STOP Buying ANDROID TV Boxes!

[jok26]

On 14/04/2023 at 06:25, DesktopECHO said:

Heureux d'entendre que vous avez repris ceci dans mon message de janvier sur le forum :

Je ne suppose pas que vous puissiez exercer une légère pression sur Linode qui héberge TOUJOURS ce botnet sur :

 

ycxrl.com (currently down)

ycxrldow.com (139-162-38-240.ip.linodeusercontent.com )

cbphe.com (172-104-164-76.ip.linodeusercontent.com)

cbpheback.com (139-162-8-8.ip.linodeusercontent.com)

 

Au moins, cela les ralentira un peu... Il est possible que Linode puisse découvrir qui est derrière tout cela, sur la base des informations de facturation qu'ils ont en dossier depuis des années à ce stade.  

 

J'ai ajouté quelques informations supplémentaires, mais elles sont bloquées dans votre file d'attente de mod YT.

 

Acclamations,

Dan M

Have you ever seen this virus in operation doing something wrong? Data theft...?

 

Is this virus present on most Android boxes? In his video, Linux Tech Tips says not to buy Android boxes anymore

 

Or was it discovered only on the T95 model? Are all T95s affected?

 

I wonder because his video is full of errors on the rest

[jok26]

On 4/13/2023 at 9:21 PM, Jimr1203904 said:

Is it possible to get a list of all the company/brand lists primarily targeted by this found backdoor rather than saying "all". For example, I'm more interested to hear if any Amlogic boxes suffer from the same problem.

If the boxes you bought contained all the winning balls, it was a bit stupid to only test on them. Also would be more interesting to hear what affect the high end models and manufactures with emmc etc...

I have the impression that only one person found this on his Android box (T95 model). I couldn't find any other testimonials.

It's strange, I ask myself a lot of questions, because Linus is wrong about a lot of things in this video.

[Krzystoff]

There are a few devices such as the Nvidia Shield, Google Chromecast and FireStick that are from reputable companies. However, is there a chance those same devices are vulnerable with any APK/XAPK you install from a third party store or site, and end up with the same issues using a file you got from your friend ?

 

It seems there should be a way to search for and remove this malware if it's so prevalent and dangerous.

 

As for the rest, there are many other boxes that may well be safe, but were they tested in the list ?

for example, Xiaomi MiBox, MeCool, BuzzTV, Formuler, are very highly rated and from seemingly reputable sellers with long-term support sites, without costing an arm and a leg. Or the very popular Chromecast clone, from WalMart the ONN -- safe ?

[obarthelemy]

This video made me start doubting LTT/LMG. It is very bad and clickbaity to the point of ridiculousness. Linus carefully

 

1- selected 3rd-tier (or worse) boxes from no-name suppliers

2- with no official Android/Google endorsement

3- neglected to mention this is a minor subset of the Android TV box market

4- neglected to mention or test the numerous official Android TV boxes (from Xiaomi, Nokia, nVidia, one could argue Amazon)

5- didn't try to be useful by looking at the 2nd-tier OEMs (ugoos, minix...)

6- used the clickbaitiest, wrongest title possible

 

This video was utter garbage. "Beware of no-name unofficial Android TV Boxes" would have been fine. "Stop buying Android TV boxes" when you're not even including the official ones is garbage clickbait. Worse than the reaction vids.

 

This one I'm knowledgeable about and could spot. If that's the way Linus does vids in general, I don't want to rely on him for stuff I'm not already knowledgeable about.

Edited September 1, 2023 by obarthelemy
spellcheck

[TannerMcCoolman]

11 hours ago, obarthelemy said:

1- selected 3rd-tier (or worse) boxes from no-name suppliers

Those "no name suppliers" are best sellers on Amazon and can be found in small shops damn near everywhere. Within a 15 minute walk from my house, there are at least 5 stores selling them right now.

11 hours ago, obarthelemy said:

2- with no official Android/Google endorsement

These devices have been around so long that they predate even the Chromecast by several years. They have first-to-market advantage

11 hours ago, obarthelemy said:

3- neglected to mention this is a minor subset of the Android TV box market

Go on Amazon, type in "Android TV Box", and count the number of official vs unofficial boxes. Also, see how many listings you have to look past before you see the T95. It has never not been on the first page when I've checked.

