This section gives an overview of:
This section is intended to cover only the essentials, things you should know before trying to use FreeS/WAN.
For more detailed background information, see the history and politics and IPsec protocols sections.
FreeS/WAN is a Linux implementation of the IPsec (IP security) protocols. IPsec provides encryption and authentication services at the IP (Internet Protocol) level of the network protocol stack.
Working at this level, IPsec can protect any traffic carried over IP, unlike other encryption which generally protects only a particular higher-level protocol -- PGP for mail, SSH for remote login, SSL for web work, and so on. This approach has both considerable advantages and some limitations. For discussion, see our IPsec section
IPsec can be used on any machine which does IP networking. Dedicated IPsec gateway machines can be installed wherever required to protect traffic. IPsec can also run on routers, on firewall machines, on various application servers, and on end-user desktop or laptop machines.
Three protocols are used
Our implementation has three main parts:
IPsec is optional for the current (version 4) Internet Protocol. FreeS/WAN adds IPsec to the Linux IPv4 network stack. Implementations of IP version 6 are required to include IPsec. Work toward integrating FreeS/WAN into the Linux IPv6 stack has started.
For more information on IPsec, see our IPsec protocols section, our collection of IPsec links or the RFCs which are the official definitions of these protocols.
IPsec is designed to let different implementations work together. We provide:
The VPN Consortium fosters cooperation among implementers and interoperability among implementations. Their web site has much more information.
Because IPsec operates at the network layer, it is remarkably flexible and can be used to secure nearly any type of Internet traffic. Two applications, however, are extremely widespread:
There is enough opportunity in these applications that vendors are flocking to them. IPsec is being built into routers, into firewall products, and into major operating systems, primarily to support these applications. See our list of implementations for details.
We support both of those applications, and various less common IPsec applications as well, but we also add one of our own:
This is an extension we are adding to the protocols. FreeS/WAN is the first prototype implementation, though we hope other IPsec implementations will adopt the technique once we demonstrate it. See project goals below for why we think this is important.
A somewhat more detailed description of each of these applications is below. Our quickstart section will show you how to build each of them.
A VPN, or Virtual Private N etwork lets two networks communicate securely when the only connection between them is over a third network which they do not trust.
The method is to put a security gateway machine between each of the communicating networks and the untrusted network. The gateway machines encrypt packets entering the untrusted net and decrypt packets leaving it, creating a secure tunnel through it.
If the cryptography is strong, the implementation is careful, and the administration of the gateways is competent, then one can reasonably trust the security of the tunnel. The two networks then behave like a single large private network, some of whose links are encrypted tunnels through untrusted nets.
Actual VPNs are often more complex. One organisation may have fifty branch offices, plus some suppliers and clients, with whom it needs to communicate securely. Another might have 5,000 stores, or 50,000 point-of-sale devices. The untrusted network need not be the Internet. All the same issues arise on a corporate or institutional network whenever two departments want to communicate privately with each other.
Administratively, the nice thing about many VPN setups is that large parts of them are static. You know the IP addresses of most of the machines involved. More important, you know they will not change on you. This simplifies some of the admin work. For cases where the addresses do change, see the next section.
The prototypical "Road Warrior" is a traveller connecting to home base from a laptop machine. Administratively, most of the same problems arise for a telecommuter connecting from home to the office, especially if the telecommuter does not have a static IP address.
For purposes of this document:
These require somewhat different setup than VPN gateways with static addresses and with client systems behind them, but are basically not problematic.
There are some difficulties which appear for some road warrior connections:
In most situations, however, FreeS/WAN supports road warrior connections just fine.
One of the reasons we are working on FreeS/WAN is that it gives us the opportunity to add what we call opportuntistic encryption. This means that any two FreeS/WAN gateways will be able to encrypt their traffic, even if the two gateway administrators have had no prior contact and neither system has any preset information about the other.
Both systems pick up the authentication information they need from the DNS (domain name service), the service they already use to look up IP addresses. Of course the administrators must put that information in the DNS, and must set up their gateways with opportunistic encryption enabled. Once that is done, everything is automatic. The gateways look for opportunities to encrypt, and encrypt whatever they can. Whether they also accept unencrypted communication is a policy decision the administrator can make.
This technique can give two large payoffs:
Only one current product we know of implements a form of opportunistic encryption. Secure sendmail will automatically encrypt server-to-server mail transfers whenever possible.
A complication, which applies to any type of connection -- VPN, Road Warrior or opportunistic -- is that a secure connection cannot be created magically. There must be some mechanism which enables the gateways to reliably identify each other. Without this, they cannot sensibly trust each other and cannot create a genuinely secure link.
Any link they do create without some form of authentication will be vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack. If Alice and Bob are the people creating the connection, a villian who can re-route or intercept the packets can pose as Alice while talking to Bob and pose as Bob while talking to Alice. Alice and Bob then both talk to the man in the middle, thinking they are talking to each other, and the villain gets everything sent on the bogus "secure" connection.
There are two ways to build links securely, both of which exclude the man-in-the middle:
Automatic keying is much more secure, since if an enemy gets one key only messages between the previous re-keying and the next are exposed. It is therefore the usual mode of operation for most IPsec deployment, and the mode we use in our setup examples. FreeS/WAN does support manual keying for special circumstanes. See this section.
For automatic keying, the two systems must authenticate each other during the negotiations. There is a choice of methods for this:
Public key techniques are much preferable, for reasons discussed later, and will be used in all our setup examples. FreeS/WAN does also support auto-keying with shared secret authentication. See this section.
In summary, we are implementing the IPsec protocols for Linux and extending them to do opportunistic encryption.
Our overall goal in FreeS/WAN is to make the Internet more secure and more private.
Our IPsec implementation supports VPNs and Road Warriors of course. Those are important applications. Many users will want FreeS/WAN to build corporate VPNs or to provide secure remote access.
However, our goals in building it go beyond that. We are trying to help build security into the fabric of the Internet so that anyone who choses to communicate securely can do so, as easily as they can do anything else on the net.
More detailed objectives are:
If we can get opportunistic encryption implemented and widely deployed, then it becomes impossible for even huge well-funded agencies to monitor the net.
See also our section on history and politics of cryptography, which includes our project leader's rationale for starting the project.
People outside this core team have made substantial contributions. See
Unfortunately the export laws of some countries restrict the distribution of strong cryptography. FreeS/WAN is therefore not in the standard Linux kernel and not in all CD or web distributions.
FreeS/WAN is, however, quite widely used. Products we know of that use it are listed below. We would appreciate hearing, via the mailing lists, of any we don't know of.
FreeS/WAN is included in various general-purpose Linux distributions, mostly from countries (shown in brackets) with more sensible laws:
For distributions which do not include FreeS/WAN and are not Redhat (which we develop and test on), there is additional information in our compatibility section.
The server edition of Corel Linux (Canada) also had FreeS/WAN, but Corel have dropped that product line.
There are also several sets of scripts available for managing a firewall which is also acting as a FreeS/WAN IPsec gateway. See this list.
Software-only products:
Some caution is required on this. The RPMs are specific to a Linux distribution and an attempt to use them on another distribution is likely to cause problems.
RPMs for FreeS/WAN 1.91 and Red Hat 7.1 are available for download from Steamballoon. Check there for later versions.
As of version 1.93, the FreeS/WAN distribution incorporates some of the Steamballoon work, providing a facility for building your own RPMs. Details are in our installation document.
FreeS/WAN documentation up to version 1.5 was available only in HTML. Now we ship two formats:
The Makefile assumes the htmldoc tool is available. You can download
it from Easy Software. You may need
to get source code and change some of the limits in
All formats should be available at the following websites:
The distribution tarball has only the two HTML formats.
Note: If you need the latest doc version, for example to see if anyone has managed to set up interoperation between FreeS/WAN and whatever, then you should download the current snapshot. What is on the web is documentation as of the last release. Snapshots have all changes I've checked in to date.
Text files in the main distribution directory are README, INSTALL, CREDITS, CHANGES, BUGS and COPYING.
FreeS/WAN commands and library routines are documented in standard Unix manual pages, accessible via the man(1) command. We also provide them in HTML, accessible from this index. In the event of disagreement between this HowTo and the man pages, the man pages are more likely correct since they are written by the implementers. Please report any such inconsistency on the mailing list.
The gmp (GNU multi-precision arithmetic) and Libdes (encryption) libraries which we use each have their own documentation. You can find it in those library directories.
However, I must limit amount of detail on these topics in the main text. If I tried to explain everything here, the result would be completely unreadable.
If one or more of those areas is unknown territory for you, there are plenty of other resources you could look at:
Also, I do make an effort to provide some background material in these documents. All the basic ideas behind IPsec and FreeS/WAN are explained here. Explanations that do not fit in the main text, or that not everyone will need, are often in the glossary, which is the largest single file in this document set. All files are heavily sprinkled with links to each other and to the glossary. If some passage makes no sense to you, try the links.
For other reference material, see the bibliography and our collection of web links.
Of course, no doubt I get this (and other things) wrong sometimes. Feedback via the mailing lists is welcome.
More recently we have expanded to five lists, each with its own archive.
More information on mailing lists.
Various user-written HowTo documents are available. The ones covering FreeS/WAN-to-FreeS/WAN connections are:
User-wriiten HowTo material may be especially helpful if you need to interoperate with another IPsec implementation. We have neither the equipment nor the manpower to test such configurations. Users seem to be doing an admirable job of filling the gaps.
Check what version of FreeS/WAN user-written documents cover. The software is under active development and the current version may be significantly different from what an older document describes.
Two design documents show current team thinking on new developments:
There is now an Internet Draft on Opportunistic Encryption by Michael Richardson, Hugh Redelmeier and Henry Spencer. This is a first step toward getting the protocol standardised so there can be multiple implementations of it. Discussion of it takes place on the IETF IPsec Working Group mailing list.
A number of papers giving further background on FreeS/WAN, or exploring its future or its applications, are also available:
Several of these provoked interesting discussions on the mailing lists, worth searching for in the archives.
There are also several papers in languages other than English, see our web links.
Not all code in the distribution is ours, however. See the CREDITS file for details. In particular, note that the Libdes library and the version of MD5 that we use each have their own license.
Any of those will have a list of other "munitions" mirrors. There is also a CD available.
For more detailed background information, see:
To begin working with FreeS/WAN, go to:
More complex requirements are covered elsewhere:
However, please read this quick start section first , before tackling the others.
There are two easy ways to install FreeS/WAN:
If you are using one of them, just include FreeS/WAN in the choices you make during installation, or add it to your configuration later using the distribution's tools.
Sources for RPM packages of FreeS/WAN are:
Note that:
You need to download at least two RPMs:
Once you have them, install the RPMs with rpm -i commands. You will need to be root to install the kernel.
If your distribution does not include FreeS/WAN and no RPMs are available, see our installation from source document.
That's it. FreeS/WAN is installed.
RSA is a public key cryptographic technique. Keys are created as matched pairs. Each pair includes:
For FreeS/WAN, both keys for your system are in the ipsec.secrets(5) file. Maintaining security of this file is essential since it holds your private key.
To generate your key pair, give these commands as root:
ipsec newhostkey > /etc/ipsec.secrets
chmod 600 /etc/ipsec.secrets
Key generation may take some time, even on a fast system. Also, it
needs a lot of random numbers so you may need to
switch consoles and do something like typing a lot of text or running
The RSA keys we generate are suitable only for authentication, not for encryption. IPsec uses them only for authentication. See our IPsec section for details.
Opportunistic encryption makes some aspects of the setup and administration of IPsec easier.
For opportunistic encryption, you do not need to communicate with the administrator of a site before establishing secure communications to that site. In particular, you do not have to send them your keys or collect and authenticate theirs. All you have to do is set up your end correctly and from there on, everything is automatic.
One of the major goals of the FreeS/WAN project is to get opportunistic encryption widely enough deployed that a "FAX effect" comes into play. Neither a FAX machine nor opportunistic encryption is of much value if there are only a few installed, but both become much more useful as the installed base increases.
Widespread deployment of opportunistic encryption appears to be our best hope for making the Internet more secure. See discussion in our introduction.
In this section, we treat the simplest case of opportunistic encryption:
This would apply to a standalone machine, or to a home gateway with some invisible NAT clients.
Given the above conditions, you can set up opportunistic encryption without having access to the DNS reverse map for your machine. The following sections cover situations where one or more of the above restrictions do not apply.
There are two steps:
Once this is done, your system will automatically encrypt whenever it can.
# general IPsec setup
config setup
# Use the default interface
interfaces=%defaultroute
# Use auto= parameters in conn descriptions to control startup actions.
plutoload=%search
plutostart=%search
# defaults for subsequent connection descriptions
conn %default
# How to authenticate gateways
authby=rsasig
# default is
# load connection description into Pluto's database
# so it can respond if another gatway initiates
# individual connection descriptions may override this
auto=add
# description for opportunistic connections
conn me-to-anyone
also=our_stuff # our system details, stored below
right=%opportunistic # anyone we can authenticate
rightrsasigkey=%dns # look up their key in DNS
auto=route # set up for opportunistic
rekey=no # let unused connections die
# description of our system
# included in other connection descriptions via also= lines
# must come after the lines that use it
conn our_stuff
# all connections should use our default route
# also controls the source address on IPsec packets
left=%defaultroute
# our identity for IPsec negotiations
# must match what is in DNS and ipsec.secrets(5)
leftid=@xy.example.com
The last line above is the only one that you need to edit for your system. All the rest is identical for any standalone machine doing opportunistic encryption.
There is no need to provide any keys in this file. Your private key is in ipsec.secrets(5) and, for opportunistic encryption, the public keys for remote gateways are all looked up in DNS.
Also note that the left and right designations here are arbitrary. You could reverse them above with no problems.
For example, a reverse lookup on the IP address for a home gateway might give 123.adsl.kalamazoo.example.net, and a forward lookup for example.dyndns.org might point to that gateway. You could use either of these names as your ID for IPsec purposes, if the admins at either example.net or dyndns.org co-operate.
If not, you can use any domain whose DNS administrator is willing to help out. You do not need an A record (address record, associating your chosen name with an address) in that domain, only a KEY record.
You can generate a DNS KEY record containing your system's public key with the command:
ipsec showhostkeyThe result should look like this (with the key data trimmed down for clarity):
; RSA 2048 bits xy.example.com Sat Apr 15 13:53:22 2000 xy.example.com. IN KEY 0x4200 4 1 AQOF8tZ2...+buFuFn/
The name here is taken from ipsec.secrets(5). If it is not what you want, edit that file to correct it, then run ipsec showhostkey again.
The name must also match what you used for rightid= in ipsec.conf(5).
Give this record to the DNS administrator, for insertion into the zone file of the domain.
The first step is to allow IPsec packets (IKE on UDP port 500 plus ESP, protocol 50) in and out of your gateway. A script to set up iptables(8) rules for this is:
# edit this line to match the interface you use as default route # ppp0 is correct for many modem, DSL or cable connections # but perhaps not for you world=ppp0 # # allow IPsec # # IKE negotiations iptables -A INPUT -p udp -i $world --sport 500 --dport 500 -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p udp -o $world --sport 500 --dport 500 -j ACCEPT # ESP encrypton and authentication iptables -A INPUT -p 50 -i $world -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p 50 -o $world -j ACCEPT
Optionally, you could restrict this, allowing these packets only to and from a list of known gateways.
A second firewalling step -- access controls built into the IPsec protocols -- is automatically applied:
Optionally, you can add a third step using whatever additional firewall rules are required for your situation. These rules can recognise packets emerging from IPsec. They are marked as arriving on an interface such as ipsec0, rather than eth0, ppp0 or whatever. For example, in an iptables(8) rule set, you would use:
If using a bowser is inconvenient, take these steps:
When FreeS/WAN cannot set up an opportunistic connection, and no explicit tunnel has been configured, its default is to allow the traffic through in the clear. For the non-opportunistic host, you should see a %pass eroute (IPsec route), the FreeS/WAN mechanism that implements that default.
There are two steps in the setup.
Both need to be a little different than in the initiate-only case.
For incoming connections, you are not the initiator so you cannot use the first message to tell the other end the identity you wish to use. You must be able to handle having the other end identify you by IP address. In many cases, that will be all the remote gateway knows.
# description of our system
# included in other connection descriptions via also= lines
# must come after the lines that use it
conn our_stuff
# all connections should use our default route
# also controls the source address on IPsec packets
left=%defaultroute
# our identity for IPsec negotiations
# must match what is in DNS and ipsec.secrets(5)
leftid=1.2.3.4
You must make a matching change in ipsec.secrets(5), so that the identifier for your secret key is also "1.2.3.4".
The record you need looks like this:
; RSA 2048 bits gateway.example.com Sat Apr 15 13:53:22 2000 4.3.2.1.in-addr.arpa. IN KEY 0x4200 4 1 AQOF8tZ2...+buFuFn/
Generate a record with
As always, IP addresses in the reverse map are written backwards. In the above example, the gateway IP address is 1.2.3.4.
However, there are additional security concerns when you allow incoming opportunistic connections. This creates an additional path to your machine, so you need to check your rules to see that this does not provide a means for EvilDoers to bypass protections you have set up on other paths.
In particular, look at any rules you have that depend on interfaces, rules using -i ppp+, -o eth1 or similar expressions. You may need analogous rules for your ipsec interfaces.
Next we expand from a standalone system (which protects only its own traffic) to a gateway (which protects traffic for other systems).
There is one special case in which gateway configuration is quite simple -- if all the machines behind the gateway are hidden from the Internet. We describe that first, then go on to describe gateways for visible clients.
If your gateway uses NAT to allow machines to access the Internet without having their own routable IP addresses, then from the point of view of anyone else on the Internet:
Many gateways will need to support client systems which have routable addresses and are visible to the Internet. This involves:
You need only make a few additions to in the ipsec.conf(5) file:
The additions to the ipsec.conf(5) file might be:
# opportunistic connections for client systems
# our gateway will build opportunistic tunnels on behalf of any
# machine in the specified subnet
conn subnet-to-anyone
also=gate_stuff # our system details, stored below
also=public_subnet # subnet description, below
auto=route # set up for opportunistic
right=%opportunistic # anyone we can authenticate via DNS
rekey=no # let unused connections die
# description of the subnet this gateway encrypts for
# numbers used here are arbitrary, just for example
conn public_subnet
leftsubnet=42.42.42.0/24
There is one small thing to be careful of here. An also= line must appear in the file before the conn it references, so the first section above must appear before conn gate_stuff.
# opportunistic connections for additional systems
conn second-to-anyone
also=gate_stuff # our system details, stored below
also=second_subnet # subnet description, below
right=%opportunistic # anyone we can authenticate via DNS
rekey=no # let unused connections die
# description of a second subnet this gateway encrypts for
# numbers used here are arbitrary, just for example
conn second_subnet
leftsubnet=101.102.103.0/24
again, you need a little care so that also= lines always come before the sections they reference.
The subnets used in these descriptions need not correspond to physical subnets. This is discussed in more detail in our advanced configuration document.
We assume you already have a KEY record in the reverse map so your gateway can accept incoming connections as described above.
For the gateway to provide an opportunistic encryption service for other systems, it must be possible for the initiator of an IPsec connection to:
; RSA 2048 bits gateway.example.com Sat Apr 15 13:53:22 2000
IN TXT "X-IPsec-Server(10)=1.2.3.4 AQOF8tZ2...+buFuFn/"
This record must be generated on the gateway so it can get the key
from ipsec.secrets(5). The command
is:
ipsec showhostkey --txt 1.2.3.4You must supply the gateway IP address on the command line.
One of these records is required in the reverse map for each system using this gateway for opportunistic IPsec. You insert it in the reverse map part of the zone file right after the line for that system's IP address, so part of the file might look like this:
1.42.42.42.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR arthur.example.com
; RSA 2048 bits gateway.example.com Sat Apr 15 13:53:22 2000
IN TXT "X-IPsec-Server(10)=1.2.3.4 AQOF8tZ2...+buFuFn/"
2.42.42.42.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR ford.example.com
; RSA 2048 bits gateway.example.com Sat Apr 15 13:53:22 2000
IN TXT "X-IPsec-Server(10)=1.2.3.4 AQOF8tZ2...+buFuFn/"
3.42.42.42.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR trillian.example.com
; RSA 2048 bits gateway.example.com Sat Apr 15 13:53:22 2000
IN TXT "X-IPsec-Server(10)=1.2.3.4 AQOF8tZ2...+buFuFn/"
You need one TXT record per client, but the TXT records can all be
identical.
However, on a gateway there are additional things to do:
You need additional rules to handle these things. For example, adding some rules to the set shown above we get:
# edit this line to match the interface you use as default route # ppp0 is correct for many modem, DSL or cable connections # but perhaps not for you world=ppp0 # # edit these lines to describe your internal subnet and interface localnet=42.42.42.0/24 internal=eth1 # # allow IPsec # # IKE negotiations iptables -A INPUT -p udp -i $world --sport 500 --dport 500 -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p udp -o $world --sport 500 --dport 500 -j ACCEPT # ESP encrypton and authentication iptables -A INPUT -p 50 -i $world -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p 50 -o $world -j ACCEPT # # packet forwarding for an IPsec gateway # simplest possible rules $ forward everything, with no attempt to filter # # handle packets emerging from IPsec # ipsec+ means any of ipsec0, ipsec1, ... iptables -A FORWARD -d $localnet -i ipsec+ -j ACCEPT # simple rule for outbound packets # let local net send anything # IPsec will encrypt some of it iptables -A FORWARD -s $localnet -i $internal -j ACCEPT
On a production gateway, you would no doubt need tighter rules than the above. For details, see:
A common requirement is for pre-configured connections between a specfic network and some set of remote machines. For example, an office network will often need to provide remote access services for:
We refer to the remote machines as "Road Warriors". For purposes of IPsec, anyone with a dynamic IP address is a road warrior.
Of course, if both the warrior and the gateway at the office are set up for opportunistic encryption, then you may not need the pre-configured connection. Here we assume that you do need it. For example:
This section has three sub-sections:
On either end, the opportunistic setup is unaffected by this. You leave it in place so both systems can continue to do opportunistic encryption with everyone but each other.
To set up an explicitly configured connection, you need some information about the system on the other end.
Connection descriptions use left and right to designate the two ends. We adopt the convention that, from the gateway's point of view left=local and right=remote.
The gateway administrator needs to know some things about each Road Warrior:
To get this information, in a format suitable for insertion directly into the gateway's ipsec.conf(5) file, issue this command on the Warrior machine:
ipsec showhostkey --rightThe output should look like this (with the key shortened for easy reading):
rightid=@xy.example.com
rightrsasigkey=0s1LgR7/oUM...
The Road Warrior needs to know:
This information should be provided in a convenient format, ready for insertion in the Warrior's ipsec.conf(5) file. For example:
left=1.2.3.4
leftsubnet=42.42.42.0/24
leftid=@gateway.example.com
leftrsasigkey=0s1LgR7/oUM...
The gateway administrator typically needs to generate this only once. The same file can be given to all Warriors.
Of course it is also possible to provide different versions (in particular, access to differnet subnets) to different groups of Warriors. See our advanced configuration document.
To set up a Road Warrior machine, we start from the opportunistic imitiator setup shown above.
We need to add a connection description for the pre-configured tunnel. Since we want to be right in that description, we reverse the opportunistic description so we are right there too.
# description for opportunistic connections
# reversed from previous example
conn me-to-anyone
also=our_stuff # our system details, stored below
left=%opportunistic # anyone we can authenticate
leftrsasigkey=%dns # look up their key in DNS
auto=route # set up for opportunistic
rekey=no # let unused connections die
# pre-configured link to office network
# added for this example
conn us-to-office
also=our_stuff # our system details, stored below
#
# information obtained from office system admin
# goes to the right of the = signs in these lines
# values shown here are just for example
#
left=1.2.3.4 # gateway IP address
lefttsubnet=42.42.42.0/24 # the office network
leftid=@gateway.example.com
# real keys are much longer than shown here
leftrsasigkey=0s1LgR7/oUM...
# description of our system
# included in other connection descriptions via also= lines
# must come after the lines that use it
# reversed from previous example
conn our_stuff
# all connections should use our default route
# also controls the source address on IPsec packets
right=%defaultroute
# our identity for IPsec negotiations
# must match what is in DNS and ipsec.secrets(5)
righttid=@xy.example.com
Everything else remains as it was when we had only opportunistic connections.
We could easily add more connections as required, perhaps one each for his office, her office, the kid's school, ... The file would grow longer, but nothing already in the file would need to change.
Adding road warrior support so people can connect remotely to your office network is straightforward.
We start from the opportunistic gateway setup shown above.
Instead, we suggest you give each warrior its own file, choosing some directory and naming convention that suits your system and style.
For this example, we use the directory /etc/ipsec.road and use filenames based on IPsec ID, so the Warrior using ID xy.example.com gets a file named xy.conf.
Using such files, you need add only one line to ipsec.conf(5). With our naming convention, the line is:
include /etc/ipsec.road/*.conf
FreeS/WAN will then read all those files and behave as if they were part of the ipsec.conf(5) file.
This needs to come before the conn gate_stuff section, so that the Warriors' connection descriptions can use also=gate_stuff . A convenient place for the line is right after the conn %default section.
Each of the Road Warrior files then contains a connection description for that Warrior. For example:
# connection description for Road Warrior "xy"
conn gate-xy
# use the gateway description in ipsec.conf(5)
also=gate_stuff
# allow connection attempt from any address
# attempt fails if caller cannot authenticate
right=%any
# authentication information
rightid=@xy.example.com
rightrsasigkey=0s1LgR7/oUM...
With this technique, it becomes fairly simple to administer a gateway that supports many Road Warriors. For example:
To add a new user, simply add a suitable file.
To disable an account -- for example if a key is compromised -- first remove the file, then take any existing connection down with:
ipsec auto --down connectionand delete it from Pluto's internal database with:
ipsec auto --delete connection
If you have many users, it would be worthwhile to write scripts to automate such tasks.
Of course, if both offices are set up for opportunistic encryption and the security policies in place allow you to use that, explicitly configured tunnels become unnecessary. However, this will not always be the case.
Of course, a network-to-network tunnel requires its own connection description, so you have to add that. There are two ways to do this.
# sample tunnel
# The network here looks like:
# leftsubnet====left----leftnexthop......rightnexthop----right====rightsubnet
# If left and right are on the same Ethernet, omit leftnexthop and rightnexthop.
conn sample
# left security gateway (public-network address)
left=10.0.0.1
# next hop to reach right
leftnexthop=10.44.55.66
# subnet behind left (omit if there is no subnet)
leftsubnet=172.16.0.0/24
# right s.g., subnet behind it, and next hop to reach left
right=10.12.12.1
rightnexthop=10.88.77.66
rightsubnet=192.168.0.0/24
auto=start
If you give an explicit IP address for left (and left
and right are not directly connected), then you must
specify leftnexthop (the router which left sends
packets to in order to get them delivered to right).
Similarly, you may need to specify rightnexthop (vice
versa).
The *nexthop parameters are needed because of an unfortunate interaction between FreeS/WAN and the kernel routing code. They will be eliminated in a future release, but perhaps not soon. We know they should go, but getting them out is not a simple problem.
This description can be generated on either machine and simply inserted in the ipsec.conf(5) file on the other. No change is required or desired.
When using left=%defaultroute, you do not need to specify leftnexthop. left does not need to know rightnexthop either, so on left the connection description can be:
conn sample
# left security gateway (public-network address)
left=%defaultroute
# subnet behind left (omit if there is no subnet)
leftsubnet=172.16.0.0/24
# right s.g., subnet behind it
right=10.12.12.1
rightsubnet=192.168.0.0/24
auto=start
On right it is:
conn sample
# left security gateway (public-network address)
left=10.0.0.1
# subnet behind left (omit if there is no subnet)
leftsubnet=172.16.0.0/24
# right s.g., subnet behind it
right=%defaultroute
rightsubnet=192.168.0.0/24
auto=start
At this point, we have covered setup for opportunistic encryption and for simple cases of Road warrior and VPN connections. You have several choices for what to look at next:
This is a collection of questions and answers, mostly taken from the FreeS/WAN mailing list. See the project web site for more information. All the FreeS/WAN documentation is online there.
Contributions to the FAQ are welcome. Please send them to the project mailing list.
For more detail, see our introduction document or the FreeS/WAN project web site.
Basically, what it says is give us the output from
Use the mailing list for problem reports, rather than mailing developers directly. This gives you access to more expertise, including users who may have encountered and solved the same problems. In particular, for problems involving interoperation with another IPsec implementation, the users often know more than the developers.
Using the list may also be important in relation to various cryptography export laws. A US citizen who provides technical assistance to foreign cryptographic work might be charged under the arms export regulations. Such a charge would be easier to defend if the discussion took place on a public mailing list than if it were done in private mail.
