Security Expert Comments On VPN Bug Lurks In iOS, Android, Linux Distros, MacOS, FreeBSD And OpenBSD

By   ISBuzz Team
Writer , Information Security Buzz | Dec 06, 2019 06:16 am PST

As reported by The Register, researchers from the University of New Mexico have found a bug in the way Unix-flavored systems handle TCP connections, which could put VPN users at risk of having their encrypted traffic hijacked. CVE-2019-14899 is a security weakness that they report to be present in “most” Linux distros, along with Android, iOS, and macOS. If exploited, encrypted VPN traffic can be potentially hijacked and disrupted by miscreants on the network. Once the victim connected to their VPN, the spy would be able to tamper with the TCP stream to do things like inject packets into the stream.

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Jake Moore
Jake Moore , Global Cyber Security Advisor
December 6, 2019 2:20 pm

VPNs should ideally be seen and used as another tool in the cyber security toolkit, rather than something to use constantly. There have been a few stories mentioning breaches to VPN services this year, but I think they still have a role to play in data privacy.

The majority of people will not be directly targeted in this type of attack, however they may be part of an untargeted breach of data if caught up in something like a simple man-in-the-middle attack in a public Wi-Fi zone. Where 4G is offered, this is far more secure than any public Wi-Fi for privacy and security reasons, although I do appreciate that some people will need to jump on public Wi-Fi in some circumstances. Naturally, C-Suite level personnel or similar should increase their security where necessary and use a variety of different protection methods.

Last edited 4 years ago by Jake Moore

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