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How to roll your own OpenVPN server on a VPS - Part 2

Part 2 - advanced

In Part 1 of this two-part guide on setting up OpenVPN on a CentO6 VPS server, we looked at why you might want to do this, and the pros and cons of doing so. We also provided step-by-step instructions for installing OpenVPN Access Server software on your VPS, and how to create a simple VPN connection using the OpenVPN Connect client.

In Part 2 (advanced) we will explore how to improve security by changing the cipher used, how to build a self-signed OpenVPN CA certificate, how to create an OpenVPN .ovpn configuration file so that any OpenVPN client can be used to connect to your server, and how to add additional users.

For these tutorials, we have chosen to use OpenVPN Access Server software, which is distinct from OpenVPN Server. OpenVPN Access Server is designed to be more user-friendly than OpenVPN Server, and allows you to perform many otherwise complex tasks using a simple GUI. The only real downside is that a license must be purchased for more than two users (starting at $9.60/year per Client Connection). However, as this tutorial is aimed at the home user building a personal DIY remote OpenVPN server, we do not consider this a major drawback.

Changing the encryption cipher

This is easy! By default OpenVPN uses 128-bit Blowfish Cipher-Block Chaining (BF-CBC) encryption. While more than sufficient for most purposes, weakness in it exist that have led to even the Blowfish cipher’s creator, Bruce Schneier, recommending users choose a more secure alternative.

As we have discussed before, we would love to see commercial VPN providers move away from NIST created and/or certified encryption algorithms, but unfortunately at this point OpenVPN does not support our favorite options - Twofish and Threefish. Most commercial providers have instead switched to 256-bit AES as standard, as this is the cipher used by the US government to encrypt sensitive information.

1. Open your OpenVPN Access Server page (by going to your Admin UI address, as discussed in Part 1 of this guide), the go-to the ‘Advanced VPN page’.

 

 Advanced settings

2. Scroll down to ‘Additional OpenVPN Config Directives (Advanced)’, and add the following line to both the ‘Server Config Directives’ and ‘Client Config Directives’ boxes:

cipher 

e.g. cipher AES-256-CBC

 

Advanced VPN settings

Hit ‘Save changes’.

Then ‘Update Running Server’ when prompted.

update server

OpenVPN supports the following ciphers:

DES-CBC (Data Encryption Standard - 56-bit key, now considered insecure)
DES-EDE3-CBC (also Triple DES or 3DES - increases key size of DES)
BF-CBC (Blowfish)
AES-128-CBC (Advanced Encryption Standard)
AES-192-CBC
AES-256-CBC
Camellia-128-CBC (Camellia)
Camellia-192-CBC
Camellia-256-CBC

How to build an OpenVPN certificate

OpenVPN Connect makes life easy by creating a valid CA certificate for you, so you do not need to do this yourself. However, if you would like to create your own self-signed certificate, follow the steps below (you can also follow Steps 1 and 2 to create a certificate signing request (CSR), which can be submitted to a commercial certificate authority (CA) for signing if you wish.)

1. The required SSL libraries should already be installed on your system from when you installed OpenVPN Access Server in Part 1, but you should check by entering the following command:

openssl version

 

csr1

If they not, then you can get them entering by entering:

apt-get install openssl (then check again that they are installed as above).

2. It is now time to build the certificate. We will first build a certificate signing request (CSR). This can be submitted to a commercial certificate authority (CA) for signing, but in this tutorial, we will convert it into a self-signed CA certificate.

Enter:

openssl req -out server.csr -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout server.key

The response will be a number of questions:

Country Name (2 letter code): (letter codes available here)
State or Provence Name:
City:
Org Name:
Org Name Unit: (e.g. IT support)
Common Name: (exact name of domain or DNS name of your VPS)
Email Address:

Plus ‘extra’ attributes -

A challenge password:
An optional company name:

 

csr3

These should be filled in if you plan to submit the CSR to a commercial certificate authority (CA), but for the purpose of this tutorial, you can just hit for each one to leave the fields blank.

3. We should now have two files in your root directory, called server.csr and server.key. We will use these to create a self-signed CA certificate. Type:

cp server.key server.key.org

openssl rsa -in server.key.org -out server.key and

openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt 

 

csr4

We should now have 3 files: Server.key, Server.crt and Server.csr (enter dir to see the contents of the current directory).

Installing the new CA certificate

4. Download these files to your PC using an ftp client (we used the FOSS WinSCP), then install them in OpenVPN Access Server by going to the ‘Web Server’ page (under ‘Configuration’ on left of the page), and Browse to the following files:

  • CA Bundle: server.crt
  • Certificate: server.crt
  • Private Key: server.key

 

Installing CA1

5. Hit ‘Validate’, then scroll to the top of the page - the ‘Validation Results’ should say ‘self-signed certificate’ and display the information you entered in Step 2 above. The certificate is valid for 1 year.

