IPSEC\&.CONF

Section: Executable programs (5)
Updated: 02/03/2021
Page Index

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NAME

ipsec.conf - IPsec configuration and connections  

DESCRIPTION

The ipsec.conf file specifies most configuration and control information for the Libreswan IPsec subsystem. (The major exception is secrets for authentication; see ipsec.secrets(5).) Its contents are not security-sensitive. Configurations can be added using this configuration file or by using ipsec whack directly. This means that technically, the ipsec.conf file is optional, but a few warnings might show up when this file is missing.

ipsec.conf is a text file, consisting of one or more sections. White space followed by # followed by anything to the end of the line is a comment and is ignored, as are empty lines that are not within a section.

A line that contains include and a file name, separated by white space, is replaced by the contents of that file, preceded and followed by empty lines. If the file name is not a full pathname, it is considered to be relative to the directory that contains the including file. Such inclusions can be nested. Only a single filename may be supplied, and it may not contain white space, but it may include shell wildcards (see sh(1)); for example:

include /etc/ipsec.d/*.conf

The intention of the include facility is mostly to permit keeping information on connections, or sets of connections, separate from the main configuration file. This permits such connection descriptions to be changed, copied to the other security gateways involved, etc., without having to constantly extract them from the configuration file and then insert them back into it. Note also the also and alsoflip parameters (described below) which permit splitting a single logical section (e.g. a connection description) into several distinct sections.

The first significant line of the file may specify a version of this specification for backwards compatibility with freeswan and openswan. It is ignored and unused. For compatibility with openswan, specify:

version 2

A section begins with a line of the form:

type name

where type indicates what type of section follows, and name is an arbitrary name that distinguishes the section from others of the same type. (Names must start with a letter and may contain only letters, digits, periods, underscores, and hyphens.) All subsequent non-empty lines that begin with white space are part of the section; comments within a section must begin with white space too. There may be only one section of a given type with a given name.

Lines within the section are generally of the form

     parameter=value

(note the mandatory preceding white space). There can be white space on either side of the =. Parameter names follow the same syntax as section names, and are specific to a section type. Unless otherwise explicitly specified, no parameter name may appear more than once in a section.

An empty value stands for the system default value (if any) of the parameter, i.e. it is roughly equivalent to omitting the parameter line entirely. A value may contain white space only if the entire value is enclosed in double quotes ("); a value cannot itself contain a double quote, nor may it be continued across more than one line.

Numeric values are specified to be either an "integer" (a sequence of digits) or a "decimal number" (sequence of digits optionally followed by `.' and another sequence of digits).

There is currently one parameter that is available in any type of section:

also

the value is a section name; the parameters of that section are appended to this section, as if they had been written as part of it. The specified section must exist, must follow the current one, and must have the same section type. (Nesting is permitted, and there may be more than one also in a single section, although it is forbidden to append the same section more than once.) This allows, for example, keeping the encryption keys for a connection in a separate file from the rest of the description, by using both an also parameter and an include line. (Caution, see BUGS below for some restrictions.)

alsoflip

can be used in a conn section. It acts like an also that flips the referenced section's entries left-for-right.

Parameter names beginning with x- (or X-, or x_, or X_) are reserved for user extensions and will never be assigned meanings by IPsec. Parameters with such names must still observe the syntax rules (limits on characters used in the name; no white space in a non-quoted value; no newlines or double quotes within the value). All other as-yet-unused parameter names are reserved for future IPsec improvements.

A section with name %default specifies defaults for sections of the same type. For each parameter in it, any section of that type that does not have a parameter of the same name gets a copy of the one from the %default section. There may be multiple %default sections of a given type, but only one default may be supplied for any specific parameter name. %default sections may not contain also or alsoflip parameters.

Currently there are two types of section: a config section specifies general configuration information for IPsec, while a conn section specifies an IPsec connection.  

CONN SECTIONS

A conn section contains a connection specification, defining a network connection to be made using IPsec. The name given is arbitrary, and is used to identify the connection to ipsec_auto(8) Here's a simple example:

conn snt
        left=10.11.11.1
        leftsubnet=10.0.1.0/24
        leftnexthop=172.16.55.66
        leftsourceip=10.0.1.1
        right=192.168.22.1
        rightsubnet=10.0.2.0/24
        rightnexthop=172.16.88.99
        rightsourceip=10.0.2.1
        keyingtries=%forever

A note on terminology... In automatic keying, there are two kinds of communications going on: transmission of user IP packets, and gateway-to-gateway negotiations for keying, rekeying, and general control. The data path (a set of "IPsec SAs") used for user packets is herein referred to as the "connection"; the path used for negotiations (built with "ISAKMP SAs") is referred to as the "keying channel".

To avoid trivial editing of the configuration file to suit it to each system involved in a connection, connection specifications are written in terms of left and right participants, rather than in terms of local and remote. Which participant is considered left or right is arbitrary; IPsec figures out which one it is being run on based on internal information. This permits using identical connection specifications on both ends. There are cases where there is no symmetry; a good convention is to use left for the local side and right for the remote side (the first letters are a good mnemonic).

Many of the parameters relate to one participant or the other; only the ones for left are listed here, but every parameter whose name begins with left has a right counterpart, whose description is the same but with left and right reversed.

Parameters are optional unless marked "(required)"  

CONN PARAMETERS: GENERAL

The following parameters are relevant to IKE automatic keying. Unless otherwise noted, for a connection to work, in general it is necessary for the two ends to agree exactly on the values of these parameters.

keyexchange

method of key exchange; the default and currently the only accepted value is ike

hostaddrfamily

the address family of the hosts; currently the accepted values are ipv4 and ipv6. The default is to detect this based on the IP addresses specified or the IP addresses resolved, so this option is not needed, unless you specify hostnames that resolve to both IPv4 and IPv6. This option used to be named connaddrfamily but its use was broken so it was obsoleted in favour or using the new hostaddrfamily and clientaddrfamily.

clientaddrfamily

the address family of the clients (subnets); currently the accepted values are ipv4 and ipv6. The default is to detect this based on the network IP addresses specified or the network IP addresses resolved, so this option is not needed, unless you specify names that resolve to both IPv4 and IPv6.

type

the type of the connection; currently the accepted values are tunnel (the default) signifying a host-to-host, host-to-subnet, or subnet-to-subnet tunnel; transport, signifying host-to-host transport mode; passthrough, signifying that no IPsec processing should be done at all; drop, signifying that packets should be discarded; and reject, signifying that packets should be discarded and a diagnostic ICMP returned.

left

(required) the IP address or DNS hostname of the left participant's public-network interface, Currently, IPv4 and IPv6 IP addresses are supported. If a DNS hostname is used, it will be resolved to an IP address on load time, and whenever a connection is rekeying or restarting (such as when restarted via a DPD failure detection). This allows one to use a DNS hostname when the endpoint is on a dynamic IP address.

There are several magic values. If it is %defaultroute, left will be filled in automatically with the local address of the default-route interface (as determined at IPsec startup time); this also overrides any value supplied for leftnexthop. (Either left or right may be %defaultroute, but not both.) The value %any signifies an address to be filled in (by automatic keying) during negotiation. The value %opportunistic signifies that both left and leftnexthop are to be filled in (by automatic keying) from DNS data for left's client. The value can also contain the interface name, which will then later be used to obtain the IP address from to fill in. For example %ppp0. The values %group and %opportunisticgroup makes this a policy group conn: one that will be instantiated into a regular or opportunistic conn for each CIDR block listed in the policy group file with the same name as the conn.

If using IP addresses in combination with NAT, always use the actual local machine's (NATed) IP address, and if the remote (eg right=) is NATed as well, the remote's public (not NATed) IP address. Note that this makes the configuration no longer symmetrical on both sides, so you cannot use an identical configuration file on both hosts.

leftsubnet

private subnet behind the left participant, expressed as network/netmask (actually, any form acceptable to ipsec_ttosubnet(3)); Currently, IPv4 and IPv6 ranges are supported. if omitted, essentially assumed to be left/32, signifying that the left end of the connection goes to the left participant only

It supports two magic shorthands vhost: and vnet:, which can list subnets in the same syntax as virtual-private. The value %priv expands to the networks specified in virtual-private. The value %no means no subnet. A common use for allowing roadwarriors to come in on public IPs or via accepted NATed networks from RFC1918 is to use leftsubnet=vhost:%no,%priv. The vnet: option can be used to allow RFC1918 subnets without hardcoding them. When using vnet the connection will instantiate, allowing for multiple tunnels with different subnets.

leftsubnets

specify multiple private subnets behind the left participant, expressed as { networkA/netmaskA, networkB/netmaskB [...] } If both a leftsubnets= and rightsubnets= are defined, all combinations of subnet tunnels will be established as IPsec tunnels. You cannot use leftsubnet= and leftsubnets= together. For examples see testing/pluto/multinet-*. Be aware that when using spaces as separator, that the entire option value needs to be in double quotes.

leftvti

the address/mask to configure on the VTI interface when vti-interface is set. It takes the form of network/netmask (actually, any form acceptable to ipsec_ttosubnet(3)); Currently, IPv4 and IPv6 ranges are supported. This option is often used in combination with routed based VPNs.

leftaddresspool

address pool from where the IKEv1 ModeCFG or IKEv2 server can assign IP addresses to clients. When configured as a server, using leftxauthserver=yes this option specifies the address pool from which IP addresses are taken to assign the clients. The syntax of the address pool specifies a range (not a CIDR) for IPv4 and CIDR for IPv6, in the following syntax: rightaddresspool=192.168.1.100-192.168.1.200 or rightaddresspool=2001:db8:0:3:1::/97 Generally, the rightaddresspool= option will be accompanied by rightxauthclient=yes, leftxauthserver=yes and leftsubnet=0.0.0.0/0 option.

When leftaddresspool= is specified, the connection may not specify either leftsubnet= or leftsubnets=. Address pools are fully allocated when the connection is loaded, so the ranges should be sane. For example, specifying a range rightaddresspool=10.0.0.0-11.0.0.0 will lead to massive memory allocation. Address pools specifying the exact same range are shared between different connections. Different addresspools should not be defined to partially overlap.

leftprotoport

allowed protocols and ports over connection, also called Port Selectors. The argument is in the form protocol, which can be a number or a name that will be looked up in /etc/protocols, such as leftprotoport=icmp, or in the form of protocol/port, such as tcp/smtp. Ports can be defined as a number (eg. 25) or as a name (eg smtp) which will be looked up in /etc/services. A special keyword %any can be used to allow all ports of a certain protocol. The most common use of this option is for L2TP connections to only allow l2tp packets (UDP port 1701), eg: leftprotoport=17/1701.

To filter on specific icmp type and code, use the higher 8 bits for type and the lower 8 bits for port. For example, to allow icmp echo packets (type 8, code 0) the 'port' would be 0x0800, or 2048 in decimal, so you configure leftprotoport=icmp/2048. Similarly, to allow ipv6-icmp Neighbour Discovery which has type 136 (0x88) and code 0(0x00) this becomes 0x8800 or in decimal 34816 resulting in leftprotoport=ipv6-icmp/34816 .

