are domains containing 'zip' near the end a legitimate threat?
I've heard a decent argument why it should be avoided, and I'm curious to know to what degree. I understand avoiding .zip links, but should I go as far as to avoid .zip communities too? Where does this thinking become genuine paranoia?
The ".zip" TLD isn't itself a security risk, but it should never have been created in the first place due to the overlap with .zip files.
Understanding the context of why the .zip TLD is a bad idea, you should be questioning the general competence of a web admin that would intentionally purchase and operate a .zip website. There are plenty of other cheap TLDs available that do not overlap with common file extensions. It's such an obvious and avoidable problem that you have to wonder what other obvious problems they are failing to avoid.
I do not disagree, though I'm curious on your take of .COM since that has always had the same issue.
The difference is they everybody knows about zip files, even my old mom. Not so much for com executables. That's why it can lead to phishing, etc.
Well put. Your explanation has me most confident I should avoid lemmy.zip communities for the time being--thx
lol there is nothing wrong with Lemmy.zip. It’s a legit Lemmy instance and the communities are safe.
The concern is that someone might try to make a website / URL appear to be a zip file you can download and open. But Lemmy.zip is not doing that.
Also you are on a different Lemmy instance, so you never interact with Lemmy.zip directly. Instead, behind the scenes, your instance exchanges data with Lemmy.zip, and all other instances it is federated with, regardless of whether you personally subscribe to any .zip communities or not.
Lemmy communities are run by volunteers who are often footing the bill themselves to run. Without these people Lemmy would not exist. One/some of these people decided to save themselves a few bucks a month and get a .zip domain. There's nothing wrong with lemmy.zip
Waiting for Lemmy.exe
That'll just install arch and delete windows
What would lemmy.sh do? Install the latest screenfetch and post it online?
yeah id say so, tech literacy is bad as is. Adding to the scams is the last thing we need.
However it's like any other .com just with a more customizable name, like http://files.catbox.moe/ fits because the site is decorated with anime drawings (moe definition).
for a techy website .zip is fine, as long as they're not using it as an attempt to scam.
lemmy.zip is perfectly a-ok in my eyes
I dont think there are any valid technical insecurities. Its just a TLD like any other. The issue is just that people might get confused by it and that could be used for phishing stuff.
Exactly this, the .zip file extension is widely known, and now that it's also a TLD, it can be confusing for some people. There's no technical vulnerability, but the existence of .zip TLD just gives more ammo for phishing. For example, someone could register a domain name recent-bank-statements[.]zip (without brackets) and then have a subdomain for chase.com and send someone a link to https://chase.com.recent-bank-statements/[.]zip to "Download your bank statements". If you're not looking closely, you might not realize there is a . instead of a / and think that this link would go to chase.com When the site initiates a download of a zip file, you might trust the contents thinking it came from Chase and not a malicious link.
Should .zip communities be avoided for this potential confusion or no?
I fucking hope not because I belong to lemmy.zip!
@SEND_BUTTPLUG_PICS@lemmy.zip should I zip them and send?
No where did you hear that from?
There's an argument to be made that ICANN shouldn't have made .zip a valid TLD due to potential confusion. But that's ICANN's problem, and it's a bit too late to undo that mistake now. You don't need to worry that there's something wrong with a Fediverse instance using it. As long as you can tell the difference between a community and a zip file, nothing bad is going to happen.