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Listen Option

The listen option defines for which ports, addresses and network protocols ejabberd will listen and what services will be run on them. Each element of the list is an associative array with the following elements:

  • Port, optionally also the IP address and/or a transport protocol.

  • Listening module that serves this port.

  • Options for the TCP socket and for the listening module.

For example:

listen:
  -
    port: 5222
    module: ejabberd_c2s
    ip: 127.0.0.1
    starttls: true
  -
    port: 5269
    module: ejabberd_s2s_in
    transport: tcp

The port defines which port number to listen for incoming connections: it can be a Jabber/XMPP standard port or any other valid port number. Alternatively, set the option to a string in form "unix:/path/to/socket" to create and listen on a unix domain socket /path/to/socket.

The IP address can be represented as a string. The socket will listen only in that network interface. It is possible to specify a generic address ("0.0.0.0" for IPv4 or "::" for IPv6), so ejabberd will listen in all addresses. Depending on the type of the IP address, IPv4 or IPv6 will be used. When the IP address is not specified, it will listen on all IPv4 network addresses.

Note that on some operating systems and/or OS configurations, listening on "::" will mean listening for IPv4 traffic as well as IPv6 traffic.

Some example values for IP address:

  • "0.0.0.0" to listen in all IPv4 network interfaces. This is the default value when no IP is specified.

  • "::" to listen in all IPv6 network interfaces

  • "10.11.12.13" is the IPv4 address 10.11.12.13

  • "::FFFF:127.0.0.1" is the IPv6 address ::FFFF:127.0.0.1/128

The transport protocol can be tcp or udp. Default is tcp.

Summary of Listen Modules

The available modules, their purpose and the options allowed by each one are:

ejabberd_c2s

Handles c2s connections.

Options: access, cafile, ciphers, dhfile, max_fsm_queue, max_stanza_size, protocol_options, shaper, starttls, starttls_required, tls, tls_compression, tls_verify, zlib.

ejabberd_s2s_in

Handles incoming s2s connections.

Options: cafile, ciphers, dhfile, max_fsm_queue, max_stanza_size, protocol_options, shaper, tls, tls_compression.

ejabberd_service

Interacts with an external component (as defined in the Jabber Component Protocol (XEP-0114).

Options: access, cafile, certfile, check_from, ciphers, dhfile, global_routes, hosts, max_fsm_queue, max_stanza_size, password, protocol_options, shaper, shaper_rule, tls, tls_compression.

ejabberd_sip

Handles SIP requests as defined in RFC 3261.

For details please check the ejabberd_sip and mod_sip sections.

General listener options: certfile, tls.

ejabberd_stun

Handles STUN/TURN requests as defined in RFC 5389 and RFC 5766.

For the specific module options, please check the ejabberd_stun section: auth_realm, auth_type, server_name, turn_blacklist, turn_ipv4_address, turn_ipv6_address, turn_max_allocations, turn_max_permissions, turn_max_port, turn_min_port, use_turn.

General listener options: certfile, shaper, tls,

ejabberd_http

Handles incoming HTTP connections.

With the proper request handlers configured, this serves HTTP services like ACME, API, BOSH, CAPTCHA, Fileserver, OAuth, Upload, WebAdmin, WebSocket, XMP-RPC.

Options: cafile, ciphers, custom_headers, default_host, dhfile, protocol_options, request_handlers, tag, tls, tls_compression, and the trusted_proxies top-level option.

mod_mqtt

Support for MQTT requires configuring mod_mqtt both in the listen and the modules sections. Check the mod_mqtt modules options. Check the advanded documentation in MQTT Support.

Listen options: max_fsm_queue, max_payload_size, tls, tls_verify.

ejabberd_stun

ejabberd is able to act as a stand-alone STUN/TURN server (RFC 5389/RFC 5766. In that role ejabberd helps clients with ICE (RFC 5245 or Jingle ICE (XEP-0176 support to discover their external addresses and ports and to relay media traffic when it is impossible to establish direct peer-to-peer connection.

The specific configurable options are:

tls: true|false: If enabled, certfile option must be set, otherwise ejabberd will not be able to accept TLS connections. Obviously, this option makes sense for tcp transport only. The default is false.

certfile: Path: Path to the certificate file. Only makes sense when tls is set.

use_turn: true|false: Enables/disables TURN (media relay) functionality. The default is false.

turn_blacklist: String | [String,...]: Specify one or more IP addresses and/or subnet addresses/masks. The TURN server will refuse to relay traffic from/to blacklisted IP addresses. By default, Teredo and 6to4 addresses are blacklisted, as mandated by RFC 6156 (section 9.1).

turn_ipv4_address: String: The IPv4 address advertised by your TURN server. The address should not be NAT’ed or firewalled. There is not default, so you should set this option explicitly. Implies use_turn.

