1 .TH STRONGSWAN.CONF 5 "2011-07-17" "@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.half_open_timeout " [30]"
155 Timeout in seconds for connecting IKE_SAs (also see IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
157 .BR charon.hash_and_url " [no]"
158 Enable hash and URL support
160 .BR charon.ignore_routing_tables
161 A list of routing tables to be excluded from route lookup
163 .BR charon.ikesa_table_segments " [1]"
164 Number of exclusively locked segments in the hash table
166 .BR charon.ikesa_table_size " [1]"
167 Size of the IKE_SA hash table
169 .BR charon.inactivity_close_ike " [no]"
170 Whether to close IKE_SA if the only CHILD_SA closed due to inactivity
172 .BR charon.init_limit_half_open " [0]"
173 Limit new connections based on the current number of half open IKE_SAs (see
174 IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
176 .BR charon.init_limit_job_load " [0]"
177 Limit new connections based on the number of jobs currently queued for
178 processing (see IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
180 .BR charon.install_routes " [yes]"
181 Install routes into a separate routing table for established IPsec tunnels
183 .BR charon.install_virtual_ip " [yes]"
184 Install virtual IP addresses
186 .BR charon.keep_alive " [20s]"
187 NAT keep alive interval
190 Plugins to load in the IKEv2 daemon charon
192 .BR charon.max_packet " [10000]"
193 Maximum packet size accepted by charon
195 .BR charon.multiple_authentication " [yes]"
196 Enable multiple authentication exchanges (RFC 4739)
201 WINS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP)
203 .BR charon.process_route " [yes]"
204 Process RTM_NEWROUTE and RTM_DELROUTE events
206 .BR charon.receive_delay " [0]"
207 Delay for receiving packets, to simulate larger RTT
209 .BR charon.receive_delay_response " [yes]"
210 Delay response messages
212 .BR charon.receive_delay_request " [yes]"
213 Delay request messages
215 .BR charon.receive_delay_type " [0]"
216 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
218 .BR charon.replay_window " [32]"
219 Size of the AH/ESP replay window, in packets.
221 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
222 Base to use for calculating exponential back off, see IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
224 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]
225 Timeout in seconds before sending first retransmit
227 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
228 Number of times to retransmit a packet before giving up
230 .BR charon.reuse_ikesa " [yes]
231 Initiate CHILD_SA within existing IKE_SAs
233 .BR charon.routing_table
234 Numerical routing table to install routes to
236 .BR charon.routing_table_prio
237 Priority of the routing table
239 .BR charon.send_delay " [0]"
240 Delay for sending packets, to simulate larger RTT
242 .BR charon.send_delay_response " [yes]"
243 Delay response messages
245 .BR charon.send_delay_request " [yes]"
246 Delay request messages
248 .BR charon.send_delay_type " [0]"
249 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
251 .BR charon.send_vendor_id " [no]
252 Send strongSwan vendor ID payload
255 Section to define syslog loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION
257 .BR charon.threads " [16]"
258 Number of worker threads in charon
259 .SS charon.plugins subsection
261 .BR charon.plugins.android.loglevel " [1]"
262 Loglevel for logging to Android specific logger
264 .BR charon.plugins.attr
265 Section to specify arbitrary attributes that are assigned to a peer via
266 configuration payload (CP)
268 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.identity_lease " [no]"
269 Derive user-defined MAC address from hash of IKEv2 identity
271 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.server " [255.255.255.255]"
272 DHCP server unicast or broadcast IP address
274 .BR charon.plugins.duplicheck.enable " [yes]"
275 enable loaded duplicheck plugin
277 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka.request_identity " [yes]"
280 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka-3ggp2.seq_check
283 .BR charon.plugins.eap-gtc.pam_service " [login]"
284 PAM service to be used for authentication
287 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.fragment_size " [1024]"
288 Maximum size of an EAP-PEAP packet
290 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.max_message_count " [32]"
291 Maximum number of processed EAP-PEAP packets
293 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.include_length " [no]"
294 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-PEAP packets
296 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_method " [mschapv2]"
297 Phase2 EAP client authentication method
299 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_piggyback " [no]"
300 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Finished message
302 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_tnc " [no]"
303 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authentication
305 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.request_peer_auth " [no]"
306 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate
309 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.class_group " [no]"
312 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
313 is compared to the groups specified in the
318 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.eap_start " [no]"
319 Send EAP-Start instead of EAP-Identity to start RADIUS conversation
321 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.filter_id " [no]"
328 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
329 is compared to the groups specified in the
334 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.id_prefix
335 Prefix to EAP-Identity, some AAA servers use a IMSI prefix to select the
338 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.nas_identifier " [strongSwan]"
339 NAS-Identifier to include in RADIUS messages
341 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.port " [1812]"
342 Port of RADIUS server (authentication)
