A essential safety vulnerability in ExpressVPN Home windows desktop software that might expose customers’ actual IP addresses when utilizing Distant Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections.
The flaw, found via the corporate’s bug bounty program, affected particular variations of the Home windows shopper and allowed TCP site visitors over port 3389 to bypass the VPN tunnel, doubtlessly revealing customers’ precise community areas to web service suppliers and community observers.
Key Takeaways1. ExpressVPN’s Home windows app leaked actual IPs through RDP site visitors.2. The problem, affecting primarily enterprise RDP customers.3. ExpressVPN patched with model 12.101.0.45.
ExpressVPN RDP Leak Vulnerability
The vulnerability stemmed from debug code that was inadvertently included in manufacturing builds of ExpressVPN’s Home windows software, particularly affecting variations 12.97 via 12.101.0.2-beta.
This code triggered a essential routing failure the place site visitors utilizing TCP port 3389, the usual port for Distant Desktop Protocol connections, wouldn’t be correctly tunneled via the VPN infrastructure as meant.
When customers established RDP connections whereas linked to ExpressVPN, their precise IP addresses grew to become seen to community observers, together with ISPs and potential attackers on the identical community.
Whereas the vulnerability didn’t compromise the encryption of RDP periods themselves, it created a big privateness breach by permitting third events to determine each the consumer’s connection to ExpressVPN and their entry to particular distant servers.
One of these publicity defeats the first goal of VPN safety, which is to masks customers’ actual community areas and keep anonymity.
Safety researcher Adam-X responsibly disclosed the vulnerability to ExpressVPN via their bug bounty platform.
ExpressVPN deployed a complete repair simply 5 days later in model 12.101.0.45, which was subsequently rolled out throughout all distribution channels.
The timeline showcases ExpressVPN’s dedication to transparency and swift remediation when safety points are recognized via their accountable disclosure program
Mitigations
To forestall comparable points sooner or later, ExpressVPN has carried out enhanced inside safeguards with extra rigorous automated testing protocols designed to determine and take away debug code earlier than it reaches manufacturing environments.
These enhancements embrace focused checks particularly designed to catch improvement artifacts and cut back the chance of human error through the software program launch course of.
Customers are strongly suggested to replace to the most recent model of the ExpressVPN Home windows software to make sure they profit from these safety enhancements and keep optimum privateness safety throughout their VPN periods.
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