1 .TH STRONGSWAN.CONF 5 "2010-09-09" "@IPSEC_VERSION@" "strongSwan"
3 strongswan.conf \- strongSwan configuration file
7 configuration file is well suited to define IPsec related configuration
8 parameters, it is not useful for other strongSwan applications to read options
10 The file is hard to parse and only
12 is capable of doing so. As the number of components of the strongSwan project
13 is continually growing, a more flexible configuration file was needed, one that
14 is easy to extend and can be used by all components. With strongSwan 4.2.1
15 .IR strongswan.conf (5)
16 was introduced which meets these requirements.
19 The format of the strongswan.conf file consists of hierarchical
23 in each section. Each section has a name, followed by C-Style curly brackets
24 defining the section body. Each section body contains a set of subsections
28 settings := (section|keyvalue)*
29 section := name { settings }
30 keyvalue := key = value\\n
33 Values must be terminated by a newline.
35 Comments are possible using the \fB#\fP-character, but be careful: The parser
36 implementation is currently limited and does not like brackets in comments.
38 Section names and keys may contain any printable character except:
44 An example file in this format might look like this:
61 Indentation is optional, you may use tabs or spaces.
64 Values are accessed using a dot-separated section list and a key.
65 With reference to the example above, accessing
66 .B section-one.subsection.othervalue
71 The following keys are currently defined (using dot notation). The default
72 value (if any) is listed in brackets after the key.
76 .BR charon.block_threshold " [5]"
77 Maximum number of half-open IKE_SAs for a single peer IP
79 .BR charon.close_ike_on_child_failure " [no]"
80 Close the IKE_SA if setup of the CHILD_SA along with IKE_AUTH failed
82 .BR charon.cookie_threshold " [10]"
83 Number of half-open IKE_SAs that activate the cookie mechanism
88 DNS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP)
90 .BR charon.dos_protection " [yes]"
91 Enable Denial of Service protection using cookies and aggressiveness checks
94 Section to define file loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION
96 .BR charon.flush_auth_cfg " [no]"
99 .BR charon.hash_and_url " [no]"
100 Enable hash and URL support
102 .BR charon.ignore_routing_tables
103 A list of routing tables to be excluded from route lookup
105 .BR charon.ikesa_table_segments " [1]"
106 Number of exclusively locked segments in the hash table
108 .BR charon.ikesa_table_size " [1]"
109 Size of the IKE_SA hash table
111 .BR charon.inactivity_close_ike " [no]"
112 Whether to close IKE_SA if the only CHILD_SA closed due to inactivity
114 .BR charon.install_routes " [yes]"
115 Install routes into a separate routing table for established IPsec tunnels
117 .BR charon.install_virtual_ip " [yes]"
118 Install virtual IP addresses
120 .BR charon.keep_alive " [20s]"
121 NAT keep alive interval
124 Plugins to load in the IKEv2 daemon charon
126 .BR charon.max_packet " [10000]"
127 Maximum packet size accepted by charon
129 .BR charon.multiple_authentication " [yes]"
130 Enable multiple authentication exchanges (RFC 4739)
135 WINS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP)
137 .BR charon.process_route " [yes]"
138 Process RTM_NEWROUTE and RTM_DELROUTE events
140 .BR charon.receive_delay " [0]"
141 Delay for receiving packets, to simulate larger RTT
143 .BR charon.receive_delay_response " [yes]"
144 Delay response messages
146 .BR charon.receive_delay_request " [yes]"
147 Delay request messages
149 .BR charon.receive_delay_type " [0]"
150 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
152 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
153 Base to use for calculating exponential back off, see IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
155 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]
156 Timeout in seconds before sending first retransmit
158 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
159 Number of times to retransmit a packet before giving up
161 .BR charon.reuse_ikesa " [yes]
162 Initiate CHILD_SA within existing IKE_SAs
164 .BR charon.routing_table
165 Numerical routing table to install routes to
167 .BR charon.routing_table_prio
168 Priority of the routing table
170 .BR charon.send_delay " [0]"
171 Delay for sending packets, to simulate larger RTT
173 .BR charon.send_delay_response " [yes]"
174 Delay response messages
176 .BR charon.send_delay_request " [yes]"
177 Delay request messages
179 .BR charon.send_delay_type " [0]"
180 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
182 .BR charon.send_vendor_id " [no]
183 Send strongSwan vendor ID payload
186 Section to define syslog loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION
188 .BR charon.threads " [16]"
189 Number of worker threads in charon
190 .SS charon.plugins subsection
