1 .TH STRONGSWAN.CONF 5 "2013-04-01" "@IPSEC_VERSION@" "strongSwan"
3 strongswan.conf \- strongSwan configuration file
7 configuration file is well suited to define IPsec related configuration
8 parameters, it is not useful for other strongSwan applications to read options
10 The file is hard to parse and only
12 is capable of doing so. As the number of components of the strongSwan project
13 is continually growing, a more flexible configuration file was needed, one that
14 is easy to extend and can be used by all components. With strongSwan 4.2.1
15 .IR strongswan.conf (5)
16 was introduced which meets these requirements.
19 The format of the strongswan.conf file consists of hierarchical
23 in each section. Each section has a name, followed by C-Style curly brackets
24 defining the section body. Each section body contains a set of subsections
28 settings := (section|keyvalue)*
29 section := name { settings }
30 keyvalue := key = value\\n
33 Values must be terminated by a newline.
35 Comments are possible using the \fB#\fP-character, but be careful: The parser
36 implementation is currently limited and does not like brackets in comments.
38 Section names and keys may contain any printable character except:
44 An example file in this format might look like this:
61 Indentation is optional, you may use tabs or spaces.
66 statement it is possible to include other files into strongswan.conf, e.g.
69 include /some/path/*.conf
72 If the file name is not an absolute path, it is considered to be relative
73 to the directory of the file containing the include statement. The file name
74 may include shell wildcards (see
76 Also, such inclusions can be nested.
78 Sections loaded from included files
80 previously loaded sections; already existing values are
82 It is important to note that settings are added relative to the section the
83 include statement is in.
85 As an example, the following three files result in the same final
86 config as the one given above:
91 somevalue = before include
97 # settings loaded from this file are added to section-one
98 # the following replaces the previous value
106 # this extends section-one and subsection
109 # this replaces the previous value
119 Values are accessed using a dot-separated section list and a key.
120 With reference to the example above, accessing
121 .B section-one.subsection.othervalue
126 The following keys are currently defined (using dot notation). The default
127 value (if any) is listed in brackets after the key.
132 Path to database with file measurement information
135 Plugins to load in ipsec attest tool
138 .BR charon.block_threshold " [5]"
139 Maximum number of half-open IKE_SAs for a single peer IP
141 .BR charon.cisco_unity " [no]
142 Send Cisco Unity vendor ID payload (IKEv1 only)
144 .BR charon.close_ike_on_child_failure " [no]"
145 Close the IKE_SA if setup of the CHILD_SA along with IKE_AUTH failed
147 .BR charon.cookie_threshold " [10]"
148 Number of half-open IKE_SAs that activate the cookie mechanism
153 DNS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP)
155 .BR charon.dos_protection " [yes]"
156 Enable Denial of Service protection using cookies and aggressiveness checks
159 Section to define file loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION
161 .BR charon.flush_auth_cfg " [no]"
162 If enabled objects used during authentication (certificates, identities etc.)
163 are released to free memory once an IKE_SA is established.
164 Enabling this might conflict with plugins that later need access to e.g. the
167 .BR charon.fragment_size " [512]"
168 Maximum size (in bytes) of a sent fragment when using the proprietary IKEv1
169 fragmentation extension.
171 .BR charon.half_open_timeout " [30]"
172 Timeout in seconds for connecting IKE_SAs (also see IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
174 .BR charon.hash_and_url " [no]"
175 Enable hash and URL support
177 .BR charon.i_dont_care_about_security_and_use_aggressive_mode_psk " [no]"
178 If enabled responders are allowed to use IKEv1 Aggressive Mode with pre-shared
179 keys, which is discouraged due to security concerns (offline attacks on the
180 openly transmitted hash of the PSK)
182 .BR charon.ignore_routing_tables
183 A space-separated list of routing tables to be excluded from route lookups
185 .BR charon.ikesa_limit " [0]"
186 Maximum number of IKE_SAs that can be established at the same time before new
187 connection attempts are blocked
189 .BR charon.ikesa_table_segments " [1]"
190 Number of exclusively locked segments in the hash table
192 .BR charon.ikesa_table_size " [1]"
193 Size of the IKE_SA hash table
195 .BR charon.inactivity_close_ike " [no]"
196 Whether to close IKE_SA if the only CHILD_SA closed due to inactivity
198 .BR charon.init_limit_half_open " [0]"
199 Limit new connections based on the current number of half open IKE_SAs (see
200 IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
202 .BR charon.init_limit_job_load " [0]"
203 Limit new connections based on the number of jobs currently queued for
204 processing (see IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
206 .BR charon.initiator_only " [no]"
207 Causes charon daemon to ignore IKE initiation requests.
209 .BR charon.install_routes " [yes]"
210 Install routes into a separate routing table for established IPsec tunnels
212 .BR charon.install_virtual_ip " [yes]"
213 Install virtual IP addresses
215 .BR charon.install_virtual_ip_on
216 The name of the interface on which virtual IP addresses should be installed.
217 If not specified the addresses will be installed on the outbound interface.
219 .BR charon.interfaces_ignore
220 A comma-separated list of network interfaces that should be ignored, if
221 .B charon.interfaces_use
222 is specified this option has no effect.
