A simple^* SoftEther VPN server Docker image

^* "Simple" as in no configuration parameter is needed for a single-user SecureNAT setup.

Based on repo: GitHub /siomiz/SoftEtherVPN

Image Tags

Linux amd64 Tags

Tags	Dockerfile	OS Version	SoftEther
:latest :4.38	Dockerfile	alpine:3.14	Latest Stable (v4.38-9760-rtm)

Linux arm64 Tags

Tags	Dockerfile	OS Version	SoftEther
:aarch64 :5.01.9674-aarch64	Dockerfile	alpine:3.14	Latest (v5.01.9674)

Coming soon Linux arm32 Tags

Tags	Dockerfile	OS Version	SoftEther
:latest :armhf :5.01.9674-armhf	Dockerfile	alpine:3.12	Latest (v5.01.9674)

Setup

• L2TP/IPSec PSK + OpenVPN
• SecureNAT enabled
• Perfect Forward Secrecy (DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA)
• make'd from the official SoftEther VPN GitHub Stable Edition Repository.

docker run -d --cap-add NET_ADMIN -p 500:500/udp -p 4500:4500/udp -p 1701:1701/tcp -p 1194:1194/udp -p 5555:5555/tcp devdotnetorg/softethervpn-alpine

Connectivity tested on Android + iOS devices. It seems Android devices do not require L2TP server to have port 1701/tcp open.

The above example will accept connections from both L2TP/IPSec and OpenVPN clients at the same time.

Mix and match published ports:

• -p 500:500/udp -p 4500:4500/udp -p 1701:1701/tcp for L2TP/IPSec
• -p 1194:1194/udp for OpenVPN.
• -p 443:443/tcp for OpenVPN over HTTPS.
• -p 5555:5555/tcp for SoftEther VPN (recommended by vendor).
• -p 992:992/tcp is also available as alternative.

Any protocol supported by SoftEther VPN server is accepted at any open/published port (if VPN client allows non-default ports).

Credentials

All optional:

• -e PSK: Pre-Shared Key (PSK), if not set: "notasecret" (without quotes) by default.
• -e USERS: Multiple usernames and passwords may be set with the following pattern: username:password;user2:pass2;user3:pass3. Username and passwords are separated by :. Each pair of username:password should be separated by ;. If not set a single user account with a random username ("user[nnnn]") and a random weak password is created.
• -e SPW: Server management password. ⚠️
• -e HPW: "DEFAULT" hub management password. ⚠️

Single-user mode (usage of -e USERNAME and -e PASSWORD) is still supported.

See the docker log for username and password (unless -e USERS is set), which would look like:

# ========================
# user6301
# 2329.2890.3101.2451.9875
# ========================

Dots (.) are part of the password. Password will not be logged if specified via -e USERS; use docker inspect in case you need to see it.

⚠️ if not set a random password will be set but not displayed nor logged. If specifying read the notice below.

Configurations

The vpn_server.config configuration file has been moved from the binaries folder to the /usr/vpnserver/config subfolder for mounting. For the container to work, you need to create a file vpn_server.config, for this, start the container and specify the initial password for the server and the default hub:

$ docker run --name vpnconf -e SPW=<serverpw> -e HPW=<hubpw> -v softethervpn-config:/usr/vpnserver/config devdotnetorg/softethervpn-alpine echo
$ docker rm vpnconf

The vpn_server.config file will be located at VOLUME: softethervpn-config. Now start the main container:

$ docker run ... -v softethervpn-config:/usr/vpnserver/config devdotnetorg/softethervpn-alpine

Refer to SoftEther VPN Server Administration manual for more information.

Logging

By default SoftEther has a very verbose logging system. For privacy or space constraints, this may not be desirable. The easiest way to solve this create a dummy volume to log to /dev/null. In your docker run you can use the following volume variables to remove logs entirely.

-v /dev/null:/usr/vpnserver/server_log \
-v /dev/null:/usr/vpnserver/packet_log \
-v /dev/null:/usr/vpnserver/security_log

If logs are needed, then logs will accumulate over time. Added cron job for regular cleaning of logs. The cron job runs every 15 minutes. The environment LIFETIMELOGS controls the lifetime of the logs in hours.

• (default) If -e LIFETIMELOGS=0, then the cron job does not start.
• if -e LIFETIMELOGS=2, logs older than 2 hours will be deleted. But you need to remember that a new log file is created at 00:00 every day and recorded until 23:59:59, name: vpn_20201104.log, vpn_20201105.log, etc. Thus, the vpn_20201104.log file will be deleted on 05 November 2020, at 02: 00-02: 15 minutes. There will be daily accumulation of information, if you have not switched to the hourly mode of creating log files.

Example: docker run -d --cap-add NET_ADMIN -p 500:500/udp -p 4500:4500/udp -p 1701:1701/tcp -p 1194:1194/udp -p 5555:5555/tcp -e LIFETIMELOGS=2 devdotnetorg/softethervpn-alpine

YAML:

#VPN
  softethervpn:
    image: devdotnetorg/softethervpn-alpine
    container_name: softethervpn_local
    restart: always
    ports:
      - 992:992/tcp
      - 1194:1194/udp
      - 5555:5555/tcp
      - 53:53/udp     
      - 1195:1195/udp      
    environment:
      - LIFETIMELOGS=2
    volumes:
      - softethervpn-config:/usr/vpnserver/config
      - softethervpn-logs-server:/usr/vpnserver/server_log      
      - softethervpn-logs-packet:/usr/vpnserver/packet_log
      - softethervpn-logs-security:/usr/vpnserver/security_log      
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN    

Server & Hub Management Commands

Management commands can be executed just before the server & hub admin passwords are set via:

• -e VPNCMD_SERVER: ;-separated Server management commands.
• -e VPNCMD_HUB: ;-separated Hub management commands (currently only for DEFAULT hub).

Example: Set MTU via NatSet Hub management command: -e VPNCMD_HUB='NatSet /MTU:1500'

Note that commands run only if the config file is not mounted. Some commands (like ServerPasswordSet) will cause problems.

OpenVPN

docker run -d --cap-add NET_ADMIN -p 1194:1194/udp devdotnetorg/softethervpn-alpine

The entire log can be saved and used as an .ovpn config file (change as needed).

Server CA certificate will be created automatically at runtime if it's not set. You can supply a self-signed 1024-bit RSA certificate/key pair created locally OR use the gencert script described below. Feed the keypair contents via -e CERT and -e KEY (use of --env-file is recommended). X.509 markers (like -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----) and any non-BASE64 character (incl. newline) can be omitted and will be ignored.

Examples (assuming bash; note the double-quotes " and backticks `):

• -e CERT="`cat server.crt`" -e KEY="`cat server.key`"
• -e CERT="MIIDp..b9xA=" -e KEY="MIIEv..x/A=="
• --env-file /path/to/envlist

env-file template can be generated by:

docker run --rm devdotnetorg/softethervpn-alpine gencert > /path/to/envlist

The output will have CERT and KEY already filled in. Modify PSK/USERS.

Certificate volumes support (like -v or --volumes-from) will be added at some point...

Assembly for ARM devices

The assembly for the aarch64 architecture (ARM64v8) was done on the Banana Pi BPI-M64 evaluation board.

The assembly for the armhf architecture (ARM32v7) was done on the Cubietruck evaluation board.

SoftEther VPN was compiled with musl option: export USE_MUSL=YES. Build on musl-based linux.

License

MIT License.