Some clients, notably older Windows XP and some Mac OSX clients, use a random high port as source port. In those cases rightprotoport=17/%any can be used to allow all UDP traffic on the connection. Note that this option is part of the proposal, so it cannot be arbitrarily left out if one end does not care about the traffic selection over this connection - both peers have to agree. The Port Selectors show up in the output of ipsec eroute and ipsec auto --status eg:"l2tp": 193.110.157.131[@aivd.libreswan.org]:7/1701...%any:17/1701 This option only filters outbound traffic. Inbound traffic selection must still be based on firewall rules activated by an updown script. The variables $PLUTO_MY_PROTOCOL, $PLUTO_PEER_PROTOCOL, $PLUTO_MY_PORT, and $PLUTO_PEER_PORT are available for use in updown scripts. Older workarounds for bugs involved a setting of 17/0 to denote any single UDP port (not UDP port 0). Some clients, most notably OSX, uses a random high port, instead of port 1701 for L2TP.

leftnexthop

next-hop gateway IP address for the left participant's connection to the public network; defaults to %direct (meaning right). If the value is to be overridden by the left=%defaultroute method (see above), an explicit value must not be given. If that method is not being used, but leftnexthop is %defaultroute, and interfaces=%defaultroute is used in the config setup section, the next-hop gateway address of the default-route interface will be used. The magic value %direct signifies a value to be filled in (by automatic keying) with the peer's address. Relevant only locally, other end need not agree on it.

leftsourceip

the IP address for this host to use when transmitting a packet to the other side of this link. Relevant only locally, the other end need not agree. This option is used to make the gateway itself use its internal IP, which is part of the leftsubnet, to communicate to the rightsubnet or right. Otherwise, it will use its nearest IP address, which is its public IP address. This option is mostly used when defining subnet-subnet connections, so that the gateways can talk to each other and the subnet at the other end, without the need to build additional host-subnet, subnet-host and host-host tunnels. Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are supported.

leftupdown

what "updown" script to run to adjust routing and/or firewalling when the status of the connection changes (default ipsec _updown). May include positional parameters separated by white space (although this requires enclosing the whole string in quotes); including shell metacharacters is unwise. An example to enable routing when using the NETKEY stack, one can use:

leftupdown="ipsec _updown --route yes"

To disable calling an updown script, set it to the empty string, eg leftupdown="" or leftupdown="%disabled".

See ipsec_pluto(8) for details. Relevant only locally, other end need not agree on it.

leftcat

Whether to perform Client Address Translation ("CAT") when using Opportunistic IPsec behind NAT. Accepted values are no (the default) and yes. This option should only be enabled on the special Opportunistic IPsec connections, usually called "private" and "private-or-clear". When set, this option causes the given addresspool IP from the remote peer to be NATed with iptables. It will also install an additional IPsec SA policy to cover the pre-NAT IP. See the Opportunistic IPsec information on the libreswan website for more information and examples.

leftfirewall

This option is obsolete and should not used anymore.

If one or both security gateways are doing forwarding firewalling (possibly including masquerading), and this is specified using the firewall parameters, tunnels established with IPsec are exempted from it so that packets can flow unchanged through the tunnels. (This means that all subnets connected in this manner must have distinct, non-overlapping subnet address blocks.) This is done by the default updown script (see ipsec_pluto(8)).

The implementation of this makes certain assumptions about firewall setup, and the availability of the Linux Advanced Routing tools. In situations calling for more control, it may be preferable for the user to supply his own updown script, which makes the appropriate adjustments for his system.  

CONN PARAMETERS: AUTOMATIC KEYING

The following parameters are relevant to automatic keying via IKE. Unless otherwise noted, for a connection to work, in general it is necessary for the two ends to agree exactly on the values of these parameters.

auto

what operation, if any, should be done automatically at IPsec startup; currently-accepted values are add (signifying an ipsec auto --add), ondemand (signifying that plus an ipsec auto --ondemand), start (signifying that plus an ipsec auto --up), and ignore (also the default) (signifying no automatic startup operation), and keep (signifying an add plus an attempt to keep the connection up once the remote peer brought it up). See the config setup discussion below. Relevant only locally, other end need not agree on it (but in general, for an intended-to-be-permanent connection, both ends should use auto=start to ensure that any reboot causes immediate renegotiation).

The option ondemand used to be called route

authby

how the two security gateways should authenticate each other; acceptable values are rsasig (the default) for RSA authentication with SHA-1, rsa-sha2 for RSASSA-PSS digital signatures based authentication with SHA2-256, rsa-sha2_384 for RSASSA-PSS digital signatures based authentication with SHA2-384, rsa-sha2_512 for RSASSA-PSS digital signatures based authentication with SHA2-512, secret for shared secrets (PSK) authentication, secret|rsasig for either, never if negotiation is never to be attempted or accepted (useful for shunt-only conns), and null for null-authentication.

If asymmetric authentication is requested, IKEv2 must be enabled, and the options leftauth= and rightauth= should be used instead of authby.

Digital signatures are superior in every way to shared secrets. Especially IKEv1 in Aggressive Mode is vulnerable to offline dictionary attacks and is performed routinely by at least the NSA on monitored internet traffic globally. The never option is only used for connections that do not actually start an IKE negotiation, such as type=passthrough connections. The auth method null is used for "anonymous opportunistic IPsec" and should not be used for regular pre-configured IPsec VPNs.

ike

IKE encryption/authentication algorithm to be used for the connection (phase 1 aka ISAKMP SA). The format is "cipher-hash;modpgroup, cipher-hash;modpgroup, ..." Any left out option will be filled in with all allowed default options. Multiple proposals are separated by a comma. If an ike= line is specified, no other received proposals will be accepted. Formerly there was a distinction (by using a "!" symbol) between "strict mode" or not. That mode has been obsoleted. If an ike= option is specified, the mode is always strict, meaning no other received proposals will be accepted. Some examples are ike=3des-sha1,aes-sha1, ike=aes, ike=aes_ctr, ike=aes_gcm256-sha2, ike=aes128-md5;modp2048, ike=aes256-sha2;dh19, ike=aes128-sha1;dh22, ike=3des-md5;modp1024,aes-sha1;modp1536. The options must be suitable as a value of ipsec_spi(8)'s --ike option. The default IKE proposal depends on the version of libreswan used. It follow the recommendations of RFC4306, RFC7321 and as of this writing their successor draft documents RFC4306bis and RFC7321bis. For IKEv1, SHA1 and MODP1536 are still allowed per default for backwards compatibility, but 3DES and MODP1024 are not allowed per default. IKEv2's minimum is AES, MODP2048 and SHA2. The default key size is 256 bits. The default AES_GCM ICV is 16 bytes.

Note that AES-GCM is an AEAD algorithm, meaning that it performs encryption+authentication in one step. This means that AES-GCM must not specify an authentication algorithm. However, it does require a PRF function, so the second argument to an AEAD algorithm denotes the PRF. So ike=aes_gcm-sha2 means propose AES_GCM with no authentication and using SHA2 as the prf. Note that for phase2alg, there is no prf, so AES-GCM is specified for ESP as phase2alg=aes_gcm-null. The AES-GCM and AES-CCM algorithms support 8,12 and 16 byte ICV's. These can be specified using a postfix, for example aes_gcm_a (for 8), aes_gcm_b (for 12) and aes_gcm_c (for 16). The default (aes_gcm without postfix) refers to the 16 byte ICV version. It is strongly recommended to NOT use the 8 or 12 byte versions of GCM or CCM.

Weak algorithms are regularly removed from libreswan. Currently, 1DES and modp768 have been removed and modp1024 will be removed in the near future. Additionally, md5 and sha1 will be removed within the next few years. Null encryption is available, and should only be used for testing or benchmarking purposes. Please do not request for insecure algorithms to be re-added to libreswan.

Diffie-Hellman groups 19,20 and 21 from RFC- 5903 and 22, 23 and 24 from RFC-5114 are also supported. For all groups, the "dh" keyword can be used. For the MODP based groups, the modp= keyword can be used. for example ike=3des-sha1;dh19. The RFC-5114 DH groups are extremely controversial and MUST NOT be used unless forced (administratively) by the other party. Support for these groups will most likely be removed in 2017, as it cannot be proven these DH groups do not have a cryptographic trapdoor embedded in them (a backdoor by the USG who provided these primes without revealing the seeds and generation process used). Due the the weakness of DH22, support for this group is not compiled in by default and can be re-enabled using USE_DH22=true.

The modp syntax will be removed in favour of the dh syntax in the future

phase2

Sets the type of SA that will be produced. Valid options are: esp for encryption (the default), ah for authentication only.

The very first IPsec designs called for use of AH plus ESP to offer authentication, integrity and confidentiality. That dual protocol use was a significant burden, so ESP was extended to offer all three services, and AH remained as an auth/integ. The old mode of ah+esp is no longer supported in compliance with RFC 8221 Section 4. Additionally, AH does not play well with NATs, so it is strongly recommended to use ESP with the null cipher if you require unencrypted authenticated transport.

phase2alg

This option is alias to esp.

sha2-truncbug

The default ESP hash truncation for sha2_256 is 128 bits. Some IPsec implementations (Linux before 2.6.33, some Cisco (2811?) routers) implement the draft version which stated 96 bits. If a draft implementation communicates with an RFC implementation, both ends will reject encrypted packets from each other.

This option enables using the draft 96 bits version to interop with those implementations. Currently the accepted values are no, (the default) signifying default RFC truncation of 128 bits, or yes, signifying the draft 96 bits truncation.

