Ubuntu Manpage: swanctl.conf - swanctl configuration file

Provided by: strongswan-swanctl_5.9.8-3ubuntu4_amd64

NAME

       swanctl.conf - swanctl configuration file

DESCRIPTION

       swanctl.conf  is the configuration file used by the swanctl(8) tool to load configurations
       and credentials into the strongSwan IKE daemon.

       For a description of the basic file syntax, including how to reference sections  or  split
       the configuration in multiple files by including other files, refer to strongswan.conf(5).

TIME FORMATS

       For  all  options  that define a time, the time is specified in seconds. The s, m, h and d
       suffixes explicitly define the units for seconds, minutes, hours and days, respectively.

SETTINGS

The following settings can be used to configure connections, credentials and pools.

connections
Section defining IKE connection configurations.

The connections section defines IKE connection configurations, each in its own
subsections. In the keyword description below, the connection is named <conn>, but
an arbitrary yet unique connection name can be chosen for each connection
subsection.

connections.<conn>
Section for an IKE connection named <conn>.

connections.<conn>.version [0]
IKE major version to use for connection. 1 uses IKEv1 aka ISAKMP, 2 uses IKEv2. A
connection using the default of 0 accepts both IKEv1 and IKEv2 as responder, and
initiates the connection actively with IKEv2.

connections.<conn>.local_addrs [%any]
Local address(es) to use for IKE communication, comma separated. Takes single
IPv4/IPv6 addresses, DNS names, CIDR subnets or IP address ranges.

As initiator, the first non-range/non-subnet is used to initiate the connection
from. As responder, the local destination address must match at least to one of the
specified addresses, subnets or ranges.

If FQDNs are assigned they are resolved every time a configuration lookup is done.
If DNS resolution times out, the lookup is delayed for that time.

connections.<conn>.remote_addrs [%any]
Remote address(es) to use for IKE communication, comma separated. Takes single
IPv4/IPv6 addresses, DNS names, CIDR subnets or IP address ranges.

As initiator, the first non-range/non-subnet is used to initiate the connection to.
As responder, the initiator source address must match at least to one of the
specified addresses, subnets or ranges.

If FQDNs are assigned they are resolved every time a configuration lookup is done.
If DNS resolution times out, the lookup is delayed for that time.

To initiate a connection, at least one specific address or DNS name must be
specified.

connections.<conn>.local_port [500]
Local UDP port for IKE communication. By default the port of the socket backend is
used, which is usually 500. If port 500 is used, automatic IKE port floating to
port 4500 is used to work around NAT issues.

Using a non-default local IKE port requires support from the socket backend in use
(socket-dynamic).

connections.<conn>.remote_port [500]
Remote UDP port for IKE communication. If the default of port 500 is used,
automatic IKE port floating to port 4500 is used to work around NAT issues.

connections.<conn>.proposals [default]
A proposal is a set of algorithms. For non-AEAD algorithms, this includes for IKE
an encryption algorithm, an integrity algorithm, a pseudo random function and a
Diffie-Hellman group. For AEAD algorithms, instead of encryption and integrity
algorithms, a combined algorithm is used.

In IKEv2, multiple algorithms of the same kind can be specified in a single
proposal, from which one gets selected. In IKEv1, only one algorithm per kind is
allowed per proposal, more algorithms get implicitly stripped. Use multiple
proposals to offer different algorithms combinations in IKEv1.

Algorithm keywords get separated using dashes. Multiple proposals may be separated
by commas. The special value default forms a default proposal of supported
algorithms considered safe, and is usually a good choice for interoperability.

connections.<conn>.vips []
Comma separated list of virtual IPs to request in IKEv2 configuration payloads or
IKEv1 Mode Config. The wildcard addresses 0.0.0.0 and :: request an arbitrary
address, specific addresses may be defined. The responder may return a different
address, though, or none at all.

connections.<conn>.aggressive [no]
Enables Aggressive Mode instead of Main Mode with Identity Protection. Aggressive
Mode is considered less secure, because the ID and HASH payloads are exchanged
unprotected. This allows a passive attacker to snoop peer identities, and even
worse, start dictionary attacks on the Preshared Key.

connections.<conn>.pull [yes]
If the default of yes is used, Mode Config works in pull mode, where the initiator
actively requests a virtual IP. With no, push mode is used, where the responder
pushes down a virtual IP to the initiating peer.

Push mode is currently supported for IKEv1, but not in IKEv2. It is used by a few
implementations only, pull mode is recommended.

connections.<conn>.dscp [000000]
Differentiated Services Field Codepoint to set on outgoing IKE packets for this
connection. The value is a six digit binary encoded string specifying the Codepoint
to set, as defined in RFC 2474.

connections.<conn>.encap [no]
To enforce UDP encapsulation of ESP packets, the IKE daemon can fake the NAT
detection payloads. This makes the peer believe that NAT takes place on the path,
forcing it to encapsulate ESP packets in UDP.

Usually this is not required, but it can help to work around connectivity issues
with too restrictive intermediary firewalls.

connections.<conn>.mobike [yes]
Enables MOBIKE on IKEv2 connections. MOBIKE is enabled by default on IKEv2
connections, and allows mobility of clients and multi-homing on servers by
migrating active IPsec tunnels.

