Running a VPN server on iOS is against AppStore's Guidelines

Posted by behnamoh on Sunday October 16, 2022 @05:42PM
from the developer.apple.com dept.

https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/68171

( 9 comments | 10 points | on HN )

Re:Running a VPN server on iOS is against AppStore's Guidelines by jeroenhd on Sunday October 16, 2022 @06:35PM (#33227780)

Am I misunderstanding this or is this person actually asking about an VPN client rather than a server? I don't think running a server makes sense in the context of redirecting DNS packets.

Surely iOS allows some kind of soft VPN API that this developer can use?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Running a VPN server on iOS is against AppStore's Guidelines by woodruffw on Sunday October 16, 2022 @06:41PM (#33227830)

I think you're right: they seem to be asking why they can't run an indefinite task that connects to a VPN server.

And you're right that iOS does have an API for this: the NetworkExtension framework explicitly allows for custom VPN solutions[1].

[1]: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Running a VPN server on iOS is against AppStore's Guidelines by mccorrinall on Sunday October 16, 2022 @06:37PM (#33227798)

I think they are actually asking for a server. I used mullvad vpn in the past, and it looks like it creates a local ipsec server, and than tunnels that traffic through wireguard to mullvad.

The user is probably looking for something similar, as ios only supports ipsec/ikev2/l2tp natively. If you want to use wireguard or openvpn you have to get creative.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Running a VPN server on iOS is against AppStore's Guidelines by woodruffw on Sunday October 16, 2022 @06:39PM (#33227815)

> The user is probably looking for something similar, as ios only supports ipsec/ikev2/l2tp natively. If you want to use wireguard or openvpn you have to get creative.

Hm? There's been an official Wireguard app on the App Store for years[1]. I've been a happy user of it since day 1.

[1]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wireguard/id1441195209

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Re:Running a VPN server on iOS is against AppStore's Guidelines by jeroenhd on Sunday October 16, 2022 @06:40PM (#33227819)

The iOS documentation seems to suggest this may not be necessary, though I'm not well versed in the iOS API.

Setting up a double VPN client/server system seems unnecessarily complicated to me. I wonder what drove Mullvad to this solution.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Running a VPN server on iOS is against AppStore's Guidelines by mccorrinall on Sunday October 16, 2022 @06:52PM (#33227894)

Okay, I just dove into wireguard‘s source code and it looks like I made wrong assumptions. When I used mullvad or wireguard, it always showed „127.0.0.1“ as the server, however, according to wireguard‘s source, this is just set as a placeholder. I assume that mullvad used this code to implement their app too.

https://github.com/WireGuard/wireguard-apple/blob/13b720442d...

https://ibb.co/x5kwxZW

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Re:Running a VPN server on iOS is against AppStore's Guidelines by geoffpado on Sunday October 16, 2022 @06:37PM (#33227793)

(2016)

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Re:Running a VPN server on iOS is against AppStore's Guidelines by aaaaaaaaaaaaab on Sunday October 16, 2022 @06:33PM (#33227764)

This is no longer the case. You can implement VPN via NetworkExtensions: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Running a VPN server on iOS is against AppStore's Guidelines by alphabettsy on Sunday October 16, 2022 @07:08PM (#33228005)

This thread is five years old, and seems like outdated information.

[ Parent | on HN ]