How to disconnect from OpenVPN?

Question

I'm connecting using VPNBook servers and it works fine with this command:

 sudo openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/vpnbook-udp-53.ovpn --auth-user-pass /etc/openvpn/password.txt

but I just can't seem to figure out how to stop it without a reboot.

I've tried service openvpn stop and /etc/init.d/vpnbook stop, but that doesn't seem to affect it.

score 85 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 14 '14 at 13:56

85

This command definitely works for me, and it should work for you too.

sudo killall openvpn

answered Dec 14 '14 at 13:56

AllGamer

1,217

Shmalex · Answer 2 · 2024-09-19T05:58:29.853

I had same problem with disconnecting from openvpn3

I end up creating this small repo that helps manage the openvpn3 sessions

To disconnect the session, you have to know the session's Path

openvpn3 session-manage --session-path $OPENVPN3_SESSION_PATH --disconnect

the session path could be found via

openvpn3 sessions-list
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>         Path: /net/openvpn/v3/sessions/7a42f37asc8d9s424c8b534sd331d6dd56e8
>      Created: Tue Dec  8 10:44:57 2020                  PID: 9495
>        Owner: shmalex                                Device: tun0
>  Config name: client.ovpn  (Config not available)
> Session name: *...*
>       Status: Connection, Client connected
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

OPENVPN3_SESSION_PATH=/net/openvpn/v3/sessions/7a42f37asc8d9s424c8b534sd331d6dd56e8
openvpn3 session-manage --session-path $OPENVPN3_SESSION_PATH --disconnect

You can use my repo to perform same actions with help of bash files.

score 21 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 14 '22 at 06:40

21

The successful steps in my case were:

# stop the service    
$ sudo /etc/init.d/openvpn stop
find the process if it is still running for some reason
$ lsof -i | grep openvpn
kill the proccess(s) by its PID
$ kill -9 <PID>
if necessary restart the service again
$ sudo /etc/init.d/openvpn start

For some reason killall -SIGINT openvpn did not work for me, but the steps above did.

edited Mar 14 '22 at 06:40

Cadoiz

278

answered Dec 10 '14 at 12:08

Nat Naydenova

331

score 18 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 03 '20 at 21:57

I stumbled upon having 2 open sessions with the same config path. So I could not use

openvpn3 session-manage --disconect --config <config_path>

session-manage: ** ERROR ** More than one session with the given configuration profile name was found.

So I made a script to loop through sessions (session ids are not always the same as the config paths)

ACTIVE_SESSIONS=$(openvpn3 sessions-list | grep -i 'path' | awk '{p=index($0, ":");print $2}')
echo $ACTIVE_SESSIONS
for instance in $ACTIVE_SESSIONS; do
    openvpn3 session-manage --disconnect --session-path ${instance}
done

score 11 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 21 '18 at 20:21

11

In case sudo killall openvpn does not finish the job (I experienced it a few times) then a sharp and fatal solution would be:

pgrep openvpn | xargs sudo kill -9

answered Oct 21 '18 at 20:21

yerlilbilgin

211

score 8 · Answer 6 · edited Mar 11 '22 at 07:03

8

Try this

killall -SIGINT openvpn

You can get more info on the different signals you can send here.

edited Mar 11 '22 at 07:03

cocomac

3,824

answered May 23 '13 at 08:39

kuchi

181

score 7 · Answer 7 · edited Sep 25 '20 at 16:26

7

sudo openvpn3 session-manage --disconnect --config $'client'.ovpn

Replace client with the corresponding name.
This will shutdown the session.

edited Sep 25 '20 at 16:26

Flow

2,476

answered Sep 25 '20 at 12:58

Ruchira

71
1
3

score 6 · Answer 8 · edited Feb 01 '15 at 17:20

6

Just hit CTRL+C in the terminal you just started OpenVPN.

