Large number of Android VPN apps insecure
Virtual Private Networks (VPN) have evolved from a technology used mostly by businesses to one that is used by more and more home users as well.
Reasons are manifold, but improved privacy and security are certainly two key features that make a growing number of home users use VPN services and apps.
Without going into too much detail; a VPN protects a device's IP address as traffic flows through it instead of directly to the user's system.
Google's Android operating system supports native VPN clients since Android 4.0 released in October 2011 through the Android VPN Service class.
When enabled, VPN applications on Android intercept and take full control of a device's traffic.
A team of researchers analyzed more than 280 Android VPN applications for privacy and security issues. The results, revealed in a research paper, reveal that many free and premium VPN applications on Android are insecure.
Key findings include
- 67% of Android VPN applications promised to protect user privacy. 75% of those used third-party tracking libraries, and 82% requested permissions to access user information such as text messages.
- 37% of Android VPN applications had more than 500K downloads, and 25% at least a 4-star rating. Over 38% of those applications showed signs of malware on Virustotal.
- 18% of all VPN applications implemented tunneling protocols without encryption.
- 84% of VPN apps do not tunnel IPv6 traffic.
- 66% of VPN apps do not tunnel DNS traffic.
- 18% of VPN applications don't reveal "the entity hosting the terminating VPN server", and 16% of apps may forward traffic using peer-to-peer forwarding.
- 16% of VPN applications deploy non-transparent proxies that modify HTTP traffic, for instance by injecting or removing headers. 2 of those inject JavaScript for advertisement and tracking purposes.
- 4 of the analyzed VPN apps perform TLS interception.
The research paper does not include the full list of tested Android VPN applications, and the issues identified in each of them. That's unfortunate, as it would have helped users make an educated decision on which Android VPN application to install on their device, and to verify that installed VPN apps are not misbehaving.
Some VPN apps are mentioned however. The research paper lists all VPN apps that were flagged as potentially malicious by Virustotal, and apps that have "egress points in residential ISPs".
The researchers suggest that Google needs to rethink the VPN permission model, as the current one is putting users, who are mostly unaware, at risk.
The ability of the BIND_VPN_SERVICE permission to break Android’s sandboxing and the naive perception that most users have about third-party VPN apps suggest that it is urging to re-consider Android’s VPN permission model to increase the control over VPN clients. Our analysis of the user reviews and the ratings for VPN apps suggested that the vast majority of users remain unaware of such practices even when considering relatively popular apps.
Now You: do you use a VPN application on your mobile device?
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?