setkey

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

adds, updates, dumps, or flushes Security Association Database (SAD) entries as well as Security Policy Database (SPD) entries in the kernel.
takes a series of operations from standard input
if invoked with
or the file named
if invoked with
  • flag) Dump the SAD entries or SPD entries contained in the specified
  • ? Print short help.
  • a usually does not display dead SAD entries with If is also specified, the dead SAD entries will be displayed as well. A dead SAD entry is one that has expired but remains in the system because it is referenced by some SPD entries.
  • D Dump the SAD entries. If is also specified, the SPD entries are dumped. If is specified, the ports are displayed.
  • F Flush the SAD entries. If is also specified, the SPD entries are flushed.
  • H Add hexadecimal dump in mode.
  • h On synonym for On other systems, synonym for
  • k Use semantics used in kernel. Available only in Linux. See also
  • l Loop forever with short output on
  • n No action. The program will check validity of the input, but no changes to the SPD will be made.
  • r Use semantics described in IPsec RFCs. This mode is default. For details see section Available only in Linux. See also
  • x Loop forever and dump all the messages transmitted to the socket. prints the unformatted timestamps.
  • V Print version string.
  • v Be verbose. The program will dump messages exchanged on the socket, including messages sent from other processes to the kernel.
With or on the command line, accepts the following configuration syntax. Lines starting with hash signs
are treated as comment lines.
  • Xo Add an SAD entry. can fail for multiple reasons, including when the key length does not match the specified algorithm.
  • Xo Show an SAD entry.
  • Xo Remove an SAD entry.
  • Xo Remove all SAD entries that match the specification.
  • Xo Clear all SAD entries matched by the options. on the command line achieves the same functionality.
  • Xo Dumps all SAD entries matched by the options. on the command line achieves the same functionality.
  • Xo Add an SPD entry.
  • Xo Add an SPD entry based on a PF tag. must be a string surrounded by double quotes.
  • Xo Delete an SPD entry.
  • Xo Clear all SPD entries. on the command line achieves the same functionality.
  • Xo Dumps all SPD entries. on the command line achieves the same functionality.
Meta-arguments are as follows:
  • src
  • dst Source/destination of the secure communication is specified as an IPv4/v6 address, and an optional port number between square brackets. can resolve a FQDN into numeric addresses. If the FQDN resolves into multiple addresses, will install multiple SAD/SPD entries into the kernel by trying all possible combinations. and restrict the address resolution of FQDN in certain ways. and restrict results into IPv4/v6 addresses only, respectively. avoids FQDN resolution and requires addresses to be numeric addresses.
  • protocol is one of following:
    • esp ESP based on rfc2406
    • esp-old ESP based on rfc1827
    • ah AH based on rfc2402
    • ah-old AH based on rfc1826
    • ipcomp IPComp
    • tcp TCP-MD5 based on rfc2385
  • spi Security Parameter Index
  • for the SAD and the SPD. must be a decimal number, or a hexadecimal number with a prefix. SPI values between 0 and 255 are reserved for future use by IANA and cannot be used. TCP-MD5 associations must use 0x1000 and therefore only have per-host granularity at this time.
  • extensions take some of the following:
    • mode Specify a security protocol mode for use. is one of following: or The default value is
    • size Specify window size of bytes for replay prevention. must be decimal number in 32-bit word. If is zero or not specified, replay checks don't take place.
    • id Specify the identifier of the policy entry in the SPD. See
    • pad_option defines the content of the ESP padding. is one of following:
      • zero-pad All the paddings are zero.
      • random-pad A series of randomized values are used.
      • seq-pad A series of sequential increasing numbers started from 1 are used.
    • nocyclic-seq Don't allow cyclic sequence numbers.
    • time
    • time Specify hard/soft life time duration of the SA measured in seconds.
    • bytes
    • bytes Specify hard/soft life time duration of the SA measured in bytes transported.
  • algorithm
    • key Specify an encryption algorithm for ESP.
    • Xo Specify an encryption algorithm as well as a payload authentication algorithm for ESP.
    • key Specify an authentication algorithm for AH.
    • R Specify a compression algorithm for IPComp. If is specified, the field value will be used as the IPComp CPI
