IPv6 readyNote: This archive passes through spamassassin. Every mail marked with the subject "*****SPAM*****" has exceed a certain threshold of spam-like behaviour.

[Users] Freeswan Proposal Syntax

From: Myner, Josh (jmyner_at_gsite.com)
Date: Mon May 13 2002 - 17:03:24 CEST


All,

  I have a problem where I cannot initiate a connection from a Freeswan box
to an IBM AS/400 system. The AS/400 can initiate the connection to my
Freeswan box, but it will not work the other way. Each time I reboot the
machine and/or restart ipsec in any way... I'm forced to email or call the
remote end and have them re-initiate the connection. This is used in a live
environment for a backend VPN tunnel to an order fulfillment center.

  I've searched the web for countless hours now, and can't seem to find
anything related to this. I did find a couple messages regarding it... but
they all turned out to be people that were mistaken and not a real solution.

  I've tried all possible combinations in the config file. I'm using shared
secret and transport, here is my current config...

  conn worldpac
     type=transport
     keyexchange=ike
     auth=esp
     authby=secret
     pfs=no
     # right and left are prettymuch interchangeable, but no reason to
     # try to switch them. "right" is the ip of THIS machine.
     # "rightnexthop" is the ip of the gateway machine between
     # "right" and the rest of the internet
     right=63.78.141.251
     rightnexthop=63.78.141.1
     left=63.89.49.214
     keylife=24h
     keyingtries=1
     lifetime=8h
     esp=3des-md5-96
     ikelifetime=8h
     rekey=yes
     rekeymargin=3h
     rekeyfuzz=0%
     auto=add

  I have the keyingtries temporarily set that way so that it does not sit
there and keep trying to re-initiate the connection if it goes down. For
some reason, it cannot initiate the connection to the AS/400. The AS/400 must
always initiate the connection. The guys at IBM are pretty certain the
"Proposal" is what is preventing Freeswan from initiating the connection. I've
gotten an email back from the guys at IBM... they had this to say...

  -------- Original Message --------
  Subject: Re: VPN conundrum
  Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 07:38:51 -0400
  From: "Frank Paxhia" <paxhia_at_us.ibm.com>
  To: Tom Harding <tomh_at_thinlink.com>

  Yes, sorry I haven't gotten back to you since then. I've analyzed the
  traces and the problem is definitely caused by freeS/WAN sending
  (initiating) the first proposal with proposal number "0". According
  to my IKE expert, this was brought up at one of the town meetings at the
  VPN bakeoffs. The recommendation from the IKE authors was to not use or
  start with this value. We have this hardcoded resulting in the error
  message you see. Starting in V5R1 we've added additional logic to
  tolerate certain situations like this, but, they are predicated on other
  conditions - mostly security related.

  Cheers,
  Pax
  aka Frank V. Paxhia
  (607)752-5525, tl 852-5525, fax ext. 5421
  paxhia_at_us.ibm.com, paxman_at_vnet.ibm.com, paxhia_at_IBMUSM07

  So, with that in mind... any help as to how the proposal number is set in
the actual Freeswan code would be much appreciated. I've done some looking,
but the code is huge... and each try requires a kernel rebuild which takes a
good 30 minutes for each "maybe this". Help!

NOTE: (Please email me directly with any response... I'm not signed up on
this list and will not receive the replies for that reason. jmyner_at_gsite.com)

Joshua Myner : MCP, MMCP
Systems Administrator / Application Developer
jmyner_at_gsite.com : (616)324-8231 Ext. 17
Granite Solutions http://www.gsite.com

_______________________________________________
Users mailing list
Users_at_lists.freeswan.org
http://lists.freeswan.org/mailman/listinfo/users



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Mon Jul 29 2002 - 05:19:58 CEST