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This article will describe how to set up a OpenVPN server with the Alpine distro.
{{TOC right}}
This article applies to persons trying to get remote persons to connect to their network securely over the Internet. Mostly for a single computer to connect. Racoon/Opennhrp would be better for a remote site or office.


You will need to have a Publicly routable IP address for this to work. That means you connection to the Internet would not be with one of these IP addresses:
This article describes how to set up an OpenVPN server with the Alpine Linux.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address#IPv4_private_addresses]
This is an ideal solution for allowing single users or devices to remotely connect to your network. To establish connectivity with a Remote Office or site, [http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/w/index.php?title=Using_Racoon_for_Remote_Sites Racoon/Opennhrp] would provide better functionality.
 
It is recommended that you have a publicly routable static IP address in order for this to work. This means that your IP address cannot be in the private IP address ranges described here: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address#IPv4_private_addresses WikiPedia]
 
If your Internet-connected machine doesn't have a static IP address, [http://www.dyndns.com DynDNS] can be used for resolving DNS names to IP addresses.


= Setup Alpine =
= Setup Alpine =
== Initial Setup ==
== Initial Setup ==
Follow [http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/w/index.php?title=Installing_Alpine] on how to setup Alpine
Follow [[Installing_Alpine]] to setup Alpine Linux.


== Install programs ==
== Install programs ==
Install openvpn
Install openvpn
apk_add openvpn
{{Cmd|apk add openvpn}}
Prepare autostart of OpenVPN<BR>
 
rc_add -s 40 -k openvpn
Prepare autostart of OpenVPN
 
{{Cmd|rc-update add openvpn default}}
 
{{Cmd|modprobe tun
echo "tun" >> /etc/modules-load.d/tun.conf}}
 
Enable IP Forwarding
 
''echo "net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1" >> /etc/sysctl.d/ipv4.conf''
 
{{Cmd|sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/ipv4.conf}}


= Certificates =
= Certificates =
One of the first things that needs to be done is making sure you have secure keys to work with. Alpine makes this easy by having a web interface to manage the certificates. Documentation for it can be found here: [[Generating_SSL_certs_with_ACF]]. It is a best practice to not have your certificate server be on the same machine as the router being used for remote connectivity.  
One of the first things that needs to be done is to make sure that you have secure keys to work with. Alpine makes this easy by having a web interface to manage the certificates. Documentation for it can be found here: [[Generating_SSL_certs_with_ACF]]. It is a best practice not to have your certificate server be on the same machine as the router being used for remote connectivity.
 
You will need to create a server (ssl_server_cert) certificate for the server and one client (ssl_client_cert) for each client. To use the certificates, you should download the .pfx file and extract it.
 
To extract the three parts of each .pfx file, use the following commands:
To get the ca cert out...
{{Cmd|openssl pkcs12 -in PFXFILE -cacerts -nokeys -out ca.pem}}
 
To get the cert file out...
{{Cmd|openssl pkcs12 -in PFXFILE -nokeys -clcerts -out cert.pem}}
 
To get the private key file out. Make sure this stays private.
 
{{Cmd|openssl pkcs12 -in PFXFILE -nocerts -nodes -out key.pem}}
 
On the VPN server, you can also install the '''acf-openvpn''' package, which contains a web page to automatically upload and extract the server certificate. There is also a button to automatically generate the Diffie Hellman parameters.
 
If you would prefer to generate your certificates using OpenVPN utilities, see [[#Alternative Certificate Method]]


