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Mining cryptocurrencies in your browser could be seen as form of parasitic computing that is actually happening right now (mining Monero on Piratebay)

by sheepz 9y ago

stri8ed 9y ago
Though it requires active participation from the participant, i.e. visiting the "infected" website. Whereas this method requires no actions on part of the server, beyond behaving normally.
- knowaveragejoe 9y ago
  Makes me wonder what other sort of things a given server is participating in without realizing it. I don't see how you could use this exact technique(TCP checksums) to mine crypto, for example, but there might be some relatively common web applications out there that could be exploited in a similar way.
  - gwern 9y ago
    You actually kinda sorta can 'mine' HTTPS - as part of a cryptocurrency which incentivizes DDoSes! https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/woot16/woot16-paper-wustrow.pdf https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/woot16/woot16...
- rinchik 9y ago
  Not necessarily, "infection" can be injected into websites you visit on router level.
sleavey 9y ago
It's a shame how so many websites just don't function even with minimal Javascript features turned off, because that's essentially the only way to really defend against this sort of malware.
- Fnoord 9y ago
  There's blacklisting which can be used in uBlock, and you can limit the processorusage of threads within a browser with whitelisting. E.g. "Hacker News is requesting excessive usage of your GPU. Would you like to allow this usage?"
stevekemp 9y ago
I wrote a java applet which would calculate the digits of PI, when it loaded it would fetch the most current result by polling a CGI - and every minute or so that it was running it would upload its progress to that same CGI. That was back in 1998, or so. When Java Applets were almost useful. I showed a pretty animation, and stole your resources!

Mining cryptocurrencies in your browser could be seen as form of parasitic computing that is actually happening right now (mining Monero on Piratebay)

by sheepz 9y ago

Mining cryptocurrencies in your browser could be seen as form of parasitic computing that is actually happening right now (mining Monero on Piratebay)

stri8ed 9y ago

Though it requires active participation from the participant, i.e. visiting the "infected" website. Whereas this method requires no actions on part of the server, beyond behaving normally.

knowaveragejoe 9y ago
Makes me wonder what other sort of things a given server is participating in without realizing it. I don't see how you could use this exact technique(TCP checksums) to mine crypto, for example, but there might be some relatively common web applications out there that could be exploited in a similar way.
- gwern 9y ago
  You actually kinda sorta can 'mine' HTTPS - as part of a cryptocurrency which incentivizes DDoSes! https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/woot16/woot16-paper-wustrow.pdf https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/woot16/woot16...
rinchik 9y ago
Not necessarily, "infection" can be injected into websites you visit on router level.

sleavey 9y ago

It's a shame how so many websites just don't function even with minimal Javascript features turned off, because that's essentially the only way to really defend against this sort of malware.

Fnoord 9y ago
There's blacklisting which can be used in uBlock, and you can limit the processorusage of threads within a browser with whitelisting. E.g. "Hacker News is requesting excessive usage of your GPU. Would you like to allow this usage?"

stevekemp 9y ago

I wrote a java applet which would calculate the digits of PI, when it loaded it would fetch the most current result by polling a CGI - and every minute or so that it was running it would upload its progress to that same CGI. That was back in 1998, or so. When Java Applets were almost useful. I showed a pretty animation, and stole your resources!