DeSopa: a Firefox addon to easily bypass SOPA DNS blocking

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/desopa/

by kibwen • 15 years ago

112 61 15 years ago

addons.mozilla.org

This program is a proof of concept that SOPA will not help prevent piracy. The program, implemented as a Firefox extension, simply contacts offshore domain name resolution services to obtain the IP address for any desired website

Part of SOPA is a provision that any tools for circumventing the DNS hijacking are themselves banned. So this extension would have to be removed from the Mozilla repository. At best, it would be distributed underground, and hence would not help to preserve the freedom of the average user.

delimitted8• 15 years ago

Yes, I agree. However at this point I am just hoping that it catches the attention of congressmen giving them another reason to rethink SOPA's feasibility before the vote

thebigshane4• 15 years ago

I like your idea but I sincerely believe that congress(wo)men will only think of this as another attempt by infringers to continue to infringe and steal. If anything, it may want them to wish they could prevent tools and techniques like this from from being available for "just anyone" to download. </cynicism>

pavel_lishin• 15 years ago

I choose to be an optimist, and foresee a future where every user is dragged far enough up the evolutionary ladder to be able to subvert things like this.

lloeki• 15 years ago

> So this extension would have to be removed from the Mozilla repository.

IM unfamiliar with the bill, but given SOPA's wording, could it be that the whole of addons.mozilla.org, or even mozilla.org end up banned?

> At best, it would be distributed underground

If it were to happen, I envision a world where Aunt Jackie will ask little nephew Steve to enable her the full internets because she can't watch some photos on Flickr anymore, just like she could not install the Flash ten years ago. Steve will simply be asked to provide a piece of software to bootstrap, which if banned from the internets, will be distributed on underground network channels then diffused on a local scale through sneakernet.

It looks awfully like the BBS and early Internet in the '90s, with those warez sources like IRC DDC bots, and a select few having access to such sources and able to distribute pirated games on high-price CD-Rs.

delimitted8• 15 years ago

I think if SOPA passes, Mozilla will remove extensions such as this. I hope this extension is a deterrent to SOPA passing at all.

tomjen35• 15 years ago

The average user has friends who can supply him/her with this extension. As soon as these ordinary people her about these they will as "the guy they know who is really good with computers" about that program.

Won't take very much to do it. Heck I can even write one (since all you need to do is replace the DNS server).

gkoberger3• 15 years ago

SOPA specifically (without actually naming it) calls out addons.mozilla.org for the whole mafiaafire thing -- so under SOPA, this add-on wouldn't be allowed to stay up.

"[T]his version targets software developers and distributors as well. It allows the Attorney General (doing Hollywood or trademark holders' bidding) to go after more or less anyone who provides or offers a product or service that could be used to get around DNS blacklisting orders."

Second paragraph: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/11/hollywood-new-war-on-s...

(Disclosure: I'm a developer on addons.mozilla.org; EDIT: Changed the post to add a source)

delimitted8• 15 years ago

SOPA has not yet passed, it is not yet the law and I hope that Mozilla leaves it up for now. The DeSOPA program is meant to discourage passage of the bill by showing congress how easily it can be circumvented, so if it is removed after passage so be it. The link is:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/desopa/

[add-ons mozilla base URL ] (slash) en-US (slash) firefox (slash) addon (slash) desopa (slash optional)

in case it is filtered.

Disclaimer: I developed it

gkoberger3• 15 years ago

I didn't mean at all to imply Mozilla would be taking it down; just that the government wasn't happy with the mafiaafire add-on and has included text in SOPA specifically targeted at making add-ons like this "illegal". Just another reason SOPA is bad :)

koenigdavidmj• 15 years ago

It's been shown in court that source code is free speech, protected by the First Amendment (cf. Bernstein v. US, Junger v. Daley). I don't want this to get to that point, but that could be a way of getting around it.

Some might argue that speech telling you how to commit a crime is not protected speech, but the Anarchist Cookbook is legal to possess as well.

Dammit Jim, I'm a hacker, not a lawyer. This is not legal advice.

rabidsnail• 15 years ago

Counterexample: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_v._Reimerdes

ojbyrne2• 15 years ago

Of course, with SOPA they won't just take the one addon down, but the entire domain.

vidarh3• 15 years ago

In which case I'm sure "someone" will post it uuencoded to every forum operated by any subsidiary of companies supporting SOPA.

Or something to that effect.

They'll have fun moderating every scrap of user generated content they want to make use of or shut all their forums down, and still, circumvention tools will be everywhere.

If this passes, not only will they find people will create tons of tools to make circumvention easier than ever, but darknet efforts redoubled and work to make the net in general more censorship resistant explode; and people doing their worst to ensure it'll be harder than ever to stop piracy.

jwblackwell• 15 years ago

China blocks sites, everyone uses a VPS. If peoples favorite sites start going down, i'm pretty sure the majority of users will start working out how to get around the block, and those that don't probably weren't as frequent users anyway.

You have to remember, for a lot of people their online experience ends at facebook, youtube and hotmail. Sites like reddit, stack overflow, digg, all have audiences that generally don't use IE and will also be able to find a way around a SOPA block. Sure, these sites will lose a lot of traffic, but SOPA will FAR from kill them.

nostromo2• 15 years ago

It would be quite ironic if the ultimate legacy of SOPA is to strengthen the web by evolving the nature of DNS.

