• This how-to describes the method for setting up WireGuard server on OpenWrt.
• Follow WireGuard client for client setup and WireGuard extras for additional tuning.

• Encrypt your internet connection to enforce security and privacy.
  • Prevent data leak and traffic spoofing on the client side.
• Bypass regional restrictions using commercial providers.
  • Escape client side content filters and internet censorship.
• Access your LAN services remotely without port forwarding.

Set up DDNS client if required. Install the packages and specify the VPN server configuration parameters.

# Install packages
opkg update
opkg install wireguard
 
# Configuration parameters
WG_IF="vpn"
WG_PORT="51820"
WG_ADDR="192.168.9.1/24"
WG_ADDR6="fdf1:e8a1:8d3f:9::1/64"

Generate server keys and a pre-shared key. Exchange the keys between the server and the client using file transfer or copy-paste.

# Generate keys
umask go=
wg genkey | tee wgserver.key | wg pubkey > wgserver.pub
wg genpsk > wgserver.psk
 
# Server private key
WG_KEY="$(cat wgserver.key)"
 
# Pre-shared key
WG_PSK="$(cat wgserver.psk)"
 
# Client public key
WG_PUB="$(cat wgclient.pub)"

Consider VPN network as private and assign VPN interface to LAN zone to minimize firewall setup. Allow access to VPN server from WAN zone.

# Configure firewall
uci rename firewall.@zone[0]="lan"
uci rename firewall.@zone[1]="wan"
uci del_list firewall.lan.network="${WG_IF}"
uci add_list firewall.lan.network="${WG_IF}"
uci -q delete firewall.wg
uci set firewall.wg="rule"
uci set firewall.wg.name="Allow-WireGuard"
uci set firewall.wg.src="wan"
uci set firewall.wg.dest_port="${WG_PORT}"
uci set firewall.wg.proto="udp"
uci set firewall.wg.target="ACCEPT"
uci commit firewall
/etc/init.d/firewall restart

Set up VPN interface and peers.

# Configure network
uci -q delete network.${WG_IF}
uci set network.${WG_IF}="interface"
uci set network.${WG_IF}.proto="wireguard"
uci set network.${WG_IF}.private_key="${WG_KEY}"
uci set network.${WG_IF}.listen_port="${WG_PORT}"
uci add_list network.${WG_IF}.addresses="${WG_ADDR}"
uci add_list network.${WG_IF}.addresses="${WG_ADDR6}"
 
# Add VPN peers
uci -q delete network.wgclient
uci set network.wgclient="wireguard_${WG_IF}"
uci set network.wgclient.public_key="${WG_PUB}"
uci set network.wgclient.preshared_key="${WG_PSK}"
uci add_list network.wgclient.allowed_ips="${WG_ADDR%.*}.2/32"
uci add_list network.wgclient.allowed_ips="${WG_ADDR6%:*}:2/128"
uci commit network
/etc/init.d/network restart

Establish the VPN connection. Verify your client traffic is routed via VPN gateway.

traceroute openwrt.org
traceroute6 openwrt.org

Check your client public IP addresses.

• https://ipleak.net/

Make sure there is no DNS leak on the client side.

• https://dnsleaktest.com/

Delegate a public IPv6 prefix to VPN6 network to use IPv6 by default.

• https://ipv6-test.com/

Collect and analyze the following information.

# Restart services
/etc/init.d/log restart; /etc/init.d/network restart; sleep 10
 
# Log and status
logread -e vpn; netstat -l -n -p | grep -e "^udp\s.*\s-$"
 
# Runtime configuration
pgrep -f -a wg; wg show; wg showconf vpn
ip address show; ip route show table all
ip rule show; ip -6 rule show; iptables-save; ip6tables-save
 
# Persistent configuration
uci show network; uci show firewall
grep -v -e "^#" -e "^$" /etc/crontabs/root