sstp vpn on Mac OS Big Sur - could not complete write of frame, could not forward packet to pppd

Question

For the past few months I have successfully been using my Mac to connect to a Windows sstp VPN for work using homebrew....until now.

I followed the instructions here: Windows SSTP VPN - connect from Mac

and use this command:

sudo /usr/local/sbin/sstpc --log-stderr --cert-warn --user <user> --password <password> <server> usepeerdns require-mschap-v2 noauth noipdefault defaultroute refuse-eap noccp

Now, out of nowhere, I get an error:

Mar 24 12:20:50 sstpc[5481]: Could not complete write of frame
Mar 24 12:20:50 sstpc[5481]: Could not forward packet to pppd
Mar 24 12:20:50 sstpc[5481]: Could not complete write of frame
Mar 24 12:20:50 sstpc[5481]: Could not forward packet to pppd
Mar 24 12:20:51 sstpc[5481]: Connection was aborted, Reason was not known
**Error: Connection was aborted, Reason was not known, (-1)

The numbers in the brackets sstpc[nnnn] vary, they're not always what is above.

I tried updating homebrew, reinstalling the sstp-client from homebrew, restarting my computer.

What else can I try?

Answer 1

There is a serious bug in sstp-client 1.0.14 which causes this [1], you likely need to downgrade to 1.0.13.

Unfortunately homebrew does not have tagged versions for sstp-client, so it is a little more involved - you will need to create a local tap so you can pin the version:

$ brew uninstall sstp-client
$ brew tap-new mymac/local
$ brew extract --version 1.0.13 sstp-client mymac/local
$ brew install mymac/local/[email protected]

Now it should work as before.

[1] https://sourceforge.net/p/sstp-client/discussion/1499218/thread/d485651bda/?limit=25#268f/038f/4b89/f7be/ffd5