If you want the help of a contractor, or to hire staff with FreeS/WAN expertise, you could:
For companies offerring support, see the next question.
Various companies specialize in commercial support of open source software. Our project leader was a founder of the first such company, Cygnus Support. It has since been bought by Redhat. Another such firm is Linuxcare.
Users have also contributed heavily to documentation, both by creating their own HowTos and by posting things on the mailing lists which I have quoted in these HTML docs.
There are, however, some caveats.
FreeS/WAN is being implemented in Canada, by Canadians, largely to ensure that is it is entirely free of export restrictions. See this discussion. We cannot accept code contributions from US residents or citizens, not even one-line bugs fixes. The reasons for this were recently discussed extensively on the mailing list, in a thread starting here.
Not all contributions are of interest to us. The project has a set of fairly ambitious and quite specific goals, described in our introduction. Contributions that lead toward these goals are likely to be welcomed enthusiastically. Other contributions may be seen as lower priority, or even as a distraction.
See our FreeS/WAN performance document for more detail.
In practice, it is considerably more complex. We have a whole interop document devoted to it.
Linux FreeS/WAN can interoperate with many IPsec implementations, including earlier versions of Linux FreeS/WAN itself.
In a few cases, there are some complications. See our interoperation document for details.
FreeS/WAN is intended to run on all CPUs Linux supports . As of June 2000, we know of it being used in production on x86, ARM, Alpha and MIPS. It has also had successful tests on PPC and SPARC, though we don't know of actual use there. Details are in our compatibility document.
FreeS/WAN has been tested on multiprocessor Intel Linux and worked there. Note, however, that we do not test this often and have never tested on multiprocessor machines of other architectures.
It might, but we strongly recommend using a recent 2.2 or 2.4 series kernel. Sometimes the newer versions include security fixes which can be quite important on a gateway.
The precise kernel versions supported by a particular FreeS/WAN release are given in the README file of that release.
See the follwing question for more on kernels.
Kernel versions supported are given in the README file of each FreeS/WAN release. Typically, they are whatever production kernels were current at the time of our release (or shortly before; we might release for kernel n just as Linus releases n+1). Often FreeS/WAN will work on slightly later kernels as well, but of course this cannot be guaranteed.
For example, FreeS/WAN 1.91 was released for kernels 2.2.19 or 2.4.5, the current kernels at the time. It also worked on 2.4.6, 2.4.7 and 2.4.8, but 2.4.9 had changes that caused compilation errors if it was patched with FreeS/WAN 1.91.
When such changes appear, we put a fix in the FreeS/WAN snapshots, and distribute it with our next release. However, this is not a high priority for us, and it may take anything from a few days to several weeks for such a problem to find its way to the top of our kernel programmer's To-Do list. In the meanwhile, you have two choices:
See also the Choosing a kernel section of our installation document.
If you have working IP on some unusual interface -- perhaps Arcnet, Token Ring, ATM or Gigabit Ethernet -- then IPsec should "just work".
That said, practice is sometimes less tractable than theory. Our testing is done almost entirely on:
If IP works on your interface and FreeS/WAN doesn't, seek help on the mailing lists.
For information on some often-requested features, see below.
This application is discussed in our introduction and an example given in our FreeS/WAN configuration document.
This application is discussed in our introduction and an example given in our FreeS/WAN configuration document.
Road warriors using Windows or Macintosh may need an IPsec client program for their machines.
Yes, it is a common practice to use IPsec over wireless networks because their built-in encryption, WEP, is insecure.
There is some discussion in our configuration document.
On the other hand, it is a priority for some users and user-contributed patches to add X.509 certificate support to FreeS/WAN have been available for some time. From mailing list reports, they seem to be quite widely used and to work well.
See the patches section of our web references document for details.
In the absence of a standard, user authentication has not been a priority for the FreeS/WAN team, and is unlikely to become one. This would be a good project for a volunteer, perhaps a staff member or contractor at some company that needs the feature. Certainly our team would co-operate with such an effort; we just don't have time to do it.
The patches section of our web links document has links to some user work on this.
Of course, there are various ways to avoid any requirement for user authentication in IPsec. Consider the situation where road warriors build IPsec tunnels to your office net and you are considering requiring user authentication during tunnel negotiation. Alternatives include:
Single DES is insecure. As we see it, it is more important to deliver real security than to comply with a standard which has been subverted into allowing use of inadequate methods. See this discussion.
If you want to interoperate with an IPsec implementation which offers only DES, see our interoperation document.
| How can I reload config's without restarting all of pluto and klips? I am using
| FreeSWAN -> PGPNet in a medium sized production environment, and would like to be
| able to add new connections ( i am using include config/* ) without dropping current
| SA's.
|
| Can this be done?
|
| If not, are there plans to add this kind of feature?
ipsec auto --add whatever
This will look in the usual place (/etc/ipsec.conf) for a conn named
whatever and add it.
If you added new secrets, you need to do
ipsec auto --rereadsecrets
before Pluto needs to know those secrets.
| I have looked (perhaps not thoroughly enough tho) to see how to do this:
There may be more bits to look for, depending on what you are trying
to do.
Another useful command here is
Here is a mailing list message on the topic. The user incorrectly thinks you need a 2.4 kernel for this -- actually various people have been doing it on 2.0 and 2.2 for quite some time -- but he has it right for 2.4.
Subject: Double NAT and freeswan working :)
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001
From: Paul Wouters <paul@xtdnet.nl>
Just to share my pleasure, and make an entry for people who are searching
the net on how to do this. Here's the very simple solution to have a double
NAT'ed network working with freeswan. (Not sure if this is old news, but I'm
not on the list (too much spam) and I didn't read this in any HOWTO/FAQ/doc
on the freeswan site yet (Sandy, put it in! :)
10.0.0.0/24 --- 10.0.0.1 a.b.c.d ---- a.b.c.e {internet} ----+
|
10.0.1.0/24 --- 10.0.1.1 f.g.h.i ---- f.g.h.j {internet} ----+
the goal is to have the first network do a VPN to the second one, yet also
have NAT in place for connections not destinated for the other side of the
NAT. Here the two Linux security gateways have one real IP number (cable
modem, dialup, whatever.
The problem with NAT is you don't want packets from 10.*.*.* to 10.*.*.*
to be NAT'ed. While with Linux 2.2, you can't, with Linux 2.4 you can.
(This has been tested and works for 2.4.2 with Freeswan snapshot2001mar8b)
relevant parts of /etc/ipsec.conf:
left=f.g.h.i
leftsubnet=10.0.1.0/24
leftnexthop=f.g.h.j
leftfirewall=yes
leftid=@firewall.netone.nl
leftrsasigkey=0x0........
right=a.b.c.d
rightsubnet=10.0.0.0/24
rightnexthop=a.b.c.e
rightfirewall=yes
rightid=@firewall.nettwo.nl
rightrsasigkey=0x0......
# To authorize this connection, but not actually start it, at startup,
# uncomment this.
auto=add
and now the real trick. Setup the NAT correctly on both sites:
iptables -t nat -F
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -d \! 10.0.0.0/8 -j MASQUERADE
This tells the NAT code to only do NAT for packets with destination other then
10.* networks. note the backslash to mask the exclamation mark to protect it
against the shell.
Happy painting :)
Paul
Fairly often a situation comes up where a company has several branches, all using the same non-routable addresses, perhaps 192.168.0.0/24. This works fine as long as those nets are kept distinct. The IP masquerading on their firewalls ensures that packets reaching the Internet carry the firewall address, not the private address.
This can break down when IPsec enters the picture. FreeS/WAN builds a tunnel that pokes through both masquerades and delivers packets from leftsubnet to rightsubnet and vice versa. For this to work, the two subnets must be distinct.
There are several solutions to this problem.
At time of writing (Feb 2002) FreeS/WAN does not support this, and we have no definite plans to add it. The difficulty is that is not yet a standard mechanism for it. There is an Internet Draft for a method of doing it using DHCP which looks promising. FreeS/WAN may support that in a future release.
In the meanwhile, you can do it yourself using the Linux iproute2(8) facilities. Details are in this paper.
Another method has also been discussed on the mailing list.:
For example, you might have:
Yes. This is easily done, using
In either case, each Road Warrior must have a different key or certificate.
This cannot be made to work using pre-shared key authentication; see the next question for details.
If you expect to have more than a few dozen Road Warriors connecting simultaneously, you may need a fairly powerful gateway machine. See our document on FreeS/WAN performance.
This is a designed-in limitation of the IKE key negotiation protocol, not a problem with our implementation.
When using shared secrets, the protocol requires that the responding gateway be able to determine which secret to use at a time when all it knows about the initiator is an IP address. This works fine if you know the initiator's address in advance and can use it to look up the appropiriate secret. However, it fails for Road Warriors since the gateway cannot know their IP addresses in advance.
With RSA signatures (or certificates) the protocol is slightly different. The initiator provides an identifier early in the exchange and the responder can use that identifier to look up the correct key or certificate. See above.
> Do QoS add to FreeS/WAN? > For example integrating DiffServ and FreeS/WAN? With a current version of FreeS/WAN, you will have to add hidetos=no to the config-setup section of your configuration file. By default, the TOS field of tunnel packets is zeroed; with hidetos=no, it is copied from the packet inside. (This is a modest security hole, which is why it is no longer the default.) DiffServ does not interact well with tunneling in general. Ways of improving this are being studied.
Copying the TOS information from the encapsulated packet to the outer header reveals the TOS information to an eavesdropper. It is not clear whether or how an attacker could use this information, but since we do not have to give it to him, our default is not to.
See ipsec.conf(5) for more on the hidetos= parameter.
From time to time, there is discussion on the IETF Working Group mailing list of adding a "keep-alive" mechanism (which some say should be called "make-dead"), but it is a fairly complex problem and no consensus has been reached on whether or how it should be done.
The protocol does have optional delete-SA messages which one side can send when it closes a connection in hopes this will cause the other side to do the same. FreeS/WAN does not currently support these. In any case, they would not solve the problem since:
However, connections do have limited lifetimes and you can control how many attempts your gateway makes to rekey before giving up. For example, you can set:
conn default
keyingtries=3
keylife=30m
With these settings old connections will be cleaned up. Within 30
minutes of the other end dying, rekeying will be attempted. If it
succeeds, the new connection replaces the old one. If it fails, no new
connection is created. Either way, the old connection is taken down
when its lifetime expires.
Here is a mailing list message on the topic from FreeS/WAN tech support person Claudia Schmeing:
You ask how to determine whether a tunnel is redundant:
> Can anybody explain the best way to determine this. Esp when a RW has
> disconnected? I thought 'ipsec auto --status' might be one way.
If a tunnel goes down from one end, Linux FreeS/WAN on the
other end has no way of knowing this until it attempts to rekey.
Once it tries to rekey and fails, it will 'know' that the tunnel is
down.
Because it doesn't have a way of knowing the state until this point,
it will also not be able to tell you the state via ipsec auto --status.
> However, comparing output from a working tunnel with that of one that
> was closed
> did not show clearly show tunnel status.
If your tunnel is down but not 'unrouted' (see man ipsec_auto), you
should not be able to ping the opposite side of the tunnel. You can
use this as an indicator of tunnel status.
On a related note, you may be interested to know that as of 1.7,
redundant tunnels caused by RW disconnections are likely to be
less of a pain. From doc/CHANGES:
There is a new configuration parameter, uniqueids, to control a new Pluto
option: when a new connection is negotiated with the same ID as an old
one, the old one is deleted immediately. This should help eliminate
dangling Road Warrior connections when the same Road Warrior reconnects.
It thus requires that IDs not be shared by hosts (a previously legal but
probably useless capability). NOTE WELL: the sample ipsec.conf now has
uniqueids=yes in its config-setup section.
Cheers,
Claudia
> 5. If the ISDN link goes down in between and is reestablished, the SAs > are still up but the eroute are deleted and the IPsec interface shows > garbage (with ifconfig) > 6. Only restarting IPsec will bring the VPN back online. This one is awkward to solve. If the real interface that the IPsec interface is mounted on goes down, it takes most of the IPsec machinery down with it, and a restart is the only good way to recover. The only really clean fix, right now, is to split the machines in two: 1. A minimal machine serves as the network router, and only it is aware that the link goes up and down. 2. The IPsec is done on a separate gateway machine, which thinks it has a permanent network connection, via the router. This is clumsy but it does work. Trying to do both functions within a single machine is tricky. There is a software package (diald) which will give the illusion of a permanent connection for demand-dialed modem connections; I don't know whether it's usable for ISDN, or whether it can be made to cooperate properly with FreeS/WAN. Doing a restart each time the interface comes up *does* work, although it is a bit painful. I did that with PPP when I was running on a modem link; it wasn't hard to arrange the PPP scripts to bring IPsec up and down at the right times. (I'd meant to investigate diald but never found time.) In principle you don't need to do a complete restart on reconnect, but you do have to rebuild some things, and we have no nice clean way of doing only the necessary parts.In the same thread, one user commented:
Subject: Re: linux-ipsec: IPsec and Dial Up Connections Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 From: Andy Bradford <andyb@calderasystems.com> On Wed, 22 Nov 2000 19:47:11 +0100, Philip Reetz wrote: > Are there any ideas what might be the cause of the problem and any way > to work around it. > Any help is highly appreciated. On my laptop, when using ppp there is a ip-up script in /etc/ppp that will be executed each time that the ppp interface is brought up. Likewise there is an ip-down script that is called when it is taken down. You might consider custimzing those to stop and start FreeS/Wan with each connection. I believe that ISDN uses the same files, though I could be wrong---there should be something similar though.
There is a list message with links to relevant resources.
Setup and configuration of FreeS/WAN are covered in other documentation sections:
However, we also list some of the commonest problems here.
The standard subnet-to-subnet tunnel protects traffic only between the subnets. To test it, you must use pings that go from one subnet to the other.
For example, suppose you have:
subnet a.b.c.0/24
|
eth1 = a.b.c.1
gate1
eth0 = 1.2.3.4
|
~ internet ~
|
eth0 = 4.3.2.1
gate2
eth1 = x.y.z.1
|
subnet x.y.z.0/24
and the connection description:
conn abc-xyz
left=1.2.3.4
leftsubnet=a.b.c.0/24
right=4.3.2.1
rightsubnet=x.y.z.0/24
You can test this connection description only by sending a ping that will actually go through the tunnel. Assuming you have machines at addresses a.b.c.2 and x.y.z.2, pings you might consider trying are:
Only the first of these is a useful test of this tunnel. The others do not use the tunnel. Depending on other details of your setup and routing, they:
In some cases, you may be able to get around this. For the example network above, you could use:
ping -I a.b.c.1 x.y.z.1Both the adresses given are within protected subnets, so this should go through the tunnel.
If required, you can build additional tunnels so that all the machines involved can talk to all the others. See multiple tunnels in the configuration document for details.
Almost always, these turn out to involve failure of a DNS lookup. The timeouts waiting for DNS are typically set long so that you won't time out when a query involves multiple lookups or long paths. Genuine failures therefore produce long delays before they are detected.
A mailing list message from project technical lead Henry Spencer:
> ... when i run /etc/rc.d/init.d/ipsec start, i get: > ipsec_setup: Starting FreeS/WAN IPsec 1.5... > and it just sits there, doesn't give back my bash prompt. Almost certainly, the problem is that you're using DNS names in your ipsec.conf, but DNS lookups are not working for some reason. You will get your prompt back... eventually. But the DNS timeouts are long. Doing something about this is on our list, but it is not easy.
In the meanwhile, we recommend that connection descriptions in ipsec.conf(5) use numeric IP addresses rather than names which will require a DNS lookup.
Names that do not require a lookup are fine. For example:
These are fine. The @ sign prevents any DNS lookup. However, do not attempt to give the gateway address as left=camelot.example.org . That requires a lookup.
A post from one user after solving a problem with long delays:
Subject: Final Answer to Delay!!! Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 From: "Felippe Solutions" <felippe@solutionstecnologia.com.br> Sorry people, but seems like the Delay problem had nothing to do with freeswan. The problem was DNS as some people sad from the beginning, but not the way they thought it was happening. Samba, ssh, telnet and other apps try to reverse lookup addresses when you use IP numbers (Stupid that ahh). I could ping very fast because I always ping with "-n" option, but I don't know the option on the other apps to stop reverse addressing so I don't use it.This post is fairly typical. These problems are often tricky and frustrating to diagnose, and most turn out to be DNS-related.
One suggestion for diagnosis: test with both names and addresses if possible. For example, try all of:
If these behave differently, the problem must be DNS-related since the three commands do exactly the same thing except for DNS lookups.
IPsec tunnels are not just virtual wires; they are virtual wires with built-in access controls. Negotiation of an IPsec tunnel includes negotiation of access rights for it, which don't include packets to/from other IP addresses. (The protocols themselves are quite inflexible about this, so there are limits to what we can do about it.)For fairly obvious security reasons, and to comply with the IPsec RFCs, KLIPS drops any packets it receives that are not allowed on the tunnels currently defined. So if you send it packets with route(8) , and suitable tunnels are not defined, the packets vanish. Whether this is reported in the logs depends on the setting of klipsdebug in your ipsec.conf(5) file.
To rescue vanishing packets, you must ensure that suitable tunnels for them exist, by editing the connection descriptions in ipsec.conf(5). For example, supposing you have a simple setup:
leftsubnet -- leftgateway === internet === roadwarriorIf you want to give the roadwarrior access to some resource that is located behind the left gateway but is not in the currently defined left subnet, then the usual procedure is to define an additional tunnel for those packets by creating a new connection description.
In some cases, it may be easier to alter an existing connection description, enlarging the definition of leftsubnet. For example, instead of two connection descriptions with 192.168.8.0/24 and 192.168.9.0/24 as their leftsubnet parameters, you can use a single description with 192.168.8.0/23.
If you have multiple endpoints on each side, you need to ensure that there is a route for each pair of endpoints. See this example.
When a tunnel goes away, either because negotiations with the other
gateway failed or because you gave an
This is a documented design decision, not a bug. FreeS/WAN must not automatically adjust things to send packets via another route. The other route might be insecure.
Of course, re-routing may be necessary in many cases. In those
cases, you have to do it manually or via scripts. We provide the
From ipsec_auto(8):
Normally, pluto establishes a route to the destination specified for a connection as part of the --up operation. However, the route and only the route can be established with the --route operation. Until and unless an actual connection is established, this discards any packets sent there, which may be preferable to having them sent elsewhere based on a more general route (e.g., a default route).
Normally, pluto's route to a destination remains in place when a --down operation is used to take the connection down (or if connection setup, or later automatic rekeying, fails). This permits establishing a new connection (perhaps using a different specification; the route is altered as necessary) without having a ``window'' in which packets might go elsewhere based on a more general route. Such a route can be removed using the --unroute operation (and is implicitly removed by --delete).
See also this mailing list message.
then IPsec cannot work. The first thing to check if packets seem to be vanishing is the firewall rules on the two gateway machines and any other machines along the path that you have access to.
For details, see our document on firewalls .
Some advice from technical lead Henry Spencer on diagnosing such problems:
> > Packets vanishing between the hardware interface and the ipsecN interface > > is usually the result of firewalls not being configured to let them in... > > Thanks for the suggestion. If only it were that simple! My ipchains startup > script does take care of that, but just in case I manually inserted rules > accepting everything from london on dublin. No difference. The other thing to check is whether the "RX packets dropped" count on the ipsecN interface (run "ifconfig ipsecN", for N=1 or whatever, to see the counts) is rising. If so, then there's some sort of configuration mismatch between the two ends, and IPsec itself is rejecting them. If none of the ipsecN counts is rising, then the packets are never reaching the IPsec machinery, and the problem is almost certainly in firewalls etc.
Networks being what they are, IPsec connections can be broken for any number of reasons, ranging from hardware failures to various software problems such as the path MTU problems discussed elsewhere in the FAQ. Fortunately, various diagnostic tools exist that help you sort out many of the possible problems.
There is one situation, however, where FreeS/WAN (using default settings) may destroy a connection for no readily apparent reason. This occurs when things are misconfigured so that two tunnels from the same gateway expect the same subnet on the far end.
In this situation, the first tunnel comes up fine and works until the second is established. At that point, because of the way we track connections internally, the first tunnel ceases to exist as far as this gateway is concerned. Of course the far end does not know that, and a storm of error messages appears on both systems as it tries to use the tunnel.
If the far end gives up, goes back to square one and negotiates a new tunnel, then that wipes out the second tunnel and ...
The solution is simple. Do not build multiple conn descriptions with the same remote subnet.
This is actually intended to be a feature, rather than a bug. Consider the situation where a single remote system goes down, then comes back up and reconnects to the gateway. It is useful to have the gateway tear down the old tunnel and recover resources when the reconnection is made. It recognises that situation by checking the remote subnet for each tunnel it builds and discarding duplicates. This works fine as long as you don't configure multiple tunnels with the same remote subnet.
If this behaviour is inconvenient for you, you can disable it by setting uniqueids=no in ipsec.conf(5).
See our testing document for more detail.
Here is a mailing list message with more detail.
Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 To: linux-ipsec@freeswan.org From: "John S. Denker" <jsd@research.att.com< Subject: Re: traceroute: one virtual hop At 02:20 PM 5/14/01 -0400, Claudia Schmeing wrote: > >> > A bonus question: traceroute in subnet to subnet enviroment looks like: >> > >> > traceroute to andris.dmz (172.20.24.10), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets >> > 1 drama (172.20.1.1) 0.716 ms 0.942 ms 0.434 ms >> > 2 * * * >> > 3 andris.dmz (172.20.24.10) 73.576 ms 78.858 ms 79.434 ms >> > >> > Why aren't there the other hosts which take part in the delivery during > * * * ? > >If there is an ipsec tunnel between GateA and Gate B, this tunnel forms a >'virtual wire'. When it is tunneled, the original packet becomes an inner >packet, and new ESP and/or AH headers are added to create an outer packet >around it. You can see an example of how this is done for AH at >doc/ipsec.html#AH . For ESP it is similar. > >Think about the packet's path from the inner packet's perspective. >It leaves the subnet, goes into the tunnel, and re-emerges in the second >subnet. This perspective is also the only one available to the >'traceroute' command when the IPSec tunnel is up. Claudia got this exactly right. Let me just expand on a couple of points: *) GateB is exactly one (virtual) hop away from GateA. This is how it would be if there were a physically private wire from A to B. The virtually private connection should work the same, and it does. *) While the information is in transit from GateA to GateB, the hop count of the outer header (the "envelope") is being decremented. The hop count of the inner header (the "contents" of the envelope) is not decremented and should not be decremented. The hop count of the outer header is not derived from and should not be derived from the hop count of the inner header. Indeed, even if the packets did time out in transit along the tunnel, there would be no way for traceroute to find out what happened. Just as information cannot leak _out_ of the tunnel to the outside, information cannot leak _into_ the tunnel from outside, and this includes ICMP messages from routers along the path. There are some cases where one might wish for information about what is happening at the IP layer (below the tunnel layer) -- but the protocol makes no provision for this. This raises all sorts of conceptual issues. AFAIK nobody has ever cared enough to really figure out what _should_ happen, let alone implement it and standardize it. *) I consider the "* * *" to be a slight bug. One might wish for it to be replaced by "GateB GateB GateB". It has to do with treating host-to-subnet traffic different from subnet-to-subnet traffic (and other gory details). I fervently hope KLIPS2 will make this problem go away. *) If you want to ask questions about the link from GateA to GateB at the IP level (below the tunnel level), you have to ssh to GateA and launch a traceroute from there.
It is often useful in debugging to test things one at a time:
FreeS/WAN releases are tested for all of these, so you can be reasonably certain they can do them all. Of course, that does not mean they will on the first try, especially if you have some unusual configuration.
The rest of this section gives information on diagnosing the problem when each of the above steps fails.
Suspect one of:
Each connection must be identified by a unique SPI value. For automatic connections, these values are assigned automatically. For manual connections, you must set them with spi= statements in ipsec.conf(5).
Each manual connection must have a unique SPI value in the range 0x100 to 0x999. Two or more with the same value will fail. For details, see our HTML doc section Using manual keying in production and the man page ipsec.conf(5).
Other possibilities:
One common configuration error is forgetting that you need auto=add to load the connection description on the receiving end so it recognises the connection when the other end asks for it.
Some possibile problems are discussed in out interoperation document.
If tests with ping(1) and a small packet size succeed, but tests or transfers with larger packet sizes fail, suspect problems with packet fragmentation and perhaps path MTU discovery.
Our troubleshooting document covers these problems. Information on the underlying mechanism is in our background document.
The GMP library is included in most Linux distributions. Typically, there are two RPMs, libgmp and libgmp-devel, You need to install both, either from your distribution CDs or from your vendor's web site.
On Debian, a mailing list message reports that the command to give
is
For more information and the latest version, see the GMP home page.
> ipsec_sha1.c: In function `SHA1Transform': > ipsec_sha1.c:95: virtual memory exhausted I'm seeing exactly the same problem on an Ultra with 256MB ram and 500 MB swap. Except I am compiling version 1.5 and its Red Hat 6.2. I can get around this by using -O instead of -O2 for the optimization level. So it is probably a bug in the optimizer on the sparc complier. I'll try and chase this down on the sparc lists.
> I reached the point where the two boxes (both on dial-up connections, but > treated as static IPs by getting the IP and editing ipsec.conf after the > connection is established) to the point where they exchange some info, but I > get an error like "route-client command exited with status 7 \n internal > error". > Where can I find a description of this error? In general, if the FAQ doesn't cover it, you can search the mailing list archives - I like to use http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/linux-ipsec/ but you can see doc/mail.html for different archive formats. Your error comes from the _updown script, which performs some routing and firewall functions to help Linux FreeS/WAN. More info is available at doc/firewall.html and man ipsec.conf. Its routing is integral to the health of Linux FreeS/WAN; it also provides facility to insert custom firewall rules to be executed when you create or destroy a connection. Yours is, of course, a routing error. You can be fairly sure the routing machinery is saying "network is unreachable". There's a FAQ on the "network is unreachable" error, but more information is available now; read on. If your _updown script is recent (for example if it shipped with Linux FreeS/WAN 1.91), you will see another debugging line in your logs that looks something like this: > output: /usr/local/lib/ipsec/_updown: `route add -net 128.174.253.83 > netmask 255.255.255.255 dev ipsec0 gw 66.92.93.161' failed This is, of course, the system route command that exited with status 7, (ie. failed). Man route for details. Seeing the command typed out yields more information. If your _updown script is older, you may wish to update it to show the command explicitly. Three parameters fed to the route command: net, netmask and gw [gateway] are derived from things you've put in ipsec.conf. Net and netmask are derived from the peer's IP and mask. In more detail: You may see a routing error when routing to a client (ie. subnet), or to a host (IPSec gateway or freestanding host; a box that does IPSec for itself). In _updown, the "route-client" section is responsible to set up the route for IPSec'd (usually, read 'tunneled') packets headed to a peer subnet. Similarly, route-host routes IPSec'd packets to a peer host or IPSec gateway. When routing to a 'client', net and netmask are ipsec.conf's left- or rightsubnet (whichever is not local). Similarly, when routing to a 'host' the net is left or right. Host netmask is always /32, indicating a single machine. Gw is nexthop's value. Again, the value in question is left- or rightnexthop, whichever is local. Where left/right or left-/rightnexthop has the special value %defaultroute (described in man ipsec.conf), gw will automagically get the value of the next hop on the default route. Q: "What's a nexthop and why do I need one?" A: 'nexthop' is a routing kluge; its value is the next hop away from the machine that's doing IPSec, and toward your IPSec peer. You need it to get the processed packets out of the local system and onto the wire. While we often route other packets through the machine that's now doing IPSec, and are done with it, this does not suffice here. After packets are processed with IPSec, this machine needs to know where they go next. Of course using the 'IPSec gateway' as their routing gateway would cause an infinite loop! [To visualize this, see the packet flow diagram at doc/firewall.html.] To avoid this, we route packets through the next hop down their projected path. Now that you know the background, consider: 1. Did you test routing between the gateways in the absence of Linux FreeS/WAN, as recommended? You need to ensure the two machines that will be running Linux FreeS/WAN can route to one another before trying to make a secure connection. 2. Is there anything obviously wrong with the sense of your route command? Normally, this problem is caused by an incorrect local nexthop parameter. Check out the use of %defaultroute, described in man ipsec.conf. This is a simple way to set nexthop for most people. To figure nexthop out by hand, traceroute in-the-clear to your IPSec peer. Nexthop is the traceroute's first hop after your IPSec gateway.