edited Feb 01 '15 at 17:20

Andrea Corbellini

16,126

answered Dec 29 '14 at 21:15

Valkenier

69

score 5 · Answer 9 · answered May 12 '18 at 10:07

after running sudo killall openvpn or service openvpn stop the virtual interface "tun0" would remain opened and referenced in route table, so actually related connections would be lost since openvpn service is killed.

the solution is to delete this virtual connection after killing openvpn service, as it is created everytime when openvpn service gets connected.

so you need to run below commands for disconnecting openvpn:

$ sudo killall openvpn
$ sudo ip link delete tun0

score 4 · Answer 10 · answered Jun 01 '22 at 21:44

4

Here's my one-liner that easily gets the session-path using grep and cut:

openvpn3 session-manage --disconnect --session-path $(openvpn3 sessions-list | grep Path | cut -b 15-)

answered Jun 01 '22 at 21:44

JeanLescure

236

score 2 · Answer 11 · edited Jul 13 '20 at 11:11

2

Use the following command, where 0 is the tunnel number:

sudo ifconfig tun0 down

edited Jul 13 '20 at 11:11

BeastOfCaerbannog

16,703

answered Jul 13 '20 at 09:22

Sayed Sohan

193

score 2 · Answer 12 · answered Feb 04 '21 at 08:19

2

Use the following command:

   $openvpn3 session-manage --session-path /net/openvpn/v3/sessions/..... --disconnect

you may get the path using command below:

openvpn3 sessions-list

answered Feb 04 '21 at 08:19

Devendra

131
5

score 2 · Answer 13 · answered May 13 '22 at 12:08

2

This worked for me.

When you login to ovpn. It will give a session file with full path. Put that full path after --session-path in below command

openvpn3 session-manage --session-path /net/openvpn/v3/sessions/<session file> --disconnect

answered May 13 '22 at 12:08

Prajna

121

score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Jul 15 '21 at 06:39

You can use the following script to disconnect all vpn sessions or a specific vpn session

vpnd.sh [session path]

#!/bin/bash
set -e
session=$1
if [ "$1" = "--help" ]; then
    echo "Usage : ./vpnd.sh [session path]"
    echo "E.g. disconnect specific session"
    echo "vpnd.sh /net/openvpn/v3/sessions/b7a35c15s95ffs4cd9sa867sc473a37d77a0"
    echo "E.g. disconnect all sessions"
    echo "vpnd.sh"
    exit 1
fi
if [ ! -z "$session" ]; then
    openvpn3 session-manage --disconnect --session-path "${session}"
    exit 0
fi
readarray -t vpn_sessions < <(openvpn3 sessions-list | sed -nE 's/^\sPath:\s+(\S)$/\1/p')
for session in ${vpn_sessions[@]} ; do

    if [ ! -z "${session}" ]; then
        echo "Closing session ${session}..."
        openvpn3 session-manage --disconnect --session-path "${session}"
    fi
done
openvpn3 session-manage --cleanup
openvpn3 sessions-list

Note that you can get a list of active session paths via

openvpn3 sessions-list

score 1 · Answer 15 · answered Sep 05 '21 at 18:50

1

Quick one-liner:

sudo openvpn3 sessions-list | grep -ioP '/net/openvpn/v3/sessions/\w+' | xargs -I{} sudo openvpn3 session-manage --path {} --disconnect

answered Sep 05 '21 at 18:50

emandret

643

score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Dec 01 '21 at 09:13

1

openvpn3 sessions-list

It will print a PID number

sudo kill -9 {PID} without the curly braces of course.

answered Dec 01 '21 at 09:13

Vinicius Cardoso

111

score 1 · Answer 17 · answered Jan 11 '22 at 17:28

1

For me works this:

your@prompt: openvpn3 session-manage --disconnect --path </PATH/PROVIDED/IN/SESSION/START>

answered Jan 11 '22 at 17:28

Iliya Bernyak

11

score 1 · Answer 18 · answered Jul 15 '22 at 19:03

You can just send SIGINT signal to openvpn and it will stop gracefully.

