WireGuard

What Is WireGuard?

WireGuard is an incredibly advanced and fast VPN protocol. It is much more streamlined than older protocols such as OpenVPN, and has been called a "work of art" since its inception.

When a VPN is functioning, the traffic is transmitted in a tunnel encrypted between the device and its server. The transmission speed and the encryption level depend on the VPN protocol.

WireGuard consists of less than 4,000 lines of code, making it extremely speedy while providing capable of high security. Due to its simplicity and effectiveness, it is becoming increasingly popular for both personal VPN use and corporate networks.

How Does WireGuard Work?

When a user connects to a VPN, WireGuard builds an encrypted tunnel between the device and the connected server through the service provider's program or client. This data is encrypted as it travels between the VPN server and the client.

WireGuard is not different from other protocols in how it works, but it is unique in that it transfers data extremely fast. Meanwhile, it doesn't use the industry-standard AES-256 technology; instead, it encrypts data using ChaCha20. This technology uses shorter keys, which means that WireGuard encrypts and decrypts data more efficiently as well.

Pros and Cons of WireGuard

Advantages

Simplicity

With a simple, clean code base and less than 4000 lines of code, WireGuard is easy to audit and maintain.

Performance

The biggest advantage of WireGuard is its excellent performance. Due to the lightweight design, it has a minimal negative impact on network speed and can establish connections quickly.

Easy to Configure

Configuring WireGuard is very straightforward, often requiring only a simple configuration file that is easy to understand and manage.

High-Level Security

WireGuard offers very strong encryption and full data security without sacrificing speed.

Open Source

WireGuard is an open-source protocol and supports auditing and editing of its code by anyone.

Linux Integration

WireGuard is integrated into the Linux kernel, which results in better performance and easy deployment on Linux.

Compatibility

WireGuard is currently available on multiple platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, iOS, and Andriod.

Disadvantages

Relatively New

While WireGuard is excellent, it is still a protocol that hasn't been around for very long. Not all providers are currently integrating WireGuard into their services, and it lacks more real-world testing.

Limited functionality

Due to its minimalist design, WireGuard currently lacks some advanced features that other VPN protocols can offer, such as dynamic routing, obfuscation, and extensive configurability.

Weak Unblocking Ability

As it is an open-source VPN protocol, some websites, and platforms can easily detect that a user is accessing them using VPN traffic and thus block that VPN directly.