Doctor Four
My other vehicle is a TARDIS
Premium
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX
 ·AT&T U-Verse
|  Google Analytics: Yes, it is a security risk
said by theregister.co.uk :
Analysis Judging from some of the comments responding to our story about security sloppiness on Barack Obama's website, it's clear a discussion about the risks of third-party javascript is in order. Contrary to what many commentators believe, widgets used by Google Analytics and similar services do represent a threat, especially if you're a high-profile target.
To recap, Change.gov and BarackObama.com were both found exposing non-encrypted pages that Obama officials use to make post press releases and carry out other administrative tasks. The lack of IP filtering, or at the very least, use of secure sockets layer was surprising, but what was really baffling was the decision to link the admin pages to Google Analytics.
»www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/22···ty_risk/
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"The trouble with computers, of course, is that they are very sophisticated idiots." - Doctor Who (from Robot)
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AB
Premium
join:2006-04-04
Leesburg, VA | Mars needs women, Google needs info. |
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ironwalker
World Renowned
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-31
Keansburg, NJ
clubs: | reply to Doctor Four
The man has not taken office yet and the media links him to the devil's (microsoft) son (google).
Google Analytics has been blocked here since the beginning of the world. |
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MysticGogeta
The Robot Devil
Premium
join:2005-03-14
League City, TX
clubs: | reply to Doctor Four
Ah the wonders of script blocker. |
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Doctor Four
My other vehicle is a TARDIS
Premium
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX
·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to Doctor Four
It's used on quite a lot of sites, including this one. I have it in my hosts file. There's also ssl.googleanalytics.com, which if blocked prevents you from downloading any of Google's applications, like Google Earth.
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"The trouble with computers, of course, is that they are very sophisticated idiots." - Doctor Who (from Robot)
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SUMware
Premium
join:2002-05-21
| said by Doctor Four  :There's also ssl.googleanalytics.com, which if blocked prevents you from downloading any of Google's applications, like Google Earth. It's actually ssl.google-analytics.com. It is included in my hosts file and does not prevent me from downloading both the Windows and Linux versions of 'Google Earth'. |
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nwrickert
sand groper
Premium,MVM
join:2004-09-04
Geneva, IL
·AT&T U-Verse
 ·AT&T Midwest
| reply to Doctor Four
said by The Register :
The service grants unscrupulous employees at Google — not to mention anyone who manages to penetrate Mountain View’s fortress — access to the administrative pages.
That seems a bit paranoid.
I have marked google-analytics.com as untrusted in noscript. That prevents any javascript sourced from google-analytics from being run. I don't currently see a need to completely block the site.
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AT&T dsl; Westell 327w modem/router; openSuSE 11.0; firefox 3.0.3 |
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foxsteve
Premium
join:2001-12-28
Campbell, CA
1 edit | reply to Doctor Four
It is a fragment from my hosts file 
quote:
# [Google Inc]
127.0.0.1 google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 sb.google.com
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 pagead.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js
127.0.0.1 eh-in-f191.google.com
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 sb.google.com
127.0.0.1 medicinecare.blogspot.com # Google spy
127.0.0.1 blogspot.l.google.com
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jaykaykay
4 Ever Young
Premium,MVM
join:2000-04-13
Scottsdale, AZ | reply to Doctor Four
I believe that mele20 has been warning of Google Analytics for quite some time now, guys! |
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anonbanana
@shawcable.net
| reply to foxsteve
said by foxsteve :It is a fragment from my hosts file quote:
# [Google Inc]
127.0.0.1 google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 sb.google.com
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 pagead.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js
127.0.0.1 eh-in-f191.google.com
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 sb.google.com
127.0.0.1 medicinecare.blogspot.com # Google spy
127.0.0.1 blogspot.l.google.com
cheers for the list, anyone else have more of googles junk to block? |
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SUMware
Premium
join:2002-05-21
| Why not get them all, much easier, by installing and/or merging the hosts files from:
»www.hosts-file.net/
»mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
»pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/ |
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siljaline
mind that delimiter
Premium
join:2002-10-12
Montreal, QC | A note on Merging HOSTS Files >
»www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hostsfa···#Merging
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siljaline
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DrStrange
Technically feasible
Premium
join:2001-07-23
West Hartford, CT | reply to Doctor Four
Those are host-filed here as well. |
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SUMware
Premium
join:2002-05-21
1 edit | reply to siljaline
Baloney! said by mvps :
Another reason is how valid are these other HOSTS files? ... many of which are just copies of someone else's work anyway, and are not updated on a regular basis.
Who's copying who? And who's updating more frequently and most recently?
MVPS hosts - Updated October-23-2008 / less than 16,287 entries
HP hosts - Updated November-18-2008 / 54,729 entries
»pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/ hosts - Updated November-21-2008 |
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Curiosity
join:2001-10-01
Dawson Creek, BC | reply to Doctor Four
I just put *.googleanalytics.* in my connection-killer blocklist to block it from being accessed at all by my browsers. That has sped up page loading for several web pages. |
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SUMware
Premium
join:2002-05-21
| said by Curiosity :I just put *.googleanalytics.* in my connection-killer blocklist to block it from being accessed at all by my browsers. That has sped up page loading for several web pages. There is no such googleanalytics entry in any of the several hosts files that I use.
There are, however, several google-analytics entries. Google also uses servers that do not necessarily contain the words google nor analytics. |
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Curiosity
join:2001-10-01
Dawson Creek, BC | That is the one. I was thinking of googlesyndication. I blocked them also. That also sped up page loading. |
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SilverSurfer
join:2007-08-19
| reply to AB
said by AB :Mars needs women, Google needs info. Thx for the chuckle. 
Google Analytics doesn't concern me. I use various FF extensions and Greasemonkey scripts to run so much intereference that the data is useless. |
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TheWiseGuy
Dog And Butterfly
Premium,MVM
join:2002-07-04
Yonkers, NY
1 edit | reply to Doctor Four
Assuming I understand what they said correctly, the vulnerability mentioned, unfortunately, has little to do with whether googleanalytics is blocked by someone browsing the site. The vulnerability is to the site. If they were to use the vulnerability to gain control of the site it would not matter if you block googleanalytics since you have not blocked the site you are visiting.
Edit:
I guess I should add that blocking googleanalytics will probably mitigate the risk of an attack on the browser, in a case where the site has not been taken over. Noscript would seem to be a safer way.
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Warning, If you post nonsense and use misinformation and are here to argue based on those methods, you will be put on ignore. |
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FunnyBones
Premium
join:2004-01-22
usa | reply to Doctor Four
Many web pages will now have the google urchin.js at www.domainhere.com\urchin.js or ga.js so far I have wrote my own code to block most of this out but yes it is a security risk |
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