3 .\" Manual for the administration protocol
5 .\" (c) 2008 Straylight/Edgeware
8 .\"----- Licensing notice ---------------------------------------------------
10 .\" This file is part of Trivial IP Encryption (TrIPE).
12 .\" TrIPE is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
13 .\" the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
14 .\" Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your
15 .\" option) any later version.
17 .\" TrIPE is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
18 .\" ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
19 .\" FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
22 .\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
23 .\" along with TrIPE. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
25 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
26 .so ../common/defs.man \" @@@PRE@@@
28 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
29 .TH tripe-admin 5tripe "18 February 2001" "Straylight/Edgeware" "TrIPE: Trivial IP Encryption"
31 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
34 tripe-admin \- administrator commands for TrIPE
36 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
39 This manual page describes the administration interface provided by the
45 program can be used either interactively or in scripts to communicate
46 with the server using this interface. Alternatively, simple custom
47 clients can be written in scripting languages such as Perl, Python or
48 Tcl, or more advanced clients such as GUI monitors can be written in C
49 with little difficulty.
51 Administration commands use a textual protocol. Each client command or
52 server response consists of a line of ASCII text terminated by a single
53 linefeed character. No command may be longer than 255 characters.
54 .SS "General structure"
55 Each command or response line consists of a sequence of
56 whitespace-separated tokens. The number and nature of whitespace
57 characters separating two tokens in a client command is not significant;
58 the server always uses a single space character. The first token in a
61 identifying the type of command or response contained. Keywords in
62 client commands are not case-sensitive; the server always uses uppercase
65 In order to allow tokens to contain internal whitespace, a quoting
66 mechanism is provided. Whitespace within matched pairs of quotes \(en
71 \(en is considered to be internal. Any character (other than newline)
72 may be escaped by preceding it with a backslash
74 in particular, this can be used to include quote characters. It is
75 impossible for a token to contain a newline character.
77 On output, the server will use double quotes when necessary.
79 For simple client command, the server responds with zero or more
81 lines, followed by either an
87 provides information requested in the command. An
89 response contains no further data. A
91 code is followed by a machine-readable explanation of why the command
94 Simple command processing is strictly synchronous: the server reads a
95 command, processes it, and responds, before reading the next command.
96 All commands can be run as simple commands. Long-running commands
101 block the client until they finish, but the rest of the server continues
103 .B "Background commands"
104 to find out how to issue long-running commands without blocking.
105 .SS "Asynchronous broadcasts"
106 There are three types of asynchronous broadcast messages which aren't
107 associated with any particular command. Clients can select which
108 broadcast messages they're interested in using the
114 message contains a machine-readable message warning of an error
115 encountered while processing a command, unexpected or unusual behaviour
116 by a peer, or a possible attack by an adversary. Under normal
117 conditions, the server shouldn't emit any warnings.
121 message contains a human-readable tracing message containing diagnostic
122 information. Trace messages are controlled using the
124 command-line option to the server, or the
126 administration command (see below). Support for tracing can be disabled
127 when the package is being configured, and may not be available in your
132 message is a machine-readable notification about some routine but
133 interesting event such as creation or destruction of peers.
134 .SS "Background commands"
139 take a long time to complete. To prevent these long-running commands
140 from tying up a server connection, they can be run in the background.
141 Not all commands can be run like this: the ones that can provide a
143 option, which must be supplied with a
146 A command may fail before it starts running in the background. In this
147 case, the server emits a
149 response, as usual. To indicate that a command has started running in
150 the background, the server emits a response of the form
151 .BI "BGDETACH " tag \fR,
154 is the value passed to the
156 option. From this point on, the server is ready to process more
157 commands and reply to them.
159 Responses to background commands are indicated by a line beginning with
165 followed by the command tag. These correspond to the
170 responses for simple commands:
172 indicates information from a background command which has not completed
177 indicates that a background command succeeded or failed, respectively.
179 A background command will never issue an
183 response: it will always detach and then issue any
188 .SS "Client-provided services"
189 .\"* 25 Service-related messages
190 An administration client can provide services to other clients.
191 Services are given names and versions. A client can attempt to
193 a particular service by issuing the
195 command. This may fail, for example, if some other client already
196 provides the same or later version of the service.
198 Other clients can issue
199 .I "service commands"
202 command; the service provider is expected to handle these commands and
205 There are three important asynchronous messages which will be sent to
208 .BI "SVCCANCEL " jobid
209 The named job has been cancelled, either because the issuing client has
210 disconnected or explicitly cancelled the job using the
214 .BI "SVCCLAIM " service " " version
215 Another client has claimed a later version of the named
217 The recipient is no longer the provider of this service.
219 .BI "SVCJOB " jobid " " service " " command " " args \fR...
220 Announces the arrival of a new job. The
222 is a simple token consisting of alphanumeric characters which
224 uses to identify this job.
