Methods / L4 / OPENVPN
L4 · NetworkVPNUDPVolumetricGateway
OpenVPN stress test
Pours volumetric traffic at your OpenVPN gateway port to confirm the tunnel endpoint stays reachable under flood conditions.
How it works
This method directs a high-rate flood at the port your OpenVPN service listens on, exercising the gateway the way a volumetric attack on a VPN endpoint would. Because VPN concentrators have to inspect and decrypt or discard every inbound packet, even non-session traffic forces CPU and state work on the gateway. It validates whether your VPN host can rate-limit unauthenticated traffic, whether tls-auth or connection gating sheds junk early, and whether the endpoint stays available to legitimate clients during a flood.
Parameters
portdefault 1194OpenVPN listening port, UDP or TCP depending on config.
pps600k ppsPacket rate aimed at the gateway.
duration10-300 sLength of the test.
sourcesdistributed rangesSource distribution to mimic a spread flood.
Run it from the CLI
retro-cli
$ retro run openvpn --target 203.0.113.45 --port 443 --duration 120
OpenVPN FAQ
Is OpenVPN testing legal?+
Only against infrastructure you own or are authorized to test. RETRO//STRESS requires authorized targets.
What does OpenVPN stress?+
Pours volumetric traffic at your OpenVPN gateway port to confirm the tunnel endpoint stays reachable under flood conditions.
Can I combine it with other methods?+
Yes, add it as a step in a packet chain to sequence it with other protocols.