12 .TH tripe-admin 5 "18 February 2001" "Straylight/Edgeware" "TrIPE: Trivial IP Encryption"
14 tripe-admin \- administrator commands for TrIPE
16 This manual page describes the administration interface provided by the
22 program can be used either interactively or in scripts to communicate
23 with the server using this interface. Alternatively, simple custom
24 clients can be written in scripting languages such as Perl, Python or
25 Tcl, or more advanced clients such as GUI monitors can be written in C
26 with little difficulty.
28 By default, the server listens for admin connections on the Unix-domain
30 .BR /var/lib/tripe/tripesock .
31 Administration commands use a textual protocol. Each client command or
32 server response consists of a line of ASCII text terminated by a single
33 linefeed character. No command may be longer than 255 characters.
34 .SS "General structure"
35 Each command or response line consists of a sequence of
36 whitespace-separated words. The number and nature of whitespace
37 characters separating two words in a client command is not significant;
38 the server always uses a single space character. The first word in a
41 identifying the type of command or response contained. Keywords in
42 client commands are not case-sensitive; the server always uses uppercase
45 For simple client command, the server responds with zero or more
47 lines, followed by either an
53 provides information requested in the command. An
55 response contains no further data. A
57 code is followed by a machine-readable explanation of why the command
60 Simple command processing is strictly synchronous: the server reads a
61 command, processes it, and responds, before reading the next command.
62 All commands can be run as simple commands. Long-running commands
67 block the client until they finish, but the rest of the server continues
69 .SS "Asynchronous messages"
70 There are three types of asynchronous messages which
71 aren't associated with any particular command.
75 message contains a machine-readable message warning of an error
76 encountered while processing a command, unexpected or unusual behaviour
77 by a peer, or a possible attack by an adversary. Under normal
78 conditions, the server shouldn't emit any warnings.
82 message contains a human-readable tracing message containing diagnostic
83 information. Trace messages are controlled using the
85 command-line option to the server, or the
87 administration command (see below). Support for tracing can be disabled
88 when the package is being configured, and may not be available in your
93 message is a machine-readable notification about some routine but
94 interesting event such as creation or destruction of peers.
96 The presence of asynchronous messages can be controlled using the
99 .SS "Background commands"
104 take a long time to complete. To prevent these long-running commands
105 from tying up a server connection, they can be run in the background.
106 Not all commands can be run like this: the ones that can provide a
108 option, which must be supplied with a
111 A command may fail before it starts running in the background. In this
112 case, the server emits a
114 response, as usual. To indicate that a command has started running in
115 the background, the server emits a response of the form
116 .BI "BGDETACH " tag \fR,
119 is the value passed to the
121 option. From this point on, the server is ready to process more
122 commands and reply to them.
124 Responses to background commands are indicated by a line beginning with
130 followed by the command tag. These correspond to the
135 responses for simple commands:
137 indicates information from a background command which has not completed
142 indicates that a background command succeeded or failed, respectively.
144 A background command will never issue an
148 response: it will always detach and then issue any
153 .SS "Network addresses"
154 A network address is a sequence of words. The first is a token
155 identifying the network address family. The length of an address and
156 the meanings of the subsequent words depend on the address family.
157 Address family tokens are not case-sensitive on input; on output, they
158 are always in upper-case.
160 At present, only one address family is understood.
162 .BI "INET " address " " port
163 An Internet socket, naming an IPv4 address and UDP port. On output, the
164 address is always in numeric dotted-quad form, and the port is given as
165 a plain number. On input, DNS hostnames and symbolic port names are
166 permitted. Name resolution does not block the main server, but will
167 block the requesting client. This hopefully makes life simpler for
168 stupid clients. Complex clients which don't wish to be held up can open
169 extra connections or do the resolution themselves.)
171 If, on input, no recognised address family token is found, the following
172 words are assumed to represent an
175 .SS "Key-value output"
180 produce output in the form of
182 pairs, one per word. Neither the
188 Commands which enable or disable kinds of output (e.g.,
192 work in similar ways. They take a single optional argument, which
193 consists of a string of letters selecting message types, optionally
198 to disable, the subsequently listed types.
