Before bf77ece (Fix DNS responder silent-drop on systemd-resolved
deployments, 2026-04-29) the daemon defaulted dns.bind_addr to "::"
(wildcard, accepted v4 traffic too), so the macOS pkg's resolver shim
of `nameserver 127.0.0.1` reached the daemon fine over v4 loopback.
That commit tightened the default to "::1" — IPv6 loopback only,
which on Linux/macOS does not accept v4-mapped traffic — to defuse a
mesh-interface filter / IPV6_PKTINFO bug that was silently dropping
.fips queries on systemd-resolved hosts. The Linux side was updated
in the same commit: fips-dns-setup now writes [::1]:5354 in every
backend, and the gateway's DEFAULT_DNS_UPSTREAM moved to [::1]:5354
with an inline comment about the v4/v6 mismatch.
The macOS resolver shim in packaging/macos/build-pkg.sh was missed in
that sweep. Since 2026-04-29, every macOS install has shipped
/etc/resolver/fips with `nameserver 127.0.0.1` while the daemon
listened on `::1`, so .fips hostnames don't resolve via getaddrinfo
(ping6, curl, etc.) even though `dig @::1 -p 5354 …` works.
The mismatch is easy to miss: mDNSResponder swallows the timeout,
VPN clients that hijack DNS (NetworkExtension match-domain : *) mask
it entirely, and the symptom looks like "discovery hasn't found the
peer yet". Switch the shim to nameserver ::1 to match the daemon.
FIPS Packaging
This directory contains packaging for all supported target platforms.
All build outputs go to deploy/ at the project root.
Quick Start
make deb # Debian/Ubuntu .deb
make tarball # systemd install tarball
make ipk # OpenWrt .ipk
make aur # Arch Linux AUR package (fips-git, local build + namcap)
make pkg # macOS .pkg installer
make zip # Windows .zip package
make all # deb + tarball (default)
Build Prerequisites
These targets build FIPS from source, so the host needs a build
environment in addition to a Rust toolchain (the version pinned in
rust-toolchain.toml is auto-installed by rustup).
On Linux, libclang is required: the LAN gateway's nftables
bindings are generated by bindgen at build time, which needs
libclang.so on the build host. Without it the build fails inside the
rustables crate with an "Unable to find libclang" error.
sudo apt install libclang-dev # Debian / Ubuntu
This is a build-time prerequisite only — it is not a runtime
dependency, so hosts installing a pre-built .deb do not need it.
BLE support is optional and, when building with it, additionally needs
bluez, libdbus-1-dev, and pkg-config; the build picks up BLE if
those are present and skips it cleanly if not.
Directory Structure
packaging/
aur/ Arch Linux AUR packaging (PKGBUILD, supporting files)
common/ Shared assets (default config, hosts file)
debian/ Debian/Ubuntu .deb packaging via cargo-deb
macos/ macOS .pkg installer via pkgbuild
systemd/ Generic Linux systemd tarball packaging
openwrt/ OpenWrt .ipk packaging via cargo-zigbuild
windows/ Windows .zip package with service scripts
Formats
Debian/Ubuntu (.deb)
Built with cargo-deb. Installs
fips, fipsctl, and fipstop to /usr/bin/, and enables the systemd
service.
The default configuration ships as an example at
/usr/share/fips/fips.yaml.example and is not a dpkg conf-file.
(It is deliberately not under /usr/share/doc, which minimal and
container installs path-exclude, since the postinst reads it at install
time.)
On install, postinst seeds /etc/fips/fips.yaml (mode 600) from the
example only if it does not already exist, so a configuration that
was rendered by configuration management or edited by an operator is
never prompted for or clobbered on upgrade. To reset to defaults, remove
/etc/fips/fips.yaml and reinstall, or copy the example back manually.
# Build
make deb
# Install
sudo dpkg -i deploy/fips_<version>_<arch>.deb
# Remove (preserves config and keys)
sudo dpkg -r fips
# Purge (removes config and identity keys)
sudo dpkg -P fips
systemd Tarball
A self-contained tarball with binaries and an install.sh script for
any systemd-based Linux distribution.
# Build
make tarball
# Install (on target host)
tar -xzf deploy/fips-<version>-linux-<arch>.tar.gz
sudo ./fips-<version>-linux-<arch>/install.sh
See systemd/README.install.md for full installation and configuration instructions.
OpenWrt (.ipk)
Cross-compiled with cargo-zigbuild and assembled as a standard .ipk
archive. Supports aarch64, mipsel, mips, arm, and x86_64 targets.
# Build (default: aarch64)
make ipk
# Build for a specific architecture
bash packaging/openwrt/build-ipk.sh --arch mipsel
See openwrt/README.md for router-specific installation instructions.
macOS (.pkg)
Built with pkgbuild (included with Xcode command-line tools). Installs
binaries to /usr/local/bin/, config to /usr/local/etc/fips/, sets up
the /etc/resolver/fips DNS resolver for .fips domains, and loads a
launchd daemon. The TUN device is named utun<N> (kernel-assigned)
rather than fips0.
# Build
make pkg
# Install
sudo installer -pkg deploy/fips-<version>-macos-<arch>.pkg -target /
# Remove
sudo packaging/macos/uninstall.sh
Windows (.zip)
A ZIP archive containing binaries, default config, and PowerShell service helper scripts. Requires the wintun driver for TUN support.
# Build
make zip
# Or directly
powershell -File packaging/windows/build-zip.ps1
# Extract and install as service (requires Administrator)
Expand-Archive deploy\fips-<version>-windows-x86_64.zip -DestinationPath fips
cd fips
powershell -File install-service.ps1
# Uninstall (preserves config)
powershell -File uninstall-service.ps1
# Uninstall and remove config
powershell -File uninstall-service.ps1 -RemoveAll
Arch Linux (AUR)
Two AUR packages are maintained: fips (release, builds from tagged
tarball) and fips-git (development, builds from latest git master).
# Build and validate locally (git variant)
make aur
# Install from AUR
yay -S fips-git # development build from master
yay -S fips # release build from latest tag
See aur/README.md for AUR publication instructions and maintainer guide.
Shared Assets
common/ contains assets used across packaging formats:
fips.yaml— default configuration (ephemeral identity, UDP/TCP/TUN/DNS)hosts— static hostname-to-npub mappings for.fipsDNS resolution