Recent web security panic!
VIRAND
Posts: 656
Over the past MONTH, I have been experiencing some bizarre malfunctions while on the web
at an increasing pace, having had to change and fix computers while on the web usually immediately
after mentioning large evil companies and how and why they are likely to go out of business just
like Enron and Madoff. I won't name names because I don't want another mess to clean up, but
apparently this is what is happening:
Something is bypassing software and firewalls and attacking hardware.
-Keylogging in BIOS
-Webcam and Microphone turning on and broadcasting WiFi before the OS even booted.
-A router no longer needs a password
-Machines with only LINUX (various distributions) and various browsers installed are affected.
-The browsers run things and get cookies even when told not to get THOSE cookies.
-Things are getting in that are specifically blocked.
-Youtube also turns on the microphone and webcam, which I physically disabled.
-No memory is allocated for storage.
-No downloading or P2P or "vice-ware" involved, these machines don't even have hard drives!
-Remote controlled navigation of web sites, scrolling and cursor and mouse movements.
-Write protection on SD cards is being ignored, and things being deleted.
-BIOS settings are being modified.
-There is not enough code or memory for code for usual malware.
-OS is installed in ROM, and cannot be modified by the PC.
-BIOS writing seems to be a major part of it unless there are a lot of pre-programmed bug chips in new computers.
-Java and Javascript forums like this one seem to aggravate the situation.
Since 2005, I abandoned Windows, and until last month have not had to waste half my time fixing computers.
It is incredible to see all this nonsense with all the effort I put into avoiding it.
I am now looking for a HARD, HOMEBUILT, NON-REMOTE-PROGRAMMABLE firewall or filtering proxy.
The world is strange, everyone is throwing away virus infested Windows machines and telling me how wonderful
they are to buy again, and now I am even thinking of getting rid of all of these PCs of Junk!
Any help blocking the hardware self-destruct codes, or filtering the evil java and scripts, and still having
web functionality would be appreciated. Of course, after all the BSoDs I've seen lately, I'll puke on you if you say
get WINDOWS 7.
Perhaps a DOS based browser or a 1981 Commodore 64 running GEOS or WHEELS will WORK RIGHT FOREVER.
I know how things work right. I made and use a lot of old stuff that has outlived any and all x86 GUI Garbage.
My PALM PILOTS still work. My Atari 800 still works. My TRS-80 still works. My walkman and boomboxes still work.
My Vinyl still plays, even the 100 year old stuff that you wind up the turntable for and sound comes out the horn,
and the one with the crank that plays wax cylinders, and my FIRST CD PLAYER from 1988, and the VCR
that's so old it DOESN'T EVEN HAVE THE BLINKING 12:00 FEATURE, my rotary phone and my tube radio still work too.
I hope that if I upgrade to a nice 486 machine, the hardware won't update itself with such dangerous insecure evil.
I never threw away a computer, and I'm sure one has PROM instead of FLASH on the motherboard, and UNIX is
faster than WINDOWS. I have KNOPPIX 6 (*) running faster and looking better than Windows 8 possibly could!
(*) Now THIS one is acting up. It's the end of the internet as we know it. All I had to do was type WINDOWS and
KNOPPIX on the same line. I'm using neither now, just a browser in a VM! OK, a tab just changed color. No I am
not tripping. Will it let me send before my BIOS goes blank?...NO?...TRYING AGAIN...
at an increasing pace, having had to change and fix computers while on the web usually immediately
after mentioning large evil companies and how and why they are likely to go out of business just
like Enron and Madoff. I won't name names because I don't want another mess to clean up, but
apparently this is what is happening:
Something is bypassing software and firewalls and attacking hardware.
-Keylogging in BIOS
-Webcam and Microphone turning on and broadcasting WiFi before the OS even booted.
-A router no longer needs a password
-Machines with only LINUX (various distributions) and various browsers installed are affected.
-The browsers run things and get cookies even when told not to get THOSE cookies.
-Things are getting in that are specifically blocked.
-Youtube also turns on the microphone and webcam, which I physically disabled.
-No memory is allocated for storage.
-No downloading or P2P or "vice-ware" involved, these machines don't even have hard drives!
-Remote controlled navigation of web sites, scrolling and cursor and mouse movements.
-Write protection on SD cards is being ignored, and things being deleted.
-BIOS settings are being modified.
-There is not enough code or memory for code for usual malware.
-OS is installed in ROM, and cannot be modified by the PC.
-BIOS writing seems to be a major part of it unless there are a lot of pre-programmed bug chips in new computers.
-Java and Javascript forums like this one seem to aggravate the situation.
Since 2005, I abandoned Windows, and until last month have not had to waste half my time fixing computers.
