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A Linux user's nightmare: the machine was wiped clean with one click (www.mikrobitti.fi)

submitted 8 months ago by RedditEnjoyer@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13400226

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[–] Wes_Dev@lemmy.ml 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I know this story is more-so about a trojan in a trusted place, and not general security, but I have an anecdote to share.

So, time to fess up here. I previously complained about Google trapping me in captcha-hell for enabling Ublock Origin.

I was wrong.

Turns out that I had visited a movie streaming site a while before to watch a season of some show, I forget which. Without any downloads or noticeable input on my part. My Linux box apparently got hacked/malware. All I did was click the occasional "I am a human" box on the website, and sit back with popcorn.

I found out when my ISP starting blocking IP addresses some time later. I checked my modem's logs, and they showed some unexplained traffic to impossible "unassigned" IP addresses afterward. I didn't notice for a while.

I was stupid. Even worse, my phone also started behaving badly after that. I think I watched the last few episodes in bed, so must have infected that too.

Don't assume any system is automatically safe.

[–] AProfessional@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I really doubt anything escaped the browser, but websites can make nefarious connections, sure.

[–] Wes_Dev@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I hope so. It's more likely something infected Firefox itself, and didn't get into the OS. But when I checked the modem logs, it happened up to a couple of months after the fact. That's worrying.

What's even more worrying is that a couple of websites told me I had an IP address that didn't match my home IP, but would provide the correct one if I refreshed the page a couple of times. So some kind of covert proxy or VPN type of thing was happening.

I ended up just wiping everything, to be safe. Still a bit paranoid though.