1 .TH STRONGSWAN.CONF 5 "2013-06-21" "@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
140 Many of these options also apply to \fBcharon\-cmd\fR and other
141 \fBcharon\fR derivatives. Just use their respective name (e.g.
142 \fIcharon\-cmd\fR) instead of \fIcharon\fR.
144 .BR charon.block_threshold " [5]"
145 Maximum number of half-open IKE_SAs for a single peer IP
147 .BR charon.cisco_unity " [no]
148 Send Cisco Unity vendor ID payload (IKEv1 only)
150 .BR charon.close_ike_on_child_failure " [no]"
151 Close the IKE_SA if setup of the CHILD_SA along with IKE_AUTH failed
153 .BR charon.cookie_threshold " [10]"
154 Number of half-open IKE_SAs that activate the cookie mechanism
159 DNS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP)
161 .BR charon.dos_protection " [yes]"
162 Enable Denial of Service protection using cookies and aggressiveness checks
165 Section to define file loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION
167 .BR charon.flush_auth_cfg " [no]"
168 If enabled objects used during authentication (certificates, identities etc.)
169 are released to free memory once an IKE_SA is established.
170 Enabling this might conflict with plugins that later need access to e.g. the
173 .BR charon.fragment_size " [512]"
174 Maximum size (in bytes) of a sent fragment when using the proprietary IKEv1
175 fragmentation extension.
178 Name of the group the daemon changes to after startup
180 .BR charon.half_open_timeout " [30]"
181 Timeout in seconds for connecting IKE_SAs (also see IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
183 .BR charon.hash_and_url " [no]"
184 Enable hash and URL support
186 .BR charon.i_dont_care_about_security_and_use_aggressive_mode_psk " [no]"
187 If enabled responders are allowed to use IKEv1 Aggressive Mode with pre-shared
188 keys, which is discouraged due to security concerns (offline attacks on the
189 openly transmitted hash of the PSK)
191 .BR charon.ignore_routing_tables
192 A space-separated list of routing tables to be excluded from route lookups
194 .BR charon.ikesa_limit " [0]"
195 Maximum number of IKE_SAs that can be established at the same time before new
196 connection attempts are blocked
198 .BR charon.ikesa_table_segments " [1]"
199 Number of exclusively locked segments in the hash table
201 .BR charon.ikesa_table_size " [1]"
202 Size of the IKE_SA hash table
204 .BR charon.inactivity_close_ike " [no]"
205 Whether to close IKE_SA if the only CHILD_SA closed due to inactivity
207 .BR charon.init_limit_half_open " [0]"
208 Limit new connections based on the current number of half open IKE_SAs (see
209 IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
211 .BR charon.init_limit_job_load " [0]"
212 Limit new connections based on the number of jobs currently queued for
213 processing (see IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
215 .BR charon.initiator_only " [no]"
216 Causes charon daemon to ignore IKE initiation requests.
218 .BR charon.install_routes " [yes]"
219 Install routes into a separate routing table for established IPsec tunnels
221 .BR charon.install_virtual_ip " [yes]"
222 Install virtual IP addresses
224 .BR charon.install_virtual_ip_on
225 The name of the interface on which virtual IP addresses should be installed.
226 If not specified the addresses will be installed on the outbound interface.
228 .BR charon.interfaces_ignore
229 A comma-separated list of network interfaces that should be ignored, if
230 .B charon.interfaces_use
231 is specified this option has no effect.
233 .BR charon.interfaces_use
234 A comma-separated list of network interfaces that should be used by charon.
235 All other interfaces are ignored.
237 .BR charon.keep_alive " [20s]"
238 NAT keep alive interval
241 Plugins to load in the IKEv2 daemon charon
243 .BR charon.max_packet " [10000]"
244 Maximum packet size accepted by charon
246 .BR charon.multiple_authentication " [yes]"
247 Enable multiple authentication exchanges (RFC 4739)
252 WINS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP)
254 .BR charon.port " [500]"
255 UDP port used locally. If set to 0 a random port will be allocated.
257 .BR charon.port_nat_t " [4500]"
258 UDP port used locally in case of NAT-T. If set to 0 a random port will be
259 allocated. Has to be different from
261 otherwise a random port will be allocated.
263 .BR charon.process_route " [yes]"
264 Process RTM_NEWROUTE and RTM_DELROUTE events
266 .BR charon.receive_delay " [0]"
267 Delay in ms for receiving packets, to simulate larger RTT
269 .BR charon.receive_delay_response " [yes]"
270 Delay response messages
272 .BR charon.receive_delay_request " [yes]"
273 Delay request messages
275 .BR charon.receive_delay_type " [0]"
276 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
278 .BR charon.replay_window " [32]"
279 Size of the AH/ESP replay window, in packets.
281 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
282 Base to use for calculating exponential back off, see IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
284 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]
285 Timeout in seconds before sending first retransmit
287 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
288 Number of times to retransmit a packet before giving up
290 .BR charon.retry_initiate_interval " [0]"
291 Interval to use when retrying to initiate an IKE_SA (e.g. if DNS resolution
292 failed), 0 to disable retries.
