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Hello everyone,
Some months ago I encountered a situation where a user running an exit node with a publicly exposed privoxy (intentionally or not, I'm not sure) was constantly receiving a number of requests directed to advertisement networks. Fundamentally, someone is/was running an infrastructure using exposed Privoxies to perform some sort of advertisement fraud.
It's been roughly documented also here: https://b.kentbackman.com/2013/04/15/rotpoion-botnet-powered-by-thousands-of...
Out of interest, I gave a quick look at existing relays and exists and it turns out that there's ~20 nodes exposing Privoxy on public IPs.
Host: 46.65.12.134 (46-65-12-134.zone16.bethere.co.uk) Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 66.146.193.31 (sable.dredel.com) Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 66.180.193.219 (tor-proxy.die.net) Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 69.164.211.18 (nsi.mirt.net) Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 71.246.241.109 (koansys.com) Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 75.137.122.118 (75-137-122-118.dhcp.gnvl.sc.charter.com) Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 78.47.41.125 (maurer-web.wisseberger-jonges.de) Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 81.56.102.224 (perso.schenck.fr) Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 82.45.34.136 (cpc11-hawk13-2-0-cust135.aztw.cable.virginm.net) Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 93.207.83.51 (p5DCF5333.dip0.t-ipconnect.de) Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 95.140.34.187 (medea.tobias.vn) Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 95.140.34.188 (mikrobi.tobias.vn) Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 123.254.105.104 () Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 151.28.124.42 (ppp-42-124.28-151.libero.it) Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 162.243.5.88 () Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 165.154.108.120 () Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 176.31.127.140 (ks396886.kimsufi.com) Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy/// Host: 199.184.154.12 () Ports: 8118/open/tcp//privoxy///
First thing first, I'm interested to know whether there's an actual reason for doing this or if it's something discouraged.
Best, /nex