Install Bitmask

Bitmask is lovingly created by the LEAP Encryption Access Project and currently runs on Android, Linux, MacOS and Windows. We plan to have an iOS client in the future if we find funding for it (suggestions welcome!). Select your operating system, and follow the install instructions.

Bitmask’s full stack is open source, this includes the applications and server side components. The code for all desktop apps is here and for the Android app here. And, unlike most VPNs, all server side components are also open source and can be viewed here.

Android

Install from F-Droid

F-Droid is an alternative app store for open-source and privacy-aware Android apps. You can search for “Bitmask” on F-droid or use the link below.

Go to F-Droid

Install from Google Play

You can search for “Bitmask” in the Google Play store or use the link below. If you want to see the latest features and bug fixes and would like to contribute to Bitmask by testing the app, you can get the beta version from the Google Play Store. The beta version will be less stable, only sign up to use this if you plan on contributing feedback as a beta tester.

Download stable version directly

Advanced users with special needs can download the Bitmask app directly from our servers at leap.se. You will need to enable the option Settings > Security > Unknown Sources in your Android system settings for this method to work. If you would like to manually verify the download instructions are below.

Download Stable Version
Desktop apps are being reworked and will be available soon.

Linux

Ubuntu

The two latest Ubuntu LTS versions are supported. Please install from the LEAP ppa using:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa: coming soon.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install bitmask

Snap

Unfortunately the Snap package is currently out of support. Please don’t install Bitmask from the Snap store, as it is an out of date version. We plan to have this available in 2025. Community support on this has and continues to be very useful!

Debian and Arch Linux

Currently there is no packaging for Bitmask. We plan to have this available in 2025. Community support on this has and continues to be very useful!

MacOS

Use link below to downloaded “Bitmask-installer-.dmg”. Open the dmg file to install Bitmask.

Download

Windows

Use link below to downloaded “Bitmask-installer-.exe”. Open the dmg file to install Bitmask.

Download

DNS leaks: We believe there is no DNS or IP leaks in RiseupVPN on windows, but it is not very well battle tested. Unlike Mac or linux, there is no killswitch on Windows yet. We will remedy this in 2025, if you find any kind of leaks we are very interested in hearing about it.

Verification (manual)

Installation of Android and Mac apps will have their signatures verified automatically. However, we provide signatures for these files if you wish to verify them manually. Instructions below. Instructions below.

Import LEAP’s key

All the files have been signed with the “LEAP archive signing key”. The first step is to import this key into your local keyring. These instructions will use gpg, a free implementation of OpenPGP that works on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Option 1 – wget

The easiest way to get the LEAP archive signing key is to just download it from the bitmask.net website and import into your keyring:

wget -O- dl.bitmask.net/apt.key | gpg --import

You should see output that looks like this:

gpg: key 0x1E34A1828E207901: public key "LEAP archive signing key <[email protected]>" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1 (RSA: 1)
gpg: 3 marginal(s) needed, 1 complete(s) needed, classic trust model
gpg: depth: 0 valid: 4 signed: 7 trust: 0-, 0q, 0n, 0m, 0f, 4u
gpg: depth: 1 valid: 7 signed: 22 trust: 6-, 1q, 0n, 0m, 0f, 0u

Option 2 – search keyservers

Alternately, you can import the LEAP archive signing key by fetching from a keyserver:

gpg --recv-key 1E453B2CE87BEE2F7DFE99661E34A1828E207901

If you want to make the keyserver connection use TLS, you can use the sks-keyserver pool. To use this keyserver pool, you will need to download the sks-keyservers.net CA and save it somewhere on your machine. Additionally, you can verify the certificate’s finger print.

Once you have downloaded the SKS keyserver pool CA, the recv-key command looks like this:

gpg --keyserver hkps://pool.sks-keyservers.net --keyserver-options 'ca-cert-file=sks-keyservers.netCA.pem' --recv-key 1E453B2CE87BEE2F7DFE99661E34A1828E207901

Assuming you saved the CA certificate to the file sks-keyservers.netCA.pem. For more information, see this  OpenPGP best practices page.

There is absolutely no guarantee that the key just imported with recv-key is the one you just requested. To confirm, you need to manually check the fingerprint:

gpg --fingerprint 1E453B2CE87BEE2F7DFE99661E34A1828E207901

Which should produce output like so:

pub 4096R/0x1E34A1828E207901 2013-02-06 [expires: 2015-02-07] 
Key fingerprint = 1E45 3B2C E87B EE2F 7DFE 9966 1E34 A182 8E20 7901
uid [ undef ] LEAP archive signing key <[email protected]>

Download signature file

The signature file for each download has the same name as the file but with .asc appended.
For a listing of the available signature files, see:
All Android files
All Linux files
All Mac files
All Windows files

Make sure you put the signature file and the download you want to authenticate in the same directory, and that they have the same name (other than the .asc suffix for the signature file).

Verify Signature

Now, just run this command:

gpg --verify FILE.asc

Where FILE is the name of the download you want to authenticate.
You should see some output like so:

gpg: Signature made Mon 15 Sep 2014 07:49:07 AM PD
gpg: using RSA key 0x1E34A1828E207901
gpg: Good signature from "LEAP archive signing key <[email protected]>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg: There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 1E45 3B2C E87B EE2F 7DFE 9966 1E34 A182 8E20 7901

If you have trusted one of the keys that has signed the LEAP key, then you will not see the warning.

If you do not see the text – Good signature from “LEAP archive signing key [email protected]” then something is wrong and you should not run the application you downloaded.