294 .BR charon.reuse_ikesa " [yes]
295 Initiate CHILD_SA within existing IKE_SAs
297 .BR charon.routing_table
298 Numerical routing table to install routes to
300 .BR charon.routing_table_prio
301 Priority of the routing table
303 .BR charon.send_delay " [0]"
304 Delay in ms for sending packets, to simulate larger RTT
306 .BR charon.send_delay_response " [yes]"
307 Delay response messages
309 .BR charon.send_delay_request " [yes]"
310 Delay request messages
312 .BR charon.send_delay_type " [0]"
313 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
315 .BR charon.send_vendor_id " [no]
316 Send strongSwan vendor ID payload
319 Section to define syslog loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION
321 .BR charon.threads " [16]"
322 Number of worker threads in charon
325 Name of the user the daemon changes to after startup
326 .SS charon.plugins subsection
328 .BR charon.plugins.android_log.loglevel " [1]"
329 Loglevel for logging to Android specific logger
331 .BR charon.plugins.attr
332 Section to specify arbitrary attributes that are assigned to a peer via
333 configuration payload (CP)
335 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.cron
336 Cron style string specifying CSV export times
338 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.local
339 strftime(3) format string for the CSV file name to export local certificates to
341 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.remote
342 strftime(3) format string for the CSV file name to export remote certificates to
344 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.separator " [,]"
347 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.empty_string
348 String to use in empty intermediate CA fields
350 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.format " [%d:%m:%Y]"
351 strftime(3) format string to export expiration dates as
353 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.fixed_fields " [yes]"
354 Use a fixed intermediate CA field count
356 .BR charon.plugins.coupling.file
357 File to store coupling list to
359 .BR charon.plugins.coupling.hash " [sha1]"
360 Hashing algorithm to fingerprint coupled certificates
362 .BR charon.plugins.coupling.max " [1]"
363 Maximum number of coupling entries to create
365 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.force_server_address " [no]"
366 Always use the configured server address. This might be helpful if the DHCP
367 server runs on the same host as strongSwan, and the DHCP daemon does not listen
368 on the loopback interface. In that case the server cannot be reached via
369 unicast (or even 255.255.255.255) as that would be routed via loopback.
370 Setting this option to yes and configuring the local broadcast address (e.g.
371 192.168.0.255) as server address might work.
373 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.identity_lease " [no]"
374 Derive user-defined MAC address from hash of IKEv2 identity
376 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.server " [255.255.255.255]"
377 DHCP server unicast or broadcast IP address
379 .BR charon.plugins.duplicheck.enable " [yes]"
380 Enable duplicheck plugin (if loaded)
382 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka.request_identity " [yes]"
385 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka-3ggp2.seq_check
388 .BR charon.plugins.eap-dynamic.preferred
389 The preferred EAP method(s) to be used. If it is not given the first
390 registered method will be used initially. If a comma separated list is given
391 the methods are tried in the given order before trying the rest of the
394 .BR charon.plugins.eap-dynamic.prefer_user " [no]"
395 If enabled the EAP methods proposed in an EAP-Nak message sent by the peer are
396 preferred over the methods registered locally.
398 .BR charon.plugins.eap-gtc.backend " [pam]"
399 XAuth backend to be used for credential verification
401 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.fragment_size " [1024]"
402 Maximum size of an EAP-PEAP packet
404 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.max_message_count " [32]"
405 Maximum number of processed EAP-PEAP packets (0 = no limit)
407 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.include_length " [no]"
408 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-PEAP packets
410 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_method " [mschapv2]"
411 Phase2 EAP client authentication method
413 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_piggyback " [no]"
414 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Finished message
416 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_tnc " [no]"
417 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authentication
419 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.request_peer_auth " [no]"
420 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate
422 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.accounting " [no]"
423 Send RADIUS accounting information to RADIUS servers.
425 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.class_group " [no]"
428 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
429 is compared to the groups specified in the
434 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.close_all_on_timeout " [no]"
435 Closes all IKE_SAs if communication with the RADIUS server times out. If it is
436 not set only the current IKE_SA is closed.
438 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.enable " [no]"
439 Enables support for the Dynamic Authorization Extension (RFC 5176)
441 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.listen " [0.0.0.0]"
442 Address to listen for DAE messages from the RADIUS server
444 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.port " [3799]"
445 Port to listen for DAE requests
447 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.secret
448 Shared secret used to verify/sign DAE messages
450 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.eap_start " [no]"
451 Send EAP-Start instead of EAP-Identity to start RADIUS conversation
453 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.filter_id " [no]"
460 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
461 is compared to the groups specified in the
466 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.ike_to_radius
467 RADIUS attributes to be forwarded from IKEv2 to RADIUS (can be defined by
468 name or attribute number, a colon can be used to specify vendor-specific
469 attributes, e.g. Reply-Message, or 11, or 36906:12).
