OpenVPN
Traditionally hardware routers implement IPsec exclusively due to relative ease of implementing it in hardware and insufficient CPU power for doing encryption in software. Since VyOS is a software router, this is less of a concern. OpenVPN has been widely used on UNIX platform for a long time and is a popular option for remote access VPN, though it’s also capable of site-to-site connections.
Advantages of OpenVPN are:
It uses a single TCP or UDP connection and does not rely on packet source addresses, so it will work even through a double NAT: perfect for public hotspots and such
It’s easy to setup and offers very flexible split tunneling
There’s a variety of client GUI frontends for any platform
Disadvantages are:
It’s slower than IPsec due to higher protocol overhead and the fact it runs in user mode while IPsec, on Linux, is in kernel mode
None of the operating systems have client software installed by default
In the VyOS CLI, a key point often overlooked is that rather than being configured using the set vpn stanza, OpenVPN is configured as a network interface using set interfaces openvpn.
Site-to-Site
While many are aware of OpenVPN as a Client VPN solution, it is often overlooked as a site-to-site VPN solution due to lack of support for this mode in many router platforms.
Site-to-site mode supports x.509 but doesn’t require it and can also work with static keys, which is simpler in many cases. In this example, we’ll configure a simple site-to-site OpenVPN tunnel using a 2048-bit pre-shared key.
First, one of the systems generate the key using the generate pki openvpn shared-secret command. Once generated, you will need to install this key on the local system, then copy and install this key to the remote router.
In our example, we used the key name openvpn-1 which we will reference
in our configuration.
The public IP address of the local side of the VPN will be 198.51.100.10.
The public IP address of the remote side of the VPN will be 203.0.113.11.
The tunnel will use 10.255.1.1 for the local IP and 10.255.1.2 for the remote.
The local site will have a subnet of 10.0.0.0/16.
The remote site will have a subnet of 10.1.0.0/16.
Static Routing or other dynamic routing protocols can be used over the vtun interface
OpenVPN allows for either TCP or UDP. UDP will provide the lowest latency, while TCP will work better for lossy connections; generally UDP is preferred when possible.
The official port for OpenVPN is 1194, which we reserve for client VPN; we will use 1195 for site-to-site VPN.
The
persistent-tunneldirective will allow us to configure tunnel-related attributes, such as firewall policy as we would on any normal network interface.If known, the IP of the remote router can be configured using the
remote-hostdirective; if unknown, it can be omitted. We will assume a dynamic IP for our remote router.
Local Configuration:
run generate pki openvpn shared-secret install openvpn-1
Configure mode commands to install OpenVPN key:
set pki openvpn shared-secret openvpn-1 key 'generated_key_string'
set pki openvpn shared-secret openvpn-1 version '1'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 mode site-to-site
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 protocol udp
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 persistent-tunnel
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 remote-host '203.0.113.11'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 local-port '1195'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 remote-port '1195'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 shared-secret-key openvpn-1
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 local-address '10.255.1.1'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 remote-address '10.255.1.2'
Local Configuration - Annotated:
run generate pki openvpn shared-secret install openvpn-1 # Locally genearated OpenVPN shared secret.
The generated secret is the output to
the console.
Configure mode commands to install OpenVPN key:
set pki openvpn shared-secret openvpn-1 key 'generated_key_string' # Generated secret displayed in the output to
the console.
set pki openvpn shared-secret openvpn-1 version '1' # Generated secret displayed in the output to
the console.
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 mode site-to-site
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 protocol udp
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 persistent-tunnel
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 remote-host '203.0.113.11' # Pub IP of other site
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 local-port '1195'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 remote-port '1195'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 shared-secret-key openvpn-1 # Locally generated secret name
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 local-address '10.255.1.1' # Local IP of vtun interface
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 remote-address '10.255.1.2' # Remote IP of vtun interface
Remote Configuration:
set pki openvpn shared-secret openvpn-1 key 'generated_key_string'
set pki openvpn shared-secret openvpn-1 version '1'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 mode site-to-site
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 protocol udp
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 persistent-tunnel
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 remote-host '198.51.100.10'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 local-port '1195'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 remote-port '1195'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 shared-secret-key openvpn-1
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 local-address '10.255.1.2'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 remote-address '10.255.1.1'
Remote Configuration - Annotated:
set pki openvpn shared-secret openvpn-1 key 'generated_key_string' # Locally genearated OpenVPN shared secret
(from the Local Configuration Block).
