ExpressVPN bug has been leaking some DNS requests for years
www.bleepingcomputer.com
ExpressVPN has removed the split tunneling feature from the latest version of its software after finding that a bug exposed the domains users were visiting to configured DNS servers.

Bug:

Affected versions 12.23.1-12.72.0 (May 2022-Feb 2024) with split tunneling feature.

Impact:

Exposed visited domains to user’s ISP, potentially leaking browsing history.

Affected users:

Windows users with active split tunneling (about 1%).

Fix:

Upgrade to version 12.73.0 (removes split tunneling temporarily).

Alternatives:

Disable split tunneling or use ExpressVPN version 10.

Note:

All other traffic and content remain encrypted.

  • ArchAengelusEnglish
    121·
    8 months ago

    Uh, I might be wrong here, but isn’t the whole purpose of split tunneling to allow you to send only necessary traffic through a given tunnel? Then the rest of your traffic goes whatever the default path is?

    This seems more like a feature than a CVE. Maybe I’m missing something.

    • vividspecterEnglish
      270·
      8 months ago

      They might mean it’s happening even with requests routed through the VPN.

    • StillEnglish
      50·
      8 months ago

      so it would be like you say I want Firefox to go thru the tunnel, you would want the DNS requests made from it to go thru as well, in this case they weren’t tunneled and were just going to the normal dns server

  • THE MASTERMINDEnglish
    129·
    8 months ago8 months ago

    Well people who uses express vpn kinda deserves everything coming to them.

    • 50MYTEnglish
      81·
      8 months ago

      What’s wrong with express?

      • LunchEnglish
        152·
        8 months ago8 months ago

        There are a lot of different things, I suggest to look it up for the accurate details. However the most sketchy thing is that it’s owned by Kape Technologies, previously known Crossrider something… Who helped distribute malware through their frameworks. On top of that, one of the employees have had connections to the UAE, and got caught, but still works there…???

        That’s just the gist, and it’s some crazy stuff… Any VPN owned by Kape Technologies you should stay far away from.

        Edit: Source: https://restoreprivacy.com/kape-technologies-owns-expressvpn-cyberghost-pia-zenmate-vpn-review-sites/

        (yes restoreprivacy isn’t a great source either, but it sums it up well enough)

        • HavaldEnglish
          31·
          8 months ago

          Even just going off the article you posted “helped” is a strong word in regards to distributing malware through their framework. It appears that their framework had simply been hijacked by hackers to distribute malware and they had no involvement in that.

          I’m not saying they’re trustworthy but the situation isn’t nearly as bad as this biased summary suggests.

          The same website has rated express VPN as one of the most trustworthy vpns in their most recent review. Based on the high amount of independent audits the company is performing.

          https://restoreprivacy.com/vpn/reviews/expressvpn/

          Definitely do more research. I’m going to look into it myself but I’m paying until June anyways and I don’t think an immediate switch is necessary.

          • LunchEnglish
            11·
            8 months ago

            From what I know they were perfectly aware of the situation but did little about it… So thats a red flag. But yeah, there is a lot more to this, and that one source doesn’t cover it all, and is another source that shills certain VPNs themselves, hence why I said its not a great source itself. I can edit in some additional sources that are worth reading regarding the case when I get home.

            But imo, there isn’t a single good reason to use ExpressVPN, instead of Mullvad, IVPN or ProtonVPN.