  • on wire as-is. If is not specified, the kernel will use well-known CPI on wire, and field will be used only as an index for kernel internal usage.
    must be a double-quoted character string, or a series of hexadecimal digits preceded by
    Possible values for and are specified in the sections.
  • src_range
  • dst_range These select the communications that should be secured by IPsec. They can be an IPv4/v6 address or an IPv4/v6 address range, and may be accompanied by a TCP/UDP port specification. This takes the following form:
  • and must be decimal numbers. The square brackets around are really necessary, they are not man page meta-characters. For FQDN resolution, the rules applicable to and apply here as well.
  • upperspec Upper-layer protocol to be used. You can use one of the words in
  • as or or stands for You can also use the protocol number. You can specify a type and/or a code of ICMPv6 when the upper-layer protocol is ICMPv6. The specification can be placed after A type is separated from a code by single comma. A code must always be specified. When a zero is specified, the kernel deals with it as a wildcard. Note that the kernel can not distinguish a wildcard from an ICPMv6 type of zero. For example, the following means that the policy doesn't require IPsec for any inbound Neighbor Solicitation.
    does not work against forwarding case at this moment, as it requires extra reassembly at the forwarding node
    There are many protocols in
    but all protocols except of TCP, UDP, and ICMP may not be suitable to use with IPsec. You have to consider carefully what to use.
  • policy is in one of the following three formats:
  • discard
  • none
  • ipsec
  • You must specify the direction of its policy as Either or can be used.
    is used to control the placement of the policy within the SPD. Policy position is determined by a signed integer where higher priorities indicate the policy is placed closer to the beginning of the list and lower priorities indicate the policy is placed closer to the end of the list. Policies with equal priorities are added at the end of groups of such policies.
    Priority can only be specified when setkey has been compiled against kernel headers that support policy priorities (Linux >= 2.6.6). If the kernel does not support priorities, a warning message will be printed the first time a priority specification is used. Policy priority takes one of the following formats:
    • Xo is an integer in the range from -2147483647 to 214783648.
    • Xo is either or
    is an unsigned integer. It can be up to 1073741824 for positive offsets, and up to 1073741823 for negative offsets.
    means the packet matching indexes will be discarded. means that IPsec operation will not take place onto the packet. means that IPsec operation will take place onto the packet.
    The part specifies the rule how to process the packet. Either or must be used as is either or If is you must specify the end-point addresses of the SA as and with between these addresses, which is used to specify the SA to use. If is both and can be omitted. is to be one of the following: or If the SA is not available in every level, the kernel will ask the key exchange daemon to establish a suitable SA. means the kernel consults the system wide default for the protocol you specified, e.g. the sysctl variable, when the kernel processes the packet. means that the kernel uses an SA if it's available, otherwise the kernel keeps normal operation. means SA is required whenever the kernel sends a packet matched with the policy. is the same as in addition, it allows the policy to match the unique out-bound SA. You just specify the policy level racoon(8) will configure the SA for the policy. If you configure the SA by manual keying for that policy, you can put a decimal number as the policy identifier after separated by a colon like: in order to bind this policy to the SA. must be between 1 and 32767. It corresponds to of the manual SA configuration. When you want to use SA bundle, you can define multiple rules. For example, if an IP header was followed by an AH header followed by an ESP header followed by an upper layer protocol header, the rule would be: The rule order is very important.
    When NAT-T is enabled in the kernel, policy matching for ESP over UDP packets may be done on endpoint addresses and port (this depends on the system. System that do not perform the port check cannot support multiple endpoints behind the same NAT). When using ESP over UDP, you can specify port numbers in the endpoint addresses to get the correct matching. Here is an example:
    spdadd 10.0.11.0/24[any] 10.0.11.33/32[any] any -P out ipsec
        esp/tunnel/192.168.0.1[4500]-192.168.1.2[30000]/require ;
    
