Why we have discontinued L2TP and PPTP protocols (2024)

FAQs

Why we have discontinued L2TP and PPTP protocols? ›

Why did we decide to discontinue PPTP, L2TP and SSTP protocols? The decision is taken because these protocols are becoming obsolete and are not subjected to independent audits, whereas the newer protocols have better encryption, reliability and speed.

Why Is PPTP Obsolete? Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol has become obsolete in the enterprise security world due to significant security concerns. Initially embraced for its simplicity and speed, the protocol fell out of favor as vulnerabilities became apparent.

L2TP over IPSec was a popular VPN protocol in the past, but it has become less common and is often deprecated and discouraged for several reasons: Security Concerns: It does NOT provide encryption or confidentiality to traffic passing through it.

The main difference between PPTP and L2TP is that L2TP is more secure than PPTP. This is because L2TP uses stronger encryption and certificates for authentication. In contrast, PPTP provides weaker security but offers a faster connection speed.

L2TP offers encryption and confidentiality for VPN functionality in tandem with IPSec, a Layer 3 protection protocol. This protocol was collaboratively developed by Microsoft and Cisco to serve as a replacement for PPTP.

PPTP is not secure. It is only marginally better than using no security at all. If your 'clients' can't see fit to use a secure connection protocol that's actually "secure", then you shouldn't be risking your security by connecting to their systems. This is a technical support forum.

Lack of GRE support

Since PPTP is based on GRE, it requires NAT routers to have explicit support for GRE (often called PPTP Passthrough), yet many cheap NAT routers can only handle TCP and UDP packets.

The Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) is a virtual private network (VPN) protocol that creates a connection between your device and a VPN server without encrypting your content. Due to its lack of encryption and authentication, L2TP is usually paired with Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) protocol.

Drawbacks of L2TP VPN

In reality, it only wastes bandwidth, makes the protocol slow to process, and makes troubleshooting a nightmare, as there can be issues on every protocol level, preventing a connection from coming up or working as expected.

In other words, OpenVPN is the most secure protocol. WireGuard uses state-of-the-art cryptography. It doesn't support AES encryption, but it substitutes it with ChaCha20. It's less complex, but still very secure.

What is the disadvantage of PPTP? ›

What is the disadvantage of PPTP? The main disadvantage of Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol is its weak security and susceptibility to breaches.

OpenVPN is a stronger and more secure option than L2TP, which is tied to some security concerns and is somewhat outdated. OpenVPN has the benefit of greater speed and security, but users might find L2TP more user-friendly than the more complex OpenVPN.

Weak encryption: PPTP relies on Microsoft Point-to-Point Encryption (MPPE) for encrypting data, which is considered weak by current standards. MPPE uses the RC4 stream cipher, which has known vulnerabilities and is no longer recommended for secure communications.

L2TP With IPsec

As the primary successor to PPTP, layer-two tunneling protocol (L2TP) with IP security (IPsec) is the most common VPN protocol used by businesses around the world.

PPTP is far from secure and an easy target for surveillance agencies and cybercriminals. Choose a reliable VPN provider like CyberGhost VPN and get serious about your cybersecurity. CyberGhost VPN lets you choose between OpenVPN, IKEv2, or WireGuard®.

Yes, PPTP is outdated due to well-known security vulnerabilities and better alternatives available.

Vulnerability to man-in-the-middle attacks: PPTP is susceptible to man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, where an attacker intercepts the communication between the VPN client and server. This can potentially expose sensitive data and compromise the security of the VPN connection.