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.
335 .BI "\-keepalive " time
336 Send a no-op packet if we've not sent a packet to the peer in the last
338 interval. This is useful for persuading port-translating firewalls to
339 believe that the `connection' is still active. The
341 is expressed as a nonnegative integer followed optionally by
347 for days, hours, minutes, or seconds respectively; if no suffix is
348 given, seconds are assumed.
353 to authenticate the peer. The default is to use the key tagged
356 .BI "\-knock \fR[" prefix .\fR] tag
358 .RI [ prefix\fB. ] tag
363 messages to the peer during key-exchange. The string as a whole should
364 name the local machine to the peer, and
366 should name its public key. When such messages are received from a
367 currently unknown peer,
371 notification stating the peer's (claimed) name and address. The server
372 will already have verified that the sender is using the peer's private
376 The peer is a mobile device, and is likely to change address rapidly.
377 If a packet arrives from an unknown address, the server's usual response
378 is to log a warning and discard it. If the server knows of any mobile
379 peers, however, it will attempt to decrypt the packet using their keys,
380 and if one succeeds, the server will update its idea of the peer's
388 to authenticate to the peer. The default is to use the key named in the
390 command-line option, or a key with type
398 .BI "\-tunnel " tunnel
399 Use the named tunnel driver, rather than the default.
406 line reporting the IP address and port number stored for
409 .BI "ALGS \fR[" peer \fR]
410 Emits information about the cryptographic algorithms in use, in
413 is given, then describe the algorithms used in the association with that
414 peer; otherwise describe the default algorithms.
417 The keys are as follows.
420 Type of key-exchange group in use, currently either
425 .B kx-group-order-bits
426 Length of the group order, in bits. This gives an approximate measure
427 of the group strength.
430 Length of a group element, in bits. This may be useful when analyzing
434 The hash function in use, e.g.,
438 The mask-generating function in use, e.g.,
442 The size of the hash function's output, in octets.
445 The name of the bulk-crypto transform.
448 The amount of overhead, in bytes, caused by the crypto transform.
451 The name of the bulk data cipher in use, e.g.,
455 The length of key used by the bulk data cipher, in octets.
458 The block size of the bulk data cipher, or zero if it's not based on a
462 The maximum amount of data to be encrypted using a single key. (A new
463 key exchange is instigated well before the limit is reached, in order to
464 allow for a seamless changeover of keys.)
467 The message authentication algorithm in use, e.g.,
471 The length of the key used by the message authentication algorithm, in
475 The length of the message authentication tag, in octets.
478 The block cipher in use, e.g.,
482 The length of key used by the block cipher, in octets.
485 The block size of the block cipher.
487 The various sizes are useful, for example, when computing the MTU for a
490 is the MTU of the path to the peer, then the tunnel MTU should be
496 allowing 20 bytes of IP header, 8 bytes of UDP header, a packet type
497 octet, and the bulk-crypto transform overhead (which includes the
502 Cancels the background job with the named
505 .BI "CHECKCHAL " challenge
506 Verifies a challenge as being one earlier issued by
508 and not previously either passed to
510 or in a greeting message.
513 Causes the server to disassociate itself from its terminal and become a
514 background task. This only works once. A notification is issued.
516 .BI "EPING \fR[" options "\fR] " peer
517 Sends an encrypted ping to the peer, and expects an encrypted response.
518 This checks that the peer is running (and not being impersonated), and
519 that it can encrypt and decrypt packets correctly. Options and
520 responses are the same as for the
525 Requests the server to begin a new key exchange with
530 Requests a challenge. The challenge is returned in an
532 line, as a base64-encoded string. See
535 .BI "GREET " peer " " challenge
536 Sends a greeting packet containing the
538 (base-64 encoded) to the named
540 The expectation is that this will cause the peer to recognize us and
541 begin a key-exchange.
