‘Nightmare Scenario’: Zero-Click Spyware Is Infecting Phones via Targeted Ads
www.wired.com
Researchers at The Citizen Lab have for the first time released technical evidence of sophisticated mercenary spyware being distributed via online advertising.
  • vision@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    50·
    19 hours ago

    The last time I opened the Wired site was like 10 years ago, it’s still telling me “You’ve read your last free article.” See you in 2036 ig

    • anon_8675309@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      4 hours ago

      Tells me that too. Then I copy the url into my readeck instance and it pulls the article for me and gives me a better reading experience.

        • Err(()).unwrap()@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          6 hours ago

          Literally none of that should be surprising for people who have a basic understanding of how the WWW works.

          Which, I’m starting to realize, is a depressively low fraction of the general population. I was taught this in middle school, for fuck’s sake.

    • floofloof@lemmy.caEnglish
      13·
      16 hours ago

      “You’ve read your last free article.”

      Do they know how ominous that sounds? It reads like they got mad at my freeloading and sent out a hitman.

      • jsnfwlr@lemmy.mlEnglish
        6·
        14 hours ago

        Or they know the date and time of your very natural death…

        You’ve read your last free article. We suggest going to the doctor for a full workup. Screen for everything. Get a will drawn up. Hug your kids.

    • Reannlegge@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      18 hours ago

      Wow they gave you a time to come back, they have just said I have surpassed my 5 free articles for years now, I think it is because I am using a “DNS sink hole”/adblocker I do not care enough to turn my pihole off just to try and read it.

      I have gotten a static IP, and clear my cache regularly since my last attempt to read a wired article so it is not that they are using anything to see that I have tried them before.

  • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    5·
    15 hours ago

    What is a DNS sinkhole and how is it related to the content of the article? Didn’t seem to mention DNS

    • chagall@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      16·
      15 hours ago

      What is a DNS sinkhole

      A DNS sinkhole is a little program that sits in between your computer and the DNS server that provides your internet lookups. It looks at all of your DNS requests in an unencrypted format. If a DNS lookup from your browser, mobile app or any other internet connected machine matches an entry it has in its “blocklist” then it returns a value of 0.0.0.0 (or some other customizable value including NXDOMAIN). But if the DNS entry is not on the blocklist, then that request will be forwarded to Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), Google (8.8.8.8), Quad9 (9.9.9.9) or other DNS provider and get an accurate value for the DNS lookup.

      Most of the time, the blocklists consist of adware domains such as Google Ad Services, Facebook Ads, Amazon Ads, etc. This has the effect of removing ads from devices that normally are unable to block ads such as ads inside mobile apps, ads in Roku, etc.

      how is it related to the content of the article?

      The article indicated that the malicious spyware was transmitted through viewable ads on the target’s mobile device. This is combated most effectively by using a DNS sinkhole.

      I should note that the article does not mention if current blocklists would have thwarted this attack. However, it does say that the ads were transmitted, in some instances, via Google Ad services, which these blocklists do effectively target.

      • cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        7·
        15 hours ago

        Unfortunately a lot of the magnificent 7 of advertisers have caught on to this and will serve ads dynamically in many of their platforms.

        • chagall@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          12·
          15 hours ago

          I’ve heard that before but I haven’t seen an ad in years. But I’m probably not the norm. Between userscripts, ad-removing frontends like invidious and choosing services like Lemmy over the competition, you can pretty safely remove ads from most platforms. Of course, Jellyfin helps 😂

    • Reannlegge@lemmy.caEnglish
      7·
      18 hours ago

      I have a finally tuned pihole that offers different blocking for different vLANs on my home network and VPNs, I would not trust a third party for ad blocking. However you do you.

      I was watching SomeOrdanryGamers video on this and his pihole did not block all the ads on an ad infected site, but mine could. I have used canyoublockit many times to stress test my system, wish there was something newer though.

      • lemmylump@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        16 hours ago

        Trust it, no.

        Is it better than nothing, yes.

        Listen, some folks can afford to build and dedicate time and resources to making a pi-hole for their network.

        Those who can’t need to know there are alternatives, some are better than others, I’m just sharing information.

        • Reannlegge@lemmy.caEnglish
          2·
          12 hours ago

          I meant no shade, I know it takes a lot of work to do everything I have done for security/ad blocking.