224 .BR charon.interfaces_use
225 A comma-separated list of network interfaces that should be used by charon.
226 All other interfaces are ignored.
228 .BR charon.keep_alive " [20s]"
229 NAT keep alive interval
232 Plugins to load in the IKEv2 daemon charon
234 .BR charon.max_packet " [10000]"
235 Maximum packet size accepted by charon
237 .BR charon.multiple_authentication " [yes]"
238 Enable multiple authentication exchanges (RFC 4739)
243 WINS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP)
245 .BR charon.port " [500]"
246 UDP port used locally. If set to 0 a random port will be allocated.
248 .BR charon.port_nat_t " [4500]"
249 UDP port used locally in case of NAT-T. If set to 0 a random port will be
250 allocated. Has to be different from
252 otherwise a random port will be allocated.
254 .BR charon.process_route " [yes]"
255 Process RTM_NEWROUTE and RTM_DELROUTE events
257 .BR charon.receive_delay " [0]"
258 Delay in ms for receiving packets, to simulate larger RTT
260 .BR charon.receive_delay_response " [yes]"
261 Delay response messages
263 .BR charon.receive_delay_request " [yes]"
264 Delay request messages
266 .BR charon.receive_delay_type " [0]"
267 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
269 .BR charon.replay_window " [32]"
270 Size of the AH/ESP replay window, in packets.
272 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
273 Base to use for calculating exponential back off, see IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
275 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]
276 Timeout in seconds before sending first retransmit
278 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
279 Number of times to retransmit a packet before giving up
281 .BR charon.retry_initiate_interval " [0]"
282 Interval to use when retrying to initiate an IKE_SA (e.g. if DNS resolution
283 failed), 0 to disable retries.
285 .BR charon.reuse_ikesa " [yes]
286 Initiate CHILD_SA within existing IKE_SAs
288 .BR charon.routing_table
289 Numerical routing table to install routes to
291 .BR charon.routing_table_prio
292 Priority of the routing table
294 .BR charon.send_delay " [0]"
295 Delay in ms for sending packets, to simulate larger RTT
297 .BR charon.send_delay_response " [yes]"
298 Delay response messages
300 .BR charon.send_delay_request " [yes]"
301 Delay request messages
303 .BR charon.send_delay_type " [0]"
304 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any
306 .BR charon.send_vendor_id " [no]
307 Send strongSwan vendor ID payload
310 Section to define syslog loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION
312 .BR charon.threads " [16]"
313 Number of worker threads in charon
314 .SS charon.plugins subsection
316 .BR charon.plugins.android_log.loglevel " [1]"
317 Loglevel for logging to Android specific logger
319 .BR charon.plugins.attr
320 Section to specify arbitrary attributes that are assigned to a peer via
321 configuration payload (CP)
323 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.cron
324 Cron style string specifying CSV export times
326 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.local
327 strftime(3) format string for the CSV file name to export local certificates to
329 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.remote
330 strftime(3) format string for the CSV file name to export remote certificates to
332 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.separator " [,]"
335 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.empty_string
336 String to use in empty intermediate CA fields
338 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.format " [%d:%m:%Y]"
339 strftime(3) format string to export expiration dates as
341 .BR charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.fixed_fields " [yes]"
342 Use a fixed intermediate CA field count
344 .BR charon.plugins.coupling.file
345 File to store coupling list to
347 .BR charon.plugins.coupling.hash " [sha1]"
348 Hashing algorithm to fingerprint coupled certificates
350 .BR charon.plugins.coupling.max " [1]"
351 Maximum number of coupling entries to create
353 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.force_server_address " [no]"
354 Always use the configured server address. This might be helpful if the DHCP
355 server runs on the same host as strongSwan, and the DHCP daemon does not listen
356 on the loopback interface. In that case the server cannot be reached via
357 unicast (or even 255.255.255.255) as that would be routed via loopback.
358 Setting this option to yes and configuring the local broadcast address (e.g.
359 192.168.0.255) as server address might work.
361 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.identity_lease " [no]"
362 Derive user-defined MAC address from hash of IKEv2 identity
364 .BR charon.plugins.dhcp.server " [255.255.255.255]"
365 DHCP server unicast or broadcast IP address
367 .BR charon.plugins.duplicheck.enable " [yes]"
368 Enable duplicheck plugin (if loaded)
370 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka.request_identity " [yes]"
373 .BR charon.plugins.eap-aka-3ggp2.seq_check
376 .BR charon.plugins.eap-dynamic.preferred
377 The preferred EAP method(s) to be used. If it is not given the first
378 registered method will be used initially. If a comma separated list is given
379 the methods are tried in the given order before trying the rest of the
382 .BR charon.plugins.eap-dynamic.prefer_user " [no]"
383 If enabled the EAP methods proposed in an EAP-Nak message sent by the peer are
384 preferred over the methods registered locally.
386 .BR charon.plugins.eap-gtc.backend " [pam]"
387 XAuth backend to be used for credential verification
389 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.fragment_size " [1024]"
390 Maximum size of an EAP-PEAP packet
392 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.max_message_count " [32]"
393 Maximum number of processed EAP-PEAP packets (0 = no limit)
395 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.include_length " [no]"
396 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-PEAP packets
398 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_method " [mschapv2]"
399 Phase2 EAP client authentication method
401 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_piggyback " [no]"
402 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Finished message
404 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_tnc " [no]"
405 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authentication
407 .BR charon.plugins.eap-peap.request_peer_auth " [no]"
408 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate
410 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.accounting " [no]"
411 Send RADIUS accounting information to RADIUS servers.
413 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.class_group " [no]"
416 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
417 is compared to the groups specified in the
422 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.close_all_on_timeout " [no]"
423 Closes all IKE_SAs if communication with the RADIUS server times out. If it is
424 not set only the current IKE_SA is closed.
