[strongSwan] peer cert verification: X509: temporary cert import operation failed

[Thomas Jarosch]

Hello together,

I'm currently trying to set up a IKEv1 connection with strongswan 5.6.0 on Fedora 27.
It uses a local nssdb in /etc/ipsec.d to handle certificates / private keys.

The connection definition loads fine. When I tell the client
to connect, it fails to verify the certificate from the right (=server) side:

Feb 15 17:20:11.324390: "companyserver" #1: Peer ID is ID_DER_ASN1_DN: 'CN=firewall.company.com, O=Company, OU=HQ'
Feb 15 17:20:11.324416: | checking for CERT payloads
Feb 15 17:20:11.324426: | found at last one CERT payload, calling pluto_process_certs()
Feb 15 17:20:11.324498: | nothing to decode
Feb 15 17:20:11.324509: "companyserver" #1: X509: temporary cert import operation failed
Feb 15 17:20:11.324524: "companyserver" #1: cert verify failed with internal error
Feb 15 17:20:11.324535: "companyserver" #1: X509: Certificate rejected for this connection
Feb 15 17:20:11.324547: "companyserver" #1: X509: CERT payload bogus or revoked
Feb 15 17:20:11.324558: | Peer ID failed to decode
Feb 15 17:20:11.324567: | complete v1 state transition with INVALID_ID_INFORMATION


What's puzzles me is the "X509: temporary cert import operation failed"
error message. The output is from "plutodebug=all" already.

May be that happens because I imported the cert
of the right side into the nssdb already?

# certutil -d sql:/etc/ipsec.d -L

Certificate Nickname                                         Trust Attributes
                                                             SSL,S/MIME,JAR/XPI

cert.pem                                                     CTu,u,u
server.pem                                                   CT,,


The server certificate is a self-signed one,
the nickname is the original filename "server.pem".

Any idea what might cause the
"cert verify failed with internal error" message?

Cheers,
Thomas