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The scariest "user support" email I've received

devas.life

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Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#191

Post by indigo945 »

swiftcoder wrote: post #182
xg15 wrote: post #181

I think the first red flag for me would be that the user's reply completely mismatched with what OP wanted to know. > Can you tell me which Url, your OS, and browser? Kind regards, Takuya > Hey, Thanks for your previous guidance. I'm still having trouble with access using the latest version of Firefox on Windows It's difficult to describe the problem so I've included a screenshot. [...] Lots of users will ignore requ…

I don't read the response that way - it reads like fairly reasonable wording for a frustrated and moderately technical user. "I'm still having trouble" as in "my problem hasn't magically resolved itself since the last email". And "using the latest version of Firefox" as in "I'm going to preempt the IT guy asking me to install updates".

Besides, it answers two of the three questions:

> Can you tell me which Url, your OS, and browser?

> I'm still having trouble with access using the latest version of Firefox on Windows

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#192

Post by gus_ »

nerdsniper wrote: post #57

The binary itself appears to be a remote-access trojan and data exfiltration malware for MacOS. It provides a reverse-shell via http://83.219.248.194 and exfiltrates files with the following extensions: txt rtf doc docx xls xlsx key wallet jpg dat pdf pem asc ppk rdp sql ovpn kdbx conf json It looks quite similar to AMOS - Atomic MacOS Stealer. It also seems to exfiltrate browser session data + cookies, the MacOS key…

nowadays, restricting outgoing connections initiated by unknown binaries should be a must. Specially if it's launched from /tmp

Lulu or Little Snitch should have warned the user and stopped the exfiltration of data.

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#193

Post by freetonik »

radu_floricica wrote: post #176
mort96 wrote: post #157

Why would you ask ChatGPT to tell you what a base64-encoded string is? Just base64 decode it! This blog post's "investigation" is worthless when it's just copy/pasting what a chat bot said. There is no reason to rely on a chat bot for this.

"Why use a calculator all the time? Just use pen and paper!" ChatGPT is the right tool here, because it does the job, and it's more versatile. And underneath the hood it most likely called a decoder anyways.

There is no guarantee ChatGPT did the correct thing. There may be no indication whatsoever. This is not like comparing pen&paper to a calculator, it's more like comparing pen&paper to "calling a random, allegedly smart person on the phone".

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#194

Post by freetonik »

bandrami wrote: post #168
mort96 wrote: post #157

Why would you ask ChatGPT to tell you what a base64-encoded string is? Just base64 decode it! This blog post's "investigation" is worthless when it's just copy/pasting what a chat bot said. There is no reason to rely on a chat bot for this.

It was almost 10 years ago that somebody asked if there's a way to do a diff of two files if they aren't both in git.

I was a guest lecturer at a university, and got a glimpse of a staff meeting about the problem of plagiarism (in code assignments). It was a surprise to them when I asked "why wouldn't you use something like diff for obvious cases?". None of the computer engineering lecturers knew about diff.

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#195

Post by johnisgood »

torben-friis wrote: post #186
johnisgood wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean some people asked what "cat" is, then I remembered there was a time when I had no idea how to use mIRC, so whatever. In my defense though, I was REALLY young.

>In my defense though, I was REALLY young. No need to apologize, needing an excuse to lack knowledge is how we end up with people afraid to ask. I try to make it visible when I’m among juniors and there’s something I don’t know. I think showing the process of “I realize I miss some knowledge => here’s how I bridge the gap” might help against the current trend of going through the motions in the dark. It used to be th…

> needing an excuse to lack knowledge is how we end up with people afraid to ask.

While we should encourage people to ask questions without fear, this doesn't mean we should lower standards or simplify everything for the lowest common denominator (which seems to be trending a lot!).

That said, there is the real issue of "this must stay complex because that's how it really is" as well, undeniably so.

> It used to be that learning was almost a hazing ritual of being belittled and told to RTFM.

Been there! I think it did more good than bad to me though. Survivorship bias? In any case, I don't try to make the case here that it is optimal pedagogy. I wouldn't know. Thoughts?

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#196

Post by dmurray »

serf wrote: post #115
dmurray wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The engineers who wrote your browser already thought of this and made sure it wouldn't work. In case anyone mocks you for this, though, it's not a stupid question at all : there have been 1-click and 0-click attacks with vectors barely more sophisticated than this. But I feel 100% confident that in 2025 no browser can be exploited just by copying a malicious string.

>But I feel 100% confident that in 2025 no browser can be exploited just by copying a malicious string. that's a real far leap. Most OS have a shared clipboard, and a lot of them run processes that watch the thing for events. That attack surface is so large that 100% certainty is a very hard sell to me. Just for the sake of arguement, say clipboard_manager.sh sees a malicious string copied from a site by the browser…

This is a good point and it completely fits serf's concern. So OK, I change my answer, it is reasonable to be concerned about exploits from just copying malicious content to the clipboard.

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#197

Post by closewith »

DocTomoe wrote: post #165
jb1991 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are forgetting the world we live in now where, as time passes, fewer and fewer people will know how to do anything on their own and more and more will only accomplish things by using AI.

As a kid who was raised editing and tinkering memory blocks out of CONFIG.SYS, I've been watching this for a while when the GenZ-Mobile-Generation showed up and was not able to do the darnest things. I see with terror in my heart that the downward ride isn't yet over.

Can you grow your own food? Treat your own injuries? Build your own shelter? Repair your own appliances?

If not, you're already much farther down this dependency funnel that you believe.

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#198

Post by somenameforme »

DocTomoe wrote: post #165
jb1991 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are forgetting the world we live in now where, as time passes, fewer and fewer people will know how to do anything on their own and more and more will only accomplish things by using AI.

As a kid who was raised editing and tinkering memory blocks out of CONFIG.SYS, I've been watching this for a while when the GenZ-Mobile-Generation showed up and was not able to do the darnest things. I see with terror in my heart that the downward ride isn't yet over.

And it's little brother, autoexec.bat! The thing I found most bemusing through all of this is people insisting that people growing up with tech would somehow have this deep intuitive understanding of it. It made no sense. Using tech doesn't somehow make you aware of how it works. If anything, the refined final product can end up hiding it from people.

We all use elevators but know basically nothing about them -- hence the countless nonsense Hollywood scenes with a cut elevator cable (spoiler: you'd be fine). By contrast when they were first being introduced, every single person that rode on an elevator was probably quit well aware of the tension brake systems and other redundancies - because otherwise, stepping foot in one would feel insane. But when you grow up with them and take everything for granted, hey who cares - it works, yeah?

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#199

Post by dwroberts »

radu_floricica wrote: post #176
mort96 wrote: post #157

Why would you ask ChatGPT to tell you what a base64-encoded string is? Just base64 decode it! This blog post's "investigation" is worthless when it's just copy/pasting what a chat bot said. There is no reason to rely on a chat bot for this.

"Why use a calculator all the time? Just use pen and paper!" ChatGPT is the right tool here, because it does the job, and it's more versatile. And underneath the hood it most likely called a decoder anyways.

What are you talking about? How is it the right tool? You have a command you can use instead that will give back the exact answer, immediately, with no possibility of mistakes or hallucination

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#200

Post by huflungdung »

DocTomoe wrote: post #165
jb1991 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are forgetting the world we live in now where, as time passes, fewer and fewer people will know how to do anything on their own and more and more will only accomplish things by using AI.

As a kid who was raised editing and tinkering memory blocks out of CONFIG.SYS, I've been watching this for a while when the GenZ-Mobile-Generation showed up and was not able to do the darnest things. I see with terror in my heart that the downward ride isn't yet over.

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