Linux VPN Using OpenSwan

By David.K

VPN Guidelines
Here are some recommended guidelines that I suggest you consider before attempting a simple SOHO
Linux VPN.

 The IPSec protocol on which VPNs are based will not tolerate its data packets being network address
translated. If your firewall does NAT, then you'll have to disable it specifically for the packets that will
traverse the VPN.

 Life will be much easier if you make your Linux VPN box also function as a firewall. Configure and
test the firewall first and then configure the VPN.
 The networks at both ends of the VPN tunnel must use different IP address ranges. Many company
networks operate using 192.168.0.x or 192.168.1.x addresses, you may have to reassign IP
addresses to your network if overlaps occur.

 Permanent site-to-site VPNs require firewalls at both ends that use static, DHCP IP addresses.

Scenario
Here's the scenario.

 The two sites need a VPN so that they can communicate with each other without the fear of
eavesdropping.

 The network administrators at both sites are aware that permanent site-to-site VPNs require fixed
Internet IP addresses and have upgraded from their basic DHCP services originally provided by their
ISPs. The sites' IP addressing schemes do not overlap.

 Neither site wants to invest in a CA certificate service or infrastructure. The RSA key encryption
methodology will be used for key exchange. (At the end of the chapter, I'll discuss an alternative
Cisco-compatible method called alternately shared secret, pre-shared, or symmetric key.)
 Site 1 uses a private network of 172.168.1.0 /24 and has a Linux VPN/firewall device default gateway
with an external Internet IP address of 97.158.253.25.

 Site 2 uses a private network of 10.0.0.0 /24 and has a Linux VPN/firewall device default gateway
with an external Internet IP address of 6.25.232.1.

Download And Install The Openswan Package

You can download the Openswan RPM at www.openswan.org

Install it using

Rpm –Uvh openswan-2.1.4-1.fc2.i386.rpm

The -U qualifier is used for updating an RPM to the latest version, the -h qualifier gives a list of hash #
characters during the installation and the -v qualifier prints verbose status messages while the command
is run.
Configuring OpenSwan

You can configure Openswan to start at boot time using the chkconfig command:

[root@bt]# chkconfig ipsec on

You can start, stop, and restart Openswan after booting using the ipsec initialization script as shown:

[root@bt]# service ipsec start

[root@bt]# service ipsec stop
[root@bt]# service ipsec restart

Remember to restart the ipsec process every time you make a change to the ipsec.conf file for the
changes to take effect on the running process.

Get The Status Of The Openswan Installation

Immediately after installing Openswan, run the ipsec verify command. It should give an [OK] status for
most of its checks:

IP forwarding

Each Linux VPN device needs to have routing or IP forwarding enabled. To enable it, simply add an
ip_forward entry to the /etc/sysctl.conf file by using an editor such as vi or vim.

#
# File: /etc/sysctl.conf
#
#---------------------------------------------------------------
# Enable routing (IP forwarding)
#---------------------------------------------------------------

net/ipv4/ip_forward = 1
Now use the sysctl -p command to activate the settings.

[root@bt]# sysctl -p
...
...
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1
[root@bt]#

Opportunistic Encryption DNS Checks:

The opportunistic encryption DNS checks feature of Openswan allows gateways 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. The rationale behind this is to make all connections to servers behind the
VPN device automatically be encrypted using IPSec in the same way that HTTP traffic can be seamlessly
encrypted to become HTTPS traffic.

This feature should be disabled by default in your configuration file; simply ignore the errors related to it.

VPN Configuration Steps (Using RSA Keys)

One of the more secure ways of setting up a VPN tunnel is to encrypt the data using certificate-based
(RSA) keys. There are other VPN parameters too, but Openswan is very forgiving when it establishes a
tunnel. It automatically goes through all the various combinations of IKE and IPSec settings with the
remote VPN box until it finds a match. You don't have to configure most of these settings explicitly as you
often have to do in the case of routers and firewall/VPN appliances.

