Johnathan Corgan
9979826235
Move the staged changelog entries under a 0.5.2 heading dated 2026-09-28 and leave an empty Unreleased section above it. The date is provisional: a comment beside the heading says so, and the two release-notes files carry the same date with the same marker, so the check at the version bump finds all three. Add the release notes and mirror them byte for byte to RELEASE-NOTES.md. Every link is absolute so the Release body resolves them, and each paragraph and list item is on one line, because the Release page shows every newline inside a paragraph as a line break; the file exempts itself from the line-length lint rule. The notes lead with who should upgrade and with the three defaults that changed: the gateway's DNS port, the Windows config directory, and an ephemeral node no longer writing its key file. They say what was measured and what was not, including the mixed-version interop run against v0.5.1 and v0.5.0, the Windows installer checks on Windows Server under Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7, and the checks still outstanding. They state that a link to a v0.5.0 or v0.5.1 node can still drop after a lost rekey reply until that node is upgraded, since the fix is on the answering side. The Windows upgrade notes say to stop the service before every run of the installer, and to move fips.yaml and fips.key from \etc\fips into C:\ProgramData\fips before upgrading a service that was set up by hand to read its config from \etc\fips, which otherwise comes up under a new identity with no warning. The README's status badge, release-notes link and status paragraph follow the release. Correct documentation that no longer matches the gateway, tree, Windows and packaging behavior: - The gateway design document, how-to, OpenWrt tutorial and the configuration reference describe the NAT rebuild as one transaction, the 1000-mapping ceiling and the new-name rate limit in place of the pool size as a hard cap, and which DNS queries allocate a mapping. - The spanning-tree documents describe the periodic re-broadcast and the resend of an unconfirmed announce, and the bloom filter update triggers include a parent switch and a child joining or leaving. - The fips, fipsctl and security references cover the restricted C:\ProgramData\fips on Windows, the ACL and key paths on macOS, FreeBSD and Windows, the legacy peer ACL fallback in \etc\fips, and the Debian fips.yaml's actual mode and conffile status. - The packaging guides no longer list MIPS as supported, the arm64 .deb leg is described as also purging the package, and the OpenWrt SDK-feed README says a package built from its Makefile carries none of the released packages' maintainer scripts. - The testing README gains a section for the OpenWrt maintainer-script suite and says the ACL allowlist suite runs by hand only, and the interop README lists the mesh-size check as its eighth phase. The upgrade notes were then corrected where following them as written would have left a node worse off: - Gateway DNS port: a fips.yaml that sets gateway.dns.listen keeps its port through the upgrade, and the v0.5.1 example config and deployment guide set it to [::1]:5353, so the resolver instruction depends on whether the config sets it. - OpenWrt: an operator who had the gateway disabled must stop it and then disable it after the first opkg upgrade. - FreeBSD: an upgrade step that restarts fips and fips_dns; the command comes from pkg's source and is listed as not measured. - Debian: the upgrade re-enables and starts fips-dns every time; `systemctl mask fips-dns` keeps it off. The .deb start bound is 90 seconds for fips-gateway. - Arch and the systemd tarball: what to restart or start after the upgrade, and that only a .deb upgrade reloads the firewall. - Ephemeral nodes: set persistent before upgrading to keep a key. - Windows: one ordered sequence in an elevated PowerShell, with the installer run under -ExecutionPolicy Bypass. - Building from source on glibc Linux also needs libdbus-1-dev and pkg-config. README, getting-started and the packaging README install the .deb with apt install ./ and point to the packaging README for per-format install commands. The notes record an OpenWrt 24 router test of the gateway DNS port, and that a gateway that fails to start leaves dnsmasq forwarding .fips to its port, with how to hand .fips back to the daemon. Drop the test-us03-next alias from the shipped hosts file and from the roster in the host-aliases how-to.
FIPS OpenWrt Package
This directory is an OpenWrt feed package that builds and installs FIPS on any
OpenWrt 22.03+ router via the standard opkg package system.