https://openvpn.net/community-resources/controlling-a-running-openvpn-process/

Running on Linux/BSD/Unix

OpenVPN accepts several signals:

SIGUSR1 -- Conditional restart, designed to restart without root privileges
SIGHUP -- Hard restart
SIGUSR2 -- Output connection statistics to log file or syslog
SIGTERM, SIGINT -- Exit

Here another info from openvpn manual:

SIGNALS SIGHUP Cause OpenVPN to close all TUN/TAP and network connections, restart, re-read the configuration file (if any), and reopen TUN/TAP and network connections.
   SIGUSR1
          Like SIGHUP`, except don't re-read configuration file, and possibly don't close and reopen TUN/TAP device, re-read key files,
preserve local IP address/port, or preserve most recently authenticated remote IP address/port based on --persist-tun, --persist-key, --persist-local-ip and --persist-remote-ip options respectively (see above).
          This signal may also be internally generated by a timeout condition, governed by the --ping-restart option.
      This signal, when combined with --persist-remote-ip, may be sent when the underlying parameters of the host's network interface
change such as when the host is a DHCP client and is assigned a new IP address. See --ipchange for more information.
   SIGUSR2
          Causes OpenVPN to display its current statistics (to the syslog file if --daemon is used, or stdout otherwise).
SIGINT, SIGTERM
          Causes OpenVPN to exit gracefully.

whenthoughsmatch · Answer 19 · 2022-09-30T08:01:06.493

1

an a comment to the answer from @allgamer :

for openvpn3,

the command is:

$ sudo killall openvpn3-servic

tested on Ubuntu 20.04

edited Sep 30 '22 at 08:01

answered Sep 15 '22 at 08:18

whenthoughsmatch

11

score 1 · Answer 20 · edited Nov 28 '22 at 19:11

1

For me this works:

in the terminal,

openvpn3 sessions-list

Here you can see your active sessions, you can see its Config Name (usually its xxxxx.ovpn)

then you can type :

openvpn3 session-manage --disconnect --config ${session_config_name}

change ${session_config_name} with your config name that you listed previously. Then you'll get disconnected.

edited Nov 28 '22 at 19:11

anonymous2

4,325

answered Nov 23 '22 at 07:42

OmBrewok

11

user2394284 · Answer 21 · 2023-08-08T15:49:10.743

openvpn3 session-manage --disconnect --interface tun0

(where tun0 is the name of the VPN tunnel you see in ip route show)

Explanation:

Just killing it (even politely with sigterm: sudo pkill openvpn3) does not fully clean up the routing table (ip route show):

 default via 192.168.0.1 dev wlp58s0 proto dhcp src 192.168.0.100 metric 600 
+<your employer's IP address> via 192.168.0.1 dev wlp58s0 
 192.168.0.0/24 dev wlp58s0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.0.100 metric 600

What does is --disconnect.

As for what argument to identify the connection:

--config does not work for me:

openvpn3 session-manage --disconnect --config ~/Downloads/Openvpn3\ Profile.ovpn 
session-manage: ** ERROR ** No sessions started with the configuration profile name was found

--path changes each time (you could script around that).
--interface is stable in my case.

score 1 · Answer 22 · answered Oct 10 '23 at 13:09

I am slightly late here but to improve previous answers, I have added following as an allias

alias ovpn-up='sudo openvpn3 session-start --config /etc/openvpn/openvpn.ovpn'
alias ovpn-ls='sudo openvpn3 sessions-list'
alias ovpn-down='sudo openvpn3 session-manage --session-path $(sudo openvpn3 sessions-list | grep Path | cut -d':' -f2) --disconnect'

so I can quickly connect/disconnect and list the sessions.

score 1 · Answer 23 · edited Mar 12 '22 at 00:31

sudo update-rc.d openvpn disable

Or edit the config file in /etc/default/openvpn with

sudo nano /etc/default/openvpn

And uncomment the line:

#AUTOSTART="none"

So it looks like:

AUTOSTART="none"

Then you'll have to run:

sudo service openvpn start <vpn-name> to manually start the VPN.
sudo service openvpn stop <vpn-name> to manually stop the VPN.

