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Etienne Dechamps 7e6b2dd1ea Introduce raw TCP SPTPS packet transport.
Currently, SPTPS packets are transported over TCP metaconnections using
extended REQ_KEY requests, in order for the packets to pass through
tinc-1.0 nodes unaltered. Unfortunately, this method presents two
significant downsides:

 - An already encrypted SPTPS packet is decrypted and then encrypted
   again every time it passes through a node, since it is transported
   over the SPTPS channels of the metaconnections. This
   double-encryption is unnecessary and wastes CPU cycles.

 - More importantly, the only way to transport binary data over
   standard metaconnection messages such as REQ_KEY is to encode it
   in base64, which has a 33% encoding overhead. This wastes 25% of the
   network bandwidth.

This commit introduces a new protocol message, SPTPS_PACKET, which can
be used to transport SPTPS packets over a TCP metaconnection in an
efficient way. The new message is appropriately protected through a
minor protocol version increment, and extended REQ_KEY messages are
still used with nodes that do not support the new message, as well as
for the intial handshake packets, for which efficiency is not a concern.

The way SPTPS_PACKET works is very similar to how the traditional PACKET
message works: after the SPTPS_PACKET message, the raw binary packet is
sent directly over the metaconnection. There is one important
difference, however: in the case of SPTPS_PACKET, the packet is sent
directly over the TCP stream completely bypassing the SPTPS channel of
the metaconnection itself for maximum efficiency. This is secure because
the SPTPS packet that is being sent is already encrypted with an
end-to-end key.
2015-05-10 21:08:57 +01:00
bash_completion.d Throttle the rate of MTU_INFO messages. 2015-03-14 13:39:05 +00:00
doc Add support for out-of-tree ("VPATH") builds. 2015-05-09 16:41:48 +01:00
gui tinc-gui: Don't assign broadcast subnets to any node, fix parsing of Edges, fix diplay of Subnet.weight. 2014-10-14 22:18:56 +02:00
m4 Remove explicit distribution rules for m4 scripts. 2015-05-09 16:17:39 +01:00
src Introduce raw TCP SPTPS packet transport. 2015-05-10 21:08:57 +01:00
test Fixed variables.test testsuite after 'Make "tinc add" idempotent.' change. 2015-02-10 07:54:52 +01:00
.gitignore Don't ignore Makefile.am. 2012-09-24 14:56:00 +02:00
AUTHORS Remove Google from the list of copyright owners. 2014-08-30 10:57:57 +01:00
configure.ac Add support for out-of-tree ("VPATH") builds. 2015-05-09 16:41:48 +01:00
COPYING Update copyright notices. 2014-02-07 20:38:48 +01:00
COPYING.README Releasing 1.0.12. 2010-02-03 22:49:48 +01:00
Makefile.am Add support for out-of-tree ("VPATH") builds. 2015-05-09 16:41:48 +01:00
NEWS Releasing 1.1pre11. 2014-12-27 09:22:31 +01:00
README Releasing 1.1pre11. 2014-12-27 09:22:31 +01:00
README.android Android cross-compilation instructions. 2012-09-24 13:55:38 +02:00
README.git Document clearly that tinc depends on curses and readline libraries. 2014-01-20 20:16:58 +01:00
THANKS Update THANKS file. 2014-12-26 14:59:15 +01:00

This is the README file for tinc version 1.1pre11. Installation
instructions may be found in the INSTALL file.

tinc is Copyright (C) 1998-2014 by:

Ivo Timmermans,
Guus Sliepen <guus@tinc-vpn.org>,
and others.

For a complete list of authors see the AUTHORS file.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version. See the file COPYING for more details.


This is a pre-release
---------------------

Please note that this is NOT a stable release. Until version 1.1.0 is released,
please use one of the 1.0.x versions if you need a stable version of tinc.

Although tinc 1.1 will be protocol compatible with tinc 1.0.x, the
functionality of the tinc program may still change, and the control socket
protocol is not fixed yet.


Security statement
------------------

This version uses an experimental and unfinished cryptographic protocol. Use it
at your own risk.


Compatibility
-------------

Version 1.1pre11 is compatible with 1.0pre8, 1.0 and later, but not with older
versions of tinc.

When the ExperimentalProtocol option is used, tinc is still compatible with
1.0.X and 1.1pre11 itself, but not with any other 1.1preX version.


Requirements
------------

In order to compile tinc, you will need a GNU C compiler environment. Please
ensure you have the latest stable versions of all the required libraries:

- OpenSSL (http://www.openssl.org/) version 1.0.0 or later, with support for
  elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) and Galois counter mode (GCM) enabled.

The following libraries are used by default, but can be disabled if necessary:

- zlib (http://www.gzip.org/zlib/)
- lzo (http://www.oberhumer.com/opensource/lzo/)
- ncurses (http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/)
- readline (ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/readline/)


Features
--------

Tinc is a peer-to-peer VPN daemon that supports VPNs with an arbitrary number
of nodes. Instead of configuring tunnels, you give tinc the location and
public key of a few nodes in the VPN. After making the initial connections to
those nodes, tinc will learn about all other nodes on the VPN, and will make
connections automatically. When direct connections are not possible, data will
be forwarded by intermediate nodes.

By default, nodes authenticate each other using 2048 bit RSA (or 521 bit
ECDSA*) keys. Traffic is encrypted using Blowfish in CBC mode (or AES-256 in
GCM mode*), authenticated using HMAC-SHA1 (or GCM*), and is protected against
replay attacks.

*) When using the ExperimentalProtocol option.

Tinc fully supports IPv6.

Tinc can operate in several routing modes. In the default mode, "router", every
node is associated with one or more IPv4 and/or IPv6 Subnets. The other two
modes, "switch" and "hub", let the tinc daemons work together to form a virtual
Ethernet network switch or hub.

Normally, when started tinc will detach and run in the background. In a native
Windows environment this means tinc will intall itself as a service, which will
restart after reboots.  To prevent tinc from detaching or running as a service,
use the -D option.

The status of the VPN can be queried using the "tinc" command, which connects
to a running tinc daemon via a control connection. The same tool also makes it
easy to start and stop tinc, and to change its configuration.