set pki openvpn shared-secret openvpn-1 version '1'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 mode site-to-site
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 protocol udp
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 persistent-tunnel
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 remote-host '198.51.100.10' # Pub IP of other site
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 local-port '1195'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 remote-port '1195'
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 shared-secret-key openvpn-1 # Locally generated secret name
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 local-address '10.255.1.2' # Local IP of vtun interface
set interfaces openvpn vtun1 remote-address '10.255.1.1' # Remote IP of vtun interface
Firewall Exceptions
For the OpenVPN traffic to pass through the WAN interface, you must create a firewall exception.
set firewall name OUTSIDE_LOCAL rule 10 action accept
set firewall name OUTSIDE_LOCAL rule 10 description 'Allow established/related'
set firewall name OUTSIDE_LOCAL rule 10 state established enable
set firewall name OUTSIDE_LOCAL rule 10 state related enable
set firewall name OUTSIDE_LOCAL rule 20 action accept
set firewall name OUTSIDE_LOCAL rule 20 description OpenVPN_IN
set firewall name OUTSIDE_LOCAL rule 20 destination port 1195
set firewall name OUTSIDE_LOCAL rule 20 log enable
set firewall name OUTSIDE_LOCAL rule 20 protocol udp
set firewall name OUTSIDE_LOCAL rule 20 source
You should also ensure that the OUTISDE_LOCAL firewall group is applied to the WAN interface and a direction (local).
set firewall interface eth0 local name 'OUTSIDE-LOCAL'
Static Routing:
Static routes can be configured referencing the tunnel interface; for example, the local router will use a network of 10.0.0.0/16, while the remote has a network of 10.1.0.0/16:
Local Configuration:
set protocols static route 10.1.0.0/16 interface vtun1
Remote Configuration:
set protocols static route 10.0.0.0/16 interface vtun1
The configurations above will default to using 256-bit AES in GCM mode for encryption (if both sides support NCP) and SHA-1 for HMAC authentication. SHA-1 is considered weak, but other hashing algorithms are available, as are encryption algorithms:
For Encryption:
This sets the cipher when NCP (Negotiable Crypto Parameters) is disabled or OpenVPN version < 2.4.0.
[email protected]# set interfaces openvpn vtun1 encryption cipher
Possible completions:
des DES algorithm
3des DES algorithm with triple encryption
bf128 Blowfish algorithm with 128-bit key
bf256 Blowfish algorithm with 256-bit key
aes128 AES algorithm with 128-bit key CBC
aes128gcm AES algorithm with 128-bit key GCM
aes192 AES algorithm with 192-bit key CBC
aes192gcm AES algorithm with 192-bit key GCM
aes256 AES algorithm with 256-bit key CBC
aes256gcm AES algorithm with 256-bit key GCM
This sets the accepted ciphers to use when version => 2.4.0 and NCP is enabled (which is the default). Default NCP cipher for versions >= 2.4.0 is aes256gcm. The first cipher in this list is what server pushes to clients.
[email protected]# set int open vtun0 encryption ncp-ciphers
Possible completions:
des DES algorithm
3des DES algorithm with triple encryption
aes128 AES algorithm with 128-bit key CBC
aes128gcm AES algorithm with 128-bit key GCM
aes192 AES algorithm with 192-bit key CBC
aes192gcm AES algorithm with 192-bit key GCM
aes256 AES algorithm with 256-bit key CBC
aes256gcm AES algorithm with 256-bit key GCM
For Hashing:
[email protected]# set interfaces openvpn vtun1 hash
Possible completions:
md5 MD5 algorithm
sha1 SHA-1 algorithm
sha256 SHA-256 algorithm
sha512 SHA-512 algorithm
If you change the default encryption and hashing algorithms, be sure that the local and remote ends have matching configurations, otherwise the tunnel will not come up.
Firewall policy can also be applied to the tunnel interface for local, in, and out directions and functions identically to ethernet interfaces.
If making use of multiple tunnels, OpenVPN must have a way to distinguish between different tunnels aside from the pre-shared-key. This is either by referencing IP address or port number. One option is to dedicate a public IP to each tunnel. Another option is to dedicate a port number to each tunnel (e.g. 1195,1196,1197…).
OpenVPN status can be verified using the show openvpn operational commands. See the built-in help for a complete list of options.
Server
Multi-client server is the most popular OpenVPN mode on routers. It always uses x.509 authentication and therefore requires a PKI setup. Refer this topic PKI to generate a CA certificate, a server certificate and key, a certificate revocation list, a Diffie-Hellman key exchange parameters file. You do not need client certificates and keys for the server setup.
