Always On VPN Device Tunnel Only Deployment Considerations

Always On VPN Device Tunnel Only Deployment ConsiderationsRecently I wrote about Windows 10 Always On VPN device tunnel operation and best practices, explaining its common uses cases and requirements, as well as sharing some detailed information about authentication, deployment recommendations, and best practices. I’m commonly asked if deploying Always On VPN using the device tunnel exclusively, as opposed to using it to supplement the user tunnel, is supported or recommended. I’ll address those topics in detail here.

Device Tunnel Only?

To start, yes, it is possible to deploy Windows 10 Always On VPN using only the device tunnel. In this scenario the administrator will configure full access to the network instead of limited access to domain infrastructure services and management servers.

Is It Recommended?

Generally, no. Remember, the device tunnel was designed with a specific purpose in mind, that being to provide pre-logon network connectivity to support scenarios such as logging on without cached credentials. Typically, the device tunnel is best used for its intended purpose, which is providing supplemental functionality to the user tunnel.

Deployment Considerations

The choice to implement Always On VPN using only the device tunnel is an interesting one. There are some potential advantages to this deployment model, but it is not without some serious limitations. Below I’ve listed some of the advantages and disadvantages to deploying the device tunnel alone for Windows 10 Always On VPN.

Advantages

Using the device tunnel alone does have some compelling advantages over the standard two tunnel (device tunnel/user tunnel) deployment model. Consider the following.

  • Single VPN Connection – Deploying the device tunnel alone means a single VPN connection to configure, deploy, and manage on the client. This also results in less concurrent connections and, importantly, less IP addresses to allocate and provision.
  • Reduced Infrastructure – The device tunnel is authenticated using only the device certificate. This certificate check is performed directly on the Windows Server Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) VPN server, eliminating the requirement to deploy Network Policy Server (NPS) servers for authentication.
  • User Transparency – The device tunnel does not appear in the modern Windows UI. The user will not see this connection if they click on the network icon in the notification area. In addition, they will not see the device tunnel connection in the settings app under Network & Internet > VPN. This prevents casual users from playing with the connection settings, and potentially deleting the connection entirely. It’s not that they can’t delete the device tunnel however, it’s just not as obvious.
  • Simplified Deployment – Deploying the device tunnel is less complicated than deploying the user tunnel. The device tunnel is provisioned once to the device and available to all users. This eliminates the complexity of having to deploy the user tunnel in each individual user’s profile.

Disadvantages

While there are some advantages to using the device tunnel by itself, this configuration is not without some serious limitations. Consider the following.

  • IKEv2 Only – The device tunnel uses the IKEv2 VPN protocol exclusively. It does not support SSTP. While IKEv2 is an excellent protocol in terms of security, it is commonly blocked by firewalls. This will prevent some users from accessing the network remotely depending on their location.
  • Limited OS Support – The device tunnel is only supported on Windows 10 Enterprise edition clients, and those clients must be joined to a domain. Arguably the device tunnel wouldn’t be necessary if the client isn’t domain joined, but some organizations have widely deployed Windows 10 Professional, which would then preclude them from being able to use the device tunnel.
  • Machine Certificate Authentication Only – The device tunnel is authenticated using only the certificate issued to the device. This means anyone who logs on to the device will have full access to the internal network. This may or may not be desirable, depending on individual requirements.
  • No Mutual Authentication – When the device tunnel is authenticated, the server performs authentication of the client, but the client does not authenticate the server. The lack of mutual authentication increases the risk of a man-in-the-middle attack.
  • CRL Checks Not Enforced – By default, RRAS does not perform certificate revocation checking for device tunnel connections. This means simply revoking a certificate won’t prevent the device from connecting. You’ll have to import the client’s device certificate into the Untrusted Certificates certificate store on each VPN server. Fortunately, there is a fix available to address this limitation, but it involves some additional configuration. See Always On VPN Device Tunnel and Certificate Revocation for more details.
  • No Support for Azure Conditional Access – Azure Conditional Access requires EAP authentication. However, the device tunnel does not use EAP but instead uses a simple device certificate check to authenticate the device.
  • No Support for Multifactor Authentication – As the device tunnel is authenticated by the RRAS VPN server directly and authentication requests are not sent to the NPS server, it is not possible to integrate MFA with the device tunnel.
  • Limited Connection Visibility – Since the device tunnel is designed for the device and not the user it does not appear in the list of active network connections in the Windows UI. There is no user-friendly connection status indicator, although the connection can be viewed using the classic network control panel applet (ncpa.cpl).

