<html><head></head><body>Heh, heh. It would be way fun to proxy the phone home data stream and manipulate it in fun and random ways.<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On December 12, 2021 6:49:01 PM EST, Alex Carver <agcarver+ale@acarver.net> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<pre class="k9mail">I haven't gone poking around too much but I do know there are some open <br>ports according to a couple quick scans. Maybe during vacation I'll <br>poke around with it, possibly toss Kali against it.<br><br>If that were the case and I got in then I could at least turn off some <br>of the phone-home stuff. I won't let it on the network directly because <br>of that so I can't use the casting features.<br><br>On 2021-12-12 05:20, Jim Kinney wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #729fcf; padding-left: 1ex;">But, but, but, it was only done that way to provide the the best possible user experience </snark><br><br>If they have hard coded network addresses, I'll bet they also have hard coded root/admin passwords. Might even have an open port. That would be sad. <sniff><sniff><br><br>On December 12, 2021 4:37:34 AM EST, Alex Carver via Ale <ale@ale.org> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #ad7fa8; padding-left: 1ex;"> Oh they're very clever about it, too. Despite DHCP giving it DNS<br> servers that I control and despite the manual network configuration<br> exposing only two DNS server entries it actually has Google's DNS<br> servers hardcoded as a third server. So if I tried to blacklist<br> anything at my own DNS server, it would get around that by querying<br> Google directly.<br><br> I spotted that when I first got the TV and put a sniffer on it before I<br><br> let it out into the wild. It was querying 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 even<br> though I had manually configured it for my local DNS. When I let the<br> sniffer pass the DNS queries through it still used Google servers to<br> handle Vizio lookups to the mothership. Evidently the user configured<br> DNS is only for the extra applications like Netflix, Hulu, etc. while<br> the core spyware uses only Google for DNS.<br><br> On 2021-12-11 22:42, Bob Toxen wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"> GOOD FOR YOU to block it from spying on you and tattling!<br><br> Bob<br><br> On Sat, Dec 11, 2021 at 10:44:30AM -0800, Alex Carver via Ale wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;">I've got a two year old Vizio that has RCA L/R audio outputs on the<br></blockquote></blockquote>back.<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><br> Of course the TV does *NOT* have a built-in battery-backed RTC. It<br></blockquote></blockquote>wants to<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;">set its time every time you hit the power button via NTP and there's<br></blockquote></blockquote>no<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;">manual way to set the time either. So the firewall rewrites its NTP<br>requests to point to my internal NTP server and blocks all other<br></blockquote></blockquote>traffic so<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"> it can't call home like every other TV does.<br><br> On 2021-12-11 02:19, Steve Litt via Ale wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;"> Jim Kinney via Ale said on Fri, 10 Dec 2021 18:22:04 -0500<br><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #ccc; padding-left: 1ex;">Other days it's more like the vcr clock always<br>blinking "12:00" for lack of a $0.10 rc circuit to keep the clock<br>alive during a power blink.<br></blockquote><br> Speaking of for lack of, how many have noticed that oh-so-modern<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>TVs<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;">no longer have headphone jacks. You remember headphone jacks ---<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>you<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;">just patch the headphone jack to the line-in of any amplifier and<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>bang,<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;"> you've got sound, and the sound is controllable by your TVs volume<br> control.<br><br> But noooooo. That's just soooo *legacy*. Instead of a 30 cent<br> headphone jack, my Samsung TV has one of those silly "toslink"<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>infrared<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;">fiberoptics. So you have to buy a fiberoptic cable for about<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>$15.00,<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;">and then a $40 fiberoptic to line level converter, from which I can<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>use<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;">patch cords to go into my amp's line in. Because I don't have a<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>$500.00<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;">"home theater" system --- but rather have a $30.00 20 watt amp<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>that's<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;"> tiny and works just great for TV sound.<br><br> Well, after trying for days to get the toslink plus adapter to<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>work, I<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;">read that many Samsungs just don't work with those adapters. For<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>lack<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;">of a 30 cent headphone jack. Oh, and of course, the Samsung's<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>built-in<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;">speakers are guaranteed to be indecipherable, with various<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>oscillations<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;"> at frequencies guaranteed to obscure speech.<br><br> A couple weeks ago we went out and bought about the cheapest TV on<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>the<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;">market. Picture's not all that great but it had what we really<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>wanted,<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;">a headphone jack. Now we hear great sound that we can raise and<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>lower<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;"> with the TV remote. Life is good.<br><br> SteveT<br><br> Steve Litt<br> Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the<br></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>Successful<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #8ae234; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #fcaf3e; padding-left: 1ex;"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #e9b96e; padding-left: 1ex;"> Technologist <a href="http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques">http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques</a><hr> Ale mailing list<br> Ale@ale.org<br> <a href="https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale">https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a><br> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at<br> <a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a><br><br></blockquote><hr> Ale mailing list<br> Ale@ale.org<br> <a href="https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale">https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a><br> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at<br> <a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a><br></blockquote></blockquote><hr> Ale mailing list<br> Ale@ale.org<br> <a href="https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale">https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a><br> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at<br> <a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a><br></blockquote><br></blockquote><br></pre></blockquote></div><br>-- <br>Computers amplify human error<br>Super computers are really cool</body></html>