Download Viscosity 1.9

Viscosity is an OpenVPN client developed by SparkLabs for macOS and Windows systems. The program makes it easy to create, edit and manage VPN connections. The developers released version 1.9 for both macOS and Windows last month. The corresponding announcement looks like this:

Viscosity For Mac & Windows: Version 1.9

Viscosity 1.9 is now available for both macOS and Windows! This is one of our biggest updates yet, with significant changes under-the-hood and many new features.

One of the most anticipated additions in version 1.9 is support for macOS 11 (Big Sur). Viscosity now supports and integrates with macOS 11, and all of Viscosity’s existing functionality is fully supported (including TAP support – more on that below).

We’ve also ported Viscosity to have complete native support for the upcoming Apple Silicon (ARM) Macs. Viscosity and your VPN connections will run at native speed to take full advantage of the new processor architecture and power savings.

Version 1.9 also introduces driverless TAP (bridged) connection support on macOS. This is something we are particularly enthusiastic about: if you use TAP (bridged) OpenVPN connections you’ll no longer need to manually approve a kernel extension to load before you’re able to connect. This will also make deployment much easier in enterprise environments. And best of all, our approach fully supports macOS 11.

On the Windows side, version 1.9 introduces a brand-new VPN network adapter driver for Windows 10 2004 and later. This driver has been written from the ground up for modern Windows 10 machines. It does away with using legacy system frameworks to help optimize performance and lower resource usage. It also includes privacy improvements, such as generating a random ethernet (MAC) address each time you connect, as well as better support for custom MTU values ​​and custom MAC addresses (using the lladdr command) for TAP connections.

A common request from Viscosity power users is for more powerful scripting support, and we’re pleased to be able to say we’ve done just that. Both AppleScript scripts on macOS, and Batch scripts on Windows now have access to connection details, making it easier to write scripts that respond to different network changes. This also makes it easier to share scripts between connections, or even different users.

It’s now also possible for Before-Connect scripts to return username and password credentials, making it easy to craft custom authentication prompts, integrate with custom authentication systems, or manually handle credential storage.

The Windows version also updates the DNS system to improve the reliability of Network Location Awareness (NLA) when connected to a VPN on newer versions of Windows 10. This should resolve an issue where certain applications, such as Microsoft Office, may be unable to use network services while connected. Also addressed in the Windows update is a low-severity security vulnerability that could allow certain libraries to be side-loaded from the same directory when the Windows installer is run. Thank you to Vladimir Dubrovin for reporting this.

It’s also important to note that this update drops support for OpenVPN 2.3. Viscosity will still be able to connect to servers running OpenVPN 2.3 or older versions, however OpenVPN 2.4 will now be used client-side. For the vast majority of users no migration changes are needed and connections will automatically work. However if you’ve updated and can no longer connect please refer to our migration guide.

Finally, version 1.9 also includes many more small improvements and bug fixes. For further information please refer to the release notes below.

Version 1.9 Mac Release Notes:

• added Support for macOS 11 (Big Sur)
• added New driverless TAP support for macOS 10.15+
• added Complete native support for Apple Silicon (ARM) Macs
• added Connection details are now accessible from AppleScript scripts
• added Before-Connect scripts are now able to return a username and password
• improved Support for DNS servers assigned using DHCPv6
• improved Unreachable DNS servers are now detected and handled
• improved Additional details added to logging of connection state changes
• improved Additional compression options have been added to the editor
• improved Viscosity will prompt for confirmation when quit using Cmd-Q
• updated OpenSSL updated to version 1.1.1h
• fixed Resolves issue that could cause the helper to fail to automatically update
• fixed Resolves issue running pushed user connection scripts
• fixed DNS resolution issue after a TAP connection reconnect resolved
• fixed Various bug fixes and enhancements
• removed OpenVPN 2.3 removed
• removed macOS 10.12 is no longer supported

Version 1.9 Windows Release Notes:

• added New adapter driver for Windows 10 2004+
• added Connection details are now accessible from Batch and VBS scripts
• added Before-Connect scripts are now able to return a username and password
• added Scripting command added to list all connections as a JSON parsable string
• improved Connection-specific DNS Suffix Search List is now used instead of the global list on Windows 10 1809+
• improved IPv6 SLAAC/RA TAP support has been improved
• improved NCSI and NLA support on Windows 10 2004+ has been improved
• improved Additional compression options have been added to the editor
• updated OpenSSL updated to verion 1.1.1h
• fixed An issue where an extraneous adapter was sometimes left behind after a failed connection attempt no longer occurs
• fixed A rare issue where a connection would become stuck in the creating state has been fixed
• fixed Inline auth-user-pass is now imported correctly
• fixed Resolves low-severity security vulnerability in the installer that could allow library side-loading
• fixed Resolves an issue connecting to some 2FA enabled servers (Build 1695)
• fixed Various bug fixes and enhancements
• removed OpenVPN 2.3 removed

The 1.9 update can be automatically installed from inside Viscosity, or downloaded and manually installed. For support with this version please visit our support section.