= Configure OpenVPN-server =
= Configure OpenVPN server =
Example configuration file for server:
Example configuration file for server. Place the following content in /etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf:
  local "Public Ip address"
  local "Public Ip address"
  port 1194
  port 1194
  proto udp
  proto udp
  dev tun
  dev tun
  ca ca.crt
  ca /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/ca.crt  
  cert server.crt
  cert /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/Server.crt # SWAP WITH YOUR CRT NAME
  dh dh1024.pem
key /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/Server.key # SWAP WITH YOUR KEY NAME
  server 10.252.252.0 255.255.255.0
  dh /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/dh1024.pem # If you changed to 2048, change that here!
  server 10.0.0.0 255.255.255.0
  ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt
  ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt
  push "route 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0"
  push "route 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0"
  push "dhcp-option DNS 10.252.253.9"
  push "dhcp-option DNS 10.0.0.1"
  keepalive 10 120
  keepalive 10 120
  comp-lzo
  comp-lzo
Line 37: Line 70:
  persist-key
  persist-key
  persist-tun
  persist-tun
  status openvpn-status.log
  status /var/log/openvpn-status.log
log        openvpn.log
  log-append  /var/log/openvpn.log
  log-append  openvpn.log
  verb 3
  verb 3


(''Instructions is based on [http://openvpn.net/howto.html#server openvpn.net/howto.html#server]'')
(''Instructions are based on [http://openvpn.net/howto.html#server openvpn.net/howto.html#server]'')


== Test your configuration ==
== Test your configuration ==
Test configuration and certificates
Test configuration and certificates
  openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf


{{Cmd|openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf}}


= Configure OpenVPN-client =
= Configure OpenVPN client =
(''Instructions is based on [http://openvpn.net/howto.html#client openvpn.net/howto.html#client]'')
Example client.conf:
client
dev tun
proto udp
remote "public IP" 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
ns-cert-type server # This means that the certificate on the openvpn server needs to have this field. Prevents MitM attacks
persist-key
persist-tun
ca client-ca.pem
cert client-cert.pem
key client-key.pem
comp-lzo
verb 3


(''Instructions are based on [http://openvpn.net/howto.html#client openvpn.net/howto.html#client]'')


= Save settings =
= Save settings =
Don't forget to save all your settings
Don't forget to save all your settings if you are running a RAM-based system.
lbu ci floppy
{{Cmd|lbu commit}}
 
= More than one server or client =
 
If you want more than one server or client running on the same alpine box, use the standard [[Multiple Instances of Services]] process.
 
For example, to create a config named "AlphaBravo":


* Create an approriate /etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf file, but name it "/etc/openvpn/AlphaBravo.conf"
* create a new symlink of the init.d script:
{{Cmd|ln -s /etc/init.d/openvpn /etc/init.d/openvpn.AlphaBravo}}
* Have the new service start automatically
{{Cmd|rc-update add openvpn.AlphaBravo}}


==== Manual Certificate Commands ====
= Alternative Certificate Method =
(''Instructions is based on [http://openvpn.net/howto.html#pki openvpn.net/howto.html#pki]'')
== Manual Certificate Commands ==
(''Instructions are based on [http://openvpn.net/howto.html#pki openvpn.net/howto.html#pki]'')


===== Initial setup for administrating certificates =====
=== Initial setup for administrating certificates ===
The following instructions assume that you want to save your configs, certcs and keys in '''/etc/openvpn/keys'''.<BR>
The following instructions assume that you want to save your configs, certs and keys in '''/etc/openvpn/keys'''.<BR>
Start by moving to the '''/usr/share/openvpn/easy-rsa''' folder to execute commands
Start by moving to the '''/usr/share/openvpn/easy-rsa''' folder to execute commands
cd /usr/share/openvpn/easy-rsa
{{Cmd|apk add easy-rsa # from the community repo
If not already done then create a folder where you will save your certificates and<BR>
cd /usr/share/easy-rsa}}
save a copy of your '''/usr/share/openvpn/easy-rsa/vars''' for later use.<BR>
If not already done then create a folder where you will save your certificates and save a copy of your '''/usr/share/easy-rsa/vars''' for later use.<BR>
(''All files in '''/usr/share/openvpn/easy-rsa''' is overwritten when the computer is restarted'')
{{Cmd|mkdir /etc/openvpn/keys
mkdir /etc/openvpn/keys
cp ./vars.example ./vars    #easy-rsa v3
cp ./vars /etc/openvpn/keys
cp ./vars /etc/openvpn/keys #easy-rsa v2}}
 
