1STRONGSWAN.CONF(5) strongSwan STRONGSWAN.CONF(5)
2
6 strongswan.conf - strongSwan configuration file
7
9 While the ipsec.conf(5) configuration file is well suited to define
10 IPsec related configuration parameters, it is not useful for other
11 strongSwan applications to read options from this file. The file is
12 hard to parse and only ipsec starter is capable of doing so. As the
13 number of components of the strongSwan project is continually growing,
14 a more flexible configuration file was needed, one that is easy to
15 extend and can be used by all components. With strongSwan 4.2.1
16 strongswan.conf(5) was introduced which meets these requirements.
17
20 The format of the strongswan.conf file consists of hierarchical sec‐
21 tions and a list of key/value pairs in each section. Each section has a
22 name, followed by C-Style curly brackets defining the section body.
23 Each section body contains a set of subsections and key/value pairs:
24 settings := (section|keyvalue)*
26 section := name { settings }
27 keyvalue := key = value\n
28 Values must be terminated by a newline.
30 Comments are possible using the #-character.
32 Section names and keys may contain any printable character except:
34 . , : { } = " # \n \t space
36 An example file in this format might look like this:
38 a = b
40 section-one {
41 somevalue = asdf
42 subsection {
43 othervalue = xxx
44 }
45 # yei, a comment
46 yetanother = zz
47 }
48 section-two {
49 x = 12
50 }
51 Indentation is optional, you may use tabs or spaces.
53
57 It is possible to inherit settings and sections from another section.
58 This feature is mainly useful in swanctl.conf (which uses the same file
59 format). The syntax is as follows:
60 section := name : references { settings }
62 references := absname[, absname]*
63 absname := name[.name]*
64 All key/value pairs and all subsections of the referenced sections will
66 be inherited by the section that references them via their absolute
67 name. Values may be overridden in the section or any of its sub-sec‐
68 tions (use an empty assignment to clear a value so its default value,
69 if any, will apply). It is currently not possible to limit the inclu‐
70 sion level or clear/remove inherited sub-sections.
71 If the order is important (e.g. for auth rounds in a connection, if
73 round is not used), it should be noted that inherited settings/sections
74 will follow those defined in the current section (if multiple sections
75 are referenced, their settings are enumerated left to right).
76 References are evaluated dynamically at runtime, so referring to sec‐
78 tions later in the config file or included via other files is no prob‐
79 lem.
80 Here is an example of how this might look like:
82 conn-defaults {
84 # default settings for all conns (e.g. a cert, or IP pools)
85 }
86 eap-defaults {
87 # defaults if eap is used (e.g. a remote auth round)
88 }
89 child-defaults {
90 # defaults for child configs (e.g. traffic selectors)
91 }
92 connections {
93 conn-a : conn-defaults, eap-defaults {
94 # set/override stuff specific to this connection
95 children {
96 child-a : child-defaults {
97 # set/override stuff specific to this child
98 }
99 }
100 }
101 conn-b : conn-defaults {
102 # set/override stuff specific to this connection
103 children {
104 child-b : child-defaults {
105 # set/override stuff specific to this child
106 }
107 }
108 }
109 conn-c : connections.conn-a {
110 # everything is inherited, including everything conn-a
111 # already inherits from the sections it and its
112 # sub-section reference
113 }
114 }
115
117 Using the include statement it is possible to include other files into
118 strongswan.conf, e.g.
119 include /some/path/*.conf
121 If the file name is not an absolute path, it is considered to be rela‐
123 tive to the directory of the file containing the include statement. The
124 file name may include shell wildcards (see sh(1)). Also, such inclu‐
125 sions can be nested.
126 Sections loaded from included files extend previously loaded sections;
128 already existing values are replaced. It is important to note that
129 settings are added relative to the section the include statement is in.
130 As an example, the following three files result in the same final con‐
132 fig as the one given above:
133 a = b
135 section-one {
136 somevalue = before include
137 include include.conf
138 }
139 include other.conf
140 include.conf:
142 # settings loaded from this file are added to section-one
143 # the following replaces the previous value
144 somevalue = asdf
145 subsection {
146 othervalue = yyy
147 }
148 yetanother = zz
149 other.conf:
151 # this extends section-one and subsection
152 section-one {
153 subsection {
154 # this replaces the previous value
155 othervalue = xxx
156 }
157 }
158 section-two {
159 x = 12
160 }
161
164 Values are accessed using a dot-separated section list and a key. With
165 reference to the example above, accessing section-one.subsection.other‐
166 value will return xxx.
167
170 The following keys are currently defined (using dot notation). The
171 default value (if any) is listed in brackets after the key.
172 aikgen.load []
174 Plugins to load in ipsec aikgen tool.
175 attest.database []
178 File measurement information database URI. If it contains a
179 password, make sure to adjust the permissions of the config file
180 accordingly.
181 attest.load []
184 Plugins to load in ipsec attest tool.
185 charon
188 Options for the charon IKE daemon.
189 Note: Many of the options in this section also apply to
191 charon-cmd and other charon derivatives. Just use their respec‐
192 tive name (e.g. charon-cmd instead of charon). For many
193 options defaults can be defined in the libstrongswan section.
194 charon.accept_private_algs [no]
197 Deliberately violate the IKE standard's requirement and allow
198 the use of private algorithm identifiers, even if the peer
199 implementation is unknown.
200 charon.accept_unencrypted_mainmode_messages [no]
203 Accept unencrypted ID and HASH payloads in IKEv1 Main Mode.
204 Some implementations send the third Main Mode message unen‐
206 crypted, probably to find the PSKs for the specified ID for
207 authentication. This is very similar to Aggressive Mode, and has
208 the same security implications: A passive attacker can sniff the
209 negotiated Identity, and start brute forcing the PSK using the
210 HASH payload.
211 It is recommended to keep this option to no, unless you know
213 exactly what the implications are and require compatibility to
214 such devices (for example, some SonicWall boxes).
215 charon.block_threshold [5]
218 Maximum number of half-open IKE_SAs for a single peer IP.
219 charon.cache_crls [no]
222 Whether Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) fetched via HTTP or
223 LDAP should be saved under a unique file name derived from the
224 public key of the Certification Authority (CA) to
225 /etc/ipsec.d/crls (stroke) or /etc/swanctl/x509crl (vici),
226 respectively.
227 charon.cert_cache [yes]
230 Whether relations in validated certificate chains should be
231 cached in memory.
232 charon.check_current_path [no]
235 By default, after detecting any changes to interfaces and/or
236 addresses no action is taken if the current path to the remote
237 peer still looks usable. Enabling this option will use DPD to
238 check if the path actually still works, or, for instance, the
239 peer removed the state after a longer phase without connectiv‐
240 ity. It will also trigger a MOBIKE update if NAT mappings were
241 removed during the downtime.
242 charon.cisco_flexvpn [no]
245 Send the Cisco FlexVPN vendor ID payload, which is required in
246 order to make Cisco brand devices allow negotiating a local
247 traffic selector (from strongSwan's point of view) that is not
248 the assigned virtual IP address if such an address is requested
249 by strongSwan. Sending the Cisco FlexVPN vendor ID prevents
250 the peer from narrowing the initiator's local traffic selector
251 and allows it to e.g. negotiate a TS of 0.0.0.0/0 == 0.0.0.0/0
252 instead. This has been tested with a "tunnel mode ipsec ipv4"
253 Cisco template but should also work for GRE encapsulation.
254 charon.cisco_unity [no]
257 Send Cisco Unity vendor ID payload (IKEv1 only).
258 charon.close_ike_on_child_failure [no]
261 Close the IKE_SA if setup of the CHILD_SA along with IKE_AUTH
262 failed.
263 charon.cookie_threshold [10]
266 Number of half-open IKE_SAs that activate the cookie mechanism.
267 charon.crypto_test.bench [no]
270 Benchmark crypto algorithms and order them by efficiency.
271 charon.crypto_test.bench_size [1024]
274 Buffer size used for crypto benchmark.
275 charon.crypto_test.bench_time [50]
278 Time in ms during which crypto algorithm performance is mea‐
279 sured.
280 charon.crypto_test.on_add [no]
283 Test crypto algorithms during registration (requires test vec‐
284 tors provided by the test-vectors plugin).
285 charon.crypto_test.on_create [no]
288 Test crypto algorithms on each crypto primitive instantiation.
289 charon.crypto_test.required [no]
292 Strictly require at least one test vector to enable an algo‐
293 rithm.
294 charon.crypto_test.rng_true [no]
297 Whether to test RNG with TRUE quality; requires a lot of
298 entropy.
299 charon.delete_rekeyed [no]
302 Delete CHILD_SAs right after they got successfully rekeyed
303 (IKEv1 only). Reduces the number of stale CHILD_SAs in scenarios
304 with a lot of rekeyings. However, this might cause problems with
305 implementations that continue to use rekeyed SAs until they
306 expire.
307 charon.delete_rekeyed_delay [5]
310 Delay in seconds until inbound IPsec SAs are deleted after
311 rekeyings (IKEv2 only). To process delayed packets the inbound
312 part of a CHILD_SA is kept installed up to the configured number
313 of seconds after it got replaced during a rekeying. If set to 0
314 the CHILD_SA will be kept installed until it expires (if no
315 lifetime is set it will be destroyed immediately).
316 charon.dh_exponent_ansi_x9_42 [yes]
319 Use ANSI X9.42 DH exponent size or optimum size matched to cryp‐
320 tographic strength.
321 charon.dlopen_use_rtld_now [no]
324 Use RTLD_NOW with dlopen when loading plugins and IMV/IMCs to
325 reveal missing symbols immediately.
326 charon.dns1 []
329 DNS server assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP).
330 charon.dns2 []
333 DNS server assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP).
334 charon.dos_protection [yes]
337 Enable Denial of Service protection using cookies and aggres‐
338 siveness checks.
339 charon.ecp_x_coordinate_only [yes]
342 Compliance with the errata for RFC 4753.
343 charon.filelog
346 Section to define file loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION in
347 strongswan.conf(5).
348 charon.filelog.<name>
352 <name> may be the full path to the log file if it only contains
353 characters permitted in section names. Is ignored if path is
354 specified.
355 charon.filelog.<name>.<subsystem> [<default>]
358 Loglevel for a specific subsystem.
359 charon.filelog.<name>.append [yes]
362 If this option is enabled log entries are appended to the exist‐
363 ing file.
364 charon.filelog.<name>.default [1]
367 Specifies the default loglevel to be used for subsystems for
368 which no specific loglevel is defined.
369 charon.filelog.<name>.flush_line [no]
372 Enabling this option disables block buffering and enables line
373 buffering.
374 charon.filelog.<name>.ike_name [no]
377 Prefix each log entry with the connection name and a unique
378 numerical identifier for each IKE_SA.
379 charon.filelog.<name>.log_level [no]
382 Add the log level of each message after the subsystem (e.g.
383 [IKE2]).
384 charon.filelog.<name>.path []
387 Optional path to the log file. Overrides the section name. Must
388 be used if the path contains characters that aren't allowed in
389 section names.
390 charon.filelog.<name>.time_add_ms [no]
393 Adds the milliseconds within the current second after the time‐
394 stamp (separated by a dot, so time_format should end with %S or
395 %T).
396 charon.filelog.<name>.time_format []
399 Prefix each log entry with a timestamp. The option accepts a
400 format string as passed to strftime(3).
401 charon.flush_auth_cfg [no]
405 If enabled objects used during authentication (certificates,
406 identities etc.) are released to free memory once an IKE_SA is
407 established. Enabling this might conflict with plugins that
408 later need access to e.g. the used certificates.
