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NordVPN library and client code open-sourced

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Re: NordVPN library and client code open-sourced

#61

Post by Kinrany »

t8sr wrote: post #52

Well, the client code certainly isn't great. Reading through it random, I see a lot of undocumented code, functions with 20 positional arguments (who wants to bet some call sites silently swap two of them?), a file called constants.go where random strings are defined far away from where they're used, etc. There are also random, mostly undocumented, interfaces lying around /everywhere/, in all kinds of places not conn…

It could work as a forcing function: "people are saying mean things about our code and it harms our sales, let's rewrite"

Re: NordVPN library and client code open-sourced

#62

Post by moffkalast »

throw0101b wrote: post #14

This reminds me of the 'original' 2019 video by Tom Scott called "This Video Is Sponsored By [redacted] VPN" where he explains most of the reasons listed to use VPN by ads is useless: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVDQEoe6ZWY And then a few years later with "My robot double sells out (so I don't have to)" he did a follow-up listing useful reasons (geo-based content, better prices on vacation sites, etc) which was…

Isn't he now doing a lot of NordVPN ads himself in recent videos too? Turns out everyone has their price.

Re: NordVPN library and client code open-sourced

#63

Post by edgyquant »

ehPReth wrote: post #20
acatton wrote: post #7

Reminder that it looks like NordVPN does shady stuff: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29285988 Allegedly, they are using their customers as botnets to resell traffic from residential IPs, mostly for scraping, through their other business "Oxylabs".

I hear there's a dirty secret that more and more companies are doing this to make things like Netflix that block VPNs "just work" though their services. Not sure how true this is or how widespread, though.

This has been brought up before, Netflix does not work with a VPN on. It knows you’re using a VPN and blocks you (asks you to disable it.)

Yes this is true even with NordVPN, which I bought specifically to be able to watch Netflix on when expressVPN didn’t work.

Re: NordVPN library and client code open-sourced

#64

Post by msla »

DeathArrow wrote: post #57
msla wrote: post #5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVDQEoe6ZWY That's a video about NordVPN's dishonest advertising and how deeply it's infected YouTube. https://www.pcmag.com/news/nordvpn-ad-banned-for-exaggeratin... > The UK's Advertising Standards Agency(Opens in a new window) has banned a NordVPN commercial for misleading viewers about the privacy risks of using a public Wi-Fi network without also having a VPN. In essence: HTTPS al…

HTTPS is not going to hide your IP or the IP of the websites you access. Beside HTTPS there are other network protocols people are using.

The point, though, is that NordVPN advertises their VPN as being the only reason your bank account information isn't stolen when you use WiFi.

Re: NordVPN library and client code open-sourced

#65

Post by ramzyo »

systems wrote: post #27

So, should we, or should we not use a VPN? If most sites nowadays are on HTTPS, is vpn still needed for daily use I think the only reason now to use a vpn, is to login to a site as if from a different location, if the site blocks your region, or sensor some of its content Any other good reason to use a vpn

Posted this on another thread about VPNs a few weeks ago. Reposting here since I think it applies.

I've recently been describing what a commercial VPN provides to non-technical friends and family as a type of "global virtual Internet cafe" subscription - the pros and cons of using a physical Internet cafe mostly apply. An Internet cafe isn't inherently (i.e. due to technical benefits of underlying technology) any more or less secure than connecting to your home or work wifi/network, and the Internet cafe knows who you are and what websites you're visiting, but your ISP/employer doesn't (since you're "at" the Internet cafe, not on your home/work network).

Of course, your ISP/employer does know that you're visiting the Internet cafe, and in the case of work (and some ISPs) can stop you from doing so.

If you visit a website from an Internet cafe, the website may still be able to figure out who you are, just like they can when you bounce between different networks normally. And of course, if you login to your account on a website or put your shipping address or something in when buying something, you're self identifying (unless you have throwaway accounts or forwarding addresses or whatever).

And finally, if someone really wants to figure out who you are to a high degree of confidence, they will.

I find this lands pretty well and is close enough to being technically correct without getting into the details that non-technical people would start glazing over if I got into.

Re: NordVPN library and client code open-sourced

#66

Post by ashwagary »

t8sr wrote: post #52

Well, the client code certainly isn't great. Reading through it random, I see a lot of undocumented code, functions with 20 positional arguments (who wants to bet some call sites silently swap two of them?), a file called constants.go where random strings are defined far away from where they're used, etc. There are also random, mostly undocumented, interfaces lying around /everywhere/, in all kinds of places not conn…

Apart from being sloppy, any worrying bits of code throwing up security red flags to you?

Re: NordVPN library and client code open-sourced

#67

Post by dvdbloc »

acatton wrote: post #7

Reminder that it looks like NordVPN does shady stuff: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29285988 Allegedly, they are using their customers as botnets to resell traffic from residential IPs, mostly for scraping, through their other business "Oxylabs".

Is this behavior only enabled by their client? If you use your own OpenVPN client to connect to their OpenVPN server are you avoiding this behavior?
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