344 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.secret
345 Shared secret between RADIUS and NAS
347 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.server
348 IP/Hostname of RADIUS server
350 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.servers
351 Section to specify multiple RADIUS servers. The
357 options can be specified for each server. A server's IP/Hostname can be
360 option. For each RADIUS server a priority can be specified using the
361 .BR preference " [0]"
364 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.sockets " [1]"
365 Number of sockets (ports) to use, increase for high load
367 .BR charon.plugins.eap-sim.request_identity " [yes]"
370 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.database
373 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.remove_used
376 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.fragment_size " [1024]"
377 Maximum size of an EAP-TLS packet
379 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.max_message_count " [32]"
380 Maximum number of processed EAP-TLS packets
382 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.include_length " [yes]"
383 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TLS packets
385 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.fragment_size " [50000]"
386 Maximum size of an EAP-TNC packet
388 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.max_message_count " [10]"
389 Maximum number of processed EAP-TNC packets
391 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.include_length " [yes]"
392 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TNC packets
394 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.fragment_size " [1024]"
395 Maximum size of an EAP-TTLS packet
397 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.max_message_count " [32]"
398 Maximum number of processed EAP-TTLS packets
400 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.include_length " [yes]"
401 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TTLS packets
403 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_method " [md5]"
404 Phase2 EAP client authentication method
406 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_piggyback " [no]"
407 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Finished message
409 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_tnc " [no]"
410 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authentication
412 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.request_peer_auth " [no]"
413 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate
415 .BR charon.plugins.ha.fifo_interface " [yes]"
418 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_delay " [1000]"
421 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_timeout " [2100]"
424 .BR charon.plugins.ha.local
427 .BR charon.plugins.ha.monitor " [yes]"
430 .BR charon.plugins.ha.pools
433 .BR charon.plugins.ha.remote
436 .BR charon.plugins.ha.resync " [yes]"
439 .BR charon.plugins.ha.secret
442 .BR charon.plugins.ha.segment_count " [1]"
445 .BR charon.plugins.led.activity_led
448 .BR charon.plugins.led.blink_time " [50]"
451 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_count " [4]"
452 Number of ipsecN devices
454 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_mtu " [0]"
455 Set MTU of ipsecN device
457 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester
458 Section to configure the load-tester plugin, see LOAD TESTS
460 .BR charon.plugins.resolve.file " [/etc/resolv.conf]"
461 File where to add DNS server entries
463 .BR charon.plugins.sql.database
464 Database URI for charons SQL plugin
466 .BR charon.plugins.sql.loglevel " [-1]"
467 Loglevel for logging to SQL database
469 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.preferred_language " [en]"
470 Preferred language for TNC recommendations
472 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.tnc_config " [/etc/tnc_config]"
473 TNC IMC configuration directory
475 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imv.tnc_config " [/etc/tnc_config]"
476 TNC IMV configuration directory
478 .BR charon.plugins.whitelist.enable " [yes]"
479 enable loaded whitelist plugin
480 .SS libstrongswan section
482 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench " [no]"
485 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_size " [1024]"
488 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_time " [50]"
491 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_add " [no]"
492 Test crypto algorithms during registration
494 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_create " [no]"
495 Test crypto algorithms on each crypto primitive instantiation
497 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.required " [no]"
498 Strictly require at least one test vector to enable an algorithm
500 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.rng_true " [no]"
501 Whether to test RNG with TRUE quality; requires a lot of entropy
503 .BR libstrongswan.dh_exponent_ansi_x9_42 " [yes]"
504 Use ANSI X9.42 DH exponent size or optimum size matched to cryptographical
507 .BR libstrongswan.ecp_x_coordinate_only " [yes]"
508 Compliance with the errata for RFC 4753
510 .BR libstrongswan.integrity_test " [no]"
511 Check daemon, libstrongswan and plugin integrity at startup
513 .BR libstrongswan.leak_detective.detailed " [yes]"
514 Includes source file names and line numbers in leak detective output
516 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads
517 Subsection to configure the number of reserved threads per priority class
518 see JOB PRIORITY MANAGEMENT
520 .BR libstrongswan.x509.enforce_critical " [yes]"
521 Discard certificates with unsupported or unknown critical extensions
522 .SS libstrongswan.plugins subsection
524 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.database
525 Database URI for attr-sql plugin used by charon and pluto
527 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.lease_history " [yes]"
528 Enable logging of SQL IP pool leases
530 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.gcrypt.quick_random " [no]"
