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Linus Tech Tips, Tech Quickie, Tech Linked channels hacked

betav17
By betav17
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Spotty
Message added by Spotty,

The Linus Tech Tips, TechLinked, and TechQuickie Youtube channels have been restored.

A video explaining what happened is now up:

 

 

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Posted by LinusTech,

Thanks for the concern everyone. We are still in recovery mode over here and working with YouTube to get everything restored. Will hopefully have a video (or at least an update on WAN Show) to share with you all ASAP, but we want to make sure we get the details right since smaller channels may rely on our experience to help harden their own security.

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Posted

@Spotty The channels appear to have the proper videos re-hidden along with the descriptions fixed.

My PC Specs: (expand to view)

 

 

Main Gaming Machine

CPU: Intel Core i7-10700K - OC to 5 GHz All Cores
CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H115i RGB Pro XT (Front Mounted AIO)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING Z490-PLUS (WI-FI)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600

Storage: Intel 665p 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME SSD (x2)
Video Card: Zotac RTX 3070 8 GB GAMING Twin Edge OC

Power Supply: Corsair RM850 850W
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow
Case Fan 120mm: Noctua F12 PWM 54.97 CFM 120 mm (x1)
Case Fan 140mm: Noctua A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140 mm (x4)
Monitor Main: Asus VG278QR 27.0" 1920x1080 165 Hz
Monitor Vertical: Asus VA27EHE 27.0" 1920x1080 75 Hz

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Posted

The other channels seem to be fixed as well.

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Posted

And We Are Back..

Aka the channels are back.. And this should of been the Video released yesterday.

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Posted

Yay! Looks like they’re finally back up and running. Props to LMG and Google/YouTube for resolving it so quickly.

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Middleseed said:

Still missing the last 2 videos though.

I don't think so..

Screenshot 2023-03-23 214614.png

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Posted
Just now, KunLibertad said:

I don't think so..

Screenshot 2023-03-23 214614.png

Just got put back up seconds after I replied lol.

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Posted

I must say, what a rollercoaster ride.

Remember how long I have been subscribed for by seeing some old videos that are deleted. Loved it.

 

But I'm glad the Chanel is back.

 

Mutchos RGB

 

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Posted

The algorithm is no longer filling my home page with those old videos, so things really must be back to normal.

 

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Posted
8 minutes ago, MartyS said:

The algorithm is no longer filling my home page with those old videos, so things really must be back to normal.

 

It appears that way to me as well.

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Posted
5 minutes ago, Alpha XVIV said:

Next WAN show is going to be interesting...

YES!

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Posted

Woe is me, I can't accept a conversation as properly ended until I've had the last word, or being wrong, and I'm definitely not wrong.

 

It's everybody else's fault I keep coming back and replying even though I've agreed to disagree multiple times already.

 

P.S. I'm totally right about this and I have plenty of anecdotes to prove it.

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Posted

They're back!!! Knew it would be, but pretty surprised at how quickly it was recovered. Now hopefully they explain what happened so others can make sure it doesn't happen to them... Plus I wanna know what happened xD

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1 minute ago, Posichronic said:

Woe is me, I can't accept a conversation as properly ended until I've had the last word, or being wrong, and I'm definitely not wrong.

 

It's everybody else's fault I keep coming back and replying even though I've agreed to disagree multiple times already.

 

P.S. I'm totally right about this and I have plenty of anecdotes to prove it.

Oh, neat, what's one if tour anecdotes?

Nothing to see here, move along

 

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Posted

Finally back! 

You dont know how much you miss your tech channel, until its gone 

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Posted
1 minute ago, Posichronic said:

Woe is me, I can't accept a conversation as properly ended until I've had the last word, or being wrong, and I'm definitely not wrong.

 

It's everybody else's fault I keep coming back and replying even though I've agreed to disagree multiple times already.

 

P.S. I'm totally right about this and I have plenty of anecdotes to prove it.

xD wtf you talking about? Your posts scream troll to me... Then again do I really want to open this can of worms? Honestly probably won't reply to whatever you say, but just want to see your response.

