(I think CVSS is a very poor metric in cases like these; I'm just explaining what I think Ubuntu's process/position is, not making excuses for them. My read is the 9.8 is probably too high but nevertheless more accurate in this case.)
6,765 karma · joined October 1, 2010
President of the Clojurists Together Foundation. We help the Clojure ecosystem, primarily by funding important open source projects (like CIDER, Ring, Reagent, Calva, Fireplace...), but also critical infrastructure like Clojars. https://www.clojuriststogether.org/
Feel free to contact me at _@lvh.io or professionally at lvh@latacora.com. Twitter: @lvh.
I wrote an introductory course on cryptography called Crypto 101. It's available for free and pairs well with cryptopals:
- https://www.crypto101.io
- https://cryptopals.com/
[ my public key: https://keybase.io/lvh; my proof: https://keybase.io/lvh/sigs/3Vhvhy8z2GAvOxd_cISVYLuz61aGzZ8f6AKzD2uAWVA ](I think CVSS is a very poor metric in cases like these; I'm just explaining what I think Ubuntu's process/position is, not making excuses for them. My read is the 9.8 is probably too high but nevertheless more accurate in this case.)
(I don't disagree! I'm just saying: you haven't advanced your argument or answered GP's question.)
I won't comment on the specifics of the case (the complaint comes across as very convincing), but I will remind people that it's common for investigations to ostensibly show an employee doing bad things, when in reality it's e.g. that employee's credentials/devices that are compromised.
Re: QA: can you say a bit more about the type of coverage you're worried about? Is your concern that we'd be missing APIs, or that the storage format itself breaks, resulting in fact elision? payne (the underlying project) has a borderline obnoxious amount of tests, but that doesn't mean we didn't miss anything :)
We already wrote a high level blog post here: https://www.latacora.com/blog/2023/11/01/our-approach-to-bui... -- but the one I'm hoping to write is more of a case study.
https://www.latacora.com/blog/2024/07/29/crypto-right-answer...
Are you suggesting a true backdoor, or just "the NSA knows something about lattice algorithms the rest of us don't"?
But it is external to the device, you're right :) And for some crazy reason this guy is getting a lot of orders recently ;)
There is a part of me that wants to break the damn thing open to hunt for a 3.3V line so I can power the ratgdo without a USB PSU...
I did do some napkin math to quantify how much that bad traffic may have been: HA estimates between 6857-25576 intallations of the MyQ integration. Let's say 16k clients. HA makes it really easy to detect and "add" the integration (which counts as an installation even if it's not configured), so, that's definitely not all clients hitting the API. Let's say it's 50%, so 8k actually using it. Most users just notice myQ is broken. Let's say some fraction retry, which would look the same as an extra user from a volume perspective. Call it an even 10k users (including repeat users).
The most recent change is after they broke everything past the OAuth dance. Let's say the OAuth request is 1kB. The retry code retries up to 5 times with exponential backoff. Let's say 5 requests over 10 min.
(5 requests / 10 minutes) * 1 request/user * 10k users = 5k requests/minute, or 83 per second, amounting to 83kB/s inbound.
There's no reason to assume those requests would synchronize, but I'm sure there's something (let's say every single myQ user updated at the same time).
If what they're saying is true, sounds like actually malicious botnet wielders can ransom the living daylights out of them. Given 1Tbs DDoS attacks they'd only need a tiny fraction of the full bore ion cannon! ;-)
[1]: https://github.com/arraylabs/pymyq/blob/master/pymyq/request...
Why is Chamberlain's API so brittle it can't stand prodding from what they claim is a tiny fraction of users, even if those are misbehaving? Do you agree that comparing that to DDoS is ludicrous, and suggests either dishonesty or a fundamental misunderstanding of what "DDoS" means?
One reason this is tricky to do is because up until let's say the last 6 months or so, myQ _wasn't_ hostile, even if it was Cloud-based. (I get that that aligns with your point! I'm not arguing with you there.)
The ratgdo is more trustworthy, and it just connects (really easily, too, especially with the new v2.5 board) to the opener via the same contacts that the dry contact button does.
The API breakage coincides pretty well with their brand new CTO, whose objective is apparently "transformation to a smart access software company".
It's unclear if the CTO just doesn't understand that "DDoS" generally implies malice, or if they're intentionally using that language to blame users for using their product.
Good news: ratgdo, an ESP-based local solution works great. I hope the author is making a decent profit on the kits.