531 Use faster random numbers in gcrypt; for testing only, produces weak keys!
533 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.openssl.engine_id " [pkcs11]"
534 ENGINE ID to use in the OpenSSL plugin
536 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.modules
537 List of available PKCS#11 modules
539 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_hasher " [no]"
540 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used to hash data
543 .BR libimcv.debug_level " [1]"
544 Debug level for a stand-alone libimcv library
546 .BR libimcv.stderr_quiet " [no]"
547 Disable output to stderr with a stand-alone libimcv library
548 .SS libimcv plugins section
550 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc_test.command " [none]"
551 Command to be sent to the Test IMV
553 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc_test.retry " [no]"
556 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc_test.retry_command
557 Command to be sent to the Test IMV in the handshake retry
559 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv_test.rounds " [0]"
560 Number of IMC-IMV retry rounds
562 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv_scanner.closed_port_policy " [yes]"
563 By default all ports must be closed (yes) or can be open (no)
565 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv_scanner.tcp_ports
566 List of TCP ports that can be open or must be closed
568 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv_scanner.udp_ports
569 List of UDP ports that can be open or must be closed
573 List of TLS encryption ciphers
575 .BR libtls.key_exchange
576 List of TLS key exchange methods
579 List of TLS MAC algorithms
582 List of TLS cipher suites
586 Credential database URI for manager
588 .BR manager.debug " [no]"
589 Enable debugging in manager
592 Plugins to load in manager
595 FastCGI socket of manager, to run it statically
597 .BR manager.threads " [10]"
598 Threads to use for request handling
600 .BR manager.timeout " [15m]"
601 Session timeout for manager
602 .SS mediation client section
605 Mediation client database URI
607 .BR medcli.dpd " [5m]"
608 DPD timeout to use in mediation client plugin
610 .BR medcli.rekey " [20m]"
611 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation client plugin
612 .SS mediation server section
615 Mediation server database URI
617 .BR medsrv.debug " [no]"
618 Debugging in mediation server web application
620 .BR medsrv.dpd " [5m]"
621 DPD timeout to use in mediation server plugin
624 Plugins to load in mediation server plugin
626 .BR medsrv.password_length " [6]"
627 Minimum password length required for mediation server user accounts
629 .BR medsrv.rekey " [20m]"
630 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation server plugin
633 Run Mediation server web application statically on socket
635 .BR medsrv.threads " [5]"
636 Number of thread for mediation service web application
638 .BR medsrv.timeout " [15m]"
639 Session timeout for mediation service
643 Plugins to load in ipsec openac tool
647 Plugins to load in ipsec pki tool
653 DNS servers assigned to peer via Mode Config
656 Plugins to load in IKEv1 pluto daemon
661 WINS servers assigned to peer via Mode Config
663 .BR pluto.threads " [4]"
664 Number of worker threads in pluto
665 .SS pluto.plugins section
667 .BR pluto.plugins.attr
668 Section to specify arbitrary attributes that are assigned to a peer via
671 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_count " [4]"
672 Number of ipsecN devices
674 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_mtu " [0]"
675 Set MTU of ipsecN device
679 Plugins to load in ipsec pool tool
680 .SS scepclient section
683 Plugins to load in ipsec scepclient tool
686 .BR starter.load_warning " [yes]"
687 Disable charon/pluto plugin load option warning
689 .SH LOGGER CONFIGURATION
690 The options described below provide a much more flexible way to configure
691 loggers for the IKEv2 daemon charon than using the
697 that if any loggers are specified in strongswan.conf,
699 does not have any effect.
