Italian Warning pop up when using AirVPN over SSH

[hambledonhill 0]

Hi,

 

Recently came across a possible security problem. I wanted to test how secure a connection using vpn over ssh was. I used the guidlines from AirVPN to establish VPN over SSH, all appears to work. On some security forums in Italy they suggested trying to connect to Motherless.com with no vpn you get the pop up warning of possible bad content. When connected just with VPN no pop up, but with VPN over SSH the pop up appears. Does this mean that the SSH or VPN connections are not Secure?

[Staff 10014]

Hello,

 

before we can try to answer, can you please specify the origin of the warning?

 

Kind regards

[hambledonhill 0]

Hi,

 

OK I have tried this via Goole and direct URL both produce the pop up. I have tested this with a Dutch SSH/VPN and now a German one (Velorum).

Below is the output from routing table. As per instructions the ssh connection was started first then a second terminal as root for the vpn.

 

0.0.0.0/1 via 10.50.0.101 dev tun0
default via 192.168.1.1 dev wlan0  proto static
10.50.0.1 via 10.50.0.101 dev tun0
10.50.0.101 dev tun0  proto kernel  scope link  src 10.50.0.102
46.165.208.69 via 192.168.1.1 dev wlan0
127.0.0.1 via 192.168.1.1 dev wlan0
128.0.0.0/1 via 10.50.0.101 dev tun0
169.254.0.0/16 dev wlan0  scope link  metric 1000
192.168.1.0/24 dev wlan0  proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.1.17  metric 9

[hambledonhill 0]

Hi, Sorry forgot to include the main message on the pop up

 

ATTENZIONE!! - POLIZIA POSTALE E DELLE COMUNICAZIONI - PAGINA BLOCCATA:

[Staff 10014]

Hello,

 

ok, now check how your system resolves that domain name (it should be IP 198.64.4...). If you get a different resolution, the DNS you are querying is poisoned (speculation: perhaps your system is querying your ISP DNS and your ISP has been obliged to poison its DNS and hijack its customers communications).

 

Are you running Windows? If so, please fix DNS leaks.

 

Your VPN DNS for OpenVPN over SSH can be 10.50.0.1 and 10.4.0.1

 

In all of this discussion, anyway, it's unclear why you're running OpenVPN over SSH, are you behind a very restrictive firewall, or your ISP is disrupting OpenVPN communications?

 

Kind regards

[hambledonhill 0]

 

Hi,

 

When I have tried to ping or traceroute the address is resolved to 212.48.8.140 (This is in Italy) and the ping/traceroute fail. This is without ssh/vpn.

When connected to Velorum I can traceroute to the site but not ping...

When connected vpn over ssh (Velorum) ping fails, but traceroute produces the results below

 

traceroute to www.motherless.com (212.48.8.140), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets

1 10.50.0.1 (10.50.0.1) 58.254 ms 126.207 ms 126.211 ms

2 hosted.by.leaseweb.com (46.165.208.126) 126.180 ms 126.152 ms 126.110 ms

3 ffm-b10-link.telia.net (80.239.132.81) 180.598 ms 180.593 ms ffm-b11-link.telia.net (80.239.167.129) 180.558 ms

4 ffm-bb2-link.telia.net (213.155.131.224) 180.526 ms ffm-bb1-link.telia.net (80.91.251.249) 180.494 ms 180.457 ms

5 ffm-b12-link.telia.net (213.155.135.9) 180.603 ms ffm-b12-link.telia.net (213.155.132.209) 180.331 ms ffm-b12-link.telia.net (213.155.136.197) 180.412 ms

6 telecomitalia-ic-156443-ffm-b12.c.telia.net (213.248.68.190) 180.283 ms 58.059 ms 59.109 ms

7 * * *

8 * * *

 

With VPN only connected to Velorum, ping still fails, but traceroute work with the correct ip address

 

traceroute to www.motherless.com (198.64.4.17), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets

1 speedtest.air (10.4.0.1) 81.266 ms 85.424 ms 88.835 ms

2 rif-vlan3022.cust.teknikbyran.com (178.248.30.129) 93.172 ms 96.501 ms 99.076 ms