The /etc/ipsec.conf file

Preparation work requires you to draw a basic network diagram such as Figure 35.1. The VPN box on the
left is called the left-hand side and the one on the right is called the right-hand side. Left and right
parameters must be configured in the /etc/ipsec.conf configuration file. Table 35-1 explains each
parameter.
Table 35-1 Parameters of the /etc/ipsec.conf file
Parameter Description

Left Internet IP address of the left-hand side VPN device.

Leftsubnet The network protected by the left-hand side VPN device.

Leftid Fully qualified domain name in DNS of the left-hand side VPN device, which is preceded by
an "@" sign. If DNS is set up for the IP addresses, remove this entry, because names that
don't resolve correctly cause the VPN initialization to fail.

Leftrsasigkey The entire left RSA sig public key for the left-hand side VPN device. This can be obtained by
using the ipsec showhostkey --left command.

Leftnexthop The next hop router from the left-hand side VPN device when trying to reach the right-hand
side VPN device. You may use an auto-generated variable %defaultroute, which will be
valid in most cases, or the actual IP address of the next hop router in cases where the next
hop is not the default router.

Right Internet IP address of the right-hand side VPN device.

Rightsubnet The network protected by the right-hand side VPN device.

Rightid Fully qualified domain name in DNS of the right-hand side VPN device, which is preceded by
an @ sign. If DNS isn't set up for the IP addresses, remove this entry, because names that
don't resolve correctly cause the VPN initialization to fail.

Rightrsasigkey The entire right RSA sig public key for the right-hand side VPN device. This can be obtained
by using the ipsec showhostkey --right command.

Rightnexthop The next hop router from the right-hand side VPN device when trying to reach the right-
hand side VPN device. You may use an auto-generated variable %defaultroute, which
will be valid in most cases, or the actual IP address of the next hop router in cases where
the next hop is not the default router.
First you must gather all this information, then you have to enter it in the /etc/ipsec.conf configuration file.

Obtaining RSA Keys

To configure the /etc/ipsec.conf file, you need to get the left RSA public key for the left VPN device and
the right key for the right VPN device. You need to generate these and insert them in the /etc/ipsec.conf
file of the VPN peer device.

The best approach is to generate files containing these keys and then use the vi editor's read command
(r) to read them into your /etc/ipsec.conf file. Cutting and pasting screen output over an SSH session may
automatically insert carriage return and line feed characters at the end of each line where the text would
normally wrap around on the screen. This can corrupt the keys.

Creating Your Own Keys

The Openswan installation automatically generates the keys. If you want to change them, you can issue
the command:

[root@vpn2 tmp]# ipsec rsasigkey --verbose 2048 > keys.tmp

[root@vpn2 tmp]#

You can then edit the /etc/ipsec.secrets file and replace the contents between RSA: { and the final } with
the contents of the keys.tmp file generated from the ipsec command above.

Get The Left Public Key

On the left VPN server, issue this command to export the left public key to a file named /tmp/left.pub.

[root@vpn1 tmp]# ipsec showhostkey --left > /tmp/left.pub

[root@vpn1 tmp]#

Get The Right Public Key

On the right VPN server, export the right public key to a file named /tmp/right.pub.

[root@vpn2 tmp]# ipsec showhostkey --right > /tmp/right.pub

[root@vpn2 tmp]#

Edit the /etc/ipsec.conf Configuration File

Each VPN in the /etc/ipsec.conf file has its own subsection. The example creates a subsection called net-
to-net, which then receives all the needed parameters.