11 hours ago, obarthelemy said:

4- neglected to mention or test the numerous official Android TV boxes (from Xiaomi, Nokia, nVidia, one could argue Amazon)

I've got a large selection currently on my project shelf for a followup video doing just that.

11 hours ago, obarthelemy said:

5- didn't try to be useful by looking at the 2nd-tier OEMs (ugoos, minix...)

What makes these brands 2nd-tier?

11 hours ago, obarthelemy said:

6- used the clickbaitiest, wrongest title possible

If someone goes on Amazon, searches "Android TV Box", and buys any random listing from the first page, there's a solid chance they are getting one of these boxes. They should not buy these boxes. These are not items that do what they advertise.

11 hours ago, obarthelemy said:

This video was utter garbage. "Beware of no-name unofficial Android TV Boxes" would have been fine. "Stop buying Android TV boxes" when you're not even including the official ones is garbage clickbait. Worse than the reaction vids.

If you care deeply about accuracy in titles with no care for how many people will actually watch the video, you aren't looking to inform the general public, you're just looking to inform those that are already knowledgeable about this. This isn't a video solely for people that know how to install an APK, this is made to show your elderly mother when she thinks buying one of these is a good idea.

11 hours ago, obarthelemy said:

This one I'm knowledgeable about

Then you should know how prevalent and widely available all these low quality devices are

[obarthelemy]

Of course my elderly mom has as Android TV Box. So does my elderly aunt next door. Of course they have Xiaomis, because instead of basing choices on your video (again "stop buying Android TV boxes", no qualifier), I visit actually useful, didactic, well-informed sites that don't just clickbait but inform and advise.

 

Everyone especially grannies should have an Android box: excellent Skype/Whatsapp/Meet video calling off the TV (just add a webcam), cheap gaming console for the grandkids (just add a couple of paddles), plus better content/media apps than whatever is in your TV or cable box, and actual updates. What would be useful and not clickbaity is to show how to spot the difference between no box, bad box, and good box; and how to set that up.

 

As for Ugoos and Minix, if you've got to ask... My criteria: years of presence in that market, has website w/ forum, has ever released firmware updates. Is this news to you, both as criteria and as applicable to those 2 brands ? https://minix.com.hk/  ;  https://ugoos.com/

 

If you only care about number of clicks and are ready to spew whatever garbage to get more, *YOU* "aren't looking to inform the general public", you're looking to get clicks with whatever gets them. This video is anything but informative: the real issue is not to "stop buying Android TV boxes", but to stop buying bad ones. The moral panic you're instigating should be dealt in 1/5th of a real video: no-name boxes are of bad HW and SW quality (you forgot that, but they are, too) and almost always include malware, so buy from a reputable brand such as... , then move on to the interesting stuff one can do with them, and how. Or if you really don't want to do that work, just at least differentiate between no-name and name-brand boxes. BTW, Amazons list Xiaomi and nVidia in the top left "brand" panel, and on the first page if you filter by "4* or more". But if Amazon is your reference for tech choices, you're in bad shape.

 

As it is, your video provides no context, makes wrong caricatural overly broad claims (apparently you know about this too which makes it worse), and as you say, is only interested in clicks. Thanks for the confirmation. Your KPIs should be updated, because "clicks gotten" as a metric forces you to make clickbait, not quality content.

 

If you want to keep on your clickbait streak, you can do the same about Android tablets (plenty on non-brands and iffy importers w/ rooted roms and I'm sure malware), Android phones (ditto). But maybe the ridiculousness of your premise and subject handling would be too glaring there ? So also, Android retrogaming consoles, Android video projectors... If you venture outside of Android, there are plenty of crappy smartwatches and fitness bands... so you can scream at everyone to stop buying all of that too. Just make sure to avoid mentionning all the good ones and their useful capabilities, heh ?

 

Edit; yes, I care deeply about accuracy in title, and in treatment of the subject matter. I think any journo should. I thought LTT did.

