Software Update: OpenVPN 2.1.1

OpenVPN is a robust and easy-to-setup SSL VPN daemon with which different private networks can be linked together by means of an encrypted tunnel over the internet. For security, the OpenSSL library is used with which all encryption, authentication and certification can be handled. For more information, we refer you to this page and an installation manual is on this page to consult. Since the release of version 2.0.9 at the end of 2006, no new stable version has appeared for a while. The developers, of course, didn’t sit still and finally after 16 betas and 22 release candidates released version 2.1.0 which was followed by version 2.1.1 the same day to squash a bug. The abbreviated announcement looks like this:

Version 2.1.1

• Fixed some breakage in openvpn.spec (which is required to build an RPM distribution) where it was referencing a non-existent subdirectory in the tarball, causing it to fail (patch from David Sommerseth).

Version 2.1.0

Changes include:

• OpenVPN GUI is now packaged in the Windows installer.
• Extensions to Management Interface to allow greater programmatic control of OpenVPN client and server.
• topology subnet option, allowing intuitive tun-based VPN subnets having 1 IP address per client.
• DHCP proxy support for Windows clients using the route-gateway dhcp option.
• TAP-Win32 adapter can now be opened from non-administrator mode.
• PKCS #11 features for usage of cryptographic tokens (“smart cards”).
• multihome option to enable UDP-based multihoming of the server on multiple interfaces.
• port-share option to allow OpenVPN and an HTTPS server to share TCP port 443.
• Users upgrading from 2.x should note that the new script-security option must be set to enable OpenVPN to run scripts.

see the man page for more information on added features.