Linux Router with VPN on a Raspberry Pi

From Alpine Linux

Rationale

This guide demonstrates how to set up a Raspberry Pi as an open source Linux router with a VPN tunnel. You will need a USB ethernet adaptor. I chose the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter as it contains a ASIX AX88772 which has good Linux support. Be sure to not buy a cheap counterfeit one as they do exist. You may choose to also buy an RTC clock. If you don't have an RTC clock, the time is lost when your Pi is shut down. When it is rebooted, the time will be set back to Thursday, 1 January 1970. As this is earlier than the creation time of your VPN certificates OpenVPN will refuse to start, which may mean you cannot do DNS lookups over VPN.

I had decided against re-flashing a consumer router with an embedded firmware like OpenWrt, DD-WRT or Tomato because these devices were not intended to run an alternate firmware, and there is usually not any manufacturer support when doing so. Their hardware designs are also certainly not open at all.

Support for devices varies significantly depending on which one you have - sometimes down to the revision of the router. Integrating wireless into the device creates significant driver compatibility issues. Many chipsets (Broadcom, Marvell) for example either require closed source blobs or have a restrictive license.

For wireless, a separate access point was purchased (Ubiquiti UniFi AP) because it contains a Atheros AR9287 which is supported by ath9k and I was keen to avoid blob drivers.

You could choose to use an old x86/amd64 system instead. This may be a more attractive option if you want to route speeds above 30 Mbit/s. You are limited by the fact the USB and Ethernet share the same bus with the Raspberry Pi.

If you want to route speeds above 100 Mbit/s you'll want to make use of hardware encryption like AES-NI. You can also improve performance by not using OpenVPN in AES-CBC mode and instead use an OpenSSH tunnel with AES-CTR or stunnel with something like ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384.

The network in this tutorial looks like this:

Network Diagram
Network Diagram

Installation

This guide assumes you're using AlpineLinux from a micro sdcard in ramdisk mode. It assumes you've read the basics of how to use Alpine local backup First format the sdcard as described, stop when you get to the end of the Create a Bootable USB#Format_USB_stick

Download armhf.rpi.tar.gz archive and extract into FAT32 partition. You will need version 3.2.0 or greater if you have a Raspberry Pi 2.

Modem in full bridge mode

Your modem will need to be configured in "full bridge mode". The method for doing this varies depending on the interface on your device and is out of the scope of this tutorial.

The modem I am using is a Cisco 877 Integrated Services Router. It has no web interface and is controlled over SSH. More information can be found Configuring a Cisco 877 in full bridge mode.

Configuring PPP

Next up we need to configure our router to be able to dial a PPP connection with our modem.

apk add ppp-pppoe

Check that the interface between your router and modem is eth1, or change it. Enter your credentials at the bottom of the file or use /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

/etc/ppp/peers/yourISP

nolog

# Try to get the IP address from the ISP
noipdefault

# Try to get the name server addresses from the ISP
usepeerdns

# Use this connection as the default route.
defaultroute

defaultroute-metric 300

# detatch after ppp0 interface is created
updetach

# Replace previous default route
#replacedefaultroute

# rp-pppoe plug-in makes PPPoE connection so rp-pppoe package is not needed
#  Possibly, you may need to change interface according your configuration
plugin rp-pppoe.so eth1

# Uncomment if you need on-demand connection
#demand

# Disconnect after 300 seconds (5 minutes) of idle time.
#idle 300

# Hide password from log entries
hide-password

# Send echo requests
lcp-echo-interval 20
lcp-echo-failure 3

# Do not authenticate ISP peer
noauth

# Control connection consistency
persist
maxfail 0

# Control MTU size if your ISP does not force it
#mtu 1492

# Set your credentials
#  Alternatively you may use /etc/ppp/pap-secrets or /etc/ppp/chap-secrets files
user username@yourISP.tld
password <SECRET>

/etc/modules

Update modules to include pppoe:

pppoe

Network

/etc/hostname

Set this to your hostname eg:

<HOST_NAME>

/etc/hosts

Set your host and hostname

127.0.0.1	<HOST_NAME> <HOST_NAME>.<DOMAIN_NAME>

::1		<HOST_NAME> ipv6-gateway ipv6-loopback
ff00::0		ipv6-localnet
ff00::0		ipv6-mcastprefix
ff02::1		ipv6-allnodes
ff02::2		ipv6-allrouters
ff02::3		ipv6-allhosts

