WireGuard client
Introduction
- This how-to describes the method for setting up WireGuard client on OpenWrt.
- Follow WireGuard server for server setup and WireGuard extras for additional tuning.
Goals
- Encrypt your internet connection to enforce security and privacy.
- Prevent traffic leaks and spoofing on the client side.
- Bypass regional restrictions using commercial providers.
- Escape client side content filters and internet censorship.
- Access your LAN services remotely without port forwarding.
Command-line instructions
1. Preparation
Install the required packages. Specify configuration parameters for VPN client.
# Install packages wireguard-tools # Configuration parameters VPN_IF="vpn" VPN_SERV="SERVER_ADDRESS" VPN_PORT="51820" VPN_ADDR="192.168.9.2/24" VPN_ADDR6="fd00:9::2/64"
2. Key management
Generate and exchange keys between server and client.
# Generate keys umask go= wg genkey | tee wgserver.key | wg pubkey > wgserver.pub wg genkey | tee wgclient.key | wg pubkey > wgclient.pub wg genpsk > wgclient.psk # Client private key VPN_KEY="$(cat wgclient.key)" # Pre-shared key VPN_PSK="$(cat wgclient.psk)" # Server public key VPN_PUB="$(cat wgserver.pub)"
3. Firewall
Consider VPN network as public. Assign VPN interface to WAN zone to minimize firewall setup.
# Configure firewall uci rename firewall.@zone[0]="lan" uci rename firewall.@zone[1]="wan" uci del_list firewall.wan.network="${VPN_IF}" uci add_list firewall.wan.network="${VPN_IF}" uci commit firewall service firewall restart
4. Network
Configure VPN interface and peers. Note that network addresses require a netmask or they will default to defining a subnet of /32, and fail to route to the other end of the tunnel! The Allowed IP field can be a /32 as it is describing IPs rather than a subnet.
# Configure network uci -q delete network.${VPN_IF} uci set network.${VPN_IF}="interface" uci set network.${VPN_IF}.proto="wireguard" uci set network.${VPN_IF}.private_key="${VPN_KEY}" uci add_list network.${VPN_IF}.addresses="${VPN_ADDR}" uci add_list network.${VPN_IF}.addresses="${VPN_ADDR6}" # Add VPN peers uci -q delete network.wgserver uci set network.wgserver="wireguard_${VPN_IF}" uci set network.wgserver.public_key="${VPN_PUB}" uci set network.wgserver.preshared_key="${VPN_PSK}" uci set network.wgserver.endpoint_host="${VPN_SERV}" uci set network.wgserver.endpoint_port="${VPN_PORT}" uci set network.wgserver.persistent_keepalive="25" uci set network.wgserver.route_allowed_ips="1" uci add_list network.wgserver.allowed_ips="0.0.0.0/0" uci add_list network.wgserver.allowed_ips="::/0" uci commit network service network restart
Resolve race conditions and configure dynamic connection if necessary.
Testing
Establish the VPN connection. Verify your routing with traceroute and traceroute6.
traceroute openwrt.org traceroute6 openwrt.org
Check your IP and DNS provider.
On router:
- Go to LuCI > Status > Wireguard and look for peer device connected with an IPv4 or IPv6 address and with a recent handshake time
- Go to LuCI > Network > Diagnostics and ipv4 ping client device IP eg. 10.0.0.10
On client device depending on wireguard software:
- Check transfer traffic for tx & rx
- Ping router internal lan IP
- Check public IP address in a browser – https://whatsmyip.com – should see public IP address of ISP for the router
Troubleshooting
Collect and analyze the following information.
# Restart services service log restart; service network restart; sleep 10 # Log and status logread -e vpn; netstat -l -n -p | grep -e "^udp\s.*\s-$" # Runtime configuration pgrep -f -a wg; wg show; wg showconf wg0 ip address show; ip route show table all ip rule show; ip -6 rule show; nft list ruleset # Persistent configuration uci show network; uci show firewall; crontab -l
- Check keys match
- Check the tunnel route
- Check your addresses (LuCI will not remind you to set a netmask!)
- Check your firewall
You can use the `netcat` package to make an arbitrary UDP connection to your endpoint, and `tcpdump udp port ENDPOINT_PORT` at your other end if it is a Linux machine to see the result.
echo hello | netcat -u ENDPOINT_HOST ENDPOINT_PORT