701 There are currently two types of loggers defined:
704 Log directly to a file and are defined by specifying the full path to the
705 file as subsection in the
707 section. To log to the console the two special filenames
708 .BR stdout " and " stderr
712 Log into a syslog facility and are defined by specifying the facility to log to
713 as the name of a subsection in the
715 section. The following facilities are currently supported:
716 .BR daemon " and " auth .
718 Multiple loggers can be defined for each type with different log verbosity for
719 the different subsystems of the daemon.
722 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.default " [1]"
724 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.default
725 Specifies the default loglevel to be used for subsystems for which no specific
728 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.<subsystem> " [<default>]"
730 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.<subsystem>
731 Specifies the loglevel for the given subsystem.
733 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.append " [yes]"
734 If this option is enabled log entries are appended to the existing file.
736 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.flush_line " [no]"
737 Enabling this option disables block buffering and enables line buffering.
739 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.ike_name " [no]"
741 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.ike_name
742 Prefix each log entry with the connection name and a unique numerical
743 identifier for each IKE_SA.
745 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.time_format
746 Prefix each log entry with a timestamp. The option accepts a format string as
753 Main daemon setup/cleanup/signal handling
756 IKE_SA manager, handling synchronization for IKE_SA access
765 Jobs queueing/processing and thread pool management
768 Configuration management and plugins
771 IPsec/Networking kernel interface
774 IKE network communication
777 Packet encoding/decoding encryption/decryption operations
780 libtls library messages
783 libstrongwan library messages
790 Very basic auditing logs, (e.g. SA up/SA down)
793 Generic control flow with errors, a good default to see whats going on
796 More detailed debugging control flow
799 Including RAW data dumps in Hex
802 Also include sensitive material in dumps, e.g. keys
808 /var/log/charon.log {
809 time_format = %b %e %T
820 # enable logging to LOG_DAEMON, use defaults
823 # minimalistic IKE auditing logging to LOG_AUTHPRIV
832 .SH JOB PRIORITY MANAGEMENT
833 Some operations in the IKEv2 daemon charon are currently implemented
834 synchronously and blocking. Two examples for such operations are communication
835 with a RADIUS server via EAP-RADIUS, or fetching CRL/OCSP information during
836 certificate chain verification. Under high load conditions, the thread pool may
837 run out of available threads, and some more important jobs, such as liveness
838 checking, may not get executed in time.
840 To prevent thread starvation in such situations job priorities were introduced.
841 The job processor will reserve some threads for higher priority jobs, these
842 threads are not available for lower priority, locking jobs.
844 Currently 4 priorities have been defined, and they are used in charon as
848 Priority for long-running dispatcher jobs.
851 INFORMATIONAL exchanges, as used by liveness checking (DPD).
854 Everything not HIGH/LOW, including IKE_SA_INIT processing.
857 IKE_AUTH message processing. RADIUS and CRL fetching block here
859 Although IKE_SA_INIT processing is computationally expensive, it is explicitly
860 assigned to the MEDIUM class. This allows charon to do the DH exchange while
861 other threads are blocked in IKE_AUTH. To prevent the daemon from accepting more
862 IKE_SA_INIT requests than it can handle, use IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING.
864 The thread pool processes jobs strictly by priority, meaning it will consume all
865 higher priority jobs before looking for ones with lower priority. Further, it
866 reserves threads for certain priorities. A priority class having reserved
868 threads will always have
870 threads available for this class (either currently processing a job, or waiting
873 To ensure that there are always enough threads available for higher priority
874 tasks, threads must be reserved for each priority class.
876 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.critical " [0]"
877 Threads reserved for CRITICAL priority class jobs
879 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.high " [0]"
880 Threads reserved for HIGH priority class jobs
882 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.medium " [0]"
883 Threads reserved for MEDIUM priority class jobs
885 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.low " [0]"
886 Threads reserved for LOW priority class jobs
888 Let's consider the following configuration:
901 With this configuration, one thread is reserved for HIGH priority tasks. As
902 currently only liveness checking and stroke message processing is done with
903 high priority, one or two threads should be sufficient.
905 The MEDIUM class mostly processes non-blocking jobs. Unless your setup is
906 experiencing many blocks in locks while accessing shared resources, threads for
907 one or two times the number of CPU cores is fine.
