For testing android traffic encryption I have configured a VPN client in my phone. What simple test I can perform in my home wifi network to verify that the traffic is really encrypted and secure?
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2 Answers
If the server is located somewhere else, you can check if the traffic is being tunneled through the VPN server by checking what IP address you are coming from. Visit a site like http://www.whatismyip.com/ with and without your VPN software enabled on your phone and see if it is a different IP address displayed.
Capturing the traffic from the air is a little bit tricky involving some steps like having a wireless card that supports monitor mode and software that makes use of the monitor mode.
A simple way of inspecting all the traffic to and from your phone is to pass it through a device where you can run a pocket inspection tool. Here is a tutorial about using Internet Connection Sharing in Windows to set up a hotspot on your PC: http://lifehacker.com/5369381/turn-your-windows-7-pc-into-a-wireless-hotspot. Connectify Hotspot is also a simple software to use: http://www.connectify.me/hotspot/.
Once the traffic from your phone passes through your PC, you can use Wireshark on your PC to inspect the traffic for unencrypted text.
answered Dec 29, 2012 at 19:58
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The point of monitor the phone traffic isn't a problem because I can perform a MitM between the phone and the router. Really that was the first step I checked out, I sent a WhatsApp msg while sniffing but can't find the msg, maybe they fixed already the issue of send msg in plain text? Ofc I tried this with the VPN disabled, I wanted to check the difference between send a message with and without VPN.– user15194Commented Dec 29, 2012 at 20:37
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WhatsApp has implemented encryption as of this August: whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/21864047 Use the browser and visit an HTTP (not HTTPS) website, then search your traffic for unencrypted data. Commented Dec 29, 2012 at 21:22
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From a general point of view, even if the traffic itself is encrypted, the transport mainframe itself could be criticized for it own lack of security in the tower signal transmission. Such PoC have been proved successfully. See informationweek.com/black-hat-conference-security-researcher/… and so on, for more information regarding the lack of security. Theoretically speaking, a man in the middle attack could be an interesting concept in defeating the purpose of a vpn.– happyCommented Jan 1, 2013 at 0:16
If you are on a broadcast network like an unencrypted wifi network then you can load up Wireshark on another machine on the network and sniff all of the traffic leaving the device. Wireshark will identify protocols and allow you to see all network communications on the broadcast network.