192 .BR charon.plugins.android.loglevel " [1]"
193 Loglevel for logging to Android specific logger
195 .BR charon.plugins.attr
196 Section to specify arbitrary attributes that are assigned to a peer via
197 configuration payload (CP)
199 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.identity_lease " [no]"
200 Derive user-defined MAC address from hash of IKEv2 identity
202 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.server " [255.255.255.255]"
203 DHCP server unicast or broadcast IP address
205 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka.request_identity " [yes]"
208 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka-3ggp2.seq_check
211 .BR charon.plugins.eap-gtc.pam_service " [login]"
212 PAM service to be used for authentication
214 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.class_group " [no]"
217 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
218 is compared to the groups specified in the
223 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.eap_start " [no]"
224 Send EAP-Start instead of EAP-Identity to start RADIUS conversation
226 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.id_prefix
227 Prefix to EAP-Identity, some AAA servers use a IMSI prefix to select the
230 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.nas_identifier " [strongSwan]"
231 NAS-Identifier to include in RADIUS messages
233 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.port " [1812]"
234 Port of RADIUS server (authentication)
236 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.secret
237 Shared secret between RADIUS and NAS
239 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.server
240 IP/Hostname of RADIUS server
242 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.servers
243 Section to specify multiple RADIUS servers. The
249 options can be specified for each server. A server's IP/Hostname can be
252 option. For each RADIUS server a priority can be specified using the
253 .BR preference " [0]"
256 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.sockets " [1]"
257 Number of sockets (ports) to use, increase for high load
259 .BR charon.plugins.eap-sim.request_identity " [yes]"
262 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.database
265 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.remove_used
268 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.fragment_size " [1024]"
269 Maximum size of an EAP-TLS packet
271 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.max_message_count " [32]"
272 Maximum number of processed EAP-TLS packets
274 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.fragment_size " [50000]"
275 Maximum size of an EAP-TNC packet
277 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.max_message_count " [10]"
278 Maximum number of processed EAP-TNC packets
280 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.fragment_size " [1024]"
281 Maximum size of an EAP-TTLS packet
283 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.max_message_count " [32]"
284 Maximum number of processed EAP-TTLS packets
286 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_method " [md5]"
287 Phase2 EAP client authentication method
289 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_piggyback " [no]"
290 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Finished message
292 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_tnc " [no]"
293 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authentication
295 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.request_peer_auth " [no]"
296 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate
298 .BR charon.plugins.ha.fifo_interface " [yes]"
301 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_delay " [1000]"
304 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_timeout " [2100]"
307 .BR charon.plugins.ha.local
310 .BR charon.plugins.ha.monitor " [yes]"
313 .BR charon.plugins.ha.pools
316 .BR charon.plugins.ha.remote
319 .BR charon.plugins.ha.resync " [yes]"
322 .BR charon.plugins.ha.secret
325 .BR charon.plugins.ha.segment_count " [1]"
328 .BR charon.plugins.led.activity_led
331 .BR charon.plugins.led.blink_time " [50]"
334 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_count " [4]"
335 Number of ipsecN devices
337 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_mtu " [0]"
338 Set MTU of ipsecN device
340 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester
341 Section to configure the load-tester plugin, see LOAD TESTS
343 .BR charon.plugins.resolve.file " [/etc/resolv.conf]"
344 File where to add DNS server entries
346 .BR charon.plugins.sql.database
347 Database URI for charons SQL plugin
349 .BR charon.plugins.sql.loglevel " [-1]"
350 Loglevel for logging to SQL database
352 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.preferred_language " [en]"
353 Preferred language for TNC recommendations
