1 .TH STRONGSWAN.CONF 5 "2012-05-01" "@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]"
164 .BR charon.half_open_timeout " [30]"
165 Timeout in seconds for connecting IKE_SAs (also see IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
167 .BR charon.hash_and_url " [no]"
168 Enable hash and URL support
170 .BR charon.i_dont_care_about_security_and_use_aggressive_mode_psk " [no]"
171 If enabled responders are allowed to use IKEv1 Aggressive Mode with pre-shared
172 keys, which is discouraged due to security concerns (offline attacks on the
173 openly transmitted hash of the PSK)
175 .BR charon.ignore_routing_tables
176 A list of routing tables to be excluded from route lookup
178 .BR charon.ikesa_table_segments " [1]"
179 Number of exclusively locked segments in the hash table
181 .BR charon.ikesa_table_size " [1]"
182 Size of the IKE_SA hash table
184 .BR charon.inactivity_close_ike " [no]"
185 Whether to close IKE_SA if the only CHILD_SA closed due to inactivity
187 .BR charon.init_limit_half_open " [0]"
188 Limit new connections based on the current number of half open IKE_SAs (see
189 IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
191 .BR charon.init_limit_job_load " [0]"
192 Limit new connections based on the number of jobs currently queued for
193 processing (see IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
195 .BR charon.install_routes " [yes]"
196 Install routes into a separate routing table for established IPsec tunnels
198 .BR charon.install_virtual_ip " [yes]"
199 Install virtual IP addresses
201 .BR charon.keep_alive " [20s]"
202 NAT keep alive interval
205 Plugins to load in the IKEv2 daemon charon
207 .BR charon.max_packet " [10000]"
208 Maximum packet size accepted by charon
210 .BR charon.multiple_authentication " [yes]"
211 Enable multiple authentication exchanges (RFC 4739)
216 WINS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP)
218 .BR charon.port " [500]"
219 UDP port used locally. If set to 0 a random port will be allocated.
221 .BR charon.port_nat_t " [4500]"
222 UDP port used locally in case of NAT-T. If set to 0 a random port will be
223 allocated. Has to be different from
225 otherwise a random port will be allocated.
227 .BR charon.process_route " [yes]"
228 Process RTM_NEWROUTE and RTM_DELROUTE events
230 .BR charon.receive_delay " [0]"
231 Delay for receiving packets, to simulate larger RTT
233 .BR charon.receive_delay_response " [yes]"
234 Delay response messages
236 .BR charon.receive_delay_request " [yes]"
237 Delay request messages
239 .BR charon.receive_delay_type " [0]"
240 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
242 .BR charon.replay_window " [32]"
243 Size of the AH/ESP replay window, in packets.
245 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
246 Base to use for calculating exponential back off, see IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
248 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]
249 Timeout in seconds before sending first retransmit
251 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
252 Number of times to retransmit a packet before giving up
254 .BR charon.retry_initiate_interval " [0]"
255 Interval to use when retrying to initiate an IKE_SA (e.g. if DNS resolution
256 failed), 0 to disable retries.
258 .BR charon.reuse_ikesa " [yes]
259 Initiate CHILD_SA within existing IKE_SAs
261 .BR charon.routing_table
262 Numerical routing table to install routes to
264 .BR charon.routing_table_prio
265 Priority of the routing table
267 .BR charon.send_delay " [0]"
268 Delay for sending packets, to simulate larger RTT
270 .BR charon.send_delay_response " [yes]"
271 Delay response messages
273 .BR charon.send_delay_request " [yes]"
274 Delay request messages
276 .BR charon.send_delay_type " [0]"
277 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
279 .BR charon.send_vendor_id " [no]
280 Send strongSwan vendor ID payload
283 Section to define syslog loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION
285 .BR charon.threads " [16]"
286 Number of worker threads in charon
287 .SS charon.plugins subsection
289 .BR charon.plugins.android_log.loglevel " [1]"
290 Loglevel for logging to Android specific logger
292 .BR charon.plugins.attr
293 Section to specify arbitrary attributes that are assigned to a peer via
294 configuration payload (CP)
296 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.cron
297 Cron style string specifying CSV export times
299 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.local
300 strftime(3) format string for the CSV file name to export local certificates to
302 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.remote
303 strftime(3) format string for the CSV file name to export remote certificates to
305 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.separator " [,]"
308 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.empty_string
309 String to use in empty intermediate CA fields
311 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.format " [%d:%m:%Y]"
312 strftime(3) format string to export expiration dates as
314 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.fixed_fields " [yes]"
315 Use a fixed intermediate CA field count
317 .BR charon.plugins.coupling.file
318 File to store coupling list to
320 .BR charon.plugins.coupling.hash " [sha1]"
321 Hashing algorithm to fingerprint coupled certificates
323 .BR charon.plugins.coupling.max " [1]"
324 Maximum number of coupling entries to create
326 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.force_server_address " [no]"
327 Always use the configured server address. This might be helpful if the DHCP
328 server runs on the same host as strongSwan, and the DHCP daemon does not listen
329 on the loopback interface. In that case the server cannot be reached via
330 unicast (or even 255.255.255.255) as that would be routed via loopback.