For EasyRSA v3 see: https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/wiki/EasyRSA
 
The instructions below are for EasyRSA v2:
 
If not already done then edit '''/etc/openvpn/keys/vars'''<BR>
If not already done then edit '''/etc/openvpn/keys/vars'''<BR>
(''This file is used for defining paths and other standard settings'')
(''This file is used for defining paths and other standard settings'')
vim /etc/openvpn/keys/vars
{{Cmd|vim /etc/openvpn/keys/vars}}
* Change '''KEY_DIR=''' from "'''$EASY_RSA/keys'''" to "'''/etc/openvpn/keys'''"
* Change '''KEY_DIR=''' from "'''$EASY_RSA/keys'''" to "'''/etc/openvpn/keys'''"
* Change '''KEY_SIZE, CA_EXPIRE, KEY_EXPIRE, KEY_COUNTRY, KEY_PROVINCE, KEY_CITY, KEY_ORG, KEY_EMAIL''' to match your system.
* Change '''KEY_SIZE, CA_EXPIRE, KEY_EXPIRE, KEY_COUNTRY, KEY_PROVINCE, KEY_CITY, KEY_ORG, KEY_EMAIL''' to match your system.
source the '''vars''' to set properties
source the '''vars''' to set properties
source /etc/openvpn/keys/vars
{{Cmd|source /etc/openvpn/keys/vars}}
{{Cmd|touch /etc/openvpn/keys/index.txt
echo 00 > /etc/openvpn/keys/serial}}


===== Set up a 'Certificate Authority' (CA) =====
=== Set up a 'Certificate Authority' (CA) ===
* Start by doing the steps in [[#Initial_setup_for_administrating_certificates]]
Clean up the '''keys''' folder.
Clean up the '''keys''' folder.
./clean-all
 
{{Cmd|./clean-all}}
 
Generate Diffie Hellman parameters
Generate Diffie Hellman parameters
./build-dh
 
{{Cmd|./build-dh}}
 
Now lets make the CA certificates and keys
Now lets make the CA certificates and keys
./build-ca


===== Set up a 'OpenVPN Server' =====
{{Cmd|./build-ca}}
* Start by doing the steps in [[#Initial_setup_for_administrating_certificates]]
 
=== Set up a 'OpenVPN Server' ===
Create server certificates
Create server certificates
./build-key-server {commonname}


===== Set up a 'OpenVPN Client' =====
{{Cmd|./build-key-server <commonname>}}
* Start by doing the steps in [[#Initial_setup_for_administrating_certificates]]
 
=== Set up a 'OpenVPN Client' ===
Create client certificates
Create client certificates
./build-key {commonname}
{{Cmd|./build-key <commonname>}}
 
=== Revoke a certificate ===
To revoke a certificate
 
{{Cmd|./revoke-full <commonname>}}
 
The revoke-full script will generate a CRL (certificate revocation list) file called '''crl.pem''' in the '''keys''' subdirectory.<BR>The file should be copied to a directory where the OpenVPN server can access it, then CRL verification should be enabled in the server configuration:
 
{{Cmd|crl-verify crl.pem}}
 
= OpenVPN and LXC =
 
Let's call this LXC "mylxc"...
 
On the host <pre>
modprobe tun
mkdir /var/lib/lxc/mylxc/rootfs/dev/net
mknod /var/lib/lxc/mylxc/rootfs/dev/net/tun c 10 200
chmod 666 /var/lib/lxc/mylxc/rootfs/dev/net/tun
</pre>
 
In /var/lib/lxc/mylxc/config <pre>
lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 10:200 rwm
</pre>
 
In the guest <pre>
apk add openvpn
</pre> Then config as usual...
 
This should work both as server and as client.
 