355 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.tnc_config " [/etc/tnc_config]"
356 TNC IMC configuration directory
358 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imv.tnc_config " [/etc/tnc_config]"
359 TNC IMV configuration directory
360 .SS libstrongswan section
362 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench " [no]"
365 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_size " [1024]"
368 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_time " [50]"
371 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_add " [no]"
372 Test crypto algorithms during registration
374 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_create " [no]"
375 Test crypto algorithms on each crypto primitive instantiation
377 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.required " [no]"
378 Strictly require at least one test vector to enable an algorithm
380 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.rng_true " [no]"
381 Whether to test RNG with TRUE quality; requires a lot of entropy
383 .BR libstrongswan.dh_exponent_ansi_x9_42 " [yes]"
384 Use ANSI X9.42 DH exponent size or optimum size matched to cryptographical
387 .BR libstrongswan.ecp_x_coordinate_only " [yes]"
388 Compliance with the errata for RFC 4753
390 .BR libstrongswan.integrity_test " [no]"
391 Check daemon, libstrongswan and plugin integrity at startup
393 .BR libstrongswan.leak_detective.detailed " [yes]"
394 Includes source file names and line numbers in leak detective output
395 .SS libstrongswan.plugins subsection
397 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.database
398 Database URI for attr-sql plugin used by charon and pluto
400 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.lease_history " [yes]"
401 Enable logging of SQL IP pool leases
403 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.gcrypt.quick_random " [no]"
404 Use faster random numbers in gcrypt; for testing only, produces weak keys!
406 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.openssl.engine_id " [pkcs11]"
407 ENGINE ID to use in the OpenSSL plugin
409 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.modules
412 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_hasher " [no]"
415 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.x509.enforce_critical " [no]"
416 Discard certificates with unsupported or unknown critical extensions
420 List of TLS encryption ciphers
422 .BR libtls.key_exchange
423 List of TLS key exchange methods
426 List of TLS MAC algorithms
429 List of TLS cipher suites
433 Credential database URI for manager
435 .BR manager.debug " [no]"
436 Enable debugging in manager
439 Plugins to load in manager
442 FastCGI socket of manager, to run it statically
444 .BR manager.threads " [10]"
445 Threads to use for request handling
447 .BR manager.timeout " [15m]"
448 Session timeout for manager
449 .SS mediation client section
452 Mediation client database URI
454 .BR medcli.dpd " [5m]"
455 DPD timeout to use in mediation client plugin
457 .BR medcli.rekey " [20m]"
458 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation client plugin
459 .SS mediation server section
462 Mediation server database URI
464 .BR medsrv.debug " [no]"
465 Debugging in mediation server web application
467 .BR medsrv.dpd " [5m]"
468 DPD timeout to use in mediation server plugin
471 Plugins to load in mediation server plugin
473 .BR medsrv.password_length " [6]"
474 Minimum password length required for mediation server user accounts
476 .BR medsrv.rekey " [20m]"
477 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation server plugin
480 Run Mediation server web application statically on socket
482 .BR medsrv.threads " [5]"
483 Number of thread for mediation service web application
485 .BR medsrv.timeout " [15m]"
486 Session timeout for mediation service
490 Plugins to load in ipsec openac tool
494 Plugins to load in ipsec pki tool
500 DNS servers assigned to peer via Mode Config
503 Plugins to load in IKEv1 pluto daemon
508 WINS servers assigned to peer via Mode Config
510 .BR pluto.threads " [4]"
511 Number of worker threads in pluto
512 .SS pluto.plugins section
514 .BR pluto.plugins.attr
515 Section to specify arbitrary attributes that are assigned to a peer via
518 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_count " [4]"
519 Number of ipsecN devices
521 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_mtu " [0]"
522 Set MTU of ipsecN device
526 Plugins to load in ipsec pool tool
527 .SS scepclient section
530 Plugins to load in ipsec scepclient tool
533 .BR starter.load_warning " [yes]"
534 Disable charon/pluto plugin load option warning
536 .SH LOGGER CONFIGURATION
537 The options described below provide a much more flexible way to configure
538 loggers for the IKEv2 daemon charon than using the
544 that if any loggers are specified in strongswan.conf,
546 does not have any effect.
