Bug #16219
openpfSense IPsec VTI Mode Incompatible with Juniper Traffic Selector Requirements
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Description
When configuring an IPsec VPN in VTI (route-based) mode between pfSense (using strongSwan) and Juniper firewalls (e.g., SRX), the tunnel negotiation fails or traffic does not flow due to incompatible traffic selector requirements.
Expected Behavior:
pfSense should successfully negotiate IPsec VTI tunnels with devices that require specific (narrow) traffic selectors, such as Juniper firewalls, ideally allowing for interoperability and full tunnel functionality.
Actual Behavior:
pfSense (strongSwan) attempts to negotiate the tunnel using the traffic selector 0.0.0.0/0<->0.0.0.0/0 as required for VTI mode.
Juniper firewalls require specific subnets for traffic selectors and do not accept the universal 0.0.0.0/0 value, resulting in a negotiation failure or a tunnel where no traffic flows.
Error logs indicate mismatched traffic selectors or negotiation failure.
Steps to Reproduce:
Configure IPsec VTI (route-based VPN) on pfSense with a Juniper firewall peer.
Set Phase 2 on pfSense to use 0.0.0.0/0 (the only available option for VTI mode).
Attempt to configure matching traffic selectors on Juniper (which requires specific subnets).
Attempt to establish the tunnel.
Updated by Kris Phillips 3 days ago
- Status changed from New to Incomplete
If you're using traffic selectors, you want Policy-mode in pfSense Plus. VTIs don't use traffic selectors, so I'm confused how this is a bug, exactly.
Please advise.
Marking as Incomplete temporarily.
Updated by Henry Zhou 2 days ago
Thanks for taking care of the ticket.
Let me clarify. I don't intend to use traffic selector under VTI mode.
The issue is the VTI mode of pfsense by default sends 0.0.0.0/0 as traffic selector to the other side. While Juniper doesn't allow that, the IKE phase1 connection would not be established.
There's no way for me to override that in pfsense.