--- title: iCloud Private Relay leaks your real IP three different... description: Researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk have disclosed three IP-leaking vulnerabilities in Apple's iCloud Private Relay, all rooted in WebKit — the engine... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/icloud-private-relay-leaks-your-real-ip-three-different-ways-and-apple-won-t-fix-it-until-2026-o1smjfyee twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: iCloud Private Relay leaks your real IP three different ways, and Apple won't fix it until 2026 | daily.dev og:description: Researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk have disclosed three IP-leaking vulnerabilities in Apple's iCloud Private Relay, all rooted in WebKit — the engine... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/icloud-private-relay-leaks-your-real-ip-three-different-ways-and-apple-won-t-fix-it-until-2026-o1smjfyee og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/o1sMJfYeE.png og:image:alt: iCloud Private Relay leaks your real IP three different ways, and Apple won't fix it until 2026 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # iCloud Private Relay leaks your real IP three different ways, and Apple won't fix it until 2026 **[Trends](https://daily.dev/sources/trends)** · 2 min read · 2 upvotes · 2 comments ## Summary Researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk have disclosed three IP-leaking vulnerabilities in Apple's iCloud Private Relay, all rooted in WebKit — the engine Apple mandates for all iOS browsers. The three bypass methods are DNS prefetching (which resolves hostnames via the device's normal DNS path, skipping the proxy), WebTransport (which opens QUIC connections outside the proxied path), and WebAuthn Related Origin Requests (which can trigger the OS credential service to fetch a validation file directly from the device without any user login). Because WebKit is mandatory on iOS, every browser is affected regardless of its privacy focus. VPNs are not vulnerable since they tunnel all traffic at the OS level. Apple has acknowledged the issues but won't ship a fix until autumn 2026 — roughly 18 months away. The researchers also make Psylo, a competing iOS browser that already mitigates all three leaks. ## Content Apple's iCloud Private Relay is supposed to be the privacy feature that justifies part of your iCloud subscription. Researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk just showed it has three separate holes in it, and the fix isn't coming until autumn 2026. The leaks live in WebKit, which Apple forces every iOS browser to use. That's what makes this sting: it doesn't matter if you're using Safari, Firefox, or a privacy-focused browser like OnionBrowser. If it runs on iOS, it runs on WebKit, and it's vulnerable. The three bypass methods: - **DNS prefetching** resolves hostnames through the device's normal DNS path, completely ignoring the proxy. - **WebTransport** opens QUIC connections outside the proxied path. - **WebAuthn Related Origin Requests** is the nastiest one. Any site that supports passkeys can trigger the OS credential service to fetch a validation file directly from the device, bypassing Private Relay entirely. No login required. Just visit the page. The researchers set up a public test site to verify the leaks are real and reproducible. VPNs aren't affected since they tunnel all traffic at the system level, but Private Relay specifically, and any WebKit-based proxy browser using the `WKWebsiteDataStore.proxyConfigurations` API, is exposed. There's a conflict of interest worth naming: Bakry and Mysk also make Psylo, a rival iOS browser that already patches all three leaks via blocked dns-prefetch hints and disabled WebTransport and WebAuthn by default. They also say they didn't bother reporting to Apple first, citing past experiences of delays and dismissals. Apple has since acknowledged the issues and confirmed a fix for autumn 2026. So the situation is: Apple knows, Apple confirmed it's real, and Apple's timeline is roughly 18 months out. In the meantime, if you're relying on Private Relay for meaningful IP privacy, you're not getting what you think you're paying for. ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 26 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-08-06). **TL;DR:** Commenters largely accept the technical validity of the leaks but are skeptical about the self-promotional framing from the researchers (who also sell a competing browser), and a side thread debates whether iCloud Private Relay can be scripted on/off. **Sentiment:** 15% positive · 45% mixed · 40% skeptical **The case for** - The three leak vectors (DNS prefetch, WebAuthn, WebTransport) are technically well-explained and verifiable via the researchers' own test page. - Disabling DNS prefetch hints and WebTransport at the app layer is a credible mitigation that doesn't require a new browser engine. **The pushback** - The disclosure comes from the makers of Psylo, a competing browser, raising obvious conflict-of-interest concerns about the framing. - WebKit's architecture hands WebAuthn off to a separate OS-level process, meaning app-layer mitigations can't fully address it on iOS. - VPN-level protection is the only reliable solution, since proxy configurations in WKWebView can't intercept all traffic paths. - The article is unclear about whether non-WebKit browsers (Firefox, Chrome) are also affected by WebAuthn leaks or simply handle it differently. **By community** - hackernews (mixed): Commenters accept the technical findings but question the self-promotional angle, debate the limits of what a WKWebView-based browser can actually fix, and spend significant energy on the unrelated problem of scripting iCloud Private Relay on/off. **Hottest debate:** Whether a WKWebView-based iOS browser can meaningfully mitigate proxy leaks given that WebKit handles networking internally and the OS handles WebAuthn in a separate process. **Open questions** - Does Firefox or Chrome on desktop also leak real IPs via WebAuthn, or is the leak truly WebKit-specific? - Can iCloud Private Relay be toggled programmatically without relying on fragile UI automation? - Does Apple's Lockdown Mode already block any of these three leak vectors? **Highlights** > Weird advertising on site: "Psylo is our privacy-first browser for iOS and iPadOS" Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Apple disallow any actual 3rd party browser engines? Like, any browser on iOS that isn't the standard safari is just a skin on top of webkit/safari. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence that some third party browser will be able to implement things any better (as compared to like, running Firefox on Android, which actually implements the firefox browser engine). > — [walrus01 on hackernews · 2 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49178195) > WebKit passes the request to a separate system process. On Mac, Firefox and Chrome, which don't use WebKit, handle WebAuthn themselves. > — [lapcat on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49181984) > My read is that the main value prop is that they configure the WKWebView to not share any state cross-tabs. In the post they state that they've disabled DNS prefetch, WebTransport and WebAuthn so obviously they're hardening beyond what ships in Safari (though some of this may already be covered by lockdown mode). > — [hnav on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49179223) > There's a PLIST entry possibly relevant to it in `~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkserviceproxy.plist` I couldn't figure out how to get any changes to reflect but maybe it's a good pointer towards a solution? EDIT: Reading into this, looks like they're very intentional about not allowing arbitrary enable/disable calls to it, likely to prevent a hostile entity from switching it off on unsuspecting users. The systems setting calls an XPC into a daemon that makes a web request, then validates the response from the API to update the PLIST structure. > — [dabbz on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49178637) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49176697) · 138 points · 26 comments ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@agustinbarrientos** · 0 upvotes > I would keep Private Relay out of the threat model until every network API follows the same path. **@trevorsuna** · 0 upvotes > This is a useful reminder that a browser-level proxy is not the same security boundary as a system-level VPN. DNS prefetch, WebAuthn, and WebTransport each finding a path around the proxy shows why privacy claims need testing across every network-capable subsystem. --- Tags: [#apple](https://daily.dev/tags/apple), [#ios](https://daily.dev/tags/ios), [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy), [#safari](https://daily.dev/tags/safari) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/icloud-private-relay-leaks-your-real-ip-three-different-ways-and-apple-won-t-fix-it-until-2026-o1smjfyee) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"iCloud Private Relay leaks your real IP three different ways, and Apple won't fix it until 2026","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/icloud-private-relay-leaks-your-real-ip-three-different-ways-and-apple-won-t-fix-it-until-2026-o1smjfyee","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/icloud-private-relay-leaks-your-real-ip-three-different-ways-and-apple-won-t-fix-it-until-2026-o1smjfyee"},"datePublished":"2026-08-06T13:58:33.865Z","dateModified":"2026-08-06T13:59:13.074Z","description":"Researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk have disclosed three IP-leaking vulnerabilities in Apple's iCloud Private Relay, all rooted in WebKit — the engine...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/fabeff7e9c8b6e5f57472bf720ca0d7f?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/fabeff7e9c8b6e5f57472bf720ca0d7f?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Trends","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Trends","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ZfSp3asX--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996004/logos/trends?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},"commentCount":2,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/icloud-private-relay-leaks-your-real-ip-three-different-ways-and-apple-won-t-fix-it-until-2026-o1smjfyee","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}],"keywords":"apple,ios,privacy,safari","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trends","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"iCloud Private Relay leaks your real IP three different ways, and Apple won't fix it until 2026"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/icloud-private-relay-leaks-your-real-ip-three-different-ways-and-apple-won-t-fix-it-until-2026-o1smjfyee","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"I would keep Private Relay out of the threat model until every network API follows the same path.","datePublished":"2026-08-08T16:39:43.716Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/o1sMJfYeE#c-TsupDNeld","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Agustin Barrientos","url":"https://daily.dev/agustinbarrientos","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--5ayxQnqn--/f_auto/v1788281802/avatars/avatar_wQYYVe5Tbj0NJ7C7qPoa8?_a=BAMAMicg0"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"This is a useful reminder that a browser-level proxy is not the same security boundary as a system-level VPN. 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