409 charon.follow_redirects [yes]
412 Whether to follow IKEv2 redirects (RFC 5685).
413 charon.force_eap_only_authentication [no]
416 Violate RFC 5998 and use EAP-only authentication even if the
417 peer did not send an EAP_ONLY_AUTHENTICATION notify during
418 IKE_AUTH.
419 charon.fragment_size [1280]
422 Maximum size (complete IP datagram size in bytes) of a sent IKE
423 fragment when using proprietary IKEv1 or standardized IKEv2
424 fragmentation, defaults to 1280 (use 0 for address family spe‐
425 cific default values, which uses a lower value for IPv4). If
426 specified this limit is used for both IPv4 and IPv6.
427 charon.group []
430 Name of the group the daemon changes to after startup.
431 charon.half_open_timeout [30]
434 Timeout in seconds for connecting IKE_SAs (also see IKE_SA_INIT
435 DROPPING).
436 charon.hash_and_url [no]
439 Enable hash and URL support.
440 charon.host_resolver.max_threads [3]
443 Maximum number of concurrent resolver threads (they are termi‐
444 nated if unused).
445 charon.host_resolver.min_threads [0]
448 Minimum number of resolver threads to keep around.
449 charon.i_dont_care_about_security_and_use_aggressive_mode_psk [no]
452 If enabled responders are allowed to use IKEv1 Aggressive Mode
453 with pre-shared keys, which is discouraged due to security con‐
454 cerns (offline attacks on the openly transmitted hash of the
455 PSK).
456 charon.ignore_acquire_ts [no]
459 If this is disabled the traffic selectors from the kernel's
460 acquire events, which are derived from the triggering packet,
461 are prepended to the traffic selectors from the configuration
462 for IKEv2 connection. By enabling this, such specific traffic
463 selectors will be ignored and only the ones in the config will
464 be sent. This always happens for IKEv1 connections as the proto‐
465 col only supports one set of traffic selectors per CHILD_SA.
466 charon.ignore_routing_tables []
469 A space-separated list of routing tables to be excluded from
470 route lookups.
471 charon.ikesa_limit [0]
474 Maximum number of IKE_SAs that can be established at the same
475 time before new connection attempts are blocked.
476 charon.ikesa_table_segments [1]
479 Number of exclusively locked segments in the hash table.
480 charon.ikesa_table_size [1]
483 Size of the IKE_SA hash table.
484 charon.imcv
487 Defaults for options in this section can be configured in the
488 libimcv section.
489 charon.imcv.assessment_result [yes]
492 Whether IMVs send a standard IETF Assessment Result attribute.
493 charon.imcv.database []
496 Global IMV policy database URI. If it contains a password, make
497 sure to adjust the permissions of the config file accordingly.
498 charon.imcv.os_info.default_password_enabled [no]
501 Manually set whether a default password is enabled
502 charon.imcv.os_info.name []
505 Manually set the name of the client OS (e.g. Ubuntu).
506 charon.imcv.os_info.version []
509 Manually set the version of the client OS (e.g. 12.04 i686).
510 charon.imcv.policy_script [ipsec _imv_policy]
513 Script called for each TNC connection to generate IMV policies.
514 charon.inactivity_close_ike [no]
517 Whether to close IKE_SA if the only CHILD_SA closed due to inac‐
518 tivity.
519 charon.init_limit_half_open [0]
522 Limit new connections based on the current number of half open
523 IKE_SAs, see IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING in strongswan.conf(5).
524 charon.init_limit_job_load [0]
528 Limit new connections based on the number of jobs currently
529 queued for processing (see IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING).
530 charon.initiator_only [no]
533 Causes charon daemon to ignore IKE initiation requests.
534 charon.install_routes [yes]
537 Install routes into a separate routing table for established
538 IPsec tunnels.
539 charon.install_virtual_ip [yes]
542 Install virtual IP addresses.
543 charon.install_virtual_ip_on []
546 The name of the interface on which virtual IP addresses should
547 be installed. If not specified the addresses will be installed
548 on the outbound interface.
549 charon.integrity_test [no]
552 Check daemon, libstrongswan and plugin integrity at startup.
553 charon.interfaces_ignore []
556 A comma-separated list of network interfaces that should be
557 ignored, if interfaces_use is specified this option has no
558 effect.
559 charon.interfaces_use []
562 A comma-separated list of network interfaces that should be used
563 by charon. All other interfaces are ignored.
564 charon.keep_alive [20s]
567 NAT keep alive interval.
568 charon.keep_alive_dpd_margin [0s]
571 Number of seconds the keep alive interval may be exceeded before
572 a DPD is sent instead of a NAT keep alive (0 to disable). This
573 is only useful if a clock is used that includes time spent sus‐
574 pended (e.g. CLOCK_BOOTTIME).
575 charon.leak_detective.detailed [yes]
578 Includes source file names and line numbers in leak detective
579 output.
580 charon.leak_detective.usage_threshold [10240]
583 Threshold in bytes for leaks to be reported (0 to report all).
584 charon.leak_detective.usage_threshold_count [0]
587 Threshold in number of allocations for leaks to be reported (0
588 to report all).
589 charon.load []
592 Plugins to load in the IKE daemon charon.
593 charon.load_modular [no]
596 If enabled, the list of plugins to load is determined via the
597 value of the charon.plugins.<name>.load options. In addition to
598 a simple boolean flag that option may take an integer value
599 indicating the priority of a plugin, which would influence the
600 order of a plugin in the plugin list (the default is 1). If two
601 plugins have the same priority their order in the default plugin
602 list is preserved. Enabled plugins not found in that list are
603 ordered alphabetically before other plugins with the same prior‐
604 ity.
605 charon.make_before_break [no]
608 Initiate IKEv2 reauthentication with a make-before-break instead
609 of a break-before-make scheme. Make-before-break uses overlap‐
610 ping IKE and CHILD_SA during reauthentication by first recreat‐
611 ing all new SAs before deleting the old ones. This behavior can
612 be beneficial to avoid connectivity gaps during reauthentica‐
613 tion, but requires support for overlapping SAs by the peer.
614 strongSwan can handle such overlapping SAs since version 5.3.0.
615 charon.max_ikev1_exchanges [3]
618 Maximum number of IKEv1 phase 2 exchanges per IKE_SA to keep
619 state about and track concurrently.
620 charon.max_packet [10000]
623 Maximum packet size accepted by charon.
624 charon.multiple_authentication [yes]
627 Enable multiple authentication exchanges (RFC 4739).
628 charon.nbns1 []
631 WINS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP).
632 charon.nbns2 []
635 WINS servers assigned to peer via configuration payload (CP).
636 charon.plugin.ha.buflen [2048]
639 Buffer size for received HA messages. For IKEv1 the public DH
640 factors are also transmitted so depending on the DH group the HA
641 messages can get quite big (the default should be fine up to
642 modp4096).
643 charon.plugins.addrblock.strict [yes]
647 If set to yes, a subject certificate without an addrblock exten‐
648 sion is rejected if the issuer certificate has such an addrblock
649 extension. If set to no, subject certificates issued without the
650 addrblock extension are accepted without any traffic selector
651 checks and no policy is enforced by the plugin.
652 charon.plugins.android_log.loglevel [1]
655 Loglevel for logging to Android specific logger.
656 charon.plugins.attr
659 Section to specify arbitrary attributes that are assigned to a
660 peer via configuration payload (CP).
661 charon.plugins.attr.<attr> []
664 <attr> can be either address, netmask, dns, nbns, dhcp, subnet,
665 split-include, split-exclude or the numeric identifier of the
666 attribute type. The assigned value can be an IPv4/IPv6 address,
667 a subnet in CIDR notation or an arbitrary value depending on the
668 attribute type. For some attribute types multiple values may be
669 specified as a comma separated list.
670 charon.plugins.attr-sql.crash_recovery [yes]
673 Release all online leases during startup. Disable this to share
674 the DB between multiple VPN gateways.
675 charon.plugins.attr-sql.database []
678 Database URI for attr-sql plugin used by charon. If it contains
679 a password, make sure to adjust the permissions of the config
680 file accordingly.
681 charon.plugins.attr-sql.lease_history [yes]
684 Enable logging of SQL IP pool leases.
685 charon.plugins.bliss.use_bliss_b [yes]
688 Use the enhanced BLISS-B key generation and signature algorithm.
689 charon.plugins.bypass-lan.interfaces_ignore []
692 A comma-separated list of network interfaces for which connected
693 subnets should be ignored, if interfaces_use is specified this
694 option has no effect.
695 charon.plugins.bypass-lan.interfaces_use []
698 A comma-separated list of network interfaces for which connected
699 subnets should be considered. All other interfaces are ignored.
700 charon.plugins.bypass-lan.load [no]
703 charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.cron []
705 Cron style string specifying CSV export times.
706 charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.empty_string []
709 String to use in empty intermediate CA fields.
710 charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.fixed_fields [yes]
713 Use a fixed intermediate CA field count.
714 charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.force [yes]
717 Force export of all trustchains we have a private key for.
718 charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.format [%d:%m:%Y]
721 strftime(3) format string to export expiration dates as.
722 charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.local []
725 strftime(3) format string for the CSV file name to export local
726 certificates to.
727 charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.remote []
730 strftime(3) format string for the CSV file name to export remote
731 certificates to.
732 charon.plugins.certexpire.csv.separator [,]
735 CSV field separator.
736 charon.plugins.coupling.file []
739 File to store coupling list to.
740 charon.plugins.coupling.hash [sha1]
743 Hashing algorithm to fingerprint coupled certificates.
744 charon.plugins.coupling.max [1]
747 Maximum number of coupling entries to create.
748 charon.plugins.curl.redir [-1]
751 Maximum number of redirects followed by the plugin, set to 0 to
752 disable following redirects, set to -1 for no limit.
753 charon.plugins.dhcp.force_server_address [no]
756 Always use the configured server address. This might be helpful
757 if the DHCP server runs on the same host as strongSwan, and the
758 DHCP daemon does not listen on the loopback interface. In that
759 case the server cannot be reached via unicast (or even
760 255.255.255.255) as that would be routed via loopback. Setting
761 this option to yes and configuring the local broadcast address
762 (e.g. 192.168.0.255) as server address might work.
763 charon.plugins.dhcp.identity_lease [no]
766 Derive user-defined MAC address from hash of IKE identity and
767 send client identity DHCP option.
768 charon.plugins.dhcp.interface []
771 Interface name the plugin uses for address allocation. The
772 default is to bind to any (0.0.0.0) and let the system decide
773 which way to route the packets to the DHCP server.
774 charon.plugins.dhcp.server [255.255.255.255]
777 DHCP server unicast or broadcast IP address.
778 charon.plugins.dhcp.use_server_port [no]
781 Use the DHCP server port (67) as source port, instead of the
782 DHCP client port (68), when a unicast server address is config‐
783 ured and the plugin acts as relay agent. When replying in this
784 mode the DHCP server will always send packets to the DHCP server
785 port and if no process binds that port an ICMP port unreachables
786 will be sent back, which might be problematic for some DHCP
787 servers. To avoid that, enabling this option will cause the
788 plugin to bind the DHCP server port to send its requests when
789 acting as relay agent. This is not necessary if a DHCP server is
790 already running on the same host and might even cause conflicts
791 (and since the server port is already bound, ICMPs should not be
792 an issue).
793 charon.plugins.dnscert.enable [no]
796 Enable fetching of CERT RRs via DNS.
797 charon.plugins.drbg.max_drbg_requests [4294967294]
800 Number of pseudo-random bit requests from the DRBG before an
801 automatic reseeding occurs.
802 charon.plugins.duplicheck.enable [yes]
805 Enable duplicheck plugin (if loaded).
806 charon.plugins.duplicheck.socket [unix://${piddir}/charon.dck]
809 Socket provided by the duplicheck plugin.
810 charon.plugins.eap-aka.request_identity [yes]
813 charon.plugins.eap-aka-3gpp.seq_check []
815 Enable to activate sequence check of the AKA SQN values in order
816 to trigger resync cycles.