226 The service provider can reply to the job using the commands
231 The first of these sends an
233 response and leaves the job active; the other two send an
237 response respectively, and mark the job as being complete.
241 is a potentially long-running command, it can be run in the background.
242 This detail is hidden from service providers:
244 will issue the corresponding
246 responses when appropriate.)
247 .SS "Network addresses"
248 A network address is a sequence of tokens. The first is a token
249 identifying the network address family. The length of an address and
250 the meanings of the subsequent tokens depend on the address family.
251 Address family tokens are not case-sensitive on input; on output, they
252 are always in upper-case.
254 At present, only one address family is understood.
256 .BI "INET " address " \fR[" port \fR]
257 An Internet socket, naming an IPv4 address and UDP port. On output, the
258 address is always in numeric dotted-quad form, and the port is given as
259 a plain number. On input, DNS hostnames and symbolic port names are
260 permitted; if omitted, the default port 4070 is used. Name resolution
261 does not block the main server, but will block the requesting client,
262 unless the command is run in the background.
264 If, on input, no recognized address family token is found, the following
265 tokens are assumed to represent an
267 address. Addresses output by the server always have an address family
269 .SS "Key-value output"
274 produce output in the form of
276 pairs, one per token. Neither the
282 Commands which enable or disable kinds of output (e.g.,
286 work in similar ways. They take a single optional argument, which
287 consists of a string of letters selecting message types, optionally
292 to disable, the subsequently listed types.
294 If the argument is omitted, the available message types are displayed,
297 line, in a fixed-column format. Column zero contains the key letter for
298 selecting that message type; column one contains either a space or a
300 sign, if the message type is disabled or enabled respectively; and a
301 textual description of the message type begins at column 3 and continues
302 to the end of the line.
304 Lowercase key letters control individual message types. Uppercase key
305 letters control collections of message types.
307 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
308 .SH "COMMAND REFERENCE"
311 The commands provided are:
313 .BI "ADD \fR[" options "\fR] " peer " " address "\fR..."
314 Adds a new peer. The peer is given the name
316 the peer's public key is assumed to be in the file
318 (or whatever alternative file was specified in the
320 option on the command line). The
322 is the network address (see above for the format) at which the peer can
323 be contacted. The following options are recognized.
327 .BI "\-background " tag
328 Run the command in the background, using the given
332 Don't send an immediate challenge to the peer; instead, wait until it
333 sends us something before responding.
336 The association with the peer is not intended to persist indefinitely.
337 If a peer marked as ephemeral is killed, or the
339 daemon is shut down, send a
341 packet to the peer so that it forgets about us; if a peer marked as
344 packet then it is killed (but in this case no further
346 packet is sent). Peers not marked as ephemeral exhibit neither of these
347 behaviours; each peer must have the other marked as ephemeral for the
348 association to be fully torn down if either end kills the other.
350 .BI "\-keepalive " time
351 Send a no-op packet if we've not sent a packet to the peer in the last
353 interval. This is useful for persuading port-translating firewalls to
354 believe that the `connection' is still active. The
356 is expressed as a nonnegative integer followed optionally by
362 for days, hours, minutes, or seconds respectively; if no suffix is
363 given, seconds are assumed.
368 to authenticate the peer. The default is to use the key tagged
371 .BI "\-knock \fR[" prefix .\fR] tag
373 .RI [ prefix\fB. ] tag
378 messages to the peer during key-exchange. The string as a whole should
379 name the local machine to the peer, and
381 should name its public key. When such messages are received from a
382 currently unknown peer,
386 notification stating the peer's (claimed) name and address. The server
387 will already have verified that the sender is using the peer's private
388 key by this point. This option implies
392 The peer is a mobile device, and is likely to change address rapidly.
393 If a packet arrives from an unknown address, the server's usual response
394 is to log a warning and discard it. If the server knows of any mobile
395 peers, however, it will attempt to decrypt the packet using their keys,
396 and if one succeeds, the server will update its idea of the peer's
399 notification. This option implies
405 to authenticate to the peer. The default is to use the key named in the
407 command-line option, or a key with type
415 .BI "\-tunnel " tunnel
416 Use the named tunnel driver, rather than the default.
423 line reporting the IP address and port number stored for
426 .BI "ALGS \fR[" peer \fR]
427 Emits information about the cryptographic algorithms in use, in
430 is given, then describe the algorithms used in the association with that
431 peer; otherwise describe the default algorithms.
434 The keys are as follows.
437 Type of key-exchange group in use, currently either
442 .B kx-group-order-bits
443 Length of the group order, in bits. This gives an approximate measure
444 of the group strength.
