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Introduction

{% embed url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PF7edMGBwk" %}

What is Defguard?

Defguard is a comprehensive Remote Access Management solution incorporating in one solution:

• True Zero-Trust WireGuard® VPN with 2FA/Multi-Factor Authentication,
• Identity Management with SSO based on OpenID Identity Provider,
• Account Lifecycle management with secure remote account onboarding.

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Our primary focus at defguard is on prioritizing security. Then, we aim to make this challenging topic both useful and as easy to navigate as possible.

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Defguard is a true Zero-Trust WireGuard® VPN with 2FA/Multi-Factor Authentication, as each connection requires MFA (and not only when logging in into the client application like other solutions):

Having said that, this security platform is for building secure and privacy-aware organizations, as we put great effort not only on functionality but first and foremost on secure code, architecture and testing (application and security).

Basic security concept

The main architecture concept is that all critical data should be in the internal (Intranet) network and not exposed in the public Internet (contrary to typical and common cloud approach) and only services that need to be exposed to the Internet - should be exposed in a controled (DMZ) network segments:

Internet, DMZ & Internal network segments

This approach is vastly different from most (if not all) VPN/IdP solutions, which are a simple or monolithic applications focus on functionalities and most of the time is publicly available in the Internet for any attacker to exploit.

Of course you can deploy defguard in a typical scenario (all services on one server and even all publicly available) - but that should be for you to decide!

Incorporating IdP and VPN in one solution

Incorporating IDM, ALM, VPN has also other advantages:

1. Internal IdP with 2FA/MFA enables us to provide real VPN 2FA/MFA - and not like most applications just 2FA when opening the app (and not during the connection process). Even if you use external OIDC (Google/Microsoft/Custom - which defguard supports), we still use our internal IdP for 2FA/MFA.
2. Your organization may use just one account (login) for access control to all your applications as well as VPN.
3. It simplifies deployment, maintenance, audits.

More about defguard's architecture and security can be found here.

Features

Remote Access with WireGuard® VPN 2FA/MFA:

• Multi-Factor Authentication using our desktop client
• multiple VPN Locations (networks/sites) - with defined access (all users or only Admin group)
• multiple Gateways for each VPN Location (high availability/failover) - supported on a cluster of routers/firewalls for Linux, FreeBSD/PFSense/OPNSense
• import your current WireGuard server configuration (with a wizard!)
• easy device setup by users themselves (self-service)
• automatic IP allocation
• kernel (Linux, FreeBSD/OPNSense/PFSense) & userspace WireGuard support
• dashboard and statistics overview of connected users/devices for admins

defguard is not an official WireGuard project, and WireGuard is a registered trademark of Jason A. Donenfeld.

Identity Management:

• OpenID Connect based SSO

• External OpenID providers for login/account creation (Google/Microsoft/Custom)
• LDAP (tested on OpenLDAP) synchronization
• nice UI to manage users
• Users self-service (besides typical data management, users can revoke access to granted apps, MFA, Wireguard, etc.)

Multi-Factor/2FA Authentication

• Time-based One-Time Password Algorithm (TOTP - e.g. Google Authenticator)
• WebAuthn / FIDO2 - for hardware key authentication support (eg. YubiKey, FaceID, TouchID, ...)
• Email tokens

Account Lifecycle Management:

• Secure remote (over the internet) user enrollment
• User onboarding after enrollment
• Self-service for password reset

Yubikey Provisioning

Yubikey hardware keys provisioning for users with one click

Integrations

Webhooks & REST API

Build with Rust for portability, security, and speed

Pentested!

Checked by professional security researchers (see comprehensive security report)

Guides: Jump right in

Follow our handy guides to get started on the basics as quickly as possible:

{% content-ref url="features/setting-up-your-instance/" %} setting-up-your-instance {% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="admin-and-features/features-and-configuration/wireguard/create-your-vpn-network.md" %} create-your-vpn-network.md {% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="broken-reference" %} Broken link {% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="admin-and-features/features-and-configuration/webhooks.md" %} webhooks.md {% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="help/desktop-client.md" %} desktop-client.md {% endcontent-ref %}

Fundamentals: Dive a little deeper

Learn the fundamentals of Defguard to get a deeper understanding of our main features:

{% content-ref url="in-depth/architecture/" %} architecture {% endcontent-ref %}