2 years ago , Proton VPN disclosed a vulnerability in Apple's iOS operating system that allowed a user's VPN traffic to leak outside the VPN tunnel without encryption. This vulnerability was originally said to affect iOS version 13.3. Mullvad VPN also warned about this in 2020. This year, researcher Michael Horowitz said that the vulnerability was found in iOS version 15.6.
Now, new research claims that the vulnerability still exists in iOS 16, the brand new version of Apple's mobile operating system. Security researchers at Mysk showed that iOS 16 communicates with Apple services outside of an active VPN tunnel and leaks DNS requests.
We're confirming that iOS 16 communicates with Apple services outside of an active VPN tunnel ," the researchers tweeted, while continuing the message: " What's worse, it leaks DNS requests. Apple services leaking from the VPN connection include Health, Maps, and Wallet. takes it. "
VPN users with critical privacy needs, such as journalists, dissidents, and activists, are particularly at risk if their traffic is leaked. Normally when a user connects to a VPN, existing internet connections must be terminated by the operating system and then re-established over the encrypted VPN tunnel. Data leaking unencrypted outside of an active VPN tunnel can pose serious privacy and security risks because a user's real IP address and other sensitive information can be disclosed to the user's ISP, network administrators, government agencies, and cybercriminals.
Also, the researchers noted that data leaks continue even with Apple's new Lockdown Mode enabled. They even say that the leaks get worse in this mode. Let's see if there will be an explanation from Apple on this issue.