447 Length of a group element, in bits. This may be useful when analyzing
451 The hash function in use, e.g.,
455 The mask-generating function in use, e.g.,
459 The size of the hash function's output, in octets.
462 The name of the bulk-crypto transform.
465 The amount of overhead, in bytes, caused by the crypto transform.
468 The name of the bulk data cipher in use, e.g.,
472 The length of key used by the bulk data cipher, in octets.
475 The block size of the bulk data cipher, or zero if it's not based on a
479 The maximum amount of data to be encrypted using a single key. (A new
480 key exchange is instigated well before the limit is reached, in order to
481 allow for a seamless changeover of keys.)
484 The message authentication algorithm in use, e.g.,
488 The length of the key used by the message authentication algorithm, in
492 The length of the message authentication tag, in octets.
495 The block cipher in use, e.g.,
499 The length of key used by the block cipher, in octets.
502 The block size of the block cipher.
504 The various sizes are useful, for example, when computing the MTU for a
507 is the MTU of the path to the peer, then the tunnel MTU should be
513 allowing 20 bytes of IP header, 8 bytes of UDP header, a packet type
514 octet, and the bulk-crypto transform overhead (which includes the
519 Cancels the background job with the named
522 .BI "CHECKCHAL " challenge
523 Verifies a challenge as being one earlier issued by
525 and not previously either passed to
527 or in a greeting message.
530 Causes the server to disassociate itself from its terminal and become a
531 background task. This only works once. A notification is issued.
533 .BI "EPING \fR[" options "\fR] " peer
534 Sends an encrypted ping to the peer, and expects an encrypted response.
535 This checks that the peer is running (and not being impersonated), and
536 that it can encrypt and decrypt packets correctly. Options and
537 responses are the same as for the
542 Requests the server to begin a new key exchange with
547 Requests a challenge. The challenge is returned in an
549 line, as a base64-encoded string. See
552 .BI "GREET " peer " " challenge
553 Sends a greeting packet containing the
555 (base-64 encoded) to the named
557 The expectation is that this will cause the peer to recognize us and
558 begin a key-exchange.
561 Causes the server to emit an
563 line for each command it supports. Each line lists the command name,
564 followed by the names of the arguments. This may be helpful as a memory
565 aid for interactive use, or for program clients probing for features.
570 line containing the name of the network interface used to collect IP
571 packets which are to be encrypted and sent to
573 Used by configuration scripts so that they can set up routing tables
574 appropriately after adding new peers.
579 line giving the tag for each outstanding background job.
582 Causes the server to forget all about
584 All keys are destroyed, and no more packets are sent. No notification
585 is sent to the peer: if it's important that the peer be notified, you
586 must think of a way to do that yourself.
589 For each currently-known peer, an
591 line is written containing the peer's name, as given to
594 .BI "NOTIFY " tokens\fR...
597 notification to all interested administration clients.
600 Returns information about a peer, in key-value form. The following keys
605 The tunnel driver used for this peer.
608 The keepalive interval, in seconds, or zero if no keepalives are to be
612 If present, the string sent to the peer to set up the association; see
622 The (short) key tag being used for the peer, as passed to the
627 The full key tag of the peer's public key currently being used. This
628 may change during the life of the association.
631 The private key tag being used for the peer, as passed to the
635 command-line option. If neither of these was given explicitly, the
636 private key tag is shown as
638 since there is no fixed tag used under these circumstances.
640 .B current-private-key
641 The full key tag of the private key currently being used for this
642 association. This may change during the life of the association.
649 depending on whether or not (respectively) key-exchange is waiting for
650 the peer to initiate.
657 depending on whether or not (respectively) the peer is expected to
658 change its address unpredictably.
665 depending on whether the association with the peer is expected to be
666 temporary or persistent (respectively).
669 .BI "PING \fR[" options "\fR] " peer
670 Send a transport-level ping to the peer. The ping and its response are
671 not encrypted or authenticated. This command, possibly in conjunction
672 with tracing, is useful for ensuring that UDP packets are actually
673 flowing in both directions. See also the
679 line is printed describing the outcome:
682 .BI "ping-ok " millis
683 A response was received
685 after the ping was sent.
688 No response was received within the time allowed.
691 The peer was killed (probably by another admin connection) before a
692 response was received.
695 Options recognized for this command are:
699 .BI "\-background " tag
700 Run the command in the background, using the given
703 .BI "\-timeout " time
706 seconds before giving up on a response. The default is 5 seconds. The
708 is expressed as a nonnegative integer followed optionally by
714 for days, hours, minutes, or seconds respectively; if no suffix is
715 given, seconds are assumed.
722 line containing just the number of the UDP port used by the
724 server. If you've allowed your server to allocate a port dynamically,
725 this is how to find out which one it chose.
728 Instructs the server to recheck its keyring files. The server checks
729 these periodically anyway but it may be necessary to force a recheck,
730 for example after adding a new peer key.
733 Instructs the server to exit immediately. A warning is sent.
736 Returns information about the server, in the form of key-value pairs.
737 The following keys are used.
741 A keyword naming the implementation of the
743 server. The current implementation is called
747 The server's version number, as reported by
755 if the server has or hasn't (respectively) become a daemon.