#
# File: /etc/ipsec.conf
#
conn net-to-net
left=97.158.253.25 # Public Internet IP address of the
# LEFT VPN device
leftsubnet=172.16.1.0/24 # Subnet protected by the LEFT VPN device
leftid=@vpn1.my-site.com # FQDN of Public Internet IP address of the
# LEFT VPN device with an "@"

leftrsasigkey=0sAQNrV9AYdaW94FXvIxu5p54+MRaW0wy0+HHQrdGofklZYQ4TCBlL+Ym00Ahfc
8mqXlerZY12Os41G
8SIV+zzIO04WZ4wmOvEr8DZaldTbfCuvUvMhrTtCpZdm53yF5rCaUbg+Vmx71fgyVmGu8/kuhzB7n
WtOYqDFO8OHDGePOyO
VPQi73KfRoDbdb3ND0EtfnRhRPblKJ239OlIq1
leftnexthop=%defaultroute # correct in many situations
right=6.25.232.1 # Public Internet IP address of
# the RIGHT VPN device
rightsubnet=10.0.0.0/24 # Subnet protected by the RIGHT VPN device
rightid=@vpn2.another-site.com # FQDN of Public Internet IP address of the
# RIGHT VPN device with an "@"

rightrsasigkey=0sAQNNdxFPWCga+E/AnDgIM+uIDq4UXcZzpomwMFUpyQ9+rhUHT9w8nr3rjUR/
qTZOKR2Vqd4XoBd1s
HkPDBQ8oNjtA3Oz+UQOU3KTMHN5ydFwe6MpTJV/hL6LvhB0OXQad/NhjMIx8vOnhM8g8SPRnj7pL3
abgu7Sg7eFREV1MJSVB
h p0DJ0EbVMVV+Xvwlm9++9zbY3mlc+cSXMPAJZ
rightnexthop=97.158.253.25 # correct in many situations
auto=start # authorizes and starts this connection
# on booting

Some Important Notes About The /etc/ipsec.conf File

Be sure to maintain the indentation before each parameter. The correct arrangement is.
conn net-to-net
left=x.x.x.x
leftsubnet=y.y.y.y/24

Do not use

conn net-to-net
left=x.x.x.x
leftsubnet=y.y.y.y/24

The net-to-net subsections must be the same in the /etc/ipsec.conf for both the left- and right-hand side
VPN devices. You can configure VPNs to other remote destinations in this file as long as they don't share
a subsection name with other VPNs. So in this example, there should be only one net-to-net subsection
which uniquely defines the VPN between our two sample sites.

Also, make sure no blank lines separate the net-to-net section's parameters. Lines commented with a #
character are acceptable.

Restarting IPSec to reload the configuration file doesn't necessarily restart the tunnels. If you set the
auto= parameter to add, you can start the tunnel only manually with the ipsec command. If the parameter
is commented out, then the tunnel will never start. A value of start causes the tunnel to start
automatically.

Restart Openswan

On both VPN devices, you need to start Openswan for the new /etc/ipsec.conf settings to take effect.

[root@vpn2 tmp]# service ipsec restart

ipsec_setup: Stopping Openswan IPsec...
ipsec_setup: Starting Openswan IPsec U2.2.0/K2.6.8-1.521...
[root@vpn2 tmp]#

Initialize The New Tunnel

To initialize the new tunnel, you can use the ipsec command to start the tunnel net-to-net. Be sure to
issue the command simultaneously on the VPN boxes at both ends of the tunnel.

[root@vpn2 tmp]# ipsec auto --up net-to-net

104 "net-to-net" #1: STATE_MAIN_I1: initiate
106 "net-to-net" #1: STATE_MAIN_I2: sent MI2, expecting MR2
108 "net-to-net" #1: STATE_MAIN_I3: sent MI3, expecting MR3
004 "net-to-net" #1: STATE_MAIN_I4: ISAKMP SA established
112 "net-to-net" #2: STATE_QUICK_I1: initiate
004 "net-to-net" #2: STATE_QUICK_I2: sent QI2, IPsec SA established
{ESP=>0xe0bdd0e9 <0x13ac7645}
[root@vpn2 tmp]#

The "IPsec SA established" message signifies success.

Testing The New Tunnel

The troubleshooting section at the end of the chapter shows you how to test that everything is working
correctly.

