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CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

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Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#111

Post by JetSpiegel »

hellbanner wrote: post #10
crooked-v wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I'm looking for is a user-facing, user-friendly structure that A) Does only what the user wants to do eg. load site B) Explicitly does NOTHING else eg run javascripts for cryptocurrency. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/umatrix/ogfcmafjal...

Wish there was open-source browser that did this, with SecureBrowser*tm concept in my above post to automate this. This is a step in the right direction and does satisfy the 2 basic requirements I listed for more security, thanks for sharing!

> Wish there was open-source browser

uBlock works on Firefox too. Can't get more open shots than that.

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#112

Post by aaron-lebo »

jiggunjer wrote: post #82
cptskippy wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about a clever webgl shader to leverage the GPU?

Or a browser that offers a first-class mining API. Then we'll see every device come with a specialized mining chip. As long as you meet the required number of hashes you get the add-free experience.

Sounds like an abomination.

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#113

Post by Dolores12 »

Tepix wrote: post #108
brian-armstrong wrote: post #15

Is this a violation of the CFAA? Without explicit permission to do this, it seems an awful lot like unauthorized use

What's the difference (legally speaking) between a badly programmed inefficient ad that hogs your CPU and some mining code?

intention

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#114

Post by mercer »

brailsafe wrote: post #68

I bet some clever person on the marketing team just went ahead and inserted the tag. My first experience on a large corporate dev team was eye-opening. While the core product code was version controlled and reviewed, the marketing team had the power to insert any kind of scripts onto the page without clearance. In theory, anything new on the page would require many ridiculous meetings. In practice, they could and did…

Ha, that gives me flashbacks! I worked in a similar environment where more than once the production site(s) (multi-country deployment, big brand) would show a blank screen because some ad script did a "document.write". Or some hastily-added external dependency would stop working and render the site unusable.

The discrepancy between the care taken about deployment strategies and these regular issues always bothered me, but eventually things became more consistent. That is, our deployment strategy became haphazard and gung-ho too!

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#115

Post by NietTim »

callumjones wrote: post #97
brailsafe wrote: post #68

I bet some clever person on the marketing team just went ahead and inserted the tag. My first experience on a large corporate dev team was eye-opening. While the core product code was version controlled and reviewed, the marketing team had the power to insert any kind of scripts onto the page without clearance. In theory, anything new on the page would require many ridiculous meetings. In practice, they could and did…

NewRelic doesn’t let you add random JS, it only injects their browser monitoring script. Don’t spread fake news.

Right back at ya. https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/browser/new-relic-browser/ins...

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#116

Post by detaro »

Tepix wrote: post #105
Animats wrote: post #104

So where are the arrests under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act?

By visiting a web page with JavaScript enabled, don't you consent to running the code they send you? If so, there is no crime. By the way it appears we need a (configurable) CPU/GPU cycle limit for JavaScript code in browsers now...

By downloading an executable and starting it, don't you consent to it running on your computer? Despite this, distributing malware is illegal in most cases.

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#117

Post by rdlecler1 »

In the absence of an effective micropayment method, I could see this exchange of mining for content becoming main stream that replaces commercials. The cost to the viewer is ultimately a few cents of electricity, without the need for a bank account information, which the content producer indirectly turns into cash.

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#118

Post by icebraining »

rdlecler1 wrote: post #117

In the absence of an effective micropayment method, I could see this exchange of mining for content becoming main stream that replaces commercials. The cost to the viewer is ultimately a few cents of electricity, without the need for a bank account information, which the content producer indirectly turns into cash.

The cost to the viewer is ultimately a few cents of electricity

For a regular computer plugged-in to a real electricity network, maybe. For a person on battery, or trying to charge their device before going out, or on a limited power supply (e.g. small home battery supplied by solar panel, or a car charger), it's more than that.

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#119

Post by CoryG89 »

schwede wrote: post #57
thephyber wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a lawyer, so my opinion is worth what you paid for it, but... Without an authentication bypass, I don't think the CFAA applies (last I perused it). The end user probably doesn't have standing under CFAA unless the website's ToS suggested they would not act this way. If you, as a web visitor, visit a website you are largely at the mercy of whatever plugins they load onto your browser during that session. In ex…

But when I go to a website I expect to get the content. I don't expect the owner to use my computer for mining. That seems like unauthorized use to me.

But when I go to website I expect to get the content. I don't expect the owner to use my computer for running a bunch of tracking ad code. That seems like unauthorized use to me.

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#120

Post by CoryG89 »

xRahul wrote: post #93

So, I've heard it happening to thepiratebay before this. Does this mean someone at CBS uses pirate bay and got the idea?

I think it's fairly certain that someone at CBS uses pirate bay. Though I doubt that is the source of inspiration for this.
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