Table of Contents

• Introduction
• For the impatients
  • With username
  • With username and certificate
  • Without username and with certificate
• Environment Variables
• Allowed volumes
• Routes
• DNS
• Troubleshooting
• Make the connection easier
• Credits

Introduction

Client for Checkpoint VPN using snx GNU/Linux client. It accepts username and/or certificate.

For the impatients

With username

1. Run the container

1.1. First time

docker run --name snx-vpn \
  --cap-add=ALL \
  -v /lib/modules:/lib/modules \
  -e SNX_SERVER=vpn_server_ip_address \
  -e SNX_USER=user \
  -e SNX_PASSWORD=secret \
  -t \
  -d kedu/snx-checkpoint-vpn

1.2. Subsequent times

docker start snx-vpn

2. Get private IP address of docker container

docker inspect --format '{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}' snx-vpn
172.17.0.2

3. Add a route using previous step IP address as gateway

sudo route add -net 10.20.30.0 gw 172.17.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0

4. Try to reach the server behind SNX VPN (in this example through SSH)

ssh 10.20.30.40

With username and certificate

1. Run the container

1.1. First time

docker run --name snx-vpn \
  --cap-add=ALL \
  -v /lib/modules:/lib/modules \
  -e SNX_SERVER=vpn_server_ip_address \
  -e SNX_USER=user \
  -e SNX_PASSWORD=secret \
  -v /path/to/my_snx_vpn_certificate.p12:/certificate.p12 \
  -t \
  -d kedu/snx-checkpoint-vpn

IMPORTANT: specify a volume with "/certificate.p12" as container path

1.2. Subsequent times

docker start snx-vpn

2. Get private IP address of docker container

docker inspect --format '{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}' snx-vpn
172.17.0.2

3. Add a route using previous step IP address as gateway

sudo route add -net 10.20.30.0 gw 172.17.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0

4. Try to reach the server behind SNX VPN (in this example through SSH)

ssh 10.20.30.40

Without username and with certificate

1. Run the container

docker run --name snx-vpn \
  --cap-add=ALL \
  -v /lib/modules:/lib/modules \
  -e SNX_SERVER=vpn_server_ip_address \
  -e SNX_PASSWORD=secret \
  -v /path/to/my_snx_vpn_certificate.p12:/certificate.p12 \
  -t \
  -d kedu/snx-checkpoint-vpn

IMPORTANT: specify a volume with "/certificate.p12" as container path

2. Get private IP address of docker container

docker inspect --format '{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}' snx-vpn
172.17.0.2

3. Add a route using previous step IP address as gateway

sudo route add -net 10.20.30.0 gw 172.17.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0

4. Try to reach the server behind SNX VPN (in this example through SSH)

ssh 10.20.30.40

Environment Variables

SNX_SERVER

Mandatory. IP address or name of the Checkpoint VPN server

SNX_PASSWORD

Mandatory. String corresponding to the password of VPN client

SNX_USER

Optional if certificate volume has been provided, otherwise mandatory. String corresponding to the username of VPN client

Allowed volumes

/certificate.p12

A VPN client certificate. If present the SNX binary will be invoked with "-c" parameter pointing to this certificate file.

Routes

Since it's the container the one that connects to VPN server is the one that receives the routes. In order to list all of them perform following command from the docker host ("snx-vpn" is the container name in this example)::

docker exec -ti snx-vpn route -n | grep -v eth0

Expected output similar to:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
10.20.30.0       0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 tunsnx
10.20.40.0       0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 tunsnx
...

So yould add manually a route (see "Make the connection easier" section to check provided script):

sudo route add -net 10.20.30.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw `docker inspect --format '{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}' snx-vpn`

And finally test access. In this example trying to reach via SSH a remote server:

ssh user@10.20.30.40

DNS

Since it's the container the one that connects to VPN server is the one that receives the DNS servers. In order to get them you could proceed in two ways:

a) Evaluating the container logs ("snx-vpn" is the container name in this example)

docker logs snx-vpn | grep DNS

Expected output similar to:

DNS Server          : 10.20.30.11
Secondary DNS Server: 10.20.30.12

b) Checking "/etc/resolv.conf" container file ("snx-vpn" is the container name in this example)

docker exec -ti snx-vpn cat /etc/resolv.conf

Expected output similar to:

nameserver 10.20.30.11
nameserver 10.20.30.12
nameserver 8.8.4.4
nameserver 8.8.8.8

Once you know the DNS servers you could proceed in one of below two ways:

a) Update your docker host "/etc/resolv.conf"

sudo vim /etc/resolv.conf

With below content:

nameserver 10.20.30.11
nameserver 10.20.30.12

You should remember to revert back the changes once finished

b) Run a local dnsmasq service. It requeries that you know the remote domains beforehand ("example.com" in this example)