turn_ipv6_address: String: The IPv6 address advertised by your TURN server. The address should not be NAT’ed or firewalled. There is not default, so you should set this option explicitly. Implies use_turn.

turn_min_port: Integer: Together with turn_max_port forms port range to allocate from. The default is 49152. Implies use_turn.

turn_max_port: Integer: Together with turn_min_port forms port range to allocate from. The default is 65535. Implies use_turn.

turn_max_allocations: Integer|infinity: Maximum number of TURN allocations available from the particular IP address. The default value is 10. Implies use_turn.

turn_max_permissions: Integer|infinity: Maximum number of TURN permissions available from the particular IP address. The default value is 10. Implies use_turn.

auth_type: user|anonymous: Which authentication type to use for TURN allocation requests. When type user is set, ejabberd authentication backend is used. For anonymous type no authentication is performed (not recommended for public services). The default is user. Implies use_turn.

auth_realm: String: When auth_type is set to user and you have several virtual hosts configured you should set this option explicitly to the virtual host you want to serve on this particular listening port. Implies use_turn.

shaper: Atom: For tcp transports defines shaper to use. The default is none.

server_name: String: Defines software version to return with every response. The default is the STUN library version.

Example configuration with disabled TURN functionality (STUN only):

listen:
  ...
  -
    port: 3478
    transport: udp
    module: ejabberd_stun
  -
    port: 3478
    module: ejabberd_stun
  -
    port: 5349
    module: ejabberd_stun
    certfile: /etc/ejabberd/server.pem
  ...

Example configuration with TURN functionality. Note that STUN is always enabled if TURN is enabled. Here, only UDP section is shown:

listen:
  ...
  -
    port: 3478
    transport: udp
    use_turn: true
    turn_ipv4_address: 10.20.30.1
    module: ejabberd_stun
  ...

You also need to configure DNS SRV records properly so clients can easily discover a STUN/TURN server serving your XMPP domain. Refer to section DNS Discovery of a Server of RFC 5389 and section Creating an Allocation of RFC 5766 for details.

Example DNS SRV configuration for STUN only:

_stun._udp   IN SRV  0 0 3478 stun.example.com.
_stun._tcp   IN SRV  0 0 3478 stun.example.com.
_stuns._tcp  IN SRV  0 0 5349 stun.example.com.

And you should also add these in the case if TURN is enabled:

_turn._udp   IN SRV  0 0 3478 turn.example.com.
_turn._tcp   IN SRV  0 0 3478 turn.example.com.
_turns._tcp  IN SRV  0 0 5349 turn.example.com.

ejabberd_sip

SIP Configuration

ejabberd has built-in SIP support. To activate this feature, add the ejabberd_sip listen module, enable mod_sip module for the desired virtual host, and configure DNS properly.

To add a listener you should configure ejabberd_sip listening module as described in Listen section. If option tls is specified, option certfile must be specified as well, otherwise incoming TLS connections would fail.

Example configuration with standard ports (as per RFC 3261):

listen:
  ...
  -
    port: 5060
    transport: udp
    module: ejabberd_sip
  -
    port: 5060
    module: ejabberd_sip
  -
    port: 5061
    module: ejabberd_sip
    tls: true
    certfile: /etc/ejabberd/server.pem
  ...

Note that there is no StartTLS support in SIP and SNI support is somewhat tricky, so for TLS you have to configure different virtual hosts on different ports if you have different certificate files for them.

Next you need to configure DNS SIP records for your virtual domains. Refer to RFC 3263 for the detailed explanation. Simply put, you should add NAPTR and SRV records for your domains. Skip NAPTR configuration if your DNS provider doesn't support this type of records. It’s not fatal, however, highly recommended.

Example configuration of NAPTR records:

example.com IN NAPTR 10  0 "s" "SIPS+D2T" "" _sips._tcp.example.com.
example.com IN NAPTR 20  0 "s" "SIP+D2T" "" _sip._tcp.example.com.
example.com IN NAPTR 30  0 "s" "SIP+D2U" "" _sip._udp.example.com.

Example configuration of SRV records with standard ports (as per RFC 3261:

_sip._udp   IN SRV  0 0 5060 sip.example.com.
_sip._tcp   IN SRV  0 0 5060 sip.example.com.
_sips._tcp  IN SRV  0 0 5061 sip.example.com.

Note on SIP usage

SIP authentication does not support SCRAM. As such, it is not possible to use mod_sip to authenticate when ejabberd has been set to encrypt password with SCRAM.

ejabberd_http_ws

This module enables XMPP communication over Websocket connection as described in RFC 7395.