Summary

The choice to deploy Windows 10 Always On VPN using the device tunnel alone, or in conjunction with the user tunnel, is a design choice that administrators must make based on their individual requirements. Using the device tunnel alone is supported and works but has some serious drawbacks and limitations. The best experience will be found using the device tunnel as it was intended, as an optional component to provide pre-logon connectivity for an existing Always On VPN user tunnel.

Additional Information

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel with Azure VPN Gateway

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel and Certificate Revocation

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Configuration with Microsoft Intune

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Does Not Connect Automatically

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Missing in Windows 10 UI

Deleting a Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Configuration using PowerShell

Windows 10 Always On VPN IKEv2 Features and Limitations

Always On VPN Device Tunnel Operation and Best Practices

Always On VPN Device Tunnel Operation and Best PracticesUnlike DirectAccess, Windows 10 Always On VPN settings are deployed to the individual user, not the device. As such, there is no support for logging on without cached credentials using the default configuration. To address this limitation, and to provide feature parity with DirectAccess, Microsoft later introduced the device tunnel option in Windows 10 1709.

Device Tunnel Use Cases

The device tunnel is designed to allow the client device to establish an Always On VPN connection before the user logs on. This enables important scenarios such as logging on without cached credentials. This feature is crucial for organizations who expect users to log on to devices the first time remotely. The device tunnel can also be helpful for remote support, allowing administrators to manage remotely connected Always On VPN clients without having a user logged on. In addition, the device tunnel can alleviate some of the pain caused by administrators resetting remote worker’s passwords, or by users initiating a Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR).

Device Tunnel Requirements

The device tunnel requires Windows 10 Enterprise edition 1709 or later, and the client device must be joined to the domain. The device tunnel must be provisioned in the context of the local system account. Guidance for configuring and deploying a Windows 10 Always On VPN device tunnel can be found here.

Device Tunnel Authentication

The device tunnel is authenticated using a certificate issued to the client device, much the same as DirectAccess does. Authentication takes place on the Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) VPN server. It does not require a Network Policy Server (NPS) to perform authentication for the device tunnel.

Always On VPN Device Tunnel Operation and Best Practices

CRL Checking

Eventually an administrator may need to deny access to a device configured with an Always On VPN device tunnel connection. In theory, revoking the client device’s certificate and terminating their IPsec Security Associations (SAs) on the VPN server would accomplish this. However, Windows Server RRAS does not perform certificate revocation checking for Windows 10 Always On VPN device tunnel connections by default. Thankfully an update is available to enable this functionality. See Always On VPN Device Tunnel and Certificate Revocation for more details.

Configuration Best Practices

As the device tunnel is designed only to support domain authentication for remote clients, it should be configured with limited access to the on-premises infrastructure. Below is a list of required and optional infrastructure services that should be reachable over the device tunnel connection.

Required

  • All domain controllers
  • Enterprise DNS servers (if DNS is running on servers other than domain controllers)

Optional

  • All issuing certification authority (CA) servers
  • All certificate services online HTTP responders
  • All certificate services Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) servers
  • System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) distribution point servers
  • Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) servers
  • Management workstations

Limiting Access

Limiting access over the Always On VPN device tunnel can be accomplished in one of the following two ways.

Traffic Filters

The administrator can configure traffic filters on the device tunnel to restrict access only to those IP addresses required. However, be advised that when a traffic filter is enabled on the device tunnel, all inbound access will be blocked. This effectively prevents any remote management of the device from an on-premises system over the device tunnel.

