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Apple's iCloud+ “VPN”

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Re: Apple's iCloud+ “VPN”

#61

Post by Jiocus »

judge2020 wrote: post #40
Jiocus wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I use a VPN for other reasons (downloading Ubuntu ISOs mostly). This made me smile. Good one. For context, copyright trolls recently tried to extort torrent users for downloading and sharing Ubuntu ISOs.

If you want to give context, a link to the story would be nice: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/fake-dmca-takedown-n... Importantly, OpSec (the company doing this torrent-dmca-for-hire stuff) says the DMCA itself was spoofed > OpSec Security’s DCMA notice sending program was spoofed on Wednesday, May 26, 2021, by unknown parties across multiple streaming platforms.

Of course it was a false flag issue, it never made sense from the beginning.

Re: Apple's iCloud+ “VPN”

#62

Post by Ensorceled »

bhaavan wrote: post #51

Does this mean that all DDoS mitigation techniques need to exist before the exit node of this traffic? Which in turn mean, that everyone needs to outsource their DDoS mitigation to Apple. Also the corollary would be, that anyone who is able to bypass the protection mechanisms Apple has in place to control DDoS, can use it to DDoS a service like Google, Microsoft and get the entire service banned for all iCloud+ users…

Why are you assuming this can, and will, be readily used as a DDoS vector?

Re: Apple's iCloud+ “VPN”

#63

Post by mavhc »

867-5309 wrote: post #41
krageon wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but UK residents do typically pay for the content whereas those outside the UK are unable to. In essence, what you're saying boils down to "it's already paid for, but nobody else can have it anyway". It's unreasonable and there is no need to make excuses for this behaviour.

totally agree. I had no end of shit trying to watch BBC News channel from abroad. I'm a UK national, I own a house in the UK, I pay UK taxes, I pay your stupid TV licence fee, you're broadcasting live over 3 separate CDNs, just let me watch the fucking news. I eventually subscribed to an illegal IPTV service for that one sodding channel. I don't even need the other 17,000 channels. the BBC drove me to it

Not running a vpn from your house?

Re: Apple's iCloud+ “VPN”

#64

Post by gjsman-1000 »

anonymouse008 wrote: post #59
KMnO4 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you noticed all the ads say “Hackers can spy on your connection when you log into your bank at Starbucks.” That’s complete FUD. HTTPS completely avoids this issue ( especially with a bank). Very few websites use HTTP now. While VPNs do have their valid use (preventing your ISP from spying, changing geolocation, and private networks for eg, work), most of the marketing is spreading misinformation.

I've never understood how a VPN doesn't get too carried away to pull a MITM with some central cert

Because if you used a central cert, every device would have to whitelist that cert, and just clocking the lock icon in your browser would reveal it.

Re: Apple's iCloud+ “VPN”

#65

Post by atonse »

bitcurious wrote: post #38

Correct me if I’m wrong, but as I understand it a two-hop onion network is still trivially breakable with (two) warrants, especially since both Apple and Cloudflare/etc., are US companies. Which would make it a VPN in the duck-type sense.

That’s the beauty of this. Party 2 only knows Apple’s IP. Apple doesn’t know what site you’re visiting.

So how do you assemble “all traffic to this site” even by subpoenaing both parties?

Re: Apple's iCloud+ “VPN”

#66

Post by lucasverra »

marceldegraaf wrote: post #33
Brajeshwar wrote: post #28

Does this compare to NextDNS[1]. I moved from Pi Hole[2] to NextDNS and I'm happy with it. 1. https://nextdns.io 2. https://pi-hole.net

No. NextDNS and Pi-Hole serve DNS requests and are mainly used for ad blocking and content restrictions on your network. They don't tunnel or redirect your actual internet traffic the way a VPN does.

This is the correct observation.

- A nextDNS user having that same question answered by official team

Re: Apple's iCloud+ “VPN”

#67

Post by aPoCoMiLogin »

arnvald wrote: post #34
Brajeshwar wrote: post #28

Does this compare to NextDNS[1]. I moved from Pi Hole[2] to NextDNS and I'm happy with it. 1. https://nextdns.io 2. https://pi-hole.net

Oh, that's interesting. What convinced you to switch? Not having to host it yourself or some specific features?

i'm not the OP but I think it might be the issue with exposing pi-hole to the internet to access the dns outside of your home network. nextdns is cheap, i'm using it on all my devices, without the hassle to expose pi-hole to the internet.

Re: Apple's iCloud+ “VPN”

#68

Post by njacobs5074 »

Does anyone have pointers to info/articles about the countries that are on the "no VPN" capability list?

Some of them make sense to me, i.e. China which has a long history of censoring their citizens.

But in particular, I'm trying to find out why South Africa is on that list seeing as I live there.

Edit: In [1], Apple is quoted as saying, "We respect national laws wherever we operate" but did not elaborate further.

[1] https://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/400893-apple-will-no...

Re: Apple's iCloud+ “VPN”

#69

Post by nojito »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #42
bitcurious wrote: post #38

Correct me if I’m wrong, but as I understand it a two-hop onion network is still trivially breakable with (two) warrants, especially since both Apple and Cloudflare/etc., are US companies. Which would make it a VPN in the duck-type sense.

It depends, whether they do no logs. There are many VPN providers in the US which don’t have logs, so that if they are subpoenaed, they have nothing to give. The beauty of Apple’s double hop is that if one partner was hacked, secretly wiretapped, or had lied about not keeping logs, your connection would still be private. But, that assumes that nobody on this network is keeping logs. If they are, then it could be theo…

What would the logs contain?

I believe everything is encrypted on device before being sent to Apple.

Re: Apple's iCloud+ “VPN”

#70

Post by gjsman-1000 »

njacobs5074 wrote: post #68

Does anyone have pointers to info/articles about the countries that are on the "no VPN" capability list? Some of them make sense to me, i.e. China which has a long history of censoring their citizens. But in particular, I'm trying to find out why South Africa is on that list seeing as I live there. Edit: In [1], Apple is quoted as saying, "We respect national laws wherever we operate" but did not elaborate further. […

Another reason could also be that the servers operate in the same nation that you are from. If Apple or no suitable partner has servers in South Africa, that could also be a reason.

And, of course it could be politics. The South African government, I wouldn’t know, but it could be possible that they wouldn’t let tech companies from the US build servers in their nation.

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