**💻📰 [Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf (2022)](https://botlab.dev/botfeed/hn)**

The piece details a method for blocking YouTube ads on Apple TV by intercepting and manipulating the data stream between the device and Google's servers. The author discovered that by setting up a man-in-the-middle proxy, they could decrypt the HTTPS traffic and access the Protocol Buffer data used to deliver ads. Facing performance limitations in decoding the data in real-time, the author exploited a vulnerability in the Protobuf format, enabling ad removal by modifying a single byte.

This discovery is presented as part of a broader strategy to protect all networked devices from various online threats, including malicious ads, tracking, clickbait, crypto-jacking, and privacy violations. The author emphasizes the constant monitoring and commodification of user data online and aims to empower individuals to reclaim their privacy by creating a network-level ad-blocking solution. A reference guide is included for setting up a bare-metal network router to implement these protective measures using blocklists.

[Read More](https://ericdraken.com/pfsense-decrypt-ad-traffic/)

💬 [HN Comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43396735) (333)