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Windows DRM-Protected Files Used To Decloak Tor Browser Users (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via BleepingComputer: Downloading and trying to open Windows DRM-protected multimedia files can deanonymize Tor Browser users and reveal their real IP addresses, security researchers from Hacker House have warned. On Windows, multimedia files encoded with special Microsoft SDK will automatically open an IE window and access a URL to check the file's license. Since this request is sent outside of the Tor Browser and without user interaction, this can be used to ping law enforcement servers and detect the user's real IP address and other details. For example, law enforcement could host properly signed DRM-protected files on sites pretending to host child pornography. When a user would try to view the file, the DRM multimedia file would use Internet Explorer to ping a server belonging to the law enforcement agency. The same tactic can also be used to target ISIS militants trying to view propaganda videos, illegal drug and weapons buyers trying to view video product demos, political dissidents viewing news videos, and more. A video of the attack is available here.
So opening an WMV in windows media and phone-home to a server... couldn't the same be done with Adobe reader and PDFs? Or with countless pieces of software out there?
Fast Federal Court and I.T.C. updates
Of course that means the FBI has be able to host the files on the server, and has to have sufficient control to deliver a uniquely keyed file to the users they wish to target. Sort of implies you have hit a honeypot if they get you with that.
1. Determine which TOR-nodes you're talking to. (Netstat or Ethereal) /32s the TOR-nodes are on through the ISP router
2. Remove default route through your ISPs router
3. Add specific routes to the
Traffic routed through TOR will work fine.
Traffic going outside of TOR will fail except for the local network (your home or office LAN).
E
So tired of these stories making reference to pedos. Sure they exist, but every time the govt is caught spying, the media trots out the pedophiles to justify it. Not everyone who views "questionable" content is a crook. I've read plenty of articles, and watched plenty of videos, on how to make bombs and explosives, yet have never actually made one. Nor do I ever plan to do so. Forbidden knowledge and all that.....
They aren't using it to watch entertainment videos. They are going to underground web sites (child porn, drugs, weapons etc) and being tricked into viewing a video put there by law enforcement that is designed to phone home in this way.
stop using IE (physically break it) .asf .wma .wmv files. seriously these formats should be erased from existence!!!
stop using windows
stop using
deny all media players access to the web. seriously no video or music HAS to have access to the internet unless it has drm shit. and you should NEVEr buy drmed music or videos. if you want lyrics, open your browser.
This is kind of no-brainer since it says, right in the Tor Browser FAQ [Section B], not to torrent while using the browser:
"Don't torrent over Tor
Torrent file-sharing applications have been observed to ignore proxy settings and make direct connections even when they are told to use Tor. Even if your torrent application connects only through Tor, you will often send out your real IP address in the tracker GET request, because that's how torrents work. Not only do you deanonymize your torrent traffic and your other simultaneous Tor web traffic this way, you also slow down the entire Tor network for everyone else."
https://www.torproject.org/download/download.html.en#warning
The Windows media player - at least through Windows 7 - had an option to "download usage rights automatically when I play or sync a file". I wonder if this "attack" still takes place if this feature is not enabled.
For example, law enforcement could host properly signed DRM-protected files on sites pretending to host child pornography.
Apparently it's no longer even worth noting that representatives of the US government will run a child porn site offering downloads!
Again.
Yes, "pretending". So a honeypot without honey. That'll get real far now won't it?
Why not just get a list of all this weeks files of interest found on the net. All the files of interest created and shared over a few days.
Give the checksums to all the big US OS brands to add to their new OS AV efforts.
Recored every IP that responds to a checksum as part of anti virus spread tracking if the user "allowed" such self reporting to the OS.
Use the advanced and near instant indexing on most modern OS to report the file when it is opened and have the users OS report that file on the OS brand?
Remove and replace the checksum list for next week so it will not slow any modern computer down.
Any advance user could test the file in any way and find no issue.
A new OS AV update of a few megabytes spread over a few days per week could hold how many new file checksums per week every week?
The OS would do all the reporting on an average user who trusted the OS brand with AV.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Well if you're up to no good you certainly should learn linux and also get some good info on computer security. Use one computer for fun, youtube, surfing, contacting family and friends, playing games. For anything where security is paramount you should use a hardened system. The more dire the ramifications of a breach the more hardened. Perhaps a CD based OS that is impossible to overwrite the system files. A custom built router with a good open source router OS. Keep all files encrypted on a removable micro-SD card. I'm sure if I was involved in anything like this I'd think of other things to do and avoid. Mostly I'm astounded by how careless people engaged in seriously illegal activity often are.
I have to wonder at the ethics of law enforcement hosting illegal content.
Vice has an article titled "Countries that Use Tor Most Are Either Highly Repressive or Highly Liberal," that you might want to read.
If that were the only reason to use Tor you would be absolutely right. But my understanding is that Tor is also used (used more in fact) in countries where the governments will throw you in jail or kill you for the only reason of trying to exercise free speech. Those governments can employ the same tactics to find and jail political dissenters. And that would be a shame. It would be nice to be able to figure out the wheat from the chaff. But there are many governments that I wouldn't want making that determination, including the one being lead by the latest POTUS. In fact Tor might become a necessity for free speech in the USA soon.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
"First they came for the kiddy fiddlers, and no one objected..." Then a month from now, the FBI is ordered to embed these bugs in videos of services at mosques, and videos of anti-Trump protests, and videos of CNN interviews, and seed them all around the internet to build The Bigly List of Brown People and Dissenters.
In the Bush era, I would have laughed this off as a slippery slope argument. In present times, knowing what Snowden has taught us and watching the current political climate, I don't see it as a laughing matter.
If you require perfect opsec all the time, you are doomed eventually.
Also, who the hell does this? The only sane way to use TOR for something dangerous is on a machine that has never and will never be connected to the internet directly or through NAT. And that computer's only network jack should be plugged into a disposable router running a bootable live system that does all-TOR all-day.
In other words, even if the client computer is trying to turn you in, which it is, it shouldn't know anything other than the reserved/private IP that your router gives it and the IP or onion address your browser is visiting.
See that "Preview" button?
Law enforcement should be not allowed to host child porn, even if it is trapped. It is clearly entrapment. IMO this is clearly a serious breach of the laws. If the material is illegal, then law enforcement should not be allowed to present it to the public. It presents a danger to the casual web surfer that is artificially implanted. The material is illegal. Period. No honeypots should be allowed.
Clickety Click
install Linux. Heck, in a VM if you're lazy.
In a VM if you're smart.... https://www.qubes-os.org/
From the summary:
"target ISIS militants trying to view propaganda videos, illegal drug and weapons buyers trying to view video product demos, political dissidents viewing news videos"
Last I checked, merely viewing propaganda videos, product demos, or news videos is not illegal. At least not yet.