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Live proxy and VPN detection

proxy.incolumitas.com

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Re: Live proxy and VPN detection

#11

Post by SushiHippie »

Mullvad VPN location set to Frankfurt germany

Using the us east test server:

Proxy Score: 10/100 - Very likely not a Proxy

VPN Score: 0/55 - Very likely not a VPN

Using german test server:

Proxy Score: 10/100 - Very likely not a Proxy

VPN Score: 30/55 - Very likely a VPN

The thing that changed between both tests was the flow latencies vs ping latencies check. Clicking on more info it said: "flow variance too large in relation to avg flow: 0.6937484181219945"

I guess it works kinda, but not very consistent.

But e.g. https://ipinfo.io/ reveals immediately that this IP is a VPN IP address.

Re: Live proxy and VPN detection

#12

Post by zdc1 »

No VPN:

  Proxy Score: 0/100 - Very likely not a Proxy
  VPN Score: 0/55 - Very likely not a VPN
Proton VPN (paid tier):

  Proxy Score: 35/100 - Might be a Proxy
  VPN Score: 10/55 - Could be a VPN (But Unlikely)
And then these jump to 95 and 25 when I switch my VPN to a far away continent.

Re: Live proxy and VPN detection

#13

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

cebert wrote: post #10
vivzkestrel wrote: post #3

ok but how does this work? i was expecting atleast a paragraph on HN to be honest

The documentation page linked to the demo page gives a good explanation on how this works ( https://proxy.incolumitas.com/integration_instructions.html ) > The most important proxy detection tests with the highest accuracy are: > 1. Latency Test - latency - This test is extremely effective at detecting proxy connections. It works both for residential and datacenter proxies. The reason why this test is effective: It i…

> 1. Latency Test - latency - This test is extremely effective at detecting proxy connections. It works both for residential and datacenter proxies. The reason why this test is effective: It is very hard to spoof and fake the latency test effectively. Furthermore, this test captures the very essence of proxy connections.

LOL - so the author has never been stuck on DSL or a WISP?

Edit: For that matter, I wonder how many cell connections fail the latency test

Re: Live proxy and VPN detection

#14

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

> This website can detect if your connection is using a Proxy or VPN.

Empirically not.

> You can add Proxy and VPN detection to your own Website or App.

Please don't. Not just because of the false positives and false negatives, but because user privacy is actually a good thing.

Re: Live proxy and VPN detection

#15

Post by gruez »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #14

> This website can detect if your connection is using a Proxy or VPN. Empirically not. > You can add Proxy and VPN detection to your own Website or App. Please don't. Not just because of the false positives and false negatives, but because user privacy is actually a good thing.

>Please don't. Not just because of the false positives and false negatives, but because user privacy is actually a good thing.

Like it or not, bad actors use VPNs as well, and for some businesses the adverse selection caused by VPNs basically makes banning VPNs a no-brainer (eg. due to fraud).

Re: Live proxy and VPN detection

#16

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

gruez wrote: post #15
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #14

> This website can detect if your connection is using a Proxy or VPN. Empirically not. > You can add Proxy and VPN detection to your own Website or App. Please don't. Not just because of the false positives and false negatives, but because user privacy is actually a good thing.

>Please don't. Not just because of the false positives and false negatives, but because user privacy is actually a good thing. Like it or not, bad actors use VPNs as well, and for some businesses the adverse selection caused by VPNs basically makes banning VPNs a no-brainer (eg. due to fraud).

Ethically: Bad actors use a lot of things; that's a poor excuse for harming the innocent.

Practically: The economics probably check out, but bear in mind that it's not one-sided; this will cost you legitimate users.

Re: Live proxy and VPN detection

#17

Post by vivzkestrel »

cebert wrote: post #10
vivzkestrel wrote: post #3

ok but how does this work? i was expecting atleast a paragraph on HN to be honest

The documentation page linked to the demo page gives a good explanation on how this works ( https://proxy.incolumitas.com/integration_instructions.html ) > The most important proxy detection tests with the highest accuracy are: > 1. Latency Test - latency - This test is extremely effective at detecting proxy connections. It works both for residential and datacenter proxies. The reason why this test is effective: It i…

ok but how is all this implemented? is it a machine learning algorithm that classifies latencies with some pre-trained model? or did the library creator set some manual threshold like latency < 200ms = no VPN else VPN?

Re: Live proxy and VPN detection

#19

Post by elwebmaster »

OP, I am sure you have the best intentions in mind but I hope you can see for the comments that what you are trying to do is a bad idea. You will never get it perfect, you will lose a ton of business for no reason (for example: because the customer was an Apple user, guess what: most paying customers are) and you will gain a false sense of security that you are preventing malicious traffic. Just focus on bot detection and tried methods such as credit card or cellphone verification.
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