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Ask HN: Why does the US Visa application website do a port-scan of my network?

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Re: Ask HN: Why does the US Visa application website do a port-scan of my network?

#151

Post by swat535 »

rwmj wrote: post #68
mrtksn wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be quite clever for an incredibly horrible website. The other day my SO, who is a Turkish citizen, was filling up her visa application and after half an hour of meticulous form filling the system just kick her out. I think the session times out or something. If you haven't created an account or you haven't write down the current application ID everything is lost. In the process she was also directed to a n…

You might be making the assumption that the US wants to make the process easier.

If there is any conclusion to be drawn here, it is that the United States doesn't want foreigners in their land (for tourism or otherwise).

I'm not sure I see the upside of moving to a nation knowing that its citizens actively despise my existence.

Re: Ask HN: Why does the US Visa application website do a port-scan of my network?

#152

Post by throw10920 »

rwmj wrote: post #68
mrtksn wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be quite clever for an incredibly horrible website. The other day my SO, who is a Turkish citizen, was filling up her visa application and after half an hour of meticulous form filling the system just kick her out. I think the session times out or something. If you haven't created an account or you haven't write down the current application ID everything is lost. In the process she was also directed to a n…

You might be making the assumption that the US wants to make the process easier.

Not to defend the US immigration system, but my experience is that this user-hostile behavior (modulo the port scanning lol) is endemic across US government websites - including those that nominally want to serve you, those that are at the state level instead of the federal level (such as the DMV sites), and those that are even internal for use by government employees only.

It's bad enough that in some cases I believe the designers should be threatened with legal penalties.

Re: Ask HN: Why does the US Visa application website do a port-scan of my network?

#154

Post by surajrmal »

nicce wrote: post #100
dd_xplore wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that available in lite version too? Now that the origin js being phased out

You can't change browser? Or is there something bigger happening?

Not everyone wants to change browsers.

Re: Ask HN: Why does the US Visa application website do a port-scan of my network?

#155

Post by adithyassekhar »

JJJollyjim wrote: post #93
lordofgibbons wrote: post #90

How and why do browsers allow this? Why wouldn't the browser ask for permission in the same way that it does for Microphone access? It's insane to allow any random website to port scan my LAN. If this wasn't a "feature", I would have considered this a high severity vulnerability

Chrome doesn't allow it - local network services have to opt-in to being fetchable from public sites ( https://github.com/WICG/private-network-access ), although they're replacing it with a user-permission-based approach ( https://github.com/WICG/local-network-access ). (There is some language online suggesting PNA has not actually shipped, but I experienced it myself in stable Chrome several years ago, so I am unsur…

> Firefox doesn't implement either approach -- I assume this is indicative of their lack of development resources.

Since ublock had this as a feature for a long time, I'm sure they are aware of it. Unlike other non funded oss projects, Firefox can't and shouldn't shield themselves with this lack of development resource excuse. They have millions.

Re: Ask HN: Why does the US Visa application website do a port-scan of my network?

#156

Post by LarMachinarum »

dd_xplore wrote: post #96
b3lvedere wrote: post #91

"Since looking into it, I noticed that uBlock Origin already has the default list "Block Outsider Intrusion into LAN" but it wasn't enabled." Never knew that this existed. Thank you!

Is that available in lite version too? Now that the origin js being phased out

… or you can instead phase out those browsers who try to force blocker restrictions i.e. spyware on you (e.g. chrome and such), and use one of the browsers where you can use the full-featured (not "lite") uBlock Origin instead, e.g. Firefox.

Re: Ask HN: Why does the US Visa application website do a port-scan of my network?

#157

Post by LarMachinarum »

surajrmal wrote: post #154
nicce wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't change browser? Or is there something bigger happening?

Not everyone wants to change browsers.

then again, if the makers of one big browser (and via there also the derived browsers) start force-shoving spyware upon you (by restricting blockers), it comes down to a decision of how you set your priorities. Personally, It's a clear cut red line, but you do you.

Re: Ask HN: Why does the US Visa application website do a port-scan of my network?

#158

Post by AnotherGoodName »

mrtksn wrote: post #46
edarchis wrote: post #10

Visa application is riddled with scams. From the simple website that charges you twice the price to websites that will tell you that you were rejected and then fake your documents to get in with your name. So they're probably trying to see that you're not one of those web servers, a proxy for them or detect some known C2 channels.

That would be quite clever for an incredibly horrible website. The other day my SO, who is a Turkish citizen, was filling up her visa application and after half an hour of meticulous form filling the system just kick her out. I think the session times out or something. If you haven't created an account or you haven't write down the current application ID everything is lost. In the process she was also directed to a n…

The VISA appointment scheduling site rate limits to a ridiculous degree these days. As in refresh your page within 10seconds and get a 429 error.

That's probably because of the fact that the appointments are near impossible to get, they only allow booking a few months out and it's always completely booked. So everyone was refreshing (or if clever botting) to get an appointment slot.

Re: Ask HN: Why does the US Visa application website do a port-scan of my network?

#159

Post by more_corn »

jazzypants wrote: post #123
cromka wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You use the same system for Business visas. Hard to imagine US wouldn’t want those as easy as possible.

You don't have a good enough imagination for how stupid our current leadership really is.

I guarantee the visa system was created before the current administration.

Re: Ask HN: Why does the US Visa application website do a port-scan of my network?

#160

Post by balamatom »

b3lvedere wrote: post #91

"Since looking into it, I noticed that uBlock Origin already has the default list "Block Outsider Intrusion into LAN" but it wasn't enabled." Never knew that this existed. Thank you!

Massively improved my security posture with this. Thanks all!
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