/etc/network/interfaces

Configure your network interfaces:

auto lo
    iface lo inet loopback

# internal interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
	address 192.168.1.1
	netmask 255.255.255.0

# external interface
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
	address 192.168.0.2
	netmask 255.255.255.252

# internet connection
auto ppp0
iface ppp0 inet ppp
	pre-up ip link set dev eth1 up
	provider <yourISP> # Make sure this is the same as /etc/ppp/peers/yourISP
	post-down ip link set dev eth1 down

Basic IPtables firewall with routing

This demonstrates how to set up basic routing with a permissive outgoing firewall. Incoming packets are blocked.

First install iptables:

apk add iptables ip6tables

iptables -F
iptables -X
iptables -t nat -F
iptables -t nat -X
iptables -t mangle -F
iptables -t mangle -X

#create rule chain per input interface for forwarding packets
iptables -t filter -N FWD_ETH0
iptables -t filter -N FWD_ETH1
iptables -t filter -N FWD_PPP0

#create rule chain per input interface for input packets (for host itself)
iptables -t filter -N IN_ETH0
iptables -t filter -N IN_ETH1
iptables -t filter -N IN_PPP0

#pass input packet to corresponded rule chain
iptables -t filter -A INPUT -i eth0 -j IN_ETH0
iptables -t filter -A INPUT -i eth1 -j IN_ETH1
iptables -t filter -A INPUT -i ppp0 -j IN_PPP0

#pass forwarded packet to corresponded rule chain
iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -i eth0 -j FWD_ETH0
iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -i eth1 -j FWD_ETH1
iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -i ppp0 -j FWD_PPP0

#Allow all all from localhost
iptables -t filter -I INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT

#SSH
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -p tcp -s 192.168.1.0/24 --dport ssh -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

#DNS
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -p udp -s 192.168.1.0/24 --dport 53 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW -j ACCEPT

#FreeRadius Radius
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -p tcp -s 192.168.1.10/24 --dport 1812 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -p udp -s 192.168.1.10/24 --dport 1812 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

#NTP
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -p udp -s 192.168.1.0/24 --dport 123 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

# SSH To Modem from Router
iptables -A IN_ETH1 -p tcp -s 192.168.0.2/30 -d 192.168.0.1/30 --sport ssh -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

# SSH To Modem forward from Network
iptables -A FWD_ETH1 -p tcp -s 192.168.0.2/30 -d 192.168.1.0/24 --sport ssh -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FWD_ETH1 -p tcp -s 192.168.0.2/30 -d 192.168.2.0/24 --sport ssh -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

# Bittorrent forwarded to Linux Workstation through VPN
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 6881:6889 -i ppp0 -j DNAT --to 192.168.2.30
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 6881:6889 -i ppp0 -j DNAT --to 192.168.2.30

#Forward traffic to LAN
iptables -A FWD_ETH0 -s 192.168.1.0/24 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

#Accept traffic to router
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -s 192.168.1.0/24 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

#Postroute PPP connection to ISP
iptables -t filter -A IN_PPP0 -m conntrack --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FWD_PPP0 -m conntrack --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o ppp0 -j MASQUERADE

iptables -P INPUT DROP
iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P FORWARD DROP

iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -j LOG --log-prefix "iptables/filter/FORWARD end"
iptables -t filter -A INPUT -j LOG --log-prefix "iptables/filter/INPUT end"

echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
for f in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/*/rp_filter ; do echo 1 > $f ; done

/etc/init.d/iptables save

/etc/sysctl.conf

These sysctl settings harden a few things and were mostly borrowed from the ArchLinux wiki.

net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1
kernel.panic = 120

#### ipv4 networking and equivalent ipv6 parameters ####

## TCP SYN cookie protection (default)
## helps protect against SYN flood attacks
## only kicks in when net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog is reached
net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1

## protect against tcp time-wait assassination hazards
## drop RST packets for sockets in the time-wait state
## (not widely supported outside of linux, but conforms to RFC)
net.ipv4.tcp_rfc1337 = 1

## sets the kernels reverse path filtering mechanism to value 1(on)
## will do source validation of the packet's recieved from all the interfaces on the machine
## protects from attackers that are using ip spoofing methods to do harm
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1
net.ipv6.conf.all.rp_filter = 1