Possible Changes To IP Tables NAT/Masquerade Rules

If you are running iptables with masquerading/NAT for the VPN devices, then you must exclude packets
traversing the tunnel from the NAT operation. This example assumes that interface eth0 is the Internet
facing interface on your Linux VPN/firewall.

Change the left-hand side VPN device's iptables statement from.

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -s 172.168.1.0/24 -j MASQUERADE

to

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -s 172.168.1.0/24 -d \! 10.0.0.0/24 -j

MASQUERADE

For the right-hand side VPN device, change the statement

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -s 10.0.0.0/24 -j MASQUERADE

to
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -s 10.0.0.0/24 -d \! 176.16.1.0/24 -j
MASQUERADE

How To Ensure Openswan Starts When Rebooting

If your VPN subsection in the /etc/ipsec.conf file contains the line auto=add, then IPSec only authorizes
but doesn't establish the connection at startup. You'll have to use the ipsec auto --up <vpn-name>
command to start it manually.

You must change this to auto=start for Openswan to start the VPN automatically when IPSec restarts or
when the system reboots.

Using Pre-Shared Keys (PSK)

You don't always have to use RSA type keys. Sometimes the VPN device at the other end of the tunnel
won't support them, but will accept a simpler pre-shared key. Here is how to do it.

1) Create the PSK using one of two methods. You can create a random pre-shared key using the ipsec
command.

[root@vpn2 tmp]# ipsec ranbits --continuous 128

0x33893a081b34d32a362a46c404ca32d8
[root@vpn2 tmp]#

Or, you can create them out of your head. Make them long (over 20 bytes), as in.

Nonebutourselvescanfreeourminds

2) Update /etc/ipsec.secrets by adding text in this format at the beginning of the file.

vpn1-ip-address vpn2-ip-address : PSK "key in quotations"

For the example the line is:

97.158.253.25 6.25.232.6 : PSK "nonebutourselvescanfreeourminds"

3) Update /etc/ipsec.conf. The PSK configuration is very similar to the RSA configuration with exception
that the leftid, rightid, leftrsasigkey, and rightrsasigkey fields are omitted from the relevant conn
subsection. Also add the authtype=secret command to the configuration.

conn net-to-net
authby=secret # Key exchange method
left=97.158.253.25 # Public Internet IP address of the
# LEFT VPN device
leftsubnet=172.16.1.0/24 # Subnet protected by the LEFT VPN device
leftnexthop=%defaultroute # correct in many situations
right=6.25.232.1 # Public Internet IP address of
# the RIGHT VPN device
rightsubnet=10.0.0.0/24 # Subnet protected by the RIGHT VPN device
rightnexthop=97.158.253.25 # correct in many situations
auto=start # authorizes and starts this connection
# on booting

Remember to have the same configuration on the Linux VPN boxes on either side of the tunnel and to
restart Openswan to activate the new settings.

Troubleshooting Openswan
Troubleshooting is always important when setting up VPNs, because many things can go wrong. Here
are some quick checks you can do to make sure all is working correctly.

Determine the Tunnel Status

The ipsec auto --status command provides a status on Opesnswan running on your VPN device. The
output is divided into three sections:

 IKE Section: Defines the various encrypted key exchange algorithms and their parameters. At least
one set of values must match between the left- and right-hand side VPN devices. This is also
frequently referred to as the Phase 1 parameters, because the key exchange process is the first thing
to occur in establishing a VPN.
 ESP Section: Defines the various data encryption algorithms and their parameters. At least one set
of values must match between the left- and right-hand side VPN devices. This is also frequently
referred to as the Phase 2 parameters, because the data encryption process is the second and final
thing to occur in establishing a VPN.

