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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

#371

Post by Scoundreller »

bityard wrote: post #225
mmooss wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can imagine many on HN having excited discussions about their satellite descramblers. > do it because they can get away with it. Lots of people on HN download and upload copyrighted materials. Is it really different?

Fine, you've nerd-sniped me. I tinkered with Dish Network descrambling 20 years ago. Not because I wanted to just watch a bunch of free TV (I hardly watched any TV anyway, we mostly watched DVDs from the video store and Netflix). More because it felt like an interesting rabbit hole. And it was pretty interesting! I picked a good (newer!) satellite dish and LNB from the trash and had a friend help with the installatio…

I recall the “free to air” receivers being pretty easy to configure. My main pita was getting a cheap ftdi usb->serial adapter because that’s how old the underlying tech was. Still easier than jtagging an official receiver.

I migrated into it from the earlier days involving iso7816 card programming and mitm cards so I guess I didn’t have trouble finding which sites to get the fta files. I have good memories of those places being quite welcoming if you did your reading but sometimes ephemeral. Plenty of freeware (but sometimes delayed access). But part of the “payment model” was sevurity vendors trying to destroy their competitors or sell more countermeasures and card swaps to their satellite tv broadcast clients (!!!).

A card swap (and some prosecutions on the nudge nudge “free to air receiver” importers) put an end to most of it unless you went to internet-key-sharing systems where I guess the shared keys come from a handful of slave receivers somewhere. Given the 2-way nature of those key “subscriptions” and network connections required, I could (moreso) understand the paranoia of the operators.

Broadband penetration ultimately killed sat cracking, Netflix et al too. Oh, and what people usually call “iptv”.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#372

Post by tjpnz »

kube-system wrote: post #151
glitchc wrote: post #4

Defrauding ad networks doesn't seem like a bad thing, although using my internet connection as a proxy is obviously terrible. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that my connection is being sold as a VPN service by the vendor.

Fraud is also bad, even if you aren't fond of those being defrauded.

What about all the fraud committed by the online ad industry?

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#373

Post by Scoundreller »

bluedino wrote: post #119
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.

Most people who buy these want to watch free movies, sports streams, etc that aren't on OTA or free services

Or straight up unavailable on paid services. There’s often no way to legitimately subscribe to programming from $HomeCountry, especially if you’re not in a big Diaspora country.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#374

Post by Scoundreller »

atum47 wrote: post #240

Got myself a mi box with a custom launcher. Way better than any other Smart TV out there. Unless there's a smart tv that does not show ads right on the fing front page. Anyway, the box is powerful enough to do several things. You can install a IP tv if you want. If you don't, you still have a pretty good media center (you can hook up an external hd on it)

Though I do then wonder about some of the iptv apps even the ones provided through paid subscriptions but that’s already on the dark side; but not as dark as these “buy once” 1000s of pirated channels devices

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#375

Post by dfxm12 »

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 doubt there ever was a time/environment. Snake oil has been around consistently for a very long time.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#377

Post by eddythompson80 »

mattmcknight wrote: post #195
SoftTalker wrote: post #145

> Despite repeated warnings from the FBI and security industry leaders about the security and privacy risks of using these streaming devices, major e-commerce providers like Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg and others continue to sell hundreds of different models and brands I scanned the comments and I didn't see anyone suggesting that these companies should share any responsibility for selling these harmful products. Why is…

This is why I hate the "marketplace" of these stores. In many cases these products never hit their inventory at all, they are functioning like a search engine and payments processor.

That’s generally in their definition. “Amazon Marketplace” came out in 2000 allowing 3rd party sellers on their platform. However, until maybe the mid 2010s, they favored product sold by Amazon over 3rd party in their results and recommendations. I remember numerous forum and Reddit posts from the late 2000s about “How Amazon scams 3rd party sellers” by only wanting them there to give the illusion that they have everything but once some category starts selling, they will vendor it too and steal your customers.

At some point in the second half of the 2010s Amazon figured out they can’t compete with a million foreign randomly-generated companies on price, and their users didn’t seem to mind too much. They figured their users cared about delivery times, ease of returns, ease of dealing with Amazon instead of dozens of online sellers, etc and they leaned heavily into that. They will handle fulfillment and take their cut and let people buy whatever garbage they want. They still screw sellers too btw. Ask any one who is trying to sell something on Amazon and they will fill your ear with how much leverage amazon has over them. You can check r/FulfillmentByAmazon/ Or r/AmazonSellers for stories.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#378

Post by jojobas »

zeroq wrote: post #271

tangent thought experiment So you bought that top of the line security-as-a-product thingy you can stick in your rack and it will make sure that your network is impenetrable? You know, like those CISCO bricks everyone major company is buying. So have you took an extra precautions to make sure that the firmware on the device is pristine? Do you know anyone who ever touched these devices who actually did? Do you see th…

Cisco bricks leave the factory as pristine as they can be. An intercept sort of attack is possible, but involve quite some effort and risk.

These sticks leave the factory with malware pre-flashed, the postman brings them to your door with zero risk for the beneficiary.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#379

Post by Nursie »

femto wrote: post #370
Nursie wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It turns out that nearly every tomato paste in Australia comes from Xinjiang in China I think that might be a bit of a strong assertion, from your article there - "It analysed 221 processed tomato products from 39 brands, including paste, passata and diced tomato. Twenty-two per cent of the products failed country-of-origin testing, while a further 6 per cent were flagged for further testing." So while 28 percent i…

A big chunk of that 72% are legitimately labeled "Made in China" or niche brands. The brands that failed, plus the products that are actually labeled "Made in China", dominate Australia's four supermarkets with the majority of the market share. I've just done my weekly shop, so trawled their web sites looking for alternatives. Summarising the Australian situation, taking the 4corners results into account, the followi…

> Woolworths (38% market share): 1 x 140g premium product (Mutti) in a tube (expensive with reduced market share) out of about 20 products.

Eh ...

"Well-known tomato brands that passed country-of-origin testing include Mutti, SPC, Woolworths, Providore D'Italia and Annalisa. Diced tomato cans and passata from Leggo's and Coles also passed."

So here are 4 tomato pastes in woolworths that would seem to pass the test of not being from China and not being liars, just from a quick search (and I have seen all these in my local) -

https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/290303/mut... https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/218066/mut... https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/901431/mac... https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/150875/pro...

I usually buy Mutti stuff because it's low-ish salt, and that claims to come from Italy and wasn't implicated in the report here. And while I understand those are at the 'premium' end, it's not like it's one product on the end of the shelf either.

It's true that "Leggo" occupies a lot of the shelf space and a lot of the cheaper 'own brand' stuff is labelled as coming from China. And coles appears to be in a weirder/worse spot that woollies, with only Providore being Italian and two brands of turkish tomato paste, which is interesting.

It's sad that I can't find an Australian tomato paste that isn't a liar.

So I'm still not fully on board with "nearly every", OTOH thanks for the further information. I shall continue to try to avoid these products!

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