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Protect yourself from FireSheep with Amazon EC2 + OpenVPN for $0.50 a month

stratumsecurity.com

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Re: Protect yourself from FireSheep with Amazon EC2 + OpenVPN for $0.50 a month

#51

Post by checker »

sudont wrote: post #34
JonnieCache wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't be much harder to run. You can start and stop the instance using the command line tools, so you could easily wrap the whole lot into a script which started the server and brought up the VPN link, then when youre finished take down the link then the server, all in once command. The API-based management is what makes cloud providers really special.

Hopefully these scripts would eventually evolve into a client management panel, making this as easy to the general populace as Firesheep.

Amazon should bundle it together and offer it as a service.

Re: Protect yourself from FireSheep with Amazon EC2 + OpenVPN for $0.50 a month

#52

Post by Florin_Andrei »

I keep a server up-n-running 24/7 anyway, doing lots of things (file server, UPnP, the whole nine yards), it's on cable Internet with a dynamic DNS. So I installed OpenVPN on it and all my laptops automatically connect to it when they boot up. The server also runs a proxy.

So I've a secure proxy available any time, from anywhere.

Re: Protect yourself from FireSheep with Amazon EC2 + OpenVPN for $0.50 a month

#53

Post by apenwarr »

tedunangst wrote: post #11
trueluk wrote: post #2

I normally just do my tunneling with ssh -D. Is there an advantage of using SSH VPN instead of SSH as a SOCKS proxy?

ssh -D: socks proxy. only works with some apps. tunnels at the "data stream" level. ssh vpn: tunnels all packets at the "network" level. bad because running TCP over TCP can have erratic performance. good because it covers all traffic. openvpn: tunnels using UDP, so you don't have the TCP on TCP problems. it's just more work to set up than ssh vpn, but still probably easier than full blown ipsec.

My sshuttle project is the best of both worlds between ssh -D and an ssh vpn. http://github.com/apenwarr/sshuttle/

Re: Protect yourself from FireSheep with Amazon EC2 + OpenVPN for $0.50 a month

#54

Post by slay2k »

Ah, so easy! Only 28 steps filled with remote Linux shell commands, certificate creation, and downloaded software! I'm sure that's exactly what his wife wanted to hear when she asked how to avoid being Firesheeped.

Whatever happened to good old ssh -ND ? Wouldn't that solve 90% of most casual hotspot users' problems ? And I'd be wary suggesting even that one-liner to someone who isn't a techie, which I'm assuming his wife isn't since she asked the question.

Re: Protect yourself from FireSheep with Amazon EC2 + OpenVPN for $0.50 a month

#55

Post by timdorr »

kayoone wrote: post #47
MicahWedemeyer wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like a perfect use case for EC2 on demand. Only run the VPN node when you are on an open wireless network and need the VPN security. Shut it down otherwise. That would make it harder to run, but it would greatly reduce the cost. I'd pay $0.02 for an hour's worth of security while stopping off at a coffee shop.

couldnt attackers then grab your EC2 dashboard cookie and possibly compromise your EC2 instance ? I mean if you need to login there first via an unsecure session, its not really that much safer

The AWS console runs entirely over SSL, so it is secure. E.g. https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/home

Re: Protect yourself from FireSheep with Amazon EC2 + OpenVPN for $0.50 a month

#57

Post by wmf »

checker wrote: post #51
sudont wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully these scripts would eventually evolve into a client management panel, making this as easy to the general populace as Firesheep.

Amazon should bundle it together and offer it as a service.

Honestly, there are so many VPN providers that EC2 looks like overkill for this.

Re: Protect yourself from FireSheep with Amazon EC2 + OpenVPN for $0.50 a month

#58

Post by dacort »

noodle wrote: post #13

this sounds like a pretty viable business idea, actually. in the past, i've looked for a simple VPN service provider to help secure non-techie friends' laptop work at a starbucks or whatever. couldn't find anything decent. seems like people might be willing to pay some $ for this if it were turned into something commercialized.

There's a decent list of VPN service providers here: http://www.thesparklabs.com/support/vpn_service_providers/

SparkLabs also has a sweet/simple OpenVPN client for OS X that I use and will be coming out with a server sometime in the near future that should make setup a lot easier.

Re: Protect yourself from FireSheep with Amazon EC2 + OpenVPN for $0.50 a month

#59

Post by borism »

dfranke wrote: post #35
metachris wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you choose the 3 year reserved micro instance plan. Both the 1yr and 3yr plans are $0.007 per hour, with different one-time fees: 1yr: $54 one-time fee: $0.007 * 24 * 365 = $61.32 + $54 = $115.32 / 12 = $9.61 per month. 3yr: $82 one-time fee: $0.007 * 24 * 365 = $61.32 * 3yr = $183.96 + $82 = $265.96 / 36 = $7.39 per month. http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/

Whoops, yes, $7.39. I was taking the prices from memory and remembered the $82 as $85.

however spot instance prices run very close to reserved instance prices.
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