909 It is usually not required to reserve threads for CRITICAL jobs. Jobs in this
910 class rarely return and do not release their thread to the pool.
912 The remaining threads are available for LOW priority jobs. Reserving threads
913 does not make sense (until we have an even lower priority).
915 To see what the threads are actually doing, invoke
916 .IR "ipsec statusall" .
917 Under high load, something like this will show up:
920 worker threads: 2 or 32 idle, 5/1/2/22 working,
921 job queue: 0/0/1/149, scheduled: 198
924 From 32 worker threads,
928 are running CRITICAL priority jobs (dispatching from sockets, etc.).
930 is currently handling a HIGH priority job. This is actually the thread currently
931 providing this information via stroke.
933 are handling MEDIUM priority jobs, likely IKE_SA_INIT or CREATE_CHILD_SA
936 are handling LOW priority jobs, probably waiting for an EAP-RADIUS response
937 while processing IKE_AUTH messages.
939 The job queue load shows how many jobs are queued for each priority, ready for
940 execution. The single MEDIUM priority job will get executed immediately, as
941 we have two spare threads reserved for MEDIUM class jobs.
943 .SH IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING
944 If a responder receives more connection requests per seconds than it can handle,
945 it does not make sense to accept more IKE_SA_INIT messages. And if they are
946 queued but can't get processed in time, an answer might be sent after the
947 client has already given up and restarted its connection setup. This
948 additionally increases the load on the responder.
950 To limit the responder load resulting from new connection attempts, the daemon
951 can drop IKE_SA_INIT messages just after reception. There are two mechanisms to
952 decide if this should happen, configured with the following options:
954 .BR charon.init_limit_half_open " [0]"
955 Limit based on the number of half open IKE_SAs. Half open IKE_SAs are SAs in
956 connecting state, but not yet established.
958 .BR charon.init_limit_job_load " [0]"
959 Limit based on the number of jobs currently queued for processing (sum over all
962 The second limit includes load from other jobs, such as rekeying. Choosing a
963 good value is difficult and depends on the hardware and expected load.
965 The first limit is simpler to calculate, but includes the load from new
966 connections only. If your responder is capable of negotiating 100 tunnels/s, you
967 might set this limit to 1000. The daemon will then drop new connection attempts
968 if generating a response would require more than 10 seconds. If you are
969 allowing for a maximum response time of more than 30 seconds, consider adjusting
970 the timeout for connecting IKE_SAs
971 .RB ( charon.half_open_timeout ).
972 A responder, by default, deletes an IKE_SA if the initiator does not establish
973 it within 30 seconds. Under high load, a higher value might be required.
976 To do stability testing and performance optimizations, the IKEv2 daemon charon
977 provides the load-tester plugin. This plugin allows to setup thousands of
978 tunnels concurrently against the daemon itself or a remote host.
981 Never enable the load-testing plugin on productive systems. It provides
982 preconfigured credentials and allows an attacker to authenticate as any user.
985 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.child_rekey " [600]"
986 Seconds to start CHILD_SA rekeying after setup
988 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delay " [0]"
989 Delay between initiatons for each thread
991 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delete_after_established " [no]"
992 Delete an IKE_SA as soon as it has been established
994 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.dpd_delay " [0]"
995 DPD delay to use in load test
997 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.dynamic_port " [0]"
998 Base port to be used for requests (each client uses a different port)
1000 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.eap_password " [default-pwd]"
1001 EAP secret to use in load test
1003 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.enable " [no]"
1004 Enable the load testing plugin
1006 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.fake_kernel " [no]"
1007 Fake the kernel interface to allow load-testing against self
1009 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.ike_rekey " [0]"
1010 Seconds to start IKE_SA rekeying after setup
1012 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.init_limit " [0]"
1013 Global limit of concurrently established SAs during load test
1015 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiators " [0]"
1016 Number of concurrent initiator threads to use in load test
1018 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_auth " [pubkey]"
1019 Authentication method(s) the intiator uses
1021 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_id
1022 Initiator ID used in load test
1024 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.iterations " [1]"
1025 Number of IKE_SAs to initate by each initiator in load test
1027 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.pool
1028 Provide INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRs from a named pool
1030 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.preshared_key " [default-psk]"
1031 Preshared key to use in load test
1033 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.proposal " [aes128-sha1-modp768]"
1034 IKE proposal to use in load test
1036 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.remote " [127.0.0.1]"
1037 Address to initiation connections to
1039 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_auth " [pubkey]"
1040 Authentication method(s) the responder uses
1042 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_id
1043 Responder ID used in load test
1045 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.request_virtual_ip " [no]"
1046 Request an INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDR from the server
1048 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.shutdown_when_complete " [no]"
1049 Shutdown the daemon after all IKE_SAs have been established
1050 .SS Configuration details
1051 For public key authentication, the responder uses the
1052 .B \(dqCN=srv, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq
1053 identity. For the initiator, each connection attempt uses a different identity
1055 .BR "\(dqCN=c1-r1, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq" ,
1056 where the first number inidicates the client number, the second the
1057 authentication round (if multiple authentication is used).
