How to use Mullvad VPN in Russia - Darkn.Space

How to use Mullvad VPN in Russia

It appears that Roskomnadzor managed to do its job properly, and not only blocked Mullvad’s website but also made accessing their API impossible without a VPN or proxy. As far as I know, the official Mullvad app relies on that API for login functionality and for fetching the list of servers. Unfortunately, the built-in bridges don’t help with bypassing RKN’s ban, as they work only after you log in. Please keep in mind that this article might not be fully up-to-date and RKN can try to disrupt this method as well.

This article is based on this mullvad help page.

Android

Configuring shadowsocks on android is the easiest one so far. Unfortunally, we’ll have to use OpenVPN instead of the official Mullvad app.

Requirements

Let’s start with the list of software that we’ll need:

Configure the Shadowsocks app

  1. Tap on the ☰ menu icon in the top left corner, then Settings.
  2. Tap on Advanced and then tap on Service mode and select Proxy only.

  3. Make sure that the SOCKS5 proxy port is set to 1080.

    Shadowsocks advanced settings

  4. Tap on your device’s back button.
  5. Tap on the plus icon on the tool bar on the top and select Manual Settings.
  6. Tap on Server, enter 212.103.48.229 and tap on OK.
  7. Tap on Remote Port, change the number to 1300 and tap on OK.
  8. Tap on Password, change it to mullvad and tap on OK.

  9. Tap on Encrypt Method, select chacha20-ietf-poly1305 and tap on OK.

    Shadowsocks Manual Settings

  10. Scroll down and select Plugin: v2ray.

    Shadowsocks Plugin Settings

  11. Tap on Configure…
  12. Tap on Transport mode, select websocket-tls.

  13. Tap on Hostname, enter us-nyc-br-501.relays.mullvad.net and tap on OK.

    V2ray plugin settings

Configure the OpenVPN app

  1. Download an OpenVPN configuration file for Android and make sure that Connect via bridges is checked.
  2. Open the OpenVPN for Android app.
  3. Tap on the + icon and tap on import and then choose the OpenVPN configuration file that you downloaded before.
  4. Tap on the pen edit icon next to the profile you imported.
  5. In the top bar, scrool to the left and tap on Advanced. Then scroll down and tap on Custom Options.

  6. On a new line add: socks-proxy 127.0.0.1 1080

    OpenVPN Custom Options

  7. Tap on OK. Then in the top bar tap on Allowed apps.

  8. Make sure that VPN is used for all apps but exclude selected is enabled.

    OpenVPN exlude settings

  9. Scroll down the list and find Shadowsocks and tap on the square icon to enable it.

    OpenVPN exclude app list

  10. Tap on your device’s back button.

Connect your phone

  1. In the Shadowsocks app, tap on your profile and then tap on the connect icon in the bottom (looks like a paper airplane).
  2. In the OpenVPN app, tap on the server profile to connect to it. The first time you connect to a profile, you will be asked for a username and password. Use the following: username – use your Mullvad account number (without any spaces) password – use the letter m
  3. In the log window it should say “Initialization Sequence Completed” in the bottom.
  4. Tap on the arrow button in the top left corner.
  5. Both apps should now say “Connected”.
  6. Verify your connection with Mullvad’s connection check page.

Linux

This one’s a bit tricky. For the official Mullvad app to work we’ll need to use another VPN(or you can use VPN on your phone by utilizing tethering feature). Using Mullvad VPN itself is not necessary for that. Any VPN that let’s you connect to Mullvad’s API will be enough. I used Calyx VPN, as it’s not banned by RKN.

Requirements

You can pretty much get Shadowsocks and v2ray plugin for it from your distribution repositories. For example, in Debian you can install shadowsocks-libev and shadowsocks-v2ray-plugin packages.

When it comes to acessing Mullvad website for downloading app and configuring keys you can use another VPN or something like Censor Tracker, just add mullvad.net to Proxying List in settings.

Configure Mullvad

  1. Set Mullvad to use a specific bridge server and port: mullvad bridge set custom local 1080 62.133.44.202 1300.
  2. Connect Shadowsocks outside the VPN: mullvad-exclude ss-local -s 62.133.44.202 -p 1300 -l 1080 -k mullvad -m chacha20-ietf-poly1305 -b 127.0.0.1 --fast-open --no-delay --plugin ss-v2ray-plugin --plugin-opts "mode=quic;host=us-lax-br-401.relays.mullvad.net".
  3. Make sure the above command is always running when you want to use VPN. I personally added it to KDE’s Autostart Login scripts, because I use VPN all the time.
  4. Set Mullvad to use OpenVPN protocol: mullvad relay set tunnel-protocol openvpn.
  5. Set Mullvad to use Bridge mode: mullvad bridge set state on.
  6. Now you have to use another VPN, because Mullvad app needs to reach its API, and it’s unable to do so without your help. I just turned on Calyx VPN on my phone (or if you have already set up Mullvad on your telephone you can use that as well) and enabled tethering. Keep in mind that you should enable “Allow clients to use VPNs” and disable any other connections on your pc besides your phone.
  7. Log into your account in Mullvad app or use: mullvad account login.
  8. You can connect now! Use GUI or: mullvad connect.

You can use any server now, to do that just choose your exit point via GUI.

Windows

Windows part of this guide is pretty much the same as the Linux one, the only difference is that now you have a nice GUI to configure Shadowsocks.

Requirements

Download and install:

Also, download:

Configure Shadowsocks

  1. Unzip the Shadowsocks zip file that you downloaded from GitHub.
  2. Right click on the v2ray plugin archive you downloaded and extract it with 7-Zip. You’ll get another archive which ends in .tar file extension and you have to extract it with 7-Zip as well.

  3. Move the extracted file (it will have .exe file extension) to the Shadowsocks folder. Now it should like somewhat like this:

    Shadowsocks folder

  4. Start the Shadowsocks app. Fill in the fields according to the settings below: Server IP: 62.133.44.202 Server Port: 1300 Password: mullvad Encryption: chacha20-ietf-poly1305 Plugin Program: v2ray-plugin_windows_amd64.exe Plugin Options: mode=quic;host=us-lax-br-401.relays.mullvad.net Proxy Port: 1080

    Shadowsocks settings

  5. Now just click Apply and OK.

Configure Mullvad via Command Prompt

  1. Open the Command Prompt and run the following commands:

     mullvad bridge set custom local 1080 62.133.44.202 1300
 mullvad relay set tunnel-protocol openvpn
 mullvad bridge set state on
  2. Now you have to use another VPN, because Mullvad app needs to reach its API, and it’s unable to do so without your help. I just turned on Calyx VPN on my phone(or if you have already set up Mullvad on your phone you can use that as well) and enabled tethering. Keep in mind that you should enable “Allow clients to use VPNs” and disable any other connections on your pc besides your phone.
  3. After you connect your PC to some kind of VPN you have to log into the Mullvad app. You can do that using app itself or using commands prompt once again: mullvad account login.

  4. Now go to the Mullvad app settings > Split tunneling and click on the button “Find another app” in the bottom. Browse to the location of the Shadowsocks app (“Downloads” folder) and select Shadowsocks.exe and click on Add.

    Mullvad Split tunneling settings

  5. After you sucessfully log in, you can connect by clicking the Connect button. You can also use command prompt for that: mullvad connect.

© 2023 Darkn.Space — CC-BY 4.0 License