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'Trojan Source' Bug Threatens the Security of All Code
by Peter Reutemann 02 Nov '21

02 Nov '21

'"Virtually all compilers -- programs that transform human-readable source code into computer-executable machine code -- are vulnerable to an insidious attack in which an adversary can introduce targeted vulnerabilities into any software without being detected," warns cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs in a new report. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt: Researchers with the University of Cambridge discovered a bug that affects most computer code compilers and many software development environments. At issue is a component of the digital text encoding standard Unicode, which allows computers to exchange information regardless of the language used. Unicode currently defines more than 143,000 characters across 154 different language scripts (in addition to many non-script character sets, such as emojis). Specifically, the weakness involves Unicode's bi-directional or "Bidi" algorithm, which handles displaying text that includes mixed scripts with different display orders, such as Arabic -- which is read right to left -- and English (left to right). But computer systems need to have a deterministic way of resolving conflicting directionality in text. Enter the "Bidi override," which can be used to make left-to-right text read right-to-left, and vice versa. "In some scenarios, the default ordering set by the Bidi Algorithm may not be sufficient," the Cambridge researchers wrote. "For these cases, Bidi override control characters enable switching the display ordering of groups of characters." Bidi overrides enable even single-script characters to be displayed in an order different from their logical encoding. As the researchers point out, this fact has previously been exploited to disguise the file extensions of malware disseminated via email. Here's the problem: Most programming languages let you put these Bidi overrides in comments and strings. This is bad because most programming languages allow comments within which all text -- including control characters -- is ignored by compilers and interpreters. Also, it's bad because most programming languages allow string literals that may contain arbitrary characters, including control characters. "So you can use them in source code that appears innocuous to a human reviewer [that] can actually do something nasty," said Ross Anderson, a professor of computer security at Cambridge and co-author of the research. "That's bad news for projects like Linux and Webkit that accept contributions from random people, subject them to manual review, then incorporate them into critical code. This vulnerability is, as far as I know, the first one to affect almost everything." The research paper, which dubbed the vulnerability "Trojan Source," notes that while both comments and strings will have syntax-specific semantics indicating their start and end, these bounds are not respected by Bidi overrides. [...] Anderson said such an attack could be challenging for a human code reviewer to detect, as the rendered source code looks perfectly acceptable. "If the change in logic is subtle enough to go undetected in subsequent testing, an adversary could introduce targeted vulnerabilities without being detected," he said. Equally concerning is that Bidi override characters persist through the copy-and-paste functions on most modern browsers, editors, and operating systems.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/21/11/01/2147254 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W: 5x faster than the original for $5 more
by Peter Reutemann 01 Nov '21

01 Nov '21

'The diminutive Raspberry Pi Zero is getting its first upgrade in nearly five years. Today, Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton announced the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, a new $15 product that puts the processor from the Raspberry Pi 3 into a board the exact same size as the original Zero. The new board swaps the old Zero's 1 GHz single-core ARM11 processor for a quad-core Cortex A53-based Broadcom BCM2710A1 processor, also clocked at 1 GHz—the same processor used in the original Raspberry Pi 3 released back in 2016, albeit clocked slightly lower. This is a substantial increase in power and capability for the Pi Zero, going from one core to four and from 32 bits to 64. Upton said that the performance increase over the original Zero "varies across workloads" but that for multithreaded tasks like those simulated by sysbench, "it is almost exactly five times faster." Heat dissipation is provided by "thick internal copper layers" in the board, which should help prevent thermal throttling without the use of additional fans or heatsinks.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/10/raspberry-pi-zero-2-w-crams-pi-3-pa… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Newly-Discovered 'AbstractEmu' Malware Rooted Android Devices, Evaded Detection
by Peter Reutemann 01 Nov '21

