7 ms·

Security issues on ArtChain

55 points by edent 8y ago

gitgud 8y ago
It's sad when site owners don't respect reports of security bugs. Maybe they don't care, or their trust was lost by being hacked previously... Either way the user's suffer...
- edent 8y ago
  Yup. I'm used to silence. Or perhaps a disgruntled acknowledgement. But that's the first time I've ever received abuse because of it.
  - shshhdhs 8y ago
    I’m seriously amazed at how abusive Howard is. I went back to your other post [1] and read his replies, and can’t believe how consistent his attitude is. He seems unreasonable. It was nice to see your patient, level-headed reply. [1] https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/06/how-i-became-leonardo-da-vinci-on-the-blockchain/ https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/06/how-i-became-leonardo-da-vi...
    - pavel_lishin 8y ago
      > But so what? Is that the problem in the art world? That rich people are criminals? Really? Yikes.
    - laumars 8y ago
      He's probably just a kid playing around with some cool technology and kicking off because he's young and over-confident (I'm sure many of us can relate to that - even if we weren't so foul mouthed). One of the great things about the web is it evens the playing field for anyone to build tech. The cost of that is it becomes harder to spot someone with experience from someone who isn't. In any case, I think you handled the situation far better than most would have.
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
- lvh 8y ago
  This is one reason 'tptacek any I are so militant on the "responsible disclosure" issue. People who seem to believe the onus is on security researchers to do whatever song and dance the person who are actually responsible want. That's nonsense: if you find the bug you get to do whatever you want with that information. (Including, I think, trade on it? But I'm not a lawyer and that's not legal advice.)
  - pavel_lishin 8y ago
    > the onus is on security researchers to do whatever song and dance the person who are actually responsible want It's not about bending to the will of an incompetent idiot; it's about protecting vulnerable end users from the idiot in question.
    - lvh 8y ago
      Well, it's subtle, right? That presupposes they're an incompetent idiot, and if they are, I agree: you should just publish a full disclosure. A lot of projects/companies fortunately are not staffed by incompetent idiots. I'm also not saying "never disclose to the company/project". It's what I do 100% of the time if it's worth disclosing and I don't have prior evidence that they'll react poorly. I'm saying researchers have no moral obligation to do anything.
      - pavel_lishin 8y ago
        > I'm saying researchers have no moral obligation to do anything. I don't think I agree with you, but I understand your point of view, and don't think I can really argue from any sort of objective reasoning.
        lvh 8y ago
        Well, I'm happy to walk you through it if you're game. Let's say the company is an incompetent idiot: that also means they're unlikely to respond well to a well-written vuln report. So what protects the general public the most? The bad guys can find vulns too, and you have no idea if you're the first to find a vulnerability, and we're presupposing the company won't handle it well. The _best outcome_ for the general public is full, immediate, public disclosure in that case! There are other arguments here, like the fact that random people putting bugs in websites are not entitled to a researcher's time.
mentat 8y ago
He still hasn't fixed the XSS name entry, it pops if you go to the site. Amazing.
- urda 8y ago
  No kidding, just going to [REDACTED] and boom there it is. With how nasty this guy has been, it's like he's asking for a bad actor to really cause trouble. I'd be so happy to have anyone file a report like the author did, exposing possible flaws in a platform I operate.
  - wlesieutre 8y ago
    Word of warning for anyone clicking that, it currently redirects to Pornhub.
    - urda 8y ago
      YIKES. I pulled the link, anyone curious can figure out how to reach artchain dot info on their own time.
      - wlesieutre 8y ago
        Thankfully SonicWall caught it here, but hopefully nobody's looking at what sites I tried to visit :P
- sebastienrocks 8y ago
  Someone played around with it, you still get the XSS alert, but after that you get redirected to pornhub. Funny stuff. Not so funny when you're going there at work, but that was my fault.
MastroF 8y ago
NSFW: Try to NOT visit the `artchain(dot)info` website on a work computer, it redirects to Pornhub. (With Xss).
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- esotericn 8y ago
  Truly a work of art.
viach 8y ago
Looks like the ArtChain site owner is a marketing genius. Get to the HN front page with a blockchain project? Bravo.
- village-idiot 8y ago
  Broken clock is right twice a day, monkeys and Shakespeare, etc. Fools get lucky occasionally.
- gcb0 8y ago
  I know this is irony, but making the joke obvious to the few that might take it seriously: it's not so good to have that visibility when the cause is the author cursing security researchers away because they are trying to delay a couple days your fraudulent CPO by asking you to patch blatantly obvious and basic security holes.
  - viach 8y ago
    Sadly, this is almost a joke - it seems like any kind of visibility works. Most of people just don't care about the context, they just remember the brand name.
thanatos_dem 8y ago
From a bit of searching, it looks like the individual responding to the disclosure emails is a patent attorney, claiming to specialize in bitcoin patents. I’d be terrified to have him be my lawyer for anything, given his responses here. Artinfo is clearly dead in the water at this point, and I can’t even tell if he is the actual owner of it, or just a legal representative. The security issues are terrible, but it’d really suck to have your company torpedoed by your unhinged IP counsel.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
jonnydubowsky 8y ago
From the looks of it, this site hasn't done much in the way of actual business. A handful of transactions 180 days ago, probably the original pieces being loaded up, and then crickets. https://etherscan.io/address/0xc40cf3abc0166847c16f1f60f3fdf7b952b0cb41 https://etherscan.io/address/0xc40cf3abc0166847c16f1f60f3fdf... Monograph is a fantastic blockchain art registry, made by Chris Tse, the founder of Cardstack. There are several others that actually demonstrate some of the more novel aspects of this particular use case. https://monegraph.com https://monegraph.com
M2Ys4U 8y ago
lol, blockchain

