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Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

krebsonsecurity.com

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Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#121

Post by mikestew »

drdexebtjl wrote: post #28
m3047 wrote: post #20

Brazil. Last year I effectively blocked Brazil for a while. Ultimately I settled on three possibilities for the traffic I was seeing: 01: DDOS 10: Residential proxies 11: Somebody DDOSing residential proxies

I can’t prove it, but I live in Brazil and after getting a smart TV from LG, I started receiving challenges across all Google services, indicating they received bot traffic from my network. I only used apps from streaming services I actually paid for. I suspect these TVs either come with residential proxies set up from the factory, or they have such poor security that they’re instantly hacked. Either way, TV manufact…

There have been articles lately about the residential proxies loaded in apps for LG TVs. My LG has never seen a network connection, so I’m fuzzy on details.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#122

Post by drnick1 »

giantg2 wrote: post #19

So where can I get an actual privacy focused streaming box, even if the apps (Neflix etc) running on it are not?

If you want actual privacy (rather than promises from Apple or Google), what you need is a mini-PC running Linux with the Plasma Bigscreen DE. You then use a Web browser rather than invasive "apps" for your streaming. For Youtube, there is VacuumTube (an improved Youtube Leanback client). The main limitation is capped resolution on some commercial streaming services. I believe Windows does not have that restriction, so a VM could presumably be used for streaming (I have not tried).

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#123

Post by varispeed »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #6

> generic TV boxes that promise unlimited content streaming for a one-time fee I don't want to blame the purchasers of these things - who are some of the victims - but at the same time, it does seem like a Too Good To Be True situation.

I used to know someone doing this. They said they know it is too good to be true, but they hate corporations and it's their little way to stick one in.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#124

Post by mikestew »

timbit42 wrote: post #79
giantg2 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that Roku bypasses DNS blocking with hardcoded tables so it can report back on various data they track on you.

Can you monitor its traffic and block by IP?

I’m sure you could. At what point do you just rip out the thing that is trying so hard to work around your control of your network? An Apple TV doesn’t cost that much.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#125

Post by frollogaston »

mortenjorck wrote: post #3

In this case it’s actual malice, that the streaming stick is set up for residential proxy and ad fraud straight from the factory. But incompetence can lead to the same place if it’s a poorly engineered, un-maintained device with an old version of Android that will never be patched and is always one no-click exploit away from being commandeered into residential proxy and ad fraud.

Since these are poorly engineered, wonder how easy it'd be to reverse-engineer one and just get the free streaming on a non-scam device.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#126

Post by iamben »

Terr_ wrote: post #47
havaloc wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an elderly client who sends me links of stuff to buy all the time. One day it's one of these streaming sticks, the next day it's half-price stamps, and I tell her every time, please don't buy this stuff. And yet she does anyway, as if I was almost being mean and saying no just to say no. So yes, I do want to blame the purchasers of these things, sometimes. To prove her point that her stamps were legitimate, sh…

Perhaps they grew up in a time/environment where "if it was that bad they wouldn't be allowed to advertise it", and they're still using that old calibration?

I think that's a default for a lot of the older (and some of the younger!) generation, same goes for news and media. They grew up in a time where there was a practical barrier to publishing and (largely) laws behind you doing it.

So they trust literally everything they read. I still don't think my folks can fathom you can spin up a very real looking newspaper website with fake articles in about 10 minutes.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#127

Post by ta988 »

A familly member had one of those (he had to pay a yearly subscription in addition to the stick). Network would be unusable as soon as it was on for anyone else, and it also tried to scan things on the local network. It was indeed connecting to all kind of services all over the world (and saturating some tables in the router doing so which blocked other clients). Definitely evil, definitely on purpose.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#128

Post by nuxi »

weberer wrote: post #92
nvme0n1p1 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH - TV, radio, and YouTube are all unlimited and free. Why not streaming? There are lots of people alive who grew up during the days of broadcast TV and radio. I get why they might not understand the difference.

There are a ton of legitimately free IPTV streams. You can watch them through most media players like VLC without having to download anything shady. https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv

Two things:

- How are these "legitimately free"? For example AMC is a commercial TV channel and as far as I know, they don't offer free streaming. Same goes for MGM, FilmBox etc.

- Strictly speaking this isn't IPTV, it's just web streams. IPTV is usually delivered via multicast (MPEG-TS/RTP/RTSP streams, over UDP mostly).

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#129

Post by [deleted] »

glitchc wrote: post #72
em-bee wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why is running a proxy a bad thing? someone profiting off it could be bad maybe, but even that is good if it pays for my subscription. but compare running tor nodes, and especially exit nodes. that surely would be a good thing, so at least if you think tor is good then running a proxy should be the same and it should be normalized. doing it in secret without the user knowing is what's bad

Indeed without my permission is implied. Without it, you have no idea what traffic is being routed and could be on the hook for something nasty like CSAM.

[deleted]

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#130

Post by xyx0826 »

simojo wrote: post #108

We purchased a Chinese-made projector from Amazon, which was surprisingly inexpensive (~40 USD). Upon connecting it to the internet, it placed a constantly running feed of ads on the corner of the screen, even while movies were playing. There was no way to disable it either. Even though it's not a stick, it's a similar principle.

I remember reading an analysis on one of those projectors; the author found a residential proxy running on their device. I would recommend keeping these things off the internet.
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