 VPN Section: This is usually prefaced by the name of the VPN tunnel, in this case net-to-net. If there
are no entries, then the VPN hasn't been established at all. If there are entries, but no
STATE_QUICK_R2 (IPsec SA established) lines then the IPSec parameters are configured, but the
tunnel hasn't been established. This can be normal, tunnels become active once the Phase 1 and
Phase 2 security associations are created, and this usually only occurs after traffic is flowing. The
associations then get torn down after a timeout period. It is always best to pass traffic over the tunnel
to activate them. An ICMP ping check is a good way to test this.

[root@vpn2 tmp]# ipsec auto --status

...
...
000 algorithm ESP encrypt: id=2, name=ESP_DES, ivlen=8, keysizemin=64,
keysizemax=64
000 algorithm ESP encrypt: id=3, name=ESP_3DES, ivlen=8, keysizemin=192,
keysizemax=192
000 algorithm ESP encrypt: id=7, name=ESP_BLOWFISH, ivlen=8, keysizemin=40,
keysizemax=448
...
...
000 algorithm IKE encrypt: id=7, name=OAKLEY_AES_CBC, blocksize=16,
keydeflen=128
000 algorithm IKE encrypt: id=5, name=OAKLEY_3DES_CBC, blocksize=8,
keydeflen=192
000 algorithm IKE hash: id=2, name=OAKLEY_SHA, hashsize=20
...
...
000 "net-to-net": IKE algorithms wanted: 5_000-1-5, 5_000-1-2, 5_000-2-5,
5_000-2-2, flags=-strict
000 "net-to-net": IKE algorithms found: 5_192-1_128-5, 5_192-1_128-2,
5_192-2_160-5, 5_192-2_160-2,
000 "net-to-net": IKE algorithm newest: 3DES_CBC_192-MD5-MODP1536
000 "net-to-net": ESP algorithms wanted: 3_000-1, 3_000-2, flags=-strict
000 "net-to-net": ESP algorithms loaded: 3_000-1, 3_000-2, flags=-strict
000 "net-to-net": ESP algorithm newest: 3DES_0-HMAC_MD5; pfsgroup=<Phase1>
...
...
000 #4: "net-to-net" STATE_QUICK_R2 (IPsec SA established); EVENT_SA_REPLACE
in 3635s; newest IPSEC; eroute owner
000 #4: "net-to-net" esp.aca08f86@192.168.1.100 esp.7b90ea53@192.168.1.1
tun.0@192.168.1.100 tun.0@192.168.1.1
000 #12: "net-to-net" STATE_MAIN_R3 (sent MR3, ISAKMP SA established);
EVENT_SA_REPLACE in 1153s; newest ISAKMP
[root@vpn2 tmp]#

It is important to know the status of your VPN as it can provide valuable troubleshooting clues when there
are problems. This can be especially important when establishing a VPN between your Linux firewall and
a non-Linux device. The IKE and ESP timers, and encryption, hash and key exchange algorithms must
match at both ends to have success. This command allows you to see the value combinations Openswan
is using and help you configure the VPN device on the other end to have compatible settings.

==Testing VPN Connectivit==y

You can test the VPN connectivity by sending a simple ping from one private network to the other. In this
case, the ping goes to the Windows server 10.0.0.105, which protected by vpn2, from server 172.16.1.1,
which is protected by vpn1.

If the tunnel is up but ICMP pings don't work, then you need to check that the servers at both ends of the
tunnel have routes pointing to the VPN firewalls. Also, check for additional network access controls
between the servers and the VPN firewall. There may be additional firewalls in the way or the servers
themselves may be running firewall software:

C:\>ping 10.0.0.105

Pinging 10.0.0.105 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 10.0.0.105: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=253

Reply from 10.0.0.105: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=253
Reply from 10.0.0.105: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=253
Reply from 10.0.0.105: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=253

Ping statistics for 10.0.0.105:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 20ms, Average = 7ms

C:\>
Check The Routes

You'll need to check the routes after the VPN tunnel is up as well. As you can, see there is an additional
route to the 172.16.1.0 network on firewall vpn2. Incorrect routing on the firewalls can cause problems,
check your leftnexthop and rightnexthop values in your /etc/ipsec.conf file.

