[SOLVED] Why does KDE call out to akamai technologies?

jon lee · 09-05-2013, 11:21 PM

a23-62-111-147.deploy.static.akamaitechnologies.com

I can understand somewhat the spider.kde.org and the download.kde.org.
What does the akamai do?

Code:

tcp        1      0 10.1.1.144:51949        46.4.96.250:80          CLOSE_WAIT  2492/kdeinit4: kio_ 
tcp        0      0 10.1.1.144:52779        188.138.118.86:443      ESTABLISHED 2494/kdeinit4: kio_ 
tcp        0      0 10.1.1.144:51943        46.4.96.250:80          ESTABLISHED 2476/kdeinit4: kio_ 
tcp        1      0 10.1.1.144:51945        46.4.96.250:80          CLOSE_WAIT  2483/kdeinit4: kio_ 
tcp        0      0 10.1.1.144:52774        188.138.118.86:443      ESTABLISHED 2489/kdeinit4: kio_ 
tcp        0      0 10.1.1.144:52782        188.138.118.86:443      ESTABLISHED 2488/kdeinit4: kio_ 
tcp        0    469 10.1.1.144:52781        188.138.118.86:443      ESTABLISHED 2486/kdeinit4: kio_ 
tcp        0      0 10.1.1.144:52780        188.138.118.86:443      ESTABLISHED 2495/kdeinit4: kio_ 
tcp        0      0 10.1.1.144:36993        78.46.24.155:80         TIME_WAIT   -                   
tcp        0      0 10.1.1.144:49895        23.62.111.147:80        ESTABLISHED 2481/kdeinit4:

Is this part of the domestic surveillance thing?

Edit: More specifically the kio_http process.
tcp 0 1 10.1.1.144:41000 23.62.111.170:80 SYN_SENT 2381/kdeinit4:
1 S 1000 2381 2242 0 80 0 - 31099 poll_s ? 00:00:00 kio_http

Apparently, gnome does the same thing.
http://www.linuxinside.gr/content/83...administration

qlue · 09-06-2013, 01:55 AM

That's your web browser, it's connecting via port 80. If I'm not mistaken that's related to advertising that's found on websites around the net.

jon lee · 09-06-2013, 02:11 AM

Uhh, NO! My web browser actually comes up as firefox.
75.126.162.205:80 ESTABLISHED 2964/firefox

NOT kio_http

Happens with no browsers open.

qlue · 09-06-2013, 02:33 AM

Hmmm. Good point.
Still, it is port 80 so that indicates probable http content. And a quick search indicates that akamaitechnologies.com is used by Adobe (among others.)
BTW, which distro are you using? Some distros serve advertising directly to your desktop.

I notice that Akamai provides hosting services for GitHub. Do you use Git repositories at all?

volkerdi · 09-06-2013, 02:36 AM

If you're unaware of what Akamai does, it's a content delivery service. It works by having Akamai servers provide copies of data rather than using the bandwidth of the original server, allowing service to many more users than would otherwise be possible. It is very widely used, and up to a fifth of the data retrieved from the Internet is actually supplied by Akamai's servers.

Probably kde.org uses Akamai. I wouldn't worry about it.

jon lee · 09-06-2013, 11:58 AM

Well whatever it's used for, I did add them to my IP blocklist with no seemingly deleterious effects.

Code:

#!/bin/sh

/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT  -s 74.125.159.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -d 74.125.159.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT  -s 74.125.157.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -d 74.125.157.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT  -s 74.125.229.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -d 74.125.229.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT  -s 74.125.65.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -d 74.125.65.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT  -s 74.125.45.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -d 74.125.45.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT  -s 74.125.47.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -d 74.125.47.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT  -s 74.125.137.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -d 74.125.137.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT  -s 74.125.134.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -d 74.125.134.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT  -s 74.125.130.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -d 74.125.130.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT  -s 74.125.139.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -d 74.125.139.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT  -s 173.194.37.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -d 173.194.37.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT  -s 107.14.44.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -d 107.14.44.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT  -s 23.62.111.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -d 23.62.111.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A INPUT  -s 74.125.225.0/24 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -A OUTPUT -d 74.125.225.0/24 -j DROP

(along with google and a few others. I know Facebook uses akamai... so...)

Alien Bob · 09-06-2013, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jon lee

Well whatever it's used for, I did add them to my IP blocklist with no seemingly deleterious effects.

(along with google and a few others. I know Facebook uses akamai... so...)

DOn't come complaining in this forum later that your Internet has mysterious content access issues. Blocking Akamai and Google? I really don't see the point in that.

Eric

dugan · 09-06-2013, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alien Bob

Blocking Akamai and Google? I really don't see the point in that.

You haven't been following the General forum, have you.

NyteOwl · 09-06-2013, 04:05 PM

Akamai are one of the largest and oldest content hosting services on the planet. They provide content delivery services to business, corporate and probably even government. Even Microsoft hosts a large portion of their sites with Akamai. If you block them entirely you're going to likely lose a huge chunk of internet content form many, many sources.

wildwizard · 09-06-2013, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jon lee

Well whatever it's used for, I did add them to my IP blocklist with no seemingly deleterious effects.

That is because you haven't got half of them yet ....

http://bgp.he.net/search?search[search]=akamai&commit=Search

Woodsman · 09-06-2013, 04:31 PM

Quote:

You haven't been following the General forum, have you.

Link?

dugan · 09-06-2013, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Woodsman

Link?

My point is simply that quite a few people have expressed a lack of comfort over what they perceive as being "tracked" by google... and what google may potentially do with that information. Here are some recent sample threads:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...id-4175426147/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-alone-938430/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...search-936534/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...rs-4175464462/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...on-4175438504/

Obviously, this was intensified by the Snowden leaks. But it started long before then.

Woodsman · 09-06-2013, 05:38 PM

Ah, I see. thanks.

In that respect I resolve the Google tracking problem with the following:

* I don't use any Google services, not even gmail.

* I use search services other than google.com, all of which the owners claim to not use any tracking (of which I can't prove or disprove, of course).

* For years I have permanently blocked google cookies.

* I never have allowed third party cookies.

* I maintain a limited cookies white list through NoScript.

* I maintain a limited JavaScript white list through NoScript.

* I don't use broken "features" like auto-complete, which I find seldom succeeds in any software. I never met an app where auto-complete (auto-correct) functions correctly more than incorrectly. I disable those kind of features in all apps I use. Then again, not to sound pompous, but I have more confidence in my intelligence than software algorithms designed to do little more than guess.

* Through the years I have found that google search results have consistently gone downhill. Too much noise results from most searches.

* I use a simple strategy to thwart ad tracking, based upon a massive secondary hosts file used by dnscache.

* I am one of those people who tends to sacrifice convenience in favor of security. I understand and accept I'm in the minority.

I'm not trying to be flippant --- just trying to help.

jon lee · 09-06-2013, 07:14 PM

Yeah... I felt uncomfortable with some google firewall logs I was receiving.
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...ia/google4.jpg
(inbetween 13:59 and 14:03).

You know google has made large donations to kernel.org...
That's all I'm going to say.

volkerdi · 09-06-2013, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jon lee

You know google has made large donations to kernel.org...
That's all I'm going to say.

I'm going to guess what you're implying with that comment. Here, try this:

Code:

grep -r "National Security Agency" /usr/src/linux/*

Better stock up on tinfoil.