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    How do I make my ta.key permanent?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved OpenVPN
    14 Posts 7 Posters 10.4k Views
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    • N Offline
      nastraga
      last edited by

      Try putting the key in /var/etc where other openvpn configuration/key data is kept.  This location will survive a reboot.

      Also,I believe you should be using forward slashes.

      ie.

      tls-auth /var/etc/ta.key 1

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      • D Offline
        ddvzlnz
        last edited by

        Thanks, but it did not survive a reboot in /var/etc either.

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        • B Offline
          Bredys
          last edited by

          Im using this path tls-auth /etc/tls_auth.key without any problems…

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          • D Offline
            ddvzlnz
            last edited by

            Thanks.  I should have mentioned that I'm using an embedded system.  Still can't find a way to do it, must be missing something.

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            • S Offline
              sullrich
              last edited by

              @ddvzlnz:

              Thanks.  I should have mentioned that I'm using an embedded system.  Still can't find a way to do it, must be missing something.

              /var is dynamically created on bootup on embedded systems.  You will need to somehow use the config.xml xml directives.

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              • T Offline
                trendchiller
                last edited by

                or have a look at http://pfsense.trendchiller.com
                i created some patches for 1.2 that add tls :-)

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                • D Offline
                  ddvzlnz
                  last edited by

                  SaWeet!

                  Works on my full install.  On the embedded it failes with a message about read only file system. 
                  Is there a way to mount the file system as read-write for the duration of the update?

                  Thanks
                  GT

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                  • D Offline
                    ddvzlnz
                    last edited by

                    I installed your patches and notice one thing that seems to be a feature but I think is a bug.  We have openvpn servers that are running tcp and udp.  They all use tls.  If I try to set tls on a udp connection  everything is ok, but if try to set tls on a tcp connection an error message pops up stating that you can not use tls on a tcp connection.  You can use tls on a tcp connection.  I don't think openvpn cares about the transport protocol when it is doing tls.

                    Thank you.

                    ddvzlnz

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                    • T Offline
                      trendchiller
                      last edited by

                      So… please test with my updates if TLS is now working for TCP, too...
                      On my test-systems it seems to run...

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                      • S Offline
                        spindizzy
                        last edited by

                        Hi,

                        This has kind of already been covered in another topic…. See http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,2747.0.html (Bredys post)

                        To recap:
                        1. Open your tls authorization key in a text editor (Wordpad)
                        2. Select all (CTRL-A) then copy (CTRL-C)
                        3. Log in to pfSense WebGUI and goto "Diagnostics" > "Edit File"
                        4. Type "/etc/ta.key" into the "Save / Load from path" box, paste the previously copied key into the large box, then click save
                        5. Now edit your OpenVPN config, "VPN" > "OpenVPN" > "e"
                        6. At the bottom of the screen, enter "tls-auth /etc/ta.key 0;" into the "Custom options" box.
                        7. Save (and OpenVPN should restart)

                        Trendchiller, your script won't work on Embedded systems because it downloads files to the root directory, which is read-only (to save the CF card). Perhaps you could adjust it to use /tmp? (Writeable filesystem)

                        Hope this helps, it works for me.

                        PS. "tls-auth /etc/ta.key 0;" is for a server (Which my setup is). Change the 0 at the end to 1 for a client.

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                        • T Offline
                          trendchiller
                          last edited by

                          the downloads to root-directory are a self-update.
                          for embedded simply use:

                          fetch -o /etc/inc/openvpn.inc http://pfsense.trendchiller.com/patches/openvpn/_etc_inc/openvpn.inc
                          fetch -o /usr/local/pkg/openvpn.xml http://pfsense.trendchiller.com/patches/openvpn/_usr_local_pkg/openvpn.xml
                          fetch -o /usr/local/pkg/openvpn_cli.xml http://pfsense.trendchiller.com/patches/openvpn/_usr_local_pkg/openvpn_cli.xml
                          fetch -o /usr/local/pkg/openvpn_csc.xml http://pfsense.trendchiller.com/patches/openvpn/_usr_local_pkg/openvpn_csc.xml

                          should work, i hope ?

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                          • S Offline
                            shadow
                            last edited by

                            The patch works perfectly; Thank you.

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                            • T Offline
                              trendchiller
                              last edited by

                              also works on 1.2.1 now…

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