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    How to block in Windows10 Telemetry with pfsense

    Firewalling
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    • N
      n3by
      last edited by

      yes it is required because other way update destinations will be blocked from Blocked rule that have these destinations included in case you don't want to allow update.

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      • KOMK
        KOM
        last edited by

        yes it is required because other way update destinations will be blocked from Blocked rule that have these destinations included in case you don't want to allow update.

        Huh?  Windows Update domains shouldn't be included in your telemetry alias.

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        • N
          n3by
          last edited by

          some people want to block everyhing because MS can deliver an "security update" that will install telemetry and also use update hosts to get data from computer so this way is better, at least for me to have updates (allow only updates-block everything).

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          • KOMK
            KOM
            last edited by

            I still don't see how this is a good solution.  Are you literally whitelisting every destination address you want access to and blocking everything else on the Internet?  Because MS can spin up a zillion new domains on a whim.

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            • N
              n3by
              last edited by

              MS can do whatever they want, but they must be able to make your computer to talk with any new domains ( and they can do this only with an allowed to install update ).
              If now you block the telemetry C&C servers, there is no other way your computer will know to talk with new domains until you will install that update.

              This is what we have for now, if we have another better way please elaborate ( except unplug the cable, stop using MS OS… ).

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              • R
                robi
                last edited by

                @n3by:

                yes it looks ok.

                It's not ok as per your description, because it's a pass rule, not a block rule.

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                • R
                  robi
                  last edited by

                  @KOM:

                  yes it is required because other way update destinations will be blocked from Blocked rule that have these destinations included in case you don't want to allow update.

                  Huh?  Windows Update domains shouldn't be included in your telemetry alias.

                  Which are the Windows Update domains, btw?

                  I found these:

                  windowsupdate.microsoft.com	 
                  update.microsoft.com	 
                  windowsupdate.com	 
                  download.windowsupdate.com	 
                  wustat.windows.com	 
                  ntservicepack.microsoft.com	 
                  

                  Are there any others?

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                  • S
                    Sea Monkey
                    last edited by

                    @robi:

                    @n3by:

                    yes it looks ok.

                    It's not ok as per your description, because it's a pass rule, not a block rule.

                    It's two rules.

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                    • H
                      Harvy66
                      last edited by

                      Setup a WSUS server, whitelist that to talk to Microsoft, and block all clients?

                      I'm torn between Linux and FreeBSD. Linux has better Steam support, but a lot of stuff is being done in FreeBSD to increase comparability. ZFS and Jails are very attractive, even on a desktop.

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                      • 2
                        2chemlud Banned
                        last edited by

                        Whenever I have the choice, M$-shyt has been replaced by opensuse or PC-BSD (the later has a steeper learning curve and is not so well supported, but is free of systemd). Big plus: you can both run with KDE desktop, which made it much easier to switch between these two, and btw the handling is not sooo far away from Windows xp/7…

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                        • 2
                          2chemlud Banned
                          last edited by

                          PS: Here

                          http://techne.alaya.net/?p=12499

                          you can find a long list of IPs and host names to block for Windows telemetry.

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                          • 2
                            2chemlud Banned
                            last edited by

                            …just for the record:

                            I uninstalled on Win 7 pro 64/32 (various computers) the following KBs:

                            97 1033
                            290 2907
                            295 2664
                            299 0214
                            302 1917
                            302 2345
                            303 5583
                            304 4374
                            305 0265
                            306 2345
                            306 5987
                            306 8708
                            307 5249
                            307 5851
                            308 0149
                            308 3325

                            and in addition I set up a block rule with loggin for an alias containing all the IPs and host names listed here

                            http://techne.alaya.net/?p=12499

                            As you might expect, the firewall log is full of blocked "MS telemetry" this morning.

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                            • 2
                              2chemlud Banned
                              last edited by

                              …just to add:

                              Had my PC-BSD 10 PC up today for updating. Really amazing, I found in the firewall logs repeated access of this computer to an IP blocked for MS Telemetry.

                              WHAT has PC-BSD with MS-Telemetry in common? Or is it more correctly NSA telemetry featured by Microshyte?

                              I'm surprised!

                              ![BSD to MS 07.12.2015.JPG](/public/imported_attachments/1/BSD to MS 07.12.2015.JPG)
                              ![BSD to MS 07.12.2015.JPG_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/BSD to MS 07.12.2015.JPG_thumb)

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                              • KOMK
                                KOM
                                last edited by

                                That IP address is a-msedge.net and it takes you to Bing.

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                                • 2
                                  2chemlud Banned
                                  last edited by

                                  So basically you think it's Firefox? But I have no Bing (removed it from search options in Firefox), I use no Bing, I've never been there in my whole live… Firefox was running in PRIVATE mode all the time btw...

                                  So: why does my OS/Browser try to contact OVER AND OVER AGAIN something I've never asked to contact? Things are not really getting better at this point...

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                                  • KOMK
                                    KOM
                                    last edited by

                                    No idea.

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                                    • 2
                                      2chemlud Banned
                                      last edited by

                                      …sometimes I really think about starting a 24/7 wireshark session on all networks... storage space is so cheap nowadays. How about an integration into pfSense?

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                                      • KOMK
                                        KOM
                                        last edited by

                                        How about an integration into pfSense?

                                        pfSense already has a Capture Packet function.  You want Wireshark??

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                                        • 2
                                          2chemlud Banned
                                          last edited by

                                          But is 24/7 feasible on an embedded nano? Not really, I guess. Maybe I set up a Linux machine and start copying the whole internet traffic…

                                          But overall: This story really frustrates me...

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                                          • C
                                            cmb
                                            last edited by

                                            Wireshark is just a GUI to pcap data, you wouldn't run that on the firewall given it has no X and will never have X. You can feed Wireshark over SSH, or run tcpdump on the firewall dumping to disk if you have plenty of disk space.

                                            It's extremely unlikely PCBSD is communicating with anything to do with Microsoft. Whatever telemetry blocking list you have is way over-blocking I expect. It also seems to block critical portions of Windows update, which is likely the bulk of the attempts you're seeing.

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