Provided by: openiked_7.3-1build3_amd64 
NAME
ikectl — control the IKEv2 daemon
SYNOPSIS
ikectl [-q] [-s socket] command [arg ...]
DESCRIPTION
The ikectl program controls the iked(8) daemon and provides commands to maintain a simple X.509
certificate authority (CA) for IKEv2 peers.
The options are as follows:
-q Don't ask for confirmation of any default options.
-s socket
Use socket instead of the default /var/run/iked.sock to communicate with iked(8).
IKED CONTROL COMMANDS
The following commands are available to control iked(8):
active Set iked(8) to active mode.
passive
Set iked(8) to passive mode. In passive mode no packets are sent to peers and no connections are
initiated by iked(8).
couple Load the negotiated security associations (SAs) and flows into the kernel.
decouple
Unload the negotiated SAs and flows from the kernel. This mode is only useful for testing and
debugging.
load filename
Reload the configuration from the specified file.
log brief
Disable verbose logging.
log verbose
Enable verbose logging.
monitor
Monitor internal messages of the iked(8) subsystems.
reload Reload the configuration from the default configuration file.
reset all
Reset the running state.
reset ca
Reset the X.509 CA and certificate state.
reset policy
Flush the configured policies.
reset sa
Flush the running SAs.
reset user
Flush the local user database.
reset id ikeid
Delete all IKE SAs with matching ID.
show sa
Show internal state of active IKE SAs, Child SAs and IPsec flows.
PKI AND CERTIFICATE AUTHORITY COMMANDS
In order to use public key based authentication with IKEv2, a public key infrastructure (PKI) has to be
set up to create and sign the peer certificates. ikectl includes commands to simplify maintenance of the
PKI and to set up a simple certificate authority (CA) for iked(8) and its peers.
The following commands are available to control the CA:
ca name create [password password]
Create a new certificate authority with the specified name. The command will prompt for a CA
password unless it is specified with the optional password argument. The password will be saved
in a protected file ikeca.passwd in the CA directory and used for subsequent commands.
ca name delete
Delete the certificate authority with the specified name.
ca name export [peer peer] [password password]
Export the certificate authority with the specified name into the current directory for transport
to other systems. This command will create a compressed tarball called ca.tgz in the local
directory and optionally ca.zip if the ‘zip’ tool is installed. The optional peer argument can
be used to specify the address or FQDN of the local gateway which will be written into a text
file peer.txt and included in the archives.
ca name install [path]
Install the certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) for CA name as the currently active
CA or into the specified path.
ca name certificate host create [server | client | ocsp]
Create a private key and certificate for host and sign then with the key of certificate authority
with the specified name.
The certificate will be valid for client and server authentication by default by setting both
flags as the extended key usage in the certificate; this can be restricted using the optional
server or client argument. If the ocsp argument is specified the extended key usage will be set
for OCSP signing.
ca name certificate host delete
Deletes the private key and certificates associated with host.
ca name certificate host export [peer peer] [password password]
Export key files for host of the certificate authority with the specified name into the current
directory for transport to other systems. This command will create a compressed tarball host.tgz
in the local directory and optionally host.zip if the ‘zip’ tool is installed. The optional peer
argument can be used to specify the address or FQDN of the local gateway which will be written
into a text file peer.txt and included in the archives.
ca name certificate host install [path]
Install the private and public key for host into the active configuration or specified path.
ca name certificate host revoke
Revoke the certificate specified by host and generate a new Certificate Revocation List (CRL).
show ca name certificates [host]
Display a listing of certificates associated with CA name or display certificate details if host
is specified.
ca name key host create
Create a private key for host if one does not already exist.
ca name key host install [path]
Install the private and public keys for host into the active configuration or specified path.
ca name key host delete
Delete the private key for host.
ca name key host import file
Source the private key for host from the named file.
FILES
/etc/iked/ Active configuration.
/etc/ssl/ Directory to store the CA files.
/usr/share/iked/ If this optional directory exists, ikectl will include the contents with the ca
export commands.
/var/run/iked.sock Default Unix-domain socket used for communication with iked(8).
EXAMPLES
First create a new certificate authority:
# ikectl ca vpn create
Now create the certificates for the VPN peers. The specified hostname, either IP address or FQDN, will
be saved in the signed certificate and has to match the IKEv2 identity, or srcid, of the peers:
# ikectl ca vpn certificate 10.1.2.3 create
# ikectl ca vpn certificate 10.2.3.4 create
# ikectl ca vpn certificate 10.3.4.5 create
It is possible that the host that was used to create the CA is also one of the VPN peers. In this case
you can install the peer and CA certificates locally:
# ikectl ca vpn install
# ikectl ca vpn certificate 10.1.2.3 install
Now export the individual host key, the certificate and the CA certificate to each other peer. First run
the export command to create tarballs that include the required files:
# ikectl ca vpn certificate 10.2.3.4 export
# ikectl ca vpn certificate 10.3.4.5 export
These commands will produce two tarballs 10.2.3.4.tgz and 10.3.4.5.tgz. Copy these tarballs over to the
appropriate peers and extract them to the /etc/iked/ directory:
10.2.3.4# tar -C /etc/iked -xzpf 10.2.3.4.tgz
10.3.4.5# tar -C /etc/iked -xzpf 10.3.4.5.tgz
ikectl will also create ‘zip’ archives 10.2.3.4.zip and 10.3.4.5.zip in addition to the tarballs if the
zip tool is found in /usr/local/bin/zip. These archives can be exported to peers running Windows and
will include the certificates in a format that is supported by the OS. The zip tool can be installed
from the OpenBSD packages or ports collection before running the export commands, see packages(7) for
more information. For example:
# pkg_add zip
SEE ALSO
packages(7), iked(8), ssl(8)
HISTORY
The ikectl program first appeared in OpenBSD 4.8.
AUTHORS
The ikectl program was written by Reyk Floeter <reyk@openbsd.org> and
Jonathan Gray <jsg@openbsd.org>.
CAVEATS
For ease of use, the ca commands maintain all peers' private keys on the CA machine. In contrast to a
‘real’ CA, it does not support signing of public keys that have been imported from peers that do not want
to expose their private keys to the CA.
Debian April 25, 2020 IKECTL(8)