Unlocking free WiFi on British Airways

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Technical Approaches to Bypassing Paywalled WiFi

  • Discussion centers on exploiting “free messaging” tiers by:
    • Spoofing SNI to look like permitted apps (e.g., WhatsApp) while tunneling arbitrary HTTPS through a proxy.
    • Using domain fronting–style techniques, where the visible hostname differs from the true backend.
    • Running VPNs over unusual ports (notably UDP 53) and DNS-tunneling tools like iodine to smuggle traffic in TXT/subdomain payloads.
    • Using pluggable transports (e.g., Lyrebird, Xray) that hide proxy traffic behind seemingly legitimate TLS handshakes to allowed domains.
  • Several commenters report success with WireGuard/OpenVPN on nonstandard ports or over DNS, but also note that many modern captive portals now block everything except specific IPs/hosts.

How Airlines and Cruises Enforce Restrictions

  • Many providers inspect TLS ClientHello:
    • Basic setups only check SNI against a whitelist (e.g., airline site, messaging apps, visa sites).
    • More advanced firewalls (e.g., Fortinet-style) verify that the certificate CN/SAN and CA match the SNI.
  • Some systems allow a few initial packets of any TCP flow, then classify and reset connections if not whitelisted.
  • “Free messaging” often also whitelists push-notification services so onboard apps can receive messages.
  • There’s debate on whether IP whitelisting is feasible:
    • Hard in general due to CDNs and changing IPs.
    • Easier when platforms cooperate and publish ranges or provide zero-rating integrations.
  • Cruiselines and airlines sometimes block websites for known circumvention tools and may ban travel routers or personal satellite gear.

Broader Protocol and Censorship Context

  • SNI is criticized for enabling easy traffic classification and censorship; its historical role in enabling HTTPS virtual hosting is noted.
  • Encrypted ClientHello (ECH) is mentioned as a future obstacle to SNI-based filtering and “free messaging” offers.
  • These techniques are also linked to evading national-level censorship (e.g., Tor transports, Great Firewall–style probing).

Ethics, Legality, and Risk

  • Ethical views split:
    • Some see this as theft of service and unnecessary for well-paid professionals.
    • Others view it as harmless use of spare capacity and praise the educational value.
  • Legal risk on aircraft is highlighted:
    • Concern about broad interpretations (e.g., “tampering with aircraft systems”) and possible severe consequences, even if actual safety impact is unclear.
  • A few commenters emphasize that the annoyance or danger of legal trouble far outweighs saving a modest WiFi fee.

User Experience, Capacity, and Business Models

  • Multiple anecdotes from flights and cruises:
    • Pricing (e.g., ~$50/day on cruises) seen as excessive, especially when performance can be poor.
    • Others report very usable Starlink-backed service, suggesting variability by ship/installation.
  • Some argue bandwidth is now sufficient (Starlink, specialized LTE backhaul), so strict gating is mainly revenue-driven.
  • Counterpoint: providers must still limit access to keep shared links workable.

Security Culture and Pen-Testing

  • BA’s overall security posture is critiqued, with references to past web compromises.
  • Pen-tests are described as useful for regression detection but insufficient as a sole security strategy; organizations often over-rely on them instead of listening to internal engineers.

Miscellaneous

  • Some readers enjoy being forced offline and worry about more ubiquitous inflight connectivity.
  • Accessibility point: this case is cited as exactly why proper alt attributes for images matter—when images can’t load, content should remain understandable.