817 charon.plugins.eap-aka-3gpp2.seq_check []
820 Enable to activate sequence check of the AKA SQN values in order
821 to trigger resync cycles.
822 charon.plugins.eap-dynamic.prefer_user [no]
825 If enabled the EAP methods proposed in an EAP-Nak message sent
826 by the peer are preferred over the methods registered locally.
827 charon.plugins.eap-dynamic.preferred []
830 The preferred EAP method(s) to be used. If it is not given the
831 first registered method will be used initially. If a comma sep‐
832 arated list is given the methods are tried in the given order
833 before trying the rest of the registered methods.
834 charon.plugins.eap-gtc.backend [pam]
837 XAuth backend to be used for credential verification.
838 charon.plugins.eap-peap.fragment_size [1024]
841 Maximum size of an EAP-PEAP packet.
842 charon.plugins.eap-peap.include_length [no]
845 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-PEAP packets.
846 charon.plugins.eap-peap.max_message_count [32]
849 Maximum number of processed EAP-PEAP packets (0 = no limit).
850 charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_method [mschapv2]
853 Phase2 EAP client authentication method.
854 charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_piggyback [no]
857 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Fin‐
858 ished message.
859 charon.plugins.eap-peap.phase2_tnc [no]
862 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authenti‐
863 cation.
864 charon.plugins.eap-peap.request_peer_auth [no]
867 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate.
868 charon.plugins.eap-radius.accounting [no]
871 Send RADIUS accounting information to RADIUS servers.
872 charon.plugins.eap-radius.accounting_close_on_timeout [yes]
875 Close the IKE_SA if there is a timeout during interim RADIUS
876 accounting updates.
877 charon.plugins.eap-radius.accounting_interval [0]
880 Interval in seconds for interim RADIUS accounting updates, if
881 not specified by the RADIUS server in the Access-Accept message.
882 charon.plugins.eap-radius.accounting_requires_vip [no]
885 If enabled, accounting is disabled unless an IKE_SA has at least
886 one virtual IP. Only for IKEv2, for IKEv1 a virtual IP is
887 strictly necessary.
888 charon.plugins.eap-radius.accounting_send_class [no]
891 If enabled, adds the Class attributes received in Access-Accept
892 message to the RADIUS accounting messages.
893 charon.plugins.eap-radius.class_group [no]
896 Use the class attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as
897 group membership information that is compared to the groups
898 specified in the rightgroups option in ipsec.conf(5).
899 charon.plugins.eap-radius.close_all_on_timeout [no]
903 Closes all IKE_SAs if communication with the RADIUS server times
904 out. If it is not set only the current IKE_SA is closed.
905 charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.enable [no]
908 Enables support for the Dynamic Authorization Extension (RFC
909 5176).
910 charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.listen [0.0.0.0]
913 Address to listen for DAE messages from the RADIUS server.
914 charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.port [3799]
917 Port to listen for DAE requests.
918 charon.plugins.eap-radius.dae.secret []
921 Shared secret used to verify/sign DAE messages. If set, make
922 sure to adjust the permissions of the config file accordingly.
923 charon.plugins.eap-radius.eap_start [no]
926 Send EAP-Start instead of EAP-Identity to start RADIUS conversa‐
927 tion.
928 charon.plugins.eap-radius.filter_id [no]
931 If the RADIUS tunnel_type attribute with value ESP is received,
932 use the filter_id attribute sent in the RADIUS-Accept message as
933 group membership information that is compared to the groups
934 specified in the rightgroups option in ipsec.conf(5).
935 charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.ike_to_radius []
939 RADIUS attributes to be forwarded from IKEv2 to RADIUS (can be
940 defined by name or attribute number, a colon can be used to
941 specify vendor-specific attributes, e.g. Reply-Message, or 11,
942 or 36906:12).
943 charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.radius_to_ike []
946 Same as charon.plugins.eap-radius.forward.ike_to_radius but from
947 RADIUS to IKEv2, a strongSwan specific private notify (40969) is
948 used to transmit the attributes.
949 charon.plugins.eap-radius.id_prefix []
952 Prefix to EAP-Identity, some AAA servers use a IMSI prefix to
953 select the EAP method.
954 charon.plugins.eap-radius.nas_identifier [strongSwan]
957 NAS-Identifier to include in RADIUS messages.
958 charon.plugins.eap-radius.port [1812]
961 Port of RADIUS server (authentication).
962 charon.plugins.eap-radius.retransmit_base [1.4]
965 Base to use for calculating exponential back off.
966 charon.plugins.eap-radius.retransmit_timeout [2.0]
969 Timeout in seconds before sending first retransmit.
970 charon.plugins.eap-radius.retransmit_tries [4]
973 Number of times to retransmit a packet before giving up.
974 charon.plugins.eap-radius.secret []
977 Shared secret between RADIUS and NAS. If set, make sure to
978 adjust the permissions of the config file accordingly.
979 charon.plugins.eap-radius.server []
982 IP/Hostname of RADIUS server.
983 charon.plugins.eap-radius.servers
986 Section to specify multiple RADIUS servers. The nas_identifier,
987 secret, sockets and port (or auth_port) options can be specified
988 for each server. A server's IP/Hostname can be configured using
989 the address option. The acct_port [1813] option can be used to
990 specify the port used for RADIUS accounting. For each RADIUS
991 server a priority can be specified using the preference [0]
992 option. The retransmission time for each server can set set
993 using retransmit_base, retransmit_timeout and retransmit_tries.
994 charon.plugins.eap-radius.sockets [1]
998 Number of sockets (ports) to use, increase for high load.
999 charon.plugins.eap-radius.station_id_with_port [yes]
1002 Whether to include the UDP port in the Called- and Calling-Sta‐
1003 tion-Id RADIUS attributes.
1004 charon.plugins.eap-radius.xauth
1007 Section to configure multiple XAuth authentication rounds via
1008 RADIUS. The subsections define so called authentication profiles
1009 with arbitrary names. In each profile section one or more XAuth
1010 types can be configured, with an assigned message. For each type
1011 a separate XAuth exchange will be initiated and all replies get
1012 concatenated into the User-Password attribute, which then gets
1013 verified over RADIUS.
1014 Available XAuth types are password, passcode, nextpin, and
1016 answer. This type is not relevant to strongSwan or the AAA
1017 server, but the client may show a different dialog (along with
1018 the configured message).
1019 To use the configured profiles, they have to be configured in
1021 the respective connection in ipsec.conf(5) by appending the pro‐
1022 file name, separated by a colon, to the xauth-radius XAauth
1023 backend configuration in rightauth or rightauth2, for instance,
1024 rightauth2=xauth-radius:profile.
1025 charon.plugins.eap-sim.request_identity [yes]
1029 charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.database []
1031 charon.plugins.eap-simaka-sql.remove_used [no]
1033 charon.plugins.eap-tls.fragment_size [1024]
1035 Maximum size of an EAP-TLS packet.
1036 charon.plugins.eap-tls.include_length [yes]
1039 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TLS packets.
1040 charon.plugins.eap-tls.max_message_count [32]
1043 Maximum number of processed EAP-TLS packets (0 = no limit).
1044 charon.plugins.eap-tnc.max_message_count [10]
1047 Maximum number of processed EAP-TNC packets (0 = no limit).
1048 charon.plugins.eap-tnc.protocol [tnccs-2.0]
1051 IF-TNCCS protocol version to be used (tnccs-1.1, tnccs-2.0,
1052 tnccs-dynamic).
1053 charon.plugins.eap-ttls.fragment_size [1024]
1057 Maximum size of an EAP-TTLS packet.
1058 charon.plugins.eap-ttls.include_length [yes]
1061 Include length in non-fragmented EAP-TTLS packets.
1062 charon.plugins.eap-ttls.max_message_count [32]
1065 Maximum number of processed EAP-TTLS packets (0 = no limit).
1066 charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_method [md5]
1069 Phase2 EAP client authentication method.
1070 charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_piggyback [no]
1073 Phase2 EAP Identity request piggybacked by server onto TLS Fin‐
1074 ished message.
1075 charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_tnc [no]
1078 Start phase2 EAP TNC protocol after successful client authenti‐
1079 cation.
1080 charon.plugins.eap-ttls.phase2_tnc_method [pt]
1083 Phase2 EAP TNC transport protocol (pt as IETF standard or legacy
1084 tnc)
1085 charon.plugins.eap-ttls.request_peer_auth [no]
1089 Request peer authentication based on a client certificate.
1090 charon.plugins.error-notify.socket [unix://${piddir}/charon.enfy]
1093 Socket provided by the error-notify plugin.
1094 charon.plugins.ext-auth.script []
1097 Command to pass to the system shell for peer authorization.
1098 Authorization is considered successful if the command executes
1099 normally with an exit code of zero. For all other exit codes
1100 IKE_SA authorization is rejected.
1101 The following environment variables get passed to the script:
1103 IKE_UNIQUE_ID: The IKE_SA numerical unique identifier.
1104 IKE_NAME: The peer configuration connection name.
1105 IKE_LOCAL_HOST: Local IKE IP address. IKE_REMOTE_HOST: Remote
1106 IKE IP address. IKE_LOCAL_ID: Local IKE identity.
1107 IKE_REMOTE_ID: Remote IKE identity. IKE_REMOTE_EAP_ID: Remote
1108 EAP or XAuth identity, if used.
1109 charon.plugins.forecast.groups
1112 [224.0.0.1,224.0.0.22,224.0.0.251,224.0.0.252,239.255.255.250]
1113 Comma separated list of multicast groups to join locally. The
1114 local host receives and forwards packets in the local LAN for
1115 joined multicast groups only. Packets matching the list of mul‐
1116 ticast groups get forwarded to connected clients. The default
1117 group includes host multicasts, IGMP, mDNS, LLMNR and
1118 SSDP/WS-Discovery, and is usually a good choice for Windows
1119 clients.
1120 charon.plugins.forecast.interface []
1123 Name of the local interface to listen for broadcasts messages to
1124 forward. If no interface is configured, the first usable inter‐
1125 face is used, which is usually just fine for single-homed hosts.
1126 If your host has multiple interfaces, set this option to the
1127 local LAN interface you want to forward broadcasts from/to.
1128 charon.plugins.forecast.reinject []
1131 Comma separated list of CHILD_SA configuration names for which
1132 to perform multi/broadcast reinjection. For clients connecting
1133 over such a configuration, any multi/broadcast received over the
1134 tunnel gets reinjected to all active tunnels. This makes the
1135 broadcasts visible to other peers, and for examples allows
1136 clients to see others shares. If disabled, multi/broadcast mes‐
1137 sages received over a tunnel are injected to the local network
1138 only, but not to other IPsec clients.
1139 charon.plugins.gcrypt.quick_random [no]
1142 Use faster random numbers in gcrypt; for testing only, produces
1143 weak keys!
1144 charon.plugins.ha.autobalance [0]
1147 Interval in seconds to automatically balance handled segments
1148 between nodes. Set to 0 to disable.
1149 charon.plugins.ha.fifo_interface [yes]
1152 charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_delay [1000]
1154 charon.plugins.ha.heartbeat_timeout [2100]
1156 charon.plugins.ha.local []
1158 charon.plugins.ha.monitor [yes]
1160 charon.plugins.ha.pools []
1162 charon.plugins.ha.remote []
1164 charon.plugins.ha.resync [yes]
1166 charon.plugins.ha.secret []
1168 charon.plugins.ha.segment_count [1]
1170 charon.plugins.ipseckey.enable [no]
1172 Enable fetching of IPSECKEY RRs via DNS.
1173 charon.plugins.kernel-libipsec.allow_peer_ts [no]
1176 Allow that the remote traffic selector equals the IKE peer. The
1177 route installed for such traffic (via TUN device) usually pre‐
1178 vents further IKE traffic. The fwmark options for the ker‐
1179 nel-netlink and socket-default plugins can be used to circumvent
1180 that problem.