544 Causes the server to emit an
546 line for each command it supports. Each line lists the command name,
547 followed by the names of the arguments. This may be helpful as a memory
548 aid for interactive use, or for program clients probing for features.
553 line containing the name of the network interface used to collect IP
554 packets which are to be encrypted and sent to
556 Used by configuration scripts so that they can set up routing tables
557 appropriately after adding new peers.
562 line giving the tag for each outstanding background job.
565 Causes the server to forget all about
567 All keys are destroyed, and no more packets are sent. No notification
568 is sent to the peer: if it's important that the peer be notified, you
569 must think of a way to do that yourself.
572 For each currently-known peer, an
574 line is written containing the peer's name, as given to
577 .BI "NOTIFY " tokens\fR...
580 notification to all interested administration clients.
583 Returns information about a peer, in key-value form. The following keys
588 The tunnel driver used for this peer.
591 The keepalive interval, in seconds, or zero if no keepalives are to be
595 If present, the string sent to the peer to set up the association; see
605 The (short) key tag being used for the peer, as passed to the
610 The full key tag of the peer's public key currently being used. This
611 may change during the life of the association.
614 The private key tag being used for the peer, as passed to the
618 command-line option. If neither of these was given explicitly, the
619 private key tag is shown as
621 since there is no fixed tag used under these circumstances.
623 .B current-private-key
624 The full key tag of the private key currently being used for this
625 association. This may change during the life of the association.
632 depending on whether or not (respectively) key-exchange is waiting for
633 the peer to initiate.
640 depending on whether or not (respectively) the peer is expected to
641 change its address unpredictably.
644 .BI "PING \fR[" options "\fR] " peer
645 Send a transport-level ping to the peer. The ping and its response are
646 not encrypted or authenticated. This command, possibly in conjunction
647 with tracing, is useful for ensuring that UDP packets are actually
648 flowing in both directions. See also the
654 line is printed describing the outcome:
657 .BI "ping-ok " millis
658 A response was received
660 after the ping was sent.
663 No response was received within the time allowed.
666 The peer was killed (probably by another admin connection) before a
667 response was received.
670 Options recognized for this command are:
674 .BI "\-background " tag
675 Run the command in the background, using the given
678 .BI "\-timeout " time
681 seconds before giving up on a response. The default is 5 seconds. The
683 is expressed as a nonnegative integer followed optionally by
689 for days, hours, minutes, or seconds respectively; if no suffix is
690 given, seconds are assumed.
697 line containing just the number of the UDP port used by the
699 server. If you've allowed your server to allocate a port dynamically,
700 this is how to find out which one it chose.
703 Instructs the server to recheck its keyring files. The server checks
704 these periodically anyway but it may be necessary to force a recheck,
705 for example after adding a new peer key.
708 Instructs the server to exit immediately. A warning is sent.
711 Returns information about the server, in the form of key-value pairs.
712 The following keys are used.
716 A keyword naming the implementation of the
718 server. The current implementation is called
722 The server's version number, as reported by
730 if the server has or hasn't (respectively) become a daemon.
733 .BI "SETIFNAME " peer " " new-name
734 Informs the server that the
736 tunnel-interface name has been changed to
738 This is useful if firewalling decisions are made based on interface
739 names: a setup script for a particular peer can change the name, and
740 then update the server's records so that they're accurate.
745 lines, each containing one or more statistics in the form
746 .IB name = value \fR.
747 The statistics-gathering is experimental and subject to change.
749 .BI "SVCCLAIM " service " " version
750 Attempts to claim the named
754 The claim is successful if the service is currently unclaimed, or if
755 a version earlier than
757 is provided; otherwise the command fails with the error
758 .BR "service-exists" .
760 .BI "SVCENSURE " service " \fR[" version \fR]
763 is provided, and (if specified) to at least the given
765 An error is reported if these conditions are not met; otherwise the
766 command succeeds silently.
768 .BI "SVCFAIL " jobid " " tokens \fR...