Here is a message from Claudia suggesting ways to diagnose and fix such problems:
You write, > I have correctly installed freeswan-1.8 on RH7.0 kernel 2.2.17, but when > I setup a VPN connection with the other machine(RH5.2 Kernel 2.0.36 > freeswan-1.0, it works well.) it told me that > "SIOCADDRT:Network is unreachable"! But the network connection is no > problem. Often this error is the result of a misconfiguration. Be sure that you can route successfully in the absence of Linux FreeS/WAN. (You say this is no problem, so proceed to the next step.) Use a custom copy of the default updownscript. Do not change the route commands, but add a diagnostic message revealing the exact text of the route command. Is there a problem with the sense of the route command that you can see? If so, then re-examine those ipsec.conf settings that are being sent to the route command. You may wish to use the ipsec auto --route and --unroute commands to troubleshoot the problem. See man ipsec_auto for details.Since the above message was written, we have modified the updown script to provide a better diagnostic for this problem. Check /var/log/messages.
See also the FAQ question route-client (or host) exited with status 7.
Commands you can quickly try are:
Here is one of Claudia's messages on the topic:
> I tried to install freeswan 1.8 on my mandrake 7.2 test box. ... > It does show version and some output for whack. Yes, because the Pluto (daemon) part of ipsec is installed correctly, but as we see below the kernel portion is not. > However, I get the following from /var/log/messages: > > Mar 11 22:11:55 pavillion ipsec_setup: Starting FreeS/WAN IPsec 1.8... > Mar 11 22:12:02 pavillion ipsec_setup: modprobe: Can't locate module ipsec > Mar 11 22:12:02 pavillion ipsec_setup: Fatal error, kernel appears to lack > KLIPS. This is your problem. You have not successfully installed a kernel with IPSec machinery in it. Did you build Linux FreeS/WAN as a module? If so, you need to ensure that your new module has been installed in the directory where your kernel loader normally finds your modules. If not, you need to ensure that the new IPSec-enabled kernel is being loaded correctly. See also doc/install.html, and INSTALL in the distro.Note that the "modprobe: Can't locate module ipsec" message appears even if you are not using modules. If there is no KLIPS in your kernel, FreeS/WAN tries to load it as a module. If that fails, you get this message.
Note that by default, FreeS/WAN is now set up to
(a) authenticate with RSA keys, and
(b) fetch the public key of the far end from DNS.
Explicit attention to ipsec.conf will be needed if you want
to do something different.
and Claudia, responding to the same user:
You write, > My current setup in ipsec.conf is leftrsasigkey=%dns I have > commented this and authby=rsasig out. I am able to get ipsec running, > but what I find is that the documentation only specifies for %dns are > there any other values that can be placed in this variable other than > %dns and the key? I am also assuming that this is where I would place > my public key for the left and right side as well is this correct? Valid values for authby= are rsasig and secret, which entail authentication by RSA signature or by shared secret, respectively. Because you have commented authby=rsasig out, you are using the default value of authby=secret. When using RSA signatures, there are two ways to get the public key for the IPSec peer: either copy it directly into *rsasigkey= in ipsec.conf, or fetch it from dns. The magic value %dns for *rsasigkey parameters says to try to fetch the peer's key from dns. For any parameters, you may find their significance and special values in man ipsec.conf. If you are setting up keys or secrets, be sure also to reference man ipsec.secrets.
A mailing list message on the topic from Pluto developer Hugh Redelmeier:
| I'm trying to get freeswan working between two machine where one has a ppp | interface. | I've already suceeded with two machines with ethernet ports but the ppp | interface is causing me problems. | basically when I run ipsec start i get | ipsec_setup: Starting FreeS/WAN IPsec 1.7... | ipsec_setup: 003 IP interfaces ppp1 and ppp0 share address 192.168.0.10! | ipsec_setup: 003 IP interfaces ppp1 and ppp2 share address 192.168.0.10! | ipsec_setup: 003 IP interfaces ppp0 and ppp2 share address 192.168.0.10! | ipsec_setup: 003 no public interfaces found | | followed by lots of cannot work out interface for connection messages | | now I can specify the interface in ipsec.conf to be ppp0 , but this does | not affect the above behaviour. A quick look in server.c indicates that the | interfaces value is not used but some sort of raw detect happens. | | I guess I could prevent the formation of the extra ppp interfaces or | allocate them different ip but I'd rather not. if at all possible. Any | suggestions please. Pluto won't touch an interface that shares an IP address with another. This will eventually change, but it probably won't happen soon. For now, you will have to give the ppp1 and ppp2 different addresses.
> When FreeS/WAN IPsec 1.7 is starting on my 2.0.38 Linux kernel the following > error message is generated: > ipsec_setup: Cannot adjust kernel flags, no /proc/sys/net/ipsec directory! > What is supposed to create this directory and how can I fix this problem? I think that directory is a 2.2ism, although I'm not certain (I don't have a 2.0.xx system handy any more for testing). Without it, some of the ipsec.conf config-setup flags won't work, but otherwise things should function.You also need to enable the /proc filesystem in your kernel configuration for these operations to work.
From Pluto programmer Hugh Redelmeier:
| Jan 17 16:21:10 remus Pluto[13631]: "jumble" #1: responding to Main Mode from Road Warrior 130.205.82.46 | Jan 17 16:21:11 remus Pluto[13631]: "jumble" #1: no suitable connection for peer @banshee.wittsend.com | | The connection "jumble" has nothing to do with the incoming | connection requests, which were meant for the connection "banshee". You are right. The message tells you which Connection Pluto is currently using, which need not be the right one. It need not be the right one now for the negotiation to eventually succeed! This is described in ipsec_pluto(8) in the section "Road Warrior Support". There are two times when Pluto will consider switching Connections for a state object. Both are in response to receiving ID payloads (one in Phase 1 / Main Mode and one in Phase 2 / Quick Mode). The second is not unique to Road Warriors. In fact, neither is the first any more (two connections for the same pair of hosts could differ in Phase 1 ID payload; probably nobody else has tried this).
Normally a match is found. Then Pluto knows where it is and can set up other things (for example, if it is left) using parameters such as leftsubnet and leftnexthop, and sending its outgoing packets to right.
If no match is found, it emits the above error message.
Parameters involved in this match are left, right , leftsubnet and rightsubnet.
The match must be exact. For example, if your left subnet is a.b.c.0/24 then neither a single machine in that net nor a smaller subnet such as a.b.c.64/26 will be considered a match.
The message can also occur when an appropriate description exists but Pluto has not loaded it. Use an auto=add statement in the connection description, or an ipsec auto --add <conn_name> command, to correct this.
An explanation from the Pluto developer:
| Jul 12 15:00:22 sohar58 Pluto[574]: "corp_road" #2: cannot respond to IPsec
| SA request because no connection is known for
| 216.112.83.112/32===216.112.83.112...216.67.25.118
This is the first message from the Pluto log showing a problem. It
means that PGPnet is trying to negotiate a set of SAs with this
topology:
216.112.83.112/32===216.112.83.112...216.67.25.118
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
client on our side our host PGPnet host, no client
None of the conns you showed look like this.
Use
ipsec auto --status
to see a snapshot of what connections are in pluto, what
negotiations are going on, and what SAs are established.
The leftsubnet= (client) in your conn is 216.112.83.64/26. It must
exactly match what pluto is looking for, and it does not.
Here is one of Claudia's messages explaining the problem:
You write, > What could be the reason of the following error? > "no suitable connection for peer '@xforce'" When a connection is initiated by the peer, Pluto must choose which entry in the conf file best matches the incoming connection. A preliminary choice is made on the basis of source and destination IPs, since that information is available at that time. A payload containing an ID arrives later in the negotiation. Based on this id and the *id= parameters, Pluto refines its conn selection. ... The message "no suitable connection" indicates that in this refining step, Pluto does not find a connection that matches that ID. Please see "Selecting a connection when responding" in man ipsec_pluto for more details.
See also Connection names in Pluto error messages.
You write,
> May 22 10:46:31 debian Pluto[25834]: packet from x.y.z.p:10014:
> initial Main Mode message from x.y.z.p:10014
but no connection has been authorized
This error occurs early in the connection negotiation process,
at the first step of IKE negotiation (Main Mode), which is itself the
first of two negotiation phases involved in creating an IPSec connection.
Here, Linux FreeS/WAN receives a packet from a potential peer, which
requests that they begin discussing a connection.
The "no connection has been authorized" means that there is no connection
description in Linux FreeS/WAN's internal database that can be used to
link your ipsec interface with that peer.
"But of course I configured that connection!"
It may be that the appropriate connection description exists in ipsec.conf
but has not been added to the database with ipsec auto --add myconn or the
auto=add method. Or, the connection description may be misconfigured.
The only parameters that are relevant in this decision are left= and right= .
Local and remote ports are also taken into account -- we see that the port
is printed in the message above -- but there is no way to control these
in ipsec.conf.
Failure at "no connection has been authorized" is similar to the
"no connection is known for..." error in the FAQ, and the "no suitable
connection" error described in the snapshot's FAQ. In all three cases,
Linux FreeS/WAN is trying to match parameters received in the
negotiation with the connection description in the local config file.
As it receives more information, its matches take more parameters into
account, and become more precise: first the pair of potential peers,
then the peer IDs, then the endpoints (including any subnets).
The "no suitable connection for peer *" occurs toward the end of IKE
(Main Mode) negotiation, when the IDs are matched.
"no connection is known for a/b===c...d" is seen at the beginning of IPSec
(Quick Mode, phase 2) negotiation, when the connections are matched using
left, right, and any information about the subnets.
Our interoperation document has suggestions for how to deal with systems that attempt to use single DES.
Background:
When one IKE system (for example, Pluto) is negotiating with another
to create an SA, the Initiator proposes a bunch of choices and the
Responder replies with one that it has selected.
The structure of the choices is fairly complicated. An SA payload
contains a list of lists of "Proposals". The outer list is a set of
choices: the selection must be from one element of this list.
Each of these elements is a list of Proposals. A selection must be
made from each of the elements of the inner list. In other words,
*all* of them apply (that is how, for example, both AH and ESP can
apply at once).
Within each of these Proposals is a list of Transforms. For each
Proposal selected, one Transform must be selected (in other words,
each Proposal provides a choice of Transforms).
Each Transform is made up of a list of Attributes describing, well,
attributes. Such as lifetime of the SA. Such as algorithm to be
used. All the Attributes apply to a Transform.
You will have noticed a pattern here: layers alternate between being
disjunctions ("or") and conjunctions ("and").
For Phase 1 / Main Mode (negotiating an ISAKMP SA), this structure is
cut back. There must be exactly one Proposal. So this degenerates to
a list of Transforms, one of which must be chosen.
In your case, no proposal was considered acceptable to Pluto (the
Responder). So negotiation ceased. Pluto logs the reason it rejects
each Transform. So look back in the log to see what is going wrong.
On Fri, 29 Jun 2001, Rodrigo Gruppelli wrote: > ...Well, it seem that there's > another problem with it. When I try to generate a pair of RSA keys, > rsasigkey cores dump... *That* is a neon sign flashing "GMP LIBRARY IS BROKEN". Rsasigkey calls GMP a lot, and our own library a little bit, and that's very nearly all it does. Barring bugs in its code or our library -- which have happened, but not very often -- a problem in rsasigkey is a problem in GMP.See the next question for how to deal with GMP errors.
The most likely cause is that your gmp (GNU multi-precision) library is compiled for a different processor than what you are running on. Pluto uses that library for its public key calculations.
Try getting the gmp sources and recompile for your processor type. Most Linux distributions will include this source, or you can download it from the GMP home page.
From John Denker, on the mailing list:
1) The log message some IKE message we sent has been rejected with ECONNREFUSED (kernel supplied no details) is much more suitable than the previous version. Thanks. 2) Minor suggestion for further improvement: it might be worth mentioning that the command tcpdump -i eth1 icmp[0] != 8 and icmp[0] != 0 is useful for tracking down the details in question. We shouldn't expect all IPsec users to figure that out on their own. The log message might even provide a hint as to where to look in the docs.
Reply From Pluto developer Hugh Redelmeier
Good idea. I've added a bit pluto(8)'s BUGS section along these lines. I didn't have the heart to lengthen this message.
Here is a more detailed duscussion from the team's tech support person Claudia Schmeing, responding to a query on the mailing list:
> Why ipsec reports no eroute! ???? IP Masq... is disabled. In general, more information is required so that people on the list may give you informed input. See doc/prob.report.The document she refers to has since been replaced by a section of the troubleshooting document.
However, I can make some general comments on this type of error. This error usually looks something like this (clipped from an archived message): > ttl:64 proto:1 chk:45459 saddr:192.168.1.2 daddr:192.168.100.1 > ... klips_debug:ipsec_findroute: 192.168.1.2->192.168.100.1 > ... klips_debug:rj_match: * See if we match exactly as a host destination > ... klips_debug:rj_match: ** try to match a leaf, t=0xc1a260b0 > ... klips_debug:rj_match: *** start searching up the tree, t=0xc1a260b0 > ... klips_debug:rj_match: **** t=0xc1a260c8 > ... klips_debug:rj_match: **** t=0xc1fe5960 > ... klips_debug:rj_match: ***** not found. > ... klips_debug:ipsec_tunnel_start_xmit: Original head/tailroom: 2, 28 > ... klips_debug:ipsec_tunnel_start_xmit: no eroute!: ts=47.3030, dropping. What does this mean? - -------------------- "eroute" stands for "extended route", and is a special type of route internal to Linux FreeS/WAN. For more information about this type of route, see the section of man ipsec_auto on ipsec auto --route. "no eroute!" here means, roughly, that Linux FreeS/WAN cannot find an appropriate tunnel that should have delivered this packet. Linux FreeS/WAN therefore drops the packet, with the message "no eroute! ... dropping", on the assumption that this packet is not a legitimate transmission through a properly constructed tunnel. How does this situation come about? - ----------------------------------- Linux FreeS/WAN has a number of connection descriptions defined in ipsec.conf. These must be successfully brought "up" to form actual tunnels. (see doc/setup.html's step 15, man ipsec.conf and man ipsec_auto for details). Such connections are often specific to the endpoints' IPs. However, in some cases they may be more general, for example in the case of Road Warriors where left or right is the special value %any. When Linux FreeS/WAN receives a packet, it verifies that the packet has come through a legitimate channel, by checking that there is an appropriate tunnel through which this packet might legitimately have arrived. This is the process we see above. First, it checks for an eroute that exactly matches the packet. In the example above, we see it checking for a route that begins at 192.168.1.2 and ends at 192.168.100.1. This search favours the most specific match that would apply to the route between these IPs. So, if there is a connection description exactly matching these IPs, the search will end there. If not, the code will search for a more general description matching the IPs. If there is no match, either specific or general, the packet will be dropped, as we see, above. Unless you are working with Road Warriors, only the first, specific part of the matching process is likely to be relevant to you. "But I defined the tunnel, and it came up, why do I have this error?" - --------------------------------------------------------------------- One of the most common causes of this error is failure to specify enough connection descriptions to cover all needed tunnels between any two gateways and their respective subnets. As you have noticed, troubleshooting this error may be complicated by the use of IP Masq. However, this error is not limited to cases where IP Masq is used. See doc/configuration.html#multitunnel for a detailed example of the solution to this type of problem.
> When I activate one manual tunnels it works, but when I try to activate > another tunnel, it gives an error message... > tunnel_2: Had trouble writing to /dev/ipsec SA:tun0x200@202.103.5.63 -- > SA already in use. Delete old one first. Please read the Using manual keying in production discussion in config.html, specifically the part about needing a different spi (or spibase) setting for each connection.This problem is also discussed in this FAQ under the heading One manual connection works, but second one fails.
For the "ignoring delete SA Payload" message, see also our discussion of cleaning up dead tunnels.
As a matter of policy, some of our mailing lists need to be open to non-subscribers. Project management feel strongly that maintaining this openness is more important than blocking spam.
This has been discussed several times at some length on the list. See the list archives. Bringing the topic up again is unlikely to be useful. Please don't. Or at the very least, please don't without reading the archives and being certain that whatever you are about to suggest has not yet been discussed.
Project technical lead Henry Spencer summarised one discussion:
For the third and last time: this list *will* *not* do address-based filtering. This is a policy decision, not an implementation problem. The decision is final, and is not open to discussion. This needs to be communicated better to people, and steps are being taken to do that.Adding this FAQ section is one of the steps he refers to.
You have various options other than just putting up with the spam, filtering it yourself, or unsubscribing:
A number of tools are available to filter mail.
If you use your ISP's mail server rather than running your own, consider suggesting to the ISP that they tag suspected spam as this ISP does. They could just refuse mail from dubious sources, but that is tricky and runs some risk of losing valuable mail or senselessly annoying senders and their admins. However, they can safely tag and deliver dubious mail. The tags can greatly assist your filtering.
For information on tracking down spammers, see these HowTos, or the Sputum site. Sputum have a Linux anti-spam screensaver available for download.
Here is a more detailed message from Henry:
On Mon, 15 Jan 2001, Jay Vaughan wrote:
> I know I'm flogging a dead horse here, but I'm curious as to the reasons for
> an aversion for a subscriber-only mailing list?
Once again: for legal reasons, it is important that discussions of these
things be held in a public place -- the list -- and we do not want to
force people to subscribe to the list just to ask one question, because
that may be more than merely inconvenient for them. There are also real
difficulties with people who are temporarily forced to use alternate
addresses; that is precisely the time when they may be most in need of
help, yet a subscribers-only policy shuts them out.
These issues do not apply to most mailing lists, but for a list that is
(necessarily) the primary user support route for a crypto package, they
are very important. This is *not* an ordinary mailing list; it has to
function under awkward constraints that make various simplistic solutions
inapplicable or undesirable.
> We're *ALL* sick of hearing about list management problems, not just you
> old-timers, so why don't you DO SOMETHING EFFECTIVE ABOUT IT...
Because it's a lot harder than it looks, and many existing "solutions"
have problems when examined closely.
> A suggestion for you, based on 10 years of experience with management of my
> own mailing lists would be to use mailman, which includes pretty much every
> feature under the sun that you guys need and want, plus some. The URL for
> mailman...
I assure you, we're aware of mailman. Along with a whole bunch of others,
including some you almost certainly have never heard of (I hadn't!).
> As for the argument that the list shouldn't be configured to enforce
> subscription - I contend that it *SHOULD* AT LEAST require manual address
> verification in order for posts to be redirected.
You do realize, I hope, that interposing such a manual step might cause
your government to decide that this is not truly a public forum, and thus
you could go to jail if you don't get approval from them before mailing to
it? If you think this sounds irrational, your government is noted for
making irrational decisions in this area; we can't assume that they will
suddenly start being sensible. See above about awkward constraints. You
may be willing to take the risk, but we can't, in good conscience, insist
that all users with problems do so.
Henry Spencer
henry@spsystems.net
and a message on the topic from project leader John Gilmore:
Subject: Re: The linux-ipsec list's topic
Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2000
From: John Gilmore <gnu@toad.com>
I'll post this single message, once only, in this discussion, and then
not burden the list with any further off-topic messages. I encourage
everyone on the list to restrain themself from posting ANY off-topic
messages to the linux-ipsec list.
The topic of the linux-ipsec mailing list is the FreeS/WAN software.
I frequently see "discussions about spam on a list" overwhelm the
volume of "actual spam" on a list. BOTH kinds of messages are
off-topic messages. Twenty anti-spam messages take just as long to
detect and discard as twenty spam messages.
The Linux-ipsec list encourages on-topic messages from people who have
not joined the list itself. We will not censor messages to the list
based on where they originate, or what return address they contain.
In other words, non-subscribers ARE allowed to post, and this will not
change. My own valid contributions have been rejected out-of-hand by
too many other mailing lists for me to want to impose that censorship
on anybody else's contributions. And every day I see the damage that
anti-spam zeal is causing in many other ways; that zeal is far more
damaging to the culture of the Internet than the nuisance of spam.
In general, it is the responsibility of recipients to filter,
prioritize, or otherwise manage the handling of email that comes to
them. It is not the responsibility of the rest of the Internet
community to refrain from sending messages to recipients that they
might not want to see. If your software infrastructure for managing
your incoming email is insufficient, then improve it. If you think
the signal-to-noise ratio on linux-ipsec is too poor, then please
unsubscribe. But don't further increase the noise by posting to the
linux-ipsec list about those topics.
John Gilmore
founder & sponsor, FreeS/WAN project
Some Linux distributions, listed in the introduction, ship with FreeS/WAN included. If you are using one of them, you need not perform a FreeS/WAN installation. That should all be done for you already. All you have to do is:
Users of such distributions can skip ahead to our section on setting up FreeS/WAN.
Unfortunately, due to export laws restricting distribution of strong cryptography, not all distributions include FreeS/WAN. Moreover, the standard kernel does not include the kernel parts of FreeS/WAN. Many people will need to install FreeS/WAN, including patching and rebuilding their kernel.
Information on re-installing or un-installing is provided near the end of this document.
Configure, compile, install, and test a Linux kernel, without FreeS/WAN.
If you have not done this before, you will need to read the Kernel HowTo. You might also look at this magazine article.
Many users can continue to run kernels from the 2.2 series of Linux production kernels.
We recommend using the latest release in that series. At time of writing (Feb 2002), that is 2.2.20.
If you need to use an older 2.2.x kernel for some reason, be warned that recent versions of FreeS/WAN will not compile out-of-the-box on a kernel earlier than 2.2.19. A workaround is described in the FreeS/WAN 1.91 section of our CHANGES file. See the mailing list archives, around June 2001, for more details if needed.
Do not use 2.4.15; it has a bug that causes file system corruption. FreeS/WAN 1.93 was tested mainly on 2.4.14 and is known to work there.
2.4 has new firewalling code called netfilter. This may provide good reasons to move to 2.4, especially on for gateway machines.
In the older 2.0.x kernel series, we no longer support versions earlier than 2.0.38. 2.0.38 has fixes for a number of small security-related glitches, worth having on a security gateway machine. FreeS/WAN has been tested on 2.0.39, and does work there.
Recent versions of FreeS/WAN are not heavily tested on 2.0 kernels. Most of both the development team and the user community are on 2.2, or even 2.4, by now.
We are likely to drop 2.0 support entirely if some problem crops up that would mean retaining it required significant work from our team.
Development kernels are not intended for production use . They change often and include new code which has not yet been thoroughly tested. This regularly breaks things, including FreeS/WAN. The FreeS/WAN team does not have the resources to chase the moving target; our priority is developing FreeS/WAN on stable kernels. If you encounter a problem on a development kernel, please solve it (you are a developer, aren't you?) and send us a patch. Of course, we will happily discuss problems and solutions on the mailing list, but we are unlikely to do much work on actually implementing a solution.
Fortunately we have a user who regularly fixes problems with FreeS/WAN on development kernels (merci, Marc), and we do fix some ourselves. FreeS/WAN often works just fine on a development kernel; it's just that there's no guarantee.
If you are going to test FreeS/WAN with a development kernel, we recommend you use our latest snapshot. This is the FreeS/WAN version most likely to have the patches required to work on a recent development kernel. The released version of FreeS/WAN is likely to be out of date for your purposes.
If you have a CD distribution of Linux, it should include everything you need.
There are some common slips worth avoiding here:
All the major distribution vendors provide kernel source. See for example:
Using a kernel from your distribution vendor may save you some annoyance later.
Different distributions put the kernel in different places (/vmlinuz, /boot/vmlinuz, /boot/vmlinuz-2.2.15 ...) and set lilo (the Linux loader) up differently. With a kernel from your distribution vendor, everything should work right. With other combinations, a newly compiled kernel may be installed in one place while lilo is looking in another. You can of course adjust the kernel Makefile and/or /etc/lilo.conf to solve this problem, but we suggest just avoiding it.
Also, distributions vendors may include patches or drivers which are not part of the standard kernel. If you install a standard kernel, you must either do without those features or download those patches and add them yourself.
Note: Some recent distributions (certainly Redhat 7.2, perhaps others) put kernel source code in a directory named linux-2.4 while FreeS/WAN expects to find it in linux, which is where all distributions used to put it and the kernel.org kernels still do. If your distribution uses linux-2.4, then you must create a symbolic link to linux before proceeding with your FReeS/WAN install. See the man page for ln(1) for details of how to do this if required.
Once you have found suitable kernel source, choose a mirror that is close to you and bookmark it.
Kernel source normally resides in /usr/src/linux, whether you load it from a distribution CD or download a tar file into /usr/src and untar it there. Unless you both have unusual requirements and know exactly what you're doing, we recommend you put it there.
You can download FreeS/WAN from our primary site or one of our mirrors.
Put the tarfile under /usr/src and untar it there. The command to use is:
This will give you a directory /usr/src/freeswan<version>.
Note that these methods don't work:
The gateway kernel must be configured before FreeS/WAN is added because some of our utilities rely on the results of configuration.
Note for Redhat 7.1 users: If you are using the
Redhat-supplied kernel, then you must do a
On some distributions, you can get the configuration files for the vendor's standard kernel(s) off the CD, and use that. This allows you to skip this step; you need not configure the kernel if the vendor has and you have the vendor's config file installed. Here is a mailing list message describing the procedure for Redhat:
Subject: Re: [Users] Do I need to recompile kernel 2.2.17-14? Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2001 08:38:38 -0500 From: "Corey J. Steele" <csteele@mtron.com> if you install the corresponding kernel-source-*.rpm, you can actually find the config file used to build that kernel in /usr/src/linux/Configs, just copy the one you want to use (based solely on architecture) to /usr/src/linux/.config, and proceed! It should work.If you have ever configured the kernel yourself on this machine, you can also skip this step.
If the kernel has not been configured, do that now. This is done by giving one of the following commands in /usr/src/linux:
Any of these wiil do the job. If you have no established preference, we suggest trying menuconfig.
For more information on configuring your kernel, see our section on that topic.
You should compile, install and test the kernels as you have configured them, so that you have a known stable starting point. The series of commands involved is usually something like:
Doing this first means that if there is a problem after you add FreeS/WAN, tracking it down is much simpler.
If you need advice on this process, or general Linux background information, try our Linux web references. The most directly relevant document is the Kernel HowTo.
There are several ways to build and install the software. All require that you have kernel source, correctly configured for your machine, as a starting point. If you don't have that yet, see the previous section
Whatever method you choose, it will do all of the following:
You can do the whole install with two commands (recommended in most cases) or get into as much of the detail as you like.
Go to the FreeS/WAN directory and do whichever of the following commands you prefer:
After the Makefile does the software and kernel build, it will make some RPMs and leave them in the rpms directory. The RPMs are:
Once you have the RPMs, you can install FreeS/WAN from them with rpm -i commands.
This makes it much easier to build FreeS/WAN on one system for installation on another.
This facility is based on work by Paul Lahaie at Steamballoon.
With the full procedure described in the next section, you can either build the kernel parts of FreeS/WAN into your kernel or build them as a kernel module, depending on how you set the kernel configuration options.
Since 1.91, we also provide an option to build only the FreeS/WAN module, without re-compiling the rest of your kernel.
Note, however, that this requires:
To do the module install, give two commands in the FreeS/WAN directory:
This is relatively new code and not yet tested on a wide range of systems. If it does not work for you, please report the problem. In the meanwhile, fall back to the older procedure described above.
There are two steps here. First you do everything else, then you install the new FreeS/WAN-enabled kernel.
To do everything except install the new kernel, cd into the freeswan directory and become root. Give any one of the following commands:
You must save the new configuration even if you make no changes. This ensures that the FreeS/WAN changes are actually seen by the system.
There are few options in the FreeS/WAN part of kernel configuration. For most of them, we recommend that you make no changes.
For the above commands, the error files are out.kpatch and out.kbuild.
These scripts automatically build an RSA authentication key pair (a public key and the matching private key) for you, and put the result in /etc/ipsec.secrets. For information on using RSA authentication, see our configuration section. Here, we need only note that generating the key uses random(4) quite heavily and if random(4) runs out of randomness, it will block until it has enough input. You may need to provide input by moving the mouse around a lot, or going to another window and typing random characters, or using some command such as du -s /usr to generate disk activity.
To install the kernel the easy way, just give this command in the FreeS/WAN directory:
Using make kinstall from the FreeS/WAN directory is equivalent to giving the following sequence of commands in /usr/src/linux:
If you prefer that sequence, use it instead.
If you have some unusual setup such that the above sequence of commands won't work on your system, then our make kinstall will not work either. Use whatever method does work on your system. See our implementation notes file for additional information that may help in such situations.
Check your lilo.conf(5) file to ensure it points to the right kernel, then run lilo(8) to read lilo.conf(5) and set up the bootloader.
To check that you have a sucessful install, you can reboot and check (by watching messages during boot or by looking at them later with dmesg(8)) that:
You can also try the commands:
Of course any status information at this point should be uninteresting since you have not yet configured connections.
See the following section for information on configuring connections.
Alternately, you might want to look at background material on the protocols used before trying configuration.
If you need to install FreeS/WAN, go to the installation section.
