[govpn.git] / doc / govpn.texi

\input texinfo
@setfilename govpn.info
@documentencoding UTF-8
@settitle GoVPN

@copying
@quotation
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
@end quotation
@end copying

@node Top
@top GoVPN

This manual is for GoVPN -- simple secure free software virtual private
network (VPN) daemon, written entirely on Go programming language.

@menu
* Overview::
* News::
* Installation::
* Precautions::
* User manual::
* Developer manual::
* Reporting bugs::
* Copying conditions::
@end menu

@node Overview
@unnumbered Overview

GoVPN is simple secure virtual private network daemon. It uses
@url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encrypted_key_exchange, Diffie-Hellman Encrypted Key Exchange}
(DH-EKE) for mutual zero-knowledge peers authentication and
authenticated encrypted data transport. It is written entirely on
@url{http://golang.org/, Go programming language}.

All packets captured on network interface are encrypted, authenticated
and sent to remote server, that writes them to his interface, and vice
versa. Client and server use pre-shared authentication key (PSK) and
128-bit identification key.

Because of stateless UDP nature, after some timeout of inactivity peers
forget about each other and have to retry handshake process again,
therefore background heartbeat process will be ran.

Handshake is used to mutually authenticate peers, exchange common secret
per-session encryption key and check UDP transport availability.

Because of UDP and authentication overhead: each packet grows in size
during transmission, so you have to lower you maximum transmission unit
(MTU) on virtual network interface.

High security is the goal for that daemon. It uses fast cryptography
algorithms with 128bit security margin, strong mutual zero-knowledge
authentication and perfect-forward secrecy property. An attacker can not
know anything about payload (except it's size and time) from captured
traffic, even if pre-shared key is compromised. Rehandshake is performed
by client every 4 GiB of transfered data.

Each client also has it's own identification key and server works with
all of them independently. Identification key is not secret, but it is
encrypted (obfuscated) during transmission.

The only platform specific requirement is TAP network interface support.
API to that kind of device is different, OS dependent and non portable.
So only a few operating systems is officially supported. Author has no
proprietary software to work with, so currently there is lack of either
popular Microsoft Windows or Apple OS X support.

@itemize @bullet
@item
Works with @url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAP_(network_driver), TAP}
network interfaces on top of UDP entirely
@item
@url{https://www.gnu.org/, GNU}/Linux and
@url{http://www.freebsd.org/, FreeBSD} support
@item IPv6 compatible
@item Encrypted and authenticated transport
@item Relatively fast handshake
@item
@url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replay_attack, Replay attack} protection
@item
@url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_secrecy, Perfect forward secrecy}
(if long-term pre-shared keys are compromised, no captured traffic can
be decrypted anyway)
@item
Mutual two-side authentication (noone will send real network interface
data unless the other side is authenticated)
@item
@url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_password_proof, Zero knowledge}
authentication (pre-shared key is not transmitted in any form between
the peers, not even it's hash value)
@item Built-in rehandshake and heartbeat features
@item Several simultaneous clients support
@end itemize

@node News
@unnumbered News

@verbatiminclude ../NEWS

@node Installation
@unnumbered Installation

GoVPN is written on Go programming language, But
@url{https://www.gnu.org/software/make/, Make} program is recommended
also to be used. @url{https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/, Texinfo} is
used for building documentation. Also it depends on
@code{golang.org/x/crypto} Go libraries.

@include download.texi

You @strong{have to} verify downloaded archives integrity and check
their signature to be sure that you have got trusted, untampered
software. For integrity and authentication of downloaded binaries
@url{https://www.gnupg.org/, The GNU Privacy Guard} is used. You must
download signature provided with the tarball and run for example:

@example
gpg --verify govpn-1.5.tar.xz.sig govpn-1.5.tar.xz
@end example

For the very first time you must also import signing public keys. They
are provided below, but be sure that you are reading them from the
trusted source. Alternatively check this page from other sources and
look for the mailing list announcements.

