Hacker News

Another way to leak traffic on Android has been discovered

77 points by mhitza 14 hours ago | 8 comments

This paper goes into much more detail: https://supuk.ch/papers/android-natt-keepalive-vpn-bypass

As a quick kludge use an USB-C wlan network adapter that lacks the functionality for this type of connection (albeit that won't help you with a cellular connection)?

exceptione 2 hours ago

Regarding cellular connection, the proof of concept presented here only works on wifi: https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/8617

I have a hunch this leak is bound to wifi hardware only, for details: https://supuk.ch/papers/android-natt-keepalive-vpn-bypass

exceptione 3 hours ago

  > A proper fix would require changes in the Android system. The researcher who discovered the leak has reported the issue to the Android Vulnerability Reward Program, but according to the researcher the issue was closed without action. This issue is not public, but based on this information we deem it unlikely that Google will do anything about it. GrapheneOS is aware of the issue and are working on a fix.

If the account given by the researcher is correct, we cannot rule out that Google deliberately introduced or wanted to keep the leak in place.

gib444 6 minutes ago

[delayed]

jjav 2 hours ago

> we cannot rule out that Google deliberately introduced or wanted to keep the leak in place

I'd say a lot stronger than "cannot rule out". Regardless of how it was introduced, if it is now known and the issue was closed without action, they are actively choosing to keep it.

gib444 12 minutes ago

I guess the best advice remains to only use wifi to connect to a router which forces traffic over a VPN and never use mobile data?

Do any similar leaks exists on iOS currently?

xicolo 4 hours ago

[dead]

arunvpp 14 hours ago

[flagged]

lsaferite 11 hours ago

I mean, they detailed *exactly* how it works in the very short article.

aucisson_masque 5 hours ago

> This issue is not public, but based on this information we deem it unlikely that Google will do anything about it. GrapheneOS is aware of the issue and are working on a fix.

Good guy Google, as usual.