VPN clients must authenticate themselves to the VPN server. A valid certificate is required for the client to verify the identity of the VPN server. To meet the security needs of your network, you can define username/password authentication and strict certificate requirements.
The firewall supports multiple encryption algorithms for VPN connections. For TINA VPNs, multiple transport types are also available.
VPN Authentication Certificates
X.509 certificates are used by IPsec, L2TP/IPsec, and TINA, the Barracuda proprietary transport protocol. The certificates contain the following information:
- Public key.
- Some data signed by the private key for verification.
- Identity of the the CA.
- Identity of the owner.
- Key usage. Depending on what type of VPN and which clients you use, certain X.509 extensions might be required when creating the certificate.
For PPTP VPNs, external certificates are not needed because certificates are generated by the server at run time.
Certificate CA (PKI) Options
A full-featured public key infrastructure (PKI) for self-signed certificates is included with the Control Center (C610,VC610, or VC820).
Use an external CA (PKI) for firewalls that are stand-alone or managed with a Control Center C400 or VC400.
Depending on the certificate, you must export it in one of the following formats after it is created and signed:
Certificate | File Format |
---|---|
Root Certificate | PEM or CER |
Server Certificate | PKCS12, CER, or CRT |
Service Certificate/Key | PEM |
Client Certificate (if needed) | PEM |
Example Certificates for IPsec, L2TP, and iOS Clients
Supported Encryption Algorithms
The firewall supports the following encryption algorithms for TINA, IPsec, and L2TP/IPsec VPN connections:
Algorithm | Description |
---|---|
AES256 | Advanced Encryption Standard with 256-bit encryption. |
AES | Advanced Encryption Standard with 128-bit encryption. AES is often chosen because it provides a good performance and security ratio. |
3DES | Triple DES. This algorithm is considered most secure but results in high system loads and lower VPN performance. |
Blowfish | A keyed, symmetric block cipher developed to replace DES. |
CAST | A 128-bit block cipher. |
DES |
Digital Encryption Standard. DES is the only export-restricted algorithm available. |
NULL | No encryption. |
TINA Transport Protocols
For TINA VPNs, the following transport types are available:
Transport Protocol | Description |
---|---|
UDP | Stateless protocol that is best used for response-optimized tunnels. UDP is not recommended for unstable Internet connections. |
TCP | Stateful protocol that is used if the tunnel runs over a proxy server. Higher protocol overhead limits the response time. TCP is preferred for unstable Internet connections. |
UDP & TCP | Hybrid mode that creates two transport tunnels. To compensate for the weakness of both protocols, UDP is used for TCP connections, and TCP is used for stateless connections. |
ESP | The tunnel uses ESP (IP protocol 50). ESP is best for performance-optimized tunnels, but it does not work if NAT routers must be traversed. |
IPv6 Support
The VPN service supports IPv6 for the VPN envelope. This means that the site-to-site and client-to-site VPN tunnels can be created between two IPv6 endpoints, but only IPv4 traffic can be sent through the tunnel. IPv6 is not supported for:
- Dynamic Mesh
- L2TP
- PPTP
- SSL VPN
VPN Routing Tables
You can configure how the VPN routes are introduced into the firewall's routing table.
- Separate Routing Table – By default, the firewall uses source-based routing and creates separate premain routing tables for every VPN tunnel.
- Single Routing Table – All VPN routes are inserted into the main routing table. VPN routes are inserted with a preference of 10.
Handling of Duplicate Routes
- When a duplicate route to an existing VPN route in the main routing table is announced to the firewall via RIP, OSPF, or BGP, a duplicate routing entry is created and the route that was added last is used.
- Creating a direct or gateway route with the same metric and destination as a VPN route in the main routing table results in duplicate routes. The route added last is used.
Enable the Single Routing Table for VPN Routes
- Go to VPN-Settings.
- Click in the URL edit field of your browser, move the cursor to the end of the line, and append
&expert=1
to the URL string.
- Press Enter on your keyboard to confirm the change of the URL.
-
The browser will reload the window VPN > Settings with a section VPN Routes.
- Click Yes to enable VPN routing via the main routing table.
- In the VPN Interface IP Address field, enter a virtual server IP address that is also part of a published VPN network. E.g.,
192.168.200.200
if one of the Local Networks of the VPN tunnel is 192.168.200.0/24.
- Click Save.
Local out traffic is now sent and received correctly through the site-to-site VPN tunnel.