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Several Privacy-Busting Bugs Found in Popular VPN Services

posted by cmn32480 on Friday March 16 2018, @04:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the i-wanna-be-an-anonymous-coward dept.

"exec" writes:

Three popular VPN services have been found to leak private user information, which if exploited could be used to identify users.

The report, published Tuesday, reveals several vulnerabilities in Hotspot Shield, Zenmate, and PureVPN -- all of which promise to provide privacy for their users.

But the research reveals bugs that can leak real-world IP addresses, which in some cases can identify individual users and determine a user's location.

In the case of Hotspot Shield, three separate bugs in how the company's Chrome extension handles proxy auto-config scripts -- used to direct traffic to the right places -- leaked both IP and DNS addresses, which undermines the effectiveness of privacy and anonymity services.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/more-privacy-busting-bugs-found-in-popular-vpn-services/

-- submitted from IRC

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday March 16 2018, @04:42PM (6 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 16 2018, @04:42PM (#653664) Journal

    Yeah, but - if you don't trust ANYONE, you might as well just melt your computer down to slag. And, maybe yourself along with it.

    Using a VPN is alright, if people understand that the VPN is just one tool in the fight to secure your network, and/or to stay anonymous. The person who presumes that he is "safe" because he has a VPN is in for a rude awakening.

    To date, I've not found any real reason to distrust PIA. And, I notice that they aren't on this list of buggy VPN's. https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/ [privateinternetaccess.com]

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @04:45PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @04:45PM (#653666)

    PIA is superior in many ways to all the half assed charlatans out there.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by cocaine overdose on Friday March 16 2018, @05:03PM

    by cocaine overdose (6886) <cocaineoverdose@protonmail.com> on Friday March 16 2018, @05:03PM (#653677) Homepage Journal
    You can run your own VPN with more privacy than most available today. However, the biggest faults are: connecting straight from local to the VPN, paying with any options tied to you, and giving real info.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @11:04PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @11:04PM (#653838)

    Aren't they the one's that sold out the kid who hacked Sarah Palin's email ages ago?

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday March 17 2018, @01:39AM (1 child)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 17 2018, @01:39AM (#653896) Journal

      The hacker admitted he was worried about being caught, writing "Yes I was behind a proxy, only one, if this sh*t ever got to the FBI I was f**ked, I panicked, I still wanted the stuff out there ... so I posted the [information] ... and then promptly deleted everything, and unplugged my internet and just sat there in a comatose state."[15]

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin_email_hack [wikipedia.org]

      Depending on which direction we start splitting a hair, maybe a VPN can be called a proxy. But, no, PIA is not a simple proxy. The kid was relying on proxies, and apparently he didn't know the difference between an anonymous proxy, and a logged proxy. Either way, just one proxy sure as hell isn't enough to be called "secure". Typical state actors jump around the globe before reaching their targets.

      --
      “Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. – Major General Chesty Puller, USMC

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @04:23PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @04:23PM (#654117)

        Everyone knows that you have to have 7 proxies.

  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday March 16 2018, @11:31PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Friday March 16 2018, @11:31PM (#653846) Journal

    +1 for PIA!

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