[root@vpn2 tmp]# netstat -nr

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt
Iface
10.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 40 0 0
eth1
6.25.232.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.248 U 40 0 0
eth0
172.16.1.0 97.158.253.25 255.255.255.0 UG 40 0 0
eth0
127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 40 0 0 lo
0.0.0.0 6.25.232.6 0.0.0.0 UG 40 0 0
wlan0
[root@vpn2 tmp]#

Using TCPdump

If the tunnel doesn't appear to become established, use the tcpdump command as below. You need to
know whether the IPSec packets are even reaching your VPN firewall. Check routing and your Openswan
configuration if not.

Protected Interface TCPDUMP Output From "vpn2"

Here the TCPdump is done on server2 where you see unencrypted ICMP ping traffic successfully passing
back and forth between the two servers.

[root@vpn2 tmp]# tcpdump -n -i eth1 icmp

03:05:53.971308 IP 172.16.1.1 > 10.0.0.105: icmp 64: echo request seq 89
03:05:53.995297 IP 10.0.0.105 > 172.16.1.1: icmp 64: echo reply seq 89
03:05:54.972759 IP 172.16.1.1 > 10.0.0.105: icmp 64: echo request seq 90
03:05:54.972789 IP 10.0.0.105 > 172.16.1.1: icmp 64: echo reply seq 90
03:05:55.972985 IP 172.16.1.1 > 10.0.0.105: icmp 64: echo request seq 91
03:05:55.972999 IP 10.0.0.105 > 172.16.1.1: icmp 64: echo reply seq 91
^C
[root@vpn2 tmp]#

Unprotected Interface TCPDUMP Output From "vpn2"

Here the encrypted ESP traffic is encapsulating the pings passing back and forth between the two VPN
boxes. The true source and destination IP addresses (10.0.0.105 and 172.16.1.1) are hidden.

[root@vpn2 tmp]# tcpdump -n -i eth1 host 97.158.253.25

02:08:23.637149 IP 6.25.232.1 > 97.158.253.25: ESP(spi=0xf4909a7e,seq=0x73)
02:08:24.635302 IP 97.158.253.25 > 6.25.232.1: ESP(spi=0x808e9a87,seq=0x74)
02:08:24.637988 IP 6.25.232.1 > 97.158.253.25: ESP(spi=0xf4909a7e,seq=0x74)
02:08:25.638015 IP 97.158.253.25 > 6.25.232.1: ESP(spi=0x808e9a87,seq=0x75)
^C
[root@vpn2 tmp]#

Check Syslog Error Messages

As always, check your /var/log/messages file for any messages that may provide clues as to the source of
your problems.

"Invalid Key" Messages

If your left and right public keys were incorrectly applied to your /etc/ipsec.conf file or your regenerated
keys were not updated in your /etc/ipsec.secrets file, then you will get messages stating that the keys are
invalid and that information is being ignored.

003 "net-to-net" #1: ignoring informational payload, type

INVALID_KEY_INFORMATION
003 "net-to-net" #1: received and ignored informational message
003 "net-to-net" #1: discarding duplicate packet; already STATE_MAIN_I3
031 "net-to-net" #1: max number of retransmissions (2) reached STATE_MAIN_I3.
Possible
authentication failure: no acceptable response to our first encrypted message

Conclusion
VPNs are increasingly becoming an everyday part of life on the Internet. Many people use them to gain
access to many of the systems in their offices, such as e-mail and intranets. This trend is certain to
become more popular as many companies are finding it cheaper for their employees to work from home,
relieving them of the need to lease additional office space.

Site-to-site VPNs will also continue to be deployed as companies, both small and large find it increasingly
necessary to share access to their business systems. One notable area is in the realm of IP telephony,
where VPNs enable all remote offices to use a single IP switchboard at the center of a VPN hub and
spoke network. Intra-office communication is therefore encrypted and the use of a single switchboard
saves costs.