1181 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.buflen [<min(PAGE_SIZE, 8192)>]
1184 Buffer size for received Netlink messages.
1185 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.force_receive_buffer_size [no]
1188 If the maximum Netlink socket receive buffer in bytes set by
1189 receive_buffer_size exceeds the system-wide maximum from
1190 /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max, this option can be used to override
1191 the limit. Enabling this option requires special privileges
1192 (CAP_NET_ADMIN).
1193 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.fwmark []
1196 Firewall mark to set on the routing rule that directs traffic to
1197 our routing table. The format is [!]mark[/mask], where the
1198 optional exclamation mark inverts the meaning (i.e. the rule
1199 only applies to packets that don't match the mark).
1200 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.hw_offload_feature_interface [lo]
1203 If the kernel supports hardware offloading, the plugin needs to
1204 find the feature flag which represents hardware offloading sup‐
1205 port for network devices. Using the loopback device for this
1206 purpose is usually fine, since it should always be present. For
1207 rare cases in which the loopback device cannot be used to obtain
1208 the appropriate feature flag, this option can be used to specify
1209 an alternative interface for offload feature detection.
1210 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.ignore_retransmit_errors [no]
1213 Whether to ignore errors potentially resulting from a retrans‐
1214 mission.
1215 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.mss [0]
1218 MSS to set on installed routes, 0 to disable.
1219 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.mtu [0]
1222 MTU to set on installed routes, 0 to disable.
1223 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.parallel_route [no]
1226 Whether to perform concurrent Netlink ROUTE queries on a single
1227 socket. While parallel queries can improve throughput, it has
1228 more overhead. On vanilla Linux, DUMP queries fail with EBUSY
1229 and must be retried, further decreasing performance.
1230 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.parallel_xfrm [no]
1233 Whether to perform concurrent Netlink XFRM queries on a single
1234 socket.
1235 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.policy_update [no]
1238 Whether to always use XFRM_MSG_UPDPOLICY to install policies.
1239 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.port_bypass [no]
1242 Whether to use port or socket based IKE XFRM bypass policies.
1243 IKE bypass policies are used to exempt IKE traffic from XFRM
1244 processing. The default socket based policies are directly tied
1245 to the IKE UDP sockets, port based policies use global XFRM
1246 bypass policies for the used IKE UDP ports.
1247 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.process_rules [no]
1250 Whether to process changes in routing rules to trigger roam
1251 events. This is currently only useful if the kernel based route
1252 lookup is used (i.e. if route installation is disabled or an
1253 inverted fwmark match is configured).
1254 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.receive_buffer_size [0]
1257 Maximum Netlink socket receive buffer in bytes. This value con‐
1258 trols how many bytes of Netlink messages can be received on a
1259 Netlink socket. The default value is set by
1260 /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_default. The specified value cannot
1261 exceed the system-wide maximum from /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max,
1262 unless force_receive_buffer_size is enabled.
1263 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.retries [0]
1266 Number of Netlink message retransmissions to send on timeout.
1267 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.roam_events [yes]
1270 Whether to trigger roam events when interfaces, addresses or
1271 routes change.
1272 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.set_proto_port_transport_sa [no]
1275 Whether to set protocol and ports in the selector installed on
1276 transport mode IPsec SAs in the kernel. While doing so enforces
1277 policies for inbound traffic, it also prevents the use of a sin‐
1278 gle IPsec SA by more than one traffic selector.
1279 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.spdh_thresh
1282 XFRM policy hashing threshold configuration for IPv4 and IPv6.
1283 The section defines hashing thresholds to configure in the ker‐
1285 nel during daemon startup. Each address family takes a threshold
1286 for the local subnet of an IPsec policy (src in out-policies,
1287 dst in in- and forward-policies) and the remote subnet (dst in
1288 out-policies, src in in- and forward-policies).
1289 If the subnet has more or equal net bits than the threshold, the
1291 first threshold bits are used to calculate a hash to lookup the
1292 policy.
1293 Policy hashing thresholds are not supported before Linux 3.18
1295 and might conflict with socket policies before Linux 4.8.
1296 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.spdh_thresh.ipv4.lbits [32]
1299 Local subnet XFRM policy hashing threshold for IPv4.
1300 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.spdh_thresh.ipv4.rbits [32]
1303 Remote subnet XFRM policy hashing threshold for IPv4.
1304 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.spdh_thresh.ipv6.lbits [128]
1307 Local subnet XFRM policy hashing threshold for IPv6.
1308 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.spdh_thresh.ipv6.rbits [128]
1311 Remote subnet XFRM policy hashing threshold for IPv6.
1312 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.timeout [0]
1315 Netlink message retransmission timeout, 0 to disable retransmis‐
1316 sions.
1317 charon.plugins.kernel-netlink.xfrm_acq_expires [165]
1320 Lifetime of XFRM acquire state created by the kernel when traf‐
1321 fic matches a trap policy. The value gets written to
1322 /proc/sys/net/core/xfrm_acq_expires. Indirectly controls the
1323 delay between XFRM acquire messages triggered by the kernel for
1324 a trap policy. The same value is used as timeout for SPIs allo‐
1325 cated by the kernel. The default value equals the total
1326 retransmission timeout for IKE messages, see IKEv2 RETRANSMIS‐
1327 SION in strongswan.conf(5).
1328 charon.plugins.kernel-pfkey.events_buffer_size [0]
1332 Size of the receive buffer for the event socket (0 for default
1333 size). Because events are received asynchronously installing
1334 e.g. lots of policies may require a larger buffer than the
1335 default on certain platforms in order to receive all messages.
1336 charon.plugins.kernel-pfkey.route_via_internal [no]
1339 Whether to use the internal or external interface in installed
1340 routes. The internal interface is the one where the IP address
1341 contained in the local traffic selector is located, the external
1342 interface is the one over which the destination address of the
1343 IPsec tunnel can be reached. This is not relevant if virtual IPs
1344 are used, for which a TUN device is created that's used in the
1345 routes.
1346 charon.plugins.kernel-pfroute.vip_wait [1000]
1349 Time in ms to wait until virtual IP addresses appear/disappear
1350 before failing.
1351 charon.plugins.led.activity_led []
1354 charon.plugins.led.blink_time [50]
1356 charon.plugins.load-tester
1358 Section to configure the load-tester plugin, see LOAD TESTS in
1359 strongswan.conf(5) for details.
1360 charon.plugins.load-tester.addrs
1363 Section that contains key/value pairs with address pools (in
1364 CIDR notation) to use for a specific network interface e.g. eth0
1365 = 10.10.0.0/16.
1366 charon.plugins.load-tester.addrs_keep [no]
1369 Whether to keep dynamic addresses even after the associated SA
1370 got terminated.
1371 charon.plugins.load-tester.addrs_prefix [16]
1374 Network prefix length to use when installing dynamic addresses.
1375 If set to -1 the full address is used (i.e. 32 or 128).
1376 charon.plugins.load-tester.ca_dir []
1379 Directory to load (intermediate) CA certificates from.
1380 charon.plugins.load-tester.child_rekey [600]
1383 Seconds to start CHILD_SA rekeying after setup.
1384 charon.plugins.load-tester.crl []
1387 URI to a CRL to include as certificate distribution point in
1388 generated certificates.
1389 charon.plugins.load-tester.delay [0]
1392 Delay between initiations for each thread.
1393 charon.plugins.load-tester.delete_after_established [no]
1396 Delete an IKE_SA as soon as it has been established.
1397 charon.plugins.load-tester.digest [sha1]
1400 Digest algorithm used when issuing certificates.
1401 charon.plugins.load-tester.dpd_delay [0]
1404 DPD delay to use in load test.
1405 charon.plugins.load-tester.dynamic_port [0]
1408 Base port to be used for requests (each client uses a different
1409 port).
1410 charon.plugins.load-tester.eap_password [default-pwd]
1413 EAP secret to use in load test.
1414 charon.plugins.load-tester.enable [no]
1417 Enable the load testing plugin. WARNING: Never enable this
1418 plugin on productive systems. It provides preconfigured creden‐
1419 tials and allows an attacker to authenticate as any user.
1420 charon.plugins.load-tester.esp [aes128-sha1]
1423 CHILD_SA proposal to use for load tests.
1424 charon.plugins.load-tester.fake_kernel [no]
1427 Fake the kernel interface to allow load-testing against self.
1428 charon.plugins.load-tester.ike_rekey [0]
1431 Seconds to start IKE_SA rekeying after setup.
1432 charon.plugins.load-tester.init_limit [0]
1435 Global limit of concurrently established SAs during load test.
1436 charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator [0.0.0.0]
1439 Address to initiate from.
1440 charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_auth [pubkey]
1443 Authentication method(s) the initiator uses.
1444 charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_id []
1447 Initiator ID used in load test.
1448 charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_match []
1451 Initiator ID to match against as responder.
1452 charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_tsi []
1455 Traffic selector on initiator side, as proposed by initiator.
1456 charon.plugins.load-tester.initiator_tsr []
1459 Traffic selector on responder side, as proposed by initiator.
1460 charon.plugins.load-tester.initiators [0]
1463 Number of concurrent initiator threads to use in load test.
1464 charon.plugins.load-tester.issuer_cert []
1467 Path to the issuer certificate (if not configured a hard-coded
1468 default value is used).
1469 charon.plugins.load-tester.issuer_key []
1472 Path to private key that is used to issue certificates (if not
1473 configured a hard-coded default value is used).
1474 charon.plugins.load-tester.iterations [1]
1477 Number of IKE_SAs to initiate by each initiator in load test.
1478 charon.plugins.load-tester.mode [tunnel]
1481 IPsec mode to use, one of tunnel, transport, or beet.
1482 charon.plugins.load-tester.pool []
1486 Provide INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRs from a named pool.
1487 charon.plugins.load-tester.preshared_key [<default-psk>]
1490 Preshared key to use in load test.
1491 charon.plugins.load-tester.proposal [aes128-sha1-modp768]
1494 IKE proposal to use in load test.
1495 charon.plugins.load-tester.request_virtual_ip [no]
1498 Request an INTERNAL_IPV4_ADDR and INTERNAL_IPV6_ADDR from the
1499 server.
1500 charon.plugins.load-tester.responder [127.0.0.1]
1503 Address to initiation connections to.
1504 charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_auth [pubkey]
1507 Authentication method(s) the responder uses.
1508 charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_id []
1511 Responder ID used in load test.
1512 charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_tsi [initiator_tsi]
1515 Traffic selector on initiator side, as narrowed by responder.
1516 charon.plugins.load-tester.responder_tsr [initiator_tsr]
1519 Traffic selector on responder side, as narrowed by responder.
1520 charon.plugins.load-tester.shutdown_when_complete [no]
1523 Shutdown the daemon after all IKE_SAs have been established.
1524 charon.plugins.load-tester.socket [unix://${piddir}/charon.ldt]
1527 Socket provided by the load-tester plugin.
1528 charon.plugins.load-tester.version [0]
1531 IKE version to use (0 means use IKEv2 as initiator and accept
1532 any version as responder).
1533 charon.plugins.lookip.socket [unix://${piddir}/charon.lkp]
1536 Socket provided by the lookip plugin.
1537 charon.plugins.ntru.parameter_set [optimum]
1540 The following parameter sets are available: x9_98_speed,
1541 x9_98_bandwidth, x9_98_balance and optimum, the last set not
1542 being part of the X9.98 standard but having the best perfor‐
1543 mance.
1544 charon.plugins.openssl.engine_id [pkcs11]
1547 ENGINE ID to use in the OpenSSL plugin.
1548 charon.plugins.openssl.fips_mode [0]
1551 Set OpenSSL FIPS mode: disabled(0), enabled(1), Suite B
1552 enabled(2).
