--- Jonathan Hutchins hutchins@tarcanfel.org wrote:
On Tuesday 26 February 2008 13:06:06 Billy Crook wrote:
If one were to look at how their opt-out page works, you http get with a few args, one of which is your modem's mac address. You could just as easily post with any other cable modem's mac address, if say, you had multiple, and didn't want to visit each physical location of them, or maybe ....
... you could just type the correct url in the first place.
Yes, it's annoying. No, it's not the end of Western Civilization.
Get a grip, guys.
It may not be the end of Western Civilization, but its certainly being handled very insecurely by RoadRunner.
This guy (blogger link below) has done some poking around and discovered how RoadRunner is going about the "opt-in/opt-out" process for its new services (thats right, plural, see below), and it is a little scary from a security perspective.
http://rgov.org/road-runners-dns-wildcard
Basically RoadRunner is using an open HTTP GET request, and no SSL, for your "Preferences" page. It is possible for anyone to request the "Preferences" page for every single customer, and with this information you gain the geographical location of every single RoadRunner customer (and thus where to direct your own ISP's advertising to best effect, especially if you don't redirect "failed DNS requests" to an advertising page).
But RoadRunner has not one but *three* new services you can opt into or out of. Services which, when their options are set very unfavorably to the customer, result in an interesting and profitable situation for Internet Advertisers, and in particular a certain class of advertiser.
# Web Address Error Redirect Service: (the service everyone is complaining about, which sends you to a page containing ads from advertisers who are advertising with RoadRunner)
# Typo Correction Service: (fixes common typos in URLs, such as cmo or nte)
But the third one should be of some concern for those with small children:
# Safe Search Filter: "This preference allows you to restrict adult-oriented content from search results on the non-existing domain landing service."
Since there are only approximately 16,777,216 MAC addresses the way RoadRunner is handling the service, you could write a script which, for example, opted every RoadRunner customer *into* "Web Address Error Redirect Service", *out of* "Typo Correction Service" (which increases the possibility that the RoadRunner "Failed DNS Request" page will pop up), and *out of* "Safe Search Filter". And it wouldn't take long to run the script, or be much trouble to run it once a week.
And then you, as the owner of "Adult Content Website Advertising Consortium", then use the advertising revenue you collect from your adult website members to buy HUGE amounts of adult content web advertising. Every time a RoadRunner customer mistypes a URL, or types in a non-existent URL, the RoadRunner page will pop up and send adult content advertising related to the customer's failed URL request (Rule #34 of the Internet: "If it exists, there is porn of it.").
You don't even need to be an adult content advertising consortium. Just pay for "first placement" on the RoadRunner Ad Page...err, I mean "Failed DNS Request Page", and then run the script opting every RoadRunner customer *into* "Web Address Error Redirect Service" and *out of* "Typo Correction Service". The RoadRunner customer will see the RoadRunner "Failed DNS Request Page" more often than they would like to see it, and your ads will be seen more often than any other ad.
Spam has proven that many Internet Advertisers have no shame, decency, and/or ethics. This move by RoadRunner will be exploited, and exploited soon, and with any luck the complaints from customers (and the lawsuits from parents) will bring it to an end fairly quickly.
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