I have read a blog post, where you can build your own privacy proxy server built on Raspberry PI. The post got me thinking about how I can use this to protect my privacy on my Android phone, and also get rid of those annoying ads.
Since I own a Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE with Android 4.3 (with a HW based Knox counter), rooting the phone now means you break Knox, and loose warranty. Past the point of no return ...
This means I have to solve this without root. Luckily newer Androids support VPN without rooting, but setting a mandatory system-wide proxy is still not possible without root.
But thanks to some iptables magic and Privoxy, this is not a problem anymore :)
The ingredients to build your own privacy protection proxy:
- One (or more) cheap VPS server(s)
- a decent VPN program
- Privoxy
- iptables
VPS server
To get the cheap VPS server, I recommend using Amazon EC2, but choose whatever you like. The micro instance is very cheap (or even free), and has totally enough resources for this task. I'm using the Ubuntu free tier now and it works like a charm. And last but not least Amazon has two-factor authentication! You can set up an Ubuntu server under 10 minutes. Use the AWS region nearest to you, e.g. I choose EU - Ireland.
For the VPN program, I recommend the free version of the OpenVPN AS (EDIT: be sure to use OpenVPN AS 2.0.6 or later, both on the server and the client). Easy to set-up quick start guide is here, GUI based configuration, and one-click client installer for Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, OSX. The Ubuntu installer packages are here.
The most important settings:
- I prefer to use the TCP 443 and UDP 53 ports for my OpenVPN setup, and let the user guess why.
- For good performance, UDP is preferred over TCP.
- VPN mode is Layer 3 (routing/NAT).
- Don't forget to allow the configured VPN ports in the AWS firewall (security groups).
Other VPN settings:
- Should VPN clients have access to private subnets (non-public networks on the server side)? - Yes
- Should client Internet traffic be routed through the VPN? - Yes
Privoxy
The next component we have to install and configure is Privoxy. As usual, "apt-get install privoxy" just works. The next step is to configure privoxy via /etc/privoxy/config file, there are two options to change:- listen-address your.ip.add.ress:8118
- accept-intercepted-requests 1
Beware not to allow everyone accessing your Privoxy server in the AWS EC2 security groups, be sure it is reachable only to VPN users!
After everything is set, start privoxy with "service privoxy start", and add it to the autostart "update-rc.d privoxy defaults".
After everything is set, start privoxy with "service privoxy start", and add it to the autostart "update-rc.d privoxy defaults".
Iptables
And the final step is to configure your iptables chain to forward every web traffic from the VPN clients to the Privoxy server:
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -s 5.5.0.0/16 -p tcp -m multiport --dports 80,8080,81 -j DNAT --to-destination your.ip.add.ress:8118
Optionally you can block access to all other ports as well, and what does not go through your Privoxy won't be reachable.
Based on your Linux distribution and preference, you might make this rule persistent.
Final test
Now you can connect to the VPN server from your Android device.
After connecting, the final results can be seen in the following screenshots. And yes, there is a reason I chose Angry Birds as an example.
After logging in from a client, you get the following nice packages to install on your device:
Angry Birds without Privoxy |
Angry Birds with Privoxy |
Stupid flashlight app with ad |
Stupid flashlight app with Privoxy |
Spoiler alert
If you are afraid of NSA tracking you, this post is not for you. If you want to achieve IP layer anonymity, this post is not for you. As long as you are the only one using that service, it should be trivial to see what could possibly go wrong with that.
Known issues
Whenever the Internet connection (Wifi, 3G) drops, the VPN connection drops as well, and your privacy is gone ...
Sites breaking your privacy through SSL can still do that as long as the domain is not in the Privoxy blacklist.
Additional recommendation
If you are using OSX or Windows, I can recommend Aviator to be used as your default browser. It is just great, give it a try!
PS: There are also some adblock apps removed from the official store which can block some ads, but you have to configure a proxy for every WiFi connection you use, and it is not working over 3G.
