Memorial Edition • September 23, 2025 • Volume 6, Issue FINAL
Deep Packet Inspection Claims Another Victim in Ongoing Proxy Wars
INTERNET — The VLESS protocol, once hailed as the future of encrypted proxy communications, was pronounced dead yesterday at 23:59 UTC on September 22, 2025, after a prolonged battle with increasingly sophisticated Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) systems.
Born in 2019 as part of the Xray Core project, VLESS showed early promise with its lightweight design and TLS camouflage capabilities. However, sources close to the protocol confirm it had been struggling with detection issues for months.
"We tried everything," said Dr. Elena Proxyman, lead researcher at the Institute for Circumvention Technologies. "Enhanced headers, random padding, even mimicking legitimate HTTPS traffic. But the AI-powered DPI systems evolved faster than we could adapt."
The protocol's condition deteriorated rapidly after the deployment of machine learning-based traffic analysis systems in major censorship jurisdictions. What began as occasional connection drops escalated to complete service unavailability by late November.
Post-mortem analysis conducted by the Protocol Forensics Laboratory identified several factors contributing to VLESS's demise:
"It's a classic case of an arms race where defense couldn't keep pace with offense," explained Prof. Michael Streamcipher from Carnegie Mellon's Privacy Engineering Institute.
News of VLESS's death sent shockwaves through the technical community. The #RIP_VLESS hashtag began trending within hours of the announcement.
VLESS Protocol
Born: March 2019 • Died: September 2025
Age: 6 years, 6 months
"A lightweight, high-performance proxy protocol that dared to dream of a censorship-free internet. Though small in code size, it carried the hopes of millions seeking digital freedom."
Survived by: Its siblings VMess, Trojan, and Shadowsocks (conditions critical)
Predeceased by: HTTP proxies, PPTP, and countless others
In Loving Memory – From BlancVPN
Green: Stable • Yellow: Under Pressure • Red: Critical/Dead
Peak Usage: ~2.3 million active connections (Q2 2023)
Final Detection Rate: 97.8% within 24 hours
Average Session Duration (final week): 3.2 minutes
Protocol Name: VLESS (Very Lightweight Encrypted Shadowsocks)
Version: 1.x series
Architecture: Client-Server with TLS camouflage
Payload Encryption: AES-128-GCM / ChaCha20-Poly1305
Transport: TCP/WebSocket over TLS 1.3
Header Format: UUID-based with custom extensions
Cause of Death: Machine Learning-based Deep Packet Inspection
Detection Signatures:
- Entropy analysis of encrypted payloads
- Connection establishment patterns
- Server response timing characteristics
- Certificate authority correlation
Time of Death: 2025-09-22 23:59:00 UTC
Last Known Instance: server.example.com:443
Final Words: "Connection reset by peer"
"I watched VLESS grow from a promising experiment to a robust solution used by millions. Its death marks the end of an era in circumvention technology. The implications for internet freedom cannot be overstated."
"We knew this day would come. The mathematics of information theory were against us from the start. You cannot hide patterns indefinitely from sufficiently advanced analysis systems. VLESS fought valiantly, but entropy always wins."
"VLESS gave me five years of freedom. Five years of accessing blocked content, communicating with the outside world, and maintaining my digital rights. It died so others might live. We will remember."
"The sophistication of current DPI systems represents a quantum leap in censorship technology. VLESS's death is a canary in the coal mine—we must fundamentally rethink our approach to circumvention."
VMess: Listed in serious condition after similar attacks. Prognosis uncertain.
Trojan: Showing signs of stress; detection rates climbing steadily.
Shadowsocks: Veterans at the protocol ICU report "it's not looking good."
WireGuard: Maintaining stable condition but increasingly monitored.
Industry experts are divided on whether next-generation protocols can survive in the current threat environment. Some advocate for radical new approaches, while others suggest the era of technical circumvention may be ending.
When: September 28, 2025, 19:00 UTC
Where: #memorial-service on IRC
Dress Code: All black terminals preferred
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to digital rights organizations worldwide.
The VLESS Foundation announces the establishment of the "Protocol Memorial Archive," preserving the history and technical specifications of deceased circumvention technologies for future researchers.
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Editor-in-Chief: Tim Berners-Lee Jr. • Publisher: Protocol Publishing House
This memorial edition will be archived on the InterPlanetary File System for posterity.
"Protocols may die, but the internet is forever."
— The Protocol Times Motto