01 Nov '21

'"New Android malware can root infected devices to take complete control and silently tweak system settings, as well as evade detection using code abstraction and anti-emulation checks," reports BleepingComputer. Cybersecurity company Lookout said on its blog that they'd spotted the malware on Google Play "and prominent third-party stores such as the Amazon Appstore and the Samsung Galaxy Store.... To protect Android users, Google promptly removed the app as soon as we notified them of the malware." We named the malware "AbstractEmu" after its use of code abstraction and anti-emulation checks to avoid running while under analysis. A total of 19 related applications were uncovered, seven of which contain rooting functionality, including one on Play that had more than 10,000 downloads... This is a significant discovery because widely-distributed malware with root capabilities have become rare over the past five years. As the Android ecosystem matures there are fewer exploits that affect a large number of devices, making them less useful for threat actors... By using the rooting process to gain privileged access to the Android operating system, the threat actor can silently grant themselves dangerous permissions or install additional malware — steps that would normally require user interaction. Elevated privileges also give the malware access to other apps' sensitive data, something not possible under normal circumstances... AbstractEmu does not have any sophisticated zero-click remote exploit functionality used in advanced APT-style threats, it is activated simply by the user having opened the app. As the malware is disguised as functional apps, most users will likely interact with them shortly after downloading... By rooting the device, the malware is able to silently modify the device in ways that would otherwise require user interaction and access data of other apps on the device. "Apps bundling the malware included password managers and tools like data savers and app launchers," reports BleepingComputer, "all of them providing the functionality they promised to avoid raising suspicions..." Lookout's blog post said they'd spotted people affected by the malware in 17 different countries.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/21/10/31/1253225 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Sprite Fright: Not Your Father’s Blender Open Movie
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 31 Oct '21

31 Oct '21

The latest short feature from the Blender Studio is now out <https://www.blender.org/>. While past efforts have had the occasional sombre, not to say dark, elements, this one just takes the darkness to the next level. It’s an out-and-out horror story, with overtones of environmental retribution in its plot. Carnage, gore, deaths, and just plain ickiness in full measure, packed into a mere 10 minutes. I just hope the script writer is getting therapy ...

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Protonmail Celebrates Swiss Court Victory Exempting it From Telco Data Retention Laws
by Peter Reutemann 28 Oct '21

28 Oct '21

'Encrypted email provider Protonmail has hailed a recent Swiss legal ruling as a "victory for privacy," after winning a lawsuit that sees it exempted from data retention laws in the mountainous realm. From a report: Referring to a previous ruling that exempted instant messaging services from data capture and storage laws, the Protonmail team said this week: "Together, these two rulings are a victory for privacy in Switzerland as many Swiss companies are now exempted from handing over certain user information in response to Swiss legal orders." Switzerland's Federal Administrative Court ruled on October 22 that email providers in Switzerland are not considered telecommunications providers under Swiss law, thereby removing them from the scope of data retention requirements imposed on telcos. The victory comes after controversy over a previous (and not directly related) Swiss court order that forced the company to collect mobile device push notification identifiers from a specified user's account. That user was later arrested by French police, who had asked their Swiss counterparts to obtain the surveillance order. Protonmail chief exec Andy Yen told The Register his business doesn't routinely collect such data on its users.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/21/10/27/147224 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Intel Core i9 11900K: Five Linux Distros Show Sizable Lead Over Windows 11
by Peter Reutemann 28 Oct '21

28 Oct '21

'Phoronix: Now that Windows 11 has been out as stable and the initial round of updates coming out, I've been running fresh Windows 11 vs. Linux benchmarks for seeing how Microsoft's latest operating system release compares to the fresh batch of Linux distributions. First up is the fresh look at the Windows 11 vs. Linux performance on an Intel Core i9 11900K Rocket Lake system. Microsoft Windows 11 Pro with all stable updates as of 18 October was used for this round of benchmarking on Intel Rocket Lake. The Windows 11 performance was being compared to all of the latest prominent Linux distributions, including: Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS, Ubuntu 21.10, Arch Linux (latest rolling), Fedora Workstation 35, Clear Linux 35150. All the testing was done on the same Intel Core i9 11900K test system at stock speeds (any frequency differences reported in the system table come down to how the information is exposed by the OS, i.e. base or turbo reporting) with 2 x 16GB DDR4-3200 memory, 2TB Corsair Force MP600 NVMe solid-state drive, and an AMD Radeon VII graphics card. Each operating system was cleanly installed and then run at its OS default settings for seeing how the out-of-the-box OS performance compares for these five Linux distributions to Microsoft Windows 11 Pro. But for the TLDR version... Out of 44 tests run across all six operating systems, Windows 11 had just three wins on this Core i9 11900K system. Meanwhile Intel's own Clear Linux platform easily dominated with coming in first place 75% of the time followed by Fedora Workstation 35 in second place with first place finishes 9% of the time. The geometric mean for all 44 tests showed Linux clearly in front of Windows 11 for this current-generation Intel platform. Ubuntu / Arch / Fedora were about 11% faster overall than Windows 11 Pro on this system. Meanwhile, Clear Linux was about 18% faster than Windows 11 and enjoyed about 5% better performance overall than the other Linux distributions.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/21/10/27/1625217 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Setback for Nvidia's $54 Billion ARM Bid as EU Regulators Open Probe
by Peter Reutemann 28 Oct '21

