Today we will learn what is VPN Obfuscation and How to Bypass VPN Blocks. When VPNs were first introduced to the world as secure virtual private networks, most people used them first and foremost for their security-related features. However, as the years passed, Internet censorship around the world reached unprecedented heights. This has also led to VPNs (especially obfuscated VPNs) being used as tools to bypass these restrictions, to the extent that a large percentage of VPN users nowadays come from countries with severe internet restrictions such as Russia, Cuba, China, and Iran.
This is not all; Even in countries in the Western world, people use VPNs to bypass geo-blocks and access certain sites that their governments deem harmful. According to a 2012 survey by the Global Internet Society, 71% of users around the world considered their free access to the Internet to be a target of online censorship.
From the day VPNs began to be used this way, they became the primary targets for blocking themselves. One of the most recent cases of such blocking occurred in Iran, where amid civil unrest, the government not only blocked most access to the Internet but also deliberately targeted VPN services to prevent access through them.
Such events have led the international IT community to strive towards inventing new methods to provide free access to the Internet. One of these methods is known as obfuscated VPN, which is an extension of VPN technology itself.
In this article, I’ll go over the main methods of blocking VPNs, how to bypass VPN blocks, as well as the definition of obscure VPNs out there, and the best options. Let’s get to it!
How is Internet censorship imposed to affect VPNs?
There are several methods of how an entity can block a VPN from working. This phenomenon itself can be classified into two distinct categories, the first is blocking the VPN itself and the second method is blocking the VPN from accessing a specific online destination. The latter method is usually used by websites to block access to their websites from VPN users, whom they consider to be online threats. A good example of this is Netflix. To curb the trend of geo-blocking by the online community, Netflix has blocked VPN access to its website. They are doing this by blacklisting VPN IP addresses and ranges. Although this is effective on the surface level, there are advanced VPNs that can bypass this.
How We Can Bypass Internet Blockages
There are various methods to actively bypass internet blockages. Although VPNs are the most well-known and reliable solution to the problem, there are other credible options that can be used. This article is not going to go in-depth to cover these secondary methods, but I will briefly mention them here so that you know them at a surface level. If you want to know more about these methods as well as their unique features, you can read my other article on how to bypass internet restrictions.
Apart from VPNs and their obscure variants which we will discuss at length in the upcoming parts of the article, you can use Tor Browser and its interwoven bridge network to bypass internet restrictions. SSH tunneling through a VPS server is also considered a reliable method. Using a proxy is another widely used method to bypass Internet censorship. However, this method can be countered rather easily, but the reverse proxy method has recently arrived, which we will also go into in this article. Apart from these methods, changing DNS is a really simple method that requires minimal effort; However, it can be dealt with quite easily. But when VPN blockages and censorship are imposed at the core level, none of these solutions really work, so we have no choice but to fall back on unobstructed VPN options.
What is a VPN Obfuscation?
VPN obfuscation is the process of using an obfuscated VPN server to successfully overcome the aforementioned firewalls that block access to various VPN options at the infrastructure level.
But how does an obfuscated server work? An obfuscated VPN is intentionally designed with advanced encryption that creates data packets that use your Internet connection to keep the network functioning normally and not affected by the VPN.
In other words, the nature of VPN-influenced packets is significantly altered by methods such as scrambling to essentially mask the existence of VPNs on the network.
An obfuscated VPN offers a greater ability to bypass online censorship and government tracking. It also prevents your ISP from snooping and spying on your data.
These obfuscated VPNs also remove the restrictions of strict internal networks, such as those found in workplaces, universities, libraries, etc., so that you can use the network as otherwise normal. Despite their effectiveness, it is important to know that an obfuscated VPN alone cannot solve all the related problems caused by the aforementioned firewalls.
So even when using an obfuscated server, it requires some tweaking and trial and error to work effectively.
The basic method of using obfuscated VPN
As I mentioned earlier, there are a variety of obscure VPN servers out there. The process of VPN obfuscation itself varies from protocol to protocol. While this variety of options may seem confusing at first glance, it’s important to know that just as hard as obfuscated VPN options are trying to hide their tunneling algorithms, censorship governments are trying just as hard to detect and block obfuscated VPNs. Therefore, these varied choices are actually a blessing in disguise, as it gives you an opportunity to choose an alternative option if your first choice fails to break the imposed restrictions. Here I go over the most well-known and commonly used obfuscated VPN options in 2023.
Tor Bridge: It’s Working together for a free internet
In my previous article on bypassing internet restrictions, I mentioned Tor Browser as well as variants with associated VPNs and proxies. Tor is an open-source project, and this means that the servers are public, including their IP addresses and ports. Any government or ISP seeking to block your access to the Tor browser can easily block these public ports and IP ranges and terminate your access to Tor. However, Tor has gone a step further and introduced its famous bridge technology that uses a peer-to-peer model to allow users to mask their use of Tor.
These bridges are not publicly listed and operate on a private peer-to-peer basis, making the process of finding their IP ranges impossible.
The current protocol that masks your Tor usage is called Obfs4, and it’s incredibly light on your bandwidth, saving traffic and speed in the process. It uses a completely randomized packet handshake, which makes detection incredibly difficult.
ShadowSocks obscure server
It’s a highly configurable proxy server that has the obfuscation protocol written as part of the base code. Shadowsocks runs on the famous SOCKS5 protocol that was introduced in 2012 by a Chinese programmer who remains anonymous. Then, this protocol was able to successfully breach the famous Great Firewall of China. This is a testament to SOCKS5’s ability as a proxy protocol, as the Great Firewall of China is widely regarded as one of the world’s most sophisticated and advanced censorship apparatuses.
Shadowsocks obfuscation servers work by routing your data through a third hidden server, and while they often serve as a tool to bypass VPN blocks, they don’t offer the best speed or data protection.
So if speed is important to you it is recommended to look for another option or else use SOCKS5 with AEAD cipher, which will encrypt your data.
OpenVPN Obfuscation: Scrambled/SSH
OpenVPN, both in terms of its advanced protocol and its reliable client, is another great VPN option and is one of the most popular protocols. While in the past, blocking OpenVPN was a challenge, these days, it can be blocked by governments like other trusted protocols. To combat this problem, there are two primary methods of obfuscating OpenVPN.
The first method is to tunnel to the destination VPN server via SSL or TLS tunneling protocol. This is a method that maintains the speed of the VPN despite obscurity.
The 2nd method of OpenVPN obfuscation is to “scramble” the server. Also known as XOR obfuscation, this method uses a basic bitwise XOR cipher to mask the original algorithm and display a fake algorithm instead. Although this method works on the surface level, it fails to breach more advanced firewalls, but still, some people use OpenVPN on VPS, since it is a good alternative for weak firewalls. Other protocols have also implemented this scrambling attitude. A stealth VPN protocol is a specific implementation of this that masks VPN traffic as normal traffic.
Obfuscated VPN Hosting on VPS
If you’re a fan of self-hosting your VPN, but suddenly your non-obfuscated server stopped working, don’t worry! Obfuscated VPN options can also be self-hosted like normal VPNs. The basic method of doing this is no different than a normal VPN self-hosting. The primary prerequisites for doing this are a destination server (obscure) and a connection protocol. The process involves creating an obfuscated server using Obfsproxy, OpenVPN which is obfuscated via either scrambling or SSH/TLS, or Shadowsocks using the SOCKS5 protocol.
Once this protocol and obfuscated server are configured, all you need to do is to implement it on the host server and configure it, and subsequently, you can access your obfuscated VPN.
As for the choice of server, a VPS is arguably the best option here, since it yields higher efficiency than a traditional server, and is much more efficient as a server than your own computer.
If you want to self-host an obfuscated VPN with OpenVPN Scramble or Shadowsocks, consider using an Oudel Inc. VPS package. In this regard, a cheap, easy-to-implement Linux VPS with minimal configuration is all it takes for you to easily host your own obfuscated server. Oudel Inc. Offers more than 15 locations around the world with high security and high-quality infrastructure, so you’ll have a server with good latency wherever you are.
Obscure VPN options provided
While the protocol and obfuscation VPN options we’ve covered so far have all been open-source and free for users to tinker with and set up, the three options I’ll go over in this section are predefined, paid options. Paid obfuscated VPN options are great if you don’t have the time or means to establish your own obfuscated server. You can simply pay a small subscription fee to a reputable company and get your unobtrusive VPN easily.
NordVPN
First among them is the world-class and famous NordVPN. NordVPN offers unobtrusive VPN packages as part of its service, with some of the best-configured and high-quality servers in the VPN industry. The servers use a variety of high-throughput protocols, so you’ll no doubt be able to use at least one option to successfully bypass the VPN block without too much difficulty.
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is another great paid option for using a Fuzzy VPN. It offers almost everything that makes NordVPN a great option, but for a cheaper, more budget-oriented audience. A really cool feature of the ExpressVPN obfuscated VPN is that you can use an obfuscated server to easily establish a P2P connection for torrenting and other direct user-to-user uses.
Surfshark
Surfshark is a relatively new obscure VPN option, and it’s not as well known in the industry as NordVPN and ExpressVPN. What it lacks in pedigree and market experience, it makes up for incredibly low prices for both simple VPN packages as well as obscure servers. One of the most incredible features of SurfsharkVPN is that once purchased, it offers an unlimited number of active connections for your account, whereas, on ExpressVPN and NordVPN, you are limited to just 5.
Reverse Proxy: The Third Way
Reverse proxies aren’t technically VPNs, and while ShadowSocks and Tor aren’t either, since they’re part of the obscure debate and conversation, I’ve decided to put the latter two options in the above section. However, reverse proxies, in my opinion, deserve their own category. While a typical proxy server is used as an intermediary server that will send and receive your data requests and replies (known as a forward proxy), a reverse proxy uses the server as a front for your web server instead of being an intermediary force.
Because of this specific operational method, reverse proxies manage to avoid common proxy detection setups and can easily help you bypass VPN blocks and proxy blocks. In my post on installing Wireguard VPN on a VPS, I went into detail about a reverse proxy key as well as how to set one up using Nginx. You can use the guide to set up your own reverse proxy and protect yourself from online attacks, cache your content to get better speed performance and stability, as well as load balancing. As you can see, reverse proxy not only works to bypass internet restrictions but also has many additional benefits.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are many reliable obfuscated VPN options for you to try to bypass VPN blocks. While options like Surfshark, NordVPN, and ExpressVPN will get you to your obscure server sooner, they can cost money. So, an alternative method is to use the first three methods in today’s list on a server to self-host an obfuscated VPN. For this purpose, a VPS is highly desirable, as you can configure your server at a very low cost and choose your own setup and location. Oudel Inc. Offers highly versatile VPS packages with over 15 locations that let you choose your own location with incredibly low latency and default anti-DDoS protection. You can use a really cheap option like Linux VPS to set up your own obscure OpenVPN servers, as well as ShadowSock servers. You can use this to create a reverse proxy using WireGuard.