331 Setting this option to yes and configuring the local broadcast address (e.g.
332 192.168.0.255) as server address might work.
334 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.identity_lease " [no]"
335 Derive user-defined MAC address from hash of IKEv2 identity
337 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.server " [255.255.255.255]"
338 DHCP server unicast or broadcast IP address
340 .BR charon.plugins.duplicheck.enable " [yes]"
341 Enable duplicheck plugin (if loaded)
343 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka.request_identity " [yes]"
346 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka-3ggp2.seq_check
349 .BR charon.plugins.eap-dynamic.preferred
350 The preferred EAP method(s) to be used. If it is not given the first
351 registered method will be used initially. If a comma separated list is given
352 the methods are tried in the given order before trying the rest of the
355 .BR charon.plugins.eap-dynamic.prefer_user " [no]"
356 If enabled the EAP methods proposed in an EAP-Nak message sent by the peer are
357 preferred over the methods registered locally.
359 .BR charon.plugins.eap-gtc.backend " [pam]"
360 XAuth backend to be used for credential verification
362 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.fragment_size " [1024]"
363 Maximum size of an EAP-PEAP packet
365 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.max_message_count " [32]"
366 Maximum number of processed EAP-PEAP packets (0 = no limit)
368 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.include_length " [no]"
369 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-PEAP packets
371 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_method " [mschapv2]"
372 Phase2 EAP client authentication method
374 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_piggyback " [no]"
375 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Finished message
377 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_tnc " [no]"
378 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authentication
380 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.request_peer_auth " [no]"
381 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate
384 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.accounting " [no]"
385 Send RADIUS accounting information to RADIUS servers.
387 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.class_group " [no]"
390 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
391 is compared to the groups specified in the
396 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.enable " [no]"
397 Enables support for the Dynamic Authorization Extension (RFC 5176)
399 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.listen " [0.0.0.0]"
400 Address to listen for DAE messages from the RADIUS server
402 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.port " [3799]"
403 Port to listen for DAE requests
405 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.secret
406 Shared secret used to verify/sign DAE messages
408 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.eap_start " [no]"
409 Send EAP-Start instead of EAP-Identity to start RADIUS conversation
411 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.filter_id " [no]"
418 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
419 is compared to the groups specified in the
424 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.ike_to_radius
425 RADIUS attributes to be forwarded from IKEv2 to RADIUS (can be defined by
426 name or attribute number, a colon can be used to specify vendor-specific
427 attributes, e.g. Reply-Message, or 11, or 36906:12).
