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=head1 NAME
GNU-VPE - Overview of the GNU Virtual Private Ethernet suite.
=head1 DESCRIPTION
GVPE is a suite designed to provide a virtual private network for multiple
nodes over an untrusted network. This document first gives an introduction
to VPNs in general and then describes the specific implementation of GVPE.
=head2 WHAT IS A VPN?
VPN is an acronym, it stands for:
=over 4
=item Virtual
Virtual means that no physical network is created (of course), but a
network is I<emulated> by creating multiple tunnels between the member
nodes by encapsulating and sending data over another transport network.
Usually the emulated network is a normal IP or Ethernet, and the transport
network is the Internet. However, using a VPN system like GVPE to connect
nodes over other untrusted networks such as Wireless LAN is not uncommon.
=item Private
Private means that non-participating nodes cannot decode ("sniff)" nor
inject ("spoof") packets. This means that nodes can be connected over
untrusted networks such as the public Internet without fear of being
eavesdropped while at the same time being able to trust data sent by other
nodes.
In the case of GVPE, even participating nodes cannot sniff packets
send to other nodes or spoof packets as if sent from other nodes, so
communications between any two nodes is private to those two nodes.
=item Network
Network means that more than two parties can participate in the network,
so for instance it's possible to connect multiple branches of a company
into a single network. Many so-called "VPN" solutions only create
point-to-point tunnels, which in turn can be used to build larger
networks.
GVPE provides a true multi-point network in which any number of nodes (at
least a few dozen in practise, the theoretical limit is 4095 nodes) can
participate.
=back
=head2 GVPE DESIGN GOALS
=over 4
=item SIMPLE DESIGN
Cipher, HMAC algorithms and other key parameters must be selected
at compile time - this makes it possible to only link in algorithms
you actually need. It also makes the crypto part of the source very
transparent and easy to inspect, and last not least this makes it possible
to hardcode the layout of all packets into the binary. GVPE goes a step
further and internally reserves blocks of the same length for all packets,
which virtually removes all possibilities of buffer overflows, as there is
only a single type of buffer and it's always of fixed length.
=item EASY TO SETUP
A few lines of config (the config file is shared unmodified between all
hosts) and generating an RSA key-pair on each node suffices to make it
work.
=item MAC-BASED SECURITY
Since every host has it's own private key, other hosts cannot spoof
traffic from this host. That makes it possible to filter packet by MAC
address, e.g. to ensure that packets from a specific IP address come, in
fact, from a specific host that is associated with that IP and not from
another host.
=back
=head1 PROGRAMS
Gvpe comes with two programs: one daemon (C<gvpe>) and one control program
(C<gvpectrl>).
=over 4
=item gvpectrl
This program is used to generate the keys, check and give an overview of of the
configuration and to control the daemon (restarting etc.).
=item gvpe
This is the daemon used to establish and maintain connections to the other
network nodes. It should be run on the gateway of each VPN subnet.
=back
=head1 COMPILETIME CONFIGURATION
Please have a look at the C<gvpe.osdep(5)> manpage for platform-specific
information.
Gvpe hardcodes most encryption parameters. While this reduces flexibility,
it makes the program much simpler and helps making buffer overflows
impossible under most circumstances.
Here are a few recipes for compiling your gvpe, showing the extremes
(fast, small, insecure OR slow, large, more secure), between which you
should choose:
=head2 AS LOW PACKET OVERHEAD AS POSSIBLE
./configure --enable-hmac-length=4 --enable-rand-length=0
Minimize the header overhead of VPN packets (the above will result in
only 4 bytes of overhead over the raw ethernet frame). This is a insecure
configuration because a HMAC length of 4 makes collision attacks almost
trivial.
=head2 MINIMIZE CPU TIME REQUIRED
./configure --enable-cipher=bf --enable-digest=md4
Use the fastest cipher and digest algorithms currently available in
gvpe. MD4 has been broken and is quite insecure, though, so using another
digest algorithm is recommended.
=head2 MAXIMIZE SECURITY
./configure --enable-hmac-length=16 --enable-rand-length=12 --enable-digest=ripemd610
This uses a 16 byte HMAC checksum to authenticate packets (I guess 8-12
would also be pretty secure ;) and will additionally prefix each packet
with 12 bytes of random data.
In general, remember that AES-128 seems to be as secure but faster than
AES-192 or AES-256, more randomness helps against sniffing and a longer
HMAC helps against spoofing. MD4 is a fast digest, SHA1, RIPEMD160, SHA256
are consecutively better, and Blowfish is a fast cipher (and also quite
secure).
=head1 HOW TO SET UP A SIMPLE VPN
In this section I will describe how to get a simple VPN consisting of
three hosts up and running.
=head2 STEP 1: configuration
First you have to create a daemon configuration file and put it into the
configuration directory. This is usually C</etc/gvpe>, depending on how you
configured gvpe, and can be overwritten using the C<-c> command line switch.
