Mullvad VPN adds ultra-fast obfuscation to beat WireGuard blocking

• Mullvad VPN has just added Lightweight WireGuard Obfuscation (LWO)
• It promises to defeat VPN blocks, without losing performance
• LWO is currently available on all desktop platforms and Android

Mullvad VPN has just added Lightweight WireGuard Obfuscation (LWO) to its WireGuard protocol connections. Its goal is to help users bypass increasingly sophisticated VPN blocks, such as those found in restrictive networks and national firewalls.

Even if WireGuard is outright blocked on the protocol level, LWO should help bypass that. The new feature isn't just effective, though. It's also much less punishing than other obfuscation methods, allowing for fast connection speeds even on low-powered devices.

This update could make the Mullvad VPN app functional in places that often can't benefit from the protection of some of the best VPN services. Right now, LWO is available for Mullvad users on desktop and Android, with iOS support coming in a future release.

How does Lightweight WireGuard Obfuscation work?

Lightweight WireGuard Obfuscation (LWO) is Mullvad's newest anti-censorship feature. It's built directly on top of the WireGuard protocol.

Instead of wrapping traffic in additional layers, as some other VPN obfuscation methods tend to do, LWO takes a more efficient approach.

"Generally, obfuscation comes with significant processing overhead, which affects throughput. LWO is extremely lightweight to be point of hardly being measurable," a Mullvad representative told TechRadar.

In practice, Mullvad explains, LWO scrambles the WireGuard headers in place to prevent header fingerprinting. This makes LWO a suitable option to use in restricted networks where WireGuard is being blocked on the protocol level.

Even better, perhaps, these extra steps make your connection more resistant to censorship without slowing it down.

The addition of LWO marks the fourth WireGuard obfuscation update for Mullvad. Most recently, Mullvad also introduced QUIC obfuscation, which differs from LWO in a key way.

"QUIC obfuscation wraps the WireGuard tunnel in a QUIC tunnel. This is computationally very expensive and affects throughput," Mullvad told us, suggesting to use QUIC obfuscation only "in restricted networks that limit the majority of traffic types but permit web traffic."

QUIC was initially only available on desktop, but has been expanded to mobile in October, including both Android and iOS apps.

These changes reflect Mullvad's firm commitment to WireGuard. The VPN service is going to sunset OpenVPN encryption by January 2026, making WireGuard its only encryption protocol.

How to enable the new LWO protocol in Mullvad?

Currently, LWO is available for Mullvad users on desktop and on Android devices, but a Mullvad representative told us that it'll be coming to iOS in the first quarter of 2026.

Mullvad explains that you need to have at least version 2025.13 of the desktop app, or 2025.9 of the Android app, to run LWO.

LWO kicks in if your device can't connect otherwise, so the app will automatically try to use LWO after a few failed connection attempts.

If you'd like Mullvad to default to LWO, you can enable it by going to Settings > VPN Settings > WireGuard Settings > Obfuscation > LWO.

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