This article is about covert agent communication channel websites used by the CIA in the late 2000s to early 2010s until they were uncovered by target countries. This discovery led to the imprisonment and execution of several assets in Iran and China.
The existence of such websites was first reported in November 2018 by Yahoo News: www.yahoo.com/video/cias-communications-suffered-catastrophic-compromise-started-iran-090018710.html.
Previous whispers had been heard in 2017 but without clear mention of websites: www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/world/asia/china-cia-spies-espionage.html
Some were convinced that a mole within the C.I.A. had betrayed the United States. Others believed that the Chinese had hacked the covert system the C.I.A. used to communicate with its foreign sources. Years later, that debate remains unresolved.
Then in September 2022 a few specific websites were finally reported by Reuters: www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-spies-iran/.
Ciro Santilli heard about the 2018 article at around 2020 while studying for his China campaign because the websites had been used to take down the Chinese CIA network in China. He even asked on Quora: www.quora.com/What-were-some-examples-of-the-websites-that-the-CIA-used-around-2010-as-a-communication-mechanism-for-its-spies-in-China-and-Iran-but-were-later-found-and-used-to-take-down-their-spy-networks but there were no publicly known domains at the time to serve as a starting point.
So when Ciro Santilli heard about the 2022 article almost a year after publication, and being a half-arsed web developer himself, he knew he had to try and find some of the domains himself using the newly available information! It was an irresistible real-life capture the flag. The thing is, everyone who has ever developed a website knows that its attack surface is about the size of Oregon, and the potential for fingerprinting is off the charts with so many bits and pieces sticking out.
In particular, it is fun to have such a clear and visible to anyone examples of the USA spying on its own allies in the form of Wayback Machine archives.
Given that it was reported that there were "more than 350" such websites, it would be really cool if we could uncover more of those websites ourselves beyond the 9 domains reported by Reuters!
This article documents the list of extremely likely candidates Ciro has found so far, mostly using:
more details on methods also follow. It is still far from the 885 websites reported by citizenlabs, so there must be key techniques missing. But the fact that there are no Google Search hits for the domains or IPs indicates that these might not have been previously clearly publicly disclosed.
If anyone can find others, or has better techniques: Section "How to contact Ciro Santilli". The techniques used so far have been very heuristic, and that added to the limited amount of data makes it almost certain that several IP ranges have been missed. Better IP to domain name database suggestions are also welcome to fill in known gaps in existing IP ranges. Perhaps the current heuristically obtained data can serve as a good starting for a more data-oriented search that will eventually find a valuable fingerprint which brings the entire network out.
Disclaimer: the network fell in 2013, followed by fully public disclosures in 2018 and 2022, so we believe it is now more than safe for the public to know what can still be uncovered about the events that took place. The main author's political bias is strongly pro-democracy and anti-dictatorship.
May this list serve as a tribute to those who spent their days making, using, and uncovering these websites under the shadows.
If you want to go into one of the best OSINT CTFs of your life, stop reading now and see how many Web Archives you can find starting only from the Reuters article as Ciro did. Some guidelines:
  • there was no ultra-clean fingerprint found yet. Some intuitive and somewhat guessy data analysis was needed. But when you clean the data correctly and make good guesses, many hits follow, it feels so good
  • nothing was paid for data. But using cybercafe Wifi's for a few extra IPs may help.
Hit criteria: has Wayback Machine archive, and clear indication of a known communication mechanism. The mechanism itself doesn't need to be archived however, a link to it is enough given other supporting elements: IP range, site style, date, web archive date pattern. JS commons are always quickly visually inspected, other mechanisms we look only at filename patterns. Commented edge cases that didn't make the cut can be found mostly under Section "IP range search" and Section "2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches".
ip domain Wayback Machine language country mentions comms theme notes
? dailynewsandsports.com 2013 English JAR sports
? iranfootballsource.com 2011 Farsi JS sports, football
? iraniangoalkicks.com 2008 Farsi Iran JAR sports, football
? iraniangoals.com 2009 Farsi Iran JS sports, football
? just-kidding-news.com 2011 English JAR news epic name
? mynewscheck.com 2011 English Canada JAR news
? rastadirect.net 2010 English JAR fansite
? todaysengineering.com 2011 English CGI engineering
62.22.60.46 flyingtimeline.com 2011 English JAR airplanes
62.22.60.48 currentcommunique.com 2011 English Egypt SWF news
62.22.60.49 telecom-headlines.com 2011 English JS tech
62.22.60.52 collectedmedias.com 2011 French JS news Marked copyright 2008
62.22.60.55 thefilmcentre.com 2011 English JS films
62.22.60.56 traveltimenews.com 2011 English JS news
62.22.61.193 awfaoi.org 2010 Arabic Iraq JAR not-for-profit This was the first clear .org hit with comms we've been able to find. Title translation: "Arab women to help Iraq", so perhaps "awfaoi" stands for "Arab Women For A O? Iraq". This fits well into the .org theme. Marked copyright 2008.
62.22.61.197 rc5sports.com 2011 English JAR sports
62.22.61.198 inside-vc.com 2011 English CGI finance "vc" is a standard abbreviation for venture capital
62.22.61.202 bailsnboots.com 2011 English SWF sports, cricket "Bail" is one part of the thing your're supposed to hit with th eball in cricket.[ref]
62.22.61.203 the-cricketer-online.com 2011 English JAR sports, cricket marked copyright 2009.
62.22.61.204 hollywoodscreen.net 2011 English JS films
62.22.61.206 worldnewsnetworking.com 2011 Arabic JAR news
62.22.61.212 nuestrasfinanzas.com 2011 Spanish JAR finance
62.22.61.217 court-masters.com 2011 English JAR sports, tennis
62.22.61.219 allworldstatistics.com 2011 English JS statistics
62.22.61.220 newsjaka.com 2011 English Indonesia JS news "jaka" presumably means Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. There is a Indonesia section on the left sidebar. But the news are quite global however.
63.130.160.50 theglobalheadlines.com 2010 English JAR news this has several archives from 2013, marked as Live Web Proxy Crawls and explained "mostly by the Save Page Now", so presumably by counter intelligence or amateurs
63.130.160.51 hai-pow.com 2011 English JAR sports, martial arts
63.130.160.60 boxingstop.net 2010 Polish Poland JAR sports, boxing
64.16.204.55 holein1news.com 2010 English JAR sports, golf
64.16.204.58 tech-topix.com 2013 English CGI tech Archive quite broken, but link to CGI comms.
65.61.127.163 capture-nature.com 2011 English JAR photography Reuters example. Since became legitimate, Ciro contacted the owner, and he was unaware of the domain's history.
65.61.127.166 globalnewsbulletin.com 2013 English Tunisia, Afghanistan, Iran, Egypt CGI news PHP pages, images /images/index_01.jpg
65.61.127.169 crossovernews.net 2011 English JAR sports, basketball
65.61.127.174 dedrickonline.com 2010 German JS sports
65.61.127.175 altworldnews.com 2013 English CGI news Epoch times link, PHP pages
65.61.127.178 tee-shot.net 2011 English SWF sports, golf nice domain name
65.61.127.182 pangawana.com 2011 Arabic Afghanistan JS news
65.61.127.183 cutabovenews.com 2011 English Algeria, various others JS sports, basketball
65.61.127.184 worldwildlifeadventure.com 2011 English JAR travel
65.61.127.186 explorealtmeds.com 2013 English JAR health the JAR was not archived, but there's a link to it
66.45.179.192 thegraceofislam.com 2011 English CGI religion, Islam
66.45.179.194 raulsonsglobalnews.com 2011 English JAR news
66.45.179.199 attivitaestremi.com 2011 Italian CGI sports
66.45.179.201 hitthepavementnow.com 2011 English CGI sports, running
66.45.179.203 noticiascontinental.com 2011 Spanish South America CGI news
66.45.179.205 noticiasporjanua.com 2011 Spanish JAR news
66.45.179.206 podisticamondiale.com 2010 Italian Italy JAR sports, running marked copyright 2010
66.45.179.207 reflectordenoticias.com 2011 Spanish JAR news
66.45.179.208 havenofgamerz.com 2011 English CGI gaming marked copyright 2009
66.45.179.210 sa-michigan.com 2011 English JAR sports "sa" is an abbreviation for the site title "Sports Alive"
66.45.179.211 absolutebearing.net 2010 English CGI travel, sports, boats
66.45.179.213 myportaltonews.com 2011 English JS news
66.45.179.214 investmentintellect.com 2011 English JAR finance
66.45.179.215 nigeriastar.net 2011 English Nigeria JAR news Contains link to unarchived JAR
66.104.169.163 doctorsoncallsite.com 2011 English JAR health
66.104.169.164 lightandshadowonline.com 2010 English JAR photography
66.104.169.168 plugged-into-news.net 2010 English JAR news JAR uses .zip extension! First instance, wow
66.104.169.171 golf-on-holiday.com 2011 English JAR sports, golf
66.104.169.172 perspectiva-noticias.com 2011 Spanish JS news
66.104.169.175 aquaswimming.com 2009 English JAR sports, swimming
66.104.169.177 dojo-temple.com 2011 English CGI sports, martial arts TODO meaning of "kama"? Kama lol?
66.104.169.179 neighbour-news.com 2010 English Germany JAR news Mentions of Goethe-Institut and Germany all over. JAR unarchived
66.104.169.180 medicatechinfo.com 2010 English JS health
66.104.169.181 brickmanfinancialnews.com 2011 English JS finance
66.104.169.182 casanewsnow.com 2011 English JAR JAR unarchived. TODO why "casa"? Doesn't seem to have any link to Spanish or Portuguese.
66.104.173.163 runakonews.com 2011 English Africa CGI news "Runako" is an African given name.
66.104.173.165 entertaining-ly.com 2011 English JAR entertainment
66.104.173.166 zubeenews.com 2011 English JS news "Zubee" is a Muslim name: muslimnames.com/zubee.
66.104.173.169 smart-financeology.com 2011 English JAR finance
66.104.173.175 media-coverage-now.com 2010 English SWF news
66.104.173.176 jbc-online-news.com 2011 English JS news TODO meaning of "JCB". JS unarchived.
66.104.173.177 webscooper.com 2011 English JAR news
66.104.173.178 dk-dcinvestment.com 2010 English JAR finance TODO meaning of "dk;dc".
66.104.173.180 stara-turistick.com 2011 Croatian JAR tourism
66.104.173.181 playbackpolitics.com 2011 English JS news
66.104.173.182 snapnewsfront.net 2011 English Japan JS news
66.104.173.183 ingenuitytrendz.com 2011 English JAR tech
66.104.173.184 armashoy.com 2011 Spanish Spain SWF guns meaning: "Weapons Today". In First World countries the CIA felt it would be safe to touch edgier subjects like guns
66.104.173.185 baocontact.com English JAR HTML archive almost empty, but JAR was archived. One wonders what "bao" refers to, could be Chinese, but the small snippet of visible website is in English.
66.104.173.186 myworldlymusic.com 2011 English Pakistan JAR music JAR unarchived
66.104.173.189 hitpoint-gaming.com 2011 English JS gaming Marked copyright 2010
66.104.175.34 itwebtoday.com 2011 English JS tech
66.104.175.36 adilnews.net 2010 Arabic SWF news Adil is an Arabic masculine name
66.104.175.40 beyondnetworknews.com 2011 English Egypt CGI news
66.104.175.41 grubbersworldrugbynews.com 2011 English JS sports, rugby
66.104.175.44 yourtripfinder.net 2010 English CGI travel comms not found, CGI from unarchived subpage assumed
66.104.175.45 rollinsnetwork.com 2011 English CGI tech CGI linked to but not archived
66.104.175.46 infosharenews.com 2011 English JAR news
66.104.175.47 southasiaheadlines.com 2011 English Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka Tibet JAR travel JAR linked to but missing from archive
66.104.175.48 worlddispatch.net 2010 Arabic SWF news
66.104.175.49 webworldsports.com 2011 Arabic JAR sports
66.104.175.50 fly-bybirdies.com 2011 English JAR travel
66.104.175.51 businessexchangetoday.com 2011 English CGI news, finance PHP pages
66.104.175.52 mensajeradenoticias.com 2011 Spanish CGI news CGI unarchived
66.104.175.53 info-ology.net 2010 English JAR news
66.104.175.54 marketflows.net 2011 English JAR finance
66.104.175.57 metanewsdaily.com 2010 English CGI news
66.175.106.134 paddlescoop.com 2011 English Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, England JAR sports, cricket
66.175.106.137 kessingerssportsnews.com 2010 English JS sports
66.175.106.138 factorforcenews.com 2009 English JAR news
66.175.106.142 kanata-news.com 2010 English Canada JS news "Kanata" is a place in Ottawa, Canada. The name is likely of Indigenous origin.
66.175.106.143 thecricketfan.com 2011 English JAR news
66.175.106.146 inews-today.com 2011 English Egypt JAR news Marked copyright 2008
66.175.106.147 starwarsweb.net 2010 English SWF fansite well, not even the CIA can escape Star Wars. TODO identify boy.
66.175.106.148 activegaminginfo.com 2011 Chinese JAR gaming the website is entitled "活跃游戏" which means "Lively games", or "active games" as in the domain name itself
66.175.106.149 feedsdemexicoyelmundo.com 2011 Spanish Mexico JS news
66.175.106.150 noticiasmusica.net 2010 Brazilian Portuguese Brazil JAR music
66.175.106.155 atomworldnews.com 2011 English Egypt JAR news
66.175.106.158 nouvellesetdesrapports.com 2011 French Egypt, Tunisia JAR news
66.237.236.227 newsandmusicminute.com 2011 Pashto JS music
66.237.236.229 pearls-playlist.com 2011 English SWF music
66.237.236.230 beyondthefringe.info 2013-01-02 2012 English JAR rugs JAR unarchived
66.237.236.231 primetimemovies.net 2009 English JS films JS unarchived
66.237.236.235 persephneintl.com 2013 JAR archive very broken, JAR unarchived. Full title: "Persephne International", reference to Greek Goddess of "spring, the dead, the underworld, grain, and nature"
66.237.236.236 directoalgrano.net 2010 Spanish JAR news
66.237.236.240 actualizaciondebeisbol.com 2011 Spanish JS sports, baseball
66.237.236.243 2009 Chinese CGI tech Archive very broken
66.237.236.247 comunidaddenoticias.com 2011 Spanish Ecuador JAR news
66.237.236.249 sumerjaseahora.com 2011 Spanish CGI travel todo translation/meaning of domain/title?
69.84.156.69 al-ashak-news-me.com 2011 Arabic JS news
69.84.156.71 worldfinancetoday.net 2011 English JAR finance
69.84.156.72 autonewsarabia.com 2011 Arabic JAR cars
69.84.156.74 blue-moon-news.com 2011 Arabic JS news
69.84.156.76 tnc-urdu.com 2011 Urdu JAR tech TODO meaning of "tnc"?
69.84.156.83 unganadormundial.com 2010 Spanish CGI sports, fitness
69.84.156.88 diariodeelmundo.com 2011 Spanish JAR news
69.84.156.89 todaysarabnews.com 2011 Arabic JAR news JAR unarchived.
69.84.156.90 stickshiftnews.com 2011 English JAR cars
69.84.156.91 theinternationalgoal.com 2011 Spanish CGI news
74.116.72.229 guide-daventure.com 2011 French France JAR travel
74.116.72.231 bleachersfootballnews.com 2011 English JAR sports, football TODO meaning of "Bleacher"? Possible reference to Bleacher Report.
74.116.72.232 indirectfreekick.com 2011 English JAR sports, football
74.116.72.233 wwiichronicles.net 2011 English CGI history
74.116.72.234 petroleumagenews.com 2011 English JAR oil
74.116.72.235 the-open-book-online.com 2011 English JS literature
74.116.72.236 techtopnews.com 2011 English JAR tech
74.116.72.239 crickettoday.info 2013 Pashto JS sports, cricket JS unarchived. The requested URL /cricket.js was not found on this server
74.116.72.240 zafernews.com 2011 Arabic JAR news
74.116.72.242 gdgtsource.com 2011 English CGI tech Presumably "gdgt" stands for "GaDGeT", which is mentioned on subtitle
74.116.72.247 ballbatstumpsandbails.com 2011 English JAR sports, cricket
74.116.72.249 round-trip-travel.com 2010 English CGI travel this got archived a lot of times, though all seem to be Alexa crawls.
74.116.72.250 arabicnewsource.com 2011 Arabic CGI news
74.254.12.163 half-court.net 2010 English Philippines JAR sports, basketball
74.254.12.165 dylandon.net 2011 Chinese SWF music "Dylan" presumably a reference to Bob Dylan? "Don" unclear. Maybe Don McLean?
74.254.12.166 afghanpoetry.net 2010 English Afghanistan SWF poetry
74.254.12.168 non-stop-news.net 2010 Farsi JAR news
74.254.12.169 soldiersofsouthasia.com 2011 English JAR history
74.254.12.176 pakcricketgrd.com 2011 Urdu JAR sports, cricket TODO meaning of "grd"
74.254.12.179 wineconnaisseur.net 2010 English JS wine
74.254.12.180 helpinghandssite.com 2011 English JAR news
74.254.12.188 first-tee-golf.com 2011 English JAR sports, golf
74.254.12.189 fabu-foto.com 2011 English CGI photography
74.254.12.190 viptravelabroad.com 2011 English JS travel
204.176.38.130 i-pressnews.com 2011 English JAR news
204.176.38.132 turkishnewslinks.com 2011 English Turkey JAR news
204.176.38.134 photographyarecord.com 2011 English CGI photography Cute
204.176.38.135 breakingthewicket.com 2011 English CGI sports, cricket
204.176.38.136 politicalworldtoday.com 2011 English Egypt JAR news
204.176.38.137 hi-tech-today.com 2011 English JAR tech
204.176.38.139 bigscreenbattles.com 2011 English JAR films
204.176.38.141 rakotafootball.com 2011 English JAR sports, football "Rakota" is an Indian family name
204.176.38.143 noticiassofisticadas.com 2011 Spanish CGI news
204.176.38.142 senderosdemontana.com 2011 Spanish JS sports, cycling Talks about mountain biking and Eurobike 2010, so likely Spain focused, but it is not direct enough to be certain. JS unarchived.
204.176.38.144 techno-today.com 2011 English JAR tech was legit previously.
204.176.38.146 dps-digitalphotosharing.com 2011 English JAR photography
204.176.38.147 theputtingreen.com 2011 English JAR ports, golf
204.176.38.149 sportsnewstodayar.com 2011 Arabic Lebanon, others JAR sports "ar" on domain name presumably means "Arabic"
204.176.39.98 cubriendonoticias.com 2011 Spanish JAR news archive quite broken. JAR unarchived.
204.176.39.100 rowleyworldpost.com 2011 English Egypt, others JAR news
204.176.39.103 economicnewsbuzz.com 2011 Korean CGI finance Love the kawaii style
204.176.39.104 spectranewsonline.com 2011 English CGI news marked copyright 2010.
204.176.39.105 entertainmentnewscompany.com 2011 Chinese SWF films, music Title: "娱乐新闻公司", lit. Entertainment News Company