The scripts are designed so that a re-install -- to upgrade to a later FreeS/WAN version or to a later kernel version -- can be done in exactly the same way as an original install.
The scripts know enough, for example, not to apply the same kernel patch twice and not to overwrite your ipsec.conf or ipsec.secrets files. However, they will overwrite the _updown script. If you have modified that, save your version under another name before doing the install.
Also, they may not always work exactly as designed. Check the BUGS file for any caveats in the current version.
In many Linux distributions, you can easily disable FreeS/WAN with the command:
chkconfig --del ipsec
This removes the symlinks in /etc/rc.d/rc?.d which cause ipsec(8) to be called at boot time or when switching run levels. If the kernel part of IPsec, KLIPS, has been compiled as a module, then this also prevents loading that module, so IPsec is completely disabled.
Other distributions may use another version of init(8), or may not provide the chkconfig(8) command. For these, you will have to manually edit the init scripts to achieve the same effect.
To entirely remove the user-level FreeS/WAN components from your system, go to the FreeS/WAN install directory and give the command:
make uninstall_freeswan
If that doesn't work for you -- for example, if FreeS/WAN was built on another system and copied here -- then you can do it manually. First disable FreeS/WAN as described above (to avoid problems with symlinks pointing to things you are about to remove), and then use these commands:
rm -f /etc/ipsec.* /usr/local/sbin/ipsec /etc/rc.d/init.d/ipsec
rm -rf /usr/local/lib/ipsec
rm -f /usr/local/man/man?/ipsec[._]*
You may need to vary the commands slightly if you, or whoever packaged
your distribution, changed the install directories when building
FreeS/WAN.
If you compiled KLIPS as a module, then just disabling FreeS/WAN as described above prevents loading the module.
If KLIPS is compiled into your kernel, then you can disable it by turning off IPsec in your kernel configuration (or by making it a module) and recompiling.
You can remove the FreeS/WAN patches from your kernel source by going to the FreeS/WAN install directory and giving the command:
make unpatch
This does not remove all FreeS/WAN changes; some are not done with patch(1) and cannot be reversed in this way.
To remove all trace of IPsec in your kernel, you should revert to an unpatched version, or download fresh kernel source.
This section describes setting up and testing Linux FreeS/WAN.
There are separate documents on testbed configurations and performance measurement which some users may want to consult along with this one. If you just want to get a few connections up, this document should have everything you need.
Before attempting this, you should:
You also need to set up and test IP networking on all the machines you plan to install FreeS/WAN on or to use in testing, before trying to set up FreeS/WAN.
In our examples, we describe a setup with three networks -- two that want to talk to each other plus the Internet in the middle. The idea is to build an encrypted tunnel across the Internet so the two networks can talk securely.
We'll call the two gateways East and West. We'll have a client machine on each net: Sunrise in the East and Sunset in the West.
Sunset==========West------------------East=========Sunrise
local net untrusted net local net
Of course one does not always have a security gateway separate from the client machine. It is also quite common to use IPsec on a network that looks like this:
telecommuter's PC or
traveller's laptop
Sunset==========West------------------East
corporate LAN untrusted net
We treat this setup as degenerate cases of the network-to-network link. The East computer is a gateway for a one-client subnet, and it is also the client.
Our goal here is to tell you how to set up the two gateways, East and West. We assume your goal is to ensure that East and West encrypt all traffic between them.
More complicated network configurations are described later.
Before trying to get FreeS/WAN working, you should configure and test IP networking on both gateways and on at least one client machine behind each of them. IPsec cannot work without a working IP network beneath it.
Many reported "FreeS/WAN problems" turn out to actually be problems with routing or firewalling. If any actual IPsec problems turn up, you often cannot even recognise them (much less debug them) unless the underlying network is right.
If you need advice on this, your best sources are likely:
See also our bibliography.
Here is our network diagram again:
Sunset==========West------------------East=========Sunrise
local net untrusted net local net
The client machines, Sunrise and Sunset in our example, may have assigned routable IP addresses, or they may be using private non-routable addresses (as defined in RFC 1918 ) with the gateways doing IP masquerade. It doesn't matter which, as long as whatever it is works correctly. Note, however, that the two client subnets must have distinct addresses. You cannot have them both masqueraded to the same range of RFC 1918 addresses.
You must have a working IP network before you try to add IPsec:
It is not enough to just test that your gateways (East and West in the example) can communicate. You need to test routing to the clients (Sunrise and Sunset) as well.
If you want to run some service encapsulated in IP -- perhaps to use Novell protocols encapsulated in IPX or to make Windows file sharing or NT domains work across the IPsec tunnel -- then please build and test what you need for that service on plain IP before trying it over IPsec. It can be a real nightmare trying to debug such things when you don't know if the problem is in IPsec, firewall rules, routing, or the configuration of the service itself. Some advice on making such things work with IPsec is in our interoperation section.
Some systems turn off packet forwarding by default. This is the safe default. You don't want systems forwarding packets in uncontrolled ways.
There are three places where you can enable or disable IP forwarding:
echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forwardYou need root privileges to write to that file.
A gateway machine needs forwarding enabled or it will not route packets between the two networks it is attached to. The simplest way to ensure this is to enable forwarding using your distribution's standard boot scripts. See above.
A more conservative approach is to disable forwarding in your system configuration, and only enable it after appropriate firewall rules and IPsec tunnels are in place. This reduces the risk of something slipping past your defenses before they are fully set up. On most systems, this can conveniently be done by adding a line to /etc/rc.d/rc.local , which is usually the last script run at boot time.
Configure and test any other software you will want to use for testing once IPsec is up. For example, you might put an HTTP daemon on Sunset and a browser on Sunrise. Make sure these work without IPsec.
If these tests fail, figure out why and fix it. Do not proceed until it works.
To build a connection, the two gateway machines must be able to authenticate each other. For FreeS/WAN, the default is public key authentication based on the RSA algorithm. IPsec does allow several other authentication methods; using some of them with FreeS/WAN is discussed in our advanced configuration section.
This section covers setting up RSA keys. The example connections to follow (VPN, road warrior and opportunistic) all use RSA.
RSA keys are created as matched pairs. Each pair includes:
For FreeS/WAN, both keys for your system are in the ipsec.secrets(5) file. Maintaining security of this file is essential since it holds your private key.
Public keys for the gateways you communicate with must be made available to your gateway. There are several ways to do this:
The first two methods are described in more detail below. See the X.509 patch documentation for details of the third, if required.
Remember that public key systems are designed so that it does not matter if an enemy knows the public keys. However, the private keys must be scrupulously protected.
If you installed FreeS/WAN yourself, then the installation process has already generated an RSA key pair for you and placed it in the ipsec.secrets(5) file. If not, then you need to generate an RSA key pair (private and public).
If you have the common simple situation where:
then you can just give these commands as root:
ipsec newhostkey > /etc/ipsec.secrets
chmod 600 /etc/ipsec.secrets
For other options, for example if you want to use different identities with different partners, see the ipsec.secrets(5) and ipsec_newhostkey(8) man pages.
Key generation may take some time, even on a fast system. Also, it
needs a lot of random numbers so you may need to
switch consoles and do something like typing a lot of text or running
The RSA keys we generate are suitable only for authentication, not for encryption. IPsec uses them only for authentication. See our IPsec section for details.
It is also possible to use keys in other formats, not generated by FreeS/WAN. This may be necessary for interoperation with other IPsec implementations. See our links to patches which add support for keys generated by PGP or embedded in X.509 certificates.
You need to extract the public part in a suitable suitable format. This done with the ipsec_showhostkey(8) command. For VPN or Road Warrior applications, use one of:
ipsec showhostkey --left
ipsec showhostkey --right
These two produce the key formatted for insertion in an ipsec.conf(5) file.
For opportunistic encryption, just use:
ipsec showhostkeyThis gives the key in a format suitable for use in DNS records.
Public keys need not be protected as fanatically as private keys. They are intended to be made public; the system is designed to work even if an enemy knows all the public keys used. You can safely make them publicly accessible -- for example, put a gateway key on a web page, make in available in DNS or via finger(1) -- or transmit it with an insecure method such as email. However, the recipient must be able to authenticate them, as described in the next section.
For example, consider the fellow who wants to communicate with his mistress, keeping messages secret from his wife.
The minute he begins to trust a bogus key, the cryptography does not just stop working for him. Instead, it becomes a powerful weapon against him.
You must authenticate any public keys received before using them. For remote sites, the simplest method is to exchange them using PGP-signed email (taking appropriate steps to authenticate the signing keys). Keys posted on the web or made available for finger(1) should also be PGP-signed. Keys in DNS should be protected by DNS Security. For nearby machines, a floppy disk or trusted network is fine.
For each system you will communicate with, you need an RSA public key and an identifier associated with it. The identifiers go in the leftid= and rightid= lines of connection descriptions in ipsec.conf(5). They are the names the systems use to identify themselves during connection negotiation.
The syntax rules allow four types of identifier:
We recommend that only the @FQDN form be used in most applications. The other three forms have problems:
If your domain is example.com, the gateway identifiers you use should be all be of the form "@something.example.com" with some convenient string replacing something.
In order to facilitate distributing keys through DNS, we recommend avoiding
For example, if you have a server alice.example.com, then you should not use "@alice.example.com" to identify Alice's laptop for IPsec.
One convenient scheme is to
FreeS/WAN uses a configuration file, ipsec.conf(5).
This section describes setting up the parts of that file that apply to all connections:and gives an introduction to the parts of the file that specify the actual connections. The following section covers setting up three common types of connection, all using automatic keying with RSA authentication of the gateways:
Setup is quite similar for each of these, but details differ.
Other types of connections are covered in later sections.
The easiest way to create a connection is by editing one of our examples. Here we will use the one in the installation ipsec.conf file. You could also start with one from our doc/examples file if one of those is closer to what you need to do.
For more detail, see the man page.
The confguration file uses left and right to refer to the two gateways involved in a connection, and has other parameters which come in left/right pairs. For example, leftsubnet is the subnet behind left.
Which gateway is left and which is right is arbitrary, entirely up to you.
We suggest that you name connections by their ends. For example, name the link between Fred and Susan's machines "fred-susan" or the link between your Reno and Vancouver offices "reno-van". You can then let "left" refer to the left half of the name, "fred" or "reno" in our examples, and "right" to the other half.
To simplify administration, we recommend that you use the same names in the ipsec.conf(5) files on both ends. The name reno , for example, should refer to the machine in Reno, no matter which city the file is in.
Then when you copy the file from one machine to the other, the only change you need to make on the second machine is changing the interfaces= line to match the interface that machine uses for IPsec.
Of course the software does not actually require this. The names are just arbitrary strings to it. If your administrator in Reno wants to refer to the machines as "Phobos" and "Demios" while the Vancouver admin calls them "George" and "Gracie", things should still work.
The first section of ipsec.conf(5) contains overall setup parameters for IPsec, which apply to all connections. In our example file, it is:
# basic configuration
config setup
# THIS SETTING MUST BE CORRECT or almost nothing will work;
# %defaultroute is okay for most simple cases.
interfaces=%defaultroute
# Debug-logging controls: "none" for (almost) none, "all" for lots.
klipsdebug=none
plutodebug=none
# Use auto= parameters in conn descriptions to control startup actions.
plutoload=%search
plutostart=%search
# Close down old connection when new one using same ID shows up.
uniqueids=yes
The variables set here are:
In many cases, the appropriate interface is just your default connection to the world (the Internet, or your corporate network). In these cases, you can use the default setting:
To check what FreeS/WAN sees as the default route, you can use the command ipsec showdefaults. You may need to compare this with the output from route -n to get a more complete picture.
In other cases, you can name one or more specific interfaces to be used by FreeS/WAN. For example:
Both tell KLIPS to use eth0 as ipsec0. The second one also supports IPsec over PPP.
Note that
If you need to discover interface names, use the command:
ifconfig
If you have PCMCIA or other interfaces that are not available at boot
time, special measures are required. See our section
on that.
klipsdebug and plutodebug can each be set to "none" or to "all" in most circumstances. There are other options; see the relevant man pages.
plutoload and plutostart can be quoted lists of connection names, but are often set to %search as in our example. Any connection with auto=add in its connection definition is then loaded, and any connection with auto=start is started.
In most cases, you want plutostart=%search here and auto=start in your connection descriptions. That way when a connection is broken, for example if one machine crashes or is taken down for some reason, it will be reliably rebuilt. If only one end is told to start the connection, then if the other end crashes, you may lose the connection for a long time. The end that could rebuild does not know it needs to.
The exception to the above is when you have many road warriors connecting to a single gateway. Having the gateway trying to rebuild tunnels to systems which are offline can waste considerable resources. In this case, the gateway should have auto=add for all connections, and let the remote systems start negotiations.
There is a special name %default that lets you define things that apply to all connections.
You can also set general defaults here but override them later for specific connections. If both the %default section and the actual connection description set the same variable, then the connection description takes precedence.
Our example file has:
# defaults for subsequent connection descriptions
conn %default
# How persistent to be in (re)keying negotiations (0 means very).
keyingtries=0
# How to authenticate gateways
authby=rsasig
# Load all connection descriptions by default
# Some will override this with auto=start
auto=add
Variables set here are:
For testing, you might wish to set this to some small number, perhaps even to 1, to avoid wasting resources on incorrectly set up connections. In production, it is often set to zero (retry forever). Keeping the connection up is what machine resources are for, so if a connection is down you might as well waste resources retrying as waste them by sitting idle. Of course some caution should be exercised with this, since it can waste network resources as well.
To actually start negotiations for a given connection, you need auto=start. You could make that the default here or leave auto=add as the default and override it where needed with auto=start in individual connection descriptions.
Once you are finished testing, you can edit these defaults, adding anything that is standard for all gateways in your organisation.
Edit our example connection to match what you want to do. Rename it appropriately for the connection you would like to build: "fred-susan", "reno-van" or whatever. The name is the second string in the line that begins with "conn", for example in:
conn snt
The connection name is "snt" (subn et tunnel) and to define another connection you make a copy with a new name such as:
conn reno-van
A sample connection description is:
# sample tunnel
# The network here looks like:
# leftsubnet====left----leftnexthop......rightnexthop----right====rightsubnet
# If left and right are on the same Ethernet, omit leftnexthop and rightnexthop.
conn sample
# left security gateway (public-network address)
left=10.0.0.1
# next hop to reach right
leftnexthop=10.44.55.66
# subnet behind left (omit if there is no subnet)
leftsubnet=172.16.0.0/24
# right s.g., subnet behind it, and next hop to reach left
right=10.12.12.1
rightnexthop=10.88.77.66
rightsubnet=192.168.0.0/24
auto=start
We omit here the variables we have shown as set in the default connection above. All of them could also be set here. If they are set in both places, settings here take precedence. Defaults are used only if the specific connection description has no value set.
The network described above looks like this:
subnet 172.16.0.0/24 =leftsubnet
|
| [whatever]
|
inside interface
left gateway machine
interface 10.0.0.1 =left
|
interface 10.44.55.66 =leftnexthop
router
interface we don't know
|
INTERNET
|
interface we don't know
router
interface 10.88.77.66 =rightnexthop
|
interface 10.12.12.1 =right
right gateway machine
inside interface
|
| [whatever]
|
subnet 192.168.0.0/24 =rightsubnet
You need to edit the connection description, inserting appropriate IP
addresses and subnet descriptions so that it describes your network.
The [whatever]s above indicate places where all that matters is routing.
You do not need to tell FreeS/WAN anything about the inside interfaces. In fact, there is no parameter you could use to do that. What you do have to do is make sure the gateway can route to its client subnet.
In most cases, you should use numeric IP addresses, not names, here. The file syntax allows names to be used, but this creates an additional risk. If someone can subvert the DNS service, then they can redirect packets whose addresses are looked up via that service.
Many of the variables in this file come in pairs such as "leftsubnet: and "rightsubnet", one for each end of the connection. The variables on the left side are:
This need not always be set.
However, in all other cases, you must provide nexthop information. KLIPS (Kernel IP Security) bypasses the normal routing machinery, so you must give KLIPS the information even though routing already knows it.
(Yes, we know that design is not ideal, and we plan to change it. See extensive discussions on the mailing list, mostly with "routing" or "KLIPS 2" in the subject lines.)
If the conn setup section has plutostart=%search , then all connections marked auto=start are started when Pluto starts.
Initially, we suggest using auto=add on all connections. This lets you start them manually during testing. Once they are tested, you can change many of them to auto=start.
For each left* parameter, there is a corresponding right* parameter.
Note that a connection to a subnet behind left does not include left itself. The tunnel described above protects packets going from one subnet to the other. It does not apply to packets which either begin or end their journey on one of the gateways. If you need to protect those packets, you must build separate tunnel descriptions for them.
It is a common error to attempt testing a subnet-to-subnet connection by pinging from one of the gateways to the far end or vice versa. This does not work, even if the connection is functioning perfectly, because traffic to or from the gateway itself is not sent on that connection. If you want to protect traffic originating or terminating on the gateway, then you need a separate tunnel for that in addition to the subnet's tunnel. See the section on multiple tunnels.
In this section we show examples of three common setups:
We use a, b, c ... to indicate components of IP addresses. Each letter is some number in the range 0 to 255, inclusive.
For additional examples, see our examples file.
Sunset==========West------------------East=========Sunrise
local net untrusted net local net
which we describe in our config files as:
leftsubnet === West------------------East=== rightsubnet
^left right^
In most cases, we also have to provide next hop information. A more
detailed diagram might look like this:
(using a, b, c, ... to refer to arbitrary numbers 0 to 255)
subnet a.b.c.0/24 =leftsubnet
| (head office has routable IP addresses)
interface a.b.c.d
left gateway machine
interface e.f.g.h =left
| (external address outside a.b.c.0 subnet)
interface e.f.g.i =leftnexthop
router
interface we don't know
|
INTERNET
|
interface we don't know
router
interface j.k.l.m =rightnexthop
|
interface j.k.l.n =right
right gateway machine
interface 192.168.0.something
| (branch office uses private IP addresses)
subnet 192.168.0.0/24 =rightsubnet
The ipsec.conf(5) file for the above network would look like this (with RSA keys shortened for easy display):
# basic configuration
config setup
interfaces="%defaultroute"
klipsdebug=none
plutodebug=none
plutoload=%search
plutostart=%search
# defaults that apply to all connection descriptions
conn %default
# How persistent to be in (re)keying negotiations (0 means very).
keyingtries=0
# How to authenticate gatways
authby=rsasig
# VPN connection for head office and branch office
conn head-branch
# identity we use in authentication exchanges
leftid=@head.example.com
leftrsasigkey=0x175cffc641f...
# left security gateway (public-network address)
left=e.f.g.h
# next hop to reach right
leftnexthop=e.f.g.i
# subnet behind left (omit if there is no subnet)
leftsubnet=a.b.c.0/24
# right s.g., subnet behind it, and next hop to reach left
rightid=@branch.example.com
rightrsasigkey=0xfc641fd6d9a24...
right=j.k.l.n
rightnexthop=j.k.l.m
rightsubnet=192.168.0.0/24
#
# right is masquerading
# So you have three choices, none of them ideal
#
# uncomment this to use our default script
# which works only with ipfwadm(8) on 2.0 kernels
# or ipchains(8) on 2.2 in ipfwadm(8) emulation mode
# rightfirewall=yes
#
# uncomment this and enter a name to write your own script
# to use all features of ipchains(8) on 2.2
# or to use iptables(8) on 2.4
# rightupdown=whatever_you_want_to_name_the_script
#
# if you uncomment neither and remove the rightsubnet= line
# then the tunnel terminates on the outside of your gateway
# and the masqueraded subnet is not visible to the remote
# subnet; they all think they're talking to the gateway
#
# try to start the connection
auto=start
For more on the use of the firewalling parameters -- leftfirewall, rightfirewall, leftupdown and rightupdown -- see our IPsec and firewalls section.
The versions of this file at the two ends should be identical, except that each must have an interfaces= line appropriate for the local machine.
RFC 1918 reserves three groups of addresses for use on private networks:
Addresses in these ranges will never be assigned to anything on the Internet. Many routers automatically drop any packet with one of these addresses as either source or destination.
You can use FreeS/WAN to:
If you do this, the non-routable addresses still do not appear on the Internet. They are encapsulated inside IPsec packets which have the gateways' external addresses (from the left and right parameters of the connection description) in their headers.
Of course FreeS/WAN can also tunnel packets between subnets with normal routable IP address.
For our purposes, a "road warrior" is any machine that does not have a fixed IP address. This includes:
The configuration for road warrior support looks slightly different from a VPN configuration. We cannot use the road warrior's IP address in the configuration file since we don't know it, and we don't want to have our server retrying connections to road warriors that are no longer online.
Some machines, such as home firewalls, may have a dynamic IP address and have a protected subnet behind them. For this example, however, we assume the Road Warrior is a standalone machine:
telecommuter's PC or
traveller's laptop
Sunset==========West------------------East
corporate LAN untrusted net
In more detail, the network looks like this:
(using a, b, c, ... to refer to arbitrary numbers 0 to 255)
subnet a.b.c.0/24 =leftsubnet
| (head office has routable IP addresses)
interface a.b.c.d
left gateway machine
interface e.f.g.h =left
| (external address outside a.b.c.0 subnet)
interface e.f.g.i =leftnexthop
router
|
INTERNET
|
interface with dynamic IP address
road warrior machine
Here the ipsec.conf(5) files on the two ends are slightly different. The one at the office might have exactly the same config setup and conn %default sections as in the VPN example.
# basic configuration
config setup
interfaces="%defaultroute"
klipsdebug=none
plutodebug=none
plutoload=%search
plutostart=%search
# defaults that apply to all connection descriptions
conn %default
# How persistent to be in (re)keying negotiations (0 means very).
keyingtries=0
# How to authenticate gatways
authby=rsasig
Then add a description for the road warrior connection:
# Connection for road warrior Fred
conn head-fred
# identity we use in authentication exchanges
leftid=@head.example.com
leftrsasigkey=0x175cffc641f...
# left security gateway (public-network address)
left=e.f.g.h
# next hop to reach right
leftnexthop=e.f.g.i
# subnet behind left (omit if there is no subnet)
leftsubnet=a.b.c.0/24
# accept any address for right
right=%any
# any address, provided authentication works
rightid=@fred.road.example.com
rightrsasigkey=0xd9a24765fe...
#
# no subnet for a typical road warrior
# it is possible, but usually not needed
# so the rightsubnet= parameter is omitted
#
# let the road warrior start the connection
auto=add
# override the default retry for road warriors
# we don't want to retry if IP connectivity is gone
keyingtries=1
On the gateway end we use the values shown above:
The file on the road warrior end is nearly identical, except that it has:
Because we are using right=%defaultroute, we omit the rightnexthop parameter.
Additional road warriors can be added as required. Each should have his or her own connection description with unique settings for rightid and rightrsasigkey.
If necessary, a single road warrior can have multiple connections, all with the same rightid and rightrsasigkey, but with different values for leftsubnet to give access to different parts of the office network.
Jean-Francois Nadeau's Practical Configurations document also has an example of using RSA authentication for road warriors.
The idea is that each gateway check the destinations of outgoing packets, see if an encrypted connection is possible and, if so, take the opportuntity to encrypt. The opportunity will exist whenever the admins on both ends have set their systems up for opportunistic encryption.
This makes encryption the default behaviour, and could greatly increase the overall security of the Internet if it were widely enough adopted. See our documents:
The gateways must be able to authenticate each other for IPsec to be secure. For opportunistic encryption, we rely on the domain name system, DNS, to provide the RSA keys needed for this authentication. Note, that currently this is not entirely secure because the DNS mechanism it relies on is not fully secure. Eventually, as secure DNS becomes widely deployed, this will change.
The main documentation items so far are:
We do not yet recommend this code for production use . You should still protect your critical data with explicitly configured IPsec tunnels, rather than relying on opportunistic for everything at this stage.
The relevant lines in the config file might look like this:
conn subnet-to-anyone # for our client subnet
leftsubnet=10.42.42.0/24 # any single client in our subnet
left=%defaultroute # our SG (defaults leftnexthop too)
right=%opportunistic # anyone we can authenticate via DNS
rekey=no # let unused connections die
The public key, in our format, must be in a KEY record of the appropriate DNS entry for this to work. We provide some background information on DNS in another file.
Each opportunistic connection supports a single source/destination pair of IP addresses. There is no way to build an opportunistic connection for a larger subnet. Specifying a subnet in the connection description, as in the example above, just means that any host in that subnet may have opportunistic connections.
To be more precise, quoting the Opportunism Design document:
For reference, the minimum set of DNS records needed to make
this all work is either:
1. TXT in Destination reverse map, identifying Responder
and providing public key.
2. KEY in Initiator reverse map, providing public key.
3. TXT in Source reverse map, verifying relationship to
Initiator.
or:
1. TXT in Destination reverse map, identifying Responder.
2. KEY in Responder reverse map, providing public key.
3. KEY in Initiator reverse map, providing public key.
4. TXT in Source reverse map, verifying relationship to
Initiator.
Slight complications ensue for dynamic addresses, lack of
control over reverse maps, etc.
The client systems will be either Source or Destination, so they must have:
1. TXT in Destination reverse map, identifying Responder
and providing public key.
2. ...
3. TXT in Source reverse map, verifying relationship to
Initiator.
or:
1. TXT in Destination reverse map, identifying Responder.
2. ...
3. ...
4. TXT in Source reverse map, verifying relationship to
Initiator.
If you control the gateway's reverse map, example client records would
look like this:
42.42.42.10.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR deepthought.example.com. 42.42.42.10.in-addr.arpa. IN TXT "X-IPsec-Server(10)=10.20.30.40 AQNJjkKlIk9...nYyUkKK8"which can also be written as just:
42.42.42.10.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR deepthought.example.com.
IN TXT "X-IPsec-Server(10)=10.20.30.40 AQNJjkKlIk9...nYyUkKK8"
This provides the IP address of the security gateway and the public
key which the gateway will use to authenticate itself. This is the
preferred method.
1. ... 2. KEY in Initiator reverse map, providing public key. 3. ... or: 1. ... 2. KEY in Responder reverse map, providing public key. 3. KEY in Initiator reverse map, providing public key. 4. ...
If you control the gateway's reverse map, you just add a KEY record there. That is all the gateway reverse map needs, whether it is working as Initiator or Responder.
Here is an example, with many characters of the key itself left out:
40.30.20.10.in-addr.arpa. IN KEY 0x4200 4 1 AQNJjkKlIk9...nYyUkKK8This allows lookups on the IP address of the gateway to retrieve the key.
However, suppose a friend over at example.org will let you put things in their maps. That will allow you to set your gateway up to handle opportunistic connections for which it is the initiator.
You still need to be able to put data in the reverse map for your clients. However, that data is slightly different:
42.42.42.10.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR deepthought.example.com.
IN TXT "X-IPsec-Server(10)=something.example.org"
Over at example.org, your friend puts these lines in the DNS data
files:
something.example.org. IN A 10.20.30.40 something.example.org. IN KEY 0x4200 4 1 AQNJjkKlIk9...nYyUkKK8Your gateway must identify itself in IKE as something.example.org, not as gateway.example.com. You set that up via leftid= or rightid= entries in ipsec.conf(5).
With this arrangement, the remote gateway receives an ID payload early in IKE with your (bogus) gateway name "something.example.org". Then it looks up that name to get the IP address and key for the gateway.
If your network is simple enough that one of the examples had all you need, then you can skip ahead to firewall setup .
We provide several features in the syntax of the ipsec.conf(5) file that are intended to simplify the work of managing complex multi-connection setups:
These can be combined in whatever way suits your application. One example is this ipsec.conf file for a gateway supporting multiple road warriors, all using RSA authentication:
conn %default
type=tunnel
pfs=yes
keylife=2h
# set some defaults appropriate for the gateway
# these should be changed or overridden on the road warriors
keyingtries=1 # road warrior can retry, we shouldn't
auto=add # default is to load, but not start
# some parameters are common to all remote systems
authby=rsasig # all connections use RSA authentication
right=%any # accept from any address
# pick up all remote system descriptions
# uses shell wildcards
include /etc/ipsec/remote.*.conn
# left side of all connections is the same
# define it after the descriptions which use it
conn leftstuff
# left security gateway (public-network address)
left=e.f.g.h
# next hop to reach right
leftnexthop=e.f.g.i
# subnet behind left (omit if there is no subnet)
leftsubnet=a.b.c.0/24
leftid=@gateway.example.org
On the left gateway, we can omit leftrsasig. That gateway uses the private key stored in ipsec.secrets(5) and has no need for its own public key. Similarly, the road warriors need not have their own public keys in ipsec.conf(5), only the gateway's public key.
The remote connection descriptions in /etc/ipsec/remote.*.conn need then have only a few lines each:
conn myname
# pick up common info for all connections
also=leftstuff
# identify the remote machine
rightid=@myname.example.org
rightrsasigkey=0xfc641fd6d9a24...
