094 | OpenVPN + Keycloak: Modern Authentication

2025-08-27

The Problem with Certificates at Scale

In previous articles, we discussed that OpenVPN uses certificates for authentication. This method is reliable but has significant drawbacks:

• Inconvenience for users: Each user must manually receive and install their own certificate.
• Complex management: When an employee leaves, their certificate must be revoked, which requires extra steps.
• Lack of centralization: Each service that requires access has its own authorization system.

The solution to this problem is using a centralized identity provider such as Keycloak.