I'm reminded of the past "victories" of the copyright lobby that ended up doing more harm (from their perspective) than good: shuttering Napster (which lead to the much better decentralized systems used for piracy today) and passing of the DMCA (which actually ended up giving legal coverage to businesses that profit from infringement).

delimitted8• 15 years ago

That would be awesome, eg P2P DNS, but I wouldn't want it to pass to see if that is the outcome.

dangrossman4• 15 years ago

The worst part of SOPA, in my opinion, is the ability for a rightsholder to ask any ad network or payment provider to stop doing business with any website merely by claiming the site's primary function is infringement... and the liability incentives the bill creates for doing so without a trial.

We can route around DNS blocks to get to the sites, but what does that matter if the sites close themselves because their funding was cut off? A site like YouTube would not be profitable without access to US-based ad networks.

tomjen35• 15 years ago

Microtransactions in Bitcoin (or heck ads paid with bitcoin).

You can't cut of bitcoin transactions because there is by its very definition no place to cut them of.

If this is the case, we are only going to get that much closer to the end game.

_bbs• 15 years ago

Can someone find a link to the source code (it is licensed under the GPLv2)? I tried to open the xpi in a text editor, but no dice.

I don't have much experience with FF addons, but I'd like to see exactly what's happening here.

nathanb• 15 years ago

An xpi is simply a zip archive, FYI.

arthurschreiber• 15 years ago

xpi files are "normal" renamed zip files. Try extracting the contents using your favorite unzipping application. You should then get access to the source files.

delimitted8• 15 years ago

You can rename the extension to .zip and extract. If you have any problems, let me know via a comment or post a contact method and Ill send you the source. Its pretty simple. When on, it intercepts URLs, sends the base URL to three offshore DNS services via HTTP, makes a best effort to check that two of them are equivalent, caches the IP for the browser session, redirects to the equivalent URL using the IP, and substitutes out the domain name in the source code with the IP address for future requests. I admit that it could use some work, however, I wrote in hopes that I could help create some kind of change in the events that are about to transpire before the vote.

JakeSc• 15 years ago

Thanks for your work!

The explanation on how the extension works was enlightening. Perhaps I missed it, but would you mind including the explanation on the download page?

vectorpush• 15 years ago

This is an outrage. We need to pass a bill that forces ISPs to scan for this plugin and report users to the government for prosecution. The nerve of these criminals.

SquareWheel• 15 years ago

Require all operating systems to include a program that searches for this plugin and removes it.

Then write another program to detect if the user uninstalls the first program.

grecy2• 15 years ago

I thought a major part of SOPA will be censoring sites, not just removing them from DNS. So even if you can resolve them offshore, they are going to be censored versions of the sites you know and love.

thebigshane4• 15 years ago

SOPA (officially) only addresses foreign sites. So they order removal from DNS servers and interrupt advertising or other funding processes from US based companies. But the ability to change the content on a server that is hosted in another country (I believe, IANAL) is beyond their capability. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, the issue between domestic and foreign sites is still a bit vague in regards to SOPA. Supporters claim it only addresses foreign sites but most opponents claim (I think) that domestic sites can also be affected.

josephmosby• 15 years ago

This is accurate, and a big reason why the EU officially passed a resolution against U.S. domain seizures.

All SOPA can do without infringing upon another country's sovereignty would be to remove the DNS entry on the U.S. servers that ties back to a foreign server, but they can't impact the foreign content itself without violating world law. The EU resolution strengthens that by saying that if the U.S. had hoped they'd be able to censor foreign content, the EU isn't going to just casually allow that to happen.

grecy2• 15 years ago

So for "infringing" sites hosted in the US (or on .com, .net, .org) What can SOPA do?

nostromo2• 15 years ago

Startup idea: $2 a month DNS servers based in Vancouver, Toronto, The Bahamas, and Tijuana.

brettnak• 15 years ago

I would pay for one based out of Vancouver.

telemekus• 15 years ago

Wont SOPA take the Mozilla site offline for something like this?

ryusage• 15 years ago

Honestly, I've never really understood networking in great depth, so this may be a dumb question, but isn't bypassing SOPA as easy as specifying a new DNS server for your network connection?

EwanG• 15 years ago

So any chance of someone developing a similar addon for Chrome and IE? Not that I am suggesting I would use such a thing (lest I be marked by the lovely NSA filter that I'm sure monitors this site among others)...

four• 15 years ago

I love this approach!: SOPA? DeSOPA, MF! Yes, run circles around these idiots.

Tamer, you also do a great job of explaining in passionately clear, objective terms, the SOPA agenda, the weaknesses of its assuptions and it's dire consequences.

However, I strongly take issue with your own assumptions about the value of today's internet services.

More » http://caspiandesign.com/2011/12/21/desopa-great-ff-extensio...

vlod• 15 years ago

Can anyone elaborate if SOPA will have the power to take down ALL TLDs or only certain ones. i.e do they only control .com, .net and .org?

Wondering if moving to another non US controlled TLD would work.

e.g piratebay.org would also have piratebay.ly which everyone would go to if SOPA took down their .org site

pcvarmint• 15 years ago

I don't see how DeSopa can work if ICE seizes domains. As soon as a US-based domain is seized, it will propagate to foreign DNS servers as well. So merely using DNS servers outside the US won't help.

DeSopa might help against local ISPs who engage in censoring certain domains on their nameservers, something the SOPA legislation might mandate, but it won't help if the domains are seized.

Better would be some kind of P2P DNS system proposed by Peter Sunde of Pirate Bay -- a decentralized replacement for ICANN and DNS.

seanp2k2• 15 years ago

This is also on Github: https://github.com/TamerRizk/desopa

DeSopa: a Firefox addon to easily bypass SOPA DNS blocking

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