July 2016 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

NIST Says Two-Factor Auth Via SMS Is Not A Good Idea
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 Jul '16

25 Jul '16

The US National Institute for Standards and Technology is updating its Digital Authentication Guideline <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/24/nist_says_sms_no_good_for_authentic…>. Responding to recent cases where SMS-based two-factor authentication systems were hijacked to rack up charges on premium-rate phone numbers, it is now saying that sending a text message is no longer good enough. At least the service sending the messages needs to be sure they are going to a real mobile phone. Interestingly, it is posting review documents on GitHub, as an addition to the usual publication channels.

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WLUG Library
by Chris O'Halloran 20 Jul '16

20 Jul '16

Hello all, I'm the holder of the WLUG library but as you're aware I haven't brought it along the meeting much. Would anyone care to be the caretaker of it for a while? I can bring it along to next Monday's meeting. Cheers, Chris

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Meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 20 Jul '16

20 Jul '16

Hi everyone We have a meeting schedule for next Monday: "X11, the most common display server on Linux, is showing its age. Newcomers, like Wayland and Mir are trying to address shortcomings and provide a basis for the future. Let's have a look at what each of the display servers' strengths and weaknesses are." We still need volunteers for presenting the Wayland and Mir? Any takers? More details here: http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/232209899/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Fontconfig How-To
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Jul '16

18 Jul '16

Quite a handy collection of font configuration tips and tricks at the Arch Linux Wiki <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_configuration>. I regularly come across ArchWiki links in online forums these days...

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Report On Open-Source Sustainability
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Jul '16

18 Jul '16

Fernando Perez, one of the key developers behind Project Jupyter, has posted a link to a long, detailed report on the workings of Open Source <https://groups.google.com/d/msg/jupyter/SnfWgQ1Hx0E/F5936L-CAgAJ>. If you don’t have time to read the whole thing, there is also an “executive summary” in the form of a series of Twitter postings. Summary summary: getting companies to fund Open-Source projects, even ones that they might depend crucially on, is often a matter of luck.

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Ubuntu Linux Forums Hacked -- IP Address, Username, Email of 2M Accounts Compromised
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jul '16

16 Jul '16

'Canonical announced on Friday that Ubuntu forums have been hacked. The company adds that data such as IP address, username, and email address of over two million users have been compromised. BetaNews reports: Keep in mind, this does not mean that the operating system has experienced a vulnerability or weakness. The only thing affected are the online forums that people use to discuss the OS. Still, such a hack is embarrassing as it happened due to Canonical's failure to install a patch. In a blog post, Jane Silber, Chief Executive Officer, Canonical said, "after some initial investigation, we were able to confirm there had been an exposure of data and shut down the Forums as a precautionary measure. Deeper investigation revealed that there was a known SQL injection vulnerability in the Forumrunner add-on in the Forums which had not yet been patched."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/16/07/15/1533236 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Quote Of The Week?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Jul '16

16 Jul '16

“People with older PCs upgraded to Windows 10 and held onto them. Microsoft didn’t expect that number to be so high.” <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/15/one_in_five_consumers_used_free_win…>

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GNU Nano Fork
by rowan schischka 15 Jul '16

15 Jul '16

from the very end of the article posted: "It seems the argument came down to licensing rules, because an idea of moving Nano to Github was incompatible with the GNU license." Can someone please explain this statement to me? I am completely out of the loop in understanding this. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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Court Says Microsoft Does Not Need To Respond To US Warrant For Overseas Data
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Jul '16

15 Jul '16

You may have heard of the ongoing case where the US FBI is demanding Microsoft turn over data held on servers in Ireland. The US Government is claiming that, because the Irish operation is under the control of Microsoft’s headquarters in the US, that it falls under US jurisdiction and so the company can be compelled to turn over the data with nothing more than a warrant issued by a US court. The appeals court has disagreed <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160714/10134734971/huge-win-court-says-…>. The peculiar thing is, there are already international arrangements under which the US can ask the Irish Government to request one of their courts to order the surrender of the data. But they don’t seem to want to do that.

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Microsoft Still “Supporting” Windows RT
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Jul '16

15 Jul '16

Microsoft blocks a “security hole” on Windows RT tablets that might have allowed users to run alternative operating systems <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/15/windows_fix_closes_rt_unlock_loopho…>.

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