4 ms·

I remember opening up a new HP laptop with Windows installed, around 2016. Out of curiosity I installed Wireshark and inspected some of the outgoing packets fro

I remember opening up a new HP laptop with Windows installed, around 2016. Out of curiosity I installed Wireshark and inspected some of the outgoing packets from pre-installed software on the Windows system. Alongside the usual telemetry, I found some packets being sent to an IP registered by the US military, straight to a military base, no proxy or anything. Maybe there’s a perfectly non-nefarious explanation but that investigation sure felt like it confirmed my suspicions…

linuxftw 3y ago
Probably related to TLS CAs. Windows insists on phoning home to these CAs.
- sourcelang 3y ago
  Interesting. Does this actually have any security implications or is my paranoia for nothing? In my head, “normal“ CAs used by browsers for example are held to a high standard of digital trust. Whereas trust in the US military as a CA sort of implies blind faith. But I honestly don’t feel that I know enough about TLS to know why I should trust, say, digicert or identrust, more or less than the US military.
  - linuxftw 3y ago
    The US Government issues their own certs for many agencies, so there's no commercial entity that acts as the CA. These CAs are installed by Windows just like most other CAs.
flangola7 3y ago
Was it registered as ARPA?
Jenk 3y ago
TikTok gets lambasted for being a mass surveilance platform for the Chinese state. Microsoft gets a pass.
- capableweb 3y ago
  Well, depends on which internet you browse. On the English speaking internet, TikTok does indeed get a lot of flak. But on the other internets, Microsoft gets lots of criticism for how the spy on users too, together with all the other big US-based companies. It receives it on the English speaking internet as well, but nowhere near the level as what can be seen outside of that.
- lotsoweiners 3y ago
  The difference is Microsoft isn’t sending it to the Chinese presumably.
brazzledazzle 3y ago
Probably a CRL query against a CA.

linuxftw 3y ago

Probably related to TLS CAs. Windows insists on phoning home to these CAs.

sourcelang 3y ago
Interesting. Does this actually have any security implications or is my paranoia for nothing? In my head, “normal“ CAs used by browsers for example are held to a high standard of digital trust. Whereas trust in the US military as a CA sort of implies blind faith. But I honestly don’t feel that I know enough about TLS to know why I should trust, say, digicert or identrust, more or less than the US military.
- linuxftw 3y ago
  The US Government issues their own certs for many agencies, so there's no commercial entity that acts as the CA. These CAs are installed by Windows just like most other CAs.

flangola7 3y ago

Was it registered as ARPA?

Jenk 3y ago

TikTok gets lambasted for being a mass surveilance platform for the Chinese state. Microsoft gets a pass.

capableweb 3y ago
Well, depends on which internet you browse. On the English speaking internet, TikTok does indeed get a lot of flak. But on the other internets, Microsoft gets lots of criticism for how the spy on users too, together with all the other big US-based companies. It receives it on the English speaking internet as well, but nowhere near the level as what can be seen outside of that.
lotsoweiners 3y ago
The difference is Microsoft isn’t sending it to the Chinese presumably.

brazzledazzle 3y ago

Probably a CRL query against a CA.