FreePN: Open-source peer-to-peer VPN service • Hacker News Board

Re: FreePN: Open-source peer-to-peer VPN service

#21

Post by cryptoquick » Fri, Oct 16, 2020, 4:36 AM UTC

CyanBird wrote: post #8

illuminati1911 wrote: post #3

What's the catch?

You are the exit node for other people's browsing, which can be rather scary

So, wait... Let me get this straight-- This is a p2p VPN, so, it basically routes other people's potentially illegal activities through your own IP address, so you can do the same over other people's IP addresses? And they don't even mention that fact on the front page? Talk about disingenuous...

Like, goddamn, VPNs aren't THAT expensive. Not compared to, IDK, a lawyer, or missing a day of work because you're in a jail cell, trying to explain to some cop that you installed a program on your computer that let other people you don't know do random stuff on the internet over your internet connection without your own knowledge or involvement, and you aren't complicit in any way...

Re: FreePN: Open-source peer-to-peer VPN service

#22

Post by anderspitman » Fri, Oct 16, 2020, 4:39 AM UTC

woodruffw wrote: post #17

woodruffw wrote: post #13

This appears to be the main repository for their "VPN" daemon: https://github.com/freepn/fpnd Some observations: * It's not actually a virtual private network , at least by the traditional definition. They route HTTP(S) and DNS traffic only; other protocols (presumably) get routed in the clear. * IPv6 isn't supported at all. * I might be missing it, but I can't find any cryptographic design documents or a threat mode…

Some other sketchy bits, from a very quick perusal: * Shelling out[1] to some tool that may be responsible for all of the heavy networking bits[2] * Falling back on a non-monotonic clock but calling it monotonic[3] * Another sketchy shellout[4] that calls a bunch of scripts with trivial interpolation/injection bugs[5]. It's not clear if the arguments passed to those scripts are remotely controllable, but it's sketchy…

To be fair, ZeroTier isn't just "some tool". It has a solid reputation. The founder (api) is actually here in the thread.

Re: FreePN: Open-source peer-to-peer VPN service

#23

Post by dylz » Fri, Oct 16, 2020, 4:43 AM UTC

anderspitman wrote: post #15

I have a project I want to do that would involve a lot of YouTube scraping. But they'll throttle you if they detect it. This led me down the rabbit hole into the world of residential proxy services. Some of them[0] advertise up to 40 million IPs. I can't imagine many of the owners of those IPs know what they're being used for. It would be cool if there was a reputable open source project that would let people share/b…

These are split into either unknowing people with their computers abused like Hola, malware running proxies being sold, or otherwise. Some mobile games and chrome extensions expose proxies also as a monetisation method.

Don't support them.

I've been contacted by several of those "SDK companies" that basically turn phones and browsers into botnet drones for $0.01 an install.

Re: FreePN: Open-source peer-to-peer VPN service

#24

Post by bawolff » Fri, Oct 16, 2020, 4:48 AM UTC

Hmm. Dont see any white paper or design docs on their website. Did i miss it.

At a glance sounds like a reinvention of Tor, but less secure.

Re: FreePN: Open-source peer-to-peer VPN service

#25

Post by woodruffw » Fri, Oct 16, 2020, 4:59 AM UTC

anderspitman wrote: post #22

woodruffw wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some other sketchy bits, from a very quick perusal: * Shelling out[1] to some tool that may be responsible for all of the heavy networking bits[2] * Falling back on a non-monotonic clock but calling it monotonic[3] * Another sketchy shellout[4] that calls a bunch of scripts with trivial interpolation/injection bugs[5]. It's not clear if the arguments passed to those scripts are remotely controllable, but it's sketchy…

To be fair, ZeroTier isn't just "some tool". It has a solid reputation. The founder (api) is actually here in the thread.

That’s good to know. That being said: it’s not clear what role it’s playing (to me, it may be extremely obvious to anybody who knows what ZeroTier actually is), and it’s not clear why it’s being shelled out to rather than consumed via some Python API.

Re: FreePN: Open-source peer-to-peer VPN service

#26

Post by core-questions » Fri, Oct 16, 2020, 4:59 AM UTC

anderspitman wrote: post #15

I have a project I want to do that would involve a lot of YouTube scraping. But they'll throttle you if they detect it. This led me down the rabbit hole into the world of residential proxy services. Some of them[0] advertise up to 40 million IPs. I can't imagine many of the owners of those IPs know what they're being used for. It would be cool if there was a reputable open source project that would let people share/b…

SEO companies are big customers of products like this. Scraping Google at scale requires a huge budget for proxies and IP blocks, and I believe they apply ML to detect people abusing their service.

Re: FreePN: Open-source peer-to-peer VPN service

#27

Post by hansvm » Fri, Oct 16, 2020, 4:59 AM UTC

sJ646U9k6c6gME9 wrote: post #12

CyanBird wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are the exit node for other people's browsing, which can be rather scary

It’s clearly not made for people who don’t want their dog shot by fed bois.

Oh thanks, that makes sense. I was trying to figure out what the upside was for this, but I forgot about the 1-on-1 potential with the feds. It's pretty hard to get in touch with them otherwise.

Re: FreePN: Open-source peer-to-peer VPN service

#28

Post by oefrha » Fri, Oct 16, 2020, 4:59 AM UTC

woodruffw wrote: post #13

This appears to be the main repository for their "VPN" daemon: https://github.com/freepn/fpnd Some observations: * It's not actually a virtual private network , at least by the traditional definition. They route HTTP(S) and DNS traffic only; other protocols (presumably) get routed in the clear. * IPv6 isn't supported at all. * I might be missing it, but I can't find any cryptographic design documents or a threat mode…

These days any anonymizing proxy is marketed as "VPN". Probably because there's been enough marketing dollars spent on making the average joe equate "private internet" (whatever that means) with VPN, they'd be losing out on a lot of traffic if they market themselves accurately, and the difference is entirely lost on 99% of the potential market anyway.

Re: FreePN: Open-source peer-to-peer VPN service

#29

Post by anderspitman » Fri, Oct 16, 2020, 5:04 AM UTC

dylz wrote: post #23

anderspitman wrote: post #15

I have a project I want to do that would involve a lot of YouTube scraping. But they'll throttle you if they detect it. This led me down the rabbit hole into the world of residential proxy services. Some of them[0] advertise up to 40 million IPs. I can't imagine many of the owners of those IPs know what they're being used for. It would be cool if there was a reputable open source project that would let people share/b…

These are split into either unknowing people with their computers abused like Hola, malware running proxies being sold, or otherwise. Some mobile games and chrome extensions expose proxies also as a monetisation method. Don't support them. I've been contacted by several of those "SDK companies" that basically turn phones and browsers into botnet drones for $0.01 an install.

Do you know of any reputable ones with a sustainable source of IPs that can be used for scraping?

Re: FreePN: Open-source peer-to-peer VPN service

#30

Post by zwilliamson » Fri, Oct 16, 2020, 5:04 AM UTC

Anyone else getting "NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource. Please refresh and try again." when trying to sign up for email notifications for MacOS?