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Christian
Asked: 2018-04-06 07:53:16 +0800 CST

StrongSwan connecting from Windows 10

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I have StrongSwan 5.6.2 running on a Ubuntu 16.04 server which I am able to connect to from OSX Sierra using certificates, but I am not able to connect the same way from Windows 10. Can anyone please help?

I have opened UDP 500/4500 through the Firewall (AWS Security Group) and as mentioned, I can connect and authenticate to StrongSwan from OSX.

I have built StrongSwan from source using the following configuration:

./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc \
  --enable-systemd --enable-swanctl \
  --disable-charon --disable-stroke --disable-scepclient \
  --enable-gcm --enable-eap-tls --enable-eap-identity

and my swanctl configuration file has the following setup:

connections {
   ikev2-cert {
      version = 2
      send_cert = always
      encap = yes
      pools = pool1
      dpd_delay = 60s
      unique = keep
      local {
         certs = vpn-server-cert.pem
         id = vpnserver
      }
      remote {
         auth = eap-tls
         eap_id = %any
      }
      children {
         net {
            local_ts  = 10.0.0.0/20
            inactivity = 120s
         }
      }
   }
}

pools {
   pool1 {
     addrs = 172.16.0.0/12 
   }
}

with the Server Certificate created with the flags --flag serverAuth --flag ikeIntermediate

ipsec pki --pub --in vpn-server-key.pem \
--type rsa | ipsec pki --issue --lifetime 1825 \
--cacert /etc/swanctl/x509ca/server-root-ca.pem \
--cakey /etc/swanctl/private/server-root-key.pem \
--dn "C=GB, O=Self signed, CN=VPN Server" \
--san vpnserver \
--flag serverAuth --flag ikeIntermediate \
--outform pem > vpn-server-cert.pem

I also had to set a registration key in Windows 10 so as to use better ciphers (head slap)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Rasman\Parameters [DWORD 32bit] NegotiateDH2048_AES256  1

The server log when the Windows 10 client tries to connect is as follows:

Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[MGR] checkout IKEv2 SA by message with SPIs 6177fa9aadb3cdd5_i 0000000000000000_r
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: received packet: from 35.36.37.38[42772] to 10.0.3.212[500] (624 bytes)
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[MGR] created IKE_SA (unnamed)[19]
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: parsed IKE_SA_INIT request 0 [ SA KE No N(NATD_S_IP) N(NATD_D_IP) V V V V ]
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[NET] received packet: from 35.36.37.38[42772] to 10.0.3.212[500] (624 bytes)
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: received MS NT5 ISAKMPOAKLEY v9 vendor ID
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[ENC] parsed IKE_SA_INIT request 0 [ SA KE No N(NATD_S_IP) N(NATD_D_IP) V V V V ]
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: received MS-Negotiation Discovery Capable vendor ID
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[CFG] looking for an ike config for 10.0.3.212...35.36.37.38
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: received Vid-Initial-Contact vendor ID
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[CFG] ike config match: 28 (10.0.3.212 35.36.37.38 IKEv2)
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: received unknown vendor ID: 01:52:8b:bb:c0:06:96:12:18:49:ab:9a:1c:5b:2a:51:00:00:00:02
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[CFG]   candidate: %any...%any, prio 28
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 35.36.37.38 is initiating an IKE_SA
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[CFG] found matching ike config: %any...%any with prio 28
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[IKE] received MS NT5 ISAKMPOAKLEY v9 vendor ID
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[IKE] received MS-Negotiation Discovery Capable vendor ID
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[IKE] received Vid-Initial-Contact vendor ID
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[ENC] received unknown vendor ID: 01:52:8b:bb:c0:06:96:12:18:49:ab:9a:1c:5b:2a:51:00:00:00:02
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[IKE] 35.36.37.38 is initiating an IKE_SA
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[IKE] IKE_SA (unnamed)[19] state change: CREATED => CONNECTING
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[CFG] selecting proposal:
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[CFG]   proposal matches
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[CFG] received proposals: IKE:AES_CBC_256/HMAC_SHA1_96/PRF_HMAC_SHA1/MODP_2048, IKE:AES_CBC_256/HMAC_SHA2_256_128/PRF_HMAC_SHA2_256/MODP_2048, IKE:AES_CBC_256/HMAC_SHA2_384_192/PRF_HMAC_SHA2_384/MODP_2048
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[CFG] configured proposals: IKE:AES_CBC_128/AES_CBC_192/AES_CBC_256/3DES_CBC/HMAC_SHA2_256_128/HMAC_SHA2_384_192/HMAC_SHA2_512_256/AES_XCBC_96/AES_CMAC_96/HMAC_SHA1_96/PRF_AES128_XCBC/PRF_AES128_CMAC/PRF_HMAC_SHA2_256/PRF_HMAC_SHA2_384/PRF_HMAC_SHA2_512/PRF_HMAC_SHA1/CURVE_25519/MODP_3072/MODP_4096/MODP_6144/MODP_8192/MODP_2048, IKE:AES_GCM_16_128/AES_GCM_16_192/AES_GCM_16_256/AES_GCM_8_128/AES_GCM_8_192/AES_GCM_8_256/AES_GCM_12_128/AES_GCM_12_192/AES_GCM_12_256/PRF_AES128_XCBC/PRF_AES128_CMAC/PRF_HMAC_SHA2_256/PRF_HMAC_SHA2_384/PRF_HMAC_SHA2_512/PRF_HMAC_SHA1/CURVE_25519/MODP_3072/MODP_4096/MODP_6144/MODP_8192/MODP_2048
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[CFG] selected proposal: IKE:AES_CBC_256/HMAC_SHA1_96/PRF_HMAC_SHA1/MODP_2048
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[LIB] size of DH secret exponent: 2047 bits
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[IKE] local host is behind NAT, sending keep alives
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: local host is behind NAT, sending keep alives
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 01[JOB] next event in 19s 999ms, waiting
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[IKE] remote host is behind NAT
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: remote host is behind NAT
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: sending cert request for "C=GB, O=Self Signed, CN=VPN Server Root CA"
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[IKE]    0: 0E F2 A0 61 A3 44 38 E5 49 4A B1 50 BE 3C 7C 7B  ...a.D8.IJ.P.<|{
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: generating IKE_SA_INIT response 0 [ SA KE No N(NATD_S_IP) N(NATD_D_IP) CERTREQ N(MULT_AUTH) ]
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[IKE]   16: E0 B4 5C C1                                      ..\.
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: sending packet: from 10.0.3.212[500] to 35.36.37.38[42772] (465 bytes)
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[IKE] sending cert request for "C=GB, O=Self Signed, CN=VPN Server Root CA"
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[ENC] generating IKE_SA_INIT response 0 [ SA KE No N(NATD_S_IP) N(NATD_D_IP) CERTREQ N(MULT_AUTH) ]
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[NET] sending packet: from 10.0.3.212[500] to 35.36.37.38[42772] (465 bytes)
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 01[JOB] next event in 19s 998ms, waiting
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[MGR] checkin IKE_SA (unnamed)[19]
Apr 05 15:25:12 charon-systemd[1497]: 14[MGR] checkin of IKE_SA successful
Apr 05 15:25:32 charon-systemd[1497]: 01[JOB] got event, queuing job for execution
Apr 05 15:25:32 charon-systemd[1497]: sending keep alive to 35.36.37.38[42772]
Apr 05 15:25:32 charon-systemd[1497]: 01[JOB] next event in 10s 1ms, waiting
Apr 05 15:25:32 charon-systemd[1497]: 16[MGR] checkout IKEv2 SA with SPIs 6177fa9aadb3cdd5_i 222d0fd2d78e519d_r
Apr 05 15:25:32 charon-systemd[1497]: 16[MGR] IKE_SA (unnamed)[19] successfully checked out
Apr 05 15:25:32 charon-systemd[1497]: 16[IKE] sending keep alive to 35.36.37.38[42772]
Apr 05 15:25:32 charon-systemd[1497]: 16[MGR] checkin IKE_SA (unnamed)[19]
Apr 05 15:25:32 charon-systemd[1497]: 16[MGR] checkin of IKE_SA successful
Apr 05 15:25:32 charon-systemd[1497]: 01[JOB] next event in 10s 0ms, waiting
Apr 05 15:25:42 charon-systemd[1497]: 01[JOB] got event, queuing job for execution
Apr 05 15:25:42 charon-systemd[1497]: deleting half open IKE_SA with 35.36.37.38 after timeout

I notice in the Windows 10 VPN configurator, that there is no where to set the Remote ID or the Local ID (as there is in OSX), so I'm guessing there's a magical way for Microsoft (as usual).

enter image description here

windows-10

1 Answers

  1. The answer was in the certificate format for both the server and the client.

    Windows requires the Hostname or IP Address to be listed in a san, whilst OSX requires the Remote ID to be in a san, so you end up with a server certificate that looks like this

    ipsec pki --pub --in vpn-server-key.pem \
--type rsa | ipsec pki --issue --lifetime 1825 \
--cacert /etc/swanctl/x509ca/server-root-ca.pem \
--cakey /etc/swanctl/private/server-root-key.pem \
--dn "C=GB, O=Self signed, CN=vpnserver" \
--san vpnserver \
--san dns:34.35.36.37 \
--flag serverAuth --flag ikeIntermediate \
--outform pem > vpn-server-cert.pem

    A similar story applies for the client certificate. With the swanctl configuration set as eap_id = %any, StrongSwan requests the client for its identity. Windows returns the CN part of its certificate, whilst OSX returns the Local ID, which means the certificate looks like this:

    ipsec pki --pub --in vpn-$USER-key.pem \
--type rsa | ipsec pki --issue --lifetime 1825 \
--cacert /etc/swanctl/x509ca/server-root-ca.pem \
--cakey /etc/swanctl/private/server-root-key.pem \
--dn "C=GB, O=Self signed, CN=$USER" \
--san $USER \
--outform pem > vpn-$USER-cert.pem

    In the configuration settings of Windows, you can tell it to use a different username and also what server to connect to, which I suspect will make it act the same as OSX, but by default, these are not selected.

    Windows also authenticates the server which will give a warning of unknown server, which you can click 'continue' to or you can disable server authentication checking from inside the Windows client VPN settings (not recommended).

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