Another workaround is to switch from sha2_256 to sha2_128 or sha2_512.

ms-dh-downgrade

Whether to allow a downgrade of DiffieHellman group during rekey (using CREATE_CHILD_SA). Microsoft Windows (at the time of writing, Feb 2018) defaults to using the very weak modp1024 (DH2). This can be changed using a Windows registry setting to use modp2048 (DH14). However, at rekey times, it will shamelessly use modp1024 again and the connection might fail. Setting this option to yes (and adding modp1024 proposals to the ike line) this will allow this downgrade attack to happen. This should only be used to support Windows that feature this bug. Currently the accepted values are no, (the default) or yes.

dns-match-id

Whether to perform an additional DNS lookup and confirm the remote ID payload with the DNS name in the reverse DNS PTR record. Accepted values are no (the default) or yes. This check should be enabled when Opportunistic IPsec is enabled in a mode that is based on packet triggers (on-demand) using IPSECKEY records in DNS. Since in that case the IKE daemon pluto does not know the remote ID, it only knows the remote IP address, this option forces it to confirm the peer's proposed ID (and thus its public/private key) with its actual IP address as listed in the DNS. This prevents attacks where mail.example.com's IP address is taken over by a neighbour machine with a valid web.example.com setup. This check is not needed for certificate based Opportunistic IPsec, as "mail.example.com"s certificate does not have an entry for "web.example.com". It is also not needed for DNS server triggered Opportunistic IPsec, as in that case the IKE daemon pluto is informed of both the IP address, and the hostname/public key.

require-id-on-certificate

When using certificates, check whether the IKE peer ID is present as a subjectAltName (SAN) on the peer certificate. Accepted values are yes (the default) or no. This check should only be disabled when intentionally using certificates that do not have their peer ID specified as a SAN on the certificate. These certificates violate RFC 4945 Section 3.1 and are normally rejected to prevent a compromised host from assuming the IKE identity of another host. The SAN limits the IDs that the peer is able to assume.

ppk

EXPERIMENTAL: Post-quantum preshared keys (PPKs) to be used. Currently the accepted values are propose or yes (the default), signifying we propose to use PPK for this connection; insist, signifying we allow communication only if PPK is used for key derivation; never or no, signifying that PPK should not be used for key derivation. PPKs can be used in connections that allow only IKEv2. In libreswan that would mean that ikev2 option must have value insist. (currently based on draft-fluhrer-qr-ikev2, not raft-ietf-ipsecme-qr-ikev2-00)

nat-ikev1-method

NAT Traversal in IKEv1 is negotiated via Vendor ID options as specified in RFC 3947. However, many implementations only support the draft version of the RFC. Libreswan sends both the RFC and the most common draft versions (02, 02_n and 03) to maximize interoperability. Unfortunately, there are known broken implementations of RFC 3947, notably Cisco routers that have not been updated to the latest firmware. As the NAT-T payload is sent in the very first packet of the initiator, there is no method to auto-detect this problem and initiate a workaround.

This option allows fine tuning which of the NAT-T payloads to consider for sending and processing. Currently the accepted values are drafts, rfc, both (the default) and none. To interoperate with known broken devices, use nat-ikev1-method=drafts. To prevent the other end from triggering IKEv1 NAT-T encapsulation, set this to none. This will omit the NAT-T payloads used to determine NAT, forcing the other end not to use encapsulation.

esp

Specifies the algorithms that will be offered/accepted for a Child SA negotiation. If not specified, a secure set of defaults will be used. Sets are separated using comma's and pluses.

The format for ESP is ENC-AUTH followed by one optional PFSgroup. For instance, "aes_gcm256" or "aes256-sha2_512-dh14" or "aes-sha2_512+sha2_256". When specifying multiple algorithms, specify the PFSgroup last, e.g. "aes128+aes256-sha2_512+sha2_256-dh14+dh19".

The format for AH is AUTH followed by an optional PFSgroup. For instance, "sha2_512" or "sha2_256-dh14".

AEAD algorithms such as AES-GCM and AES-CCM don't require separate hashing algorithm, for example esp=aes_gcm256 or esp=aes_ccm. Note that the ike= syntax for aes_gcm does require the prf hashing algorithm which is not needed for esp=. The supported key sizes for aes_gcm are 128, 192 and 256, which are specified similarly to plain aes, i.e. esp=aes_gcm256. A subscript of _c, _b or _a can be used to refer to the different ICV variants where a means 8 bytes, b means 12 bytes and c means 16 bytes. The default when not using a subscript is the 16 byte ICV, the recommended value by RFC-4106 and RFC-8247. Therefore esp=aes_gcm256 is equivalent to esp=aes_gcm_c256. It is recommended to migrate to the _c versions (without specifying _c), as support for smaller ICV's might be removed in the near future.

The supported algorithms depend on the libreswan version, OS and kernel stack used. Possible ciphers are aes, 3des, aes_ctr, aes_gcm, aes_ccm, camellia and chacha20_poly1305.

Note that openswan and versions of libreswan up to 3.6 require manually adding the salt size to the key size. Therefore, to configure an older version of openswan or libreswan, use: "esp=aes_ccm_c-280-null" to interop with a new libreswan using "esp=aes_ccm256". For CCM, the 'keysize' needs to be increased by 24, resulted in valid keysizes of 152, 215 and 280. For GCM the 'keysize' needs to be increased by 32, resulting valid 'keysizes' of 160, 224 and 288.

ah

AH authentication algorithm to be used for the connection, e.g here. sha2_512 The options must be suitable as a value of ipsec_spi(8)'s --ah option. The default is not to use AH. If for some (invalid) reason you still think you need AH, please use esp with the null encryption cipher instead. Note also that not all ciphers available to the kernel (eg through CryptoAPI) are necessarily supported here.

fragmentation

Whether or not to allow IKE fragmentation. Valid values are yes, (the default), no or force.

IKEv1 fragmentation capabilities are negotiated via a well-known private vendor id. IKEv2 fragmentation support is implemented using RFC 7383. If pluto does not receive the fragmentation payload, no IKE fragments will be sent, regardless of the fragmentation= setting. When set to yes, IKE fragmentation will be attempted on the first re-transmit of an IKE packet of a size larger then 576 bytes for IPv4 and 1280 bytes for IPv6. If fragmentation is set to force, IKE fragmentation is used on initial transmits of such sized packets as well. When we have received IKE fragments for a connection, pluto behaves as if in force mode.

ikepad

Whether or not to pad IKEv1 messages to a multiple of 4 bytes. Valid values are yes, (the default) and no.

IKE padding is allowed in IKEv1 but has been known to cause interoperability issues. The ikepad= option can be used to disable IKEv1 padding. This used to be required for some devices (such as Checkpoint in Aggressive Mode) that reject padded IKEv1 packets. A bug was fixed in libreswan 3.25 that applied wrong IKE padding in XAUTH, so it is suspected that Checkpoint padding issue bas been resolved. And this option should not be needed by anyone. In IKEv2, no padding is allowed, and this option has no effect. If you find a device that seems to require IKE padding, please contact the libreswan developers. This option should almost never be enabled and might be removed in a future version.

ikev2

Whether to use IKEv1 (RFC 4301) or IKEv2 (RFC 7296) settings to be used. Currently the accepted values are no(the default), signifying only IKEv1 is accepted, or yes, signifying only IKEv2 is accepted. Previous versions allowed the keywords propose or permit that would allow either IKEv1 or IKEv2, but this is no longer supported. The permit option is interpreted as no and the propose option is interpreted as yes. Older versions also supported keyword insist which is now interpreted as yes.

mobike

Whether to allow MOBIKE (RFC 4555) to enable a connection to migrate its endpoint without needing to restart the connection from scratch. This is used on mobile devices that switch between wired, wireless or mobile data connections. Current values are no (the default) or yes, Only connection acting as modecfgclient will allow the initiator to migrate using mobike. Only connections acting as modecfgserver will allow clients to migrate.

VTI and MOBIKE might not work well when used together.

esn

Whether or not to enable Extended Sequence Number (ESN) for the IPsec SA. ESN is typically used for very high-speed links (10Gbps or faster) where the standard 32 bit sequence number is exhausted too quickly, causing IPsec SA's rekeys to happen too often. Accepted values are no (the default), yes and either. If either is specified as an initiator, the responder will make the choice. As a responder, if either is received, no is picked.

decap-dscp

Enable decapsulating the Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP, formerly known as Terms Of Service (TOS)) bits. If these bits are set on the inner (encrypted) IP packets, these bits are set on the decrypted IP packets. Acceptable values are no (the default) or yes. Currently this feature is only implemented for the Linux XFRM/NETKEY stack.

nopmtudisc

Disable Path MTU discovery for the IPsec SA. Acceptable values are no (the default) or yes. Currently this feature is only implemented for the Linux XFRM/NETKEY stack.

narrowing

IKEv2 (RFC5996) Section 2.9 Traffic Selector narrowing options. Currently the accepted values are no, (the default) signifying no narrowing will be proposed or accepted, or yes, signifying IKEv2 negotiation may allow establishing an IPsec connection with narrowed down traffic selectors. This option is ignored for IKEv1.

There are security implications in allowing narrowing down the proposal. For one, what should be done with packets that we hoped to tunnel, but cannot. Should these be dropped or send in the clear? Second, this could cause thousands of narrowed down Child SAs to be created if the conn has a broad policy (eg 0/0 to 0/0). One possible good use case scenario is that a remote end (that you fully trust) allows you to define a 0/0 to them, while adjusting what traffic you route via them, and what traffic remains outside the tunnel. However, it is always preferred to setup the exact tunnel policy you want, as this will be much clearer to the user.

sareftrack

Set the method of tracking reply packets with SArefs when using an SAref compatible stack. Currently only the mast stack supports this. Acceptable values are yes (the default), no or conntrack. This option is ignored when SArefs are not supported. This option is passed as PLUTO_SAREF_TRACKING to the updown script which makes the actual decisions whether to perform any iptables/ip_conntrack manipulation. A value of yes means that an IPSEC mangle table will be created. This table will be used to match reply packets. A value of conntrack means that additionally, subsequent packets using this connection will be marked as well, reducing the lookups needed to find the proper SAref by using the ip_conntrack state. A value of no means no IPSEC mangle table is created, and SAref tracking is left to a third-party (kernel) module. In case of a third party module, the SArefs can be relayed using the statsbin= notification helper.

nic-offload

Set the method of Network Interface Controller (NIC) hardware offload for ESP/AH packet processing. Acceptable values are auto (the default), yes or no. This option is separate from any CPU hardware offload available and is currently only available on Linux 4.13+ using the NETKEY/XFRM IPsec stack, when compiled with the options CONFIG_XFRM_OFFLOAD, CONFIG_INET_ESP_OFFLOAD and CONFIG_INET6_ESP_OFFLOAD. The auto option will attempt to auto-detect the presence of kernel and hardware support, and then automatically mark the IPsec SA for hardware offloading. One vendor supporting this offload method is Mellanox.

leftid

how the left participant should be identified for authentication; defaults to left. Can be an IP address or a fully-qualified domain name which will be resolved. If preceded by @, the value is used as a literal string and will not be resolved. To support opaque identifiers (usually of type ID_KEY_ID, such as used by Cisco to specify Group Name, use square brackets, eg rightid=@[GroupName]. The magic value %fromcert causes the ID to be set to a DN taken from a certificate that is loaded. Prior to 2.5.16, this was the default if a certificate was specified. The magic value %none sets the ID to no ID. This is included for completeness, as the ID may have been set in the default conn, and one wishes for it to default instead of being explicitly set. The magic value %myid stands for the current setting of myid. This is set in config setup or by ipsec_whack(8)), or, if not set, it is the IP address in %defaultroute (if that is supported by a TXT record in its reverse domain), or otherwise it is the system's hostname (if that is supported by a TXT record in its forward domain), or otherwise it is undefined.

