Not a silver bullet, perhaps, but definitely a half decent internet condom
this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
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Privacy
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The mitigation is to disable local network access while the VPN is connected. Many clients do this, at least on some platforms. It was interesting to see that on iOS every tested app was vulnerable to this data leaking attack, and nearly every one of them on the macOS. It appears that the iOS API for working with VPNs has only recently introduced a control for how to handle local network traffic, leading to the abysmal results.
Not surprised mac OS sucks at this but is Linux vulnerable as well?
This isn't exactly a platform specific problem because having local network access while using a VPN is actually a feature called "split-tunnelling". The tunnelcrack issue goes beyond this but can be mitigated by using full tunnel VPN that resolves the server by IP address instead of DNS.
as long as you have a firewall via iptables or something similar forcing everything through the VPN only, you should be fine I would think.
if not I'll have to change my configs a lot lol.
You are right, it's very simple. Traffic will go wherever is shortest by default, because that's just how networking works on your pc. Shut off the shortest path (or every other path) and it's forced through your VPN connection.
Semi related but there has been so much anti VPN stuff of late on the web. I blame the big vpn providers for their miss marketing and poor ads from sponsoring deals. The repercussions are making it out like vpns are not useful. Noone thought they were silver bullet before. now they are made out to be a waste of money? All the "you don't need a VPN" stuff needs to stop. Im concerned people are gonna stop caring about anonymity and enhancing privacy with VPN.
This pisses me off as well. All the advertising was/is “VPN! Privacy protected!” As if it’s that simple. All this fud about VPN feels like a combo of blowback from shitty advertising practices. When you combine that with government efforts to take away encryption, VPNs, and other privacy tools; what’s coming is gonna be a bleak panopticon.
VPNs are a waste of money for the most part