55 points by edent 8y ago

It's sad when site owners don't respect reports of security bugs. Maybe they don't care, or their trust was lost by being hacked previously... Either way the user's suffer...

edent 8y ago
Yup. I'm used to silence. Or perhaps a disgruntled acknowledgement. But that's the first time I've ever received abuse because of it.
- shshhdhs 8y ago
  I’m seriously amazed at how abusive Howard is. I went back to your other post [1] and read his replies, and can’t believe how consistent his attitude is. He seems unreasonable. It was nice to see your patient, level-headed reply. [1] https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/06/how-i-became-leonardo-da-vinci-on-the-blockchain/ https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/06/how-i-became-leonardo-da-vi...
  - pavel_lishin 8y ago
    > But so what? Is that the problem in the art world? That rich people are criminals? Really? Yikes.
  - laumars 8y ago
    He's probably just a kid playing around with some cool technology and kicking off because he's young and over-confident (I'm sure many of us can relate to that - even if we weren't so foul mouthed). One of the great things about the web is it evens the playing field for anyone to build tech. The cost of that is it becomes harder to spot someone with experience from someone who isn't. In any case, I think you handled the situation far better than most would have.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
lvh 8y ago
This is one reason 'tptacek any I are so militant on the "responsible disclosure" issue. People who seem to believe the onus is on security researchers to do whatever song and dance the person who are actually responsible want. That's nonsense: if you find the bug you get to do whatever you want with that information. (Including, I think, trade on it? But I'm not a lawyer and that's not legal advice.)
- pavel_lishin 8y ago
  > the onus is on security researchers to do whatever song and dance the person who are actually responsible want It's not about bending to the will of an incompetent idiot; it's about protecting vulnerable end users from the idiot in question.
  - lvh 8y ago
    Well, it's subtle, right? That presupposes they're an incompetent idiot, and if they are, I agree: you should just publish a full disclosure. A lot of projects/companies fortunately are not staffed by incompetent idiots. I'm also not saying "never disclose to the company/project". It's what I do 100% of the time if it's worth disclosing and I don't have prior evidence that they'll react poorly. I'm saying researchers have no moral obligation to do anything.
    - pavel_lishin 8y ago
      > I'm saying researchers have no moral obligation to do anything. I don't think I agree with you, but I understand your point of view, and don't think I can really argue from any sort of objective reasoning.
      - lvh 8y ago
        Well, I'm happy to walk you through it if you're game. Let's say the company is an incompetent idiot: that also means they're unlikely to respond well to a well-written vuln report. So what protects the general public the most? The bad guys can find vulns too, and you have no idea if you're the first to find a vulnerability, and we're presupposing the company won't handle it well. The _best outcome_ for the general public is full, immediate, public disclosure in that case! There are other arguments here, like the fact that random people putting bugs in websites are not entitled to a researcher's time.

mentat 8y ago

He still hasn't fixed the XSS name entry, it pops if you go to the site. Amazing.

urda 8y ago
No kidding, just going to [REDACTED] and boom there it is. With how nasty this guy has been, it's like he's asking for a bad actor to really cause trouble. I'd be so happy to have anyone file a report like the author did, exposing possible flaws in a platform I operate.
- wlesieutre 8y ago
  Word of warning for anyone clicking that, it currently redirects to Pornhub.
  - urda 8y ago
    YIKES. I pulled the link, anyone curious can figure out how to reach artchain dot info on their own time.
    - wlesieutre 8y ago
      Thankfully SonicWall caught it here, but hopefully nobody's looking at what sites I tried to visit :P
sebastienrocks 8y ago
Someone played around with it, you still get the XSS alert, but after that you get redirected to pornhub. Funny stuff. Not so funny when you're going there at work, but that was my fault.

MastroF 8y ago

NSFW: Try to NOT visit the `artchain(dot)info` website on a work computer, it redirects to Pornhub. (With Xss).

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
esotericn 8y ago
Truly a work of art.

viach 8y ago

Looks like the ArtChain site owner is a marketing genius. Get to the HN front page with a blockchain project? Bravo.

village-idiot 8y ago
Broken clock is right twice a day, monkeys and Shakespeare, etc. Fools get lucky occasionally.
gcb0 8y ago
I know this is irony, but making the joke obvious to the few that might take it seriously: it's not so good to have that visibility when the cause is the author cursing security researchers away because they are trying to delay a couple days your fraudulent CPO by asking you to patch blatantly obvious and basic security holes.
- viach 8y ago
  Sadly, this is almost a joke - it seems like any kind of visibility works. Most of people just don't care about the context, they just remember the brand name.

thanatos_dem 8y ago

From a bit of searching, it looks like the individual responding to the disclosure emails is a patent attorney, claiming to specialize in bitcoin patents. I’d be terrified to have him be my lawyer for anything, given his responses here. Artinfo is clearly dead in the water at this point, and I can’t even tell if he is the actual owner of it, or just a legal representative. The security issues are terrible, but it’d really suck to have your company torpedoed by your unhinged IP counsel.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

jonnydubowsky 8y ago

From the looks of it, this site hasn't done much in the way of actual business. A handful of transactions 180 days ago, probably the original pieces being loaded up, and then crickets. https://etherscan.io/address/0xc40cf3abc0166847c16f1f60f3fdf7b952b0cb41 https://etherscan.io/address/0xc40cf3abc0166847c16f1f60f3fdf... Monograph is a fantastic blockchain art registry, made by Chris Tse, the founder of Cardstack. There are several others that actually demonstrate some of the more novel aspects of this particular use case. https://monegraph.com https://monegraph.com

M2Ys4U 8y ago

lol, blockchain