1553 charon.plugins.osx-attr.append [yes]
1556 Whether DNS servers are appended to existing entries, instead of
1557 replacing them.
1558 charon.plugins.p-cscf.enable
1561 Section to enable requesting P-CSCF server addresses for indi‐
1562 vidual connections.
1563 charon.plugins.p-cscf.enable.<conn> [no]
1566 <conn> is the name of a connection with an ePDG from which to
1567 request P-CSCF server addresses. Requests will be sent for
1568 addresses of the same families for which internal IPs are
1569 requested.
1570 charon.plugins.pkcs11.modules
1573 List of available PKCS#11 modules.
1574 charon.plugins.pkcs11.modules.<name>.load_certs [yes]
1577 Whether to automatically load certificates from tokens.
1578 charon.plugins.pkcs11.modules.<name>.os_locking [no]
1581 Whether OS locking should be enabled for this module.
1582 charon.plugins.pkcs11.modules.<name>.path []
1585 Full path to the shared object file of this PKCS#11 module.
1586 charon.plugins.pkcs11.reload_certs [no]
1589 Reload certificates from all tokens if charon receives a SIGHUP.
1590 charon.plugins.pkcs11.use_dh [no]
1593 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for DH and ECDH (see
1594 use_ecc option).
1595 charon.plugins.pkcs11.use_ecc [no]
1598 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for ECDH and ECDSA
1599 public key operations. ECDSA private keys can be used regardless
1600 of this option.
1601 charon.plugins.pkcs11.use_hasher [no]
1604 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used to hash data.
1605 charon.plugins.pkcs11.use_pubkey [no]
1608 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used for public key opera‐
1609 tions, even for keys not stored on tokens.
1610 charon.plugins.pkcs11.use_rng [no]
1613 Whether the PKCS#11 modules should be used as RNG.
1614 charon.plugins.radattr.dir []
1617 Directory where RADIUS attributes are stored in client-ID spe‐
1618 cific files.
1619 charon.plugins.radattr.message_id [-1]
1622 Attributes are added to all IKE_AUTH messages by default (-1),
1623 or only to the IKE_AUTH message with the given IKEv2 message ID.
1624 charon.plugins.random.random [${random_device}]
1627 File to read random bytes from.
1628 charon.plugins.random.strong_equals_true [no]
1631 If set to yes the RNG_STRONG class reads random bytes from the
1632 same source as the RNG_TRUE class.
1633 charon.plugins.random.urandom [${urandom_device}]
1636 File to read pseudo random bytes from.
1637 charon.plugins.resolve.file [/etc/resolv.conf]
1640 File where to add DNS server entries.
1641 charon.plugins.resolve.resolvconf.iface_prefix [lo.inet.ipsec.]
1644 Prefix used for interface names sent to resolvconf(8). The
1645 nameserver address is appended to this prefix to make it unique.
1646 The result has to be a valid interface name according to the
1647 rules defined by resolvconf. Also, it should have a high prior‐
1648 ity according to the order defined in interface-order(5).
1649 charon.plugins.revocation.enable_crl [yes]
1653 Whether CRL validation should be enabled.
1654 charon.plugins.revocation.enable_ocsp [yes]
1657 Whether OCSP validation should be enabled.
1658 charon.plugins.save-keys.esp [no]
1661 Whether to save ESP keys.
1662 charon.plugins.save-keys.ike [no]
1665 Whether to save IKE keys.
1666 charon.plugins.save-keys.load [no]
1669 Whether to load the plugin.
1670 charon.plugins.save-keys.wireshark_keys []
1673 Directory where the keys are stored in the format supported by
1674 Wireshark. IKEv1 keys are stored in the ikev1_decryption_table
1675 file. IKEv2 keys are stored in the ikev2_decryption_table file.
1676 Keys for ESP CHILD_SAs are stored in the esp_sa file.
1677 charon.plugins.socket-default.fwmark []
1680 Firewall mark to set on outbound packets.
1681 charon.plugins.socket-default.set_source [yes]
1684 Set source address on outbound packets, if possible.
1685 charon.plugins.socket-default.set_sourceif [no]
1688 Force sending interface on outbound packets, if possible. This
1689 allows using IPv6 link-local addresses as tunnel endpoints.
1690 charon.plugins.socket-default.use_ipv4 [yes]
1693 Listen on IPv4, if possible.
1694 charon.plugins.socket-default.use_ipv6 [yes]
1697 Listen on IPv6, if possible.
1698 charon.plugins.sql.database []
1701 Database URI for charon's SQL plugin. If it contains a password,
1702 make sure to adjust the permissions of the config file accord‐
1703 ingly.
1704 charon.plugins.sql.loglevel [-1]
1707 Loglevel for logging to SQL database.
1708 charon.plugins.stroke.allow_swap [yes]
1711 Analyze addresses/hostnames in left|right to detect which side
1712 is local and swap configuration options if necessary. If dis‐
1713 abled left is always local.
1714 charon.plugins.stroke.ignore_missing_ca_basic_constraint [no]
1718 Treat certificates in ipsec.d/cacerts and ipsec.conf ca sections
1719 as CA certificates even if they don't contain a CA basic con‐
1720 straint.
1721 charon.plugins.stroke.max_concurrent [4]
1724 Maximum number of stroke messages handled concurrently.
1725 charon.plugins.stroke.prevent_loglevel_changes [no]
1728 If enabled log level changes via stroke socket are not allowed.
1729 charon.plugins.stroke.secrets_file [${sysconfdir}/ipsec.secrets]
1732 Location of the ipsec.secrets file
1733 charon.plugins.stroke.socket [unix://${piddir}/charon.ctl]
1736 Socket provided by the stroke plugin.
1737 charon.plugins.stroke.timeout [0]
1740 Timeout in ms for any stroke command. Use 0 to disable the time‐
1741 out.
1742 charon.plugins.systime-fix.interval [0]
1745 Interval in seconds to check system time for validity. 0 dis‐
1746 ables the check.
1747 charon.plugins.systime-fix.reauth [no]
1750 Whether to use reauth or delete if an invalid cert lifetime is
1751 detected.
1752 charon.plugins.systime-fix.threshold []
1755 Threshold date where system time is considered valid. Disabled
1756 if not specified.
1757 charon.plugins.systime-fix.threshold_format [%Y]
1760 strptime(3) format used to parse threshold option.
1761 charon.plugins.systime-fix.timeout [0s]
1764 How long to wait for a valid system time if an interval is con‐
1765 figured. 0 to recheck indefinitely.
1766 charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.client_cert []
1769 Path to X.509 certificate file of IF-MAP client.
1770 charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.client_key []
1773 Path to private key file of IF-MAP client.
1774 charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.device_name []
1777 Unique name of strongSwan server as a PEP and/or PDP device.
1778 charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.renew_session_interval [150]
1781 Interval in seconds between periodic IF-MAP RenewSession
1782 requests.
1783 charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.server_cert []
1786 Path to X.509 certificate file of IF-MAP server.
1787 charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.server_uri [https://localhost:8444/imap]
1790 URI of the form [https://]servername[:port][/path].
1791 charon.plugins.tnc-ifmap.username_password []
1794 Credentials of IF-MAP client of the form username:password. If
1795 set, make sure to adjust the permissions of the config file
1796 accordingly.
1797 charon.plugins.tnc-imc.dlclose [yes]
1800 Unload IMC after use.
1801 charon.plugins.tnc-imc.preferred_language [en]
1804 Preferred language for TNC recommendations.
1805 charon.plugins.tnc-imv.dlclose [yes]
1808 Unload IMV after use.
1809 charon.plugins.tnc-imv.recommendation_policy [default]
1812 TNC recommendation policy, one of default, any, or all.
1813 charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.pt_tls.enable [yes]
1817 Enable PT-TLS protocol on the strongSwan PDP.
1818 charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.pt_tls.port [271]
1821 PT-TLS server port the strongSwan PDP is listening on.
1822 charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.radius.enable [yes]
1825 Enable RADIUS protocol on the strongSwan PDP.
1826 charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.radius.method [ttls]
1829 EAP tunnel method to be used.
1830 charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.radius.port [1812]
1833 RADIUS server port the strongSwan PDP is listening on.
1834 charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.radius.secret []
1837 Shared RADIUS secret between strongSwan PDP and NAS. If set,
1838 make sure to adjust the permissions of the config file accord‐
1839 ingly.
1840 charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.server []
1843 Name of the strongSwan PDP as contained in the AAA certificate.
1844 charon.plugins.tnc-pdp.timeout []
1847 Timeout in seconds before closing incomplete connections.
1848 charon.plugins.tnccs-11.max_message_size [45000]
1851 Maximum size of a PA-TNC message (XML & Base64 encoding).
1852 charon.plugins.tnccs-20.max_batch_size [65522]
1855 Maximum size of a PB-TNC batch (upper limit via PT-EAP = 65529).
1856 charon.plugins.tnccs-20.max_message_size [65490]
1859 Maximum size of a PA-TNC message (upper limit via PT-EAP =
1860 65497).
1861 charon.plugins.tnccs-20.mutual [no]
1864 Enable PB-TNC mutual protocol.
1865 charon.plugins.tnccs-20.tests.pb_tnc_noskip [no]
1868 Send an unsupported PB-TNC message type with the NOSKIP flag
1869 set.
1870 charon.plugins.tnccs-20.tests.pb_tnc_version [2]
1873 Send a PB-TNC batch with a modified PB-TNC version.
1874 charon.plugins.tpm.fips_186_4 [no]
1877 Is the TPM 2.0 FIPS-186-4 compliant, forcing e.g. the use of the
1878 default salt length instead of maximum salt length with RSAPSS
1879 padding.
1880 charon.plugins.tpm.tcti.name [device|tabrmd]
1883 Name of TPM 2.0 TCTI library. Valid values: tabrmd, device or
1884 mssim. Defaults are device if the /dev/tpmrm0 in-kernel TPM 2.0
1885 resource manager device exists, and tabrmd otherwise, requiring
1886 the d-bus based TPM 2.0 access broker and resource manager to be
1887 available.
1888 charon.plugins.tpm.tcti.opts [/dev/tpmrm0|<none>]
1891 Options for the TPM 2.0 TCTI library. Defaults are /dev/tpmrm0
1892 if the TCTI library name is device and no options otherwise.
1893 charon.plugins.tpm.use_rng [no]
1896 Whether the TPM should be used as RNG.
1897 charon.plugins.unbound.dlv_anchors []
1900 File to read trusted keys for DLV (DNSSEC Lookaside Validation)
1901 from. It uses the same format as trust_anchors. Only one DLV
1902 can be configured, which is then used as a root trusted DLV,
1903 this means that it is a lookaside for the root.
1904 charon.plugins.unbound.resolv_conf [/etc/resolv.conf]
1907 File to read DNS resolver configuration from.
1908 charon.plugins.unbound.trust_anchors [/etc/ipsec.d/dnssec.keys]
1911 File to read DNSSEC trust anchors from (usually root zone KSK).
1912 The format of the file is the standard DNS Zone file format,
1913 anchors can be stored as DS or DNSKEY entries in the file.
1914 charon.plugins.updown.dns_handler [no]
1917 Whether the updown script should handle DNS servers assigned via
1918 IKEv1 Mode Config or IKEv2 Config Payloads (if enabled they
1919 can't be handled by other plugins, like resolve)
1920 charon.plugins.vici.socket [unix://${piddir}/charon.vici]
1923 Socket the vici plugin serves clients.
1924 charon.plugins.whitelist.enable [yes]
1927 Enable loaded whitelist plugin.
1928 charon.plugins.whitelist.socket [unix://${piddir}/charon.wlst]
1931 Socket provided by the whitelist plugin.
1932 charon.plugins.wolfssl.fips_mode [no]
1935 Enable to prevent loading the plugin if wolfSSL is not in FIPS
1936 mode.
