Julian , That's a good point , But from what I can gather this is Mr Ros > http://www.thesauro.com/nietoros/ if so then such routines would perhaps be a little dangerous to implement ?
I don't really know what the end game will be .. but I have the perception that 'game'may be the operative word . G . --- In [email protected], "g4ilo" <jul...@...> wrote: > > As a (retired) amateur software developer myself I cannot imagine why the > developer did it this way instead of letting people pick their own cluster > (preferably one located near them) and send their own spots manually. It > would have been easier. Connecting to random servers and sending randomly > selected text strings is often a hallmark of malware. Perhaps he has > developed a clever way of stealing passwords without people realizing it? You > know, like those coded messages where the secret text was made from the first > letter of every line. I'm not saying it's actually likely but you have to > wonder why he has made such a bizarre design decision. > > If nothing else it shows how easy it is to get people to load software on > their computer when they have no real idea who the developer is or what the > software may be doing. > > Julian, G4ILO > > --- In [email protected], "Laurie, VK3AMA" <groups01@> wrote: > > > > Yesterday I ran some tests and can confirm that ROS software (Betas > > 4.5.7, 4.5.8, 4.6.0 & 4.6.2) is auto-spotting to the cluster without any > > control from the op. > > > > ROS has hard-coded the following Clusters and connects to one of these > > if possible. > > > > dxc.us6iq.com > > dxc.ham.hr > > 9a0dxc.hamradio.hr > > remo3.renet.ru > > cluster.sk4bw.net > > ax25.org > > sk3w.se > > sector7.nu > > sm7gvf.dyndns.org > > > > I setup my internet router to re-route these addresses (and ports) to a > > Cluster Node I have setup locally for testing to avoid spotting to the > > live Cluster. > > > > Then left the ROS software in RX mode (no TX) monitoring 20M. Over 20 > > spots were generated over a 2 hour period. Different comment strings > > were sent in the spots. > > > > A closer inspection of the internal code of ROS reveals randomising code > > (select a random string) and the following hard-coded Cluster spotting > > strings. > > > > "tnx ros mode" > > "73 ROS Mode" > > "tnx fer ROS QSO" > > "ROS 599" > > "ROS 559" > > "CQ ROS" > > "CQ ROS Mode" > > "CQ ROS." > > "ROS" > > "ros" > > "599 ROS Mode" > > "73, ros mode" > > "ROS, 73" > > "tu ROS Mode" > > "ROS test" > > "copy ROS Mode -<SN> dB" > > "ROS QSO <NAME>" > > "ros mode <QTH>" > > "ROS Mode <QTH>" > > "599 ROS -<SN> dB" > > "ROS -<SN> dB at <QTH>" > > "ROS CQ -<SN> dB" > > "ROS. TNX QSO. 73 <NAME>" > > > > <NAME>, <QTH> are substitued with the configured settings and <SN> the > > received S/N ratio. > > > > Clearly the use of several variations of text, mixing upper- & > > lower-case letters, 599 & 559 reports is all designed to make anyone > > viewing the Cluster think that these ROS spots are Human generated and > > not auto-spot spam. > > > > The ROS developer has NOT documented, in ether the User Guide or FAQ, > > this auto-spot advertising facility of his software. > > > > My observations. > > > > de Laurie, VK3AMA > > >
