Umbra

Umbra is a Windows VPN client that is honest about trust. It runs WireGuard and OpenVPN tunnels behind a real kill switch, scores every free server by what it logs, and is designed so you can run your own relay instead of trusting anyone.

Architecture

Two processes, split by privilege:

• UI (unprivileged, Tauri + React): screens, tray and a profile store encrypted with Windows DPAPI. A profile’s secret is decrypted only at the moment of connecting and passed straight to the service. It’s never stored decrypted and never logged.
• Windows service (LocalSystem, Rust): everything that needs elevation. It brings up WireGuard-NT and OpenVPN, programs the Windows Filtering Platform kill switch, runs the DNS sinkhole and manages routes.
• They talk only over a locked-down named pipe using JSON-RPC, with shared request and response types in a common Rust crate.

What’s inside

• Tunnel core: kill switch, auto-reconnect, tray and autostart.
• Directory: free VPN Gate servers with trust scores for each server. Free relays are never presented as anonymous.
• Leak and speed tests: exit IP, DNS and IPv6 exposure checks, plus streamed throughput and latency.
• DNS Block: a local sinkhole that blocks ads and trackers and shows live which domains pass through.
• Split tunnel and Wi-Fi rules: route chosen address ranges around the tunnel (off by default, since it’s a deliberate leak path), and set policies for each network.
• Toolbox: a password generator, a breach check against Have I Been Pwned that never sends your full password, and WireGuard QR export.
• Beam: phone-to-PC file and text transfer over your local network, protected by a token.
• A browser extension and an Android companion app are in progress.