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China is now blocking all encrypted HTTPS traffic using TLS 1.3 and ESNI

zdnet.com

1–8 of 8 posts

Re: China is now blocking all encrypted HTTPS traffic using TLS 1.3 and ESNI

#2
Up until now, I thought "The Great Firewall" was limited to layer 2, layer 3, and just layer-7 DNS controls.

The capability described in this article sounds more like a full layer-7 MITM.

That's terrifying. Is any HTTPS secure within mainlan China's networks?

Or am I misunderstanding, and it's just the government websites that are blocking incoming TLS 1.3 connections?

Re: China is now blocking all encrypted HTTPS traffic using TLS 1.3 and ESNI

#3

Up until now, I thought "The Great Firewall" was limited to layer 2, layer 3, and just layer-7 DNS controls. The capability described in this article sounds more like a full layer-7 MITM. That's terrifying. Is any HTTPS secure within mainlan China's networks? Or am I misunderstanding, and it's just the government websites that are blocking incoming TLS 1.3 connections?

Some further explanation here: https://geneva.cs.umd.edu/posts/china-censors-esni/esni/

Looks like it's L4?

Re: China is now blocking all encrypted HTTPS traffic using TLS 1.3 and ESNI

#4

Up until now, I thought "The Great Firewall" was limited to layer 2, layer 3, and just layer-7 DNS controls. The capability described in this article sounds more like a full layer-7 MITM. That's terrifying. Is any HTTPS secure within mainlan China's networks? Or am I misunderstanding, and it's just the government websites that are blocking incoming TLS 1.3 connections?

GFW has been all layer for a long time, including actively re-probing and connecting back to a server from random (really, virtually any CN IP space).

HTTPS is somewhat secure, but subject to MITM. Most Chinese forks of browsers ignore certificate errors and allow everything through.

Re: China is now blocking all encrypted HTTPS traffic using TLS 1.3 and ESNI

#5
post #3

Up until now, I thought "The Great Firewall" was limited to layer 2, layer 3, and just layer-7 DNS controls. The capability described in this article sounds more like a full layer-7 MITM. That's terrifying. Is any HTTPS secure within mainlan China's networks? Or am I misunderstanding, and it's just the government websites that are blocking incoming TLS 1.3 connections?

Some further explanation here: https://geneva.cs.umd.edu/posts/china-censors-esni/esni/ Looks like it's L4?

That link was fascinating to me. For as long as I remember, there have been tools to evade network intrusion detection systems and stateful firewalls, but I never thought about how the same techniques can be used to evade censorship.

Re: China is now blocking all encrypted HTTPS traffic using TLS 1.3 and ESNI

#6
post #4

Up until now, I thought "The Great Firewall" was limited to layer 2, layer 3, and just layer-7 DNS controls. The capability described in this article sounds more like a full layer-7 MITM. That's terrifying. Is any HTTPS secure within mainlan China's networks? Or am I misunderstanding, and it's just the government websites that are blocking incoming TLS 1.3 connections?

GFW has been all layer for a long time, including actively re-probing and connecting back to a server from random (really, virtually any CN IP space). HTTPS is somewhat secure, but subject to MITM. Most Chinese forks of browsers ignore certificate errors and allow everything through.

Would I be safe from this type of MITM attack if my browser respects SSL warnings? (and I don't bypass them)

Re: China is now blocking all encrypted HTTPS traffic using TLS 1.3 and ESNI

#8
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GFW has been all layer for a long time, including actively re-probing and connecting back to a server from random (really, virtually any CN IP space). HTTPS is somewhat secure, but subject to MITM. Most Chinese forks of browsers ignore certificate errors and allow everything through.

Would I be safe from this type of MITM attack if my browser respects SSL warnings? (and I don't bypass them)

Generally yes.

But remember with SNI they know exactly what website you're visiting.