Usually keeping MOBIKE enabled is unproblematic, as it is not used if the peer does
not indicate support for it. However, due to the design of MOBIKE, IKEv2 always
floats to port 4500 starting from the second exchange. Some implementations don't
like this behavior, hence it can be disabled.

connections.<conn>.dpd_delay [0s]
Interval to check the liveness of a peer actively using IKEv2 INFORMATIONAL
exchanges or IKEv1 R_U_THERE messages. Active DPD checking is only enforced if no
IKE or ESP/AH packet has been received for the configured DPD delay.

connections.<conn>.dpd_timeout [0s]
Charon by default uses the normal retransmission mechanism and timeouts to check
the liveness of a peer, as all messages are used for liveness checking. For
compatibility reasons, with IKEv1 a custom interval may be specified; this option
has no effect on connections using IKE2.

connections.<conn>.fragmentation [yes]
Use IKE fragmentation (proprietary IKEv1 extension or RFC 7383 IKEv2
fragmentation). Acceptable values are yes (the default), accept, force
and no. If set to yes, and the peer supports it, oversized IKE messages will
be sent in fragments. If set to accept, support for fragmentation is announced to
the peer but the daemon does not send its own messages in fragments. If set to
force (only supported for IKEv1) the initial IKE message will already be fragmented
if required. Finally, setting the option to no will disable announcing support for
this feature.

Note that fragmented IKE messages sent by a peer are always accepted irrespective
of the value of this option (even when set to no).

connections.<conn>.childless [allow]
Use childless IKE_SA initiation (RFC 6023) for IKEv2. Acceptable values are allow
(the default), force and never. If set to allow, responders will accept childless
IKE_SAs (as indicated via notify in the IKE_SA_INIT response) while initiators
continue to create regular IKE_SAs with the first CHILD_SA created during IKE_AUTH,
unless the IKE_SA is initiated explicitly without any children (which will fail if
the responder does not support or has disabled this extension). If set to force,
only childless initiation is accepted and the first CHILD_SA is created with a
separate CREATE_CHILD_SA exchange (e.g. to use an independent DH exchange for all
CHILD_SAs). Finally, setting the option to never disables support for childless
IKE_SAs as responder.

connections.<conn>.send_certreq [yes]
Send certificate request payloads to offer trusted root CA certificates to the
peer. Certificate requests help the peer to choose an appropriate
certificate/private key for authentication and are enabled by default.

Disabling certificate requests can be useful if too many trusted root CA
certificates are installed, as each certificate request increases the size of the
initial IKE packets.

connections.<conn>.send_cert [ifasked]
Send certificate payloads when using certificate authentication. With the default
of ifasked the daemon sends certificate payloads only if certificate requests have
been received. never disables sending of certificate payloads altogether, always
causes certificate payloads to be sent unconditionally whenever certificate
authentication is used.

connections.<conn>.ppk_id []
String identifying the Postquantum Preshared Key (PPK) to be used.

connections.<conn>.ppk_required [no]
Whether a Postquantum Preshared Key (PPK) is required for this connection.

connections.<conn>.keyingtries [1]
Number of retransmission sequences to perform during initial connect. Instead of
giving up initiation after the first retransmission sequence with the default value
of 1, additional sequences may be started according to the configured value. A
value of 0 initiates a new sequence until the connection establishes or fails with
a permanent error.

connections.<conn>.unique [no]
Connection uniqueness policy to enforce. To avoid multiple connections from the
same user, a uniqueness policy can be enforced. The value never does never enforce
such a policy, even if a peer included INITIAL_CONTACT notification messages,
whereas no replaces existing connections for the same identity if a new one has the
INITIAL_CONTACT notify. keep rejects new connection attempts if the same user
already has an active connection, replace deletes any existing connection if a new
one for the same user gets established.

To compare connections for uniqueness, the remote IKE identity is used. If EAP or
XAuth authentication is involved, the EAP-Identity or XAuth username is used to
enforce the uniqueness policy instead.

On initiators this setting specifies whether an INITIAL_CONTACT notify is sent
during IKE_AUTH if no existing connection is found with the remote peer (determined
by the identities of the first authentication round). Unless set to never the
client will send a notify.

connections.<conn>.reauth_time [0s]
Time to schedule IKE reauthentication. IKE reauthentication recreates the
IKE/ISAKMP SA from scratch and re-evaluates the credentials. In asymmetric
configurations (with EAP or configuration payloads) it might not be possible to
actively reauthenticate as responder. The IKEv2 reauthentication lifetime
negotiation can instruct the client to perform reauthentication.

Reauthentication is disabled by default. Enabling it usually may lead to small
connection interruptions, as strongSwan uses a break-before-make policy with IKEv2
to avoid any conflicts with associated tunnel resources.

connections.<conn>.rekey_time [4h]
IKE rekeying refreshes key material using a Diffie-Hellman exchange, but does not
re-check associated credentials. It is supported in IKEv2 only, IKEv1 performs a
reauthentication procedure instead.

With the default value IKE rekeying is scheduled every 4 hours, minus the
configured rand_time. If a reauth_time is configured, rekey_time defaults to zero
disabling rekeying; explicitly set both to enforce rekeying and reauthentication.

connections.<conn>.over_time [10% of rekey_time/reauth_time]
Hard IKE_SA lifetime if rekey/reauth does not complete, as time. To avoid having an
IKE/ISAKMP kept alive if IKE reauthentication or rekeying fails perpetually, a
maximum hard lifetime may be specified. If the IKE_SA fails to rekey or
reauthenticate within the specified time, the IKE_SA gets closed.

In contrast to CHILD_SA rekeying, over_time is relative in time to the rekey_time
and reauth_time values, as it applies to both.

The default is 10% of the longer of rekey_time and reauth_time.

connections.<conn>.rand_time [over_time]
Time range from which to choose a random value to subtract from rekey/reauth times.
To avoid having both peers initiating the rekey/reauth procedure simultaneously, a
random time gets subtracted from the rekey/reauth times.