1937 charon.plugins.xauth-eap.backend [radius]
1940 EAP plugin to be used as backend for XAuth credential verifica‐
1941 tion.
1942 charon.plugins.xauth-pam.pam_service [login]
1945 PAM service to be used for authentication.
1946 charon.plugins.xauth-pam.session [no]
1949 Open/close a PAM session for each active IKE_SA.
1950 charon.plugins.xauth-pam.trim_email [yes]
1953 If an email address is received as an XAuth username, trim it to
1954 just the username part.
1955 charon.port [500]
1958 UDP port used locally. If set to 0 a random port will be allo‐
1959 cated.
1960 charon.port_nat_t [4500]
1963 UDP port used locally in case of NAT-T. If set to 0 a random
1964 port will be allocated. Has to be different from charon.port,
1965 otherwise a random port will be allocated.
1966 charon.prefer_best_path [no]
1969 By default, charon keeps SAs on the routing path with addresses
1970 it previously used if that path is still usable. By setting this
1971 option to yes, it tries more aggressively to update SAs with
1972 MOBIKE on routing priority changes using the cheapest path. This
1973 adds more noise, but allows to dynamically adapt SAs to routing
1974 priority changes. This option has no effect if MOBIKE is not
1975 supported or disabled.
1976 charon.prefer_configured_proposals [yes]
1979 Prefer locally configured proposals for IKE/IPsec over supplied
1980 ones as responder (disabling this can avoid keying retries due
1981 to INVALID_KE_PAYLOAD notifies).
1982 charon.prefer_temporary_addrs [no]
1985 By default, permanent IPv6 source addresses are preferred over
1986 temporary ones (RFC 4941), to make connections more stable.
1987 Enable this option to reverse this.
1988 It also affects which IPv6 addresses are announced as additional
1990 addresses if MOBIKE is used. If the option is disabled, only
1991 permanent addresses are sent, and only temporary ones if it is
1992 enabled.
1993 charon.process_route [yes]
1996 Process RTM_NEWROUTE and RTM_DELROUTE events.
1997 charon.processor.priority_threads
2000 Section to configure the number of reserved threads per priority
2001 class see JOB PRIORITY MANAGEMENT in strongswan.conf(5).
2002 charon.rdn_matching [strict]
2006 How RDNs in subject DNs of certificates are matched against con‐
2007 figured identities. Possible values are strict (the default),
2008 reordered, and relaxed. With strict the number, type and order
2009 of all RDNs has to match, wildcards (*) for the values of RDNs
2010 are allowed (that's the case for all three variants). Using
2011 reordered also matches DNs if the RDNs appear in a different
2012 order, the number and type still has to match. Finally, relaxed
2013 also allows matches of DNs that contain more RDNs than the con‐
2014 figured identity (missing RDNs are treated like a wildcard
2015 match).
2016 Note that reordered and relaxed impose a considerable overhead
2018 on memory usage and runtime, in particular, for mismatches, com‐
2019 pared to strict.
2020 charon.receive_delay [0]
2024 Delay in ms for receiving packets, to simulate larger RTT.
2025 charon.receive_delay_request [yes]
2028 Delay request messages.
2029 charon.receive_delay_response [yes]
2032 Delay response messages.
2033 charon.receive_delay_type [0]
2036 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any.
2037 charon.replay_window [32]
2040 Size of the AH/ESP replay window, in packets.
2041 charon.retransmit_base [1.8]
2044 Base to use for calculating exponential back off, see IKEv2
2045 RETRANSMISSION in strongswan.conf(5).
2046 charon.retransmit_jitter [0]
2050 Maximum jitter in percent to apply randomly to calculated
2051 retransmission timeout (0 to disable).
2052 charon.retransmit_limit [0]
2055 Upper limit in seconds for calculated retransmission timeout (0
2056 to disable).
2057 charon.retransmit_timeout [4.0]
2060 Timeout in seconds before sending first retransmit.
2061 charon.retransmit_tries [5]
2064 Number of times to retransmit a packet before giving up.
2065 charon.retry_initiate_interval [0]
2068 Interval in seconds to use when retrying to initiate an IKE_SA
2069 (e.g. if DNS resolution failed), 0 to disable retries.
2070 charon.reuse_ikesa [yes]
2073 Initiate CHILD_SA within existing IKE_SAs (always enabled for
2074 IKEv1).
2075 charon.routing_table []
2078 Numerical routing table to install routes to.
2079 charon.routing_table_prio []
2082 Priority of the routing table.
2083 charon.rsa_pss [no]
2086 Whether to use RSA with PSS padding instead of PKCS#1 padding by
2087 default.
2088 charon.send_delay [0]
2091 Delay in ms for sending packets, to simulate larger RTT.
2092 charon.send_delay_request [yes]
2095 Delay request messages.
2096 charon.send_delay_response [yes]
2099 Delay response messages.
2100 charon.send_delay_type [0]
2103 Specific IKEv2 message type to delay, 0 for any.
2104 charon.send_vendor_id [no]
2107 Send strongSwan vendor ID payload
2108 charon.signature_authentication [yes]
2111 Whether to enable Signature Authentication as per RFC 7427.
2112 charon.signature_authentication_constraints [yes]
2115 If enabled, signature schemes configured in rightauth, in addi‐
2116 tion to getting used as constraints against signature schemes
2117 employed in the certificate chain, are also used as constraints
2118 against the signature scheme used by peers during IKEv2.
2119 charon.spi_label [0x0000000000000000]
2122 Value mixed into the local IKE SPIs after applying spi_mask.
2123 charon.spi_mask [0x0000000000000000]
2127 Mask applied to local IKE SPIs before mixing in spi_label (bits
2128 set will be replaced with spi_label).
2129 charon.spi_max [0xcfffffff]
2133 The upper limit for SPIs requested from the kernel for IPsec
2134 SAs.
2135 charon.spi_min [0xc0000000]
2138 The lower limit for SPIs requested from the kernel for IPsec
2139 SAs. Should not be set lower than 0x00000100 (256), as SPIs
2140 between 1 and 255 are reserved by IANA.
2141 charon.start-scripts
2144 Section containing a list of scripts (name = path) that are exe‐
2145 cuted when the daemon is started.
2146 charon.stop-scripts
2149 Section containing a list of scripts (name = path) that are exe‐
2150 cuted when the daemon is terminated.
2151 charon.syslog
2154 Section to define syslog loggers, see LOGGER CONFIGURATION in
2155 strongswan.conf(5).
2156 charon.syslog.<facility>
2160 <facility> is one of the supported syslog facilities, see LOGGER
2161 CONFIGURATION in strongswan.conf(5).
2162 charon.syslog.<facility>.<subsystem> [<default>]
2166 Loglevel for a specific subsystem.
2167 charon.syslog.<facility>.default [1]
2170 Specifies the default loglevel to be used for subsystems for
2171 which no specific loglevel is defined.
2172 charon.syslog.<facility>.ike_name [no]
2175 Prefix each log entry with the connection name and a unique
2176 numerical identifier for each IKE_SA.
2177 charon.syslog.<facility>.log_level [no]
2180 Add the log level of each message after the subsystem (e.g.
2181 [IKE2]).
2182 charon.syslog.identifier []
2185 Global identifier used for an openlog(3) call, prepended to each
2186 log message by syslog. If not configured, openlog(3) is not
2187 called, so the value will depend on system defaults (often the
2188 program name).
2189 charon.threads [16]
2192 Number of worker threads in charon. Several of these are
2193 reserved for long running tasks in internal modules and plugins.
2194 Therefore, make sure you don't set this value too low. The num‐
2195 ber of idle worker threads listed in ipsec statusall might be
2196 used as indicator on the number of reserved threads.
2197 charon.tls.cipher []
2200 List of TLS encryption ciphers.
2201 charon.tls.key_exchange []
2204 List of TLS key exchange methods.
2205 charon.tls.mac []
2208 List of TLS MAC algorithms.
2209 charon.tls.suites []
2212 List of TLS cipher suites.
2213 charon.tnc.tnc_config [/etc/tnc_config]
2216 TNC IMC/IMV configuration file.
2217 charon.user []
2220 Name of the user the daemon changes to after startup.
2221 charon.x509.enforce_critical [yes]
2224 Discard certificates with unsupported or unknown critical exten‐
2225 sions.
2226 charon-nm.ca_dir [<default>]
2229 Directory from which to load CA certificates if no certificate
2230 is configured.
2231 charon-systemd.journal
2234 Section to configure native systemd journal logger, very similar
2235 to the syslog logger as described in LOGGER CONFIGURATION in
2236 strongswan.conf(5).
2237 charon-systemd.journal.<subsystem> [<default>]
2241 Loglevel for a specific subsystem.
2242 charon-systemd.journal.default [1]
2245 Specifies the default loglevel to be used for subsystems for
2246 which no specific loglevel is defined.
2247 imv_policy_manager.command_allow []
2250 Shell command to be executed with recommendation allow.
2251 imv_policy_manager.command_block []
2254 Shell command to be executed with all other recommendations.
2255 imv_policy_manager.database []
2258 Database URI for the database that stores the package informa‐
2259 tion. If it contains a password, make sure to adjust the permis‐
2260 sions of the config file accordingly.
2261 imv_policy_manager.load [sqlite]
2264 Plugins to load in IMV policy manager.
2265 libimcv.debug_level [1]
2268 Debug level for a stand-alone libimcv library.
2269 libimcv.load [random nonce gmp pubkey x509]
2272 Plugins to load in IMC/IMVs with stand-alone libimcv library.
2273 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_blob []
2276 AIK encrypted private key blob file.
2277 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_cert []
2280 AIK certificate file.
2281 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_handle []
2284 AIK object handle.
2285 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.aik_pubkey []
2288 AIK public key file.
2289 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.hash_algorithm [sha384]
2292 Preferred measurement hash algorithm.
2293 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.mandatory_dh_groups [yes]
2296 Enforce mandatory Diffie-Hellman groups.
2297 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.nonce_len [20]
2300 DH nonce length.
2301 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.pcr17_after []
2304 PCR17 value after measurement.
2305 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.pcr17_before []
2308 PCR17 value before measurement.
2309 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.pcr17_meas []
2312 Dummy measurement value extended into PCR17 if the TBOOT log is
2313 not available.
2314 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.pcr18_after []
2317 PCR18 value after measurement.
2318 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.pcr18_before []
2321 PCR18 value before measurement.
2322 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.pcr18_meas []
2325 Dummy measurement value extended into PCR17 if the TBOOT log is
2326 not available.
2327 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.pcr_info [no]
2330 Whether to send pcr_before and pcr_after info.
2331 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.use_quote2 [yes]
2334 Use Quote2 AIK signature instead of Quote signature.
2335 libimcv.plugins.imc-attestation.use_version_info [no]
2338 Version Info is included in Quote2 signature.
2339 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.push_info [yes]
2342 Send quadruple info without being prompted.
2343 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes []
2346 Section to define PWG HCD PA subtypes.
2347 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.<section> []
2350 Defines a PWG HCD PA subtype section. Recognized subtype section
2351 names are system, control, marker, finisher, interface and scan‐
2352 ner.
2353 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.<section>.<sw_type> []
2357 Defines a software type section. Recognized software type sec‐
2358 tion names are firmware, resident_application and user_applica‐
2359 tion.
2360 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.<section>.<sw_type>.<software> []
2364 Defines a software section having an arbitrary name.
2365 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.<section>.<sw_type>.<software>.name []
2368 Name of the software installed on the hardcopy device.
2369 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.<section>.<sw_type>.<software>.patches
2372 []
2373 String describing all patches applied to the given software on
2374 this hardcopy device. The individual patches are separated by a
2375 newline character '\n'.
2376 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.<section>.<sw_type>.<soft‐
2379 ware>.string_version []
2380 String describing the version of the given software on this
2381 hardcopy device.