200 If the argument is omitted, the available message types are displayed,
203 line, in a fixed-column format. Column zero contains the key letter for
204 selecting that message type; column one contains either a space or a
206 sign, if the message type is disabled or enabled respectively; and a
207 textual description of the message type begins at column 3 and continues
208 to the end of the line.
210 Lowercase key letters control individual message types. Uppercase key
211 letters control collections of message types.
212 .SH "COMMAND REFERENCE"
214 The commands provided are:
216 .BI "ADD " peer " \fR[" options "\fR] " address "\fR..."
217 Adds a new peer. The peer is given the name
219 the peer's public key is assumed to be in the file
221 (or whatever alternative file was specified in the
223 option on the command line). The
225 is the network address (see above for the format) at which the peer can
226 be contacted. The following options are recognised.
230 .BI "\-background " tag
231 Run the command in the background, using the given
234 .BI "\-keepalive " time
235 Send a no-op packet if we've not sent a packet to the peer in the last
237 interval. This is useful for persuading port-translating firewalls to
238 believe that the `connection' is still active. The
240 is expressed as a nonnegative integer followed optionally by
246 for days, hours, minutes, or seconds respectively; if no suffix is
247 given, seconds are assumed.
249 .BI "\-tunnel " tunnel
250 Use the named tunnel driver, rather than the default.
257 line reporting the IP address and port number stored for
260 .BI "CHECKCHAL " challenge
261 Verifies a challenge as being one earlier issued by
263 and not previously either passed to
265 or in a greeting message.
268 Causes the server to disassociate itself from its terminal and become a
269 background task. This only works once. A warning is issued.
271 .BI "EPING \fR[" options "\fR] " peer
272 Sends an encrypted ping to the peer, and expects an encrypted response.
273 This checks that the peer is running (and not being impersonated), and
274 that it can encrypt and decrypt packets correctly. Options and
275 responses are the same as for the
280 Requests the server to begin a new key exchange with
285 Requests a challenge. The challenge is returned in an
287 line, as a base64-encoded string. See
290 .BI "GREET " peer " " challenge
291 Sends a greeting packet containing the
293 (base-64 encoded) to the named
295 The expectation is that this will cause the peer to recognize us and
296 begin a key-exchange.
299 Causes the server to emit an
301 line for each command it supports. Each line lists the command name,
302 followed by the names of the arguments. This may be helpful as a memory
303 aid for interactive use, or for program clients probing for features.
308 line containing the name of the network interface used to collect IP
309 packets which are to be encrypted and sent to
311 Used by configuration scripts so that they can set up routing tables
312 appropriately after adding new peers.
315 Causes the server to forget all about
317 All keys are destroyed, and no more packets are sent. No notification
318 is sent to the peer: if it's important that the peer be notified, you
319 must think of a way to do that yourself.
322 For each currently-known peer, an
324 line is written containing the peer's name, as given to
327 .BI "NOTIFY " tokens\fR...
330 notification to all interested administration clients.
333 Returns information about a peer, in key-value form. The following keys
338 The tunnel driver used for this peer.
341 The keepalive interval, in seconds, or zero if no keepalives are to be
345 .BI "PING \fR[" options "\fR] " peer
346 Send a transport-level ping to the peer. The ping and its response are
347 not encrypted or authenticated. This command, possibly in conjunction
348 with tracing, is useful for ensuring that UDP packets are actually
349 flowing in both directions. See also the
355 line is printed describing the outcome:
358 .BI "ping-ok " millis
359 A response was received
361 after the ping was sent.
364 No response was received within the time allowed.
367 The peer was killed (probably by another admin connection) before a
368 response was received.
371 Options recognized for this command are:
375 .BI "\-background " tag
376 Run the command in the background, using the given
379 .BI "\-timeout " time
382 seconds before giving up on a response. The default is 5 seconds. (The
383 time format is the same as for the
392 line containing just the number of the UDP port used by the
394 server. If you've allowed your server to allocate a port dynamically,
395 this is how to find out which one it chose.
398 Instructs the server to recheck its keyring files. The server checks
399 these periodically anyway but it may be necessary to force a recheck,
400 for example after adding a new peer key.
403 Instructs the server to exit immediately. A warning is sent.
406 Returns information about the server, in the form of key-value pairs.
407 The following keys are used.
411 A keyword naming the implementation of the
413 server. The current implementation is called
417 The server's version number, as reported by
425 if the server has or hasn't (respectively) become a daemon.
