What is a WebRTC Leak?

Imagine you are wearing a superhero mask (your VPN) so nobody knows who you are. But your mask has a small hole right over your eyes, and a bright light is shining through it. Even though you have a mask on, people can still see your face!

WebRTC is like that light. It is a tool built into browsers like Chrome and Safari to help with video calls and file sharing. To make these calls fast, the browser sometimes "shouts" your real IP address out loud to find the best connection, bypassing your VPN tunnel entirely.

How to stay safe?

If this tool shows your real home IP address while your VPN is on, it means you have a leak. You should disable WebRTC in your browser settings or use a specialized privacy browser like Brave.

Why is My Local IP Shown?

You might see an IP like 192.168.1.5. This is your Local IP. It doesn't tell people which city you are in, but it is a "unique marker" that trackers use to identify your specific device. Modern browsers now hide this using something called mDNS, which replaces your numbers with a fake name like xyz.local.

How to Disable WebRTC

  • Firefox: Type about:config in your search bar. Find media.peerconnection.enabled and double-click it to set it to False.
  • Chrome / Edge: These browsers make it hard to turn off. The best way is to install the uBlock Origin extension and check the box that says "Prevent WebRTC from leaking local IP addresses."
  • Brave Browser: Brave has this built-in. Go to Settings > Privacy > WebRTC IP Handling Policy and pick the "Disable non-proxied UDP" option.

Common Questions

Is WebRTC a virus?

No! It is a very helpful tool for things like Google Meet or Discord. It only becomes a "problem" when you are trying to be 100% private and your VPN doesn't block it.

Will turning it off break my browser?

It might break some websites that use your camera and microphone inside the browser. If a video call site stops working, you might need to turn WebRTC back on temporarily.