2382 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.<section>.<sw_type>.<software>.version
2385 []
2386 Hex-encoded version string with a length of 16 octets consisting
2387 of the fields major version number (4 octets), minor version
2388 number (4 octets), build number (4 octets), service pack major
2389 number (2 octets) and service pack minor number (2 octets).
2390 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.<section>.attributes_natural_language
2393 [en]
2394 Variable length natural language tag conforming to RFC 5646
2395 specifies the language to be used in the health assessment mes‐
2396 sage of a given subtype.
2397 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.system.certification_state []
2400 Hex-encoded certification state.
2401 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.system.configuration_state []
2404 Hex-encoded configuration state.
2405 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.system.machine_type_model []
2408 String specifying the machine type and model of the hardcopy
2409 device.
2410 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.system.pstn_fax_enabled [no]
2413 Specifies if a PSTN facsimile interface is installed and enabled
2414 on the hardcopy device.
2415 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.system.time_source []
2418 String specifying the hostname of the network time server used
2419 by the hardcopy device.
2420 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.system.user_application_enabled [no]
2423 Specifies if users can dynamically download and execute applica‐
2424 tions on the hardcopy device.
2425 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.system.user_application_persis‐
2428 tence_enabled [no]
2429 Specifies if user dynamically downloaded applications can per‐
2430 sist outside the boundaries of a single job on the hardcopy
2431 device.
2432 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.system.vendor_name []
2435 String specifying the manufacturer of the hardcopy device.
2436 libimcv.plugins.imc-hcd.subtypes.system.vendor_smi_code []
2439 Integer specifying the globally unique 24-bit SMI code assigned
2440 to the manufacturer of the hardcopy device.
2441 libimcv.plugins.imc-os.device_cert []
2444 Manually set the path to the client device certificate (e.g.
2445 /etc/pts/aikCert.der)
2446 libimcv.plugins.imc-os.device_handle []
2449 Manually set handle to a private key bound to a smartcard or TPM
2450 (e.g. 0x81010004)
2451 libimcv.plugins.imc-os.device_id []
2454 Manually set the client device ID in hexadecimal format (e.g.
2455 1083f03988c9762703b1c1080c2e46f72b99cc31)
2456 libimcv.plugins.imc-os.device_pubkey []
2459 Manually set the path to the client device public key (e.g.
2460 /etc/pts/aikPub.der)
2461 libimcv.plugins.imc-os.push_info [yes]
2464 Send operating system info without being prompted.
2465 libimcv.plugins.imc-scanner.push_info [yes]
2468 Send open listening ports without being prompted.
2469 libimcv.plugins.imc-swima.eid_epoch [0x11223344]
2472 Set 32 bit epoch value for event IDs manually if software col‐
2473 lector database is not available.
2474 libimcv.plugins.imc-swima.subscriptions [no]
2477 Accept SW Inventory or SW Events subscriptions.
2478 libimcv.plugins.imc-swima.swid_database []
2481 URI to software collector database containing event timestamps,
2482 software creation and deletion events and collected software
2483 identifiers. If it contains a password, make sure to adjust the
2484 permissions of the config file accordingly.
2485 libimcv.plugins.imc-swima.swid_directory [${prefix}/share]
2488 Directory where SWID tags are located.
2489 libimcv.plugins.imc-swima.swid_full [no]
2492 Include file information in the XML-encoded SWID tags.
2493 libimcv.plugins.imc-swima.swid_pretty [no]
2496 Generate XML-encoded SWID tags with pretty indentation.
2497 libimcv.plugins.imc-test.additional_ids [0]
2500 Number of additional IMC IDs.
2501 libimcv.plugins.imc-test.command [none]
2504 Command to be sent to the Test IMV.
2505 libimcv.plugins.imc-test.dummy_size [0]
2508 Size of dummy attribute to be sent to the Test IMV (0 = dis‐
2509 abled).
2510 libimcv.plugins.imc-test.retry [no]
2513 Do a handshake retry.
2514 libimcv.plugins.imc-test.retry_command []
2517 Command to be sent to the Test IMV in the handshake retry.
2518 libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.cadir []
2521 Path to directory with AIK cacerts.
2522 libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.dh_group [ecp256]
2525 Preferred Diffie-Hellman group.
2526 libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.hash_algorithm [sha384]
2529 Preferred measurement hash algorithm.
2530 libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.mandatory_dh_groups [yes]
2533 Enforce mandatory Diffie-Hellman groups.
2534 libimcv.plugins.imv-attestation.min_nonce_len [0]
2537 DH minimum nonce length.
2538 libimcv.plugins.imv-os.remediation_uri []
2541 URI pointing to operating system remediation instructions.
2542 libimcv.plugins.imv-scanner.remediation_uri []
2545 URI pointing to scanner remediation instructions.
2546 libimcv.plugins.imv-swima.rest_api.timeout [120]
2549 Timeout of SWID REST API HTTP POST transaction.
2550 libimcv.plugins.imv-swima.rest_api.uri []
2553 HTTP URI of the SWID REST API.
2554 libimcv.plugins.imv-test.rounds [0]
2557 Number of IMC-IMV retry rounds.
2558 libimcv.stderr_quiet [no]
2561 Disable output to stderr with a stand-alone libimcv library.
2562 libimcv.swid_gen.command [/usr/local/bin/swid_generator]
2565 SWID generator command to be executed.
2566 libimcv.swid_gen.tag_creator.name [strongSwan Project]
2569 Name of the tagCreator entity.
2570 libimcv.swid_gen.tag_creator.regid [strongswan.org]
2573 regid of the tagCreator entity.
2574 manager.database []
2577 Credential database URI for manager. If it contains a password,
2578 make sure to adjust the permissions of the config file accord‐
2579 ingly.
2580 manager.debug [no]
2583 Enable debugging in manager.
2584 manager.load []
2587 Plugins to load in manager.
2588 manager.socket []
2591 FastCGI socket of manager, to run it statically.
2592 manager.threads [10]
2595 Threads to use for request handling.
2596 manager.timeout [15m]
2599 Session timeout for manager.
2600 medsrv.database []
2603 Mediation server database URI. If it contains a password, make
2604 sure to adjust the permissions of the config file accordingly.
2605 medsrv.debug [no]
2608 Debugging in mediation server web application.
2609 medsrv.dpd [5m]
2612 DPD timeout to use in mediation server plugin.
2613 medsrv.load []
2616 Plugins to load in mediation server plugin.
2617 medsrv.password_length [6]
2620 Minimum password length required for mediation server user
2621 accounts.
2622 medsrv.rekey [20m]
2625 Rekeying time on mediation connections in mediation server plug‐
2626 in.
2627 medsrv.socket []
2630 Run Mediation server web application statically on socket.
2631 medsrv.threads [5]
2634 Number of thread for mediation service web application.
2635 medsrv.timeout [15m]
2638 Session timeout for mediation service.
2639 pki.load []
2642 Plugins to load in ipsec pki tool.
2643 pool.database []
2646 Database URI for the database that stores IP pools and configu‐
2647 ration attributes. If it contains a password, make sure
2648 to adjust the permissions of the config file accordingly.
2649 pool.load []
2652 Plugins to load in ipsec pool tool.
2653 scepclient.load []
2656 Plugins to load in ipsec scepclient tool.
2657 sec-updater
2660 Options for the sec-updater tool.
2661 sec-updater.database []
2664 Global IMV policy database URI. If it contains a password, make
2665 sure to adjust the permissions of the config file accordingly.
2666 sec-updater.load []
2669 Plugins to load in sec-updater tool.
2670 sec-updater.swid_gen.command [/usr/local/bin/swid_generator]
2673 SWID generator command to be executed.
2674 sec-updater.swid_gen.tag_creator.name [strongSwan Project]
2677 Name of the tagCreator entity.
2678 sec-updater.swid_gen.tag_creator.regid [strongswan.org]
2681 regid of the tagCreator entity.
2682 sec-updater.tmp.deb_file [/tmp/sec-updater.deb]
2685 Temporary storage for downloaded deb package file.
2686 sec-updater.tmp.tag_file [/tmp/sec-updater.tag]
2689 Temporary storage for generated SWID tags.
2690 sec-updater.tnc_manage_command [/var/www/tnc/manage.py]
2693 strongTNC manage.py command used to import SWID tags.
2694 starter.config_file [${sysconfdir}/ipsec.conf]
2697 Location of the ipsec.conf file
2698 starter.load_warning [yes]
2701 Disable charon plugin load option warning.
2702 sw-collector
2705 Options for the sw-collector tool.
2706 sw-collector.database []
2709 URI to software collector database containing event timestamps,
2710 software creation and deletion events and collected software
2711 identifiers. If it contains a password, make sure to adjust the
2712 permissions of the config file accordingly.
2713 sw-collector.first_file [/var/log/bootstrap.log]
2716 Path pointing to file created when the Linux OS was installed.
2717 sw-collector.first_time [0000-00-00T00:00:00Z]
2720 Time in UTC when the Linux OS was installed.
2721 sw-collector.history []
2724 Path pointing to apt history.log file.
2725 sw-collector.load []
2728 Plugins to load in sw-collector tool.
2729 sw-collector.rest_api.timeout [120]
2732 Timeout of REST API HTTP POST transaction.
2733 sw-collector.rest_api.uri []
2736 HTTP URI of the central collector's REST API.
2737 swanctl.load []
2740 Plugins to load in swanctl.
2741 swanctl.socket [unix://${piddir}/charon.vici]
2744 VICI socket to connect to by default.
2745
2748 Options in strongswan.conf(5) provide a much more flexible way to con‐
2749 figure loggers for the IKE daemon charon than using the charondebug
2750 option in ipsec.conf(5).
2751 Note: If any loggers are specified in strongswan.conf, charondebug does
2753 not have any effect.
2754 There are currently two types of loggers:
2756 File loggers
2758 Log directly to a file and are defined by specifying an arbi‐
2759 trarily named subsection in the charon.filelog section. The full
2760 path to the file is configured in the path setting of that sub‐
2761 section, however, if it only contains characters permitted in
2762 section names, the setting may also be omitted and the path
2763 specified as name of the subsection. To log to the console the
2764 two special filenames stdout and stderr may be used.
2765 Syslog loggers
2767 Log into a syslog facility and are defined by specifying the
2768 facility to log to as the name of a subsection in the
2769 charon.syslog section. The following facilities are currently
2770 supported: daemon and auth.
2771 Multiple loggers can be defined for each type with different log ver‐
2773 bosity for the different subsystems of the daemon.
2774 Subsystems
2777 dmn Main daemon setup/cleanup/signal handling
2778 mgr IKE_SA manager, handling synchronization for IKE_SA access
2780 ike IKE_SA
2782 chd CHILD_SA
2784 job Jobs queueing/processing and thread pool management
2786 cfg Configuration management and plugins
2788 knl IPsec/Networking kernel interface
2790 net IKE network communication
2792 asn Low-level encoding/decoding (ASN.1, X.509 etc.)
2794 enc Packet encoding/decoding encryption/decryption operations
2796 tls libtls library messages
2798 esp libipsec library messages
2800 lib libstrongswan library messages
2802 tnc Trusted Network Connect
2804 imc Integrity Measurement Collector
2806 imv Integrity Measurement Verifier
2808 pts Platform Trust Service
2810 Loglevels
2812 -1 Absolutely silent
2813 0 Very basic auditing logs, (e.g. SA up/SA down)
2815 1 Generic control flow with errors, a good default to see what's
2817 going on
2818 2 More detailed debugging control flow
2820 3 Including RAW data dumps in Hex
2822 4 Also include sensitive material in dumps, e.g. keys
2824 Example
2826 charon {
2827 filelog {
2828 charon {
2829 path = /var/log/charon.log
2830 time_format = %b %e %T
2831 append = no
2832 default = 1
2833 }
2834 stderr {
2835 ike = 2
2836 knl = 3
2837 ike_name = yes
2838 }
2839 }
2840 syslog {
2841 # enable logging to LOG_DAEMON, use defaults
2842 daemon {
2843 }
2844 # minimalistic IKE auditing logging to LOG_AUTHPRIV
2845 auth {
2846 default = -1
2847 ike = 0
2848 }
2849 }
2850 }
2851
2854 Some operations in the IKEv2 daemon charon are currently implemented
2855 synchronously and blocking. Two examples for such operations are commu‐
2856 nication with a RADIUS server via EAP-RADIUS, or fetching CRL/OCSP
2857 information during certificate chain verification. Under high load con‐
2858 ditions, the thread pool may run out of available threads, and some
2859 more important jobs, such as liveness checking, may not get executed in
2860 time.
