Manage VPN Users

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By default, a single user account for VPN login is created. If you wish to add, edit or remove users, read this document.

Using helper scripts

You may use these scripts to more easily manage VPN users: add_vpn_user.sh, del_vpn_user.sh and update_vpn_users.sh. They will update users for both IPsec/L2TP and IPsec/XAuth ("Cisco IPsec"). For changing the IPsec PSK, read the next section.

Note: VPN users are stored in /etc/ppp/chap-secrets and /etc/ipsec.d/passwd. The scripts will backup these files before making changes, with .old-date-time suffix.

Add or edit a VPN user

Add a new VPN user or update an existing VPN user with a new password.

# Download the script
wget -O add_vpn_user.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hwdsl2/setup-ipsec-vpn/master/extras/add_vpn_user.sh

# All values MUST be placed inside 'single quotes'
# DO NOT use these special characters within values: \ " '
sudo sh add_vpn_user.sh 'username_to_add' 'password_to_add'

Delete a VPN user

Delete the specified VPN user.

# Download the script
wget -O del_vpn_user.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hwdsl2/setup-ipsec-vpn/master/extras/del_vpn_user.sh

# All values MUST be placed inside 'single quotes'
# DO NOT use these special characters within values: \ " '
sudo sh del_vpn_user.sh 'username_to_delete'

Update all VPN users

Remove all existing VPN users and replace with the list of users you specify.

# Download the script
wget -O update_vpn_users.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hwdsl2/setup-ipsec-vpn/master/extras/update_vpn_users.sh

To use this script, choose one of the following options:

Important: This script will remove ALL existing VPN users and replace them with the list of users you specify. Therefore, you must include any existing user(s) you want to keep in the variables below.

Option 1: Edit the script and enter VPN user details:

nano -w update_vpn_users.sh
[Replace with your own values: YOUR_USERNAMES and YOUR_PASSWORDS]
sudo sh update_vpn_users.sh

Option 2: Define VPN user details as environment variables:

# List of VPN usernames and passwords, separated by spaces
# All values MUST be placed inside 'single quotes'
# DO NOT use these special characters within values: \ " '
sudo \
VPN_USERS='username1 username2 ...' \
VPN_PASSWORDS='password1 password2 ...' \
sh update_vpn_users.sh

Manually manage VPN users and PSK

First, the IPsec PSK (pre-shared key) is stored in /etc/ipsec.secrets. To change to a new PSK, just edit this file. You must restart services when finished (see below). All VPN users will share the same IPsec PSK.

%any  %any  : PSK "your_ipsec_pre_shared_key"

For IPsec/L2TP, VPN users are specified in /etc/ppp/chap-secrets. The format of this file is:

"username1"  l2tpd  "password1"  *
"username2"  l2tpd  "password2"  *
... ...

You can add more users, use one line for each user. DO NOT use these special characters within values: \ " '

For IPsec/XAuth ("Cisco IPsec"), VPN users are specified in /etc/ipsec.d/passwd. The format of this file is:

username1:password1hashed:xauth-psk
username2:password2hashed:xauth-psk
... ...

Passwords in this file are salted and hashed. This step can be done using e.g. the openssl utility:

# The output will be password1hashed
# Put your password inside 'single quotes'
openssl passwd -1 'password1'

Finally, you must restart services if changing the PSK. For add/edit/remove VPN users, this is normally not required.

service ipsec restart
service xl2tpd restart

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