Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Chapter 13. Secure Remote Access with OpenVPN

Open Virtual Private Network (OpenVPN) creates a TLS/SSL encrypted connection between two different networks at separate physical locations, like a branch office linked to a main office, or a remote worker logging in to the company network from home. This connection is called an encrypted tunnel, a secure transport protecting your connection from the big bad internet. OpenVPN is dependent on OpenSSL, so having OpenSSL knowledge is helpful.

Note

If you are already familiar with OpenVPN, you can probably skip ahead to Recipes 13.5, 13.6, and 13.7 to review creating your encryption certificates and client and server configuration. If you are new to VPNs, try each recipe in sequence. Take your time; VPNs are complicated and finicky. Do a lot of testing before deploying to production systems.

OpenVPN Overview

A VPN is a secure extension of your network that makes all the same services available to remote workers that local users have, so the remote users’ experience is the same as for users physically present at your location. They can access your local web servers, email, file shares, chat servers, video conferencing apps, internal wikis, everything that you have walled off from the outside world and is available only to users inside your network. A VPN is not like SSH, which connects individual computers. A VPN links etworks and individual hosts to networks.

In this chapter you will learn how to set up an OpenVPN server, configure clients, ...