471 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.radius_to_ike
473 .B charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.ike_to_radius
475 IKEv2, a strongSwan specific private notify (40969) is used to transmit the
478 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.id_prefix
479 Prefix to EAP-Identity, some AAA servers use a IMSI prefix to select the
482 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.nas_identifier " [strongSwan]"
483 NAS-Identifier to include in RADIUS messages
485 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.port " [1812]"
486 Port of RADIUS server (authentication)
488 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.secret
489 Shared secret between RADIUS and NAS
491 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.server
492 IP/Hostname of RADIUS server
494 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.servers
495 Section to specify multiple RADIUS servers. The
503 options can be specified for each server. A server's IP/Hostname can be
507 .BR acct_port " [1813]"
508 option can be used to specify the port used for RADIUS accounting.
509 For each RADIUS server a priority can be specified using the
510 .BR preference " [0]"
513 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.sockets " [1]"
514 Number of sockets (ports) to use, increase for high load
516 .BR charon.plugins.eap-sim.request_identity " [yes]"
519 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.database
522 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.remove_used " [no]"
525 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.fragment_size " [1024]"
526 Maximum size of an EAP-TLS packet
528 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.max_message_count " [32]"
529 Maximum number of processed EAP-TLS packets (0 = no limit)
531 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.include_length " [yes]"
532 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TLS packets
534 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.max_message_count " [10]"
535 Maximum number of processed EAP-TNC packets (0 = no limit)
537 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.protocol " [tnccs-1.1]"
538 IF-TNCCS protocol version to be used (tnccs-1.1, tnccs-2.0, tnccs-dynamic)
540 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.fragment_size " [1024]"
541 Maximum size of an EAP-TTLS packet
543 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.max_message_count " [32]"
544 Maximum number of processed EAP-TTLS packets (0 = no limit)
546 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.include_length " [yes]"
547 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TTLS packets
549 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_method " [md5]"
550 Phase2 EAP client authentication method
552 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_piggyback " [no]"
553 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Finished message
555 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_tnc " [no]"
556 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authentication
558 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.request_peer_auth " [no]"
559 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate
561 .BR charon.plugins.ha.autobalance " [0]"
562 Interval in seconds to automatically balance handled segments between nodes.
565 .BR charon.plugins.ha.fifo_interface " [yes]"
568 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_delay " [1000]"
571 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_timeout " [2100]"
574 .BR charon.plugins.ha.local
577 .BR charon.plugins.ha.monitor " [yes]"
580 .BR charon.plugins.ha.pools
583 .BR charon.plugins.ha.remote
586 .BR charon.plugins.ha.resync " [yes]"
589 .BR charon.plugins.ha.secret
592 .BR charon.plugins.ha.segment_count " [1]"
595 .BR charon.plugins.ipseckey.enable " [no]"
596 Enable the fetching of IPSECKEY RRs from the DNS
598 .BR charon.plugins.led.activity_led
601 .BR charon.plugins.led.blink_time " [50]"
604 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_count " [4]"
605 Number of ipsecN devices
607 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_mtu " [0]"
608 Set MTU of ipsecN device
610 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.roam_events " [yes]"
611 Whether to trigger roam events when interfaces, addresses or routes change
613 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester
614 Section to configure the load-tester plugin, see LOAD TESTS
616 .BR charon.plugins.radattr.dir
617 Directory where RADIUS attributes are stored in client-ID specific files.
619 .BR charon.plugins.radattr.message_id " [-1]"
620 Attributes are added to all IKE_AUTH messages by default (-1), or only to the
621 IKE_AUTH message with the given IKEv2 message ID.
623 .BR charon.plugins.resolve.file " [/etc/resolv.conf]"
624 File where to add DNS server entries
626 .BR charon.plugins.resolve.resolvconf.iface_prefix " [lo.inet.ipsec.]"
627 Prefix used for interface names sent to resolvconf(8). The nameserver address
628 is appended to this prefix to make it unique. The result has to be a valid
629 interface name according to the rules defined by resolvconf. Also, it should
630 have a high priority according to the order defined in interface-order(5).
632 .BR charon.plugins.socket-default.set_source " [yes]"
633 Set source address on outbound packets, if possible.
635 .BR charon.plugins.socket-default.use_ipv4 " [yes]"
636 Listen on IPv4, if possible.
638 .BR charon.plugins.socket-default.use_ipv6 " [yes]"
639 Listen on IPv6, if possible.
641 .BR charon.plugins.sql.database
642 Database URI for charons SQL plugin
644 .BR charon.plugins.sql.loglevel " [-1]"
645 Loglevel for logging to SQL database
647 .BR charon.plugins.stroke.ignore_missing_ca_basic_constraint " [no]"
648 Treat certificates in ipsec.d/cacerts and ipsec.conf ca sections as CA
649 certificates even if they don't contain a CA basic constraint.
