[liberationtech] Piratebrowser?

[Griffin Boyce]

On 08/11/2013 12:51 AM, Tom Ritter wrote:
> Some other random stats for the curious.
>
> Tor v0.2.3.25 (git-17c24b3118224d65)
> Vidalia 0.2.21 (QT 4.8.1)
>
> # Configured for speed
> ExcludeSingleHopRelays 0
> EnforceDistinctSubnets 0
> AllowSingleHopCircuits 1
>
> # Exclude countries that might have blocks
> ExcludeExitNodes {dk},{ie},{gb},{nl},{be},{it},{cn},{ir},{fi},{no}
>
> #Selected user prefs
> user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://6kkgg7nth3sbuuwd.onion");
> user_pref("general.useragent.override", "PB0.6b Mozilla/5.0 (Windows
> NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:23.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/23.0");
>
> -tom
  It's pretty surprising that the Pirate Bay went this route.  I have a
hard time believing that it isn't just some kind of publicity stunt. 
They also released the browser as an exe when the site doesn't use
SSL/https. Which is kind of an interesting choice, considering their
stated desire to target Iran (of all places).

  About a year ago, I wrote a quick Chrome plugin for torrenters to
bypass the common DNS blocks on TPB and similar sites.  Users from the
UK and the Netherlands (both places where they have a large userbase)
had recently been blocked from accessing TPB.  I have a hard time
believing that Iran represents more than a negligible number of possible
Pirate Bay users.  It could be a scheme to get more of their users to
use privacy-protecting techniques, but a guide might have more of an
effect there.  If their only goal is to bypass censorship of this one
site, there are easier methods that are just as effective.  The plugin I
made was trivial to write and it wouldn't be difficult for the pirate
bay to do something similar (quite a few plugins exist already, and it
wouldn't be hard to just pick one to promote).

~Griffin

-- 
"Cypherpunks write code not flame wars." --Jurre van Bergen
#Foucault / PGP: 0xAE792C97 / OTR: saint at jabber.ccc.de

My posts, while frequently amusing, are not representative of the thoughts of my employer.