In this example we will use the most complicated case: a setup where each client is a router that has its own subnet (think HQ and branch offices), since simpler setups are subsets of it.
Suppose you want to use 10.23.1.0/24 network for client tunnel endpoints and all client subnets belong to 10.23.0.0/20. All clients need access to the 192.168.0.0/16 network.
First we need to specify the basic settings. 1194/UDP is the default. The
persistent-tunnel option is recommended, it prevents the TUN/TAP device from
closing on connection resets or daemon reloads.
Note
Using openvpn-option -reneg-sec can be tricky. This option is used to renegotiate data channel after n seconds. When used at both server and client, the lower value will trigger the renegotiation. If you set it to 0 on one side of the connection (to disable it), the chosen value on the other side will determine when the renegotiation will occur.
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 mode server
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 local-port 1194
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 persistent-tunnel
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 protocol udp
Then we need to generate, add and specify the names of the cryptographic materials. Each of the install command should be applied to the configuration and commited before using under the openvpn interface configuration.
run generate pki ca install ca-1 # Follow the instructions to generate CA cert.
Configure mode commands to install:
set pki ca ca-1 certificate 'generated_cert_string'
set pki ca ca-1 private key 'generated_private_key'
run generate pki certificate sign ca-1 install srv-1 # Follow the instructions to generate server cert.
Configure mode commands to install:
set pki certificate srv-1 certificate 'generated_server_cert'
set pki certificate srv-1 private key 'generated_private_key'
run generate pki dh install dh-1 # Follow the instructions to generate set of
Diffie-Hellman parameters.
Generating parameters...
Configure mode commands to install DH parameters:
set pki dh dh-1 parameters 'generated_dh_params_set'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 tls ca-certificate ca-1
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 tls certificate srv-1
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 tls dh-params dh-1
Now we need to specify the server network settings. In all cases we need to specify the subnet for client tunnel endpoints. Since we want clients to access a specific network behind our router, we will use a push-route option for installing that route on clients.
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 server push-route 192.168.0.0/16
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 server subnet 10.23.1.0/24
Since it’s a HQ and branch offices setup, we will want all clients to have fixed addresses and we will route traffic to specific subnets through them. We need configuration for each client to achieve this.
Note
Clients are identified by the CN field of their x.509 certificates,
in this example the CN is client0:
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 server client client0 ip 10.23.1.10
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 server client client0 subnet 10.23.2.0/25
OpenVPN will not automatically create routes in the kernel for client subnets when they connect and will only use client-subnet association internally, so we need to create a route to the 10.23.0.0/20 network ourselves:
set protocols static route 10.23.0.0/20 interface vtun10
Additionally, each client needs a copy of ca cert and its own client key and cert files. The files are plaintext so they may be copied either manually from the CLI. Client key and cert files should be signed with the proper ca cert and generated on the server side.
HQ’s router requires the following steps to generate crypto materials for the Branch 1:
run generate pki certificate sign ca-1 install branch-1 # Follow the instructions to generate client
cert for Branch 1
Configure mode commands to install:
Branch 1’s router might have the following lines:
set pki ca ca-1 certificate 'generated_cert_string' # CA cert generated on HQ router
set pki certificate branch-1 certificate 'generated_branch_cert' # Client cert generated and signed on HQ router
set pki certificate branch-1 private key 'generated_private_key' # Client cert key generated on HQ router
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 tls ca-cert ca-1
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 tls certificate branch-1
Client Authentication
LDAP
Enterprise installations usually ship a kind of directory service which is used to have a single password store for all employees. VyOS and OpenVPN support using LDAP/AD as single user backend.