426 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.enable " [no]"
427 Enables support for the Dynamic Authorization Extension (RFC 5176)
429 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.listen " [0.0.0.0]"
430 Address to listen for DAE messages from the RADIUS server
432 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.port " [3799]"
433 Port to listen for DAE requests
435 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.secret
436 Shared secret used to verify/sign DAE messages
438 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.eap_start " [no]"
439 Send EAP-Start instead of EAP-Identity to start RADIUS conversation
441 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.filter_id " [no]"
448 attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as group membership information that
449 is compared to the groups specified in the
454 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.ike_to_radius
455 RADIUS attributes to be forwarded from IKEv2 to RADIUS (can be defined by
456 name or attribute number, a colon can be used to specify vendor-specific
457 attributes, e.g. Reply-Message, or 11, or 36906:12).
459 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.radius_to_ike
461 .B charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.ike_to_radius
463 IKEv2, a strongSwan specific private notify (40969) is used to transmit the
466 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.id_prefix
467 Prefix to EAP-Identity, some AAA servers use a IMSI prefix to select the
470 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.nas_identifier " [strongSwan]"
471 NAS-Identifier to include in RADIUS messages
473 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.port " [1812]"
474 Port of RADIUS server (authentication)
476 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.secret
477 Shared secret between RADIUS and NAS
479 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.server
480 IP/Hostname of RADIUS server
482 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.servers
483 Section to specify multiple RADIUS servers. The
491 options can be specified for each server. A server's IP/Hostname can be
495 .BR acct_port " [1813]"
496 option can be used to specify the port used for RADIUS accounting.
497 For each RADIUS server a priority can be specified using the
498 .BR preference " [0]"
501 .BR charon.plugins.eap-radius.sockets " [1]"
502 Number of sockets (ports) to use, increase for high load
504 .BR charon.plugins.eap-sim.request_identity " [yes]"
507 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.database
510 .BR charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.remove_used " [no]"
513 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.fragment_size " [1024]"
514 Maximum size of an EAP-TLS packet
516 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.max_message_count " [32]"
517 Maximum number of processed EAP-TLS packets (0 = no limit)
519 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tls.include_length " [yes]"
520 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TLS packets
522 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.max_message_count " [10]"
523 Maximum number of processed EAP-TNC packets (0 = no limit)
525 .BR charon.plugins.eap-tnc.protocol " [tnccs-1.1]"
526 IF-TNCCS protocol version to be used (tnccs-1.1, tnccs-2.0, tnccs-dynamic)
528 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.fragment_size " [1024]"
529 Maximum size of an EAP-TTLS packet
531 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.max_message_count " [32]"
532 Maximum number of processed EAP-TTLS packets (0 = no limit)
534 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.include_length " [yes]"
535 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TTLS packets
537 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_method " [md5]"
538 Phase2 EAP client authentication method
540 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_piggyback " [no]"
541 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Finished message
543 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_tnc " [no]"
544 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authentication
546 .BR charon.plugins.eap-ttls.request_peer_auth " [no]"
547 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate
549 .BR charon.plugins.ha.autobalance " [0]"
550 Interval in seconds to automatically balance handled segments between nodes.
553 .BR charon.plugins.ha.fifo_interface " [yes]"
556 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_delay " [1000]"
559 .BR charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_timeout " [2100]"
562 .BR charon.plugins.ha.local
565 .BR charon.plugins.ha.monitor " [yes]"
568 .BR charon.plugins.ha.pools
571 .BR charon.plugins.ha.remote
574 .BR charon.plugins.ha.resync " [yes]"
577 .BR charon.plugins.ha.secret
580 .BR charon.plugins.ha.segment_count " [1]"
583 .BR charon.plugins.ipseckey.enable " [no]"
584 Enable the fetching of IPSECKEY RRs from the DNS
586 .BR charon.plugins.led.activity_led
589 .BR charon.plugins.led.blink_time " [50]"
592 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_count " [4]"
593 Number of ipsecN devices
595 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-klips.ipsec_dev_mtu " [0]"
596 Set MTU of ipsecN device
598 .BR charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.roam_events " [yes]"
599 Whether to trigger roam events when interfaces, addresses or routes change
601 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester
602 Section to configure the load-tester plugin, see LOAD TESTS
604 .BR charon.plugins.radattr.dir
605 Directory where RADIUS attributes are stored in client-ID specific files.
607 .BR charon.plugins.radattr.message_id " [-1]"
608 Attributes are added to all IKE_AUTH messages by default (-1), or only to the
609 IKE_AUTH message with the given IKEv2 message ID.
611 .BR charon.plugins.resolve.file " [/etc/resolv.conf]"
612 File where to add DNS server entries
614 .BR charon.plugins.resolve.resolvconf.iface_prefix " [lo.inet.ipsec.]"
615 Prefix used for interface names sent to resolvconf(8). The nameserver address
616 is appended to this prefix to make it unique. The result has to be a valid
617 interface name according to the rules defined by resolvconf. Also, it should
618 have a high priority according to the order defined in interface-order(5).
