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Why is End of Life of an OS bad for an average user? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I get that there won't be any security updates. So any problem found can be exploited. But how high is the chance for problems for an average user if you say, only browse some safe websites? If you have a pc you don't really care much about, without any personal information? It feels like the danger is more theoretical than what will actually happen.

Or... are there any examples of people (not corpos) getting wrecked in the past by an eol OS?

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[-] [email protected] 71 points 1 month ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uSVVCmOH5w

XP ... Exploited in 2 minutes

When you stop getting updates, that's okay if you're isolated, and not talking to any networks. But if you're on the network at all, you're falling behind the ecosystem. You stopped evolving, you're static target, everybody knows your door code etc etc etc

This is why you can see ancient machines running industrial machinery totally isolated, but you'd never see one attached to a network

[-] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago

This is kinda a bad argument as a regular user will not connect to the internet like this. You have a router or a carrier will have a CGN in front of your PC.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You have a router or a carrier will have a CGN in front of your PC.

Many are using ipv6 these days, so no CGNAT used. Potentially with some level of protection (particularly in the mobile case), but there isn't a 100% guarantee.

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[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

I think the common use case is telephones. Attaching your old cell phone to a random open Wi-Fi network is pretty common

But this is just a demonstration, it's still applies to using the internet, interacting with the network is the danger. Not how you interact with it. Browsing websites can send exploit payloads to your outdated software.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The number of users connecting their PC ~~forfeit~~ directly to the modem or purposefully disabling all protections because they're too lazy is higher than you think.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

I would suspect, hardly anyone who knows how to do that is stupid enough to do it.

Most modems/ISP routers are relatively secure by default.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Carrier operated modems are run in NAT mode so a home PC will get a RFC1918 IP address not public routable ones

[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

How is CGN going to stop you from downloading some exploit? CGN as well as NAT might have some level of security but it’s by no means a firewall or anti-exploit framework.

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[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I guess that's where I have a limited understanding of how Internet and maybe even exploits works: how would people even find my machine? There is little to no incentive, unlike with a corporation. They must know where my door is to even use the keys.

Can you just sort of do a brute force scan of all machines currently on the internet? Seems unlikely. In my mind, you can only access a machine if you have some idea about it's whereabouts, either physically or digitally. But then again, I have no knowledge about these kinds of things.

[-] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago

The internet is cheap, like amazingly cheap. Connecting to every possible computer on the internet is something people do regularly, every minute.

Even if your computer was not directly accessible, the fact that it's talking on the network is exploitable. There'll be known payloads, known buffer overflows, known software packages, that can be targeted just by you browsing the web. Advertisement networks or a common delivery mechanism, websites get exploited, somebody send you a link, random messages going to your phone, going to your messenger, going to your email, anything that your computer processes can be a delivery payload mechanism.

There is no Safeway to run outdated software on the network at all in any capacity.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

Thanks for the thorough explanation! Interesting stuff, the examples really helped me see the many different ways an attack could work.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Anyone who has services open to the internet sees constant attacks in their log files. I bet I could pull some attacks right now that are less than twenty minutes old.

fail2ban is a common software on Linux that helps defend against these attacks. When someone fails to log into your service three times, it bans their IP permanently. It's generally issuing many bans a day.

They absolutely do scan every IP.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It's debated whether software like fail2ban actually helps or if it just makes attacks visible that would anyways fail if you have up to date software. Oftentimes, defensive software adds attack-surface because it adds more software that can be targeted by attackers.

Fail2ban might help with protecting against exploiting of bad passwords though.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Tar pitting, rate limiting, banning failed attempts, are all critical security measures. If you let somebody try passwords, login attempts, with infinite speed, allow people to brute force your systems, you will get exploited

Even if you don't get exploited, you can get asymmetrically DOSed. It takes a lot of compute power to deal with an authentication attempt, and not much compute power to put in a failed request

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[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

Check out shodan.io Search your own IP. There are plenty of state actor tools that do the same thing. vulnerable systems are targeted because they're vulnerable, not because there's a payout. Most of the time you'd just automate the attacks with something like msfconsole and a ruby script.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

As a side note, a really old, slow computer can be very useful as a sacrificial piece of hardware for network security.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

My network has a Honeypot built in the internal side. Honey pots are really useful!