204.176.39.110 arabnewsatdawn.com 2011 Arabic CGI news cute, the Arab chick's drink actually has a cocktail umbrella on it. Marked copyright 2010.
204.176.39.115 globalprovincesnews.com 2010 Arabic JS news
204.176.39.116 mahparah-news.com 2011 Farsi JS news
204.176.39.119 commercialspacedesign.com 2013 Farsi CGI architecture C O N C E P T U A L design. A rare example of a fake company website.
207.210.250.131 starrynightnews.com 2011 Arabic JS news interesting design
207.210.250.132 aeronet-news.com 2011 English JAR airplanes
207.210.250.133 bakaribulletin.com 2011 English Africa JS news Bakari could either be a given name, or a village in Togo
207.210.250.134 deprensaenlarevisiondehoy.com 2011 Spanish JAR news
207.210.250.135 icwb-news.com 2011 English JAR news ICWB stands for "Inner Circle Worldwide Business (News)", the title of the website
207.210.250.136 sportsreelhighlights.com 2011 English JAR sports
207.210.250.138 inquiry-human-past.com 2011 English JAR history
207.210.250.139 thefairwaysaregreen.com 2011 Thai JAR sports, golf
207.210.250.143 archaeologyreview.net 2010 English JAR history, archeology
207.210.250.146 noticias-caracas.com 2011 Spanish Venezuela CGI news Caracas is the capital of Venezuela. But you knew that, right?
207.210.250.147 bailandstump.com 2011 English JS sports, cricket "Bail" and "Stump" are the two parts of the thing your're supposed to hit with the ball in cricket.[ref]
207.210.250.149 globalventurestat.com 2008 English SWF news
207.210.250.152 al-rashidrealestate.com 2010 Arabic Egypt CGI finance, real-estate
207.210.250.153 newsintheworld-ru.com 2011 Russian JAR news
208.254.40.96 sixty2media.com 2011 English Various JAR news Epoch times link
208.254.40.99 newspoliticssource.com 2013 Arabic JAR news One of the news mentions Snowden
208.254.40.110 musical-fortune.net 2010 English CGI music images /images/banner-02.jpg
208.254.40.113 ashoka-gemstones.com 2010 English JAR jewelry
208.254.40.117 worldnewsandent.com 2010 Arabic Egypt CGI mews
208.254.40.124 riskandrewardnews.com 2013 English CGI finance
208.254.42.194 it-proonline.com 2011 English CGI tech images /images/header_01.jpg
208.254.42.205 driversinternationalgolf.com 2011 English CGI sports, golf
208.254.42.209 mardelsurnoticias.com 2011 Spanish JAR news weird mixture of Portuguese and Spanish language external links
208.254.42.215 nowfreshfinances.com 2011 English CGI finance CGI unarchived
208.254.42.216 circulatingnews.net 2010 English JAR travel
208.254.42.219 westingtonpassnews.com 2011 English JAR news
210.80.75.36 e-commodities.net 2011 English JAR finance
210.80.75.41 multinews-33.com JAR news No archives of the HTML, but the JAR was archived
210.80.75.43 gulfandmiddleeastnews.com 2011 Arabic JS news
210.80.75.44 whirlybirdinflight.com 2011 English JAR helicopters
210.80.75.45 kings-game.net 2011 English JAR gaming, chess JAR unarchived
210.80.75.46 topglobalnewsdaily.com 2011 English JS news
210.80.75.49 recipe-dujour.com 2011 English JAR cooking nice design
210.80.75.55 philippinenewsonline.net 2010 Philippines JAR news
210.80.75.56 technewsforme.com 2011 Farsi JAR tech
212.4.17.38 fightwithoutrules.com 2011 Russian JAR sports, combat sports
212.4.17.41 newtechfrontier.com 2010 English CGI tech since became legit: newtechfrontier.com/
212.4.17.43 smart-travel-consultant.com 2011 Chinese CGI travel ajaxtax.js may be of interest for fingerprinting. Title: "智能旅行顾问", lit. Smart Travel Consultant
212.4.17.46 atentlaloc.com 2009 English Quatar, Lebanon, Israel, Iran JS jewelry Tlaloc is an Aztec deity, and Aten is an Egyptian deity. Both appear to be somewhat linked to gold, thus their usage in a jewelry website. Creative domain name.
212.4.17.53 newsresolution.net 2010 English Côte d'Ivoire, Lebanon, Sudan JAR news, UN Peacekeeping
212.4.17.56 lesummumdelafinance.com 2010 French France JAR finance
212.4.17.98 topbillingsite.com 2011 English CGI films
212.4.17.122 b2bworldglobal.com 2011 English CGI news
212.4.18.14 football-enthusiast.com 2011 English Europe JS sports, football
212.4.18.129 sightseeingnews.com 2010 English JAR travel
212.209.74.105 globalbaseballnews.com 2011 English JS sports, baseball
212.209.74.106 football-de-luxe.com 2010 French France JAR sports, football
212.209.74.112 developmental-league.com 2010 English CGI sports, American football CGI comms variant?
212.209.74.115 mediocampodefutbol.com 2010 Spanish JAR sports, football
212.209.74.117 myengineeringaffinity.com 2011 English JAR tech
212.209.74.123 worldfinancialexchangenews.com 2010 English SWF finance SWF unarchived.
212.209.74.125 avoilurefixe.com 2011 French Tunisia JAR airplanes "à voilure fixe" is French for "with fixed wing", i.e. fixed wing aircraft
212.209.74.126 headlines2day.com 2011 Farsi JAR news marked copyright 2009
212.209.79.34 fgnl.net 2011 English Iran CGI news four letter domain! FGNL stands for "Farsi Global News Links" Marked copyright 2009.
212.209.79.37 fitness-sources.com 2010 English JS sports, fitness
212.209.79.40 hydradraco.com 2011 English JAR sports, American football TODO meaning of the name?
212.209.79.41 noticiasdelmundolatino.com 2011 Spanish JAR news
212.209.79.42 suparakuvi.com 2011 French France JAR news a Tour Eiffel image, and young people stuff, i.e. first world stuff. It's for France alright. But TODO meaning of domain name? Ciro's second language French didn't cut it this time.
212.209.79.46 cetusdelph.com 2011 English JS sports, scuba
212.209.79.47 willtoworship.com 2011 English JAR religion, Christianity marked copyright 2007 (!)
212.209.79.48 themvconnection.com 2011 English JAR music
212.209.79.51 pi-resources.net 2010 English JS private investigators "pi" stands for Private Investigators. The CIA must have had some fun making this one.
212.209.79.53 ourscubaworld.com 2011 English JS sports, scuba
212.209.79.58 tech-love-home.com 2011 Chinese JS tech Title: "消费类电子产品", lit. Consummer Electronics
212.209.79.60 first-solo-aviation.com 2010 English JAR airplanes
212.209.79.61 china-destinations.org 2011 Chinese JS travel title: "中国目的地指南", lit. "China Destination Guide"
212.209.90.69 worldedgenews.com 2011 English JAR news
212.209.90.80 nsmovies.net 2010 English JAR films "ns" stands for "Nirguna Saguna", two separate Hindu names/deities. But there are no other Indian references beyond those.
212.209.90.82 middleeastjournal.net 2010 Arabic JS news
212.209.90.84 thenewseditor.com 2011 English JAR news
212.209.90.87 newsandweathersource.com 2009 English JAR news marked copyright 2009.
212.209.90.89 pakisports.com 2010 English Pakistan SWF sports
212.209.90.90 vriha-aesthetics.com 2011 Arabic JS news
212.209.90.92 amishkanews.com 2011 English India JS news Amishka is an Indian name, plus some prominent mentions of Bollywood both point to India specifically
212.209.90.93 theentertainbiz.com 2011 English JAR entertainment
212.209.90.94 eurosportssummary.com 2011 English JAR sports
216.105.98.139 cultura-digital.net 2008 Spanish CGI news Marked copyright 2008. Previously legit.
216.105.98.140 uaeshoppingspree.com 2013 English UAE JAR shopping Archive quite broken, but has link to unarchived JAR. Has an unusually personal touch "As you can probably tell from the title of my website, shopping is my very favorite pastime."
216.105.98.145 montanismoaventura.com 2012 Spanish Spain JS sports, mountaineering JS unarchived. Marked copyright 2010.
216.105.98.147 nepalnewsbrief.com 2008 English Nepal JAR news Marked copyright 2006 (!) If true this would be the earliest known reference to a date in the websites.
216.105.98.152 modernarabicnews.com 2013 Arabic JAR news HTML archive quite broken, but JAR was archived thankfully.
216.105.98.154 everythingcricket.org 2011 English JAR sports, cricket Also has archives from 2009, but they were a bit broken. The 2011 one is marked copyright 2011, so they actually bothered to updated that.
219.90.61.110 surya-brahma.com 2011 Spanish JAR news Surya and Brahman are Hindu concepts, but the website appears to have nothing to do with India or Hinduism. Interesting.
219.90.61.111 classicalmusicboxonline.com 2010 English CGI music
219.90.61.116 athletepro.net 2010 English JAR sports
219.90.61.117 lajornadanow.com 2010 Spanish JAR news
219.90.61.122 iran-newslink-today.com 2011 Farsi Iran JAR news
219.90.61.123 journeystravelled.com 2011 English JAR travel
219.90.62.229 information-junky.com 2011 English Ghana JAR news
219.90.62.231 todosperuahora.com 2011 Spanish Peru CGI news
219.90.62.233 theworld-news.net 2010 Urdu CGI news
219.90.62.234 recuerdosdeviajeonline.com 2011 Spanish SWF travel marked "Copyright 2009"
219.90.62.237 elcorreodenoticias.com 2011 Spanish Venezuela JAR news
219.90.62.237 ride-captain.com 2011 English JAR sports, motorcyles
219.90.62.238 freshtechonline.com 2011 English CGI tech
219.90.62.243 fitness-dawg.com 2021 English JAR sports, fitness
219.90.62.244 easytraveleurope.com 2012 English JAR travel nice design
219.90.62.245 world-news-now.net 2011 English JAR news
219.90.62.246 negativeaperture.com 2011 English CGI photography nice domain name
219.90.62.247 conquermstoday.com 2011 English CGI health MS means multiple sclerosis. Comms not found, CGI from unarchived subpage assumed. Has a subdomain "heal.conquermstoday.com" according to 2013 DNS Census, but no links to it in the archive.
Figure 1. 2010 Wayback Machine archive of starwarsweb.net.
The Star Wars one. Clearly branded websites like this are rare, which makes finding them all the much more fun. The Reuters article had two of them (Carson and rastadirect.net), so these were probably manually selected from the full hit dataset, and did not serve specifically as entry points. Most of the websites are quite boring and forgetful as you'd expect.
The subtitle "Beyond The Unknown" may be a reference to the Unknown Regions in the Star Wars fictional universe.
Figure 2. 2011 Wayback Machine archive of iranfootballsource.com. The third Iranian football on top of the two other published by Reuters: iraniangoalkicks.com and iraniangoals.com! Admittedly, this one is the most generic and less well designed one. But still. They pushed the theme too far!
Figure 3. 2010 Wayback Machine archive of dedrickonline.com.
The German one.
The CIA has had a few Germany espionage scandals in the 2010s:
Figure 4. 2010 Wayback Machine archive of lesummumdelafinance.com. A French one. Because it mentions VTT (Mountain Biking in French), it must focus France.
Figure 5. 2011 Wayback Machine archive of attivitaestremi.com. An Italian one about extreme sports.
Figure 7. 2011 Wayback Machine archive of economicnewsbuzz.com. The Korean one. Love the kawaii style!
Figure 9. 2010 Wayback Machine archive of philippinenewsonline.net. The Philippine one one.
Figure 10. 2011 Wayback Machine archive of feedsdemexicoyelmundo.com. The Mexican one.
Figure 12. 2011 Wayback Machine archive of tee-shot.net. One of the many golf-themed sites. Golf appears to be quite popular over in Langley. It's exactly what you'd expect for a mid-level spook to do in their free time!
Being Brazilian, Ciro Santilli is particularly curious about the existence of a Brazilian-focused website one mentioned in the article, as well as in other democracies.
WTF the CIA was doing in Brazil in the early 2010s! Wasn't helping to install the Military dictatorship in Brazil enough!
Here are the democracies found so far, defining a democracy as a country with score 7.0 or more in the Democracy index 2010. In native language:In English, so more deniable:"Almost democracies":
Ciro couldn't help but feel as if looking through the Eyes of Sauron himself!
It is worth noting that democracies represent just a small minority of the websites found. The Middle East, and Spanish language sites (presumably for Venezuela + war on drugs countries?) where the huge majority. But Americans have to understand that democracies have to work together and build mutual trust, and not spy on one another. Even some of the enlightened people from Hacker News seem to not grasp this point. The USA cannot single handedly maintain world order as it once could. Collaboration based on trust is the only way.
Snowden's 2013 revelations particularly shocked USA allies with the fact that they were being spied upon, and as of the 2020's, everybody knows this and has "stopped caring", and or moved to end-to-end encryption by default. This is beautifully illustrated in the Snowden when Snowden talks about his time in Japan working for Dell as an undercover NSA operative:
NSA wanted to impress the Japanese. Show them our reach. They loved the live video from drones. This is Pakistan right now [video shows CIA agents demonstrating drone footage to Japanese officials]. They were not as excited about that we wanted their help to spy on the Japanese population. They said it was against their laws.
We bugged the country anyway, of course.
And we did not stop there. Once we had their communications we continued with the physical infrastructure. We sneaked into small programs in their power grids, dams, hospitals. The idea was that if Japan one day was not our allies we could turn off the lights.
And it was not just Japan. We planted software in Mexico, Germany, Brazil, Austria.
China, I can understand. Or Russia or Iran. Venezuela, okay.
But Austria? [shows footage of cow on an idyllic Alpine mountain grazing field, suggesting that there is nothing in Austria to spy on]
Another noteworthy scene from that movie is Video "Aptitude test scene from the Snowden 2016 film", where a bunch of new CIA recruits are told that:
Each of you is going to build a covert communications network in your home city [i.e. their fictitious foreign target location written on each person's desk, not necessarily where they were actually born], you're going to deploy it, backup your site, destroy it, and restore it again.
citizenlab.ca/2022/09/statement-on-the-fatal-flaws-found-in-a-defunct-cia-covert-communications-system/ did an investigation and found 885 such websites, but decided not to disclose the list or methods:
Using only a single website, as well as publicly available material such as historical internet scanning results and the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, we identified a network of 885 websites and have high confidence that the United States (US) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used these sites for covert communication.
The websites included similar Java, JavaScript, Adobe Flash, and CGI artifacts that implemented or apparently loaded covert communications apps. In addition, blocks of sequential IP addresses registered to apparently fictitious US companies were used to host some of the websites. All of these flaws would have facilitated discovery by hostile parties.
The websites, which purported to be news, weather, sports, healthcare, and other legitimate websites, appeared to be localized to at least 29 languages and geared towards at least 36 countries.
The question is which website. E.g. at citizenlab.ca/2021/07/hooking-candiru-another-mercenary-spyware-vendor-comes-into-focus/ they used data from Censys.
We searched historical data from Censys
citizenlab.ca/2016/08/million-dollar-dissident-iphone-zero-day-nso-group-uae/ mentions scans.io/. citizenlab.ca/2020/12/running-in-circles-uncovering-the-clients-of-cyberespionage-firm-circles/ mentions: www.shodan.io/, Censys really seems to be their thing.
Another critical excerpt is:
The bulk of the websites that we discovered were active at various periods between 2004 and 2013. We do not believe that the CIA has recently used this communications infrastructure. Nevertheless, a subset of the websites are linked to individuals who may be former and possibly still active intelligence community employees or assets:
  • Several are currently abroad
  • Another left mainland China in the time frame of the Chinese crackdown
  • Another was subsequently employed by the US State Department
  • Another now works at a foreign intelligence contractor
Given that we cannot rule out ongoing risks to CIA employees or assets, we are not publishing full technical details regarding our process of mapping out the network at this time. As a first step, we intend to conduct a limited disclosure to US government oversight bodies.
This basically implies that they must have found some communication layer level identifier, e.g. IP registration, domain name registration, or certificate because it is impossible to believe that real agent names would have been present on the website content itself!
The websites were used from at least as early as August 2008, as per Gholamreza Hosseini's account, and the system was only shutdown in 2013 apparently. citizenlab.ca/2022/09/statement-on-the-fatal-flaws-found-in-a-defunct-cia-covert-communications-system/ however claims that they were used since as early as 2004.
Notably, so as to be less suspicious the websites are often in the language of the country for which they were intended, so we can often guess which country they were intended for!
Reuters directly reported only two domains in writing:
But by looking at the URLs of the screenshots they provided from other websites we can easily uncover all others that had screenshots, except for the Johnny Carson one, which is just generically named. E.g. the image for the Chinese one is www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/assets/usa-spies-iran/screencap-activegaminginfo.com.jpg?v=192516290922 which leads us to domain activegaminginfo.com.
Also none of those extra ones have any Google hits except for huge domain dumps, so maybe this counts as little bit of novel public research.
The full lits of domains from screenshots is:
This brings up to 8 known domain names with Wayback Machine archives, plus the yet unidentified Johnny Carlson one, see also: Section "Searching for Carson", which is also almost certainly is on Wayback Machine somewhere given that they have a screenshot of it.
From The Reuters websites and others we've found, we can establish see some clear stylistic trends across the websites which would allow us to find other likely candidates upon inspection:
The most notable dissonance from the rest of the web is that there are no commercial looking website of companies, presumably because it was felt that it would be possible to verify the existence of such companies.
One promising way to find more of those would be with IP searches, since it was stated in the Reuters article that the CIA made the terrible mistake of using several contiguous IP blocks for those website. What a phenomenal OPSEC failure!!!