429 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.radius_to_ike
430 Same as charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.ike_to_radius but from RADIUS to
431 IKEv2, a strongSwan specific private notify (40969) is used to transmit the
434 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.id_prefix
435 Prefix to EAP-Identity, some AAA servers use a IMSI prefix to select the
438 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.nas_identifier " [strongSwan]"
439 NAS-Identifier to include in RADIUS messages
441 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.port " [1812]"
442 Port of RADIUS server (authentication)
444 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.secret
445 Shared secret between RADIUS and NAS
447 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.server
448 IP/Hostname of RADIUS server
450 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.servers
451 Section to specify multiple RADIUS servers. The
457 options can be specified for each server. A server's IP/Hostname can be
460 option. For each RADIUS server a priority can be specified using the
461 .BR preference " [0]"
464 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.sockets " [1]"
465 Number of sockets (ports) to use, increase for high load
467 .BR charon.plugins.eap-sim.request_identity " [yes]"
470 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.database
473 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.remove_used " [no]"
476 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.fragment_size " [1024]"
477 Maximum size of an EAP-TLS packet
479 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.max_message_count " [32]"
480 Maximum number of processed EAP-TLS packets (0 = no limit)
482 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.include_length " [yes]"
483 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TLS packets
485 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.max_message_count " [10]"
486 Maximum number of processed EAP-TNC packets (0 = no limit)
488 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.protocol " [tnccs-1.1]"
489 IF-TNCCS protocol version to be used (tnccs-1.1, tnccs-2.0, tnccs-dynamic)
491 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.fragment_size " [1024]"
492 Maximum size of an EAP-TTLS packet
494 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.max_message_count " [32]"
495 Maximum number of processed EAP-TTLS packets (0 = no limit)
497 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.include_length " [yes]"
498 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TTLS packets
500 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_method " [md5]"
501 Phase2 EAP client authentication method
503 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_piggyback " [no]"
504 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Finished message
506 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_tnc " [no]"
507 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authentication
509 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.request_peer_auth " [no]"
510 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate
512 .BR charon.plugins.ha.fifo_interface " [yes]"
515 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_delay " [1000]"
518 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_timeout " [2100]"
521 .BR charon.plugins.ha.local
524 .BR charon.plugins.ha.monitor " [yes]"
527 .BR charon.plugins.ha.pools
530 .BR charon.plugins.ha.remote
533 .BR charon.plugins.ha.resync " [yes]"
536 .BR charon.plugins.ha.secret
539 .BR charon.plugins.ha.segment_count " [1]"
542 .BR charon.plugins.led.activity_led
545 .BR charon.plugins.led.blink_time " [50]"
548 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_count " [4]"
549 Number of ipsecN devices
551 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_mtu " [0]"
552 Set MTU of ipsecN device
554 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester
555 Section to configure the load-tester plugin, see LOAD TESTS
557 .BR charon.plugins.radattr.dir
558 Directory where RADIUS attributes are stored in client-ID specific files.
560 .BR charon.plugins.radattr.message_id " [-1]"
561 Attributes are added to all IKE_AUTH messages by default (-1), or only to the
562 IKE_AUTH message with the given IKEv2 message ID.
564 .BR charon.plugins.resolve.file " [/etc/resolv.conf]"
565 File where to add DNS server entries
567 .BR charon.plugins.resolve.resolvconf.iface_prefix " [lo.inet.ipsec.]"
568 Prefix used for interface names sent to resolvconf(8). The nameserver address
569 is appended to this prefix to make it unique. The result has to be a valid
570 interface name according to the rules defined by resolvconf. Also, it should
571 have a high priority according to the order defined in interface-order(5).
573 .BR charon.plugins.socket-default.set_source " [yes]"
574 Set source address on outbound packets, if possible.
576 .BR charon.plugins.sql.database
577 Database URI for charons SQL plugin
579 .BR charon.plugins.sql.loglevel " [-1]"
580 Loglevel for logging to SQL database
582 .BR charon.plugins.stroke.ignore_missing_ca_basic_constraint " [no]"
583 Treat certificates in ipsec.d/cacerts and ipsec.conf ca sections as CA
584 certificates even if they don't contain a CA basic constraint.