It is incredible to see all this nonsense with all the effort I put into avoiding it.
I am now looking for a HARD, HOMEBUILT, NON-REMOTE-PROGRAMMABLE firewall or filtering proxy.
The world is strange, everyone is throwing away virus infested Windows machines and telling me how wonderful
they are to buy again, and now I am even thinking of getting rid of all of these PCs of Junk!
Any help blocking the hardware self-destruct codes, or filtering the evil java and scripts, and still having
web functionality would be appreciated. Of course, after all the BSoDs I've seen lately, I'll puke on you if you say
get WINDOWS 7.
Perhaps a DOS based browser or a 1981 Commodore 64 running GEOS or WHEELS will WORK RIGHT FOREVER.
I know how things work right. I made and use a lot of old stuff that has outlived any and all x86 GUI Garbage.
My PALM PILOTS still work. My Atari 800 still works. My TRS-80 still works. My walkman and boomboxes still work.
My Vinyl still plays, even the 100 year old stuff that you wind up the turntable for and sound comes out the horn,
and the one with the crank that plays wax cylinders, and my FIRST CD PLAYER from 1988, and the VCR
that's so old it DOESN'T EVEN HAVE THE BLINKING 12:00 FEATURE, my rotary phone and my tube radio still work too.
I hope that if I upgrade to a nice 486 machine, the hardware won't update itself with such dangerous insecure evil.
I never threw away a computer, and I'm sure one has PROM instead of FLASH on the motherboard, and UNIX is
faster than WINDOWS. I have KNOPPIX 6 (*) running faster and looking better than Windows 8 possibly could!
(*) Now THIS one is acting up. It's the end of the internet as we know it. All I had to do was type WINDOWS and
KNOPPIX on the same line. I'm using neither now, just a browser in a VM! OK, a tab just changed color. No I am
not tripping. Will it let me send before my BIOS goes blank?...NO?...TRYING AGAIN...
Comments
the 6 appeared on the top line after there was some scrolling. Now it looks like a Sci-Fi computer going bonkers.
And whoever is in this machine knows there is no dirty pictures nor P2P apps to frame me with, nor any place to
put them in here.
It calmed down, but somehow some more packets got in...
I'll look at the ... Looking at the processes now... nothing unusual... HOW THE HECK CAN THIS HAPPEN?
Something comes to mind about "halloween documents", I'll try to look that up as a kamikaze mission.
Post Edited By Moderator (Chris Savage (Parallax)) : 1/19/2010 7:16:34 PM GMT
I am not really sure why your techno world is melting down.... it sounds like something out of an 80's scifi tech movie.... gone wrong. Could you give a short overview of what we could do to help you out? As for diagnosing what is going on.... you got me. I know you stated the older generations of stuff you have still works but it might be the EOL for some of those boxes you are using. -Alex
PS. ... WOW....
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Alex Burke
"Beware of computer programmers that carry screwdrivers." -Leonard Brandwein
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The Simple Servo Tester, a kit from Gadget Gangster.
Anyway, have you actually used tinfoil hat linux before?
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Alex Burke
"It is not how smart you are rather, it is how you are smart." -Jon Campbell
Post Edited (IRobot2) : 1/18/2010 7:15:02 PM GMT
Good Luck
Are you using a wireless keyboard or wireless mouse? You may be getting interference, or it may just be a case of low batteries. I've seen some of your reported symptoms on my Win XP machine, and changing the batteries in my mouse always fixes things. This also occurred once when I had two wireless mice on at the same time. Finally, if your keyboard and mouse are both hardwired, you may have a bad cable or connector.
-Phil
Post Edited (Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)) : 1/18/2010 9:37:13 PM GMT
Are you using a laptop?
I have had issues with synaptic touch pads under linux where the mouse cursor liked to scroll around by itself. I can't recall what kernel version this was however; something around 2.6.26-28?
there being no such thing as Rain.
On another forum someone said something like "What can you expect from something as unpredictable as
a computer system?" I laughed at that too because unpredictable computer systems are useless and
unfamiliar to me, except between 1995 and 2005 when I was forced to tolerate random BSoDs.
Looking things over, I find that YTIMG.COM can break and enter at any time after using Youtube.
It is blackhat spyware as far as I can tell, it can change BIOS settings and it turns on the microphone
and webcam if it is connected. That is its MAIN PURPOSE. It's secondary purpose is serving thumbnails
and ads, which for some reason I rarely see. It is BLOCKED but still gets in. It has a MULTITUDE of random
IP addresses. Believe me, you can still watch videos on Youtube if and when you can block YTIMG.COM,
and YTIMG.COM can enter even if you don't go to Youtube or a site that has a link to a video.