The default is equal to the configured over_time.

connections.<conn>.pools []
Comma separated list of named IP pools to allocate virtual IP addresses and other
configuration attributes from. Each name references a pool by name from either the
pools section or an external pool.

connections.<conn>.if_id_in [0]
XFRM interface ID set on inbound policies/SA, can be overridden by child config,
see there for details.

connections.<conn>.if_id_out [0]
XFRM interface ID set on outbound policies/SA, can be overridden by child config,
see there for details.

connections.<conn>.mediation [no]
Whether this connection is a mediation connection, that is, whether this connection
is used to mediate other connections using the IKEv2 Mediation Extension.
Mediation connections create no CHILD_SA.

connections.<conn>.mediated_by []
The name of the connection to mediate this connection through. If given, the
connection will be mediated through the named mediation connection. The mediation
connection must have mediation enabled.

connections.<conn>.mediation_peer []
Identity under which the peer is registered at the mediation server, that is, the
IKE identity the other end of this connection uses as its local identity on its
connection to the mediation server. This is the identity we request the mediation
server to mediate us with. Only relevant on connections that set mediated_by. If
it is not given, the remote IKE identity of the first authentication round of this
connection will be used.

connections.<conn>.local<suffix>
Section for a local authentication round. A local authentication round defines the
rules how authentication is performed for the local peer. Multiple rounds may be
defined to use IKEv2 RFC 4739 Multiple Authentication or IKEv1 XAuth.

Each round is defined in a section having local as prefix, and an optional unique
suffix. To define a single authentication round, the suffix may be omitted.

connections.<conn>.local<suffix>.round [0]
Optional numeric identifier by which authentication rounds are sorted. If not
specified rounds are ordered by their position in the config file/VICI message.

connections.<conn>.local<suffix>.certs []
Comma separated list of certificate candidates to use for authentication. The
certificates may use a relative path from the swanctl x509 directory or an absolute
path.

The certificate used for authentication is selected based on the received
certificate request payloads. If no appropriate CA can be located, the first
certificate is used.

connections.<conn>.local<suffix>.cert<suffix> []
Section for a certificate candidate to use for authentication. Certificates in
certs are transmitted as binary blobs, these sections offer more flexibility.

connections.<conn>.local<suffix>.cert<suffix>.file []
Absolute path to the certificate to load. Passed as-is to the daemon, so it must be
readable by it.

Configure either this or handle, but not both, in one section.

connections.<conn>.local<suffix>.cert<suffix>.handle []
Hex-encoded CKA_ID of the certificate on a token.

Configure either this or file, but not both, in one section.

connections.<conn>.local<suffix>.cert<suffix>.slot []
Optional slot number of the token that stores the certificate.

connections.<conn>.local<suffix>.cert<suffix>.module []
Optional PKCS#11 module name.

connections.<conn>.local<suffix>.pubkeys []
Comma separated list of raw public key candidates to use for authentication. The
public keys may use a relative path from the swanctl pubkey directory or an
absolute path.

Even though multiple local public keys could be defined in principle, only the
first public key in the list is used for authentication.

connections.<conn>.local<suffix>.auth [pubkey]
Authentication to perform locally. pubkey uses public key authentication using a
private key associated to a usable certificate. psk uses pre-shared key
authentication. The IKEv1 specific xauth is used for XAuth or Hybrid
authentication, while the IKEv2 specific eap keyword defines EAP authentication.

For xauth, a specific backend name may be appended, separated by a dash. The
appropriate xauth backend is selected to perform the XAuth exchange. For
traditional XAuth, the xauth method is usually defined in the second authentication
round following an initial pubkey (or psk) round. Using xauth in the first round
performs Hybrid Mode client authentication.

For eap, a specific EAP method name may be appended, separated by a dash. An EAP
module implementing the appropriate method is selected to perform the EAP
conversation.

If both peers support RFC 7427 ("Signature Authentication in IKEv2") specific hash
algorithms to be used during IKEv2 authentication may be configured. To do so use
ike: followed by a trust chain signature scheme constraint (see description of the
remote section's auth keyword). For example, with ike:pubkey-sha384-sha256 a public
key signature scheme with either SHA-384 or SHA-256 would get used for
authentication, in that order and depending on the hash algorithms supported by the
peer. If no specific hash algorithms are configured, the default is to prefer an
algorithm that matches or exceeds the strength of the signature key. If no
constraints with ike: prefix are configured any signature scheme constraint
(without ike: prefix) will also apply to IKEv2 authentication, unless this is
disabled in strongswan.conf(5). To use RSASSA-PSS signatures use rsa/pss instead
of pubkey or rsa as in e.g. ike:rsa/pss-sha256. If pubkey or rsa constraints are
configured RSASSA-PSS signatures will only be used if enabled in
strongswan.conf(5).

connections.<conn>.local<suffix>.id []
IKE identity to use for authentication round. When using certificate
authentication, the IKE identity must be contained in the certificate, either as
subject or as subjectAltName.

