Published on June 23rd, 2019 📆 | 5436 Views ⚑
0How to See If Your VPN Is Leaking Your IP Address (and How to Stop It)
VPNs are great for security, but one of the big reasons many people use one is to mask or change their IP address. This lets you get around location-based restrictions on content, or check if your provider is throttling your connection. Unfortunately, a new security flaw can reveal your real IP address to prying eyes, even if youâre using a VPN, and itâs easy to exploit. Hereâs how it works, and what you can do about it.
Whatâs All This Now? Is My Data At Risk?
Letâs back up a bit. A Virtual Private Network, or a VPN, is great for encrypting your data and boosting security, but itâs also useful to obscure your IP address. Your IP address is assigned to your internet connection by your service provider, and it can reveal who your service provider is and (in general) where youâre located. If youâve ever visited YouTube and seen âSorry, this video isnât available in your country,â or tried to sign up for a new service only to find out your country isnât supported, your IP address is how they know.
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Many people use VPNs specifically to get around those location restrictions. When you sign in to a VPN, usually you can choose an âexit server,â or a location your VPN will âpretendâ youâre actually located. Usually thatâs enough to convince a service youâre in a supported country.
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However, a recently discovered security flaw allows remote sites to take advantage of WebRTC (Web Real Time Communication, a feature built in to most browsers) to reveal a userâs true IP address, even if theyâre connected to a VPN. As far as we know, sites arenât taking advantage of the flaw yet, but considering services like Hulu, Spotify, Netflix, and others are taking steps to identify and lock out VPN users, itâs not a stretch to assume theyâll start.
A few lines of code is all it takes to remove the location protection you get from using a VPN, and figure out where youâre actually located and who your internet service provider really is (who can then tie your address back to who you are specifically.) While the vulnerability is primarily browser-based right now, any application that can render web pages (and uses WebRTC) is affected, meaning anyone who wants to can see past your VPN to where you really are and who you really are. Advertisers, data brokers, and governments can use it to peek through your VPN to find out where your connection is really coming from. If you use services like BitTorrent, have a set-top box like a Roku, or just stream music or movies on your computer through a site thatâs not available in your country (or youâre an expat and live abroad), the apps and services you use could suddenly stop working.
How Can I Check If My VPN Is Affected?
The flaw was documented by developer Daniel Roesler over at GitHub. Roesler explains how the process works:
Firefox and Chrome have implemented WebRTC that allow requests to STUN servers be made that will return the local and public IP addresses for the user. These request results are available to javascript, so you can now obtain a users local and public IP addresses in javascript. This demo is an example implementation of that.
Additionally, these STUN requests are made outside of the normal XMLHttpRequest procedure, so they are not visible in the developer console or able to be blocked by plugins such as AdBlockPlus or Ghostery. This makes these types of requests available for online tracking if an advertiser sets up a STUN server with a wildcard domain.
To see if your VPN is affected:
- Visit a site like What Is My IP Address and jot down your actual ISP-provided IP address.
- Log in to your VPN, choose an exit server in another country (or use whichever exit server you prefer) and verify youâre connected.
- Go back to What Is My IP Address and check your IP address again. You should see a new address, one that corresponds with your VPN and the country you selected.
- Visit Roselerâs WebRTC test page and note the IP address displayed on the page.
If both tools show your VPNâs IP address, then youâre in the clear. However, if What Is My IP Address shows your VPN and the WebRTC test shows your normal IP address, then your browser is leaking your ISP-provided address to the world.
When TorrentFreak talked to VPN providers about the problem, including our favorite, Private Internet Access, that noted that they could duplicate the issue, but they werenât sure how they could stop the vulnerabilty on their end. Since the IP check takes place directly between the user and the site theyâre connected to, itâs difficult to block. Even so, they published a blog post warning users about the issue. TorGuard, another of our favorite providers, also issued a warning to their users. Those warnings also say that the issue only appears to affect Windows users, but thatâs not necessarily the caseâmany comments (and our own testing) note that depending on your VPN and how itâs configured, your IP address may be leaked even if you use a Mac or Linux system.
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How Can I Protect Myself?
Luckily, you donât have to wait for VPN providers to address the issue on their ends to protect yourself. There are a number of things you can do right now, and most of them are as easy as installing a plug-in, or disabling WebRTC in your browser.
