HTTPS and MITM attack

Question

VPN companies claim that your sensitive data can be intercepted. But what I know is that as long as I stick with HTTPS, no MITM attack is successful at present. Am I right?

Answer 1

Sort of - but not totally, and not if the remote end is compromised.

Assuming your traffic is https and not something else, its very difficult to intercept the payload, however there is low hanging fruit that can still be detected 2 ways - your DNS requests.

These can be detected from queries using standard DNS infrastructure (and indeed care needs to be taken when using a VPN that DNS queries don't bypass it which can happen ufvthey query your router!).

The second way the sites you are visiting can leak is through the https negotiation for a site - which requires the domain being requested is passed unencrypted to the web server [but the site content is encrypted]

It is also possible that the site you are visiting is compromised - and they can then see your traffic and associate it with your IP. If a bad actor gets control of the site or the sites private key, it could do you damage. (As could a rogue/compromised can cert)