773 response to the service job with the given
777 as the reason for failure. The job is closed.
779 .BI "SVCINFO " jobid " " tokens \fR...
784 response to the service job with the given
788 as the info message. The job remains open.
791 Output a line of the form
798 for each service currently provided.
806 response to the service job with the given
810 .BI "SVCQUERY " service
813 lines in key-value format, describing the named
815 The following keys are used.
822 The service's version string.
825 .BI "SVCRELEASE " service
826 Announce that the client no longer wishes to provide the named
829 .BI "SVCSUBMIT \fR[" options "\fR] " service " " command " " arguments \fR...
830 Submit a job to the provider of the given
836 The following options are accepted.
840 .BI "\-background " tag
841 Run the command in the background, using the given
844 .BI "\-version " version
845 Ensure that at least the given
847 of the service is available before submitting the job.
851 .BR "TRACE " [\fIoptions\fP]
852 Selects trace outputs: see
854 above. Message types provided are:
857 Currently, the following tracing options are supported:
860 Tunnel events: reception of packets to be encrypted, and injection of
861 successfully-decrypted packets.
864 Peer management events: creation and destruction of peer attachments,
865 and arrival of messages.
868 Administration interface: acceptance of new connections, and handling of
869 the backgroud name-resolution required by the
874 Handling of symmetric keysets: creation and expiry of keysets, and
875 encryption and decryption of messages.
878 Key exchange: reception, parsing and emission of key exchange messages.
881 Key management: loading keys and checking for file modifications.
884 Display information about challenge issuing and verification.
887 Display contents of packets sent and received by the tunnel and/or peer
891 Display inputs, outputs and intermediate results of cryptographic
892 operations. This includes plaintext and key material. Use with
904 outputs provide extra detail for other outputs. Specifying
910 isn't useful; neither is specifying
921 For each available tunnel driver, an
923 line is printed giving its name.
926 Causes the server to emit an
928 line stating its software version, as two tokens: the server name, and
929 its version string. The server name
931 is reserved to the Straylight/Edgeware implementation.
933 .BR "WATCH " [\fIoptions\fP]
934 Enables or disables asynchronous broadcasts
935 .IR "for the current connection only" .
938 above. The default watch state for the connection the server opens
939 automatically on stdin/stdout is to show warnings and trace messages;
940 other connections show no asynchronous broadcast messages. (This is
941 done in order to guarantee that a program reading the server's stdout
942 does not miss any warnings.)
945 Message types provided are:
963 .BI "WARN " tokens\fR...
966 warning to all interested administration clients.
968 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
971 .\"* 20 Error messages (FAIL codes)
976 messages are sent to clients as a result of errors during command
984 server is already running as a daemon.
986 .BI "bad-addr-syntax " message
987 (For commands accepting socket addresses.) The address couldn't be
990 .BI "bad-base64 " message
991 (For commands accepting Base64-encoded input.) The Base64-encoded
994 .BI "bad-syntax " cmd " " message
995 (For any command.) The command couldn't be understood: e.g., the number
996 of arguments was wrong.
998 .BI "bad-time-spec " token
1001 is not a valid time interval specification. Acceptable time
1002 specifications are nonnegative integers followed optionally by
1008 for days, hours, minutes, or seconds, respectively.
1010 .BI "bad-trace-option " char
1013 An unknown trace option was requested.
1015 .BI "bad-watch-option " char
1018 An unknown watch option was requested.
1020 .BI "daemon-error " ecode " " message
1023 An error occurred during the attempt to become a daemon, as reported by
1026 .BI "invalid-port " number
1029 The given port number is out of range.
1031 .BI "not-service-provider " service
1034 The invoking client is not the current provider of the named
1036 and is therefore not allowed to release it.
1038 .BI "peer-create-fail " peer
1043 failed for some reason. A warning should have been emitted explaining
1046 .BI "peer-addr-exists " address\fR...
