Unfortunately, this feature is undercut by the need to accommodate special cases like identifying captive portals (like hotel WiFi) that must be checked before the user can log in or when using split-tunnel features. This feature is designed to prevent accidental leaks of the user's actual IP address if the VPN connection is interrupted or drops suddenly. This allows users to bypass censorship and throttling, and maintain privacy and anonymity while browsing the web, as the remote hosts will never see your actual IP address.Īndroid offers a setting under "Network & Internet" to block network connections unless you're using a VPN. When connected to a VPN, all your Internet connections will use the IP address of your VPN service rather than your public IP address. VPNs (virtual private networks) are protected network connections that encrypt internet traffic over public networks.
Mullvad discovered the issue during a security audit that hasn't been published yet, issuing a warning yesterday to raise awareness on the matter and apply additional pressure on Google. However, Android users likely didn't know this until now due to the inaccurate description of the "VPN Lockdown" features in Android's documentation. This behavior is built into the Android operating system and is a design choice. The data being leaked outside VPN tunnels includes source IP addresses, DNS lookups, HTTPS traffic, and likely also NTP traffic. Mullvad VPN has discovered that Android leaks traffic every time the device connects to a WiFi network, even if the "Block connections without VPN," or "Always-on VPN," features is enabled.
0 kommentar(er)
