I'm thinking of something like a man-in-the-middle attack.
Say I'm at some coffee shop (or a hotel) and want to use their WiFi but then access the VPN. I connect to CoffeeWiFi thinking it's the coffee shop's WiFi. But in reality, it's a router set up by Joe Hacker. Even if I were to make sure that I'm always connecting to a WiFi that is password protected, if the owner of that WiFi gives the PW out to other customers, all Joe Hacker has to do is set up his own router with the same SSID and password. Then it will appear that I'm connected to the correct WiFi.
Now after accessing WiFi, I attempt to connect to my VPN. I've just given the VPN address. The hacker could intercept my connection attempt then make his own connection (programmatically of course). When I provide authentication info thinking I'm talking to my server, I've just given that to Joe. He then passes that on to the VPN server but stores a copy for his own use. From then on he routes all the traffic to me from the VPN and vice versa.
Can the VPN prevent this?
Say I'm at some coffee shop (or a hotel) and want to use their WiFi but then access the VPN. I connect to CoffeeWiFi thinking it's the coffee shop's WiFi. But in reality, it's a router set up by Joe Hacker. Even if I were to make sure that I'm always connecting to a WiFi that is password protected, if the owner of that WiFi gives the PW out to other customers, all Joe Hacker has to do is set up his own router with the same SSID and password. Then it will appear that I'm connected to the correct WiFi.
Now after accessing WiFi, I attempt to connect to my VPN. I've just given the VPN address. The hacker could intercept my connection attempt then make his own connection (programmatically of course). When I provide authentication info thinking I'm talking to my server, I've just given that to Joe. He then passes that on to the VPN server but stores a copy for his own use. From then on he routes all the traffic to me from the VPN and vice versa.
Can the VPN prevent this?