I'm trying to setting a VPN on Linux Mint 19.2.
I'm using the network-manager-strongswan so I added this file named VPN under /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/
[connection]
id=VPN
uuid=be1d4fd1-bbaa-4aa9-9fdc-e293bf16fe67
type=vpn
autoconnect=false
permissions=
timestamp=1582680217
[vpn]
address=vpn********.it
certificate=
encap=yes
ipcomp=no
method=eap
password-flags=0
proposal=no
user=user
virtual=yes
service-type=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.strongswan
[vpn-secrets]
password=password
[ipv4]
dns-search=
ignore-auto-dns=true
ignore-auto-routes=true
method=auto
[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy
dns-search=
ip6-privacy=0
method=ignore
The connection is fine, I can access using ssh on the private network. The big issue is that after the connection I can't surf the internet, connecting to the vpn lock all other addresses.
I added the ignore-auto-routes
flag in the config so why my connection is locked?
ip a output*
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: ens33: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 00:0c:29:3c:de:1b brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet yy.16.209.132/24 brd yy.16.209.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute ens33
valid_lft 1656sec preferred_lft 1656sec
inet yy.26.199.18/32 scope global ens33
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 fe80::216e:bcc0:3b4f:44b2/64 scope link noprefixroute
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
route -n output
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
0.0.0.0 yy.16.209.2 0.0.0.0 UG 20100 0 0 ens33
169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 1000 0 0 ens33
yy.16.209.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 100 0 0 ens33
yy.26.199.18 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 UH 50 0 0 ens33
yy.26.199.18 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 UH 100 0 0 ens33
ip xfrm policy output NO VPN
src yy.16.209.0/24 dst yy.16.209.0/24
dir fwd priority 175423
src yy.16.209.0/24 dst yy.16.209.0/24
dir in priority 175423
src yy.16.209.0/24 dst yy.16.209.0/24
dir out priority 175423
src 169.254.0.0/16 dst 169.254.0.0/16
dir fwd priority 183615
src 169.254.0.0/16 dst 169.254.0.0/16
dir in priority 183615
src 169.254.0.0/16 dst 169.254.0.0/16
dir out priority 183615
src fe80::/64 dst fe80::/64
dir fwd priority 134463
src fe80::/64 dst fe80::/64
dir in priority 134463
src fe80::/64 dst fe80::/64
dir out priority 134463
src yy.26.199.18/32 dst 0.0.0.0/0
dir out priority 383615
tmpl src yy.16.209.132 dst xx.xx.124.58
proto esp spi 0xc57cfb3f reqid 7 mode tunnel
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst yy.26.199.18/32
dir fwd priority 383615
tmpl src xx.xx.124.58 dst yy.16.209.132
proto esp reqid 7 mode tunnel
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst yy.26.199.18/32
dir in priority 383615
tmpl src xx.xx.124.58 dst yy.16.209.132
proto esp reqid 7 mode tunnel
src ::1/128 dst ::1/128
dir fwd priority 68927
src ::1/128 dst ::1/128
dir in priority 68927
src ::1/128 dst ::1/128
dir out priority 68927
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket in priority 0
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket out priority 0
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket in priority 0
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket out priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket in priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket out priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket in priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket out priority 0
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket in priority 0
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket out priority 0
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket in priority 0
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket out priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket in priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket out priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket in priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket out priority 0
ip xfrm policy output UNDER VPN
src yy.26.199.18/32 dst 0.0.0.0/0
dir out priority 383615
tmpl src yy.16.209.132 dst xx.xx.124.58
proto esp spi 0xc787ea42 reqid 2 mode tunnel
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst yy.26.199.18/32
dir fwd priority 383615
tmpl src xx.xx.124.58 dst yy.16.209.132
proto esp reqid 2 mode tunnel
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst yy.26.199.18/32
dir in priority 383615
tmpl src xx.xx.124.58 dst yy.16.209.132
proto esp reqid 2 mode tunnel
src fe80::/64 dst fe80::/64
dir fwd priority 134463
src fe80::/64 dst fe80::/64
dir in priority 134463
src fe80::/64 dst fe80::/64
dir out priority 134463
src ::1/128 dst ::1/128
dir fwd priority 68927
src ::1/128 dst ::1/128
dir in priority 68927
src ::1/128 dst ::1/128
dir out priority 68927
src yy.16.209.0/24 dst yy.16.209.0/24
dir fwd priority 175423
src yy.16.209.0/24 dst yy.16.209.0/24
dir in priority 175423
src yy.16.209.0/24 dst yy.16.209.0/24
dir out priority 175423
src 169.254.0.0/16 dst 169.254.0.0/16
dir fwd priority 183615
src 169.254.0.0/16 dst 169.254.0.0/16
dir in priority 183615
src 169.254.0.0/16 dst 169.254.0.0/16
dir out priority 183615
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket in priority 0
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket out priority 0
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket in priority 0
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket out priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket in priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket out priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket in priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket out priority 0
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket in priority 0
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket out priority 0
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket in priority 0
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst 0.0.0.0/0
socket out priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket in priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket out priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket in priority 0
src ::/0 dst ::/0
socket out priority 0
Diffing the outputs I can see this piece is added while the VPN is connected:
src yy.26.199.18/32 dst 0.0.0.0/0
dir out priority 383615
tmpl src yy.16.209.132 dst xx.xx.124.58
proto esp spi 0xc787ea42 reqid 2 mode tunnel
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst yy.26.199.18/32
dir fwd priority 383615
tmpl src xx.xx.124.58 dst yy.16.209.132
proto esp reqid 2 mode tunnel
src 0.0.0.0/0 dst yy.26.199.18/32
dir in priority 383615
tmpl src xx.xx.124.58 dst yy.16.209.132
proto esp reqid 2 mode tunnel
I tried a lot of things but with no luck.
- tried to increase the
Metric
for yy.26.199.18 to 1050 and 1100. route del default
&&ip route add default via yy.26.199.18 dev ens33
- Tried to delete the route entries yy.26.199.18 but nothing changes
and a lot of others stupid stuff.
So I want to use my connection for the "normal internet" while routing specific addresses through VPN.
It is possible?
In the present state of
charon-nm
there is no 'setting' to define the remote network at the other end of the tunnel. The VPN client by default proposes the full address space and depends on the VPN responder to narrow the traffic selector down to a more specific remote subnet or subnets. You can see this in the Charon-nm code. And it is also mentioned in the Strongswan wiki for the NetworkManager plugin.So, if the responder doesn't narrow that down, then all unicast traffic leaving the host will be directed into the tunnel.
However there is a routing way out of this, provided that the VPN responder assigns a virtual IP. This is attached to the outer interface by charon-nm. This is requested by the
virtual=yes
setting. From the given data it is the second address on your external interface.Strongswan by default uses a routing table id 220 and routing policy rule with priority 220 calling that table. This table actually sets the source of packets destined for VPN to the virtual IP on your side, and then they are caught by the xfrm policy rules. So you can bypass these rules with lower (as in executing earlier) priority rules and avoid the match with the xfrm policies.
For example if you want only traffic to 192.168.0.1/16 to enter the tunnel:
The first rule captures your 'wanted' traffic and sends it to the Strongswan table, the second rule skips the Strongswan table to the main table (this is where you add routes if you do not specify a table).
Or with a single negative rule:
You can automate adding and deleting such rules with the network hooks in
/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/
inside./pre-up.d/
and./pre-down.d/
, just put executable scripts there with mode 0755 owned by 'root'.$2
will containvpn-pre-up
orvpn-pre-down
respectively.$1
will contain the name of the outside interface.$CONNECTION_FILENAME
will be the path/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/yourfilename
.For example:
To see if the route to a certain address doesn't come from table 220
You should ñot see a table 220 if it doesn't go through VPN and otherwise you would. Also the VPN route shows the virtual IP as src and the 'main' table shows the normal outside IP as src.
Showing rules in table 220:
When repeatedly changing settings in the VPN or in routing tables it can be useful to flush the cached routes:
It is also good to know perhaps, that bringing the VPN up will also cut off already running IP layer communication that is running in 'plain text' that should go through VPN. But if a VPN connection with full address space traffic selection opens BEFORE you bypass the route this also means that you will loose all running TCP connections at that time. Even though NetworkManager dispatcher calls its hook pre-up, the ip xfrm rules and route in table 220 is already up when the pre-up scripts are called, so this is something you need to consider and maybe set the route bypass of table 220 at boot time.