Put the following lines into C</etc/gvpe/gvpe.conf>:
udp-port = 50000 # the external port to listen on (configure your firewall)
mtu = 1400 # minimum MTU of all outgoing interfaces on all hosts
ifname = vpn0 # the local network device name
node = first # just a nickname
hostname = first.example.net # the DNS name or IP address of the host
node = second
hostname = 133.55.82.9
node = third
hostname = third.example.net
The only other file necessary is the C<if-up> script that initializes the
virtual ethernet interface on the local host. Put the following lines into
C</etc/gvpe/if-up> and make it executable (C<chmod 755 /etc/gvpe/if-up>):
#!/bin/sh
ip link set $IFNAME address $MAC mtu $MTU up
[ $NODENAME = first ] && ip addr add 10.0.1.1 dev $IFNAME
[ $NODENAME = second ] && ip addr add 10.0.2.1 dev $IFNAME
[ $NODENAME = third ] && ip addr add 10.0.3.1 dev $IFNAME
ip route add 10.0.0.0/16 dev $IFNAME
This script will give each node a different IP address in the C<10.0/16>
network. The internal network (if gvpe runs on a router) should then be
set to a subset of that network, e.g. C<10.0.1.0/24> on node C<first>,
C<10.0.2.0/24> on node C<second>, and so on.
By enabling routing on the gateway host that runs C<gvpe> all nodes will
be able to reach the other nodes. You can, of course, also use proxy ARP
or other means of pseudo-bridging, or (best) full routing - the choice is
yours.
=head2 STEP 2: create the RSA key pair for each node
Next you have to generate the RSA keys for the nodes. While you can set
up GVPE so you can generate all keys on a single host and centrally
distribute all keys, it is safer to generate the key for each node on the
node, so that the secret/private key does not have to be copied over the
network.
To do so, run the following command to generate a key pair:
gvpectrl -c /etc/gvpe -g nodekey
This will create two files, F<nodekey> and F<nodekey.privkey>. The former
should be copied to F<< /etc/gvpe/pubkey/I<nodename> >> on the host where
your config file is (you will have to create the F<pubkey> directory
first):
scp nodekey confighost:/etc/gvpe/pubkey/nodename
The private key F<nodekey.privkey> should be moved to F</etc/gvpe/hostkey>:
mkdir -p /etc/gvpe
mv nodekey.privkey /etc/gvpe/hostkey
=head2 STEP 3: distribute the config files to all nodes
Now distribute the config files and public keys to the other nodes.
The example uses rsync-over-ssh to copy the config file and all the public
keys:
rsync -avzessh /etc/gvpe first.example.net:/etc/. --exclude hostkey
rsync -avzessh /etc/gvpe 133.55.82.9:/etc/. --exclude hostkey
rsync -avzessh /etc/gvpe third.example.net:/etc/. --exclude hostkey
You should now check the configuration by issuing the command C<gvpectrl
-c /etc/gvpe -s> on each node and verify it's output.
=head2 STEP 4: starting gvpe
You should then start gvpe on each node by issuing a command like:
gvpe -D -l info first # first is the nodename
This will make the gvpe daemon stay in foreground. You should then see
"connection established" messages. If you don't see them check your
firewall and routing (use tcpdump ;).
If this works you should check your networking setup by pinging various
endpoints.
To make gvpe run more permanently you can either run it as a daemon (by
starting it without the C<-D> switch), or, much better, from your inittab
or equivalent. I use a line like this on all my systems:
t1:2345:respawn:/opt/gvpe/sbin/gvpe -D -L first >/dev/null 2>&1
=head2 STEP 5: enjoy
... and play around. Sending a -HUP (C<gvpectrl -kHUP>) to the daemon
will make it try to connect to all other nodes again. If you run it from
inittab C<gvpectrl -k> (or simply C<killall gvpe>) will kill the daemon,
start it again, making it read it's configuration files again.
To run the GVPE daemon permanently from your SysV init, you can add it to
your F<inittab>, e.g.:
t1:2345:respawn:/bin/sh -c "exec nice -n-20 /path/to/gvpe -D node >/var/log/gvpe.log 2>&1"
For systems using systemd, you can use a unit file similar to this one:
[Unit]
Description=gvpe
After=network.target
Before=remote-fs.target
[Service]
ExecStart=/path/to/gvpe -D node
KillMode=process
Restart=always
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
=head1 SEE ALSO
gvpe.osdep(5) for OS-dependent information, gvpe.conf(5), gvpectrl(8),
and for a description of the transports, protocol, and routing algorithm,
gvpe.protocol(7).
The GVPE mailing list, at L<http://lists.schmorp.de/>, or
C<gvpe@lists.schmorp.de>.
=head1 AUTHOR
Marc Lehmann <gvpe@schmorp.de>
=head1 COPYRIGHTS AND LICENSES
GVPE itself is distributed under the GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE (see the file
COPYING that should be part of your distribution).
In some configurations it uses modified versions of the tinc vpn suite,
which is also available under the GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE.
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