IPSEC(8)

NAME
ipsec - invoke IPsec utilities

SYNOPSIS
ipsec command [ arguments ] [ options ]

DESCRIPTION
The ipsec utility invokes any of several utilities involved in controlling and monitoring the IPsec encryption/authentication system, running the specified command with the specified arguments and options as if it had been invoked directly. This largely eliminates possible name collisions with other software, and also permits some centralized services.

All the commands described in this manual page are built-in and are used to control and monitor IPsec connections as well as the IKE daemons.

For other commands ipsec supplies the invoked command with a suitable PATH environment variable, and also provides IPSEC_DIR, IPSEC_CONFS, and IPSEC_VERSION environment variables, containing respectively the full pathname of the directory where the IPsec utilities are stored, the full pathname of the directory where the configuration files live, and the IPsec version number.

  CONTROL COMMANDS

ipsec start [ starter options ]
    calls ipsec starter which in turn parses ipsec.conf and starts the IKEv1 pluto and IKEv2 charon daemons.

ipsec update
    sends a HUP signal to ipsec starter which in turn determines any changes in ipsec.conf and updates the configuration on the running IKEv1 pluto and IKEv2 charon daemons, correspondingly.

ipsec reload
    sends a USR1 signal to ipsec starter which in turn reloads the whole configuration on the running IKEv1 pluto and IKEv2 charon daemons based on the actual ipsec.conf.

ipsec restart
    is equivalent to ipsec stop followed by ipsec start after a guard of 2 seconds.

ipsec stop
    terminates all IPsec connections and stops the IKEv1 pluto and IKEv2 charon daemons by sending a TERM signal to ipsec starter.

ipsec up name
    tells the responsible IKE daemon to start up connection name.

ipsec down name
    tells the responsible IKE daemon to terminate connection name.

ipsec down name{n}
    terminates IKEv2 CHILD SA instance n of connection name.

ipsec down name{*}
    terminates all IKEv2 CHILD SA instances of connection name.

ipsec down name[n]
    terminates all IKEv2 IKE SA instance n of connection name.

ipsec down name[*]
    terminates all IKEv2 IKE SA instances of connection name.

ipsec route name
    tells the responsible IKE daemon to insert an IPsec policy in the kernel for connection name. The first payload packet matching the IPsec policy will automatically trigger an IKE connection setup.

ipsec unroute name
    remove the IPsec policy in the kernel for connection name.

ipsec status [ name ]
    returns concise status information either on connection name or if the argument is lacking, on all connections.

ipsec statusall [ name ]
    returns detailed status information either on connection name or if the argument is lacking, on all connections.

  LIST COMMANDS

ipsec listalgs
    returns a list all supported IKE encryption and hash algorithms, the available Diffie-Hellman groups, as well as all supported ESP encryption and authentication algorithms registered via the Linux kernel's Crypto API.
    Supported by the IKEv1 pluto daemon only.

ipsec listpubkeys [ --utc ]
    returns a list of RSA public keys that were either loaded in raw key format or extracted from X.509 and|or OpenPGP certificates.
    Supported by the IKEv1 pluto daemon only.

ipsec listcerts [ --utc ]
    returns a list of X.509 and|or OpenPGP certificates that were either loaded locally by the IKE daemon or received via the IKEv2 protocol.

ipsec listcacerts [ --utc ]
    returns a list of X.509 Certification Authority (CA) certificates that were loaded locally by the IKE daemon from the /etc/ipsec.d/cacerts/ directory or received in PKCS#7-wrapped certificate payloads via the IKE protocol.

ipsec listaacerts [ --utc ]
    returns a list of X.509 Authorization Authority (AA) certificates that were loaded locally by the IKE daemon from the /etc/ipsec.d/aacerts/ directory.

ipsec listocspcerts [ --utc ]
    returns a list of X.509 OCSP Signer certificates that were either loaded locally by the IKE daemon from the /etc/ipsec.d/ocspcerts/ directory or were sent by an OCSP server.