758 .BI "SETIFNAME " peer " " new-name
759 Informs the server that the
761 tunnel-interface name has been changed to
763 This is useful if firewalling decisions are made based on interface
764 names: a setup script for a particular peer can change the name, and
765 then update the server's records so that they're accurate.
770 lines, each containing one or more statistics in the form
771 .IB name = value \fR.
772 The statistics-gathering is experimental and subject to change.
774 .BI "SVCCLAIM " service " " version
775 Attempts to claim the named
779 The claim is successful if the service is currently unclaimed, or if
780 a version earlier than
782 is provided; otherwise the command fails with the error
783 .BR "service-exists" .
785 .BI "SVCENSURE " service " \fR[" version \fR]
788 is provided, and (if specified) to at least the given
790 An error is reported if these conditions are not met; otherwise the
791 command succeeds silently.
793 .BI "SVCFAIL " jobid " " tokens \fR...
798 response to the service job with the given
802 as the reason for failure. The job is closed.
804 .BI "SVCINFO " jobid " " tokens \fR...
809 response to the service job with the given
813 as the info message. The job remains open.
816 Output a line of the form
823 for each service currently provided.
831 response to the service job with the given
835 .BI "SVCQUERY " service
838 lines in key-value format, describing the named
840 The following keys are used.
847 The service's version string.
850 .BI "SVCRELEASE " service
851 Announce that the client no longer wishes to provide the named
854 .BI "SVCSUBMIT \fR[" options "\fR] " service " " command " " arguments \fR...
855 Submit a job to the provider of the given
861 The following options are accepted.
865 .BI "\-background " tag
866 Run the command in the background, using the given
869 .BI "\-version " version
870 Ensure that at least the given
872 of the service is available before submitting the job.
876 .BR "TRACE " [\fIoptions\fP]
877 Selects trace outputs: see
879 above. Message types provided are:
882 Currently, the following tracing options are supported:
885 Tunnel events: reception of packets to be encrypted, and injection of
886 successfully-decrypted packets.
889 Peer management events: creation and destruction of peer attachments,
890 and arrival of messages.
893 Administration interface: acceptance of new connections, and handling of
894 the backgroud name-resolution required by the
899 Handling of symmetric keysets: creation and expiry of keysets, and
900 encryption and decryption of messages.
903 Key exchange: reception, parsing and emission of key exchange messages.
906 Key management: loading keys and checking for file modifications.
909 Display information about challenge issuing and verification.
912 Display contents of packets sent and received by the tunnel and/or peer
916 Display inputs, outputs and intermediate results of cryptographic
917 operations. This includes plaintext and key material. Use with
929 outputs provide extra detail for other outputs. Specifying
935 isn't useful; neither is specifying
946 For each available tunnel driver, an
948 line is printed giving its name.
951 Causes the server to emit an
953 line stating its software version, as two tokens: the server name, and
954 its version string. The server name
956 is reserved to the Straylight/Edgeware implementation.
958 .BR "WATCH " [\fIoptions\fP]
959 Enables or disables asynchronous broadcasts
960 .IR "for the current connection only" .
963 above. The default watch state for the connection the server opens
964 automatically on stdin/stdout is to show warnings and trace messages;
965 other connections show no asynchronous broadcast messages. (This is
966 done in order to guarantee that a program reading the server's stdout
967 does not miss any warnings.)
970 Message types provided are:
988 .BI "WARN " tokens\fR...
991 warning to all interested administration clients.
993 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
996 .\"* 20 Error messages (FAIL codes)
1001 messages are sent to clients as a result of errors during command
1004 .BI "already-daemon"
1009 server is already running as a daemon.
1011 .BI "bad-addr-syntax " message
1012 (For commands accepting socket addresses.) The address couldn't be
1015 .BI "bad-base64 " message
1016 (For commands accepting Base64-encoded input.) The Base64-encoded
1019 .BI "bad-syntax " cmd " " message
1020 (For any command.) The command couldn't be understood: e.g., the number
1021 of arguments was wrong.
1023 .BI "bad-time-spec " token
1026 is not a valid time interval specification. Acceptable time
1027 specifications are nonnegative integers followed optionally by
1033 for days, hours, minutes, or seconds, respectively.
1035 .BI "bad-trace-option " char
1038 An unknown trace option was requested.
1040 .BI "bad-watch-option " char
1043 An unknown watch option was requested.
1045 .BI "daemon-error " ecode " " message
1048 An error occurred during the attempt to become a daemon, as reported by
1051 .BI "invalid-port " number
1054 The given port number is out of range.
1056 .BI "not-service-provider " service
1059 The invoking client is not the current provider of the named
1061 and is therefore not allowed to release it.
1063 .BI "peer-create-fail " peer
1068 failed for some reason. A warning should have been emitted explaining
1071 .BI "peer-addr-exists " address\fR...
