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vpn

The problem

I have to deal with several VPNs for several clients on a daily basis, most of the time at the same time, and often they are configured in a "catch them all" manner. This leads to a lot of hassle because either the traffic of a VPN ends up going through another or sometimes activating the VPN just cuts you off from "The" internet leaving you with access only to whatever the VPN allows you to access from the Client's network.

My solution

First of all, this is the result of several years of working and trying various solutions ... At first there were plain VMs, then came Vagrant, now ... docker.

My current/final solution is to run the VPN clients inside docker containers and let them do whatever they want inside there (changing routes, firewalling, changing nameserver). Inside each container I also add a "forward proxy" on a specific port(2226) and using that port as a proxy you get access to anything that is reachable from inside the container.   On top of all these "VPN containers" I use another container that I keep running almost all of the time, which has another proxy that, by using some rules, it diverts the incoming traffic to the proxy running inside the needed VPN container and from there to the final destination.  

For the forward proxy I'm using this tool I've found called glider (thanks @nadoo), so for a detailed documentation on "how & what" it does you should check there.  

All the containers are published on my DockerHub (https://hub.docker.com/u/asharlohmar). You check how I build them by looking at my vpn_containers repo. They are built using the "alpine:latest" and are/will be updated when I notice a version change of the OS or used software.   For now I've built containers for:  

Installation

First of all you'll need a few things:

  • you need to run docker, so ... that's that. Check docker docs on how to do that. If you can't use docker natively, like in my case (I'm working on Windows with WSL1), you can use my Vagrantfile to spin up a small VM I've cooked up with alpine, docker and some other stuff needed to run the VPN clients. This would add vagrant to the list.
  • the vpn.sh is written for bash, so you'll need bash
  • depending on the approach in the next steps ... you can add "the usuals": git, unzip, some text editor, ...

All you need is the vpn.sh script (and a folder named conf just alongside it), you can choose to clone the whole repo (might help to keep you updated) or just download/copy what you need. You can/should symlink the vpn.sh somewhere in your $PATH for convenience. For example I do ln -s "$(realpath vpn.sh)" ~/bin/vpn.   The vpn.sh checks for the presence of a file .settings which if found it then sources it, this can be used to override some of the defaults/running variables.

Word of advice, in case you use WSL1... vagrant/virtualbox can't mount (add shared folders) folders that are in the WSL1 space, some details here, so you should put everything in the "windows space".  

The conf/proxy folder contains the needed configuration for the main proxy, we'll check that later.

Configuration 

Configuring a VPN destination

In order to configure a VPN destination, you have to create a folder inside the conf/ folder (I'd stick with simple 1-worded names, avoiding non ascii characters 'cause I didn't tested so much).   Inside you must put:

  • a file named .container_args - the main intent of this file is to manage the args of the docker command used to start the container (check on DockerHub page of the wanted container for instructions on the content)   and
  • vpn.conf file with the configuration specific to the VPN client used.

For example for a VPN destination called "client1" that has/uses FortinetVPN I'd have something like this:

$ tree -a conf/client1/
conf/client1/
├── .container_args
└── vpn.conf

where

$ grep -r "" conf/client1
conf/client1/.container_args:d_args+=( "--device=/dev/ppp"  "asharlohmar/glider-openfortivpn:latest" )
conf/client1/.container_args:

conf/client1/vpn.conf:host = vpn.client1.com
conf/client1/vpn.conf:port = 443
conf/client1/vpn.conf:username = my_username
conf/client1/vpn.conf:password = my_secret_passwd
conf/client1/vpn.conf:trusted-cert = 52e92d...some_signture...cc2cb76

As you can see I'm using my asharlohmar/glider-openfortivpn VPN container and the vpn.conf ... it's just a simple configuration for the openfortivpn client.

You can also add the following files:

  • .motd - as the name implies is a (static) motd file that it will show at the start of a VPN container. I mainly use it to keep some useful notes ... URLs, reminders, ...
  • .hosts - the content will be added to the /etc/hosts inside the container, this will allow to override records provided from the available nameservers or help when the available nameserver does not provide (all) the needed records.