548 There are currently two types of loggers defined:
551 Log directly to a file and are defined by specifying the full path to the
552 file as subsection in the
554 section. To log to the console the two special filenames
555 .BR stdout " and " stderr
559 Log into a syslog facility and are defined by specifying the facility to log to
560 as the name of a subsection in the
562 section. The following facilities are currently supported:
563 .BR daemon " and " auth .
565 Multiple loggers can be defined for each type with different log verbosity for
566 the different subsystems of the daemon.
569 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.default " [1]"
571 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.default
572 Specifies the default loglevel to be used for subsystems for which no specific
575 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.<subsystem> " [<default>]"
577 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.<subsystem>
578 Specifies the loglevel for the given subsystem.
580 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.append " [yes]"
581 If this option is enabled log entries are appended to the existing file.
583 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.flush_line " [no]"
584 Enabling this option disables block buffering and enables line buffering.
586 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.ike_name " [no]"
588 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.ike_name
589 Prefix each log entry with the connection name and a unique numerical
590 identifier for each IKE_SA.
592 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.time_format
593 Prefix each log entry with a timestamp. The option accepts a format string as
600 Main daemon setup/cleanup/signal handling
603 IKE_SA manager, handling synchronization for IKE_SA access
612 Jobs queueing/processing and thread pool management
615 Configuration management and plugins
618 IPsec/Networking kernel interface
621 IKE network communication
624 Packet encoding/decoding encryption/decryption operations
627 libtls library messages
630 libstrongwan library messages
637 Very basic auditing logs, (e.g. SA up/SA down)
640 Generic control flow with errors, a good default to see whats going on
643 More detailed debugging control flow
646 Including RAW data dumps in Hex
649 Also include sensitive material in dumps, e.g. keys
655 /var/log/charon.log {
656 time_format = %b %e %T
667 # enable logging to LOG_DAEMON, use defaults
670 # minimalistic IKE auditing logging to LOG_AUTHPRIV
680 To do stability testing and performance optimizations, the IKEv2 daemon charon
681 provides the load-tester plugin. This plugin allows to setup thousands of
682 tunnels concurrently against the daemon itself or a remote host.
685 Never enable the load-testing plugin on productive systems. It provides
686 preconfigured credentials and allows an attacker to authenticate as any user.
689 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.child_rekey " [600]"
690 Seconds to start CHILD_SA rekeying after setup
692 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delay " [0]"
693 Delay between initiatons for each thread
695 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delete_after_established " [no]"
696 Delete an IKE_SA as soon as it has been established
698 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.dynamic_port " [0]"
699 Base port to be used for requests (each client uses a different port)
701 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.enable " [no]"
702 Enable the load testing plugin
704 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.fake_kernel " [no]"
705 Fake the kernel interface to allow load-testing against self
707 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.ike_rekey " [0]"
708 Seconds to start IKE_SA rekeying after setup
710 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiators " [0]"
711 Number of concurrent initiator threads to use in load test
713 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_auth " [pubkey]"
714 Authentication method(s) the intiator uses
716 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.iterations " [1]"
717 Number of IKE_SAs to initate by each initiator in load test
719 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.pool
720 Provide INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRs from a named pool
722 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.proposal " [aes128-sha1-modp768]"
723 IKE proposal to use in load test
725 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.remote " [127.0.0.1]"
726 Address to initiation connections to
728 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_auth " [pubkey]"
729 Authentication method(s) the responder uses
731 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.request_virtual_ip " [no]"
732 Request an INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDR from the server
734 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.shutdown_when_complete " [no]"
735 Shutdown the daemon after all IKE_SAs have been established
736 .SS Configuration details
737 For public key authentication, the responder uses the
738 .B \(dqCN=srv, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq
739 identity. For the initiator, each connection attempt uses a different identity
741 .BR "\(dqCN=c1-r1, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq" ,
742 where the first number inidicates the client number, the second the
743 authentication round (if multiple authentication is used).