Related articles
- Easy Hack Tools
- Pentest Tools Open Source
- Install Pentest Tools Ubuntu
- Hacker Tool Kit
- Tools 4 Hack
- Pentest Tools For Mac
- Tools 4 Hack
- Game Hacking
- Hack And Tools
- How To Install Pentest Tools In Ubuntu
- Hack Tools Mac
- Pentest Tools Alternative
- Hack Tools
- Hack Tools Download
- Free Pentest Tools For Windows
- Hack Tools For Pc
- Best Hacking Tools 2020
- Github Hacking Tools
- Tools For Hacker
- Pentest Tools Review
- Hacking Tools For Mac
- Hack Website Online Tool
- Hacking Tools Hardware
- Usb Pentest Tools
- Easy Hack Tools
- Hack Tools Pc
- Best Pentesting Tools 2018
- Pentest Tools Download
- Hacker Tools Windows
- Hacking Tools For Games
- Hack Tool Apk No Root
- Hacking Tools And Software
- Hacking Tools For Games
- Pentest Tools Nmap
- Hacking Tools For Kali Linux
- Hacking Tools Online
- Wifi Hacker Tools For Windows
- Install Pentest Tools Ubuntu
- Free Pentest Tools For Windows
- Hack And Tools
- Top Pentest Tools
- Pentest Tools Review
- Best Pentesting Tools 2018
- Pentest Tools Kali Linux
- Pentest Tools Free
- Pentest Tools Framework
- Hacking Tools Windows
- Hacker Hardware Tools
- Pentest Recon Tools
- Pentest Tools Android
- Hacking Tools For Pc
- Hacker Tools For Mac
- Pentest Tools Port Scanner
- New Hacker Tools
- Growth Hacker Tools
- Hack Rom Tools
- Pentest Tools Website
- Pentest Tools Open Source
- Hack Tools For Windows
- Hack Tool Apk No Root
- Pentest Tools For Ubuntu
- Best Hacking Tools 2020
- Best Hacking Tools 2020
- Hacker Tools
- Pentest Tools For Android
- Hacker Tools Hardware
- Top Pentest Tools
- Best Pentesting Tools 2018
- Hacker Tools Hardware
- Pentest Tools Alternative
- Pentest Tools Find Subdomains
- Hacker Tools Software
- New Hacker Tools
- Hacking Tools Mac
- Hacking Tools
- Usb Pentest Tools
- Hacking Tools For Windows 7
- Pentest Tools
- Bluetooth Hacking Tools Kali
- Pentest Tools Bluekeep
- Termux Hacking Tools 2019
- Bluetooth Hacking Tools Kali
- Hacker Hardware Tools
- Kik Hack Tools
- Pentest Tools Alternative
- Pentest Tools Open Source
- Nsa Hack Tools
- Pentest Reporting Tools
- Pentest Tools Port Scanner
- Physical Pentest Tools
- Hacking Tools Usb
- Tools 4 Hack
- Hacking Tools For Windows Free Download
- Blackhat Hacker Tools
- Hacker Techniques Tools And Incident Handling
- Install Pentest Tools Ubuntu
- Hacking Tools For Beginners
- Hacker Tools For Mac
- Hackrf Tools
- How To Hack
- Pentest Tools
- Hacking Tools Hardware
- Hack Tool Apk
- Hacker Tools Software
- Pentest Tools Free
- Growth Hacker Tools
- Hacker Tools For Mac
- Pentest Tools Nmap
- Android Hack Tools Github
- Hacking Tools Online
- Pentest Tools
- Termux Hacking Tools 2019
- Github Hacking Tools
- Hacker Tools
- Pentest Tools Kali Linux
- New Hack Tools
- Hacker Tools 2019
- Beginner Hacker Tools
- Hack Tools For Windows
- Pentest Tools Framework
- Hacker Tools Linux
- Hacking Tools Windows 10
- Hacking Tools 2020
- Hack Tools 2019
- Hack Tools For Ubuntu
- Hacking Tools Online
- Underground Hacker Sites
- Computer Hacker
- How To Make Hacking Tools
- Hacker Tools Free Download
- Bluetooth Hacking Tools Kali
- Pentest Tools Tcp Port Scanner
- Pentest Reporting Tools
- Hak5 Tools
- Hacking Tools
- Hacker Tools For Pc
- Nsa Hack Tools
- Hack Tools For Windows
- Pentest Tools Download
- New Hack Tools
- Hack Tools Mac
- Pentest Tools List
- Hacking Tools For Mac
- Hacking Tools Mac
- Hacking Tools Name
- Pentest Tools Download
- Hacker Tools Apk
- Tools For Hacker
- Hacking Tools Online
- Hacker Tools Hardware
- Hacker Tool Kit
- Pentest Tools Online
- Hacker Hardware Tools
- Hack Tools
- Hacker Tools
- Hacker Tools Apk Download
No comments:
Post a Comment