== persistent devices ==
lxc guest have their dev recreated on each restart in a tmpfs. This means all devices are reset and are not read from rootfs dev directory.
To make it persistent you can use an autodev script by adding the following to your lxc guest config
 
<pre>
# tun (openvpn)
lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 10:200 rwm
# audodev script to add devices
lxc.hook.autodev=/var/lib/lxc/CONTAINER/autodev
</pre>
 
The autodev script would be as following:
 
<pre>
#!/bin/sh
# dev is populated on earch container start.
# to make devices persistence we need to recreate them on each start.
 
cd ${LXC_ROOTFS_MOUNT}/dev
mkdir net
mknod net/tun c 10 200
chmod 0666 net/tun
</pre>


===== Revoke a certificate =====
[[category: VPN]]
* Start by doing the steps in [[#Initial_setup_for_administrating_certificates]]
To revoke a certificate...
./revoke-full {commonname}
The revoke-full script will generate a CRL (certificate revocation list) file called '''crl.pem''' in the '''keys''' subdirectory.<BR>The file should be copied to a directory where the OpenVPN server can access it, then CRL verification should be enabled in the server configuration:<BR>
<code>crl-verify crl.pem</code>

Revision as of 11:10, 12 February 2020

This article describes how to set up an OpenVPN server with the Alpine Linux. This is an ideal solution for allowing single users or devices to remotely connect to your network. To establish connectivity with a Remote Office or site, Racoon/Opennhrp would provide better functionality.

It is recommended that you have a publicly routable static IP address in order for this to work. This means that your IP address cannot be in the private IP address ranges described here: WikiPedia

If your Internet-connected machine doesn't have a static IP address, DynDNS can be used for resolving DNS names to IP addresses.

Setup Alpine

Initial Setup

Follow Installing_Alpine to setup Alpine Linux.

Install programs

Install openvpn

apk add openvpn

Prepare autostart of OpenVPN

rc-update add openvpn default

modprobe tun echo "tun" >> /etc/modules-load.d/tun.conf

Enable IP Forwarding

echo "net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1" >> /etc/sysctl.d/ipv4.conf

sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/ipv4.conf

Certificates

One of the first things that needs to be done is to make sure that you have secure keys to work with. Alpine makes this easy by having a web interface to manage the certificates. Documentation for it can be found here: Generating_SSL_certs_with_ACF. It is a best practice not to have your certificate server be on the same machine as the router being used for remote connectivity.

You will need to create a server (ssl_server_cert) certificate for the server and one client (ssl_client_cert) for each client. To use the certificates, you should download the .pfx file and extract it.

To extract the three parts of each .pfx file, use the following commands:

To get the ca cert out...

openssl pkcs12 -in PFXFILE -cacerts -nokeys -out ca.pem

To get the cert file out...

openssl pkcs12 -in PFXFILE -nokeys -clcerts -out cert.pem

To get the private key file out. Make sure this stays private.

openssl pkcs12 -in PFXFILE -nocerts -nodes -out key.pem

On the VPN server, you can also install the acf-openvpn package, which contains a web page to automatically upload and extract the server certificate. There is also a button to automatically generate the Diffie Hellman parameters.

If you would prefer to generate your certificates using OpenVPN utilities, see #Alternative Certificate Method

Configure OpenVPN server

Example configuration file for server. Place the following content in /etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf:

local "Public Ip address"
port 1194
proto udp
dev tun
ca /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/ca.crt 
cert /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/Server.crt # SWAP WITH YOUR CRT NAME
key /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/Server.key # SWAP WITH YOUR KEY NAME
dh /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/dh1024.pem # If you changed to 2048, change that here!
server 10.0.0.0 255.255.255.0
ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt
push "route 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0"
push "dhcp-option DNS 10.0.0.1"
keepalive 10 120
comp-lzo
user nobody
group nobody
persist-key
persist-tun
status /var/log/openvpn-status.log
log-append  /var/log/openvpn.log
verb 3

(Instructions are based on openvpn.net/howto.html#server)

Test your configuration

Test configuration and certificates

openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf

Configure OpenVPN client

Example client.conf:

client
dev tun
proto udp
remote "public IP" 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
ns-cert-type server # This means that the certificate on the openvpn server needs to have this field. Prevents MitM attacks
persist-key
persist-tun
ca client-ca.pem
cert client-cert.pem
key client-key.pem
comp-lzo
verb 3

(Instructions are based on openvpn.net/howto.html#client)

Save settings

Don't forget to save all your settings if you are running a RAM-based system.

lbu commit

More than one server or client

If you want more than one server or client running on the same alpine box, use the standard Multiple Instances of Services process.

