[SOLVED] openvpn - Cannot load CA certificate file ca.crt (no entries were read)

[arronar]

Hi.

 

After installing OpenVPN (apt install openvpn) I'm trying to run a VPN client on ARMBIAN 5.38 (9 stretch) 4.14.18-sunxi and I'm getting the following error when executing:

 

 

sudo openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/client/myVPN.conf

Quote

Thu May 24 16:30:56 2018 OpenVPN 2.4.0 arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [LZ4] [EPOLL] [PKCS11] [MH/PKTINFO] [AEAD] built on Jul 18 2017
Thu May 24 16:30:56 2018 library versions: OpenSSL 1.0.2l  25 May 2017, LZO 2.08
Thu May 24 16:30:56 2018 Cannot load CA certificate file ca.crt (no entries were read)
Thu May 24 16:30:56 2018 Exiting due to fatal error

 

In the /etc/openvpn/client there are

Quote

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20480 May 24 14:41 ca.crt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  2652 May 24 15:21 myVPN.conf
-rw------- 1 root root   636 Mar  8  2017 ta.key
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  5309 Mar 18  2017 vpnRouter.crt
-rw------- 1 root root  1704 Mar 18  2017 vpnRouter.key

 

 

while the myVPN.conf file looks like

# Specify that we are a client and that we
# will be pulling certain config file directives
# from the server.
client

# Use the same setting as you are using on
# the server.
# On most systems, the VPN will not function
# unless you partially or fully disable
# the firewall for the TUN/TAP interface.
dev tun

# Are we connecting to a TCP or
# UDP server?  Use the same setting as
# on the server.
proto udp

# The hostname/IP and port of the server.
# You can have multiple remote entries
# to load balance between the servers.
remote <ip> 1194

# Keep trying indefinitely to resolve the
# host name of the OpenVPN server.  Very useful
# on machines which are not permanently connected
# to the internet such as laptops.
resolv-retry infinite

# Most clients don't need to bind to
# a specific local port number.
nobind

# Try to preserve some state across restarts.
persist-key
persist-tun

# SSL/TLS parms.
# See the server config file for more
# description.  It's best to use
# a separate .crt/.key file pair
# for each client.  A single ca
# file can be used for all clients.
ca ca.crt
cert vpnRouter.crt
key vpnRouter.key

# Verify server certificate by checking
# that the certicate has the nsCertType
# field set to "server".  This is an
# important precaution to protect against
# a potential attack discussed here:
#  http://openvpn.net/howto.html#mitm
#
# To use this feature, you will need to generate
# your server certificates with the nsCertType
# field set to "server".  The build-key-server
# script in the easy-rsa folder will do this.
; ns-cert-type server

# If a tls-auth key is used on the server
# then every client must also have the key.
tls-auth ta.key 1

#To avoid a possible Man-in-the-Middle attack where an authorized
#client tries to connect to another client by impersonating the
#server, make sure to enforce some kind of server certificate
#verification by clients.

ns-cert-type server

# Cryptographic algorithm

cipher AES-256-CBC

# Enable compression on the VPN link.
# Don't enable this unless it is also
# enabled in the server config file.
comp-lzo

# Set log file verbosity.
verb 3

Any idea on what that means? I googled it and couldn't find anything helpfull.

 

[zador.blood.stained]

Possibly your CA certificate is malformed or invalid.

21 minutes ago, arronar said:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20480 May 24 14:41 ca.crt

The file size looks too large for a usual CA certificate. Please try to open it in a text editor and check if it looks like this

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
<several lines of characters>
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

or try to verify it with openssl

openssl verify -CAfile /etc/openvpn/client/ca.crt /etc/openvpn/client/ca.crt

 

[arronar]

You are right. I copied a wrong file.

Thank you very much.