1074 There is already a peer with the given
1077 .BI "peer-exists " peer
1080 There is already a peer named
1083 .B "ping-send-failed"
1084 The attempt to send a ping packet failed, probably due to lack of
1087 .B "provider-failed"
1090 The service provider disconnected without sending back a final reply to
1093 .B "provider-overloaded"
1096 The service provider has too many jobs queued up for it already.
1098 .BI "resolve-error " hostname
1103 could not be resolved.
1105 .BI "resolver-timeout " hostname
1110 took too long to resolve.
1112 .BI "service-exists " service " " version
1115 Another client is already providing the stated
1120 .BI "service-too-old " service " " version
1129 is available, which does not meet the stated requirements.
1131 .BI "tag-exists " tag
1132 (For long-running commands.) The named
1134 is already the tag of an outstanding job.
1136 .BI "unknown-command " token
1141 .BI "unknown-jobid " jobid
1149 is not recognized as identifying an outstanding job. It may have just
1152 .BI "unknown-peer " name
1160 There is no peer called
1163 .BI "unknown-port " port
1168 couldn't be found in
1171 .BI "unknown-service " service
1180 is not recognized as the name of a client-provided service.
1182 .BI "unknown-tag " tag
1187 is not the tag for any outstanding background job. It may have just
1190 .BI "unknown-tunnel " tun
1195 is not the name of any known tunnel driver.
1197 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1200 .\"* 30 Notification broadcasts (NOTE codes)
1201 The following notifications are sent to clients who request them.
1203 .BI "ADD " peer " " ifname " " address \fR...
1204 A new peer has been added. The peer's name is
1206 its tunnel is network interface
1208 and its network address is
1212 The server has forked off into the sunset and become a daemon.
1214 .BI "GREET " challenge " " address \fR...
1215 A valid greeting was received, with the given challenge (exactly as it
1225 .BI "KNOCK " peer " " address
1226 The currently unknown
1228 is attempting to connect from
1234 finished successfully.
1239 has begun or restarted. If key exchange keeps failing, this message
1240 will be repeated periodically.
1242 .BI "NEWADDR " peer " " address
1245 IP address has been changed to
1248 .BI "NEWIFNAME " peer " " old-name " " new-name
1251 tunnel interface name has been changed from
1259 .BI "SVCCLAIM " service " " version
1262 is now available, at the stated
1265 .BI "SVCRELEASE " service
1268 is no longer available.
1270 .BI "USER " tokens\fR...
1271 An administration client issued a notification using the
1275 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1278 .\"* 40 Warning broadcasts (WARN codes)
1280 There are many possible warnings. They are categorized according to
1283 Many of these warnings report system errors. These are reported as a
1284 pair of tokens, described below as
1290 is a string of the form
1294 value of the error; the
1296 is the `human-readable' form of the message, as reported by
1298 .SS "ABORT warnings"
1299 These all indicate that the
1301 server has become unable to continue. If enabled, the server will dump
1302 core in its configuration directory.
1304 .BI "ABORT repeated-select-errors"
1305 The main event loop is repeatedly failing. If the server doesn't quit,
1306 it will probably waste all available CPU doing nothing.
1307 .SS "ADMIN warnings"
1308 These indicate a problem with the administration socket interface.
1310 .BI "ADMIN accept-error " ecode " " message
1311 There was an error while attempting to accept a connection from a new
1314 .BI "ADMIN client-write-error " ecode " " message
1315 There was an error sending data to a client. The connection to the
1316 client has been closed.
1318 These indicate errors in challenges, either in the
1320 command or in greeting packets.
1322 .B "CHAL impossible-challenge"
1323 The server hasn't issued any challenges yet. Quite how anyone else
1324 thought he could make one up is hard to imagine.
1326 .B "CHAL incorrect-tag"
1327 Challenge received contained the wrong authentication data. It might be
1328 very stale, or a forgery.
1330 .B "CHAL invalid-challenge"
1331 Challenge received was the wrong length. We might have changed MAC
1332 algorithms since the challenge was issued, or it might just be rubbish.
1334 .B "CHAL replay duplicated-sequence"
1335 Challenge received was a definite replay of an old challenge. Someone's
1338 .B "CHAL replay old-sequence"
1339 Challenge received was old, but maybe not actually a replay. Try again.
1340 .SS "KEYMGMT warnings"
1341 These indicate a problem with the keyring files, or the keys stored in
1342 them. The first token is either
1348 in the descriptions below) indicating which keyring file is problematic,
1349 and the second token is the filename of the keyring. Frequently a key
1350 tag may be given next, preceded by the token
1353 .BI "KEYMGMT private-keyring " file " key " tag " incorrect-public-key"
1354 The private key doesn't record the correct corresponding public key.
1356 .BI "KEYMGMT public-keyring " file " key " tag " algorithm-mismatch"
1357 A peer's public key doesn't request the same algorithms as our private
1360 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " bad-tag-length " len
1361 The key attributes specify the length of MAC tag as
1363 but this is an invalid value \(en either too large or not a multiple of
1366 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " bad-tag-length-string " str
1367 The key attributes contain
1369 where a MAC tag length was expected. The key was generated wrongly.