620 .BR charon.plugins.socket-default.set_source " [yes]"
621 Set source address on outbound packets, if possible.
623 .BR charon.plugins.sql.database
624 Database URI for charons SQL plugin
626 .BR charon.plugins.sql.loglevel " [-1]"
627 Loglevel for logging to SQL database
629 .BR charon.plugins.stroke.ignore_missing_ca_basic_constraint " [no]"
630 Treat certificates in ipsec.d/cacerts and ipsec.conf ca sections as CA
631 certificates even if they don't contain a CA basic constraint.
633 .BR charon.plugins.stroke.max_concurrent " [4]"
634 Maximum number of stroke messages handled concurrently
636 .BR charon.plugins.stroke.timeout " [0]"
637 Timeout in ms for any stroke command. Use 0 to disable the timeout
639 .BR charon.plugins.systime-fix.interval " [0]"
640 Interval in seconds to check system time for validity. 0 disables the check
642 .BR charon.plugins.systime-fix.reauth " [no]"
643 Whether to use reauth or delete if an invalid cert lifetime is detected
645 .BR charon.plugins.systime-fix.threshold
646 Threshold date where system time is considered valid. Disabled if not specified
648 .BR charon.plugins.systime-fix.threshold_format " [%Y]"
649 strptime(3) format used to parse threshold option
651 .BR charon.plugins.tnccs-11.max_message_size " [45000]"
652 Maximum size of a PA-TNC message (XML & Base64 encoding)
654 .BR charon.plugins.tnccs-20.max_batch_size " [65522]"
655 Maximum size of a PB-TNC batch (upper limit via PT-EAP = 65529)
657 .BR charon.plugins.tnccs-20.max_message_size " [65490]"
658 Maximum size of a PA-TNC message (upper limit via PT-EAP = 65497)
660 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.client_cert
661 Path to X.509 certificate file of IF-MAP client
663 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.client_key
664 Path to private key file of IF-MAP client
666 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.device_name
667 Unique name of strongSwan server as a PEP and/or PDP device
669 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.renew_session_interval " [150]"
670 Interval in seconds between periodic IF-MAP RenewSession requests
672 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.server_uri " [https://localhost:8444/imap]"
673 URI of the form [https://]servername[:port][/path]
675 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.server_cert
676 Path to X.509 certificate file of IF-MAP server
678 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.username_password
679 Credentials of IF-MAP client of the form username:password
681 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.dlclose " [yes]"
684 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imc.preferred_language " [en]"
685 Preferred language for TNC recommendations
687 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-imv.dlclose " [yes]"
690 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.method " [ttls]"
691 EAP tunnel method to be used
693 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.port " [1812]"
694 RADIUS server port the strongSwan PDP is listening on
696 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.secret
697 Shared RADIUS secret between strongSwan PDP and NAS
699 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.server
700 Name of the strongSwan PDP as contained in the AAA certificate
702 .BR charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.timeout
703 Timeout in seconds before closing incomplete connections
705 .BR charon.plugins.updown.dns_handler " [no]"
706 Whether the updown script should handle DNS serves assigned via IKEv1 Mode
707 Config or IKEv2 Config Payloads (if enabled they can't be handled by other
708 plugins, like resolve)
710 .BR charon.plugins.whitelist.enable " [yes]"
711 Enable loaded whitelist plugin
713 .BR charon.plugins.xauth-eap.backend " [radius]"
714 EAP plugin to be used as backend for XAuth credential verification
716 .BR charon.plugins.xauth-pam.pam_service " [login]"
717 PAM service to be used for authentication
718 .SS libstrongswan section
720 .BR libstrongswan.cert_cache " [yes]"
721 Whether relations in validated certificate chains should be cached in memory
723 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench " [no]"
726 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_size " [1024]"
729 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.bench_time " [50]"
732 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_add " [no]"
733 Test crypto algorithms during registration
735 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.on_create " [no]"
736 Test crypto algorithms on each crypto primitive instantiation
738 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.required " [no]"
739 Strictly require at least one test vector to enable an algorithm
741 .BR libstrongswan.crypto_test.rng_true " [no]"
742 Whether to test RNG with TRUE quality; requires a lot of entropy
744 .BR libstrongswan.dh_exponent_ansi_x9_42 " [yes]"
745 Use ANSI X9.42 DH exponent size or optimum size matched to cryptographical
748 .BR libstrongswan.ecp_x_coordinate_only " [yes]"
749 Compliance with the errata for RFC 4753
751 .BR libstrongswan.host_resolver.max_threads " [3]"
752 Maximum number of concurrent resolver threads (they are terminated if unused)
754 .BR libstrongswan.host_resolver.min_threads " [0]"
755 Minimum number of resolver threads to keep around
757 .BR libstrongswan.integrity_test " [no]"
758 Check daemon, libstrongswan and plugin integrity at startup
760 .BR libstrongswan.leak_detective.detailed " [yes]"
761 Includes source file names and line numbers in leak detective output
763 .BR libstrongswan.leak_detective.usage_threshold " [10240]"
764 Threshold in bytes for leaks to be reported (0 to report all)
766 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads
767 Subsection to configure the number of reserved threads per priority class
768 see JOB PRIORITY MANAGEMENT
770 .BR libstrongswan.x509.enforce_critical " [yes]"
771 Discard certificates with unsupported or unknown critical extensions
772 .SS libstrongswan.plugins subsection
774 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.database
775 Database URI for attr-sql plugin used by charon
777 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.attr-sql.lease_history " [yes]"
778 Enable logging of SQL IP pool leases
780 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.gcrypt.quick_random " [no]"
