Get IP Address and username of connecting VPN client

I've got a PPTP server setup on my Ubuntu box.

Was wondering if it was possible to get the IP address of a connecting client, whether the connection was successful or not, and the username of said connection?

I've looked into using IPtables to do this, but it doesn't appear IPtables can execute commands based off rules (It will only log).

Is there some other way of doing this, similar to the DHCP on commit function?

what are you using for your VPN software? Perhaps it has its own internal logging facility that you could leverage. For example, I think w/OpenVPN, you can control logging aspects of the daemon, or have it send output to syslog. Have you already checked /var/log/messages and /var/log/secure for any indications of connection attempts?

Hey Atreyu,

Off topic, but are you the same Atreyu on the vbforums =D?

Any way, I'm just using the stock standard PPTP server, "apt-get install pptpd". It logs in syslog the IP Address of the connecting client, but I'm unsure of where this is triggered, and if it's possible to inject my own command into there.

Now that it logs the ip address, you could parse the logfile (scheduled by crond) and do whatever you need to do whenever you see a change. i.e. roughly something like:

Code:

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grep /var/log/syslog "someregex" > /tmp/blah
if [ -e /tmp/blah2 ]; then
  $DIFFLINES=`diff /tmp/blah /tmp/blah2`
  if [ `echo $DIFFLINES | wc -l` -gt 0 ]; then
    # got a new line
    # do something here
    # preserve current status
    cp /tmp/blah /tmp/blah2
  fi
fi

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kloschüssel

Now that it logs the ip address, you could parse the logfile (scheduled by crond) and do whatever you need to do whenever you see a change. i.e. roughly something like:

Code:

---

grep /var/log/syslog "someregex" > /tmp/blah
if [ /tmp/blah2 ]; then
  $DIFFLINES=`diff /tmp/blah /tmp/blah2`
  if [ `echo $DIFFLINES | wc -l` -gt 0 ]; then
    # got a new line
    # do something here
    # preserve current status
    cp /tmp/blah /tmp/blah2
  fi
fi

---

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This would work... but it's kind of messy way of doing it. Is there a config, or way to get it to execute a command from the PPTP daemon?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slyke

Off topic, but are you the same Atreyu on the vbforums =D?

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nope. i couldn't VB my way out of a paper sack.

Quote:

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Any way, I'm just using the stock standard PPTP server, "apt-get install pptpd". It logs in syslog the IP Address of the connecting client, but I'm unsure of where this is triggered, and if it's possible to inject my own command into there.

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maybe try enabling the debug option in the pptpd daemon. see here for details.