651 .BR charon.plugins.stroke.max_concurrent " [4]"
652 Maximum number of stroke messages handled concurrently
654 .BR charon.plugins.stroke.timeout " [0]"
655 Timeout in ms for any stroke command. Use 0 to disable the timeout
657 .BR charon.plugins.systime-fix.interval " [0]"
658 Interval in seconds to check system time for validity. 0 disables the check
660 .BR charon.plugins.systime-fix.reauth " [no]"
661 Whether to use reauth or delete if an invalid cert lifetime is detected
663 .BR charon.plugins.systime-fix.threshold
664 Threshold date where system time is considered valid. Disabled if not specified
666 .BR charon.plugins.systime-fix.threshold_format " [%Y]"
667 strptime(3) format used to parse threshold option
669 .BR charon.plugins.tnccs-11.max_message_size " [45000]"
670 Maximum size of a PA-TNC message (XML & Base64 encoding)
672 .BR charon.plugins.tnccs-20.max_batch_size " [65522]"
673 Maximum size of a PB-TNC batch (upper limit via PT-EAP = 65529)
675 .BR charon.plugins.tnccs-20.max_message_size " [65490]"
676 Maximum size of a PA-TNC message (upper limit via PT-EAP = 65497)
678 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.client_cert
679 Path to X.509 certificate file of IF-MAP client
681 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.client_key
682 Path to private key file of IF-MAP client
684 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.device_name
685 Unique name of strongSwan server as a PEP and/or PDP device
687 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.renew_session_interval " [150]"
688 Interval in seconds between periodic IF-MAP RenewSession requests
690 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.server_uri " [https://localhost:8444/imap]"
691 URI of the form [https://]servername[:port][/path]
693 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.server_cert
694 Path to X.509 certificate file of IF-MAP server
696 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.username_password
697 Credentials of IF-MAP client of the form username:password
699 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.dlclose " [yes]"
702 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.preferred_language " [en]"
703 Preferred language for TNC recommendations
705 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imv.dlclose " [yes]"
708 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.method " [ttls]"
709 EAP tunnel method to be used
711 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.port " [1812]"
712 RADIUS server port the strongSwan PDP is listening on
714 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.secret
715 Shared RADIUS secret between strongSwan PDP and NAS
717 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.server
718 Name of the strongSwan PDP as contained in the AAA certificate
720 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.timeout
721 Timeout in seconds before closing incomplete connections
723 .BR charon.plugins.updown.dns_handler " [no]"
724 Whether the updown script should handle DNS serves assigned via IKEv1 Mode
725 Config or IKEv2 Config Payloads (if enabled they can't be handled by other
726 plugins, like resolve)
728 .BR charon.plugins.whitelist.enable " [yes]"
729 Enable loaded whitelist plugin
731 .BR charon.plugins.xauth-eap.backend " [radius]"
732 EAP plugin to be used as backend for XAuth credential verification
734 .BR charon.plugins.xauth-pam.pam_service " [login]"
735 PAM service to be used for authentication
736 .SS libstrongswan section
738 .BR libstrongswan.cert_cache " [yes]"
739 Whether relations in validated certificate chains should be cached in memory
741 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench " [no]"
744 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_size " [1024]"
747 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_time " [50]"
750 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_add " [no]"
751 Test crypto algorithms during registration
753 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_create " [no]"
754 Test crypto algorithms on each crypto primitive instantiation
756 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.required " [no]"
757 Strictly require at least one test vector to enable an algorithm
759 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.rng_true " [no]"
760 Whether to test RNG with TRUE quality; requires a lot of entropy
762 .BR libstrongswan.dh_exponent_ansi_x9_42 " [yes]"
763 Use ANSI X9.42 DH exponent size or optimum size matched to cryptographical
766 .BR libstrongswan.ecp_x_coordinate_only " [yes]"
767 Compliance with the errata for RFC 4753
769 .BR libstrongswan.host_resolver.max_threads " [3]"
770 Maximum number of concurrent resolver threads (they are terminated if unused)
772 .BR libstrongswan.host_resolver.min_threads " [0]"
773 Minimum number of resolver threads to keep around
775 .BR libstrongswan.integrity_test " [no]"
776 Check daemon, libstrongswan and plugin integrity at startup
778 .BR libstrongswan.leak_detective.detailed " [yes]"
779 Includes source file names and line numbers in leak detective output
781 .BR libstrongswan.leak_detective.usage_threshold " [10240]"
782 Threshold in bytes for leaks to be reported (0 to report all)
784 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads
785 Subsection to configure the number of reserved threads per priority class
786 see JOB PRIORITY MANAGEMENT
788 .BR libstrongswan.x509.enforce_critical " [yes]"
789 Discard certificates with unsupported or unknown critical extensions
790 .SS libstrongswan.plugins subsection
792 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.database
793 Database URI for attr-sql plugin used by charon
795 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.lease_history " [yes]"
796 Enable logging of SQL IP pool leases
798 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.gcrypt.quick_random " [no]"
