🐛 BUG: nebula1 tunnel is not detected as a network interface in Windows 11

[tliu0c]

What version of nebula are you using?

1.8.2

What operating system are you using?

Windows 11

Describe the Bug

Hello,

I am using windows 11 pro 22h2 (build 22621.1848)
I started nebula using:
.\nebula.exe -service install -config c:\nebula-windows-amd64\config_win.yml
.\nebula.exe -service start
It starts up fine and I can connect to other devices in the network.
But for some reason windows 11 doesn't think "nebula1" is a valid network interface and it doesn't show up in network setting or task manager. And therefore I cannot change nebula1 from the default Public network to Private network(it is not in the list) and cannot monitor the network activity in task manager(it doesn't show up).

I have the exact same setup in Windows 7 and 10, they don't have this issue.

Logs from affected hosts

No response

Config files from affected hosts

No response

[John Maguire]

@tliu0c Can you provide Nebula config and logs from the Windows 11 box please, per the ticket form?

[tliu0c]

@johnmaguire Hi John, here is the config. I haven't really changed much from the defualt config. I am not sure what is the log you are talking about. I don't see any log on my Windows PC. Can you please advise where I can find it? Thanks.

pki: x
static_host_map:
  "10.1.1.100": ["x.x.x.x"]
lighthouse:
  am_lighthouse: false
  hosts:
    - "10.1.1.100"
listen:
  host: 0.0.0.0
  port: 0
punchy:
  punch: true
  respond: true
  delay: 1s
relay:
  am_relay: false
  use_relays: true
tun:
  disabled: false
  dev: nebula1
  drop_local_broadcast: false
  drop_multicast: false
  tx_queue: 500
  mtu: 1300
  routes:
  unsafe_routes:
logging:
  level: info
  format: text
firewall:
  outbound_action: reject
  inbound_action: reject
  conntrack:
    tcp_timeout: 12m
    udp_timeout: 3m
    default_timeout: 10m
  outbound:
    - port: any
      proto: any
      host: any
  inbound:
    - port: any
      proto: any
      host: any
    

[tliu0c]

I think this could be a compatibility issue of the Wintun driver with win11? I have two win11 machines and both have this issue. But this does not occur on win10 and win7 machines.

[John Maguire]

Hi @tliu0c -

I have a Windows 11 box and I can see that the interface is registered on my machine as "Public" and I don't see any easy way to change it. I'm not sure that this is a compatibility issue, so much as Windows seems to have made it more difficult to change this setting.

Running the following command in an Administrator Powershell has changed it to private for me:

Set-NetConnectionProfile -InterfaceAlias "nebula1" -NetworkCategory Private

For future reference, to fetch logs, please see this guide for how to collect logs on Windows.

[John Maguire]

I think this ticket may be a dupe of #436

[tliu0c]

Right, should be the same issue.
I think not being able to set nebula1 as public or private network is just side effect of the root cause - Win11 for some reason doesn't retreat the nebula tunnel as a valid network interface, or another way to put it as in #436, the network is not identify-able by Win11.

In theory, it should show up as a network interface in task manager, which also indicates the network activity. Just like the screen shots below on Win10 and Win7.

[John Maguire]

Thanks for the clarification @tliu0c - I understand your primary concern is getting the adapter to show in Task Manager.

I installed a similar tool that uses Wintun and I'm seeing the same thing there... I am going to close this out as a dupe of #436.