    These ports must be left unspecified (which defaults to 0) for
    anything other than ESP over UDP.
    They can be displayed in SPD dump using
    
    Note that and are not in the syntax described in ipsec_set_policy(3) There are a few differences in the syntax. See ipsec_set_policy(3) for detail. The following list shows the supported algorithms. and are almost orthogonal. These authentication algorithms can be used as in of the parameter:
    algorithm	keylen (bits)
    hmac-md5	128		ah: rfc2403
    		128		ah-old: rfc2085
    hmac-sha1	160		ah: rfc2404
    		160		ah-old: 128bit ICV (no document)
    keyed-md5	128		ah: 96bit ICV (no document)
    		128		ah-old: rfc1828
    keyed-sha1	160		ah: 96bit ICV (no document)
    		160		ah-old: 128bit ICV (no document)
    null		0 to 2048	for debugging
    hmac-sha256	256		ah: 96bit ICV
    				(draft-ietf-ipsec-ciph-sha-256-00)
    		256		ah-old: 128bit ICV (no document)
    hmac-sha384	384		ah: 96bit ICV (no document)
    		384		ah-old: 128bit ICV (no document)
    hmac-sha512	512		ah: 96bit ICV (no document)
    		512		ah-old: 128bit ICV (no document)
    hmac-ripemd160	160		ah: 96bit ICV (RFC2857)
    				ah-old: 128bit ICV (no document)
    aes-xcbc-mac	128		ah: 96bit ICV (RFC3566)
    		128		ah-old: 128bit ICV (no document)
    tcp-md5		8 to 640	tcp: rfc2385
    
    These encryption algorithms can be used as in of the parameter:
    algorithm	keylen (bits)
    des-cbc		64		esp-old: rfc1829, esp: rfc2405
    3des-cbc	192		rfc2451
    null		0 to 2048	rfc2410
    blowfish-cbc	40 to 448	rfc2451
    cast128-cbc	40 to 128	rfc2451
    des-deriv	64		ipsec-ciph-des-derived-01
    3des-deriv	192		no document
    rijndael-cbc	128/192/256	rfc3602
    twofish-cbc	0 to 256	draft-ietf-ipsec-ciph-aes-cbc-01
    aes-ctr		160/224/288	draft-ietf-ipsec-ciph-aes-ctr-03
    
    Note that the first 128 bits of a key for will be used as AES key, and the remaining 32 bits will be used as nonce.
    These compression algorithms can be used as in of the parameter:
    algorithm
    deflate		rfc2394
    The Linux kernel uses the
    policy instead of the
    policy for packets what are forwarded through that particular box.
    
    In mode, manages and shows policies and SAs exactly as they are stored in the kernel.
    In mode,
      t creates policies for every policy inserted t (not implemented yet) filters out all policies

    RETURN VALUES

    The command exits with 0 on success, and non-zero on errors.

    EXAMPLES

    add 3ffe:501:4819::1 3ffe:501:481d::1 esp 123457
    	-E des-cbc 0x3ffe05014819ffff ;
    
    add -6 myhost.example.com yourhost.example.com ah 123456
    	-A hmac-sha1 "AH SA configuration!" ;
    
    add 10.0.11.41 10.0.11.33 esp 0x10001
    	-E des-cbc 0x3ffe05014819ffff
    	-A hmac-md5 "authentication!!" ;
    
    get 3ffe:501:4819::1 3ffe:501:481d::1 ah 123456 ;
    
    flush ;
    
    dump esp ;
    
    spdadd 10.0.11.41/32[21] 10.0.11.33/32[any] any
    	-P out ipsec esp/tunnel/192.168.0.1-192.168.1.2/require ;
    
    add 10.1.10.34 10.1.10.36 tcp 0x1000 -A tcp-md5 "TCP-MD5 BGP secret" ;
    

    SEE ALSO

    ipsec_set_policy(3) racoon(8) sysctl(8) .%T "Changed manual key configuration for IPsec" .%O "http://www.kame.net/newsletter/19991007/" .%D "October 1999"

    HISTORY

    The command first appeared in the WIDE Hydrangea IPv6 protocol stack kit. The command was completely re-designed in June 1998.

    BUGS

    should report and handle syntax errors better.
    For IPsec gateway configuration, and with TCP/UDP port numbers does not work, as the gateway does not reassemble packets