The easiest way would be if Wayback Machine itself had an IP search function, but we couldn't find one: Search Wayback Machine by IP.
viewdns.info was the first easily accessible website that Ciro Santilli could find that contained such information.
Our current results indicate that the typical IP range is about 30 IPs wide.
E.g. searching: viewdns.info/iphistory and considering only hits from 2011 or earlier we obtain:
  • capture-nature.com
    • 65.61.127.163 - Greenacres - United States - TierPoint - 2013-10-19
  • activegaminginfo.com
    • 66.175.106.148 - United States - Verizon Business - 2012-03-03
  • iraniangoals.com
    • 68.178.232.100 - United States - GoDaddy.com - 2011-11-13
    • 69.65.33.21 - Flushing - United States - GigeNET - 2011-09-08
  • rastadirect.net
    • 68.178.232.100 - United States - GoDaddy.com - 2011-05-02
  • iraniangoalkicks.com
    • 68.178.232.100 - United States - GoDaddy.com - 2011-04-04
  • headlines2day.com
    • 118.139.174.1 - Singapore - Web Hosting Service - 2013-06-30. Source: viewdns.info
    • 184.168.221.91 2013-08-12T06:17:39. Source: 2013 DNS Census grep
  • fightwithoutrules.com
    • 204.11.56.25 - British Virgin Islands - Confluence Networks Inc - 2013-09-26
    • 208.91.197.19 - British Virgin Islands - Confluence Networks Inc - 2013-05-20
    • 212.4.17.38 - Milan - Italy - MCI Worldcom Italy Spa - 2012-03-03
  • fitness-dawg.com
    • 219.90.62.243 - Taiwan - Verizon Taiwan Co. Limited - 2012-01-11
Neither of these seem to be in the same ranges, the only common nearby hit amongst these ranges is the exact 68.178.232.100, and doing reverse IP search at viewdns.info/reverseip/?host=68.178.232.100&t=1 states that it has 2.5 million hostnames associated to it, so it must be some kind of Shared web hosting service, see also: superuser.com/questions/577070/is-it-possible-for-many-domain-names-to-share-one-ip-address, which makes search hard.
Ciro then tried some of the other IPs, and soon hit gold.
Initially, Ciro started by doing manual queries to viewdns.info/reversip until his IP was blocked. Then he created an account and used his 250 free queries with the following helper script: cia-2010-covert-communication-websites/viewdns-info.sh. The output of that script can be seen at: github.com/cirosantilli/media/blob/master/cia-2010-covert-communication-websites/viewdns-info.sh.
Ciro then found 2013 DNS Census which contained data highly disjoint form the viewdns-info one!
Summaries of the IP range exploration done so far follows, combined data from all databases above.
Here we list domains for which the correct IP was apparently not found since there are no neighbouring hits.
These are suspicious, and suggest either that we didn't obtain the correct reverse IP, or a change in CIA methodology from an older time at which they were not yet using the obscene IP ranges.
For example, in the case of inews-today.com, 2013 DNS Census gave one IP 193.203.49.212, but then viewdns.info gave another one 66.175.106.146 which fit into an existing IP range, and which assumed to be the correct IP of interest.
A similar case happened when we found IP 212.209.74.126 for headlines2day.com with dnshistory.org: dnshistory.org/historical-dns-records/a/headlines2day.com.
It is interesting to note that Reuters seems to have featured disproportionately many hits from that range, one wonders why that happened. It is possible that they chose these because they actually didn't have any nearby hits to give away less obvious information, though they did pick some from the ranges as wel.
In what follows we list the domains with possible reverse IPs and what was explored so far for each. We consider IPs not in a range to be uncertain, and that instead their domains might have been previously in a range which we
dailynewsandsports.com. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches
  • 216.119.129.94. rdns source: viewdns.info "location": "United States", "owner": "A2 Hosting, Inc.", "lastseen": "2012-04-13". Tested viewdns.info range: 216.119.129.85 - 216.119.129.86, 216.119.129.89 - 216.119.129.99, ran out of queries for 87 and 88
    • 216.119.129.90: eastdairies.com 2011-04-04. Promising name and date, but no archives alas.
    • 216.119.129.97: miideaco.com 2016-02-01
  • 216.119.129.114 Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches, also present on viewdns.info but at a later date from previous "location": "United States", "owner": "A2 Hosting, Inc.", "lastseen": "2013-11-29". Tested viewdns.info range: 216.119.129.109 - 216.119.129.119
    • 216.119.129.110: dommoejmechty.com.ua. Legit.
    • 216.119.129.111 dailybeatz.com: Legit
    • 216.119.129.114 dailynewsandsports.com. hit.
    • 216.119.129.115 afxchange.com legit/broken
    • 216.119.129.116 danafunkfinancial.com: legit
  • 208.73.33.194 on securitytrails.com
iranfootballsource.com
  • 34.98.99.30 Kansas City - United States Google LLC 2021-05-24
  • 184.168.221.94 United States GoDaddy.com 2020-07-21
  • 50.63.202.66 United States GoDaddy.com 2020-07-07
  • 50.63.202.86 United States GoDaddy.com 2020-05-28
  • 184.168.221.94 United States GoDaddy.com 2020-05-13
  • 50.63.202.74 United States GoDaddy.com 2020-04-29
  • 50.18.223.191 San Jose - United States Amazon.com 2015-03-23. Sources: 2013 DNS Census and viewdns.info
    • no viewdns.info hits +- 10
  • 85.13.200.108 United Kingdom Coreix Dedicated Customer Allocation 2013-06-30. Source: viewdns.info
    • 85.13.200.108: 1000 hits, so unlikely to be the one
iraniangoalkicks.com:
iraniangoals.com:
just-kidding-news.com: Tested viewdns.info range: 209.85.45.74 - 209.85.45.94, empty.
  • 209.85.45.84 2009-08-06 -> 2009-08-06.
    • 209.85.45.2: dz8.dailyrazor.com
    • 209.85.45.2: jr4consulting.com
    • 209.85.45.41: guitarzza.com. No archives of time.
    • 209.85.45.46: evergraindecking.com. No archives of time.
    • 209.85.45.114: mauritiuspropertyconsultant.com. Legit/ broken.
    • 209.85.45.160: bieltvedt.net. No archives of time.
    • 209.85.45.160: golfstats.dk. No archives.
    • 209.85.45.225: infokus.ca
    • 209.85.45.225: mail.tomlatham.net
    • 209.85.45.225: mail.tomlatham.org
    • 209.85.45.239: flavacationcenter.com
  • 199.85.212.118 rdns source: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches, dnshistory.org (2009-09-23 -> 2011-01-25) and viewdns.info: "location": "United States", "owner": "VIMRO, LLC", "lastseen": "2012-01-11". Tested viewdns.info range: none. Not sure worth it given the many 2013 DNS Census misses surrounding.
    • 199.85.212.98: colorsxpress.com legit
    • 199.85.212.109: game2be.com. Infinite load loop: web.archive.org/web/20080102074404/http://www.game2be.com/
    • 199.85.212.115: veryperi.com Legit? 2011. Style is similar.
    • 199.85.212.116: approselect.com: legit?
    • 199.85.212.117: innovative-software-solutions.com. broken/legit
    • 199.85.212.118: just-kidding-news.com. Hit.
    • 199.85.212.119: invisus.com: legit
    • 199.85.212.120: allurebyjustine.com: legit?
    • 199.85.212.121: stockprouniversity.com
    • 199.85.212.122: stjosephswoodshop.com
    • 199.85.212.132: qualitytrans.net: legit?
    • 199.85.212.134: mywellnessminder.com: legit?
    • 199.85.212.138: crystalglassinc.com
    • 199.85.212.140: davistech-llc.com
  • 68.178.232.100: see rastadirect.net. rdns source: viewdns.info: "location": "United States", "owner": "GoDaddy.com, LLC", "lastseen": "2012-06-29"
212.4.18.14: football-enthusiast.com. Tested viewdns.info range: 212.4.18.1 - 212.4.18.29. This is a curious case, rather close to 212.4.18.129 sightseeingnews.com, but not quite in the same range apparently. Viewdns.info also agrees on its history with only "212.4.18.14", "location" : "Milan - Italy", "owner" : "MCI Worldcom Italy Spa", "lastseen" : "2013-06-30" of interest.
mynewscheck.com:
rastadirect.net:
todaysengineering.com:
  • 208.254.38.39. rdns source: both viewdns.info and 2013 DNS Census. Tested viewdns.info range: 208.254.38.34 - 208.254.38.44. Weirdly empty, doesn't even show the domain iteslf!
  • 68.178.232.100: source: securitytrails.com. 2009-11-24 - 2009-12-11, GoDaddy.com, LLC
Possible hits without any nearby IP hits follow. These are highly suspicious, but lack clear comms, and so we are not considering them hits for now without the IP range support:
62.22.60.49: telecom-headlines.com. Found with: visual inspection of full 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup list just before worldnewsnetworking.com. Tested viewdns.info range: 62.22.60.34 - 62.22.60.66
  • 62.22.60.33: newsperk.com. Unclear. Stylistically perfect, but no comms not found. 2011. English. Egypt. news.
  • 62.22.60.34: freeslideshow.net. Legit? Attempting to open any HTML archives leads to an infinite page load loop, e.g. 2010. A subpage however exists: web.archive.org/web/20101230001640/http://freeslideshow.net/index_files/a.htm and appears legit.
  • 62.22.60.40: travel-passage.com. Unclear. No archives of toplevel, only subpage: 2009. No clear comms. Chinese.
  • 62.22.60.46: flyingtimeline.com. Hit.
  • 62.22.60.47: globalemergenceadvisorsbkserver.com. Legit.
  • 62.22.60.48: currentcommunique.com. Hit.
  • 62.22.60.49: telecom-headlines.com. Hit.
  • 62.22.60.52: collectedmedias.com. Hit.
  • 62.22.60.54: romulusactualites.com. No archives.
  • 62.22.60.55: thefilmcentre.com. Hit.
  • 62.22.60.56: traveltimenews.com. Hit.
62.22.61.206 worldnewsnetworking.com. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches. Tested viewdns.info range: 62.22.61.188 - 62.22.61.224
63.130.160.50 theglobalheadlines.com. Found with: 2013 DNS census secureserver.net MX records intersection 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup. Tested viewdns.info range: 63.130.160.35 - 63.130.160.75
  • 63.130.160.50: theglobalheadlines.com. Hit.
  • 63.130.160.51:
    • hai-pow.com. Hit.
    • secudenetworksecurity.com. No archives.
  • 63.130.160.59: technologiewissen.com. No archives from the time. Would be Technology knowledge in German, so another likely German hit. Shame.
  • 63.130.160.60: boxingstop.net. Hit.
  • 63.130.160.61: bookmarksthis.com. No archives.
64.16.204.55 holein1news.com. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches. Tested viewdns.info range: 64.16.204.50 - 64.16.204.63. With did Wayback Machine have so few archives here? TODO stopping viewdns.info exploration a bit short due to that.
  • 64.16.204.35: ironcityfootball.com. Legit/broke.
  • 64.16.204.51: africannewsandsports.com. No archives. rdns source: viewdns.info
  • 64.16.204.53: bosniakbusinessnews.com. No archives. A Bosniak is someone from an ethnicity from Bosnia.
  • 64.16.204.54: affairesdumonde.com. No archives. rdns source: viewdns.info
  • 64.16.204.55: holein1news.com. Hit.
  • 64.16.204.56: fightorgohome.com. No archives. rdns source: viewdns.info
  • 64.16.204.58: tech-topix.com. Hit.
  • 64.16.204.60: pakpoldaily.com. No archives. rdns source: viewdns.info. TODO meaning? Might be Indonesian, maybe linked to police: www.facebook.com/watch/?v=880204266271955
65.61.127.163 capture-nature.com. whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-65-61-96-0-1/pft?s=65.61.127.163: Net Range: 65.61.96.0 - 65.61.127.255. Organization. Name: TierPoint, LLC. Tested viewdns.info range: 65.61.127.149 -
66.45.179.205 noticiasporjanua.com. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup. Tested viewdns.info range: 66.45.179.187 - 66.45.179.223
  • 66.45.179.192: thegraceofislam.com. Hit.
  • 66.45.179.194: raulsonsglobalnews.com. Hit.
  • 66.45.179.199: attivitaestremi.com. Hit.
  • 66.45.179.200: foodwineandsuch.com. No archives.
  • 66.45.179.201: hitthepavementnow.com. Hit.
  • 66.45.179.203: noticiascontinental.com. Hit.
  • 66.45.179.205: noticiasporjanua.com. Hit.
  • 66.45.179.206: podisticamondiale.com. Hit.
  • 66.45.179.207: reflectordenoticias.com. Hit.
  • 66.45.179.208: havenofgamerz.com. Hit.
  • 66.45.179.209: vejaaeuropa.com. web.archive.org/web/20130810131440/http://www.vejaaeuropa.com/: Welcome to the US Petabox. Shame, could be another Brazil hit since "veja" (look in Brazilian Portuguese) would be "mira" in Spanish, not "veja".
  • 66.45.179.210: sa-michigan.com. Hit.
  • 66.45.179.211: absolutebearing.net. Hit.
  • 66.45.179.212: grandretirement.net. No archives.
  • 66.45.179.213: myportaltonews.com. Hit.
  • 66.45.179.214: investmentintellect.com. Hit.
  • 66.45.179.215: nigeriastar.net 2012-03-12. Hit.
66.104.169.184 bcenews.com. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches. Tested viewdns.info range: 66.104.169.158 - 66.104.169.189
  • 66.104.169.162: bestsportsnews.net. Archive broken.
  • 66.104.169.163: doctorsoncallsite.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.169.164: lightandshadowonline.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.169.168: plugged-into-news.net. Hit.
  • 66.104.169.169: worldsportsite.com. Likely hit, but comms not found. 2011. Arabic. . sports. has some apparently unrelated archives from 2008.
  • 66.104.169.171: golf-on-holiday.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.169.172: perspectiva-noticias.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.169.175: aquaswimming.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.169.177: dojo-temple.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.169.179: neighbour-news.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.169.180: medicatechinfo.com. Hit.
    • 205.178.189.131: securitytrails.com 2009-06-25 - 2009-07-02 Network Solutions, LLC., "ip_count": 726755. Moved to new one 2009-07-02 - 2010-11-03
  • 66.104.169.181: brickmanfinancialnews.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.169.182: casanewsnow.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.169.183: aworldofnews.com. No archives.
  • 66.104.169.184: bcenews.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.169.197: teamshula.com. Legit.
66.104.173.186 myworldlymusic.com. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches. Tested viewdns.info range: 66.104.173.158 - 66.104.173.194
  • 66.104.173.161: fanatic-pc-gamers.com. 2013: Welcome to the US Petabox
  • 66.104.173.163: runakonews.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.165: entertaining-ly.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.166: zubeenews.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.169: smart-financeology.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.173: remarkably has two potential hits, both shown in viewdns.info, and one of them was also in the 2013 DNS Census.
    • worldfeedstoday.com. No main page archives. Subpage archive: 2011. English. news.
    • world-newsfeeds.com. No archives.
  • 66.104.173.175: media-coverage-now.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.176: jbc-online-news.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.177: webscooper.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.178: dk-dcinvestment.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.179: newsforthetech.com. Welcome to the US Petabox.
  • 66.104.173.180: stara-turistick.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.181: playbackpolitics.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.182: snapnewsfront.net. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.183: ingenuitytrendz.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.184: armashoy.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.185: baocontact.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.186: myworldlymusic.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.173.189: hitpoint-gaming.com. Hit.
66.104.175.40 beyondnetworknews.com. whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-66-104-0-0-1/pft?s=66.104.175.40. Net Range:66.104.0.0 - 66.107.255.255. 2012 Internet Census puts most/all hits in this range under ip66-104-175-34.z175-104-66.customer.algx.net, algx.net redirects to verizon.com as of 2023. Related: superuser.com/questions/956568/why-are-my-pings-going-to-customer-algx-net. Tested viewdns.info range: 66.104.175.24 - unknown
  • 66.104.175.34: itwebtoday.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.36: adilnews.net. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.37: technewstogo.com. web.archive.org/web/20110201205946/http://technewstogo.com/ "UNDER CONSTRUCTION"
  • 66.104.175.40: beyondnetworknews.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.41: grubbersworldrugbynews.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.44: yourtripfinder.net. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.45: rollinsnetwork.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.46: infosharenews.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.47: southasiaheadlines.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.48: worlddispatch.net. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.49: webworldsports.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.50: fly-bybirdies.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.51: businessexchangetoday.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.52: mensajeradenoticias.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.53: info-ology.net. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.54: marketflows.net. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.57: metanewsdaily.com. Hit.
  • 66.104.175.218: remote.taxconsultantsgroup.com. No archives.
66.175.106.148 activegaminginfo.com. whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-66-175-106-128-1/pft?s=66.175.106.148: Net Range: 66.175.106.128 - 66.175.106.159. Customer Name: DIAMOND-COLESON. Tested viewdns.info range: 66.175.106.131 - 66.175.106.178
  • 66.175.106.10: nationalchecktrust.com. Legit?
  • 66.175.106.134: paddlescoop.com. Hit.
  • 66.175.106.137: kessingerssportsnews.com. Hit.
  • 66.175.106.138: factorforcenews.com. Hit.
  • 66.175.106.140: aroundthemiddleeast.com. No Wayback Machine hits. Last resolved: 2012-06-29.
  • 66.175.106.142: kanata-news.com. Hit.
  • 66.175.106.143: thecricketfan.com. Hit.
  • 66.175.106.146: inews-today.com. Initially found with 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches which gave IP address 193.203.49.212. But that has no nearby hits. 66.175.106.146 was later found on viewdns.info, and slotted into this other existing IP range.
    • 193.203.49.211 datingso.com: legit? Russian dating website
    • 193.203.49.212 inews-today.com. Hit.
    • 193.203.49.223 zatysi.net: legit
    • 193.203.49.226 kinotopik.com: legit? Russian
