This document describes the Racoon2 and the distribution kit. You have to read doc/INSTALL and doc/USAGE to use the Racoon2 after you read this document. Enjoy !
o Files and Directories
README : this file, explaining the Racoon2 distribution.
COPYRIGHT: contains the copyright.
NEWS : major changes, new functionalities, etc.
FAQ : Frequently Asked Questions.
doc/ : specs, memos, usage, etc.
samples/ : configuration samples.
lib/ : files related to the library, libracoon.a
kinkd/ : files related to the KINK daemon.
iked/ : files related to the IKE daemon.
spmd/ : files related to the IPsec Security Policy Management daemon.
pskgen/ : files related to pskgen(8)
o What is the Racoon2 ?
The Racoon2 is a system to exchange and to install security parameters for IPsec.
This code was written by the Racoon2 Project in the WIDE Project, Japan. The project aimed to provide the IPsec system for FreeBSD, NetBSD and Linux. There are some similar projects working in the Internet community (openswan/Linux, iked/OpenBSD).
The main objective of Racoon2 is currently to evaluate it as a possible replacement iked key exchange service (IKE) for use in future releases of major software platforms such as *BSD and Linux. It has iked to implement IKEv1 and IKEv2, spmd to provide security policy management services, and kinkd to provide Kerberos based key exchange for IPsec. At present it is unstable and very difficult to configure. Most users will not be able to use it in its current form without a significant level of expertise and experience with the complexities of establishing IPsec connections. It only provides one small piece (IKE) of a complicated system of many parts that are needed to establish successful secured communications over the Internet.
Racoon2 is also based on very old code and it is still very buggy. Although Racoon2 can be configured to establish working IPsec connections using both IKEv1 and IKEv2, in its current form, most users who do not have experience configuring IPsec connections will not be able to get a connection working without significant effort. The near-term goals are to reduce the number of bugs that make Racoon2 so difficult to configure, and to create a simpler system for configuring connections correctly so that the level of expertise required to use Racoon2 to establish connections can be reduced to the point where most developers will be able to build, install, and use Racoon2 to get working IPsec connections with minimal effort.
Currently Racoon2 works well as an L2TP/IPsec VPN server or as an IKEv2 VPN server running on NetBSD. Racoon2 on Linux will provide only limited functionality because Racoon2 uses the pfkeyv2 interface to the kernel, while many Linux features require the IKEv2 daemon to use the netlink interface to the kernel instead. Until the netlink interface to the Linux kernel is addd to Racoon2, only the most basic connections can be made using Racoon2 on Linux. Currently L2TP/IPsec connections from Windows or iphone clients can be made to Racoon2 running on Linux, and IPv4 in IPv4 IKEv2 tunnel conections can be made from Windows clients to Racoon2 running on Linux, but Apple clients can have difficulty connecting because of the limitations of the pfkeyv2 interface to the Linux kernel that Racoon2 uses. Please refer to NEWS for updates on current developments.
Currently, the system supports the following specifications:
Internet Key Exchange (IKEv2) Protocol
RFC 4306, Internet Key Exchange (IKEv2) Protocol
RFC 4307, Cryptographic Algorithms for Use
in the Internet Key Exchange Version 2 (IKEv2)
RFC 4718, IKEv2 Clarifications and Implementation Guidelines
The Internet Key Exchange (IKE)
RFC 2409, The Internet Key Exchange (IKE)
RFC 3947, Negotiation of NAT-Traversal in the IKE
RFC 3948, UDP Encapsulation of IPsec ESP Packets
Kerberized Internet Negotiation of Keys (KINK)
RFC 4430, Kerberized Internet Negotiation of Keys (KINK)
RFC 3526, More Modular Exponential (MODP) Diffie-Hellman groups
for Internet Key Exchange (IKE)
RFC 2367, PF_KEY Key Management API, Version 2
The system provides three daemons: iked, kinkd and spmd. Each daemon manages IKE, KINK and IPsec Policy respectively.
The "previous Racoon" only supports IKEv1 [RFC2409]. The Racoon2 supports IKEv1, IKEv2 and KINK.
The Racoon2 also supports IPsec security policy management with "spmd".
The configuration is completely different too, because the Racoon2 system supports multiple key exchange protocols as well as policy management.
We however implement IKEv1 based on the Racoon in ipsec-tools.
o What features will the Racoon2 support ?
Here is the list of features that we think to implement in a future. This is not a complete list. This may be changed with no announcing.
