[strongSwan] Problem with AES-NI parallelization

Tue Oct 17 16:44:57 CEST 2017

Hello everyone,

as written in the subject, we have some problem to enable the parallelization described in the wiki: https://wiki.strongswan.org/projects/strongswan/wiki/Pcrypt

Our setup:
One Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS in Germany, one Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS in Spain. Both are used to route certain hosts on every side via this line. The line itself is a dedicated 1Gbit Layer 2 connection. For security reasons, we like to encrypt all traffic between those servers, using Strongswan.

I installed the Strongswan packet provided by Ubuntu. Tunnel is running fine, max throughput so far was around 800Mbit. To use the full capacity of the line, we wanted to use the pcrypt feature.

I tried tcrypt and crconf. Crconf isn't working at all, but tcrypt works. Unfortunately my output is different compared to the wiki:

root at iblsrv:# modprobe tcrypt alg="pcrypt(rfc4106(gcm(aes-aesni)))" type=3
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'tcrypt': Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

but dmesg only shows the following error: "tcrypt: one or more tests failed!"

module is loaded though:
root at iblsrv:# lsmod | grep pcrypt
pcrypt

I noticed there is no aes-ni plugin in the Ubuntu version of the packet:

Status of IKE charon daemon (strongSwan 5.3.5, Linux 4.4.0-96-generic, x86_64):
  uptime: 5 days, since Oct 12 11:42:24 2017
  malloc: sbrk 2543616, mmap 0, used 392416, free 2151200
  worker threads: 11 of 16 idle, 5/0/0/0 working, job queue: 0/0/0/0, scheduled: 4
  loaded plugins: charon test-vectors aes rc2 sha1 sha2 md4 md5 random nonce x509 revocation constraints pubkey pkcs1 pkcs7 pkcs8 pkcs12 pgp dnskey sshkey pem openssl fips-prf gmp agent xcbc hmac gcm attr kernel-netlink resolve socket-default connmark stroke updown

Nevertheless, "cat " lists a new entry at the very top, but it has a lower priority than some other entries (highest value in the list: 4000). Therefore it isn't used:

root at iblsrv: # cat /proc/crypto
name         : rfc4106(gcm(aes-aesni))
driver       : pcrypt(pcrypt(rfc4106(gcm_base(ctr(aes-aesni),ghash-clmulni))))
module       : pcrypt
priority     : 550
refcnt       : 1
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : aead
async        : yes
blocksize    : 1
ivsize       : 8
maxauthsize  : 16
geniv        : <none>

There are no errors from Charon in syslog.

My ipsec.conf from one side:

config setup
        charondebug="4"
        uniqueids=yes
        strictcrlpolicy=no

conn host-to-host
    ikelifetime=60m
    keylife=20m
    rekeymargin=3m
    keyingtries=1
    dpdaction=restart

conn trap-any
    also=host-to-host
    right=192.168.250.230
    leftsubnet=0.0.0.0/0
    rightsubnet=172.22.1.28/32, 172.22.1.36/32
    type=tunnel
    authby=secret
    auto=route
    mark=42

ipsec statusall:

Status of IKE charon daemon (strongSwan 5.3.5, Linux 4.4.0-96-generic, x86_64):
  uptime: 5 days, since Oct 12 11:42:24 2017
  malloc: sbrk 2543616, mmap 0, used 392240, free 2151376
  worker threads: 11 of 16 idle, 5/0/0/0 working, job queue: 0/0/0/0, scheduled: 4
  loaded plugins: charon test-vectors aes rc2 sha1 sha2 md4 md5 random nonce x509 revocation constraints pubkey pkcs1 pkcs7 pkcs8 pkcs12 pgp dnskey sshkey pem openssl fips-prf gmp agent xcbc hmac gcm attr kernel-netlink resolve socket-default connmark stroke updown
Listening IP addresses:
  192.168.250.234
  192.168.250.229
Connections:
    trap-any:  %any...192.168.250.230  IKEv1/2, dpddelay=30s
    trap-any:   local:  uses pre-shared key authentication
    trap-any:   remote: [192.168.250.230] uses pre-shared key authentication
    trap-any:   child:  0.0.0.0/0 === 172.22.1.28/32 172.22.1.36/32 TUNNEL, dpdaction=restart
Routed Connections:
    trap-any{1}:  ROUTED, TUNNEL, reqid 1
    trap-any{1}:   0.0.0.0/0 === 172.22.1.28/32 172.22.1.36/32
Security Associations (1 up, 0 connecting):
    trap-any[240]: ESTABLISHED 6 minutes ago, 192.168.250.229[192.168.250.229]...192.168.250.230[192.168.250.230]
    trap-any[240]: IKEv2 SPIs: 9bcf3c62125c333d_i* 51ac15c32eac7ea6_r, pre-shared key reauthentication in 46 minutes
    trap-any[240]: IKE proposal: AES_CBC_128/HMAC_SHA1_96/PRF_HMAC_SHA1/MODP_2048
    trap-any{751}:  INSTALLED, TUNNEL, reqid 1, ESP SPIs: cc9137a9_i c913b9b8_o
    trap-any{751}:  AES_CBC_128/HMAC_SHA1_96, 0 bytes_i (0 pkts, 9s ago), 0 bytes_o, rekeying in 8 minutes
    trap-any{751}:   10.200.1.50/32 10.200.1.70/32 === 172.22.1.28/32 172.22.1.36/32
    trap-any{752}:  INSTALLED, TUNNEL, reqid 1, ESP SPIs: cf0bce0d_i c4f1515b_o
    trap-any{752}:  AES_CBC_128/HMAC_SHA1_96, 36036 bytes_i (169 pkts, 2s ago), 41722 bytes_o (205 pkts, 2s ago), rekeying in 9 minutes
    trap-any{752}:   10.200.1.50/32 10.200.1.70/32 === 172.22.1.28/32 172.22.1.36/32

Any hints to solve the issue are very much appreciated!

Cheers Manuel

Manuel Betz
Group IT Infrastructure - Network
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