linuxserver/docker-wireguard

The LinuxServer.io team brings you another container release featuring:

• regular and timely application updates
• easy user mappings (PGID, PUID)
• custom base image with s6 overlay
• weekly base OS updates with common layers across the entire LinuxServer.io ecosystem to minimise space usage, down time and bandwidth
• regular security updates

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linuxserver/wireguard

WireGuard® is an extremely simple yet fast and modern VPN that utilizes state-of-the-art cryptography. It aims to be faster, simpler, leaner, and more useful than IPsec, while avoiding the massive headache. It intends to be considerably more performant than OpenVPN. WireGuard is designed as a general purpose VPN for running on embedded interfaces and super computers alike, fit for many different circumstances. Initially released for the Linux kernel, it is now cross-platform (Windows, macOS, BSD, iOS, Android) and widely deployable. It is currently under heavy development, but already it might be regarded as the most secure, easiest to use, and simplest VPN solution in the industry.

Supported Architectures

We utilise the docker manifest for multi-platform awareness. More information is available from docker here and our announcement here.

Simply pulling lscr.io/linuxserver/wireguard:latest should retrieve the correct image for your arch, but you can also pull specific arch images via tags.

The architectures supported by this image are:

Application Setup

During container start, it will first check if the wireguard module is already installed and loaded. All currently supported kernels should have the wireguard module built-in (along with some older custom kernels). However, the module may not be enabled. Make sure it is enabled prior to starting the container.

This can be run as a server or a client, based on the parameters used.

Note on iptables

Some hosts may not load the iptables kernel modules by default. In order for the container to be able to load them, you need to assign the SYS_MODULE capability and add the optional /lib/modules volume mount. Alternatively you can modprobe them from the host before starting the container.

Server Mode

If the environment variable PEERS is set to a number or a list of strings separated by comma, the container will run in server mode and the necessary server and peer/client confs will be generated. The peer/client config qr codes will be output in the docker log if LOG_CONFS is set to true. They will also be saved in text and png format under /config/peerX in case PEERS is a variable and an integer or /config/peer_X in case a list of names was provided instead of an integer.

Variables SERVERURL, SERVERPORT, INTERNAL_SUBNET, PEERDNS, INTERFACE, ALLOWEDIPS and PERSISTENTKEEPALIVE_PEERS are optional variables used for server mode. Any changes to these environment variables will trigger regeneration of server and peer confs. Peer/client confs will be recreated with existing private/public keys. Delete the peer folders for the keys to be recreated along with the confs.

To add more peers/clients later on, you increment the PEERS environment variable or add more elements to the list and recreate the container.

To display the QR codes of active peers again, you can use the following command and list the peer numbers as arguments: docker exec -it wireguard /app/show-peer 1 4 5 or docker exec -it wireguard /app/show-peer myPC myPhone myTablet (Keep in mind that the QR codes are also stored as PNGs in the config folder).

The templates used for server and peer confs are saved under /config/templates. Advanced users can modify these templates and force conf generation by deleting /config/wg_confs/wg0.conf and restarting the container.

The container managed server conf is hardcoded to wg0.conf. However, the users can add additional tunnel config files with .conf extensions into /config/wg_confs/ and the container will attempt to start them all in alphabetical order. If any one of the tunnels fail, they will all be stopped and the default route will be deleted, requiring user intervention to fix the invalid conf and a container restart.

Client Mode

Do not set the PEERS environment variable. Drop your client conf(s) into the config folder as /config/wg_confs/<tunnel name>.conf and start the container. If there are multiple tunnel configs, the container will attempt to start them all in alphabetical order. If any one of the tunnels fail, they will all be stopped and the default route will be deleted, requiring user intervention to fix the invalid conf and a container restart.

If you get IPv6 related errors in the log and connection cannot be established, edit the AllowedIPs line in your peer/client wg0.conf to include only 0.0.0.0/0 and not ::/0; and restart the container.

Road warriors, roaming and returning home

If you plan to use Wireguard both remotely and locally, say on your mobile phone, you will need to consider routing. Most firewalls will not route ports forwarded on your WAN interface correctly to the LAN out of the box. This means that when you return home, even though you can see the Wireguard server, the return packets will probably get lost.

This is not a Wireguard specific issue and the two generally accepted solutions are NAT reflection (setting your edge router/firewall up in such a way as it translates internal packets correctly) or split horizon DNS (setting your internal DNS to return the private rather than public IP when connecting locally).

Both of these approaches have positives and negatives however their setup is out of scope for this document as everyone's network layout and equipment will be different.