The Easy Way: Disable WebRTC In Your Browser
Chrome, Firefox, and Opera (and browsers based on them) generally have WebRTC enabled by default. Safari and Internet Explorer donât, and thus arenât affected (unless youâve specifically enabled WebRTC.) Either way, if the test above worked in your browser, youâre affected. You can always switch to a browser that doesnât have WebRTC enabled, but since most of us like the browsers we use, hereâs what to do:
- Chrome and Opera: Install the ScriptSafe extension from the Chrome Web Store. Itâs overkill, but itâll disable WebRTC in your browser. Opera users can use this add on as well, youâll just have to jump through some hoops first.
- Firefox: You have two options. You can install the Disable WebRTC addon from Mozilla Add-ons (h/t to @YourAnonNews for the link), or disable WebRTC directly by opening a tab and going to âabout:configâ in the address bar. Find and set the âmedia.peerconnection.enabledâ setting to false. (You could also install NoScript, which is much like ScriptSafe, but like we mentioned, itâs probably overkill.)
While Roeseler notes that privacy protecting browser extensions like AdBlock, uBlock, Ghostery, and Disconnect donât stop this behavior, these methods will definitely do the job. Weâve tested them to make sure they work, and keep an eye outâyour favorite ad blocker or privacy add-on will likely update to block WebRTC in the near future.
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We should note that disabling WebRTC may break some webapps and services. Browser-based apps that use your microphone and camera (like some chat sites or Google Hangouts), or automatically know your location (like food delivery sites) for example, will stop working until you re-enable it.
The Better Way: Configure Your VPN on Your Router
Update: Weâve been talking to a number of people in the security community about this issue, and after those conversations, weâre not confident that configuring your VPN at the router level is any more effective (or rather, terribly effective at all) than blocking WebRTC at the browser. While we still recommend setting up your VPN at the router level for a number of reasons (outlined below), as far as this issue is concerned, right now, weâd suggest that you use one of the browser add-ons mentioned above while we all conduct more research into the root causeâand surefire remediation for it.
If you want a more surefire way to protect yourself beyond installing add-ons and making tweaks to your browser every time you install or update, there is a more permanent method. Run your VPN at your router instead of on your computer directly.
There are a number of benefits to this approach. For one, it protects all of the devices on your home network, even if theyâre not vulnerable to this specific flaw. It also gives all of your devices, like your smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes, and smart appliances the same protection and encryption that your VPN gives your desktop.
There are caveats, though. For one, if youâre the type who likes to change exit servers often (e.g., one day you want to browse as though youâre in Japan, another in Iceland, and another in the US), this means youâll have to tweak your router setup every time you want to switch locations. Similarly, if you only need to be connected sometimes but not othersâlike you use a VPN for work but not when youâre streaming Netflix, youâll need to enable or disable your VPN on your router every time you need to switch. That process can be easy or complicated, depending on your router, and your VPN.
Many VPN service providers suggest you set up your VPN at the router level anyway. Some even sell specific routers that come pre-configured to use their service, but odds are you can use your existing router (as long as itâs not provided by your internet service provider). Log in to your routerâs admin page, and check your âsecurityâ or âconnectionâ options. Depending on your model, youâll see a VPN section, where you can type in the name of the VPN provider youâre connecting to, their server hostnames, and your username and password. Once itâs enabled, all of your traffic will be encrypted.
If you donât see it, all isnât lost. Check with your VPN provider and let them know what type of router you have. They may have instructions to walk you through the process. If they donât, see if your router is supported by open-source router firmwares like DD-WRT ( search supported devices here), Open WRT (see supported devices here), or Tomato (see supported devices here). Weâve shown you how to install and set up DD-WRT and configure Tomato before, so if youâre new, start with our guides. All of those custom firmwares will allow you to set up your VPN at the router level.
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This vulnerability is serious, but on the bright side, itâs easily mitigated. If anything, itâs a reminder to never take your privacy for granted, even if you use all the right tools to protect it. When we talked about how to protect yourself from DNS leaks, we made the same point: Blindly trusting a privacy tool because it says the right things is a bad idea. Trust, but verify, and take your privacy and security into your own hands.
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Title photo made using Nemo. Additional photos by James Lee, Paul Joseph, and Walt Stoneburner.
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