781 Use faster random numbers in gcrypt; for testing only, produces weak keys!
783 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.openssl.engine_id " [pkcs11]"
784 ENGINE ID to use in the OpenSSL plugin
786 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.openssl.fips_mode " [0]"
787 Set OpenSSL FIPS mode: disabled(0), enabled(1), Suite B enabled(2)
789 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.modules
790 List of available PKCS#11 modules
792 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.load_certs " [yes]"
793 Whether to load certificates from tokens
795 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.reload_certs " [no]"
796 Reload certificates from all tokens if charon receives a SIGHUP
798 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_dh " [no]"
799 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for DH and ECDH (see use_ecc option)
801 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_ecc " [no]"
802 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for ECDH and ECDSA public key
803 operations. ECDSA private keys can be used regardless of this option
805 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_hasher " [no]"
806 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used to hash data
808 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_pubkey " [no]"
809 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for public key operations, even for
810 keys not stored on tokens
812 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.pkcs11.use_rng " [no]"
813 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used as RNG
815 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.random.random " [@DEV_RANDOM@]"
816 File to read random bytes from, instead of @DEV_RANDOM@
818 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.random.urandom " [@DEV_URANDOM@]"
819 File to read pseudo random bytes from, instead of @DEV_URANDOM@
821 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.unbound.resolv_conf " [/etc/resolv.conf]"
822 File to read DNS resolver configuration from
824 .BR libstrongswan.plugins.unbound.trust_anchors " [/etc/ipsec.d/dnssec.keys]"
825 File to read DNSSEC trust anchors from (usually root zone KSK)
828 .BR libtnccs.tnc_config " [/etc/tnc_config]"
829 TNC IMC/IMV configuration directory
832 .BR libimcv.assessment_result " [yes]"
833 Whether IMVs send a standard IETF Assessment Result attribute
835 .BR libimcv.debug_level " [1]"
836 Debug level for a stand-alone libimcv library
838 .BR libimcv.stderr_quiet " [no]"
839 Disable output to stderr with a stand-alone libimcv library
841 .BR libimcv.os_info.name
842 Manually set the name of the client OS (e.g. Ubuntu)
844 .BR libimcv.os_info.version
845 Manually set the version of the client OS (e.g. 12.04 i686)
846 .SS libimcv plugins section
848 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_blob
849 AIK encrypted private key blob file
851 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_cert
854 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_key
857 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.nonce_len " [20]"
860 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.use_quote2 " [yes]"
861 Use Quote2 AIK signature instead of Quote signature
863 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.cadir
864 Path to directory with AIK cacerts
866 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.database
867 Path to database with file measurement information
869 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.dh_group " [ecp256]"
870 Preferred Diffie-Hellman group
872 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.hash_algorithm " [sha256]"
873 Preferred measurement hash algorithm
875 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.min_nonce_len " [0]"
876 DH minimum nonce length
878 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.remediation_uri
879 URI pointing to attestation remediation instructions
881 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-os.push_info " [yes]"
882 Send operating system info without being prompted
884 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-os.database
885 Database URI for the database that stores operating system information
887 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-os.remediation_uri
888 URI pointing to operating system remediation instructions
890 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-scanner.push_info " [yes]"
891 Send open listening ports without being prompted
893 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-scanner.closed_port_policy " [yes]"
894 By default all ports must be closed (yes) or can be open (no)
896 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-scanner.remediation_uri
897 URI pointing to scanner remediation instructions
899 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-scanner.tcp_ports
900 List of TCP ports that can be open or must be closed
902 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-scanner.udp_ports
903 List of UDP ports that can be open or must be closed
905 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.additional_ids " [0]"
906 Number of additional IMC IDs
908 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.command " [none]"
909 Command to be sent to the Test IMV
911 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.dummy_size " [0]"
912 Size of dummy attribute to be sent to the Test IMV (0 = disabled)
914 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.retry " [no]"
917 .BR libimcv.plugins.imc-test.retry_command
918 Command to be sent to the Test IMV in the handshake retry
920 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-test.remediation_uri
921 URI pointing to test remediation instructions
923 .BR libimcv.plugins.imv-test.rounds " [0]"
924 Number of IMC-IMV retry rounds
928 List of TLS encryption ciphers
930 .BR libtls.key_exchange
931 List of TLS key exchange methods
934 List of TLS MAC algorithms
937 List of TLS cipher suites
941 Credential database URI for manager
943 .BR manager.debug " [no]"
944 Enable debugging in manager
947 Plugins to load in manager
950 FastCGI socket of manager, to run it statically
952 .BR manager.threads " [10]"
953 Threads to use for request handling
955 .BR manager.timeout " [15m]"
956 Session timeout for manager
957 .SS mediation client section
960 Mediation client database URI
962 .BR medcli.dpd " [5m]"
963 DPD timeout to use in mediation client plugin
965 .BR medcli.rekey " [20m]"
966 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation client plugin
967 .SS mediation server section
970 Mediation server database URI
972 .BR medsrv.debug " [no]"
973 Debugging in mediation server web application
975 .BR medsrv.dpd " [5m]"
976 DPD timeout to use in mediation server plugin
979 Plugins to load in mediation server plugin
981 .BR medsrv.password_length " [6]"
982 Minimum password length required for mediation server user accounts
984 .BR medsrv.rekey " [20m]"
985 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation server plugin
988 Run Mediation server web application statically on socket
990 .BR medsrv.threads " [5]"
991 Number of thread for mediation service web application
993 .BR medsrv.timeout " [15m]"
994 Session timeout for mediation service
998 Plugins to load in ipsec openac tool
1002 Database URI for the database that stores the package information
1006 Plugins to load in ipsec pki tool
1010 Plugins to load in ipsec pool tool
1011 .SS scepclient section
1014 Plugins to load in ipsec scepclient tool
1018 Plugins to load in starter
1020 .BR starter.load_warning " [yes]"
1021 Disable charon plugin load option warning
1023 .SH LOGGER CONFIGURATION
1024 The options described below provide a much more flexible way to configure
1025 loggers for the IKEv2 daemon charon than using the
1031 that if any loggers are specified in strongswan.conf,
1033 does not have any effect.