Maintaining local access to attached services

** Note: This is not a supported configuration by Linuxserver.io - use at your own risk.

When routing via Wireguard from another container using the service option in docker, you might lose access to the containers webUI locally. To avoid this, exclude the docker subnet from being routed via Wireguard by modifying your wg0.conf like so (modifying the subnets as you require):

[Interface]
PrivateKey = <private key>
Address = 9.8.7.6/32
DNS = 8.8.8.8
PostUp = DROUTE=$(ip route | grep default | awk '{print $3}'); HOMENET=192.168.0.0/16; HOMENET2=10.0.0.0/8; HOMENET3=172.16.0.0/12; ip route add $HOMENET3 via $DROUTE;ip route add $HOMENET2 via $DROUTE; ip route add $HOMENET via $DROUTE;iptables -I OUTPUT -d $HOMENET -j ACCEPT;iptables -A OUTPUT -d $HOMENET2 -j ACCEPT; iptables -A OUTPUT -d $HOMENET3 -j ACCEPT;  iptables -A OUTPUT ! -o %i -m mark ! --mark $(wg show %i fwmark) -m addrtype ! --dst-type LOCAL -j REJECT
PreDown = DROUTE=$(ip route | grep default | awk '{print $3}'); HOMENET=192.168.0.0/16; HOMENET2=10.0.0.0/8; HOMENET3=172.16.0.0/12; ip route del $HOMENET3 via $DROUTE;ip route del $HOMENET2 via $DROUTE; ip route del $HOMENET via $DROUTE; iptables -D OUTPUT ! -o %i -m mark ! --mark $(wg show %i fwmark) -m addrtype ! --dst-type LOCAL -j REJECT; iptables -D OUTPUT -d $HOMENET -j ACCEPT; iptables -D OUTPUT -d $HOMENET2 -j ACCEPT; iptables -D OUTPUT -d $HOMENET3 -j ACCEPT

Site-to-site VPN

** Note: This is not a supported configuration by Linuxserver.io - use at your own risk.

Site-to-site VPN in server mode requires customizing the AllowedIPs statement for a specific peer in wg0.conf. Since wg0.conf is autogenerated when server vars are changed, it is not recommended to edit it manually.

In order to customize the AllowedIPs statement for a specific peer in wg0.conf, you can set an env var SERVER_ALLOWEDIPS_PEER_<peer name or number> to the additional subnets you'd like to add, comma separated and excluding the peer IP (ie. "192.168.1.0/24,192.168.2.0/24"). Replace <peer name or number> with either the name or number of a peer (whichever is used in the PEERS var).

For instance SERVER_ALLOWEDIPS_PEER_laptop="192.168.1.0/24,192.168.2.0/24" will result in the wg0.conf entry AllowedIPs = 10.13.13.2,192.168.1.0/24,192.168.2.0/24 for the peer named laptop.

Keep in mind that this var will only be considered when the confs are regenerated. Adding this var for an existing peer won't force a regeneration. You can delete wg0.conf and restart the container to force regeneration if necessary.

Don't forget to set the necessary POSTUP and POSTDOWN rules in your client's peer conf for lan access.

Read-Only Operation

This image can be run with a read-only container filesystem. For details please read the docs.

Caveats

• Not supported in client mode.

Usage

To help you get started creating a container from this image you can either use docker-compose or the docker cli.

[!NOTE] Unless a parameter is flagged as 'optional', it is mandatory and a value must be provided.

docker-compose (recommended, click here for more info)

---
services:
  wireguard:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/wireguard:latest
    container_name: wireguard
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
      - SYS_MODULE #optional
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
      - SERVERURL=wireguard.domain.com #optional
      - SERVERPORT=51820 #optional
      - PEERS=1 #optional
      - PEERDNS=auto #optional
      - INTERNAL_SUBNET=10.13.13.0 #optional
      - ALLOWEDIPS=0.0.0.0/0 #optional
      - PERSISTENTKEEPALIVE_PEERS= #optional
      - LOG_CONFS=true #optional
    volumes:
      - /path/to/wireguard/config:/config
      - /lib/modules:/lib/modules #optional
    ports:
      - 51820:51820/udp
    sysctls:
      - net.ipv4.conf.all.src_valid_mark=1
    restart: unless-stopped

docker cli (click here for more info)

