this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2024
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The Proton VPN Linux app now supports Permanent Kill Switch! (self.protonprivacy)
submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by Nelizea to c/protonprivacy
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From the team;

Hi everyone,

As you may know, we released our fully rewritten Proton VPN app for Linux in October 2023, and we’re now making sure it catches up with the rest of the Proton VPN apps in terms of the features it offers.

In November, we added Secure Core, and today, we’re adding the Advanced Kill Switch.

This feature prevents all outgoing and incoming connections outside the VPN interface, meaning that your device will not be able to access the internet unless you connect to one of our VPN servers. You can learn more about how to set it up here: https://protonvpn.com/support/permanent-kill-switch/

More on how to install the Proton VPN Linux app in our support article here: https://protonvpn.com/support/linux-vpn-setup/

We want to thank everyone who contributed during the alpha and beta phases by testing, giving feedback, and submitting suggestions for improvement. Your input is invaluable. And we’d like to keep getting it!

Please share your thoughts below so we can continue to make improvements based on your needs.

Stay safe,

The Proton VPN Team

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (5 children)

I'm confused, I thought it already had this? I've been using it for months. What is new here?

Glad to hear that things are still happening to the Linux app anyway. Slowly but surely we'll catch up to feature parity (split tunneling when?).

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (1 children)

All internet connections into and out of your Linux device will now be blocked unless a VPN connection to a Proton VPN server is active.

If I understand correctly, before version 4.2.0 (that includes the Advanced setting), the kill switch wasn't active until you opened the ProtonVPN program. So if you restarted you PC, it was connecting to the internet without going through the VPN tunnel, so your traffic was somewhat exposed.

Now, with the new permanent kill switch, there's no internet access without running ProtonVPN.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

That would make sense, cheers

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

You might have the beta installed as that's had the advanced killswitch for a while...I was confused for a second too!

[–] Nelizea 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Split tunneling the latest I can find is from 4 months ago:

Split Tunneling won't be possible with the current backend (Network Manager) as that is just not technically feasible, but once we get the native backends that will definitely be possible. But the rest, will be there in due time.

Source is on reddit. (If interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/174pv4a/the_new_proton_vpn_linux_app_is_officially_out_of/k4jxesn/)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Fair enough, although I still think the timeframe is some classic Proton soon™ copium. The community CLI app currently supports it.

That said, I might expect the official app to have higher standards for security. And, the community version cannot handle split tunneling and kill switch at once, you have to pick one or the other.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Yeah they basically falsely advertised that they had it for years, even though it didnt actually work.

[–] bin_bash 1 points 8 months ago

I was thinking 💭 the same and looked at the post date to be sure it's new and the post is new but that features I have for months too...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Does the new version have Wireguard or is it still stuck with just openVPN?
I gave up on ProtonVPN for my Linux devices and switched back to Mullvad. They have Wireguard and split tunneling on Linux and have for quite a while.

[–] Nelizea 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

WG isn't supported yet, OpenVPN has DCO though, which should improve OpenVPN to match WG's speed performance:

https://protonvpn.com/support/openvpn-dco/

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

So still no Wireguard and no split tunneling...sticking with Mullvad then.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This is awesome! Does it completely disable all traffic or can applications set in split tunneling continue to communicate?

[–] Nelizea 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Split tunneling isn't there yet.

Split Tunneling won't be possible with the current backend (Network Manager) as that is just not technically feasible, but once we get the native backends that will definitely be possible. But the rest, will be there in due time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Thank you for this info! I'm honestly just waiting for Proton to get a few more of the features I need on Linux and then I can finally commit to the switch

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That's nice but can you investigate why on one occasion proton take 1 second to connect reliably with no issues, but on another occasion it takes forever (and sometimes fails) to actually connects to any server at all? It keeps happening to me on Android 14 and and on Windows 10...

[–] Nelizea 5 points 8 months ago

Please contact the support team:

https://protonvpn.com/support-form

[–] [email protected] -3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Why are you linking to Reddit? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] Nelizea 3 points 8 months ago

It is a copy paste from the reddit announcement. And we don't necessarily have all the links here yet to link back to.