It is as dangerous as being fool enough to use FACEBOOK (and its trojan apps), which is voluntary spyware,
like taking off the beanie and opening your skull for all authority (i.e. your boss) to look for policy-violating
thoughts, and consequentially getting fired. If you have never heard of this scenario before then you have tinfoil
earplugs. As for turning on your mics and webcams if you have them, there is or used to be a setting hidden
on the video player lower edge that has switches for mic and webcam access THAT DON'T DO ANYTHING,
and YTIMG.COM may also be keylogging (why not or who else) since I've detected keyloggers outgoing
packets before, most recently while looking at a Wikileaks archive just after Wikileaks recently went down,
but it is more obvious when words like MIKRO$AFT, MAFIAA, and piRIAAtes are used, since there is an
immediate beginning of strange activity. THE MECHANISM SEEMS TO BE THE CORRUPTION OF THE STANDARD
JAVA AND JAVASCRIPT CODE. THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN ON ANY SITE WITHOUT JAVA OR JAVASCRIPT WHICH
WORKS WITH THOSE BLOCKED BY THE BROWSER unless, and until, the security settings and trojan plugins
have been installed by using a script site and enabling scripts. Since these forums sometimes require some
JAVA and JAVASCRIPT, that is why it happens here. I would like to know if the scripts on this site are from
SUN JAVA or M$ JAVA. The evidence suggests the latter, since M$ JAVA is intentionally corrupted. Proof
or Evidence beyond reasonable doubt if needed may be provided in a future post on this thread.
I am not (never was) a willing win user nor a EULA signer so I wonder if that makes any difference to
help litigators against M$, but they are already convicted and going unpunished, OR who knows? Maybe
they paid double their fines to make the EULA the next CONSTITUTION of the willfully AGREEing USA.
Generally all malware is enabled by failure to write protect. There is no write protect switch on an HD,
like on floppies and ZIP/JAZ and CDROM (esp. nonburning drives) and there is more than reasonable doubt
that SD write protect is implemented since it is not a real switch and Propeller FSRW doesn't obey it.
Since Flash BIOS is software programmable unlike PROM BIOS, it can be bugged. Malware can bug win
drivers also, but M$ probably uses them as bugs since most M$ drivers are redundant to the ones in
the BIOS (which obviously has drivers in it, for keyboards, video, disks, USB, network, mouse, PRINTER, etc.).
This is not a rant but factual technical info to the best of my knowledge, which includes the ability to build
a PC-like computer from scratch using NAND gates and then program and USE it, although it would NOT be
as powerful as most Parallax products. I designed and built some very thin client terminals in the mid 1990s, still alive.
I did have to use tinfoil on my wifi antennas to interrupt an attack in progress, by the way.
Just for fun and curiosity I will go see if there is a "Tinfoil Hat Linux".
The last attack was "undone" with a SYSTEM RESET and VM reload, which is not an option with "win" because
it makes you wait for it to be "safe" to pull the plug, plenty of warning for the malware you get to find somewhere
to hide from the fading ... unpowered ... unrefreshed DRAM memory.
Win or no win, Hard Drive failure is "unpredictable", which is why using them should be avoided,
(BTW, avoid deleting files except by wipe or reformat. Delete doesn't really erase, it just frags and corrupts.)
Whoa. This time I enabled JAVA+JAVASCRIPT and nothing happened. Even reloading the page,
The smileys didn't animate and
SUBMIT didn't do anything. It usually works to do a Quick Reply, now trying that.
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VIRAND, If you spent as much time SPINNING as you do Trolling the Forums,
you'd have tons of awesome code to post! (Note to self)
Enough wasting time on this nonsense. Obviously a distraction from soldering, because I want to hack the doody
out of the bugger, but I should just toss this box behind the recycle bin.
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VIRAND, If you spent as much time SPINNING as you do Trolling the Forums,
you'd have tons of awesome code to post! (Note to self)
No, I haven't. I like the picture though!
Rich H
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The Simple Servo Tester, a kit from Gadget Gangster.
I've had this under all operating systems if my mobile phone was near the touchpad when it checked into the tower. Took me _ages_ to figure out what was going on.
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Life may be "too short", but it's the longest thing we ever do.
I had to do CTR + ALT + DEL and end internet explorer. Now I am really worried from what Virand said. Now I'm afraid to turn off my computer because of what will happen when I turn it on again! [noparse]:([/noparse]....... Any suggestions of what course of action, if any, I should take.
EDIT: I did some research and it turns out ytimg stands for youtube image. Google bought youtube so apparently they added this for some copyright protection. Now that I know it is google/youtube related, I'm not as worried, though im still curious as to why ie stopped working.