Host Routes

An alternative to using traffic filters to limit access over the device tunnel is using host routes. Host routes are configured with a /32 prefix size and define a route to a specific individual host. The following is an example of host route configuration in ProfileXML.

Always On VPN Device Tunnel Operation and Best Practices

Note: A PowerShell script that enumerates all enterprise domain controllers and outputs their IP addresses in XML format for use in ProfileXML can be found here.

Caveats

Some organizations may have hundreds or even thousands of domain controllers, so creating individual host route entries for all domain controllers in profileXML may not be practical. In this scenario it is recommended to add host routes only for the domain controllers that belong to the Active Directory site where the VPN server resides.

Supportability

Do not use the <DomainNameInformation> element in ProfileXML or enable force tunneling for the device tunnel. Neither of these configurations are supported.

Tunnel Coexistence

The device tunnel can be safely deployed in conjunction with the user tunnel whenever its functionality is required.

DNS Registration

If the device tunnel and user tunnel are both deployed, it is recommended that only one of the tunnels be configured to register in DNS. If the device tunnel is configured to register its IP address in DNS, be advised that only those devices with routes configured in the device tunnel VPN profile will be able to connect remotely to Always On VPN clients.

Additional Information

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel with Azure VPN Gateway

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel and Certificate Revocation

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Configuration with Microsoft Intune

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Does Not Connect Automatically

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Missing in Windows 10 UI

Deleting a Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Configuration using PowerShell

Always On VPN Device Tunnel and Certificate Revocation

Always On VPN Device Tunnel and Certificate RevocationRecently I wrote about denying access to Windows 10 Always On VPN users or computers. In that post I provided specific guidance for denying access to computers configured with the device tunnel. To summarize, the process involved exporting the device certificate from the issuing Certification Authority (CA) server and placing it in the Untrusted Certificates certificate store on each VPN server. In theory, simply revoking the device certificate should be all that’s required to prevent device tunnel connections.

Revocation Check Failure

As it turns out, a bug in Windows Server Routing and Remote Access prevents this from working as expected. Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016, and 2019 all fail to check the Certificate Revocation List (CRL) for IKEv2 VPN connections using machine certificate authentication (for example an Always On VPN device tunnel).

Updates for Windows Server

Microsoft has released fixes to support device tunnel certificate revocation for the following operating systems.

Windows Server 2019 – KB4505658 (build 17763.652)

Windows Server 2016 – KB4503294 (build 14393.3053)

Windows Server 2012/R2 – Will not be updated.

Enable Revocation Check

Additional configuration is required to enable support for CRL checking. Microsoft published guidance for configuring CRL revocation checks for IKEv2 VPN connections using machine certificate authentication here. Specifically, administrators must enable the RootCertificateNameToAccept parameter and set a registry key to enable this functionality.

Open an elevated PowerShell window and run the following commands to enable CRL checking for IKEv2 VPN connections using machine certificate authentication.

$Thumbprint = ‘Root CA Certificate Thumbprint’
$RootCACert = (Get-ChildItem -Path cert:\LocalMachine\root | Where-Object {$_.Thumbprint -eq $Thumbprint})
Set-VpnAuthProtocol -RootCertificateNameToAccept $RootCACert -PassThru

New-ItemProperty -Path ‘HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RemoteAccess\Parameters\Ikev2\’ -Name CertAuthFlags -PropertyTYpe DWORD -Value ‘4’ -Force

Restart-Service RemoteAccess -PassThru

Always On VPN Device Tunnel and Certificate Revocation

A PowerShell script to update the RootCertificateNameToAccept parameter on multiple VPN servers can be found here.

Revoking Certificates

To prevent a Windows 10 Always On VPN device tunnel connection, the administrator must first revoke the certificate on the issuing CA. Next, open an elevated command window an enter the following commands. Repeat these steps on each VPN server in the enterprise.

certutil -urlcache * delete
certutil -setreg chain\ChainCacheResyncFiletime @now

Additional Information

Denying Access to Windows 10 Always On VPN Users or Computers

Blocking VPN Clients that use Revoked Certificates

PowerShell Script to Configure RootCertificateNameToAccept on GitHub

 

 

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