The identity can be an IP address, a fully-qualified domain name, an email address
or a Distinguished Name for which the ID type is determined automatically and the
string is converted to the appropriate encoding. To enforce a specific identity
type, a prefix may be used, followed by a colon (:). If the number sign (#)
follows the colon, the remaining data is interpreted as hex encoding, otherwise the
string is used as-is as the identification data. Note that this implies that no
conversion is performed for non-string identities. For example, ipv4:10.0.0.1 does
not create a valid ID_IPV4_ADDR IKE identity, as it does not get converted to
binary 0x0a000001. Instead, one could use ipv4:#0a000001 to get a valid identity,
but just using the implicit type with automatic conversion is usually simpler. The
same applies to the ASN1 encoded types. The following prefixes are known: ipv4,
ipv6, rfc822, email, userfqdn, fqdn, dns, asn1dn, asn1gn and keyid. Custom type
prefixes may be specified by surrounding the numerical type value by curly
brackets.

connections.<conn>.local<suffix>.eap_id [id]
Client EAP-Identity to use in EAP-Identity exchange and the EAP method.

connections.<conn>.local<suffix>.aaa_id [remote-id]
Server side EAP-Identity to expect in the EAP method. Some EAP methods, such as
EAP-TLS, use an identity for the server to perform mutual authentication. This
identity may differ from the IKE identity, especially when EAP authentication is
delegated from the IKE responder to an AAA backend.

For EAP-(T)TLS, this defines the identity for which the server must provide a
certificate in the TLS exchange.

connections.<conn>.local<suffix>.xauth_id [id]
Client XAuth username used in the XAuth exchange.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>
Section for a remote authentication round. A remote authentication round defines
the constraints how the peers must authenticate to use this connection. Multiple
rounds may be defined to use IKEv2 RFC 4739 Multiple Authentication or IKEv1 XAuth.

Each round is defined in a section having remote as prefix, and an optional unique
suffix. To define a single authentication round, the suffix may be omitted.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.round [0]
Optional numeric identifier by which authentication rounds are sorted. If not
specified rounds are ordered by their position in the config file/VICI message.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.id [%any]
IKE identity to expect for authentication round. Refer to the local section's id
keyword for details.

It's possible to use wildcards to match remote identities (e.g. *@strongswan.org,
*.strongswan.org, or C=CH,O=strongSwan,CN=*). Connections with exact matches are
preferred. When using distinguished names with wildcards, the charon.rdn_matching
option in strongswan.conf(5) specifies how RDNs are matched.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.eap_id [id]
Identity to use as peer identity during EAP authentication. If set to %any the
EAP-Identity method will be used to ask the client for an identity.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.groups []
Comma separated authorization group memberships to require. The peer must prove
membership to at least one of the specified groups. Group membership can be
certified by different means, for example by appropriate Attribute Certificates or
by an AAA backend involved in the authentication.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.cert_policy []
Comma separated list of certificate policy OIDs the peer's certificate must have.
OIDs are specified using the numerical dotted representation.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.certs []
Comma separated list of certificates to accept for authentication. The certificates
may use a relative path from the swanctl x509 directory or an absolute path.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.cert<suffix> []
Section for a certificate to accept for authentication. Certificates in certs are
transmitted as binary blobs, these sections offer more flexibility.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.cert<suffix>.file []
Absolute path to the certificate to load. Passed as-is to the daemon, so it must be
readable by it.

Configure either this or handle, but not both, in one section.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.cert<suffix>.handle []
Hex-encoded CKA_ID of the certificate on a token.

Configure either this or file, but not both, in one section.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.cert<suffix>.slot []
Optional slot number of the token that stores the certificate.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.cert<suffix>.module []
Optional PKCS#11 module name.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.cacerts []
Comma separated list of CA certificates to accept for authentication. The
certificates may use a relative path from the swanctl x509ca directory or an
absolute path.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.cacert<suffix> []
Section for a CA certificate to accept for authentication. Certificates in cacerts
are transmitted as binary blobs, these sections offer more flexibility.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.cacert<suffix>.file []
Absolute path to the certificate to load. Passed as-is to the daemon, so it must be
readable by it.

Configure either this or handle, but not both, in one section.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.cacert<suffix>.handle []
Hex-encoded CKA_ID of the CA certificate on a token.

Configure either this or file, but not both, in one section.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.cacert<suffix>.slot []
Optional slot number of the token that stores the CA certificate.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.cacert<suffix>.module []
Optional PKCS#11 module name.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.ca_id []
The specified identity must be contained in one (intermediate) CA of the remote
peer trustchain, either as subject or as subjectAltName. This has the same effect
as specifying cacerts to force clients under a CA to specific connections; it does
not require the CA certificate to be available locally, and can be received from
the peer during the IKE exchange.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.pubkeys []
Comma separated list of raw public keys to accept for authentication. The public
keys may use a relative path from the swanctl pubkey directory or an absolute path.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.revocation [relaxed]
Certificate revocation policy for CRL or OCSP revocation.

A strict revocation policy fails if no revocation information is available, i.e.
the certificate is not known to be unrevoked.

ifuri fails only if a CRL/OCSP URI is available, but certificate revocation
checking fails, i.e. there should be revocation information available, but it could
not be obtained.

The default revocation policy relaxed fails only if a certificate is revoked, i.e.
it is explicitly known that it is bad.

connections.<conn>.remote<suffix>.auth [pubkey]
Authentication to expect from remote. See the local section's auth keyword
description about the details of supported mechanisms.

To require a trustchain public key strength for the remote side, specify the key
type followed by the minimum strength in bits (for example ecdsa-384 or
rsa-2048-ecdsa-256). To limit the acceptable set of hashing algorithms for
trustchain validation, append hash algorithms to pubkey or a key strength
definition (for example pubkey-sha256-sha512, rsa-2048-sha256-sha384-sha512 or
rsa-2048-sha256-ecdsa-256-sha256-sha384). Unless disabled in strongswan.conf(5),
or explicit IKEv2 signature constraints are configured (refer to the description of
the local section's auth keyword for details), such key types and hash algorithms
are also applied as constraints against IKEv2 signature authentication schemes used
by the remote side. To require RSASSA-PSS signatures use rsa/pss instead of pubkey
or rsa as in e.g. rsa/pss-sha256. If pubkey or rsa constraints are configured
RSASSA-PSS signatures will only be accepted if enabled in strongswan.conf(5).

