Description

This article explains why the logs of VPN negotiation failed messages for the VPN peers that are not configured are seen, and how to prevent it.

Symptoms

user@host> show log messages | match kmd

Feb 24 05:46:13 host kmd[2339]: IKE negotiation failed with error: IKE gateway configuration lookup failed during negotiation. IKE Version: 1, VPN: Not-Available Gateway: Not-Available, Local: X.X.X.X/500, Remote: Y.Y.Y.Y/2342, Local IKE-ID: Not-Available, Remote IKE-ID: Not-Available, VR-ID: 0: Role: Responder

Solution

This is an expected behaviour when all services are allowed on any interface whose IP address is accessible to everyone.

set security zones security-zone VPN host-inbound-traffic system-services all

set security zones security-zone VPN host-inbound-traffic protocols all

set security zones security-zone VPN interfaces <WAN_interface>

OR

set security zones security-zone VPN interfaces <WAN_interface> host-inbound-traffic system-services all

set security zones security-zone VPN interfaces <WAN_interface> host-inbound-traffic protocols all

 

To avoid these messages, allow VPN only from trusted prefixes.

This can be done by configuring firewall filters as follows:

set firewall filter protect-RE term Allowed-VPN-Hosts source-prefix-list <allowed_hosts>

set firewall filter protect-RE term Allowed-VPN-Hosts protocol udp

set firewall filter protect-RE term Allowed-VPN-Hosts destination-port 500

set firewall filter protect-RE term Allowed-VPN-Hosts destination-port 4500

set firewall filter protect-RE term Allowed-VPN-Hosts protocol esp

set firewall filter protect-RE term Allowed-VPN-Hosts then accept

set firewall filter protect-RE term Deny-VPN-Hosts source-address any

set firewall filter protect-RE term Deny-VPN-Hosts protocol udp

set firewall filter protect-RE term Deny-VPN-Hosts destination-port 500

set firewall filter protect-RE term Deny-VPN-Hosts destination-port 4500

set firewall filter protect-RE term Deny-VPN-Hosts protocol esp

set firewall filter protect-RE term Deny-VPN-Hosts then deny

set firewall filter protect-RE term Other_traffic then accept

 

set interfaces <required_interface> family inet filter input protect-RE

Modification History

2026-03-31 : Article Created