You have to set up @code{$GOPATH} properly first. For example you can
clone the repository or decompress tarball and set path like this:

@example
% mkdir -p govpn/src
% git clone https://github.com/stargrave/govpn.git govpn/src/govpn
or
% tar xfC govpn-1.5.tar.xz govpn/src && mv govpn/src/govpn-1.5 govpn/src/govpn
% export GOPATH=$(pwd)/govpn:$GOPATH
@end example

After that you can just type @code{make} and all necessary Go libraries
will be installed and client/server binaries are built in the current
directory:

@example
% cd govpn/src/govpn
% make
[or gmake under FreeBSD]
@end example

@include pubkey.texi

@node Precautions
@unnumbered Precautions

The very important precaution is the @strong{cryptographically good}
pseudo random number generator. GoVPN uses native operating system PRNG
as entropy source. You have no way to check it's quality in closed
source code operating systems, so it is recommended not to use them if
you really needs security. Moreover it is possible that those OS leaks
information about possible PRNG states. And at least Apple OS X and
Microsoft Windows are already known to have weak CSPRNGs.

GoVPN could use it's own PRNG implementation like
@url{https://www.schneier.com/fortuna.html, Fortuna}, but it is
much easier to use the right OS, to use free software.

Also you should @strong{never} use one key for multiple clients. Salsa20
encryption is randomized in each session, but it depends again on PRNG.
If it fails, produces equal values at least once, then all you traffic
related to that key could be decrypted.

@node User manual
@unnumbered User manual

GoVPN is split into two pieces: client and server. Each of them work on
top of UDP and TAP virtual network interfaces. Client and server have
several common configuration command line options:

@table @asis
@item Timeout
Because of stateless UDP nature there is no way to know if
remote peer is dead, but after some timeout. Client and server
heartbeats each other every third part of heartbeat. Also this timeout
is the time when server purge his obsolete handshake and peers states.
@item Allowable nonce difference
To prevent replay attacks we just remembers
latest received nonce number from the remote peer and drops those who
has lower ones. Because UDP packets can be reordered during: that
behaviour can lead to dropping of not replayed ones. This options gives
ability to create some window of allows difference. That opens the door
for replay attacks for narrow time interval.
@item MTU
Maximum transmission unit.
@end table

Client needs to know his identification, path to the authentication key,
remote server's address, TAP interface name, and optional path to up and
down scripts, that will be executed after connection is either initiated
or terminated.

Server needs to know only the address to listen on and path to directory
containing peers information. This directory must contain subdirectories
with the names equal to client's identifications. Each of them must have
key file with corresponding authentication key, up.sh script that has to
print interface's name on the first line and optional down.sh.

@menu
* Example usage::
@end menu

@node Example usage
@section Example usage

Let's assume that there is some insecure link between your computer and
WiFi-reachable gateway. You have got preconfigured @code{wlan0} network
interface with 192.168.0/24 network. You want to create virtual
encrypted and authenticated 172.16.0/24 network and use it as a default
transport. MTU for that wlan0 is 1500 bytes. GoVPN will say that maximum
MTU for the link is 1476, however it does not take in account TAP's
Ethernet frame header length, that in my case is 14 bytes long (1476 - 14).

Do not forget about setting @code{GOMAXPROC} environment variable for
using more than one CPU.

At first you have to generate client's authentication key and client's
unique identification. There is @code{utils/newclient.sh} script for
convenience.

@example
% ./utils/newclient.sh Alice
peers/9b40701bdaf522f2b291cb039490312/Alice
@end example

@code{9b40701bdaf522f2b291cb039490312} is client's identification.
@code{Alice} is just an empty file that can help to search them like
this: @verb{|find peers -name Alice|}. @code{key} file inside peer's
directory contains authentication key.

