737 Database URI for attr-sql plugin used by charon
739 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.lease_history " [yes]"
740 Enable logging of SQL IP pool leases
742 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.gcrypt.quick_random " [no]"
743 Use faster random numbers in gcrypt; for testing only, produces weak keys!
745 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.openssl.engine_id " [pkcs11]"
746 ENGINE ID to use in the OpenSSL plugin
748 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.modules
749 List of available PKCS#11 modules
751 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.load_certs " [yes]"
752 Whether to load certificates from tokens
754 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.reload_certs " [no]"
755 Reload certificates from all tokens if charon receives a SIGHUP
757 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_dh " [no]"
758 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for DH and ECDH (see use_ecc option)
760 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_ecc " [no]"
761 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for ECDH and ECDSA public key
762 operations. ECDSA private keys can be used regardless of this option
764 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_hasher " [no]"
765 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used to hash data
767 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_pubkey " [no]"
768 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for public key operations, even for
769 keys not stored on tokens
771 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_rng " [no]"
772 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used as RNG
774 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.random.random " [@DEV_RANDOM@]"
775 File to read random bytes from, instead of @DEV_RANDOM@
777 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.random.urandom " [@DEV_URANDOM@]"
778 File to read pseudo random bytes from, instead of @DEV_URANDOM@
781 .BR libtnccs.tnc_config " [/etc/tnc_config]"
782 TNC IMC/IMV configuration directory
785 .BR libimcv.assessment_result " [yes]"
786 Whether IMVs send a standard IETF Assessment Result attribute
788 .BR libimcv.debug_level " [1]"
789 Debug level for a stand-alone libimcv library
791 .BR libimcv.stderr_quiet " [no]"
792 Disable output to stderr with a stand-alone libimcv library
794 .BR libimcv.os_info.name
795 Manually set the name of the client OS (e.g. Ubuntu)
797 .BR libimcv.os_info.version
798 Manually set the version of the client OS (e.g. 12.04 i686)
799 .SS libimcv plugins section
801 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_blob
802 AIK encrypted private key blob file
804 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_cert
807 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_key
810 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.nonce_len " [20]"
813 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.use_quote2 " [yes]"
814 Use Quote2 AIK signature instead of Quote signature
816 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.cadir
817 Path to directory with AIK cacerts
819 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.database
820 Path to database with file measurement information
822 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.dh_group " [ecp256]"
823 Preferred Diffie-Hellman group
825 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.hash_algorithm " [sha256]"
826 Preferred measurement hash algorithm
828 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.min_nonce_len " [0]"
829 DH minimum nonce length
831 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.remediation_uri
832 URI pointing to attestation remediation instructions
834 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-os.push_info " [yes]"
835 Send operating system info without being prompted
837 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-os.database
838 Database URI for the database that stores operating system information
840 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-os.remediation_uri
841 URI pointing to operating system remediation instructions
843 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-scanner.push_info " [yes]"
844 Send open listening ports without being prompted
846 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-scanner.closed_port_policy " [yes]"
847 By default all ports must be closed (yes) or can be open (no)
849 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-scanner.remediation_uri
850 URI pointing to scanner remediation instructions
852 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-scanner.tcp_ports
853 List of TCP ports that can be open or must be closed
855 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-scanner.udp_ports
856 List of UDP ports that can be open or must be closed
858 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.additional_ids " [0]"
859 Number of additional IMC IDs
861 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.command " [none]"
862 Command to be sent to the Test IMV
864 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.dummy_size " [0]"
865 Size of dummy attribute to be sent to the Test IMV (0 = disabled)
867 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.retry " [no]"
870 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.retry_command
871 Command to be sent to the Test IMV in the handshake retry
873 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-test.remediation_uri
874 URI pointing to test remediation instructions
876 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-test.rounds " [0]"