Be careful with the order of sections in ipsec.conf(5) and any included files. The parser requires that a definition comes after the also= line which uses it. In our example, the include inserts the files with the also=leftstuff lines before the definition of conn leftstuff so things are parsed in the correct order.
The above method, using conn leftstuff and also= , is only one alternative. In simple cases, you can just put all the information about the left gateway in the conn default section instead and use no also= lines.
If firewall packet filtering is being done on either of the FreeS/WAN gateway machines, or on any machine on the path between them, then you will probably need to adjust the filters before FreeS/WAN can work. The filters must allow:
For more detail, see our IPsec and firewalls document.
This section covers testing connections once you have FreeS/WAN installed and your ipsec.conf(5) file set up. A separate testing document has more information if required.
We assume all your connection descriptions use auto=add so that ipsec_pluto(8) loads the descriptions into its internal database at startup but does not attempt to start the connections until you tell it to.
It is important that the numbers in your connection descriptions match the network configuration. FreeS/WAN is almost certain to fail if they do not.
Suppose you are at the Reno office and your ipsec.conf file now has, among others, these lines:
config setup
interfaces="ipsec0=eth0"
conn reno-van
left=101.101.101.101
right=202.202.202.202
When you tell FreeS/WAN to start the reno-van connection, it doesn't automagically know that it is in Reno, or that it is left in the configuration. It discovers that by comparing the IP address for ipsec0 (and, if it is set, for ipsec1) to the addresses for left and right. ipsec0 inherits its address from the underlying device, eth0 in our example.
So in our example, if eth0 has IP address 101.101.101.101 then ipsec0 inherits that address, the correct match is found, and this FreeS/WAN discovers that it is left. (If no match is found, Pluto reports "unable to orient connection".) It then sets itself up with any other left* parameters in use -- some of leftnexthop, leftsubnet, and leftid.
Once it has these parameters, FreeS/WAN sets things so that
All should be well.
Of course, there must also be interfaces and routes set up so that this machine can exchange IP packets both with the right gateway and with clients on leftsubnet. This is done with standard Linux utilities such as ifconfig(8) and route(8). Also, things must be correct on right in Vancouver. It takes two to tunnel.
A data mismatch anywhere in this configuration will cause FreeS/WAN to fail and to log various error messages. Depending on just how confused FreeS/WAN is and about what, the error messages may be somewhat confusing. See our troubleshooting section and the FAQ section om error messages to get help interpreting them if required.
We recommend double-checking for consistency here before starting actual tests..
Reboot both gateways to get FreeS/WAN started. No connections are actually made yet, but the stage is set.
Examine /var/log/messages for any signs of trouble.
On both gateways, the following entries should now exist in the /proc/net/ directory:
and the IPsec interfaces should be attached on top of the specified physical interfaces. Confirm that with:
cat /proc/net/ipsec_tncfg
You should see at least device ipsec0, and each ipsec device should point to a physical device, eg. 'ipsec0 -> eth0 mtu=16260 -> 1500'.
Routing connections through these ipsec pseudo-devices causes the data to be encrypted before being delivered to the underlying network interface. This can be done manually with our eroute(8) utility, but in most cases you do not need to use that utility directly. Just bring the connections up and down and the scripts call it as required.
Don't be surprised when you cannot find /dev/ipsec0 or /dev/ipsec1. They do not exist. Other network pseudo-devices such as eth0 and eth1 do not have entries in /dev either. In general, network devices do not need such entries.
On one gateway, start IPsec with:
ipsec auto --up name
replacing name with the connection name you used in ipsec.conf(5).
For this to work, the connection description must already be loaded
into Pluto's database, either via auto=add in the connection
description or with an explicit
Note that to shut down a connection, you must do:
ipsec auto --down name
on both gateway machines, even though you only start it from one.
If the ipsec auto --up command doesn't generate any errors, do
ipsec look
and see if the output looks something like this:
foo.spsystems.net Wed Nov 25 22:51:45 EST 1998 ------------------------- 10.0.1.0/24 -> 11.0.1.0/24 => tun0x200@11.0.0.1 esp0x202@11.0.0.1 ------------------------- tun0x200@11.0.0.1 IPv4_Encapsulation: dir=out 10.0.0.1 -> 11.0.0.1 esp0x203@10.0.0.1 3DES-MD5-96_Encryption: dir=in iv=0xc2cbca5ba42ffbb6 seq=0 bit=0x00000000 win=0 flags=0x0<> esp0x202@11.0.0.1 3DES-MD5-96_Encryption: dir=out iv=0xc2cbca5ba42ffbb6 seq=0 bit=0x00000000 win=0 flags=0x0<> Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface 11.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 1500 0 0 eth1 11.0.1.0 11.0.0.1 255.255.255.0 UG 1404 0 0 ipsec0
If it does, you're probably in business.
This example shows:
a tunnel tun0x200 going to 11.0.0.1
outgoing connection esp0x202
incoming connection esp0x203
Both connections use ESP with 3DES encryption and MD5 authentication.
The routing is:
11.0.0.0 via eth1 and the Internet
11.0.1.0 via ipsec0 which encrypts and then sends to 11.0.0.1
This routes all traffic to the protected network 11.0.1.0/24 through an IPsec tunnel to the gateway 11.0.0.1.
If that works, test whether Sunrise can ping Sunset and vice versa. Our example setup again is:
Sunset==========West------------------East=========Sunrise
local net untrusted net local net
There is no point in testing to or from the gateways themselves; the goal is to secure traffic between the subnets, not between the security gateways themselves.
In general, pings or other tests using the public interfaces of East and/or West are entirely useless. The IPsec tunnel is for packets between the two protected subnets and the outside interfaces are not on those subnets. Depending on your routing configuration, test packets sent via those interfaces will be:
In either case, they tell you nothing about the tunnel .
Sometimes it will be inconvenient to use the client machines (Sunrise and Sunset in our example) for testing. In these cases, use a command such as:
traceroute -i eth0 -f 20 192.168.7.1
where each of the interfaces specified (eth0 and 192.168.7.1 in the example) are on one of the protected subnets, eth0 being the local gateway's interface on that side and 192.168.7.1 the remote gateway's subnet interface. This forces the packets through the IPsec tunnel you want to test.
For information on setting things up so that gateways can do IPsec to each other or to remote subnets, see below .
If you have other software set up, test with it as well. Telnet from Sunrise to Sunset, browse a web server on the remote net and so on.
To verify that all is working, run tcpdump(8) on a machine which can listen to the traffic between the gateways.
This is most easily done from a third machine, rather than from one of the gateways. On the gateways you may see packets at intermediate stages of processing and the result may be confusing.
If the results make no sense at all, or you see "bad physical medium" error messages, you probably have an outdated version of tcpdump(8) that does not handle IPsec at all. See this discussion.
If packets look like total garbage, nothing recognizable, all is well.
See our document on testing for more detail if required.To shut down a connection, you must do:
ipsec auto --down name
on both gateway machines, even though you only start it from one.
Again, you can verify with the same commands. Repeat the ping test. Repeat the tcpdump test.
If everything succeeds, congratulations. You now have a working Linux FreeS/WAN installation.
At this point you should have a working FreeS/WAN setup. If not, you could go back and doublecheck various things above or try:
If all is well so far, you could go to:
Of course you might just go off for a beverage or meal at this point as well.
The various components of Linux FreeS/WAN are of course documented in standard Unix manual pages, accessible via the man(1) command.
Links here take you to an HTML version of the man pages.
These files are also discussed in the configuration section.
Many users will never give most of the FreeS/WAN commands directly. Configure the files listed above correctly and everything should be automatic.
The exceptions are commands for mainpulating the RSA keys used in Pluto authentication:
Note that:
The following commands are fairly likely to be used, if only for testing and status checks:
The lower-level utilities listed below are normally invoked via scripts listed above, but they can also be used directly when required.
FreeS/WAN, or other IPsec implementations, frequently run on gateway machines, the same machines running firewall or packet filtering code. This document discusses the relation between the two.
The firewall code in 2.4 and later kernels is called Netfilter. The user-space utility to manage a firwewall is iptables(8). See the netfilter/iptables web site for details.
The basic constraint is that an IPsec gateway must have packet filters that allow IPsec packets, at least when talking to other IPsec gateways:
Your gateway and the other IPsec gateways it communicates with must be able to exchange these packets for IPsec to work. Firewall rules must allow UDP 500 and at least one of AHor ESP on the interface that communicates with the other gateway.
For nearly all FreeS/WAN applications, you must allow UDP port 500 and the ESP protocol.
There are two ways to set this up:
Both methods are described in more detail below.
It is possible to set up both firewalling and IPsec with appropriate scripts at boot and then not use leftupdown= and rightupdown=, or use them only for simple up and down operations.
Basically, the technique is
Since Pluto authenticates its partners during the negotiation, and KLIPS drops packets for which no tunnel has been negotiated, this may be all you need.
In simple cases, you need only a few rules, as in this example:
# allow IPsec # # IKE negotiations iptables -A INPUT -p udp --sport 500 --dport 500 -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p udp --sport 500 --dport 500 -j ACCEPT # ESP encrypton and authentication iptables -A INPUT -p 50 -j ACCEPT iptables -A OUTPUT -p 50 -j ACCEPT # uncomment for AH authentication header # iptables -A INPUT -p 51 -j ACCEPT # iptables -A OUTPUT -p 51 -j ACCEPT
However, while it is certainly possible to create an elaborate set of rules yourself (please let us know via the mailing list if you do), it may be both easier and more secure to use a set which has already been published and tested.
The published rule sets we know of are described in the next section.
This is especially likely for rules that deal with interfaces on the Internet side of your system. IPsec adds a new interface; often the rules must change to take account of that.
For example, consider the rules given in this section of the Netfilter documentation:
Most people just have a single PPP connection to the Internet, and don't
want anyone coming back into their network, or the firewall:
## Insert connection-tracking modules (not needed if built into kernel).
# insmod ip_conntrack
# insmod ip_conntrack_ftp
## Create chain which blocks new connections, except if coming from inside.
# iptables -N block
# iptables -A block -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
# iptables -A block -m state --state NEW -i ! ppp0 -j ACCEPT
# iptables -A block -j DROP
## Jump to that chain from INPUT and FORWARD chains.
# iptables -A INPUT -j block
# iptables -A FORWARD -j block
On an IPsec gateway, those rules may need to be modified. The above allows new connections from anywhere except ppp0. That means new connections from ipsec0 are allowed.
Do you want to allow anyone who can establish an IPsec connection to your gateway to initiate TCP connections to any service on your network? Almost certainly not if you are using opportunistic encryption. Quite possibly not even if you have only explicitly configured connections.
To disallow incoming connections from ipsec0, change the middle section above to:
## Create chain which blocks new connections, except if coming from inside.
# iptables -N block
# iptables -A block -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
# iptables -A block -m state --state NEW -i ppp+ -j DROP
# iptables -A block -m state --state NEW -i ipsec+ -j DROP
# iptables -A block -m state --state NEW -i -j ACCEPT
# iptables -A block -j DROP
The original rules accepted NEW connections from anywhere except ppp0.
This version drops NEW connections from any PPP interface (ppp+) and
from any ipsec interface (ipsec+), then accepts the survivors.
Of course, these are only examples. You will need to adapt them to your own situation.
One user, Rob Hutton, posted his boot time scripts to the mailing list, and we included them in previous versions of this documentation. They are still available from our web site. However, they were for an earlier FreeS/WAN version so we no longer recommend them. Also, they had some bugs. See this message.
Those scripts were based on David Ranch's scripts for his "Trinity OS" for setting up a secure Linux. Check his home page for the latest version and for information on his book on securing Linux. If you are going to base your firewalling on Ranch's scripts, we recommend using his latest version, and sending him any IPsec modifications you make for incorporation into later versions.
The ipsec.conf(5) configuration file has three pairs of parameters used to specify an interface between FreeS/WAN and firewalling code.
Note that using these is not required if you have a static firewall setup. In that case, you just set your firewall up at boot time (in a way that permits the IPsec connections you want) and do not change it thereafter. Omit all the FreeS/WAN firewall parameters and FreeS/WAN will not attempt to adjust firewall rules at all. See above for some information on appropriate scripts.
However, if you want your firewall rules to change when IPsec connections change, then you need to use these parameters.
One pair of parmeters are set in the config setup section of the ipsec.conf(5) file and affect all connections:
They can also be used in other ways. For example, you might have prepluto add a module to your kernel for the secure network interface or make a dialup connection, and then have postpluto remove the module or take the connection down.
The other parameters are set in connection descriptions. They can be set in individual connection descriptions, and could even call different scripts for each connection for maximum flexibility. In most applications, however, it makes sense to use only one script and to call it from conn %default section so that it applies to all connections.
You can:
Note that only one of these should be used. You cannot sensibly use both. Since our default script is obsolete (designed for firewalls using ipfwadm(8) on 2.0 kernels), most users who need this service will need to write a custom script.
Note that you should not modify our _updown script in place . If you did that, then upgraded FreeS/WAN, the upgrade would install a new default script, overwriting your changes.
Our _updown is for firewalls using ipfwadm(8), the firewall code for the 2.0 series of Linux kernels. If you are using the more recent packages ipchains(8) (for 2.2 kernels) or iptables(8) (2.4 kernels), then you must do one of:
You can write a script to do whatever you need with firewalling. Specify its name in a [left|right]updown= parameter in ipsec.conf(5) and Pluto will automatically call it for you.
The arguments Pluto passes such a script are the same ones it passes to our default _updown script, so the best way to build yours is to copy ours and modify the copy.
Note, however, that you should not modify our _updown script in place. If you did that, then upgraded FreeS/WAN, the upgrade would install a new default script, overwriting your changes.
Network Address Translation, also known as IP masquerading, is a method of allocating IP addresses dynamically, typically in circumstances where the total number of machines which need to access the Internet exceeds the supply of IP addresses.
Any attempt to perform NAT operations on IPsec packets between the IPsec gateways creates a basic conflict:
For IKE and ESP it is not necessarily fatal, but is certainly an unwelcome complication.
This problem can be avoided by having the masquerading take place on or behind the IPsec gateway.
This can be done physically with two machines, one physically behind the other. A picture, using SG to indicate IPsec S ecurity Gateways, is:
clients --- NAT ----- SG ---------- SG
two machines
In this configuration, the actual client addresses need not be given in the leftsubnet= parameter of the FreeS/WAN connection description. The security gateway just delivers packets to the NAT box; it needs only that machine's address. What that machine does with them does not affect FreeS/WAN.
A more common setup has one machine performing both functions:
clients ----- NAT/SG ---------------SG
one machine
Here you have a choice of techniques depending on whether you want to
make your client subnet visible to clients on the other end:
In this case, no masquerading is done. Packets to or from the client subnet are encrypted or decrypted without any change to their client subnet addresses, although of course the encapsulating packets use gateway addresses in their headers. Clients behind the right security gateway see a route via that gateway to the left subnet.
We recommend not trying to build IPsec connections which pass through a NAT machine. This setup poses problems:
clients --- SG --- NAT ---------- SGIf you must try it, some references are:
Of course simply allowing UDP 500 and ESP packets is not the whole story. Various other issues arise in making IPsec and packet filters co-exist and even co-operate. Some of them are summarised below.
Basic IPsec packet filtering rules deal only with packets addressed to or sent from your IPsec gateway.
It is a separate policy decision whether to permit such packets to pass through the gateway so that client machines can build end-to-end IPsec tunnels of their own. This may not be practical if you are using NAT (IP masquerade) on your gateway, and may conflict with some corporate security policies.
Where possible, allowing this is almost certainly a good idea. Using IPsec on an end-to-end basis is more secure than gateway-to-gateway.
Doing it is quite simple. You just need firewall rules that allow UDP port 500 and protocols 50 and 51 to pass through your gateway. If you wish, you can of course restrict this to certain hosts.
One application of this is for the telecommuter who might have:
Sunset==========West------------------East ================= firewall --- the Internet
home network untrusted net corporate network
The subnet on the right is 0.0.0.0/0, the whole Internet. The West
gateway is set up so that it allows only IPsec packets to East in or
out.
This configuration is used in AT&T Research's network. For details, see the papers links in our introduction.
It is possible to use firewall rules to restrict UDP 500, ESP and AH packets so that these packets are accepted only from known gateways. This is not strictly necessary since FreeS/WAN will discard packets from unknown gateways. You might, however, want to do it for any of a number of reasons. For example:
It is not possible to use only static firewall rules for this filtering if you do not know the other gateways' IP addresses in advance, for example if you have "road warriors" who may connect from a different address each time or if want to do opportunistic encryption to arbitrary gateways. In these cases, you can accept UDP 500 IKE packets from anywhere, then use the updown script feature of pluto(8) to dynamically adjust firewalling for each negotiated tunnel.
Firewall packet filtering does not much reduce the risk of a denial of service attack on FreeS/WAN. The firewall can drop packets from unknown gateways, but KLIPS does that quite efficiently anyway, so you gain little. The firewall cannot drop otherwise legitmate packets that fail KLIPS authentication, so it cannot protect against an attack designed to exhaust resources by making FreeS/WAN perform many expensive authentication operations.
In summary, firewall filtering of IPsec packets from unknown gateways is possible but not strictly necessary.
When the IPsec gateway is also acting as your firewall, other packet filtering rules will be in play. In general, those are outside the scope of this document. See our Linux firewall links for information. There are a few types of packet, however, which can affect the operation of FreeS/WAN or of diagnostic tools commonly used with it. These are discussed below.
ICMP is the Internet Control Message Protocol. It is used for messages between IP implementations themselves, whereas IP used is used between the clients of those implementations. ICMP is, unsurprisingly, used for control messages. For example, it is used to notify a sender that a desination is not reachable, or to tell a router to reroute certain packets elsewhere.
ICMP handling is tricky for firewalls.
ICMP does not use ports. Messages are distinguished by a "message type" field and, for some types, by an additional "code" field. The definitive list of types and codes is on the IANA site.
One expert uses this definition for ICMP message types to be dropped at the firewall.
# ICMP types which lack socially redeeming value. # 5 Redirect # 9 Router Advertisement # 10 Router Selection # 15 Information Request # 16 Information Reply # 17 Address Mask Request # 18 Address Mask Reply badicmp='5 9 10 15 16 17 18'
A more conservative approach would be to make a list of allowed types and drop everything else.
Whichever way you do it, your ICMP filtering rules on a FreeS/WAN gateway should allow at least the following ICMP packet types:
It is fairly common for firewalls to drop ICMP echo packets addressed to machines behind the firewall. If that is your policy, please create an exception for such packets arriving via an IPsec tunnel, at least during intial testing of those tunnels.
The traceroute(1) utility uses UDP port numbers from 33434 to approximately 33633. Generally, these should be allowed through for troubleshooting.
Some firewalls drop these packets to prevent outsiders exploring the protected network with traceroute(1). If that is your policy, consider creating an exception for such packets arriving via an IPsec tunnel, at least during intial testing of those tunnels.
For this to work, you must allow UDP protocol 1701 packets coming out of your tunnels to continue to their destination. You can, and probably should, block such packets to or from your external interfaces, but allow them from ipsec0.
See also our Windows 2000 interoperation discussion .
IPsec uses three main types of packet:
All of those packets should have appropriate IPsec gateway addresses in both the to and from IP header fields. Firewall rules can check this if you wish, though it is not strictly necessary. This is discussed in more detail later.
IPsec processing of incoming packets authenticates them then removes the ESP or AH header and decrypts if necessary. Successful processing exposes an inner packet which is then delivered back to the firewall machinery, marked as having arrived on an ipsec[0-3] interface. Firewall rules can use that interface label to distinguish these packets from unencrypted packets which are labelled with the physical interface they arrived on (or perhaps with a non-IPsec virtual interface such as ppp0).
One of our users sent a mailing list message with a diagram of the packet flow.
Some protocols, such as TCP and UDP, have the notion of ports. Others protocols, including ESP and AH, do not. Quite a few IPsec newcomers have become confused on this point. There are no ports in the ESP or AH protocols, and no ports used for them. For these protocols, the idea of ports is completely irrelevant.
The protocol numbers for ESP or AH are used in the 'next header' field of the IP header. On most non-IPsec packets, that field would have one of:
Each header in the sequence tells what the next header will be. IPsec adds headers for ESP or AH near the beginning of the sequence. The original headers are kept and the 'next header' fields adjusted so that all headers can be correctly interpreted.
For example, using [ ] to indicate data protected by ESP and unintelligible to an eavesdropper between the gateways:
Part of the ESP header itself is encrypted, which is why the [ indicating protected data appears in the middle of some lines above. The next header field of the ESP header is protected. This makes traffic analysis more difficult. The next header field would tell an eavesdropper whether your packet was UDP to the gateway, TCP to the gateway, or encapsulated IP. It is better not to give this information away. A clever attacker may deduce some of it from the pattern of packet sizes and timings, but we need not make it easy.
IPsec allows various combinations of these to match local policies, including combinations that use both AH and ESP headers or that nest multiple copies of these headers.
For example, suppose my employer has an IPsec VPN running between two offices so all packets travelling between the gateways for those offices are encrypted. If gateway policies allow it (The admins could block UDP 500 and protocols 50 and 51 to disallow it), I can build an IPsec tunnel from my desktop to a machine in some remote office. Those packets will have one ESP header throughout their life, for my end-to-end tunnel. For part of the route, however, they will also have another ESP layer for the corporate VPN's encapsulation. The whole header scheme for a packet on the Internet might be:
The first ESP (outermost) header is for the corporate VPN. The inner ESP header is for the secure machine-to-machine link.
Here are some mailing list comments from pluto(8) developer Hugh Redelmeier on an earlier draft of this document:
There are many important things left out
- firewalling is important but must reflect (implement) policy. Since
policy isn't the same for all our customers, and we're not experts,
we should concentrate on FW and MASQ interactions with FreeS/WAN.
- we need a diagram to show packet flow WITHIN ONE MACHINE, assuming
IKE, IPsec, FW, and MASQ are all done on that machine. The flow is
obvious if the components are run on different machines (trace the
cables).
IKE input:
+ packet appears on public IF, as UDP port 500
+ input firewalling rules are applied (may discard)
+ Pluto sees the packet.
IKE output:
+ Pluto generates the packet & writes to public IF, UDP port 500
+ output firewalling rules are applied (may discard)
+ packet sent out public IF
IPsec input, with encapsulated packet, outer destination of this host:
+ packet appears on public IF, protocol 50 or 51. If this
packet is the result of decapsulation, it will appear
instead on the paired ipsec IF.
+ input firewalling rules are applied (but packet is opaque)
+ KLIPS decapsulates it, writes result to paired ipsec IF
+ input firewalling rules are applied to resulting packet
as input on ipsec IF
+ if the destination of the packet is this machine, the
packet is passed on to the appropriate protocol handler.
If the original packet was encapsulated more than once
and the new outer destination is this machine, that
handler will be KLIPS.
+ otherwise:
* routing is done for the resulting packet. This may well
direct it into KLIPS for encoding or encrypting. What
happens then is described elsewhere.
* forwarding firewalling rules are applied
* output firewalling rules are applied
* the packet is sent where routing specified
IPsec input, with encapsulated packet, outer destination of another host:
+ packet appears on some IF, protocol 50 or 51
+ input firewalling rules are applied (but packet is opaque)
+ routing selects where to send the packet
+ forwarding firewalling rules are applied (but packet is opaque)
+ packet forwarded, still encapsulated
IPsec output, from this host or from a client:
+ if from a client, input firewalling rules are applied as the
packet arrives on the private IF
+ routing directs the packet to an ipsec IF (this is how the
system decides KLIPS processing is required)
+ if from a client, forwarding firewalling rules are applied
+ KLIPS eroute mechanism matches the source and destination
to registered eroutes, yielding a SPI group. This dictates
processing, and where the resulting packet is to be sent
(the destinations SG and the nexthop).
+ output firewalling is not applied to the resulting
encapsulated packet
- Until quite recently, KLIPS would double encapsulate packets that
didn't strictly need to be. Firewalling should be prepared for
those packets showing up as ESP and AH protocol input packets on
an ipsec IF.
- MASQ processing seems to be done as if it were part of the
forwarding firewall processing (this should be verified).
- If a firewall is being used, it is likely the case that it needs to
be adjusted whenever IPsec SAs are added or removed. Pluto invokes
a script to do this (and to adjust routing) at suitable times. The
default script is only suitable for ipfwadm-managed firewalls. Under
LINUX 2.2.x kernels, ipchains can be managed by ipfwadm (emulation),
but ipchains more powerful if manipulated using the ipchains command.
In this case, a custom updown script must be used.
We think that the flexibility of ipchains precludes us supplying an
updown script that would be widely appropriate.
Before we launch into how to establish, test and troubleshoot a connection step by step, here's a brief overview that may allow you to skim ahead to the most useful part of this document for you.
There are several general places where you might have a problem:
This document also contains notes which expand on points made in these sections, and tips for problem reporting. If the other end of your connection is not FreeS/WAN, see also our interoperation document.
Instructions and tips are in our install document. If you encounter a problem, it may be:
Missing library. See this FAQ.
Missing utilities required for compile. See this checklist.
Kernel version incompatibility. See this FAQ.
Another compile problem. Find information in the out.* files, ie. out.kpatch, out.kbuild, created at compile time in the top-level Linux FreeS/WAN directory. Error messages generated by KLIPS during the boot sequence are accessible with the dmesg command
Check the list archives and the List in Brief to see if this is a known issue. If it is not, report it to the bugs list as described in our problem reporting section. In some cases, you may be asked to provide debugging information using gdb; details below.
If your kernel compiles but you fail to install your new FreeS/WAN-enabled kernel, review the sections on installing the patched kernel, and testing to see if install succeeded.
Know your IPSec needs. For most people who begin experimenting with IPSec in the field, your configuration will more or less resemble one of the samples in our configuration document . Other folks may wish to create a testbed network in a lab environment for intensive IPSec testing or proof-of-concept. They may be interested in this description of a sample testbed network.
Draw a network schematic. This will assist others in helping you should you mail the list for help.
For example:
Sunset==========West------------------East
corporate LAN untrusted net
Add IPs to the diagram.
Sunset==========West------------------East
corporate LAN untrusted net
192.168.1.5 N.N.N.235
eth0(external)=N.N.N.222
eth1(internal)=192.168.1.1;
gateway for 192.168.0.0/24
How many tunnels do you need to connect your sites sufficiently for your purposes? Check our configuration document for why you might need multiple tunnels. How would you name each tunnel?
Above, it is possible to make two tunnels: sunset-east and west-east. If East does not need to access any resources on West, and West is not masquerading (see below) we may only want to create sunset-east. Sunset-east is a tunnel between IPSec-enabled machines West and East, created to protect traffic between the net on which Sunset resides, and East. However, it is safest to create all potential tunnels in your configuration. This lowers the risk that you will forget to configure a needed tunnel, and send important data cleartext. As an added safeguard, by default, (at the time of writing) Linux FreeS/WAN prevents you from routing cleartext packets between IPSec gateways which are also linked by a tunnel. Reliance on this behaviour is not a substitute for secure network design.
Take into account any masquerading and Network Address Translation rules on your gateway. If you are masquerading packets from Sunset as they leave West, Linux FreeS/WAN will treat these as though they originated at West, not Sunset. For more detail, see this packet flow diagram.
For each tunnel, think of a packet path that will allow you to test that tunnel. Refer to this discussion.
Ensure that IKE packets can travel freely between your IPSec gateways, as described here. If they cannot, the connection negotiation, described below, will be stuck in its first state.
Bring up one of your connections, using the ipsec auto commands at the command line:
ipsec auto --add west-east
then
ipsec auto --up west-east
At this stage of testing, do not bring up the connections by the alternate method, using ipsec.conf's auto= directive. You want to view the output as it happens.
If the resulting status report shows that you have established an ISAKMP and an IPSec Security Association (aka "SA", loosely translated as "tunnel" or "connection"), your tunnel is up. Repeat for each tunnel you are testing.
If negotiations for any one tunnel fail, troubleshoot as indicated in the next section. If you have successfully established all desired tunnels, proceed to test your connection(s) below. If you find that each tunnel in a multitunnel config may be created individually, but all may not be created at once, you may have encountered an old (1.6) bug. Update your Linux FreeS/WAN.
When you bring a tunnel up from the command line, you see a report on the negotiations involved in creating the connection, as these happen. There are also:
ipsec look, which provides a brief status report
ipsec auto --status, included in the barf
log files. More information about the log files is available here.
Often, the most relevant state information appears last in a log or status report.
Negotiations will proceed through various states. You will know these are done and a connection is established when you see both messages:
000 #21: "myconn" STATE_MAIN_I4 (ISAKMP SA established)...
