If you have the Brave Browser installed on your Windows devices, then you may also have Brave VPN services installed on the machine. Brave installs these services without user consent on Windows devices.

Brave Firewall + VPN is an extra service that Brave users may subscribe to for a monthly fee. Launched in mid-2022, it is a cooperation between Brave Software, maker of Brave Browser, and Guardian, the company that operates the VPN and the firewall solution. The firewall and VPN solution is available for $9.99 per month.

  • citytree@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    What’s to stop the installer on Linux from configuring the service such that the service always runs on boot? e.g. systemctl enable malware.service.

    • hottari@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      You still need to manually enable the service. The configuration of the service has zero effect on its activation or lifecycle.

      • calm.like.a.bomb@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Huh? Any script can create a service, enable it and then start it. What would make you think the brave package (or just the application itself) can’t do this?

        • hottari@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Not possible to start or enable a created service without user intervention. You don’t know what you are talking about.

          • calm.like.a.bomb@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            OK… challenge accepted. Maybe you don’t know about systemd user services.

            Content of mytrojan.sh:

            #!/usr/bin/env bash
            
            echo "Writing the service unit file"
            
            cat > ~/.config/systemd/user/my_test_service.service << EOF
            [Unit]
            Description=Script Daemon For Test User Services
            
            [Service]
            Type=simple
            User=
            #Group=
            ExecStart=/home/user/bin/myscript.sh
            Restart=on-failure
            StandardOutput=file:%h/log_file
            
            [Install]
            WantedBy=default.target
            EOF
            
            echo "Reloading systemd for the user"
            systemctl --user daemon-reload || exit 1
            
            echo "Enabling and starting the service"
            systemctl --user enable --now my_test_service.service
            

            Content of myscript.sh:

            $ cat ~/bin/myscript.sh
            #!/usr/bin/env bash
            
            while true
            do
                now=$(date)
                me=$(whoami)
                echo "User $me at $now"
                sleep 10
            done
            

            Now run the script (mytrojan.sh) and check service status after that:

            $ ./mytrojan.sh
            Writing the service unit file
            Reloading systemd for the user
            Enabling and starting the service
            $ systemctl --user status my_test_service.service
            ● my_test_service.service - Script Daemon For Test User Services
                 Loaded: loaded (/home/user/.config/systemd/user/my_test_service.service; enabled; vendor preset: ena>
                 Active: active (running) since Thu 2023-10-19 12:15:21 EEST; 6s ago
               Main PID: 1666383 (myscript.sh)
                  Tasks: 2 (limit: 18757)
                 Memory: 556.0K
                    CPU: 4ms
                 CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/app.slice/my_test_service.service
                         ├─1666383 /bin/bash /home/user/bin/myscript.sh
                         └─1666387 sleep 10
            
            Oct 19 12:15:21 tesla systemd[1866318]: Started Script Daemon For Test User Services
            
            • hottari@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              You failed. This requires the user to run a script aka manual intervention.

              • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Now imagine that the script is set to run as part of the brave installation - you type “yes” please download brave, brave installs brave and runs this script. Linux isn’t immune to malware as you seem to think.

                • hottari@lemmy.ml
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                  1 year ago

                  You would need the power of root to do all these aforementioned things (run a VPN service).

                  And am not saying that Linux is immune to malware, just that it’s not out of the norm to have package managers install services crucial for operation during installation. Since Windows doesn’t have package managers, I’m gonna replace package managers with packages in this reasoning.

                • hottari@lemmy.ml
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                  1 year ago

                  Maybe am ignorant but at least I understand the questions before I answer them.