Creating Client for ovpn fails "Easy-RSA error"

[sneumeister]

I have piVPN running on an RaspberryPi.

> uname -a
Linux george 5.10.103+ #1529 Tue Mar 8 12:19:18 GMT 2022 armv6l GNU/Linux
> cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="10"
VERSION="10 (buster)"
VERSION_CODENAME=buster
ID=raspbian
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianForums"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianBugs"

This worked for openVPN connections the last years for a several devices/clients.

Today I wanted to create another client configuration (as I did in past) but this times it fails:

pi@george:~ $ pivpn ovpn add
Enter a Name for the Client:  arthur_2024
How many days should the certificate last?  1080
Enter the password for the client:
Enter the password again to verify:

Note: using Easy-RSA configuration from: /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/pki/vars

Easy-RSA error:

Unknown command '--passin=pass:Passwort!'. Run without commands for usage help.

[2024-02-11T20:21:13+0100]: [ERROR]: Client Public Key Certificate not found: arthur_2024.crt

It looks as if easyrsa is called the wrong way... I assume this section in the makeOVPN.sh file...

  export EASYRSA_CERT_EXPIRE="${DAYS}"
  ./easyrsa --passin=pass:"${PASSWD}" \
    --passout=pass:"${PASSWD}" \
    build-client-full "${NAME}"

Installed easy-ras debian package:

pi@george:~ $ sudo apt search easy-rsa
Sortierung... Fertig
Volltextsuche... Fertig
easy-rsa/oldoldstable,now 3.0.6-1 all  [Installiert,automatisch]
  Simple shell based CA utility

Has anyone an idea what to do?

[TinCanTech]

@sneumeister Easy-RSA v306 does not support options --passin or --passout.

You need to upgrade to a newer version.

[sneumeister]

OK, then I have to check.
APT don't show me newer easy-rsa version.

pi@george:~ $ sudo apt update; sudo apt upgrade
Holen:1 http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian buster InRelease [15,0 kB]
Holen:2 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian buster InRelease [32,6 kB]
OK:3 https://packages.grafana.com/oss/deb stable InRelease
Holen:4 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian buster/main armhf Packages [400 kB]
Es wurden 447 kB in 14 s geholt (31,2 kB/s).
Paketlisten werden gelesen... Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut.
Statusinformationen werden eingelesen.... Fertig
Alle Pakete sind aktuell.
Paketlisten werden gelesen... Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut.
Statusinformationen werden eingelesen.... Fertig
Paketaktualisierung (Upgrade) wird berechnet... Fertig
0 aktualisiert, 0 neu installiert, 0 zu entfernen und 0 nicht aktualisiert.

OK, it seems for 'buster' there is no newer package:
https://sources.debian.org/src/easy-rsa/

So maybe it's time to upgrade Debian to "bookworm".... but not immediate when being far from home.

Upgraded easyrsa manually from github repository; pivpn now works!
TNX.