 

Installing CA2

6. Now scroll back down to the bottom of the web page and hit ‘Save’, then ‘Update Running Server’ in the ‘Settings Changed’ dialog.

 

update server

You now have validated your OpenVPN server with a self-signed CA certificate!

Creating an .ovpn file

One of the great things about using OpenVPN Access Server is that it does much of the heavy lifting for you, and one of the most useful things it does is to generate .ovpn OpenVPN configuration files automatically so that any OpenVPN client can connect to your server.
1. Login to your Client UI address (not Admin UI). When you see the automatic download screen (below), refresh your browser.

 

openvpn client login 2

2. You will now be offered a selection of download choices. Select ‘ Yourself (user-locked profile) ’ or ‘ Yourself (autologin profile) ’ (if available - you need to set this up - see ‘Adding other users below’).

 

Download ovpn file

3. Import the downloaded .ovpn file into your OpenVPN client as normal (for the standard Widows OpenVPN client, simply copy the file into the OpenVPN ‘config’ folder). The .ovpn can be renamed to whatever you like in order to help identify it. Then login as normal.

 

New user autologin

Adding other users

1. Additional users can be added using the OpenVPN Access Server Admin panel by going to ‘User Permissions.’

User Permissions

If you plan to only access your OpenVPN server from a secure location you can simplify login by selecting ‘Allow Auto-login’

The basic free OpenVPN Access Server license allows up to 2 client connections. When we setup our VPN Server, the option to add a second user was already available. If, however, this option does not appear (or you have purchased a group license and wish to add more users), you will have to add them (up to your license restriction) manually by entering the ‘# adduser’ command in PuTTY (or Terminal ect.).

Once you have added a new user you will prompted to ‘Update Running Server’ (do so).

2. Login to the Client UI address using the new username and password, and follow the steps outlined above in ‘Creating an .ovpn file’ above.

For a list of more commercial VPNs, that are easier to use, take a look at our best VPN guide.

Written by: Douglas Crawford

Has worked for almost six years as senior staff writer and resident tech and VPN industry expert at ProPrivacy.com. Widely quoted on issues relating cybersecurity and digital privacy in the UK national press (The Independent & Daily Mail Online) and international technology publications such as Ars Technica.

18 Comments

bineesh
on March 1, 2018
many thanks, can you explain how can i setup this openvpn in dd-wrt as a client. thanks!
https://cdn.proprivacy.com/storage/images/proprivacy/02/member-dougjpg-avatar-image-default-1png-avatar-image-default-minpng-avatar_image-small_webp.webp
Douglas Crawford replied to bineesh
on March 1, 2018
Hi bineesh, I'm glad you like it! I'm very busy at the moment, but will put this on my to-do list.
Bakdhun
on July 13, 2017
How can I start VPN server if I STOP through panel?
https://cdn.proprivacy.com/storage/images/proprivacy/02/member-dougjpg-avatar-image-default-1png-avatar-image-default-minpng-avatar_image-small_webp.webp
Douglas Crawford replied to Bakdhun
on July 13, 2017
Hi Bakdhun, I no longer have a VPN up and running in order to check this, but I'l pretty sure... 1. Open your OpenVPN Access Server page (by going to your Admin UI address, as discussed in Part 1 of this guide), the go to the ‘Advanced VPN page’. 2. Make sure you are on the Staus Overview page and hit the big "Start the server" button.
Edward Malihan
on May 13, 2016
default username is openvpn but you need to put command in your putty for you to able access. here's the command: passwd openvpn Then after you need to put your password and try it to access.
https://cdn.proprivacy.com/storage/images/proprivacy/02/member-dougjpg-avatar-image-default-1png-avatar-image-default-minpng-avatar_image-small_webp.webp
Douglas Crawford replied to Edward Malihan
on May 13, 2016
Hi Edward, I think you are referring to initial setup of the VPN server. I have covered this in Step 6 of Installing OpenVPN Access Server on the VPS, in Part 1 of this guide.
azhure
on March 29, 2016
im not seeing local password box, what could possibly go wrong?
https://cdn.proprivacy.com/storage/images/proprivacy/02/member-dougjpg-avatar-image-default-1png-avatar-image-default-minpng-avatar_image-small_webp.webp
Douglas Crawford replied to azhure
on April 5, 2016
Hi azhure, Do you mean when you try to login to the OpenVPN Access Server page? I will need some more info in order to help.

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