799 Use faster random numbers in gcrypt; for testing only, produces weak keys!
801 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.openssl.engine_id " [pkcs11]"
802 ENGINE ID to use in the OpenSSL plugin
804 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.openssl.fips_mode " [0]"
805 Set OpenSSL FIPS mode: disabled(0), enabled(1), Suite B enabled(2)
807 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.modules
808 List of available PKCS#11 modules
810 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.load_certs " [yes]"
811 Whether to load certificates from tokens
813 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.reload_certs " [no]"
814 Reload certificates from all tokens if charon receives a SIGHUP
816 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_dh " [no]"
817 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for DH and ECDH (see use_ecc option)
819 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_ecc " [no]"
820 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for ECDH and ECDSA public key
821 operations. ECDSA private keys can be used regardless of this option
823 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_hasher " [no]"
824 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used to hash data
826 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_pubkey " [no]"
827 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for public key operations, even for
828 keys not stored on tokens
830 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_rng " [no]"
831 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used as RNG
833 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.random.random " [@DEV_RANDOM@]"
834 File to read random bytes from, instead of @DEV_RANDOM@
836 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.random.urandom " [@DEV_URANDOM@]"
837 File to read pseudo random bytes from, instead of @DEV_URANDOM@
839 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.unbound.resolv_conf " [/etc/resolv.conf]"
840 File to read DNS resolver configuration from
842 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.unbound.trust_anchors " [/etc/ipsec.d/dnssec.keys]"
843 File to read DNSSEC trust anchors from (usually root zone KSK)
846 .BR libtnccs.tnc_config " [/etc/tnc_config]"
847 TNC IMC/IMV configuration directory
850 .BR libimcv.assessment_result " [yes]"
851 Whether IMVs send a standard IETF Assessment Result attribute
853 .BR libimcv.debug_level " [1]"
854 Debug level for a stand-alone libimcv library
856 .BR libimcv.stderr_quiet " [no]"
857 Disable output to stderr with a stand-alone libimcv library
859 .BR libimcv.os_info.name
860 Manually set the name of the client OS (e.g. Ubuntu)
862 .BR libimcv.os_info.version
863 Manually set the version of the client OS (e.g. 12.04 i686)
864 .SS libimcv plugins section
866 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_blob
867 AIK encrypted private key blob file
869 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_cert
872 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_key
875 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.nonce_len " [20]"
878 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.use_quote2 " [yes]"
879 Use Quote2 AIK signature instead of Quote signature
881 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.cadir
882 Path to directory with AIK cacerts
884 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.dh_group " [ecp256]"
885 Preferred Diffie-Hellman group
887 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.hash_algorithm " [sha256]"
888 Preferred measurement hash algorithm
890 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.min_nonce_len " [0]"
891 DH minimum nonce length
893 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.remediation_uri
894 URI pointing to attestation remediation instructions
896 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-os.push_info " [yes]"
897 Send operating system info without being prompted
899 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-os.remediation_uri
900 URI pointing to operating system remediation instructions
902 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-scanner.push_info " [yes]"
903 Send open listening ports without being prompted
905 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-scanner.remediation_uri
906 URI pointing to scanner remediation instructions
908 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.additional_ids " [0]"
909 Number of additional IMC IDs
911 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.command " [none]"
912 Command to be sent to the Test IMV
914 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.dummy_size " [0]"
915 Size of dummy attribute to be sent to the Test IMV (0 = disabled)
917 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.retry " [no]"
920 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.retry_command
921 Command to be sent to the Test IMV in the handshake retry
923 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-test.remediation_uri
924 URI pointing to test remediation instructions
926 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-test.rounds " [0]"
927 Number of IMC-IMV retry rounds
931 List of TLS encryption ciphers
933 .BR libtls.key_exchange
934 List of TLS key exchange methods
937 List of TLS MAC algorithms
940 List of TLS cipher suites
944 Credential database URI for manager
946 .BR manager.debug " [no]"
947 Enable debugging in manager
950 Plugins to load in manager
953 FastCGI socket of manager, to run it statically
955 .BR manager.threads " [10]"
956 Threads to use for request handling
958 .BR manager.timeout " [15m]"
959 Session timeout for manager
960 .SS mediation client section
963 Mediation client database URI
965 .BR medcli.dpd " [5m]"
966 DPD timeout to use in mediation client plugin
968 .BR medcli.rekey " [20m]"
969 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation client plugin
970 .SS mediation server section
973 Mediation server database URI
975 .BR medsrv.debug " [no]"
976 Debugging in mediation server web application
978 .BR medsrv.dpd " [5m]"
979 DPD timeout to use in mediation server plugin
982 Plugins to load in mediation server plugin
984 .BR medsrv.password_length " [6]"
985 Minimum password length required for mediation server user accounts
987 .BR medsrv.rekey " [20m]"
988 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation server plugin
991 Run Mediation server web application statically on socket
993 .BR medsrv.threads " [5]"
994 Number of thread for mediation service web application
996 .BR medsrv.timeout " [15m]"
997 Session timeout for mediation service
1001 Plugins to load in ipsec openac tool
1005 Database URI for the database that stores the package information
1009 Plugins to load in ipsec pki tool
1013 Plugins to load in ipsec pool tool
1014 .SS scepclient section
1017 Plugins to load in ipsec scepclient tool
1021 Plugins to load in starter
1023 .BR starter.load_warning " [yes]"
1024 Disable charon plugin load option warning
1026 .SH LOGGER CONFIGURATION
1027 The options described below provide a much more flexible way to configure
1028 loggers for the IKEv2 daemon charon than using the
1034 that if any loggers are specified in strongswan.conf,
1036 does not have any effect.