745 For PSK authentication, FQDN identities are used. The server uses
746 .BR srv.strongswan.org ,
747 the client uses an identity in the form
748 .BR c1-r1.strongswan.org .
750 For EAP authentication, the client uses a NAI in the form
751 .BR 100000000010001@strongswan.org .
753 To configure multiple authentication, concatenate multiple methods using, e.g.
755 initiator_auth = pubkey|psk|eap-md5|eap-aka
758 The responder uses a hardcoded certificate based on a 1024-bit RSA key.
759 This certificate additionally serves as CA certificate. A peer uses the same
760 private key, but generates client certificates on demand signed by the CA
761 certificate. Install the Responder/CA certificate on the remote host to
762 authenticate all clients.
764 To speed up testing, the load tester plugin implements a special Diffie-Hellman
765 implementation called modpnull. By setting
767 proposal = aes128-sha1-modpnull
769 this wicked fast DH implementation is used. It does not provide any security
770 at all, but allows to run tests without DH calculation overhead.
773 In the simplest case, the daemon initiates IKE_SAs against itself using the
774 loopback interface. This will actually establish double the number of IKE_SAs,
775 as the daemon is initiator and responder for each IKE_SA at the same time.
776 Installation of IPsec SAs would fails, as each SA gets installed twice. To
777 simulate the correct behavior, a fake kernel interface can be enabled which does
778 not install the IPsec SAs at the kernel level.
780 A simple loopback configuration might look like this:
784 # create new IKE_SAs for each CHILD_SA to simulate
787 # turn off denial of service protection
794 # use 4 threads to initiate connections
797 # each thread initiates 1000 connections
799 # delay each initiation in each thread by 20ms
801 # enable the fake kernel interface to
809 This will initiate 4000 IKE_SAs within 20 seconds. You may increase the delay
810 value if your box can not handle that much load, or decrease it to put more
811 load on it. If the daemon starts retransmitting messages your box probably can
812 not handle all connection attempts.
814 The plugin also allows to test against a remote host. This might help to test
815 against a real world configuration. A connection setup to do stress testing of
816 a gateway might look like this:
826 # 10000 connections, ten in parallel
829 # use a delay of 100ms, overall time is:
830 # iterations * delay = 100s
832 # address of the gateway
834 # IKE-proposal to use
835 proposal = aes128-sha1-modp1024
836 # use faster PSK authentication instead
840 # request a virtual IP using configuration
842 request_virtual_ip = yes
843 # enable CHILD_SA every 60s
850 .SH IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
851 Retransmission timeouts in the IKEv2 daemon charon can be configured globally
852 using the three keys listed below:
856 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
857 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]"
858 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
862 The following algorithm is used to calculate the timeout:
865 relative timeout = retransmit_timeout * retransmit_base ^ (n-1)
870 is the current retransmission count.
872 Using the default values, packets are retransmitted in:
878 Retransmission Relative Timeout Absolute Timeout
891 ipsec.conf (5), ipsec.secrets (5)
894 .UR http://www.strongswan.org
897 by Tobias Brunner, Andreas Steffen and Martin Willi.