Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Latest Mozilla VPN features

blog.mozilla.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 184 posts

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#31

Post by purjolok »

Spivak wrote: post #28
kfreds wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi! I'm one of Mullvad's founders. I can't speak for Mozilla, but we have our own desktop and mobile apps because it enables us to do more privacy-preserving things with a higher assurance. Consider for instance DNS leaks, Teredo leaks, IPv6 leaks, esoteric DHCP directives that can hack your routing tables, and so on. And these are just a few of the things we were early in mitigating correctly. Consider also the tigh…

But it throws compatibility with devices that don't support your client out the window. Like I might want to have an entire VLAN on my home network route all traffic through the VPN which would happen through my router. But my router only supports common VPN protocols like IPSec, OpenVPN, and WireGuard. Sure, I could make it work with a separate Linux server running your app and some routing but that's far more work…

Mullvad also provides OpenVPN and Wireguard config files.

https://mullvad.net/sv/help/tag/other-vpn-software/

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#32

Post by sodality2 »

cyberlab wrote: post #26
maeln wrote: post #21

I feel like most of those VPN services are using very borderline marketing and like to keep a lot of information blurry. As far as I know, in a lot of country (like France) it is a legal obligation to keep logs and be able to identify one of your customer if the police demands it. Therefore, if you have server in France or any country with similar rules, you can't operate a "0 log" service. And since those kinds of s…

I agree. A VPN should only ever be used for the following: - Shifting traffic over a VPN when using untrusted/sketchy wifi hotspots - Spoofing your geo-location to use geo-specific content And that's it. If privacy is your goal, Tor is much more suitable since it's not a single-hop proxy like a VPN and compartments all your traffic. (But of course Tor is not a silver bullet and there are caveats).

What about avoiding copyright letters?

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#34

Post by tgragnato »

kfreds wrote: post #19
opheliate wrote: post #12

It's really disappointing to me that Mozilla VPN didn't support Linux from the get-go, and even now, from their FAQ [1], apparently only supports Ubuntu. The code for the client is open source, and can be built on other distributions, but the more pressing question to me is why their own client is necessary at all. Mullvad (which this VPN is based on) allows you to just download WireGuard/OpenVPN config files, which…

Hi! I'm one of Mullvad's founders. I can't speak for Mozilla, but we have our own desktop and mobile apps because it enables us to do more privacy-preserving things with a higher assurance. Consider for instance DNS leaks, Teredo leaks, IPv6 leaks, esoteric DHCP directives that can hack your routing tables, and so on. And these are just a few of the things we were early in mitigating correctly. Consider also the tigh…

This is great for non-techies, but I want to control my own traffic, customize the behavior of my VPNs, ...

Any deviation from the standard implementation, open source or not, is a hindrance.

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#35

Post by ComodoHacker »

cyberlab wrote: post #26
maeln wrote: post #21

I feel like most of those VPN services are using very borderline marketing and like to keep a lot of information blurry. As far as I know, in a lot of country (like France) it is a legal obligation to keep logs and be able to identify one of your customer if the police demands it. Therefore, if you have server in France or any country with similar rules, you can't operate a "0 log" service. And since those kinds of s…

I agree. A VPN should only ever be used for the following: - Shifting traffic over a VPN when using untrusted/sketchy wifi hotspots - Spoofing your geo-location to use geo-specific content And that's it. If privacy is your goal, Tor is much more suitable since it's not a single-hop proxy like a VPN and compartments all your traffic. (But of course Tor is not a silver bullet and there are caveats).

- Routing traffic over untrusted home/office ISP

- Censorship circumvention

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#37

Post by warabe »

Off topic, but...

Is Mozilla VPN going to be available in other countries in near future? I would like to hear the roadmap from Mozilla folks. I live in Japan and am wondering when it would become available in my country...

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#38

Post by cyberlab »

sodality2 wrote: post #32
cyberlab wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. A VPN should only ever be used for the following: - Shifting traffic over a VPN when using untrusted/sketchy wifi hotspots - Spoofing your geo-location to use geo-specific content And that's it. If privacy is your goal, Tor is much more suitable since it's not a single-hop proxy like a VPN and compartments all your traffic. (But of course Tor is not a silver bullet and there are caveats).

What about avoiding copyright letters?

If someone is determined enough, they just subpoena the VPN and ask for logs. Since a VPN is a single-hop proxy, your real IP is trivially exposed. Even if the VPN provider claims they don't keep logs. There's no way of proving they don't keep logs, and you need to hope the server you connect to is not compromised in some way. And VPN providers are known to use cheap colocation servers/Virtual Private Servers which have questionable security.

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#39

Post by kfreds »

opheliate wrote: post #29
kfreds wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi! I'm one of Mullvad's founders. I can't speak for Mozilla, but we have our own desktop and mobile apps because it enables us to do more privacy-preserving things with a higher assurance. Consider for instance DNS leaks, Teredo leaks, IPv6 leaks, esoteric DHCP directives that can hack your routing tables, and so on. And these are just a few of the things we were early in mitigating correctly. Consider also the tigh…

Hi, thanks for the response. I'm a big fan of Mullvad's approach to creating a VPN, and I'm hopeful that more companies will follow in your path. I've been using your service for a few months now, and I'm really satisfied with it. I should perhaps have been clearer when I referred to generic VPN clients, I was talking about the original WireGuard implementation by Jason Donenfeld, not just some random software, which…

Thanks! Yes, I completely recognize that many users prefer to download a generic configuration file for WireGuard or OpenVPN. In our case we want to support that use case. At the same time encouraging use of our own app allows us to invent to a much greater extent. And mitigate risks.

There are plenty of VPN clients, some by big enterprise-y networking companies, that at least historically have behaved in ways that leaks the user's traffic when interfaces change, on DHCP issues, tunnel disconnections. It's just easier to make our own app and be able to say what it does and doesn't. And that nothing will change tomorrow because of someone else's design decision. :)

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#40

Post by vehemenz »

cyberlab wrote: post #26
maeln wrote: post #21

I feel like most of those VPN services are using very borderline marketing and like to keep a lot of information blurry. As far as I know, in a lot of country (like France) it is a legal obligation to keep logs and be able to identify one of your customer if the police demands it. Therefore, if you have server in France or any country with similar rules, you can't operate a "0 log" service. And since those kinds of s…

I agree. A VPN should only ever be used for the following: - Shifting traffic over a VPN when using untrusted/sketchy wifi hotspots - Spoofing your geo-location to use geo-specific content And that's it. If privacy is your goal, Tor is much more suitable since it's not a single-hop proxy like a VPN and compartments all your traffic. (But of course Tor is not a silver bullet and there are caveats).

Depends on the VPN.

ExpressVPN is HK/CCP owned, so I wouldn't worry too much about my privacy being violated for petty copyright infringements (BitTorrent).

Post reply on HN