1038 There are currently two types of loggers defined:
1041 Log directly to a file and are defined by specifying the full path to the
1042 file as subsection in the
1044 section. To log to the console the two special filenames
1045 .BR stdout " and " stderr
1049 Log into a syslog facility and are defined by specifying the facility to log to
1050 as the name of a subsection in the
1052 section. The following facilities are currently supported:
1053 .BR daemon " and " auth .
1055 Multiple loggers can be defined for each type with different log verbosity for
1056 the different subsystems of the daemon.
1059 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.default " [1]"
1061 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.default
1062 Specifies the default loglevel to be used for subsystems for which no specific
1063 loglevel is defined.
1065 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.<subsystem> " [<default>]"
1067 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.<subsystem>
1068 Specifies the loglevel for the given subsystem.
1070 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.append " [yes]"
1071 If this option is enabled log entries are appended to the existing file.
1073 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.flush_line " [no]"
1074 Enabling this option disables block buffering and enables line buffering.
1076 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.ike_name " [no]"
1078 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.ike_name
1079 Prefix each log entry with the connection name and a unique numerical
1080 identifier for each IKE_SA.
1082 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.time_format
1083 Prefix each log entry with a timestamp. The option accepts a format string as
1087 .BR charon.syslog.identifier
1088 Global identifier used for an
1090 call, prepended to each log message by syslog. If not configured,
1092 is not called, so the value will depend on system defaults (often the program
1098 Main daemon setup/cleanup/signal handling
1101 IKE_SA manager, handling synchronization for IKE_SA access
1110 Jobs queueing/processing and thread pool management
1113 Configuration management and plugins
1116 IPsec/Networking kernel interface
1119 IKE network communication
1122 Low-level encoding/decoding (ASN.1, X.509 etc.)
1125 Packet encoding/decoding encryption/decryption operations
1128 libtls library messages
1131 libipsec library messages
1134 libstrongwan library messages
1137 Trusted Network Connect
1140 Integrity Measurement Collector
1143 Integrity Measurement Verifier
1146 Platform Trust Service
1153 Very basic auditing logs, (e.g. SA up/SA down)
1156 Generic control flow with errors, a good default to see whats going on
1159 More detailed debugging control flow
1162 Including RAW data dumps in Hex
1165 Also include sensitive material in dumps, e.g. keys
1171 /var/log/charon.log {
1172 time_format = %b %e %T
1183 # enable logging to LOG_DAEMON, use defaults
1186 # minimalistic IKE auditing logging to LOG_AUTHPRIV
1195 .SH JOB PRIORITY MANAGEMENT
1196 Some operations in the IKEv2 daemon charon are currently implemented
1197 synchronously and blocking. Two examples for such operations are communication
1198 with a RADIUS server via EAP-RADIUS, or fetching CRL/OCSP information during
1199 certificate chain verification. Under high load conditions, the thread pool may
1200 run out of available threads, and some more important jobs, such as liveness
1201 checking, may not get executed in time.
1203 To prevent thread starvation in such situations job priorities were introduced.
1204 The job processor will reserve some threads for higher priority jobs, these
1205 threads are not available for lower priority, locking jobs.
1207 Currently 4 priorities have been defined, and they are used in charon as
1211 Priority for long-running dispatcher jobs.
1214 INFORMATIONAL exchanges, as used by liveness checking (DPD).
1217 Everything not HIGH/LOW, including IKE_SA_INIT processing.
1220 IKE_AUTH message processing. RADIUS and CRL fetching block here
1222 Although IKE_SA_INIT processing is computationally expensive, it is explicitly
1223 assigned to the MEDIUM class. This allows charon to do the DH exchange while
1224 other threads are blocked in IKE_AUTH. To prevent the daemon from accepting more
1225 IKE_SA_INIT requests than it can handle, use IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING.
1227 The thread pool processes jobs strictly by priority, meaning it will consume all
1228 higher priority jobs before looking for ones with lower priority. Further, it
1229 reserves threads for certain priorities. A priority class having reserved
1231 threads will always have
1233 threads available for this class (either currently processing a job, or waiting
1236 To ensure that there are always enough threads available for higher priority
1237 tasks, threads must be reserved for each priority class.
1239 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.critical " [0]"
1240 Threads reserved for CRITICAL priority class jobs
1242 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.high " [0]"
1243 Threads reserved for HIGH priority class jobs
1245 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.medium " [0]"
1246 Threads reserved for MEDIUM priority class jobs
1248 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.low " [0]"
1249 Threads reserved for LOW priority class jobs
1251 Let's consider the following configuration:
1264 With this configuration, one thread is reserved for HIGH priority tasks. As
1265 currently only liveness checking and stroke message processing is done with
1266 high priority, one or two threads should be sufficient.
1268 The MEDIUM class mostly processes non-blocking jobs. Unless your setup is
1269 experiencing many blocks in locks while accessing shared resources, threads for
1270 one or two times the number of CPU cores is fine.
1272 It is usually not required to reserve threads for CRITICAL jobs. Jobs in this
1273 class rarely return and do not release their thread to the pool.
