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Home Assistant Community Add-on: WireGuard

WireGuard® is an extremely simple yet fast and modern VPN that utilizes state-of-the-art cryptography. It aims to be faster, simpler, leaner, and more useful than IPsec, while avoiding the massive headache.

It intends to be considerably more performant than OpenVPN. WireGuard is designed as a general-purpose VPN for running on embedded interfaces and supercomputers alike, fit for many different circumstances.

Initially released for the Linux kernel, it is now cross-platform (Windows, macOS, BSD, iOS, Android) and widely deployable, including via an Hass.io add-on!

WireGuard is currently under heavy development, but already it might be regarded as the most secure, easiest to use, and the simplest VPN solution in the industry.

Installation

WireGuard is pretty simple, however, can be quite complex for user that isn't familiar with all terminology used. The add-on takes care of a lot of things for you (if you want).

Follow the following steps for installation & a quick start:

  1. Search for the "WireGuard" add-on in the Supervisor add-on store and install it.
  2. Set the host configuration option to your Hass.io (external) address, e.g., myautomatedhome.duckdns.org.
  3. Change the name of the peer to something useful, e.g., myphone.
  4. Save the configuration.
  5. Start the "WireGuard" add-on
  6. Check the logs of the "WireGuard" add-on to see if everything went well.
  7. Forward port 51820 (UDP!) in your router to your Hass.io IP.
  8. Download/Open the file /ssl/wireguard/myphone/qrcode.png stored on your Hass.io machine, e.g., using Samba, Visual Studio Code or the Configurator add-on.
  9. Install the WireGuard app on your phone.
  10. Add a new WireGuard connection to your phone, by scanning the QR code.
  11. Connect!

Configuration

Now, for starters, don't get scared by the number of options and difficult terms this add-on provides. WireGuard can be a complex piece of software, but the add-on only has a few, simple, required settings. All the rest is handled by the add-on. However, If you would like to set up a more complex configuration, the add-on would allow that to.

If you are familiar with WireGuard, please note the following: The configuration of WireGuard looks very similar to all terms used in the WireGuard configuration. There is, however, one big difference: The add-on is able to generate configurations for the add-on, but also for the peers (clients).

Note: Remember to restart the add-on when the configuration is changed.

A little more extensive example add-on configuration:

log_level: info
server:
  host: myautomatedhome.duckdns.org
  addresses:
    - 10.10.10.1
  dns:
    - 1.1.1.1
    - 1.0.0.1
peers:
  - name: frenck
    addresses:
      - 10.10.10.2
    allowed_ips: []
    client_allowed_ips: []
  - name: ninja
    public_key: QNLXV8lrsPnKOd011DO8g5DWyad6iHJDSVOD6yOqjiE=
    addresses:
      - 10.10.10.3
    allowed_ips: []
    client_allowed_ips:
      - 10.10.10.0/24
      - 192.168.1.0/24

Note: This is just an example, don't copy and paste it! Create your own!

Option: server.host

This configuration option is the hostname that your clients will use to connect to your WireGuard add-on. The host is mainly used to generate client configurations and SHOULD NOT contain a port. If you want to change the port, use the "Network" section of the add-on configuration.

Example: myautomatedhome.duckdns.org, for local testing hassio.local will actually work.

DO NOT attempt to use a URL such as a Nabu Casa endpoint, the entry needs to be either a DNS entry or IP address that is accessible by the clients.

Option: server.addresses

A list of IP (IPv4 or IPv6) addresses (optionally with CIDR masks) to be assigned to the server/add-on interface.

It is strongly advised to create/use a separate IP address space from your home network, e.g., if your home network uses 192.168.1.x then DO NOT use that for the add-on.

Option: server.dns (optional)

A list of DNS servers used by the add-on and the configuration generated for the clients. This configuration option is optional, and if no DNS servers are set, it will use the built-in DNS server from Hass.io.

If you are running the AdGuard add-on, you can add 172.30.32.1 as a DNS IP address in the list. This will cause your clients to use those. What this does, it effectively making your clients to have ad-filtering (e.g., your mobile phone), while not at home.

Option: server.private_key (optional)

Allows you to provide your own base64 private key generated by wg genkey. This option supports the use of !secret. If you don't supply one, the add-on will generate one for you and store it in: /ssl/wireguard/private_key.

Option: server.public_key (optional)

Allows you to provide your own a base64 public key calculated by wg pubkey from a private key. This option supports the use of !secret.

If you don't supply one, the add-on will calculate one based on the private key that was supplied via the server.private_key or, in case no private key was supplied, calculate it from the generated private key.

Option: server.fwmark (optional)

A 32-bit fwmark for outgoing packets. May be specified in hexadecimal by prepending "0x". If you don't know what this is, then you probably don't need it.

Option: server.table (optional)

Controls the routing table to which routes are added. Setting it to off disables the creation of routes altogether. When not provided, the add-on adds routes to the default table and enables special handling of default routes.

Option: server.pre_up (optional)

Allows you to run commands before WireGuard is started.

Option: server.pre_down (optional)

Allows you to run commands before WireGuard is stopped.

