Connecting to a Random Mullvad Wireguard Host

Mullvad Wireguard

If you're using an OS that doesn't support one of Mullvad's apps, you're likely using the Wireguard configuration files instead.

If not, the first step is to visit Mullvad's Wireguard configuration files page and download a ZIP of the configuration files you want to use.

Personally, I downloaded all configuration files across the world and choose my connections using the script below.

Once the files are downloaded, unzip them and move them to your preferred location:

cd Downloads
unzip mullvad_wireguard_linux_all_all.zip
mkdir ~/mullvad && mv ~/Downloads/*.conf ~/mullvad/

Creating a Script to Connect to a Random Host

Once you have a folder of Wireguard configuration files from Mullvad, you can create a script to randomly connect to any one of the locations.

Start by creating a shell script - mine is called vpn.sh.

nano ~/vpn.sh

Within this script, you can paste the following info. Note that I specify us-* in my script, which means that it will only consider US-based VPN locations. You can alter this or simply change it * to consider all locations.

#!/bin/sh

ls /home/$USER/mullvad/us-* |sort -R |tail -n 1 |while read file; do
    # Replace `doas` with `sudo` if your machine uses `sudo`,
    # or remove `doas` if users don't need to su to run wg-quick
    doas wg-quick up $file;
    printf "\nCreated Mullvad wireguard connection with file: $file";
    printf "\n\nPrinting new IP info:\n"
    curl https://zx2c4.com/ip
done

Once you've modified the script to your liking, add executable permissions and run the script:

chmod +x ~/vpn.sh
~/vpn.sh

The output should look like the following:

doas (user@host) password:

# ... The script will process all of the iptables and wg commands here

Created Mullvad wireguard connection with file: /home/user/mullvad/us-nyc-wg-210.conf

Printing new IP info:
86.106.143.10

curl/7.87.0

That's all there is to it. You can see your new location and IP via the printf and curl commands included in the script.

You can also go to the Connection Check | Mullvad page to see if you are fully connected to Mullvad and if any leaks exist.

Disconnecting from the Wireguard Connection

If you forget which connection you're using, you can execute the following command to see where Wireguard is currently connected:

wg show

This command will show you the Wireguard interfaces and should output a connection like so: interface: us-lax-wg-104.

Once you have this, just disconnect using that files' full path:

wg-quick down /home/user/mullvad/us-lax-wg-104.conf

I have a TODO item on figuring out how to easily export an environment variable that contains the configuration file's full name, so that I can just execute the following:

# Ideal situation if I can export the $file variable to the environment
wg-quick down $file

If you have an idea on how to do this, send me an email!