IPSec unstable since upgrade to 2.2

[reesesm2000]

I am also facing major issues with IPSec since upgrading from 2.1.5 to 2.2

I have a tunnel between our office and our cloud provider with 5 phase 2 entries. It is configured with PSK, 3DES, SHA1 and DH Group 2.

It is completely random which of the 5 will work and even sometimes all 5 work together but very seldom. Stopping and starting IPSec sometimes has an effect on which links are up and which are down. HAving the link up does not guarantee that it will work though. Links show up but no traffic goes over them. I have tried to remove everything and reconfigure it again but still no luck.

Just to give some additional information, it is running on a Supermicro D525 on a USB since the new OS will not install to the discs. Tried every option in the Bios but after formatting and setting volumes it fails with Error Code 19. Only way to get it back was to run it off USB. So all in all a very bad experience upgrading to 2.2

Let me know what information I need to send for the IPSec debugging. Major issue for me right now.

Attached is a screen shot of the config and a screen shot of the status. You can see 3 up but only 1 able to send and receive traffic.

I have 2 other boxes (different HW) all running fine in other offices around the world, but unfortunately this is our main office and 24 hours of broken internet so far!

[reesesm2000]

Upon further hacking, IT seems like there cannot be more than one Phase 2 entry working at the same time. It shows more than one as being up but the sent bytes never increases on all but one of the Phase 2 entries. Force closing 1 sometimes activates one of the others. Sometimes it requires a force close of all of them.

[doktornotor]

Switch to IKEv2 and try again

[reesesm2000]

Hi Doc

Do both sides have to be set to V2? I tried V2 but it was not able to connect. I can log a request with our provider to change the other end to V2 if needed. Do you know if this is a solution or if it is just something I should try?

[doktornotor]

Yes. Both sides need IKEv2 obviously. And make sure to stop and start IPsec on both sides, or better reboot.

[cmb]

It's a solution if the other side can change to IKEv2. That particular circumstance with multiple P2s and IKEv1 is exactly the one noted in the upgrade guide for which you shouldn't upgrade. IKEv2 has no such issues though.

[reesesm2000]

Thanks Doc and cmb. Have put in a request to change to IKEv2. Will update the thread once it is done.

[eri--]

Can you also try this change.

On /var/etc/ipsec/strongswan.conf

change this value
threads = 16

to
threads = 1

and see if that stabilizes it.

[reesesm2000]

Changed to 1 thread and restarted ipsec. Will monitor. Version still IKEv1. Waiting for our provider to change to confirm if they support v2 and if they can change.

[georgeman]

@reesesm2000:

Changed to 1 thread and restarted ipsec. Will monitor. Version still IKEv1. Waiting for our provider to change to confirm if they support v2 and if they can change.

Consider that the config file is generated automatically when the service is restarted through the GUI, make sure that the change you made is really applied

[reesesm2000]

Hi Georgeman

So the config reverted back to 16. How do I restart it without the config being rebuilt?

[cmb]

@reesesm2000:

So the config reverted back to 16. How do I restart it without the config being rebuilt?

You can edit /etc/inc/vpn.inc to change the source that generates that config file.

I'm not sure that'll do much if anything for you, that's something I'll test out in a known-problematic circumstance and see if it helps. If you can get the other end to switch to IKEv2, that's preferable in general (even if v1 wasn't problematic), so that's still the best option if it can be done.

[reesesm2000]

Changing to IKEv2 does not help. I am still able to only have 1 Phase 2 route working at the same time. Which one depends on which gets traffic first.

I think the only solution is to fall back to 2.1.5 for now. IPSec seems quite broken for now.

[cmb]

@reesesm2000:

Changing to IKEv2 does not help. I am still able to only have 1 Phase 2 route working at the same time. Which one depends on which gets traffic first.

One caveat that may be causing you issues in this circumstance, if you hit the + to the right of a P2 in 2.2 to create a new one based on an existing, it wrongly uses a duplicate ID, which might create problems along those lines. If you still have it up, delete all your P2s, and add them back one by one without duplicating any of them.

Outside of that circumstance, what you're describing isn't possible with IKEv2 as it doesn't have multiple child SAs, if one is up they're all up.

[reesesm2000]

Hi cmb

I did use the + originally so I removed everything and redefined it again. The same problem persists. Attached are screen shots of the config and status. IKEv2 is configured on both ends. 2 Phase 2 entries and only 1 will work at a time. Which one depends on which send traffic first.


[eri--]

Can you show your /var/etc/ipsec/ipsec.conf?

[reesesm2000]

Sent you a PM with the details ermal.

[eri--]

All firewall rules are correct?
If yes than can you please execute from diagnostic->command sysctl net.inet.ipsec.debug=0xffffff

Establish the vpn send traffic on the not working path and see if anything comes out on dmesg -a command?

[sierrabravo]

Hi @All

i have a similar problem after upgrade to 2.1.5 to 2.2 in one of my pfs boxes.
Previous ipsec tunnel between these 2 boxes (with P1 both aggressive mode) works perfectly
Please note that both PFSs are BEHIND a firewall

After upgrade, old confs do not work anymore. No connection, P1 never established. Only this error on PFS 2.1.5 -> "ERROR: phase1 negotiation failed due to time up"

After a lot of attemps, I finally found a working configuration.

My actual confs, BOLD main changes after upgrade in OfficeB's PFS

Office A - pfs 2.1.5
P1
Mutual PSK
Main Mode (was aggressive)
My Identifier -> My IP Address
Peer Identifier -> Peer IP Address
Enc Alg AES 256Bit
Hash Alg SHA1
DH KeyGroup 2 (1024bit)
Lifetime 28800

Nat-T DISABLE <- leave to ENABLE do not work, P1 established, P2 maybe (sorry, I don't remember)
DPD Enabled (10 Secs,5 retries)

(two P2 phases)
P2 Protocol ESP
P2 Transforms 3DES
P2 Auth Methods MD5,SHA1
PFS key group OFF
Lifetime 3600

Office B - pfs 2.2
P1
Key Exchange Version -> V1
Mutual PSK
Main Mode (was aggressive)
My Identifier -> My IP Address
Peer Identifier -> IP Address -> 192.168.46.10 <– this is WAN IP address of OfficeA PFS
Enc Alg AES 256Bit
Hash Alg SHA1
DH KeyGroup 2 (1024bit)
Lifetime 28800

Nat-T AUTO
DPD Enabled (10 Secs,5 retries)

(two P2 phases)
P2 Protocol ESP
P2 Transforms 3DES
P2 Auth Methods MD5,SHA1
PFS key group OFF
Lifetime 3600

This was a message on PFS 2.2 box that give me an hint:

charon: 15[IKE] IDir '192.168.46.10' does not match to 'XX.XXX.XX.XXX'

XX.XXX.XX.XXX is public IP address of officeA ( Remote Gateway in OfficeB conf)

I hope this can be helpful for someone else

Simone

[eri--]

Or on pfSense 2.2 you have to set the proper identifier by choosing ip address and setting the private ip address of pfSense on the remote end.

@sierrabravo,

your example is a clear id mismatch problem on configuration.