Option: server.post_up (optional)

Allows you to run commands after WireGuard has been started. This is useful for modifying things like routing. If not provided, the add-on will by default route all traffic coming in from the VPN through your home network.

If you like to disable that, setting this option to "off", will disable that behavior.

By default it executes the following:

iptables -A FORWARD -i %i -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -o %i -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

Option: server.post_down (optional)

Allows you to run commands after WireGuard has been stopped. This is useful for modifying things like routing. If not provided, the add-on will by default remove the default rules created by the post_up defaults.

If you like to disable that, setting this option to "off", will disable that behavior.

By default it executes the following:

iptables -D FORWARD -i %i -j ACCEPT
iptables -D FORWARD -o %i -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -D POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

Option: server.mtu (optional)

The MTU is automatically determined from the endpoint addresses or the system default route, which is usually a sane choice.

However, to manually specify an MTU to override this automatic discovery, this value may be specified explicitly.

Option: peers.name

This is an identifier for you. It helps you to know what this peer is, e.g., myphone, mylaptop, ninja.

This name is also used for creating the directory in /ssl/wireguard where the generated client configuration and QR codes are stored. Therefore, a name has a maximum of 32 characters, can only contain A-Z (or a-z) and 0-9. Names may contain a hyphen (-) but must not start or end with one.

Option: peers.addresses

A list of IP (IPv4 or IPv6) addresses (optionally with CIDR masks) to be assigned to the peer.

This is used in the client configuration, but also for used by the add-on to set the allowed IPs (unless overriden by the peers.allowed_ips option.)

Option: peers.private_key (optional)

Allows you to provide your own base64 private key generated by wg genkey for the peer. This option supports the use of !secret.

Technically, the add-on does not need this, however, since the add-on can generate client configurations, it can be helpful.

If no private key and no public key is provided, the add-on will generate one for you and store it in: /ssl/wireguard/<peer.name>/.

Private keys, in general, should only be known by client, while this add-on supports setting or generating one for your client is helpful and easy, it isn't the best security practice. The best practice is to provide just the peers.public_key option below, the add-on will honor that.

Option: peers.public_key (optional, but recommended!)

Allows you to provide your own a base64 public key calculated by wg pubkey from a private key. This option supports the use of !secret.

If you don't supply one, the add-on will calculate one based on the private key that was supplied via the peer.private_key or, in case no private key was supplied, calculated it from the generated private key for this peer.

While this add-on can generate public/private keypairs, from best security practice perspective, it is strongly advised to manually provide a public key for each of your peers. In that case, the add-on will not generate or configure a private key by itself.

Option: peers.allowed_ips (optional)

This configuration only valid for the add-on/server end and does not affect client configurations!

A list of IPs (IPv4 or IPv6) addresses (optionally with CIDR masks) from which incoming traffic for this peer is allowed and to which outgoing traffic for this peer is directed.

If there are no IP addresses configured, the add-on will use the addresses listed in peers.addresses.

The catch-all 0.0.0.0/0 may be specified for matching all IPv4 addresses, and ::/0 may be specified for matching all IPv6 addresses.

Option: peers.client_allowed_ips (optional)

This configuration only valid for the peer end/client configuration and does not affect the server/add-on!

A list of IPs (IPv4 or IPv6) addresses (optionally with CIDR masks) from which incoming traffic from the server is allowed and to which outgoing traffic for this peer is directed.

The catch-all 0.0.0.0/0 may be specified for matching all IPv4 addresses, and ::/0 may be specified for matching all IPv6 addresses.

If not configured, the add-on will use 0.0.0.0/0 in the generated client configuration, routing all traffic on your client through the VPN tunnel.

Option: peers.persistent_keep_alive (optional)

A seconds interval, between 1 and 65535 inclusive, of how often to send an authenticated empty packet to the peer for the purpose of keeping a stateful firewall or NAT mapping valid persistently.

For example, if the interface very rarely sends traffic, but it might at anytime receive traffic from a peer, and it is behind NAT, the interface might benefit from having a persistent keepalive interval of 25 seconds.

By default or when unspecified, this option is set to 25 seconds. This is different from the WireGuard default, since the use case for this add-on is most likely to be installed in home setups behind a NAT.

If set to "off", this option is disabled.

Option: peers.endpoint (optional)

An endpoint IP or hostname, followed by a colon, and then a port number. This is used by the add-on/server to connect to its peer.

This is completely optional as the endpoint will be updated automatically to the most recent source IP address and port of correctly authenticated packets from the peer/client.

Option: peers.pre_shared_key (optional)

A base64 preshared key generated by wg genpsk. This option adds an additional layer of symmetric-key cryptography to be mixed into the already existing public-key cryptography, for post-quantum resistance.

Option: peers.fwmark (optional)

This configuration only valid for the peer end/client configuration and does not affect the server/add-on!

A 32-bit fwmark for outgoing packets. May be specified in hexadecimal by prepending "0x". If you don't know what this is, then you probably don't need it.

