Incoming connections disabled, torrents still seeding?

KabirGandhiok · Post by **KabirGandhiok** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 8:20 am

Hi,

According to the ufw default settings all incoming connections are disabled, why do torrents still seed then? Does this mean that incoming connections are active even though ufw shows they are disabled? I hope my system security isn't compromised.

ufw settings -
kabir@kabir-G50-80 ~ $ sudo ufw status verbose
[sudo] password for kabir:
Status: active
Logging: on (low)
Default: deny (incoming), allow (outgoing), disabled (routed)
New profiles: skip
kabir@kabir-G50-80 ~ $

Any help regarding this would really be appreciated.

NathanRodriguez · Post by **NathanRodriguez** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 11:44 am

Think the torrent client is seeding with your machine sending/starting the connections. You can try a port scan to see if something in your public IP is open.

Buzzsaw · Post by **Buzzsaw** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 12:54 pm

Blocking incoming connections isn't going to prevent seeding. You'll still seed to peers found via outgoing connections.

KabirGandhiok · Post by **KabirGandhiok** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 2:25 pm

Thanks for responding.

I understand it now.

Also, when I access torrent websites, there are pop ups which are most of the time blocked by Firefox, but sometimes they do come through. Can these pop ups compromise my system's security by any way?

I'm running cinnamon 17.2, fully updated and my firewall is enabled.

Thanks!

Cosmo. · Post by **Cosmo.** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 2:41 pm

KabirGandhiok wrote:Also, when I access torrent websites, there are pop ups which are most of the time blocked by Firefox, but sometimes they do come through. Can these pop ups compromise my system's security by any way?

Not necessarily, but possibly yes.

If you get popups this means, that either you have in the preferences -> content popup-blocking disabled or you have set exceptions (see the button beside the option) or they are driven by javascript.

The firewall is irrelevant in this context, because you have set (I am at least rather sure) to allow outgoing connections. Going to a side, clicking a bookmark or a link lets FF create a (outgoing) connection and the website uses this connection (by design) to answer.

KabirGandhiok · Post by **KabirGandhiok** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 4:19 pm

Cosmo. wrote: If you get popups this means, that either you have in the preferences -> content popup-blocking disabled or you have set exceptions (see the button beside the option) or they are driven by javascript.

The firewall is irrelevant in this context, because you have set (I am at least rather sure) to allow outgoing connections. Going to a side, clicking a bookmark or a link lets FF create a (outgoing) connection and the website uses this connection (by design) to answer.

I Just checked, popups are blocked in Firefox and I don't have any set exceptions, but I still get them once in a while. Can you help me block them altogether? I'm not sure what you mean by them being javascript driven and if that's the case, could you help me in blocking them?
Thanks!

Cosmo. · Post by **Cosmo.** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 4:47 pm

Javascript can be embedded in websites - and mostly it is - and leads to executable code. This code can be needed to make the website work, it can be superfluous and it can be dangerous.

Firefox has javascript enabled by default. It can only be disabled with a hidden setting, but this is cumbersome, because for the one or other site you visit it might be needed. But there is a fine solution with the extension NoScript, which disables by default all javascript, but gives you the option to allow it very easily, when it is really needed and the website trustworthy. Besides that the extension provides some more security enhancements.

KabirGandhiok · Post by **KabirGandhiok** » Fri Oct 02, 2015 5:10 pm

Cosmo. wrote:Javascript can be embedded in websites - and mostly it is - and leads to executable code. This code can be needed to make the website work, it can be superfluous and it can be dangerous.

Firefox has javascript enabled by default. It can only be disabled with a hidden setting, but this is cumbersome, because for the one or other site you visit it might be needed. But there is a fine solution with the extension NoScript, which disables by default all javascript, but gives you the option to allow it very easily, when it is really needed and the website trustworthy. Besides that the extension provides some more security enhancements.

Awesome, thanks so much for this

it works really well. I can see all pop-ups are blocked now and Firefox isn't even redirecting to other websites, which it sometimes did earlier, even though I had selected the "warn me when websites try to redirect or reload the page" option.

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