28 Oct '21

'Nvidia suffered a setback on Wednesday as EU antitrust regulators opened a full-scale investigation into its $54 billion bid for British chip designer ARM on concerns the deal could lead to higher prices, less choice and reduced innovation. From a report: Britain's competition agency is also probing the deal for the country's most important technology company, warning that it could damage competition and weaken rivals. Reuters reported the European Commission viewed as insufficient concessions offered by the world's biggest maker of graphics and artificial intelligence (AI) chips during its preliminary review. Nvidia has not disclosed what these are but it has previously said it would maintain ARM as a neutral technology supplier to sooth concerns from customers such as Qualcomm, Samsung and Apple. The Commission said it would decide by March 15 whether to clear or block the deal. "Whilst Arm and Nvidia do not directly compete, Arm's IP is an important input in products competing with those of Nvidia, for example in datacentres, automotive and in Internet of Things," EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.' -- source: https://slashdot.org/story/21/10/27/1648229 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Android's 12L Feature Drop Aims To Be a Big Improvement for Folding Phones
by Peter Reutemann 28 Oct '21

28 Oct '21

'At this year's Android Dev Summit, Google announced an upcoming update for devices with larger screens, which includes tablets, foldables, and devices that run ChromeOS. From a report: Google is calling the update 12L, and it's supposed to make Android 12 run smoother on big screens. We first heard the possibility of a "12.1" update in late September, and it looks like many of the rumored features are true. 12L optimizes the layout of a device's UI, adjusting the placement of the home screen, lock screen, notifications, Quick Settings, and more. Google notes that any screen 600 density-independent pixels (dp) and above will display a two-column layout that makes use of the entire screen. In the example Google shows, the Quick Settings menu is pushed towards the left side of the screen, while the notifications panel is locked to the right, giving you the ability to access both simultaneously -- all without opening one app and closing another. 12L also introduces a new taskbar that makes it easier for users to quickly switch between different apps. Dragging and dropping an app from the taskbar opens it up in split-screen mode, which Google notes it has enabled for all apps, whether they're resizable or not.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/21/10/27/1821200 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Microsoft Trying To Cripple Its Own Open-Source Project
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Oct '21

23 Oct '21

Microsoft is trying to remove a feature called “Hot Reload” from Dotnet, saying it is something that should only be available through Visual Studio <https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/22/microsoft_net_hot_reload_visual_stud…>. Trouble is, this is the (supposedly) Open-Source version of Dotnet. And you do not take away useful features from Open-Source projects. You can do that to proprietary products, where the users have no choice but to put up with it. As of this writing, the commit that removes the feature has already been merged, but a follow up request to revert that change, while gathering a lot of support, has not been accepted into the official code base yet. As one of the commenters says: “This is the PR that is truly going to decide .NET is really an OSS or not!”. This is just one in a long line of incidents <https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/18/net_foundation_gnome/> casting doubt on the independence of Dotnet as an Open-Source project.

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App Telemetry For Developers
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Oct '21

23 Oct '21

Here’s an interesting idea <https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/22/new_relic_codestream/>: if an app should crash during a production run, it can send telemetry data back to the developer providing some program state and pinpointing exact locations in the source code. This is done using eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter), which is able to collect information about running applications with minimal impact. You thought packet-filtering was only about managing network activity, but no, it is more useful than that. Yes, there is potential for this sort of thing to be misused, if it is not correctly managed. With great power comes great responsibility etc. By the way, while eBPF may have its roots in the older BPF as found in the BSDs, it is nevertheless a Linux-only technology <https://ebpf.io/>. Though Microsoft is trying to port some parts of it to Windows <https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/opensource/2021/05/10/making-ebpf-work-on-…>.

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