docker run -d \
  --name=wireguard \
  --cap-add=NET_ADMIN \
  --cap-add=SYS_MODULE `#optional` \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=Etc/UTC \
  -e SERVERURL=wireguard.domain.com `#optional` \
  -e SERVERPORT=51820 `#optional` \
  -e PEERS=1 `#optional` \
  -e PEERDNS=auto `#optional` \
  -e INTERNAL_SUBNET=10.13.13.0 `#optional` \
  -e ALLOWEDIPS=0.0.0.0/0 `#optional` \
  -e PERSISTENTKEEPALIVE_PEERS= `#optional` \
  -e LOG_CONFS=true `#optional` \
  -p 51820:51820/udp \
  -v /path/to/wireguard/config:/config \
  -v /lib/modules:/lib/modules `#optional` \
  --sysctl="net.ipv4.conf.all.src_valid_mark=1" \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  lscr.io/linuxserver/wireguard:latest

Parameters

Containers are configured using parameters passed at runtime (such as those above). These parameters are separated by a colon and indicate <external>:<internal> respectively. For example, -p 8080:80 would expose port 80 from inside the container to be accessible from the host's IP on port 8080 outside the container.

Portainer notice

This image utilises cap_add or sysctl to work properly. This is not implemented properly in some versions of Portainer, thus this image may not work if deployed through Portainer.

Environment variables from files (Docker secrets)

You can set any environment variable from a file by using a special prepend FILE__.

As an example:

-e FILE__MYVAR=/run/secrets/mysecretvariable

Will set the environment variable MYVAR based on the contents of the /run/secrets/mysecretvariable file.

Umask for running applications

For all of our images we provide the ability to override the default umask settings for services started within the containers using the optional -e UMASK=022 setting. Keep in mind umask is not chmod it subtracts from permissions based on it's value it does not add. Please read up here before asking for support.

User / Group Identifiers

When using volumes (-v flags), permissions issues can arise between the host OS and the container, we avoid this issue by allowing you to specify the user PUID and group PGID.

Ensure any volume directories on the host are owned by the same user you specify and any permissions issues will vanish like magic.

In this instance PUID=1000 and PGID=1000, to find yours use id your_user as below:

id your_user

Example output:

uid=1000(your_user) gid=1000(your_user) groups=1000(your_user)

Docker Mods

We publish various Docker Mods to enable additional functionality within the containers. The list of Mods available for this image (if any) as well as universal mods that can be applied to any one of our images can be accessed via the dynamic badges above.

Support Info

• Shell access whilst the container is running:

  docker exec -it wireguard /bin/bash
  

• To monitor the logs of the container in realtime:

  docker logs -f wireguard
  

• Container version number:

  docker inspect -f '{{ index .Config.Labels "build_version" }}' wireguard
  

• Image version number:

  docker inspect -f '{{ index .Config.Labels "build_version" }}' lscr.io/linuxserver/wireguard:latest
  

Updating Info

Most of our images are static, versioned, and require an image update and container recreation to update the app inside. With some exceptions (noted in the relevant readme.md), we do not recommend or support updating apps inside the container. Please consult the Application Setup section above to see if it is recommended for the image.

Below are the instructions for updating containers:

Via Docker Compose

• Update images:

  • All images:

    docker-compose pull
    

  • Single image:

    docker-compose pull wireguard
    

• Update containers:

  • All containers:

    docker-compose up -d
    

  • Single container:

    docker-compose up -d wireguard
    

• You can also remove the old dangling images:

  docker image prune
  

Via Docker Run

• Update the image:

  docker pull lscr.io/linuxserver/wireguard:latest
  

• Stop the running container:

  docker stop wireguard
  

• Delete the container:

  docker rm wireguard
  

• Recreate a new container with the same docker run parameters as instructed above (if mapped correctly to a host folder, your /config folder and settings will be preserved)

• You can also remove the old dangling images:

  docker image prune
  

Image Update Notifications - Diun (Docker Image Update Notifier)

[!TIP] We recommend Diun for update notifications. Other tools that automatically update containers unattended are not recommended or supported.

Building locally

If you want to make local modifications to these images for development purposes or just to customize the logic:

git clone https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-wireguard.git
cd docker-wireguard
docker build \
  --no-cache \
  --pull \
  -t lscr.io/linuxserver/wireguard:latest .

The ARM variants can be built on x86_64 hardware and vice versa using lscr.io/linuxserver/qemu-static

docker run --rm --privileged lscr.io/linuxserver/qemu-static --reset

Once registered you can define the dockerfile to use with -f Dockerfile.aarch64.

