A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

[nobaloney]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

My first post on these forums...

You're giving me flashbacks to the 80s and my Apple ][.

Do you remember a company called Programma International? I was in charge of their business software group.

I've always liked BASIC - it's very readable and you can do a lot in it without a lot of overhead, unlike most modern languages. Microsoft's VB was very capable - you could churn out an app in a few minutes. Check out kbasic.com sometime - I haven't used it (lack of a good project) but it looks good.

Thanks for the information on KBasic; I'm probably going to start using it. I'll figure out a project .

I've been trying for weeks now to move (from an old Mandriva 2005LE system) to Kubuntu 9.10, and so far lots of problems. While I've got lots of server administration background, desktop Linux still (even after four years running it) is still a foreign language. But I'm moving forward.

Thanks for your helpful scripts.

Jeff

[IgnorantGuru]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

My first post on these forums...

Wow I'm honored - this 80s talk drew you out, huh?

I don't recall Programma International. But I was just a teen in the 80s mostly writing my own software because either I couldn't afford to buy anything or it didn't exist.

Thanks for the information on KBasic; I'm probably going to start using it. I'll figure out a project .

Let us know how you like it. I might give it a try sometime.

I've been trying for weeks now to move (from an old Mandriva 2005LE system) to Kubuntu 9.10, and so far lots of problems. While I've got lots of server administration background, desktop Linux still (even after four years running it) is still a foreign language. But I'm moving forward.

Each distro is its own little world - takes some getting used to. I used Kubuntu for quite a few years with good results. I just migrated to Arch so I'm learning things all over again. But it keeps me fresh.

[GreyGeek]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

A comment in the article suggested doing

rm -r ~/.macromedia

ln -s /dev/null ~/.macromedia

and perhaps the same thing could be done with

rm -r ~/.adobe/Flash_Player/AssetCache

ln -s /dev/null ~/.adobe/Flash_Player/AssetCache

[IgnorantGuru]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

@GreyGeek
Both .adobe and .macromedia should be cleared, or at least the Flash_Player subfolders. But sending them to /dev/null or making the folder root-owned and unwritable can make Flash not work with some websites, and/or make npviewer.bin crash.

Another option is to replace the ~/.adobe and ~/.macromedia folders with links to folders in /dev/shm (which is the default ramdrive). You need to recreate the folders in /dev/shm each time KDE starts, perhaps using a script in Autostart. That way Flash can use the cookies and websites work, but the data is not written to disk, only memory, and is not persistent between boots. And of course you can delete it anytime.

For example, if you close Firefox, then save the script below to "~/.kde/Autostart/moveflash"

#!/bin/bash

# Move flash player cookies to ramdrive on KDE login

rm -r ~/.macromedia/Flash_Player
rm -r ~/.adobe/Flash_Player
mkdir -p /dev/shm/flashcookies/.macromedia/Flash_Player
mkdir -p /dev/shm/flashcookies/.adobe/Flash_Player
ln -s /dev/shm/flashcookies/.macromedia/Flash_Player ~/.macromedia/Flash_Player
ln -s /dev/shm/flashcookies/.adobe/Flash_Player ~/.adobe/Flash_Player
#

Then make it excutable and run it with:

chmod +x ~/.kde/Autostart/moveflash && ~/.kde/Autostart/moveflash

The change will be made immediately, and those folders in /dev/shm will be automatically recreated when you reboot.

Another option is to use a script to start Firefox, instead of running it directly, and have the script clean out the flash cookies.

[GreyGeek]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

My first post on these forums...
.....

Welcome aboard, Jeff 8)

[GreyGeek]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

....
Another option is to replace the ~/.adobe and ~/.macromedia folders with links to folders in /dev/shm (which is the default ramdrive).
...

That's even MORE clever! 8) 8) 8)

[nobaloney]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

Welcome aboard, Jeff 8)

Thanks, GreyGeek. As I've posted in the Newbies section I'm having some problems with KDE and I may have to look at other options.

But as of now I'm still trying (fighting?) Kubuntu.

Jeff

[GreyGeek]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

.....
On a practical note, a thought I had before installing a new OS, not a bad idea to dd zero-out your drive, or just zero-out unused space on the (old) OS partition. (In the latter case, you'd have to do something like: use a live CD to access your old OS partition. Delete everything under root / except one small toy file. Then write zeros to that file (using dd or dcfldd) until you fill up the partition. Ha! -> not a bad idea to do this every now and then and re-install the same OS in the same "space"! )
...

I had a friend ask me over to check out his Windows box. It was "behaving funny and the web was slow". Nothing unusual there. Primarily, he thought his problem was that he couldn't play an exercise DVD any more.

He was loaded with the usual spybots, tracking cookies, etc... which CCleaner took care of, but one which it couldn't. Using FDisk to delete and recreate the windows partition didn't help. It turned out to be a keyboard logger Trojan that infected the MBR. Tried replacing the MBR. Reinstalling Windows didn't help because the Trojan also infected his 5GB "recovery" partition. He didn't have an installation CD. Catch-22. I suggested he allow me to replace Windows with Linux and he agreed. I booted the LiveCD and zero'd out the entire HD, incuding the MBR. Then gave Linux the whole HD. That was over a year ago. No problems, no lag, no slowdown, no infections and no more house calls! 8)

IMO, scrubbing the ENTIRE HD is the best way to replace any OS.

