A new experimental proxy type titled “WEB” was found in Telegram Desktop's code. The discovery was publicized by teleLakel.
The server code for the WEB-proxy is still under development, and Telegram hasn't endorsed any implementations yet, so there is no good way to try the technology at the moment.
Why is this necessary, and why not just use MTProxy?
The already existing MTProxy can also mask to appear as HTTPS traffic using the FakeTLS extension. However, modern Deep Packet Inspection systems (DPI) can already tell such connections apart, since FakeTLS still has some differences from real HTTPS traffic that can be seen from the outside.
The new WEB transport makes detection much harder: to talk to the server, the messenger uses the built-in browser (WebView). It establishes a real TLS/HTTPS connection using standard browser cryptography, which makes Telegram traffic less different from regular web surfing.
How does it work
• The messenger opens a special page on the proxy server domain using a hidden browser
• This domain can also continue to work as a regular website. The hidden Telegram channel only activates if the request contains the correct secret key.
• Inside the unitary web channel, the encrypted MTProxy traffic is enveloped into WEB-proxy frames and sent to the proxy server. Currently, this is done using WebSocket.
• HTTP/WebSocket traffic is repackaged and relayed to the MTProxy server without being decrypted.
Currently, the feature is under active development, so by the time it gets released, the protocol may change.
The independent Telemt community is working on detection-resistant protocols. Earlier, thanks to the community's research into Russian DPIs, Telegram developers updated the MTProxy in their clients to adapt them to new detection methods.
The community notes that the messenger should spend more time developing new censorship-resistance methods. If the messenger doesn't keep improving the new WEB proxy, it might stop working in the future — typical Telegram traffic may have uniquely identifying properties even inside a real TLS connection if additional masking methods are not used on it.
#Desktop #proxy #bans