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Show HN: My country blocked internet, so I created new VPN protocol

19 points by elgunlee 6y ago

In 2020 my country temporarily blocked nearly all popular websites (Facebook, Youtube, Instagram etc.) for 45 days. I tried other VPN apps and protocols but they failed. And I started crafting my own VPN protocol and app. Android client app has features below: Quick Tile, Multi-profiles, Split tunneling, Offline region, Custom DNS, MTU config I found Offline region feature unique, for example if you want to watch videos on Youtube but don't want people to send you message from social medias. You can block internet access of these social media apps, so your friends will see you as offline, but Youtube will work. Or you can use this feature to block games' internet access, so they can't show you ads. -What is NOT VanillaVPN for? +It is not for privacy or security. People already have TLS/SSL (HTTPS). -What is VanillaVPN for? +It is for changing your apps' location (IP address) or making some apps offline. -How big is it? +It is only 800KB in size. -Where can I get VanillaVPN? +From vanillavpn.io or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.vanillavpn Currently Android client is available. I'm working on the MacOS and iOS versions right now, and planning to release them in the next weeks. I will be glad to hear your thoughts about VanillaVPN. Thanks.

chovybizzass 6y ago
Need a Linux version too.
- elgunlee 6y ago
  CLI version of client is good idea. I will do it :)
hacker45y27 6y ago
I liked
geoah 6y ago
Some questions around this: * How is this different than other existing VPN services? (opennvp, wireguard, etc) * How does this new protocol work? * Is this open source? Are there any plans to open source it?
- elgunlee 6y ago
  Actually I tried to explain all questions like these in original HN post, but removed because of 2000 chars limits. VanillaVPN as name suggests focus on simplicity, not security. Other VPN protocols always encrypt traffic between you and servers with algorithms like AES-256. They don't have options to disable it, and transmit all packets without encryption. Disabling encryption has benefits like low CPU & Battery usage and increased bandwidth speeds. But isn't unencrypted VPN bad idea? Actually, NO. For security, people already using TLS/SSL (HTTPS). It means your connection to websites are already secure, re-encrypting them twice doesn't make sense, instead it cause high CPU & Battery usage. Also, VanillaVPN uses JSON for handshaking process. It is much easier to implement and maintain. And server has some sort of DHCP feature, capable of assigning new IP addresses to connected clients automatically from pool. So you don't need to preconfigure clients at the server like you do in Wireguard or OpenVPN. For source code, it's not publicly available right now. But I will publish it in the next few months as open source.
  - DougN7 6y ago
    Is the handshake unencrypted? Would this make it easy to MITM?

19 points by elgunlee 6y ago

chovybizzass 6y ago

Need a Linux version too.

elgunlee 6y ago
CLI version of client is good idea. I will do it :)

hacker45y27 6y ago

I liked

geoah 6y ago

Some questions around this: * How is this different than other existing VPN services? (opennvp, wireguard, etc) * How does this new protocol work? * Is this open source? Are there any plans to open source it?

elgunlee 6y ago
Actually I tried to explain all questions like these in original HN post, but removed because of 2000 chars limits. VanillaVPN as name suggests focus on simplicity, not security. Other VPN protocols always encrypt traffic between you and servers with algorithms like AES-256. They don't have options to disable it, and transmit all packets without encryption. Disabling encryption has benefits like low CPU & Battery usage and increased bandwidth speeds. But isn't unencrypted VPN bad idea? Actually, NO. For security, people already using TLS/SSL (HTTPS). It means your connection to websites are already secure, re-encrypting them twice doesn't make sense, instead it cause high CPU & Battery usage. Also, VanillaVPN uses JSON for handshaking process. It is much easier to implement and maintain. And server has some sort of DHCP feature, capable of assigning new IP addresses to connected clients automatically from pool. So you don't need to preconfigure clients at the server like you do in Wireguard or OpenVPN. For source code, it's not publicly available right now. But I will publish it in the next few months as open source.
- DougN7 6y ago
  Is the handshake unencrypted? Would this make it easy to MITM?