When using certificate based ID's, one need to specify the full RDN, optionally using wildcard matching (eg CN='*'). If the RDN contains a comma, this can be masked using a comma (eg OU='Foo,, Bar and associates')

leftrsasigkey

the left participant's public key for RSA signature authentication, in RFC 2537 format using ipsec_ttodata(3) encoding. The magic value %none means the same as not specifying a value (useful to override a default). The value %dnsondemand (the default) means the key is to be fetched from DNS at the time it is needed. The value %dnsonload means the key is to be fetched from DNS at the time the connection description is read from ipsec.conf; currently this will be treated as %none if right=%any or right=%opportunistic. The value %dns is currently treated as %dnsonload but will change to %dnsondemand in the future. The identity used for the left participant must be a specific host, not %any or another magic value. The value %cert will load the information required from a certificate defined in %leftcert and automatically define leftid for you. Caution: if two connection descriptions specify different public keys for the same leftid, confusion and madness will ensue.

leftcert

If you are using leftrsasigkey=%cert this defines the certificate nickname of your certificate in the NSS database. This can be on software or hardware security device.

leftckaid

The hex CKAID of the X.509 certificate. Certificates are stored in the NSS database.

leftauth

How the security gateways will authenticate to the other side in the case of asymmetric authentication; acceptable values are rsasig for RSA Authentication with SHA-1, rsa-sha2 for RSA-PSS digital signatures based authentication with SHA2-256, rsa-sha2_384 for RSA-PSS digital signatures based authentication with SHA2-384, rsa-sha2_512 for RSA-PSS digital signatures based authentication with SHA2-512, secret for shared secrets (PSK) authentication and null for null-authentication. There is no default value - if unset, the symmetrical authby= keyword is used to determine the authentication policy of the connection.

If asymmetric authentication is requested, IKEv1 must be disabled. If symmetric authentication is required, use authby= instead of leftauth/rightauth. If leftauth is set, rightauth must also be set and authby= must not be set. Asymmetric authentication cannot use secret (psk) on one side and null on the other side - use psk on both ends instead.

Be aware that the symmetric keyword is authby= but the asymmetric keyword is leftauth and rightauth (without the "by").

leftca

specifies the authorized Certificate Authority (CA) that signed the certificate of the peer. If undefined, it defaults to the CA that signed the certificate specified in leftcert. The special rightca=%same is implied when not specifying a rightca and means that only peers with certificates signed by the same CA as the leftca will be allowed. This option is only useful in complex multi CA certificate situations. When using a single CA, it can be safely omitted for both left and right.

leftikeport

The UDP IKE port to listen on or send data to. This port cannot be 0 or 500. For TCP, see tcp-remoteport=

leftsendcert

This option configures when Libreswan will send X.509 certificates to the remote host. Acceptable values are yes|always (signifying that we should always send a certificate), sendifasked (signifying that we should send a certificate if the remote end asks for it), and no|never (signifying that we will never send a X.509 certificate). The default for this option is sendifasked which may break compatibility with other vendor's IPsec implementations, such as Cisco and SafeNet. If you find that you are getting errors about no ID/Key found, you likely need to set this to always. This per-conn option replaces the obsolete global nocrsend option.

leftxauthserver

Left is an XAUTH server. This can use PAM for authentication or md5 passwords in /etc/ipsec.d/passwd. These are additional credentials to verify the user identity, and should not be confused with the XAUTH group secret, which is just a regular PSK defined in ipsec.secrets. The other side of the connection should be configured as rightxauthclient. XAUTH connections cannot rekey, so rekey=no should be specified in this conn. For further details on how to compile and use XAUTH, see README.XAUTH. Acceptable values are yes or no (the default).

leftxauthclient

Left is an XAUTH client. The xauth connection will have to be started interactively and cannot be configured using auto=start. Instead, it has to be started from the commandline using ipsec auto --up connname. You will then be prompted for the username and password. To setup an XAUTH connection non-interactively, which defeats the whole purpose of XAUTH, but is regularly requested by users, it is possible to use a whack command - ipsec whack --name baduser --ipsecgroup-xauth --xauthname badusername --xauthpass password --initiate The other side of the connection should be configured as rightxauthserver. Acceptable values are yes or no (the default).

leftusername

The username associated with this connection. The username can be the IKEv2 XAUTH username, a GSSAPI username or IKEv2 CP username. For the XAUTH username, the XAUTH password can be configured in the ipsec.secrets file. This option was previously called leftxauthusername.

leftmodecfgserver

Left is a Mode Config server. It can push network configuration to the client. Acceptable values are yes or no (the default).

leftmodecfgclient

Left is a Mode Config client. It can receive network configuration from the server. Acceptable values are yes or no (the default).

xauthby

When IKEv1 XAUTH support is available, set the method used by XAUTH to authenticate the user with IKEv1. The currently supported values are file (the default), pam or alwaysok. The password file is located at /etc/ipsec.d/passwd, and follows a syntax similar to the Apache htpasswd file, except an additional connection name argument (and optional static IP address) are also present:

      username:password:conname:ipaddress

For supported password hashing methods, see crypt(3). If pluto is running in FIPS mode, some hash methods, such as MD5, might not be available. Threads are used to launch an xauth authentication helper for file as well as PAM methods.

The alwaysok should only be used if the XAUTH user authentication is not really used, but is required for interoperability, as it defeats the whole point of XAUTH which is to rely on a secret only known by a human. See also pam-authorize=yes

xauthfail

When XAUTH support is available, set the failure method desired when authentication has failed. The currently supported values are hard (the default) and soft. A soft failure means the IPsec SA is allowed to be established, as if authentication had passed successfully, but the XAUTH_FAILED environment variable will be set to 1 for the updown script, which can then be used to redirect the user into a walled garden, for example a payment portal.

pam-authorize

IKEv1 supports PAM authorization via XAUTH using xauthby=pam. IKEv2 does not support receiving a plaintext username and password. Libreswan does not yet support EAP authentication methods for IKE. The pam-authorize=yes option performs an authorization call via PAM, but only includes the remote ID (not username or password). This allows for backends to disallow an ID based on non-password situations, such as "user disabled" or "user over quota". See also xauthby=pam

modecfgpull

Pull the Mode Config network information from the server. Acceptable values are yes or no (the default).

modecfgdns, modecfgdomains, modecfgbanner

When configured as IKEv1 ModeCFG or IKEv2 server, specifying any of these options will cause those options and values to be sent to the connecting client. Libreswan as a client will use these received options to either update /etc/resolv.conf or the running unbound DNS server. When the connection is brought down, the previous DNS resolving state is restored.

The modecfgdns option takes a comma or space separated list of IP addresses that can be used for DNS resolution. The modecfgdomains option takes a comma or space separated list of internal domain names that are reachable via the supplied modecfgdns DNS servers.

The IKEv1 split tunnel directive will be sent automatically if the xauth server side has configured a network other than 0.0.0.0/0. For IKEv2, this is automated via narrowing.

remote-peer-type

Set the remote peer type. This can enable additional processing during the IKE negotiation. Acceptable values are cisco or ietf (the default). When set to cisco, support for Cisco IPsec gateway redirection and Cisco obtained DNS and domainname are enabled. This includes automatically updating (and restoring) /etc/resolv.conf. These options require that XAUTH is also enabled on this connection.

nm-configured

Mark this connection as controlled by Network Manager. Acceptable values are yes or no (the default). Currently, setting this to yes will cause libreswan to skip reconfiguring resolv.conf when used with XAUTH and ModeConfig.

encapsulation

In some cases, for example when ESP packets are filtered or when a broken IPsec peer does not properly recognise NAT, it can be useful to force RFC-3948 encapsulation. In other cases, where IKE is NAT'ed but ESP packets can or should flow without encapsulation, it can be useful to ignore the NAT-Traversal auto-detection. encapsulation=yes forces the NAT detection code to lie and tell the remote peer that RFC-3948 encapsulation (ESP in port 4500 packets) is required. encapsulation=no ignores the NAT detection causing ESP packets to send send without encapsulation. The default value of encapsulation=auto follows the regular outcome of the NAT auto-detection code performed in IKE. This option replaced the obsoleted forceencaps option.

enable-tcp

Normally, IKE negotiation and ESP encapsulation happens over UDP. This option enables support for IKE and ESP over TCP as per RFC 8229. Acceptable values are no(the default), yes meaning only TCP will be used, or fallback meaning that TCP will be attempted only after negotiation over UDP failed. Since performance over TCP is much less, and TCP sessions are vulnerable to simply RST resets and MITM attacks causing the TCP connection to close, this option should really only be used in fallback mode. If used in fallback mode, it is recommend to reduce the retransmit-timeout from the default 60s to a much shorter value such as 10s, so that one does not have to wait a minute for the TCP fallback to be attempted.

tcp-remoteport

Which remote TCP port to use when IKE over TCP is attempted. The default value is to use the NAT-T IKE port (4500). This value is not negotiated and should be configured properly on all endpoints. When opening a TCP socket to the remote host in this port, a regular ephemeral source port is obtained from the OS. For changing the UDP ports, see leftikeport=

nat-keepalive

whether to send any NAT-T keep-alives. These one byte packets are send to prevent the NAT router from closing its port when there is not enough traffic on the IPsec connection. Acceptable values are: yes (the default) and no.

initial-contact

whether to send an INITIAL_CONTACT payload to the peer we are initiating to, if we currently have no IPsec SAs up with that peer. Acceptable values are: no (the default) and yes. It is recommended to leave this option unset, unless the remote peer requires it to allow reconnects. The only known peer at this time is Cisco, which will not allow a reconnect (despite authentication) to replace an existing IPsec SA unless it receives an INITIAL_CONTACT payload. Receiving this payload is ignored and the choice to replace or add an IPsec SA when libreswan is a responder is purely based on the uniqueids setting, which should be left enabled unless libreswan acts as an XAUTH server using PSK ("group secret"). This option can cause a few seconds of downtime on the IPsec tunnel between the time the remote clears the old IPsec SA in response to our INITIAL_CONTACT message, and the time we finish setting up the new IPsec SA. If there is an XAUTH step in between, and especially when XAUTH requires the use of some two-factor token, this downtime could be even longer.

cisco-unity

whether to send a CISCO_UNITY payload to the peer. Acceptable values are: no (the default) and yes. It is recommended to leave this option unset, unless the remote peer (Cisco client or server) requires it. This option does not modify local behaviour. It can be needed to connect as a client to a Cisco server. It can also be needed to act as a server for a Cisco client, which otherwise might send back an error DEL_REASON_NON_UNITY_PEER.

ignore-peer-dns

whether to ignore received DNS configuration. Acceptable values are: no (the default) and yes. Normally, when a roadwarrior connects to a remote VPN, the remote VPN server sends a list of DNS domains and DNS nameserver IP addresses that the roadwarrior can use to reach internal only resources through the VPN. This option allows the roadwarrior to ignore the server's suggestion. The roadwarrior will normally use this information to update the DNS resolving process. What is changed depends on the detected DNS configuration. It can modify /etc/resolv.conf directly, or reconfigure a locally running DNS server (unbound, knot, stubby or systemd-resolved) or inform NetworkManager.

accept-redirect

Whether requests of the remote peer to redirect IKE/IPsec SA's are accepted. Valid options are no (the default) and yes. See also accept-redirect-to.

accept-redirect-to

Specify the comma separated list of addresses we accept being redirected to. Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are supported as well the FQDNs. The value %any, as well as not specifying any address, signifes that we will redirect to any address gateway sends us in REDIRECT notify payload.

