VpnCloud - Peer-to-Peer VPN

VpnCloud is a simple VPN over UDP. It creates a virtual network interface on the host and forwards all received data via UDP to the destination. VpnCloud establishes a fully-meshed VPN network in a peer-to-peer manner. It can work on TUN devices (IP based) and TAP devices (Ethernet based). Tunneling traffic between two nodes can be as easy as:

   $> vpncloud -c REMOTE_HOST:PORT --ifup 'ifconfig $IFNAME 10.0.0.1/24 mtu 1400 up'

For more information, please see the Website.

Project Status

This project is still under development but has reached a somewhat stable state. VpnCloud features the following functionality:

• Setting up tunnels between two networks via Ethernet (TAP) and IP (TUN)
• Connecting multiple networks with multiple forwarding behaviors (Hub, Switch, Router)
• Encrypted connections
• Automatic peer-to-peer meshing, no central servers
• NAT and (limited) firewall traversal using hole punching
• Automatic reconnecting when connections are lost
• Non-native forwarding modes, e.g. IP based learning switch and prefix routed Ethernet networks.
• High throughput and low additional latency (see performance page)
• Support for tunneled VLans (TAP device)
• Option to hide protocol header
• Automatic port forwarding via UPnP

Installing

Compiling from source

Prerequisites: Git, Cargo, Ronn

The checked-out code can be compiled with cargo build or cargo build --release (release version). The binary could then be found in target/release/vpncloud.

The tests can be run via cargo test.

Cross-Compiling

This software can be cross-compiled for a number of different architectures. Please also see the extended rust cross compilation docs.

ARMv7 (e.g. Raspberry Pi)

1. Install the Cargo target

   $> rustup target add armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf
   

2. Install the required build environment (on Ubuntu)

   $> sudo apt-get install -qq gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf
   

3. Build the software

   $> cargo build --release --target=armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf
   

Debian / Ubuntu

Deb packages for each release can be found in the releases section. Currently only packages for amd64 are available (I am accepting help on building and packaging for other platforms).

Debian packages can be built using cargo-deb: cargo deb

Arch Linux (AUR)

There is a VpnCloud package for Arch Linux thanks to Oscar Rainford (fourbytes).

CentOS 7 (maybe other RPM based)

CentOS 7 .rpm package can be built using cargo-rpm: cargo rpm On an CentOS 7:

1. Install the required build environment (on CentOS 7)

   $> yum groupinstall -y 'Development Tools'
   

2. Build the software

   $> cargo rpm build
   

rpm will be situated in target/release/rpmbuild/RPMS/

Contributions welcome

There are several areas in which still some work has to be done and where contributions are very welcome:

• Linux packages: VpnCloud is stable enough to be packaged for Linux distributions. Maintainers who want to package VpnCloud are very welcome.
• Security review: The security has been implemented with strong security primitives but it would be great if a cryptography expert could verify the system.
• Feedback on use cases: Some feedback on how VpnCloud is being used and maybe some tutorials covering common use cases would be nice.

Semantic Versioning

This project uses semantic versioning. Currently that means that everything can change between versions before 1.0 is finally released. However I am considering to release 1.0 soon.