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[-] [email protected] 65 points 1 month ago

It seems like part of your thinking is: Why would a criminal invest effort to attack an average John Doe? The answer is: With a popular (widely used) operating system, the effort goes close to zero. Attacks can be automated, so they will be. Also, even if they are not interested in your data, they will be interested in other benefits they gain from controlling your computer:

Computing power e.g. for Bitcoin mining
Your internet connection to attack other computers via yours, taking your computer to hide their identity and location. This is commonly done as DDOS for blackmailing businesses or silencing websites. Or for sending spam or fake reviews.
Your identity. If they can get your name, they can order stuff on your name, which will get you a bad credit score or even criminal charges (identity theft)
Access to your local network. Many devices are easier to hack via local network access than from the internet. A criminal who took control of your computer could for example take over your "smart" appliances or WiFi printer.

[-] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

There is a lot of crap crawling around on the internet that will infect any vulnerable machine it finds, completely automatically. There's no human behind it trying to hack you specifically on purpose. A fair amount of it is orphaned - the original creator doesn't have any control over it anymore. It's just spreading on the network through anything it can infect.

If you connect a vulnerable machine to the network, it will get infected by something and end up continuing to spread this kind of crap.

[-] [email protected] 29 points 1 month ago

Ransomware usually doesn't care whether it's hitting a corporation or a real user. Even a "safe" website might serve unsafe ads. I have seen that a thousand times. It was just harmless history stealing in my case. But depending on what bugs will be found in the future it could be desastrous. And nobody at the ad network would see it because they would be using updated software.

So, it is only theoretical until it is not. Then it is too late.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Can you elaborate more about this "harmless history stealing" bit and how did you find it? Also, was the OS outdated in your case?

Like a sane person I use a system wide adblocker (Adguard) and unlock-origin in firefox. I also disable 3rd party iframes by default to reduce the crap being loaded by default on all my devices.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I meant that thing where it redirects you to another site and makes it impossible to go back to the site you were on.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Hmm, I thought modern day browsers had protection against redirect and history poisoning attacks. Guess not in all.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Was a few years ago.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago

Practice good hygiene and it'll be fine The trouble is that modern apps are forced to adopt features which depend on the new OS. Your old one will be incompatible, on purpose

The security aspect is secondary to the monetary growth and recuperation of investment in the new OS.

They spent all those monies to make it "AI" betting that you will eat it up and pay up. Now there will be significant pressure for them to "increase adoption" or someone gets fired

[-] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

Really annoys me that Apple has a policy of no more updates after 7 years (or when they change the CPU architecture enough) — that's hardcore planned obsolescence & I think it made their hardware quality worse over time (in addition to being unrepairable)

Super lame. While I'm ranting, their trade in program is a scam that doesn't pay out almost ever. And otherwise they will "recycle it for free" making money Im sure

So yeah I'm pretty sure the era of MacBook superiority is over & imma buy a considerably higher spec System 76 laptop instead which comes with a repair bible for pretty much every scenario and is upgradeable

[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I am not using apple products myself any more, but 7 years of guaranteed support seems very reasonable, especially when our dumb ass economy runs on constant consumption and growth. They could just as easily make their devices break a week after the legally required warranty period is over, and you'd have to buy another

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

It's not reasonable, but it is understandable. This is why FOSS is the only viable alternative for sustainable computing.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Plus open hardware and open drivers an open firmware

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Seeming reasonable in the context of the madness of constant growth is still not reasonable. I get what you mean, but we need to demand better of the ultra powerful if we want to see better in our lifetime.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Seven years for a phone right now is pretty reasonable. For a laptop, it's absolutely not.

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

No but you see, there's no reason a newer osx can't run on their older hardware most of the time. You can install new windows on an old laptop if it has the specs. It's not like they lost the drivers or whatever. It's a choice they made, cutting off users from security updates & newer apps & leaving them with a vulnerable device

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Apple is trash but this is like the least trashy thing they do honestly

[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

only browse some safe websites

Drive-by downloads exist. They can come from "safe sites" via an ad network and if you are running an EOL OS, chances are you are running an EOL web browser with some well known remote code exploit

[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

Sure, if you're actually being safe and following good security practices, the risk is low, but the average user does not follow all the best practices.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Even if the only way to get a computer virus was to literally clap your hands together three times while repeating "I wish to get a computer virus," some people would get a virus on their computer all time.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Security bad when not updated anymore.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

OP, don't be stupid. Update your OS.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I do, just wanted to know more about how bad stuff actually would be if you wouldn't. Asked questions, learned a lot.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Fair enough. My apologies.

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

All talk about websites in the comments, but what about using just an email client and maybe ssh, rsync etc.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Show me a single person that uses these tools exclusively and does not care about updating their machine.

And even then: ssh does have vulnerabilities. Email clients also usually render HTML, which means they have a browser engine under the hood.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

The average user starts on their usual websites and doesn’t even remember clicking on a link that leads elsewhere.

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this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2024

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