They only expose approximate, not precise, locations, so they shouldn’t be a risk like GPS that exposes precise locations?

  • teslasaur@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    Your ip is the identity of your router.

    By using simple tools you can find the manufacturer of your router and potentially use a known security to gain access to your network.

    You expose yourself to being targeted by focused network attacks, since they know the address belongs to you.

    In ye olden days, it would have been possible to track your ip and what it was accessing online. Its harder to do today due to cryptography and vpn’s, but still a risk.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      What?! You need the MAC to identify a router and MACs don’t go over the internet.

      it would have been possible to track your ip and what it was accessing online

      I’ll let you go ahead and explain that one.

      • teslasaur@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        No, of course not the MAC. Just as an example nmap can guess the OS based on fingerprinted behaviours. There are pentesttools that can guess the OS.

        Like i said. Old days. You could get access to a distribution switch where the physical security was all that mattered. The town where i grew up had some early variation of cg-nat that meant all devices where in a way on the same network. It created plenty of issues when trying to play online with friends during Quake/WC3 etc.

      • credo@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        Maybe if you open a browser to it and external management is allowed, it might say linksys?

        • lazynooblet@lazysoci.al
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          8 hours ago

          Also nmap uses fingerprinting on port scans to identify devices. Or attempt to, a lot of the time it doesn’t know, or says “Linux”

    • nao@sh.itjust.works
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      15 hours ago

      Are you maybe thinking of MAC addresses? That would be closer being the “identity” of a device and you can typically identify the manufacturer from it. You can’t see the MAC address of a remote router via the internet though unless you are on its local network.

      An IP address is usually a temporary lease provided by your ISP, and residential connections usually get a new one every once in a while (like every 24 hours).

      • BootLoop@sh.itjust.works
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        13 hours ago

        My Starlink provider changed every few days but my new fiber connection has been unchanged for 6 months since I got it. I have taken advantage of that and have hosted some stuff on a domain that’s pointing back to that address and port forwarded.