428 .BI "SETIFNAME " peer " " new-name
429 Informs the server that the
431 tunnel-interface name has been changed to
433 This is useful if firewalling decisions are made based on interface
434 names: a setup script for a particular peer can change the name, and
435 then update the server's records so that they're accurate.
440 lines, each containing one or more statistics in the form
441 .IB name = value \fR.
442 The statistics-gathering is experimental and subject to change.
444 .BR "TRACE " [\fIoptions\fP]
445 Selects trace outputs: see
447 above. Message types provided are:
450 Currently, the following tracing options are supported:
453 Tunnel events: reception of packets to be encrypted, and injection of
454 successfully-decrypted packets.
457 Peer management events: creation and destruction of peer attachments,
458 and arrival of messages.
461 Administration interface: acceptance of new connections, and handling of
462 the backgroud name-resolution required by the
467 Handling of symmetric keysets: creation and expiry of keysets, and
468 encryption and decryption of messages.
471 Key exchange: reception, parsing and emission of key exchange messages.
474 Key management: loading keys and checking for file modifications.
477 Display information about challenge issuing and verification.
480 Display contents of packets sent and received by the tunnel and/or peer
484 Display inputs, outputs and intermediate results of cryptographic
485 operations. This includes plaintext and key material. Use with
497 outputs provide extra detail for other outputs. Specifying
503 isn't useful; neither is specifying
514 For each available tunnel driver, an
516 line is printed giving its name.
519 Causes the server to emit an
521 line stating its software version, as two words: the server name, and
522 its version string. The server name
524 is reserved to the Straylight/Edgeware implementation.
526 .BR "WATCH " [\fIoptions\fP]
527 Enables or disables asynchronous messages
528 .IR "for the current connection only" .
531 above. The default watch state for the connection the server opens
532 automatically on stdin/stdout is to show warnings and trace messages;
533 other connections show no asynchronous messages. (This is done in order
534 to guarantee that a program reading the server's stdout does not miss
538 Message types provided are:
556 .BI "WARN " tokens\fR...
559 warning to all interested administration clients.
561 .\"* 20 Error messages (FAIL codes)
566 messages are sent to clients as a result of errors during command
574 server is already running as a daemon.
576 .BI "bad-addr-syntax " message
577 (For commands accepting socket addresses.) The address couldn't be
580 .BI "bad-syntax " cmd " " message
581 (For any command.) The command couldn't be understood: e.g., the number
582 of arguments was wrong.
584 .BI "bad-time-spec " word
587 is not a valid time interval specification. Acceptable time
588 specifications are nonnegative integers followed optionally by
594 for days, hours, minutes, or seconds, respectively.
596 .BI "bad-trace-option " char
599 An unknown trace option was requested.
601 .BI "bad-watch-option " char
604 An unknown watch option was requested.
606 .BI "daemon-error " ecode " " message
609 An error occurred during the attempt to become a daemon, as reported by
612 .BI "invalid-port " number
615 The given port number is out of range.
617 .BI "peer-create-fail " peer
622 failed for some reason. A warning should have been emitted explaining
625 .BI "peer-exists " peer
628 There is already a peer named
631 .B "ping-send-failed"
632 The attempt to send a ping packet failed, probably due to lack of
635 .BI "resolve-error " hostname
640 could not be resolved.
642 .BI "resolver-timeout " hostname
647 took too long to resolve.
649 .BI "unknown-command " token
654 .BI "unknown-peer " name
662 There is no peer called
665 .BI "unknown-service " service
673 .\"* 30 Notification broadcasts (NOTE codes)
674 The following notifications are sent to clients who request them.
676 .BI "ADD " peer " " ifname " " address \fR...
677 A new peer has been added. The peer's name is
679 its tunnel is network interface
681 and its network address is
685 The server has forked off into the sunset and become a daemon.
687 .BI "GREET " challenge " " address \fR...
688 A valid greeting was received, with the given challenge (exactly as it
701 finished successfully.
706 has begun or restarted. If key exchange keeps failing, this message
707 will be repeated periodically.