877 Number of IMC-IMV retry rounds
881 List of TLS encryption ciphers
883 .BR libtls.key_exchange
884 List of TLS key exchange methods
887 List of TLS MAC algorithms
890 List of TLS cipher suites
894 Credential database URI for manager
896 .BR manager.debug " [no]"
897 Enable debugging in manager
900 Plugins to load in manager
903 FastCGI socket of manager, to run it statically
905 .BR manager.threads " [10]"
906 Threads to use for request handling
908 .BR manager.timeout " [15m]"
909 Session timeout for manager
910 .SS mediation client section
913 Mediation client database URI
915 .BR medcli.dpd " [5m]"
916 DPD timeout to use in mediation client plugin
918 .BR medcli.rekey " [20m]"
919 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation client plugin
920 .SS mediation server section
923 Mediation server database URI
925 .BR medsrv.debug " [no]"
926 Debugging in mediation server web application
928 .BR medsrv.dpd " [5m]"
929 DPD timeout to use in mediation server plugin
932 Plugins to load in mediation server plugin
934 .BR medsrv.password_length " [6]"
935 Minimum password length required for mediation server user accounts
937 .BR medsrv.rekey " [20m]"
938 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation server plugin
941 Run Mediation server web application statically on socket
943 .BR medsrv.threads " [5]"
944 Number of thread for mediation service web application
946 .BR medsrv.timeout " [15m]"
947 Session timeout for mediation service
951 Plugins to load in ipsec openac tool
955 Database URI for the database that stores the package information
959 Plugins to load in ipsec pki tool
963 Plugins to load in ipsec pool tool
964 .SS scepclient section
967 Plugins to load in ipsec scepclient tool
971 Plugins to load in starter
973 .BR starter.load_warning " [yes]"
974 Disable charon plugin load option warning
976 .SH LOGGER CONFIGURATION
977 The options described below provide a much more flexible way to configure
978 loggers for the IKEv2 daemon charon than using the
984 that if any loggers are specified in strongswan.conf,
986 does not have any effect.
988 There are currently two types of loggers defined:
991 Log directly to a file and are defined by specifying the full path to the
992 file as subsection in the
994 section. To log to the console the two special filenames
995 .BR stdout " and " stderr
999 Log into a syslog facility and are defined by specifying the facility to log to
1000 as the name of a subsection in the
1002 section. The following facilities are currently supported:
1003 .BR daemon " and " auth .
1005 Multiple loggers can be defined for each type with different log verbosity for
1006 the different subsystems of the daemon.
1009 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.default " [1]"
1011 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.default
1012 Specifies the default loglevel to be used for subsystems for which no specific
1013 loglevel is defined.
1015 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.<subsystem> " [<default>]"
1017 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.<subsystem>
1018 Specifies the loglevel for the given subsystem.
1020 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.append " [yes]"
1021 If this option is enabled log entries are appended to the existing file.
1023 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.flush_line " [no]"
1024 Enabling this option disables block buffering and enables line buffering.
1026 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.ike_name " [no]"
1028 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.ike_name
1029 Prefix each log entry with the connection name and a unique numerical
1030 identifier for each IKE_SA.
1032 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.time_format
1033 Prefix each log entry with a timestamp. The option accepts a format string as
1037 .BR charon.syslog.identifier
1038 Global identifier used for an
1040 call, prepended to each log message by syslog. If not configured,
1042 is not called, so the value will depend on system defaults (often the program
1048 Main daemon setup/cleanup/signal handling
1051 IKE_SA manager, handling synchronization for IKE_SA access
1060 Jobs queueing/processing and thread pool management
1063 Configuration management and plugins
1066 IPsec/Networking kernel interface
1069 IKE network communication
1072 Low-level encoding/decoding (ASN.1, X.509 etc.)
1075 Packet encoding/decoding encryption/decryption operations
1078 libtls library messages
1081 libipsec library messages
1084 libstrongwan library messages
1087 Trusted Network Connect
1090 Integrity Measurement Collector
1093 Integrity Measurement Verifier
1096 Platform Trust Service
1103 Very basic auditing logs, (e.g. SA up/SA down)
1106 Generic control flow with errors, a good default to see whats going on
1109 More detailed debugging control flow
1112 Including RAW data dumps in Hex
1115 Also include sensitive material in dumps, e.g. keys
1121 /var/log/charon.log {
1122 time_format = %b %e %T
1133 # enable logging to LOG_DAEMON, use defaults
1136 # minimalistic IKE auditing logging to LOG_AUTHPRIV
1145 .SH JOB PRIORITY MANAGEMENT
1146 Some operations in the IKEv2 daemon charon are currently implemented
1147 synchronously and blocking. Two examples for such operations are communication
1148 with a RADIUS server via EAP-RADIUS, or fetching CRL/OCSP information during
1149 certificate chain verification. Under high load conditions, the thread pool may
1150 run out of available threads, and some more important jobs, such as liveness
1151 checking, may not get executed in time.