The value of this option is not considered at all if accept-redirect is set to no.

send-redirect

Whether to send requests for the remote peer to redirect IKE/IPsec SA's during IKE_AUTH. Valid options are no (the default) and yes. If set, the option redirect-to= must also be set to indicate where to redirect peers to. For redirection during IKE_SA_INIT exchange, see the global-redirect= and global-redirect-to= options. Runtime redirects can be triggered via the ipsec whack --redirect command.

redirect-to

Where to send remote peers to via the send-redirect option. This can be an IP address or hostname (FQDN).

fake-strongswan

whether to send a STRONGSWAN Vendor ID payload to the peer. Acceptable values are: no (the default) and yes. This used to be required because strongswan rejects certain proposals with private use numbers such as esp=twofish or esp=serpent unless it receives a strongswan vendorid by the peer. This option sends such an (unversioned) vendor id. Note that libreswan and strongswan no longer support twofish or serpent, so enabling this option likely will no longer do anything.

send-vendorid

whether to send our Vendor ID during IKE. Acceptable values are: no (the default) and yes. The vendor id sent can be configured using the "config setup" option myvendorid=. It defaults to OE-Libreswan-VERSION.

Vendor ID's can be useful in tracking interoperability problems. However, specific vendor identification and software versions can be useful to an attacker when there are known vulnerabilities to a specific vendor/version.

The prefix OE stands for "Opportunistic Encryption". This prefix was historically used by The FreeS/WAN Project and The Openswan Project (openswan up to version 2.6.38) and in one Xeleranized openswan versions (2.6.39). Further Xeleranized openswan's use the prefix OSW.

overlapip

a boolean (yes/no) that determines, when (left|right)subnet=vhost: is used, if the virtual IP claimed by this states created from this connection can with states created from other connections.

Note that connection instances created by the Opportunistic Encryption or PKIX (x.509) instantiation system are distinct internally. They will inherit this policy bit.

The default is no.

This feature is only available with kernel drivers that support SAs to overlapping conns. At present only the (klips) mast protocol stack supports this feature.

reqid

a unique identifier used to match IPsec SAs using iptables with NETKEY/XFRM. This identifier is normally automatically allocated in groups of 4. It is exported to the _updown script as REQID. On Linux, reqids are supported with IP Connection Tracking and NAT (iptables). Automatically generated values use the range 16380 and higher. Manually specified reqid values therefore must be between 1 and 16379.

Automatically generated reqids use a range of 0-3 (eg 16380-16383 for the first reqid). These are used depending on the exact policy (AH, AH+ESP, IPCOMP, etc).

WARNING: Manually assigned reqids are all identical. Instantiations of connections (those using %any wildcards) will all use the same reqid. If you use manual assigning you should make sure your connections only match single road warrior only or you break multiple road warriors behind same NAT router because this feature requires unique reqids to work.

For KLIPS, when using the MAST variant, a different mechanism called SAref is in use. See overlapip and sareftrack.

dpddelay

Set the delay (in time units, defaults to seconds) between Dead Peer Detection (IKEv1 RFC 3706) or IKEv2 Liveness keepalives that are sent for this connection (default 0 seconds). Set to enable checking. If dpddelay is set, dpdtimeout also needs to be set.

dpdtimeout

Set the length of time (in time units, defaults to seconds) that we will idle without hearing back from our peer. After this period has elapsed with no response and no traffic, we will declare the peer dead, and remove the SA (default 0 seconds). Set value bigger than dpddelay to enable. If dpdtimeout is set, dpddelay also needs to be set.

dpdaction

When a DPD enabled peer is declared dead, what action should be taken. hold (default) means the eroute will be put into %hold status, while clear means the eroute and SA with both be cleared. restart means that ALL SAs to the dead peer will renegotiated.

dpdaction=clear is really only useful on the server of a Road Warrior config.

The value restart_by_peer has been obsoleted and its functionality moved into the regular restart action.

pfs

whether Perfect Forward Secrecy of keys is desired on the connection's keying channel (with PFS, penetration of the key-exchange protocol does not compromise keys negotiated earlier); Acceptable values are yes (the default) and no.

pfsgroup

This option is obsoleted, please use phase2alg if you need the PFS to be different from phase1 (the default) using: phase2alg=aes128-md5;modp1024

aggressive

Use IKEv1 Aggressive Mode instead of IKEv1 Main Mode. This option has no effect when IKEv2 is used. Acceptable values are no (the default) or yes. When this option is enabled, IKEv1 Main Mode will no longer be allowed for this connection. The old name of this option was aggrmode.

Aggressive Mode is less secure, and more vulnerable to Denial Of Service attacks. It is also vulnerable to brute force attacks with software such as ikecrack. It should not be used, and it should especially not be used with XAUTH and group secrets (PSK). If the remote system administrator insists on staying irresponsible, enable this option.

Aggressive Mode is further limited to only proposals with one DH group as there is no room to negotiate the DH group. Therefore it is mandatory for Aggressive Mode connections that both ike= and phase2alg= options are specified with only one fully specified proposal using one DH group.

The KE payload is created in the first exchange packet when using aggressive mode. The KE payload depends on the DH group used. This is why there cannot be multiple DH groups in IKEv1 aggressive mode. In IKEv2, which uses a similar method to IKEv1 Aggressive Mode, there is an INVALID_KE response payload that can inform the initiator of the responder's desired DH group and so an IKEv2 connection can actually recover from picking the wrong DH group by restarting its negotiation.

salifetime

how long a particular instance of a connection (a set of encryption/authentication keys for user packets) should last, from successful negotiation to expiry; acceptable values are an integer optionally followed by s (a time in seconds) or a decimal number followed by m, h, or d (a time in minutes, hours, or days respectively) (default 8h, maximum 24h). Normally, the connection is renegotiated (via the keying channel) before it expires. The two ends need not exactly agree on salifetime, although if they do not, there will be some clutter of superseded connections on the end which thinks the lifetime is longer.

The keywords "keylife" and "lifetime" are obsoleted aliases for "salifetime." Change your configs to use "salifetime" instead.

replay-window

The size of the IPsec SA replay window protection. The default is kernel stack specific, but usually 32. Linux NETKEY/XFRM allows at least up to 2048. A value of of 0 disables replay protection. Disabling of replay protection is sometimes used on a pair of IPsec servers in a High Availability setup, or on servers with very unpredictable latency, such as mobile networks, which can cause an excessive amount of out of order packets. Sequence errors can be seen in /proc/net/xfrm_stat. Note that technically, at least the Linux kernel can install IPsec SA's with an IPsec SA Sequence Number, but this is currently not supported by libreswan.

rekey

whether a connection should be renegotiated when it is about to expire; acceptable values are yes (the default) and no. The two ends need not agree, but while a value of no prevents Pluto from requesting renegotiation, it does not prevent responding to renegotiation requested from the other end, so no will be largely ineffective unless both ends agree on it.

rekeymargin

how long before connection expiry or keying-channel expiry should attempts to negotiate a replacement begin; acceptable values as for salifetime (default 9m). Relevant only locally, other end need not agree on it.

rekeyfuzz

maximum percentage by which rekeymargin should be randomly increased to randomize rekeying intervals (important for hosts with many connections); acceptable values are an integer, which may exceed 100, followed by a `%' (default set by ipsec_pluto(8), currently 100%). The value of rekeymargin, after this random increase, must not exceed salifetime. The value 0% will suppress time randomization. Relevant only locally, other end need not agree on it.

keyingtries

how many attempts (a whole number or %forever) should be made to negotiate a connection, or a replacement for one, before giving up (default %forever). The value %forever or 0 means to keep trying forever. For Opportunistic Encryption connections, a keyingtries value of %forever or 0 is set to 1 and a warning message will be logged. This is because an expired failureshunt triggers new keyingtries on-demand later, when there is traffic. This prevents accumulating an infinite amount of attempts to peers that do not support Opportunistic Encryption. For Opportunistic, a keyingtries value of > 1 is allowed but currently not recommended. The meaning of failureshunt= is unclear when there is continued (failed) keying happening with a negotiationshunt installed. Relevant only locally, other end need not agree on it.

ikelifetime

how long the keying channel of a connection (buzzphrase: "IKE SA" or "Parent SA") should last before being renegotiated; acceptable values as for salifetime. The default as of version 4.2 is 8h, before that it was 1h. The maximum is 24h. The two-ends-disagree case is similar to that of salifetime.

retransmit-timeout

how long a single packet, including retransmits of that packet, may take before the IKE attempt is aborted. If rekeying is enabled, a new IKE attempt is started. The default set by ipsec_pluto(8), currently is 60s. See also: retransmit-interval, rekey and keyingtries.

retransmit-interval

the initial interval time period, specified in msecs, that pluto waits before retransmitting an IKE packet. This interval is doubled for each attempt (exponential back-off). The default set by ipsec_pluto(8), currently is 500. See also: retransmit-timeout, rekey and keyingtries.

compress

whether IPComp compression of content is proposed on the connection (link-level compression does not work on encrypted data, so to be effective, compression must be done before encryption); acceptable values are yes and no (the default).

For IKEv1, compress settings on both peers must match. For IKEv2, compression can only be suggested and a mismatched compress setting results in connection without compression.

