WireGuard® is an extremely simple yet fast and modern VPN that utilizes state-of-the-art cryptography. It aims to be faster, simpler, leaner, and more useful than IPsec, while avoiding the massive headache. It intends to be considerably more performant than OpenVPN. WireGuard is designed as a general purpose VPN for running on embedded interfaces and super computers alike, fit for many different circumstances. Initially released for the Linux kernel, it is now cross-platform (Windows, macOS, BSD, iOS, Android) and widely deployable. It is currently under heavy development, but already it might be regarded as the most secure, easiest to use, and simplest VPN solution in the industry.
During container start, it will first check if the wireguard module is already installed and loaded. Kernels newer than 5.6 generally have the wireguard module built-in (along with some older custom kernels). However, the module may not be enabled. Make sure it is enabled prior to starting the container.
If the kernel is not built-in, or installed on host, the container will check if the kernel headers are present (in /usr/src) and if not, it will attempt to download the necessary kernel headers from the ubuntu xenial/bionic, debian/raspbian buster repos; then will attempt to compile and install the kernel module. If the kernel headers are not found in either usr/src or in the repos mentioned, container will sleep indefinitely as wireguard cannot be installed.
This can be run as a server or a client, based on the parameters used.
If the environment variable PEERS is set to a number or a list of strings separated by comma, the container will run in server mode and the necessary server and peer/client confs will be generated. The peer/client config qr codes will be output in the docker log. They will also be saved in text and png format under /config/peerX in case PEERS is a variable and an integer or /config/peer_X in case a list of names was provided instead of an integer.
Variables SERVERURL, SERVERPORT, INTERNAL_SUBNET and PEERDNS are optional variables used for server mode. Any changes to these environment variables will trigger regeneration of server and peer confs. Peer/client confs will be recreated with existing private/public keys. Delete the peer folders for the keys to be recreated along with the confs.
To add more peers/clients later on, you increment the PEERS environment variable or add more elements to the list and recreate the container.
To display the QR codes of active peers again, you can use the following command and list the peer numbers as arguments: docker exec -it wireguard /app/show-peer 1 4 5 or docker exec -it wireguard /app/show-peer myPC myPhone myTablet (Keep in mind that the QR codes are also stored as PNGs in the config folder).
The templates used for server and peer confs are saved under /config/templates. Advanced users can modify these templates and force conf generation by deleting /config/wg0.conf and restarting the container.
Do not set the PEERS environment variable. Drop your client conf into the config folder as /config/wg0.conf and start the container.
If you get IPv6 related errors in the log and connection cannot be established, edit the AllowedIPs line in your peer/client wg0.conf to include only 0.0.0.0/0 and not ::/0; and restart the container.
If you plan to use Wireguard both remotely and locally, say on your mobile phone, you will need to consider routing. Most firewalls will not route ports forwarded on your WAN interface correctly to the LAN out of the box. This means that when you return home, even though you can see the Wireguard server, the return packets will probably get lost.
This is not a Wireguard specific issue and the two generally accepted solutions are NAT reflection (setting your edge router/firewall up in such a way as it translates internal packets correctly) or split horizon DNS (setting your internal DNS to return the private rather than public IP when connecting locally).
Both of these approaches have positives and negatives however their setup is out of scope for this document as everyone's network layout and equipment will be different.