1. Create the file:

sudo vim /etc/dnsmasq.d/example.com

With below content:

server=/example.com/10.20.30.11

2. Restart the "dnsmasq" service

sudo service dnsmasq restart

3. Test it

ssh server.example.com

Troubleshooting

This image has just been tested without username and with certificate, and with snx build 800007075 obtained from:

https://www.fc.up.pt/ci/servicos/acesso/vpn/software/CheckPointVPN_SNX_Linux_800007075.sh

If you can't connect to your Checkpoint VPN server try using other SNX builds, for instance:

https://supportcenter.checkpoint.com/supportcenter/portal/user/anon/page/default.psml/media-type/html?action=portlets.DCFileAction&eventSubmit_doGetdcdetails=&fileid=8993

If the container started up you could quickly test the new SNX build as follows:

1. Copy the SNX build from the docker host to the docker container

docker cp snx_install.sh snx-vpn:/

2. Connect to the docker container

docker exec -ti snx-vpn bash

3. Get process ID of the currently running SNX client (if any):

ps ax

Expected output similar to:

  PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
    1 pts/0    Ss     0:00 /bin/bash /root/snx.sh
   29 ?        Ss     0:00 snx -s ip_vpn_server -c /certificate.p12
   32 pts/0    S+     0:00 /bin/bash
   37 pts/1    Ss     0:00 bash
   47 pts/1    R+     0:00 ps ax

4. Kill the process (in this example 29):

kill 29

5. Adjust permissions of the SNX build

chmod a+rx snx_install.sh

6. Execute the installation file:

chmod a+rx snx_install.sh
./snx_install.sh

Expected output:

        Installation successfull

7. Check installation:

ldd /usr/bin/snx

Expected output similar to:

	linux-gate.so.1 (0xf7f3c000)
	libX11.so.6 => /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6 (0xf7dea000)
	libpthread.so.0 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0xf7dcb000)
	libresolv.so.2 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libresolv.so.2 (0xf7db3000)
	libdl.so.2 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0xf7dae000)
	libpam.so.0 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libpam.so.0 (0xf7d9e000)
	libnsl.so.1 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libnsl.so.1 (0xf7d83000)
	libstdc++.so.5 => /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.5 (0xf7cc4000)
	libc.so.6 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0xf7ae8000)
	libxcb.so.1 => /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libxcb.so.1 (0xf7abc000)
	/lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xf7f3e000)
	libaudit.so.1 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libaudit.so.1 (0xf7a92000)
	libm.so.6 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0xf798e000)
	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0xf7970000)
	libXau.so.6 => /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libXau.so.6 (0xf796c000)
	libXdmcp.so.6 => /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libXdmcp.so.6 (0xf7965000)
	libcap-ng.so.0 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libcap-ng.so.0 (0xf795f000)
	libbsd.so.0 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libbsd.so.0 (0xf7944000)
	librt.so.1 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0xf793a000)

8. Manually try to connect:

snx -s ip_vpn_server -c /certificate.p12

Expected output similar to:

Please enter the certificate's password:

9. Type the password and press "Enter"

Expected output similar to:

SNX - connected.

Session parameters:
===================
Office Mode IP      : 192.168.90.82
DNS Server          : 10.20.30.41
Secondary DNS Server: 10.20.30.42
Timeout             : 6hours 

Make the connection easier

Once you checked that the SNX client works, you could create a script to make the whole process easier:

1. Create the script

sudo vim /usr/local/bin/snx-vpn.sh

With below content, adjusting "SNX_DOCKER_NAME" and routes to match your needs:

#! /bin/bash
SNX_DOCKER_NAME="snx-vpn"
IS_DOCKER_RUNNING="$(docker inspect -f '{{ .State.Running }}' $SNX_DOCKER_NAME)"
if [ "true" == $IS_DOCKER_RUNNING ]; then
    exit 0
fi
docker start $SNX_DOCKER_NAME
SNX_DOCKER_IP="$(docker inspect --format '{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}' $SNX_DOCKER_NAME)"
# Add custom rules behind this line
#sudo route add -net 10.20.30.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw $SNX_DOCKER_IP

2. Make it executable

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/snx-vpn.sh

3. Test it:

snx-vpn.sh

Credits

This image is inspired in the excellent work of below people:

https://github.com/iwanttobefreak/docker-snx-vpn

https://github.com/mnasiadka/docker-snx-dante

https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/453727

https://gitlab.com/jamgo/docker-juniper-vpn