strongSwan Configuration

Overview

strongSwan is an OpenSource IPsec-based VPN solution.

This document is just a short introduction of the strongSwan swanctl command which uses the modern vici Versatile IKE Configuration Interface. The deprecated ipsec command using the legacy stroke configuration interface is described here. For more detailed information consult the man pages, our new documentation site and the legacy wiki.

Quickstart

Certificates for users, hosts and gateways are issued by a fictitious strongSwan CA. In our example scenarios the CA certificate strongswanCert.pem must be present on all VPN endpoints in order to be able to authenticate the peers. For your particular VPN application you can either use certificates from any third-party CA or generate the needed private keys and certificates yourself with the strongSwan pki tool, the use of which will be explained in one of the sections following below.

Site-to-Site Case

In this scenario two security gateways moon and sun will connect the two subnets moon-net and sun-net with each other through a VPN tunnel set up between the two gateways:

10.1.0.0/16 -- | 192.168.0.1 | === | 192.168.0.2 | -- 10.2.0.0/16
  moon-net          moon                 sun           sun-net

Configuration on gateway moon:

/etc/swanctl/x509ca/strongswanCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/x509/moonCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/private/moonKey.pem

/etc/swanctl/swanctl.conf:

    connections {
        net-net {
            remote_addrs = 192.168.0.2

            local {
                auth = pubkey
                certs = moonCert.pem
            }
            remote {
                auth = pubkey
                id = "C=CH, O=strongSwan, CN=sun.strongswan.org"
            }
            children {
                net-net {
                    local_ts  = 10.1.0.0/16
                    remote_ts = 10.2.0.0/16
                    start_action = trap
                }
            }
        }
    }

Configuration on gateway sun:

/etc/swanctl/x509ca/strongswanCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/x509/sunCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/private/sunKey.pem

/etc/swanctl/swanctl.conf:

    connections {
        net-net {
            remote_addrs = 192.168.0.1

            local {
                auth = pubkey
                certs = sunCert.pem
            }
            remote {
                auth = pubkey
                id = "C=CH, O=strongSwan, CN=moon.strongswan.org"
            }
            children {
                net-net {
                    local_ts  = 10.2.0.0/16
                    remote_ts = 10.1.0.0/16
                    start_action = trap
                }
            }
        }
    }

The local and remote identities used in this scenario are the subjectDistinguishedNames contained in the end entity certificates. The certificates and private keys are loaded into the charon daemon with the command

swanctl --load-creds

whereas

swanctl --load-conns

loads the connections defined in swanctl.conf. With start_action = trap the IPsec connection is automatically set up with the first plaintext payload IP packet wanting to go through the tunnel.

Host-to-Host Case

This is a setup between two single hosts which don't have a subnet behind them. Although IPsec transport mode would be sufficient for host-to-host connections we will use the default IPsec tunnel mode.

| 192.168.0.1 | === | 192.168.0.2 |
     moon                sun

Configuration on host moon:

/etc/swanctl/x509ca/strongswanCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/x509/moonCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/private/moonKey.pem

/etc/swanctl/swanctl.conf:

    connections {
        host-host {
            remote_addrs = 192.168.0.2

            local {
                auth=pubkey
                certs = moonCert.pem
            }
            remote {
                auth = pubkey
                id = "C=CH, O=strongSwan, CN=sun.strongswan.org"
            }
            children {
                net-net {
                    start_action = trap
                }
            }
        }
    }

Configuration on host sun:

/etc/swanctl/x509ca/strongswanCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/x509/sunCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/private/sunKey.pem

/etc/swanctl/swanctl.conf:

    connections {
        host-host {
            remote_addrs = 192.168.0.1

            local {
                auth = pubkey
                certs = sunCert.pem
            }
            remote {
                auth = pubkey
                id = "C=CH, O=strongSwan, CN=moon.strongswan.org"
            }
            children {
                host-host {
                    start_action = trap
                }
            }
        }
    }

Roadwarrior Case

This is a very common case where a strongSwan gateway serves an arbitrary number of remote VPN clients usually having dynamic IP addresses.

10.1.0.0/16 -- | 192.168.0.1 | === | x.x.x.x |
  moon-net          moon              carol

Configuration on gateway moon:

/etc/swanctl/x509ca/strongswanCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/x509/moonCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/private/moonKey.pem

/etc/swanctl/swanctl.conf:

    connections {
        rw {
            local {
                auth = pubkey
                certs = moonCert.pem
                id = moon.strongswan.org
            }
            remote {
                auth = pubkey
            }
            children {
                net-net {
                    local_ts  = 10.1.0.0/16
                }
            }
        }
    }

Configuration on roadwarrior carol:

/etc/swanctl/x509ca/strongswanCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/x509/carolCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/private/carolKey.pem

/etc/swanctl/swanctl.conf:

    connections {
        home {
            remote_addrs = moon.strongswan.org

            local {
                auth = pubkey
                certs = carolCert.pem
                id = carol@strongswan.org
            }
            remote {
                auth = pubkey
                id = moon.strongswan.org
            }
            children {
                home {
                    local_ts  = 10.1.0.0/16
                    start_action = start
                }
            }
        }
    }

For remote_addrs the hostname moon.strongswan.org was chosen which will be resolved by DNS at runtime into the corresponding IP destination address. In this scenario the identity of the roadwarrior carol is the email address carol@strongswan.org which must be included as a subjectAlternativeName in the roadwarrior certificate carolCert.pem.

Roadwarrior Case with Virtual IP

Roadwarriors usually have dynamic IP addresses assigned by the ISP they are currently attached to. In order to simplify the routing from moon-net back to the remote access client carol it would be desirable if the roadwarrior had an inner IP address chosen from a pre-defined pool.

10.1.0.0/16 -- | 192.168.0.1 | === | x.x.x.x | -- 10.3.0.1
  moon-net          moon              carol       virtual IP

In our example the virtual IP address is chosen from the address pool 10.3.0.0/16 which can be configured by adding the section

pools {
    rw_pool {
        addrs = 10.3.0.0/16
    }
}

to the gateway's swanctl.conf from where they are loaded into the charon daemon using the command

swanctl --load-pools

To request an IP address from this pool a roadwarrior can use IKEv1 mode config or IKEv2 configuration payloads. The configuration for both is the same

vips = 0.0.0.0

Configuration on gateway moon:

/etc/swanctl/x509ca/strongswanCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/x509/moonCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/private/moonKey.pem

/etc/swanctl/swanctl.conf:

    connections {
        rw {
            pools = rw_pool

            local {
                auth = pubkey
                certs = moonCert.pem
                id = moon.strongswan.org
            }
            remote {
                auth = pubkey
            }
            children {
                net-net {
                    local_ts  = 10.1.0.0/16
                }
            }
        }
    }

    pools {
        rw_pool {
            addrs = 10.30.0.0/16
        }
    }

Configuration on roadwarrior carol:

/etc/swanctl/x509ca/strongswanCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/x509/carolCert.pem
/etc/swanctl/private/carolKey.pem

/etc/swanctl/swanctl.conf:

    connections {
        home {
            remote_addrs = moon.strongswan.org
            vips = 0.0.0.0

            local {
                auth = pubkey
                certs = carolCert.pem
                id = carol@strongswan.org
            }
            remote {
                auth = pubkey
                id = moon.strongswan.org
            }
            children {
                home {
                    local_ts  = 10.1.0.0/16
                    start_action = start
                }
            }
        }
    }

Roadwarrior Case with EAP Authentication

This is a very common case where a strongSwan gateway serves an arbitrary number of remote VPN clients which authenticate themselves via a pas