709 .BI "NEWIFNAME " peer " " old-name " " new-name
712 tunnel interface name has been changed from
720 .BI "USER " tokens\fR...
721 An administration client issued a notification using the
725 .\"* 40 Warning broadcasts (WARN codes)
727 There are many possible warnings. They are categorized according to
730 Many of these warnings report system errors. These are reported as a
731 pair of tokens, described below as
737 is a string of the form
741 value of the error; the
743 is the `human-readable' form of the message, as reported by
746 These all indicate that the
748 server has become unable to continue. If enabled, the server will dump
749 core in its configuration directory.
751 .BI "ABORT repeated-select-errors"
752 The main event loop is repeatedly failing. If the server doesn't quit,
753 it will probably waste all available CPU doing nothing.
755 These indicate a problem with the administration socket interface.
757 .BI "ADMIN accept-error " ecode " " message
758 There was an error while attempting to accept a connection from a new
761 .BI "ADMIN client-write-error " ecode " " message
762 There was an error sending data to a client. The connection to the
763 client has been closed.
765 These indicate errors in challenges, either in the
767 command or in greeting packets.
769 .B "CHAL impossible-challenge"
770 The server hasn't issued any challenges yet. Quite how anyone else
771 thought he could make one up is hard to imagine.
773 .B "CHAL incorrect-tag"
774 Challenge received contained the wrong authentication data. It might be
775 very stale, or a forgery.
777 .B "CHAL invalid-challenge"
778 Challenge received was the wrong length. We might have changed MAC
779 algorithms since the challenge was issued, or it might just be rubbish.
781 .B "CHAL replay duplicated-sequence"
782 Challenge received was a definite replay of an old challenge. Someone's
785 .B "CHAL replay old-sequence"
786 Challenge received was old, but maybe not actually a replay. Try again.
787 .SS "KEYMGMT warnings"
788 These indicate a problem with the keyring files, or the keys stored in
791 .BI "KEYMGMT bad-private-key " message
792 The private key could not be read, or failed a consistency check. If
793 there was a problem with the file, usually there will have been
795 warnings before this.
797 .BI "KEYMGMT bad-public-keyring " message
798 The public keyring couldn't be read. Usually, there will have been
800 warnings before this.
802 .BI "KEYMGMT key-file-error " file ":" line " " message
803 Reports a specific error with the named keyring file. This probably
807 .BI "KEYMGMT public-key " tag " " tokens\fR...
808 These messages all indicate a problem with the public key named
811 .BI "KEYMGMT public-key " tag " algorithm-mismatch"
812 The algorithms specified on the public key don't match the ones for our
813 private key. All the peers in a network have to use the same
816 .BI "KEYMGMT public-key " tag " bad " message
817 The public key couldn't be read, or is invalid.
819 .BI "KEYMGMT public-key " tag " bad-public-group-element"
820 The public key is invalid. This may indicate a malicious attempt to
821 introduce a bogus key.
823 .BI "KEYMGMT public-key " tag " bad-algorithm-selection"
824 The algorithms listed on the public key couldn't be understood. The
825 algorithm selection attributes are probably malformed and need fixing.
827 .BI "KEYMGMT public-key " tag " incorrect-group"
828 The public key doesn't use the same group as our private key. All the
829 peers in a network have to use the same group.
831 .BI "KEYMGMT public-key " tag " not-found"
832 The public key for peer
834 wasn't in the public keyring.
836 .BI "KEYMGMT public-key " tag " unknown-type"
837 The type of the public key isn't understood. Maybe you need to upgrade
840 (Even if you do, you'll have to regenerate your keys.)
842 These indicate problems during key-exchange. Many indicate either a bug
843 in the server (either yours or the remote one), or some kind of attack
844 in progress. All name a
846 as the second token: this is the peer the packet is apparently from,
847 though it may have been sent by an attacker instead.
849 In the descriptions below,
860 .BI "KX " peer " bad-expected-reply-log"
863 uses in its protocol contain a check value which proves that the
864 challenge is honest. This message indicates that the check value
865 supplied is wrong: someone is attempting to use bogus challenges to
868 server to leak private key information. No chance!
