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Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

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Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im in Russia now posting this over on a wireguard vpn, using a landline ISP. So far no problems, havent tried on mobile.

Are you using port 51820 or a different port for your Wireguard endpoint? Just curious as I have read where others have used different ports to circumvent DPI.

Yes im using 51820, but good idea to change it. I actually have 2 setups. One is a home router within a wireguard server builtin, the second is my Tailscale mesh network using an exit node at home in USA.

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#22
post #13

I'm a little confused what Russia has to gain from this. My impression was previously that Russia was somewhat of a wild west when it came to piracy and internet restrictions. To make things weirder, the article claims that only mobile networks are affected. I wonder why that is. Is this just the decisions of a handful of telcos and it's being reported as a state-imposed restriction? Edit: also in my opinion, "blocki…

> I'm a little confused what Russia has to gain from this.

Maybe Russia thinks that Ukraine is using the mobile phone network to control drones in Moscow.

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#25
post #13

I'm a little confused what Russia has to gain from this. My impression was previously that Russia was somewhat of a wild west when it came to piracy and internet restrictions. To make things weirder, the article claims that only mobile networks are affected. I wonder why that is. Is this just the decisions of a handful of telcos and it's being reported as a state-imposed restriction? Edit: also in my opinion, "blocki…

The war isn't going as they imagined it.

1.5 years into a "3-day operation" against a smaller poor country armed with hand me downs and some of the western peacetime production does not fit the narrative of 2nd best army in the world.

It's embarassing for the government that we there are even talks about them running out of tanks.

Locking down the internet supposedly helps against espionage and allows easier control of the news narrative. Authoritative regimes are always very concerned with that because the lack of open political discussion makes them seem very stable and united until the very last moment.

Additionally, Putin has a deeply seated mistrust against technology and the internet and technology.

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#26
post #5
post #2

Most VPN services are already blocked in Russia by both mobile and landline providers. Many also block Tor. However now it seems like Russian mobile providers are blocking not just VPN services but even the underlying VPN protocols (WireGuard, OpenVPN). Interestingly Telegram is still not blocked in Russia.

> Interestingly Telegram is still not blocked in Russia. Could that be taken as a sign that it is not blocked _for a reason_, or is it already too much tinfoil on the head?

To clarify: I did not intend to to imply nefarious reasons. I guess using the "tinfoil" implied it?

I had the impression Telegram has also, even if not fully official, "state" users.

Thanks for point out the "...and we have broken other stuff too" angle!

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#27
post #18
post #14

I have been researching VPN protocols that work in China and found that Xray [0] is the most recommended route to escape the GFW. An ideal VPN setup is one where packets appear as normal https traffic. Some VPN setups take it a step further and proxy the traffic through Cloudflare. Setting all this up is nowhere as easy as Wireguard. Coincidentally, I came across this project on Github earlier today which is an obfus…

I have noticed many new security and privacy oriented projects use Go and even C/C++. Wasn't Rust supposed to be the language that should be used to write all security-critical software? What happened? Are crates like rustls/ring still intentionally sabotaging Rust's cryptographic ecosystem with their "we will always be pre-1.0.0 and never have a stable API" philosophy?

What if "C/C++" is not actually a thing and modern software engineering practices is what actually makes software safe? Writing modern C++ with good test coverage, sanitizers deployed and wrapping critical/unsafe parts into safe interfaces gets you _very_ far.

Re: Russia Starts Blocking VPN Protocols

#29
post #18
post #14

I have been researching VPN protocols that work in China and found that Xray [0] is the most recommended route to escape the GFW. An ideal VPN setup is one where packets appear as normal https traffic. Some VPN setups take it a step further and proxy the traffic through Cloudflare. Setting all this up is nowhere as easy as Wireguard. Coincidentally, I came across this project on Github earlier today which is an obfus…

I have noticed many new security and privacy oriented projects use Go and even C/C++. Wasn't Rust supposed to be the language that should be used to write all security-critical software? What happened? Are crates like rustls/ring still intentionally sabotaging Rust's cryptographic ecosystem with their "we will always be pre-1.0.0 and never have a stable API" philosophy?

If we're talking about Go, the design of this language is perfect for writing a network related stuff, it's pretty easy, safe and stable. Language's stdlib is mature. As far as I know, in case of Rust you have to rely more on external libraries when you're writing network stuff to make development process less verbose and comfortable. Please, correct me if I'm wrong.
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