Last week, a group of researchers from universities in Rome and London released a paper detailing how some of today’s top VPN providers leak IPv6 traffic. While TorGuard did pass leak tests on desktop software by offering IPv6 leak prevention measures, the paper points out an alarming fact: ALL of today’s top VPN providers are vulnerable to IPv6 leakage on mobile devices, specifically Android.
In section 4.2, the researcher’s stated: “Considering the amount sensitive data stored in smartphones, it is critical to understand the level of exposure that mobile users have to IPv6 leakage. The issue is even more critical considering that, according to our experiments, all of the VPN services we tested on Android leak IPv6.”
During our own private testing, we can confirm these findings. ALL of today’s leading Android VPN providers literally bleed IPv6 traffic through third party apps and advertisements. The situation is especially urgent on Android when one considers how many apps on Google Play are configured to work with IPv6 compatible advertisement networks. Yeah, there are a lot of them, and most serve up ad content every 10 seconds or so through HTTP requests. Any IPv6 leak over an ad network could possibly allow someone to correlate other sensitive data about the user like app name, language, location, mobile carrier, and more – refreshing this data with each new advertisement.
While disabling IPv6 traffic all together on desktop systems like Windows, Mac or Linux is easy, mobile operating systems like Android don’t allow this action without root permission. This leaves the average user with little options for blocking IPv6 when using an Android VPN service. That is, until now.
TorGuard’s Android VPN IPv6 Leak Prevention
TorGuard VPN has just released a new IPv6 Leak prevention feature that is now available on all Android platforms. Instead of simply disabling IPv6 on the device, this new leak block feature captures all IPv6 traffic at the source and tunnels it directly into the VPN. This creates a VPN “black hole” for all IPv6 traffic ensuring that no apps or advertisements can make requests outside of the VPN tunnel. One should note: if you are actually using IPv6 services on the device, activation of this feature will cause them to time out and stop working.
This new feature is now live on the TorGuard Android VPN app! Simply update the TG app to the latest version and tap the menu button in the top right hand corner of your screen to activate IPv6 leak protection:
Once this option is checked, you can safely connect to the any VPN server to activate the IPv6 Leak protection over your Android VPN! Any IPv6 queries generated by advertisements, surfing the web, or accessing Bittorrent swarms will now be forced into the VPN tunnel. You can rest assured that your personal IP address will not be leaked to the outside world via any un-authorized IPv6 requests.
It is important to ensure your VPN service provides the necessary tools to keep you safe online. In addition to an IPv6 Leak Block feature, TorGuard’s secure VPN software protects against WebRTC leaks, DNS leaks, and offers a secure App killswitch when needed. More TorGuard VPN features include:
- FIVE simultaneous connections on all your devices.
- Easy Setup on any system: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome
- VPN Service for as low as $4.99 / month, Access 1400+ IP’s in over 44+ countries
- Automatically Update newest TorGuard Servers, No Complicated Install or Setup
- TorGuard mobile app supports easy VPN install on Google Play or App Store
- Unblock censorship anywhere in the world and Fully encrypt your downloads / browsing
- Fast connections with 100% Uptime featuring Unlimited Bandwidth and Speeds
- 24/7 365 Support For Help – Real people with real answers
