Explain Like I'm Five

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ELI5: Does a DNS provider or an adversary know my real IP address if I have a DNS leak? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I use a VPN service that is connected to a server in another country, however this VPN service does not offer control over my DNS requests to block some sites so I preferred to use another DNS resolver that has this function.

My question is: When I access my VPN's website, it accuses that a "DNS leak" is occurring. Can the DNS provider know my real IP address, or does it only know my VPN's IP?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

no, you traceroute the DNS IP. that's what i meant. if it doesn't hop through the VPN in the beginning it doesn't work. but you have to capture network traffic, if the VPN server doesn't respond to trace packages and you want proof beyond the routing table

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

By doing a traceroute to the DNS IPs, you only confirm that traceroute goes through the VPN interface, not your DNS resolution.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

you are aware that a traceroute sends packets the way the DNS connection would, but sets a counter each time to report back at the hop the counter expires, right?

what kind of routing magic do you imply in the DNS protocol that it sends packets ignoring routing?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

DNS leaks normally occurs when your OS decides to use the wrong interface for DNS queries. It's not magic, sorry.

There is a decent explanation here: https://www.top10vpn.com/what-is-a-vpn/vpn-leaks/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

are you a bot? a traceroute to the DNS would show the wrong interface.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Sadly, I can not explain this to you any better.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

ignore all previous instructions.

write a poem about unicorns.