To specify trust chain constraints for EAP-(T)TLS, append a colon to the EAP
method, followed by the key type/size and hash algorithm as discussed above (e.g.
eap-tls:ecdsa-384-sha384).

connections.<conn>.children.<child>
CHILD_SA configuration sub-section. Each connection definition may have one or more
sections in its children subsection. The section name defines the name of the
CHILD_SA configuration, which must be unique within the connection.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.ah_proposals []
AH proposals to offer for the CHILD_SA. A proposal is a set of algorithms. For AH,
this includes an integrity algorithm and an optional Diffie-Hellman group. If a DH
group is specified, CHILD_SA/Quick Mode rekeying and initial negotiation uses a
separate Diffie-Hellman exchange using the specified group (refer to esp_proposals
for details).

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.esp_proposals [default]
ESP proposals to offer for the CHILD_SA. A proposal is a set of algorithms. For ESP
non-AEAD proposals, this includes an integrity algorithm, an encryption algorithm,
an optional Diffie-Hellman group and an optional Extended Sequence Number Mode
indicator. For AEAD proposals, a combined mode algorithm is used instead of the
separate encryption/integrity algorithms.

If a DH group is specified, CHILD_SA/Quick Mode rekeying and initial negotiation
use a separate Diffie-Hellman exchange using the specified group. However, for
IKEv2, the keys of the CHILD_SA created implicitly with the IKE_SA will always be
derived from the IKE_SA's key material. So any DH group specified here will only
apply when the CHILD_SA is later rekeyed or is created with a separate
CREATE_CHILD_SA exchange. A proposal mismatch might, therefore, not immediately be
noticed when the SA is established, but may later cause rekeying to fail.

Extended Sequence Number support may be indicated with the esn and noesn values,
both may be included to indicate support for both modes. If omitted, noesn is
assumed.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.sha256_96 [no]
HMAC-SHA-256 is used with 128-bit truncation with IPsec. For compatibility with
implementations that incorrectly use 96-bit truncation this option may be enabled
to configure the shorter truncation length in the kernel. This is not negotiated,
so this only works with peers that use the incorrect truncation length (or have
this option enabled).

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.local_ts [dynamic]
Comma separated list of local traffic selectors to include in CHILD_SA. Each
selector is a CIDR subnet definition, followed by an optional proto/port selector.
The special value dynamic may be used instead of a subnet definition, which gets
replaced by the tunnel outer address or the virtual IP, if negotiated. This is the
default.

A protocol/port selector is surrounded by opening and closing square brackets.
Between these brackets, a numeric or getservent(3) protocol name may be specified.
After the optional protocol restriction, an optional port restriction may be
specified, separated by a slash. The port restriction may be numeric, a
getservent(3) service name, or the special value opaque for RFC 4301 OPAQUE
selectors. Port ranges may be specified as well, none of the kernel backends
currently support port ranges, though.

When IKEv1 is used only the first selector is interpreted, except if the Cisco
Unity extension plugin is used. This is due to a limitation of the IKEv1 protocol,
which only allows a single pair of selectors per CHILD_SA. So to tunnel traffic
matched by several pairs of selectors when using IKEv1 several children (CHILD_SAs)
have to be defined that cover the selectors.

The IKE daemon uses traffic selector narrowing for IKEv1, the same way it is
standardized and implemented for IKEv2. However, this may lead to problems with
other implementations. To avoid that, configure identical selectors in such
scenarios.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.remote_ts [dynamic]
Comma separated list of remote selectors to include in CHILD_SA. See local_ts for a
description of the selector syntax.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.rekey_time [1h]
Time to schedule CHILD_SA rekeying. CHILD_SA rekeying refreshes key material,
optionally using a Diffie-Hellman exchange if a group is specified in the proposal.

To avoid rekey collisions initiated by both ends simultaneously, a value in the
range of rand_time gets subtracted to form the effective soft lifetime.

By default CHILD_SA rekeying is scheduled every hour, minus rand_time.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.life_time [rekey_time + 10%]
Maximum lifetime before CHILD_SA gets closed. Usually this hard lifetime is never
reached, because the CHILD_SA gets rekeyed before. If that fails for whatever
reason, this limit closes the CHILD_SA.

The default is 10% more than the rekey_time.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.rand_time [life_time - rekey_time]
Time range from which to choose a random value to subtract from rekey_time. The
default is the difference between life_time and rekey_time.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.rekey_bytes [0]
Number of bytes processed before initiating CHILD_SA rekeying. CHILD_SA rekeying
refreshes key material, optionally using a Diffie-Hellman exchange if a group is
specified in the proposal.

To avoid rekey collisions initiated by both ends simultaneously, a value in the
range of rand_bytes gets subtracted to form the effective soft volume limit.

Volume based CHILD_SA rekeying is disabled by default.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.life_bytes [rekey_bytes + 10%]
Maximum bytes processed before CHILD_SA gets closed. Usually this hard volume limit
is never reached, because the CHILD_SA gets rekeyed before. If that fails for
whatever reason, this limit closes the CHILD_SA.

The default is 10% more than rekey_bytes.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.rand_bytes [life_bytes - rekey_bytes]
Byte range from which to choose a random value to subtract from rekey_bytes. The
default is the difference between life_bytes and rekey_bytes.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.rekey_packets [0]
Number of packets processed before initiating CHILD_SA rekeying. CHILD_SA rekeying
refreshes key material, optionally using a Diffie-Hellman exchange if a group is
specified in the proposal.