000 #2: "myconn" STATE_QUICK_I2 (sent QI2, IPsec SA established)...
The key phrases are "ISAKMP SA established" and "IPSec SA established", which should appear with the relevant connection name. Often, this happens at STATE_MAIN_I4 and STATE_QUICK_I2, respectively.
A note on ipsec auto --status: this will tell you what states have been achieved, rather than the current state. Since determining the current state is rather more difficult to do, current state information is not available from Linux FreeS/WAN. If you are actively bringing a connection up, the status report's last states for that connection likely reflect its current state. Beware, though, of the case where a connection was correctly brought up but is now downed: Linux FreeS/WAN will not notice this until it attempts to rekey. Meanwhile, the last known state indicates that the connection has been established.
Linux FreeS/WAN proceeds though IKE (Phase 1, Main Mode, STATE_MAIN_*) negotiations first, then begins IPSec (Phase 2, Quick Mode, STATE_QUICK_*) negotiations. If you do not see success, note the place where negotiations stopped. This information is useful, since there are common errors specific to certain points in the process.
Look for verbose error text in the logs. While ipsec --auto dialog will tell you at which state Linux FreeS/WAN failed, it lacks detail. You can get more detail by modifying it with the --verbose flag on each invocation. For example:
ipsec auto --verbose --up west-east
Complete information can be gleaned from the log files.
The amount of description in the logs depends on ipsec.conf debug settings, klipsdebug= and plutodebug=. See the ipsec.conf(5) man page for details. You will normally want to set these to either "none" or "all". Note that you must have enabled the klipsdebug compile-time option for the klipsdebug configuration switch to work.
For negotiation problems, plutodebug is most relevant. klipsdebug applies mainly to attempts to use an already-established connection. See also this description of the division of duties within Linux FreeS/WAN.
After raising your debug levels, restart Linux FreeS/WAN to ensure that ipsec.conf is reread, then recreate the error to generate verbose logs.
This is a good time to produce a barf file, a collection of information useful for debugging Linux FreeS/WAN on your system. Use the command
ipsec barf > barf.west
See also the ipsec_barf(8) man page.
Look at the logs within the resulting file, and find the failure point. Are there a handful of lines which succinctly describe how things are going wrong or contrary to your expectation? Sometimes the failure point is not immediately obvious: Linux FreeS/WAN's errors are usually not marked "Error". Have a look in the FAQ for what some common failures look like. Tip: problems snowball. Focus your efforts on the first problem, which is likely to be the cause of later errors.
Repeat the process to find meaningful error text on the peer IPSec box. If the other end is not Linux FreeS/WAN, get it to produce detailed log output while you replicate the error, then capture that output to a file.
It is useful if both ends store information about the same event from two perspectives. Sometimes you will require information which only one side has. In this case, the peer can merely indicate the presence of an error, and its approximate point in the negotiations. If one side keeps retrying, it may be because there is a show stopper on the other side. Have a look at the other side and figure out what it doesn't like.
To interpret Linux FreeS/WAN log text, use the following resources:
the FAQ . Since this document is constantly updated, the snapshot's FAQ may have a new entry relevant to your problem.
our background document . Special considerations which, while not central to Linux FreeS/WAN, are often tripped over. Includes problems with packet fragmentation, and considerations for testing opportunism.
the list archives. Each of the searchable archives works differently, so it's worth checking each. Use a search term which is generic, but identifies your error, for example "No connection is known for".
Often, you will find that your question has been answered in the past. Finding an archived answer is quicker than asking the list. You may, however, find similar questions without answers. If you do, send their URLs to the list with your trouble report. The additional examples may help the list tech support person find your answer.
Look into the code where the error is being generated. The pluto code is nicely documented with comments and meaningful variable names.
If you have failed to solve your problem with the help of these resources, send a detailed problem report to the users list, following these guidelines.
Test a connection by sending packets through it. The simplest way to do this is with ping. Remember, in the planning stage , choosing a path which would test the tunnel? Now, ping along that path.
If your ping returns, test any other connections you've brought up. If they all check out, great. You may wish to test with large packets for MTU problems.
If your ping fails to return, generate an ipsec barf debugging report on each IPSec gateway. On a non-Linux FreeS/WAN implementation, gather equivalent information. Use this, and the tips in the next sections, to troubleshoot. Are you sure that both endpoints are capable of hearing and responding to ping?
IPSec may be dropping your ping packets since it does not "think" they belong in the tunnels you have constructed. This is an error about assumptions, and it takes two forms.
In the first, your ping is not returning because its path does not fall within your tunnel. This ping does not test the tunnel you intend to test. Referring to this discussion about appropriate tests, determine an alternate ping path which would test the tunnel.
In the second form of this error, you have not correctly configured the functionality you want. In the example above, you may have configured one of the possible tunnels between West and East (say west-east) but not the tunnel required to secure the important traffic you're now testing (say a sunset-east tunnel to secure traffic between office net Sunset and laptop East). See also this FAQ titled "I can't ping". NAT and masquerading may have an effect on which tunnels you need to configure; that's discussed in " Before there's trouble".
Both forms show identical symptoms. After all, the difference is one of intent. In both forms, Linux FreeS/WAN receives a packet destined for a peer IPSec gateway. Finding no active tunnel in which this packet belongs, it drops the packet on the floor. If your debug levels are appropriate, it logs this with a "klipsdebug... no eroute" message, which is discussed in this FAQ.
Note: When testing a tunnel that protects a multi-node subnet, you may wish to try several subnet nodes as ping targets, in case one node is routing incorrectly.
If you've confirmed your configuration assumptions, the problem is almost certainly with routing or firewalling. Isolate the problem using interface statistics, firewall statistics, or a packet sniffer.
Background:
Linux FreeS/WAN supplies all the special routing it needs; you need only route packets out through your IPSec gateway. Verify that on the machines you are using for your ping-test, your routing is as expected. I have seen a tunnel "fail" because the subnet machine was not routing packets back to the IPSec gateway; rather, it routed them through an alternate gateway.
Linux FreeS/WAN requires special firewalling considerations, described in our firewalling document. Check the firewall rules on your IPSec gateways and ensure that they allow IPSec traffic through. Be sure that no other machine - for example a router between the gateways - is blocking your IPSec packets.
Interface reports and firewall statistics can help you track down lost packets at a glance.
Check any firewall statistics you may be keeping on your IPSec gateways, for dropped packets.
Both cat /proc/net/dev and ifconfig display interface statistics, and both are included in an ipsec barf. Use either to check if any interface has dropped packets. If you find that one has, test whether this is related to your ping. While you ping continuously, print that interface's statistics several times. Does its drop count increase in proportion to the ping? If so, check why the packets are dropped there.
Check the firewall rules that apply to that interface. If the interface is an IPSec interface, more information may be available in the log. Grep for the word "drop" in a log which was created with klipsdebug=all as the error happened.
See also this detailed discussion by KLIPS programmer Richard Guy Briggs on interpreting ifconfig.
If you have checked configuration assumptions, routing, and firewall rules, and your interface statistics yield no clue, it remains for you to investigate the mystery of the lost packet by the most thorough method: with a packet sniffer. Sniff packets at each interface along the projected ping path until you find where your packets disappear. In this way, you can isolate the problem area, and narrow your troubleshooting focus.
Install an up-to-date sniffer (tcpdump, ethereal, ksnuffle) on your IPSec gateway machines. A sniffer on the ping endpoints is also useful. The sniffer should be somewhat modern (tcpdump 3.3+, ethereal-0.8.18) so that you may view packets on the ipsec virtual interface as well as the underlying physical one.
Working from your schematic, anticipate your ping's path. Which machines will your ping be visible on, in which order? Now, which interfaces will it be visible on, in which order? Within a machine running Linux FreeS/WAN, this packet flow diagram will help you anticipate the packet's path. Note that from the perspective of the tunneled packet, the entire tunnel is one hop. That's explained in this FAQ.
Ping, and as you do, sniff the packets. Examine each interface along the projected path, checking for your ping's arrival. If it doesn't arrive at the next stop, you have narrowed down where to look for it.
Note that an encapsulated IPSec packet will look different, when sniffed, from the plaintext packet which generated it. However, you can observe plaintext packets entering an IPSec interface and the resulting cyphertext packets as they emerge from the corresponding physical interface.
Once you isolate where the packet is lost, take a closer look at firewall rules, routing and configuration assumptions as they affect that specific area. If the packet is lost on an IPSec gateway, comb through klipsdebug output for anomalies.
If the packet goes through both gateways successfully and reaches the ping target, but does not return, suspect routing. Check that the ping target routes packets back to the IPSec gateway.
The guidelines are the same as for the Pluto logs, above.
For connection use problems, set klipsdebug=all. Note that you must have enabled the klipsdebug compile-time option to do this. Restart Linux FreeS/WAN so that it rereads the configuration file, then recreate the error condition. When searching through klipsdebug data, look especially for the keywords "drop" (as in dropped packets) and "error".
Often the problem with connection use is not software error, but rather that the software is behaving contrary to expectation.
To interpret the Linux FreeS/WAN log text you've found, use the same resources as indicated for troubleshooting connection negotiation: the FAQ , our background document , and the list archives. Looking in the KLIPS code is recommended only for the brave.
If you are still stuck, send a detailed problem report to the users' list.
If each of your connections passed the ping test, you may wish to test by pinging with large packets (2000 bytes or larger). If it does not return, suspect MTU issues, and see this discussion.
In most users' view, a simple ping test, and perhaps a large-packet ping test suffice to indicate a working IPSec connection.
Some people might like to do additional stress tests prior to production use. They may be interested in this testing protocol we use at interoperation conferences, aka "bakeoffs". We also have a testing directory that ships with the release.
Ask for troubleshooting help on the users' mailing list, users@lists.freeswan.org. While sometimes an initial query with a quick description of your intent and error will twig someone's memory of a similar problem, it's often necessary to send a second mail with a complete problem report.
The essay How to Report Bugs Effectively contains good guidelines.
When reporting problems to the mailing list(s), please include:
a brief description of the problem
if it's a compile problem, the actual output from make, showing the problem. Try to edit it down to only the relevant part, but when in doubt, be as complete as you can. If it's a kernel compile problem, any relevant out.* files
if it's a run-time problem, pointers to where we can find the complete output from "ipsec barf" from BOTH ENDS (not just one of them). Remember that it's common outside the US and Canada to pay for download volume, so if you can't post barfs on the web and send the URL to the mailing list, at least compress them with tar or gzip.
If you can, try to simplify the case that is causing the problem. In particular, if you clear your logs, start FreeS/WAN with no other connections running, cause the problem to happen, and then do ipsec barf on both ends immediately, that gives the smallest and least cluttered output.
any other error messages, complaints, etc. that you saw. Please send the complete text of the messages, not just a summary.
what your network setup is. Include subnets, gateway addresses, etc. The network schematic is a good format for this information.
exactly what you were trying to do with Linux FreeS/WAN, and exactly what went wrong
a fix, if you have one. But remember, you are sending mail to people all over the world; US residents and US citizens in particular, please read doc/exportlaws.html before sending code -- even small bug fixes -- to the list or to us.
When in doubt about whether to include some seemingly-trivial item of information, include it. It is rare for problem reports to have too much information, and common for them to have too little.
To report a problem, send mail about it to the users' list. If you are certain that you have found a bug, report it to the bugs list. If you encounter a problem while doing your own coding on the Linux FreeS/WAN codebase and think it is of interest to the design team, notify the design list. When in doubt, default to the users' list. More information about the mailing lists is found here.
For a number of reasons -- including export-control regulations affecting almost any private discussion of encryption software -- we prefer that problem reports and discussions go to the lists, not directly to the team. Beware that the list goes worldwide; US citizens, read this important information about your export laws. If you're using this software, you really should be on the lists. To get onto them, visit lists.freeswan.org.
If you do send private mail to our coders or want a private reply from them, please make sure that the return address on your mail (From or Reply-To header) is a valid one. They have more important things to do than to unravel addresses that have been mangled in an attempt to confuse spammers.
The following sections supplement the Guide: information available on your system; testing between security gateways; ifconfig reports for KLIPS debugging; using GDB on Pluto.
Linux FreeS/WAN logs to:
/var/log/secure (or, on Debian, /var/log/auth.log)
/var/log/messages
Check both places to get full information. If you find nothing, check your syslogd.conf(5) to see where your /etc/syslog.conf or equivalent is directing authpriv messages.
Other man pages are on this list and in
/usr/local/man/man3
/usr/local/man/man5
/usr/local/man/man8/ipsec_*
Sometimes you need to test a subnet-subnet tunnel. This is a tunnel between two security gateways, which protects traffic on behalf of the subnets behind these gateways. On this network:
Sunset==========West------------------East=========Sunrise
IPSec gateway IPSec gateway
local net untrusted net local net
you might name this tunnel sunset-sunrise. You can test this tunnel by having a machine behind one gateway ping a machine behind the other gateway, but this is not always convenient or even possible.
Simply pinging one gateway from the other is not useful. Such a ping does not normally go through the tunnel. The tunnel handles traffic between the two protected subnets, not between the gateways . Depending on the routing in place, a ping might
either succeed by finding an unencrypted route
or fail by finding no route. Packets without an IPSEC eroute are discarded.
Neither event tells you anything about the tunnel. You can explicitly create an eroute to force such packets through the tunnel, or you can create additional tunnels as described in our configuration document, but those may be unnecessary complications in your situation.
The trick is to explicitly test between both gateways' private-side IP addresses. Since the private-side interfaces are on the protected subnets, the resulting packets do go via the tunnel. Use either ping -I or traceroute -i, both of which allow you to specify a source interface. (Note: unsupported on older Linuxes). The same principles apply for a road warrior (or other) case where only one end of your tunnel is a subnet.
When diagnosing problems using ifconfig statistics, you may wonder what type of activity increments a particular counter for an ipsecN device. Here's an index, posted by KLIPS developer Richard Guy Briggs:
Here is a catalogue of the types of errors that can occur for which
statistics are kept when transmitting and receiving packets via klips.
I notice that they are not necessarily logged in the right counter.
. . .
Sources of ifconfig statistics for ipsec devices
rx-errors:
- packet handed to ipsec_rcv that is not an ipsec packet.
- ipsec packet with payload length not modulo 4.
- ipsec packet with bad authenticator length.
- incoming packet with no SA.
- replayed packet.
- incoming authentication failed.
- got esp packet with length not modulo 8.
tx_dropped:
- cannot process ip_options.
- packet ttl expired.
- packet with no eroute.
- eroute with no SA.
- cannot allocate sk_buff.
- cannot allocate kernel memory.
- sk_buff internal error.
The standard counters are:
struct enet_statistics
{
int rx_packets; /* total packets received */
int tx_packets; /* total packets transmitted */
int rx_errors; /* bad packets received */
int tx_errors; /* packet transmit problems */
int rx_dropped; /* no space in linux buffers */
int tx_dropped; /* no space available in linux */
int multicast; /* multicast packets received */
int collisions;
/* detailed rx_errors: */
int rx_length_errors;
int rx_over_errors; /* receiver ring buff overflow */
int rx_crc_errors; /* recved pkt with crc error */
int rx_frame_errors; /* recv'd frame alignment error */
int rx_fifo_errors; /* recv'r fifo overrun */
int rx_missed_errors; /* receiver missed packet */
/* detailed tx_errors */
int tx_aborted_errors;
int tx_carrier_errors;
int tx_fifo_errors;
int tx_heartbeat_errors;
int tx_window_errors;
};
of which I think only the first 6 are useful.
You may need to use the GNU debugger, gdb(1), on Pluto. This should be necessary only in unusual cases, for example if you encounter a problem which the Pluto developer cannot readily reproduce or if you are modifying Pluto.
Here are the Pluto developer's suggestions for doing this:
Can you get a core dump and use gdb to find out what Pluto was doing
when it died?
To get a core dump, you will have to set dumpdir to point to a
suitable directory (see ipsec.conf(5)).
To get gdb to tell you interesting stuff:
$ script
$ cd dump-directory-you-chose
$ gdb /usr/local/lib/ipsec/pluto core
(gdb) where
(gdb) quit
$ exit
The resulting output will have been captured by the script command in
a file called "typescript". Send it to the list.
Do not delete the core file. I may need to ask you to print out some
more relevant stuff.
Note that the dumpdir parameter takes effect only when the IPsec subsystem is restarted -- reboot or ipsec setup restart.
Much of this document is quoted directly from the Linux FreeS/WAN mailing list. Thanks very much to the community of testers, patchers and commenters there, especially the ones quoted below but also various contributors we haven't quoted.
In general, do not expect Linux FreeS/WAN to do everything yet. This is a work-in-progress and some parts of the IPsec specification are not yet implemented.
Things we do, as of version 1.95:
In negotiating a keying connection (ISAKMP SA, Phase 1) we propose both groups when we are the initiator, and accept either when a peer proposes them. Once the keying connection is made, we propose only the alternative agreed there for data connections (IPsec SA's, Phase 2) negotiated over that keying connection.
In negotiations, we propose both of these and accept either.
All combinations of implemented transforms are supported. Note that some form of packet-level authentication is required whenever encryption is used. Without it, the encryption will not be secure.
Things we deliberately omit which are required in the RFCs are:
Since these are the only encryption algorithms and DH group the RFCs require, it is possible in theory to have a standards-conforming implementation which will not interpoperate with FreeS/WAN. Such an implementation would be inherently insecure, so we do not consider this a problem.
Anyway, most implementations sensibly include more secure options as well, so dropping null encryption, single DES and Group 1 does not greatly hinder interoperation in practice.
We also do not implement some optional features allowed by the RFCs:
In theory, this should cause no interoperation problems since all implementations are required to support the more secure main mode, whether or not they also allow aggressive mode.
In practice, it does sometimes produce problems with implementations such as Windows 2000 where aggressive mode is the default. Typically, these are easily solved with a configuration change that overrides that default.
Things we don't yet do, as of version 1.95:
Currently Triple DES is the only encryption method Pluto will negotiate.
No additional encryption transforms are yet implemented, though the RFCs allow them and some other IPsec implementations support various of them. We are not eager to add more, since they complicate both our work and that of the gateway administrator without any obvious security improvement. We would certainly not want to incorporate any cryptographic method that had inadequate key length or had not been subjected to intensive review over some time.
AES, the successor to the DES standard, is an excellent candidate for inclusion in FreeS/WAN, see links to user patches.
No optional additional authentication transforms are currently implemented and we do not forsee a need to add any soon.
To fully comply with the RFCs, it is not enough just to accept only packets which survive any firewall rules in place to limit what IPsec packets get in, and then pass KLIPS authentication. That is what FreeS/WAN currently does.
We should also apply additional tests, for example ensuring that all packets emerging from a particular tunnel have sourcen and destination addresses that fall within the subnets defined for that tunnel, and that packets with those addresses that did not emerge from the appropriate tunnel are disallowed.
This will be done as part of the KLIPS rewrite currently in progress. See these links and the design mailing list for discussion.
We use PF-key Version Two for communication between the KLIPS kernel code and the Pluto Daemon. PF-Key v2 is defined by RFC 2367.
The "PF" stands for Protocol Family. PF-Inet defines a kernel/userspace interface for the TCP/IP Internet protocols (TCP/IP), and other members of the PF series handle Netware, Appletalk, etc. PF-Key is just a PF for key-related matters.
PF-Key came out of Berkeley Unix work and is used in the various BSD IPsec implementations, and in Solaris. This means there is some hope of porting our Pluto(8) to one of the BSD distributions, or of running their photurisd(8) on Linux if you prefer Photuris key management over IKE.
It is, however, more complex than that. The PK-Key RFC deliberately deals only with keying, not policy management. The three PF-Key implementations we have looked at -- ours, OpenBSD and KAME -- all have extensions to deal with security policy, and the extensions are different. There have been discussions aimed at sorting out the differences, perhaps for a version three PF-Key spec. All players are in favour of this, but everyone involved is busy and it is not clear whether or when these discussions might bear fruit.
We develop and test on Redhat Linux using the most recent kernel in the 2.2 and 2.4 series. In general, we recommend you use the latest kernel in one of those series. Complications and caveats are discussed below.
Consider upgrading to the 2.2 kernel series. If you want to stay with the 2.0 series, then we strongly recommend 2.0.39. Some useful security patches were added in 2.0.38.
Various versions of the code have run at various times on most 2.0.xx kernels, but the current version is only lightly tested on 2.0.39, and not at all on older kernels.
Some of our patches for older kernels are shipped in 2.0.37 and later, so they are no longer provided in FreeS/WAN. This means recent versions of FreeS/WAN will probably not compile om anything earlier than 2.0.37.
In general, we suggest the latest 2.2 kernel or 2.4 for production use. At time of writing (Feb 2002, just before our 1.95 release) these are 2.2.20 and 2.4.18.
Of course no release can be guaranteed to run on kernels more recent than it is, so quite often there will be no stable FreeS/WAN for the absolute latest kernel. See the FAQ for discussion.
We develop and test on Redhat 6.1 for 2.2 kernels, and on Redhat 7.1 for 2.4, so minor changes may be required for other distributions.
There are some problems with FreeS/WAN on Redhat 7.0, but they are soluble.
Redhat 7 ships with two compilers.
Kernel Makefiles have gcc as a default, and must be adjusted to use kgcc before a kernel will compile on 7.0. This mailing list message gives details:
Subject: Re: AW: Installing IPsec on Redhat 7.0 Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 14:32:52 -0200 (BRST) From: Mads Rasmussen <mads@cit.com.br> > From www.redhat.com/support/docs/gotchas/7.0/gotchas-7-6.html#ss6.1 cd to /usr/src/linux and open the Makefile in your favorite editor. You will need to look for a line similar to this: CC = $(CROSS_COMPILE)gcc -D__KERNEL__ -I$(HPATH) This line specifies which C compiler to use to build the kernel. It should be changed to: CC = $(CROSS_COMPILE)kgcc -D__KERNEL__ -I$(HPATH) for Red Hat Linux 7. The kgcc compiler is egcs 2.91.66. From here you can proceed with the typical compiling steps.Check the mailing list archive for more recent news.
SuSE 6.3 and later versions, at least in Europe, ship with FreeS/WAN included.
Here are some notes for an earlier SuSE version.
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998
From: Peter Onion <ponion@srd.bt.co.uk>
... I got Saturdays snapshot working between my two SUSE5.3 machines at home.
The mods to the install process are quite simple. From memory and looking at
the files on the SUSE53 machine here at work....
And extra link in each of the /etc/init.d/rc?.d directories called K35ipsec
which SUSE use to shut a service down.
A few mods in /etc/init.d/ipsec to cope with the different places that SUSE
put config info, and remove the inculsion of /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions and .
/etc/sysconfig/network as they don't exists and 1st one isn't needed anyway.
insert ". /etc/rc.config" to pick up the SUSE config info and use
if test -n "$NETCONFIG" -a "$NETCONFIG" != "YAST_ASK" ; then
to replace
[ ${NETWORKING} = "no" ] && exit 0
Create /etc/sysconfig as SUSE doesn't have one.
I think that was all (but I prob forgot something)....
You may also need to fiddle initialisation scripts to ensure that /var/run/pluto.pid is removed when rebooting. If this file is present, Pluto does not come up correctly.
Subject: Re: linux-IPsec: Slackware distribution Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 12:07:01 -0700 From: Evan Brewer <dmessiah@silcon.com> > Very shortly, I will be needing to install IPsec on at least gateways that > are running Slackware. . . . The only trick to getting it up is that on the slackware dist there is no init.d directory in /etc/rc.d .. so create one. Then, what I do is take the IPsec startup script which normally gets put into the init.d directory, and put it in /etc/rc.d and name ir rc.ipsec .. then I symlink it to the file in init.d. The only file in the dist you need to really edit is the utils/Makefile, setup4: Everything else should be just fine.A year or so later:
Subject: Re: HTML Docs- Need some cleanup? Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 From: Jody McIntyre <jodym@oeone.com> I have successfully installed FreeS/WAN on several Slackware 7.1 machines. FreeS/WAN installed its rc.ipsec file in /etc/rc.d. I had to manually call this script from rc.inet2. This seems to be an easier method than Evan Brewer's.
A recent (Nov 2001) mailing list points to a web page on setting up several types of tunnel, including IPsec, on Debian.
Some older information:
Subject: FreeS/WAN 1.0 on Debian 2.1
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Compiled and installed without error on a Debian 2.1 system
with kernel-source-2.0.36 after pointing RCDIR in utils/Makefile to
/etc/init.d.
/var/lock/subsys/ doesn't exist on Debian boxen, needs to be
created; not a fatal error.
Finally, IPsec scripts appear to be dependant on GNU awk
(gawk); the default Debian awk (mawk-1.3.3-2) had fatal difficulties.
With gawk installed and /etc/alternatives/awk linked to /usr/bin/gawk
operation appears flawless.
The scripts in question have been modified since this was posted. Awk versions should no longer be a problem.
Subject: Re: HTML Docs- Need some cleanup? Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 From: Andy Bradford <andyb@calderasystems.com> On Sun, 07 Jan 2001 22:59:05 EST, Sandy Harris wrote: > Intel Linux distributions other than Redhat 5.x and 6.x > Redhat 7.0 > SuSE Linux > SuSE Linux 5.3 > Slackware > Debian Can you please include Caldera in this list? I have tested it since FreeS/Wan 1.1 and it works great with our systems---provided one follows the FreeS/Wan documentation. :-) Thank you, Andy
FreeS/WAN has been run sucessfully on a number of different CPU architectures. If you have tried it on one not listed here, please post to the mailing list.
Subject: linux-ipsec: Netwinder diffs Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1999 From: rhatfield@plaintree.com I had a mistake in my IPsec-auto, so I got things working this morning. Following are the diffs for my changes. Probably not the best and cleanest way of doing it, but it works. . . .
These diffs are in the 0.92 distribution and any snapshot after Feb 20 1999, so these should work out-of-the-box on Netwinder.
Subject: Compiling FreeS/WAN 1.1 on YellowDog Linux (PPC) Date: 11 Dec 1999 From: Darron Froese <darron@fudgehead.com> I'm summarizing here for the record - because it's taken me many hours to do this (multiple times) and because I want to see IPsec on more linuxes than just x86. Also, I can't remember if I actually did summarize it before... ;-) I'm working too many late hours. That said - here goes. 1. Get your linux kernel and unpack into /usr/src/linux/ - I used 2.2.13. <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.2/linux-2.2.13.tar.bz2> 2. Get FreeS/WAN and unpack into /usr/src/freeswan-1.1 <ftp://ftp.xs4all.nl/pub/crypto/freeswan/freeswan-1.1.tar.gz> 3. Get the gmp src rpm from here: <ftp://ftp.yellowdoglinux.com//pub/yellowdog/champion-1.1/SRPMS/SRPMS/gmp-2.0.2-9a.src.rpm> 4. Su to root and do this: rpm --rebuild gmp-2.0.2-9a.src.rpm You will see a lot of text fly by and when you start to see the rpm recompiling like this: Executing: %build + umask 022 + cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD + cd gmp-2.0.2 + libtoolize --copy --force Remember to add `AM_PROG_LIBTOOL' to `configure.in'. You should add the contents of `/usr/share/aclocal/libtool.m4' to `aclocal.m4'. + CFLAGS=-O2 -fsigned-char + ./configure --prefix=/usr Hit Control-C to stop the rebuild. NOTE: We're doing this because for some reason the gmp source provided with FreeS/WAN 1.1 won't build properly on ydl. cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/ cp -ar gmp-2.0.2 /usr/src/freeswan-1.1/ cd /usr/src/freeswan-1.1/ rm -rf gmp mv gmp-2.0.2 gmp 5. Open the freeswan Makefile and change the line that says: KERNEL=$(b)zimage (or something like that) to KERNEL=vmlinux 6. cd ../linux/ 7. make menuconfig Select an option or two and then exit - saving your changes. 8. cd ../freeswan-1.1/ ; make menugo That will start the whole process going - once that's finished compiling, you have to install your new kernel and reboot. That should build FreeS/WAN on ydl (I tried it on 1.1).And a later message on the same topic:
Subject: Re: FreeS/WAN, PGPnet and E-mail Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 From: Darron Froese <darron@fudgehead.com> on 1/22/00 6:47 PM, Philip Trauring at philip@trauring.com wrote: > I have a PowerMac G3 ... The PowerMac G3 can run YDL 1.1 just fine. It should also be able to run FreeS/WAN 1.2patch1 with a couple minor modifications: 1. In the Makefile it specifies a bzimage for the kernel compile - you have to change that to vmlinux for the PPC. 2. The gmp source that comes with FreeS/WAN (for whatever reason) fails to compile. I have gotten around this by getting the gmp src rpm from here: ftp://ftp.yellowdoglinux.com//pub/yellowdog/champion-1.1/SRPMS/SRPMS/gmp-2.0.2-9a.src.rpm If you rip the source out of there - and place it where the gmp source resides it will compile just fine.
