LibreSwan
The facts below are what the maker publishes about LibreSwan, checked and dated. Our editors have not written about it yet.
Plans and prices
From LibreSwan's own pricing page, checked 11 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| LibreSwan | Free | Free software implementation of IPsec/IKE VPN · GPLv2 |
The facts
Each one read from LibreSwan's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Access model
- vpnchecked 22 Sep 2026
- Authentication and crypto
- LibreSwan uses NSS for cryptographic storage and supports X.509 certificates, raw private keys, and preshared secrets.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Cloud and interoperability
- Project configuration guides cover AWS, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, OpenStack, and Cisco ASA or VPN3000 connections.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Commercial support
- The project lists commercial support from core developers and notes that users of commercial Linux vendors may already have support coverage.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Community support
- Free volunteer support is available through mailing lists, the Libera.Chat #libreswan channel, and the GitHub bug database, and response times may vary.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Core features
- The project documentation lists support for X.509 certificates and NAT traversal among its IPsec extensions.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Deployment
- LibreSwan runs on Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD; the project says OpenBSD users need to build it from source.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Distribution packages
- The documentation lists prebuilt packages for Alpine, Arch, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, FreeBSD, Mint, Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Ubuntu.checked 11 Oct 2026
- License
- The project says the bulk of LibreSwan is licensed under GNU General Public License version 2, with some smaller parts under different licenses.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Project history
- The project says it has been under active development for over 20 years and traces its history to The FreeS/WAN Project, founded in 1997.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Protocols
- It supports IKE versions 1 and 2, with IKEv1 described in its manual as deprecated and migration to IKEv2 strongly recommended.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- LibreSwan is free software that implements the standardized IPsec VPN protocol using Internet Key Exchange (IKE).checked 11 Oct 2026
- Security reporting
- Security issues can be reported to the project by email, including encrypted email using its OpenPGP key, and the team typically responds within a few days.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Site-to-site networking
- Yeschecked 22 Sep 2026
The company
- Founded
- 1997checked 28 Sep 2026
Money
- Free plan
- Yeschecked 22 Sep 2026
Where it runs
- Linux integration
- On Linux, LibreSwan uses the built-in XFRM IPsec stack and integrates with the operating system's init system.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Supported platforms
- Linux,FreeBSD,NetBSD,OpenBSDchecked 22 Sep 2026
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