Setting up OpenVPN on Kali

Here is how to set-up OpenVPN on Kali. The process is (unsurprisingly the same for Debian), steps below:

• Obtain OpenVPN certificates, key and openvpn.ovpn files from the provider
  • ca.crt: This is the certificate of the certification authority
    
  • client.crt: This is the user certification file 
  • client.key: This is your private key file
  • openvpn.ovpn: This is your OpenVPN configuration file
• Rename the openvpn.ovpn config file to something identifiable for the server being used (Server.conf in this example)
• Copy the downloaded files to the /etc/openvpn/ directory
  • sudo cp Server.conf /etc/openvpn/
  • sudo cp ca.cert /etc/openvpn/
  • sudo cp client.crt /etc/openvpn/
  • sudo cp client.key /etc/openvpn/
• Update the  packages on Kali
  • sudo apt-get update
• Ensure OpenVPN is installed with the required packages
  • sudo apt-get install openvpn openssl openresolv
• Change directory to /etc/openvpn/
  • cd /etc/openvpn
• Create a new file for the credentials to access the VPN
  • sudo nano user.txt
  • Enter the credentials in the following format:
    • Username
    • Password
• Open the Server.conf file and make the following changes:
  • Change auth-user-pass -> auth-user-pass /etc/openvpn/user.txt
  • Under comp-lzo add the lines
    • up /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf
    • down /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf
• Now we need to point OpenVPN to this config file
  • sudo nano /etc/default/openvpn
  • Add the line AUTOSTART="Server" (without the .conf)
• Ensure the DNS resolver is being pointed to your gateway
  • Run cat /etc/resolv.conf
  • If needed modify the file
• Run the command: sudo update-rc.d openvpn enable
• Now we can start the service with:  sudo service openvpn start
• Check the service is running by running: systemctl status openvpn@server
  • “Server” being the name of the .conf file being used
  • If successful the output should look similar to:
    • openvpn@server.service – OpenVPN connection to server
      Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/openvpn@.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
      Active: active (running) since Wed 2019-11-27 00:00:00 GMT; 1h 00min ago
      Docs: man:openvpn(8)
• Check for DNS leaks by visiting: https://dnsleaktest.com/