1035 There are currently two types of loggers defined:
1038 Log directly to a file and are defined by specifying the full path to the
1039 file as subsection in the
1041 section. To log to the console the two special filenames
1042 .BR stdout " and " stderr
1046 Log into a syslog facility and are defined by specifying the facility to log to
1047 as the name of a subsection in the
1049 section. The following facilities are currently supported:
1050 .BR daemon " and " auth .
1052 Multiple loggers can be defined for each type with different log verbosity for
1053 the different subsystems of the daemon.
1056 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.default " [1]"
1058 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.default
1059 Specifies the default loglevel to be used for subsystems for which no specific
1060 loglevel is defined.
1062 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.<subsystem> " [<default>]"
1064 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.<subsystem>
1065 Specifies the loglevel for the given subsystem.
1067 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.append " [yes]"
1068 If this option is enabled log entries are appended to the existing file.
1070 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.flush_line " [no]"
1071 Enabling this option disables block buffering and enables line buffering.
1073 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.ike_name " [no]"
1075 .BR charon.syslog.<facility>.ike_name
1076 Prefix each log entry with the connection name and a unique numerical
1077 identifier for each IKE_SA.
1079 .BR charon.filelog.<filename>.time_format
1080 Prefix each log entry with a timestamp. The option accepts a format string as
1084 .BR charon.syslog.identifier
1085 Global identifier used for an
1087 call, prepended to each log message by syslog. If not configured,
1089 is not called, so the value will depend on system defaults (often the program
1095 Main daemon setup/cleanup/signal handling
1098 IKE_SA manager, handling synchronization for IKE_SA access
1107 Jobs queueing/processing and thread pool management
1110 Configuration management and plugins
1113 IPsec/Networking kernel interface
1116 IKE network communication
1119 Low-level encoding/decoding (ASN.1, X.509 etc.)
1122 Packet encoding/decoding encryption/decryption operations
1125 libtls library messages
1128 libipsec library messages
1131 libstrongwan library messages
1134 Trusted Network Connect
1137 Integrity Measurement Collector
1140 Integrity Measurement Verifier
1143 Platform Trust Service
1150 Very basic auditing logs, (e.g. SA up/SA down)
1153 Generic control flow with errors, a good default to see whats going on
1156 More detailed debugging control flow
1159 Including RAW data dumps in Hex
1162 Also include sensitive material in dumps, e.g. keys
1168 /var/log/charon.log {
1169 time_format = %b %e %T
1180 # enable logging to LOG_DAEMON, use defaults
1183 # minimalistic IKE auditing logging to LOG_AUTHPRIV
1192 .SH JOB PRIORITY MANAGEMENT
1193 Some operations in the IKEv2 daemon charon are currently implemented
1194 synchronously and blocking. Two examples for such operations are communication
1195 with a RADIUS server via EAP-RADIUS, or fetching CRL/OCSP information during
1196 certificate chain verification. Under high load conditions, the thread pool may
1197 run out of available threads, and some more important jobs, such as liveness
1198 checking, may not get executed in time.
1200 To prevent thread starvation in such situations job priorities were introduced.
1201 The job processor will reserve some threads for higher priority jobs, these
1202 threads are not available for lower priority, locking jobs.
1204 Currently 4 priorities have been defined, and they are used in charon as
1208 Priority for long-running dispatcher jobs.
1211 INFORMATIONAL exchanges, as used by liveness checking (DPD).
1214 Everything not HIGH/LOW, including IKE_SA_INIT processing.
1217 IKE_AUTH message processing. RADIUS and CRL fetching block here
1219 Although IKE_SA_INIT processing is computationally expensive, it is explicitly
1220 assigned to the MEDIUM class. This allows charon to do the DH exchange while
1221 other threads are blocked in IKE_AUTH. To prevent the daemon from accepting more
1222 IKE_SA_INIT requests than it can handle, use IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING.
1224 The thread pool processes jobs strictly by priority, meaning it will consume all
1225 higher priority jobs before looking for ones with lower priority. Further, it
1226 reserves threads for certain priorities. A priority class having reserved
1228 threads will always have
1230 threads available for this class (either currently processing a job, or waiting
1233 To ensure that there are always enough threads available for higher priority
1234 tasks, threads must be reserved for each priority class.
1236 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.critical " [0]"
1237 Threads reserved for CRITICAL priority class jobs
1239 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.high " [0]"
1240 Threads reserved for HIGH priority class jobs
1242 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.medium " [0]"
1243 Threads reserved for MEDIUM priority class jobs
1245 .BR libstrongswan.processor.priority_threads.low " [0]"
1246 Threads reserved for LOW priority class jobs
1248 Let's consider the following configuration:
1261 With this configuration, one thread is reserved for HIGH priority tasks. As
1262 currently only liveness checking and stroke message processing is done with
1263 high priority, one or two threads should be sufficient.
