odd entries showing up in History list as deleted

[lnbchris]

I was scheduling some programs on my Genie and happened to get a look at the History list. There were several items which showed up both in the History list and also the My Programs list which I would have never scheduled or deleted in a hundred years. There are two other users at this point, and I am quite certain they wouldn't be watching any of those shows either, or deleting them in the middle of the night. On top of that the deleted list showed that I had deleted a couple items on MY machine (the host machine), which I had never scheduled to record. I was alone in the house by myself, in front of it with the History channel on, and taking a nap during the times they were deleted. That got me thinking:

There was a recent story where allegedly a Directv user's home WiFi network was compromised, and the Smart Search mechanism was targeted. I figure that my Genie might have been receiving stray external commands via internet, although I have never set up any means to control it (website or Ipad). I unplugged the wired internet connection from my Genie and so far, for a couple days anyhow, it looks like it has stopped. I am behind a wired/wireless router with firewall, and have the wireless capabilities of the Genie disabled. This is confirmed as the Restart feature won't work as long as the wire is unplugged.

So has anyone else had anything like this happen? It seems deliberate to some extent, as all the entries were Rated X TV-MA-S (even though I don't subscribe to anything in that range) and were time stamped as having been deleted by me and other Clients in our house in the middle of the night. It seems like the machines have to be powered up in order for this to take place. We have one Client which is almost always powered down that never makes it into those lists.

edit: verified ratings

 

[texasbrit]

Are you in an apartment or somewhere with a shared dish?

 

[lnbchris]

Hi, no we have our own house in a subdivision. We have our own dish.

 

[raoul5788]

They could be shows that were pushed to the dvr by Directv.

 

[lnbchris]

They could be shows that were pushed to the dvr by Directv.

Hi, are there other known cases where this has happened? With the titles that showed up, it seems more like somebody is being mischievous. Still no more came in since I yanked the network cable, but I will report back if that changes. I did consider the possibility that we may have a refurbished machine with some bugs.

 

[raoul5788]

By mischievous, I assume you mean adult oriented titles, yes? Maybe one of the youngins?

 

[lnbchris]

By mischievous, I assume you mean adult oriented titles, yes? Maybe one of the youngins?

Yes, but like I said above, I was home alone. The others were out, and I was sitting in front of the TV when a few odd shows were allegedly recorded and then deleted by my box. I didn't notice anything unusual, although I did snooze off for a bit. A few hours later I was going through the menus looking for something else when I discovered it.

 

[raoul5788]

That is odd.

 

[texasbrit]

This just has to be someone in your house, if you are not sharing a dish. Even if you had a completely open internet, with no security at all, someone from the outside could not set up a recording, watch it and delete it.

 

[lnbchris]

This just has to be someone in your house, if you are not sharing a dish. Even if you had a completely open internet, with no security at all, someone from the outside could not set up a recording, watch it and delete it.

They were from premium channels which we don't subscribe to, so there wouldn't have been anything either viewed or recorded. I was able to replicate this, and no program content was actually recorded, just the subscription info screen. Also there is nothing listed under the Purchases, so nobody actually ran up any charges. Honestly the behavior seems more like some type of malware that only attempts to record adult topics, whether or not they are actually subscribed to or coming in.

 

[texasbrit]

Still think this is someone in your house.

 

[lnbchris]

It is just my wife and father-in-law living with me. I honestly don't suspect it to be them. Not even for a minute. And again, I witnessed some of this happen when they were out of town and I was home alone after work. So I guess there are no clear-cut answers, or else someone would have spoken up by now.

 

[dalyew]

I just posted under another topic of random soccer match recordings everyday on my Genie but I'm assuming that originated from my season recording of the World Cup. Now that that tournament is done I thought the dvr would stop recording those matches but it has continued to record random soccer matches from all kind of tournaments. That's the closest I've experienced what you're talking about but your issue is way more weird. I have to check my history from now on. Otherwise, let your father - in - law know that you can look up all activity on the dvr....lol....just kidding!

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[lnbchris]

I just posted under another topic of random soccer match recordings everyday on my Genie but I'm assuming that originated from my season recording of the World Cup. Now that that tournament is done I thought the dvr would stop recording those matches but it has continued to record random soccer matches from all kind of tournaments. That's the closest I've experienced what you're talking about but your issue is way more weird. I have to check my history from now on. Otherwise, let your father - in - law know that you can look up all activity on the dvr....lol....just kidding!

Posted Via The FREE SatelliteGuys Reader App!

LOL

This has happened a couple more time, not only "adult" movies as previously thought, but with premium channels we don't subscribe to, like TMAXHD and HBO. There are times when the history log will say that one of my clients or my genie has deleted or cancelled a show, "This episode was cancelled by MACHINENAME. (1001)". There are also times when it apparently cancels or deletes a show without using a machine name, like this: "This episode was cancelled by. (1)".

There is no network connection, and we don't share a satellite or genie with anyone else. Furthermore no "bridging" is happening. We only have one Genie.

So I am left to believe that it is either buggy software, hacked, or else D* is conducting covert human experimentation (just kidding!!).

 

[texasbrit]

Do you have "genie recommends" switched off? Search and Browse>TV shows>Genie settings>

 

[lnbchris]

Do you have "genie recommends" switched off? Search and Browse>TV shows>Genie settings>

Hi, thanks for the suggestion. No, I never have enabled it or used it either.