1049 There is already a peer with the given
1052 .BI "peer-exists " peer
1055 There is already a peer named
1058 .B "ping-send-failed"
1059 The attempt to send a ping packet failed, probably due to lack of
1062 .B "provider-failed"
1065 The service provider disconnected without sending back a final reply to
1068 .B "provider-overloaded"
1071 The service provider has too many jobs queued up for it already.
1073 .BI "resolve-error " hostname
1078 could not be resolved.
1080 .BI "resolver-timeout " hostname
1085 took too long to resolve.
1087 .BI "service-exists " service " " version
1090 Another client is already providing the stated
1095 .BI "service-too-old " service " " version
1104 is available, which does not meet the stated requirements.
1106 .BI "tag-exists " tag
1107 (For long-running commands.) The named
1109 is already the tag of an outstanding job.
1111 .BI "unknown-command " token
1116 .BI "unknown-jobid " jobid
1124 is not recognized as identifying an outstanding job. It may have just
1127 .BI "unknown-peer " name
1135 There is no peer called
1138 .BI "unknown-port " port
1143 couldn't be found in
1146 .BI "unknown-service " service
1155 is not recognized as the name of a client-provided service.
1157 .BI "unknown-tag " tag
1162 is not the tag for any outstanding background job. It may have just
1165 .BI "unknown-tunnel " tun
1170 is not the name of any known tunnel driver.
1172 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1175 .\"* 30 Notification broadcasts (NOTE codes)
1176 The following notifications are sent to clients who request them.
1178 .BI "ADD " peer " " ifname " " address \fR...
1179 A new peer has been added. The peer's name is
1181 its tunnel is network interface
1183 and its network address is
1187 The server has forked off into the sunset and become a daemon.
1189 .BI "GREET " challenge " " address \fR...
1190 A valid greeting was received, with the given challenge (exactly as it
1200 .BI "KNOCK " peer " " address
1201 The currently unknown
1203 is attempting to connect from
1209 finished successfully.
1214 has begun or restarted. If key exchange keeps failing, this message
1215 will be repeated periodically.
1217 .BI "NEWADDR " peer " " address
1220 IP address has been changed to
1223 .BI "NEWIFNAME " peer " " old-name " " new-name
1226 tunnel interface name has been changed from
1234 .BI "SVCCLAIM " service " " version
1237 is now available, at the stated
1240 .BI "SVCRELEASE " service
1243 is no longer available.
1245 .BI "USER " tokens\fR...
1246 An administration client issued a notification using the
1250 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1253 .\"* 40 Warning broadcasts (WARN codes)
1255 There are many possible warnings. They are categorized according to
1258 Many of these warnings report system errors. These are reported as a
1259 pair of tokens, described below as
1265 is a string of the form
1269 value of the error; the
1271 is the `human-readable' form of the message, as reported by
1273 .SS "ABORT warnings"
1274 These all indicate that the
1276 server has become unable to continue. If enabled, the server will dump
1277 core in its configuration directory.
1279 .BI "ABORT repeated-select-errors"
1280 The main event loop is repeatedly failing. If the server doesn't quit,
1281 it will probably waste all available CPU doing nothing.
1282 .SS "ADMIN warnings"
1283 These indicate a problem with the administration socket interface.
1285 .BI "ADMIN accept-error " ecode " " message
1286 There was an error while attempting to accept a connection from a new
1289 .BI "ADMIN client-write-error " ecode " " message
1290 There was an error sending data to a client. The connection to the
1291 client has been closed.
1293 These indicate errors in challenges, either in the
1295 command or in greeting packets.
1297 .B "CHAL impossible-challenge"
1298 The server hasn't issued any challenges yet. Quite how anyone else
1299 thought he could make one up is hard to imagine.
1301 .B "CHAL incorrect-tag"
1302 Challenge received contained the wrong authentication data. It might be
1303 very stale, or a forgery.