2861 To prevent thread starvation in such situations job priorities were
2863 introduced. The job processor will reserve some threads for higher
2864 priority jobs, these threads are not available for lower priority,
2865 locking jobs.
2866 Implementation
2868 Currently 4 priorities have been defined, and they are used in charon
2869 as follows:
2870 CRITICAL
2872 Priority for long-running dispatcher jobs.
2873 HIGH INFORMATIONAL exchanges, as used by liveness checking (DPD).
2875 MEDIUM Everything not HIGH/LOW, including IKE_SA_INIT processing.
2877 LOW IKE_AUTH message processing. RADIUS and CRL fetching block here
2879 Although IKE_SA_INIT processing is computationally expensive, it is
2881 explicitly assigned to the MEDIUM class. This allows charon to do the
2882 DH exchange while other threads are blocked in IKE_AUTH. To prevent the
2883 daemon from accepting more IKE_SA_INIT requests than it can handle, use
2884 IKE_SA_INIT DROPPING.
2885 The thread pool processes jobs strictly by priority, meaning it will
2887 consume all higher priority jobs before looking for ones with lower
2888 priority. Further, it reserves threads for certain priorities. A prior‐
2889 ity class having reserved n threads will always have n threads avail‐
2890 able for this class (either currently processing a job, or waiting for
2891 one).
2892 Configuration
2894 To ensure that there are always enough threads available for higher
2895 priority tasks, threads must be reserved for each priority class.
2896 charon.processor.priority_threads.critical [0]
2898 Threads reserved for CRITICAL priority class jobs
2899 charon.processor.priority_threads.high [0]
2901 Threads reserved for HIGH priority class jobs
2902 charon.processor.priority_threads.medium [0]
2904 Threads reserved for MEDIUM priority class jobs
2905 charon.processor.priority_threads.low [0]
2907 Threads reserved for LOW priority class jobs
2908 Let's consider the following configuration:
2910 charon {
2912 processor {
2913 priority_threads {
2914 high = 1
2915 medium = 4
2916 }
2917 }
2918 }
2919 With this configuration, one thread is reserved for HIGH priority
2921 tasks. As currently only liveness checking and stroke message process‐
2922 ing is done with high priority, one or two threads should be suffi‐
2923 cient.
2924 The MEDIUM class mostly processes non-blocking jobs. Unless your setup
2926 is experiencing many blocks in locks while accessing shared resources,
2927 threads for one or two times the number of CPU cores is fine.
2928 It is usually not required to reserve threads for CRITICAL jobs. Jobs
2930 in this class rarely return and do not release their thread to the
2931 pool.
2932 The remaining threads are available for LOW priority jobs. Reserving
2934 threads does not make sense (until we have an even lower priority).
2935 Monitoring
2937 To see what the threads are actually doing, invoke ipsec statusall.
2938 Under high load, something like this will show up:
2939 worker threads: 2 or 32 idle, 5/1/2/22 working,
2941 job queue: 0/0/1/149, scheduled: 198
2942 From 32 worker threads,
2944 2 are currently idle.
2946 5 are running CRITICAL priority jobs (dispatching from sockets,
2948 etc.).
2949 1 is currently handling a HIGH priority job. This is actually the
2951 thread currently providing this information via stroke.
2952 2 are handling MEDIUM priority jobs, likely IKE_SA_INIT or CRE‐
2954 ATE_CHILD_SA messages.
2955 22 are handling LOW priority jobs, probably waiting for an EAP-
2957 RADIUS response while processing IKE_AUTH messages.
2958 The job queue load shows how many jobs are queued for each priority,
2960 ready for execution. The single MEDIUM priority job will get executed
2961 immediately, as we have two spare threads reserved for MEDIUM class
2962 jobs.
2963
2966 If a responder receives more connection requests per seconds than it
2967 can handle, it does not make sense to accept more IKE_SA_INIT messages.
2968 And if they are queued but can't get processed in time, an answer might
2969 be sent after the client has already given up and restarted its connec‐
2970 tion setup. This additionally increases the load on the responder.
2971 To limit the responder load resulting from new connection attempts, the
2973 daemon can drop IKE_SA_INIT messages just after reception. There are
2974 two mechanisms to decide if this should happen, configured with the
2975 following options:
2976 charon.init_limit_half_open [0]
2978 Limit based on the number of half open IKE_SAs. Half open
2979 IKE_SAs are SAs in connecting state, but not yet established.
2980 charon.init_limit_job_load [0]
2982 Limit based on the number of jobs currently queued for process‐
2983 ing (sum over all job priorities).
2984 The second limit includes load from other jobs, such as rekeying.
2986 Choosing a good value is difficult and depends on the hardware and
2987 expected load.
2988 The first limit is simpler to calculate, but includes the load from new
2990 connections only. If your responder is capable of negotiating 100 tun‐
2991 nels/s, you might set this limit to 1000. The daemon will then drop new
2992 connection attempts if generating a response would require more than 10
2993 seconds. If you are allowing for a maximum response time of more than
2994 30 seconds, consider adjusting the timeout for connecting IKE_SAs
2995 (charon.half_open_timeout). A responder, by default, deletes an IKE_SA
2996 if the initiator does not establish it within 30 seconds. Under high
2997 load, a higher value might be required.
2998
3001 To do stability testing and performance optimizations, the IKE daemon
3002 charon provides the load-tester plugin. This plugin allows one to setup
3003 thousands of tunnels concurrently against the daemon itself or a remote
3004 host.
3005 WARNING: Never enable the load-testing plugin on productive systems. It
3007 provides preconfigured credentials and allows an attacker to authenti‐
3008 cate as any user.
3009 Configuration details
3011 For public key authentication, the responder uses the "CN=srv, OU=load-
3012 test, O=strongSwan" identity. For the initiator, each connection
3013 attempt uses a different identity in the form "CN=c1-r1, OU=load-test,
3014 O=strongSwan", where the first number indicates the client number, the
3015 second the authentication round (if multiple authentication rounds are
3016 used).
3017 For PSK authentication, FQDN identities are used. The server uses
3019 srv.strongswan.org, the client uses an identity in the form
3020 c1-r1.strongswan.org.
3021 For EAP authentication, the client uses a NAI in the form
3023 100000000010001@strongswan.org.
3024 To configure multiple authentication rounds, concatenate multiple meth‐
3026 ods using, e.g.
3027 initiator_auth = pubkey|psk|eap-md5|eap-aka
3028 The responder uses a hardcoded certificate based on a 1024-bit RSA key.
3030 This certificate additionally serves as CA certificate. A peer uses the
3031 same private key, but generates client certificates on demand signed by
3032 the CA certificate. Install the Responder/CA certificate on the remote
3033 host to authenticate all clients.
3034 To speed up testing, the load tester plugin implements a special
3036 Diffie-Hellman implementation called modpnull. By setting
3037 proposal = aes128-sha1-modpnull
3038 this wicked fast DH implementation is used. It does not provide any
3039 security at all, but allows one to run tests without DH calculation
3040 overhead.
3041 Examples
3043 In the simplest case, the daemon initiates IKE_SAs against itself using
3044 the loopback interface. This will actually establish double the number
3045 of IKE_SAs, as the daemon is initiator and responder for each IKE_SA at
3046 the same time. Installation of IPsec SAs would fail, as each SA gets
3047 installed twice. To simulate the correct behavior, a fake kernel inter‐
3048 face can be enabled which does not install the IPsec SAs at the kernel
3049 level.
3050 A simple loopback configuration might look like this:
3052 charon {
3054 # create new IKE_SAs for each CHILD_SA to simulate
3055 # different clients
3056 reuse_ikesa = no
3057 # turn off denial of service protection
3058 dos_protection = no
3059 plugins {
3061 load-tester {
3062 # enable the plugin
3063 enable = yes
3064 # use 4 threads to initiate connections
3065 # simultaneously
3066 initiators = 4
3067 # each thread initiates 1000 connections
3068 iterations = 1000
3069 # delay each initiation in each thread by 20ms
3070 delay = 20
3071 # enable the fake kernel interface to
3072 # avoid SA conflicts
3073 fake_kernel = yes
3074 }
3075 }
3076 }
3077 This will initiate 4000 IKE_SAs within 20 seconds. You may increase the
3079 delay value if your box can not handle that much load, or decrease it
3080 to put more load on it. If the daemon starts retransmitting messages
3081 your box probably can not handle all connection attempts.
3082 The plugin also allows one to test against a remote host. This might
3084 help to test against a real world configuration. A connection setup to
3085 do stress testing of a gateway might look like this:
3086 charon {
3088 reuse_ikesa = no
3089 threads = 32
3090 plugins {
3092 load-tester {
3093 enable = yes
3094 # 10000 connections, ten in parallel
3095 initiators = 10
3096 iterations = 1000
3097 # use a delay of 100ms, overall time is:
3098 # iterations * delay = 100s
3099 delay = 100
3100 # address of the gateway
3101 remote = 1.2.3.4
3102 # IKE-proposal to use
3103 proposal = aes128-sha1-modp1024
3104 # use faster PSK authentication instead
3105 # of 1024bit RSA
3106 initiator_auth = psk
3107 responder_auth = psk
3108 # request a virtual IP using configuration
3109 # payloads
3110 request_virtual_ip = yes
3111 # enable CHILD_SA every 60s
3112 child_rekey = 60
3113 }
3114 }
3115 }
3116
3119 Retransmission timeouts in the IKEv2 daemon charon can be configured
3120 globally using the three keys listed below:
3121 charon.retransmit_base [1.8]
3123 charon.retransmit_timeout [4.0]
3124 charon.retransmit_tries [5]
3125 charon.retransmit_jitter [0]
3126 charon.retransmit_limit [0]
3127 The following algorithm is used to calculate the timeout:
3129 relative timeout = retransmit_timeout * retransmit_base ^ (n-1)
3131 Where n is the current retransmission count. The calculated timeout
3133 can't exceed the configured retransmit_limit (if any), which is useful
3134 if the number of retries is high.
3135 If a jitter in percent is configured, the timeout is modified as fol‐
3137 lows:
3138 relative timeout -= random(0, retransmit_jitter * relative timeout)
3140 Using the default values, packets are retransmitted in:
3142 Retransmission Relative Timeout Absolute Timeout
3145 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
3146 1 4s 4s
3147 2 7s 11s
3148 3 13s 24s
3149 4 23s 47s
3150 5 42s 89s
3151 giving up 76s 165s
3152
3154 The variables used above are configured as follows:
3155 ${piddir} /run/strongswan
3157 ${prefix} /usr
3158 ${random_device} /dev/random
3159 ${urandom_device} /dev/urandom
3160
3162 /etc/strongswan.conf configuration file
3163 /etc/strongswan.d/ directory containing included config snippets
3164 /etc/strongswan.d/charon/ plugin specific config snippets
3165
3167 ipsec.conf(5), ipsec.secrets(5), ipsec(8), charon-cmd(8)
3168
3171 Written for the strongSwan project ⟨http://www.strongswan.org⟩ by
3172 Tobias Brunner, Andreas Steffen and Martin Willi.
31735.9.1 STRONGSWAN.CONF(5)