    • 193.203.49.229 rotor-volgograd.com. Legit.
    • 193.203.49.233 ordercytotec.com. Broken.
  • 66.175.106.147: starwarsweb.net. Hit.
  • 66.175.106.149: feedsdemexicoyelmundo.com. Hit.
  • 66.175.106.150: noticiasmusica.net. Hit.
  • 66.175.106.155: atomworldnews.com. Hit.
  • 66.175.106.158: nouvellesetdesrapports.com. Hit.
  • 66.175.106.166: exchange.katzbarron.com. Legit. Reverse IP source: 2012 Internet Census
  • 66.175.106.183: mail.lfdatacenter.com. No archives.
66.237.236.247 comunidaddenoticias.com. Tested viewdns.info range: 66.237.236.222 - 66.237.236.254
  • 66.237.236.227: newsandmusicminute.com. Hit.
  • 66.237.236.229: pearls-playlist.com 2011-11-13. Hit.
  • 66.237.236.230: beyondthefringe.info 2013-01-02. Hit.
  • 66.237.236.231: primetimemovies.net 2011-06-22. Hit.
  • 66.237.236.235: persephneintl.com. Hit.
  • 66.237.236.236: directoalgrano.net 2012-01-23. Hit.
  • 66.237.236.240: actualizaciondebeisbol.com. Hit.
  • 66.237.236.243: mygadgettech.com. Hit.
  • 66.237.236.247: comunidaddenoticias.com. Hit.
  • 66.237.236.249: sumerjaseahora.com. Hit.
69.84.156.90 stickshiftnews.com. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches. Tested viewdns.info range: 69.84.156.64 - 69.84.156.95
  • 69.84.156.69: al-ashak-news-me.com. Hit.
  • 69.84.156.70: theventurenews.info. No archives. business.
  • 69.84.156.71: worldfinancetoday.net. Hit.
  • 69.84.156.72: autonewsarabia.com. Hit.
  • 69.84.156.74: blue-moon-news.com. Hit.
  • 69.84.156.75: theoutergreen.com. No archives. Might have been another golf hit.
  • 69.84.156.76: tnc-urdu.com. Hit.
  • 69.84.156.79: jassimnews.com. No archives/broken.
  • 69.84.156.80: noticiasdenuestromundo.com. No archives. Spanish. news.
  • 69.84.156.83: unganadormundial.com. Hit.
  • 69.84.156.84: focusonbokeh.com. No archives/broken. Only a "Sony" logo remains: web.archive.org/web/20110207222330/http://focusonbokeh.com/images/logo_014.jpg
  • 69.84.156.85: classic-rocktopia.com. No archives. Presumably rock climbing.
  • 69.84.156.87: i7diver.com. No archives.
  • 69.84.156.88: diariodeelmundo.com. Hit.
  • 69.84.156.89: todaysarabnews.com. Hit.
  • 69.84.156.90: stickshiftnews.com. Hit.
  • 69.84.156.91: theinternationalgoal.com. Hit.
74.116.72.236 techtopnews.com. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches. Tested viewdns.info range: 74.116.72.215 - 74.116.72.254
  • 74.116.72.199: newsungraphics.com. Legit.
  • 74.116.72.209: newsung.com. Legit/broken.
  • 74.116.72.214: ofinancialinc.com. Legit.
  • 74.116.72.219: stockpromoters.com. Legit.
  • 74.116.72.229: guide-daventure.com. Hit.
  • 74.116.72.230: spaceage-exchange.com. No archives.
  • 74.116.72.231: bleachersfootballnews.com. Hit.
  • 74.116.72.232: indirectfreekick.com. Hit.
  • 74.116.72.233: wwiichronicles.net. Hit.
  • 74.116.72.234: petroleumagenews.com. Hit.
  • 74.116.72.235: the-open-book-online.com. Hit.
  • 74.116.72.236: techtopnews.com. Hit.
  • 74.116.72.237: noticiasdiariasdedeportes.com. No archives. Sad, another potential Brazil hit.
  • 74.116.72.238: pohandakhbar.com. No archives. TODO meaning. "akhbar" is news in Arabic. But what is "Poh"? Sounds like a South Asian name.
  • 74.116.72.239: crickettoday.info. Hit.
  • 74.116.72.240: zafernews.com. Hit.
  • 74.116.72.241: itechnewstoday.com. Broken/GoDaddy takeover
  • 74.116.72.242: gdgtsource.com. Hit.
  • 74.116.72.243: waronfilmonline.com. No archives.
  • 74.116.72.244: arborstribune.org. No archives.
  • 74.116.72.245: wineenthusiastonline.com. Welcome to the US Petabox.
  • 74.116.72.247: ballbatstumpsandbails.com. Hit.
  • 74.116.72.248: kioni-sailing.com. No archives.
  • 74.116.72.249: round-trip-travel.com. Hit.
  • 74.116.72.250: arabicnewsource.com. Hit.
74.254.12.168 non-stop-news.net. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches. Tested viewdns.info range: 74.254.12.158 - 74.254.12.195. This domain exceptionally also has a second IP also with multihits: 207.239.196.230. The fact that the range has rdns sources with hits from both 2013 DNS Census and viewdns.info suggests this range is correct.
  • 74.254.12.163: half-court.net. Hit.
  • 74.254.12.165: dylandon.net. rdns source: viewdns.info Hit.
  • 74.254.12.166: afghanpoetry.net. Hit.
  • 74.254.12.168: non-stop-news.net. Hit.
  • 74.254.12.169: soldiersofsouthasia.com. Hit.
  • 74.254.12.170: greek-news.info. 2013. Welcome to the US Petabox. rdns source: viewdns.info
  • 74.254.12.172: thesportsguidebook.com. rdns source: 2013 DNS Census. Only has archive of one subpage: 2009. English. sports.
  • 74.254.12.176: pakcricketgrd.com. Hit.
  • 74.254.12.179: wineconnaisseur.net. Hit.
  • 74.254.12.180: helpinghandssite.com. Hit.
  • 74.254.12.185: newskwest.com. No archives.
  • 74.254.12.187: efiinvestment.com. No archives.
  • 74.254.12.188: first-tee-golf.com. Hit.
  • 74.254.12.189: fabu-foto.com. Hit.
  • 74.254.12.190: viptravelabroad.com. Hit.
204.176.38.143 noticiassofisticadas.com. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup. Tested viewdns.info range: 204.176.38.125 - 204.176.38.154
  • 204.176.38.130: i-pressnews.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.38.132: turkishnewslinks.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.38.134: photographyarecord.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.38.135: breakingthewicket.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.38.136: politicalworldtoday.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.38.137: hi-tech-today.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.38.138: continental-business-news.com. TODO. 2011. Cannot find comms. Also header and footer are not limited width which is unusual. Further HTML similarity reversing would be needed.
  • 204.176.38.139: bigscreenbattles.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.38.141: rakotafootball.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.38.143: noticiassofisticadas.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.38.142: senderosdemontana.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.38.144: techno-today.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.38.146: dps-digitalphotosharing.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.38.147: theputtingreen.com. Hit.
204.176.39.115 globalprovincesnews.com. Tested viewdns.info range: 204.176.39.93 - 204.176.39.124
  • 204.176.39.98: cubriendonoticias.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.39.100: rowleyworldpost.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.39.101: noticiastopicas.com. No archives.
  • 204.176.39.103: economicnewsbuzz.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.39.104: spectranewsonline.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.39.105: entertainmentnewscompany.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.39.107: guidetoelectronics.net. Uncertain. 2010. English. tech, electronics. Possible CGI comms variant.
  • 204.176.39.110: arabnewsatdawn.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.39.114: messengergalaxy.com. Uncertain. 2011. Would be the first example of something more commercial/service offering we've seen so far. Possible CGI comms variant.
  • 204.176.39.115: globalprovincesnews.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.39.116: mahparah-news.com. Hit.
  • 204.176.39.119: commercialspacedesign.com. Hit.
207.210.250.132 aeronet-news.com. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches. Tested viewdns.info range: 207.210.250.126 - 207.210.250.157
  • 207.210.250.131: starrynightnews.com. Hit.
  • 207.210.250.132: aeronet-news.com. Hit.
  • 207.210.250.133: bakaribulletin.com. Hit.
  • 207.210.250.134: deprensaenlarevisiondehoy.com. Hit.
  • 207.210.250.135: icwb-news.com. Hit.
  • 207.210.250.136: sportsreelhighlights.com. Hit.
  • 207.210.250.138: inquiry-human-past.com. Hit.
  • 207.210.250.139: thefairwaysaregreen.com. Hit.
  • 207.210.250.142: russiaupdate.com 2011-11-13. No archives of the time, only older unrelated archives: web.archive.org/web/20010429003443/http://russiaupdate.com/.
  • 207.210.250.143: archaeologyreview.net. Hit.
  • 207.210.250.144: highspeed-news.com. No archives.
  • 207.210.250.146: noticias-caracas.com. Hit.
  • 207.210.250.147: bailandstump.com. Hit.
  • 207.210.250.148: classicalmusic4arab.com. No archives.
  • 207.210.250.149: globalventurestat.com. Hit.
  • 207.210.250.152: al-rashidrealestate.com. Hit.
  • 207.210.250.153: newsintheworld-ru.com. Hit.
208.254.40.117 worldnewsandent.com. whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-208-192-0-0-1/pft?s=208.254.40.117: Net Range 208.192.0.0 - 208.255.255.255. Tested viewdns.info range: 208.254.40.92 - 208.254.40.135
  • 208.254.40.96: sixty2media.com. Hit.
  • 208.254.40.99: newspoliticssource.com. Hit.
  • 208.254.40.110 musical-fortune.net. Hit.
  • 208.254.40.113: ashoka-gemstones.com. Hit.
  • 208.254.40.117: worldnewsandent.com. Hit.
  • 208.254.40.124: riskandrewardnews.com. Hit.
  • 208.254.40.129: mailb.casella.com. Legit.
208.254.42.205 driversinternationalgolf.com. Not too far from 208.254.40.117 right? Tested viewdns.info range: 208.254.42.178 - 208.254.42.233.
210.80.75.55 philippinenewsonline.net. Tested viewdns.info range: 210.80.75.30 - 210.80.75.67
  • 210.80.75.35: aroundtheworldnews.net. No archives.
  • 210.80.75.36: e-commodities.net. Hit.
  • 210.80.75.41: multinews-33.com. Hit.
  • 210.80.75.43: gulfandmiddleeastnews.com. Hit.
  • 210.80.75.44: whirlybirdinflight.com. Hit.
  • 210.80.75.45: kings-game.net. Hit.
  • 210.80.75.46: topglobalnewsdaily.com. Hit.
  • 210.80.75.49: recipe-dujour.com. Hit.
  • 210.80.75.53: sportsman-elite.com. No archives.
  • 210.80.75.55: philippinenewsonline.net. Hit.
  • 210.80.75.56: technewsforme.com. Hit.
  • 210.80.75.59: goldeportesnoticias.com. No archives.
  • 210.80.75.68: gigabyte-usa.com. Legit.
212.4.17.38 fightwithoutrules.com. whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-208-192-0-0-1/pft?s=208.254.40.117. Net Range: 208.192.0.0 - 208.255.255.255. Organization: Name: Verizon Business. Tested viewdns.info range: 212.4.17.8 - 212.4.17.79
  • 212.4.17.41: newtechfrontier.com. Hit.
  • 212.4.17.43: smart-travel-consultant.com. Hit.
  • 212.4.17.46: atentlaloc.com. Hit.
  • 212.4.17.53: newsresolution.net. Hit.
  • 212.4.17.56: lesummumdelafinance.com. Hit.
  • 212.4.17.56: thepinnacleoffinance.com. No Wayback machine archives.
  • 212.4.17.61: tech-stop.org. Archive: 2011. Feels likely. No commons found. .org hit? Has subdomain "gear.tech-stop.org" according to 2013 DNS Census, which suggests CGI comms, but no links to it
  • 212.4.17.98: topbillingsite.com. Hit.
  • 212.4.17.122: b2bworldglobal.com. Hit.
There were also some other reverse IP hits for fightwithoutrules.com, but no CIA websites there:
  • 204.11.56.25 - British Virgin Islands - Confluence Networks Inc - 2013-09-26. Many domains.
  • 208.91.197.19 - British Virgin Islands - Confluence Networks Inc - 2013-05-20. Many domains.
212.4.18.129 sightseeingnews.com. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches. Tested viewdns.info range: 212.4.18.115 - 212.4.18.148. TODO expand. Interesting wide/sparse range? Or perhaps it's two separate ranges?
212.209.74.105 globalbaseballnews.com. Tested viewdns.info range: 212.209.74.100 - 212.209.74.132. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches
  • 212.209.74.105: globalbaseballnews.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.74.106: football-de-luxe.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.74.111: worldconcerns.info. No archives.
  • 212.209.74.112: developmental-league.com. Unclear. CGI comms variant? 2010. English. CGI. American football.
  • 212.209.74.122: atthemovies.biz. Archive very broken. Has link to unarchived JAR: web.archive.org/web/20110809232811oe_/http://www.atthemovies.biz/movieslides.jar. Would have been the fist .biz hit found: Non .com .net TLDs
  • 212.209.74.115: mediocampodefutbol.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.74.117: myengineeringaffinity.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.74.123: worldfinancialexchangenews.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.74.124: urouttahere.com. No archives. Meaning presumably "you're out of here"? One wonders what the theme would have been!
  • 212.209.74.125: avoilurefixe.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.74.126: headlines2day.com. Hit.
    • 118.139.174.11. Reverse IP source: viewdns.info
      • 118.139.174.11: 712 domain hits on it
      • 118.139.174.21: theargentineanwineco.com 2013-09-26. No Wayback machine archive.
      • nothing else on the +-20 range
    • 184.168.221.91. Reverse IP source: 2013 DNS Census
  • 212.209.74.127: construction-zones.com. Unclear. CGI comms variant? 2009. No known comms found. English. construction. Has a login page: web.archive.org/web/20091130144158/http://construction-zones.com/login.html so maybe CGI comms variant
212.209.79.40 hydradraco.com. Found with: visual inspection of full 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup list just after globalbaseballnews.com. Tested viewdns.info range: 212.209.79.35 - 212.209.79.63
  • 212.209.79.34: fgnl.net. Hit. securitytrails.com provides IP history:
    • 212.209.79.34: 2008-09-01 - 2010-04-19.
    • 212.4.18.133: 2010-04-19 - 2019-06-19. Tested viewdns.info range: 212.4.18.122 - 212.4.18.148
    both under MCI Communications Services, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Business.
  • 212.209.79.37: fitness-sources.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.79.40: hydradraco.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.79.41: noticiasdelmundolatino.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.79.42: suparakuvi.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.79.44: myigadgets.net. Unclear. 2010. tech. Contains some helpers to: iGoogle. This page is very interesting. and quite different from the others, as it contains highly specialized functionality. No known comms found. The choice of homepage languages is also very suspicious: Arabic, Farsi, French, Chinese and Spanish.
  • 212.209.79.46: cetusdelph.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.79.47: willtoworship.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.79.48: themvconnection.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.79.51: pi-resources.net. Hit.
  • 212.209.79.52: newel-adserver.com. Redirects to newel.com which is legit.
  • 212.209.79.53: ourscubaworld.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.79.58: tech-love-home.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.79.60: first-solo-aviation.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.79.61: china-destinations.org. Hit.
212.209.90.84 thenewseditor.com. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches. Tested viewdns.info range: 212.209.90.64 - 212.209.90.99
  • 212.209.90.69: worldedgenews.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.90.72: talkingpointnews.info. No archives.
  • 212.209.90.75: prebitinvestment.com. No archives.
  • 212.209.90.77: energy-bulb.com 2011. English. energy. Comms not found, but has unarchived link to: web.archive.org/web/20110128182345/https://webmail.energy-bulb.com/login.html. CGI comms variant?
  • 212.209.90.79: freeblink.com. No archives for timerange, then legit.
  • 212.209.90.80: nsmovies.net. Hit.
  • 212.209.90.82: middleeastjournal.net. Hit.
  • 212.209.90.84: thenewseditor.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.90.87: newsandweathersource.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.90.89: pakisports.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.90.90: vriha-aesthetics.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.90.92: amishkanews.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.90.93: theentertainbiz.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.90.94: eurosportssummary.com. Hit.
  • 212.209.91.14: teracom.net. Legit
216.105.98.152: modernarabicnews.com. Found with: 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches. Tested viewdns.info range: 216.105.98.125 - 216.105.98.167
  • 216.105.98.132: europeantravelcafe.com. Likely a hit, but comms not found. 2010. English. Europe. travel. Marked copyright 2009. There's a currency converter at: web.archive.org/web/20100724024644/http://www.europeantravelcafe.com/tools.html which could be suspicious.
  • 216.105.98.134: fuenteneta.com. No archives.
  • 216.105.98.135: ilat-news.com. No archives.
  • 216.105.98.136: etherealinspirations.net. No archives.
  • 216.105.98.138: photozoomnews.com. No archives.
  • 216.105.98.139: cultura-digital.net. Hit.
  • 216.105.98.140: uaeshoppingspree.com. Hit.
  • 216.105.98.141: jabarifootball.com. No archives. "Jabari" is a Swahili/Arabic name[ref]
  • 216.105.98.142: globalreview-ar.com. No archives. Shame, could have been our first Argentinian site.
  • 216.105.98.145: montanismoaventura.com. Hit.
  • 216.105.98.146: large-format-news.com. No archives.
  • 216.105.98.147: nepalnewsbrief.com. Hit.
    dnshistory.org marks it as having IP 2010-03-10 -> 2010-08-15 216.169.148.94 [ref]. This range does feel a bit different from the others, too many broken archives, and relatively early ones too. Explored viewdns.info range: 216.169.148.84 - 216.169.148.104, empty for period.
  • 216.105.98.148: teclafinance.com. No archives. One wonders what "tecla" would have stood for. It is Portuguese for "keyboard key", but finance is English so.
  • 216.105.98.152: modernarabicnews.com. Hit.
  • 216.105.98.153: global-headlines.com. No archives of the period, then was a legitimate WordPress website for a while.
  • 216.105.98.154: everythingcricket.org. Hit.
  • 216.105.98.157: delacorne.com. No archives.
  • 216.105.98.161: kstcloud.com. No archives.
219.90.61.123 journeystravelled.com Tested viewdns.info range: 219.90.61.100 - 219.90.61.133
  • 219.90.61.103: bet2plays.com. "Under construction". Unlikely thematic, too spicy.
  • 219.90.61.110: surya-brahma.com. Hit
  • 219.90.61.111: classicalmusicboxonline.com. Hit.
  • 219.90.61.116: athletepro.net. Hit.
  • 219.90.61.117: lajornadanow.com. Hit.
  • 219.90.61.119: aviation-navigation.com. No archives.
  • 219.90.61.122: iran-newslink-today.com. Hit.
  • 219.90.61.123: journeystravelled.com. Hit.
219.90.62.243 fitness-dawg.com. whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-219-0-0-0-1/pft?s=219.90.62.243. Net Type: Allocated to APNIC. Tested viewdns.info range: unknown - 219.90.62.255
  • 219.90.62.173:
