Pakistan bans VPNs
tribune.com.pk
Pakistan bans VPNs
1–10 of 63 posts
Re: Pakistan bans VPNs
#2To do this, wouldn't they have to effectively block SSL and SSH connections as well? SSL is used in OpenVPN and some Cisco implementations. And we all know that you can tunnel any port over ssh.
Or is the plan that the punishment for stepping outside the lines be enough to keep people from experimenting with these technologies?
Re: Pakistan bans VPNs
#3To do this, wouldn't they have to effectively block SSL and SSH connections as well? SSL is used in OpenVPN and some Cisco implementations. And we all know that you can tunnel any port over ssh. Or is the plan that the punishment for stepping outside the lines be enough to keep people from experimenting with these technologies?
From the article, it sounds more like Pakistan has banned all encryption than VPNs specifically - VPNs were just one example cited.
Re: Pakistan bans VPNs
#4To do this, wouldn't they have to effectively block SSL and SSH connections as well? SSL is used in OpenVPN and some Cisco implementations. And we all know that you can tunnel any port over ssh. Or is the plan that the punishment for stepping outside the lines be enough to keep people from experimenting with these technologies?
From the article, it sounds more like Pakistan has banned all encryption than VPNs specifically - VPNs were just one example cited.
So, your answer is actually yes, even though it looks like a 'no' - i.e. they have banned SSL and SSH along with VPNs.
Re: Pakistan bans VPNs
#5To do this, wouldn't they have to effectively block SSL and SSH connections as well? SSL is used in OpenVPN and some Cisco implementations. And we all know that you can tunnel any port over ssh. Or is the plan that the punishment for stepping outside the lines be enough to keep people from experimenting with these technologies?
From the article, it sounds more like Pakistan has banned all encryption than VPNs specifically - VPNs were just one example cited.
Hmm, that would mean no Gmail for anyone in Pakistan. Any service that uses SSL for logins would also become unusable if SSL was banned.
I don't see any mention of a wholesale ban on encryption, only the use of encryption for privacy purposes. So, port 443 might still be open. It's still pretty easy to distinguish between HTTPS traffic and VPN traffic, though.
Re: Pakistan bans VPNs
#6To do this, wouldn't they have to effectively block SSL and SSH connections as well? SSL is used in OpenVPN and some Cisco implementations. And we all know that you can tunnel any port over ssh. Or is the plan that the punishment for stepping outside the lines be enough to keep people from experimenting with these technologies?
I think they just blocked standart VPN ports as it has been done here, in China. To effectively block users from accessing unwanted content censors have to block all (or most) foreign ip addresses, but I don't think it will ever happen anywhere.
Re: Pakistan bans VPNs
#7The goal of the Pakistani government seems to be the complete obliteration of all private communications. But the only way to do that is by banning all communication.
With the ban on VPNs, steganographic[1] techniques that make encrypted traffic look like regular traffic will become more and more common. The troubling thing is the fact that these techniques are somewhat hungry for bandwidth.
Re: Pakistan bans VPNs
#8In Iran, in the days we had protests, they dropped all encrypted connections as well. That makes internet simply unusable. I hope this would never come to Iran, although I believe it will. Soon.
Re: Pakistan bans VPNs
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the article, it sounds more like Pakistan has banned all encryption than VPNs specifically - VPNs were just one example cited.
Hmm, that would mean no Gmail for anyone in Pakistan. Any service that uses SSL for logins would also become unusable if SSL was banned. I don't see any mention of a wholesale ban on encryption, only the use of encryption for privacy purposes. So, port 443 might still be open. It's still pretty easy to distinguish between HTTPS traffic and VPN traffic, though.
Well, the article said:
> Authority prohibited usage of all such mechanisms including encrypted virtual private networks (EVPNs) which conceal communication to the extent that prohibits monitoring.
They sure can't monitor your email if you're using SSL, so I'd wager that yes, if you have gmail and live in Pakistan, now would be a great time to back it all up.
Re: Pakistan bans VPNs
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmm, that would mean no Gmail for anyone in Pakistan. Any service that uses SSL for logins would also become unusable if SSL was banned. I don't see any mention of a wholesale ban on encryption, only the use of encryption for privacy purposes. So, port 443 might still be open. It's still pretty easy to distinguish between HTTPS traffic and VPN traffic, though.
Well, the article said: > Authority prohibited usage of all such mechanisms including encrypted virtual private networks (EVPNs) which conceal communication to the extent that prohibits monitoring. They sure can't monitor your email if you're using SSL, so I'd wager that yes, if you have gmail and live in Pakistan, now would be a great time to back it all up.
They sure can't monitor your email if you're using SSL...
That would have been my gut feeling until I saw this yesterday: