iCloud Private Relay leaks can expose your real IP

If you pay for iCloud+ and use Safari, you may have turned on iCloud Private Relay for an extra layer of privacy. Apple designed the feature to prevent websites from seeing your actual IP address and exact location.

Now, security researchers have found three ways that certain WebKit features can slip outside that protection.

Researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk discovered that DNS prefetching, a WebAuthn feature connected to passkeys and WebTransport can bypass WebKit's proxy configuration. Two of those methods can expose your real internet protocol (IP) address. The other can reveal information about the DNS servers your device is using.

What makes this especially concerning is that these are legitimate browser technologies. A website does not necessarily need to convince you to download a suspicious file or install a shady app for the network requests to occur.

Here's how these iCloud Private Relay leaks work, who may be affected and what you can do to better protect your privacy.

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ARE APPLE DEVICES SPYING? WHAT YOUR IPHONE TRACKS

Apple's iCloud Private Relay is available to iCloud+ subscribers and works with Safari browsing. When you turn it on, Apple sends your Safari requests through two separate internet relays. Your internet provider can see your IP address, but your DNS records are encrypted. A second relay then gives the website a temporary IP address instead of your actual one.

The design keeps any single party from seeing both who you are and which websites you visit. That makes Private Relay useful if you want to reduce the amount of location and browsing information websites can collect about you. However, the newly documented WebKit behavior creates paths around that relay.

The researchers identified three separate mechanisms. Each works a little differently.

Browsers often try to make websites load faster by looking up the addresses of links before you click them. This process is called DNS prefetching. Normally, you would expect those lookups to follow the same privacy path as the rest of your browsing.

The researchers found that WebKit can instead send these DNS requests through your device's normal DNS connection. As a result, a website could see DNS requests coming from your real network instead of the proxy. The issue has been available on iOS since iOS 26.0, according to the researchers.

This does not directly hand over everything you are doing online. However, it can expose network information that Private Relay was expected to shield.

The second issue involves WebAuthn, the web standard used by passkeys. Some companies operate several websites and want the same passkey to work across those related domains. WebAuthn has a feature that lets a device verify whether those websites belong together. To do that, the operating system may contact a website directly to retrieve a small verification file.

According to the researchers, that request happens outside Safari's normal proxied network path. Therefore, the destination server can receive your device's real IP address even while Private Relay is active.

Importantly, this research does not show that an attacker can steal your passkey through this flaw. The privacy exposure comes from the network request used during verification. So, there is no reason to abandon passkeys because of this finding.

WebTransport gives websites a faster way to maintain low-latency connections with servers. Certain interactive web services can benefit from that speed.

However, researchers found that WebKit can establish a WebTransport connection directly from your device instead of sending it through the configured proxy.

When that happens, the server on the other end can see your actual IP address. Private Relay does not intercept that connection because it occurs outside the network path Private Relay normally protects. WebTransport became publicly available on iOS with iOS 26.4.

SHARED VPN VS DEDICATED IP: WHICH ONE IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

The findings matter most if you rely on Safari with iCloud Private Relay to hide your IP address. They can also affect privacy-focused browsers or apps that use WebKit's proxy configuration. The researchers specifically examined WebKit-based proxy browsers on iOS and macOS. That means the issue reaches beyond one particular browser feature.

The researchers say VPNs do not suffer from these specific WebKit proxy leaks because a VPN tunnels network traffic at the system level instead of relying on WebKit's browser-level proxy configuration.

That does not mean a VPN eliminates every form of online tracking. Websites can still recognize you through account logins, cookies and other signals.

If you use Private Relay, there is no reason to panic or immediately switch it off. Most Safari browsing still follows Private Relay's normal privacy architecture. Apple says the service is designed to prevent websites from seeing your IP address and exact location during Safari browsing. The problem is that certain WebKit features can create exceptions.

A website using one of these mechanisms could potentially learn your real IP address or information about your DNS connection. You may not see an obvious warning when that happens.

Your IP address usually will not reveal your home address. Still, it can expose your internet provider and approximate location. It can also give websites another identifier to connect with other information they have collected about you. For someone using Private Relay specifically because they do not want websites seeing that information, that matters.

We reached out to Apple for comment on the researchers' findings but did not hear back before our publication deadline.

There are several steps you can take while this WebKit behavior remains a concern.

Turning Private Relay off would remove its protection from Safari traffic that currently does travel through Apple's relay system.

On iPhone, you can check it by going to: Settings > your name > iCloud > Private Relay.

Apple also lets you choose between maintaining your general location or using only your country and time zone.

Install new iOS, iPadOS and macOS updates when Apple releases them.

On iPhone: Settings > General > Software Update.

Apple currently lists iOS 26.6 as its latest iPhone software release. Security and privacy fixes often arrive through operating system updates, so automatic updates can help you receive future fixes more quickly.

If hiding your real IP address is especially important to you, a reputable VPN offers a different type of protection. The researchers specifically note that VPNs are not affected by these three WebKit proxy leaks because the traffic is tunneled at the system level. Keep in mind that a VPN cannot make you invisible online. Websites can still recognize you if you sign in or provide identifying information. For the best VPN software, see my expert review of the best VPNs for browsing the web privately on your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices at CyberGuy.com.

The WebAuthn finding may sound alarming because passkeys are involved. However, the researchers describe an IP-address exposure caused by a related network request. They do not describe attackers stealing the passkey itself. Passkeys remain one of the stronger options available for protecting accounts from phishing and stolen passwords.

The browser developer Psylo has already changed how its browser handles the three mechanisms. Psylo version 1.3.1 blocks DNS prefetch hints while WebTransport and WebAuthn are disabled by default. Users can turn those features back on for individual sites when needed. The changes show that browser developers can take steps to close these particular paths.

Privacy features work best when you understand what they actually protect. I still see value in iCloud Private Relay because it gives Safari users meaningful protection with almost no effort. However, I would not treat it as a replacement for a full-device VPN when keeping your real IP hidden is critical. What concerns me most here is how invisible these exceptions can be. You can turn on a privacy setting, see that it is enabled and reasonably assume every relevant connection follows it. These findings show why the plumbing underneath matters as much as the switch you see in Settings. Apple has built privacy into the way it markets the iPhone. That makes discoveries like this especially important because users should know where those protections have limits.

Would knowing that a website could potentially bypass Private Relay make you trust the feature less, or would you keep using it while waiting for Apple to address the loopholes? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.

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