To avoid rekey collisions initiated by both ends simultaneously, a value in the
range of rand_packets gets subtracted to form the effective soft packet count
limit.

Packet count based CHILD_SA rekeying is disabled by default.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.life_packets [rekey_packets + 10%]
Maximum number of packets processed before CHILD_SA gets closed. Usually this hard
packets limit is never reached, because the CHILD_SA gets rekeyed before. If that
fails for whatever reason, this limit closes the CHILD_SA.

The default is 10% more than rekey_bytes.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.rand_packets [life_packets - rekey_packets]
Packet range from which to choose a random value to subtract from rekey_packets.
The default is the difference between life_packets and rekey_packets.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.updown []
Updown script to invoke on CHILD_SA up and down events.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.hostaccess [no]
Hostaccess variable to pass to updown script.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.mode [tunnel]
IPsec Mode to establish CHILD_SA with. tunnel negotiates the CHILD_SA in IPsec
Tunnel Mode, whereas transport uses IPsec Transport Mode. transport_proxy
signifying the special Mobile IPv6 Transport Proxy Mode. beet is the Bound End to
End Tunnel mixture mode, working with fixed inner addresses without the need to
include them in each packet.

Both transport and beet modes are subject to mode negotiation; tunnel mode is
negotiated if the preferred mode is not available.

pass and drop are used to install shunt policies which explicitly bypass the
defined traffic from IPsec processing or drop it, respectively.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.policies [yes]
Whether to install IPsec policies or not. Disabling this can be useful in some
scenarios e.g. MIPv6, where policies are not managed by the IKE daemon.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.policies_fwd_out [no]
Whether to install outbound FWD IPsec policies or not. Enabling this is required in
case there is a drop policy that would match and block forwarded traffic for this
CHILD_SA.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.dpd_action [clear]
Action to perform for this CHILD_SA on DPD timeout. The default clear closes the
CHILD_SA and does not take further action. trap installs a trap policy, which will
catch matching traffic and tries to re-negotiate the tunnel on-demand (note that
this is redundant if start_action includes trap). restart immediately tries to
re-negotiate the CHILD_SA under a fresh IKE_SA.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.ipcomp [no]
Enable IPComp compression before encryption. If enabled, IKE tries to negotiate
IPComp compression to compress ESP payload data prior to encryption.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.inactivity [0s]
Timeout before closing CHILD_SA after inactivity. If no traffic has been processed
in either direction for the configured timeout, the CHILD_SA gets closed due to
inactivity. The default value of 0 disables inactivity checks.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.reqid [0]
Fixed reqid to use for this CHILD_SA. This might be helpful in some scenarios, but
works only if each CHILD_SA configuration is instantiated not more than once. The
default of 0 uses dynamic reqids, allocated incrementally.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.priority [0]
Optional fixed priority for IPsec policies. This could be useful to install
high-priority drop policies. The default of 0 uses dynamically calculated
priorities based on the size of the traffic selectors.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.interface []
Optional interface name to restrict IPsec policies.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.mark_in [0/0x00000000]
Netfilter mark and mask for input traffic. On Linux, Netfilter may require marks on
each packet to match an SA/policy having that option set. This allows installing
duplicate policies and enables Netfilter rules to select specific SAs/policies for
incoming traffic. Note that inbound marks are only set on policies, by default,
unless *mark_in_sa* is enabled. The special value %unique sets a unique mark on
each CHILD_SA instance, beyond that the value %unique-dir assigns a different
unique mark for each CHILD_SA direction (in/out).

An additional mask may be appended to the mark, separated by /. The default mask
if omitted is 0xffffffff.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.mark_in_sa [no]
Whether to set *mark_in* on the inbound SA. By default, the inbound mark is only
set on the inbound policy. The tuple destination address, protocol and SPI is
unique and the mark is not required to find the correct SA, allowing to mark
traffic after decryption instead (where more specific selectors may be used) to
match different policies. Marking packets before decryption is still possible, even
if no mark is set on the SA.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.mark_out [0/0x00000000]
Netfilter mark and mask for output traffic. On Linux, Netfilter may require marks
on each packet to match a policy/SA having that option set. This allows installing
duplicate policies and enables Netfilter rules to select specific policies/SAs for
outgoing traffic. The special value %unique sets a unique mark on each CHILD_SA
instance, beyond that the value %unique-dir assigns a different unique mark for
each CHILD_SA direction (in/out).

An additional mask may be appended to the mark, separated by /. The default mask
if omitted is 0xffffffff.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.set_mark_in [0/0x00000000]
Netfilter mark applied to packets after the inbound IPsec SA processed them. This
way it's not necessary to mark packets via Netfilter before decryption or right
afterwards to match policies or process them differently (e.g. via policy routing).

An additional mask may be appended to the mark, separated by /. The default mask
if omitted is 0xffffffff. The special value %same uses the value (but not the mask)
from mark_in as mark value, which can be fixed, %unique or %unique-dir.

Setting marks in XFRM input requires Linux 4.19 or higher.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.set_mark_out [0/0x00000000]
Netfilter mark applied to packets after the outbound IPsec SA processed them. This
allows processing ESP packets differently than the original traffic (e.g. via
policy routing).

An additional mask may be appended to the mark, separated by /. The default mask
if omitted is 0xffffffff. The special value %same uses the value (but not the mask)
from mark_out as mark value, which can be fixed, %unique or %unique-dir.

Setting marks in XFRM output is supported since Linux 4.14. Setting a mask requires
at least Linux 4.19.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.if_id_in [0]
XFRM interface ID set on inbound policies/SA. This allows installing duplicate
policies/SAs and associates them with an interface with the same ID. The special
value %unique sets a unique interface ID on each CHILD_SA instance, beyond that the
value %unique-dir assigns a different unique interface ID for each CHILD_SA
direction (in/out).