When set to yes, compression is negotiated for the DEFLATE compression algorithm.

metric

Set the metric for added routes. This value is passed to the _updown scripts as PLUTO_METRIC. Acceptable values are positive numbers, with the default being 1.

mtu

Set the MTU for the route(s) to the remote endpoint and/or subnets. This is sometimes required when the overhead of the IPsec encapsulation would cause the packet the become too big for a router on the path. Since IPsec cannot trust any unauthenticated ICMP messages, PATH MTU discovery does not work. This can also be needed when using "6to4" IPV6 deployments, which adds another header on the packet size. Acceptable values are positive numbers. There is no default.

tfc

Enable Traffic Flow Confidentiality ("TFC") (RFC-4303) for outgoing ESP packets in Tunnel Mode. When enabled, ESP packets are padded to the specified size (up to the PMTU size) to prevent leaking information based on ESP packet size. This option is ignored for AH and for ESP in Transport Mode as those always leak traffic characteristics and applying TFC will not do anything. Acceptable values are positive numbers. The value 0 means TFC padding is not performed. Currently this feature is only implemented for the Linux XFRM/NETKEY stack. In IKEv2, when the notify payload ESP_TFC_PADDING_NOT_SUPPORTED is received, TFC padding is disabled. The default is not to do any TFC padding, but this might change in the near future.

send-no-esp-tfc

Whether or not to tell the remote peer that we do not support Traffic Flow Confidentiality ("TFC") (RFC-4303). Possible values are no (the default) which allows the peer to use TFC or yes which prevents to peer from using TFC. This does not affect whether this endpoint uses TFC, which only depends on the local tfc setting. This option is only valid for IKEv2.

nflog

If set, the NFLOG group number to log this connection's pre-crypt and post-decrypt traffic to. The default value of 0 means no logging at all. This option is only available on linux kernel 2.6.14 and later. It allows common network utilities such as tcpdump, wireshark and dumpcap, to use nflog:XXX pseudo interfaces where XXX is the nflog group number. During the updown phase of a connection, iptables will be used to add and remove the source/destination pair to the nflog group specified. The rules are setup with the nflog-prefix matching the connection name. See also the global nflog-all option.

mark

If set, the MARK to set for the IPsec SA of this connection. The format of a CONNMARK is mark/mask. If the mask is left out, a default mask of 0xffffffff is used. A mark value of -1 means to assign a new global unique mark number for each instance of the connection. Global marks start at 1001. This option is only available on linux NETKEY/XFRM kernels. It can be used with iptables to create custom iptables rules using CONNMARK. It can also be used with Virtual Tunnel Interfaces ("VTI") to direct marked traffic to specific vtiXX devices.

mark-in

The same as mark, but mark-in only applies to the inbound half of the IPsec SA. It overrides any mark= setting.

mark-out

The same as mark, but mark-out only applies to the outbound half of the IPsec SA. It overrides any mark= setting.

vti-interface

This option is used to create "Routing based VPNs" (as opposed to "Policy based VPNs"). It will create a new interface that can be used to route traffic in for encryption/decryption. The Virtual Tunnel Interface ("VTI") interface name is used to for all IPsec SA's created by this connection. This requires that the connection also enables either the mark= or mark-in= / mark-out- option(s). All traffic marked with the proper MARKs will be automatically encrypted if there is an IPsec SA policy covering the source/destination traffic. Tools such as tcpdump and iptables can be used on all cleartext pre-encrypt and post-decrypt traffic on the device. See the libreswan wiki for example configurations that use VTI.

VTI interfaces are currently only supported on Linux with XFRM/NETKEY. The _updown script handles certain Linux specific interfaces settings required for proper functioning (disable_policy, rp_filter, forwarding, etc). Interface names are limited to 16 characters and may not allow all characters to be used. If marking and vti-routing=yes is used, no manual iptables should be required. However, administrators can use the iptables mangle table to mark traffic manually if desired.

vti-routing

Whether or not to add network rules or routes for IPsec SA's to the respective VTI devices. Valid values are yes (the default) or no. When using "routing based VPNs" with a subnets policy of 0.0.0.0/0, this setting needs to set to no to prevent imploding the tunnel, and the administrator is expected to manually add ip rules and ip routes to configure what traffic must be encrypted. When set to yes, the _updown script will automatically route the leftsubnet/rightsubnet traffic into the VTI device specified with vti-interface

vti-shared

Whether or not the VTI device is shared amongst connections. Valid values are no (the default) or yes. When set to no, the VTI device is automatically deleted if the connection is a single non-instantiated connection. If a connection instantiates (eg right=%any) then this option has no effect, as the VTI device is not removed as it is shared with multiple roadwarriors.

ipsec-interface

Create or use an existing virtual interface ipsecXXX for "Routing based VPNs" (as opposed to "Policy based VPNs"). Valid options are yes, no or a number. When using a number, the IPsec interface created and/or used will use that number as part of the interface name. For example setting ipsec-interface=5 will create and/or use the ipsec5 interface. The value 0 cannot be used and is interpreted as no. The value yes is interpreted as the number 1, and thus will use the interface named ipsec1. An IP address can be configured for this interface via the interface-ip= option.

The ipsec-interface is used to route outbound traffic that needs to be encrypted, and will decrypt inbound traffic that arrives on this interface. All traffic that is routed to this interface will be automatically encrypted providing the IPsec SA policy covers this traffic. Traffic not matching the IPsec SA will be dropped. Tools such as tcpdump, iptables, ifconfig and tools that need traffic counters can be used on all cleartext pre-encrypt and post-decrypt traffic on the device. When leftsubnet= is equal to rightsubnet=, the routing needs to be manged by an external routing daemon or manually by the administrator.

This option is currently only supported on Linux kernels 4.19 or later when compiled with XFRMi support (CONFIG_XFRM_INTERFACE). The number of the ipsecX device corresponds with the XFRM IF_ID policy option of the IPsec SA in the Linux kernel. On Linux, XFRMi interfaces can be managed by libreswan automatically or can be preconfigured on the system using the existing init system or via networking tools such as systemd-networkd and NetworkManager. The _updown script handles certain Linux specific interfaces settings required for proper functioning, such as forwarding and routing rules for IPsec traffic.

The ipsec-interface=0 will create an interface with the same name as the old KLIPS interface, ipsec0. This interface name should only be used when required for migration from KLIPS to XFRM interfaces. Since XFRM IF_ID and marking cannot use 0, this is mapped to 16384. This means that the devices ipsec0 and ipsec16384 cannot both be in use.

interface-ip=

The IP address and netmask to configure on a virtual device (eg ipsecXXX). This is often used when building Routing based IPsec tunnels using transport mode and GRE, but can also be useful in other scenarios. Currently requires ipsec-interface=. See also leftvti= for cnofiguring IP addresses when using VTI.

priority

The priority in the kernel SPD/SAD database, when matching up packets. Each kernel (NETKEY, KLIPS, OSX, etc) has its own mechanism for setting the priority. Setting this option to non-zero passes the priority to the kernel stack unmodified. The maximum value depends on the stack. It is recommended not to exceed 65536

KLIPS and NETKEY use a priority system based on "most specific match first". It uses an internal algorithm to calculate these based on network prefix length, protocol and port selectors. A lower value means a higher priority.

Typical values are about the 2000 range. These can be seen on the NETKEY stack using ip xfrm policy when the connection is up. For "anonymous IPsec" or Opportunistic Encryption based connections, a much lower priority (65535) is used to ensure administrator configured IPsec always takes precedence over opportunistic IPsec.

sendca

How much of our available X.509 trust chain to send with the End certificate, excluding any root CA's. Specifying issuer sends just the issuing intermediate CA, while all will send the entire chain of intermediate CA's.none (the default) will not send any CA certs.

labeled-ipsec

This option is obsolete. To enable labeled IPsec, setting the policy-label= is enough. See also policy-label= and secctx-attr-type=

policy-label

The string representation of an access control security label that is interpreted by the LSM (e.g. SELinux) for use with Labeled IPsec. See also labeled-ipsec= and secctx-attr-type=. For example, policy-label=system_u:object_r:ipsec_spd_t:s0-s15:c0.c1023

failureshunt

what to do with packets when negotiation fails. The default is none: no shunt; passthrough, drop, and reject have the obvious meanings.

negotiationshunt

What to do with packets during the IKE negotiation. Valid options are hold (the default) or passthrough. This should almost always be left to the default hold value to avoid cleartext packet leaking. The only reason to set this to passthrough is if plaintext service availability is more important than service security or privacy, a scenario that also implies failureshunt=passthrough and most likely authby=%null using Opportunistic Encryption.

 

CONFIG SECTIONS

At present, the only config section known to the IPsec software is the one named setup, which contains information used when the software is being started (see ipsec_setup(8)). Here's an example:

config setup
        logfile=/var/log/pluto.log
        plutodebug=all

Parameters are optional unless marked "(required)".

The currently-accepted parameter names in a config setup section are:

protostack

decide which protocol stack is going to be used. Valid values are "xfrm" and "bsd". This option should no longer be set, as the stack is currently auto-detected. The values "klips, "mast", "netkey", "native", "kame" and "auto" are obsolete. The option is kept only because it is suspected that Linux and BSD will get userspace stacks with IPsec support soon (such as dpdk).

interfaces

virtual and physical interfaces for IPsec to use: a single virtual=physical pair, a (quoted!) list of pairs separated by white space, or %none. One of the pairs may be written as %defaultroute, which means: find the interface d that the default route points to, and then act as if the value was ``ipsec0=d''. %defaultroute is the default; %none must be used to denote no interfaces, or when using the NETKEY stack. If %defaultroute is used (implicitly or explicitly) information about the default route and its interface is noted for use by ipsec_auto(8).)

listen

IP address to listen on (default depends on interfaces= setting). Currently only accepts one IP address.

ike-socket-bufsize

Set the IKE socket buffer size. Default size is determined by the OS (as of writing, this seems to be set to 212992. On Linux this is visible via /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_default and /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_default. On Linux, this option uses SO_RCVBUFFORCE and SO_SNDBUFFORCE so that it can override rmem_max/wmem_max values of the OS. This requires CAP_NET_ADMIN (which is also required for other tasks). This option can also be toggled on a running system using ipsec whack --ike-socket-bufsize bufsize.

ike-socket-errqueue

Whether to enable or disable receiving socket errors via IP_RECVERR. The default is enabled. This will cause the socket to receive, process and log socket errors, such as ICMP unreachable messages or Connection Refused messages. Disabling this only makes sense on very busy servers, and even then it might not make much of a difference. This option can also be toggled on a running system using ipsec whack --ike-socket-errqueue-toggle.

listen-udp

Whether the pluto IKE daemon should listen on the standard UDP ports of 500 and 4500. The value "yes" means to listen on these ports, and is the default. This should almost never be disabled. In the rare case where it is known that only ever TCP or non-standard UDP ports will be used, this option can disable the standard UDP ports. Connections can specify their own non-standard port using leftikeport=.

listen-tcp

Whether the pluto IKE daemon should listen on the (pseudo) standard TCP port 4500. The value "no" is the current default, but this will be changed in the future to "yes". The TCP usage complies to RFC 8229 for IKE and ESP over TCP support. Connections can specify their own non-standard port using leftikeport=.

nflog-all

If set, the NFLOG group number to log all pre-crypt and post-decrypt traffic to. The default value of 0 means no logging at all. This option is only available on linux kernel 2.6.14 and later. It allows common network utilities such as tcpdump, wireshark and dumpcap, to use nflog:XXX pseudo interfaces where XXX is the nflog group number. During startup and shutdown of the IPsec service, iptables commands will be used to add or remove the global NFLOG table rules. The rules are setup with the nflog-prefix all-ipsec. See also the per-connection nflog option.

keep-alive

The delay (in seconds) for NAT-T keep-alive packets, if these are enabled using nat-keepalive This parameter may eventually become per-connection.