586 .BR charon.plugins.stroke.max_concurrent " [4]"
587 Maximum number of stroke messages handled concurrently
589 .BR charon.plugins.tnccs-11.max_message_size " [45000]"
590 Maximum size of a PA-TNC message (XML & Base64 encoding)
592 .BR charon.plugins.tnccs-20.max_batch_size " [65522]"
593 Maximum size of a PB-TNC batch (upper limit via PT-EAP = 65529)
595 .BR charon.plugins.tnccs-20.max_message_size " [65490]"
596 Maximum size of a PA-TNC message (upper limit via PT-EAP = 65497)
598 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.device_name
599 Unique name of strongSwan as a PEP and/or PDP device
601 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.key_file
602 Concatenated client certificate and private key
604 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.password
605 Authentication password of strongSwan MAP client
607 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.server_cert
608 Certificate of MAP server
610 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.ssl_passphrase
611 Passphrase protecting the private key
613 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.username
614 Authentication username of strongSwan MAP client
616 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.preferred_language " [en]"
617 Preferred language for TNC recommendations
619 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.method " [ttls]"
620 EAP tunnel method to be used
622 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.port " [1812]"
623 RADIUS server port the strongSwan PDP is listening on
625 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.secret
626 Shared RADIUS secret between strongSwan PDP and NAS
628 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.server
629 Name of the strongSwan PDP as contained in the AAA certificate
631 .BR charon.plugins.updown.dns_handler " [no]"
632 Whether the updown script should handle DNS serves assigned via IKEv1 Mode
633 Config or IKEv2 Config Payloads (if enabled they can't be handled by other
634 plugins, like resolve)
636 .BR charon.plugins.whitelist.enable " [yes]"
637 Enable loaded whitelist plugin
639 .BR charon.plugins.xauth-eap.backend " [radius]"
640 EAP plugin to be used as backend for XAuth credential verification
642 .BR charon.plugins.xauth-pam.pam_service " [login]"
643 PAM service to be used for authentication
644 .SS libstrongswan section
646 .BR libstrongswan.cert_cache " [yes]"
647 Whether relations in validated certificate chains should be cached in memory
649 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench " [no]"
652 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_size " [1024]"
655 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_time " [50]"
658 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_add " [no]"
659 Test crypto algorithms during registration
661 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_create " [no]"
662 Test crypto algorithms on each crypto primitive instantiation
664 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.required " [no]"
665 Strictly require at least one test vector to enable an algorithm
667 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.rng_true " [no]"
668 Whether to test RNG with TRUE quality; requires a lot of entropy
670 .BR libstrongswan.dh_exponent_ansi_x9_42 " [yes]"
671 Use ANSI X9.42 DH exponent size or optimum size matched to cryptographical
674 .BR libstrongswan.ecp_x_coordinate_only " [yes]"
675 Compliance with the errata for RFC 4753
677 .BR libstrongswan.integrity_test " [no]"
678 Check daemon, libstrongswan and plugin integrity at startup
680 .BR libstrongswan.leak_detective.detailed " [yes]"
681 Includes source file names and line numbers in leak detective output
683 .BR libstrongswan.leak_detective.usage_threshold " [10240]"
684 Threshold in bytes for leaks to be reported (0 to report all)
686 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads
687 Subsection to configure the number of reserved threads per priority class
688 see JOB PRIORITY MANAGEMENT
690 .BR libstrongswan.x509.enforce_critical " [yes]"
691 Discard certificates with unsupported or unknown critical extensions
692 .SS libstrongswan.plugins subsection
694 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.database
695 Database URI for attr-sql plugin used by charon
697 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.lease_history " [yes]"
698 Enable logging of SQL IP pool leases
700 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.gcrypt.quick_random " [no]"