870 .BI "KX " peer " decrypt-failed reply\fR|\fBswitch-ok"
871 A symmetrically-encrypted portion of a key-exchange message failed to
874 .BI "KX " peer " invalid " msgtoken
875 A key-exchange message was malformed. This almost certainly indicates a
878 .BI "KX " peer " incorrect cookie\fR|\fBswitch-rq\fR|\fBswitch-ok"
879 A message didn't contain the right magic data. This may be a replay of
880 some old exchange, or random packets being sent in an attempt to waste
883 .BI "KX " peer " public-key-expired"
884 The peer's public key has expired. It's maintainer should have given
885 you a replacement before now.
887 .BI "KX " peer " sending-cookie"
888 We've received too many bogus pre-challenge messages. Someone is trying
889 to flood us with key-exchange messages and make us waste CPU on doing
890 hard asymmetric crypto sums.
892 .BI "KX " peer " unexpected " msgtoken
893 The message received wasn't appropriate for this stage of the key
894 exchange process. This may mean that one of our previous packets got
897 it may simply mean that the peer has recently restarted.
899 .BI "KX " peer " unknown-challenge"
900 The peer is asking for an answer to a challenge which we don't know
901 about. This may mean that we've been inundated with challenges from
902 some malicious source
903 .I who can read our messages
904 and discarded the valid one.
906 .BI "KX " peer " unknown-message 0x" nn
907 An unknown key-exchange message arrived.
909 These are largely concerned with management of peers and the low-level
910 details of the network protocol. The second word is usually the name of
915 .BI "PEER " peer " bad-packet no-type"
916 An empty packet arrived. This is very strange.
918 .BI "PEER " peer " bad-packet unknown-category 0x" nn
921 (in hex) isn't understood. Probably a strange random packet from
922 somewhere; could be an unlikely bug.
924 .BI "PEER " peer " bad-packet unknown-type 0x" nn
927 (in hex) isn't understood. Probably a strange random packet from
928 somewhere; could be an unlikely bug.
930 .BI "PEER " peer " corrupt-encrypted-ping"
931 The peer sent a ping response which matches an outstanding ping, but its
932 payload is wrong. There's definitely a bug somewhere.
934 .BI "PEER " peer " corrupt-transport-ping"
935 The peer (apparently) sent a ping response which matches an outstanding
936 ping, but its payload is wrong. Either there's a bug, or the bad guys
937 are playing tricks on you.
939 .BI "PEER " peer " decrypt-failed"
940 An encrypted IP packet failed to decrypt. It may have been mangled in
941 transit, or may be a very old packet from an expired previous session
942 key. There is usually a considerable overlap in the validity periods of
943 successive session keys, so this shouldn't occur unless the key exchange
946 .BI "PEER " peer " malformed-encrypted-ping"
947 The peer sent a ping response which is hopelessly invalid. There's
948 definitely a bug somewhere.
950 .BI "PEER " peer " malformed-transport-ping"
951 The peer (apparently) sent a ping response which is hopelessly invalid.
952 Either there's a bug, or the bad guys are playing tricks on you.
954 .BI "PEER " peer " packet-build-failed"
955 There wasn't enough space in our buffer to put the packet we wanted to
956 send. Shouldn't happen.
958 .BI "PEER \- socket-read-error " ecode " " message
959 An error occurred trying to read an incoming packet.
961 .BI "PEER " peer " socket-write-error " ecode " " message
962 An error occurred attempting to send a network packet. We lost that
965 .BI "PEER " peer " unexpected-encrypted-ping 0x" id
966 The peer sent an encrypted ping response whose id doesn't match any
967 outstanding ping. Maybe it was delayed for longer than the server was
968 willing to wait, or maybe the peer has gone mad.
970 .BI "PEER \- unexpected-source " address\fR...
971 A packet arrived from
973 (a network address \(en see above), but no peer is known at that
974 address. This may indicate a misconfiguration, or simply be a result of
975 one end of a connection being set up before the other.
977 .BI "PEER " peer " unexpected-transport-ping 0x" id
978 The peer (apparently) sent a transport ping response whose id doesn't
979 match any outstanding ping. Maybe it was delayed for longer than the
980 server was willing to wait, or maybe the peer has gone mad; or maybe
981 there are bad people trying to confuse you.