1153 To prevent thread starvation in such situations job priorities were introduced.
1154 The job processor will reserve some threads for higher priority jobs, these
1155 threads are not available for lower priority, locking jobs.
1157 Currently 4 priorities have been defined, and they are used in charon as
1161 Priority for long-running dispatcher jobs.
1164 INFORMATIONAL exchanges, as used by liveness checking (DPD).
1167 Everything not HIGH/LOW, including IKE_SA_INIT processing.
1170 IKE_AUTH message processing. RADIUS and CRL fetching block here
1172 Although IKE_SA_INIT processing is computationally expensive, it is explicitly
1173 assigned to the MEDIUM class. This allows charon to do the DH exchange while
1174 other threads are blocked in IKE_AUTH. To prevent the daemon from accepting more
1175 IKE_SA_INIT requests than it can handle, use IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING.
1177 The thread pool processes jobs strictly by priority, meaning it will consume all
1178 higher priority jobs before looking for ones with lower priority. Further, it
1179 reserves threads for certain priorities. A priority class having reserved
1181 threads will always have
1183 threads available for this class (either currently processing a job, or waiting
1186 To ensure that there are always enough threads available for higher priority
1187 tasks, threads must be reserved for each priority class.
1189 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.critical " [0]"
1190 Threads reserved for CRITICAL priority class jobs
1192 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.high " [0]"
1193 Threads reserved for HIGH priority class jobs
1195 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.medium " [0]"
1196 Threads reserved for MEDIUM priority class jobs
1198 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.low " [0]"
1199 Threads reserved for LOW priority class jobs
1201 Let's consider the following configuration:
1214 With this configuration, one thread is reserved for HIGH priority tasks. As
1215 currently only liveness checking and stroke message processing is done with
1216 high priority, one or two threads should be sufficient.
1218 The MEDIUM class mostly processes non-blocking jobs. Unless your setup is
1219 experiencing many blocks in locks while accessing shared resources, threads for
1220 one or two times the number of CPU cores is fine.
1222 It is usually not required to reserve threads for CRITICAL jobs. Jobs in this
1223 class rarely return and do not release their thread to the pool.
1225 The remaining threads are available for LOW priority jobs. Reserving threads
1226 does not make sense (until we have an even lower priority).
1228 To see what the threads are actually doing, invoke
1229 .IR "ipsec statusall" .
1230 Under high load, something like this will show up:
1233 worker threads: 2 or 32 idle, 5/1/2/22 working,
1234 job queue: 0/0/1/149, scheduled: 198
1237 From 32 worker threads,
1241 are running CRITICAL priority jobs (dispatching from sockets, etc.).
1243 is currently handling a HIGH priority job. This is actually the thread currently
1244 providing this information via stroke.
1246 are handling MEDIUM priority jobs, likely IKE_SA_INIT or CREATE_CHILD_SA
1249 are handling LOW priority jobs, probably waiting for an EAP-RADIUS response
1250 while processing IKE_AUTH messages.
1252 The job queue load shows how many jobs are queued for each priority, ready for
1253 execution. The single MEDIUM priority job will get executed immediately, as
1254 we have two spare threads reserved for MEDIUM class jobs.
1256 .SH IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING
1257 If a responder receives more connection requests per seconds than it can handle,
1258 it does not make sense to accept more IKE_SA_INIT messages. And if they are
1259 queued but can't get processed in time, an answer might be sent after the
1260 client has already given up and restarted its connection setup. This
1261 additionally increases the load on the responder.
1263 To limit the responder load resulting from new connection attempts, the daemon
1264 can drop IKE_SA_INIT messages just after reception. There are two mechanisms to
1265 decide if this should happen, configured with the following options:
1267 .BR charon.init_limit_half_open " [0]"
1268 Limit based on the number of half open IKE_SAs. Half open IKE_SAs are SAs in
1269 connecting state, but not yet established.
1271 .BR charon.init_limit_job_load " [0]"
1272 Limit based on the number of jobs currently queued for processing (sum over all
1275 The second limit includes load from other jobs, such as rekeying. Choosing a
1276 good value is difficult and depends on the hardware and expected load.
1278 The first limit is simpler to calculate, but includes the load from new
1279 connections only. If your responder is capable of negotiating 100 tunnels/s, you
1280 might set this limit to 1000. The daemon will then drop new connection attempts
1281 if generating a response would require more than 10 seconds. If you are
1282 allowing for a maximum response time of more than 30 seconds, consider adjusting
1283 the timeout for connecting IKE_SAs
1284 .RB ( charon.half_open_timeout ).
1285 A responder, by default, deletes an IKE_SA if the initiator does not establish
1286 it within 30 seconds. Under high load, a higher value might be required.
1289 To do stability testing and performance optimizations, the IKEv2 daemon charon
1290 provides the load-tester plugin. This plugin allows one to setup thousands of
1291 tunnels concurrently against the daemon itself or a remote host.
1294 Never enable the load-testing plugin on productive systems. It provides
1295 preconfigured credentials and allows an attacker to authenticate as any user.
1298 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.addrs
1299 Subsection that contains key/value pairs with address pools (in CIDR notation)
1300 to use for a specific network interface e.g. eth0 = 10.10.0.0/16
1302 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.addrs_prefix " [16]"
1303 Network prefix length to use when installing dynamic addresses. If set to -1 the
1304 full address is used (i.e. 32 or 128)
1306 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.ca_dir
1307 Directory to load (intermediate) CA certificates from
1309 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.child_rekey " [600]"
1310 Seconds to start CHILD_SA rekeying after setup
1312 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delay " [0]"
1313 Delay between initiatons for each thread
1315 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delete_after_established " [no]"
1316 Delete an IKE_SA as soon as it has been established
1318 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.digest " [sha1]"
1319 Digest algorithm used when issuing certificates
1321 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.dpd_delay " [0]"
1322 DPD delay to use in load test
1324 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.dynamic_port " [0]"
1325 Base port to be used for requests (each client uses a different port)
1327 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.eap_password " [default-pwd]"
1328 EAP secret to use in load test
1330 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.enable " [no]"
1331 Enable the load testing plugin
1333 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.fake_kernel " [no]"
1334 Fake the kernel interface to allow load-testing against self
1336 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.ike_rekey " [0]"
1337 Seconds to start IKE_SA rekeying after setup
1339 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.init_limit " [0]"
1340 Global limit of concurrently established SAs during load test
1342 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator " [0.0.0.0]"
1343 Address to initiate from
1345 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiators " [0]"
1346 Number of concurrent initiator threads to use in load test
1348 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_auth " [pubkey]"
1349 Authentication method(s) the intiator uses
1351 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_id
1352 Initiator ID used in load test
1354 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_match
1355 Initiator ID to to match against as responder
1357 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_tsi
1358 Traffic selector on initiator side, as proposed by initiator
1360 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_tsr
1361 Traffic selector on responder side, as proposed by initiator
1363 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.iterations " [1]"
1364 Number of IKE_SAs to initiate by each initiator in load test
1366 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.issuer_cert
1367 Path to the issuer certificate (if not configured a hard-coded value is used)
1369 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.issuer_key
1370 Path to private key that is used to issue certificates (if not configured a
1371 hard-coded value is used)
1373 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.pool
1374 Provide INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRs from a named pool
1376 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.preshared_key " [default-psk]"
1377 Preshared key to use in load test
1379 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.proposal " [aes128-sha1-modp768]"
1380 IKE proposal to use in load test
1382 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder " [127.0.0.1]"
1383 Address to initiation connections to
1385 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_auth " [pubkey]"
1386 Authentication method(s) the responder uses
1388 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_id
1389 Responder ID used in load test
1391 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_tsi " [initiator_tsi]"
1392 Traffic selector on initiator side, as narrowed by responder
1394 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_tsr " [initiator_tsr]"
1395 Traffic selector on responder side, as narrowed by responder
1397 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.request_virtual_ip " [no]"
1398 Request an INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDR from the server
1400 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.shutdown_when_complete " [no]"
1401 Shutdown the daemon after all IKE_SAs have been established
1403 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.version " [0]"
1404 IKE version to use (0 means use IKEv2 as initiator and accept any version as
1406 .SS Configuration details
1407 For public key authentication, the responder uses the
1408 .B \(dqCN=srv, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq
1409 identity. For the initiator, each connection attempt uses a different identity
1411 .BR "\(dqCN=c1-r1, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq" ,
1412 where the first number inidicates the client number, the second the
1413 authentication round (if multiple authentication is used).
1415 For PSK authentication, FQDN identities are used. The server uses
1416 .BR srv.strongswan.org ,
1417 the client uses an identity in the form
1418 .BR c1-r1.strongswan.org .
1420 For EAP authentication, the client uses a NAI in the form
1421 .BR 100000000010001@strongswan.org .
1423 To configure multiple authentication, concatenate multiple methods using, e.g.
1425 initiator_auth = pubkey|psk|eap-md5|eap-aka
1428 The responder uses a hardcoded certificate based on a 1024-bit RSA key.
1429 This certificate additionally serves as CA certificate. A peer uses the same
1430 private key, but generates client certificates on demand signed by the CA
1431 certificate. Install the Responder/CA certificate on the remote host to
1432 authenticate all clients.
1434 To speed up testing, the load tester plugin implements a special Diffie-Hellman
1435 implementation called modpnull. By setting
1437 proposal = aes128-sha1-modpnull
1439 this wicked fast DH implementation is used. It does not provide any security
1440 at all, but allows one to run tests without DH calculation overhead.
1443 In the simplest case, the daemon initiates IKE_SAs against itself using the
1444 loopback interface. This will actually establish double the number of IKE_SAs,
1445 as the daemon is initiator and responder for each IKE_SA at the same time.
1446 Installation of IPsec SAs would fails, as each SA gets installed twice. To
1447 simulate the correct behavior, a fake kernel interface can be enabled which does
1448 not install the IPsec SAs at the kernel level.
1450 A simple loopback configuration might look like this:
1454 # create new IKE_SAs for each CHILD_SA to simulate
1457 # turn off denial of service protection
1464 # use 4 threads to initiate connections
1467 # each thread initiates 1000 connections
1469 # delay each initiation in each thread by 20ms
1471 # enable the fake kernel interface to
1472 # avoid SA conflicts
1479 This will initiate 4000 IKE_SAs within 20 seconds. You may increase the delay
1480 value if your box can not handle that much load, or decrease it to put more
1481 load on it. If the daemon starts retransmitting messages your box probably can
1482 not handle all connection attempts.
1484 The plugin also allows one to test against a remote host. This might help to
1485 test against a real world configuration. A connection setup to do stress
1486 testing of a gateway might look like this:
1496 # 10000 connections, ten in parallel
1499 # use a delay of 100ms, overall time is:
1500 # iterations * delay = 100s
1502 # address of the gateway
1504 # IKE-proposal to use
1505 proposal = aes128-sha1-modp1024
1506 # use faster PSK authentication instead
1508 initiator_auth = psk
1509 responder_auth = psk
1510 # request a virtual IP using configuration
1512 request_virtual_ip = yes
1513 # enable CHILD_SA every 60s
1520 .SH IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
1521 Retransmission timeouts in the IKEv2 daemon charon can be configured globally
1522 using the three keys listed below:
1526 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
1527 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]"
1528 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
1532 The following algorithm is used to calculate the timeout:
1535 relative timeout = retransmit_timeout * retransmit_base ^ (n-1)
1540 is the current retransmission count.
1542 Using the default values, packets are retransmitted in:
1548 Retransmission Relative Timeout Absolute Timeout
1558 /etc/strongswan.conf
1561 ipsec.conf(5), ipsec.secrets(5), ipsec(8)
1564 .UR http://www.strongswan.org
1567 by Tobias Brunner, Andreas Steffen and Martin Willi.