Are we not going to talk about the TV uploading 60 mb/day?
72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
51–60 of 673 posts
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#52Another step in the silly device manufacturer / device owner arms-race. As long as people keep rewarding device manufacturers who treat owners as tenants it will progress. I wish people would just stop buying this garbage. They won't, though-- they see the features but not the down-side. The next step will be hard-coded DoH server IPs. Sly owners will NAT those to a transparent MiTM proxy. Then device manufacturers w…
> It will put a hard "expiration date" on the device's functionality when a link in the PKI chain expires. If you're certificate pinning an IP address for use with your own software, you can just create a self-signed cert with expiration date set to 2999 or some commonly ridiculous date you don't expect your devices will live to.
Why would they do that when they can force you to update your firmware by setting the expiration to a year or even less. This way you are guaranteed to be communicating with the mothership and the devices will incorporate any new malfeatures the manufacturer conceives.
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#53I’m responsible for a bunch of IoT hardware, and every firmware spec I write includes a note on not using the DNS servers provided via DHCP. While sure there are companies explicitly doing this to avoid filtering, at least in my case it’s because a significant proportion of DHCP servers are configured to send DNS to your ISP, and ISP provided DNS is almost universally terrible. They’ll ignore TTLs, rewrite NXDOMAIN r…
> ... and the response to that is hardcoding a set of known good DNS servers which we can rely on. Netgear, at one point, also decided that hard-coding an IP address (for NTP, not DNS) was the best solution [0]. -- [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTP_server_misuse_and_abuse#Ne...
As opposed to? I thought you had to specify your DNS server as an IP address. How would it resolve itself?
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#54> Smart devices manufacturers often “hard-code” in a public DNS server, like Google’s 8.8.8.8, and their devices ignore whatever DNS server is assigned by your router - such as your PiHole. Going to be a sad day for those advertisers when the DNS project gets killed by Google. Hopefully they are smart enough to set a alternate as well.
I don’t understand the downvotes. Google has a long history of killing projects. Of all the public DNS to trust, why does anyone have confidence in Google? Because they’re big?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 1500 times...
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
DNS over secure channels is actually good - it limits bad behavior by ISPs. The problem of shitty devices on your private network is a different one.
At this point it is really tough to find devices that don't leak data like a sieve. I recently bought a car, and could not find one without a cellular modem and microphones. Removing the modem voids the warranty. The period where you can opt out is mostly over.
The Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act of 1975 ensures that’s not the case in the US. I suspect something similar is true in EU.
For the manufacturer to avoid a warranty claim due to a modification or aftermarket part, they must show that the defect was linked to the part or modification.
They might have to show that it was caused by, but in any case, if your paint fails prematurely, they can’t say your warranty is void because you disabled the cell connection.
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#56I'm not sure if its worth posting, but I just installed pihole and its great. You dont actually need a pi, you can run it in docker. its nice that you can see all the dns queries that are happening.
I think you meant to say that you don't actually need a Pi. It's unfortunate that they named it that way. Never name things after the technology involved in making them work, because if your thing is any good, it'll spread to other devices/languages/operating systems.
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#57Just don't buy smart TV, or any of that IoT crap. It is possible to buy 58 inch dumb TV, connect that to a machine you own.
Just don’t ever connect it to your network.
How do you do this? Wrapping it in grounded tin foil? Ripping out the wifi module?
Do I need to void warranty and dissect a new piece of consumer electronics to remove the spy organ? Is that really an acceptable situation?
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ... and the response to that is hardcoding a set of known good DNS servers which we can rely on. Netgear, at one point, also decided that hard-coding an IP address (for NTP, not DNS) was the best solution [0]. -- [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTP_server_misuse_and_abuse#Ne...
As opposed to? I thought you had to specify your DNS server as an IP address. How would it resolve itself?
> As opposed to?
As opposed to the IP addresses that your DHCP server told you about.
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#59I'm not sure if its worth posting, but I just installed pihole and its great. You dont actually need a pi, you can run it in docker. its nice that you can see all the dns queries that are happening.
I think you meant to say that you don't actually need a Pi. It's unfortunate that they named it that way. Never name things after the technology involved in making them work, because if your thing is any good, it'll spread to other devices/languages/operating systems.
You're right, I've corrected.
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#60In this point in time everything is compromised. It is a business function not user oriented design. If you affect the bottom line you actively making a statement in this. Don't buy smart IoT shit, don't buy new phones, don't use entertainment services. This is how you will make a difference. Waiting for legislation to remove corporate malpractice is absurd. Politicians are fighting who will get "retirement" benefits. The only voting mechanism in our disposal is money, voting with your money always counts.