Where <vpn-name> is the config file name located in /etc/openvpn without the .conf extension and without the < >

score 0 · Answer 24 · edited Dec 12 '23 at 03:45

0

For beginner don't go for a complicated process, just use Task Manager, search for openvpn and terminate it directly from there

edited Dec 12 '23 at 03:45

karel

122,292
133
301
332

answered Dec 11 '23 at 13:43

mohnish saxena

1

score 0 · Answer 25 · answered Feb 23 '24 at 23:07

Improving on @nat-naydenova's answer, it happened that just a grep on openvpn was not enough as the shell script itself had openvpn in the name.

Also, for some reason, using kill -9 also killed my virtual internet connection in Debian. Yet, kill -15 worked just fine.

So here is the proposal:

echo "Looking for PID of openvpn..."
#1. looking for /usr/sbin/openvpn to avoid confusion with other files
#2. extracting PID with sed, since we get all the info (as opposed to lsof -i)
#3. removing extra spaces with tr
pid=$(lsof -w | grep /usr/sbin/openvpn | sed -n 's/openvpn(.)root./\1/p' | tr -d " ")
echo "Found $pid"
echo "Attempting to kill PID: $pid"
#Uncomment if you think this is really required. I don't think so
##Stopping openvpn service
#service openvpn stop
#Killing softly
kill -15 $pid
#Uncomment if you think this is really required. I don't think so
##Restarting openvpn service
#service openvpn start
echo "Done killing openvpn."

Acknowledgements:

Thanks ChatGPT for the help with the command chaining with grep + sed + tr.
Thanks to people writing those f***ng manuals ;)

score 0 · Answer 26 · answered Apr 19 '24 at 09:59

This is ruby script for clear openvpn3 disconnected sessions and parse session-list output. You can easily modify it to suit your needs

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'active_support/all'
class Session
    FIELDS = [:path, :created, :pid, :owner, :device, :config_name, :session_name, :status]
    @@sessions = []
attr_accessor(*FIELDS)
attr_accessor :id

@fields = {}

def initialize(section)
    @@sessions &lt;&lt; self
    @fields = {}
    lines = section.split(&quot;\n&quot;).delete_if {|line| line.start_with?('---')}
    lines.each do |line|
        process_string(nil, line)
    end
    @id = @fields[:path].match(/\w*$/)[0]
    # p @fields
end

def field_regex(field)
    /\s*#{field.to_s.gsub('_', ' ')}:\s*/i
end

def process_string(parent, str, right = true)
    return unless str&amp;.strip
    found = false
    Session::FIELDS.each do |field|
        regex = field_regex(field)
        if str =~ regex
            parts = str.split(regex)
            found = true
            process_string(field, parts[0], false)
            process_string(field, parts[1], true)
            break
        end
    end
    if !found &amp;&amp; parent &amp;&amp; right
        @fields[parent] = str
        # p &quot;this is #{parent} = #{str}&quot;
    end
end

def connected?
    @fields[:status].include?('connected')
end

def disconnect
    `openvpn3 session-manage --session-path #{@fields[:path]} --disconnect`
    p &quot;#{@id} disconnected&quot;
end

def self.sessions
    @@sessions
end

def self.clear
    @@sessions.each do |session|
        session.disconnect unless session.connected?
    end
end

def self.get_list
    `openvpn3 sessions-list`.split(&quot;\n\n&quot;).map{ |section| Session.new(section) }
end

end
Session.get_list
Session.clear

https://gist.github.com/jenya239/01a1c6e78b55b558b4fce24c7c1c9e32

How to disconnect from OpenVPN?

26 Answers26

find the process if it is still running for some reason

kill the proccess(s) by its PID

if necessary restart the service again