Versions

• 01.11.26: - Run wg-quick from /usr/bin/local to avoid apparmor issues on Ubuntu 25+ with custom runtimes.
• 05.07.26: - Rebase to Alpine 3.24.
• 24.01.26: - Rebase to Alpine 3.23 again as openresolv alpine 3.23 package has now been updated.
• 22.01.26: - Revert to Alpine 3.22 due to resolvconf bug.
• 04.01.26: - Rebase to Alpine 3.23.
• 15.07.25: - Rebase to Alpine 3.22. Remove iptables-legacy shim.
• 01.01.25: - Deprecate legacy branch.
• 20.12.24: - Rebase to Alpine 3.21.
• 13.08.24: - Add errors plugin to default Corefile.
• 23.07.24: - Install kmod from alpine repository.
• 24.05.24: - Rebase to Alpine 3.20, install wireguard-tools from Alpine repo.
• 10.03.24: - Use iptables-legacy on Alpine 3.19.
• 05.03.24: - Rebase master to Alpine 3.19.
• 03.10.23: - Potentially Breaking Change: Support for multiple interfaces added. Wireguard confs moved to /config/wg_confs/. Any file with a .conf extension in that folder will be treated as a live tunnel config and will be attempted to start. If any of the tunnels fail, all tunnels will be stopped. Tunnels are started in alphabetical order. Managed server conf will continue to be hardcoded to wg0.conf.
• 28.06.23: - Rebase master to Alpine 3.18 again.
• 26.06.23: - Revert master to Alpine 3.17, due to issue with openresolv.
• 24.06.23: - Rebase master to Alpine 3.18, deprecate armhf as per https://www.linuxserver.io/armhf.
• 26.04.23: - Rework branches. Swap alpine and ubuntu builds.
• 29.01.23: - Rebase to alpine 3.17.
• 10.01.23: - Add new var to add PersistentKeepalive to server config for select peers to survive server IP changes when domain name is used.
• 26.10.22: - Better handle unsupported peer names. Improve logging.
• 12.10.22: - Add Alpine branch. Optimize wg and coredns services.
• 04.10.22: - Rebase to Jammy. Upgrade to s6v3.
• 16.05.22: - Improve NAT handling in server mode when multiple ethernet devices are present.
• 23.04.22: - Add pre-shared key support. Automatically added to all new peer confs generated, existing ones are left without to ensure no breaking changes.
• 10.04.22: - Rebase to Ubuntu Focal. Add LOG_CONFS env var. Remove deprecated add-peer command.
• 28.10.21: - Add site-to-site vpn support.
• 11.02.21: - Fix bug related to changing internal subnet and named peer confs not updating.
• 06.10.20: - Disable CoreDNS in client mode, or if port 53 is already in use in server mode.
• 04.10.20: - Allow to specify a list of names as PEERS and add ALLOWEDIPS environment variable. Also, add peer name/id to each one of the peer sections in wg0.conf. Important: Existing users need to delete /config/templates/peer.conf and restart
• 27.09.20: - Cleaning service binding example to have accurate PreDown script.
• 06.08.20: - Replace resolvconf with openresolv due to dns issues when a client based on this image is connected to a server also based on this image. Add IPv6 info to readme. Display kernel version in logs.
• 29.07.20: - Update Coredns config to detect dns loops (existing users need to delete /config/coredns/Corefile and restart).
• 27.07.20: - Update Coredns config to prevent issues with non-user-defined bridge networks (existing users need to delete /config/coredns/Corefile and restart).
• 05.07.20: - Add Debian updates and security repos for headers.
• 25.06.20: - Simplify module tests, prevent iptables issues from resulting in false negatives.
• 19.06.20: - Add support for Ubuntu Focal (20.04) kernels. Compile wireguard tools and kernel module instead of using the ubuntu packages. Make module install optional. Improve verbosity in logs.
• 29.05.20: - Add support for 64bit raspbian.
• 28.04.20: - Add Buster/Stretch backports repos for Debian. Tested with OMV 5 and OMV 4 (on kernel 4.19.0-0.bpo.8-amd64).
• 20.04.20: - Fix typo in client mode conf existence check.
• 13.04.20: - Fix bug that forced conf recreation on every start.
• 08.04.20: - Add arm32/64 builds and enable multi-arch (rpi4 with ubuntu and raspbian buster tested). Add CoreDNS for PEERDNS=auto setting. Update the add-peer/show-peer scripts to utilize the templates and the INTERNAL_SUBNET var (previously missed, oops).
• 05.04.20: - Add INTERNAL_SUBNET variable to prevent subnet clashes. Add templates for server and peer confs.
• 01.04.20: - Add show-peer script and include info on host installed headers.
• 31.03.20: - Initial Release.