virtual-private

contains the networks that are allowed as (left|right)subnet= for the remote clients when using the vhost: or vnet: keywords in the (left|right)subnet= parameters. In other words, the address ranges that may live behind a NAT router through which a client connects. This value is usually set to all the RFC-1918 address space, excluding the space used in the local subnet behind the NAT (An IP address cannot live at two places at once). IPv4 address ranges are denoted as %v4:a.b.c.d/mm and IPv6 is denoted as %v6:aaaa::bbbb:cccc:dddd:eeee/mm. One can exclude subnets by using the !. For example, if the VPN server is giving access to 192.168.1.0/24, this option should be set to: virtual-private=%v4:10.0.0.0/8,%v4:192.168.0.0/16,%v4:172.16.0.0/12,%v4:!192.168.1.0/24. This parameter is only needed on the server side and not on the client side that resides behind the NAT router, as the client will just use its IP address for the inner IP setting. This parameter may eventually become per-connection. See also leftsubnet=

Note: It seems that T-Mobile in the US and Rogers/Fido in Canada have started using 25.0.0.0/8 as their pre-NAT range. This range technically belongs to the Defence Interoperable Network Services Authority (DINSA), an agency of the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom. The network range seems to not have been announced for decades, which is probably why these organisations "borrowed" this range. To support roadwarriors on these 3G networks, you might have to add it to the virtual-private= line.

myvendorid

The string to use as our vendor id (VID) when send-vendorid=yes. The default is OE-Libreswan-VERSION.

nhelpers

how many pluto helpers are started to help with cryptographic operations. Pluto will start as many helpers as the number of CPU's, minus 1 to dedicate to the main thread. For machines with less than 4 CPU's, an equal number of helpers to CPU's are started. A value of 0 forces pluto to do all operations inline using the main process. A value of -1 tells pluto to perform the above calculation. Any other value forces the number to that amount.

seedbits

Pluto uses the NSS crypto library as its random source. Some government Three Letter Agencies require that pluto reads additional bits from /dev/random and feed these into the NSS RNG before drawing random from the NSS library, despite the NSS library itself already seeding its internal state. This process can block pluto for an extended time during startup, depending on the entropy of the system. Therefore, the default is to not perform this redundant seeding. If specifying a value, it is recommended to specify at least 460 bits (for FIPS) or 440 bits (for BSI).

ikev1-secctx-attr-type

The value for the IKEv1 IPsec SA security context attribute identifier that is used for Labeled IPsec. Defaults to the private use IANA value 32001 from the IPsec SA attributes registry. Old openswan versions might still be using the (stolen) value 10, which has since been assigned by IANA for something else. Other values are not recommended unless IANA assigns an actual value for this option. Labeled IPsec using IKEv2 does not use this option, it only uses an IANA allocated Notify number. See also policy-label.

ikev1-policy

What to do with received IKEv1 packets. Valid options are accept (default), reject which will reply with an error, and drop which will silently drop any received IKEv1 packet. If this option is set to drop or reject, an attempt to load an IKEv1 connection will fail, as these connections would never be able to receive a packet for processing.

crlcheckinterval

interval expressed in second units, for example crlcheckinterval=8h for 8 hours, after which pluto will fetch new Certificate Revocation List (CRL) from crl distribution points. List of used CRL distribution points are collected from CA certificates and end certificates. Loaded X.509 CRL's are verified to be valid and updates are imported to NSS database. If set to 0, which is also the default value if this option is not specified, CRL updating is disabled.

crl-strict

if not set, pluto is tolerant about missing or expired X.509 Certificate Revocation Lists (CRL's), and will allow peer certificates as long as they do not appear on an expired CRL. When this option is enabled, all connections with an expired or missing CRL will be denied. Active connections will be terminated at rekey time. This setup is more secure, but vulnerable to downtime if the CRL expires. Acceptable values are yes or no (the default). This option used to be called strictcrlpolicy.

curl-iface

The name of the interface that is used for CURL lookups. This is needed on rare situations where the interface needs to be forced to be different from the default interface used based on the routing table.

curl-timeout

The timeout for the curl library calls used to fetch CRL and OCSP requests. The default is 5s.

ocsp-enable

Whether to perform Online Certificate Store Protocol ("OCSP") checks on those certificates that have an OCSP URI defined. Acceptable values are yes or no (the default).

ocsp-strict

if set to no, pluto is tolerant about failing to obtain an OCSP responses and a certificate is not rejected when the OCSP request fails, only when the OCSP request succeeds and lists the certificate as revoked. If set to yes, any failure on obtaining an OCSP status for a certificate will be fatal and the certificate will be rejected. Acceptable values are yes or no (the default).

The strict mode refers to the NSS ocspMode_FailureIsVerificationFailure mode, while non-strict mode refers to the NSS ocspMode_FailureIsNotAVerificationFailure mode.

ocsp-method

The HTTP methods used for fetching OCSP data. Valid options are get (the default) and post. Note that this behaviour depends on the NSS crypto library that is actually performing the fetching. When set to the get method, post is attempted only as fallback in case of failure. When set to post, only the post method is ever used.

ocsp-timeout

The time until an OCSP request is aborted and considered failed. The default value is 2 seconds.

ocsp-uri

The URI to use for OCSP requests instead of the default OCSP URI listed in the CA certificate. This requires the ocsp-trustname option to be set to the nick (friendly name) of the OCSP server certificate, which needs to be present in the NSS database. These option combined with the next option sets the OCSP default responder.

ocsp-trustname

The nickname of the certificate that has been imported into the NSS database of the server handling the OCSP requests. This requires the ocsp-uri option to be set as well. This option and the previous options sets the OCSP default responder.

ocsp-cache-size

The maximum size (in number of certificates) of OCSP responses that will be kept in the cache. The default is 1000. Setting this value to 0 means the cache is disabled.

ocsp-cache-min-age

The minimum age (in seconds) before a new fetch will be attempted. The default is 1 hour.

ocsp-cache-max-age

The maximum age (in seconds) before a new fetch will be attempted. The default is 1 day.

syslog

the syslog(2) "facility" name and priority to use for startup/shutdown log messages, default daemon.error.

plutodebug

how much Pluto debugging output should be logged. An empty value, or the magic value none, means no debug output (the default). Otherwise only the specified types of output (a quoted list, names without the --debug- prefix, separated by white space) are enabled;

The current option values are base that represents moderate amounts of information, cpu-usage for getting timing/load based information (best used without any other debugging options), crypt for all crypto related operations and tmi (Too Much Information) for excessive logging. To log any sensitive private key or password material, use the special private value.

The old plutodebug options (control, controlmore, x509, kernel, etc) are mapped to either base or tmi. Note that all maps to base and not tmi.

uniqueids

Whether IDs should be considered identifying remote parties uniquely. Acceptable values are yes (the default) and no. Participant IDs normally are unique, so a new connection instance using the same remote ID is almost invariably intended to replace an old existing connection.

When the connection is defined to be a server (using xauthserver=) and the connection policy is authby=secret, this option is ignored (as of 3.20) and old connections will never be replaced. This situation is commonly known as clients using a "Group ID".

This option may disappear in the near future. People using identical X.509 certificates on multiple devices are urged to upgrade to use separate certificates per client and device.

logfile

do not use syslog, but rather log to stderr, and direct stderr to the argument file. This option used to be called plutostderrlog=

logappend

If pluto is instructed to log to a file using logfile=, this option determines whether the log file should be appended to or overwritten. Valid options are yes (the default) to append and no to overwrite. Since on modern systems, pluto is restarted by other daemons, such as systemd, this option should be left at its default yes value to preserve the log entries of previous runs of pluto. The option is mainly of use for running the test suite, which needs to create new log files from scratch.

logip

If pluto is instructed to log the IP address of incoming connections. Valid options are yes (the default) and no. Note that this only affects regular logging. Any enabled debugging via plutodebug= will still contain IP addresses of peers. This option is mostly meant for servers that want to avoid logging IP addresses of incoming clients. Other identifiable information might still be logged, such as ID payloads and X.509 certificate details. When using ID of type IP address, this option will not hide the actual IP address as part of the ID. Most deployments will not want to change this from the default. If logging of IP addresses is unwanted, audit-log=no should also be set.

audit-log

Whether pluto should produce Linux Auditing System log messages. If enabled, pluto will log start, stop and fail for the negotiation of IKE and IPsec SA's. The kernel will also log success and failures for actually adding and removing IPsec SA's from the kernel's SADB. Valid options are yes(the default) and no. On non-Linux systems, this option is ignored. If enabled but the kernel is lacking audit support, audit messages are not sent. If the kernel has audit support and using it fails, pluto will abort. Note that for compliance reasons, audit log messages contain the relevant IP addresses, even if logip=no.

logtime

When pluto is directed to log to a file using logfile=, this option determines whether or not to log the current timestamp as prefix. Values are yes (the default) or no. The no value can be used to create logs without ephemeral timestamps, such as those created when running the test suite. This option used to be called plutostderrlogtime=

ddos-mode

The startup mode of the DDoS defense mechanism. Acceptable values are busy, unlimited or auto (the default). This option can also be given to the IKE daemon while running, for example by issuing ipsec whack --ddos--busy. When in busy mode, pluto activates anti-DDoS counter measures. Currently, counter measures consist of requiring IKEv2 anti-DDoS cookies on new incoming IKE requests, and a more aggressive cleanup of partially established or AUTH_NULL connections.

ddos-ike-threshold

The number of half-open IKE SAs before the pluto IKE daemon will be placed in busy mode. When in busy mode, pluto activates anti-DDoS counter measures. The default is 25000. See also ddos-mode and ipsec whack --ddos-XXX.

global-redirect

Whether to send requests for the remote peer to redirect IKE/IPsec SA's during IKE_SA_INIT. Valid options are no (the default), yes and auto, where auto means that the requests will be sent if DDoS mode is active (see ddos-mode). If set, the option global-redirect-to= must also be set to indicate where to redirect peers to. For specific connection redirection after IKE SA authentication, see the send-redirect= and redirect-to= options. Runtime redirects can be triggered via the ipsec whack --redirect command.

global-redirect-to

Where to send remote peers to via the global-redirect option. This can be a list, or a single entry, of IP addresses or hostnames (FQDNs). If there is a list of entries, they must be separated with comma's. One specified entry means all peers will be redirected to it, while multiple specified entries means peers will be evenly distributed across the specified servers.

max-halfopen-ike

The number of half-open IKE SAs before the IKE daemon starts refusing all new IKE attempts. Established IKE peers are not affected. The default value is 50000.

shuntlifetime

The time until bare shunts (kernel policies not associated with connections) are deleted from the kernel. The default value is 15m. When using Opportunistic Encryption to a specific host fails, the system will either install a %pass or %hold shunt to let the traffic out clear text or block it. During the the shuntlifetime, no new Opportunistic Encryption attempt will be started, although the system will still respond to incoming OE requests from the remote IP. See also failureshunt and negotiationshunt

xfrmlifetime

The time in seconds until the NETKEY/XFRM acquire state times out. The default value is 300 seconds. For auto=ondemand connections and Opportunistic connections an IPsec policy is installed in the kernel. If an incoming or outgoing packet matches this policy, a state is created in the kernel and the kernel sends an ACQUIRE message to the IKE daemon pluto. While this state is in place, no new acquires will come in for this connection. The default should be fine for most people. One use case of shortening these is if opportunistc encryption is used towards cloud instances that can quickly re-use IP addresses. This value is only used during the libreswan startup process by the ipsec _stackmanager helper. See also failureshunt and negotiationshunt

dumpdir

in what directory should things started by setup (notably the Pluto daemon) be allowed to dump core? The default value is /var/run/pluto. When SELinux runs in enforced mode, changing this requires a similar change in the SELinux policy for the pluto daemon.

statsbin

This option specifies an optional external program to report tunnel state changes too. The default is not to report tunnel state changes. This program can be used to notify the user's desktop (dbus, NetworkManager) or to report tunnel changes to a central logging server.

ipsecdir

Specifies a directory for administrator-controlled configuration files and directories. The default value is /etc/ipsec.d. It may contain the following files and directories:

passwd

(optional) for XAUTH support if not using PAM (this file should not be world-readable). See README.XAUTH for more information.

nsspassword

(optional) passwords needed to unlock the NSS database in /var/lib/ipsec/nss (this file should not be world-readable). See README.nss for more information.

policies/

a directory containing policy group configuration information. See POLICY GROUP FILES in this document for more information.

cacerts/

DEPRECATED: a directory to store trust anchors (root certificate authority certificates). The preferred (and default) approach is to store CA certs in the NSS database instead. See README.nss for more information.

crls/

DEPRECATED: a directory to store certificate revocation lists. The preferred (and default) approach is to store CRLs in the NSS database instead. See README.nss for more information.