Package contents
| Installed path | Purpose |
|---|---|
/usr/bin/fips |
Mesh daemon |
/usr/bin/fipsctl |
CLI control tool (fipsctl show peers, fipsctl show links, …) |
/usr/bin/fipstop |
Live TUI dashboard |
/usr/bin/fips-gateway |
Outbound LAN gateway service (not started by default) |
/usr/bin/fips-mesh-setup |
Opt-in helper — creates an open 802.11s mesh interface for router↔router backhaul |
/usr/bin/fips-ap-setup |
Opt-in helper — creates the open !FIPS access SSID for client devices |
/etc/init.d/fips |
procd service for the daemon (auto-start, crash respawn) |
/etc/init.d/fips-gateway |
procd service for the gateway (disabled by default) |
/etc/fips/fips.yaml |
Node configuration (edit before first start) |
/etc/fips/firewall.sh |
Firewall helper — accepts traffic on fips0 |
/etc/sysctl.d/fips-bridge.conf |
br_netfilter settings for Ethernet transport |
/etc/sysctl.d/fips-gateway.conf |
proxy_ndp and IPv6 forwarding for the gateway |
/etc/hotplug.d/net/99-fips |
Applies firewall rules when fips0 comes up |
/etc/uci-defaults/90-fips-setup |
First-boot kernel module, firewall and dnsmasq .fips forwarding setup |
/lib/upgrade/keep.d/fips |
Preserves /etc/fips/ across sysupgrade |
Requirements
Build host
| Requirement | Notes |
|---|---|
| OpenWrt SDK 22.03+ | Older versions lack fw4 / nftables support |
| Rust host toolchain | Enable in make menuconfig → Advanced → Rust, or install rustup |
| Rust target for your router | Added automatically by the Makefile via rustup target add |
Router
| Requirement | Notes |
|---|---|
kmod-tun |
Required for fips0 TUN interface |
kmod-br-netfilter |
Required for Ethernet transport on bridge member ports |
Both kernel modules are listed as package dependencies (DEPENDS) and will be
installed automatically by opkg.
Target architectures
The Makefile maps the OpenWrt ARCH variable to the correct Rust musl target:
OpenWrt ARCH |
Rust target |
|---|---|
aarch64 |
aarch64-unknown-linux-musl |
x86_64 |
x86_64-unknown-linux-musl |
mipsel |
mipsel-unknown-linux-musl |
mips |
mips-unknown-linux-musl |
arm |
arm-unknown-linux-musleabihf |
To add a missing architecture, add an ifeq block in Makefile mapping the
OpenWrt ARCH value to the Rust target triple.
Building with the OpenWrt SDK
1. Obtain the SDK
Download the SDK for your router's target from downloads.openwrt.org and extract it.
2. Add this package
Copy or symlink this directory into the SDK's package/ tree:
# From inside the SDK root:
ln -s /path/to/fips/packaging/openwrt-ipk package/fips
Or add the FIPS repository as a feed in feeds.conf:
src-git-full fips https://github.com/jmcorgan/fips.git
Then update and install feeds:
./scripts/feeds update fips
./scripts/feeds install -a -p fips
3. Build
make package/fips/compile V=s
The resulting .ipk is placed in bin/packages/<arch>/.
A package built from this Makefile carries none of the maintainer scripts in
scripts/. Those scripts enable and start fips on install and implement the
gateway-enablement and upgrade behavior described below, so that description
does not cover a package built this way. Released packages are built by
build-ipk.sh (and ../openwrt-apk/build-apk.sh), which install those scripts.
