charon-cmd (8)

charon-cmd --host hostname --identity identity [ options ]

charon-cmd is a program for setting up IPsec VPN connections using the Internet Key Exchange protocol (IKE) in version 1 and 2. It supports a number of different road-warrior scenarios.

Like the IKE daemon charon, charon-cmd has to be run as root (or more specifically as a user with CAP_NET_ADMIN capability).

Of the following options at least --host and --identity are required. Depending on the selected authentication profile credentials also have to be provided with their respective options.

Many of the charon-specific configuration options in strongswan.conf also apply to charon-cmd. For instance, to configure customized logging to stdout the following snippet can be used:

	charon-cmd {
		filelog {
			stdout {
				default = 1
				ike = 2
				cfg = 2
			}
		}
	}

--help

Prints usage information and a short summary of the available options.

--version

Prints the strongSwan version.

--debug level

Sets the default log level (defaults to 1). level is a number between -1 and 4. Refer to strongswan.conf for options that allow a more fine-grained configuration of the logging output.

--host hostname

DNS name or IP address to connect to.

--identity identity

Identity the client uses for the IKE exchange.

--eap-identity identity

Identity the client uses for EAP authentication.

--xauth-username username

Username the client uses for XAuth authentication.

--remote-identity identity

Server identity to expect, defaults to hostname.

--cert path

Trusted certificate, either for authentication or trust chain validation. To provide more than one certificate multiple --cert options can be used.

--rsa path

RSA private key to use for authentication (if a password is required, it will be requested on demand).

--p12 path

PKCS#12 file with private key and certificates to use for authentication and trust chain validation (if a password is required it will be requested on demand).

--agent[=socket]

Use SSH agent for authentication. If socket is not specified it is read from the SSH_AUTH_SOCK environment variable.

--local-ts subnet

Additional traffic selector to propose for our side, the requested virtual IP address will always be proposed.

--remote-ts subnet

Traffic selector to propose for remote side, defaults to 0.0.0.0/0.

--ike-proposal proposal

IKE proposal to offer instead of default. For IKEv1, a single proposal consists of one encryption algorithm, an integrity/PRF algorithm and a DH group. IKEv2 can propose multiple algorithms of the same kind. To specify multiple proposals, repeat the option.

--esp-proposal proposal

ESP proposal to offer instead of default. For IKEv1, a single proposal consists of one encryption algorithm, an integrity algorithm and an optional DH group for Perfect Forward Secrecy rekeying. IKEv2 can propose multiple algorithms of the same kind. To specify multiple proposals, repeat the option.

--ah-proposal proposal

AH proposal to offer instead of ESP. For IKEv1, a single proposal consists of an integrity algorithm and an optional DH group for Perfect Forward Secrecy rekeying. IKEv2 can propose multiple algorithms of the same kind. To specify multiple proposals, repeat the option.

--profile name

Authentication profile to use, the list of supported profiles can be found in the Authentication Profiles sections below. Defaults to ikev2-pub if a private key was supplied, and to ikev2-eap otherwise.

IKEv2 Authentication Profiles

ikev2-pub

IKEv2 with public key client and server authentication

ikev2-eap

IKEv2 with EAP client authentication and public key server authentication

ikev2-pub-eap

IKEv2 with public key and EAP client authentication (RFC 4739) and public key server authentication

IKEv1 Authentication Profiles

The following authentication profiles use either Main Mode or Aggressive Mode, the latter is denoted with a -am suffix.

ikev1-pub, ikev1-pub-am

IKEv1 with public key client and server authentication

ikev1-xauth, ikev1-xauth-am

IKEv1 with public key client and server authentication, followed by client XAuth authentication

ikev1-xauth-psk, ikev1-xauth-psk-am

IKEv1 with pre-shared key (PSK) client and server authentication, followed by client XAuth authentication (INSECURE!)

ikev1-hybrid, ikev1-hybrid-am

IKEv1 with public key server authentication only, followed by client XAuth authentication

strongswan.conf(5), ipsec(8)