defguard
  • Introduction
  • User documentation (help)
    • Configuring VPN
      • Defguard Desktop Client
        • Update instance
      • Other WireGuard® Clients
        • Configuring a device for new VPN Location manually
    • Password change / Reset
    • Enrollment & Onboarding
      • With internal Defguard SSO
      • With external SSO (Google/Microsoft/Custom)
    • Setting up 2FA/MFA
    • Desktop Client
    • CLI Client
  • Admin & features
    • Deploying your instance
      • One-line install script
      • Standalone package based installation
      • Docker images and tags
      • Docker Compose
      • Kubernetes
      • Upgrading
      • Gateway
        • Running gateway on MikroTik routers
      • Securing gRPC communication
      • OpenID RSA key
      • Configuration
      • Pre-production and development releases
      • High Availability and Failover
      • Health check
    • Features & configuration
      • Zero-Trust VPN with 2FA/MFA
        • Create/manage VPN Location
        • Network overview
        • Executing custom gateway commands
        • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA/2FA)
          • MFA Architecture
        • Remote desktop client configuration
        • DNS and domains
      • Remote user enrollment
        • User onboarding after enrollment
      • SSO (OpenID Connect)
        • Portainer
        • Grafana setup
        • Proxmox
        • Matrix / Synapse
        • Django
        • MinIO
        • Vault
      • SMTP for email notifications
      • YubiKey Provisioning
      • Webhooks
      • Forward auth
      • SSH Authentication
      • Network devices
      • Gateway notifications
      • New version notifications
  • Troubleshooting Guide
    • Sending support information
    • Client Windows installer exit codes
    • Client "All traffic" connection issues
    • WebAuthn security keys
  • Enterprise Features
    • License
    • Enteprise features
      • Automatic (real time) desktop client configuration & sync
      • External OpenID providers
        • Google
        • Microsoft
        • Zitadel
        • Keycloak
        • JumpCloud
        • Okta
        • Custom
      • External OIDC secure enrollment
      • VPN & Client behavior customization
      • REST API
      • Access Control List
        • ACL Aliases
      • LDAP and Active Directory integration
        • Configuration
        • Settings table
        • Two-way LDAP and Active Directory synchronization
  • Tutorials
    • Step by step setting up a VPN server
      • Adding additional VPN locations
  • In depth
    • Roadmap
    • Architecture
      • How do VPN statistics work
      • Security concepts
  • For Developers
    • Contributing
    • Environment setup
    • Translations (core/web)
      • Switching language
      • Adding translations
  • Translations (client)
    • Adding translations
  • Contact us
    • Community & Support
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On this page
  • What is Defguard?
  • Basic security concept
  • Incorporating IdP and VPN in one solution
  • Features
  • Remote Access with WireGuard® VPN 2FA/MFA:
  • Identity Management:
  • Account Lifecycle Management:
  • Yubikey Provisioning
  • Integrations
  • Pentested!
  • Guides: Jump right in
  • Fundamentals: Dive a little deeper

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Introduction

NextConfiguring VPN

Last updated 4 months ago

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What is Defguard?

Defguard is a comprehensive Remote Access Management solution incorporating in one solution:


Our primary focus at defguard is on prioritizing security. Then, we aim to make this challenging topic both useful and as easy to navigate as possible.


Having said that, this security platform is for building secure and privacy-aware organizations, as we put great effort not only on functionality but first and foremost on secure code, architecture and testing (application and security).

Basic security concept

The main architecture concept is that all critical data should be in the internal (Intranet) network and not exposed in the public Internet (contrary to typical and common cloud approach) and only services that need to be exposed to the Internet - should be exposed in a controled (DMZ) network segments:

This approach is vastly different from most (if not all) VPN/IdP solutions, which are a simple or monolithic applications focus on functionalities and most of the time is publicly available in the Internet for any attacker to exploit.

Of course you can deploy defguard in a typical scenario (all services on one server and even all publicly available) - but that should be for you to decide!

Incorporating IdP and VPN in one solution

Incorporating IDM, ALM, VPN has also other advantages:

  1. Your organization may use just one account (login) for access control to all your applications as well as VPN.

  2. It simplifies deployment, maintenance, audits.

Features

Remote Access with WireGuard® VPN 2FA/MFA:

  • multiple VPN Locations (networks/sites) - with defined access (all users or only Admin group)

  • import your current WireGuard server configuration (with a wizard!)

  • easy device setup by users themselves (self-service)

  • automatic IP allocation

  • kernel (Linux, FreeBSD/OPNSense/PFSense) & userspace WireGuard support

  • dashboard and statistics overview of connected users/devices for admins

defguard is not an official WireGuard project, and WireGuard is a registered trademark of Jason A. Donenfeld.

Identity Management:

  • nice UI to manage users

  • Users self-service (besides typical data management, users can revoke access to granted apps, MFA, Wireguard, etc.)

  • WebAuthn / FIDO2 - for hardware key authentication support (eg. YubiKey, FaceID, TouchID, ...)

  • Email tokens

Account Lifecycle Management:

  • Self-service for password reset

Yubikey Provisioning

Integrations

Webhooks & REST API

Pentested!

Guides: Jump right in

Follow our handy guides to get started on the basics as quickly as possible:

Fundamentals: Dive a little deeper

Learn the fundamentals of Defguard to get a deeper understanding of our main features:

True Zero-Trust ,

Identity Management with ,

Account Lifecycle management with .

Defguard is a true Zero-Trust , as each connection requires MFA (and not only when logging in into the client application like other solutions):

Internal IdP with 2FA/MFA enables us to provide - and not like most applications just 2FA when opening the app (and not during the connection process). Even if you use (Google/Microsoft/Custom - which defguard supports), we still use our internal IdP for 2FA/MFA.

More about .

using our

multiple for each VPN Location (r) - supported on a cluster of routers/firewalls for Linux, FreeBSD/PFSense/OPNSense

based SSO

External

LDAP (tested on ) synchronization

Authentication

(TOTP - e.g. Google Authenticator)

Secure remote (over the internet)

User

provisioning for users with one click

Build with for portability, security, and speed

Checked by professional security researchers (see )

WireGuard® VPN with 2FA/Multi-Factor Authentication
SSO based on OpenID Identity Provider
secure remote account onboarding
WireGuard® VPN with 2FA/Multi-Factor Authentication
real VPN 2FA/MFA
external OIDC
defguard's architecture and security can be found here
Multi-Factor Authentication
desktop client
Gateways
high availability/failove
OpenID Connect
OpenID providers for login/account creation (Google/Microsoft/Custom)
OpenLDAP
Multi-Factor/2FA
Time-based One-Time Password Algorithm
user enrollment
onboarding after enrollment
Yubikey hardware keys
Rust
comprehensive security report
Deploying your instance
Create/manage VPN Location
Webhooks
Desktop Client
Architecture
Internet, DMZ & Internal network segments