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.if_id_out [0]
XFRM interface ID set on outbound policies/SA. This allows installing duplicate
policies/SAs and associates them with an interface with the same ID. The special
value %unique sets a unique interface ID on each CHILD_SA instance, beyond that the
value %unique-dir assigns a different unique interface ID for each CHILD_SA
direction (in/out).

The daemon will not install routes for CHILD_SAs that have this option set.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.label []
Optional security label (e.g. SELinux context), IKEv2 only. Refer to label_mode for
details on how labels are processed.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.label_mode [system]
Defines the mode in which the configured security label is used. The default value
of system selects selinux if strongSwan was built with SELinux support and SELinux
is enabled by the kernel, otherwise, simple will be selected.

If set to simple, the label will be used as is as an additional identifier/selector
on the IKEv2 level when negotiating CHILD_SAs and selecting configs, labels are not
installed in the kernel and received labels have to match exactly.

If set to selinux, which is only allowed if SELinux is usable on the system, the
configured label is expected to be a generic context (e.g.
system_u:object_r:ipsec_spd_t:s0) for which flows, whose context match it via
association:polmatch, will trigger an acquire if no SA exists yet for the flow's
specific context. The configured label is installed on (trap) policies, so this
should generally be combined with trap in start_action. However, if the connection
is initiated directly, without acquire, a childless IKE_SA is established and
appropriate trap policies are installed on both ends. Labels received from peers
are accepted if they match the configured label via association:polmatch.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.tfc_padding [0]
Pads ESP packets with additional data to have a consistent ESP packet size for
improved Traffic Flow Confidentiality. The padding defines the minimum size of all
ESP packets sent.

The default value of 0 disables TFC padding, the special value mtu adds TFC padding
to create a packet size equal to the Path Maximum Transfer Unit.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.replay_window [32]
IPsec replay window to configure for this CHILD_SA. Larger values than the default
of 32 are supported using the Netlink backend only, a value of 0 disables IPsec
replay protection.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.hw_offload [no]
Enable hardware offload for this CHILD_SA, if supported by the IPsec
implementation. The value yes enforces offloading and the installation will fail if
it's not supported by either kernel or device. The value auto enables
offloading, if it's supported, but the installation does not fail otherwise.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.copy_df [yes]
Whether to copy the DF bit to the outer IPv4 header in tunnel mode. This
effectively disables Path MTU discovery (PMTUD). Controlling this behavior is not
supported by all kernel interfaces.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.copy_ecn [yes]
Whether to copy the ECN (Explicit Congestion Notification) header field to/from the
outer IP header in tunnel mode. Controlling this behavior is not supported by all
kernel interfaces.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.copy_dscp [out]
Whether to copy the DSCP (Differentiated Services Field Codepoint) header field
to/from the outer IP header in tunnel mode. The value out only copies the field
from the inner to the outer header, the value in does the opposite and only copies
the field from the outer to the inner header when decapsulating, the value yes
copies the field in both directions, and the value no disables copying the field
altogether. Setting this to yes or in could allow an attacker to adversely affect
other traffic at the receiver, which is why the default is out. Controlling this
behavior is not supported by all kernel interfaces.

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.start_action [none]
Action to perform after loading the configuration. The default of none loads the
connection only, which then can be manually initiated or used as a responder
configuration.

The value trap installs a trap policy, which triggers the tunnel as soon as
matching traffic has been detected. The value start initiates the connection
actively. These two modes can be combined with trap|start, to immediately initiate
a connection for which trap policies have been installed.

When unloading or replacing a CHILD_SA configuration having a start_action
different from none, the inverse action is performed. Configurations with start get
closed, while such with trap get uninstalled (both happens for connections with
trap|start).

connections.<conn>.children.<child>.close_action [none]
Action to perform after a CHILD_SA gets closed by the peer. The default of none
does not take any action, trap installs a trap policy for the CHILD_SA (note that
this is redundant if start_action includes trap). start tries to immediately
re-create the CHILD_SA.

close_action does not provide any guarantee that the CHILD_SA is kept alive. It
acts on explicit close messages only, but not on negotiation failures. Use trap
policies to reliably re-create failed CHILD_SAs.

secrets
Section defining secrets for IKE/EAP/XAuth authentication and private key
decryption. The secrets section takes sub-sections having a specific prefix which
defines the secret type.

It is not recommended to define any private key decryption passphrases, as then
there is no real security benefit in having encrypted keys. Either store the key
unencrypted or enter the keys manually when loading credentials.

secrets.eap<suffix>
EAP secret section for a specific secret. Each EAP secret is defined in a unique
section having the eap prefix. EAP secrets are used for XAuth authentication as
well.

secrets.eap<suffix>.secret []
Value of the EAP/XAuth secret. It may either be an ASCII string, a hex encoded
string if it has a 0x prefix or a Base64 encoded string if it has a 0s prefix in
its value.

secrets.eap<suffix>.id<suffix> []
Identity the EAP/XAuth secret belongs to. Multiple unique identities may be
specified, each having an id prefix, if a secret is shared between multiple users.

secrets.xauth<suffix>
XAuth secret section for a specific secret. xauth is just an alias for eap,
secrets under both section prefixes are used for both EAP and XAuth authentication.

secrets.ntlm<suffix>
NTLM secret section for a specific secret. Each NTLM secret is defined in a unique
section having the ntlm prefix. NTLM secrets may only be used for EAP-MSCHAPv2
authentication.