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Posted
47 minutes ago, lowstrife said:

I completely disagree. No sane person would knowingly sign off on re-publishing those scam links to get 1 more hour of adsense revenue. I find it highly unlikely Linus would knowingly agree to that.

 

I suspect what happened is the recovery spat out what it spat out. Then the guy from Youtube dumped it onto LTT's lap "here you go" and the LTT team had to scramble to fix it. 

Definitely this... While it would have been smart for the YouTube team to roll back the channel to whatever the last backup made before they got hacked was, but they probably just grabbed the most recent backup, gave it to them, and said "it's your problem now."

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Posted
44 minutes ago, Tydfil said:

I look forward to your triumphant return.

Just wanted to say I agree, and I love your Pillz-E icon.

~All Hail Foamy

Nothing to see here, move along

 

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Posted
57 minutes ago, lowstrife said:

The backup itself is super easy. The video files themselves never actually get deleted. "deleting" things just edits the database and various flags around the videos, which is more or less just a line of text in some arbitrary file aka metadata. The entire LTT empire is a million video files, organized by maybe a few megabytes of text including all the descriptions, stats, flags, etc. The vast majority of the data is within these video files, not the metadata, so backups of the metadata is super easy. 

 

"backups" are done by saving snapshots of these database files. The videos themselves never get modified or copied. They probably have a seperate redundancy process within the CDN system of Youtube itself.

 

Which is why this is so shocking to me that the recovery process is this FUBAR. It's unbelievable. 

Saying that the videos themselves never get modified or copied is not quite accurate, because YouTube has methods by which a replacement video can take over the link of an existing video with, say, an audio glitch. I believe that both videos would still exist independently, but resolving the metadata can get tricky.

 

I get your point though, at that point it could be looked at as a series of links for the videos, separate links for the comment threads and likes, and then the metadata text, and that could all be stored in some kind of source control like git. The comment threads/likes would be too cumbersome to store in source control, but they would also need one of the least necessary to back up.

 

This should actually be doable.

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Posted

Drop the arguments. There's been almost 2000 replies without much issue, don't ruin it now.

  • "Don't be a dick" —Wil Wheaton
  • "Be excellent to each other" —Bill and Ted

CPU: Intel i7 6700k  | Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170x Gaming 5 | RAM: 2x16GB 3000MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX | GPU: Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080ti | PSU: Corsair RM750x (2018) | Case: BeQuiet SilentBase 800 | Cooler: Arctic Freezer 34 eSports | SSD: Samsung 970 Evo 500GB + Samsung 840 500GB + Crucial MX500 2TB | Monitor: Acer Predator XB271HU + Samsung BX2450

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Posted

Well.... This thread exploded.
Gotta be a forum record with 76 pages posted within 18 hours of the opening post (As of this post).

At the same time it looks like the hack actually had a side-benefit.
I mean look at all the new members that has signed up since, even to the point it made the forum unaccesible for a short time as if the site itself was hacked.

Crazy stuff but maybe a good kind of crazy for LTT. 

"If you ever need anything please don't hesitate to ask someone else first"..... Nirvana
"Whadda ya mean I ain't kind? Just not your kind"..... Megadeth
Speaking of things being "All Inclusive", Hell itself is too.
 

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Posted

So, can someone answer my question? Would implementing passkeys have reduced the surface area for this hack? 

CPU: Intel Core i9-9900K | Motherboard: Asus Maximus Code XI | Graphics Card: RTX 3090 FE | RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666 MHz | 

Storage: LOADS of drives: SSD + HDD | PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850 W | 

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Blackout (window) | Cooling: CRYORIG H5 Universal 

PCPartPicker List

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Posted
4 minutes ago, rogerwilco91 said:

So, can someone answer my question? Would implementing passkeys have reduced the surface area for this hack? 

Based on what we're hearing in that it was Hijacked Cookies, no. 

My PC Specs

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