Web attack uses Google Street View database to determine your location

[guruoo]

3 August 2010 Last updated at 06:18 ET

Web attack knows where you live
Ethernet hub, Picture Nation The attack exploits the way routers handle requests for ID information One visit to a booby-trapped website could direct attackers to a person's home, a security expert has shown.

The attack, thought up by hacker Samy Kamkar, exploits shortcomings in many routers to find out a key identification number. It uses this number and widely available net tools to find out where a router is located. Demonstrating the attack, Mr Kamkar located one router to within nine metres of its real world position.

...

He then coupled the ID information, known as a Mac address, with a geo-location feature of the Firefox web browser. This interrogates a Google database created when its cars were carrying out surveys for its Street View service. Google Street View car, Getty The attack uses data gathered by Google's Street View cars

This database links Mac addresses of routers with GPS co-ordinates to help locate them. During the demonstration, Mr Kamkar showed how straightforward it was to use the attack to identify someone's location to within a few metres. "This is geo-location gone terrible," said Mr Kamkar during his presentation. "Privacy is dead people. I'm sorry."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10850875

***Instructions for disabling the Firefox geolocation feature can be found
at the bottom of the following page:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/geolocation/

[no limit]

1. God the BBC totally blows when it comes to reporting technology news

This isn't a very scary attack and has absolutely nothing to do with google streetview.

But yeah, "privacy is dead beacuse of this". What a load of horse shit.

[guruoo]

2. Sensationalized, yes. "Horseshit", no. nt

[no limit]

3. Yes, it is horeshit. First of again, this attack has nothing to do with google street view

second you need all kinds of parameters for this attack to work.

First you need to be using firefox. Then you need to confirm that you want a website to view your location. Then for that to work your mac address has to be registered with google's location service which will only happen if you have a wireless network built in to your router.

This would affect very little people and I don't see how in the world you could call this an attack when it uses basic built in features of your web browser.

The BBC pulled this same shit with a story on a vBulleting exploit that was found a couple weeks back. They made it seem like every message board running a certain version of vBulletin was hackable. Which was total bullshit since the exploit only gave SQL database credentials to the attacker which are useless in 99% of the cases since by default you can't have remote connections to the SQL server. They reported it in a way that implied the administrator accounts for the message board were compromised.

Yet these idiots continue to report technology "news" they don't understand in order to scare the shit out of your average internet user. It really gets under my skin for some reason.

[guruoo]

5. "...interrogates a Google database created when its cars were carrying out surveys for its Street

View cars"


The attack uses data gathered by Google's Street View cars

If it doesn't apply to you, then don't worry about it.

[no limit]

7. It is not the street view database, it was simply created at the same time

Many such databases already existed. Google didn't want to contract this out to others anymore so they collected the info themselves.

And I am not worried about it, nobody here should be either. But yet again the BBC tries to scare the shit out of their readers for no reason.

[guruoo]

10. LOL! nt

[no limit]

12. ?...ah, never mind.

[cbdo2007]

4. Who cares if people know my location? A random attack is a random attack

whether they follow me home from the store or look me up online and come get me.

Who is really worried about someone coming to their house to get them??? I'm more worried about my neighbors than any of you!

[guruoo]

6. If it doesn't apply to you, then I wouldn't worry about it. nt

[no limit]

8. It applies to almost no one.

[guruoo]

11. Having fun yet?

c'ya

[frylock]

9. yikes! i just uninstalled firefox, disabled my router, and burned down my house..

just to play it safe.