GNU/Linux IPv4 client-server example:

@example
server% echo "#!/bin/sh" > peers/CLIENTID/up.sh
server% echo "echo tap10" >> peers/CLIENTID/up.sh
server% chmod 500 peers/CLIENTID/up.sh
server% ip addr add 192.168.0.1/24 dev wlan0
server% tunctl -t tap10
server% ip link set mtu 1462 dev tap10
server% ip addr add 172.16.0.1/24 dev tap10
server% ip link set up dev tap10
server% GOMAXPROC=4 govpn-server -bind 192.168.0.1:1194
@end example

@example
client% umask 066
client% echo MYLONG64HEXKEY > key.txt
client% ip addr add 192.168.0.2/24 dev wlan0
client% tunctl -t tap10
client% ip link set mtu 1462 dev tap10
client% ip addr add 172.16.0.2/24 dev tap10
client% ip link set up dev tap10
client% ip route add default via 172.16.0.1
client% export GOMAXPROC=4
client% while :; do
    govpn-client -key key.txt -id CLIENTID -iface tap10 -remote 192.168.0.1:1194
done
@end example

FreeBSD IPv6 client-server example:

@example
server% cat > peers/CLIENTID/up.sh <<EOF
#!/bin/sh
$tap=$(ifconfig tap create)
ifconfig $tap inet6 fc00::1/96 mtu 1462 up
echo $tap
EOF
server% chmod 500 peers/CLIENTID/up.sh
server% ifconfig em0 inet6 fe80::1/64
server% GOMAXPROC=4 govpn-server -bind fe80::1%em0
@end example

@example
client% ifconfig me0 inet6 -ifdisabled auto_linklocal
client% ifconfig tap10
client% ifconfig tap10 inet6 fc00::2/96 mtu 1462 up
client% route -6 add default fc00::1
client% export GOMAXPROC=4
client% while :; do
    govpn-client -key key.txt -id CLIENTID -iface tap10 -remote [fe80::1%me0]:1194
done
@end example

Example up-script:

@example
client% cat > up.sh <<EOF
#!/bin/sh
dhclient $1
rtsol $1
EOF
client% chmod +x up.sh
client% govpn -id CLIENTID -key key.txt -iface tap10 -remote [fe80::1%me0]:1194 -up ./up.sh
@end example

Client will exit if won't finish handshake during @code{-timeout}.
If no packets are received from remote side during timeout, then daemon
will stop sending packets to the client and client will exit. In all
cases you have to rehandshake again.

@node Developer manual
@unnumbered Developer manual

@table @asis
@item Nonce and identification encryption
@url{http://143.53.36.235:8080/tea.htm, XTEA}
@item Data encryption
@url{http://cr.yp.to/snuffle.html, Salsa20}
@item Message authentication
@url{http://cr.yp.to/mac.html, Poly1305}
@item Password authenticated key agreement
DH-EKE powered by @url{http://cr.yp.to/ecdh.html, Curve25519}
@item Packet overhead
24 bytes per packet
@item Handshake overhead
4 UDP (2 from client, 2 from server) packets, 200 bytes total payload
@end table

@menu
* Transport protocol::
* Handshake protocol::
@end menu

@node Transport protocol
@section Transport protocol

@verbatim
ENCn(SERIAL) + ENC(KEY, ENCn(SERIAL), DATA) +
    AUTH(ENCn(SERIAL) + ENC(KEY, ENCn(SERIAL), DATA))
@end verbatim

All transport and handshake messages are indistinguishable from
pseudo random noise.

@code{SERIAL} is message's serial number. Odds are reserved for
client(→server) messages, evens for server(→client) messages.

@code{ENCn} is XTEA block cipher algorithm used here as PRP (pseudo
random permutation) to randomize, obfuscate @code{SERIAL}. Plaintext
@code{SERIAL} state is kept in peers internal state, but encrypted
before transmission. XTEA is compact and fast enough. Salsa20 is PRF
function and requires much more code to create PRP from it. XTEA's
encryption key is the first 128-bit of Salsa20's output with established
common key and zero nonce (message nonces start from 1).

