[Openswan Users] OpenSWAN, KLIPS, and dead tunnels

David McCullough David_Mccullough at securecomputing.com
Wed Oct 7 18:09:02 EDT 2009


Jivin Diego Rivera lays it down ...
> I'm running openswan 2.6.22.  So which of the dpdaction options should I use?
> 
> *	clear?
> *	restart?
> *	restart_by_peer?
> *	hold?
> 
> I want whichever one will cause a peer to tear down its KLIPS policies and actively seek out the other peer(s) to re-establish the connection regardless of where the fault occurred.  Does any of those options do that?  From the docs, it smells like restart is a subset of restart_by_peer (hence why I chose the latter).  If not, then perhaps the docs should be clarified in this regard.

You should be using restart or restart_by_peer.

I suspect that you may be hitting one of the numerous problems that were
fixed between 2.6.22 and 2.6.23 with tunnel states/DPD and so on.

Is it possible to try 2.6.23 ?

Cheers,
Davidm

> David McCullough wrote: 
> 
> 	Jivin Paul Wouters lays it down ...
> 	  
> 
> 		On Wed, 7 Oct 2009, Diego Rivera wrote:
> 		
> 		    
> 
> 			However, if the tunnel is up and one of the nodes disappears - due to an
> 			outage, machine crash, whatever - then I have a problem that I can't
> 			really find a solution for: the tunnel is dead, but the KLIPS policies
> 			still remain in place.
> 			      
> 
> 		And it prevents plaintext packets from accidentally lekaing out.
> 		
> 		    
> 
> 			The only solution is to manually jump into the box and restart the IPSec
> 			service, forcing the policies to be taken down, to be re-added when the
> 			tunnel is back up.  This is manageable, but less than ideal.
> 			
> 			My perception of how this should really function is that when the peer
> 			is found to be down (we do have DPD configured on both ends so this
> 			      
> 
> 		DPD should do the trick.
> 		
> 		    
> 
> 			However, this isn't happening and I'm not sure if it's due to
> 			misconfiguration (perhaps I should use dpdaction=clear instead of
> 			restart_by_peer?), or due to a software defect in OpenSWAN.  Any
> 			      
> 
> 		restart_by_peer means the equivalent of auto=add. You wait on the other
> 		end to connect. Which should work if your other end would be using DPD,
> 		but if both ends use restart_by_peer, neither end will restart the
> 		connectin.
> 		    
> 
> 	
> 	That wasn't my impression.  It should basically be the same as restart,
> 	except that all tunnels to the same peer will be taken down at the same time
> 	to be restarted.  I am fairly sure there is an "initiate" call in the code
> 	path for when this happens.  If it doesn't do this I am in trouble :-)
> 	
> 	Which version of openswan are you running ?
> 	
> 	Cheers,
> 	Davidm
> 	
> 	  
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Diego Rivera
> Director / System Operations
> Roundbox Global : enterprise : technology : genius
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Avenida 11 y Calle 7-9, Barrio Am??n, San Jos??, Costa Rica
> tel: +1 (404) 567-5000 ext. 2147 | cel: +(506) 8393-0772 | fax: +(506) 2258-3695
> email: diego.rivera at rbxglobal.com | www.rbxglobal.com
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 

