Comment on Self-Hosting a DNS Sinkhole is really important

sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

• chagall@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  What is a DNS sinkhole

  A DNS sinkhole is a little program that sits in between your computer and the DNS server that provides your internet lookups. It looks at all of your DNS requests in an unencrypted format. If a DNS lookup from your browser, mobile app or any other internet connected machine matches an entry it has in its “blocklist” then it returns a value of 0.0.0.0 (or some other customizable value including NXDOMAIN). But if the DNS entry is not on the blocklist, then that request will be forwarded to Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), Google (8.8.8.8), Quad9 (9.9.9.9) or other DNS provider and get an accurate value for the DNS lookup.

  Most of the time, the blocklists consist of adware domains such as Google Ad Services, Facebook Ads, Amazon Ads, etc. This has the effect of removing ads from devices that normally are unable to block ads such as ads inside mobile apps, ads in Roku, etc.

  how is it related to the content of the article?

  The article indicated that the malicious spyware was transmitted through viewable ads on the target’s mobile device. This is combated most effectively by using a DNS sinkhole.

  I should note that the article does not mention if current blocklists would have thwarted this attack. However, it does say that the ads were transmitted, in some instances, via Google Ad services, which these blocklists do effectively target.

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  • TrickDacy@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Tldr; pi-hole

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  • cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Unfortunately a lot of the magnificent 7 of advertisers have caught on to this and will serve ads dynamically in many of their platforms.

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    • chagall@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I’ve heard that before but I haven’t seen an ad in years. But I’m probably not the norm. Between userscripts, ad-removing frontends like invidious and choosing services like Lemmy over the competition, you can pretty safely remove ads from most platforms. Of course, Jellyfin helps 😂

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    • AgentSeven@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yeah, they’ve done this on this one particular site that I like to read, one old (hilarious) celebrity blogger who made a new home on Pajiba. Pajiba is pure shit. I dunno exactly what they’re doing but the ads they serve up are largely local rather than third party - and they’re served up so aggressively the site is all but unreadable on my phone. So ads are crazy in-your-face despite having adblock on the phone itself and a Pi-Hole! Just to keep reading the guy I like I had to set up a shortcut that loads it in reader view to bypass all the bullshit and fuck knows how long that will last before they somehow figure out how to block reader view.

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      • redballooon@lemmy.world ⁨30⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

        Provide the URL to your AI chat and ask it to print out the article for you.

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      • chagall@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I saw the domain before you edited it lol. I went to the site and have zero ads on mobile, although I did have an empty placeholder in one spot where the ads would have been.

        Make sure the following domains are blocked on your pihole:

        html-load.cc
        bbcdn.githack.com
        rawcdn.githack.com
        cdn.statically.io
        revcontent.com
        a.pub.network
        

        Then, make sure you have this line as an entry on your mobile adblocker

        /ad-shield/e/*$script,third-party

        If there is a specific url you’d like me to look at, feel free to message me.

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