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    How to block in Windows10 Telemetry with pfsense

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Firewalling
    80 Posts 19 Posters 54.4k Views
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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.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • 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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                      • D
                        doktornotor Banned
                        last edited by

                        @cmb:

                        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.

                        Yes. Things like HPHosts that block this without thinking break Windows updates.

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                        • 2
                          2chemlud Banned
                          last edited by

                          Nope, Windows update just works fine on the Win-machines in the network, no problem at all.

                          But please, it's the local IP of my PC-BSD 10 running on an old Dell Precision 670, no question about that. No Windows involved. No software other than Firefox was running a the time of the blockings in the firewall log. And the log is FULL of these blocks.

                          I REALLY have no idea what is going on here…

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                          • KOMK
                            KOM
                            last edited by

                            And you're sure that this PC-BSD box isn't running a browser that is trying to talk to Bing, for whatever reason?  Otherwise, I really can't see a *BSD distro needing to talk to Microsoft for anything.

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                            • 2
                              2chemlud Banned
                              last edited by

                              What could make Firefox with No-script in private mode make talk to Bing, except using Bing, is this the question? Honestly, I don't know!

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                              • KOMK
                                KOM
                                last edited by

                                Perhaps it's a beacon or something on some page you were on that it talking to Bing?  Some other plugin you're running?  I have no idea either, just wild guesses.

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                                • 2
                                  2chemlud Banned
                                  last edited by

                                  … no further plugins, except Cipherfox... ;-)

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                                  • 2
                                    2chemlud Banned
                                    last edited by

                                    …btw, I did it in the past, with 2 bridged network adapters catch whole internet traffic with wireshark. Is it better to do it on the WAN or on the LAN interface of the pfSense?

                                    On the WAN side the local IP the traffic is comming from should gone, right?

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                                    • C
                                      cmb
                                      last edited by

                                      Full of blocks to where? What IP(s)? PCBSD runs from a CDN, which might also host any number of other completely unrelated things. Doubt if Microsoft is among those as I believe they use akamai, but knowing list maintainers' penchant for over-blocking, it wouldn't be surprising if they blocked an entire CDN.

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                                      • 2
                                        2chemlud Banned
                                        last edited by

                                        The specific IP in the post above, same IP again and again.

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                                        • S
                                          sodasam
                                          last edited by

                                          :-\Hi,

                                          I tried to follow these instructions but pfsense is not allowing me to save these hosts as an alias or under any other type. Here is a snapshot of what I am doing https://imgur.com/XpW9uI8

                                          I would also like to block incoming tor exit nodes and I dont see any easy way to add the hundreds of IP's, does anyone know how that can be done on the command line?

                                          Can you kindly tell me the correct way to do this or how I can do it on the command line?

                                          Thanks!

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • KOMK
                                            KOM
                                            last edited by

                                            The name of the alias may only consist of the characters "a-z, A-Z, 0-9 and _"

                                            You can embed images directly here.  No need to link to Imgur.

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