    • dominatingduos.com: 2013-08-12T17:53:09. No archive
    • has other domains
  • 219.90.62.193: centralnewsreleasers.com. Only a 2018 of the robots.txt: web.archive.org/web/*/http://centralnewsreleasers.com/* so likely not a hit
  • 219.90.62.209: penniesbythemillions.com. No archives.
  • 219.90.62.229: information-junky.com. Hit.
  • 219.90.62.231: todosperuahora.com. Hit.
  • 219.90.62.232: race26point2.com. Hit. No archives, but has subdomain: secure.race26point2.com, so likely CGI comms.
  • 219.90.62.234: recuerdosdeviajeonline.com. Hit
  • 219.90.62.235: ordenpolicial.com. No Wayback Machine archives. Last resolved: 2012-01-11.
  • 219.90.62.237: elcorreodenoticias.com. Hit.
  • 219.90.62.238: freshtechonline.com. Hit.
  • 219.90.62.240: cityworldnewsnow.com. Hit. No archives but has subdomain: secure.cityworldnewsnow.com so likely CGI comms.
  • 219.90.62.242: ride-captain.com. Hit.
  • 219.90.62.244: easytraveleurope.com. Hit.
  • 219.90.62.245: world-news-now.net. Hit.
  • 219.90.62.246: negativeaperture.com. Hit.
  • 219.90.62.247: conquermstoday.com. Hit
  • 219.90.62.249: forensic-exchange.com. 2013 archive: web.archive.org/web/20130714094026/http://forensic-exchange.com/. Appears to be a buggy Wayback Machine archive somehow, so inconclusive.
The fact that Reuters has a screenshot of it, and therefore a Wayback Machine link, plus the specificity of the website topic, will likely keep Ciro awake at night for a while until someone finds that domain.
Some text visible on the Reuters screenshot:
  • Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show
  • Your Favorite Host and Comedic Genius
  • Submit Your Favorite Carson Moment
  • Heeere's Johnny!
    . Holy crap, the "Here's Johnny" line from The Shining (1980) is a reference to Johnny Carson: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDpipB4yehk, www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYnyPAkgyvc, Ciro never knew that... but every American would have understood it at the time.
It is unclear however if this text is plaintext or part of a an image.
Some failed attempts, either dry guesses or from DNS grepping dataset searches:
Searching the Wayback Machine proved fruitless. There is no full text search: Wayback Machine full text search, and a heuristic web.archive.org/web/20230000000000*/Johnny%20Carson search has relevant hits but not the one we want.
Another attempt was to search for "carson" on webmasterhome.cn which lists expired domains in bulk by expiration day, and it search engine friendly. It contains most of the domains we've found so far. Google either doesn't support partial word search or requires you to be a God to find itso we settle for DuckDuckGo which supports it: duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Awebmasterhome.cn+%22carson%22&t=h_&ia=web Adding years also helps: duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Awebmasterhome.cn+%22carson%22+2011&ia=web with this we might be getting all possible results. Ciro went through all in 2011, 2012 and 2013 but no luck. Also fuck en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carson_City,_Nevada and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carson,_California :-)
Let's search tools.whoisxmlapi.com/reverse-whois-search for "carson" contained in any historic domain name. 10,001 lines. Grepping those, no good Wayback machine hits for those that also contain "johnny" or "show". Data at: raw.githubusercontent.com/cirosantilli/media/master/cia-2010-covert-communication-websites/tools.whoisxmlapi.com_reverse-whois-search_carson.csv in case anyone want to try and dig...
Let's also search the fortuitously timed 2013 DNS Census.
All IP ranges have some holes in them for which we don't have a domain name.
It is because there was nothing there, or just because we don't have a good enough reverse IP database?
It can't be HTML crawl because presumably there wouldn't have been links to those websites? Presumably this is why Common Crawl doesn't seem to have any hits.
So they must have had some kind of DNS A record database?
Or would IPv4 sweep have worked, without the Host header with the CIA's setup?
The same question also applies to the 2013 DNS Census. It has less hits, but still has many.
Whatever they did, we are so so glad that they did!
.com and .net are very dominant. Here we list other choices made:
  • .info: has a few hits:
    • archived comms:
      • beyondthefringe.info
    • unarchived comms:
      • crickettoday.info
    • unarchived:
      • talkingpointnews.info
      • theventurenews.info
      • worldconcerns.info
    Did a full Wayback Machine CDX scanning on .info after:
    grep -e news -e noticias -e nouvelles -e world -e global
    That makes about 10k domains, so it's about the right size.
  • .org: has a least one hit, see: Are there .org hits?
  • .biz:
    • unarchived comms:
      • atthemovies.biz
Previously it was unclear if there were any .org hits, until we found the first one with clear comms: web.archive.org/web/20110624203548/http://awfaoi.org/hand.jar
Others that had been previously found in IP ranges but without clear comms:
  • 65.61.127.177: material-science.org
  • 212.4.17.61: tech-stop.org
Others in IP ranges by unarchived:
  • 74.116.72.244 arborstribune.org
.org is very rare, and has been excluded from some of our search heuristics. That was a shame, but likely not much was missed.
This is a dark art, and many of the sources are shady as fuck! We often have no idea of their methodology. Also no source is fully complete. We just piece up as best we can.
D'oh.
But to be serious. The Wayback Machine contains a very large proportion of all sites. It is the most complete database we have found so far. Some archives are very broken. But those are rares.
The only problem with the Wayback Machine is that there is no known efficient way to query its archives across domains. You have to have a domain in hand for CDX queries: Wayback Machine CDX scanning.
The Common Crawl project attempts in part to address this lack of querriability, but we haven't managed to extract any hits from it.
CDX + 2013 DNS Census + heuristics however has been fruitful however.
The wayback machine has an endpoint to query cralwed pages called the CDX server. It is documented at: github.com/internetarchive/wayback/blob/master/wayback-cdx-server/README.md.
This allows to filter down 10 thousands of possible domains in a few hours. But 100s of thousands would be too much. This is because you have to query exactly one URL at a time, and they possibly rate limit IPs. But no IP blacklisting so far after several hours, so it's not that bad.
Once you have a heuristic to narrow down some domains, you can use this helper: cia-2010-covert-communication-websites/cdx.sh to drill them down from 10s of thousands down to hundreds or thousands.
We then post process the results of cdx.sh with cia-2010-covert-communication-websites/cdx-post.sh to drill them down from from thousands to dozens, and manually inspect everything.
From then on, you can just manually inspect for hist on your browser.
Since archive is so abysmal in its data access, e.g. a Google BigQuery would solve our issues in seconds, we have to come up with creative ways of getting around their IP throttling.
The CIA doesn't play fair. They're actually the exact opposite of fair. So neither shall we.
This should allow a full sweep of the 4.5M records in 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup in a reasonable amount of time. After JAR/SWF/CGI filtering we obtained 5.8k domains, so a reduction factor of about 1 million with likely very few losses. Not bad.
5.8k is still abit annoying to fully go over however, so we can also try to count CDX hits to the domains and remove anything with too many hits, sicne the CIA websites basically have very few archives:
cd 2013-dns-census-a-novirt-domains.txt.cdx
cdx-tor.sh -d out.post
cd out.post.cdx
cut -d' ' -f1 out | uniq -c | sort -k1 -n | awk 'match($2, /([^,]+),([^)]+)/, a) {printf("%s.%s %d\n", a[2], a[1], $1)}' > out.count
This gives us something like:
12654montana.com 1
aeronet-news.com 1
atohms.com 1
av3net.com 1
beechstreetas400.com 1
sorted by increasing hit counts, so we can go down as far as patience allows for!
New results from a full CDX scan of 2013-dns-census-a-novirt.csv:
  • 219.90.61.123 journeystravelled.com
JAR, SWF and CGI-bin scanning by path only is fine, since there are relatively few of those. But .js scanning by path only is too broad.
One option would be to filter out by size, an information that is contained on the CDX. Let's check typical ones:
grep -f <(jq -r '.[]|select(select(.comms)|.comms|test("\\.js"))|.host' ../cia-2010-covert-communication-websites/hits.json) out | out.jshits.cdx
sort -n -k7 out.jshits.cdx
Ignoring some obvious unrelated non-comms files visually we get a range of about 2732 to 3632:
net,hollywoodscreen)/current.js 20110106082232 http://hollywoodscreen.net/current.js text/javascript 200 XY5NHVW7UMFS3WSKPXLOQ5DJA34POXMV 2732
com,amishkanews)/amishkanewss.js 20110208032713 http://amishkanews.com/amishkanewss.js text/javascript 200 S5ZWJ53JFSLUSJVXBBA3NBJXNYLNCI4E 3632
This ignores the obviously atypical JavaScript with SHAs from iranfootballsource, and the particularly small old menu.js from cutabovenews.com, which we embed into cia-2010-covert-communication-websites/cdx-post-js.sh.
The size helps a bit, but it's not insanely good unfortunately, only about 3x, these are some common JS sizes right there!
Many hits appear to happen on the same days, and per-day data does exist: archive.org/details/widecrawl but apparently cannot be publicly downloaded unfortunately. But maybe there's another way? TODO select candidates.
Accounts used so far: 6 (1500 reverse IP checks).
Their historic DNS and reverse DNS info was very valuable, and served as Ciro's the initial entry point to finding hits in the IP ranges given by Reuters.
Their data is also quite disjoint from the data of the 2013 DNS Census. There is some overlap, but clearly their methodology is very different. Some times they slot into one another almost perfectly.
You can only get about 250 queries on the web interface, then 250 queries per free account via API.
Since this source is so scarce and valuable, we have been quite careful to note down all the domain and IP ranges that have been explored.
They check your IP when you signup, and you can't sign in twice from the same IP. They also state that Tor addresses are blacklisted.
They also normalize dots in gmail addresses, so you need more diverse email accounts. But they haven't covered the .gmail vs .googlemail trick.
We do API access to IP ranges with this simple helper: cia-2010-covert-communication-websites/viewdns-info.sh, usage:
./viewdns-info.sh <apikey> <start-ipv-address> <end-ipv-address>
e.g.:
./viewdns-info.sh 8b890b00b17ed2d66bbed878d51200b58d43d014 66.45.179.187 66.45.179.210
For domain to IP queries from the API you should use "iphistory" viewdns.info/api/docs/ip-history.php:
curl 'https://api.viewdns.info/iphistory/?domain=todaysengineering.com&apikey=$APIKEY&output=json'
Main article: DNS Census 2013.
This data source was very valuable, and led to many hits, and to finding the first non Reuters ranges with Section "secure subdomain search on 2013 DNS Census".
Domain hit count when we were at 69 hits: 43. So it does contain more than half domains so far at that point. This was hackily determined with:
awk -F, '{ print $2 }' ../media/cia-2010-covert-communication-websites/hits.csv | xargs -I{} sqlite3 aiddcu.sqlite "select * from t where d = '{}'"
on a domain indexed dump.
The timing of the database is perfect for this project, it is as if the CIA had planted it themselves.
Hits as of 69 hits:
1094549411|capture-nature.com
1094549414|globalnewsbulletin.com
1094549417|crossovernews.net
1094549422|dedrickonline.com
1094549423|altworldnews.com
1094549430|pangawana.com
1094549431|cutabovenews.com
1094549432|worldwildlifeadventure.com
1094549434|explorealtmeds.com
1114156840|beyondnetworknews.com
1114156841|grubbersworldrugbynews.com
1114156844|yourtripfinder.net
1114156846|infosharenews.com
1114156847|southasiaheadlines.com
1114156848|worlddispatch.net
1114156849|webworldsports.com
1114156850|fly-bybirdies.com
1114156851|businessexchangetoday.com
1114156853|info-ology.net
1118792326|paddlescoop.com
1118792335|thecricketfan.com
1118792339|starwarsweb.net
1118792341|feedsdemexicoyelmundo.com
1118792342|noticiasmusica.net
1118792347|atomworldnews.com
3506317408|sixty2media.com
3506317411|newspoliticssource.com
3506317422|musical-fortune.net
3506317425|ashoka-gemstones.com
3506317429|worldnewsandent.com
3506317436|riskandrewardnews.com
3506318029|driversinternationalgolf.com
3506318043|westingtonpassnews.com
3557036329|newtechfrontier.com
3557036331|smart-travel-consultant.com
3557036386|topbillingsite.com
3680124647|todosperuahora.com
3680124649|theworld-news.net
3680124658|ride-captain.com
3680124654|freshtechonline.com
3680124663|conquermstoday.com
We've noticed that often when there is a hit range:
  • there is only one IP for each domain
  • there is a range of about 20-30 of those
and that this does not seem to be that common. Let's see if that is a reasonable fingerprint or not.
First we create a table u (unique) that only have domains which are the only domain for an IP, let's see by how much that lowers the 191 M total unique domains:
time sqlite3 u.sqlite 'create table t (d text, i text)'
time sqlite3 av.sqlite -cmd "attach 'u.sqlite' as u" "insert into u.t select min(d) as d, min(i) as i from t where d not like '%.%.%' group by i having count(distinct d) = 1"
The not like '%.%.%' removes subdomains from the counts so that CGI comms are still included, and distinct in count(distinct is because we have multiple entries at different timestamps for some of the hits.
Let's start with the 208 subset to see how it goes:
time sqlite3 av.sqlite -cmd "attach 'u.sqlite' as u" "insert into u.t select min(d) as d, min(i) as i from t where i glob '208.*' and d not like '%.%.%' and (d like '%.com' or d like '%.net') group by i having count(distinct d) = 1"
OK, after we fixed bugs with the above we are down to 4 million lines with unique domain/IP pairs and which contains all of the original hits! Almost certainly more are to be found!
This data is so valuable that we've decided to upload it to: archive.org/details/2013-dns-census-a-novirt.csv Format:
8,chrisjmcgregor.com
11,80end.com
28,fine5.net
38,bestarabictv.com
49,xy005.com
50,cmsasoccer.com
80,museemontpellier.net
100,newtiger.com
108,lps-promptservice.com
111,bridesmaiddressesshow.com
The numbers of the first column are the IPs as a 32-bit integer representation, which is more useful to search for ranges in.
To make a histogram with the distribution of the single hostname IPs:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
bin=$((2**24))
sqlite3 2013-dns-census-a-novirt.sqlite -cmd '.mode csv' >2013-dns-census-a-novirt-hist.csv <<EOF
select i, sum(cnt) from (
  select floor(i/${bin}) as i,
         count(*) as cnt
    from t
    group by 1
  union
  select *, 0 as cnt from generate_series(0, 255)
)
group by i
EOF
gnuplot \
  -e 'set terminal svg size 1200, 800' \
  -e 'set output "2013-dns-census-a-novirt-hist.svg"' \
  -e 'set datafile separator ","' \
  -e 'set tics scale 0' \
  -e 'unset key' \
  -e 'set xrange[0:255]' \
  -e 'set title "Counts of IPs with a single hostname"' \
  -e 'set xlabel "IPv4 first byte"' \
  -e 'set ylabel "count"' \
  -e 'plot "2013-dns-census-a-novirt-hist.csv" using 1:2:1 with labels' \
;
Which gives the following useless noise, there is basically no pattern:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cirosantilli/media/master/cia-2010-covert-communication-websites/2013-dns-census-a-novirt-hist.svg
There are two keywords that are killers: "news" and "world" and their translations or closely related words. Everything else is hard. So a good start is:
grep -e news -e noticias -e nouvelles -e world -e global
iran + football:
  • iranfootballsource.com: the third hit for this area after the two given by Reuters! Epic.
3 easy hits with "noticias" (news in Portuguese or Spanish"), uncovering two brand new ip ranges:
  • 66.45.179.205 noticiasporjanua.com
  • 66.237.236.247 comunidaddenoticias.com
  • 204.176.38.143 noticiassofisticadas.com
Let's see some French "nouvelles/actualites" for those tumultuous Maghrebis:
  • 216.97.231.56 nouvelles-d-aujourdhuis.com
news + world:
  • 210.80.75.55 philippinenewsonline.net
news + global:
  • 204.176.39.115 globalprovincesnews.com
  • 212.209.74.105 globalbaseballnews.com
  • 212.209.79.40: hydradraco.com
OK, I've decided to do a complete Wayback Machine CDX scanning of news... Searching for .JAR or https.*cgi-bin.*\.cgi are killers, particularly the .jar hits, here's what came out:
  • 62.22.60.49 telecom-headlines.com
  • 62.22.61.206 worldnewsnetworking.com
  • 64.16.204.55 holein1news.com
  • 66.104.169.184 bcenews.com
  • 69.84.156.90 stickshiftnews.com
  • 74.116.72.236 techtopnews.com
  • 74.254.12.168 non-stop-news.net
  • 193.203.49.212 inews-today.com
  • 199.85.212.118 just-kidding-news.com
  • 207.210.250.132 aeronet-news.com
  • 212.4.18.129 sightseeingnews.com
  • 212.209.90.84 thenewseditor.com
  • 216.105.98.152 modernarabicnews.com
Wayback Machine CDX scanning of "world":
  • 66.104.173.186 myworldlymusic.com
"headline": only 140 matches in 2013-dns-census-a-novirt.csv and 3 hits out of 269 hits. Full inspection without CDX led to no new hits.
"today": only 3.5k matches in 2013-dns-census-a-novirt.csv and 12 hits out of 269 hits, TODO how many on those on 2013-dns-census-a-novirt? No new hits.
"world", "global", "international", and spanish/portuguese/French versions like "mondo", "mundo", "mondi": 15k matches in 2013-dns-census-a-novirt.csv. No new hits.
Let' see if there's anything in records/mx.xz.
mx.csv is 21GB.
They do have " in the files to escape commas so:
mx.py
import csv
import sys
writer = csv.writer(sys.stdout)
with open('mx.csv', 'r') as f:
    reader = csv.reader(f)
    for row in reader:
        writer.writerow([row[0], row[3]])
Would have been better with csvkit: stackoverflow.com/questions/36287982/bash-parse-csv-with-quotes-commas-and-newlines
then:
# uniq not amazing as there are often two or three slightly different records repeated on multiple timestamps, but down to 11 GB
python3 mx.py | uniq > mx-uniq.csv
sqlite3 mx.sqlite 'create table t(d text, m text)'
# 13 GB
time sqlite3 mx.sqlite ".import --csv --skip 1 'mx-uniq.csv' t"

