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"Dead Drops" is an anonymous, offline, p2p file-sharing network in public space

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Re: "Dead Drops" is an anonymous, offline, p2p file-sharing network in public space

#51

Post by sigstoat »

baltcode wrote: post #35
NonOrthodox wrote: post #30

I have thought for ages of something like this, but instead of usb drivers, a wifi box with a big harddisk. You would connect to the wireless network, open browser at 192.168.0.1 and instead of a router's page, you would get to a website, with a nice interface, where you could select the files you wanted to download or upload others. I even did some drawing and thought of solar pannels and batteries to keep it going…

Don't wireless networks know the other parties MAC IDs?

they know whatever MAC address you're using at the time, sure. if that happens to be 06:66:de:ad:b3:3f, then anyone later inspecting the logs will probably be disappointed.

Re: "Dead Drops" is an anonymous, offline, p2p file-sharing network in public space

#53

Post by VBprogrammer »

sigstoat wrote: post #50
VBprogrammer wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention potentially killing the next person to try to use it.

Since you can only touch one conductor of a USB connector at a time (or really at all) unless you stick your tongue into it, then any mains power applied to it is going to be hard pressed to cause you anything besides an uncomfortable tingling.

Hold a live power cable while walking barefoot across wet grass and I doubt you'd live to tell the tail.

Re: "Dead Drops" is an anonymous, offline, p2p file-sharing network in public space

#54

Post by sigstoat »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #53
sigstoat wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you can only touch one conductor of a USB connector at a time (or really at all) unless you stick your tongue into it, then any mains power applied to it is going to be hard pressed to cause you anything besides an uncomfortable tingling.

Hold a live power cable while walking barefoot across wet grass and I doubt you'd live to tell the tail.

Ah, so you do remember that the current is going to have to flow through you, and that will need something a bit more conductive than pavement and shoes.

Re: "Dead Drops" is an anonymous, offline, p2p file-sharing network in public space

#55

Post by Osmose »

sweis wrote: post #12

It is a bad idea to plug untrusted hardware into your computer. Many Windows users have autorun enabled, so could be infected with malware as soon as they plug it in. This has been exploited by people pretending to run promotions and handing out infected USB drives in front of targeted businesses. Worse than autorun, there have been buffer overflows against USB drivers and proof-of-concept exploits that allowed Firew…

It's a similar risk to using a file sharing network though. It depends on the type of files you're downloading, of course, but lots of people don't check an EXE before running it.

Although you often have the wisdom of the crowd when downloading files; if 1000 people are sharing/seeding, then the files are probably* safe.

* Possibly a terrible assumption.

Re: "Dead Drops" is an anonymous, offline, p2p file-sharing network in public space

#56

Post by jackolas »

derfclausen wrote: post #33

This is as "anonymous" as a public mailbox. This is trivial to monitor, and said monitor could easily perform a diff of the drive after each contact. Real dead drop locations are typically only known by the involved parties, are ad hoc, and move frequently. Don't get me wrong -- it's an interesting and sort of amusing project. I don't mind most of the terminology they're using, but I think it's dangerous to call some…

Well if theres enough of them that'd be beyond trivial.

Re: "Dead Drops" is an anonymous, offline, p2p file-sharing network in public space

#57

Post by jackolas »

NonOrthodox wrote: post #30

I have thought for ages of something like this, but instead of usb drivers, a wifi box with a big harddisk. You would connect to the wireless network, open browser at 192.168.0.1 and instead of a router's page, you would get to a website, with a nice interface, where you could select the files you wanted to download or upload others. I even did some drawing and thought of solar pannels and batteries to keep it going…

It could do virus scans. So thats a bonus. Maybe if this project works that could be next.
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