When SELinux runs in enforced mode, changing this requires a similar change in the SELinux policy for the pluto daemon.

nssdir

Specifies a directory for NSS database files. The default value is /var/lib/ipsec/nss. It may contain the following files:

pkcs11.txt

Detailed info about NSS database creation parameteres.

cert9.db

NSS Certificate database.

key4.db

NSS Key database.

When SELinux runs in enforced mode, changing this requires a similar change in the SELinux policy for the pluto daemon.

secretsfile

pathname of the file that stores the secret credentials such as preshared keys (PSKs). See man ipsec.secrets for the syntax. The default value is /etc/ipsec.secrets.

seccomp

Set the seccomp kernel syscall whitelisting feature. When set to enabled, if pluto calls a syscall that is not on the compiled-in whitelist, the kernel will assume an exploit is attempting to use pluto for malicious access to the system and terminate the pluto daemon. When set to tolerant, the kernel will only block the rogue syscall and pluto will attempt to continue. If set to disabled, pluto is allowed to call any syscall offered by the kernel, although it might be restricted via other security mechanisms, such as capabilities, SElinux, AppArmor or other OS security features.

The current default is disabled, but it is expected that in the future this feature will be enabled on all supported operating systems. Similarly, it is expected that further privilege separation will reduce the allowed syscalls - for example for the crypto helpers or DNS helpers.

Warning: The restrictions of pluto are inherited by the updown scripts, so these scripts are also not allowed to use syscalls that are forbidden for pluto.

This feature can be tested using ipsec whack --seccomp-crashtest. Warning: With seccomp=enabled, pluto will be terminated by the kernel. With seccomp=tolerant or seccomp=disabled, pluto will report the results of the seccomp test. SECCOMP will log the forbidden syscall numbers to the audit log, but only with seccomp=enabled. The tool scmp_sys_resolver from the libseccomp development package can be used to translate the syscall number into a name. See programs/pluto/pluto_seccomp.c for the list of allowed syscalls.

dnssec-enable

Whether pluto should perform dnssec validation using libunbound, provided libreswan was compiled with USE_DNSSEC. A value of yes (the default) means pluto should perform DNSSEC validation. Note that pluto reads the file /etc/resolv.conf to determine which nameservers to use.

dnssec-rootkey-file

The location of the DNSSEC root zone public key file. The default is /var/lib/unbound/root.key but this can be changed at compile time.

dnssec-anchors

The location of a file containing additional DNSSEC Trust Anchors. This can be used when a network is using split-DNS and the internal hierarchy is using DNSSEC trust anchors. There is no default value.

 

IMPLICIT CONNS

The system automatically defines several conns to implement default policy groups. Each can be overridden by explicitly defining a new conn with the same name. If the new conn has auto=ignore, the definition is suppressed.

Here are the automatically supplied definitions.

conn clear
        type=passthrough
        authby=never
        left=%defaultroute
        right=%group
        auto=route

conn clear-or-private
        type=passthrough
        left=%defaultroute
        leftid=%myid
        right=%opportunisticgroup
        failureshunt=passthrough
        keyingtries=3
        ikelifetime=1h
        salifetime=1h
        rekey=no
        auto=route

conn private-or-clear
        type=tunnel
        left=%defaultroute
        leftid=%myid
        right=%opportunisticgroup
        failureshunt=passthrough
        keyingtries=3
        ikelifetime=1h
        salifetime=1h
        rekey=no
        auto=route

conn private
        type=tunnel
        left=%defaultroute
        leftid=%myid
        right=%opportunisticgroup
        failureshunt=drop
        keyingtries=3
        ikelifetime=1h
        salifetime=1h
        rekey=no
        auto=route

conn block
        type=reject
        authby=never
        left=%defaultroute
        right=%group
        auto=route

# default policy
conn packetdefault
        type=tunnel
        left=%defaultroute
        leftid=%myid
        left=0.0.0.0/0
        right=%opportunistic
        failureshunt=passthrough
        keyingtries=3
        ikelifetime=1h
        salifetime=1h
        rekey=no
        auto=route

These conns are not affected by anything in conn %default. They will only work if %defaultroute works. The leftid will be the interfaces IP address; this requires that reverse DNS records be set up properly.

The implicit conns are defined after all others. It is appropriate and reasonable to use also=private-or-clear (for example) in any other opportunistic conn.  

POLICY GROUP FILES

The optional files under /etc/ipsec.d/policies, including

/etc/ipsec.d/policies/clear
/etc/ipsec.d/policies/clear-or-private
/etc/ipsec.d/policies/private-or-clear
/etc/ipsec.d/policies/private
/etc/ipsec.d/policies/block

may contain policy group configuration information to supplement ipsec.conf. Their contents are not security-sensitive.

These files are text files. Each consists of a list of CIDR blocks, one per line. White space followed by # followed by anything to the end of the line is a comment and is ignored, as are empty lines.

A connection in ipsec.conf that has right=%group or right=%opportunisticgroup is a policy group connection. When a policy group file of the same name is loaded, with

     ipsec auto --rereadgroups

or at system start, the connection is instantiated such that each CIDR block serves as an instance's right value. The system treats the resulting instances as normal connections.

For example, given a suitable connection definition private, and the file /etc/ipsec.d/policies/private with an entry 192.0.2.3, the system creates a connection instance private#192.0.2.3. This connection inherits all details from private, except that its right client is 192.0.2.3.  

DEFAULT POLICY GROUPS

The standard Libreswan install includes several policy groups which provide a way of classifying possible peers into IPsec security classes: private (talk encrypted only), private-or-clear (prefer encryption), clear-or-private (respond to requests for encryption), clear and block. Implicit policy groups apply to the local host only, and are implemented by the IMPLICIT CONNECTIONS described above.  

CHOOSING A CONNECTION [THIS SECTION IS EXTREMELY OUT OF DATE

When choosing a connection to apply to an outbound packet caught with a %trap, the system prefers the one with the most specific eroute that includes the packet's source and destination IP addresses. Source subnets are examined before destination subnets. For initiating, only routed connections are considered. For responding, unrouted but added connections are considered.

When choosing a connection to use to respond to a negotiation that doesn't match an ordinary conn, an opportunistic connection may be instantiated. Eventually, its instance will be /32 -> /32, but for earlier stages of the negotiation, there will not be enough information about the client subnets to complete the instantiation.  

FILES

/etc/ipsec.conf
/etc/ipsec.d/policies/clear
/etc/ipsec.d/policies/clear-or-private
/etc/ipsec.d/policies/private-or-clear
/etc/ipsec.d/policies/private
/etc/ipsec.d/policies/block

 

SEE ALSO

ipsec(8), ipsec_auto(8), ipsec_rsasigkey(8)  

HISTORY

Designed for the FreeS/WAN project <m[blue]https://www.freeswan.orgm[]> by Henry Spencer.  

BUGS

Before reporting new bugs, please ensure you are using the latest version of Libreswan, and if not using KLIPS, please ensure you are using the latest kernel code for your IPsec stack.

When type or failureshunt is set to drop or reject, Libreswan blocks outbound packets using eroutes, but assumes inbound blocking is handled by the firewall. Libreswan offers firewall hooks via an "updown" script. However, the default ipsec _updown provides no help in controlling a modern firewall.

Including attributes of the keying channel (authentication methods, ikelifetime, etc.) as an attribute of a connection, rather than of a participant pair, is dubious and incurs limitations.

The use of %any with the protoport= option is ambiguous. Should the SA permits any port through or should the SA negotiate any single port through? The first is a basic conn with a wildcard. The second is a template. The second is the current behaviour, and it's wrong for quite a number of uses involving TCP. The keyword %one may be introduced in the future to separate these two cases.

It would be good to have a line-continuation syntax, especially for the very long lines involved in RSA signature keys.

First packet caching is only implemented for the KLIPS(NG) and MAST stacks. NETKEY returns POSIX-breaking responses, visible as connect: Resource temporarily unavailable errors. This affects Opportunistic Encryption and DPD. Functionality on the BSD and Windows stacks is unknown.

Some state information is only available when using KLIPS, and will return errors on other IPsec stacks. These include ipsec eroute, ipsec spi and ipsec look.

Multiple L2TP clients behind the same NAT router, and multiple L2TP clients behind different NAT routers using the same Virtual IP is currently only working for the KLIPSNG stack.

The ability to specify different identities, authby, and public keys for different automatic-keyed connections between the same participants is misleading; this doesn't work dependably because the identity of the participants is not known early enough. This is especially awkward for the "Road Warrior" case, where the remote IP address is specified as 0.0.0.0, and that is considered to be the "participant" for such connections.

If conns are to be added before DNS is available, left=FQDN, leftnextop=FQDN, and leftrsasigkey=%dnsonload will fail. ipsec_pluto(8) does not actually use the public key for our side of a conn but it isn't generally known at a add-time which side is ours (Road Warrior and Opportunistic conns are currently exceptions).

The myid option does not affect explicit ipsec auto --add or ipsec auto --replace commands for implicit conns.  

AUTHOR

Paul Wouters

documenter

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Index

NAME

DESCRIPTION

CONN SECTIONS

CONN PARAMETERS: GENERAL

CONN PARAMETERS: AUTOMATIC KEYING

CONFIG SECTIONS

IMPLICIT CONNS

POLICY GROUP FILES

DEFAULT POLICY GROUPS

CHOOSING A CONNECTION [THIS SECTION IS EXTREMELY OUT OF DATE

FILES

SEE ALSO

HISTORY

BUGS

AUTHOR

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