Hosts: Multiple websites use "ssl.marfeelcdn.com" as CNAME

[hectorm]

Marfeel is an advertising company of which I have no relation, but it seems that some websites use their CDN to serve content and blocking the domain ssl.marfeelcdn.com makes them inaccessible, since when blocking ads at DNS level many resolvers (systemd-resolved, Unbound and Knot Resolver are the ones I know with this behavior) will prevent clients from accessing a domain that has a CNAME record pointing to a blacklisted domain.

I open this issue only to inform about this problem and evaluate if it would be convenient or not to remove this domain from the blacklist.

This is the list of websites that I have found with this problem:

• https://www.ghacks.net
• https://www.gizchina.com
• https://www.lainformacion.com

But any website that has followed these instructions is affected by this.

[lightswitch05]

This is going to get interesting as CNAME blocking becomes more and more common. I understand that PiHole is gong to start supporting CNAME based blocking as well.

At the moment, I'm inclined not to take any action on this. It seems like if I start removing things just based on a CNAME, then the list will quickly become empty - as it takes no effort to setup CNAMES. But I'm going to leave this ticket open for tracking as its certainly a problem and I would appreciate other people's opinions on the issue. Thank you for opening this ticket @hectorm.

[lightswitch05]

for tracking, ssl.marfeelcdn.com was added in https://github.com/lightswitch05/hosts/commit/772c2c5e

[hectorm]

Just to add more data, I checked the CNAME records of the top million websites (with and without www) and these are the domains that use the Marfeel CDN:

vistanews.ru    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.01net.com   ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.abcdiario.com.ar    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.abcnoticias.mx  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.albawaba.com    ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.
www.brandeating.com ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.capetownmagazine.com    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.clickgratis.com.br  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.contextotucuman.com ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.cubanet.org ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.
www.davidemaggio.it ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.
www.der-postillon.com   ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.diariodemorelos.com ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.diariodocentrodomundo.com.br    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.diariomotor.com ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.diariopopular.com.ar    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.dicasonline.com ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.
www.efesalud.com    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.elbebe.com  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.elcorreogallego.es  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.elfarandi.com   ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.elgoldigital.com    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.elnacional.com.do   ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.
www.elnueve.com ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.elsol.com.ar    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.esdiario.com    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.exclusivadigital.com    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.foot01.com  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.ghacks.net  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.gizchina.com    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.greenme.com.br  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.guineenews.org  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.hibridosyelectricos.com ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.homeremedyhacks.com ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.hoy.com.do  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.ibahia.com  ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.
www.iharare.com ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.
www.ipadizate.es    ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.
www.jamaicaobserver.com ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.lainformacion.com   ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.lakersnation.com    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.lanutrition.fr  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.larepublica.cat ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.libero.pe   ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.ma-grande-taille.com    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.manilatimes.net ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.mediterraneodigital.com ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.menprovement.com    ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.
www.mobilegeeks.de  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.moroccoworldnews.com    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.nbamaniacs.com  ssl2.marfeelcdn.com.
www.newsday.co.zw   ssl2.marfeelcdn.com.
www.noticiasaominuto.com.br ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.periodistadigital.com   ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.petdarling.com  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.portalraizes.com    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.proceso.com.mx  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.recetasderechupete.com  ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.
www.religionenlibertad.com  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.revistapazes.com    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.riazor.org  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.solobasket.com  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.somosxbox.com   ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.sportune.fr ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.stirimondene.fanatik.ro ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.thecanary.co    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.theindependent.co.zw    ssl2.marfeelcdn.com.
www.thelondoneconomic.com   ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.theolivepress.es    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.thephoblographer.com    ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.
www.thesouthafrican.com ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.
www.thestandard.co.zw   ssl2.marfeelcdn.com.
www.tinyhouseblog.com   ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.trinidadexpress.com ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.tuxboard.com    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.ubitennis.com   ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.
www.unidivers.fr    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.vanguardia.com.mx   ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.
www.vistanews.ru    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.vortexmag.net   ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.wapa.pe ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.wheninmanila.com    ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.yucatan.com.mx  ssl.marfeelcdn.com.
www.zmescience.com  ssl1.marfeelcdn.com.

This is the full list of all CNAME records.

[lightswitch05]

Thank you for the added information @hectorm

[lightswitch05]

At the moment, I am not considering CNAME blocks to be actionable because I am not blocking whatever the main domain is. CNAME blocking is beyond what hosts files block, and therefore its on the user of this this to maintain whatever whitelists are necessary to account for CNAME based blocks.

[p1r473]

Just ran into this too- I do a deep CNAME package inspection, and couldn't visit lifehacker.com due to this.
Whitelisted on my end

[lightswitch05]

Alright, *.marfeelcdn.com is removed!

[p1r473]

Thanks!
Note- I do whitelist these all on my end- just let you know about the ones I see, as other people may use the lists that may not know how to whitelist
So they are always just suggestions!