privsec.dev/content/posts/qubes/Using IVPN on Qubes OS.md

title	date	tags	author
Using IVPN on Qubes OS	2022-09-30	Applications Linux Container Security	Tommy

IVPN is a fairly popular and generally trustworthy VPN provider and is one of my favorites. In this post, I will walk you through how to use the official IVPN client in a ProxyVM on Qubes OS.

Preparing your TemplateVM

I recommend that you make a new TemplateVM based on latest Fedora template and remove all unnecessary packages that you might not use. This way, you can minimize the attack surface while not having to deal with missing dependencies like on a minimal template. With that being said, if you do manage to get the minimal template to fully work with IVPN, feel free to open a discussion on GitHub or contact me directly and I will update the post accordingly.

This is what I run on my template to trim it down:

sudo dnf remove firefox thunderbird totem gnome-remote-desktop gnome-calendar gnome-disk-utility gnome-calculator gnome-connections gnome-weather gnome-contacts gnome-clocks gnome-maps gnome-screenshot gnome-logs gnome-characters gnome-font-viewer gnome-color-manager simple-scan keepassxc cheese baobab yelp evince* httpd mozilla* cups rygel -y
sudo dnf autoremove -y

Next, you need to create the bind directories for IVPN's configurations:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/qubes-bind-dirs.d
sudo tee /etc/qubes-bind-dirs.d/50_user.conf << EOF > /dev/null
binds+=( '/etc/ivpn' )
EOF

Installing the IVPN App

Inside of the TemplateVM you have just created, do the following:

sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://repo.ivpn.net/stable/fedora/generic/ivpn.repo
sudo dnf install ivpn-ui
sudo shutdown now

Creating the ProxyVM

Create an AppVM based on the TemplateVM you have just created. Set sys-firewall (or whatever FirewallVM you have connected to your sys-net) as the net qube. If you do not have such FirewallVM, use sys-net as the net qube. Next, go to the advanced tab and tick the provides network access to other qubes box.

Notes

With this current setup, the ProxyVM you have just created will be responsible for handling Firewall rules for the qubes behind it. This is not ideal, as this is still a fairly large VM, and there is a risk that IVPN or some other apps may interfere with its firewall handling.

Instead, I highly recommend that you create a minimal Mirage FirewallVM and use it as a firewall behind the IVPN ProxyVM. Other AppVMs then should use the Mirage Firewall as the net qube instead. This way, you can make sure that firewall rules are properly enforced.