1265 The MEDIUM class mostly processes non-blocking jobs. Unless your setup is
1266 experiencing many blocks in locks while accessing shared resources, threads for
1267 one or two times the number of CPU cores is fine.
1269 It is usually not required to reserve threads for CRITICAL jobs. Jobs in this
1270 class rarely return and do not release their thread to the pool.
1272 The remaining threads are available for LOW priority jobs. Reserving threads
1273 does not make sense (until we have an even lower priority).
1275 To see what the threads are actually doing, invoke
1276 .IR "ipsec statusall" .
1277 Under high load, something like this will show up:
1280 worker threads: 2 or 32 idle, 5/1/2/22 working,
1281 job queue: 0/0/1/149, scheduled: 198
1284 From 32 worker threads,
1288 are running CRITICAL priority jobs (dispatching from sockets, etc.).
1290 is currently handling a HIGH priority job. This is actually the thread currently
1291 providing this information via stroke.
1293 are handling MEDIUM priority jobs, likely IKE_SA_INIT or CREATE_CHILD_SA
1296 are handling LOW priority jobs, probably waiting for an EAP-RADIUS response
1297 while processing IKE_AUTH messages.
1299 The job queue load shows how many jobs are queued for each priority, ready for
1300 execution. The single MEDIUM priority job will get executed immediately, as
1301 we have two spare threads reserved for MEDIUM class jobs.
1303 .SH IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING
1304 If a responder receives more connection requests per seconds than it can handle,
1305 it does not make sense to accept more IKE_SA_INIT messages. And if they are
1306 queued but can't get processed in time, an answer might be sent after the
1307 client has already given up and restarted its connection setup. This
1308 additionally increases the load on the responder.
1310 To limit the responder load resulting from new connection attempts, the daemon
1311 can drop IKE_SA_INIT messages just after reception. There are two mechanisms to
1312 decide if this should happen, configured with the following options:
1314 .BR charon.init_limit_half_open " [0]"
1315 Limit based on the number of half open IKE_SAs. Half open IKE_SAs are SAs in
1316 connecting state, but not yet established.
1318 .BR charon.init_limit_job_load " [0]"
1319 Limit based on the number of jobs currently queued for processing (sum over all
1322 The second limit includes load from other jobs, such as rekeying. Choosing a
1323 good value is difficult and depends on the hardware and expected load.
1325 The first limit is simpler to calculate, but includes the load from new
1326 connections only. If your responder is capable of negotiating 100 tunnels/s, you
1327 might set this limit to 1000. The daemon will then drop new connection attempts
1328 if generating a response would require more than 10 seconds. If you are
1329 allowing for a maximum response time of more than 30 seconds, consider adjusting
1330 the timeout for connecting IKE_SAs
1331 .RB ( charon.half_open_timeout ).
1332 A responder, by default, deletes an IKE_SA if the initiator does not establish
1333 it within 30 seconds. Under high load, a higher value might be required.
1336 To do stability testing and performance optimizations, the IKEv2 daemon charon
1337 provides the load-tester plugin. This plugin allows one to setup thousands of
1338 tunnels concurrently against the daemon itself or a remote host.
1341 Never enable the load-testing plugin on productive systems. It provides
1342 preconfigured credentials and allows an attacker to authenticate as any user.
1345 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.addrs
1346 Subsection that contains key/value pairs with address pools (in CIDR notation)
1347 to use for a specific network interface e.g. eth0 = 10.10.0.0/16
1349 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.addrs_keep " [no]"
1350 Whether to keep dynamic addresses even after the associated SA got terminated
1352 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.addrs_prefix " [16]"
1353 Network prefix length to use when installing dynamic addresses. If set to -1 the
1354 full address is used (i.e. 32 or 128)
1356 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.ca_dir
1357 Directory to load (intermediate) CA certificates from
1359 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.child_rekey " [600]"
1360 Seconds to start CHILD_SA rekeying after setup
1362 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delay " [0]"
1363 Delay between initiatons for each thread
1365 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.delete_after_established " [no]"
1366 Delete an IKE_SA as soon as it has been established
1368 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.digest " [sha1]"
1369 Digest algorithm used when issuing certificates
1371 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.dpd_delay " [0]"
1372 DPD delay to use in load test
1374 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.dynamic_port " [0]"
1375 Base port to be used for requests (each client uses a different port)
1377 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.eap_password " [default-pwd]"
1378 EAP secret to use in load test
1380 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.enable " [no]"
1381 Enable the load testing plugin
1383 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.esp " [aes128-sha1]"
1384 CHILD_SA proposal to use for load tests
1386 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.fake_kernel " [no]"
1387 Fake the kernel interface to allow load-testing against self
1389 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.ike_rekey " [0]"
1390 Seconds to start IKE_SA rekeying after setup
1392 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.init_limit " [0]"
1393 Global limit of concurrently established SAs during load test
1395 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator " [0.0.0.0]"
1396 Address to initiate from
1398 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiators " [0]"
1399 Number of concurrent initiator threads to use in load test
1401 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_auth " [pubkey]"
1402 Authentication method(s) the intiator uses
1404 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_id
1405 Initiator ID used in load test
