They Even Need To Be Network Adjacent To Make Use Of It!

Kidding aside, this vulnerability applies to most UNIX based OSes, with most Linux distros, Android, iOS, macOS, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD all affected. The attacker needs to be able to intercept your data, which means they need to already be on the same network span as your machine or by having control of the router or other exit point, but if they do they can use this flaw to determine the exact SEQ and ACK numbers in your encrypted session.

That information can be used to successfully inject data, hijack the connection and possibly redirect your VPN session to imposter pages or other places on the web you really don’t want to go to. Not all VPNs are vulnerable, the researches quoted at The Register tested this on OpenVPN, WireGuard, and IKEv2/IPSe. Check out more there.