4. Pin the source version
For reproducible production builds, replace PKG_SOURCE_VERSION:=master in
Makefile with a specific commit SHA and set PKG_MIRROR_HASH to the correct
hash (or keep skip for development):
PKG_SOURCE_VERSION:=bf117dfabc123... # full 40-char SHA
PKG_MIRROR_HASH:=skip
Installing on the router
scp bin/packages/<arch>/fips_0.1.0-1_<arch>.ipk root@192.168.1.1:/tmp/
ssh root@192.168.1.1 opkg install /tmp/fips_0.1.0-1_<arch>.ipk
First-time configuration
Edit /etc/fips/fips.yaml on the router before starting the daemon:
ssh root@192.168.1.1
vi /etc/fips/fips.yaml
The default config enables:
- An ephemeral identity, generated on each start. Uncomment
node.identity.persistent: trueto keep one; the key is then saved next to the config, as/etc/fips/fips.key. - TUN interface
fips0 - DNS responder on
[::1]:5354 - UDP transport on
[::]:2121 - TCP transport on
0.0.0.0:8443 - Ethernet transport, including the
wan,wwanandlanentries
For Ethernet transport, edit the interface names in the ethernet: section to
match your router. Always use physical port names
(eth0, eth1, or DSA port names like wan/lan1), never bridge names
(br-lan). The shipped default WAN port is eth0 (OpenWrt 24); on OpenWrt
25 (DSA) boards the WAN port is named wan — the .apk package ships that
default. Run ip link show to confirm the names on your board.
Service management
/etc/init.d/fips start
/etc/init.d/fips stop
/etc/init.d/fips restart
/etc/init.d/fips enable # start at boot (already enabled by opkg postinstall)
/etc/init.d/fips disable
Outbound LAN gateway (optional)
The fips-gateway service is installed but disabled by default. It
turns the router into an outbound gateway that bridges LAN clients
onto the FIPS mesh. Enable only after configuring a gateway:
section in /etc/fips/fips.yaml:
/etc/init.d/fips-gateway enable
/etc/init.d/fips-gateway start
See docs/tutorials/deploy-fips-gateway.md in the source tree for
the full walkthrough.
Inspection and logs
# Node-level status overview
fipsctl show status
# Peer table
fipsctl show peers
# Transport links
fipsctl show links
# Active end-to-end sessions
fipsctl show sessions
# Live TUI dashboard
fipstop
# Daemon logs (OpenWrt syslog)
logread | grep fips
See docs/reference/cli-fipsctl.md
for the full subcommand list.
Upgrading
OpenWrt 25 and later have no opkg. Upgrade there with the .apk package,
using the same command that installs it:
apk add --allow-untrusted /tmp/fips_<new-version>_<arch>.apk
The .apk package's upgrade scripts stop fips and fips-gateway, start
fips again, and start fips-gateway only if it was enabled; see
../openwrt-apk/README.md.
On OpenWrt 24.10 and earlier, install the new .ipk with a plain
opkg install:
opkg install /tmp/fips_<new-version>_<arch>.ipk
opkg runs this as an upgrade. The installed package's prerm stops fips and
fips-gateway without disabling them, and the new package's postinst starts
fips and starts fips-gateway again if it was enabled.
An upgrade from 0.5.1 or earlier is the exception. The prerm in those
packages disables fips-gateway and records nothing about whether it was
enabled, so the new postinst enables it again. If you had the gateway
disabled, disable it again after that first upgrade:
/etc/init.d/fips-gateway stop
/etc/init.d/fips-gateway disable
If opkg refuses because the new file's version sorts lower than the installed
one, as it can between development builds, add --force-downgrade. opkg then
takes the same upgrade path.
Do not use --force-reinstall. opkg runs it as a removal followed by a fresh
install, so fips-gateway ends up disabled. To turn it back on:
/etc/init.d/fips-gateway enable
/etc/init.d/fips-gateway start
The config in /etc/fips/fips.yaml and the identity key /etc/fips/fips.key
(when persistent identity is on) are preserved by opkg (the yaml is installed
as a conffile; the key is not a package file). Both survive sysupgrade via
/lib/upgrade/keep.d/fips.