Option: log_level (optional)

The log_level option controls the level of log output by the addon and can be changed to be more or less verbose, which might be useful when you are dealing with an unknown issue. Possible values are:

  • trace: Show every detail, like all called internal functions.
  • debug: Shows detailed debug information.
  • info: Normal (usually) interesting events.
  • warning: Exceptional occurrences that are not errors.
  • error: Runtime errors that do not require immediate action.
  • fatal: Something went terribly wrong. Add-on becomes unusable.

Please note that each level automatically includes log messages from a more severe level, e.g., debug also shows info messages. By default, the log_level is set to info, which is the recommended setting unless you are troubleshooting.

Finding generated client configurations

All generated files are stored in /ssl/wireguard. This includes the client configurations generated by this add-on.

Each peer/client will have its own folder, by the name specified in the add-on configuration. The add-on additionally generates an image for each client containing a QR code, to allow a quick an easy set up on, e.g., your mobile phone.

Using on a Generic Linux/Debian/Ubuntu-based Hass.io system

The HassOS operating system for Hass.io by default has installed WireGuard support in its Linux kernel. However, if you run Hass.io on a generic Linux installation (e.g., based on Ubuntu or Debian), WireGuard support is not available by default.

This will cause the add-on to throw a large warning during the start up. However, the add-on will work as advertised!

When this happens, the add-on falls back on a standalone instance of WireGuard running inside the add-on itself. This method has drawbacks in terms of performance.

In order to run WireGuard optimal, you should install WireGuard on your host system. The add-on will pick that up automatically on the next start.

Ubuntu

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wireguard/wireguard
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wireguard

Debian

sudo echo "deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ unstable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/unstable.list
sudo printf 'Package: *\nPin: release a=unstable\nPin-Priority: 90\n' > /etc/apt/preferences.d/limit-unstable
sudo apt update
sudo apt install wireguard

Fedora

sudo dnf copr enable jdoss/wireguard
sudo dnf install wireguard-dkms wireguard-tools

Other

If you have a different operating system on which you run Hass.io on, please consult WireGuard installation manual

"Missing WireGuard kernel module. Falling back to slow userspace implementation."

If you've seen this warning in the add-on logs files, please check the chapter above for more information.

"IP forwarding is disabled on the host system!"

IP forwarding is the ability for an operating system to accept incoming network packets on one interface, recognize that it is not meant for the system itself, but that it should be passed on to another network, and then forwards it accordingly.

Basically, it allows for data coming in from your VPN client will be routed to other places like your home network, or the internet.

To enable IP forwarding, run the following commands directly on your host system (e.g., Ubuntu, Debian).

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
echo "net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1" | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.conf

Snapshots

The WireGuard add-on can be backed up using Hass.io snapshots. There is one caveat to take into account: A partial snapshot of the add-on DOES NOT contain the generated client configurations, including their public/private keys (if those keys are generated by the add-on).

Client configurations are stored in the /ssl/wireguard folder. If you use partial snapshots, please be sure to backup both the ssl folder and the add-on.

WireGuard status API

This add-on provides a simple WireGuard status API. This API is not an official API, darn simple, and experimental, but does allow you to pull in data from the add-on into Home Assistant.

With the use of the Home Assistant RESTful integration, one should be able to grab some interesting data from this add-on.

Example:

sensor:
  - platform: rest
    resource: http://a0d7b954-wireguard

At this moment, we do not have template or examples on how this could be used effectively with Home Assistant. If you have, sharing would be appreciated!

Troubleshooting

  • You can test if the tunnel works (when not using custom DNS servers), by visiting http://homeassistant:8123. If a Home Assistant login page appears, it is working!
  • Changes to peer/client configuration of this add-on, are not automatically passed to your (already) configured clients. You have to change those manually on your client device OR remove the WireGuard profile on the client device and load the new client configuration (e.g., by scanning the QR code).
  • If you are running the AdGuard add-on, you can add 172.30.32.1 as a DNS IP address the list to use it.
  • If you run a protection service like CloudFlare on your server.host address, please remember, that WireGuard will try to connect to CloudFlare in that case (and not your Home). Please consider using your IP address in the server.host field, or get an addition DNS record (e.g., using DuckDNS) that does point directly to your IP address.
  • If the initial connection from you client fails, this can be caused by resolving issues of server.host on the client device. You can consider solving this by editing the "Endpoint" setting on the client on the device in the connection profile.
  • We had reports of people with connection issues on the client side, being resolved by configuring/setting the ListenPort = 51820 on the client device in the connection profile (in [Interface] section).

Changelog & Releases

This repository keeps a change log using GitHub's releases functionality.

Releases are based on Semantic Versioning, and use the format of MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. In a nutshell, the version will be incremented based on the following:

  • MAJOR: Incompatible or major changes.
  • MINOR: Backwards-compatible new features and enhancements.
  • PATCH: Backwards-compatible bugfixes and package updates.

Support

Got questions?

You have several options to get them answered:

You could also open an issue here GitHub.

Authors & contributors

The original setup of this repository is by Franck Nijhof.

For a full list of all authors and contributors, check the contributor's page.

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2019-2021 Franck Nijhof

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.