Authentication is done by using the openvpn-auth-ldap.so plugin which is
shipped with every VyOS installation. A dedicated configuration file is
required. It is best practise to store it in /config to survive image
updates
set interfaces openvpn vtun0 openvpn-option "--plugin /usr/lib/openvpn/openvpn-auth-ldap.so /config/auth/ldap-auth.config"
The required config file may look like this:
<LDAP>
# LDAP server URL
URL ldap://ldap.example.com
# Bind DN (If your LDAP server doesn't support anonymous binds)
BindDN cn=LDAPUser,dc=example,dc=com
# Bind Password password
Password S3cr3t
# Network timeout (in seconds)
Timeout 15
</LDAP>
<Authorization>
# Base DN
BaseDN "ou=people,dc=example,dc=com"
# User Search Filter
SearchFilter "(&(uid=%u)(objectClass=shadowAccount))"
# Require Group Membership - allow all users
RequireGroup false
</Authorization>
Active Directory
Despite the fact that AD is a superset of LDAP
<LDAP>
# LDAP server URL
URL ldap://dc01.example.com
# Bind DN (If your LDAP server doesn’t support anonymous binds)
BindDN CN=LDAPUser,DC=example,DC=com
# Bind Password
Password mysecretpassword
# Network timeout (in seconds)
Timeout 15
# Enable Start TLS
TLSEnable no
# Follow LDAP Referrals (anonymously)
FollowReferrals no
</LDAP>
<Authorization>
# Base DN
BaseDN "DC=example,DC=com"
# User Search Filter, user must be a member of the VPN AD group
SearchFilter "(&(sAMAccountName=%u)(memberOf=CN=VPN,OU=Groups,DC=example,DC=com))"
# Require Group Membership
RequireGroup false # already handled by SearchFilter
<Group>
BaseDN "OU=Groups,DC=example,DC=com"
SearchFilter "(|(cn=VPN))"
MemberAttribute memberOf
</Group>
</Authorization>
If you only want to check if the user account is enabled and can authenticate (against the primary group) the following snipped is sufficient:
<LDAP>
URL ldap://dc01.example.com
BindDN CN=SA_OPENVPN,OU=ServiceAccounts,DC=example,DC=com
Password ThisIsTopSecret
Timeout 15
TLSEnable no
FollowReferrals no
</LDAP>
<Authorization>
BaseDN "DC=example,DC=com"
SearchFilter "sAMAccountName=%u"
RequireGroup false
</Authorization>
A complete LDAP auth OpenVPN configuration could look like the following example:
[email protected]# show interfaces openvpn
openvpn vtun0 {
mode server
openvpn-option "--tun-mtu 1500 --fragment 1300 --mssfix"
openvpn-option "--plugin /usr/lib/openvpn/openvpn-auth-ldap.so /config/auth/ldap-auth.config"
openvpn-option "--push redirect-gateway"
openvpn-option --duplicate-cn
openvpn-option --client-cert-not-required
openvpn-option --comp-lzo
openvpn-option --persist-key
openvpn-option --persist-tun
server {
domain-name example.com
max-connections 5
name-server 203.0.113.0.10
name-server 198.51.100.3
subnet 172.18.100.128/29
}
tls {
ca-certificate ca.crt
certificate server.crt
dh-params dh1024.pem
}
}
Client
VyOS can not only act as an OpenVPN site-to-site or server for multiple clients. You can indeed also configure any VyOS OpenVPN interface as an OpenVPN client connecting to a VyOS OpenVPN server or any other OpenVPN server.
Given the following example we have one VyOS router acting as OpenVPN server and another VyOS router acting as OpenVPN client. The server also pushes a static client IP address to the OpenVPN client. Remember, clients are identified using their CN attribute in the SSL certificate.
Configuration
Server Side
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 encryption cipher 'aes256'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 hash 'sha512'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 local-host '172.18.201.10'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 local-port '1194'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 mode 'server'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 persistent-tunnel
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 protocol 'udp'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 server client client1 ip '10.10.0.10'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 server domain-name 'vyos.net'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 server max-connections '250'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 server name-server '172.16.254.30'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 server subnet '10.10.0.0/24'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 server topology 'subnet'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 tls ca-cert ca-1
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 tls certificate srv-1
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 tls crypt-key srv-1
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 tls dh-params dh-1
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 use-lzo-compression
Client Side
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 encryption cipher 'aes256'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 hash 'sha512'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 mode 'client'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 persistent-tunnel
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 protocol 'udp'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 remote-host '172.18.201.10'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 remote-port '1194'
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 tls ca-cert ca-1
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 tls certificate client-1
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 tls crypt-key client-1
set interfaces openvpn vtun10 use-lzo-compression
Options
We do not have CLI nodes for every single OpenVPN option. If an option is missing, a feature request should be opened at Phabricator so all users can benefit from it (see Issues/Feature requests).
If you are a hacker or want to try on your own we support passing raw OpenVPN options to OpenVPN.
Will add persistent-key at the end of the generated OpenVPN configuration.
Please use this only as last resort - things might break and OpenVPN won’t start
if you pass invalid options/syntax.
Will add push "keepalive 1 10" to the generated OpenVPN config file.
Note
Sometimes option lines in the generated OpenVPN configuration require
quotes. This is done through a hack on our config generator. You can pass
quotes using the " statement.
Troubleshooting
VyOS provides some operational commands on OpenVPN.
Check status
The following commands let you check tunnel status.
Reset OpenVPN
The following commands let you reset OpenVPN.