OpenVPN is a popular open-source software application that implements virtual private network (VPN) techniques for creating secure point-to-point or site-to-site connections. The software is notable for its flexibility and is considered one of the most secure VPN protocols currently available, widely used by individuals and organizations to protect their online privacy and data.
The OpenVPN 2.5.x series, with an initial release in October 2020, received an update in November 2022 with the v2.5.8. Today, the first release of the new OpenVPN 2.6 series is available for download, so let’s look at what’s new.
What’s New in OpenVPN 2.6.0
The most notable feature of OpenVPN 2.6.0 is the addition of support for an unlimited number of connection entries and remote entries and two new administration commands to enumerate and list remote entries.
You can now use the management interface’s remote-entry-count and remote-entry-get commands to obtain the number of remote entries and the entries themselves.
If you are unfamiliar with the management interface, it is one of OpenVPN’s most powerful features available from both the server and client sides. It can collect data, monitor and control connected clients, perform management tasks, query passwords, enter proxy information, and so on.
OpenVPN 2.6.0 also brings compatibility with OpenSSL in FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) 140-2 mode, security requirements for cryptographic modules. On top of that, this release introduces OpenSSL 3.0 support. While most of the changes in OpenSSL 3.0 are not visible to the user, they increase its overall compatibility.
We will not fail to note that usernames and passwords can now be specified directly in the configuration file. At the same time, if the password is missing, OpenVPN will prompt for input through stdin. Moreover, OpenVPN 2.6.0 now allows you to terminate a session when a specified number of seconds has passed since the session started.
Finally, be informed because OpenVPN 2.6.0 deprecates TLS 1.0 and 1.1, tls-version-min is now set to 1.2 by default. For more about all novelties, you can refer to the overview of the changes.