 

[JB007]

I have T95MAX from Amazon and I agree with the video, this device is useless and dangerous, performance is low and it overheats under load....

 

I was interested in the claim that device has only 2GB of RAM!, not 4GB as declared. It is difficult to verify. I installed UserLAnd, Linux emulator for Android and I think that my device really has 4GB of RAM but most of the RAM is assigned as ZRAM swap, 3GB! That is too much. It would be better to use only 2GB or just 1GB of RAM as ZRAM swap... Do I miss something?

 

Other issue is that Allwinner H618 is 64-bit CPU but Android runs in 32-bit mode and it is serious limitation, CPU architecture is armv8l...

 

Details:

 

$ free
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:         4003384     1149048      110740        7228     2743596     2816256
Swap:        3002532           0     3002532

 

$ cat /proc/swaps
Filename                                Type            Size    Used    Priority
/dev/block/zram0                        partition       3002532 0       -2

 

$ lscpu
Architecture:                    armv8l
Byte Order:                      Little Endian
CPU(s):                          4
On-line CPU(s) list:             0-3
Vendor ID:                       ARM
Model name:                      Cortex-A53
Model:                           4
Thread(s) per core:              1
Core(s) per socket:              4
Socket(s):                       1
Stepping:                        r0p4
CPU max MHz:                     1512.0000
CPU min MHz:                     480.0000
BogoMIPS:                        48.00
Flags:                           half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt lpae aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32
Vulnerability Itlb multihit:     Not affected
Vulnerability L1tf:              Not affected
Vulnerability Mds:               Not affected
Vulnerability Meltdown:          Not affected
Vulnerability Spec store bypass: Not affected
Vulnerability Spectre v1:        Mitigation; __user pointer sanitization
Vulnerability Spectre v2:        Not affected
Vulnerability Srbds:             Not affected
Vulnerability Tsx async abort:   Not affected

 

[thewelshbrummie]

On 9/1/2023 at 1:05 AM, obarthelemy said:

This video made me start doubting LTT/LMG. It is very bad and clickbaity to the point of ridiculousness.

On 9/1/2023 at 1:05 AM, obarthelemy said:

This video was utter garbage. "Beware of no-name unofficial Android TV Boxes" would have been fine. "Stop buying Android TV boxes" when you're not even including the official ones is garbage clickbait. Worse than the reaction vids.

Normally I'd agree....

 

...but the thrust of your complaint is about the semantics of classifying officially branded Android TV devices with everything that runs the OS regardless of OEM. But I think it's fair in this case to generalise - the point of the video is to cover what the more popular devices that sell actually do and whether they're any good.

On 9/1/2023 at 12:22 PM, TannerMcCoolman said:

On 9/1/2023 at 1:05 AM, obarthelemy said:

6- used the clickbaitiest, wrongest title possible

If someone goes on Amazon, searches "Android TV Box", and buys any random listing from the first page, there's a solid chance they are getting one of these boxes. They should not buy these boxes. These are not items that do what they advertise.

This is the point - the majority of Android TV boxes being sold are usually unbranded/no-name boxes being used to circumvent licencing or to pirate.

 

Going back 10 years ago to when I did TV repair in the UK, we had a service request for a Samsung TV that wouldn't work with a Sky box on HDMI input 3 - far more specific than the majority of reported faults than usual. I went out only to find that the "Sky Box" wasn't an officially branded satellite receiver from Sky (the UK satellite pay TV company that dominates the market) but a "Sky Box" that ran Android and was clearly being used for piracy. The input worked perfectly with the actual Sky receiver that the customer had and their DVD player - and from memory the box in question worked on the other inputs. Was pretty easy to walk away from that "repair" since the rules for me were that anything that was being used for piracy that didn't work could be considered an unsupported device and therefore not eligible for repair, if everything else worked correctly.

On 9/1/2023 at 4:50 PM, obarthelemy said:

 But if Amazon is your reference for tech choices, you're in bad shape.

