In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to install Wireguard VPN on CentOS 8.
Wireguard is a communication protocol that is free and open-source software that implements encrypted virtual private networks(VPN) and was designed with some goals, to provide ease of use, high-speed performance, and low attack space.
Wireguard aims for better performance and more power than IPsec and OpenVPN. Wireguard protocol passes traffic over UDP. Let us define all these terms we have used so far. It utilizes state-of-the-art cryptography.
Virtual Private Network (VPN)- A VPN is an encrypted connection over the internet from a device to a network. The encrypted connection ensures that data is safely transmitted. It prevents unauthorized people from eavesdropping on the traffic and allows the user to conduct work remotely.
IPSec is a group of protocols that are used together to set up encrypted connections between devices. It helps keep data sent over a private network secure from intruders. It works by encrypting IP packets along with authenticating the source where they came from.
OpenVPN is a VPN system that implements techniques to create secure point-to-point or site-to-site in routed configurations and remote access facilities. OpenVPN allows peers to authenticate each other using pre-shared secret keys, passwords, or usernames.
Characteristics of Wireguard
- It is simple and easy to use. Wireguard aims to be as easy as to configure and deploy as SSH. It is capable of roaming between IP addresses. It provides an extremely basic yet powerful interface.
- Wireguard has minimal attack service. It has been designed with ease of implementation and simplicity in mind. It is meant to be easily in very few lines of code as compared to others such as OpenVPN which is implemented with very large code bases hence can be audited easily by security experts.
- Wireguard has high performance. Wireguard lives under Linux Kernel which means secure networking can be very high speed. It is both suitable for both small embedded devices such as smart phones and fully loaded backbone routers.
Related Articles
Installing Wireguard on CentOS 8
1. Run system updates
To begin the installation, we need to make our repositories up to date. Run the following command on your terminal.
$ sudo yum update -y2. Install and enable EPEL repository
EPEL provides add-on software packages for Linux distributions. Use the following command to enable this repository.
$ sudo yum install epel-releaseThe following packages will be installed in the process.
Output
Package Architecture Version Repository Size
=================================================================================================================
Installing:
epel-release noarch 8-11.el8 extras 24 k
Transaction Summary
=================================================================================================================
Install 1 Package
Total download size: 24 k
Installed size: 35 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
epel-release-8-11.el8.noarch.rpm 1.5 MB/s | 24 kB 00:00
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 103 kB/s | 24 kB 00:00
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
Preparing : 1/1
Installing : epel-release-8-11.el8.noarch 1/1
Running scriptlet: epel-release-8-11.el8.noarch 1/1
Verifying : epel-release-8-11.el8.noarch 1/1
Installed:
epel-release-8-11.el8.noarch
Complete!3. Enable PowerTools
PowerTools is a repository that acts as a container for libraries and developer tools. This repository is not enabled by default, so we need to enable it ourselves. To enable use the following command on your terminal.
$ sudo yum config-manager --set-enabled powertools4. Setup Wireguard reository.
Before we can install Wireguard, we need to set up a Wireguard repository on our system. To enable it use the following command;
$ sudo yum copr enable jdoss/wireguardOutput
Enabling a Copr repository. Please note that this repository is not part
of the main distribution, and quality may vary.
The Fedora Project does not exercise any power over the contents of
this repository beyond the rules outlined in the Copr FAQ at
,
and packages are not held to any quality or security level.
Please do not file bug reports about these packages in Fedora
Bugzilla. In case of problems, contact the owner of this repository.
Do you really want to enable copr.fedorainfracloud.org/jdoss/wireguard? [y/N]: y
Repository successfully enabled. 5. Install Wireguard on CentOS 8
After we have covered all the requirements, then we can now install Wireguard. This installation will install Wireguard tools necessary for providing wg binary for controlling the Wireguard server.
$ sudo yum install wireguard-dkms wireguard-toolsThis command will install many dependencies, give it time to finish the installation.
Output
Installing:
wireguard-dkms noarch 1:1.0.20211208-1.el8 copr:copr.fedorainfracloud.org:jdoss:wireguard
322 k
wireguard-tools x86_64 1.0.20210914-1.el8 epel 125 k
Installing dependencies:
bc x86_64 1.07.1-5.el8 baseos 129 k
binutils x86_64 2.30-108.el8_5.1 baseos 5.8 M
cpp x86_64 8.5.0-4.el8_5 appstream 10 M
dkms noarch 3.0.3-1.el8 epel 62 k
elfutils-libelf-devel x86_64 0.185-1.el8 baseos 59 k
gcc x86_64 8.5.0-4.el8_5 appstream 23 MConclusion
We have installed Wireguard on CentOS 8 through compilation from the source. In case you face any challenges you can always consult the Wireguard documentation