Enabling Websocket support

To enable this module it must have handler added to request_handlers section of ejabberd_http listener:

listen:
  ...
  -
    port: 5280
    module: ejabberd_http
    request_handlers:
      ...
      /xmpp: ejabberd_http_ws
      ...
  ...

This module can be configured by using those options that should be placed in general section of config file: websocket_origin, websocket_ping_interval, websocket_timeout.

Discovery

You also need to configure DNS SRV records properly so clients can easily discover Websocket service for your XMPP domain. Refer to XEP-0156.

Example DNS TXT configuration for Websocket:

_xmppconnect IN TXT "[ _xmpp-client-websocket=wss://web.example.com:443/ws ]"

Testing Websocket

A test client can be found on Github: Websocket test client

ejabberd_xmlrpc

Handles XML-RPC requests to execute ejabberd commands. It is configured as a request handler in ejabberd_http.

By default there is no restriction to who can execute what commands, so it is strongly recommended that you configure restrictions using API Permissions.

This is the minimum configuration required to enable the feature:

listen:
  -
    port: 4560
    module: ejabberd_http
    request_handlers:
      /: ejabberd_xmlrpc

Example Python script:

import xmlrpclib
server = xmlrpclib.Server('http://127.0.0.1:4560/');
params = {}
params["host"] = "localhost"
print server.registered_users(params)

This example configuration adds some restrictions:

listen:
  -
    port: 5281
    ip: "::"
    module: ejabberd_http
    request_handlers:
      /api: mod_http_api
      /xmlrpc: ejabberd_xmlrpc

api_permissions:
  "some XMLRPC commands":
    from: ejabberd_xmlrpc
    who:
      - ip: 127.0.0.1
      - user: user1@localhost
    what:
      - registered_users
      - connected_users_number

With that configuration, it is possible to execute two specific commands using ejabberd_xmlrpc, with two access restrictions. Example Python script:

import xmlrpclib
server = xmlrpclib.Server('http://127.0.0.1:5281/xmlrpc')
LOGIN = {'user':'user1',
         'server':'localhost',
         'password':'mypass11',
         'admin':True}
def calling(command, data):
    fn = getattr(server, command)
    return fn(LOGIN, data)
print calling('registered_users', {'host':'localhost'})

It's possible to use OAuth for authentication instead of plain password, see OAuth Support.

In ejabberd 20.03 and older, it was possible to configure ejabberd_xmlrpc as a listener, see the old document for reference and example configuration: Listening Module.

Just for reference, there's also the old ejabberd_xmlrpc documentation.

Examples

For example, the following simple configuration defines:

  • There are three domains. The default certificate file is server.pem. However, the c2s and s2s connections to the domain example.com use the file example_com.pem.

  • Port 5222 listens for c2s connections with STARTTLS, and also allows plain connections for old clients.

  • Port 5223 listens for c2s connections with the old SSL.

  • Port 5269 listens for s2s connections with STARTTLS. The socket is set for IPv6 instead of IPv4.

  • Port 3478 listens for STUN requests over UDP.

  • Port 5280 listens for HTTP requests, and serves the HTTP-Bind (BOSH) service.

  • Port 5281 listens for HTTP requests, using HTTPS to serve HTTP-Bind (BOSH) and the Web Admin as explained in Managing: Web Admin. The socket only listens connections to the IP address 127.0.0.1.

        hosts:
      - example.com
      - example.org
      - example.net

    certfiles:
      - /etc/ejabberd/server.pem
      - /etc/ejabberd/example_com.pem

    listen:
      -
        port: 5222
        module: ejabberd_c2s
        access: c2s
        shaper: c2s_shaper
        starttls: true
        max_stanza_size: 65536
      -
        port: 5223
        module: ejabberd_c2s
        access: c2s
        shaper: c2s_shaper
        tls: true
        max_stanza_size: 65536
      -
        port: 5269
        ip: "::"
        module: ejabberd_s2s_in
        shaper: s2s_shaper
        max_stanza_size: 131072
      -
        port: 3478
        transport: udp
        module: ejabberd_stun
      -
        port: 5280
        module: ejabberd_http
        request_handlers:
          /bosh: mod_bosh
      -
        port: 5281
        ip: 127.0.0.1
        module: ejabberd_http
        tls: true
        request_handlers:
          /admin: ejabberd_web_admin
          /bosh: mod_bosh

    s2s_use_starttls: optional
    outgoing_s2s_families:
      - ipv4
      - ipv6
    outgoing_s2s_timeout: 10000
    trusted_proxies: [127.0.0.1, 192.168.1.11]

In this example, the following configuration defines that:

  • c2s connections are listened for on port 5222 (all IPv4 addresses) and on port 5223 (SSL, IP 192.168.0.1 and fdca:8ab6:a243:75ef::1) and denied for the user called ‘bad’.