701 Use faster random numbers in gcrypt; for testing only, produces weak keys!
703 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.openssl.engine_id " [pkcs11]"
704 ENGINE ID to use in the OpenSSL plugin
706 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.modules
707 List of available PKCS#11 modules
709 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_dh " [no]"
710 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for DH and ECDH (see use_ecc option)
712 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_ecc " [no]"
713 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for ECDH and ECDSA public key
714 operations. ECDSA private keys can be used regardless of this option
716 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_hasher " [no]"
717 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used to hash data
719 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_pubkey " [no]"
720 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for public key operations, even for
721 keys not stored on tokens
723 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_rng " [no]"
724 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used as RNG
726 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.random.random " [@DEV_RANDOM@]"
727 File to read random bytes from, instead of @DEV_RANDOM@
729 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.random.urandom " [@DEV_URANDOM@]"
730 File to read pseudo random bytes from, instead of @DEV_URANDOM@
733 .BR libtnccs.tnc_config " [/etc/tnc_config]"
734 TNC IMC/IMV configuration directory
737 .BR libimcv.assessment_result " [yes]"
738 Whether IMVs send a standard IETF Assessment Result attribute
740 .BR libimcv.debug_level " [1]"
741 Debug level for a stand-alone libimcv library
743 .BR libimcv.stderr_quiet " [no]"
744 Disable output to stderr with a stand-alone libimcv library
745 .SS libimcv plugins section
747 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.platform_info
748 Information on operating system and hardware platform
750 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_blob
751 AIK encrypted private key blob file
753 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_cert
756 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_key
759 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.nonce_len " [20]"
762 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.use_quote2 " [yes]"
763 Use Quote2 AIK signature instead of Quote signature
765 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.cadir
766 Path to directory with AIK cacerts
768 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.database
769 Path to database with file measurement information
771 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.dh_group " [ecp256]"
772 Preferred Diffie-Hellman group
774 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.hash_algorithm " [sha256]"
775 Preferred measurement hash algorithm
777 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.min_nonce_len " [0]"
778 DH minimum nonce length
780 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.platform_info
781 Information on operating system and hardware platform
783 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-scanner.closed_port_policy " [yes]"
784 By default all ports must be closed (yes) or can be open (no)
786 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-scanner.tcp_ports
787 List of TCP ports that can be open or must be closed
789 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-scanner.udp_ports
790 List of UDP ports that can be open or must be closed
792 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.additional_ids " [0]"
793 Number of additional IMC IDs
795 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.command " [none]"
796 Command to be sent to the Test IMV
798 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.dummy_size " [0]"
799 Size of dummy attribute to be sent to the Test IMV (0 = disabled)
801 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.retry " [no]"
804 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.retry_command
805 Command to be sent to the Test IMV in the handshake retry
807 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-test.rounds " [0]"
808 Number of IMC-IMV retry rounds
812 List of TLS encryption ciphers
814 .BR libtls.key_exchange
815 List of TLS key exchange methods
818 List of TLS MAC algorithms
821 List of TLS cipher suites
825 Credential database URI for manager
827 .BR manager.debug " [no]"
828 Enable debugging in manager
831 Plugins to load in manager
834 FastCGI socket of manager, to run it statically
836 .BR manager.threads " [10]"
837 Threads to use for request handling
839 .BR manager.timeout " [15m]"
840 Session timeout for manager
841 .SS mediation client section
844 Mediation client database URI
846 .BR medcli.dpd " [5m]"
847 DPD timeout to use in mediation client plugin
849 .BR medcli.rekey " [20m]"
850 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation client plugin
851 .SS mediation server section
854 Mediation server database URI
856 .BR medsrv.debug " [no]"
857 Debugging in mediation server web application
859 .BR medsrv.dpd " [5m]"
860 DPD timeout to use in mediation server plugin
863 Plugins to load in mediation server plugin
865 .BR medsrv.password_length " [6]"
866 Minimum password length required for mediation server user accounts
868 .BR medsrv.rekey " [20m]"
869 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation server plugin
872 Run Mediation server web application statically on socket
874 .BR medsrv.threads " [5]"
875 Number of thread for mediation service web application
877 .BR medsrv.timeout " [15m]"
878 Session timeout for mediation service
882 Plugins to load in ipsec openac tool
886 Plugins to load in ipsec pki tool
890 Plugins to load in ipsec pool tool
891 .SS scepclient section
894 Plugins to load in ipsec scepclient tool
898 Plugins to load in starter
900 .BR starter.load_warning " [yes]"
901 Disable charon plugin load option warning
903 .SH LOGGER CONFIGURATION
904 The options described below provide a much more flexible way to configure
905 loggers for the IKEv2 daemon charon than using the
911 that if any loggers are specified in strongswan.conf,
913 does not have any effect.
915 There are currently two types of loggers defined:
918 Log directly to a file and are defined by specifying the full path to the
919 file as subsection in the
921 section. To log to the console the two special filenames
922 .BR stdout " and " stderr
926 Log into a syslog facility and are defined by specifying the facility to log to
927 as the name of a subsection in the
929 section. The following facilities are currently supported:
930 .BR daemon " and " auth .
932 Multiple loggers can be defined for each type with different log verbosity for
933 the different subsystems of the daemon.
936 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.default " [1]"
938 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.default
939 Specifies the default loglevel to be used for subsystems for which no specific
942 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.<subsystem> " [<default>]"
944 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.<subsystem>
945 Specifies the loglevel for the given subsystem.
947 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.append " [yes]"
948 If this option is enabled log entries are appended to the existing file.
950 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.flush_line " [no]"
951 Enabling this option disables block buffering and enables line buffering.
953 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.ike_name " [no]"
955 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.ike_name
956 Prefix each log entry with the connection name and a unique numerical
957 identifier for each IKE_SA.
