Expressvpn announced About opening the source texts of the implementation of the Protocol lightWay designed to achieve the minimum connection setting time when maintaining a high level of safety and reliability. The code is written in Si language and extends under the GPLV2 license. The implementation is very compact and fit into two thousand rows of the code. Applicated support for Linux, Windows, MacOS, IOS, Android platforms, routers (ASUS, Netgear, Linksys) and browsers . The assembly requires the use of assembly systems Earthly and Ceedling . Implementation is framed in the form of a library that can be used to integrate the client functions and the VPN server in their applications.
In the code, ready-made proven cryptographic functions provided by the WolfSSL library already used in solutions received FIPS 140-2 certificate. In normal mode, the protocol uses UDP for data transmission and DTLS to create an encrypted communication channel, but as an option to provide work in unreliable or limiting UDP networks, the server is provided more reliable, but less fast, streaming mode to transmit data over TCP and TLSV1 .3.
Tests have shown that compared to previously used in ExpressVPN Protocols (ExpressVPN supports L2TP / IPsec, OpenVPN, IKEV2, PPTP, Wireguard and SSTP, but not detailed with what exactly the comparison was made), switching to Lightway allowed Reduced the connection time on average by 2.5 times (in more than half of cases, communication channel is created in less than a second). The new protocol also provided an opportunity to reduce the number of connections in unreliable mobile networks that have problems with the quality of communication.
Development of the reference implementation of the protocol will be made on Github with providing opportunities to participate in the development of representatives Communities (to transfer changes to sign CLA-Agreement On the transfer of property rights to the code). To cooperate, including other VPN providers, which, without restrictions, can use the proposed protocol.
Safety of sales confirmed