1371 .BI "KEYMGMT private-keyring " file " key " tag " changed-group"
1372 The private keyring has been changed, but the new private key can't be
1373 used because it uses a different group for Diffie\(enHellman key
1376 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " io-error " ecode " " message
1377 A system error occurred while opening or reading the keyring file.
1379 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " unknown-bulk-transform " bulk
1380 The key specifies the use of an unknown bulk-crypto transform
1382 Maybe the key was generated wrongly, or maybe the version of Catacomb
1383 installed is too old.
1385 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " unknown-cipher " cipher
1386 The key specifies the use of an unknown symmetric encryption algorithm
1388 Maybe the key was generated wrongly, or maybe the version of
1389 Catacomb installed is too old.
1391 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " unknown-group-type " type
1392 The key specifies the use of a Diffie\(enHellman group of an unknown
1394 Maybe the key was generated wrongly, or maybe the version of
1398 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " unknown-hash " hash
1399 The key specifies the use of an unknown hash function
1401 Maybe the key was generated wrongly, or maybe the version of Catacomb
1402 installed is too old.
1404 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " unknown-mac " mac
1405 The key specifies the use of an unknown message authentication code
1407 Maybe the key was generated wrongly, or maybe the version of Catacomb
1408 installed is too old.
1410 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " unknown-mgf-cipher " mgf
1411 The key specifies the use of an unknown symmetric encryption function
1413 for mask generation. Maybe the key was generated wrongly, or maybe the
1414 version of Catacomb installed is too old.
1416 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " unknown-serialization-format " ser
1417 The key specifies the use of an unknown serialization format
1419 for hashing group elements. Maybe the key was generated wrongly, or
1420 maybe the version of Catacomb installed is too old.
1422 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " no-hmac-for-hash " hash
1423 No message authentication code was given explicitly, and there's no
1424 implementation of HMAC for the selected hash function
1427 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " " alg " " name " no-key-size " hashsz
1434 The named algorithm requires more key material than the hash function
1435 can provide. You must change either the hash function, or the cipher or
1438 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " mgf " mgf " restrictive-key-schedule"
1439 The cipher selected for mask-generation is unsuitable because it can't
1440 accept arbitrary-sized keys.
1442 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key-not-found " tag
1445 couldn't be found in the keyring.
1447 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " unknown-key-id 0x" keyid
1448 A key with the given
1450 (in hex) was requested but not found.
1452 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " line " line " " message
1453 The contents of the keyring file are invalid. There may well be a bug
1458 These indicate problems during key-exchange. Many indicate either a bug
1459 in the server (either yours or the remote one), or some kind of attack
1460 in progress. All name a
1462 as the second token: this is the peer the packet is apparently from,
1463 though it may have been sent by an attacker instead.
1465 In the descriptions below,
1467 is one of the tokens
1479 .BI "KX " peer " algorithms-mismatch local-private-key " privtag " peer-public-key " pubtag
1480 The algorithms specified in the peer's public key
1482 don't match the ones described in the private key
1485 .BI "KX " peer " bad-expected-reply-log"
1488 uses in its protocol contain a check value which proves that the
1489 challenge is honest. This message indicates that the check value
1490 supplied is wrong: someone is attempting to use bogus challenges to
1493 server to leak private key information. No chance!
1495 .BI "KX " peer " decrypt-failed reply\fR|\fBswitch-ok"
1496 A symmetrically-encrypted portion of a key-exchange message failed to
1499 .BI "KX " peer " invalid " msgtoken
1500 A key-exchange message was malformed. This almost certainly indicates a
1503 .BI "KX " peer " incorrect cookie\fR|\fBswitch-rq\fR|\fBswitch-ok"
1504 A message didn't contain the right magic data. This may be a replay of
1505 some old exchange, or random packets being sent in an attempt to waste
1508 .BI "KX " peer " " which "-key-expired"
1509 The local private key or the peer's public key (distinguished by
1511 has expired. Either you or the peer's maintainer should have arranged
1512 for a replacement before now.
1514 .BI "KX " peer " sending-cookie"
1515 We've received too many bogus pre-challenge messages. Someone is trying
1516 to flood us with key-exchange messages and make us waste CPU on doing
1517 hard asymmetric crypto sums.
1519 .BI "KX " peer " unexpected " msgtoken
1520 The message received wasn't appropriate for this stage of the key
1521 exchange process. This may mean that one of our previous packets got
1524 it may simply mean that the peer has recently restarted.
1526 .BI "KX " peer " unknown-challenge"
1527 The peer is asking for an answer to a challenge which we don't know
1528 about. This may mean that we've been inundated with challenges from
1529 some malicious source
1530 .I who can read our messages
1531 and discarded the valid one.