FreeS/WAN no longer includes GMP source.
One user reports success on the Mach-based micro kernel Linux.
Subject: Smiles on sparc and ppc Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 From: Jake Hill <jah@alien.bt.co.uk> You may or may not be interested to know that I have successfully built FreeS/WAN on a number of non intel alpha architectures; namely on ppc and sparc and also on osfmach3/ppc (MkLinux). I can report that it just works, mostly, with few changes.
Subject: IT WORKS (again) between intel & alpha :-))))) Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 From: Peter Onion <ponion@srd.bt.co.uk> Well I'm happy to report that I've got an IPsec connection between by intel & alpha machines again :-)) If you look back on this list to 7th of December I wrote... -On 07-Dec-98 Peter Onion wrote: -> -> I've about had enuf of wandering around inside the kernel trying to find out -> just what is corrupting outgoing packets... - -Its 7:30 in the evening ..... - -I FIXED IT :-)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) - -It was my own fault :-(((((((((((((((((( - -If you ask me very nicly I'll tell you where I was a little too over keen to -change unsigned long int __u32 :-) OPSE ... - -So tomorrow it will full steam ahead to produce a set of diffs/patches against -0.91 - -Peter Onion.
In general (there have been some glitches), FreeS/WAN has been running on Alphas since then.
Several users have reported success with FreeS/WAN on SPARC Linux. Here is one mailing list message:
Subject: Smiles on sparc and ppc Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 From: Jake Hill <jah@alien.bt.co.uk> You may or may not be interested to know that I have successfully built FreeS/WAN on a number of non intel alpha architectures; namely on ppc and sparc and also on osfmach3/ppc (MkLinux). I can report that it just works, mostly, with few changes. I have a question, before I make up some patches. I need to hack gmp/mpn/powerpc32/*.s to build them. Is this ok? The changes are trivial, but could I also use a different version of gmp? Is it vanilla here? I guess my only real headache is from ipchains, which appears to stop running when IPsec has been started for a while. This is with 2.2.14 on sparc.
This message, from a different mailing list, may be relevant for anyone working with FreeS/WAN on Suns:
Subject: UltraSPARC DES assembler
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000
From: svolaf@inet.uni2.dk (Svend Olaf Mikkelsen)
To: coderpunks@toad.com
An UltraSPARC assembler version of the LibDES/SSLeay/OpenSSL des_enc.c
file is available at http://inet.uni2.dk/~svolaf/des.htm.
This brings DES on UltraSPARC from slower than Pentium at the same
clock speed to significantly faster.
We know FreeS/WAN runs on at least some MIPS processors because Lasat manufacture an IPsec box based on an embedded MIPS running Linux with FreeS/WAN. We have no details.
The Merilus Firecard, a Linux firewall on a PCI card, is based on a Crusoe processor and supports FreeS/WAN.
Subject: Re: Crypto hardware support Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2000 From: Dan DeVault <devault@tampabay.rr.com> .... I have been running uClinux with FreeS/WAN 1.4 on a system built by Moreton Bay ( http://www.moretonbay.com ) and it was using a Coldfire processor and was able to do the Triple DES encryption at just about 1 mbit / sec rate....... they put a Hi/Fn 7901 hardware encryption chip on their board and now their system does over 25 mbit of 3DES encryption........ pretty significant increase if you ask me.
FreeS/WAN is designed to work on SMP (symmetric multi-processing) Linux machines and is regularly tested on dual processor x86 machines.
We do not know of any testing on multi-processor machines with other CPU architectures or with more than two CPUs. Anyone who does test this, please report results to the mailing list.
The current design does not make particularly efficient use of multiprocessor machines; some of the kernel work is single-threaded. This issue is being addressed in the KLIPS II redesign.
Supporting hardware cryptography accelerators has not been a high priority for the development team because it raises a number of fairly complex issues:
That said, we have a report of FreeS/WAN working with one crypto accelerator and some work is going on to modify KLIPS to create a clean generic interface to such products. See this web page for some of the design discussion.
More recently, a patch to support some hardware accelerators has been posted:
Subject: [Design] [PATCH] H/W acceleration patch Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 From: "Martin Gadbois" <martin.gadbois@colubris.com> Finally!! Here's a web site with H/W acceleration patch for FreeS/WAN 1.91, including S/W and Hifn 7901 crypto support. http://sources.colubris.com/ Martin Gadbois
Hardware accelerators could take performance well beyond what FreeS/WAN can do in software (discussed here ). Here is some discussion off the IETF IPsec list, October 2001:
... Currently shipping chips deliver, 600 mbps throughput on a single stream of 3DES IPsec traffic. There are also chips that use multiple cores to do 2.4 gbps. We (Cavium) and others have announced even faster chips. ... Mid 2002 versions will handle at line rate (OC48 and OC192) IPsec and SSL/TLS traffic not only 3DES CBC but also AES and arc4.
The patches to date support chips that have been in production for some time, not the state-of-the-art latest-and-greatest devices described in that post. However, they may still outperform software and they almost certainly reduce CPU overhead.
The next version of the IP protocol suite is version six, usually abbreviated either as "IPv6" or as "IPng" for "IP: the next generation". For IPv6, IPsec is a required feature. Any machine doing IPv6 is required to support IPsec, much as any machine doing (any version of) IP is required to support ICMP.
There is a Linux implementation of IPv6 in Linux kernels 2.2 and above. For details, see the FAQ. It does not yet support IPsec. The USAGI project are also working on IPv6 for Linux.
FreeS/WAN was originally built for the current standard, IPv4, but we are interested in seeing it work with IPv6. Some progress has been made, and some patches are available. For more recent information, check the mailing list.
IPv6 has been specified by an IETF working group. The group's page lists over 30 RFCs to date, and many Internet Drafts as well. The overview is RFC 2460. Major features include:
A number of projects are working on IPv6 implementation. A prominent Open Source effort is KAME, a collaboration among several large Japanese companies to implement IPv6 for Berkeley Unix. Other major players are also working on IPv6. For example, see pages at:
The 6bone (IPv6 backbone) testbed network has been up for some time. There is an active IPv6 user group.One of the design goals for IPv6 was that it must be possible to convert from v4 to v6 via a gradual transition process. Imagine the mess if there were a "flag day" after which the entire Internet used v6, and all software designed for v4 stopped working. Almost every computer on the planet would need major software changes! There would be huge costs to replace older equipment. Implementers would be worked to death before "the day", systems administrators and technical support would be completely swamped after it. The bugs in every implementation would all bite simultaneously. Large chunks of the net would almost certainly be down for substantial time periods. ...
Fortunately, the design avoids any "flag day". It is therefore a little tricky to tell how quickly IPv6 will take over. The transition has certainly begun. For examples, see announcements from NTT and Nokia. However, it is not yet clear how quickly the process will gain momentum, or when it will be completed. Likely large parts of the Internet will remain with IPv4 for years to come.
The IPsec protocols are designed to allow interoperation between different implementations. Other sections of this documentation have more detail on:
FreeS/WAN does interoperate successfully with many other implementations. The ones we know about are listed below.
Of course "the devil is in the details" and the IPsec protocols have a lot of details. At least one critique has argued that the protocols should be simplified. Various of those details can and do cause difficulties for interoperation. Should you encounter such problems, please let us know via the mailing list. We will likely be able to help you, and your report may be useful both to other users and to the implementation teams.
Note: This file is updated often, whenever I notice an interesting interop report on the mailing list. If you are reading the version that ships with a FreeS/WAN release or is posted on the web, and what you need isn't here, consider downloading the latest snapshot to get the latest version of the doc. Perhaps I've added what you need since the last release.
There is additional information on interoperability testing in our web links section.
The commonest cause of problems, however, seems to be configuration errors. Any IPsec implementation is somewhat complex. It has to be; neither the networks it runs on nor the protocols it implements are simple. When you have two of them to deal with, the problem you face is not trivial.
That said, FreeS/WAN interoperates successfully with many other implementations. There is a list below, with configuration details provided by various users who have already solved these problems.
In principle this should not be a problem since main mode support is required in all implementations and aggressive mode is optional. In practice, it is sometimes a problem. Some implementations default to aggressive mode unless you configure them for main mode.
The PFS settings on the two ends must match. There is no provision in the protocol for negotiating whether to use PFS; you need to either set both ends to use it or set them both not to. For communication between FreeS/WAN and an implementation that has PFS off by default, you will have to change the setting on one end.
You can turn PFS off in FreeS/WAN with the pfs=no setting in ipsec.conf(5), but if possible we suggest you enable PFS on the other end instead. That is more secure.
The general rule is that to interoperate with FreeS/WAN, the other implementation should be configured for:
This is possible for most implementations.
For a more detailed discussion of which parts of the IPsec specification FreeS/WAN implements, and reasons for that, see our compatibility document.
A few users have encountered situations in which interoperation is fine when one end initiates, but fails if the other end starts the negotiation.
In such cases, you can set rekey=no in the FreeS/WAN connection description. This prevents FreeS/WAN from initiating re-keying of that connection, but it will still respond if the partner initiates.
Even if that trick solves your problem, please report the difficulty. It is definitely supposed to work no matter who initiates.
Despite this, various vendors produce products they call "clients" and others they call "servers". Typically, the "clients" do not support a subnet behind them. They are designed only to let a single remote machine connect. To get full IPsec with subnet support, you pay more for the "server version".
For example, the free version of PGP is only a "client"; for subnet support you need to purchase the product. Also, Windows 2000 Professional has only "client" IPsec; for subnet support you need to purchase the server version, or put Linux and FreeS/WAN on your gateways.
This difference does not cause interoperation problems as such. FreeS/WAN will happily interoperate with either a "client" or a "server" product, and will happily play either role itself, depending on how it is configured. In their marketing terms, FreeS/WAN acts as a "server" if you define a subnet behind the gateway, and as a "client" if you do not.
It does, however, often complicate things when users discover that the product they have will not do what they need because it is "only a client".
Linux FreeS/WAN does not support single DES transforms. Neither Pluto's IKE connections nor KLIPS' IPsec connections can use DES. Since DES is insecure we do not, and will not at any future time, provide it.
DES is, unfortunately, a mandatory part of the IPsec standard. Despite that, we will not implement DES. We believe it is more important to provide security than to comply with a standard which has been subverted into allowing weak algorithms. See our history and politics section for discussion.
Some implementations may offer DES as the default. In such cases we urge you to change them to Triple DES. If this is not possible, for example because export laws prevent your vendor from offerring you adequate crytography, we urge you to complain vigorously to one or more of:
Consider using FreeS/WAN instead. PCs are cheap and we deliver 3DES now.
FreeS/WAN does have DES code in it as a sort of historical accident, since we need it to implement our default (currently, our only) block cipher, Triple DES. However, since DES is insecure, we do not provide any interface to that code.
As a matter of project policy, we will not help anyone subvert FreeS/WAN to provide insecure DES encryption .
For example, unmodified FreeS/WAN cannot use RSA keys generated by PGP or keys stored in X.509 certificates, but patches or utilities are available for both those formats. See this list of patches and add-ons.
The FreeS/WAN team does not have the resources to test with anything like the full range of other IPsec implementations out there. Fortunately, some of our users are doing a fine job of filling the gap by providing HowTo information:
See also our lists of:
From a mailing list report:
Subject: IPsec 2001 interop demo data available
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001
From: Ghislaine Labouret <Ghislaine.Labouret@hsc.fr>
Organization: HSC (Herve Schauer Consultants)
During the IPsec 2001 conference held in Paris last month, an
interoperability demonstration including FreeS/WAN was set up.
FreeS/WAN 1.91 + X.509 patch 0.9.3 was tested with the following
devices: 6WINDGate, Cisco IOS, Cisco PIX, Cisco VPN 3000, Netasq F100,
Netcelo VPN gateway, NetScreen NS100, Nortel Contivity, OpenBSD 3.0.
The results and configuration files are now available online:
http://www.hsc.fr/ipsec/ipsec2001/
Most of the information in this section is gleaned from the mailing list. For additional information, search one of the list archives.
A large thank you is in order to all the list contributors. This document would not exist without you.
Anyone who has tested with an implementation not listed here, please report results to the mailing list. I generally include the sender's email address when I quote list messages here; "credit where credit is due". If you would prefer that I not do that with yours, please mention that.
However, if you do encounter a problem involving an older version, we are likely to suggest you upgrade. We do not have the resources to support multiple versions.
In general, new versions will use existing configuration files, at least until the next major version number change. For example, 1.8 can use files created for 1.7, 1.6, even back to 1.0, but not from 0.92. This behaviour will continue until we release 2.0.
As of 1.8, however, conf file checking has become stricter, so that an error that may have slipped past the checks in an earlier version may be caught in a later one. From 1.8's doc/CHANGES:
The internal configuration-file reader is progressively getting
fussier about what it will accept, which may cause problems for
illegal ipsec.conf files whose sins previously passed unnoticed.
IN PARTICULAR, the "auto" parameter's values are now checked for
legality everywhere.
This report is from one of the OpenBSD IPsec developers, a regular participant on our mailing list:
Subject: spi.c bug Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 From: Niklas Hallqvist <niklas@appli.se> PS. I don't know if you have an interop list anywhere, but you should know FreeS/WAN interops with OpenBSD both at the IPSec level and at the IKE level.
There is one known problem with FreeS/WAN-OpenBSD IKE interoperation. Here is a mailing message from our Pluto implementer, discussing that with the user who discovered it:
Subject: Re: [Bugs] Interoperability with OpenBSD
Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001
| Yes, the problem was the pre-shared key. It seems that it cannot be
| more than 64 characters long. I was using a longer key.
|
| Is this documented behaviour for either FreeS/WAN or isakmpd? (Anyway
| a reasonable error message would not hurt.)
The limit is not in FreeS/WAN, so we don't document it :-)
I guess we could mention this on our interop pages. Claudia?
The error message from isakmpd was not very helpful (I realize that
I'm in a glass house when I throw this stone).
- isamkpd documentation should state the limit
- isakmpd should diagnose that the PSK was too long
- isakmpd should suggest that this type of problem (undigestable
message) might be caused by mis-matched PSK
I hope that you would have gotten a better message from Pluto. So if
you had initiated from the isakmpd side, the resulting diagnostic from
Pluto might have lead you to the problem more quickly.
When Pluto cannot parse the first encrypted IKE message, it prints a
diagnosis of the parse failure (just like isakmpd did), but it prefixes it
with
probable authentication (preshared secret) failure:
I just noticed that it will print this even if authentication is via
RSA Sig -- I will fix that. I'll reword the prefix too:
probable authentication failure (mismatch of preshared secrets?):
FreeBSD uses the KAME IPsec and IPv6 code.
Here is a mailing list message on FreeBSD interoperation:
Subject: Re: Interop with [Free|Open|Net]BSD Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 From: Ghislaine Labouret <Ghislaine.Labouret@hsc.fr> On Thu, 28 Dec 2000 13:53:01 -0500, Sandy Harris wrote: > FreeBSD: > > For FreeBSD, I find list discussion of 3DES key formats, presumably for manual > keying. We have 192-bit, 3 64-bit keys including parity bits, while FreeBSD 4.0 > used 168-bit, 3 56-bit keys without the parity bits. Has FreeBSD changed this? I still don't understand what made Spike Gronim say that KAME wants a 168 bits key; I have always been using 192 bits keys with KAME and had no interoperability problem between KAME and FreeS/WAN using manual keying. > For auto keying, I find reports of sucessful use of pre-shared secrets, but > nothing on RSA authentication. I had KAME (20001023 snapshot) and FreeS/WAN 1.6 successfully interoperate using both PSK and RSA-sig authentication. The config files, certificates and test keys used are available online: http://www.hsc.fr/ipsec/ipsec2000/kame/ http://www.hsc.fr/ipsec/ipsec2000/freeswan/ Not much details though, as this is just a report and not a how-to. Will improve it if I can find spare time. > Does FreeBSD support that? KAME can use RSA-sig and can either exchange certificates online or get them from a file. I tested the latter. No test with the X.509 patch for FreeS/WAN yet, though that's in my short term plans too. > Are the key formats compatible, or has anyone written translation code? KAME wants the keys inside certificates, in PEM format. To extract the keys for FreeS/WAN I used the fswcert utility, but it can be done "by hand" using openssl.
To work with FreeS/WAN, a Cisco router must have 3DES software. A page on Cisco's site gives this list:
| Triple DES Encryption for IPSec | | ... | | This feature is supported only on the following platforms: | | 1720 | 2600 Series | 3600 Series | 4000 Series | 4500 Series | AS5300 Series | 7200 Series | 7500 Series
One user has posted configuration files for FreeS/WAN 1.91, Cisco PIX and Cisco 2611 router on this web page.
This mailing list message with subject "FreeS/WAN and Cisco 3030 VPN Concentrator" has an attached MS-Word document on the setup.
A sample FreeS/WAN configuration, used in testing with Cisco at an interop conference, is in another list message. Unfortunately, it does not give the matching Cisco configuration.
Subject: [Users] cisco - freeswan summary
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001
From: mcferren@colltech.com
I finally got a vpn linked up between a 3000 series cisco router and a
redhat linux box using shared secrets. The linux box is running 2.2.19 with
freeswan 1.9. The shared secret has no spaces in it, as I read somewhere
that it might break the connection.
Several people have asked me the configuration that I have used to
make this happen, so I thought I should publish it here.
Here is the network...
host 172.11.251.34
|
------------------- 172.11.251.0/24
|
linux router
|
------------------- 172.11.252.0/24
|
| 172.11.252.2
freeswan linux
| xxx.xxx.xxx.85
|
| xxx.xxx.xxx.1
router
|
INTERNET
|.
router
| yyy.yyy.yyy.1
|
| yyy.yyy.yyy.21
cisco router
| 10.25.5.1
|
------------------- 10.25.5.0
|
host 10.25.5.44
My ipsec.conf looks like this...
config setup
# THIS SETTING MUST BE CORRECT or almost nothing will work;
# %defaultroute is okay for most simple cases.
interfaces="ipsec0=eth0"
# Debug-logging controls: "none" for (almost) none, "all" for lots.
klipsdebug=all
plutodebug=none
plutoload=%search
plutostart=%search
# Close down old connection when new one using same ID shows up.
uniqueids=yes
# defaults for subsequent connection descriptions
conn %default
# How persistent to be in (re)keying negotiations (0 means very).
keyingtries=0
conn cisco1
left=xxx.xxx.xxx.85
leftnexthop=xxx.xxx.xxx.1
leftsubnet=172.11.251.0/24
right=yyy.yyy.yyy.21
rightnexthop=yyy.yyy.yyy.1
rightsubnet=10.25.5.0/24
lifetime=8h
auto=start
My cisco configuration looks like this...
crypto map VPN 30 ipsec-isakmp
set peer xxx.xxx.xxx.85
set transform-set 3des-md5
match address 130
crypto ipsec transform-set 3des-md5 esp-3des esp-md5-hmac
crypto isakmp key ******** address xxx.xxx.xxx.85
crypto isakmp policy 3
encr 3des
hash md5
authentication pre-share
group 2
access-list 130 permit ip 10.25.5.0 0.0.0.255 172.11.251.0 0.0.0.255
Sorry it took so long to send this out, but there is apparently an ipchains
firewall on the host behind the cisco, and it took some time to get
these rules straight.
I hope this helps someone....
Another similar post:
Subject: [Users] freeswan <--$gt; Cisco: success!
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001
From: "Wolfgang Tremmel" <w.tremmel@vianetworks.de>
I have seen several requests on the list for example
configurations for connection of Freeswan to Cisco, since
about 1 hour ago I had success, here my example configuration.
Background: My router is a 80486, connecting to the internet using
PPPoE via DSL. Kernel is 2.4.9, Freeswan is snap2001sep13b
And yes, I get a dynamic IP address
Router is a Cisco 4700, running IOS 12.2(2)T1 with 3DES
ipsec.conf:
config setup
interfaces="ipsec0=ppp0"
klipsdebug=none
plutodebug=none
plutoload=%search
plutostart=%search
uniqueids=yes
conn %default
keyingtries=0
disablearrivalcheck=no
conn cisco
type=tunnel
left=%defaultroute
leftsubnet=my.net.work.athome/29
right=x.x.x.x # fastEthernet0 of ciscorouter
rightnexthop=1.2.3.4 # next hop of ppp0
rightsubnet=0.0.0.0/0 # defaultroute via ipsec
keyexchange=ike
authby=secret
lifetime=8h
pfs=yes
ipsec.secret:
%any x.x.x.x: PSK "thisisatestkey"
- ---- thats all on the linux router
- ---- now for the Cisco:
crypto isakmp policy 100
encr 3des
authentication pre-share
group 2
lifetime 3600
crypto isakmp key diesisteintest address y.y.0.0 255.255.0.0 !
network and mask of any possible address your ppp0 can have
crypto ipsec transform-set linuxbox esp-3des esp-sha-hmac
crypto dynamic-map linuxbox 100
set transform-set linuxbox
match address linuxbox
crypto map linuxbox local-address FastEthernet0
crypto map linuxbox isakmp authorization list linuxbox ! not sure if
that is really needed
crypto map linuxbox 100 ipsec-isakmp dynamic linuxbox discover
interface FastEthernet0
ip address x.x.x.x 255.255.255.192
full-duplex
crypto map linuxbox
ip access-list extended wtremmel
permit ip host x.x.x.x my.net.work.athome mask
Wolfgang
From: jrussi@uol.com.br Subject: Re: [Users] RSA public key and Cisco (3640) Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2001 We use Cisco IOS 12.1.5(T) and freeswan 1.8 Here an example on how I copied the key from cisco: Key Data: 117C311E 16192D86 8886C71D 11111115 11138B11 31881241 11C7E23B D6DB22 18DEC1BD.... Will become 0x117C311E16192D868886C71D1111111511138B113188124111C7E23BD6DB2218DEC1BD... We used at least 1024 bits long keys. But it doesn´t matter. The problem is that cisco doesn´t agree with the RSA schema from freeswan, I think. In Cisco, rsasig is to use with a CA, and rsaencript did not work as well. My case is worse than it. My first intention was to use freeswan in a road warrior config. I really need to use CA, as Cisco needs a fix address to use rsa public key. The public key to cisco is always associated to an IP address ou FQDN. I quit. Will try the X509 patch and the Open CA software. Deyvi >>(off list) > >Yes, I was just going to mention that the Cisco's key should be in >ipsec.conf (just received your correction). > >I think that I have the Cisco side configured correctly ( I can't be sure >because I can't test against the Freeswan). > >Starting from having the IPsec tunnel working with pre-share, I did the >following on the Cisco side: > >#config t >(config)# crypto key pubkey-chain rsa >(config-pubkey-chain)# addressed-key >(config-pubkey-key)# key-string >(config-pubkey-key)# >(config-pubkey-key)#quit >(config-pubkey-chain)#exit > ># config t >(config)# crypto isakmp policy 1 >(config-isakmp)# no authentication pre-share >(config-isakmp)# authentication rsa-sig >(config-isakmp)# exit > >How long is your RSA key that was generated on the Cisco? I tried copying >the key out of the 3640 and pasting it into ipsec.conf, removing the spaces >and adding a '0x' in the front. I get the 'key too small' error still. What >version of freeswan are you using? > >I'm using Freeswan 1.9 w/ IOS 12.1(6).
Subject: [Users] FreeSWAN and Cisco VPN CONCENTRATOR Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 From: "M. Sticki" <msticki@web.de> i have to establish a vpn tunnel between two companies. one of the company is using the cisco vpn concentrator and the other company is using redhat 7.1 and freeswan. it is no a problem to estblish the tunnel between two freeswan gateways or between a cisco vpn-client and the concentrator. but the companies don't want to change their equipment. and with this constellation i can't establish the tunnel. the responce from cisco is: "THAT IS NOT SUPPORTED" so this mailing list is my last chance, because i don't know how to go onand another user's answer:
Subject: Re: [Users] FreeSWAN and Cisco VPN CONCENTRATOR Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 14:21:17 +0200 From: Ghislaine Labouret <Ghislaine.Labouret@hsc.fr> > i have to establish a vpn tunnel between two companies. > one of the company is using the cisco vpn concentrator > and the other company is using redhat 7.1 and freeswan. [...] > the responce from cisco is: "THAT IS NOT SUPPORTED" At the IPsec 2001 conference which is behing held right now, we have set up an interop demo platform which includes those two devices. They are successfully interoperating using certificates.Later in the same thread:
Subject: Re: [Users] FreeSWAN and Cisco VPN CONCENTRATOR Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 From: Ghislaine Labouret <Ghislaine.Labouret@hsc.fr> Organization: HSC (Herve Schauer Consultants) Juri Jensen wrote: > I've been trying to get those two to interoperate with certificates, but > I have only succeeded with PSK. Can you shed some light on how you did > it....? I will put the config files and different tests results from the demo on http://www.hsc.fr/ipsec/ipsec2001/ next week. With VPN3000, we had a problem with the DN comparison because of encoding issues. The solution was to specify the VPN 3000 DN in binary format in ipsec.conf. I leave it to Andreas Steffen to explain the exact issue, as he is the one who solved it.
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Contivity Extranet Switch Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 From: Matthias David Siebler <msiebler@nortelnetworks.com> Reply-To: msiebler@alum.mit.edu Organization: Nortel Networks More interoperability results: I successfully established a tunnel with a Nortel (formerly Bay (formerly New Oak)) Contivity Extranet Switch running the latest release versions. The CES is running V2.50 of the software and the Linux server is running V1.0.0 of the Free/SWAN code on a RedHat 5.2 unit with the kernel upgraded to 2.0.36-3 I am using IKE with 3DES-HMAC-MD5 Note however, that tunnels cannot yet be configured as client tunnels since Free/SWAN does not yet support aggressive mode. Hopefully, that will arrive soon, which would allow remote users to connect to a CES using the Free/SWAN code as clients.
and apparently Nortel want their product to work with FreeS/WAN:
Subject: Is FreeSwan 3.1 a legitamate ipsec implementation when compared to its commercial competitors? Date: Tue, 02 May 2000 From: Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pobox.com> Nortel's Contivity IPsec server has a formal policy of interoperability with FreeS/WAN. I was quite pleased to hear it when they last talked to us, and it makes sense in their business environment, since they let you use their WinXX client software free, so this gives them support for Linux clients.
A more recent mailing list report is:
Subject: Nortel Contivity and Free-S/WAN
Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001
From: "JJ Streicher-Bremer" <jj@digisle.net>
OK, here is a very brief nuts and bolts breakdown on how to get this
combo working. I want to thank everyone at Free-S/WAN and everyone on
the list for your help in getting this to work.
Connecting FreeS/WAN to the Nortel Networks Contivity Extranet Switch:
What you need:
FreeS/WAN v1.5 and Contivity ver 2.5 - 3.5 (might work with earlier
versions, but I have not tested it with this config)
or
FreeS/WAN v1.8 and COntivity ver 3.5 (the 3.5 version supports Diffe
Hilman group 2 key exchange)
What to do:
1 - Configure the Contivity:
Set up a branch office tunnel group with the following settings:
Connectivity:
Nailed Up: Disabled
Access Hours: Anytime
Call Admission Priority: Highest Priority
Forwarding Priority: Low Priority
Idle Timeout: 00:00:00
Forced Logoff: 00:00:00
RSVP: Disabled
RSVP: Token Bucket Depth: 3000 Bytes
RSVP: Token Bucket Rate: 28 Kbps
Branch Office Bandwidth Policy:
- Committed Rate: 56 Kbps
- Excess Rate: 128 Kbps
- Excess Action: Mark
Encryption:
- ESP - Triple DES with SHA1 Integrity: Enabled
- ESP - Triple DES with MD5 Integrity: Enabled
- ESP - 56-bit DES with SHA1 Integrity: Disabled
- ESP - 56-bit DES with MD5 Integrity: Disabled
*IKE Encryption and Diffie-Hellman Group: Triple DES with Group
2 (1024-bit prime)
Vendor ID: Disabled
Perfect Forward Secrecy: Enabled
Compression: Disabled
Rekey Timeout: 08:00:00
Rekey Data Count: (None)
*ISAKMP Retransmission Interval: 16
*ISAKMP Retransmission Max Attempts: 4
Set up a branch office tunnel inside this new group with the
following settings:
Endpoint Addresses
Local - Public address of your COntivity
Remote - Your Free-S/WAN interface Address
Tunnel Type - IPSEC
IPSEC Authentication - Text Pre-Shared Key
One note here, I have had some trouble trying to use HEX
or Non alphanumeric chars in this key.
Under IP:
Static Routing
Local - networks you want to be able to access through the
tunnel
Remote - networks that will be allowed through the tunnel
NAT - None
Get routing setup on your office network:
You will need to get a routing entry that will point all traffic
bound for your home network (the one that will be acciessible through
the tunnel) to the internal interface of the contivity system.
