/usr/bin/vpe is in texlive-latex-extra 2017.20180305-2.
This file is owned by root:root, with mode 0o777.
It is a symlink to /usr/bin/../share/texlive/texmf-dist/scripts/vpe/vpe.pl
/usr/bin/../share/texlive/texmf-dist/scripts/vpe/vpe.pl