# 41 GB
time sqlite3 mx.sqlite 'create index td on t(d)'
time sqlite3 mx.sqlite 'create index tm on t(m)'
time sqlite3 mx.sqlite 'create index tdm on t(d, m)'

# Remove dupes.
# Rows: 150m
time sqlite3 mx.sqlite <<EOF
delete from t
where rowid not in (
  select min(rowid)
  from t
  group by d, m
)
EOF

# 15 GB
time sqlite3 mx.sqlite vacuum
Let's see what the hits use:
awk -F, 'NR>1{ print $2 }' ../media/cia-2010-covert-communication-websites/hits.csv | xargs -I{} sqlite3 mx.sqlite "select distinct * from t where d = '{}'"
At around 267 total hits, only 84 have MX records, and from those that do, almost all of them have exactly:
smtp.secureserver.net
mailstore1.secureserver.net
with only three exceptions:
dailynewsandsports.com|dailynewsandsports.com
inews-today.com|mail.inews-today.com
just-kidding-news.com|just-kidding-news.com
We need to count out of the totals!
sqlite3 mx.sqlite "select count(*) from t where m = 'mailstore1.secureserver.net'"
which gives, ~18M, so nope, it is too much by itself...
Let's try to use that to reduce av.sqlite from 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup a bit further:
time sqlite3 mx.sqlite '.mode csv' "attach 'aiddcu.sqlite' as 'av'" '.load ./ip' "select ipi2s(av.t.i), av.t.d from av.t inner join t as mx on av.t.d = mx.d and mx.m = 'mailstore1.secureserver.net' order by av.t.i asc" > avm.csv
where avm stands for av with mx pruning. This leaves us with only ~500k entries left. With one more figerprint we could do a Wayback Machine CDX scanning scan.
Let's check that we still have most our hits in there:
grep -f <(awk -F, 'NR>1{print $2}' /home/ciro/bak/git/media/cia-2010-covert-communication-websites/hits.csv) avm.csv
At 267 hits we got 81, so all are still present.
secureserver is a hosting provider, we can see their blank page e.g. at: web.archive.org/web/20110128152204/http://emmano.com/. security.stackexchange.com/questions/12610/why-did-secureserver-net-godaddy-access-my-gmail-account/12616#12616 comments:
secureserver.net is the name GoDaddy use as the reverse DNS for IP addresses used for dedicated/virtual server hosting
We intersect 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup with 2013 DNS census MX records and that leaves 460k hits. We did lose a third on the the MX records as of 260 hits since secureserver.net is only used in 1/3 of sites, but we also concentrate 9x, so it may be worth it.
Then we Wayback Machine CDX scanning. it takes about 5 days, but it is manageale.
We did a full Wayback Machine CDX scanning for JAR, SWF and cgi-bin in those, but only found a single new hit:
ns.csv is 57 GB. This file is too massive, working with it is a pain.
We can also cut down the data a lot with stackoverflow.com/questions/1915636/is-there-a-way-to-uniq-by-column/76605540#76605540 and tld filtering:
awk -F, 'BEGIN{OFS=","} { if ($1 != last) { print $1, $3; last = $1; } }' ns.csv | grep -E '\.(com|net|info|org|biz),' > nsu.csv
This brings us down to a much more manageable 3.0 GB, 83 M rows.
Let's just scan it once real quick to start with, since likely nothing will come of this venue:
grep -f <(awk -F, 'NR>1{print $2}' ../media/cia-2010-covert-communication-websites/hits.csv) nsu.csv | tee nsu-hits.csv
cat nsu-hits.csv | csvcut -c 2 | sort | awk -F. '{OFS="."; print $(NF-1), $(NF)}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -k1 -n
As of 267 hits we get:
      1 a2hosting.com
      1 amerinoc.com
      1 ayns.net
      1 dailyrazor.com
      1 domainingdepot.com
      1 easydns.com
      1 frienddns.ru
      1 hostgator.com
      1 kolmic.com
      1 name-services.com
      1 namecity.com
      1 netnames.net
      1 tonsmovies.net
      1 webmailer.de
      2 cashparking.com
     55 worldnic.com
     86 domaincontrol.com
so yeah, most of those are likely going to be humongous just by looking at the names.
The smallest ones by far from the total are: frienddns.ru with only 487 hits, all others quite large or fake hits due to CSV. Did a quick Wayback Machine CDX scanning there but no luck alas.
Let's check the smaller ones:
inews-today.com,2013-08-12T03:14:01,ns1.frienddns.ru
source-commodities.net,2012-12-13T20:58:28,ns1.namecity.com -> fake hit due to grep e-commodities.net
dailynewsandsports.com,2013-08-13T08:36:28,ns3.a2hosting.com
just-kidding-news.com,2012-02-04T07:40:50,jns3.dailyrazor.com
fightwithoutrules.com,2012-11-09T01:17:40,sk.s2.ns1.ns92.kolmic.com
fightwithoutrules.com,2013-07-01T22:46:23,ns1625.ztomy.com
half-court.net,2012-09-10T09:49:15,sk.s2.ns1.ns92.kolmic.com
half-court.net,2013-07-07T00:31:12,ns1621.ztomy.com
Doubt anything will come out of this.
Let's do a bit of counting out of the total:
grep domaincontrol.com ns.csv | awk -F, '{print $1}' | uniq | wc
gives ~20M domain using domaincontrol. Let's see how many domains are in the first place:
awk -F, '{print $1}' ns.csv | uniq | wc
so it accounts for 1/4 of the total.
Same as 2013 DNS census NS records basically, nothing came out.
We have not managed to extract much from this source, they don't have as much data on the range of interest.
But they do have some unique data at least, perhaps we should try them a bit more often, e.g. they were the only source we've seen so far that made the association: headlines2day.com -> 212.209.74.126 which places it in the more plausible globalbaseballnews.com IP range.
TODO can it do IP to domain? Or just domain to IP? Asked on their Discord: discord.com/channels/698151879166918727/968586102493552731/1124254204257632377. Their banner suggests that yes:
With our new look website you can now find other domains hosted on the same IP address, your website neighbours and more even quicker than before.
but I don't wee how to actually it.
Owner replied, you can't:
At the moment you can only do this for current not historical records
In principle, we could obtain this data from search engines, but Google doesn't track that entire website well, e.g. no hits for site:dnshistory.org "62.22.60.48"
Homepage dnshistory.org/ gives date starting in 2009:
Here at DNS History we have been crawling DNS records since 2009, our database currently contains over 1 billion domains and over 12 billion DNS records.
and it is true that they do have some hits from that useful era.
Any data that we have the patience of extracting from this we will dump under github.com/cirosantilli/media/blob/master/cia-2010-covert-communication-websites/hits.json.
They appear to piece together data from various sources. As a result, they have a very complete domain -> IP history.
TODO reverse IP? The fact that they don't seem to have it suggests that they are just making historical reverse IP requests to a third party via some API.
Account creation blacklists common email providers such as gmail to force users to use a "corporate" email address. But using random domains like ciro@cirosantilli.com works fine.
Their data seems to date back to 2008 for our searches.
So far, no new domains have been found with Common Crawl, nor have any existing known domains been found to be present in Common Crawl. Our working theory is that Common Crawl never reached the domains How did Alexa find the domains?
Let's try and do something with Common Crawl.
Unfortunately there's no IP data apparently: github.com/commoncrawl/cc-index-table/issues/30, so let's focus on the URLs.
Hello world:
select * from "ccindex"."ccindex" limit 100;
Data scanned: 11.75 MB
Sample first output line:
#                            2
url_surtkey                  org,whwheelers)/robots.txt
url                          https://whwheelers.org/robots.txt
url_host_name                whwheelers.org
url_host_tld                 org
url_host_2nd_last_part       whwheelers
url_host_3rd_last_part
url_host_4th_last_part
url_host_5th_last_part
url_host_registry_suffix     org
url_host_registered_domain   whwheelers.org
url_host_private_suffix      org
url_host_private_domain      whwheelers.org
url_host_name_reversed
url_protocol                 https
url_port
url_path                     /robots.txt
url_query
fetch_time                   2021-06-22 16:36:50.000
fetch_status                 301
fetch_redirect               https://www.whwheelers.org/robots.txt
content_digest               3I42H3S6NNFQ2MSVX7XZKYAYSCX5QBYJ
content_mime_type            text/html
content_mime_detected        text/html
content_charset
content_languages
content_truncated
warc_filename                crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623488519183.85/robotstxt/CC-MAIN-20210622155328-20210622185328-00312.warc.gz
warc_record_offset           1854030
warc_record_length           639
warc_segment                 1623488519183.85
crawl                        CC-MAIN-2021-25
subset                       robotstxt
So url_host_3rd_last_part might be a winner for CGI comms fingerprinting!
Naive one for one index:
select * from "ccindex"."ccindex" where url_host_registered_domain = 'conquermstoday.com' limit 100;
have no results... data scanned: 5.73 GB
Let's see if they have any of the domain hits. Let's also restrict by date to try and reduce the data scanned:
select * from "ccindex"."ccindex" where
  fetch_time < TIMESTAMP '2014-01-01 00:00:00' AND
  url_host_registered_domain IN (
   'activegaminginfo.com',
   'altworldnews.com',
   ...
   'topbillingsite.com',
   'worldwildlifeadventure.com'
 )
Humm, data scanned: 60.59 GB and no hits... weird.
Sanity check:
select * from "ccindex"."ccindex" WHERE
  crawl = 'CC-MAIN-2013-20' AND
  subset = 'warc' AND
  url_host_registered_domain IN (
   'google.com',
   'amazon.com'
 )
has a bunch of hits of course. Also Data scanned: 212.88 MB, WHERE crawl and subset are a must! Should have read the article first.
Let's widen a bit more:
select * from "ccindex"."ccindex" WHERE
  crawl IN (
    'CC-MAIN-2013-20',
    'CC-MAIN-2013-48',
    'CC-MAIN-2014-10'
  ) AND
  subset = 'warc' AND
  url_host_registered_domain IN (
    'activegaminginfo.com',
    'altworldnews.com',
    ...
    'worldnewsandent.com',
    'worldwildlifeadventure.com'
 )
Still nothing found... they don't seem to have any of the URLs of interest?
Does not appear to have any reverse IP hits unfortunately: opendata.stackexchange.com/questions/1951/dataset-of-domain-names/21077#21077. Likely only has domains that were explicitly advertised.
We could not find anything useful in it so far, but there is great potential to use this tool to find new IP ranges based on properties of existing IP ranges. Part of the problem is that the dataset is huge, and is split by top 256 bytes. But it would be reasonable to at least explore ranges with pre-existing known hits...
We have started looking for patterns on 66.* and 208.*, both selected as two relatively far away ranges that have a number of pre-existing hits. 208 should likely have been 212 considering later finds that put several ranges in 212.
tcpip_fp:
  • 66.104.
    • 66.104.175.41: grubbersworldrugbynews.com: 1346397300 SCAN(V=6.01%E=4%D=1/12%OT=22%CT=443%CU=%PV=N%G=N%TM=387CAB9E%P=mipsel-openwrt-linux-gnu),ECN(R=N),T1(R=N),T2(R=N),T3(R=N),T4(R=N),T5(R=N),T6(R=N),T7(R=N),U1(R=N),IE(R=N)
    • 66.104.175.48: worlddispatch.net: 1346816700 SCAN(V=6.01%E=4%D=1/2%OT=22%CT=443%CU=%PV=N%DC=I%G=N%TM=1D5EA%P=mipsel-openwrt-linux-gnu),SEQ(SP=F8%GCD=3%ISR=109%TI=Z%TS=A),ECN(R=N),T1(R=Y%DF=Y%TG=40%S=O%A=S+%F=AS%RD=0%Q=),T1(R=N),T2(R=N),T3(R=N),T4(R=N),T5(R=Y%DF=Y%TG=40%W=0%S=Z%A=S+%F=AR%O=%RD=0%Q=),T6(R=N),T7(R=N),U1(R=N),IE(R=N)
    • 66.104.175.49: webworldsports.com: 1346692500 SCAN(V=6.01%E=4%D=9/3%OT=22%CT=443%CU=%PV=N%DC=I%G=N%TM=5044E96E%P=mipsel-openwrt-linux-gnu),SEQ(SP=105%GCD=1%ISR=108%TI=Z%TS=A),OPS(O1=M550ST11NW6%O2=M550ST11NW6%O3=M550NNT11NW6%O4=M550ST11NW6%O5=M550ST11NW6%O6=M550ST11),WIN(W1=1510%W2=1510%W3=1510%W4=1510%W5=1510%W6=1510),ECN(R=N),T1(R=Y%DF=Y%TG=40%S=O%A=S+%F=AS%RD=0%Q=),T1(R=N),T2(R=N),T3(R=N),T4(R=N),T5(R=Y%DF=Y%TG=40%W=0%S=Z%A=S+%F=AR%O=%RD=0%Q=),T6(R=N),T7(R=N),U1(R=N),IE(R=N)
    • 66.104.175.50: fly-bybirdies.com: 1346822100 SCAN(V=6.01%E=4%D=1/1%OT=22%CT=443%CU=%PV=N%DC=I%G=N%TM=14655%P=mipsel-openwrt-linux-gnu),SEQ(TI=Z%TS=A),ECN(R=N),T1(R=Y%DF=Y%TG=40%S=O%A=S+%F=AS%RD=0%Q=),T1(R=N),T2(R=N),T3(R=N),T4(R=N),T5(R=Y%DF=Y%TG=40%W=0%S=Z%A=S+%F=AR%O=%RD=0%Q=),T6(R=N),T7(R=N),U1(R=N),IE(R=N)
    • 66.104.175.53: info-ology.net: 1346712300 SCAN(V=6.01%E=4%D=9/4%OT=22%CT=443%CU=%PV=N%DC=I%G=N%TM=50453230%P=mipsel-openwrt-linux-gnu),SEQ(SP=FB%GCD=1%ISR=FF%TI=Z%TS=A),ECN(R=N),T1(R=Y%DF=Y%TG=40%S=O%A=S+%F=AS%RD=0%Q=),T1(R=N),T2(R=N),T3(R=N),T4(R=N),T5(R=Y%DF=Y%TG=40%W=0%S=Z%A=S+%F=AR%O=%RD=0%Q=),T6(R=N),T7(R=N),U1(R=N),IE(R=N)
  • 66.175.106
    • 66.175.106.150: noticiasmusica.net: 1340077500 SCAN(V=5.51%D=1/3%OT=22%CT=443%CU=%PV=N%G=N%TM=38707542%P=mipsel-openwrt-linux-gnu),ECN(R=N),T1(R=N),T2(R=N),T3(R=N),T4(R=N),T5(R=Y%DF=Y%TG=40%W=0%S=Z%A=S+%F=AR%O=%RD=0%Q=),T6(R=N),T7(R=N),U1(R=N),IE(R=N)
    • 66.175.106.155: atomworldnews.com: 1345562100 SCAN(V=5.51%D=8/21%OT=22%CT=443%CU=%PV=N%DC=I%G=N%TM=5033A5F2%P=mips-openwrt-linux-gnu),SEQ(SP=FB%GCD=1%ISR=FC%TI=Z%TS=A),ECN(R=Y%DF=Y%TG=40%W=1540%O=M550NNSNW6%CC=N%Q=),T1(R=Y%DF=Y%TG=40%S=O%A=S+%F=AS%RD=0%Q=),T2(R=N),T3(R=N),T4(R=N),T5(R=Y%DF=Y%TG=40%W=0%S=Z%A=S+%F=AR%O=%RD=0%Q=),T6(R=N),T7(R=N),U1(R=N),IE(R=N)
Hostprobes quick look on two ranges:
208.254.40:
... similar down