** Note: This is not a supported configuration by Linuxserver.io - use at your own risk.
When routing via Wireguard from another container using the service option in docker, you might lose access to the containers webUI locally. To avoid this, exclude the docker subnet from being routed via Wireguard by modifying your wg0.conf like so (modifying the subnets as you require):
[Interface]
PrivateKey = <private key>
Address = 9.8.7.6/32
DNS = 8.8.8.8
PostUp = DROUTE=$(ip route | grep default | awk '{print $3}'); HOMENET=192.168.0.0/16; HOMENET2=10.0.0.0/8; HOMENET3=172.16.0.0/12; ip route add $HOMENET3 via $DROUTE;ip route add $HOMENET2 via $DROUTE; ip route add $HOMENET via $DROUTE;iptables -I OUTPUT -d $HOMENET -j ACCEPT;iptables -A OUTPUT -d $HOMENET2 -j ACCEPT; iptables -A OUTPUT -d $HOMENET3 -j ACCEPT; iptables -A OUTPUT ! -o %i -m mark ! --mark $(wg show %i fwmark) -m addrtype ! --dst-type LOCAL -j REJECT
PreDown = HOMENET=192.168.0.0/16; HOMENET2=10.0.0.0/8; HOMENET3=172.16.0.0/12; ip route del $HOMENET3 via $DROUTE;ip route del $HOMENET2 via $DROUTE; ip route del $HOMENET via $DROUTE; iptables -D OUTPUT ! -o %i -m mark ! --mark $(wg show %i fwmark) -m addrtype ! --dst-type LOCAL -j REJECT; iptables -D OUTPUT -d $HOMENET -j ACCEPT; iptables -D OUTPUT -d $HOMENET2 -j ACCEPT; iptables -D OUTPUT -d $HOMENET3 -j ACCEPT
** Note: This is not a supported configuration - use at your own risk.
Site-to-site VPN in server mode requires customizing the AllowedIPs statement for a specific peer in wg0.conf. Since wg0.conf is autogenerated when server vars are changed, it is not recommended to edit it manually.
In order to customize the AllowedIPs statement for a specific peer in wg0.conf, you can set an env var SERVER_ALLOWEDIPS_PEER_<peer name or number> to the additional subnets you'd like to add, comma separated and excluding the peer IP (ie. "192.168.1.0/24,192.168.2.0/24"). Replace <peer name or number> with either the name or number of a peer (whichever is used in the PEERS var).
For instance SERVER_ALLOWEDIPS_PEER_laptop="192.168.1.0/24,192.168.2.0/24" will result in the wg0.conf entry AllowedIPs = 10.13.13.2,192.168.1.0/24,192.168.2.0/24 for the peer named laptop.
Keep in mind that this var will only be considered when the confs are regenerated. Adding this var for an existing peer won't force a regeneration. You can delete wg0.conf and restart the container to force regeneration if necessary.
Don't forget to set the necessary POSTUP and POSTDOWN rules in your client's peer conf for lan access.
Here are some example snippets to help you get started creating a container.
---
version: "2.1"
services:
wireguard:
image: wireguard
container_name: wireguard
cap_add:
- NET_ADMIN
- SYS_MODULE
environment:
- PUID=1000
- PGID=1000
- TZ=America/Chicago
- SERVERURL=wireguard.domain.com #optional
- SERVERPORT=51820 #optional
- PEERS=1 #optional
- PEERDNS=auto #optional
- INTERNAL_SUBNET=10.13.13.0 #optional
- ALLOWEDIPS=0.0.0.0/0 #optional
volumes:
- /path/to/appdata/config:/config
- /lib/modules:/lib/modules
ports:
- 51820:51820/udp
sysctls:
- net.ipv4.conf.all.src_valid_mark=1
restart: unless-stoppeddocker run -d \
--name=wireguard \
--cap-add=NET_ADMIN \
--cap-add=SYS_MODULE \
-e PUID=1000 \
-e PGID=1000 \
-e TZ=America/Chicago \
-e SERVERURL=wireguard.domain.com `#optional` \
-e SERVERPORT=51820 `#optional` \
-e PEERS=1 `#optional` \
-e PEERDNS=auto `#optional` \
-e INTERNAL_SUBNET=10.13.13.0 `#optional` \
-e ALLOWEDIPS=0.0.0.0/0 `#optional` \
-p 51820:51820/udp \
-v /path/to/appdata/config:/config \
-v /lib/modules:/lib/modules \
--sysctl="net.ipv4.conf.all.src_valid_mark=1" \
--restart unless-stopped \
wireguardContainer images are configured using parameters passed at runtime (such as those above). These parameters are separated by a colon and indicate <external>:<internal> respectively. For example, -p 8080:80 would expose port 80 from inside the container to be accessible from the host's IP on port 8080 outside the container.