1533 .BI "KX " peer " unknown-message 0x" nn
1534 An unknown key-exchange message arrived.
1536 These are largely concerned with management of peers and the low-level
1537 details of the network protocol. The second token is usually the name of
1540 if none is relevant.
1542 .BI "PEER " peer " bad-packet no-type"
1543 An empty packet arrived. This is very strange.
1545 .BI "PEER " peer " bad-packet unknown-category 0x" nn
1546 The message category
1548 (in hex) isn't understood. Probably a strange random packet from
1549 somewhere; could be an unlikely bug.
1551 .BI "PEER " peer " bad-packet unknown-type 0x" nn
1554 (in hex) isn't understood. Probably a strange random packet from
1555 somewhere; could be an unlikely bug.
1557 .BI "PEER " peer " corrupt-encrypted-ping"
1558 The peer sent a ping response which matches an outstanding ping, but its
1559 payload is wrong. There's definitely a bug somewhere.
1561 .BI "PEER " peer " corrupt-transport-ping"
1562 The peer (apparently) sent a ping response which matches an outstanding
1563 ping, but its payload is wrong. Either there's a bug, or the bad guys
1564 are playing tricks on you.
1566 .BI "PEER " peer " decrypt-failed"
1567 An encrypted IP packet failed to decrypt. It may have been mangled in
1568 transit, or may be a very old packet from an expired previous session
1569 key. There is usually a considerable overlap in the validity periods of
1570 successive session keys, so this shouldn't occur unless the key exchange
1571 takes ages or fails.
1573 .BI "PEER " peer " malformed-encrypted-ping"
1574 The peer sent a ping response which is hopelessly invalid. There's
1575 definitely a bug somewhere.
1577 .BI "PEER " peer " malformed-transport-ping"
1578 The peer (apparently) sent a ping response which is hopelessly invalid.
1579 Either there's a bug, or the bad guys are playing tricks on you.
1581 .BI "PEER " peer " packet-build-failed"
1582 There wasn't enough space in our buffer to put the packet we wanted to
1583 send. Shouldn't happen.
1585 .BI "PEER \- socket-read-error " ecode " " message
1586 An error occurred trying to read an incoming packet.
1588 .BI "PEER " peer " socket-write-error " ecode " " message
1589 An error occurred attempting to send a network packet. We lost that
1592 .BI "PEER " address\fR... " socket-write-error " ecode " " message
1593 An error occurred attempting to send a network packet. We lost that
1596 .BI "PEER " peer " unexpected-encrypted-ping 0x" id
1597 The peer sent an encrypted ping response whose id doesn't match any
1598 outstanding ping. Maybe it was delayed for longer than the server was
1599 willing to wait, or maybe the peer has gone mad.
1601 .BI "PEER \- unexpected-source " address\fR...
1602 A packet arrived from
1604 (a network address \(en see above), but no peer is known at that
1605 address. This may indicate a misconfiguration, or simply be a result of
1606 one end of a connection being set up before the other.
1608 .BI "PEER " peer " unexpected-transport-ping 0x" id
1609 The peer (apparently) sent a transport ping response whose id doesn't
1610 match any outstanding ping. Maybe it was delayed for longer than the
1611 server was willing to wait, or maybe the peer has gone mad; or maybe
1612 there are bad people trying to confuse you.
1613 .SS "PRIVSEP warnings"
1614 These indicate problems with the privilege-separation helper process.
1615 (The server tries to drop its privileges when it starts up, leaving a
1616 privileged helper process behind which will create and hand over tunnel
1617 descriptors on request, but hopefully not do anything else especially
1618 dangerous. Tunnel descriptors are not completely safe, but this is
1619 probably better than nothing.)
1621 .BI "PRIVSEP child-exited " rc
1622 The helper process exited normally with status
1624 Status 0 means that it thought the server didn't want it any more; 1
1625 means that it was invoked incorrectly; 127 means that some system call
1628 .BI "PRIVSEP child-killed " sig
1629 The helper process was killed by signal number
1632 .BI "PRIVSEP child-died " status
1633 The helper process died in some unexpected way;
1634 .I status is the raw status code returned by
1636 because the server didn't understand how to decode it.
1638 .BI "PRIVSEP helper-died"
1639 A tunnel driver requires a tunnel descriptor from the helper, but the
1640 helper isn't running so this won't work.
1642 .BI "PRIVSEP helper-read-error " ecode " " message
1643 The server failed to read a response from the helper process.
1645 .BI "PRIVSEP helper-short-read"
1646 The helper process didn't send back enough data, and has likely crashed.
1648 .BI "PRIVSEP helper-write-error " ecode " " message
1649 The server failed to send a message to the helper process.
1651 .BI "PRIVSEP no-fd-from-helper"
1652 The helper process sent back a positive response, but didn't include the
1653 requested tunnel descriptor.
