Kontakt portable and the internet - warning

Discussion in 'Kontakt' started by fraifikmushi, Dec 11, 2017.

  1. fraifikmushi

    fraifikmushi Guest

    Ahoy ahoy,

    I "installed" the portable version of kontakt the other day for obvious reasons.

    The issue is that this particular version of kontakt (or all symlink and portable versions for that matter) try to establish a connection to 93.184.220.20
    If you have your daw blocked with your firewall, the host will crash. Or at least, ableton live will crash.
    If you have pulled the plug and didn't block anything it appears to work.
    You can unblock the daw to have it start up and it will work fine, but if you block it again while having kontakt loaded it will crash instantaneously.
    I could not figure out what's behind 93.184.220.20 but kontakt will not work without a connection to your network interface.
    So as long as we don't know what's behind this I'd consider those kontakt versions at least spyware if not malware.

    Maybe all respective releases should be considered nukes and thus deleted from audioz?
     
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  3. JudoLudo

    JudoLudo Kapellmeister

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    do you mean that if I disable wifi or ethernet or internet cards, Kontakt 5.7.1 Portable will not load?
     
  4. Lambchop

    Lambchop Banned

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    Mine [5.7.0 portable] does no such thing; no 93.184.220.20 in logs/netstat.
     
  5. Willum

    Willum Rock Star

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    A quick whois returns this:


    IP Information for 93.184.220.20
    Quick Stats
    IP Location United States United States Ashburn Edgecast Netblk
    ASN United States AS15133 EDGECAST - MCI Communications Services, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Business, US (registered Mar 19, 2007)
    Whois Server whois.ripe.net
    IP Address 93.184.220.20
    Reverse IP 41 websites use this address.
    % Abuse contact for '93.184.220.0 - 93.184.223.255' is ''

    inetnum: 93.184.220.0 - 93.184.223.255
    netname: EDGECAST-NETBLK-03
    descr: NETBLK-03-EU-93-184-220-0-22
    country: EU
    admin-c: DS7892-RIPE
    tech-c: DS7892-RIPE
    status: ASSIGNED PA
    mnt-by: MNT-EDGECAST
    created: 2012-06-22T21:57:14Z
    last-modified: 2012-06-22T21:57:14Z
    source: RIPE
    notify:

    person: Derrick Sawyer
    address: 13031 W Jefferson Blvd #900, Los Angeles, CA 90094
    phone: +18773343236
    nic-hdl: DS7892-RIPE
    created: 2010-08-25T18:44:19Z
    last-modified: 2017-03-03T09:06:18Z
    source: RIPE
    mnt-by: MNT-EDGECAST
     
  6. fraifikmushi

    fraifikmushi Guest

    no, disabling your network interface should work.
    Do you have blocked the host (DAW) with your firewall?
    Yes, I have done a whois query as well. Derrick Sawyer appears to be a verizon sales rep so that's a dead end. :(
     
  7. Lambchop

    Lambchop Banned

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    Nope.
     
  8. Ted Smithton

    Ted Smithton Producer

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    I block ableton and use kontakt portable no issue here whatsoever
     
  9. Roboto

    Roboto Producer

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  10. suefreeman

    suefreeman Producer

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    If this is true, it is really dumb !!!
     
  11. Roboto

    Roboto Producer

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    It is.
    That's why it'll work without being connected to internet but not if you block everything, including that
     
  12. suefreeman

    suefreeman Producer

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    Is it only with "Kontakt 5.7.1 Portable"
    If it applies to all version, which version did it strarted doing this ?
    ( i use Kontakt 5.6.5 R2R + my firewall blocks ableton and kontakt to access Internet = never had any issue )
     
  13. vladdrac

    vladdrac Kapellmeister

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    5.7.1 symlink here and no crashes with Cubase and Kontakt blocked with firewall or disabled network or VPN or whatever.
     
  14. SineWave

    SineWave Audiosexual

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    Interesting... what portable version do you have installed fraifikmushi?
    My DAWs never see the Internet but it doesn't hurt to know such things.
     
  15. fraifikmushi

    fraifikmushi Guest

    Interesting, thanks! The thing is that the latest r2r release connects to that ip adress as well so I really don't know wether it's safe or not.
    Common sense would say that if cracked software dials home despite the crack it's a nuke.
    Can anyone else verify this behaviour?
     
  16. kooper

    kooper Platinum Record

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    I will tell you what I found. It loaded, and worked fine until I removed the install folder. It needs the original folder that it is installed from (maybe I mean loaded, not installed)to be kept on the system. Maybe you are somehow blocking access to this original install folder? I have had a problem with the levels dropping way down as I am using it for some reason. It is fine until I begin working with MIDI and then boom the levels drop for some odd reason. I don't have this problem with non-portable.
     
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  17. fraifikmushi

    fraifikmushi Guest

    Hm, I don't think it's a host instrusion issue, it really is about network security...
     
  18. fiction

    fiction Audiosexual

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    If you block outgoing traffic correctly then this will not affect communication to local (i.e. host-only) sockets.
    Otherwise Kontakt wouldn't run without internet, and nobody wants that.
     
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2018
  19. SineWave

    SineWave Audiosexual

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    fraifikmushi, can you in any way confirm that for example AUDiTOR's release is not doing that? My assumption is that even the legal Kontakt does it and all cracked versions, too.

    It's really interesting. I have a certain masochist interest in problems [all kinds]... that's why I'm a "computer guy", I suppose. :rofl:
     
  20. fraifikmushi

    fraifikmushi Guest

    Sorry, that was an error, I meant the auditor release.
    I'm sure the legal Kontakt does it! One of the main functionalities of a crack is to prevent such behaviour :/
     
  21. Nick12

    Nick12 Platinum Record

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    That release from Auditor also asked me to allow permission of my firewall to run which is also the first time that I suddenly got this with all the Kontakt versions I have ever used. Not sure why this version is suddenly asking for that? But yeah there is probably a logical reason for it?

    @fraifikmushi

    How did you found out what ip adress your Kontakt is using? Might be interesting for me to see it aswell.
     
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