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The update-settings kill switch (--disable-update-settings /
NB_DISABLE_UPDATE_SETTINGS / the MDM DisableUpdateSettings key) forbids
changing settings, but it decided what a "change" was by looking at
whether a field was present in the request. The CLI fills the whole
config surface of SetConfigRequest and LoginRequest from its flags and
environment on every `netbird up` (setupSetConfigReq in cmd/up.go), so a
client configured by environment restates its own configuration on every
start and tripped the gate every time.
SetConfig only warned about that, but Login carries the same fields and
was gated the same way, and Login runs inside the CLI's backoff loop: the
daemon answered every attempt with codes.Unavailable, `netbird up` never
completed, and a container with NB_DISABLE_UPDATE_SETTINGS plus any
config env var (NB_MANAGEMENT_URL, for one) could not come up at all.
Both gates now compare values. Config.WouldChange is the dry-run half of
UpdateConfig: it runs the very same diff logic (Config.apply) against a
copy of the stored config, so the gate cannot drift from what an actual
update would do, nor go stale when a field is added. A request that
restates what the profile already holds changes nothing and is allowed; a
request that diverges is refused exactly as before, and a dry run that
cannot be evaluated fails closed. A profile with no config on disk yet is
judged against the config the daemon would create for it.
For Login, the compared input comes from loginOverridesInput, which
persistLoginOverrides also uses to perform the write, so the gate judges
precisely the two fields a login can persist (management URL, pre-shared
key) and no field it ignores.
Two adjacent defects surfaced while making the comparison exact:
- Config.apply compared URLs as raw strings, so the same endpoint spelled
without its default port ("https://api.netbird.io" vs
"https://api.netbird.io:443") counted as a new value and rewrote the
config. It now compares the parsed forms.
- UpdateConfig did not collapse the redacted pre-shared key, unlike
UpdateOrCreateConfig and DirectUpdateConfig, so a UI round-trip of the
mask replaced the stored key with asterisks.
The CLI warning for a refused SetConfig said the method was not available
in the daemon, which sent people looking for a version mismatch that was
not there; it now reports the refusal.
Start using NetBird at netbird.io
See Documentation
Join our Slack channel or our Community forum
🚀 We are hiring! Join us at https://netbird.io/careers
🤖 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.