  • s2s connections are listened for on port 5269 (all IPv4 addresses) with STARTTLS for secured traffic strictly required, and the certificates are verified. Incoming and outgoing connections of remote XMPP servers are denied, only two servers can connect: “jabber.example.org” and “example.com”.

  • Port 5280 is serving the Web Admin and the HTTP-Bind (BOSH) service in all the IPv4 addresses. Note that it is also possible to serve them on different ports. The second example in section Managing: Web Admin shows how exactly this can be done. A request handler to serve MQTT over Websocket is also defined.

  • All users except for the administrators have a traffic of limit 1,000Bytes/second

  • The AIM transport aim.example.org is connected to port 5233 on localhost IP addresses (127.0.0.1 and ::1) with password ‘aimsecret’.

  • The ICQ transport JIT (icq.example.org and sms.example.org) is connected to port 5234 with password ‘jitsecret’.

  • The MSN transport msn.example.org is connected to port 5235 with password ‘msnsecret’.

  • The Yahoo! transport yahoo.example.org is connected to port 5236 with password ‘yahoosecret’.

  • The Gadu-Gadu transport gg.example.org is connected to port 5237 with password ‘ggsecret’.

  • The Jabber Mail Component jmc.example.org is connected to port 5238 with password ‘jmcsecret’.

  • The service custom has enabled the special option to avoiding checking the from attribute in the packets send by this component. The component can send packets in behalf of any users from the server, or even on behalf of any server.

        acl:
      blocked:
        user: bad
      trusted_servers:
        server:
          - example.com
          - jabber.example.org
      xmlrpc_bot:
        user:
          - xmlrpc-robot@example.org
    shaper:
      normal: 1000
    shaper_rules:
      c2s_shaper:
        - none: admin
        - normal
    access_rules:
      c2s:
        - deny: blocked
        - allow
      xmlrpc_access:
        - allow: xmlrpc_bot
      s2s:
        - allow: trusted_servers
    certfiles:
      - /path/to/ssl.pem
    s2s_access: s2s
    s2s_use_starttls: required_trusted
    listen:
      -
        port: 5222
        module: ejabberd_c2s
        shaper: c2s_shaper
        access: c2s
      -
        ip: 192.168.0.1
        port: 5223
        module: ejabberd_c2s
        tls: true
        access: c2s
      -
        ip: "FDCA:8AB6:A243:75EF::1"
        port: 5223
        module: ejabberd_c2s
        tls: true
        access: c2s
      -
        port: 5269
        module: ejabberd_s2s_in
      -
        port: 5280
        module: ejabberd_http
        request_handlers:
          /admin: ejabberd_web_admin
          /bosh: mod_bosh
          /mqtt: mod_mqtt
      -
        port: 4560
        module: ejabberd_xmlrpc
        access_commands: {}
      -
        ip: 127.0.0.1
        port: 5233
        module: ejabberd_service
        hosts:
          aim.example.org:
            password: aimsecret
      -
        ip: "::1"
        port: 5233
        module: ejabberd_service
        hosts:
          aim.example.org:
            password: aimsecret
      -
        port: 5234
        module: ejabberd_service
        hosts:
          icq.example.org:
            password: jitsecret
          sms.example.org:
            password: jitsecret
      -
        port: 5235
        module: ejabberd_service
        hosts:
          msn.example.org:
            password: msnsecret
      -
        port: 5236
        module: ejabberd_service
        password: yahoosecret
      -
        port: 5237
        module: ejabberd_service
        hosts:
          gg.example.org:
            password: ggsecret
      -
        port: 5238
        module: ejabberd_service
        hosts:
          jmc.example.org:
            password: jmcsecret
      -
        port: 5239
        module: ejabberd_service
        check_from: false
        hosts:
          custom.example.org:
            password: customsecret

Note, that for services based in jabberd14 or WPJabber you have to make the transports log and do XDB by themselves:

<!--
   You have to add elogger and rlogger entries here when using ejabberd.
   In this case the transport will do the logging.
-->

<log id='logger'>
  <host/>
  <logtype/>
  <format>%d: [%t] (%h): %s</format>
  <file>/var/log/jabber/service.log</file>
</log>

<!--
   Some XMPP server implementations do not provide
   XDB services (for example, jabberd2 and ejabberd).
   xdb_file.so is loaded in to handle all XDB requests.
-->

<xdb id="xdb">
  <host/>
  <load>
    <!-- this is a lib of wpjabber or jabberd14 -->
    <xdb_file>/usr/lib/jabber/xdb_file.so</xdb_file>
    </load>
  <xdb_file xmlns="jabber:config:xdb_file">
    <spool><jabberd:cmdline flag='s'>/var/spool/jabber</jabberd:cmdline></spool>
  </xdb_file>
</xdb>