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> <head>
>   <meta content=3D"text/html;charset=3DISO-8859-1" http-equiv=3D"Content-=
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> I'm running openswan 2.6.22.&nbsp; So which of the dpdaction options shou=
> ld
> I use?<br>
> <ul>
>   <li>clear?</li>
>   <li>restart?</li>
>   <li>restart_by_peer?</li>
>   <li>hold?</li>
> </ul>
> I want whichever one will cause a peer to tear down its KLIPS policies
> and actively seek out the other peer(s) to re-establish the connection
> regardless of where the fault occurred.&nbsp; Does any of those options d=
> o
> that?&nbsp; From the docs, it smells like restart is a subset of
> restart_by_peer (hence why I chose the latter).&nbsp; If not, then perhap=
> s
> the docs should be clarified in this regard.<br>
> <br>
> At any rate, any suggestions, Paul?<br>
> <br>
> Cheers.<br>
> <br>
> <br>
> David McCullough wrote:
> <blockquote cite=3D"mid:20091007212933.GA4584 at securecomputing.com"
>  type=3D"cite">
>   <pre wrap=3D"">Jivin Paul Wouters lays it down ...
>   </pre>
>   <blockquote type=3D"cite">
>     <pre wrap=3D"">On Wed, 7 Oct 2009, Diego Rivera wrote:
> 
>     </pre>
>     <blockquote type=3D"cite">
>       <pre wrap=3D"">However, if the tunnel is up and one of the nodes di=
> sappears - due to an
> outage, machine crash, whatever - then I have a problem that I can't
> really find a solution for: the tunnel is dead, but the KLIPS policies
> still remain in place.
>       </pre>
>     </blockquote>
>     <pre wrap=3D"">And it prevents plaintext packets from accidentally le=
> kaing out.
> 
>     </pre>
>     <blockquote type=3D"cite">
>       <pre wrap=3D"">The only solution is to manually jump into the box a=
> nd restart the IPSec
> service, forcing the policies to be taken down, to be re-added when the
> tunnel is back up.  This is manageable, but less than ideal.
> 
> My perception of how this should really function is that when the peer
> is found to be down (we do have DPD configured on both ends so this
>       </pre>
>     </blockquote>
>     <pre wrap=3D"">DPD should do the trick.
> 
>     </pre>
>     <blockquote type=3D"cite">
>       <pre wrap=3D"">However, this isn't happening and I'm not sure if it=
> 's due to
> misconfiguration (perhaps I should use dpdaction=3Dclear instead of
> restart_by_peer?), or due to a software defect in OpenSWAN.  Any
>       </pre>
>     </blockquote>
>     <pre wrap=3D"">restart_by_peer means the equivalent of auto=3Dadd. Yo=
> u wait on the other
> end to connect. Which should work if your other end would be using DPD,
> but if both ends use restart_by_peer, neither end will restart the
> connectin.
>     </pre>
>   </blockquote>
>   <pre wrap=3D""><!---->
> That wasn't my impression.  It should basically be the same as restart,
> except that all tunnels to the same peer will be taken down at the same t=
> ime
> to be restarted.  I am fairly sure there is an "initiate" call in the cod=
> e
> path for when this happens.  If it doesn't do this I am in trouble :-)
> 
> Which version of openswan are you running ?
> 
> Cheers,
> Davidm
> 
>   </pre>
> </blockquote>
> <br>
> <div class=3D"moz-signature">-- <br>
> <style type=3D"text/css">
> 			p { margin: 0; }
> 		</style>
> <div style=3D"font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">=
> 
> <font size=3D"1"> Diego Rivera<br>
> Director / System Operations<br>
> Roundbox Global : <span
>  style=3D"font-style: italic; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">enterprise :
> technology : genius</span><br>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----------------------------------------<br>
> Avenida 11 y Calle 7-9, Barrio Am&oacute;n, San Jos&eacute;, Costa Rica<b=
> r>
> tel: +1 (404) 567-5000 ext. 2147 | cel: +(506) 8393-0772 | fax: +(506)
> 2258-3695<br>
> email: <a href=3D"mailto:diego.rivera at rbxglobal.com">diego.rivera at rbxglob=
> al.com</a>
> | <a href=3D"http://www.rbxglobal.com">www.rbxglobal.com</a><br>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----------------------------------------<br>
> </font> </div>
> </div>
> </body>
> </html>
> 
> 
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-- 
David McCullough,  david_mccullough at securecomputing.com,  Ph:+61 734352815
McAfee - SnapGear  http://www.snapgear.com                http://www.uCdot.org


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