3 vl-3006-akb-cr1.link.teknikbyran.com (62.102.144.5) 103.571 ms 107.997 ms 110.478 ms

4 xe-0-0-5-teknikbyran.pe0.sto4.se.portlane.net (80.67.0.221) 114.730 ms 116.385 ms 121.040 ms

5 te-4-4-gblx.sto1.se.portlane.net (209.130.172.177) 125.424 ms 128.896 ms 130.242 ms

 

I have been trying to see if vpn over ssh does work, I use Ubuntu 13.04

[hambledonhill 0]

Hi,

 

I have now found the wiki leaks page for Italy blocking varous websites, most not connected with anything illegal (so they say).

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Italian_secret_internet_censorship_list,_287_site_subset,_21_Jun_2009

The site suggested to try for testing is not on that list, but that is a list from 2009, so its been updated, also with lots of gambling sites...

[Flx11 10]

Hi,

This is a website full of JavaScript and ajax links most hidden. It does drop OpenVpn direct TCP 443 connections. I didn't test udp or ssh. OpenVpn over SSL is the only one that holds. I have no Idea what other "goodies" it has to offer. I blocked it by IP(s) and hostname. Staff you should have websites like these blocked from server(s).

BTW pop-up the message  in italian transates to what?

Regards,

Flex 

[Staff 10014]

Hi,

This is a website full of JavaScript and ajax links most hidden. It does drop OpenVpn direct TCP 443 connections.

 

Hello!

 

Well, no, it doesn't. And that's logical, since an end web-site has no way to know your type of connection to our servers (or to any other VPN service). Or maybe we are missing something here?

 

Kind regards

[Flx11 10]

ok I'll test it again and make sure that 443 tcp connection will hold. hmmm.....without javascript the connection was ok but when JavaScript is enabled all the weirdness start to happen. Advance Member have you blocked it? and yes the Crucis tcp 443 did hold.

[hambledonhill 0]

Hi,

 

So why can tranparent dns see what sites you go to if you have vpn over ssh? Any simple answers

[Flx11 10]

Moderator it doesn't drop connection when OpenVpn 2.2.2 is used(I consider it to be the most stable version). For the sake of it try OpenVpn 2.3.x version and you'll be surprised of the # how many connections are being dropped compared to 2.2.2.

[NaDre 157]

Hi,

 

So why can tranparent dns see what sites you go to if you have vpn over ssh? Any simple answers

 

The same way that AirVPN detects DNS leaks. Have you tried their DNS leak test when you have your configuration set up?

 

http://ipleak.net/

 

The mechanism is something like this. Bury a hidden link to a resource (perhaps a dummy image that never gets shown on the page) using a domain name generated just for this connection in the page you are viewing. Then watch to see what IP address the DNS look up for this resource comes from. The DNS server that receives these look up requests and the web browser must interact.

 

So if the connection to the page came from the U.S., but the DNS look up for the special resource comes from Italy, they know something is not as it should be.

[hambledonhill 0]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the replies all very good as usuall.

[Staff 10014]

@StudentStumps

 

So your system is not handling correctly DNS. Assuming it's some Linux distribution, do you have resolvconf or openresolv installed or not?

 

Kind regards

[hambledonhill 0]

Hi,

 

Running Ubuntu 13.04 not sure if I have the two progs you mentioned

[Staff 10014]

Hello,

 

if you have resolvconf installed please see here:

https://airvpn.org/topic/9747-dns-problem-can-only-connect-to-airvpnorg/?do=findComment&comment=11334

 

If you don't and you wish to install it:

 

sudo aptitude install resolvconf

 

If you don't want resolvconf package, just edit (as root) /etc/resolv.conf and add as first nameservers 10.4.0.1 and 10.50.0.1:

 

nameserver 10.4.0.1
nameserver 10.50.0.1

 

Kind regards

[hambledonhill 0]

Hi, looked at this and I have got resolvconf installed. I have placed the

 

script-security 2
up /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf
down /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf

 

into the .sh and .ovpn files for Velorum (DE), then tried to open the website in Firefox, it went there with no pop up...

Then used ipleak to test leakage and none shown, DNS = Germany.

 

Excellent many thanks.