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OpenVPN Is Open to VPN Fingerprinting

26 points by sohkamyung 2y ago

jsiepkes 2y ago
Did people assume OpenVPN traffic was obfuscated in such a way that it was not recognizable as OpenVPN traffic? Honestly I'm kind of surprised it got undetected 15% of the time.
- bravetraveler 2y ago
  +1. Not to be rude, yet if someone finds this surprising and of interest, perhaps they need new interests. This might not be the one for them - right now or ever. I'm not judging. Just saying. To show how serious I am, I'll do my own version of the paper while laying in bed relying solely on experience. I'm joking in case that wasn't obvious. Off-the-bottom-shelf consumer equipment from over fifteen years ago would report on this traffic. OpenVPN has been easy to both USE and fingerprint - these are directly related. It will continue to be. The balance OVPN struck makes it extremely commodity. This is all well/good. As far as things can really have goals... it never aimed to be the fingerprint resistant answer. It's the commodity VPN supported by nearly everything. To be frank: it achieved the goal of obfuscation; you see OpenVPN instead of the real traffic. The horror. Everything everywhere is a trade. This trades fingerprint resistance for ubiquity. I'm slowly starting to understand how things get criticized for being "academic". They have a lot of people, words, and effort confirming things any living practitioner could tell you. That's why I may seem harsh. I'm left to determine this is propaganda or marketing fodder. Any protocol or scheme is prone to fingerprinting. That's the game. Fingerprinting is a question of attention/want, and they picked the most obvious one. Why? I'm asking and looking suspiciously at several unnecessary named authors.
beretguy 2y ago
Hence the name?
PenguinCoder 2y ago
This has been the case and possible to do, since OpenVPNs inception. Something like p0f can certain detect such traffic. It's not confined to just OpenVPN though. Nearly all VPN connections can be fingerprinted at different layers.

26 points by sohkamyung 2y ago

Did people assume OpenVPN traffic was obfuscated in such a way that it was not recognizable as OpenVPN traffic? Honestly I'm kind of surprised it got undetected 15% of the time.

bravetraveler 2y ago
+1. Not to be rude, yet if someone finds this surprising and of interest, perhaps they need new interests. This might not be the one for them - right now or ever. I'm not judging. Just saying. To show how serious I am, I'll do my own version of the paper while laying in bed relying solely on experience. I'm joking in case that wasn't obvious. Off-the-bottom-shelf consumer equipment from over fifteen years ago would report on this traffic. OpenVPN has been easy to both USE and fingerprint - these are directly related. It will continue to be. The balance OVPN struck makes it extremely commodity. This is all well/good. As far as things can really have goals... it never aimed to be the fingerprint resistant answer. It's the commodity VPN supported by nearly everything. To be frank: it achieved the goal of obfuscation; you see OpenVPN instead of the real traffic. The horror. Everything everywhere is a trade. This trades fingerprint resistance for ubiquity. I'm slowly starting to understand how things get criticized for being "academic". They have a lot of people, words, and effort confirming things any living practitioner could tell you. That's why I may seem harsh. I'm left to determine this is propaganda or marketing fodder. Any protocol or scheme is prone to fingerprinting. That's the game. Fingerprinting is a question of attention/want, and they picked the most obvious one. Why? I'm asking and looking suspiciously at several unnecessary named authors.

beretguy 2y ago

Hence the name?

PenguinCoder 2y ago

This has been the case and possible to do, since OpenVPNs inception. Something like p0f can certain detect such traffic. It's not confined to just OpenVPN though. Nearly all VPN connections can be fingerprinted at different layers.