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Summaries are not the original full articles. ## Why VPNs Are Worth Defending DevFeed: [Why VPNs Are Worth Defending]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Hayley Tsukayama Published: 2026-10-30T20:55:24Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Deeplinks]() Topics: [Virtual Private Network]() Tags: [2025](), [anonymity](), [apple](), [apple-app-store](), [bloomberg](), [box](), [control](), [developers](), [devices](), [facetime](), [free-speech](), [government](), [information](), [insider](), [ip](), [latest](), [less](), [like](), [live](), [location](), [network](), [online](), [privacy]() ### AI overview VPNs let users control aspects of their online privacy: websites see the VPN server's IP address instead of the user's, and the VPN can disguise where information is accessed from, potentially enabling access to government-banned material. The excerpt reports that VPN apps are again being removed from Apple's App Store in Russia, following restrictions on social media and opposition sites, a 2025 FaceTime block, and reported surveillance measures involving Apple and Microsoft. It also says some U.S. states have proposed restricting VPN use in connection with age-gating laws. The author argues these measures reduce people's options for private communication and access to information. ### Source excerpt Developers of virtual private network (VPN) apps are reporting that their products are again being pulled from Apple's App Store in Russia. This is an unacceptable crackdown on a vital tool to protect privacy and speech online. Why? VPNs give people a way to control their own online activities. When you visit a website through a VPN, that website only sees the VPN server's location (well, IP address) rather than your actual location. It's like sending a letter through a P.O. box so the recipient doesn't know where you really live. It can also disguise where you're accessing information from, which can make it possible to access information banned by your government. This is an unacceptable crackdown on a vital tool to protect privacy and speech online. Going after tools that give people the space to communicate and access information freely is a common tactic from the totalitarian playbook. This latest demand comes after several steps the Russian government's taken to surveil speech specifically on Apple products. In 2024, the Moscow Times reported that Russia's state media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, went after VPN apps on the Apple App Store, after banning access to Western social media platforms and blacklisting opposition media sites. Russia then blocked Apple's FaceTime software in 2025, according to Apple Insider. Bloomberg also recently reported that the Russian government has added Apple and Microsoft to its state surveillance registry. This gives Roskomnadzor access to local users' correspondence, Apple Insider reported, and puts both companies in a position to turn over customer information to the country's security services as required. With government control encroaching on their devices and less access to tools that give them alternate methods, people in Russia are left with shrinking options to communicate online or find information that isn't state-sanctioned. While Russia's actions offer a more extreme vision of what happens when the government tries to ## Reverse Engineering the Apple MultiPeer Connectivity Framework DevFeed: [Reverse Engineering the Apple MultiPeer Connectivity Framework]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Simone Margaritelli Published: 2022-10-20T11:05:13Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Evil Socket]() Topics: [Reverse Engineering](), [Protocol (disambiguation)](), [Python](), [client](), [Network](), [Framework]() Tags: [apple](), [cybersecurity](), [facetime](), [framework](), [ice](), [ios](), [iphone](), [logic-pro](), [mac](), [macos-security](), [mcpeer](), [mcpeerid](), [mdns](), [mpc-framework](), [multipeer](), [multipeerconnectivity](), [network](), [network-packets](), [network-protocol](), [ospf](), [proprietary-protocol](), [protocol-reversing](), [python](), [re](), [reverse-engineering](), [stun](), [tcp](), [undocumented](), [wireshark]() ### AI overview A reverse-engineering investigation of Apple's undocumented Multipeer Connectivity Framework. The article examines its custom TCP protocol, documents network packets, and describes a Python proof-of-concept client that discovers servers, establishes connections, and exchanges application data. It also reports parser vulnerabilities and discusses session spoofing. ### Source excerpt Some time ago I was using Logic Pro to record some of my music and I needed a way to start and stop the recording from an iPhone, so I found about Logic Remote and was quite happy with it. After the session, the hacker in me became curious about how the tools were communicating with each other, so I quickly started Wireshark while establishing a connection and saw something that tickled my curiosity even more: some of the data, such as the client and server names, were transmitted in cleartext on what it seemed a custom (and as typical of Apple, undocumented) TCP protocol ("stevie" being the hostname of my Mac): Using lsof confirmed that this was indeed the communication between the client phone and Logic listening on port 56076: Initially I tought this was just some Logic Pro specific protocol and very lazily started looking into it, without much success mostly due to lack of motivation given the very limited scope of the research. After a while I tweeted asking if anyone had ever seen anything like it. @isComputerOn pointed out that this looked a lot like a protocol that has been partially reversed and presented by Alban Diquet back in 2014. Unfortunately, however brilliant, this research covers the protocol at a very high level and doesn't really document the packets, their fields and how to establish a connection from anything but a client using the Apple framework. However, this helped me a lot in two ways: first it helped me realize this was not just Logic Pro specific, but that it was part of the Multipeer Connectivity Framework, and gave me a few hints about the general logic of the protocol itself. With renewed curiosity and motivation then I jumped into this rabbit hole and managed to reverse engineer all network packets. This allowed me to write a Python proof of concept client that automatically discovers any MPC servers, initializes the connection and succesfully exchanges application specific data packets. Moreover, while sending crafted packets and at