v055u: Too many 8.8.8.8 active connections

[ignoramous]

The content below is being updated from below.

INITIAL POST 2026-02-28:

Good day, I am using v0.5.5u for several days now and I see a pattern like below and would like to know if that's an expected behavior.

• I go to Stats -> Top Active Connections
• I see apps qith tens and thousands active connections
• I open several apps and see something like this:

8.8.8.8                 573
<IP address>             10
<IP address>              2

Or like this (where no other active connection is shown except to 8.8.8.8)

8.8.8.8                  36

There are different apps like this. System apps or the apps I have installed myself. The situation does not change even if I kill an app. It remains in the Stats screen with all the Top Active Connections. Only closing the connections makes them gone.

Is that expected?

Upd. I use On-device blocklists, may it be the reason?

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UPD 2026-03-06: A scenario I came up with:

• App is MX Player (1.87.2 just in case).
• RethinkDNS is v0.5.5u
• VPN is set to blocking mode in android settings
• DSN is configured to DNSCrypt over Quad9
• on-device blocklist is used (and it seems the issue happens when it is enabled)
• In every scenario I enable RethinkDNS, go into MX Player and watch a video (just scroll it back and forth for a little while). It looks like this app is collecting a lot of analytics which is being blocked by on-device blocklists. And I think that every DNS-request to a domain blocked by on-device blocklist becomes a forever-active connection to 8.8.8.8.

on-device blocklists ON

there are remaining active connections to 8.8.8.8 and they do not go away

on-device blocklists OFF

no long-lasting active connections to 8.8.8.8. They are used and successfully closed

Originally posted by @u17194907425 in #2578