December 2019 - luv-beginners

Re: [luv-beginners] Computer security questions
by Peter Wolf 05 Jan '20

05 Jan '20

n 19/12/19 10:48 am, Piers Rowan via luv-beginners wrote: > > On 19/12/19 9:43 am, Piers Rowan wrote: >> >>> Very likely they are and have been.I have strong evidence of this >>> such as the following - >>> >>> - computer slow during startup,shutdown and general operation >>> compared to just after a fresh install >>> >>> ,I can tell because the fastest computer I normally use is a dual >>> core and have found these run quicker than hacked >>> >>> quad and 6 core computers for many /most applications when dual core >>> not hacked. >> >> >> How old it the computer? If you have dust in CPU fan then it will >> overheat and throttle the CPU so it doesn't overheat. (I just >> re-lifed a PC yesterdau for this reason). >> My computers are 10-20 years old and not overheating except for maybe 1 or 2 out of 20-30 computers. >> >>> >>> - After visiting dodgy websites that create dozens of connections to >>> residential computers with Firefox, >> >> >> Multiple connections are standard fare for advert laden sites. >> >>> >>> software updates no longer work and a change of password stops linux >>> Mint from starting up at all. >> >> >> That is strange. >> >> >>> >>> A check shows almost every file has had its permissions changed. >>> >>> - When apparently hacked ,some of my data (such as old important >>> looking photos) has mysteriously gone missing. >>> >>> - Firefox stops working with many websites when apparently hacked >>> and slows down dramatically. >>> >>> - excessive hard drive activity after I visit some websites,like a >>> search is going on. >>> >>> >>> - Once I found the "find" command running on one of my computers >>> using the command htop.It was taking a large chunk of CPU usage.I >>> never started the "find" command and it was running constantly. >>> >>> >> OK I'm guessing the HDD could be the issue - bad sectors would cause >> this behavior. >> >> Is it an old disk or a new SSD? >> >> I'm getting mostly the same thing on multiple computers (more than >> 10),they do have old hard (disk) drives.(5-15 years old) The above >> trouble has 90% gone after using my custom software to "stop the >> hacking".It's an interesting suggestion and although I very much >> doubt it is the cause, I can't definitively say that it's not.So I'll >> make a point of checking my hard drives. Thanks. > Thanks > _______________________________________________ luv-beginners mailing list luv-beginners(a)luv.asn.au https://lists.luv.asn.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/luv-beginners

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Re: [luv-beginners] Computer security questions
by Piers Rowan 18 Dec '19

18 Dec '19

On 19/12/19 9:43 am, Piers Rowan wrote: > >> Very likely they are and have been.I have strong evidence of this >> such as the following - >> >> - computer slow during startup,shutdown and general operation >> compared to just after a fresh install >> >> ,I can tell because the fastest computer I normally use is a dual >> core and have found these run quicker than hacked >> >> quad and 6 core computers for many /most applications when dual core >> not hacked. > > > How old it the computer? If you have dust in CPU fan then it will > overheat and throttle the CPU so it doesn't overheat. (I just re-lifed > a PC yesterdau for this reason). > > >> >> - After visiting dodgy websites that create dozens of connections to >> residential computers with Firefox, > > > Multiple connections are standard fare for advert laden sites. > >> >> software updates no longer work and a change of password stops linux >> Mint from starting up at all. > > > That is strange. > > >> >> A check shows almost every file has had its permissions changed. >> >> - When apparently hacked ,some of my data (such as old important >> looking photos) has mysteriously gone missing. >> >> - Firefox stops working with many websites when apparently hacked and >> slows down dramatically. >> >> - excessive hard drive activity after I visit some websites,like a >> search is going on. >> >> >> - Once I found the "find" command running on one of my computers >> using the command htop.It was taking a large chunk of CPU usage.I >> never started the "find" command and it was running constantly. >> >> > OK I'm guessing the HDD could be the issue - bad sectors would cause > this behavior. > > Is it an old disk or a new SSD? > > > Thanks >

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Computer security questions
by Peter Wolf 18 Dec '19

18 Dec '19

Hello, I'm still having major problems with computer security of Linux Mint 19 MATE.I believe that with default settings ,this version of linux is unusable as it gets hacked in a few minutes by bots,mainly via firefox. I have not found any security measures to prevent this and have had to write custom software to stop the hacking or mostly stop it. I've found that the previously mentioned "firehol" firewall program doesn't stop the hacking,it maybe delayed it by a few days at first.The same goes for ufw,but maybe I'm not using it correctly.The default apparmor profile for firefox simply does nothing or close to nothing to protect the computer.I've written my own firefox apparmor profile which has worked reasonably well for weeks/months but is still not complete .I've also written my own active firewall program that blocks connections from all residential computers (which are probably mostly hacked and used as bots to hack other computers) and rented servers.This combination of programs as well as a few others not written by me ,like snort and fail2ban have mostly stopped the hacking but not completely.I haven't had to reinstall linux for a month or so on any of my machines.Unfortunately,recently, I've discovered that snort and fail2ban have been disabled on many of my machines and that the logviewer seems to not be working properly.So my questions are - what is the command to run the linux mint logviewer? (I normally run it from the menu) - is it normal for the linux mint logviewer to automatically switch viewing logs after a few seconds? (I strongly suspect not) regards Peter

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