For example, to create a config named "AlphaBravo":

  • Create an approriate /etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf file, but name it "/etc/openvpn/AlphaBravo.conf"
  • create a new symlink of the init.d script:

ln -s /etc/init.d/openvpn /etc/init.d/openvpn.AlphaBravo

  • Have the new service start automatically

rc-update add openvpn.AlphaBravo

Alternative Certificate Method

Manual Certificate Commands

(Instructions are based on openvpn.net/howto.html#pki)

Initial setup for administrating certificates

The following instructions assume that you want to save your configs, certs and keys in /etc/openvpn/keys.
Start by moving to the /usr/share/openvpn/easy-rsa folder to execute commands

apk add easy-rsa # from the community repo cd /usr/share/easy-rsa

If not already done then create a folder where you will save your certificates and save a copy of your /usr/share/easy-rsa/vars for later use.

mkdir /etc/openvpn/keys cp ./vars.example ./vars #easy-rsa v3 cp ./vars /etc/openvpn/keys #easy-rsa v2

For EasyRSA v3 see: https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/wiki/EasyRSA

The instructions below are for EasyRSA v2:

If not already done then edit /etc/openvpn/keys/vars
(This file is used for defining paths and other standard settings)

vim /etc/openvpn/keys/vars

  • Change KEY_DIR= from "$EASY_RSA/keys" to "/etc/openvpn/keys"
  • Change KEY_SIZE, CA_EXPIRE, KEY_EXPIRE, KEY_COUNTRY, KEY_PROVINCE, KEY_CITY, KEY_ORG, KEY_EMAIL to match your system.

source the vars to set properties

source /etc/openvpn/keys/vars

touch /etc/openvpn/keys/index.txt echo 00 > /etc/openvpn/keys/serial

Set up a 'Certificate Authority' (CA)

Clean up the keys folder.

./clean-all

Generate Diffie Hellman parameters

./build-dh

Now lets make the CA certificates and keys

./build-ca

Set up a 'OpenVPN Server'

Create server certificates

./build-key-server <commonname>

Set up a 'OpenVPN Client'

Create client certificates

./build-key <commonname>

Revoke a certificate

To revoke a certificate

./revoke-full <commonname>

The revoke-full script will generate a CRL (certificate revocation list) file called crl.pem in the keys subdirectory.
The file should be copied to a directory where the OpenVPN server can access it, then CRL verification should be enabled in the server configuration:

crl-verify crl.pem

OpenVPN and LXC

Let's call this LXC "mylxc"...

On the host

modprobe tun
mkdir /var/lib/lxc/mylxc/rootfs/dev/net
mknod /var/lib/lxc/mylxc/rootfs/dev/net/tun c 10 200
chmod 666 /var/lib/lxc/mylxc/rootfs/dev/net/tun

In /var/lib/lxc/mylxc/config

lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 10:200 rwm

In the guest

apk add openvpn

Then config as usual...

This should work both as server and as client.

persistent devices

lxc guest have their dev recreated on each restart in a tmpfs. This means all devices are reset and are not read from rootfs dev directory. To make it persistent you can use an autodev script by adding the following to your lxc guest config

# tun (openvpn)
lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 10:200 rwm
# audodev script to add devices
lxc.hook.autodev=/var/lib/lxc/CONTAINER/autodev

The autodev script would be as following:

#!/bin/sh
# dev is populated on earch container start.
# to make devices persistence we need to recreate them on each start.

cd ${LXC_ROOTFS_MOUNT}/dev
mkdir net
mknod net/tun c 10 200
chmod 0666 net/tun