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20% of VPNs Leaking IP Addresses

March 29, 2018

Besides creating an encrypted communication channel to protect snooping on your data transmission, VPNs can also be used to mask the real originating IP address. I would typically switch my VPN source to Russia just for fun. Now that Russia has banned VPNs, I bounce around selecting several alternate sites, but Tallinn, Estonia is one of my favorites. Masking your real originating IP address only works if the VPN doesn't leak it out. According to Bleeping Computer, a WebRTC bug is responsible for leaking the IP address. The bug has been known since January 2015. Security researcher, Paolo Stagno, found that 17 VPNs clients were leaking the user's IP address while surfing the web via a browser.

Stagno is asking users to test their own VPN clients and send him the results. He has created a demo web page that users access after your VPN client is enabled. The result should show your selected VPN source. If your real IP address shows up, you have a problem. You can see the results of his testing in this Google Docs spreadsheet. I'm happy to say that the VPN client I use doesn't leak the address. That's comforting while connecting to the Dark Web.

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