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The team behind secure messaging app Signal says Amazon has threatened to drop the app if it doesn't stop using an anti-censorship practice known as domain-fronting. Google recently banned the practice, which lets developers disguise web traffic to look like it's coming from a different source, allowing apps like Signal to evade country-level bans. As a result, Signal moved from Google to the Amazon-owned Souq content delivery network. But Amazon implemented its own ban on Friday. In an email that Moxie Marlinspike — founder of Signal developer Open Whisper Systems — posted today, Amazon orders the organization to immediately stop using domain-fronting or find another web services provider.
Amazon has said that it's banning domain-fronting so malware purveyors can't disguise themselves as innocent web traffic. But Signal used the system to provide service in Egypt, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where it's officially banned. It got around filters by making traffic appear to come from a huge platform, since countries weren't willing to ban the entirety of a site like Google to shut down Signal.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/1/17308508/amazon-web-services-signal-domain-fronting-ban-response
Also at TechCrunch and TechRepublic.
See also: A Google update just created a big problem for anti-censorship tools
APT29 Domain Fronting With TOR
Previously: Encrypted Messaging App Signal Uses Google to Bypass Censorship
Related: Open Whisper Systems Releases Standalone "Signal" Desktop App
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 02 2018, @07:49PM (5 children)
Just one more reason why malware purveyors should be hung by their private parts.
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @08:22PM (4 children)
With solutions like that, no wonder we can't have nice things.
As always, the best solution isn't to attack symptoms, but rather to manage causes.
For thwarting malware, the world of course needs much more rigorously designed computing systems.
For protecting against authoritarian censorship, the Internet needs to be built anew on protocols that are fundamentally decentralized, even if that means making it possible to use carrier pigeons to transmit packets, or whatever.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday May 02 2018, @08:26PM (1 child)
Why not both?
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @08:31PM
You can try to kill all the cold viruses in the world, but it's a much better idea to figure out how to make one's own immune system thwart infection.
While malware authors should be despised, their success should be interpreted as one's own failure; if retaliation is not allowed by one's philosophical view of the matter, then one has no choice but to pour his energy into making it always un-profitable to write malware.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 02 2018, @09:39PM
Normally I am in favor of good things and against bad things. But in this case I will differ. :-)
Yes, software should be made as secure as possible. But that does not negate my point about how malware purveyors should be treated. And I think my suggestion for their treatment is quite generous, considering.
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 02 2018, @09:41PM
IMO, hanging malware purveyors by their private parts IS managing causes.
It's not the only form of management that should be done. Not the only cure. Not the only action we should take. But it is a legitimate part of any reasonable solution.
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.