Telegram is an instant messaging app, well known for its focus on security and encryption. It’s used by government officials, journalists, and the paranoid, and can also handle VoIP calls, in addition to its text messaging capability. [PiMaker] wondered if all this encryption could be put to good use, and decided to try and route IP over Telegram, as you do.

The project is called Teletun, and it works! It uses telgram-cli, a command line interface for the instant messaging network. The actual IP routing is handled with a Python script, and [PiMaker] recommends that in use, the user should “pray to the gods for mercy”. Reports are that bandwidth is limited, but latency can go as low as 100ms, which suggests Telegram is indeed a fairly instant messenger.

Tunneling over instant messaging services is good practice for any aspiring hacker, but likely to be unwieldy for any practical purpose. If you can think of one, other than irritating the intelligence agents tapping your communications, throw it down in the comments below. Otherwise, consider other oddball ways to (ab)use Telegram.