1655 .BI "PRIVSEP unknown-response-code"
1656 The helper process sent back an incomprehensible reply. It's probably
1657 very confused and may crash.
1658 .SS "SERVER warnings"
1659 These indicate problems concerning the server process as a whole.
1661 .BI "SERVER ignore signal " name
1662 A signal arrived, but the server ignored it. Currently this happens for
1664 because that's a popular way of telling daemons to re-read their
1665 configuration files. Since
1667 re-reads its keyrings automatically and has no other configuration
1668 files, it's not relevant, but it seemed better to ignore the signal than
1671 .BI "SERVER quit signal " \fR[\fInn\fR|\fIname\fR]
1672 A signal arrived and
1676 .BI "SERVER quit admin-request"
1677 A client of the administration interface issued a
1681 .BI "SERVER quit foreground-eof"
1682 The server is running in foreground mode (the
1684 option), and encountered end-of-file on standard input.
1686 .BI "SERVER select-error " ecode " " message
1687 An error occurred in the server's main event loop. This is bad: if it
1688 happens too many times, the server will abort.
1690 .BI "SERVER waitpid-error " ecode " " message
1691 The server was informed that one of its child processes had exited, but
1692 couldn't retrieve the child's status.
1694 These are concerned with the symmetric encryption and decryption
1697 .BI "SYMM replay old-sequence"
1698 A packet was received with an old sequence number. It may just have
1699 been delayed or duplicated, or it may have been an attempt at a replay
1702 .BI "SYMM replay duplicated-sequence"
1703 A packet was received with a sequence number we've definitely seen
1704 before. It may be an accidental duplication because the 'net is like
1705 that, or a deliberate attempt at a replay.
1707 These concern the workings of the system-specific tunnel driver. The
1708 second token is the name of the tunnel interface in question, or
1712 .BI "TUN \- bsd no-tunnel-devices"
1713 The driver couldn't find an available tunnel device. Maybe if you
1716 files, it will work.
1718 .BI "TUN \- " tun-name " open-error " device " " ecode " " message
1719 An attempt to open the tunnel device file
1723 .BI "TUN \- linux config-error " ecode " " message
1724 Configuring the Linux TUN/TAP interface failed.
1726 .BI "TUN " ifname " " tun-name " read-error " ecode " " message
1727 Reading from the tunnel device failed.
1729 .BI "TUN " ifname " " tun-name " write-error " ecode " " message
1730 Writing from the tunnel device failed.
1732 .BI "TUN " ifname " slip bad-escape"
1733 The SLIP driver encountered a escaped byte it wasn't expecting to see.
1734 The erroneous packet will be ignored.
1736 .BI "TUN " ifname " slip eof"
1737 The SLIP driver encountered end-of-file on its input descriptor.
1738 Pending data is discarded, and no attempt is made to read any more data
1739 from that interface ever.
1741 .BI "TUN " ifname " slip escape-end"
1742 The SLIP driver encountered an escaped `end' marker. This probably
1743 means that someone's been sending it junk. The erroneous packet is
1744 discarded, and we hope that we've rediscovered synchronization.
1746 .BI "TUN \- slip fork-error " ecode " " message
1747 The SLIP driver encountered an error forking a child process while
1748 allocating a new dynamic interface.
1750 .BI "TUN \- slip no-slip-interfaces"
1751 The driver ran out of static SLIP interfaces. Either preallocate more,
1752 or use dynamic SLIP interface allocation.
1754 .BI "TUN " ifname " slip overflow"
1755 The SLIP driver gave up reading a packet because it got too large.
1757 .BI "TUN \- slip pipe-error " ecode " " message
1758 The SLIP driver encountered an error creating pipes while allocating a
1759 new dynamic interface.
1761 .BI "TUN \- slip read-ifname-failed " ecode " " message
1762 The SLIP driver encountered an error reading the name of a dynamically
1763 allocated interface. Maybe the allocation script is broken.
1765 .BI "TUN \- unet config-error " ecode " " message
1766 Configuring the Linux Unet interface failed. Unet is obsolete and
1767 shouldn't be used any more.
1769 .BI "TUN \- unet getinfo-error " ecode " " message
1770 Reading information about the Unet interface failed. Unet is obsolete
1771 and shouldn't be used any more.
1773 These are issued by administration clients using the
1777 .BI "USER " tokens\fR...
1778 An administration client issued a warning.
1781 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1784 .SS "Command responses"
1787 .BI "BGFAIL " tag " " tokens \fR...
1788 .BI "BGINFO " tag " " tokens \fR...
1790 .BI "FAIL " tokens \fR...
1791 .BI "INFO " tokens \fR...
1796 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1802 .IR "The Trivial IP Encryption Protocol" .
1804 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1807 Mark Wooding, <mdw@distorted.org.uk>
1809 .\"----- That's all, folks --------------------------------------------------
~mdw / tripe / blob