- English documentation.
- IKEv2: configuration payload (aka mode-config in IKEv1) in iked.
- MIPL support (MIP6 Implementation on Linux) in iked.
- SHISA support (WIDE MIP6 Implementation on *BSD) in iked.
- Support graceful rekeying.
- Configuration file converter from the "previous Racoon".
- Easy configuration tool.
o What is the Racoon2 system structure ?
There are three daemons in the Racoon2 system. The following picture illustrates the relationship between the daemons in the system. You have to run "spmd" AND one protocol daemon to establish IPsec SAs.
+--------+ +--------+
| iked |--(spmif)--+ +--(spmif)--| kinkd |
+--------+ | | +--------+
| +--------+ |
| | spmd | |
| +--------+ |
| | |
| | |
--(PFKEY)------------(PFKEY)-----------(PFKEY)--
| | |
| | |
+---------------------------------------------+
| Kernel |
+---------------------------------------------+
"spmd" is the IPsec security policy management daemon. It has two missions. First one is to manage IPsec policies. "spmd" will install IPsec policies and delete them from the kernel. It uses PF_KEYv2 for this purpose. Another is to cache the mapping table between IP addresses and FQDNs for KINK processing.
"iked" processes the IKE protocol. It initiates the protocol, and processes the packet from the remote system. Then it installs IPsec SAs into the kernel by using PF_KEYv2. If generating IPsec policies as the result of the exchange, it also requests "spmd" to install the policies by using "spmif", which is an abbreviation of spmd interface.
"kinkd" is similar to "iked" except that it processes the KINK protocol.
o Contact Points
Informations about the Racoon2 are available at the project's web page:
http://www.racoon2.wide.ad.jp/
If you have any questions about the Racoon2, you can ask to the mailing list:
Before sending your question, you MUST subscribe this mailing list by sending a request in the body:
subscribe
to [email protected]. You will receive a confirmation from the mailing list owner. Then you have to reply to the mail in order to complete the procedure.
Please don't ask them to other mailing lists such as "[email protected]", "[email protected]", or "[email protected]".
If you want to help us or if you want to contribute, please contact us. Please feel free to post any patches, make suggestions, etc. In particular, to check English documentations is very helpful for us.
o Copyright
Basically this kit follows the BSD-like copyright. See the file: COPYRIGHT. In short, the code is freely available but with no warranty.
The copyright holder is WIDE Project instead of the Racoon2 Project. This is because the Racoon2 Project belongs to the one of the working groups in the WIDE Project.
o IPR consideration
The Racoon2 Project takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any intellectual property rights or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology used in the Racoon2, or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has made any independent effort to identify any such rights.
The Racoon2 Project simply reproduces the intellectual property rights statements that have been submitted to the IETF at https://datatracker.ietf.org/public/ipr_disclosure.cgi concerning the IETF protocols embodied in the Racoon2.
Certicom's Statement About IPR Claimed in RFC 3526, RFC 2409, draft-ietf-ipsec-ikev2, and Other IETF Specifications Using MODP Groups: https://datatracker.ietf.org/public/ipr_detail_show.cgi?&ipr_id=336
Internet Key Exchange (IKEv2) Protocol: https://datatracker.ietf.org/public/ipr_detail_show.cgi?&ipr_id=137
Microsoft's statement about IPR claimed in draft-ietf-ipsec-ikev2-08.txt: https://datatracker.ietf.org/public/ipr_detail_show.cgi?&ipr_id=190
If you have a concern about the possible intellectual property rights associated with acquiring, compiling, modifying, or otherwise using the Racoon2 software, you should consult your own attorney.
o Project Members
Core project members are:
Satoshi Inoue Panasonic Communications Co., Ltd.
Atsushi Fukumoto Toshiba Corporation
Mitsuru Kanda Toshiba Corporation
Kazunori Miyazawa Yokogawa Electric Corporation
Ken'ichi Kamada Yokogawa Electric Corporation
Shoichi Sakane Yokogawa Electric Corporation
Francis Dupont
Alphabetical order of the name of their belonging company.
o Acknowledgments
Thanks to Paul Hoffman. He suggested what we should think about the intellectual property rights related the IKEv2 protocol, and helped us to publish our IKEv2 code. Thanks to member of the WIDE project. We could not work without the great project.
Thanks to Yutaka Yamashita. He implemented the partial mobility support with SHISA (http://www.mobileip.jp/) in iked(8).
