Data channel cipher negotiation =============================== OpenVPN 2.4 and higher have the capability to negotiate the data cipher that is used to encrypt data packets. This section describes the mechanism in more detail and the different backwards compatibility mechanism with older server and clients. OpenVPN 2.5 and later behaviour -------------------------------- When both client and server are at least running OpenVPN 2.5, that the order of the ciphers of the server's ``--data-ciphers`` is used to pick the the data cipher. That means that the first cipher in that list that is also in the client's ``--data-ciphers`` list is chosen. If no common cipher is found the client is rejected with a AUTH_FAILED message (as seen in client log): AUTH: Received control message: AUTH_FAILED,Data channel cipher negotiation failed (no shared cipher) OpenVPN 2.5 and later will only allow the ciphers specified in ``--data-ciphers``. If ``--data-ciphers`` is not set the default is :code:`AES-256-GCM:AES-128-GCM`. In 2.6 and later the default is changed to :code:`AES-256-GCM:AES-128-GCM:CHACHA20-POLY1305` when Chacha20-Poly1305 is available. For backwards compatibility OpenVPN 2.6 and later with ``--compat-mode 2.4.x`` (or lower) and OpenVPN 2.5 will automatically add a cipher specified using the ``--cipher`` option to this list. OpenVPN 2.4 clients ------------------- The negotiation support in OpenVPN 2.4 was the first iteration of the implementation and still had some quirks. Its main goal was "upgrade to AES-256-GCM when possible". An OpenVPN 2.4 client that is built against a crypto library that supports AES in GCM mode and does not have ``--ncp-disable`` will always announce support for `AES-256-GCM` and `AES-128-GCM` to a server by sending :code:`IV_NCP=2`. This only causes a problem if ``--ncp-ciphers`` option has been changed from the default of :code:`AES-256-GCM:AES-128-GCM` to a value that does not include these two ciphers. When an OpenVPN server tries to use `AES-256-GCM` or `AES-128-GCM` the connection will then fail. It is therefore recommended to always have the `AES-256-GCM` and `AES-128-GCM` ciphers to the ``--ncp-ciphers`` options to avoid this behaviour. OpenVPN 3 clients ----------------- Clients based on the OpenVPN 3.x library (https://github.com/openvpn/openvpn3/) do not have a configurable ``--ncp-ciphers`` or ``--data-ciphers`` option. Newer versions by default disable legacy AES-CBC, BF-CBC, and DES-CBC ciphers. These clients will always announce support for all their supported AEAD ciphers (`AES-256-GCM`, `AES-128-GCM` and in newer versions also `Chacha20-Poly1305`). To support OpenVPN 3.x based clients at least one of these ciphers needs to be included in the server's ``--data-ciphers`` option. OpenVPN 2.3 and older clients (and clients with ``--ncp-disable``) ------------------------------------------------------------------ When a client without cipher negotiation support connects to a server the cipher specified with the ``--cipher`` option in the client configuration must be included in the ``--data-ciphers`` option of the server to allow the client to connect. Otherwise the client will be sent the ``AUTH_FAILED`` message that indicates no shared cipher. If the client is 2.3 or older and has been configured with the ``--enable-small`` :code:`./configure` argument, using ``data-ciphers-fallback cipher`` in the server config file with the explicit cipher used by the client is necessary. OpenVPN 2.4 server ------------------ When a client indicates support for `AES-128-GCM` and `AES-256-GCM` (with ``IV_NCP=2``) an OpenVPN 2.4 server will send the first cipher of the ``--ncp-ciphers`` to the OpenVPN client regardless of what the cipher is. To emulate the behaviour of an OpenVPN 2.4 client as close as possible and have compatibility to a setup that depends on this quirk, adding `AES-128-GCM` and `AES-256-GCM` to the client's ``--data-ciphers`` option is required. OpenVPN 2.5+ will only announce the ``IV_NCP=2`` flag if those ciphers are present. OpenVPN 2.3 and older servers (and servers with ``--ncp-disable``) ------------------------------------------------------------------ The cipher used by the server must be included in ``--data-ciphers`` to allow the client connecting to a server without cipher negotiation support. (For compatibility OpenVPN 2.5 will also accept the cipher set with ``--cipher``) If the server is 2.3 or older and has been configured with the ``--enable-small`` :code:`./configure` argument, adding ``--data-ciphers-fallback cipher`` to the client config with the explicit cipher used by the server is necessary. Blowfish in CBC mode (BF-CBC) deprecation ------------------------------------------ The ``--cipher`` option defaulted to `BF-CBC` in OpenVPN 2.4 and older version. The default was never changed to ensure backwards compatibility. In OpenVPN 2.5 this behaviour has now been changed so that if the ``--cipher`` is not explicitly set it does not allow the weak `BF-CBC` cipher any more and needs to explicitly added as ``--cipher BFC-CBC`` or added to ``--data-ciphers``. We strongly recommend to switching away from BF-CBC to a more secure cipher as soon as possible instead.