959 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.time_format
960 Prefix each log entry with a timestamp. The option accepts a format string as
964 .BR charon.syslog.identifier
965 Global identifier used for an
967 call, prepended to each log message by syslog. If not configured,
969 is not called, so the value will depend on system defaults (often the program
975 Main daemon setup/cleanup/signal handling
978 IKE_SA manager, handling synchronization for IKE_SA access
987 Jobs queueing/processing and thread pool management
990 Configuration management and plugins
993 IPsec/Networking kernel interface
996 IKE network communication
999 Low-level encoding/decoding (ASN.1, X.509 etc.)
1002 Packet encoding/decoding encryption/decryption operations
1005 libtls library messages
1008 libipsec library messages
1011 libstrongwan library messages
1014 Trusted Network Connect
1017 Integrity Measurement Collector
1020 Integrity Measurement Verifier
1023 Platform Trust Service
1030 Very basic auditing logs, (e.g. SA up/SA down)
1033 Generic control flow with errors, a good default to see whats going on
1036 More detailed debugging control flow
1039 Including RAW data dumps in Hex
1042 Also include sensitive material in dumps, e.g. keys
1048 /var/log/charon.log {
1049 time_format = %b %e %T
1060 # enable logging to LOG_DAEMON, use defaults
1063 # minimalistic IKE auditing logging to LOG_AUTHPRIV
1072 .SH JOB PRIORITY MANAGEMENT
1073 Some operations in the IKEv2 daemon charon are currently implemented
1074 synchronously and blocking. Two examples for such operations are communication
1075 with a RADIUS server via EAP-RADIUS, or fetching CRL/OCSP information during
1076 certificate chain verification. Under high load conditions, the thread pool may
1077 run out of available threads, and some more important jobs, such as liveness
1078 checking, may not get executed in time.
1080 To prevent thread starvation in such situations job priorities were introduced.
1081 The job processor will reserve some threads for higher priority jobs, these
1082 threads are not available for lower priority, locking jobs.
1084 Currently 4 priorities have been defined, and they are used in charon as
1088 Priority for long-running dispatcher jobs.
1091 INFORMATIONAL exchanges, as used by liveness checking (DPD).
1094 Everything not HIGH/LOW, including IKE_SA_INIT processing.
1097 IKE_AUTH message processing. RADIUS and CRL fetching block here
1099 Although IKE_SA_INIT processing is computationally expensive, it is explicitly
1100 assigned to the MEDIUM class. This allows charon to do the DH exchange while
1101 other threads are blocked in IKE_AUTH. To prevent the daemon from accepting more
1102 IKE_SA_INIT requests than it can handle, use IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING.
1104 The thread pool processes jobs strictly by priority, meaning it will consume all
1105 higher priority jobs before looking for ones with lower priority. Further, it
1106 reserves threads for certain priorities. A priority class having reserved
1108 threads will always have
1110 threads available for this class (either currently processing a job, or waiting
1113 To ensure that there are always enough threads available for higher priority
1114 tasks, threads must be reserved for each priority class.
1116 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.critical " [0]"
1117 Threads reserved for CRITICAL priority class jobs
1119 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.high " [0]"
1120 Threads reserved for HIGH priority class jobs
1122 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.medium " [0]"
1123 Threads reserved for MEDIUM priority class jobs
1125 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.low " [0]"
1126 Threads reserved for LOW priority class jobs
1128 Let's consider the following configuration:
1141 With this configuration, one thread is reserved for HIGH priority tasks. As
1142 currently only liveness checking and stroke message processing is done with
1143 high priority, one or two threads should be sufficient.
1145 The MEDIUM class mostly processes non-blocking jobs. Unless your setup is
1146 experiencing many blocks in locks while accessing shared resources, threads for
1147 one or two times the number of CPU cores is fine.
1149 It is usually not required to reserve threads for CRITICAL jobs. Jobs in this
1150 class rarely return and do not release their thread to the pool.
