openvpn/doc/man-sections/protocol-options.rst

Protocol options
----------------
Options in this section affect features available in the OpenVPN wire
protocol.  Many of these options also define the encryption options
of the data channel in the OpenVPN wire protocol.  These options must be
configured in a compatible way between both the local and remote side.

--allow-compression mode
  As described in the ``--compress`` option, compression is a potentially
  dangerous option.  This option allows controlling the behaviour of
  OpenVPN when compression is used and allowed.

  The ``mode`` argument can be one of the following values:

  :code:`asym`
      OpenVPN will only *decompress incoming packets* but *not compress
      outgoing packets*.  This also allows migrating to disable compression
      when changing both server and client configurations to remove
      compression at the same time is not a feasible option.

  :code:`no`  (default)
      OpenVPN will refuse any compression.  If data-channel offloading
      is enabled, OpenVPN will additionally also refuse compression
      framing (stub).

  :code:`yes`
      **DEPRECATED** This option is an alias for :code:`asym`. Previously
      it did enable compression for outgoing packets, but OpenVPN never
      compresses packets on send now.

--auth alg
  Authenticate data channel packets and (if enabled) ``tls-auth`` control
  channel packets with HMAC using message digest algorithm ``alg``. (The
  default is ``SHA1`` ). HMAC is a commonly used message authentication
  algorithm (MAC) that uses a data string, a secure hash algorithm and a
  key to produce a digital signature.

  The OpenVPN data channel protocol uses encrypt-then-mac (i.e. first
  encrypt a packet then HMAC the resulting ciphertext), which prevents
  padding oracle attacks.

  If an AEAD cipher mode (e.g. GCM) is chosen then the specified ``--auth``
  algorithm is ignored for the data channel and the authentication method
  of the AEAD cipher is used instead. Note that ``alg`` still specifies
  the digest used for ``tls-auth``.

  In static-key encryption mode, the HMAC key is included in the key file
  generated by ``--genkey``. In TLS mode, the HMAC key is dynamically
  generated and shared between peers via the TLS control channel. If
  OpenVPN receives a packet with a bad HMAC it will drop the packet. HMAC
  usually adds 16 or 20 bytes per packet. Set ``alg=none`` to disable
  authentication.

  For more information on HMAC see
  http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/users/mihir/papers/hmac.html

--cipher alg
  This option should not be used any longer in TLS mode and still
  exists for two reasons:

  * compatibility with old configurations still carrying it
    around;

  * allow users connecting to OpenVPN peers older than 2.6.0
    to have ``--cipher`` configured the same way as the remote
    counterpart. This can avoid MTU/frame size warnings.

  Before 2.4.0, this option was used to select the cipher to be
  configured on the data channel, however, later versions usually
  ignored this directive in favour of a negotiated cipher.
  Starting with 2.6.0, this option is always ignored in TLS mode
  when it comes to configuring the cipher.

  If you wish to specify the cipher to use on the data channel,
  please see ``--data-ciphers`` (for regular negotiation) and
  ``--data-ciphers-fallback`` (for a fallback option when the
  negotiation cannot take place because the other peer is old or
  has negotiation disabled).

  To see ciphers that are available with OpenVPN, use the
  ``--show-ciphers`` option.

  Set ``alg`` to :code:`none` to disable encryption.

--compress algorithm
  **DEPRECATED** Enable a compression algorithm. Compression is generally
  not recommended. VPN tunnels which use compression are susceptible to
  the VORALCE attack vector. See also the :code:`migrate` parameter below.

  The ``algorithm`` parameter may be :code:`lzo`, :code:`lz4`,
  :code:`lz4-v2`, :code:`stub`, :code:`stub-v2`, :code:`migrate` or empty.
  LZO and LZ4 are different compression algorithms, with LZ4 generally
  offering the best performance with least CPU usage.

  The :code:`lz4-v2` and :code:`stub-v2` variants implement a better
  framing that does not add overhead when packets cannot be compressed. All
  other variants always add one extra framing byte compared to no
  compression framing.

  Especially :code:`stub-v2` is essentially identical to no compression and
  no compression framing as its header indicates IP version 5 in a tun setup
  and can (ab)used to complete disable compression to clients. (See the
  :code:`migrate` option below)

  If the ``algorithm`` parameter is :code:`stub`, :code:`stub-v2` or empty,
  compression will be turned off, but the packet framing for compression
  will still be enabled, allowing a different setting to be pushed later.
  Additionally, :code:`stub` and :code:`stub-v2` wil disable announcing
  ``lzo`` and ``lz4`` compression support via *IV_* variables to the
  server.

  Note: the :code:`stub` (or empty) option is NOT compatible with the older
  option ``--comp-lzo no``.

  Using :code:`migrate` as compression algorithm enables a special migration mode.
  It allows migration away from the ``--compress``/``--comp-lzo`` options to no compression.
  This option sets the server to no compression mode and the server behaves identical to
  a server without a compression option for all clients without a compression in their
  config. However, if a client is detected that indicates that compression is used (via OCC),
  the server will automatically add ``--push compress stub-v2`` to the client specific
  configuration if supported by the client and otherwise switch to ``comp-lzo no``
  and add ``--push comp-lzo`` to the client specific configuration.

  ***Security Considerations***

  Compression and encryption is a tricky combination. If an attacker knows
  or is able to control (parts of) the plain-text of packets that contain
  secrets, the attacker might be able to extract the secret if compression
  is enabled. See e.g. the *CRIME* and *BREACH* attacks on TLS and
  *VORACLE* on VPNs which also leverage to break encryption. If you are not
  entirely sure that the above does not apply to your traffic, you are
  advised to *not* enable compression.

  For this reason compression support was removed from current versions
  of OpenVPN. It will still decompress compressed packets received via
  a VPN connection but it will never compress any outgoing packets.

--comp-lzo mode
  **DEPRECATED** Enable LZO compression algorithm.  Compression is
  generally not recommended.  VPN tunnels which uses compression are
  suspectible to the VORALCE attack vector.

  Allows the other side of the connection to use LZO compression. Due
  to difference in packet format this may add 1 additional byte per packet.
  With current versions of OpenVPN no actual compression will happen.

  ``mode`` may be :code:`yes`, :code:`no`, or :code:`adaptive`
  but there is no actual change in behavior anymore.


--comp-noadapt
  **DEPRECATED** This option does not have any effect anymore since current
  versions of OpenVPN never compress outgoing packets.

--key-direction
  Alternative way of specifying the optional direction parameter for the
  ``--tls-auth`` option. Useful when using inline files
  (See section on inline files).

--data-ciphers cipher-list
  Restrict the allowed ciphers to be negotiated to the ciphers in
  ``cipher-list``. ``cipher-list`` is a colon-separated list of ciphers,
  and defaults to :code:`AES-256-GCM:AES-128-GCM:CHACHA20-POLY1305` when
  Chacha20-Poly1305 is available and otherwise :code:`AES-256-GCM:AES-128-GCM`.

  For servers, the first cipher from ``cipher-list`` that is also
  supported by the client will be pushed to clients that support cipher
  negotiation.

  For more details see the chapter on `Data channel cipher negotiation`_.
  *Especially* if you need to support clients with OpenVPN versions older
  than 2.4!

  Starting with OpenVPN 2.6 a cipher can be prefixed with a :code:`?` to mark
  it as optional. This allows including ciphers in the list that may not be
  available on all platforms.
  E.g. :code:`AES-256-GCM:AES-128-GCM:?CHACHA20-POLY1305` would only enable
  Chacha20-Poly1305 if the underlying SSL library (and its configuration)
  supports it.

  Starting with OpenVPN 2.7 the special keyword :code:`DEFAULT` can be used
  in the string and is replaced by the default ciphers.  This can be used to
  add an additional allowed cipher to the allowed ciphers, e.g.
  :code:`DEFAULT:AES-192-CBC` to use the default ciphers but also allow
  :code:`AES-192-CBC`.

  Cipher negotiation is enabled in client-server mode only. I.e. if
  ``--mode`` is set to `server` (server-side, implied by setting
  ``--server`` ), or if ``--pull`` is specified (client-side, implied by
  setting ``--client``).

  If no common cipher is found during cipher negotiation, the connection
  is terminated. To support old clients/old servers that do not provide any
  cipher negotiation support see ``--data-ciphers-fallback``.

  If ``--compat-mode`` is set to a version older than 2.5.0 the cipher
  specified by ``--cipher`` will be appended to ``--data-ciphers`` if
  not already present.

  This list is restricted to be 127 chars long after conversion to OpenVPN
  ciphers.

  This option was called ``--ncp-ciphers`` in OpenVPN 2.4 but has been renamed
  to ``--data-ciphers`` in OpenVPN 2.5 to more accurately reflect its meaning.

--data-ciphers-fallback alg
  Configure a cipher that is used to fall back to if we could not determine
  which cipher the peer is willing to use.

  This option should only be needed to
  connect to peers that are running OpenVPN 2.3 or older versions, and
  have been configured with ``--enable-small``
  (typically used on routers or other embedded devices).


--allow-deprecated-insecure-static-crypto
   **DEPRECATED** This allow using OpenVPN without TLS. This is deprecated
   and will be removed in OpenVPN 2.8.

--tran-window n
  Transition window -- our old key can live this many seconds after a new
  a key renegotiation begins (default :code:`3600` seconds). This feature
  allows for a graceful transition from old to new key, and removes the key
  renegotiation sequence from the critical path of tunnel data forwarding.

--force-tls-key-material-export
  This option is only available in --mode server and forces to use
  Keying Material Exporters (RFC 5705) for clients. This can be used to
  simulate an environment where the cryptographic library does not support
  the older method to generate data channel keys anymore. This option is
  intended to be a test option and might be removed in a future OpenVPN
  version without notice.