libreswan/libreswan
libreswan observed · 2026-09-03
Health v2 · maintenance only
99/100
- Activity 100
- Release rhythm 97
- Longevity 100
Flags: no_license
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-03. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: 28
- age_days: 4942
- days_rel: 20
- days_push: 0
- n_releases_24m: 6
Adoption not part of the score
1004 stars · 262 forks observed · 2026-09-03
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded
Libreswan is a free, GPLv2-licensed implementation of the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocol for setting up IPsec VPNs, supporting IKEv1 and IKEv2 with X.509 certificates and NAT traversal. It is a mature project (forked from FreeS/WAN/Openswan) that runs on Linux, the BSDs, and macOS, using the Linux XFRM stack and NSS crypto library.
Use cases
- set up an ipsec vpn server on linux
- site-to-site vpn tunnel between offices
- ikev2 vpn with x509 certificates
- roadwarrior vpn with nat traversal
- replace openswan or strongswan for ipsec
- fips-compliant ipsec vpn gateway
When to choose
- you need a standards-compliant IKEv1/IKEv2 IPsec implementation on Linux or BSD
- you want a mature, distribution-packaged VPN daemon (Fedora, RHEL, Debian, etc.)
- you need X.509 certificate support, NAT traversal, and FIPS mode
When to avoid
- you want a userspace VPN like WireGuard or OpenVPN instead of kernel IPsec
- you need a cross-platform GUI VPN client for end users
- you target platforms outside Linux/BSD/macOS
Facets
application · maturity active
security cryptography networking vpn security networking privacy bsd cross-platform ipsec ike ikev2 vpn x509 nss xfrm freeswan-fork linux macos
2 sources
- readme: https://github.com/libreswan/libreswan · fetched 2026-09-03 · 0e604bf1cb0c
- homepage: https://libreswan.org/ · fetched 2026-08-29 · 0fed51ea0e0c
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| libreswan/libreswan | main | 99 |
For agents
markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="libreswan/libreswan")
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem