Setting Up OpenVPN on Ubuntu

This article introduces how to set up OpenVPN service on an Ubuntu system.

First, let me describe my local environment:

• Operating System: Ubuntu-18.04-LTS
• Intranet IP: 192.168.1.110
• External IP: 14.153.76.90
• OpenVPN Version: 2.4.4

Installing OpenVPN

First, install some dependencies, including openssl and lzo, where lzo is used to compress communication data to speed up transmission.

sudo apt-get install openssl libssl-dev
sudo apt-get install lzop

Install OpenVPN and easy-rsa

sudo apt-get install openvpn
sudo apt-get install easy-rsa

Creating Certificates and Keys

After installing easy-rsa, we can start creating the keys required for the OpenVPN service.

Modify and Initialize Environment Variables

sudo su
cd /usr/share/easy-rsa/
vim vars

# Modify registration information, such as company address, company name, department name, etc.
export KEY_COUNTRY="CN"
export KEY_PROVINCE="GuangDong"
export KEY_CITY="ShenZhen"
export KEY_ORG="XJXH"
export KEY_EMAIL="rock@xjxh.io"
export KEY_OU="FuckItWhatever"
export KEY_NAME="EasyRSA"

# Make environment variables effective
source ./vars

# Add openssl configuration file
cp openssl-1.0.0.cnf openssl.cnf

Create Keys

# Clear all certificate-related files in the keys directory
# The certificates and keys generated by the following steps are all in the /usr/share/easy-rsa/keys directory
./clean-all

# Generate root certificate ca.crt and root key ca.key (just press Enter throughout)
./build-ca

# Generate certificate and private key for the server, --batch means keeping default settings without needing Enter confirmation
./build-key-server --batch server

# Generate certificate and private key for the client
./build-key --batch client

# Create Diffie-Hellman key, which will generate the dh2048.pem file (the generation process is slow, do not interrupt it)
./build-dh

# Generate ta.key file (to prevent DDoS attacks, UDP floods, and other malicious attacks)
openvpn --genkey --secret keys/ta.key

Create Server Configuration File (server.conf)

First, create a keys directory in the OpenVPN configuration directory

sudo mkdir -p /etc/openvpn/keys

Then, copy the required OpenVPN certificates and keys to the newly created keys directory

cp /usr/share/easy-rsa/keys/{ca.crt,server.{crt,key},dh2048.pem,ta.key} /etc/openvpn/keys/

Copy a server configuration file template server.conf to /etc/openvpn/

gzip -d /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/sample-config-files/server.conf.gz
cp /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/sample-config-files/server.conf /etc/openvpn/

Edit server.conf

# Service port
port 1194

# Transmission protocol used
proto tcp
# Routing mode, use dev tap for bridge mode
dev tun

# Certificate path
ca keys/ca.crt
cert keys/server.crt
key keys/server.key

dh keys/dh2048.pem

# Default virtual LAN segment, ensure it does not conflict with the actual LAN
server 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0

ifconfig-pool-persist /var/log/openvpn/ipp.txt

# 192.168.1.0 is the LAN segment where my OpenVPN server is located
# If your LAN is not this, you need to modify it to your LAN segment here
push "route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0"

# If clients connect to the VPN using the same certificate and key, this option must be enabled, otherwise each certificate only allows one person to connect to the VPN
duplicate-cn

# If tls-auth is set here, the client must also set it, and it must correspond to the server side, where the server is 0 and the client is 1
;tls-auth keys/ta.key 0 # This file is secret
;key-direction 0

# clients we want to allow.
max-clients 100

persist-key
persist-tun

status /var/log/openvpn/openvpn-status.log
log         /var/log/openvpn/openvpn.log
log-append  /var/log/openvpn/openvpn.log

verb 3

# If the transmission method is set to TCP above, this should be commented out to avoid conflicts
;explicit-exit-notify 1

# Here configure support for logging in with username and password, which can replace logging in with keys and certificates
auth-user-pass-verify /etc/openvpn/checkpsw.sh via-env
# This is very important, if you enable this option, you only need to log in with username and password
# But if you comment out this option, you must use Username + Password + Certificate to log in successfully, none can be missing.
;verify-client-cert none
username-as-common-name
script-security 3