1305 .B "CHAL invalid-challenge"
1306 Challenge received was the wrong length. We might have changed MAC
1307 algorithms since the challenge was issued, or it might just be rubbish.
1309 .B "CHAL replay duplicated-sequence"
1310 Challenge received was a definite replay of an old challenge. Someone's
1313 .B "CHAL replay old-sequence"
1314 Challenge received was old, but maybe not actually a replay. Try again.
1315 .SS "KEYMGMT warnings"
1316 These indicate a problem with the keyring files, or the keys stored in
1317 them. The first token is either
1323 in the descriptions below) indicating which keyring file is problematic,
1324 and the second token is the filename of the keyring. Frequently a key
1325 tag may be given next, preceded by the token
1328 .BI "KEYMGMT private-keyring " file " key " tag " incorrect-public-key"
1329 The private key doesn't record the correct corresponding public key.
1331 .BI "KEYMGMT public-keyring " file " key " tag " algorithm-mismatch"
1332 A peer's public key doesn't request the same algorithms as our private
1335 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " bad-tag-length " len
1336 The key attributes specify the length of MAC tag as
1338 but this is an invalid value \(en either too large or not a multiple of
1341 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " bad-tag-length-string " str
1342 The key attributes contain
1344 where a MAC tag length was expected. The key was generated wrongly.
1346 .BI "KEYMGMT private-keyring " file " key " tag " changed-group"
1347 The private keyring has been changed, but the new private key can't be
1348 used because it uses a different group for Diffie\(enHellman key
1351 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " io-error " ecode " " message
1352 A system error occurred while opening or reading the keyring file.
1354 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " unknown-bulk-transform " bulk
1355 The key specifies the use of an unknown bulk-crypto transform
1357 Maybe the key was generated wrongly, or maybe the version of Catacomb
1358 installed is too old.
1360 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " unknown-cipher " cipher
1361 The key specifies the use of an unknown symmetric encryption algorithm
1363 Maybe the key was generated wrongly, or maybe the version of
1364 Catacomb installed is too old.
1366 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " unknown-group-type " type
1367 The key specifies the use of a Diffie\(enHellman group of an unknown
1369 Maybe the key was generated wrongly, or maybe the version of
1373 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " unknown-hash " hash
1374 The key specifies the use of an unknown hash function
1376 Maybe the key was generated wrongly, or maybe the version of Catacomb
1377 installed is too old.
1379 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " unknown-mac " mac
1380 The key specifies the use of an unknown message authentication code
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-mgf-cipher " mgf
1386 The key specifies the use of an unknown symmetric encryption function
1388 for mask generation. Maybe the key was generated wrongly, or maybe the
1389 version of Catacomb installed is too old.
1391 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " unknown-serialization-format " ser
1392 The key specifies the use of an unknown serialization format
1394 for hashing group elements. Maybe the key was generated wrongly, or
1395 maybe the version of Catacomb installed is too old.
1397 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " no-hmac-for-hash " hash
1398 No message authentication code was given explicitly, and there's no
1399 implementation of HMAC for the selected hash function
1402 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " " alg " " name " no-key-size " hashsz
1409 The named algorithm requires more key material than the hash function
1410 can provide. You must change either the hash function, or the cipher or
1413 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key " tag " mgf " mgf " restrictive-key-schedule"
1414 The cipher selected for mask-generation is unsuitable because it can't
1415 accept arbitrary-sized keys.
1417 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " key-not-found " tag
1420 couldn't be found in the keyring.
1422 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " unknown-key-id 0x" keyid
1423 A key with the given
1425 (in hex) was requested but not found.
1427 .BI "KEYMGMT " which "-keyring " file " line " line " " message
1428 The contents of the keyring file are invalid. There may well be a bug
1433 These indicate problems during key-exchange. Many indicate either a bug
1434 in the server (either yours or the remote one), or some kind of attack
1435 in progress. All name a
1437 as the second token: this is the peer the packet is apparently from,
1438 though it may have been sent by an attacker instead.