## tcp timestamps
## + protect against wrapping sequence numbers (at gigabit speeds)
## + round trip time calculation implemented in TCP
## - causes extra overhead and allows uptime detection by scanners like nmap
## enable @ gigabit speeds
net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps = 0
#net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps = 1

## log martian packets
net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1

## ignore echo broadcast requests to prevent being part of smurf attacks (default)
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1

## ignore bogus icmp errors (default)
net.ipv4.icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses = 1

## send redirects (not a router, disable it)
net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects = 0

## ICMP routing redirects (only secure)
#net.ipv4.conf.all.secure_redirects = 1 (default)
net/ipv4/conf/default/accept_redirects=0
net/ipv4/conf/all/accept_redirects=0
net/ipv6/conf/default/accept_redirects=0
net/ipv6/conf/all/accept_redirects=0

# Disable ipv6
net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 1

DHCP

apk add dhcp

/etc/conf.d/dhcpd

Change DHCPD_IFACE="eth0" to the interface you want DHCP to run on.

/etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf

Configure your DHCP configuration file:

authoritative;
ddns-update-style interim;
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
    range 192.168.1.10 192.168.1.240;
    default-lease-time 259200;
    max-lease-time 518400;
    option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
    option broadcast-address 192.168.1.255;
    option routers 192.168.1.1;
    option ntp-servers 192.168.1.1; # Note we've set these to the same IP address
                                    # as the router because it will run a ntp forwarder through tlsdate

    option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.1;  # Note we've set these to the same IP address
                                             # as the router because it will run a DNS forwarder through dnscypt
}

host printer { 
    hardware ethernet XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX;   # Set fixed addresses, eg a printer
    fixed-address 192.168.1.9;
}

host wifi_AP { 
    hardware ethernet XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX;   # Set fixed addresses, eg a wifi AP
    fixed-address 192.168.1.10;
}

Make sure to add this to the default run level once configured:

rc-update add dhcp default

Synchronizing the clock

You can choose to use BusyBox's ntpd or you can choose a more fully fledged option like OpenNTPD

Busybox /etc/conf.d/ntpd

Allow clients to synchronize their clocks with the router.

# By default ntpd runs as a client. Add -l to run as a server on port 123.
NTPD_OPTS="-l -N -p <REMOTE TIME SERVER>"

Make sure to add this to the default run level once configured:

rc-update add ntpd default

Or if you prefer to synchronize with multiple servers...

OpenNTPD /etc/ntpd.conf

Install OpenNTPD

apk add openntpd

Add to default run level.

rc-update add openntpd default

/etc/ntpd.conf

# sample ntpd configuration file, see ntpd.conf(5)

# Addresses to listen on (ntpd does not listen by default)
listen on 192.168.1.1
listen on 192.168.2.1

# sync to a single server
#server ntp.example.org

# use a random selection of NTP Pool Time Servers
# see http://support.ntp.org/bin/view/Servers/NTPPoolServers
server 0.pool.ntp.org
server 1.pool.ntp.org
server 2.pool.ntp.org
server 3.pool.ntp.org

tlsdate

The time can also be extracted from a https handshake. If the certificate is self-signed you will need to use skip-verification:

apk add tlsdate

tlsdate -V --skip-verification -p 80 -H example.com

Saving clock

You could use a script like fake-hwclock which saves the time into /etc/fake-hwclock.data

OpenRC also has it's own method for saving the clock called "swclock", that's what I went with. Normally swclock simply changes a symlink ie /sbin/openrc-run -> /sbin/openrc when it saves the time.

However this when restored will have the time that the package was put together, because Alpine Linux unpacks packages on boot, then moves the provisioned configs from apkprov. You will need to make these changes to specify a file.

/etc/init.d/swclock

--- swclock.old
+++ swclock
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 # Released under the 2-clause BSD license.
 
 description="Sets the local clock to the mtime of a given file."
+clock_file=${clock_file:-/etc/rc.conf}
 
 depend()
 {
@@ -17,7 +18,7 @@
 {
 	ebegin "Setting the local clock based on last shutdown time"
 	if ! swclock 2> /dev/null; then
-	swclock --warn /sbin/openrc-run
+	swclock --warn $clock_file
 	fi
 	eend $?
 }
@@ -25,6 +26,6 @@
 stop()
 {
 	ebegin "Saving the shutdown time"
-	swclock --save
+	swclock --save $clock_file
 	eend $?
 }

/etc/conf.d/swclock

clock_file="/etc/swclock_saved_time"

Then touch the file:

touch /etc/swclock_saved_time

and finally add swclock to the boot run level

rc-update add swclock boot

You will also need to include the new init script in your apkprov, otherwise it will be overwritten with the one from the OpenRC package.

lbu include /etc/init.d/swclock

Unbound DNS forwarder with dnscrypt

We want to be able to do our lookups using dnscrypt without installing dnscrypt on every client on the network. Therefore the router will also run a DNS forwarder and request unknown domains over dnscrypt for our clients.

Unbound

First install

apk add unbound

/etc/unbound/unbound.conf

# unbound.conf(5) man page.
#
# See /usr/share/doc/unbound/examples/unbound.conf for a commented
# reference config file.

server:
    # The following line will configure unbound to perform cryptographic
    # DNSSEC validation using the root trust anchor.
    # auto-trust-anchor-file: "/var/lib/unbound/root.key"
server:
verbosity: 1
num-threads: 4                                                        
interface: 192.168.1.1
 do-ip4: yes
 do-udp: yes
 do-tcp: yes
 access-control: 192.168.1.0/24 allow  # Specify the subnets you want to listen on
 access-control: 192.168.2.0/24 allow
 do-not-query-localhost: no
 chroot: ""       
 logfile: "/var/log/unbound.log"             
 use-syslog: no 
 hide-identity: yes
 hide-version: yes 
 harden-glue: yes
 harden-dnssec-stripped: yes
 use-caps-for-id: yes       
 private-domain: "<HOSTNAME>"      
 #local-zone: "localhost." static
 #local-data: "freebox.localhost. IN A 192.168.0.254"                                              
 #local-data-ptr: "192.168.0.254 freebox.localhost"
python:
remote-control:
forward-zone:
  name: "."
  forward-addr: 127.0.0.2@53

/etc/network/interfaces

You'll need a second loopback device, put it under the already existing one.

auto lo
    iface lo inet loopback

auto lo:1
iface lo:1 inet static
	address 127.0.0.2
	netmask 255.0.0.0

DNSCrypt

You'll need to pin the testing repository as mentioned.

Then install:

apk add dnscrypt-proxy@testing

/etc/conf.d/dnscrypt-proxy

Enter a dnscrypt server, it should look something like this:

# DNSCRYPT_LOGFILE=/var/log/dnscrypt-proxy/dnscrypt-proxy.log

# override listen address where DNSCRYPT listen
DNSCRYPT_LOCALIP=127.0.0.2:53

RESOLVER=208.67.220.220:443                                                        
PROVIDER=2.dnscrypt-cert.opendns.com                                               
PUBKEY=B735:1140:206F:225D:3E2B:D822:D7FD:691E:A1C3:3CC8:D666:8D0C:BE04:BFAB:CA43:FB79

Finally add both to the default run level

rc-update add unbound default

rc-update add dnscrypt-proxy default

VPN Tunnel on specific subnet

As mentioned earlier in this article it might be useful to have a VPN subnet and a non-VPN subnet. Typically gaming consoles or computers might want low-latency connections.

Install the necessary packages:

apk add openvpn iproute2 iputils

/etc/modules

You'll want to add the tun module

tun

/etc/iproute2/rt_tables

Add "10 vpn" to the bottom of rt_tables. It should look something like this:

#
# reserved values
#
255	local
254	main
253	default
0	unspec
#
# local
#
#1	inr.ruhep
10 vpn

/etc/network/interfaces

Next up add the virtual interface: eth0:2, just under eth0 will do:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
	address 192.168.1.1
	netmask 255.255.255.0

# Virtual interface
auto eth0:2
iface eth0:2 inet static
	address 192.168.2.1
	netmask 255.255.255.0

Advanced IPtables rules that allow us to route into our two routing tables

This is an expansion of the previous set of rules. It sets up NAT masquerading for the 192.168.2.0 to go through the VPN.

iptables -F
iptables -X
iptables -t nat -F
iptables -t nat -X
iptables -t mangle -F
iptables -t mangle -X

#create rule chain per input interface for forwarding packets
iptables -t filter -N FWD_ETH0
iptables -t filter -N FWD_ETH1
iptables -t filter -N FWD_PPP0
iptables -t filter -N FWD_TUN0

