Windows 7 + OpenVPN + Non Admin Users

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone has a solution to this problem.

The users where openvpn has to be installed, are not administrators in any way of their machines, not even local admins.

The users cannot be any kind of admin otherwise PCI + other compliance is compromised.

Is there any way for the user to be able to run the VPN, and have the routes added, without being an admin ?

Thanks,

Leon
LVL 3
gjdonkehAsked:
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QlemoConnect With a Mentor Batchelor, Developer and EE Topic AdvisorCommented:
Ok, that is getting more complicated then.

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To be able to start a service, users need the privilege assigned by
subinacl /SERVICE "OpenVPNService" /GRANT=MyUser=TO
TO is Start and Stop
 
Download subinacl (part of the Windows Resource kit)
Options for /SERVICE: http://www.eventlogblog.com/blog/2007/11/setting-service-permissions-wi.html.

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To ask for credentials, you need following settings in each config file:
management 127.0.0.1 65500management-query-passwords
Then download netcat (best thru http://joncraton.org/files/nc111nt.zip, you will only need the nc.exe file from that zip).

As soon as OpenVPN is started with above config, you can do (in a batch file):
@echo offset /P usr=Username: set /P pwd=Password: (echo username Auth "%usr%"& echo password Auth "%pwd%"& echo quit) | nc -i 1 127.0.0.1 65500
65500 is an arbitrary port number I chose by random. You can use other port numbers, of course, but you need to change them in both the config and the nc.exe command line.

The management interface of OpenVPN can be used to provide data else given manually, to stop the connection, and many more.

If you want to start the service manually, begin the batch file above with
sc start OpenVPN
(before the set /P's). Since the user needs some time to enter the credentials, that should be sufficient for OpenVPN to do the necessary inits and start communicating with the OpenVPN server, and the management commands come just in time.

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QlemoBatchelor, Developer and EE Topic AdvisorCommented:
If you can
* install OpenVPN as a service (requires admin privs once)
* install the TUN/TAP adapter (requires admin privs once)
* assign "start service" priv to the users
it should work, just by starting the OpenVPN service manually. If the latter isn't possible at all, the only way is to let OpenVPN Service run automatically all the time.
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gjdonkehAuthor Commented:
Thanks - I'll give this a go.

Are you able to provide info on how to assign start service privileges to users ?

Thanks,

Leon
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gjdonkehAuthor Commented:
Hi,

Also - running as a service does not appear to allow the user to enter there username/password that are required to connect.

Regards,

Leon
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QlemoBatchelor, Developer and EE Topic AdvisorCommented:
That's true, you can't provide username and password. Do you really need to do that interactively, or just for identification of the PC? Is it ok to put it into the config file? Else you would need to ask for user and password, and send that over to the OpenVPN process using the telnet management feature of OpenVPN. That again requires a batch command and an external tool called netcat (or a telnet connection which asks for the credentials - but I'm not positive about this option).
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gjdonkehAuthor Commented:
The requirement to enter the username/password on each connection is necessary and cannot be stored in a text file.

Security is a must unfortunately.

Regards,

Leon
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gjdonkehAuthor Commented:
While your method would most likely work, it isn't really practical in my scenario.

Thanks for your help.
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QlemoBatchelor, Developer and EE Topic AdvisorCommented:
Why? You can automate it without much ado, all steps contained in my description. That's the only way how you can get around the permission issue.
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