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VPNs on iOS are a scam

michaelhorowitz.com

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Re: VPNs on iOS are a scam

#241

Post by dcow »

sneak wrote: post #183
dcow wrote: post #145

I wonder if the author tried using an On Demand VPN rule for the default route. That's always what I've done when setting this stuff up. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't need a device management profile to enable an on-demand VPN for all traffic. Then, reboot your phone and all application traffic, or traffic that isn't something system (APNS) or management/link-local (dhcp, mdns, etc.) will use the tunnel.

APNS client cert is linked to your hardware serial, so by linking all your non-VPN client IPs together by serial, Apple gets your travel history due to city-level client IP geolocation. Enough points (APNS is always connected, so whenever your phone is on) and this uniquely identifies you (even if the serial number wasn’t bought with your own credit card). Then they have to give it to DHS/ICE/FBI/CIA without a warran…

No I agree on the it's not good that APNS is an exception. I suspect that it's something technical like in order to receive push data in low power states, since the kernel isn't awake, userspace VPN is not involved. In an ideal world you'd be able to choose whether you wanted to spend a little extra battery to bump into a higher power state so that this information didn't leak.

Re: VPNs on iOS are a scam

#242

Post by proneb1rd »

Most of what you see is probably Apple bypassing all VPNs to talk to their own servers.

There are more serious problems though, with any app being able to bypass VPN simply by prohibiting Wi-Fi interface and iOS gladly letting all traffic via LTE, unfiltered. That's been described in https://blog.disconnect.me/ios-vpn-leak-advisory/.

It's well known and pretty sad that these issues go unaddressed for years. VPN developers have little power to change that given that VPN apps run in a walled garden of Apple in a sandboxed environment. Hence the the best effort at this point with a hope that this can addressed in the coming updates.

It would be great if more of these pop up on Apple forums and Apple Feedback with people demanding improvements on transparency and privacy from the company.

So far reading your blog post looks like a recollection of what's been going on.

I really wanna throw an analogy of a bear waking up from hibernation. This is not sensational and just reiterates what's been said before you, yet the title throws a shadow at VPNs just to sound like it.

Re: VPNs on iOS are a scam

#243

Post by woojoo666 »

j16sdiz wrote: post #214
woojoo666 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this happens with android too. Which sucks. Although it is possible with root, which shows the benefit of having full control over your device

Just like iOS, you can do the same with managed device.

do you have more info on this? all the sources I've seen online say it's impossible

Re: VPNs on iOS are a scam

#244

Post by woojoo666 »

zekica wrote: post #215
woojoo666 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this happens with android too. Which sucks. Although it is possible with root, which shows the benefit of having full control over your device

Android has an option to allow tethered devices to use the VPN, and it works fine on my phone.

what's the setting called?

Re: VPNs on iOS are a scam

#246

Post by psd1 »

userbinator wrote: post #91

If only you could easily print out the routing table and/or modify it so you could direct the traffic exactly where you want it (i.e. stuff it all through the VPN tunnel)... ...and that's when you realise that trying to configure a device to which you do not actually have full control of is a futile endeavour. As such, in agreement with many of the others here, I don't consider this much of a bug nor a "scam". It's m…

I'd approach this from the router.

If you give the device a static DHCP lease, then you can block it from 0.0.0.0 and allow it to your VPN provider's IP blocks.

You might want to give the device its own WiFi network if you don't trust it to honour DHCP

Re: VPNs on iOS are a scam

#248

Post by thayne »

autoexec wrote: post #238
thayne wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also state they can and will shut down your service for copyright infringement.

If ISPs don't shut down people's accounts they'll get sued for billions in fines. There are still open court cases against multiple ISPs for not cutting enough people off from the internet. So far, courts have agreed with the RIAA/MPA who paid good money for the laws we have.

Yes, the media industry is certainly more to blame here. Although, the current ISP oligopoly means that there are less companies to sue or otherwise bully. And it doesn't help that some major ISPs are owned by companies that also produce copyrighted content they want to protect.

Re: VPNs on iOS are a scam

#249

Post by cutehax »

Agreed with most comments here, the implementation is leaky as heck. It’s a ‘best efforts’ VPN service at best and you can tell this especially when in a mall and there’s a walled garden in place. I use iVPN and regularly have to disable wireguard to pass the walled garden to then also regenerate a certificate. Enabling VPN through the iVPN app is hit and miss, likely because Apple have decided to do their own thing and implement ‘Private relay’ instead.

Yeh… Apple, Five Eyes, Privacy is all pretty much an illusion when you have this many devices in this many pockets. Whatever it is, vpn’s or end to end encryption, it’s all really only as secure as the touch screen controller telemetry logs.

Re: VPNs on iOS are a scam

#250

Post by Maursault »

anyfoo wrote: post #239
Maursault wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are strongly associated, and the definitions are related. One can not have a private conversation without privacy, and when seeking privacy it is exclusively to do something in private. Contrary to previous claims, one implies the other. The argument that privacy doesn't mean private, and vice versa , in regards to the meaning any of the letters in acronyms is specious, such as, the word private in VPN does not…

> One can not have a private conversation without privacy, and when seeking privacy it is exclusively to do something in private. One can have a private parking spot without privacy, though. Or a private pilot license. > any transfer of data between the VPN nodes will be kept private from the Internet at large, thus the transfer is in privacy Not if your VPN is not encrypted, which exists, although it isn't very comm…

> One can have a private parking spot without privacy, though. Or a private pilot license.

This is equivocating between two distinct and separate definitions of "private." You are mixing these homonyms.

In the sense you're using in the quote I pulled from your comment, it means intended for or restricted to the use of a particular person, group, or class, but in the sense that it is used in Virtual Private Network, it means something else, namely not known or intended to be known publicly; secret.

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