Android - VPN at the native layer

Question

Just a quick question as Google isn't throwing up much.

Is it possible to create a VPN connection using native code in Android?

And if so does the VPN offer support for keep alives?

Answer 1

I believe it would be more of a permissions issue than of an exposed or not exposed issue. Most VPN connections would need you to modify and access the network filtering calls of your kernel. Since your app should really be operating in it's own sandbox this is something I would doubt is exposed by default (to apps at least) since you would essentially be modifying the way the entire OS routes network traffic. For the same reason that in order to modify iptables in the OS, it needs to be rooted so that your app can actually alter such things. At that point I would assume the connection would be made similar to any other vpn connection in any other linux os (via an ipsec daemon or some proxy dameon that you create), but the calling entity would need the actual access level necessary to complete the call to the kernel.

Answer 2

Rooting of the device is needed for creating a VPN connection. We need access to /data/misc/keystore and /data/misc/vpn/profiles in our programm.