ProstoVPN disclosed a prevalent problem that can in many cases expose the real IP addresses of users, unless appropriate action is taken.

The news was picked up extensively as millions of users impacted. Nevertheless, it’s one of the countless exploits that are potential VPN users are facing.

This week another problem was emphasized by ProstoVPN.

The problem comes down to a fairly fundamental network routing attribute where UDP listening applications (e.g. torrent clients) react to packets that are sent to the user’s ISP IP address, through the VPN interface.

It can be addressed by vPN suppliers with custom applications, but with the OpenVPN applications that is normal users must take actions themselves.

While the extent of the problem is not small, as many users and suppliers have to address the problem, it needs quite a lot of work to perform an assault.

Additionally, there is the chance of false positives which means that it is more challenging to nail the exact ISP IP address. Bearing this in your mind, it seems improbable that tracking firms will try to show every BitTorrent user with a VPN.

ProstoVPN tells TorrentFreak that they alarmed 11 suppliers, and two affirmed they’ve fixed the problem with a software update.

Not all suppliers were equally sensitive and one proposed that the users should address the problem. There’s some truth to that, but the same supplier does protect its users against similar issues on the user-side, like IPv6 DNS and WebRTC flows.

This is an excellent development that these kind of issues are being emphasized while there is no demand for outright panic. It prompts VPN suppliers to take actions and users to stay alert.