Recently, Roskomnadzor, the Russian communications watchdog, has imposed a widespread block on a significant portion of the Internet, as indicated by multiple user complaints on online forums. The agency has restricted access to websites that utilize Encrypted Client Hello (ECH) encryption technology.
About a month ago, Cloudflare, the leading cloud service provider, introduced ECH support for its customers. This feature conceals the domain name of a website during connection, enabling users to bypass censorship and access resources that were previously blocked in Russia. However, it appears that Roskomnadzor has reacted to these developments by initiating a comprehensive crackdown on resources with ECH support.
Thousands of websites have been impacted by this blocking measure, leading to a surge in user complaints. Cloudflare is renowned as one of the most popular hosting providers globally, which explains the widespread repercussions of this action.
Users attempting to access websites proxied through Cloudflare with TLS 1.3 are experiencing issues with Chrome, which ceases to function. However, if Cloudflare disables TLS 1.3, access to the sites is restored within a few minutes. Users have reported that connecting via a VPN allows them to access the sites without any disruptions.
Fortunately, websites utilizing TLS 1.2 and previous versions are operating smoothly without any interruptions amidst these developments.