1275 The remaining threads are available for LOW priority jobs. Reserving threads
1276 does not make sense (until we have an even lower priority).
1278 To see what the threads are actually doing, invoke
1279 .IR "ipsec statusall" .
1280 Under high load, something like this will show up:
1283 worker threads: 2 or 32 idle, 5/1/2/22 working,
1284 job queue: 0/0/1/149, scheduled: 198
1287 From 32 worker threads,
1291 are running CRITICAL priority jobs (dispatching from sockets, etc.).
1293 is currently handling a HIGH priority job. This is actually the thread currently
1294 providing this information via stroke.
1296 are handling MEDIUM priority jobs, likely IKE_SA_INIT or CREATE_CHILD_SA
1299 are handling LOW priority jobs, probably waiting for an EAP-RADIUS response
1300 while processing IKE_AUTH messages.
1302 The job queue load shows how many jobs are queued for each priority, ready for
1303 execution. The single MEDIUM priority job will get executed immediately, as
1304 we have two spare threads reserved for MEDIUM class jobs.
1306 .SH IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING
1307 If a responder receives more connection requests per seconds than it can handle,
1308 it does not make sense to accept more IKE_SA_INIT messages. And if they are
1309 queued but can't get processed in time, an answer might be sent after the
1310 client has already given up and restarted its connection setup. This
1311 additionally increases the load on the responder.
1313 To limit the responder load resulting from new connection attempts, the daemon
1314 can drop IKE_SA_INIT messages just after reception. There are two mechanisms to
1315 decide if this should happen, configured with the following options:
1317 .BR charon.init_limit_half_open " [0]"
1318 Limit based on the number of half open IKE_SAs. Half open IKE_SAs are SAs in
1319 connecting state, but not yet established.
1321 .BR charon.init_limit_job_load " [0]"
1322 Limit based on the number of jobs currently queued for processing (sum over all
1325 The second limit includes load from other jobs, such as rekeying. Choosing a
1326 good value is difficult and depends on the hardware and expected load.
1328 The first limit is simpler to calculate, but includes the load from new
1329 connections only. If your responder is capable of negotiating 100 tunnels/s, you
1330 might set this limit to 1000. The daemon will then drop new connection attempts
1331 if generating a response would require more than 10 seconds. If you are
1332 allowing for a maximum response time of more than 30 seconds, consider adjusting
1333 the timeout for connecting IKE_SAs
1334 .RB ( charon.half_open_timeout ).
1335 A responder, by default, deletes an IKE_SA if the initiator does not establish
1336 it within 30 seconds. Under high load, a higher value might be required.
1339 To do stability testing and performance optimizations, the IKEv2 daemon charon
1340 provides the load-tester plugin. This plugin allows one to setup thousands of
1341 tunnels concurrently against the daemon itself or a remote host.
1344 Never enable the load-testing plugin on productive systems. It provides
1345 preconfigured credentials and allows an attacker to authenticate as any user.
1348 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.addrs
1349 Subsection that contains key/value pairs with address pools (in CIDR notation)
1350 to use for a specific network interface e.g. eth0 = 10.10.0.0/16
1352 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.addrs_keep " [no]"
1353 Whether to keep dynamic addresses even after the associated SA got terminated
1355 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.addrs_prefix " [16]"
1356 Network prefix length to use when installing dynamic addresses. If set to -1 the
1357 full address is used (i.e. 32 or 128)
1359 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.ca_dir
1360 Directory to load (intermediate) CA certificates from
1362 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.child_rekey " [600]"
1363 Seconds to start CHILD_SA rekeying after setup
1365 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delay " [0]"
1366 Delay between initiatons for each thread
1368 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delete_after_established " [no]"
1369 Delete an IKE_SA as soon as it has been established
1371 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.digest " [sha1]"
1372 Digest algorithm used when issuing certificates
1374 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.dpd_delay " [0]"
1375 DPD delay to use in load test
1377 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.dynamic_port " [0]"
1378 Base port to be used for requests (each client uses a different port)
1380 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.eap_password " [default-pwd]"
1381 EAP secret to use in load test
1383 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.enable " [no]"
1384 Enable the load testing plugin
1386 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.esp " [aes128-sha1]"
1387 CHILD_SA proposal to use for load tests
1389 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.fake_kernel " [no]"
1390 Fake the kernel interface to allow load-testing against self
1392 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.ike_rekey " [0]"
1393 Seconds to start IKE_SA rekeying after setup
1395 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.init_limit " [0]"
1396 Global limit of concurrently established SAs during load test
1398 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator " [0.0.0.0]"
1399 Address to initiate from
1401 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiators " [0]"
1402 Number of concurrent initiator threads to use in load test
1404 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_auth " [pubkey]"
1405 Authentication method(s) the intiator uses
1407 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_id
1408 Initiator ID used in load test
1410 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_match
1411 Initiator ID to match against as responder
1413 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_tsi
1414 Traffic selector on initiator side, as proposed by initiator
1416 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_tsr