1440 In the descriptions below,
1442 is one of the tokens
1454 .BI "KX " peer " algorithms-mismatch local-private-key " privtag " peer-public-key " pubtag
1455 The algorithms specified in the peer's public key
1457 don't match the ones described in the private key
1460 .BI "KX " peer " bad-expected-reply-log"
1463 uses in its protocol contain a check value which proves that the
1464 challenge is honest. This message indicates that the check value
1465 supplied is wrong: someone is attempting to use bogus challenges to
1468 server to leak private key information. No chance!
1470 .BI "KX " peer " decrypt-failed reply\fR|\fBswitch-ok"
1471 A symmetrically-encrypted portion of a key-exchange message failed to
1474 .BI "KX " peer " invalid " msgtoken
1475 A key-exchange message was malformed. This almost certainly indicates a
1478 .BI "KX " peer " incorrect cookie\fR|\fBswitch-rq\fR|\fBswitch-ok"
1479 A message didn't contain the right magic data. This may be a replay of
1480 some old exchange, or random packets being sent in an attempt to waste
1483 .BI "KX " peer " " which "-key-expired"
1484 The local private key or the peer's public key (distinguished by
1486 has expired. Either you or the peer's maintainer should have arranged
1487 for a replacement before now.
1489 .BI "KX " peer " sending-cookie"
1490 We've received too many bogus pre-challenge messages. Someone is trying
1491 to flood us with key-exchange messages and make us waste CPU on doing
1492 hard asymmetric crypto sums.
1494 .BI "KX " peer " unexpected " msgtoken
1495 The message received wasn't appropriate for this stage of the key
1496 exchange process. This may mean that one of our previous packets got
1499 it may simply mean that the peer has recently restarted.
1501 .BI "KX " peer " unknown-challenge"
1502 The peer is asking for an answer to a challenge which we don't know
1503 about. This may mean that we've been inundated with challenges from
1504 some malicious source
1505 .I who can read our messages
1506 and discarded the valid one.
1508 .BI "KX " peer " unknown-message 0x" nn
1509 An unknown key-exchange message arrived.
1511 These are largely concerned with management of peers and the low-level
1512 details of the network protocol. The second token is usually the name of
1515 if none is relevant.
1517 .BI "PEER " peer " bad-packet no-type"
1518 An empty packet arrived. This is very strange.
1520 .BI "PEER " peer " bad-packet unknown-category 0x" nn
1521 The message category
1523 (in hex) isn't understood. Probably a strange random packet from
1524 somewhere; could be an unlikely bug.
1526 .BI "PEER " peer " bad-packet unknown-type 0x" nn
1529 (in hex) isn't understood. Probably a strange random packet from
1530 somewhere; could be an unlikely bug.
1532 .BI "PEER " peer " corrupt-encrypted-ping"
1533 The peer sent a ping response which matches an outstanding ping, but its
1534 payload is wrong. There's definitely a bug somewhere.
1536 .BI "PEER " peer " corrupt-transport-ping"
1537 The peer (apparently) sent a ping response which matches an outstanding
1538 ping, but its payload is wrong. Either there's a bug, or the bad guys
1539 are playing tricks on you.
1541 .BI "PEER " peer " decrypt-failed"
1542 An encrypted IP packet failed to decrypt. It may have been mangled in
1543 transit, or may be a very old packet from an expired previous session
1544 key. There is usually a considerable overlap in the validity periods of
1545 successive session keys, so this shouldn't occur unless the key exchange
1546 takes ages or fails.
1548 .BI "PEER " peer " malformed-encrypted-ping"
1549 The peer sent a ping response which is hopelessly invalid. There's
1550 definitely a bug somewhere.
1552 .BI "PEER " peer " malformed-transport-ping"
1553 The peer (apparently) sent a ping response which is hopelessly invalid.
1554 Either there's a bug, or the bad guys are playing tricks on you.
1556 .BI "PEER " peer " packet-build-failed"
1557 There wasn't enough space in our buffer to put the packet we wanted to
1558 send. Shouldn't happen.