It's about where people go to buy such products. And I'm sure the majority of people in the US basically go to Amazon first, since specialist retailers are very difficult to find (I can name several PC component retailers in the UK that have a single warehouse but ship nationally... that I can't do in the US). It's not like in Australia where Amazon effectively doesn't operate or the UK that has plenty of specialist retailers - since I moved to the US I really struggle to find retailers that have the range that Amazon does or the specific product I'm after.

[jok26]

On 9/1/2023 at 7:22 PM, TannerMcCoolman said:

Those "no name suppliers" are best sellers on Amazon and can be found in small shops damn near everywhere. Within a 15 minute walk from my house, there are at least 5 stores selling them right now.

These devices have been around so long that they predate even the Chromecast by several years. They have first-to-market advantage

Go on Amazon, type in "Android TV Box", and count the number of official vs unofficial boxes. Also, see how many listings you have to look past before you see the T95. It has never not been on the first page when I've checked.

I've got a large selection currently on my project shelf for a followup video doing just that.

What makes these brands 2nd-tier?

If someone goes on Amazon, searches "Android TV Box", and buys any random listing from the first page, there's a solid chance they are getting one of these boxes. They should not buy these boxes. These are not items that do what they advertise.

If you care deeply about accuracy in titles with no care for how many people will actually watch the video, you aren't looking to inform the general public, you're just looking to inform those that are already knowledgeable about this. This isn't a video solely for people that know how to install an APK, this is made to show your elderly mother when she thinks buying one of these is a good idea.

Then you should know how prevalent and widely available all these low quality devices are

Yes, the title of the video is misleading.

 

In the end you found this problem on only a few devices (less than 10) while there are several hundred different models of TV boxes. And these are just devices with specific processors that all come from the same place.

It's like saying not to buy a car anymore because a specific model would have big problems while several hundred models don't have these problems. This is not reasonnable.

 

The reality is that no one has found this problem on more than 99.9% of TV boxes. Whether they are models from well-known brands (xiaomi, nvidia, etc.), lesser-known but very interesting brands (Ugoos, Mini, Beelink, etc.) or noname.

No, only on less than 10 devices, most of them quite old, or even very old

 

Noname TV boxes have a lot of advantages for their price

There are a lot of open source developers working in the world of TV boxes on free Linux projects like CoreElec, Emuelec, etc., why not ask them for this video?

There are also many alternative firmware developers for noname Android boxes.

 

In the video, you say that you typed an ADB command and that you determined that the TV box could not display 4K but only Full HD even though the TV Box is supposed to be 4K. In reality, the command you typed is not used for that, it allows you to know the definition of the interface (the home page) of the device, but not the output definition, but in addition, almost All TV boxes, even very famous boxes only display 1080p on the home page.

 

It really doesn't sound serious, we see straight away that it's a subject (TV boxes) that you don't know at all.

That doesn't take away from the excellent work you usually do.

[ciiiin]

can anyone tell me if this is safe? parents just bought it yesterday but i can't find any info online. only one site is selling it but kinda sketchy looking. cost $350 so not cheap. 

[TannerMcCoolman]

19 hours ago, ciiiin said:

can anyone tell me if this is safe? parents just bought it yesterday but i can't find any info online. only one site is selling it but kinda sketchy looking. cost $350 so not cheap. 

I don't want to say it's safe outright, but the Amlogic boxes have generally been less terrible than some of the others. Plus, the Amlogic chips have way more community support than something like Allwinner, so it shouldn't be terribly difficult to put a different OS on there or even just a different Android image.

[ciiiin]

11 hours ago, TannerMcCoolman said:

I don't want to say it's safe outright, but the Amlogic boxes have generally been less terrible than some of the others. Plus, the Amlogic chips have way more community support than something like Allwinner, so it shouldn't be terribly difficult to put a different OS on there or even just a different Android image.

so you're saying the odds of it being some malware type box is lower because of this amlogic chip?

also, lets say it is an infected box, does malware or whatever only run when its turned on/connected to the internet? or once its in the system it stays there no matter what?

[TannerMcCoolman]

We made a second part to this where we compare 9 "official" Android TV boxes/dongles, mostly certified by Google: