relaycorp / relayverse

Issues that apply to multiple Awala-related projects from Relaycorp
https://github.com/relaycorp/relayverse/issues
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Enable non-Awala-compatible apps to circumvent online censorship without additional apps or services #49

Open gnarea opened 5 months ago

gnarea commented 5 months ago

Describe the problem

Regions susceptible to Internet blackouts are also subject to severe censorship when the Internet is available, so people would be forced to run VPNs and proxies alongside Awala so they can bypass either type of censorship. This poses a significant barrier to adoption, given the cognitive load on the user and the risk that Awala may be uninstalled when the Internet is available (but censored).

Describe the solution you'd like

We could implement a VPN inside Awala gateways, such as the Android one, so that users won't have to install/configure third-party VPNs or proxies.

Behind the scenes, we could leverage our use of an HTTPT-inspired protocol to turn any TLS website into a proxy, in a probe-resistant manner. We'd basically be encapsulating Layer 4 SDUs (e.g. TLS messages) into HTTP messages, which might noticeably impact performance depending on the application.

Additional context

As far as I know, no VPN provider or proxy is using an HTTPT-inspired protocol. Tor is, though.