R7800, Is the VPN service "safe" to use?

[Dfects]

As the title says really, is the vpn service safe to use on these netgear routers?

 

[thiggins]

It uses OpenVPN. Why do you ask?

 

[Dfects]

I was just curious, as I know nothing about netgears implementation. Concerned there may be a known/previous weakness there before i expose my home network through its vpn feature

I was toying with using a raspberry pi as an openvpn box, but if netgears one is considered secure then it'd save me some hassle.

 

[microchip]

Up until recently, Netgear used MD5 for OpenVPN. Due to pressure, they upgraded their stuff to support SHA256. So running the latest firmware is advised when using VPN

 

[RMerlin]

Note however that using MD5 (or SHA1) for HMAC isn't a big deal (due to how HMACs work).

Not sure how up-to-date Netgear's OpenSSL and OpenVPN are however, might be worth looking at @Voxel 's build for increased security there.

 

[Voxel]

Not sure how up-to-date Netgear's OpenSSL and OpenVPN

Latest stock:

OpenSSL version is 1.0.2h (May 2016), OpenVPN is 2.4.3.

Voxel.

 

[kamoj]

OpenVPN 2.4.3 was released 2017.06.21

(Compared to
Voxel FW V1.0.2.53SF:

OpenSSL 1.0.2o 2018.03.27
OpenVPN 2.4.6 2018.04.24)

 

[Dfects]

Been thinking of trying out voxels build, especially as it looks like the stock service doesn't allow you to change the keys even with a reset. That just seems completely reckless. I noticed in the readme for voxel the builds support swapping the keys, hopefully for a 2048 key over the 1024 bit netgear supply?

 

[Voxel]

I noticed in the readme for voxel the builds support swapping the keys, hopefully for a 2048 key over the 1024 bit netgear supply?

Yes you can use your own keys (2048-bit too).

Voxel.

 

[Dfects]

legend