Encrypted @code{SERIAL} is used as a nonce for @code{DATA} encryption:
encryption key is different during each handshake, so (key, nonce) pair
is always used only once. @code{ENC} is Salsa20 cipher, with established
session @code{KEY} and encrypted @code{SERIAL} used as a nonce.

@code{AUTH} is Poly1305 authentication function. First 256 bits of
Salsa20 output are used as a one-time key for @code{AUTH}. Next 256 bits
of Salsa20 are ignored. All remaining output is XORed with the data,
encrypting it.

To prevent replay attacks we remember latest @code{SERIAL} from the
remote peer. If received message's @code{SERIAL} is not greater that the
saved one, then drop it. Optionally, because some UDP packets can be
reordered during transmission, we can allow some window for valid
serials with the @code{-noncediff} option. @code{-noncediff 10} with
current saved serial state equals to 78 allows messages with 68…78
serials. That time window can be used by attacker to replay packets, so
by default it equals to 1. However it can improve performance because of
rearranged UDP packets.

@node Handshake protocol
@section Handshake protocol

@verbatiminclude handshake.utxt

Each handshake message ends with so called @code{IDtag}: it is an XTEA
encrypted first 64 bits of each message with client's identity as a key.
It is used to transmit identity and to mark packet as handshake message.
Server can determine used identity by trying all possible known to him
keys. It consumes resources, but XTEA is rather fast algorithm and
handshake messages checking is seldom enough event.

@enumerate
@item
client generates @code{CPubKey}, random 64bit @code{R} that is used as a
nonce for encryption
@item
@verb{|R + enc(PSK, R, CPubKey) + IDtag -> Server|} [48 bytes]
@item
server remembers clients address, decrypt @code{CPubKey}, generates
@code{SPrivKey}/@code{SPubKey}, computes common shared key @code{K}
(based on @code{CPubKey} and @code{SPrivKey}), generates 64bit random
number @code{RS} and 256bit random @code{SS}. PSK-encryption uses
incremented @code{R} (from previous message) for nonce
@item
@verb{|enc(PSK, R+1, SPubKey) + enc(K, R, RS + SS) + IDtag -> Client|} [80 bytes]
@item
client decrypt @code{SPubKey}, computes @code{K}, decrypts @code{RS},
@code{SS} with key @code{K}, remembers @code{SS}, generates 64bit random
number @code{RC} and 256bit random @code{SC},
@item
@verb{|enc(K, R+1, RS + RC + SC) + IDtag -> Server|} [56 bytes]
@item
server decrypt @code{RS}, @code{RC}, @code{SC} with key @code{K},
compares @code{RS} with it's own one send before, computes final main
encryption key @code{S = SS XOR SC}
@item
@verb{|ENC(K, 0, RC) + IDtag -> Client|} [16 bytes]
@item
server switches to the new client
@item
client decrypts @code{RC} and compares with it's own generated one,
computes final main encryption key @code{S}
@end enumerate

Where PSK is 256bit pre-shared key. @code{R*} are required for handshake
randomization and two-way authentication. K key is used only during
handshake. DH public keys can be trivially derived from private ones.

@node Reporting bugs
@unnumbered Reporting bugs

Please send all your bug requests, patches and related questions to
@email{govpn-devel@@lists.cypherpunks.ru} mailing list.
Either visit @url{https://lists.cypherpunks.ru/mailman/listinfo/govpn-devel}
for information about subscription options and archived messages access, or
send email with the subject @code{subscribe} to
@email{govpn-devel-request@@lists.cypherpunks.ru}.

Official website is @url{http://www.cypherpunks.ru/govpn/}, also available
as @url{https://www.torproject.org/, Tor} hidden service:
@url{http://vabu56j2ep2rwv3b.onion/govpn/}.
Development Git source code repository currently is located here:
@url{https://github.com/stargrave/govpn.git}.

@node Copying conditions
@unnumbered Copying conditions

@insertcopying

@bye