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"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother."
-Lucky[size=-1][/size]
Post Edited (Lucky) : 1/19/2010 7:34:41 AM GMT
-Phil
I'm testing recklessly on the same box to see if it acts up after I just put the phone away.
I couldn't get online with anything else I tried all day.
I really hope that that is it. I reaffirm the synchronicity with having typed certain provocative things.
The first time it happened was just after I got the phone AND wrote about Big Evil INCs on the forum site of
a well known tabloid that 'prints all the news that fits'.
It is like how the sodium lights always go out when I walk directly under them at night.
My brother once told me that his phone really messes up his computer while his 1KW ham radio transmitter
does NOT. He even described all kinds of weird screen effects, but I guess I imagined it more like what happens
if you put a strong magnet on a color tube screen (warning, permanent damage, if you still have one), than the
unlikely seeming convincing illusion of remote access and remote control. PCs always used to freeze and halt
if they were glitched, until I rebooted. About those net terminals I mentioned making, I used to demonstrate that
they could withstand having the motherboard buried in small screws and nuts, shorting the bus, and having the
screen glitch up like an Atari if you yank out the game you're playing, and then the terminal would recover while
still powered up when the board was turned upside down so all the metal hardware fell off of it. It is a surprise
to me that any PC even in Linux could just misbehave while glitched by microwaves and not crash. BUT this month
is the first time ever since starting in 2005 that I've ever seen Linux malfunction at all!
IT LOOKS LIKE IT IS HAPPY AGAIN WITHOUT THE PHONE!
NOW, will the SUBMIT button do more than make a clicking noise?
If this is the last line then I correctly predicted YES!
THE BIOS WAS ALTERED. THE BOOT SECTOR AND OTHER CRITICAL THINGS WERE DELETED.
This microwaving your computer with a phone phenomenon is too dangerous to use as a prank!
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VIRAND, If you spent as much time SPINNING as you do Trolling the Forums,
you'd have tons of awesome code to post! (Note to self)
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Life may be "too short", but it's the longest thing we ever do.
That is wild. I searched for so long trying to figure out what was happening. I suppose it was coincidence that around the time I recompiled my kernel I stopped placing my phone near my laptop.
I will check this later when I get home.
Thanks!
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Parallax posesses power beyond belief.
Believe in it.
Visit me at
http://jrelectromech.services.officelive.com/default.aspx
·
Mind you 100W at 435MHz right next to this pull box does nothing !
but 5 W of 144.200MHz Sig just in my room and WHAM! there goes the alarm ..
also the the Cat5 UTP wireing in my home in CA gives off alll kinds of trash .
GSM is cute as it is its NOT RFI frendly .. My friends GSM ATT Phne is NOT allowed In my room as it does wacky things to my sound system
but My Verizon based thingy (gets better reception ) and does not put tons of trash on the air ..
I use RHEL 5.2 and I have never had a issue with it so far ..
Peter KG6LSE
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"Carpe Ducktum" "seize the tape!!"
peterthethinker.com/tesla/Venom/Venom.html
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. —Tanenbaum, Andrew S.
LOL
You could run it to a switch so you can update the bios eeprom later
if you need to.
Just imagine the effect the phone has on your brain when you hold the phone to your ear while actively talking on it........
Alex
Do you have any enemies? Hackers have demonstrated they can read keystrokes over power lines and use lasers to detect keyboard vibration on a laptop! hackaday.com/2009/07/29/black-hat-2009-powerline-and-optical-keysniffing/
I've read about viruses that can hide inside the unused keyboard processor memory. These viruses are very difficult to kill because every time you turn on your PC your computer will be reinfected from the keyboard.
Maybe you want to pickup an old PowerPC based Macintosh and run IPNetRouterX on it www.sustworks.com/site/index.html. Add to the fact there are no known viruses for OSX.
Which is why I use a bluetooth handsfree kit that hangs around my neck. It can affect my heart instead while my hand cops the big radiation [noparse]:)[/noparse] But, yes.. I'm pretty horrified by the thought of pumping all that RF into your noggin. Non-ionizing radiation indeed. Where's my Al-foil hat? (We don't do tinfoil in Australia. It's Aluminium)
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Life may be "too short", but it's the longest thing we ever do.
2. My keyboards have i8048 chips. No unused memory. Not rewritable devices. They can't get viruses.
If your keyboard has a virus, you either agreed with its EULA or your lawyer will return it to the manufacturer
for a million dollar rebate!
3. There are no known or possible viruses for ANY honest write-protected software. Tin foil existed when Edison recorded "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on it, but I think not since Aluminum foil was invented.