IPsec with public key authentication on strongSwan < 5.0.0
Setup
Generate an RSA keypair
root@debian:~# mkdir /etc/ipsec.d/public
root@debian:~# ipsec pki --gen --type rsa --outform pem --size 4096 > /etc/ipsec.d/private/mykey.pem
root@debian:~# ipsec pki --pub --in /etc/ipsec.d/private/mykey.pem --outform pem > /etc/ipsec.d/public/mykey.pub
root@debian:~# echo ": RSA mykey.pem" >> /etc/ipsec.secrets
Exchange public keys with your peer
- Display the public key. Send the key data to your peer.
root@debian:~# more /etc/ipsec.d/public/mykey.pub
-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----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-----END PUBLIC KEY-----
- Convert your peer’s public key to the Base64 RFC 3110 format using the pubkey-converter script, if necessary.
Configuration
Configure the phase 1 IKE parameters
In this example, we’ll use the following settings:
Key | Value |
---|---|
Encryption | AES-128 |
Hash | HMAC-SHA1 |
DH Group | 5 (modp1536) |
Lifetime | 28800 seconds |
Peer address | 192.0.2.2 |
Local address | 192.0.2.1 |
Note: strongSwan < 5.0.0 will read PEM-formatted private keys, but requires public keys to be added to the configuration in Base64 RFC 3110 format. Convert your host’s public key from PEM to Base64 RFC 3110 for inclusion in ipsec.conf as described below.
- Configure a connection policy in ipsec.conf for your peer. The
leftrsasigkey
attribute is your host’s public key in Base64 RFC 3110 format enclosed in double quotes, andrightrsasigkey
is your peer’s key.
root@debian:~# cat << EOF >> /etc/ipsec.conf
conn MYPEER
# peer IPs
left=192.0.2.1
right=192.0.2.2
# phase 1 parameters
ike=aes128-sha1-modp1536!
ikelifetime=28800s
# authentication
authby=pubkey
leftrsasigkey="0sAwEAAdvxViCblVLX7C6L2rzafpz0rE9pkKDSt2VFMLhCnwY0+5oYo3V0R4dUgLSGlNmnp+fneauntu7zAgmDkC2oJ/QpCmrQaueMxjbw0s0BKc9JiLGgcfcY74bIKgJigk6S7SrjM+nGWx/MvKPf2WfCr/iYbeu0/AQyl3M4DoOSCGl/OFKQq5UoJp0rymCrtz157fdW2euh2g2SYz3/WojDXH77lKlXxVp7FdsyOhxbxv7sJKi2pbJz2gMFXiFpdjr8tic3Y9BkS0mMfO3p3kgaPu7Y5VEUE7nQI9fud0hTpAXAj0p8z2KSAt4QX2fGcPK/9uZqFt8X/E5SyyaoAIedGLVcr8lUr9TCmAXY2XBbBF1HHguSyPSWa8gf0nq6tEfuP/2YkdyxLXrVSjb3KPW3CCR16/PBzNl3mEX0TwAesHpmyBDCmHcCIcGADzwLS/pQx7WQYgQCAKdMtBYWqM0s5TEq8vLWyUdnw/4vP8l6+YrFX4yWXcPFitCwHfGvM75jSBSoIilo6A4CMnDOR60Q/q2NAa/cTjZDXYAey8/8DxMlLIiImaWsDP0uLWl+xMSuFot6XcZDhy59mcmlirHYVz6QpHTH0jidEqglHFc3vsQ/BpSJ1ELD4Gwxr8U+940+iHvsEgPeAoLN5quxUunDaGQAEr+3E/QxvsX0Jo6yQvUl"
rightrsasigkey="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"
EOF
- All done! Configure the phase 2 parameters as you otherwise would.
Full GRE/IPsec example
root@debian:~# ip addr show dev gre1
11: gre1@NONE: <POINTOPOINT,NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1400 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
link/gre 192.0.2.1 peer 192.0.2.2
inet 10.1.2.0/31 scope global gre1
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 fe80::200:5efe:6825:1c22/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
root@debian:~# more /etc/ipsec.conf
# ipsec.conf - strongSwan IPsec configuration file
config setup
conn %default
keyexchange=ikev1
dpdaction=restart
conn MYPEER
# peer IPs
left=192.0.2.1
right=192.0.2.2
# phase 1 parameters
ike=aes128-sha1-modp1536!
ikelifetime=28800s
# authentication
authby=pubkey
leftrsasigkey="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"
rightrsasigkey="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"
# phase 2 parameters
esp=aes128-sha1!
pfs=yes
pfsgroup=modp1536
lifetime=3600s
type=transport
leftprotoport=gre
rightprotoport=gre
# startup
auto=route
keyingtries=%forever