#create rule chain per input interface for input packets (for host itself)
iptables -t filter -N IN_ETH0
iptables -t filter -N IN_ETH1
iptables -t filter -N IN_PPP0
iptables -t filter -N IN_TUN0

#pass input packet to corresponded rule chain
iptables -t filter -A INPUT -i eth0 -j IN_ETH0
iptables -t filter -A INPUT -i eth1 -j IN_ETH1
iptables -t filter -A INPUT -i ppp0 -j IN_PPP0
iptables -t filter -A INPUT -i tun0 -j IN_TUN0

#pass forwarded packet to corresponded rule chain
iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -i eth0 -j FWD_ETH0
iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -i eth1 -j FWD_ETH1
iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -i ppp0 -j FWD_PPP0
iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -i tun0 -j FWD_TUN0

#Allow all all from localhost
iptables -t filter -I INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT

#SSH
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -p tcp -s 192.168.1.0/24 --dport ssh -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -p tcp -s 192.168.2.0/24 --dport ssh -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

#DNS
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -p udp -s 192.168.1.0/24 --dport 53 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW -j ACCEPT
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -p udp -s 192.168.2.0/24 --dport 53 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW -j ACCEPT

#FreeRadius Radius
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -p tcp -s 192.168.1.10/24 --dport 1812 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -p udp -s 192.168.1.10/24 --dport 1812 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

#NTP
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -p udp -s 192.168.1.0/24 --dport 123 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -p udp -s 192.168.2.0/24 --dport 123 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

# SSH To Modem from Router
iptables -A IN_ETH1 -p tcp -s 192.168.0.2/30 -d 192.168.0.1/30 --sport ssh -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

# SSH To Modem forward from Network
iptables -A FWD_ETH1 -p tcp -s 192.168.0.2/30 -d 192.168.1.0/24 --sport ssh -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FWD_ETH1 -p tcp -s 192.168.0.2/30 -d 192.168.2.0/24 --sport ssh -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

# Bittorrent forwarded to Linux Workstation through VPN
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 6881:6889 -i tun0 -j DNAT --to 192.168.2.20
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 6881:6889 -i tun0 -j DNAT --to 192.168.2.20

#Forward traffic to LAN
iptables -A FWD_ETH0 -s 192.168.1.0/24 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FWD_ETH0 -s 192.168.2.0/24 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

#Accept traffic to router
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -s 192.168.1.0/24 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A IN_ETH0 -s 192.168.2.0/24 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

#Postroute VPN
iptables -t filter -A IN_TUN0 -m conntrack --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

#Forward incoming VPN tunnel traffic into into the 'VPN' subnet (aka *.*.2.*)
iptables -A FWD_TUN0 -d 192.168.2.0/24 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.2.0/24 -o tun0 -j MASQUERADE

#Postroute PPP connection to ISP
iptables -t filter -A IN_PPP0 -m conntrack --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FWD_PPP0 -m conntrack --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o ppp0 -j MASQUERADE

iptables -P INPUT DROP
iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P FORWARD DROP

iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -j LOG --log-prefix "iptables/filter/FORWARD end"
iptables -t filter -A INPUT -j LOG --log-prefix "iptables/filter/INPUT end"

echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
for f in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/*/rp_filter ; do echo 1 > $f ; done

/etc/init.d/iptables save

OpenVPN Routing

Usually when you connect with openvpn the remote VPN server will push routes down to your system. We don't want this as we still want to be able to access the internet without the VPN.

You'll need to add this to the bottom of your OpenVPN configuration file:

#Prevents default gateway from being set on the default routing table
route-noexec
#Allows route-up script to be executed
script-security 2
#Calls custom shell script after connection to add necessary routes
route-up /etc/openvpn/route-up.sh

Or this one-liner:

echo -e "#CustomStuffHere\nroute-noexec\nscript-security 2\nroute-up /etc/openvpn/route-up.sh\n#log /etc/openvpn/openvpn.log"

My VPNs are arranged like this in /etc/openvpn:

OpenVPN configuration file for that server:

countrycode.serverNumber.openvpn.conf

OpenVPN certs for that server:

countrycode.serverNumber.openvpn/countrycode.serverNumber.openvpn.crt
countrycode.serverNumber.openvpn/countrycode.serverNumber.openvpn.key
countrycode.serverNumber.openvpn/myKey.crt
countrycode.serverNumber.openvpn/myKey.key

So I use this helpful script to automate the process of changing between servers:

