Contents

OpenVPN Overview
Installation
Configuration
Forward traffic via VPN
Auto-start
Application to a VPN passing through a http proxy
1. TODO
See also

OpenVPN Overview

OpenVPN is SSL/TLS VPN solution. It able to traversing NAT and firewalls. This page explain briefly how to configure a VPN with OpenVPN, from both server side and client side.

Installation

Install the openvpn package on both client and server.

# apt-get install openvpn

Configuration

OpenVPN support user/pass, pre-shared key, certificates etc. to authenticate users.

Test VPN

Testing raw connection to check VPN link.

In Server:

# openvpn --remote CLIENT_IP --dev tun1 --ifconfig 10.9.8.1 10.9.8.2
...
Wed Mar  7 06:03:03 2012 NOTE: OpenVPN 2.1 requires '--script-security 2' or higher to call user-defined scripts or executables
Wed Mar  7 06:03:03 2012 ******* WARNING *******: all encryption and authentication features disabled -- all data will be tunnelled as cleartext
Wed Mar  7 06:03:03 2012 TUN/TAP device tun1 opened
...

You may skip the --remote CLIENT_IP part if your client is having a dynamic IP address.

In client:

# openvpn --remote SERVER_IP --dev tun1 --ifconfig 10.9.8.2 10.9.8.1
...
Wed Mar  7 18:05:30 2012 Peer Connection Initiated with [AF_INET]SERVER_IP:PORT
Wed Mar  7 18:05:30 2012 Initialization Sequence Completed
...

Check your #/sbin/ifconfig. You may also run ping command for testing.

tun1      Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  
          inet addr:10.9.8.2  P-t-P:10.9.8.1  Mask:255.255.255.255
          UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:13 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:100 
          RX bytes:2262 (2.2 KiB)  TX bytes:1819 (1.7 KiB)

Static-Key VPN

In the server's /etc/openvpn directory, run the following command to generate a static key:

# openvpn --genkey --secret static.key

Copy this static key to the clients /etc/openvpn directory using a secure channel like scp or sftp.

On the server, create a new /etc/openvpn/tun0.conf file and add the following:

dev tun0
ifconfig 10.9.8.1 10.9.8.2
secret /etc/openvpn/static.key

Where 10.9.8.x is your VPN subnetwork, 10.9.8.1 will be IP of the server, 10.9.8.2 is IP of client.

On the client, copy /etc/openvpn/static.key from server and create a new /etc/openvpn/tun0.conf file and add the following:

remote your-server.org
dev tun0
ifconfig 10.9.8.2 10.9.8.1
secret /etc/openvpn/static.key

On the server's firewall, open up UDP 1194 (default port).

If you are using shorewall, on both devices, add a new VPN zone to represent tun0 and create a default policy for it. This means adding something to the following files in /etc/shorewall:

zone
interfaces
policy

Bear in mind that 90% of all connection problems encountered by new OpenVPN users are firewall-related.

Start OpenVPN by hand on both sides with the following command:

# openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/tun0.conf --verb 6  // verbose output.

You should probably configure your route at this step.

To verify that the VPN is running, you should be able to ping 10.9.8.2 from the server and 10.9.8.1 from the client.

TLS-enabled VPN

In server, copy key generating script from openvpn example to /etc/openvpn and add executable permission:

# cd /etc/openvpn
# mkdir easy-rsa
# cp -R /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/easy-rsa/2.0/* easy-rsa/
# chmod -R +x easy-rsa/

Edit /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/vars bottom according to your ogranization.

export KEY_COUNTRY="US"
export KEY_PROVINCE="CA"
export KEY_CITY="SanFrancisco"
export KEY_ORG="Fort-Funston"
export KEY_EMAIL="mail@domain"
export KEY_EMAIL=mail@domain

Execute the following command:

# cd easy-rsa/
# ./vars  # set environment variables
# ./clean-all

Remember:

only .key files should be kept confidential.
.crt and .csr files can be sent over insecure channels such as plaintext email.
do not need to copy a .key file between computers.
each computer will have its own certificate/key pair.

Generate CERTIFICATE AUTHORITY (CA) CERTIFICATE/KEY:

# ./build-ca

It will generate ca.crt and ca.key in /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/ directory.

Generate BUILD AN INTERMEDIATE CERTIFICATE AUTHORITY CERTIFICATE/KEY (optional):

# ./build-key-server server

It will generate server.crt and server.key in /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/, and signed with your root certificate.

Generate BUILD DIFFIE-HELLMAN PARAMETERS (necessary for the server end of a SSL/TLS connection):

./build-dh

Generate key for each client:

./build-key clientname

It will generate keys in /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/

Copy the ca.crt, clientname.crt, clientname.key from Server to Client /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/ directory.

Check OpenVPN RSA Key and code.mixpanel.com VPN for details.

Test the connectivity from command line.

Server:

openvpn --dev tun1 --ifconfig 10.9.8.1 10.9.8.2 --tls-server --dh /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/dh1024.pem --ca /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/ca.crt --cert /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/server.crt --key /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/server.key --reneg-sec 60 --verb 5

Client:

openvpn --remote SERVER_IP --dev tun1 --ifconfig 10.9.8.2 10.9.8.1 --tls-client --ca /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/ca.crt --cert /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/clientname.crt --key /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/clientname.key --reneg-sec 60 --verb 5

If the connection is successful create file configuration.

In Server create /etc/openvpn/server.conf as follows:

port 1194
proto udp
dev tun

ca      /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/ca.crt    # generated keys
cert    /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/server.crt
key     /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/server.key  # keep secret
dh      /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/dh1024.pem

server 10.9.8.0 255.255.255.0  # internal tun0 connection IP
ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt

keepalive 10 120

comp-lzo         # Compression - must be turned on at both end
persist-key
persist-tun

status log/openvpn-status.log

verb 3  # verbose mode
client-to-client

Check code.mixpanel.com VPN and rackspace OpenVPN for details.

Create log directory:

# cd /etc/openvpn
# mkdir -p log/
# touch log/openvpn-status.log

Restart OpenVPN:

# /etc/init.d/openvpn restart

In Client create /etc/openvpn/client.conf as follows:

(note: you may use graphical vpn tool network-manager UI by providing the key and certificates)

client
dev tun
port 1194
proto udp

remote VPNSERVER_IP 1194             # VPN server IP : PORT
nobind

ca /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/ca.crt
cert /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/clientname.crt
key /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/clientname.key

comp-lzo
persist-key
persist-tun

verb 3

Restart OpenVPN:

# /etc/init.d/openvpn restart

Forward traffic via VPN

In Server enable runtime IP forwarding:

echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

Edit /etc/sysctl.conf uncomment the following line to make it permanent:

net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

TLDP Masquerade for details.

Execute the following command in server for testing:

iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o tun0 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -s 10.9.8.0/24 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.9.8.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

You may also use the rc.firewall-iptables script from TLDP Masquerade as an alternative.

In client:

# ip route add VPNSERVER_IP via LOCALGATEWAY_IP dev eth0  proto static
# ip route change default via 10.9.8.5 dev tun0  proto static   //client tun0 10.9.8.5

If you use graphical client generally you may not need to execute these command.

If everying is working fine, save the iptables rules:

# iptables-save > /etc/iptables.up.rules

To restore:

# iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.up.rules

add this to startup script. Debian wiki iptables page for details.

Auto-start

By default, all configured VPNs are started during system boot. Edit /etc/default/openvpn to start specific VPNs or to disable this behavior.

openvpn ifupdown hooks are also available for starting/stopping tunnels using /etc/network/interfaces, e.g.:

auto dsl
iface dsl inet ppp
    provider dsl-provider
    openvpn work_vpn

See /usr/share/doc/openvpn/README.Debian.gz for more information.

Application to a VPN passing through a http proxy

This part describe how to configure a VPN to pass through a http proxy, which allow only trafic on port 443 (and 80). This use the http_proxy of OpenVPN.

First of all, check that the port 443 isn't already used by another service on your server.
Configure OpenVPN on server side by adding port 443 and proto tcp-server to the configuration file.
Configure OpenVPN on the client side by adding port 443, proto tcp-client and http-proxy 1.1.1.1 8080 to the configuration file.

Where 1.1.1.1 and 8080 are IP and port of your proxy.

Now you should launch OpenVPN on the server and next on the client.
At this time, you should configure routes to use the VPN tunnel:
- Remove the default route through the proxy: route del default eth0
- Add default route through your VPN: route add default gw 10.9.8.1 dev tun0
- You should keep the route to the proxy with: route add 1.1.1.1 eth0

Update your /etc/resolv.conf according to your needs.

TODO

Explain how to enable the management interface (http://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/documentation/miscellaneous/79-management-interface.html)

OpenVPN