1417 Traffic selector on responder side, as proposed by initiator
1419 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.iterations " [1]"
1420 Number of IKE_SAs to initiate by each initiator in load test
1422 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.issuer_cert
1423 Path to the issuer certificate (if not configured a hard-coded value is used)
1425 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.issuer_key
1426 Path to private key that is used to issue certificates (if not configured a
1427 hard-coded value is used)
1429 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.pool
1430 Provide INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRs from a named pool
1432 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.preshared_key " [default-psk]"
1433 Preshared key to use in load test
1435 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.proposal " [aes128-sha1-modp768]"
1436 IKE proposal to use in load test
1438 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder " [127.0.0.1]"
1439 Address to initiation connections to
1441 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_auth " [pubkey]"
1442 Authentication method(s) the responder uses
1444 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_id
1445 Responder ID used in load test
1447 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_tsi " [initiator_tsi]"
1448 Traffic selector on initiator side, as narrowed by responder
1450 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_tsr " [initiator_tsr]"
1451 Traffic selector on responder side, as narrowed by responder
1453 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.request_virtual_ip " [no]"
1454 Request an INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDR from the server
1456 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.shutdown_when_complete " [no]"
1457 Shutdown the daemon after all IKE_SAs have been established
1459 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.version " [0]"
1460 IKE version to use (0 means use IKEv2 as initiator and accept any version as
1462 .SS Configuration details
1463 For public key authentication, the responder uses the
1464 .B \(dqCN=srv, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq
1465 identity. For the initiator, each connection attempt uses a different identity
1467 .BR "\(dqCN=c1-r1, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq" ,
1468 where the first number inidicates the client number, the second the
1469 authentication round (if multiple authentication is used).
1471 For PSK authentication, FQDN identities are used. The server uses
1472 .BR srv.strongswan.org ,
1473 the client uses an identity in the form
1474 .BR c1-r1.strongswan.org .
1476 For EAP authentication, the client uses a NAI in the form
1477 .BR 100000000010001@strongswan.org .
1479 To configure multiple authentication, concatenate multiple methods using, e.g.
1481 initiator_auth = pubkey|psk|eap-md5|eap-aka
1484 The responder uses a hardcoded certificate based on a 1024-bit RSA key.
1485 This certificate additionally serves as CA certificate. A peer uses the same
1486 private key, but generates client certificates on demand signed by the CA
1487 certificate. Install the Responder/CA certificate on the remote host to
1488 authenticate all clients.
1490 To speed up testing, the load tester plugin implements a special Diffie-Hellman
1491 implementation called modpnull. By setting
1493 proposal = aes128-sha1-modpnull
1495 this wicked fast DH implementation is used. It does not provide any security
1496 at all, but allows one to run tests without DH calculation overhead.
1499 In the simplest case, the daemon initiates IKE_SAs against itself using the
1500 loopback interface. This will actually establish double the number of IKE_SAs,
1501 as the daemon is initiator and responder for each IKE_SA at the same time.
1502 Installation of IPsec SAs would fails, as each SA gets installed twice. To
1503 simulate the correct behavior, a fake kernel interface can be enabled which does
1504 not install the IPsec SAs at the kernel level.
1506 A simple loopback configuration might look like this:
1510 # create new IKE_SAs for each CHILD_SA to simulate
1513 # turn off denial of service protection
1520 # use 4 threads to initiate connections
1523 # each thread initiates 1000 connections
1525 # delay each initiation in each thread by 20ms
1527 # enable the fake kernel interface to
1528 # avoid SA conflicts
1535 This will initiate 4000 IKE_SAs within 20 seconds. You may increase the delay
1536 value if your box can not handle that much load, or decrease it to put more
1537 load on it. If the daemon starts retransmitting messages your box probably can
1538 not handle all connection attempts.
1540 The plugin also allows one to test against a remote host. This might help to
1541 test against a real world configuration. A connection setup to do stress
1542 testing of a gateway might look like this:
1552 # 10000 connections, ten in parallel
1555 # use a delay of 100ms, overall time is:
1556 # iterations * delay = 100s
1558 # address of the gateway
1560 # IKE-proposal to use
1561 proposal = aes128-sha1-modp1024
1562 # use faster PSK authentication instead
1564 initiator_auth = psk
1565 responder_auth = psk
1566 # request a virtual IP using configuration
1568 request_virtual_ip = yes
1569 # enable CHILD_SA every 60s
1576 .SH IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
1577 Retransmission timeouts in the IKEv2 daemon charon can be configured globally
1578 using the three keys listed below:
1582 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
1583 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]"
1584 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
1588 The following algorithm is used to calculate the timeout:
1591 relative timeout = retransmit_timeout * retransmit_base ^ (n-1)
1596 is the current retransmission count.
1598 Using the default values, packets are retransmitted in:
1604 Retransmission Relative Timeout Absolute Timeout
1614 /etc/strongswan.conf
1617 \fBipsec.conf\fR(5), \fBipsec.secrets\fR(5), \fBipsec\fR(8), \fBcharon-cmd\fR(8)
1621 .UR http://www.strongswan.org
1624 by Tobias Brunner, Andreas Steffen and Martin Willi.