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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?

#191

Post by gmueckl »

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…

I had to deal with the DS-160 multiple times over the year. I don't think you give justice to how bad this website really is. I have started to notice that these "timeouts" are very random. At the worst times, the session "times out" immediately after login.

These random logouts happens more frequently during certain times of the day and seems to follow a semi-predictable pattern. It is almost certainly tied to system load in some way.

Also, the site's HTML and JavaScript are bloated beyond hope for what should be a fairly simple set of web forms. And itnhas been thisnway since at least 2018 with exactly zero improvements.

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

#192

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

throw10920 wrote: post #152
rwmj wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 believ…

> user-hostile behavior (modulo the port scanning lol) is endemic across US government websites

I discovered this when it was late at night and I was procrastinating going to bed and I was curious what my estimated Social Security benefit would be at retirement so I tried to log into mySSA and it said the website is closed from like 11 PM to 5 AM or something like that.

I couldn't believe it. I could understand a weekly several-hour maintenance/batch processing window, but DAILY?

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

#193

Post by klipt »

snapetom wrote: post #172
jazzypants wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I don’t know if you’re US-based or not but in the US, government work has the stigma of attracting the bottom of the barrel. It is nearly impossible to get fired for performance reasons. Combine low pay and high job security, and you’re not going to attract the most innovative, motivated, or competent people. Early in my career, I was warned that if I took a job with the state of California, I’d be stuck there for my…

> high job security

Not so much after DOGE fired entire departments for dubious reasons.

I don't know why anyone would work for the federal government now - pay still sucks, and job security has been demonstrated to no longer be guaranteed.

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

#194

Post by klipt »

filoleg wrote: post #127
bluGill wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spouses always get better treatment as there is a voter who would be mad otherwise. They check for scam marriages but otherwise hurry the process through - if they don't a voter contacts their congressman to push the process. That voter will also likely know a lot of other voters and thus influence the next election while someone not married is unlikely to have that local network to use.

This is patently false for one reason - once someone has a U.S. green card and has met the residency requirement to apply for citizenship, the application form and process are the same for everyone, regardless of how they got their green card (through work, marriage, asylum, investment, etc.). Once you are eligible to apply, the whole process is basically form N400->biometrics->interview (just doublechecking your nam…

Not exactly, if you're married to a citizen the residence requirement is 3 years not 5, and the form clearly distinguishes the 3 and 5 year options (3 years requires extra evidence of marriage and spouse's US citizenship)

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

#195

Post by adastra22 »

johncolanduoni wrote: post #182
adastra22 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m flabbergasted that this is even allowed. Who thought it was a good idea to allow any web page you visit to access your local network?

Internal apps on non-private IP addresses occasionally use this. There is a standard called Private Network Access[1] that requires these requests to have preflights like CORS requests. Only Chrome has implemented it so far. [1]: https://wicg.github.io/private-network-access/

Why though? What is the use case that demands this? It'd better be a real pressing need because the security risks are immense and obvious. This is a backdoor to every network firewall.

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

#196

Post by PaulHoule »

throw10920 wrote: post #152
rwmj wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 believ…

That e-filing web site for taxes has never worked for my son because he can’t complete the id.me process, it might be as simple as you are an unperson if you use an android phone or maybe because he’s just started in the workforce he does not have a long history of tax filing and credit history to match up with.

Two years in a row we’ve been able to fill out a 1040 and the NY state equivalent and make a paper submission in less time than it takes to reach an operator on hold.

These identity verification services look like a scam to me. LinkedIn incessantly hassles me to verify with CLEAR and it always fails without a clear error message, either “it just doesn’t work” or my hair has grown too much since I got my driver’s license or it is making me take my glasses off and comparing to a driver’s license photo where I am wearing glasses.

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

#197

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

kolla wrote: post #4

My biggest grief with that site is that it's like something from the 90s.

Looking like something from the 90s would be a feature, not a bug.

In the 90s and early 00s, we did tons of user-testing and feedback collection. We threw all that research away to create UX's that are minimal and "sleek". Tons of unnecessary whitespace and the concept of "Discovery" just thrown into the dumpster. Skeuomorphism was one of the greatest features of 90s-00s software, ironically thrown away as computers got faster and were able to handle the graphics better.

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

#198

Post by PaulHoule »

Our_Benefactors wrote: post #162
throw10920 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 believ…

This. The website for buying treasury products is straight out of the year 2002. The login is so bad I would never consider buying them there - the service fee charged by brokerages is absolutely worth it in this case.

Back when interest rates peaked around that period I bought a huge number of I bonds which were a great investment —- got fired by my broker because I interrupted a sales presentation with “why don’t I just buy I bonds?”

Back then I thought Treasury Direct was great.

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

#199

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

jeffbee wrote: post #135
trollbridge wrote: post #118

For another example, studentaid.gov doesn’t work in private browsing.

Isn't it sort of contradictory to try to use private browsing with a service that requires your identity?

Not necessarily.

I might create a login for a porn site so that I can have some favorite videos bookmarked and it can figure out the type of material I like. That doesn't mean I want my history saved locally.

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

#200

Post by adithyassekhar »

johncolanduoni wrote: post #184
adithyassekhar wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

A trillion dollar company (that loves huge vanity projects) gave up on maintaining a browser because it was too much work and just ship a Chrome fork now. I won’t defend Mozilla’s allocation of their resources, but even if they put it all into the “right” Firefox features the web platform is too complex and too much of a moving target for a company with mere centi-million revenues.

To be honest they weren't trying to build a better browser. Atleast not anymore, earlier edge was nice. They just wanted more data for ads / money. Going the chrome way was more profitable for them.

I thought Mozilla was different.

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