1407 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_match
1408 Initiator ID to match against as responder
1410 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_tsi
1411 Traffic selector on initiator side, as proposed by initiator
1413 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_tsr
1414 Traffic selector on responder side, as proposed by initiator
1416 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.iterations " [1]"
1417 Number of IKE_SAs to initiate by each initiator in load test
1419 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.issuer_cert
1420 Path to the issuer certificate (if not configured a hard-coded value is used)
1422 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.issuer_key
1423 Path to private key that is used to issue certificates (if not configured a
1424 hard-coded value is used)
1426 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.pool
1427 Provide INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRs from a named pool
1429 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.preshared_key " [default-psk]"
1430 Preshared key to use in load test
1432 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.proposal " [aes128-sha1-modp768]"
1433 IKE proposal to use in load test
1435 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder " [127.0.0.1]"
1436 Address to initiation connections to
1438 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_auth " [pubkey]"
1439 Authentication method(s) the responder uses
1441 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_id
1442 Responder ID used in load test
1444 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_tsi " [initiator_tsi]"
1445 Traffic selector on initiator side, as narrowed by responder
1447 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_tsr " [initiator_tsr]"
1448 Traffic selector on responder side, as narrowed by responder
1450 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.request_virtual_ip " [no]"
1451 Request an INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDR from the server
1453 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.shutdown_when_complete " [no]"
1454 Shutdown the daemon after all IKE_SAs have been established
1456 .BR charon.plugins.load-tester.version " [0]"
1457 IKE version to use (0 means use IKEv2 as initiator and accept any version as
1459 .SS Configuration details
1460 For public key authentication, the responder uses the
1461 .B \(dqCN=srv, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq
1462 identity. For the initiator, each connection attempt uses a different identity
1464 .BR "\(dqCN=c1-r1, OU=load-test, O=strongSwan\(dq" ,
1465 where the first number inidicates the client number, the second the
1466 authentication round (if multiple authentication is used).
1468 For PSK authentication, FQDN identities are used. The server uses
1469 .BR srv.strongswan.org ,
1470 the client uses an identity in the form
1471 .BR c1-r1.strongswan.org .
1473 For EAP authentication, the client uses a NAI in the form
1474 .BR 100000000010001@strongswan.org .
1476 To configure multiple authentication, concatenate multiple methods using, e.g.
1478 initiator_auth = pubkey|psk|eap-md5|eap-aka
1481 The responder uses a hardcoded certificate based on a 1024-bit RSA key.
1482 This certificate additionally serves as CA certificate. A peer uses the same
1483 private key, but generates client certificates on demand signed by the CA
1484 certificate. Install the Responder/CA certificate on the remote host to
1485 authenticate all clients.
1487 To speed up testing, the load tester plugin implements a special Diffie-Hellman
1488 implementation called modpnull. By setting
1490 proposal = aes128-sha1-modpnull
1492 this wicked fast DH implementation is used. It does not provide any security
1493 at all, but allows one to run tests without DH calculation overhead.
1496 In the simplest case, the daemon initiates IKE_SAs against itself using the
1497 loopback interface. This will actually establish double the number of IKE_SAs,
1498 as the daemon is initiator and responder for each IKE_SA at the same time.
1499 Installation of IPsec SAs would fails, as each SA gets installed twice. To
1500 simulate the correct behavior, a fake kernel interface can be enabled which does
1501 not install the IPsec SAs at the kernel level.
1503 A simple loopback configuration might look like this:
1507 # create new IKE_SAs for each CHILD_SA to simulate
1510 # turn off denial of service protection
1517 # use 4 threads to initiate connections
1520 # each thread initiates 1000 connections
1522 # delay each initiation in each thread by 20ms
1524 # enable the fake kernel interface to
1525 # avoid SA conflicts
1532 This will initiate 4000 IKE_SAs within 20 seconds. You may increase the delay
1533 value if your box can not handle that much load, or decrease it to put more
1534 load on it. If the daemon starts retransmitting messages your box probably can
1535 not handle all connection attempts.
1537 The plugin also allows one to test against a remote host. This might help to
1538 test against a real world configuration. A connection setup to do stress
1539 testing of a gateway might look like this:
1549 # 10000 connections, ten in parallel
1552 # use a delay of 100ms, overall time is:
1553 # iterations * delay = 100s
1555 # address of the gateway
1557 # IKE-proposal to use
1558 proposal = aes128-sha1-modp1024
1559 # use faster PSK authentication instead
1561 initiator_auth = psk
1562 responder_auth = psk
1563 # request a virtual IP using configuration
1565 request_virtual_ip = yes
1566 # enable CHILD_SA every 60s
1573 .SH IKEv2 RETRANSMISSION
1574 Retransmission timeouts in the IKEv2 daemon charon can be configured globally
1575 using the three keys listed below:
1579 .BR charon.retransmit_base " [1.8]"
1580 .BR charon.retransmit_timeout " [4.0]"
1581 .BR charon.retransmit_tries " [5]"
1585 The following algorithm is used to calculate the timeout:
1588 relative timeout = retransmit_timeout * retransmit_base ^ (n-1)
1593 is the current retransmission count.
1595 Using the default values, packets are retransmitted in:
1601 Retransmission Relative Timeout Absolute Timeout
1611 /etc/strongswan.conf
1614 ipsec.conf(5), ipsec.secrets(5), ipsec(8)
1617 .UR http://www.strongswan.org
1620 by Tobias Brunner, Andreas Steffen and Martin Willi.