1560 .BI "PEER \- socket-read-error " ecode " " message
1561 An error occurred trying to read an incoming packet.
1563 .BI "PEER " peer " socket-write-error " ecode " " message
1564 An error occurred attempting to send a network packet. We lost that
1567 .BI "PEER " address\fR... " socket-write-error " ecode " " message
1568 An error occurred attempting to send a network packet. We lost that
1571 .BI "PEER " peer " unexpected-encrypted-ping 0x" id
1572 The peer sent an encrypted ping response whose id doesn't match any
1573 outstanding ping. Maybe it was delayed for longer than the server was
1574 willing to wait, or maybe the peer has gone mad.
1576 .BI "PEER \- unexpected-source " address\fR...
1577 A packet arrived from
1579 (a network address \(en see above), but no peer is known at that
1580 address. This may indicate a misconfiguration, or simply be a result of
1581 one end of a connection being set up before the other.
1583 .BI "PEER " peer " unexpected-transport-ping 0x" id
1584 The peer (apparently) sent a transport ping response whose id doesn't
1585 match any outstanding ping. Maybe it was delayed for longer than the
1586 server was willing to wait, or maybe the peer has gone mad; or maybe
1587 there are bad people trying to confuse you.
1588 .SS "PRIVSEP warnings"
1589 These indicate problems with the privilege-separation helper process.
1590 (The server tries to drop its privileges when it starts up, leaving a
1591 privileged helper process behind which will create and hand over tunnel
1592 descriptors on request, but hopefully not do anything else especially
1593 dangerous. Tunnel descriptors are not completely safe, but this is
1594 probably better than nothing.)
1596 .BI "PRIVSEP child-exited " rc
1597 The helper process exited normally with status
1599 Status 0 means that it thought the server didn't want it any more; 1
1600 means that it was invoked incorrectly; 127 means that some system call
1603 .BI "PRIVSEP child-killed " sig
1604 The helper process was killed by signal number
1607 .BI "PRIVSEP child-died " status
1608 The helper process died in some unexpected way;
1609 .I status is the raw status code returned by
1611 because the server didn't understand how to decode it.
1613 .BI "PRIVSEP helper-died"
1614 A tunnel driver requires a tunnel descriptor from the helper, but the
1615 helper isn't running so this won't work.
1617 .BI "PRIVSEP helper-read-error " ecode " " message
1618 The server failed to read a response from the helper process.
1620 .BI "PRIVSEP helper-short-read"
1621 The helper process didn't send back enough data, and has likely crashed.
1623 .BI "PRIVSEP helper-write-error " ecode " " message
1624 The server failed to send a message to the helper process.
1626 .BI "PRIVSEP no-fd-from-helper"
1627 The helper process sent back a positive response, but didn't include the
1628 requested tunnel descriptor.
1630 .BI "PRIVSEP unknown-response-code"
1631 The helper process sent back an incomprehensible reply. It's probably
1632 very confused and may crash.
1633 .SS "SERVER warnings"
1634 These indicate problems concerning the server process as a whole.
1636 .BI "SERVER ignore signal " name
1637 A signal arrived, but the server ignored it. Currently this happens for
1639 because that's a popular way of telling daemons to re-read their
1640 configuration files. Since
1642 re-reads its keyrings automatically and has no other configuration
1643 files, it's not relevant, but it seemed better to ignore the signal than
1646 .BI "SERVER quit signal " \fR[\fInn\fR|\fIname\fR]
1647 A signal arrived and
1651 .BI "SERVER quit admin-request"
1652 A client of the administration interface issued a
1656 .BI "SERVER quit foreground-eof"
1657 The server is running in foreground mode (the
1659 option), and encountered end-of-file on standard input.
