Homelab Learning: Configuring OpenVPN through pfSense for remote access between lab networks

Hi, all. This is the eighth part in an ongoing series walking through the steps required to build my isolated homelab with a corporate environment, attack network, security operations center, and remote access VPN.

For greater context, take a look at my previous posts:

1. Homelab Learning: General Overview
2. Homelab Learning: Configuring Proxmox VE
3. Homelab Learning: Configuring pfSense
4. Homelab Learning: Building a Corporate Environment
5. Homelab Learning: Building a Kali Attack Network
6. Homelab Learning: Building a Security Operations Center with Splunk
7. Homelab Learning: Rounding out your homelab build with a Python development network

Let’s get started on this installment!

Whenever I work from home, I often still need access to corporate infrastructure. In order to have a secure way to access my corporate environment, I need to use a VPN tunnel for end-to-end encryption.

To simulate this in my homelab, I installed and configured a Windows 10 VM on my Py_Dev network. This allowed me to confirm I can “remote in” from my various subnets and that my firewall rules are correct. The Py_Dev subnet has no physical relationship to the other networks other than their virtual presence in Proxmox VE, so placing a “remote” VM there is somewhat akin to setting up a VPN for corporate infrastructure access on my home computer.

The setup for this was not too complicated, and I have once again included a link to a great tutorial from Lawrence Systems (an incredible resource for learning more about Proxmox VE and pfSense in particular) in the references section.

Be sure to pay special attention to the tutorial’s discussion of the client export tool that is included in pfSense, as it makes the entire setup process significantly easier and avoids much of the manual configuration you’d otherwise need to do.

Once you get client export file to the computer that you’ll be using the VPN on, you’ll go through an initial install wizard, then OpenVPN will run an addition configuration wizard to ensure your config files are installed.

the “post-install” config wizard

the config wizard installs your config file with certs/keys

From there, you’ll likely have a desktop icon for OpenVPN that will open in the tray at the bottom-right corner. You can use this to connect.

That finishes the homelab build! In the next few posts, I’ll share some insights I learned throughout the process, some housekeeping advice for pfSense, and share a master list of the references I used throughout the homelab build.

References:

Lawrence Systems — Tutorial: pfsense OpenVPN Configuration For Remote Users 2020