OpenVPN connections with supplied server certificate don't use it by default

[Mike]

I am on Xubuntu 14.04 with network-manager 0.9.8.8 (the most recent version of network-manager, using apt-get).

I added a TCP OpenVPN connection from a config file with a server certificate file specified. Today, when looking through my syslog, I found the following:

  Oct 21 11:20:38 xubuntu-MacAir NetworkManager[14273]: <info> VPN connection 'USA-New York-TCP' (Connect) reply received.
  Oct 21 11:20:38 xubuntu-MacAir nm-openvpn[30726]: OpenVPN 2.3.2 x86_64-pc-linux-gnu [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [EPOLL] [PKCS11] [eurephia] [MH] [IPv6] built on Feb 4 2014
  Oct 21 11:20:38 xubuntu-MacAir nm-openvpn[30726]: WARNING: No server certificate verification method has been enabled. See http://openvpn.net/howto.html#mitm for more info.

The certificate was listed in the main tabs of the network-manager's VPN config window, confirming that network-manager recognized its presence in the config file. Upon entering the "Advanced" window, I found that network-manager was not even attempting to use the certificate. I simply checked the relevant box, and everything now seems to be working fine.

I feel that this is a bug, especially because the user is not notified of the warning. I'm reasonably experienced with manual configs, but I wrongly assumed that adding a server certificate was sufficient to have it actually used. There must be many users that don't know what a syslog is, and many more that made the same false assumption I did and never ventured into their logs to observe OpenVPN.

I suggest that the user get an explicit warning through network-manager in this case, or that the server certificate be used by default if supplied by the user.

[Mike (mmcc)]

Also, I didn't check the box indicating that this was a security issue, as I don't know what definition you use for that. However, I think it could potentially qualify.