I have 3 Amcrest IP camers (1x IP2M-841B and 3 x IP3M-943B [1 not setup yet]) that are constantly trying to get to a few amazon based IP addresses over port 443.
I've gone through and disabled everything and they still are constantly trying to get out, currently I have all external traffic IN / OUT to these cameras blocked, however I want to know WHY they're still trying.
I see this as a serious privacy problem, there's ZERO reasons that these cameras need to "call home" especially when I have a local physical NVR and I'm not constantly requesting a firmware update.
Any insight into this or settings changes that I may have missed would be greatly appreciated.
Constant External IP Requests
Re: Constant External IP Requests
Hello trinitron79,
The cameras try to contact the cloud server for checking for upgrades. The firmware is designed in that way. Also cameras connect to P2p server if the P2P option is enabled.
The cameras try to contact the cloud server for checking for upgrades. The firmware is designed in that way. Also cameras connect to P2p server if the P2P option is enabled.
Re: Constant External IP Requests
IMHO there should be an option to disable auto-checking for firmware updates.
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trinitron79
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2016 10:56 am
Re: Constant External IP Requests
Agree, you already have a button in the UI that checks for firmware update. I would rather the cameras not constantly checking for firmware.
P2P has been disabled for weeks now.
If you were TRULY just checking for firmware I could see trying once a day, but constantly trying makes me think something else is going on instead of the ~15 per hr / per camera that I'm seeing now.
Please in your next firmware release allow us the consumer to choose when / how firmware updates are applied. This should be a fairly easy code / UI change and it also gives the consumer a little piece of mind.
P2P has been disabled for weeks now.
If you were TRULY just checking for firmware I could see trying once a day, but constantly trying makes me think something else is going on instead of the ~15 per hr / per camera that I'm seeing now.
Please in your next firmware release allow us the consumer to choose when / how firmware updates are applied. This should be a fairly easy code / UI change and it also gives the consumer a little piece of mind.
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trinitron79
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2016 10:56 am
Re: Constant External IP Requests
Correction, just looked at my logs, the 3 cameras have tried over 900 times to reach your firmware server in the past hour.
Do they REALLY each need to be checking for firmware 3600 times a day?
Do they REALLY each need to be checking for firmware 3600 times a day?
Re: Constant External IP Requests
Hello,
Thank you for the feedback. I will pass this on to the concerned department.
Thank you for the feedback. I will pass this on to the concerned department.
Re: Constant External IP Requests
I am afraid that despite what was said, the cameras are doing more than just checking for firmware. Like you, I noticed hits against my ACLs in my router. There are several IPs the cameras were trying to get to. All of them in Amazon Web Services IP space. Wondering what names they were trying to reach, I simply checked my DNS servers logs and found the cameras, in my case an IP3M-941, and an IP2M-841, were both looking up all of the following names. Mind you have have P2P and Cloud Storage disabled in config...or so I am led to believe.trinitron79 wrote:Correction, just looked at my logs, the 3 cameras have tried over 900 times to reach your firmware server in the past hour.
Do they REALLY each need to be checking for firmware 3600 times a day?
Names look-ups by the cameras are:
config.amcrestcloud.com
command-4.amcrestcloud.com
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com)
media-amc-0.hostedcloudvideo.com
The camera is trying to reach the ips returned for all of these names.
I for one would like a more complete answer. What are these cameras trying to do. These are supposed to be for my security needs. This is not what I call secure. Don't ask me to trust you out of hand Amcrest. I don't.
Re: Constant External IP Requests
Hello phantiron ,
Our cloud services are hosted by Amazon cloud. Also the cloud firmware updates are through Amazon servers. I do not have more details on this unfortunately.
Our cloud services are hosted by Amazon cloud. Also the cloud firmware updates are through Amazon servers. I do not have more details on this unfortunately.
Re: Constant External IP Requests
What concerns me is the volume of data within these outbound requests. I applied ACL's blocking all outbound/inbound traffic to my 2 cameras about 2 weeks ago and so far I've seen approx. 116MB hitting those ACL's. What the hell kind of data is being transferred to equal 116MB? Keep in mind these are unsuccessful outbound attempts. What kind of information is being sent out? I think Amcrest should address this ASAP. Highly questionable.
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trinitron79
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2016 10:56 am
Re: Constant External IP Requests
Yes I can't agree with you guys enough!
These cameras do NOT need to be constantly reaching out! There should be a setting to completely disable these requests!
Also Amcrest should be more upfront on this type of traffic, I'm all for allowing some access for firmware updates etc but constantly reaching out is a little overboard, constantly reaching out (16x for 1 min) [3 cameras] is a extremely overboard and should be addressed.
These cameras do NOT need to be constantly reaching out! There should be a setting to completely disable these requests!
Also Amcrest should be more upfront on this type of traffic, I'm all for allowing some access for firmware updates etc but constantly reaching out is a little overboard, constantly reaching out (16x for 1 min) [3 cameras] is a extremely overboard and should be addressed.