982 .SS "SERVER warnings"
983 These indicate problems concerning the server process as a whole.
985 .BI "SERVER ignore signal " name
986 A signal arrived, but the server ignored it. Currently this happens for
988 because that's a popular way of telling daemons to re-read their
989 configuration files. Since
991 re-reads its keyrings automatically and has no other configuration
992 files, it's not relevant, but it seemed better to ignore the signal than
995 .BI "SERVER quit signal " \fR[\fInn\fR|\fIname\fR]
1000 .BI "SERVER quit admin-request"
1001 A client of the administration interface issued a
1005 .BI "SERVER select-error " ecode " " message
1006 An error occurred in the server's main event loop. This is bad: if it
1007 happens too many times, the server will abort.
1009 These are concerned with the symmetric encryption and decryption
1012 .BI "SYMM replay old-sequence"
1013 A packet was received with an old sequence number. It may just have
1014 been delayed or duplicated, or it may have been an attempt at a replay
1017 .BI "SYMM replay duplicated-sequence"
1018 A packet was received with a sequence number we've definitely seen
1019 before. It may be an accidental duplication because the 'net is like
1020 that, or a deliberate attempt at a replay.
1022 These concern the workings of the system-specific tunnel driver. The
1023 second word is the name of the tunnel interface in question, or
1027 .BI "TUN \- bsd no-tunnel-devices"
1028 The driver couldn't find an available tunnel device. Maybe if you
1031 files, it will work.
1033 .BI "TUN - " tun-name " open-error " device " " ecode " " message
1034 An attempt to open the tunnel device file
1038 .BI "TUN \- linux config-error " ecode " " message
1039 Configuring the Linux TUN/TAP interface failed.
1041 .BI "TUN " ifname " " tun-name " read-error " ecode " " message
1042 Reading from the tunnel device failed.
1044 .BI "TUN " ifname " slip bad-escape"
1045 The SLIP driver encountered a escaped byte it wasn't expecting to see.
1046 The erroneous packet will be ignored.
1048 .BI "TUN " ifname " slip eof"
1049 The SLIP driver encountered end-of-file on its input descriptor.
1050 Pending data is discarded, and no attempt is made to read any more data
1051 from that interface ever.
1053 .BI "TUN " ifname " slip escape-end"
1054 The SLIP driver encountered an escaped `end' marker. This probably
1055 means that someone's been sending it junk. The erroneous packet is
1056 discarded, and we hope that we've rediscovered synchronization.
1058 .BI "TUN \- slip fork-error " ecode " " message
1059 The SLIP driver encountered an error forking a child process while
1060 allocating a new dynamic interface.
1062 .BI "TUN \- slip no-slip-interfaces"
1063 The driver ran out of static SLIP interfaces. Either preallocate more,
1064 or use dynamic SLIP interface allocation.
1066 .BI "TUN " ifname " slip overflow"
1067 The SLIP driver gave up reading a packet because it got too large.
1069 .BI "TUN \- slip pipe-error " ecode " " message
1070 The SLIP driver encountered an error creating pipes while allocating a
1071 new dynamic interface.
1073 .BI "TUN \- slip read-ifname-failed " ecode " " message
1074 The SLIP driver encountered an error reading the name of a dynamically
1075 allocated interface. Maybe the allocation script is broken.
1077 .BI "TUN \- unet config-error " ecode " " message
1078 Configuring the Linux Unet interface failed. Unet is obsolete and
1079 shouldn't be used any more.
1081 .BI "TUN \- unet getinfo-error " ecode " " message
1082 Reading information about the Unet interface failed. Unet is obsolete
1083 and shouldn't be used any more.
1085 .BI "TUN \- unet ifname-too-long"
1086 The Unet interface's name overflowed, so we couldn't read it properly.
1087 Unet is obsolete and shouldn't be used any more.
1089 These are issued by administration clients using the
1093 .BI "USER " tokens\fR...
1094 An administration client issued a warning.
1097 .SS "Command responses"
1099 .BI "BGFAIL " tag " " tokens \fR...
1100 .BI "BGINFO " tag " " tokens \fR...
1102 .BI "FAIL " tokens \fR...
1103 .BI "INFO " tokens \fR...
1111 .IR "The Trivial IP Encryption Protocol" .
1113 Mark Wooding, <mdw@distorted.org.uk>
~mdw / tripe / blob