1059 For PSK authentication, FQDN identities are used. The server uses
1060 .BR srv.strongswan.org ,
1061 the client uses an identity in the form
1062 .BR c1-r1.strongswan.org .
1064 For EAP authentication, the client uses a NAI in the form
1065 .BR 100000000010001@strongswan.org .
1067 To configure multiple authentication, concatenate multiple methods using, e.g.
1069 initiator_auth = pubkey|psk|eap-md5|eap-aka
1072 The responder uses a hardcoded certificate based on a 1024-bit RSA key.
1073 This certificate additionally serves as CA certificate. A peer uses the same
1074 private key, but generates client certificates on demand signed by the CA
1075 certificate. Install the Responder/CA certificate on the remote host to
1076 authenticate all clients.
1078 To speed up testing, the load tester plugin implements a special Diffie-Hellman
1079 implementation called modpnull. By setting
1081 proposal = aes128-sha1-modpnull
1083 this wicked fast DH implementation is used. It does not provide any security
1084 at all, but allows to run tests without DH calculation overhead.
1087 In the simplest case, the daemon initiates IKE_SAs against itself using the
1088 loopback interface. This will actually establish double the number of IKE_SAs,
1089 as the daemon is initiator and responder for each IKE_SA at the same time.
1090 Installation of IPsec SAs would fails, as each SA gets installed twice. To
1091 simulate the correct behavior, a fake kernel interface can be enabled which does
1092 not install the IPsec SAs at the kernel level.
1094 A simple loopback configuration might look like this:
1098 # create new IKE_SAs for each CHILD_SA to simulate
1101 # turn off denial of service protection
1108 # use 4 threads to initiate connections
1111 # each thread initiates 1000 connections
1113 # delay each initiation in each thread by 20ms
1115 # enable the fake kernel interface to
1116 # avoid SA conflicts
1123 This will initiate 4000 IKE_SAs within 20 seconds. You may increase the delay
1124 value if your box can not handle that much load, or decrease it to put more
1125 load on it. If the daemon starts retransmitting messages your box probably can
1126 not handle all connection attempts.
1128 The plugin also allows to test against a remote host. This might help to test
1129 against a real world configuration. A connection setup to do stress testing of
1130 a gateway might look like this:
1140 # 10000 connections, ten in parallel
1143 # use a delay of 100ms, overall time is:
1144 # iterations * delay = 100s
1146 # address of the gateway
1148 # IKE-proposal to use
1149 proposal = aes128-sha1-modp1024
1150 # use faster PSK authentication instead
1152 initiator_auth = psk
1153 responder_auth = psk
1154 # request a virtual IP using configuration
1156 request_virtual_ip = yes
1157 # enable CHILD_SA every 60s
1164 .SH IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
1165 Retransmission timeouts in the IKEv2 daemon charon can be configured globally
1166 using the three keys listed below:
1170 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
1171 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]"
1172 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
1176 The following algorithm is used to calculate the timeout:
1179 relative timeout = retransmit_timeout * retransmit_base ^ (n-1)
1184 is the current retransmission count.
1186 Using the default values, packets are retransmitted in:
1192 Retransmission Relative Timeout Absolute Timeout
1202 /etc/strongswan.conf
1205 ipsec.conf(5), ipsec.secrets(5), ipsec(8)
1208 .UR http://www.strongswan.org
1211 by Tobias Brunner, Andreas Steffen and Martin Willi.