208.254.40.95	1334668500	down	no-response
208.254.40.95	1338270300	down	no-response
208.254.40.95	1338839100	down	no-response
208.254.40.95	1339361100	down	no-response
208.254.40.95	1346391900	down	no-response
208.254.40.96	1335806100	up	unknown
208.254.40.96	1336979700	up	unknown
208.254.40.96	1338840900	up	unknown
208.254.40.96	1339454700	up	unknown
208.254.40.96	1346778900	up	echo-reply (0.34s latency).
208.254.40.96	1346838300	up	echo-reply (0.30s latency).
208.254.40.97	1335840300	up	unknown
208.254.40.97	1338446700	up	unknown
208.254.40.97	1339334100	up	unknown
208.254.40.97	1346658300	up	echo-reply (0.26s latency).

... similar up

208.254.40.126	1335708900	up	unknown
208.254.40.126	1338446700	up	unknown
208.254.40.126	1339330500	up	unknown
208.254.40.126	1346494500	up	echo-reply (0.24s latency).
208.254.40.127	1335840300	up	unknown
208.254.40.127	1337793300	up	unknown
208.254.40.127	1338853500	up	unknown
208.254.40.127	1346454900	up	echo-reply (0.23s latency).

208.254.40.128	1335856500	up	unknown
208.254.40.128	1338200100	down	no-response
208.254.40.128	1338749100	down	no-response
208.254.40.128	1339334100	down	no-response
208.254.40.128	1346607900	down	net-unreach
208.254.40.129	1335699900	up	unknown

... similar down
Suggests exactly 127 - 96 + 1 = 31 IPs.
208.254.42:
... similar down

208.254.42.191	1334522700	down	no-response
208.254.42.191	1335276900	down	no-response
208.254.42.191	1335784500	down	no-response
208.254.42.191	1337845500	down	no-response
208.254.42.191	1338752700	down	no-response
208.254.42.191	1339332300	down	no-response
208.254.42.191	1346499900	down	net-unreach

208.254.42.192	1334668500	up	unknown
208.254.42.192	1336808700	up	unknown
208.254.42.192	1339334100	up	unknown
208.254.42.192	1346766300	up	echo-reply (0.40s latency).
208.254.42.193	1335770100	up	unknown
208.254.42.193	1338444900	up	unknown
208.254.42.193	1339334100	up	unknown

... similar up

208.254.42.221	1346517900	up	echo-reply (0.19s latency).
208.254.42.222	1335708900	up	unknown
208.254.42.222	1335708900	up	unknown
208.254.42.222	1338066900	up	unknown
208.254.42.222	1338747300	up	unknown
208.254.42.222	1346872500	up	echo-reply (0.27s latency).
208.254.42.223	1335773700	up	unknown
208.254.42.223	1336949100	up	unknown
208.254.42.223	1338750900	up	unknown
208.254.42.223	1339334100	up	unknown
208.254.42.223	1346854500	up	echo-reply (0.13s latency).

208.254.42.224	1335665700	down	no-response
208.254.42.224	1336567500	down	no-response
208.254.42.224	1338840900	down	no-response
208.254.42.224	1339425900	down	no-response
208.254.42.224	1346494500	down	time-exceeded

... similar down
Suggests exactly 223 - 192 + 1 = 31 IPs.
Let's have a look at the file 68: outcome: no clear hits like on 208. One wonders why.
It does appears that long sequences of ranges are a sort of fingerprint. The question is how unique it would be.
First:
n=208
time awk '$3=="up"{ print $1 }' $n | uniq -c | sed -r 's/^ +//;s/ /,/' | tee $n-up-uniq
t=$n-up-uniq.sqlite
rm -f $t
time sqlite3 $t 'create table tmp(cnt text, i text)'
time sqlite3 $t ".import --csv $n-up-uniq tmp"
time sqlite3 $t 'create table t (i integer)'
time sqlite3 $t '.load ./ip' 'insert into t select str2ipv4(i) from tmp'
time sqlite3 $t 'drop table tmp'
time sqlite3 $t 'create index ti on t(i)'
This reduces us to 2 million IP rows from the total possible 16 million IPs.
OK now just counting hits on fixed windows has way too many results:
sqlite3 208-up-uniq.sqlite "\
SELECT * FROM (
  SELECT min(i), COUNT(*) OVER (
    ORDER BY i RANGE BETWEEN 15 PRECEDING AND 15 FOLLOWING
  ) as c FROM t
) WHERE c > 20 and c < 30
"
Let's try instead consecutive ranges of length exactly 31 instead then:
sqlite3 208-up-uniq.sqlite <<EOF
SELECT f, t - f as c FROM (
  SELECT min(i) as f, max(i) as t
  FROM (SELECT i, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY i) - i as grp FROM t)
  GROUP BY grp
  ORDER BY i
) where c = 31
EOF
271. Hmm. A bit more than we'd like...
Another route is to also count the ups:
n=208
time awk '$3=="up"{ print $1 }' $n | uniq -c | sed -r 's/^ +//;s/ /,/' | tee $n-up-uniq-cnt
t=$n-up-uniq-cnt.sqlite
rm -f $t
time sqlite3 $t 'create table tmp(cnt text, i text)'
time sqlite3 $t ".import --csv $n-up-uniq-cnt tmp"
time sqlite3 $t 'create table t (cnt integer, i integer)'
time sqlite3 $t '.load ./ip' 'insert into t select cnt as integer, str2ipv4(i) from tmp'
time sqlite3 $t 'drop table tmp'
time sqlite3 $t 'create index ti on t(i)'
Let's see how many consecutives with counts:
sqlite3 208-up-uniq-cnt.sqlite <<EOF
SELECT f, t - f as c FROM (
  SELECT min(i) as f, max(i) as t
  FROM (SELECT i, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY i) - i as grp FROM t WHERE cnt >= 3)
  GROUP BY grp
  ORDER BY i
) where c > 28 and c < 32
EOF
Let's check on 66:
grep -e '66.45.179' -e '66.45.179' 66
not representative at all... e.g. several convfirmed hits are down:
66.45.179.215   1335305700      down    no-response
66.45.179.215   1337579100      down    no-response
66.45.179.215   1338765300      down    no-response
66.45.179.215   1340271900      down    no-response
66.45.179.215   1346813100      down    no-response
Let's check relevancy of known hits:
grep -e '208.254.40' -e '208.254.42' 208 | tee 208hits
Output:
208.254.40.95	1355564700	unreachable
208.254.40.95	1355622300	unreachable
208.254.40.96	1334537100	alive, 36342
208.254.40.96	1335269700	alive, 17586

..