1152 The remaining threads are available for LOW priority jobs. Reserving threads
1153 does not make sense (until we have an even lower priority).
1155 To see what the threads are actually doing, invoke
1156 .IR "ipsec statusall" .
1157 Under high load, something like this will show up:
1160 worker threads: 2 or 32 idle, 5/1/2/22 working,
1161 job queue: 0/0/1/149, scheduled: 198
1164 From 32 worker threads,
1168 are running CRITICAL priority jobs (dispatching from sockets, etc.).
1170 is currently handling a HIGH priority job. This is actually the thread currently
1171 providing this information via stroke.
1173 are handling MEDIUM priority jobs, likely IKE_SA_INIT or CREATE_CHILD_SA
1176 are handling LOW priority jobs, probably waiting for an EAP-RADIUS response
1177 while processing IKE_AUTH messages.
1179 The job queue load shows how many jobs are queued for each priority, ready for
1180 execution. The single MEDIUM priority job will get executed immediately, as
1181 we have two spare threads reserved for MEDIUM class jobs.
1183 .SH IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING
1184 If a responder receives more connection requests per seconds than it can handle,
1185 it does not make sense to accept more IKE_SA_INIT messages. And if they are
1186 queued but can't get processed in time, an answer might be sent after the
1187 client has already given up and restarted its connection setup. This
1188 additionally increases the load on the responder.
1190 To limit the responder load resulting from new connection attempts, the daemon
1191 can drop IKE_SA_INIT messages just after reception. There are two mechanisms to
1192 decide if this should happen, configured with the following options:
1194 .BR charon.init_limit_half_open " [0]"
1195 Limit based on the number of half open IKE_SAs. Half open IKE_SAs are SAs in
1196 connecting state, but not yet established.
1198 .BR charon.init_limit_job_load " [0]"
1199 Limit based on the number of jobs currently queued for processing (sum over all
1202 The second limit includes load from other jobs, such as rekeying. Choosing a
1203 good value is difficult and depends on the hardware and expected load.
1205 The first limit is simpler to calculate, but includes the load from new
1206 connections only. If your responder is capable of negotiating 100 tunnels/s, you
1207 might set this limit to 1000. The daemon will then drop new connection attempts
1208 if generating a response would require more than 10 seconds. If you are
1209 allowing for a maximum response time of more than 30 seconds, consider adjusting
1210 the timeout for connecting IKE_SAs
1211 .RB ( charon.half_open_timeout ).
1212 A responder, by default, deletes an IKE_SA if the initiator does not establish
1213 it within 30 seconds. Under high load, a higher value might be required.
1216 To do stability testing and performance optimizations, the IKEv2 daemon charon
1217 provides the load-tester plugin. This plugin allows one to setup thousands of
1218 tunnels concurrently against the daemon itself or a remote host.
1221 Never enable the load-testing plugin on productive systems. It provides
1222 preconfigured credentials and allows an attacker to authenticate as any user.
1225 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.child_rekey " [600]"
1226 Seconds to start CHILD_SA rekeying after setup
1228 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delay " [0]"
1229 Delay between initiatons for each thread
1231 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delete_after_established " [no]"
1232 Delete an IKE_SA as soon as it has been established
1234 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.dpd_delay " [0]"
1235 DPD delay to use in load test
1237 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.dynamic_port " [0]"
1238 Base port to be used for requests (each client uses a different port)
1240 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.eap_password " [default-pwd]"
1241 EAP secret to use in load test
1243 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.enable " [no]"
1244 Enable the load testing plugin
1246 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.fake_kernel " [no]"
1247 Fake the kernel interface to allow load-testing against self
1249 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.ike_rekey " [0]"
1250 Seconds to start IKE_SA rekeying after setup
1252 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.init_limit " [0]"
1253 Global limit of concurrently established SAs during load test
1255 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiators " [0]"
1256 Number of concurrent initiator threads to use in load test
1258 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_auth " [pubkey]"
1259 Authentication method(s) the intiator uses
1261 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_id
1262 Initiator ID used in load test
1264 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.iterations " [1]"
1265 Number of IKE_SAs to initate by each initiator in load test
1267 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.pool
1268 Provide INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRs from a named pool
1270 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.preshared_key " [default-psk]"
1271 Preshared key to use in load test
1273 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.proposal " [aes128-sha1-modp768]"
1274 IKE proposal to use in load test
1276 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.remote " [127.0.0.1]"
1277 Address to initiation connections to
1279 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_auth " [pubkey]"
1280 Authentication method(s) the responder uses
1282 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_id
1283 Responder ID used in load test
1285 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.request_virtual_ip " [no]"
1286 Request an INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDR from the server
1288 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.shutdown_when_complete " [no]"
1289 Shutdown the daemon after all IKE_SAs have been established
1290 .SS Configuration details
1291 For public key authentication, the responder uses the
1292 .B \(dqCN=srv, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq
1293 identity. For the initiator, each connection attempt uses a different identity
1295 .BR "\(dqCN=c1-r1, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq" ,
1296 where the first number inidicates the client number, the second the
1297 authentication round (if multiple authentication is used).
1299 For PSK authentication, FQDN identities are used. The server uses
1300 .BR srv.strongswan.org ,
1301 the client uses an identity in the form
1302 .BR c1-r1.strongswan.org .
1304 For EAP authentication, the client uses a NAI in the form
1305 .BR 100000000010001@strongswan.org .
1307 To configure multiple authentication, concatenate multiple methods using, e.g.
1309 initiator_auth = pubkey|psk|eap-md5|eap-aka
1312 The responder uses a hardcoded certificate based on a 1024-bit RSA key.
1313 This certificate additionally serves as CA certificate. A peer uses the same
1314 private key, but generates client certificates on demand signed by the CA
1315 certificate. Install the Responder/CA certificate on the remote host to
1316 authenticate all clients.
1318 To speed up testing, the load tester plugin implements a special Diffie-Hellman
1319 implementation called modpnull. By setting
1321 proposal = aes128-sha1-modpnull
1323 this wicked fast DH implementation is used. It does not provide any security
1324 at all, but allows one to run tests without DH calculation overhead.
1327 In the simplest case, the daemon initiates IKE_SAs against itself using the
1328 loopback interface. This will actually establish double the number of IKE_SAs,
1329 as the daemon is initiator and responder for each IKE_SA at the same time.
1330 Installation of IPsec SAs would fails, as each SA gets installed twice. To
1331 simulate the correct behavior, a fake kernel interface can be enabled which does
1332 not install the IPsec SAs at the kernel level.
1334 A simple loopback configuration might look like this:
1338 # create new IKE_SAs for each CHILD_SA to simulate
1341 # turn off denial of service protection
1348 # use 4 threads to initiate connections
1351 # each thread initiates 1000 connections
1353 # delay each initiation in each thread by 20ms
1355 # enable the fake kernel interface to
1356 # avoid SA conflicts
1363 This will initiate 4000 IKE_SAs within 20 seconds. You may increase the delay
1364 value if your box can not handle that much load, or decrease it to put more
1365 load on it. If the daemon starts retransmitting messages your box probably can
1366 not handle all connection attempts.
1368 The plugin also allows one to test against a remote host. This might help to
1369 test against a real world configuration. A connection setup to do stress
1370 testing of a gateway might look like this:
1380 # 10000 connections, ten in parallel
1383 # use a delay of 100ms, overall time is:
1384 # iterations * delay = 100s
1386 # address of the gateway
1388 # IKE-proposal to use
1389 proposal = aes128-sha1-modp1024
1390 # use faster PSK authentication instead
1392 initiator_auth = psk
1393 responder_auth = psk
1394 # request a virtual IP using configuration
1396 request_virtual_ip = yes
1397 # enable CHILD_SA every 60s
1404 .SH IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
1405 Retransmission timeouts in the IKEv2 daemon charon can be configured globally
1406 using the three keys listed below:
1410 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
1411 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]"
1412 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
1416 The following algorithm is used to calculate the timeout:
1419 relative timeout = retransmit_timeout * retransmit_base ^ (n-1)
1424 is the current retransmission count.
1426 Using the default values, packets are retransmitted in:
1432 Retransmission Relative Timeout Absolute Timeout
1442 /etc/strongswan.conf
1445 ipsec.conf(5), ipsec.secrets(5), ipsec(8)
1448 .UR http://www.strongswan.org
1451 by Tobias Brunner, Andreas Steffen and Martin Willi.