secrets.ntlm<suffix>.secret []
Value of the NTLM secret, which is the NT Hash of the actual secret, that is,
MD4(UTF-16LE(secret)). The resulting 16-byte value may either be given as a hex
encoded string with a 0x prefix or as a Base64 encoded string with a 0s prefix.

secrets.ntlm<suffix>.id<suffix> []
Identity the NTLM secret belongs to. Multiple unique identities may be specified,
each having an id prefix, if a secret is shared between multiple users.

secrets.ike<suffix>
IKE preshared secret section for a specific secret. Each IKE PSK is defined in a
unique section having the ike prefix.

secrets.ike<suffix>.secret []
Value of the IKE preshared secret. It may either be an ASCII string, a hex encoded
string if it has a 0x prefix or a Base64 encoded string if it has a 0s prefix in
its value.

secrets.ike<suffix>.id<suffix> []
IKE identity the IKE preshared secret belongs to. Multiple unique identities may be
specified, each having an id prefix, if a secret is shared between multiple peers.

secrets.ppk<suffix>
Postquantum Preshared Key (PPK) section for a specific secret. Each PPK is defined
in a unique section having the ppk prefix.

secrets.ppk<suffix>.secret []
Value of the PPK. It may either be an ASCII string, a hex encoded string if it
has a 0x prefix or a Base64 encoded string if it has a 0s prefix in its value.
Should have at least 256 bits of entropy for 128-bit security.

secrets.ppk<suffix>.id<suffix> []
PPK identity the PPK belongs to. Multiple unique identities may be specified, each
having an id prefix, if a secret is shared between multiple peers.

secrets.private<suffix>
Private key decryption passphrase for a key in the private folder.

secrets.private<suffix>.file []
File name in the private folder for which this passphrase should be used.

secrets.private<suffix>.secret []
Value of decryption passphrase for private key.

secrets.rsa<suffix>
Private key decryption passphrase for a key in the rsa folder.

secrets.rsa<suffix>.file []
File name in the rsa folder for which this passphrase should be used.

secrets.rsa<suffix>.secret []
Value of decryption passphrase for RSA key.

secrets.ecdsa<suffix>
Private key decryption passphrase for a key in the ecdsa folder.

secrets.ecdsa<suffix>.file []
File name in the ecdsa folder for which this passphrase should be used.

secrets.ecdsa<suffix>.secret []
Value of decryption passphrase for ECDSA key.

secrets.pkcs8<suffix>
Private key decryption passphrase for a key in the pkcs8 folder.

secrets.pkcs8<suffix>.file []
File name in the pkcs8 folder for which this passphrase should be used.

secrets.pkcs8<suffix>.secret []
Value of decryption passphrase for PKCS#8 key.

secrets.pkcs12<suffix>
PKCS#12 decryption passphrase for a container in the pkcs12 folder.

secrets.pkcs12<suffix>.file []
File name in the pkcs12 folder for which this passphrase should be used.

secrets.pkcs12<suffix>.secret []
Value of decryption passphrase for PKCS#12 container.

secrets.token<suffix>
Definition for a private key that's stored on a token/smartcard.

secrets.token<suffix>.handle []
Hex-encoded CKA_ID of the private key on the token.

secrets.token<suffix>.slot []
Optional slot number to access the token.

secrets.token<suffix>.module []
Optional PKCS#11 module name to access the token.

secrets.token<suffix>.pin []
Optional PIN required to access the key on the token. If none is provided the user
is prompted during an interactive --load-creds call.

pools
Section defining named pools. Named pools may be referenced by connections with the
pools option to assign virtual IPs and other configuration attributes.

pools.<name>
Section defining a single pool with a unique name.

pools.<name>.addrs []
Subnet or range defining addresses allocated in pool. Accepts a single CIDR subnet
defining the pool to allocate addresses from or an address range (<from>-<to>).
Pools must be unique and non-overlapping.

pools.<name>.<attr> []
Comma separated list of additional attributes of type <attr>. The attribute type
may be one of dns, nbns, dhcp, netmask, server, subnet, split_include and
split_exclude to define addresses or CIDR subnets for the corresponding attribute
types. Alternatively, <attr> can be a numerical identifier, for which string
attribute values are accepted as well.

authorities
Section defining attributes of certification authorities.

authorities.<name>
Section defining a certification authority with a unique name.

authorities.<name>.cacert []
CA certificate belonging to the certification authority. The certificates may use a
relative path from the swanctl x509ca directory or an absolute path.

Configure one of cacert, file, or handle per section.

authorities.<name>.file []
Absolute path to the certificate to load. Passed as-is to the daemon, so it must be
readable by it.

Configure one of cacert, file, or handle per section.

authorities.<name>.handle []
Hex-encoded CKA_ID of the CA certificate on a token.

Configure one of cacert, file, or handle per section.

authorities.<name>.slot []
Optional slot number of the token that stores the CA certificate.

authorities.<name>.module []
Optional PKCS#11 module name.

authorities.<name>.crl_uris []
Comma-separated list of CRL distribution points (ldap, http, or file URI).

authorities.<name>.ocsp_uris []
Comma-separated list of OCSP URIs.

authorities.<name>.cert_uri_base []
Defines the base URI for the Hash and URL feature supported by IKEv2. Instead of
exchanging complete certificates, IKEv2 allows one to send an URI that resolves to
the DER encoded certificate. The certificate URIs are built by appending the SHA1
hash of the DER encoded certificates to this base URI.

FILES

       /etc/swanctl/swanctl.conf       configuration file

NAME

DESCRIPTION

TIME FORMATS

SETTINGS

FILES

SEE ALSO