1661 .BI "SERVER select-error " ecode " " message
1662 An error occurred in the server's main event loop. This is bad: if it
1663 happens too many times, the server will abort.
1665 .BI "SERVER waitpid-error " ecode " " message
1666 The server was informed that one of its child processes had exited, but
1667 couldn't retrieve the child's status.
1669 These are concerned with the symmetric encryption and decryption
1672 .BI "SYMM replay old-sequence"
1673 A packet was received with an old sequence number. It may just have
1674 been delayed or duplicated, or it may have been an attempt at a replay
1677 .BI "SYMM replay duplicated-sequence"
1678 A packet was received with a sequence number we've definitely seen
1679 before. It may be an accidental duplication because the 'net is like
1680 that, or a deliberate attempt at a replay.
1682 These concern the workings of the system-specific tunnel driver. The
1683 second token is the name of the tunnel interface in question, or
1687 .BI "TUN \- bsd no-tunnel-devices"
1688 The driver couldn't find an available tunnel device. Maybe if you
1691 files, it will work.
1693 .BI "TUN \- " tun-name " open-error " device " " ecode " " message
1694 An attempt to open the tunnel device file
1698 .BI "TUN \- linux config-error " ecode " " message
1699 Configuring the Linux TUN/TAP interface failed.
1701 .BI "TUN " ifname " " tun-name " read-error " ecode " " message
1702 Reading from the tunnel device failed.
1704 .BI "TUN " ifname " " tun-name " write-error " ecode " " message
1705 Writing from the tunnel device failed.
1707 .BI "TUN " ifname " slip bad-escape"
1708 The SLIP driver encountered a escaped byte it wasn't expecting to see.
1709 The erroneous packet will be ignored.
1711 .BI "TUN " ifname " slip eof"
1712 The SLIP driver encountered end-of-file on its input descriptor.
1713 Pending data is discarded, and no attempt is made to read any more data
1714 from that interface ever.
1716 .BI "TUN " ifname " slip escape-end"
1717 The SLIP driver encountered an escaped `end' marker. This probably
1718 means that someone's been sending it junk. The erroneous packet is
1719 discarded, and we hope that we've rediscovered synchronization.
1721 .BI "TUN \- slip fork-error " ecode " " message
1722 The SLIP driver encountered an error forking a child process while
1723 allocating a new dynamic interface.
1725 .BI "TUN \- slip no-slip-interfaces"
1726 The driver ran out of static SLIP interfaces. Either preallocate more,
1727 or use dynamic SLIP interface allocation.
1729 .BI "TUN " ifname " slip overflow"
1730 The SLIP driver gave up reading a packet because it got too large.
1732 .BI "TUN \- slip pipe-error " ecode " " message
1733 The SLIP driver encountered an error creating pipes while allocating a
1734 new dynamic interface.
1736 .BI "TUN \- slip read-ifname-failed " ecode " " message
1737 The SLIP driver encountered an error reading the name of a dynamically
1738 allocated interface. Maybe the allocation script is broken.
1740 .BI "TUN \- unet config-error " ecode " " message
1741 Configuring the Linux Unet interface failed. Unet is obsolete and
1742 shouldn't be used any more.
1744 .BI "TUN \- unet getinfo-error " ecode " " message
1745 Reading information about the Unet interface failed. Unet is obsolete
1746 and shouldn't be used any more.
1748 These are issued by administration clients using the
1752 .BI "USER " tokens\fR...
1753 An administration client issued a warning.
1756 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1759 .SS "Command responses"
1762 .BI "BGFAIL " tag " " tokens \fR...
1763 .BI "BGINFO " tag " " tokens \fR...
1765 .BI "FAIL " tokens \fR...
1766 .BI "INFO " tokens \fR...
1771 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1777 .IR "The Trivial IP Encryption Protocol" .
1779 .\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1782 Mark Wooding, <mdw@distorted.org.uk>
1784 .\"----- That's all, folks --------------------------------------------------
~mdw / tripe / blob