Riccardo Manfrin
6e17f50040
* [client] Export the only-owner-writable path check from elevate
Pure refactor, no behavior change: the existing checkOnlyOwnerWritable gets a
thin exported wrapper so callers outside the elevation path can reuse it. No
call site changes here.
* [client] Validate the saved service parameters before applying them
The install reads <stateDir>/service.json and applies it to the service it then
registers: its arguments, its config path and its environment. The restricted
ACL that saveServiceParams puts on the state directory is applied when the file
is written, which is not necessarily before the file is first read, so the
install now checks the file rather than assuming it.
A file whose ownership or permissions are not the ones saveServiceParams
produces is treated as absent, and the install proceeds with its defaults. The
check covers the directories above the file as well, so what is checked is what
is read.
* [client] Restrict which environment variables the service is registered with
--service-env, and the service.json it persists to, accepted any name. A small
set of them decides how a process resolves the executables and libraries it
loads, and the daemon needs none of those: it now refuses them when they are
passed explicitly, and drops them with a warning when they come back from a
service.json written by an older version, so an upgrade does not fail over a
variable nobody needs.
* [client] Resolve netsh by absolute path
The lookup consulted PATH first and fell back to System32, in both the copy the
userspace firewall uses and the one that tears the interface down. It now asks
Windows for the system directory, so the resolution no longer depends on the
environment the service happens to be started with.
* [client] Move the System32 lookup into a package both callers share
Pure refactor, no behavior change: client/iface and client/firewall/uspfilter
carried a copy each of the same function, and neither imports the other, so the
body moves to client/internal/wincmd — alongside winregistry, which is where
the client's other Windows-only helper already lives. Both call sites now read
wincmd.System32("netsh").
* [client] Cover the System32 lookup with a test
Asserts what the previous commits changed: the lookup is absolute, and neither
PATH nor %SystemRoot% moves it.
* [client] Refuse the loader environment families by prefix
Review follow-up on the previous commit:
- LD_* and DYLD_* are now refused whole rather than name by name. Their members
differ per platform and libc and grow with new OS releases, so a list of them
is out of date as soon as it is written — DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH and
DYLD_FALLBACK_FRAMEWORK_PATH were already missing from it.
- The names are folded to upper case only on Windows, where a variable is the
same one however it is spelled. Elsewhere the environment is case-sensitive,
so Path and PATH are two variables and only the exact spelling is the one that
is read; the fold refused the wrong one.
- TEMP and TMP stay in the denylist, but the rationale and the message now say
what they actually decide: where the service writes, not what it loads.
Start using NetBird at netbird.io
See Documentation
Join our Slack channel or our Community forum
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🤖 NetBird Agent Network (Beta)
Identity-aware access control for AI agents — keyless access to LLM APIs and private resources over the encrypted NetBird tunnel. See
agent-network/or read the docs at netbird.ai.
NetBird combines a configuration-free peer-to-peer private network and a centralized access control system in a single platform, making it easy to create secure private networks for your organization or home.
Connect. NetBird creates a WireGuard-based overlay network that automatically connects your machines over an encrypted tunnel, leaving behind the hassle of opening ports, complex firewall rules, VPN gateways, and so forth.
Secure. NetBird enables secure remote access by applying granular access policies while allowing you to manage them intuitively from a single place. Works universally on any infrastructure.
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/10cec749-bb56-4ab3-97af-4e38850108d2
Self-host NetBird (video)
Key features
Quickstart with NetBird Cloud
- Download and install NetBird at https://app.netbird.io/install.
- Follow the steps to sign up with Google, Microsoft, GitHub or your email address.
- Check the NetBird admin UI.
Quickstart with self-hosted NetBird
This is the quickest way to try self-hosted NetBird. It should take around 5 minutes to get started if you already have a public domain and a VM. Follow the Advanced guide with a custom identity provider for installations with different IdPs.
Infrastructure requirements:
- A Linux VM with at least 1 CPU and 2 GB of memory.
- The VM should be publicly accessible on TCP ports 80 and 443 and UDP port 3478.
- A public domain name pointing to the VM.
Software requirements:
- Docker with the Compose plugin (Compose v2 or higher). See the Docker installation guide.
Steps
- Download and run the installation script:
export NETBIRD_DOMAIN=netbird.example.com; curl -fsSL https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/releases/latest/download/getting-started.sh | bash
A bit on NetBird internals
- Every machine in the network runs the NetBird agent, which manages WireGuard.
- Every agent connects to the Management Service, which holds network state, manages peer IPs, and distributes updates to agents.
- Agents use ICE (via pion/ice) to discover connection candidates for peer-to-peer connections.
- Candidates are discovered with the help of STUN servers.
- Agents negotiate a connection through the Signal Service, exchanging end-to-end encrypted messages with candidates.
- When NAT traversal fails (e.g. mobile carrier-grade NAT) and a direct p2p connection isn't possible, the system falls back to a Relay Service and a secure WireGuard tunnel is established through it.
See a complete architecture overview for details.
Community projects
- NetBird installer script
- netbird-tui - terminal UI for managing NetBird peers, routes, and settings
- caddy-netbird - Caddy plugin that embeds a NetBird client for proxying HTTP and TCP/UDP traffic through NetBird networks
Note: The main branch may be in an unstable or even broken state during development.
For stable versions, see releases.
Support acknowledgement
In November 2022, NetBird joined the StartUpSecure program sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of the Federal Republic of Germany. Together with the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, NetBird brings security best practices and simplicity to private networking.
Acknowledgements
We build on open source technologies like WireGuard®, Pion ICE, and Rosenpass. We greatly appreciate the work these projects are doing, and we'd love it if you could support them too (e.g., by starring or contributing).
Legal
This repository is licensed under the BSD-3-Clause license, which applies to all parts of the repository except for the directories management/, signal/ and relay/. Those directories are licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3.0 (AGPLv3). See the respective LICENSE files inside each directory.
WireGuard and the WireGuard logo are registered trademarks of Jason A. Donenfeld.