OpenVPN Daemon process eating up all bandwidth, downloading data

[eyprince 2]

Hi all,

 

Firstly - my machine is a Surface Pro 3 running latest Windows 10 and latest downloadable AirVPN client from website.  I am running standard Windows defender (windows firewall etc) and everything is up to date in terms of updates (as far as Windows update tells me).

 

I noticed a strange issue last night with my AirVPN client.

 

All of a sudden, and for no apparent reason (I was streaming Euro16 on ITV player), the stream cut out and wouldn't load.  I refreshed the page, did all the normal stuff, culminating a reboot.

 

Once I rebooted, the AirVPN client started up and connected to a server.

 

All seemed fine for about 15 mins.  Then the same thing.  I started investigating.  On checking the AirVPN client I was apparently downloading at roughly 800Kb/s.  "What could this be?" I thought.  I made sure to close down every app except for AirVPN and my task manager.

 

Within the task manager the "OpenVPN Daemon" process was using the network at 8Mbps (ish).  This didn't seem right.  Why would OpenVpn be downloading something that I hadn't told it to?  I closed AirVPN and everything returned to normal, the OpenVPN process ended and I had bandwidth to watch the rest of the football.

 

Anyway, I did a bit of reading and found there were some security flaws with openvpn.exe v2.3.8.  I'll be honest, I didn't read too much into them as AirVPN staff seemed adamant that there was nothing to worry about and that all flaws had been dealt with.

 

I uninstalled AirVPN, downloaded latest from the website and re-installed.  I noticed that v2.3.8 was still installed with latest AirVPN.  After re-installing the problem re-occurred.  I'm not a security expert, but something doesn't feel right about VPN software downloading a very large amount of data to my machine and not telling me where it is going.

 

I went to the OpenVPN site and downloaded the latest (v2.3.11).  I installed it and then copied the openvpn.exe file to the AirVPN program directory.  I had to re-enter details etc, but so far the problem seems to have been sorted.  I've got Wireshark running and some other diagnostics tools to monitor what's coming into my computer now.

 

Questions: 

• does this infer a security flaw in v2.3.8?
• should I be concerned about the amount of data that seems to have been downloaded to my computer? (I say "seems" because I have no way of tracking what has been downloaded, only that my bandwidth was completely gone and AirVPN and my task manager seem to confirm a large amount of data being downloaded)
• should I be concerned about what data could have been downloaded?
• how can I track where the data has been placed?

Cheers

 

eyPrince

[LZ1 672]

Hello !

 

There's an experimental version of Eddie available, if you'd like to try it .

Windows 10 and perhaps Windows is general, can be quite chatty; sending and receiving all manner of telemetry and other communications to and from MS servers, behind your back. Maybe you should take a look at the Win 10 privacy settings, if you haven't. I wouldn't mind too concerned - although of course if you have valueable files, it's always good to keep a backup and/or keep them separate from your device if you can/want to. I doubt there was a security flaw, but of course no software is perfect.

[rms81 0]

Hi.

 

I'm getting the same behavior.

 

I don't think it's telemetry stuff, since when I connect the vpn, the wifi usage goes up and starts downloading lots of "something". When I disconnect the vpn that activity stops.

 

Any more ideas on this one?

 

Thank you

rms

[LZ1 672]

Hi.

 

I'm getting the same behavior.

 

I don't think it's telemetry stuff, since when I connect the vpn, the wifi usage goes up and starts downloading lots of "something". When I disconnect the vpn that activity stops.

 

Any more ideas on this one?

 

Thank you

rms

This thread is 6 months old and since then new software has been released, so I recommend that you try out the latest Eddie client first .

 

Otherwise, please provide more information on your system and any erroneous behavior you encounter, thank you.

[goduke 0]

Run wireshark when connected to vpn and see what is going on.