streisand VS Cloak

https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand

Streisand sets up a new server running your choice of WireGuard, OpenConnect, OpenSSH, OpenVPN, Shadowsocks, sslh, Stunnel, or a Tor bridge. It also generates custom instructions for all of these services. At the end of the run you are given an HTML file with instructions that can be shared with friends, family members, and fellow activists.

Unfortunately, that's to the Great Firewall of China, there has been a lot of resources put in to fingerprint VPNs and block them by state actors.

Fortunately, however, there is equally years of some of the smartest minds on the planet working to bypass Chinese censorship, so there are some great OpenVPN alternatives.

I really encourage you to look into something like Shadowsocks which Chinese people have found great success in using over the last several years.

It's quite sad that projects like Streisand[0] were archived, but I'm sure there are other alternatives that might make it just as easy to roll onto a server.

[0] https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand

The Streisand Project[0] provided easy installation of well-configured certs, VPNs and various other software on cloud instances. It was great for travelling internationally: run the script and after a few minutes one had a cloud instance and everything one needed to securely access the Internet through one’s own country.

Unfortunately, it was archived in 2021. Is there anything in 2023 which approaches it? I’ve seen Algo[1], but I don’t believe it does as much to help one to avoid packet filtering. It’s also based on Ubuntu rather than Debian, which seems like a mistake with security-conscious server software.

0: https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand

1: https://github.com/trailofbits/algo

It basically works like any normal VPN. Setting it up is quite easy, you just need a VPS and setup Streisand by following their guide.

You are better off renting a cloud server and rolling your own, e.g. using Streisand, Algo or my own Edgewalker

I currently use https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand which was extremely simple to set up.

What are the main advantages over Streisand?

For a VPN, I use Streisand (https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand) running on a box in a datacenter in Iceland. I also occasionally use other VPNs. I turn off the VPN on my gaming PC when playing specific games.

You can try cloak? It is meant to circumvent these types of bans.

Already saw this Cloak Underlying proxy configuration guides but could not understand how to do it with outline server.

does this might help you ? https://github.com/cbeuw/Cloak

>it's not clear that Cloak does anything novel when compared to existing systems.

I'm not an expert on censorship-circumvention utilities but I found this comment when browsing the Cloak source repository that may partially answer your question:

https://github.com/cbeuw/Cloak/issues/169#issuecomment-12574...

>, and how do you prevent the censoring regime from finding and blocking them?

The tools like Cloak try to work on the principle "collateral freedom" which hides censored data inside of "internet services that are too big block" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateral_freedom

And the effectiveness of that strategy depends on the hackability of those internet services as they can sometimes change the rules which close the loopholes of "collateral freedom" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_fronting#Disabling

I recommend https://github.com/cbeuw/Cloak which is designed for this use case.