If you have configured logging in with username and password, you need to create a login verification script vim /etc/openvpn/checkpsw.sh

#!/bin/sh
###########################################################
# checkpsw.sh (C) 2004 Mathias Sundman <mathias@openvpn.se>
#
# This script will authenticate OpenVPN users against
# a plain text file. The passfile should simply contain
# one row per user with the username first followed by
# one or more space(s) or tab(s) and then the password.
PASSFILE="/etc/openvpn/psw-file"
LOG_FILE="/etc/openvpn/openvpn-password.log"
TIME_STAMP=`date "+%Y-%m-%d %T"`
###########################################################
if [ ! -r "${PASSFILE}" ]; then
  echo "${TIME_STAMP}: Could not open password file \"${PASSFILE}\" for reading." >> ${LOG_FILE}
  exit 1
fi
CORRECT_PASSWORD=`awk '!/^;/&&!/^#/&&$1=="'${username}'"{print $2;exit}' ${PASSFILE}`
if [ "${CORRECT_PASSWORD}" = "" ]; then
  echo "${TIME_STAMP}: User does not exist: username=\"${username}\", password=\"${password}\"." >> ${LOG_FILE}
  exit 1
fi
if [ "${password}" = "${CORRECT_PASSWORD}" ]; then
  echo "${TIME_STAMP}: Successful authentication: username=\"${username}\"." >> ${LOG_FILE}
  exit 0
fi
echo "${TIME_STAMP}: Incorrect password: username=\"${username}\", password=\"${password}\"." >> ${LOG_FILE}
exit 1

Then you also need to create a password file vim /etc/openvpn/psw-file, with one user per line, separated by spaces between the username and password:

user1 pass1
user2 pass2
user3 pass3

With this, the server configuration is complete.

Configuring Kernel and Firewall, Starting the Server

Step 1, enable routing forwarding feature

sed -i '/net.ipv4.ip_forward/s/0/1/' /etc/sysctl.conf
sed -i '/net.ipv4.ip_forward/s/#//' /etc/sysctl.conf
sysctl -p

Step 2, configure iptables

iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 1194 -m comment --comment "openvpn" -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/24 -j MASQUERADE

Then we save the iptables settings and load them automatically at boot. This can be quickly achieved with iptables-persistent

sudo apt-get install iptables-persistent
# Save rules
sudo service netfilter-persistent save

Next time you boot, you will see that the iptables rules have been loaded automatically

$ sudo iptables -L
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination         
ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere             tcp dpt:openvpn /* openvpn */

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination         

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination 

Disable ufw firewall

ufw disable

Step 3, start OpenVPN service

/etc/init.d/openvpn start
# Set to start on boot
systemctl enable openvpn@server

Creating Client Configuration File client.ovpn (for client software use)

First, copy a client.conf template and name it client.ovpn

mkdir ~/openvpn-client
cp /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/sample-config-files/client.conf ~/openvpn-client/client.ovpn

Then modify client.ovpn, vim /etc/openvpn/client.ovpn

client
# Set this the same as the server
dev tun
proto tcp

# OpenVPN server IP and port
remote 14.153.76.90 1194

resolv-retry infinite

nobind

persist-key
persist-tun

# Set certificates and keys here
ca ca.crt
cert client.crt
key client.key

remote-cert-tls server

# If the server uses tls-auth, enable it here as well
;tls-auth ta.key 1

comp-lzo

verb 3

# Path to the file storing username and password, so you don't need to enter them manually when connecting
auth-user-pass pass.txt

After modifying the client configuration document, you also need to copy the certificate files to the ~/openvpn-client folder:

cp /ect/openvpn/keys/ca.crt ~/openvpn-client
cp /usr/share/easy-rsa/keys/client.crt ~/openvpn-client
cp /usr/share/easy-rsa/keys/client.key ~/openvpn-client

Then you also need to create a pass.txt file in the openvpn-client directory, with the username on the first line and the password on the second line:

user1
pass1