[Qqmike]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

@IgnorantGuru,
Dang, you're not kidding about the Flash Player cookie business. Just tonight had time to look at it, and I need to spend more time with it as I only did a couple experiments. Thing is, you can delete the cookies, say for the web site mymostsacredsecrets, but that FOLDER will still be there (in that very long hidden macromedia home path). I deleted all the folders manually; that worked and didn't seem to mess anything up, but they may be recreated upon entering the sites again.
This certainly merits a bit of further looking-into.
Thanks for this pointer.
(TODO: To study your cleaner script. I think I need to get into my unused 9.10 KDE4.x OS and take a fresh look at Privacy 101 using your stuff.)

[IgnorantGuru]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

Dang, you're not kidding about the Flash Player cookie business.

It's a very sneaky thing, and if you haven't cleared it, it can record YEARS of web use. Pretty ridiculous.

Let me know how the script works for you. I've migrated to Arch linux and dropped KDE, so I have modified the version I'm using, adding a few things and making it friendly when KDE is not used. But I still use some KDE apps so it still cleans KDE. At some point I need to update the version on my blog with this one, but it's not ready yet. No major changes though, just a few little things added.

[Qqmike]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

Got a basic question.
In the IgnorantGuru script file kscrubber.sh,
a typical command (for cleaning /home files) is, as an example,
$srm $userhome/.xsession-errors 2> /dev/null
If this command were normally executed by a (normal!) user at Konsole, the user would simply do
~$srm /.xsession-errors
What is the reason/advantage of directing the output of srm (which would be either a file full of zeros or random numbers) to /dev/null?

[IgnorantGuru]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

Got a basic question.
In the IgnorantGuru script file kscrubber.sh,
a typical command (for cleaning /home files) is, as an example,
$srm $userhome/.xsession-errors 2> /dev/null
If this command were normally executed by a (normal!) user at Konsole, the user would simply do
~$srm /.xsession-errors

kscrubber uses $userhome because it cleans all user folders and is run as root, so ~ wouldn't work in this case.

What is the reason/advantage of directing the output of srm (which would be either a file full of zeros or random numbers) to /dev/null?

I try to keep the output of kscrubber to a minimum so any legitimate warnings or errors don't get lost in the mess. srm has no -f switch like rm does, which means if you try to delete a file which doesn't exist, it puts up an error. The redirections for /dev/null just keep "Error: File * - No such file or directory" from being printed repeatedly.

These redirections don't affect the random data that srm uses to overwrite a file. That data is not sent to stdout.

If you like, you can remove the /dev/null redirections from the script and you'll see all the output. It's not a functional change.

[Qqmike]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

Many thanks IgnorantGuru.
Btw, am finding your work and your web page interesting, informative, and very useful. Thanks, again!

[IgnorantGuru]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

Thanks for your feedback and (inadvertantly) reminding me to update this. I just posted version 1.1.0 of kscrubber. This update adds cleaning for quite a few additional programs, based on feedback and also my using Arch for my one system. (kscrubber now runs on Arch okay, although it has not been tested with a full KDE desktop in Arch.)

kscrubber now does at least something for the following programs: akonadi amule ark ark arora avidemux epdfview filelight firefox flash gftp googleearth gqview gwenview k3b kaffeine kate kdeglobals kgrab klipper kmail konqueror kpdf krename krunner krusader ktorrent mplayer nepomuk okular parcellite plasma smplayer soffice soprano speedcrunch vlc

As always, don't assume everything that you want removed is being removed - examine and alter the script to your liking. if you're not sure how to change something, feel free to ask.

This version will also warn if a user on your system has multiple kde folders (eg .kde, .kde3, .kde4) Only one will be cleaned due to current limitations of the script, but it will tell you which one.

The new version is at
http://igurublog.wordpress.com/downl...ipt-kscrubber/

And if you want to compare it to the old version, you can still find that at
http://ignorantguru.110mb.com/downlo...ubber-1.0.2.sh
Although there shouldn't be any need for the older version.

[suplero]

Re: A new privacy and log scrubber for KDE4, Firefox, & Flash

Great thread!!

I want to add the question of whether anyone has looked into what firefox [and possibly others?] does to permissions at startup or other times. The behavior seems strange to me and is somewhat concerning.

In the version 2's of firefox I could chmod 400 the cookies file, and have cookies I wanted in there, and also go anywhere that needed cookies without getting a warning. Essentially temporarily writing to the file but not changing it. Firefox was happy to work like that.

As of version 3 and later, every time firefox starts up, the permissions are reassigned to whatever firefox needs, usually 644.

What is even more interesting is that if I change the owner of the file to root, firefox is still able to reset the permissions and the owner of the file every time it starts up.

I just discovered that other files can be affected this way too, such as the .macromedia files. I set files to owner root, and they are changed back as soon as they are needed.

I have no idea how this happens, and also think this shouldn't be allowed. No way should a non-root program be able to influence root owned file permissions.

Also, fundamentally firefox has no business telling me what permissions to set my files to.

As stated somewhere previously, I can change the directories to the point of breaking things, but that is not the intent. The intent is to keep things working while not allowing months and years of history from being stored.