Aethery v0.9.0

[ZethRise]

Aethery v0.9.0

Aethery v0.9.0 upgrades the bundled Aether core from v1.6.0 to v1.8.0, adds a local HTTP CONNECT proxy next to SOCKS5, makes HTTP/2 fallback a setting, and fixes WARP-on-WARP panics plus several connection and battery issues.

In this release

Core (Aether v1.8.0)

• Updated the vendored Aether core from v1.6.0 to v1.8.0.
• Added upstream proxy chaining (--upstream / AETHER_UPSTREAM): Aether can dial out through another SOCKS5 or HTTP proxy already running on the device. Endpoint scan, registration, and ECH lookup go through it as well.
• Added TLS SNI / HTTP Host sniffing so domain --route-block and --route-direct rules still match behind a TUN front end (AETHER_ROUTE_SNIFF).
• Added WARP-in-WARP (gool) on two separate edge addresses from one scan, so the inner hop is a real second layer.
• Added identity reprovision when Cloudflare no longer accepts the saved device; AETHER_REPROVISION=0 reports it without replacing anything.
• Fixed WARP-on-WARP (gool) panicking as soon as either tunnel or the SOCKS server stopped, which also blocked reconnect.
• Fixed a WireGuard shared-lock poison: one panicked task used to keep the whole tunnel down.
• Fixed reconnect delay 0 spinning in a tight loop instead of using the default.
• Fixed SOCKS5 upstream auth: a "no authentication" greeting is now treated as a failure when credentials were configured.
• Fixed the HTTP CONNECT proxy reading request headers one byte per syscall.
• Fixed the WireGuard scan latching onto one address that answers a handshake but carries no traffic; each address gets its own ports again.
• The SOCKS5 and HTTP listeners now warn when bound off loopback. LAN sharing in Aethery requires the generated aethery password.
• Dependencies moved up (boringtun 0.7, tokio 1.53) and unmaintained ring 0.16 was dropped.

Android app

• Added an HTTP CONNECT proxy field under the SOCKS5 port (default 127.0.0.1:1820) with the same settings layout, for clients such as Psiphon that cannot speak SOCKS.
• The same SOCKS5 and HTTP CONNECT listeners now run in VPN mode as well as Proxy mode.
• Added a Settings toggle for HTTP/3 → HTTP/2 fallback (on by default). Turning it off keeps scanning HTTP/3 much longer instead of falling back after a few IPs.
• Changed ping to manual: tap the graph to measure; it shows the delta against the previous sample.
• Changed the default theme to Dynamic (follows the phone's light or dark theme).
• Share on LAN now uses username aethery plus a generated password (SOCKS RFC1929 and HTTP 407). The password is shown in Settings.
• Fixed split tunneling treating Firefox and Firefox Beta as the same app.
• Removed the "AETHER CORE" label from the bottom of the main screen.
• Splash only runs on a cold start, so rotating the phone or returning from Settings no longer restarts the UI.
• Lower battery and CPU use while connected: no 60 fps software animation, status polling only while the tunnel is up, traffic stats every 3s if they changed.
• Kill switch Disconnect now closes the blocking TUN instead of leaving a stuck VPN.
• During scan the VPN has no default route until the tunnel is actually connected, then routes are promoted.
• Reconnect no longer stops and restarts the service; Zero Trust secrets are no longer put in start extras.
• Fixed the Quick Settings tile silently failing when VPN permission is missing: it now opens Aethery to request it.
• Foreground service uses specialUse (VPN) on Android 14+, with dataSync as fallback.
• Fixes and improvements in the UI.

Downloads

Device	APK
Most modern Android phones	Aethery-arm64-v8a.apk
32-bit ARM Android devices	Aethery-armeabi-v7a.apk
x86-64 Android devices	Aethery-x86_64.apk

HTTP CONNECT proxy

SOCKS5 stays at 127.0.0.1:1819 by default. HTTP CONNECT is at 127.0.0.1:1820. Both serve the same tunnel, in VPN and in Proxy mode. Point Psiphon or any HTTP-proxy client at the HTTP port. Change either port in Settings.

HTTP/2 fallback

Open Settings and find the HTTP/3 → HTTP/2 fallback toggle. Leave it on unless you specifically want a long HTTP/3-only scan. When it is off, Aethery keeps trying HTTP/3 gateways for much longer before giving up.

Share on LAN

Turn on Share on LAN in Settings to bind the local proxies on 0.0.0.0. Other devices must authenticate with username aethery and the generated password shown on that row. Without it, anyone on the network who can reach the port could use your tunnel.

Updating

v0.9.0 is signed with the same key as v0.8.0. Install the matching APK over 0.8.0 — you do not need to uninstall first.

Aethery also checks GitHub Releases for a newer version. Tapping the update notification downloads the APK, verifies its SHA-256 against the release asset, and confirms the package name matches before offering to install.

Quick Settings

Pull the notification shade down twice, tap Edit, then add the Aethery tile. Tap once to connect with your last saved settings, tap again to disconnect. On first run, the VPN permission screen appears.

Connection status

The persistent notification shows your VPN IP, current ping, live upload/download speed, and session totals. Tapping it returns to the app. After an unexpected drop, open Connection log and look for Native tunnel exited: ….

Built on Aether

v0.8.0…v0.9.0

Aether core v1.8.0

Found bug or idea? Open issue in ZethRise/Aethery

Featured ideas · v0.5.0…v0.9.0

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This discussion was created from the release Aethery v0.9.0.