Configure Free-S/WAN:
Install, compile, and test Free-S/WAN
Edit ipsec.conf for your new tunnel:
--------------------------------------------------------
ipsec.conf --
config setup
interfaces="ipsec0=eth1"
forwardcontrol=no
klipsdebug=none
plutodebug=none
manualstart=
plutoload=%search
plutostart=%search
plutowait=no
conn net1
type=tunnel
auto=start
auth=esp
authby=secret
keyexchange=ike
keylife=1h
keyingtries=1
pfs=yes
left=10.0.0.2
leftnexthop=10.0.0.1
leftsubnet=10.0.1.0/24
right=172.16.0.2
rightsubnet=172.16.1.0/24
conn net2
type=tunnel
auto=start
auth=esp
authby=secret
keyexchange=ike
keylife=1h
keyingtries=1
pfs=yes
left=10.0.0.2
leftnexthop=10.0.0.1
leftsubnet=10.0.1.0/24
right=172.16.0.2
rightsubnet=172.16.2.0/24
ipsec.secrets --
10.0.0.2 172.16.0.2 "Your big secret"
---------------------------------------------
The above config is for this imaginary network:
+------+
10.0.1.1 | |10.0.0.2 10.0.0.1++ Internet
---------| |-------------------++===========
+------+ Home Router
Free-S/WAN host
Internet ++ 172.16.0.2#### 172.16.1.0/24 These
=========++--------------####---------172.16.2.0/24 are here somewhere
Office Router Contivity
This has worked for me. I am still having trouble with the tunnels
dying after about 30-40 minutes of non-use. Don't know what that is
about, but I'll keep you posted.
Subject: Interoperability with Raptor 5 (Success!) Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1999 16:19:27 -0500 From: Chuck Bushong <chuckb@chandler-group.com> I don't know if this is useful information for anyone, but I have successfully established a VPN between RedHat 5.1 (kernel 2.0.34) running FreeS/WAN 0.91 and NT4 running Raptor 5. However, Pluto does not appear compatible with the Raptor IKE implementation. . . . Subject: RE: Interoperability with Raptor 5 (Success!) Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 17:22:55 -0500 From: Chuck Bushong <chuckb@chandler-group.com> ... this VPN (at least the klips end) has been up under minimal utilization for three weeks plus without interruption. The machine seems very stable. Pat yourself on the back, gentlemen. Your beta release is more stable than certain companies' shipping product. Keep up the good work.
Subject: Re: successful interop. with Raptor 6.02
From: "Charles G. Griebel" <cggrieb@biw.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000
On Thu, Jul 20, 2000 at 12:04:40PM -0700, Kevin Traas wrote:
> Great! I'm just about to start looking into this as well, so any
> docs/info you can provide would be *greatly* appreciated. Immortalize
> yourself! Get something written and added to the compatibility.html
> file. Many will thank you.
Can't be that hard. I'm just a freeswan newbie who hasn't even done a FS
FS
tunnel yet :)
Anyway, I hope you find this helpful.
Chock
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Automatically keyed 3DES VPN between Raptor 6.02 on Solaris 2.6 (left) and
FreeS/WAN 1.5 on 2.2.16 Intel (right)
FreeS/WAN (right) information:
-----------------------------
ipsec.conf
----------
config setup
interfaces="ipsec0=ppp0" # change to suite
klipsdebug=
plutodebug=
plutoload=sample
plutostart=sample
conn sample
left=10.0.0.1
leftnexthop=10.0.0.2
leftsubnet=192.168.0.0/24
right=10.1.1.1
rightnexthop=10.1.1.1
rightsubnet=172.16.1.0/24
auto=add
keyexchange=ike
pfs=no
lifetime=8h
esp=3des-md5-96
ipsec.secrets
-------------
# note I haven't verified that underscores will actually work
10.0.0.1 10.1.1.1: PSK "some_long_secret_with_plenty_of_chars"
Raptor 6.02 (left) information:
------------------------------
Key Profiles:
Name: left-external-kp-dynamic
Type: Dynamic
Profile Describing: local entity
Gateway: 10.1.1.1
Identification Type: Address
Identification: 10.1.1.1
ISAKMP Hash Method: MD5
ISAKMP Authentication: Shared_Key
Shared Secret: some_long_secret_with_plenty_of_chars
Time Expiration: 1080
Name: right-external-kp-dynamic
Type: Dynamic
Profile Describing: remote entity
Gateway: 10.0.0.1
Identification Type: Address
Identification: 10.0.0.1
Secure Subnets:
Name: left-ss-dynamic
Address: 192.168.0.0
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Key Profile: left-ss-dynamic
Name: right-ss-dynamic
Address: 172.16.1.0
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Key Profile: right-ss-dynamic
Secure Tunnel:
Name: left-to-right-tunnel
Entity A: right-ss-dynamic
Entity B: left-ss-dynamic
Encapsulation: ISAKMP
Filter: [none]
Pass traffic through proxies: [unchecked]
Use Authentication Header: [unchecked]
Use Encryption Header: [checked]
Data Integrity Algorithm: MD5
Data Privacy Algorithm: 3DES
[Advanced settings]
Data volume timeout: 2100000
Lifetime timeout: 480
Inactivity timeout: 0
Transport mode: [unchecked]
Perfect forward secrecy: [unchecked]
Proxy: [checked]
----
Notes:
I made the addresses fictitious RFC1918 addresses.
I haven't tried PFS.
I had problems getting an SA with manual keying -- I think it may be with the
SPI's.
> In the Raptor settings, there are 2 sets of data (1 for each end). Each set > contains an SPI, 3 DES Keys and 1 MD5 hash. I only know how to include one > set, how do I include the other set? Is the other set needed? They may be using different keys for each direction, which is a bit unusual for manual keying, but not impossible. The simplest thing is probably to just give it two identical sets of data -- that should work. FreeS/WAN has provisions for asymmetric keys etc. in manual keying, but that stuff is lightly documented and lightly tested.
Subject: Successful interop: FreeS/WAN 1.7
Gauntlet Firewall GVPN 5.5
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000
Sending the following to the list, at Hugh's request.
-----Original Message-----
From: Reiner, Richard
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2000 11:34 AM
To: 'hugh@mimosa.com'
Hugh,
> Good. But we don't think that you should be using our IPCOMP just
> yet. It is flaky :-(
I've seen no anomalies, although "allow ipcomp" is on at the Gauntlet
end. Looking at my ipsec.conf I actually find no refereence to ipcomp.
I presume it is disabled by default. In addition, reviewing my logs
both on the Gauntlet end and the Linux end, I see nothing I can
interpret as an indication that ipcomp was enabled during negotiation.
So I have to correct my previous posting - I believe the link is *not*
using ipcomp.
> This is interesting and we'd love a more complete writeup. It should
> get incorporated into our interop documentation.
Here are the relevant bits from ipsec.conf:
config setup
interfaces=%defaultroute
klipsdebug=none
plutodebug=none
plutoload=%search
plutostart=%search
uniqueids=yes
conn freeswan17-gauntlet55
auto=start
type=tunnel
left=1.1.1.1
leftnexthop=1.1.1.2
leftsubnet=10.0.1.0/24
right=3.3.3.3
rightnexthop=3.3.3.4
rightsubnet=10.0.2.0/24
authby=secret
keyexchange=ike
ikelifetime=480m
auth=esp
esp=3des-md5-96
keylife=480m
keyingtries=8
pfs=no
rekeymargin=9m
rekeyfuzz=25%
All settings on the Gauntlet side are the same (not shown here, as GUI
screenshots are hard to show in ASCII... and the textual format that is
generated by the Gauntlet GUI is ugly in the extreme).
Note that ikelifetime is 1440m by default on the Gauntlet end, but
freeswan does not support this value (max appears to be 480m), thus the
Gauntlet end is also set to 480m to match freeswan's value.
Also worth noting: I am using the excellent Seawall scripts to manage
ipchains configuration on the freeswan end. It automatically generates
a correct set of firewall rules for the link (along with doing many
other convenient things).
For more information on Seawall (the Seattle Firewall), see that
project's home page on
Sourceforge.
A PDF HowTo for connecting FreeS/WAN and this product can be downloaded from the vendor's site or browsed at a VPN mailing list site.
A resource page full of Firewall-1 information.
The mailing list reports success with this combination, but also some problems. Search the archives for the full story.
Here is one message, about what seems to be the biggest problem:
Subject: Re: Pb establishing connection from FW1/3DES/SP2 with freeswan 1.5 - ACTE 2 Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2001 From: Claudia Schmeing <claudia@freeswan.org> > Thanx to Michael and Claudia, but this doesn't work from VPN1 to linux (as > linux to VPN1 is OK). ... > I think that VPN1 doesn't send "192.168.1.0/24" but "192.168.1.20/32" and, > as Claudia said, IPSEC SA need to match Exactly. I don't know about the rules on the VPN-1. You'll have to rely on people with applicable experience there... > Is it possible that freeswan doesn't do the inclusion process (ie if he > receive 192.168.1.20/32, i doesn't match that this is include in > 192.168.1.0/24) ? Yes, that's correct. It needs to match exactly, and inclusion is not part of this process. > Btw why VPN/1 send 192.168.1.20/32 and not 192.168.1.20/24 (the value that > Freeswan is waiting for)? A bug? I think Michael may be able to help you with this. > Have i a way to force Freeswan to do the "inclusion" (ie accept > 192.168.1.20/32 as a part of 192.160.1.20/24, even if the 2 IPSEC Sa > doesn't match exactly) ? No, but... Another strategy is to accept the fact that the Checkpoint proposes separate connections for each machine. If you define and add each of these connections on the Linux FreeS/WAN side, then Linux FreeS/WAN ought to accept the Checkpoint's proposals. The only possible difficulty with this strategy is that I don't know how Linux FreeS/WAN handles the concept of overlapping tunnels. I believe, though, that these tunnels can coexist, and if for any packet there are two options, a more general and a less general, the packet will be handled by the more specific tunnel. You would need to do a little testing to ensure you understand the behaviour and that this does actually solve your problem. I think it would be simplest to try to get the Checkpoint to propose the more general tunnel. Since I don't recall having seen this problem before, I suspect the simpler solution is doable.
One user reports:
Subject: [Users] Very Useful document, can a link to it be put on the FreeS/WAN web site? Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 From: Simon Matthews <simon@paxonet.com> This is a very useful document on getting SSH Sentinel to work with FreeS/WAN using x509 certificates. http://www.ssh.com/download_files/openssl_mini-ca.pdf Perhaps a link to it could be put on the web site. There is also another document on FreeS/WAN SSH Sentinel interoperability: http://www.ssh.com/products/sentinel/SSH_Sentinel_Config_Examples.pdf SimonThe vendor seems serious about interop with us. Here is a message one of their staff posted on our list:
From: Jussi Torhonen <jt@ssh.com> Organization: SSH Communications Security Corp - http://www.ssh.com Subject: [Users] SSH Sentinel VPN client public beta #3 now available Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 Hello, FreeS/WAN community ! SSH Communications Security Corp has released a new public beta #3 version of SSH Sentinel VPN client for Windows. We've got a lot of reports also from FreeS/WAN community and with that feedback we've improved interoperability and stability. For example PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy in IKE rekey) can now be used between SSH Sentinel and FreeSWAN, and if using that user contributed X.509 patch and exporting the certificate from SSH Sentinel, now those -----[BEGIN|END] CERTIFICATE----- headers/footers are properly included in the exported PEM formatted certificate, so it can be imported to FreeSWAN with fswcert utility and OpenSSL tools. Thank you a lot for your feedback, colleagues ! You can get that new public beta #3 and PDF formatted User Manual from ftp://ftp.ssh.com/pub/sentinel/ or via website http://www.ipsec.com/products/sentinel/beta/register.html For more information about the product, please check our website http://www.ipsec.com We eagerly want to make SSH Sentinel as the best VPN client on the market. If you want to contact our support, please send e-mail to sentinel-support@ssh.com or fill up our feedback form at http://www.ipsec.com/support/sentinel/beta_report.html Best regards, Jussi Torhonen, SSH Sentinel Team Kuopio, FinlandThere is one known problem withh SSH-FreeS/WAN interoperation, described in this message:
Subject: Re: [Users] Any plans for AES / Rijndael support ? Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 From: Jussi Torhonen Organization: SSH Communications Security Corp - http://www.ssh.com Markus Weber wrote: > ... the installation > of Sentinel don't let you set 3DES as the default! > And when your want to add a connection the first > diagnostic-test goes wrong ! :-( ... In current SSH Sentinel release you can select 'Legacy proposal' option, when setting up a VPN Connection profile. That causes it to use 3DES as a default cipher and DES as a alternative one. The option was added there just to improve interoperability with legacy systems supporting 3DES or even DES only. If no selecting Legacy Proposal option, SSH Sentinel sends quite a huge proposal list to the responder to find automatically one common cipher supported to be used for the connection. That proposal list is known to be problematic for some VPN gateway implementations like FreeSWAN. Typically the long proposal list itself may the a problem or fragmented packets of the long proposal list may be a probem. Now we've been living in a world of DES and 3DES, but hopefully in a near future the use of AES/Rijndael will increase. ...
FreeS/WAN does not yet support AES.
Subject: Identification through other than IP number Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 From: Thomas Bellman <bellman@signum.se> ... Currently we are trying to interop FreeS/WAN with F-Secure VPN+ Client 4.0 (for MS Windows), and as long as the Windows machine has a fix IP address, and are initiating the IKE negotiations, things are working well. However, when the IP address is changing, it doesn't work. ... (I'll try to write something up about the problems we are having when Pluto is initiatior in another message.)
Watchguard make a Linux-based firewall product. Ipchains author Rusty Russell thanks them for support and recommends them in one of his HowTos . On the other hand, some comments on our mailing list about the Watchguard product have been quite unfavourable. See, for example, this archive message.
Watchguard do not use FreeS/WAN in their product. They have their own IPsec implementation.
We have had mailing list reports of successful interoperation between FreeS/WAN and the Watchguard firewall, using manually keyed connections. The user could not get automatically keyed connections to work; the message below explains this.
Here is some mail from a Watchguard employee about interoperation:
Subject: FreeS/WAN and WatchGuard Firebox interop Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 From: Max Enders <menders@watchguard.com> I was recently given the task of testing IPSec interoperability with our product, the Firebox. I just wanted to let you know that I had success with a manual keyed tunnel. Here's what I used for my test: RedHat Linux 6.2 Linux 2.2.18 i686 unknown Linux FreeS/WAN 1.8 "Trusted" interface: 192.168.0.1/24 "External" interface: 192.168.1.1/24 Firebox II FastVPN WatchGuard Live Security System v4.5 Trusted interface: 192.168.2.1/24 External interface: 192.168.1.2/24 Because FreeS/WAN does not implement single DES, a dynamic keyed tunnel will not work. Our product strictly uses DES for main mode. We hope to address this in a future release. Here are instructions for configuring the Firebox: Open the Policy Manager and create a new IPSec gateway. Set the Key Negotiation Type to manual and enter the FreeS/WAN box's external IP address for the Remote Gateway IP. Configure a new tunnel with a unique SPI. Select 3DES-CBC for Encryption and MD5-HMAC for Authentication. Make an Encryption Key and Authentication Key. Copy the values and save them for configuration of the FreeS/WAN box. Configure a routing policy and any necessary services as you normally would. Here's how I configured FreeS/WAN: Modifications to /etc/ipsec.conf: Under the "config setup" section, add: manualstart=firebox At the end of the file, add the following connection: conn firebox left=192.168.1.1 leftsubnet=192.168.0.0/24 right=192.168.1.2 rightsubnet=192.168.2.0/24 spi=0x101 esp=3des-md5-96 espenckey=0x515b0875793e3708517c3d4554012f7c0273375e51572a31 espauthkey=0x072649041c2c0d452f7c15407576522f The spi used here should match the Firebox's. Note that the Policy Manager expects an SPI in decimal, not hexadecimal. The espenckey value should be 0x and the Encryption Key you're using on the Firebox. Likewise for espauthkey and the Authentication Key on the Firebox.A user comments:
Subject: RE: Freeswan Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2001 From: "Patrick Poncet" <pponcet@vaxxine.com> It's working!!! Voila... I wish to thank all the FreeS/WAN for putting out such a great product out! And also Philippe PAULEAU who pioneered interoperability between FreeS/WAN and Watchguard Firebox II and therefore showed me that my efforts would not be wasted!... Yes indeed FreeS/WAN to WatchGuard Firebox only works in manual keying mode and the best way to generate keys is to have the firebox generate the keys, then copy and paste into the ipsec.conf file on the FreeS/WAN side (don't forget to prefix the keys with '0x' in your ipsec.conf file. Also keep in mind that the SPI is in decimal on the Firebox side and HEX on the FreeS/WAN side!!! We spent 4 hours on fixing this HEX-DEC issue only :)
Subject: Interoperability result
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 18:08:12 -0500
From: Paul Koning <pkoning@xedia.com>
Here's another datapoint for the "FreeS/WAN interoperability
database".
I tested 0.92 against the Xedia Access Point/QVPN product, using
dynamic keying (i.e., Pluto at work).
Results: it works fine so long as you ask for 3DES. DES and no-crypto
modes don't work when Pluto is involved.
I did limited data testing, which seemed to be fine. No performance
numbers yet, could do that if people are interested.
Any questions, please ask.
paul
Since version 6.5, the PGP products from PGP Inc. have included an IPsec client program.
Here is the first message about it to our mailing list, from a senior PGP employee:
Subject: PGPnet interoperable with FreeSWAN Date: Mon, 05 Apr 1999 18:06:13 -0700 From: Will Price <wprice@cyphers.net> Network Associates announced PGP 6.5 today. It includes a new product PGPnet which is a full IKE/IPSec client implementation. This product is for Windows and Macintosh. I just wanted to send a brief note to this list that the product was compatibility tested with FreeSWAN prior to its release, and the tests were successful! [snip] - -- Will Price, Architect/Sr. Mgr., PGP Client Products Total Network Security Division Network Associates, Inc.
One version is downloadable at no cost for non-commercial use. See our links. That version does not support subnets.
Several of the user-written HowTos mentioned above cover interoperation between PGPnet and FreeS/WAN.
A more recent post from the same PGP Inc staff member pointed out:
Make sure you're using PGP 7.0 or later as the key parser was improved in that release. (PGP 7.0.1 was just released)
Various users have reported various successes and problems talking to PGPnet with FreeS/WAN. There has also been a fairly complex discussion of some fine points of RFC interpretation between the implementers of the two systems. Check an archive of our mailing list for details.
A post summarising some of this, from our Pluto programmer:
Subject: PGPnet 6.5 and freeswan Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 From: "D. Hugh Redelmeier" <hugh@mimosa.com> | From: Yan Seiner | | OK, I'm stumped. I am trying to configure IPSEC to support road | warriors using PGPnet 6.5. | | I've set up everything as per the man pages on the ipsec side. | | I've set up everything on the PGPnet side per the docs for that package. | | Pluto fails with this: | | Jan 16 08:14:11 aphrodite Pluto[26401]: "homeusers" #8: no acceptable | Oakley Transform | | and then it terminates the connection. As far as I can tell/remember, there are three common ways that PGPnet and FreeS/WAN don't get along. 1. PGPnet proposes a longer lifetime for an SA than Pluto is willing to accept. 2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new one while PGPnet continues using the old 3. FreeS/WAN defaults to expecting Perfect Forward Secrecy and PGPnet does not. Perhaps you are bumping into the first. In any case, look back in the log to see why Pluto rejected each transform
Some advice from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Secure Gate Fails- PGPNet & FreeSwan
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000
From: Andreas Haumer <andreas@xss.co.at>
I have a PGPnet setup running with FreeS/WAN working as secure
gateway. It works quite fine, except for a re-negotiation problem
I'm currently investigating, and in fact I have it running on some
test equipment here right now!
As I tried _several_ different non-working configuration settings
I think I know the exact _one_ which works... :-)
Here's my short "HOWTO":
FreeS/WAN version: snap1000jun25b
PGPnet: PGP Personal Privacy, Version 6.5.3
Linux: 2.2.16 with some patches
Network setup:
=============
internal subnet [192.168.x.0/24]
|
| [192.168.x.1]
secure gateway with FreeS/WAN
| [a.b.c.x]
|
| [a.b.c.y]
router to internet
|
| Internet
|
| [dynamically assigned IP address]
road-warrior with PGPnet
Configuration of FreeS/WAN:
==========================
a) /etc/ipsec.conf
config setup
interfaces=%defaultroute
klipsdebug=none
plutodebug=none
plutoload=%search
plutostart=%search
conn %default
keyingtries=1
authby=secret
left=a.b.c.x
leftnexthop=a.b.c.y
conn gw-rw
right=0.0.0.0
auto=add
conn subnet-rw
leftsubnet=192.168.x.0/24
right=0.0.0.0
auto=add
b) /etc/ipsec.secrets
a.b.c.x 0.0.0.0: "my very secret secret"
Note: If you are running ipchains on your secure gateway,
you have to open the firewall for all the IPsec packets
and also for traffic from your ipsec interface!
Don't masquerade the IPsec traffic!
Check your logfiles if the firewall is blocking some
important packets!
Configuration of PGPnet:
=======================
(note that there is an excellent description, including
screenshots of PGPnet, on <http://jixen.tripod.com/>)
In short, do the following:
Launch the PGPnet configuration tool and set defaults options
=============================================================
Start - Program - PGP - PGPnet
View - Options
General Panel :
Expert Mode
Allow communications with unconfigured hosts
Require valid authentication key
Cache passphrases between logins
IKE Duration : 6h
IPsec : 6h
Advanced panel :
Selected options :
Ciphers : Tripple DES
Hashes : MD5
Diffie-Hellman : 1024 and 1536
Compression : LZS and Deflate
Make the IKE proposal :
Shared-Key - MD5 - 3DES -1024 bits on top of the list (move up)
Make the IPSec proposal :
NONE - MD5-TrippleDES -NONE on top of the list (move up)
Select Perfect Forward Secrecy = 1024 bits
Press OK
Create the connection's definition.
==================================
In the Hosts panel, ADD
Name : Enter a name for the right gateway
IPaddress : Enter its IP address visible to the internet (a.b.c.x)
Select Secure Gateway
Set shared Paraphrase : enter you preshared key
Identity type : select IP address
Identity : enter 0.0.0.0
Remote Authentication : select Any valid key
Press Ok
Select the newly created entry for the right gateway and click ADD,
YES
Name : Enter a name for the central subnet
IP address : Enter its network IP address (192.168.x.0)
Select Insecure Subnet
Subnet Mask : enter its subnetmask (255.255.255.0)
Press OK, YES, YES
This should be it. Note that with this configuration there is
still this re-keying problem: after 6 hours, the SA is expired
and the connection fails. You have to re-connect your connection
with PGPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total pain, especially if you think you're testing your changes, because you're not. Not sure if this affects fixed IP connections from SoftRemote, or what the effective equivalent to hanging up and dialing in again would be to clear the problem there if it exists. Also, as I noted before: In configuring SoftRemote, there are a couple of new menu options that Soft-PK didn't have, just in case you're following examples given for that. Importantly, in setting the "Remote Party Identity and Addressing" choose "IP subnet" rather than "IP", and be sure to provide a mask which matches the subnet mask for that conn in ipsec.conf (e.g. 255.255.255.0 and /24).Much of the infornation available above for the earlier SoftPK product should also apply to SoftRemote.
Subject: ipsec interoperability FYI Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 From: Sean Rooney <sean@coldstream.ca> we've been doing some basic interoperability testing of the following; PGP NT VPN 6.5 and freeswan both seem to work reasonably well with Borderware 6.0 and freegate 1.3 beta. [as well as eachother] more details coming soon.
Subject: TimeStep Permit/Gate interop works! Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 From: Derick Cassidy <dcthebrain@geek.com> Just a quick note of success. TimeStep Permit/Gate (2520) and Free/Swan (June 4th snapshot) interoperate! I have them working in AUTO mode, with IKE. IPSec SA's are negotiated with 3DES and MD5. Here are the configs and a diagram for both configs. left subnet---| Timestep | --- internet --- GPnet.
and a note from the team's tech support person:
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 From: Claudia Schmeing There is a known issue with PGPNet which I don't see mentioned in the docs. It's likely related to this one, that you note on the site: >2. After rekeying (i.e. after building a new SA bundle because the old > one is about to expire), FreeS/WAN immediately switches to the new > one while PGPnet continues using the old The issue is: When taking down and subsequently recreating a connection, it can appear to come up, but it is unusable because PGPNet continues to use an old SA, which Linux FreeS/WAN no longer recognizes. The solution is to take down the old connection using PGPNet, so that it will then use the most recently generated SA.
IRE have an extensive line of IPsec products, including firewall software with IPsec, and hardware encryption devices for LAN or modem links. Their Soft-PK is a Win 98 and NT client. Quite a few people have used this with FreeS/WAN and, judging by mailing list reports, have had good results.
SoftRemote is newer product integrating the IPsec client with personal firewall software. As yet, we have few reports on this. One is quoted below.
Several documents are available:
Some messages from the mailing list:
Subject: Re: Identification through other than IP number
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999
From: Tim Miller <cerebus+counterpane@haybaler.sackheads.org>
Randy Dees writes:
> Anyone know of a low-cost MS-Win client that interoperates and does not
> require purchasing a server license to get it?
SafeNet/Soft-PK from IRE (http://www.ire.com) is a low-cost
client (though I don't have the exact cost available at the moment).
I've got it running on an NT4 workstation and it interoperates nicely
(in transport mode, will try tunnel later) with FreeS/WAN. It's also
ICSA IPsec certified.
A later report with some setup details:
Subject: RE: PGPnet and Freeswan one more time... Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2000 From: "Tim Wilson" <timwilson@mediaone.net> Here are some details about using the IRE SafeNet Soft/PK client with a FreeSwan gateway. I applied the x509 patch to Pluto according to the instructions. I use the "leftcert" and "rightcert" keywords in the ipsec.conf file. This causes FreeSwan to read the public keys and identities from the cert files. The identities wanted and used by FreeSwan will then be the DNs in the certs. I used OpenSSL to generate keys and certs and to sign certs. When generating the gateway cert, you should *not* enter an e-mail address because it turns out that confuses Soft/PK. Also, Andreas Steffan tells me that you want to keep the cert short to avoid fragmentation, so use a 1024-bit RSA key and succinct names. The FreeSwan gateway cert goes in /etc/ipsec.d/, the gateway private key is extracted from the key file using fswcert (part of the x509 patch) and pasted into /etc/ipsec.secrets, and a DER version of the gateway cert goes in /etc/x509cert.der. This is all according to the instructions that accompany the x509 patch. The Windows client is of course running Soft/PK in this case. I generated a private key and cert for the client on the Linux machine using OpenSSL. I created a pkcs12 file containing the client's private key and cert, which I put on a floppy and imported into Soft/PK. I also imported the gateway cert into Soft/PK (you can either import a self-signed cert for the gateway or the self-signed cert for the CA that signed the gateway cert--either works). Soft/PK allows you to configure practically everything for the connection. Here are the main points to watch for: On the first panel you have to set the peer identities. The gateway will identify itself using the DN in the gateway cert. So of course you have to configure Soft/PK to look for the correct DN. There's no problem with this as long as you didn't enter an e-mail address in the gateway cert. Just check "Connect using Secure Gateway tunnel", set ID type to "Distinguished Name", and enter the correct info in the dialog box. In "My identity" just select the client cert that you imported in pcks12 format. Soft/PK apparently identifies itself with the DN from the cert, which is exactly what FreeSwan is looking for. In "Security Policy", you want Main mode and make the PFS setting agree with whatever FreeSwan is doing (FreeSwan uses PFS by default). If you use PFS I believe you must use DH group 2 as FreeSwan doesn't like group 1. Phase 1 Authentication must be "RSA signatures" and 3DES plus either MD5 or SHA-1 (I used MD5 but I believe FreeSwan accepts either). I left the lifetime unspecified. Also you must select DH group 2 because I believe that FreeSwan will not accept group 1. Phase 2 also must use 3DES and MD5 or SHA-1. I used no compression and only ESP and no AH, haven't tried other choices. Hope this helps.
From: Whit Blauvelt <whit@transpect.com> Subject: Re: [Users] RE: SafeNet SoftRemote 6.1 - FS 1.91 - HOW? Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 Things I've learned in getting SoftRemote working with FreeS/WAN: Using SoftRemote on dial-in, if there is any configuration adjustment for which you stop and start FreeS/WAN, SoftRemote is totally lost until you disconnect and dial in again. The SoftRemote "Disconnect All" and subsequent "Reload Polilcies" options that show when right-clicking its icon in the tray do not fix this - the only thing I've found that works is hanging up and then redialing. This makes debugging a total p