208.254.40.127	1355562900	alive, 35023
208.254.40.127	1355593500	alive, 59866
208.254.40.128	1334609100	unreachable
208.254.40.128	1334708100	alive from 208.254.32.214, 43358
208.254.40.128	1336596300	unreachable
The rest of 208 is mostly unreachable.
208.254.42.191	1335294900	unreachable
...
208.254.42.191	1344737700	unreachable
208.254.42.191	1345574700	Icmp Error: 0,ICMP Network Unreachable, from 63.111.123.26 
208.254.42.191	1346166900	unreachable
...
208.254.42.191	1355665500	unreachable
208.254.42.192	1334625300	alive, 6672
...
208.254.42.192	1355658300	alive, 57412
208.254.42.193	1334677500	alive, 28985
208.254.42.193	1336524300	unreachable
208.254.42.193	1344447900	alive, 8934
208.254.42.193	1344613500	alive, 24037
208.254.42.193	1344806100	alive, 20410
208.254.42.193	1345162500	alive, 10177
...
208.254.42.223	1336590900	alive, 23284
...
208.254.42.223	1355555700	alive, 58841
208.254.42.224	1334607300	Icmp Type: 11,ICMP Time Exceeded, from 65.214.56.142 
208.254.42.224	1334681100	Icmp Type: 11,ICMP Time Exceeded, from 65.214.56.142 
208.254.42.224	1336563900	Icmp Type: 11,ICMP Time Exceeded, from 65.214.56.142 
208.254.42.224	1344451500	Icmp Type: 11,ICMP Time Exceeded, from 65.214.56.138 
208.254.42.224	1344566700	unreachable
208.254.42.224	1344762900	unreachable
Let's try with 66. First there way too much data, 9 GB, let's cut it down:
n=66
time awk '$3~/^alive,/ { print $1 }' $n | uniq -c | sed -r 's/^ +//;s/ /,/' | tee $n-up-uniq-c
OK down to 45 MB, now we can work.
grep -e '66.45.179' -e '66.104.169' -e '66.104.173' -e '66.104.175' -e '66.175.106' '66-alive-uniq-c' | tee 66hits
Nah, it's full of holes:
4,66.45.179.187
12,66.45.179.188
2,66.45.179.197
1,66.45.179.202
2,66.45.179.205
2,66.45.179.206
1,66.45.179.207
won't be able to find new ranges here.
Domain list only, no IPs. We haven't been able to extract anything of interest from this source so far.
Domain hit count when we were at 69 hits: 9, some of which had been since reused. Likely their data collection did not cover the dates of interest.
In this section we document the outcomes of more detailed inspection of both the communication mechanisms (JavaScript, JAR, swf) and HTML that might help to better fingerprint the websites.
There are four main types of communication mechanisms found:
  • There is also one known instance where a .zip extension was used! web.archive.org/web/20131101104829*/http://plugged-into-news.net/weatherbug.zip as:
    <applet codebase="/web/20101229222144oe_/http://plugged-into-news.net/" archive="/web/20101229222144oe_/http://plugged-into-news.net/weatherbug.zip"
    JAR is the most common comms, and one of the most distinctive, making it a great fingerprint.
    Several of the JAR files are named something like either:
    • meter.jar
    • bandwidth.jar
    • speed.jar
    as if to pose as Internet speed testing tools? The wonderful subtleties of the late 2000s Internet are a bit over our heads.
    All JARs are directly under root, not in subdirectories, and the basename usually consist of one word, though sometimes two camel cased.
  • JavaScript file. There are two subtypes:
    • JavaScript with SHAs. Rare. Likely older. Way more fingerprintable.
    • JavaScript without SHAs. They have all been obfuscated slightly different and compressed. But the file sizes are all very similar from 8kB to 10kB, and they all look similar, so visually it is very easy to detect a match with good likelyhood.
  • Adobe Flash swf file. In all instances found so far, the name of the SWF matches the name of the second level domain exactly, e.g.:
    http://tee-shot.net/tee-shot.swf
    While this is somewhat of a fingerprint, it is worth noting that is was a relatively commonly used pattern. But it is also the rarest of the mechanisms. This is a at a dissonance with the rest of the web, which circa 2010 already had way more SWF than JAR apparently.
  • CGI comms
These have short single word names with some meaning linked to their website.
Because the communication mechanisms are so crucial, they tend to be less varied, and serve as very good fingerprints. It is not ludicrous, e.g. identical files, but one look at a few and you will know the others.
We've come across a few shallow and stylistically similar websites on suspicious ranges with this pattern.
No JS/JAR/SWF comms, but rather a subdomain, and an HTTPS page with .cgi extension that leads to a login page. Some names seen for this subdomain:
  • secure.: most common
  • ssl.: also common
  • various other more creative ones linked to the website theme itself, e.g.:
    • musical-fortune.net has a backstage.musical-fortune.net
The question is, is this part of some legitimate tooling that created such patterns? And if so which? Or are they actual hits with a new comms mechanism not previously seen?
The fact that:
  • hits of this type are so dense in the suspicious ranges
  • they are so stylistically similar between on another
  • citizenlabs specifically mentioned a "CGI" comms method
suggests to Ciro that they are an actual hit.
In particular, the secure and ssl ones are overused, and together with some heuristics allowed us to find our first two non Reuters ranges! Section "secure subdomain search on 2013 DNS Census"
Later on, we've also come across some stylistic hits in IP ranges with apparent slight variations of the CGI comms pattern:Since these are so rare, it is still a bit hard to classify them for sure, but they are of great interest no doubt, as as we start to notice these patterns more tend to come if it is a thing.
The CGI comms websites contain the only occurrence of HTTPS, so it might open up the door for a certificate fingerprint as proposed by user joelcollinsdc at: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36280801!
crt.sh appears to be a good way to look into this:
They all appear to use either of:
  • Go Daddy
  • Thawte DV SSL CA
  • Starfield Technologies, Inc.
Let's try another one for secure.altworldnews.com: search.censys.io/certificates/e88f8db87414401fd00728db39a7698d874dbe1ae9d88b01c675105fabf69b94. Nope, no direct mega hits here either.
There are two types of JavaScript found so far. The ones with SHA and the ones without. There are only 2 examples of JS with SHA:Both files start with precisely the same string:
var ms="\u062F\u0631\u064A\u0627\u0641\u062A\u06CC",lc="\u062A\u0647\u064A\u0647 \u0645\u062A\u0646",mn="\u0628\u0631\u062F\u0627\u0632\u0634 \u062F\u0631 \u062C\u0631\u064A\u0627\u0646 \u0627\u0633\u062A...\u0644\u0637\u0641\u0627 \u0635\u0628\u0631 \u0643\u0646\u064A\u062F",lt="\u062A\u0647\u064A\u0647 \u0645\u062A\u0646",ne="\u067E\u0627\u0633\u062E",kf="\u062E\u0631\u0648\u062C",mb="\u062D\u0630\u0641",mv="\u062F\u0631\u064A\u0627\u0641\u062A\u06CC",nt="\u0627\u0631\u0633\u0627\u0644",ig="\u062B\u0628\u062A \u063A\u0644\u0637. \u062C\u0647\u062A \u062A\u062C\u062F\u064A\u062F \u062B\u0628\u062A \u0635\u0641\u062D\u0647 \u0631\u0627 \u0628\u0627\u0632\u0622\u0648\u0631\u06CC \u06A9\u0646\u064A\u062F",hs="\u063A\u064A\u0631 \u0642\u0627\u0628\u0644 \u0627\u062C\u0631\u0627. \u062E\u0637\u0627 \u062F\u0631 \u0627\u062A\u0651\u0635\u0627\u0644",ji="\u063A\u064A\u0631 \u0642\u0627\u0628\u0644 \u0627\u062C\u0631\u0627. \u062E\u0637\u0627 \u062F\u0631 \u0627\u062A\u0651\u0635\u0627\u0644",ie="\u063A\u064A\u0631 \u0642\u0627\u0628\u0644 \u0627\u062C\u0631\u0627. \u062E\u0637\u0627 \u062F\u0631 \u0627\u062A\u0651\u0635\u0627\u0644",gc="\u0633\u0648\u0627\u0631 \u06A9\u0631\u062F\u0646 \u062A\u06A9\u0645\u064A\u0644 \u0634\u062F",gz="\u0645\u0637\u0645\u0626\u0646\u064A\u062F \u06A9\u0647 \u0645\u064A\u062E\u0648\u0627\u0647\u064A\u062F \u067E\u064A\u0627\u0645 \u0631\u0627 \u062D\u0630\u0641 \u06A9\u0646\u064A\u062F\u061F"
Notably, the password is hardcoded and its hash is stored in the JavaScript itself. The result is then submitted back via a POST request to /cgi-bin/goal.cgi.
The JavaScript of each website appears to be quite small and similarly sized. They are all minimized, but have reordered things around a bit.
First we have to know that the Wayback Machine adds some stuff before and after the original code. The actual code there starts at:
ap={fg:['MSXML2.XMLHTTP
and ends in:
ck++;};return fu;};
We can use a JavaScript beautifier such as beautifier.io/ to be abe to better read the code.
It is worth noting that there's a lot of <script> tags inline as well, which seem to matter.
Further analysis would be needed.
Googling most domains gives only very few results, and most of them are just useless lists of expired domains. Skipping those for now.
Googling "dedrickonline.com" has a git at www.webwiki.de/dedrickonline.com# Furthermore, it also contains the IP address "65.61.127.174" under the "Technik" tab!
Unfortunately that website appears to be split by language? E.g. the English version does not contain it: www.webwiki.com/dedrickonline.com, which would make searching a bit harder, but still doable.
But if we can Google search those IPs there, we might just hit gold.
But doesn't often/ever work unfortunately for others.
Googling "activegaminginfo.com" has a git at: cqcounter.com/whois/site/activegaminginfo.com.html which actually contains the IP 66.175.106.148! But I can't find a reverse IP search method. And perhaps due to having lots of CAPTCHAs, Google doesn't seem to index that website very well... it even has a tiny screenshot! And it also shows some more metadata beyond IP, e.g. HTTP response headers, which notably contain stuff like Server: Apache-Coyote/1.1.
Apparently also mirrored at "dawhois":
Searching on github.com: github.com/DrWhax/cia-website-comms from September 2022 contains some of the links to some of the ones reported by Reuters.
Some less-trivial breakthroughs:
Grepping the 2013 DNS Census first by overused CGI comms subdomains secure. and ssl. leaves 200k lines. Grepping for the overused "news" led to hits:
  • secure.worldnewsandent.com,2012-02-13T21:28:15,208.254.40.117
  • ssl.beyondnetworknews.com,2012-02-13T20:10:13,66.104.175.40
Also tried but failed:
OK, after the initial successes in secure., we went a bit more data intensive:
New results: only one...
  • 208.254.42.205 secure.driversinternationalgolf.com,2012-02-13T10:42:20,
After 2013 DNS Census virtual host cleanup heuristic keyword searches we later understood why there were so few hits here: the 2013 DNS Census didn't capture the secure. subdomains of many domains it had for some reason. Shame, because if it had, this method would have yielded many more results.
Figure 1. You can never have enough Wayback Machine tabs open.
Summary: this is just a red herring. Wakatime owner likely registered the domains just after this article was published as a publicity stunt. Fair play though.
As raised at: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36280666, many, but not all, of the domains currently redirect to wakatime.com/ as of 2023, and apparently they were taken up in 2013 (TODO how to confirm that). TODO what is the explanation for that? Some examples that do:But some failed resolution examples:Even more suspiciously, according to his LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alanhamlett/, the owner of Wakatime, Alan Hamlett, worked at WhiteHat Security, Inc from Aug 2011 - Sep 2013. The company was then acquired by Synopsys in 2022. Holy crap!!! As shown at: web.archive.org/web/20131013193406/https://www.whitehatsec.com/ that company made website security tools. Did that dude use the tools to find the vulnerabilty and then just gobble up all the domains??? What a fucking legend if he did!!!
Running e.g.
curl -vvv dedrickonline.com
gives:
*   Trying 162.255.119.197:80...
* Connected to dedrickonline.com (162.255.119.197) port 80 (#0)
> GET / HTTP/1.1
> Host: dedrickonline.com
> User-Agent: curl/7.88.1
> Accept: */*
> 
< HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
< Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2023 20:30:19 GMT
< Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
< Content-Length: 55
< Connection: keep-alive
< Location: https://wakatime.com
< X-Served-By: Namecheap URL Forward
< Server: namecheap-nginx
< 
<a href='https://wakatime.com'>Moved Permanently</a>.

* Connection #0 to host dedrickonline.com left intact
so we see that he must have setup redirection with Namecheap as mentioned at: www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/385/2237/how-to-redirect-a-url-for-a-domain/
Let's also try DNS history
  • whoisrequest.com/history/:
    • dedrickonline.com: registered: 1 Nov, 2010, dropped: 24 Nov, 2013
    • activegaminginfo.com : registered: 1 Feb, 2010, dropped: 1 Apr, 2012
  • tools.whoisxmlapi.com/whois-history-search
    • dedrickonline.com:
      • CIA (registrar: Godaddy, registrant name: DomainsByProxy.com)
        • Created Date: October 27, 2010 00:00:00 UTC
        • Updated Date: October 28, 2013 00:00:00 UTC
        • Expires Date: October 27, 2014 00:00:00 UTC
      • Alan (namecheap):
        • Created Date: June 11, 2023 09:59:25 UTC
        • Expires Date: June 11, 2024 09:59:25 UTC
    • activegaminginfo.com:
      • CIA (Network Solutions, registrant name: LLC. Corral, Elizabeth|ATTN ACTIVEGAMINGINFO.COM|care of Network Solutions)
        • Created Date: January 26, 2010 00:00:00 UTC
        • Updated Date: November 27, 2010 00:00:00 UTC
        • Expires Date: January 26, 2012 00:00:00 UTC
      • Alan:
        • Created Date: June 11, 2023 09:59:40 UTC
        • Expires Date: June 11, 2024 09:59:40 UTC
    • iraniangoalkicks.com:
      • CIA (registrar: Godaddy, registrant name: DomainsByProxy.com)
        • Created Date: April 9, 2007 00:00:00 UTC
        • Updated Date: March 2, 2011 00:00:00 UTC
        • Expires Date: April 9, 2011 00:00:00 UTC
      • Alan:
        • Created Date: June 11, 2023 09:59:20 UTC
        • Expires Date: June 11, 2024 09:59:20 UTC
    • iraniangoals.com:
      • CIA (registrar: Godaddy, registrant name: DomainsByProxy.com):
        • Created Date: March 6, 2008 00:00:00 UTC
        • Updated Date: March 7, 2011 00:00:00 UTC
        • Expires Date: March 6, 2014 00:00:00 UTC
      • Reuters:
        • Created Date: September 29, 2022 11:16:09 UTC
        • Updated Date: September 29, 2022 11:16:09 UTC
        • Expires Date: September 29, 2023 11:16:09 UTC
So these suggest Alan might have just come along in 2023 way after the 2022 Reuters article and did the same basic IP range search that Ciro is doing now, so possibly no new tech. Let's ask... twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/1668369786865164289
The domain name history presented is however of interest, and could lead to patterns being found.
Searching tools.whoisxmlapi.com/reverse-whois-search with term "Corral, Elizabeth" gave no results unfortunately.
Basic search under tools.whoisxmlapi.com/reverse-whois-search for "Corral" also empty. They can't see their own data? Ah, need advanced. Marked "Historic" and selected "Corral, Elizabeth", ony one hit, activegaminginfo.com.
Some dumps from us looking for patterns, but could not find any.
viewdnsapi
whoisxmlapi WHOIS history April 11, 2011:
  • Created Date: March 6, 2008 00:00:00 UTC
  • Updated Date: March 7, 2011 00:00:00 UTC
  • Expires Date: March 6, 2014 00:00:00 UTC
  • Registrant Name: DomainsByProxy.com
  • Registrant Organization: Domains by Proxy, Inc.
  • Registrant Street: 15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160,
  • Registrant City: Scottsdale
  • Registrant State/Province: Arizona
  • Registrant Postal Code: 85260
  • Registrant Country: UNITED STATES
  • Name servers: NS29.WORLDNIC.COM|NS30.WORLDNIC.COM
Folowed by reuters registration in 2022.
whoisrequest.com/history/ mentions: 1 Apr, 2008: Domain created*, nameservers added. Nameservers: ns1.webhostingpad.com ns2.webhostingpad.com
whoisxmlapi WHOIS history March 23, 2011:
  • Created Date: April 9, 2007 00:00:00 UTC
  • Updated Date: March 2, 2011 00:00:00 UTC
  • Expires Date: April 9, 2011 00:00:00 UTC
  • Registrant Name: DomainsByProxy.com
  • Name servers: dns1.registrar-servers.com|dns2.registrar-servers.com
whoisrequest.com/history/ mentions: 1 May, 2007: Domain created*, nameservers added. Nameservers:
  • ns1.qwknetllc.com
  • ns2.qwknetllc.com
whoisxmlapi WHOIS history March 22, 2011:
  • Registrar Name: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
  • Created Date: January 26, 2010 00:00:00 UTC
  • Updated Date: November 27, 2010 00:00:00 UTC
  • Expires Date: January 26, 2012 00:00:00 UTC
  • Registrant Name: Corral, Elizabeth|ATTN ACTIVEGAMINGINFO.COM|care of Network Solutions
  • Registrant Street: PO Box 459
  • Registrant City: PA
  • Registrant State/Province: US
  • Registrant Postal Code: 18222
  • Registrant Country: UNITED STATES
  • Administrative Name: Corral, Elizabeth|ATTN ACTIVEGAMINGINFO.COM|care of Network Solutions
  • Administrative Street: PO Box 459
  • Administrative City: Drums
  • Administrative State/Province: PA
  • Administrative Postal Code: 18222
  • Administrative Country: UNITED STATES
  • Administrative Email: xc2mv7ur8cw@networksolutionsprivateregistration.com
  • Administrative Phone: 5707088780
  • Name servers: NS23.DOMAINCONTROL.COM|NS24.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
whoisxmlapi WHOIS record on April 28, 2011
  • Registrar Name: GODADDY.COM, INC
  • Created Date: February 9, 2010 00:00:00 UTC
  • Updated Date: February 9, 2010 00:00:00 UTC
  • Expires Date: February 9, 2015 00:00:00 UTC
  • Registrant Name: DomainsByProxy.com
  • Name servers: NS55.DOMAINCONTROL.COM|NS56.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
whoisxmlapi WHOIS record on September 13, 2011
  • Registrar Name: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC
  • Created Date: February 17, 2010 00:00:00 UTC
  • Updated Date: February 17, 2010 00:00:00 UTC
  • Expires Date: February 17, 2015 00:00:00 UTC
  • Registrant Name: See, Megan|ATTN NOTICIASMUSICA.NET|care of Network Solutions
  • Registrant Street: PO Box 459
  • Registrant City: PA
  • Registrant State/Province: US
  • Registrant Postal Code: 18222
  • Registrant Country: UNITED STATES
  • Administrative Contact
  • Administrative Name: See, Megan|ATTN NOTICIASMUSICA.NET|care of Network Solutions
  • Administrative Street: PO Box 459
  • Administrative City: Drums
  • Administrative State/Province: PA
  • Administrative Postal Code: 18222
  • Administrative Country: UNITED STATES
  • Administrative Email: hf3eg77c4nn@networksolutionsprivateregistration.com
  • Administrative Phone: 5707088780
  • Name Servers: NS45.WORLDNIC.COM|NS46.WORLDNIC.COM
2012:
  • Registrant Country: PANAMA
whoisxmlapi WHOIS record on April 17, 2011
  • Created Date: April 9, 2010 00:00:00 UTC
  • Updated Date: April 9, 2010 00:00:00 UTC
  • Expires Date: April 9, 2012 00:00:00 UTC
  • Registrant Name: DomainsByProxy.com
  • Name servers: NS33.DOMAINCONTROL.COM|NS34.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Initial announcements by self:
By others: