September 2019 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

At The Open-Core Summit
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Sep '19

20 Sep '19

A bunch of companies <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/20/open_source_companies_cloud/> have met to share a common annoyance: that big corporations like Amazon, Google and Microsoft are able to profit from their open-source software without giving anything back. I’m not sure what you can do about it, though. Attempts to impose more restrictive conditions on licences seem to have backfired. The AGPL seems to have been the only one of these efforts to have any legs, and I’m doubtful it has really achieved much.

1 0

German Interior Ministry Wants To Ensure “Digital Sovereignty”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Sep '19

20 Sep '19

Germany wants to avoid having too much reliance on specific software/service vendors, like Microsoft and cloud suppliers <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/19/german_government_report_digital_s…>. How to deal with this? Answers suggested were * Negotiate new contracts with those same suppliers that get rid of the objectionable things, like telemetry * Diversify: stick with proprietary software, just get it from more suppliers * Use Open Source. Real-world results seem mixed? (Munich was cited as a “failure”). Also, Open Source software can end up acquired by proprietary vendors anyway. But then again, why should such acquisitions be such a big deal? Have they not heard of “forks”? Word I learned today: “Schmerzpunkt”.

1 0

How the Internet Archive is Waging War on Misinformation
by Peter Reutemann 19 Sep '19

19 Sep '19

'San Francisco-based non-profit is archiving billions of web pages in a bid to preserve web history. From a report: Since the 2016 US election, as fears about the power of fake news have intensified, the archive has stepped up its efforts to combat misinformation. At a time when false and ultra-partisan content is rapidly created and spread, and social media pages are constantly updated, the importance of having an unalterable record of who said what, when has been magnified. "We're trying to put in a layer of accountability," said founder Brewster Kahle. Mr Kahle founded the archive, which now employs more than 100 staff and costs $18m a year to run, because he feared that what was appearing on the internet was not being saved and catalogued in the same way as newspapers and books. The organisation is funded through donations, grants and the fees it charges third parties that request specific digitisation services. So far, the archive has catalogued 330bn web pages, 20m books and texts, 8.5m audio and video recordings, 3m images and 200,000 software programs. The most popular, public websites are prioritised, as are those that are commonly linked to. Some information is free to access, some is loaned out (if copyright laws apply) and some is only available to researchers. Curled up in a chair in his office after lunch, Mr Kahle lamented the combined impact of misinformation and how difficult it can be for ordinary people to access reliable sources of facts. "We're bringing up a generation that turns to their screens, without a library of information accessible via screens," said Mr Kahle. Some have taken advantage of this "new information system", he argued -- and the result is "Trump and Brexit." Having a free online library is crucial, said Mr Kahle, since "[the public is] just learning from whateverâ...âis easily available."' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/09/19/1858249 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/

1 0

Protocol found in webcams and DVRs is fueling a new round of big DDoSes
by Peter Reutemann 19 Sep '19

19 Sep '19

'Hackers have found a new way to amplify the crippling effects of denial-of-service techniques by abusing an improperly implemented tool found in almost 1 million network-connected cameras, DVRs, and other Internet-of-things devices. The technique abuses WS-Discovery, a protocol that a wide array of network devices use to automatically connect to one another. Often abbreviated as WSD, the protocol lets devices send user datagram protocol packets that describe the device capabilities and requirements over port 3702. Devices that receive the probes can respond with replies that can be tens to hundreds of times bigger. WSD has shipped with Windows since Vista and is one of the ways the operating system automatically finds network-based printers.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/09/in-the-wild-ddoses-a… 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/

2 1

Adobe Raking It In
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Sep '19

18 Sep '19

That rentware business model continues to pay off very handsomely <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/18/adobe_results/>. Users may grumble, but as long as they don’t actually do anything about it, why should Adobe worry?

1 0

OBS Studio
by Peter Reutemann 18 Sep '19

18 Sep '19

Came across the OBS Studio project last night by accident (never heard of it before!): "Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Download and start streaming quickly and easily on Windows, Mac or Linux. High performance real time video/audio capturing and mixing. Create scenes made up of multiple sources including window captures, images, text, browser windows, webcams, capture cards and more. Set up an unlimited number of scenes you can switch between seamlessly via custom transitions. Intuitive audio mixer with per-source filters such as noise gate, noise suppression, and gain. Take full control with VST plugin support." -- source: https://obsproject.com/ I'll give it a go for my next video recording project. :-) 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/

1 0

MITRE’s Latest Common Weakness Enumeration List
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Sep '19

18 Sep '19

The CWE is not a list of security vulnerabilities as such, but of factors which commonly lead to security vulnerabilities <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/18/the_25_most_dangerous_software_wea…>. The methodology of the list has changed from the previous one (from back in 2011), so it’s hard to say that the changes are down to different (improved?) coding practices. Still, two thirds of the entries are the same in both lists.

1 0

Researchers Uncover 125 Vulnerabilities Across 13 Routers and NAS Devices
by Peter Reutemann 18 Sep '19

18 Sep '19

'Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) discovered a total of 125 different security vulnerabilities across 13 IoT devices, likely affecting millions of consumers. Help Net Security reports: In nearly all the devices (12 of the 13), ISE achieved its goal of obtaining remote root-level access. The table below shows the types of vulnerabilities that ISE identified in the targets. All 13 of the devices evaluated by ISE had at least one web application vulnerability such as cross-site scripting (XSS), operating system command injection (OS CMDi), or SQL injection (SQLi) that could be leveraged by an attacker to get remote access to the device's shell or gain access to the device's administrative panel. ISE obtained root shells on 12 of the devices, allowing complete control over the device. Six of them can be remotely exploited without authentication: the Asustor AS-602T, Buffalo TeraStation TS5600D1206, TerraMaster F2-420, Drobo 5N2, Netgear Nighthawk R9000, and TOTOLINK A3002RU. "We found that many of these issues were trivial to exploit and should have been discovered even in a rudimentary vulnerability assessment," says ISE founder Stephen Bono. "This indicates that these manufacturers likely undergo no such assessment whatsoever, that the bug bounty programs they employ are ineffective, that vulnerability disclosures sent to them are not addressed, or more likely, all of the above."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/09/17/2053202 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/

1 0

HP Printers Try To Send Data Back To HP About Your Devices and What You Print
by Peter Reutemann 17 Sep '19

17 Sep '19

'Robert Heaton: Last week my in-laws politely but firmly asked me to set up their new HP printer. I protested that I'm completely clueless about that sort of thing, despite my tax-return-job-title of "software engineer." Still remonstrating, I was gently bundled into their study with an instruction pamphlet, a cup of tea, a promise to unlock the door once I'd printed everyone's passport forms, and a warning not to try the window because the roof tiles are very loose. At first the setup process was so simple that even a computer programmer could do it. But then, after I had finished removing pieces of cardboard and blue tape from the various drawers of the machine, I noticed that the final step required the downloading of an app of some sort onto a phone or computer. This set off my crapware detector. [...] It was a way to try and get people to sign up for expensive ink subscriptions and/or hand over their email addresses, plus something even more nefarious that we'll talk about shortly (there were also some instructions for how to download a printer driver tacked onto the end). This was a shame, but not unexpected. I'm sure that the HP ink department is saddled with aggressive sales quotas, and no doubt the only way to hit them is to ruthlessly exploit people who don't know that third-party cartridges are just as good as HP's and are much cheaper. Fortunately, the careful user can still emerge unscathed from this phase of the setup process by gingerly navigating the UI patterns that presumably do fool some people who aren't paying attention.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/09/17/1454203 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/

2 1

Firefox Moving To a Faster 4-Week Release Cycle
by Peter Reutemann 17 Sep '19

17 Sep '19

'Mozilla announces in a blog post: We typically ship a major Firefox browser (Desktop and Android) release every 6 to 8 weeks. Building and releasing a browser is complicated and involves many players. To optimize the process, and make it more reliable for all users, over the years we've developed a phased release strategy that includes 'pre-release' channels: Firefox Nightly, Beta, and Developer Edition. With this approach, we can test and stabilize new features before delivering them to the majority of Firefox users via general release. And today we're excited to announce that we're moving to a four-week release cycle! We're adjusting our cadence to increase our agility, and bring you new features more quickly. In recent quarters, we've had many requests to take features to market sooner. Feature teams are increasingly working in sprints that align better with shorter release cycles. Considering these factors, it is time we changed our release cadence. Starting Q1 2020, we plan to ship a major Firefox release every 4 weeks. Firefox ESR release cadence (Extended Support Release for the enterprise) will remain the same. In the years to come, we anticipate a major ESR release every 12 months with 3 months support overlap between new ESR and end-of-life of previous ESR. The next two major ESR releases will be ~June 2020 and ~June 2021.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/09/17/1750247 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/

1 0