In order to start this VPN you can run vpn.sh client1 [start], this will start a container with the name "client1". The various configurations ensure that the container will be "reachable" by that same name and that will help the main proxy know how to reach it.

All the containers are running on the same separated/dedicated network in order to avoid interfering with other containers.s

docker network inspect vpn &>/dev/null || docker network create --driver bridge --subnet 192.168.253.0/24 --gateway 192.168.253.1  vpn
# the subnet was chosen in order to avoid conflicting with the network of one of my clients, there's no other reason or dependency whatsoever.

Mainly the .container_args must contain something like d_args+=( "asharlohmar/glider-openconnect:latest" ) or any other image name (check here for more).
The d_args is an array of arguments with which the docker command will be launched, so if/when need it add other arguments before the image name. For example, I once had to set the MAC address d_args+=( "--mac-address=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx" "asharlohmar/glider-openconnect:latest" ).
The openfortivpn seems to always need to acces the host's ppp so it will always have to be d_args+=( "--device=/dev/ppp" "asharlohmar/glider-openfortivpn:latest" ).
If for some reason you need to change the name of the container (instead of using the folder's name), you can override it by adding this d_args[7]="new name" ( 7 is the position of the name ).

Configuring the main proxy

The proxy container stays on top of the VPN containers and acts as single-point-of contact in order to get the traffic to the final intended destination. The proxy (conf/proxy) uses the asharlohmar/glider-proxy container image, the glider that starts there it will be looking for rule files (*.rule) in the folder /conf/rules.d which will be the where the contents of the conf/proxy/rules.d/ folder will be mounted. For a detailed documentation on the configuration you can check the glider's documentation, the following is just a TLDR version. the typical *.rule file should look something like this:

$ cat conf/proxy/rules.d/client1.rule
# it's first "were to forward" 
# (we can reach the container by it's name, and the proxy running inside is on the port 2226)
forward=socks5://client1:2226

# then "what to forward" there

# by IPs
ip=1.2.3.4
ip=11.2.3.4

# entire networks
cidr=10.11.12.0/24
cidr=20.11.12.0/24

# and/or domains
domain=domain1.client1.local
domain=domain2.client1.com

You can start the proxy with vpn.sh proxy start and when started it binds on 2 ports

  • one for the proxying (default 8443)
  • and on another one there's a "http server" that provides a proxy.pac generated from the content of all the rule files. The "http server" is actually a nc listening and responding using a bash script that I've built based on @avleen's bashttpd. The proxy.pac file is created so that it sends requests for the destinations found in the *.rule files to the proxy and leaves everything else to be accessed directly.

If you check the contents of the proxy's .container_args you'll see that you can change the ports by defining/overriding PROXY_PORT and PROXYPAC_PORT in the .settings file

Usage

Set the settings, if necessary.
As I was saying, I'm using Windows and WSL1, so I'm using vagrant with the provided Vagrantfile to spin up my vpn docker machine. So I must contact docker via TCP, also I have to override the PROXYPAC_PORT with a path from inside the vagrant box, thus my .settings file looks like this:

VPN_MOUNT="/vagrant/conf/${name}"
export DOCKER_HOST=tcp://127.0.0.1:2375

Start a vpn
For the usage of vpn.sh check the help (vpn.sh -h).
Always start the main proxy (vpn.sh proxy or vpn.sh proxy start).

I've configured http://127.0.0.1:8088/proxy.pac directly in the "Use automatic configuration script" in Interner Options > Connections > LAN settings, so my browsers are always using it (besides Firefox which has its own internal proxy configuration).   This way I can keep using the browser(s) as usual for the "normal browsing", but also when I need to go to one of the destinations accessible only through the VPN (for example domain1.client1.local from the example above, or some webapp running on some host) the generated proxy.pac file will redirect the traffic to the proxy that will consult the *.rule files and will redirect it to the proxy in the vpn container and from there it will make its way to the destination ... all transparently and hassle free.