#!/bin/bash

vpn_server_filename=$1

rm -rf /etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf
ln -s $vpn_server_filename /etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf
chown -R openvpn:openvpn /etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf
chmod -R a=-rwx,u=+rX /etc/openvpn
chmod u=x /etc/openvpn/*.sh*

if grep -Fxq "#CustomStuffHere" openvpn.conf
then
    echo "Not adding custom routes, this server has been used previously"
else
    echo "Adding custom route rules"
    echo -e "#CustomStuffHere\nroute-noexec\nscript-security 2\nroute-up /etc/openvpn/route-up.sh\n#log /etc/openvpn/openvpn.log" >> /etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf
fi

echo "Remember to set BitTorrent port forward on VPN control panel"

That way I can simply change between servers by running:

changevpn.sh countrycode.serverNumber.openvpn

and then restart openvpn. I am also reminded to put the port forward through on the VPN control panel so my BitTorrent client is connectable:

service openvpn restart

Finally add openvpn to the default run level

rc-update add openvpn default

/etc/openvpn/route-up.sh

Make sure to add this file so your openvpn configuration can call it. You will need to "chmod +x" it.

#!/bin/sh

#Clear all routes on vpn routing table (this is to make sure there isn't any crap left over from a previous vpn connection
/sbin/ip route flush table vpn

#Copy routing table from main routing table into vpn table
/sbin/ip route show table main | grep -Ev ^default | while read ROUTE ; do ip route add table vpn $ROUTE; done

#Add default gateway to vpn routing table
/sbin/ip route add default via ${route_vpn_gateway} dev ${dev} table vpn

WiFi 802.1x EAP and FreeRadius

A more secure way than using pre-shared keys (WPA2) is to use EAP-TLS and use separate certificates for each device. See FreeRadius EAP-TLS configuration

Other Tips

lbu cache

Configure lbu cache so that you don't need to download packages when you restart your router eg lbu cache

This is particularly important as some of the images do not contain ppp-pppoe. This might mean you're unable to get an internet connection to download the other packages on boot.

lbu encryption /etc/lbu/lbu.conf

In /etc/lbu/lbu.conf you might want to enable encryption to protect your VPN keys.

# what cipher to use with -e option
DEFAULT_CIPHER=aes-256-cbc

# Uncomment the row below to encrypt config by default
ENCRYPTION=$DEFAULT_CIPHER

# Uncomment below to avoid <media> option to 'lbu commit'
# Can also be set to 'floppy'
LBU_MEDIA=mmcblk0p1

# Set the LBU_BACKUPDIR variable in case you prefer to save the apkovls
# in a normal directory instead of mounting an external media.
# LBU_BACKUPDIR=/root/config-backups

# Uncomment below to let lbu make up to 3 backups
# BACKUP_LIMIT=3

Remember to set a root password, by default Alpine Linux's root account is passwordless.

passwd root

Backup apkprov

It's a good idea to back up your apk provision file. You can pull it off your router to your local workstation with:

scp -r root@192.168.2.1:/media/mmcblk0p1/<YOUR HOST NAME>.apkovl.tar.gz.aes-256-cbc ./

And decrypt it with:

openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -in <YOUR HOST NAME>.apkovl.tar.gz.aes-256-cbc -out <YOUR HOST NAME>.apkovl.tar.gz

It can be encrypted with:

openssl aes-256-cbc -salt -in <YOUR HOST NAME>.apkovl.tar.gz -out <YOUR HOST NAME>.apkovl.tar.gz.aes-256-cbc

Harden SSH

Generate a SSH key

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096

You will want to put the contents of id_rsa.pub in /etc/ssh/authorized_keys

You can put multiple public keys on multiple lines if more than one person has access to the router.

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

A couple of good options to set in here can be:

ListenAddress 192.168.1.1
ListenAddress 192.168.2.1

While this isn't usually a good idea, a router doesn't need more than one user.

PermitRootLogin yes

The most important options:

RSAAuthentication yes
PubkeyAuthentication yes
AuthorizedKeysFile  /etc/ssh/authorized_keys
PasswordAuthentication no
PermitEmptyPasswords no
AllowTcpForwarding no
X11Forwarding no

/etc/conf.d/sshd

You will want to add

rc_need="net"

This instructs OpenRC to make sure the network is up before starting ssh.


Finally add sshd to the default run level

rc-update add sshd default

References