| Parameter | Function |
|---|---|
-p 51820/udp |
wireguard port |
-e PUID=1000 |
for UserID - see below for explanation |
-e PGID=1000 |
for GroupID - see below for explanation |
-e TZ=Europe/London |
Specify a timezone to use EG Europe/London |
-e SERVERURL=wireguard.domain.com |
External IP or domain name for docker host. Used in server mode. If set to auto, the container will try to determine and set the external IP automatically |
-e SERVERPORT=51820 |
External port for docker host. Used in server mode. |
-e PEERS=1 |
Number of peers to create confs for. Required for server mode. Can also be a list of names: myPC,myPhone,myTablet (alphanumeric only) |
-e PEERDNS=auto |
DNS server set in peer/client configs (can be set as 8.8.8.8). Used in server mode. Defaults to auto, which uses wireguard docker host's DNS via included CoreDNS forward. |
-e INTERNAL_SUBNET=10.13.13.0 |
Internal subnet for the wireguard and server and peers (only change if it clashes). Used in server mode. |
-e ALLOWEDIPS=0.0.0.0/0 |
The IPs/Ranges that the peers will be able to reach using the VPN connection. If not specified the default value is: '0.0.0.0/0, ::0/0' This will cause ALL traffic to route through the VPN, if you want split tunneling, set this to only the IPs you would like to use the tunnel AND the ip of the server's WG ip, such as 10.13.13.1. |
-v /config |
Contains all relevant configuration files. |
-v /lib/modules |
Maps host's modules folder. |
--sysctl= |
Required for client mode. |
You can set any environment variable from a file by using a special prepend FILE__.
As an example:
-e FILE__PASSWORD=/run/secrets/mysecretpasswordWill set the environment variable PASSWORD based on the contents of the /run/secrets/mysecretpassword file.
For all of our images we provide the ability to override the default umask settings for services started within the containers using the optional -e UMASK=022 setting.
Keep in mind umask is not chmod it subtracts from permissions based on it's value it does not add. Please read up here before asking for support.
When using volumes (-v flags) permissions issues can arise between the host OS and the container, we avoid this issue by allowing you to specify the user PUID and group PGID.
Ensure any volume directories on the host are owned by the same user you specify and any permissions issues will vanish like magic.
In this instance PUID=1000 and PGID=1000, to find yours use id user as below:
$ id username
uid=1000(dockeruser) gid=1000(dockergroup) groups=1000(dockergroup)- Shell access whilst the container is running:
docker exec -it wireguard /bin/bash - To monitor the logs of the container in realtime:
docker logs -f wireguard - container version number
docker inspect -f '{{ index .Config.Labels "build_version" }}' wireguard
- image version number
docker inspect -f '{{ index .Config.Labels "build_version" }}' lscr.io/linuxserver/wireguard
Most of our images are static, versioned, and require an image update and container recreation to update the app inside.
Below are the instructions for updating containers:
- Update all images:
docker-compose pull- or update a single image:
docker-compose pull wireguard
- or update a single image:
- Let compose update all containers as necessary:
docker-compose up -d- or update a single container:
docker-compose up -d wireguard
- or update a single container:
- You can also remove the old dangling images:
docker image prune
- Update the image:
docker pull wireguard - Stop the running container:
docker stop wireguard - Delete the container:
docker rm wireguard - Recreate a new container with the same docker run parameters as instructed above (if mapped correctly to a host folder, your
/configfolder and settings will be preserved) - You can also remove the old dangling images:
docker image prune
-
Pull the latest image at its tag and replace it with the same env variables in one run:
docker run --rm \ -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \ containrrr/watchtower \ --run-once wireguard
-
You can also remove the old dangling images:
docker image prune