I also do lots of ssh-ing to hosts accessible through these VPNs so for that I've modified my ~/.ssh/config adding ProxyCommand pointing to the proxy on needed Host records, something like:

Host 1.2.3.4
    ProxyUseFdpass yes
    ProxyCommand nc -F -X 5 -x 127.0.0.1:8443 %h %p
    # I'm using netcat-openbsd

I've also used the proxy in some other applications, for example I have an Eclipse working environment with a Java project that's using it and this way I can have the local configuration files using the same ip addresses I'm using in the lab or production env in order to reach DBs, third-party webapps/webservices, devices, ... no more tunneling (ssh -L ...) and/or simulators just because I "don't have access" to "the real thing".

# eclipse.ini and/or in the "run configuration" 
-DsocksProxyHost=127.0.0.1
-Dhttp.proxyHost=127.0.0.1
-Dhttps.proxyHost=127.0.0.1
-DsocksProxyPort=8443
-Dhttp.proxyPort=8443
-Dhttps.proxyPort=8443

Extras Sometimes I have to deal with situations where some hosts are not reachable directly from the VPN so I have to use some "jump host"/bastion to reach them. For "ssh-ing" that would not be such a big problem there are various way to configure it to use a/the jump host ... but I also want access to "the other stuff" as uncumbersome as possible.   In these cases I start another proxy inside the VPN container using ssh's DynamicForward option.

Let's say that for the same "client1" from before I have to use the "jump host" "1.0.0.1" in order to reach server 11.11.11.11 and the "intranet" webapps [*.]intranet.client1.net:

  • inside conf/client1 I'd add a ssh_config file with:
Host jumphost01
    User some_user
    Hostname 1.0.0.1
    DynamicForward 127.0.0.1:2227

and I can start a ssh-tunnel inside the VPN container running ssh -F/conf/ssh_config -qfN jumphost01 (this will send the ssh process in the background). Actually I'm using the following script

#!/bin/sh
dest="${1:?which tunnel}"
if [ "$(grep -E '^\s*Host' /conf/ssh_config | grep -c -E "\b${dest}\b")" = "0" ]; then
    echo "Unknown tunne ${dest}"
else
    if [ ! -f /tmp/tunnel_key ]; then
        # when using vagrant, the permissions are all scrambled and un manageable
        # so I move and use the key from /tmp
        cp /conf/tunnel_key /tmp/tunnel_key
        chmod 400  /tmp/tunnel_ke*
    fi
    which ssh || apk add openssh-client
    # shellcheck disable=SC2078
    (while [ 1=1 ];do echo "starting tunnel ${dest}"; ssh -F/conf/ssh_config -qN "${dest}"; sleep 1; done)&
fi

in order to start ssh command inside an infinite loop so that it reconnects in case it goes down ( notice the missing -f , this keeps the process in the foreground) 

  • now I'd have to add a new *.rule file. I usually go with something like conf/proxy/rules.d/client1_jumphost01.rule so it's easier to identify what's what. The content of the file would be something like this:
forward=socks5://client1:2226,socks5://127.0.0.1:2227

ip=11.11.11.11
domain=intranet.client1.net
  • and that's pretty much it. Note: the glider (so the proxy container) needs to be restarted every time the *.rule files are changed in order to "see" the changes. There's a feature request asking for support for reloading the rules here, but it's been there since 2018 so ... .

Final words

So basically what I've done here was to take these several tools and pieces of code and build this whole ... mechanism ... that is controlled by this bash script.
All the thanks and praises should go to the owners, maintainers and communities of those tools and "sources of inspiration", if someone notices something/someone I've forgotten to mention please let me know.
I don't know pretty much anything about licensing & Co. so ... use it as you please, but it would mean a lot if you give me a shout if you do. I hope I didn't "break" any license, if so just let me know.
Feel free to snoop around the code (both the vpn script and container's creation script) and see that nothing nefarious is being done (at least on the stuff I control).