ipsec listacerts [ --utc ]
    returns a list of X.509 Attribute certificates that were loaded locally by the IKE daemon from the /etc/ipsec.d/acerts/ directory.

ipsec listgroups [ --utc ]
    returns a list of groups that are used to define user authorization profiles.
    Supported by the IKEv1 pluto daemon only.

ipsec listcainfos [ --utc ]
    returns certification authority information (CRL distribution points, OCSP URIs, LDAP servers) that were defined by ca sections in ipsec.conf.

ipsec listcrls [ --utc ]
    returns a list of Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) that were either loaded by the IKE daemon from the /etc/ipsec.d/crls directory or fetched from an HTTP- or LDAP-based CRL distribution point.

ipsec listocsp [ --utc ]
    returns revocation information fetched from OCSP servers.

ipsec listcards [ --utc ]
    list all certificates found on attached smart cards.
    Supported by the IKEv1 pluto daemon only.

ipsec listall [ --utc ]
    returns all information generated by the list commands above. Each list command can be called with the --utc option which displays all dates in UTC instead of local time.

  REREAD COMMANDS

ipsec rereadsecrets
    flushes and rereads all secrets defined in ipsec.secrets.

ipsec rereadcacerts
    reads all certificate files contained in the /etc/ipsec.d/cacerts directory and adds them to the list of Certification Authority (CA) certificates.

ipsec rereadaacerts
    reads all certificate files contained in the /etc/ipsec.d/aacerts directory and adds them to the list of Authorization Authority (AA) certificates.

ipsec rereadocspcerts
    reads all certificate files contained in the /etc/ipsec.d/ocspcerts/ directory and adds them to the list of OCSP signer certificates.

ipsec rereadacerts
    reads all certificate files contained in the /etc/ipsec.d/acerts/ directory and adds them to the list of attribute certificates.

ipsec rereadcrls
    reads all Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) contained in the /etc/ipsec.d/crls/ directory and adds them to the list of CRLs.

ipsec rereadall
    executes all reread commands listed above.

  PURGE COMMANDS

ipsec purgeike
    purges IKEv2 SAs that don't have a CHILD SA.

ipsec purgeocsp
    purges all cached OCSP information records.

  INFO COMMANDS

ipsec --help
    returns the usage information for the ipsec command.

ipsec --version
    returns the version in the form of Linux strongSwan U<strongSwan userland version>/K<Linux kernel version> if strongSwan uses the native NETKEY IPsec stack of the Linux kernel it is running on.

ipsec --versioncode
    returns the version number in the form of U<strongSwan userland version>/K<Linux kernel version> if strongSwan uses the native NETKEY IPsec stack of the Linux kernel it is running on.

ipsec --copyright
    returns the copyright information.

ipsec --directory
    returns the LIBEXECDIR directory as defined by the configure options.

ipsec --confdir
    returns the SYSCONFDIR directory as defined by the configure options.

FILES
/usr/local/lib/ipsec    usual utilities directory

ENVIRONMENT

The following environment variables control where strongSwan finds its components. The ipsec command sets them if they are not already set.
IPSEC_DIR 		directory containing ipsec programs and utilities
IPSEC_SBINDIR		directory containing ipsec command
IPSEC_CONFDIR 		directory containing configuration files
IPSEC_PIDDIR		directory containing PID files
IPSEC_NAME 		name of ipsec distribution
IPSEC_VERSION 		version numer of ipsec userland and kernel
IPSEC_STARTER_PID 	PID file for ipsec starter
IPSEC_PLUTO_PID 	PID file for IKEv1 keying daemon
IPSEC_CHARON_PID	PID file for IKEv2 keying daemon

SEE ALSO
ipsec.conf(5), ipsec.secrets(5)

HISTORY
Originally written for the FreeS/WAN project by Henry Spencer. Updated and extended for the strongSwan project <http://www.strongswan.org> by Tobias Brunner and Andreas Steffen.