Connections to various google hosts without intervention.

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MishaSherpa

FIXED / Thank you

Post by MishaSherpa »

Thank you Clem!
This is nice news and great to see so fast.
Mint does great work.
This will soon be a non-issue. Clem has issued a fix on GitHub just over an hour ago that removes the hard coded ping to Google.com from "mintUpdate.py" which, after reading the change log, will rely on the user-set domain in MintUpdate's preferences.
And here's the link to the change log page:

https://github.com/linuxmint/mintupdate ... d6df6c1786
Experience tells me that this fix should be pushed as an update within the week.
Last edited by MishaSherpa on Sun Oct 20, 2013 3:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ebart

Re: Connections to various google hosts without intervention

Post by ebart »

Hi there,

Thanks to everyone who posted these concerns about strange connections. I have installed MInt 15 xfce, and in my case the "strange connections" happens before the login screen appears. I don't get a login screen if there is no network (internet) connections. Maybe this is the fix :shock: that you are talking about!!!!!.
MishaSherpa

Re: Connections to various google hosts without intervention

Post by MishaSherpa »

Hi Ebart,
I'm not sure what issues you are having with your login screen. The mintupdate issue has been fixed in the programming for future releases. I think LM15 was already out before this fix, so your system is not being affected by any code changes, as I understand it.

Linux Mint needs to check to see if you have an internet connection. The program that does this is
/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/mintUpdate.py
You can change the URL that is pinged by editing that file manually.

It sounds like you are having a different issue with your login screen
ebart

Re: Connections to various google hosts without intervention

Post by ebart »

Hi MishaSherpa,

I don't have any problems with my login, I just gave up after 2 minutes waiting for the login screen. I have timed the delay and it turns out that it takes on average 3 min and 20 sec with my ethernet cable disconnected and roughly 1 min to get to login screen when the ethernet cable is connected. I don't know if these same times others experienced (I have an older pc with Intel DualCore and 2GB of RAM) and I know that is not a problem with my pc, because I used other Linux flavors and on most I get a login screen within 30 sec.
I don't know if you are part of the Mint team (legal or otherwise, because I see that your are doing the most defending regarding the problem with this "call-home" feature).
The way Mint have implemented this is a bit strange, and it reminds me of facebook when it come on the scene, and started calling home even before I logged into windows (yeah I use windows sometime). From the press reports we have seen lately (I hope that you saw them too), a feature that "calls-home" is not viewed with kind eyes by the users that likes their privacy. It looks to me that Mint is turning into windows with all the windows ports opened by default, and maybe other hidden features that we, users didn't find yet. Rememeber what Richard Stallman from Free Software Fundation said about ubuntu that is hidding shell code into its kernel.

On a hypothetical view, let's say that I build some fancy armchair that does lots of cool things (even making breakky when you play games :idea:, etc) and is very popular with users. I offer you this armchair for free, and you happy accept the offer, take it home, and when you plan of using it, you get people knocking on your door, offering you some other stuff. You then ask yourself how this people knew that you got a new fancy armchair, where you live, your contact details and such. At this moment you call me, very angry that I have invaded your privacy and ask me if that armchair has other hidding features, I will say that it doesn't, and you keep using it, without knowing that the armchair monitors everything you do and use......is this a scary hypothetical story for you? Unfortunately is very real today......

With popularity comes greater responsability to your users, fans......(not sponsors, cos those they chew you and spit you out when you are not useful anymore, and move to the next number in their list).
MishaSherpa

Re: Connections to various google hosts without intervention

Post by MishaSherpa »

Hi Ebart,

You raised a lot of good points. I am very interested in privacy and I do try to keep up with all the latest news. I have not heard, however, what you are referring to with Stallman.

OK, about "calling home". I do not work for mint in any way. I wasn't defending anything. I complained about mint pinging Google.com to see if the internet connection is good enough for software updates. Clem. (the guy behind Mint), went in and CHANGED the code to the file MintUpdate.py so that it was improved. I responded to that with a big thank you and "boy that was fast'. Can you imagine MS changing code for your complaint!? Yeah, I know, stop laughing...

Oh, BTW, I'm on an older PC than you are. I still don't think your slow login is a packet data privacy thing. I think it's maybe hardware driver specific. I have ONE older notebook (pentium M) that will NOT run mintupdate GUI. It just won't. Not in LM14, or LM15. Go figure. And also, open office had a bug for a while where it would take like 3 minutes to open a file if your ethernet wasn't plugged in. Ouch. I think that was a Kubuntu/Ooo bug, and it sucked.
Last edited by MishaSherpa on Wed Oct 30, 2013 10:55 am, edited 2 times in total.
Mohr

Re: Connections to various google hosts without intervention

Post by Mohr »

Wow - so also akamai get's a steady ping?
@Misha: How to change this OpenSSL-connectivity/vulnerability?

The reason why Google was hardcoded in a way that was misleading is still unexplained. clem himself writes "he reason we check google.com BEFORE pinging ping_domain.... that I can't actually remember."

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=145176
MishaSherpa

Re: Connections to various google hosts without intervention

Post by MishaSherpa »

@Mohr
I think you meant openssh. Go to the software manager and uninstall openssh-server. PM me if you want. If your password was super weak, there are ways to see if anyone got in. It involves checking a file called auth.log
I dont see where you got akamai from. Did I miss a detail? Also, I am assuming the hardcode thing was a mistake/rush job. I have no idea.
Mohr

Re: Connections to various google hosts without intervention

Post by Mohr »

Openssh-Server is not installed here.

The Akamai thing was just the clock - so I don't care too much. At last this ping doesn't go to a world wide acting and known-as-conflicting-with-privacy-laws datacraken.

I am still wondering why you say that the Google-hard-coded-matter was solved "so fast" ... did you ever check how much time it took? And it's still as far as I understand not changed i.e. will only be changed in the next releases?
MishaSherpa

Re: Connections to various google hosts without intervention

Post by MishaSherpa »

For those who may be reading this post, but not aware of it, there is a poll about these kinds of issues:

Does Mint need a security and privacy forum?
[url]http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=148021[/url]
I think it would work to improve Mint and its reputation in the long term. Transparency, etc.
Sydney

Re: Connections to various google hosts without intervention

Post by Sydney »

Sorry to ask, but I too find this disturbing and would like to "fix" it - as suggested by Clam here:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=145176
"Enjoy the code fix and have fun applying it yourself between now and Mint 16."
This link is provided:
https://github.com/linuxmint/mintupdate ... d6df6c1786
But as a newbie I have simply no idea how to look up "line 1711".
Could anyone please guide me through this fix ?
Thanks very much.
Sydney
LMDE15,Mate
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