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Chromodo Browser Disables Key Web Security
by Peter Reutemann 03 Feb '16

03 Feb '16

"A Google Security Research update has claimed that Comodo's internet browser Chromodo, based on the open-source project Chromium, contains significant security failings and puts its users at risk. This week's Google alert suggested that the Chromodo browser – available as a standalone download, as well as part of the company's Security package – is less secure than it promises. According to analysis, the browser is disabling the Same Origin policy, hijacking DNS settings, and replacing shortcuts with Chromodo links, among other security violations." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/16/02/03/1416236 NB: I know that the browser is for Windows, but you might know someone who's using it, blindly trusting the marketing of Comodo. Chromium builds are available here: https://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel 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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Crypto flaw was so glaring it may be intentional eavesdropping backdoor
by Peter Reutemann 03 Feb '16

03 Feb '16

"Socat is a more feature-rich variant of the once widely used Netcat networking service for fixing bugs in network applications and for finding and exploiting security vulnerabilities. One of its features allows data to be transmitted through an encrypted channel to prevent it from being intercepted by people monitoring the traffic. Amazingly, when using the Diffie-Hellman method to establish a cryptographic key, Socat used a non-prime parameter to negotiate the key, an omission that violates one of the most basic cryptographic principles." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/02/crypto-flaw-was-so-glaring-it-may-b… 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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Fwd: [NZOSS OpenChat] TPPA appears to compromise NZ data sovereignty
by Peter Reutemann 02 Feb '16

02 Feb '16

Apologies for cross-posting. Cheers, Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dave Lane <president(a)nzoss.org.nz> Date: Wed, Feb 3, 2016 at 10:22 AM Subject: [NZOSS OpenChat] TPPA appears to compromise NZ data sovereignty To: NZOSS Open Chat List <openchat(a)groups.nzoss.org.nz> Hi all, Thanks to Grant Paton-Simpson for bringing clause 14.13.2 of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement to my attention... I've just written a quick post to explain the potential implications of it, as I see it: https://nzoss.org.nz/content/tppa-compromises-nz-data-sovereignty Any comments or corrections (or alternative interpretations) to the article would be appreciated. If you think it is a cause for concern, I encourage you to promote it, particularly among those who will understand the implications. The TPPA is slated for signing tomorrow. We need to make a BIG stink about this very unfortunate turn of events. Cheers, Dave -- Dave Lane, President, New Zealand Open Source Society e: president(a)nzoss.org.nz m: 021 229 8147 w: http://nzoss.org.nz ―― View topic http://groups.nzoss.org.nz/r/topic/7bw4I2juaLBbCQycHlZriA Leave group mailto:openchat(a)groups.nzoss.org.nz?subject=Unsubscribe Start groups https://OnlineGroups.net -- 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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The State Of Blender: “The Art Of Open Source”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 02 Feb '16

02 Feb '16

An article <https://www.blender.org/media-exposure/the-art-of-open-source/> written for the November 2015 issue of “Linux Format” magazine covers the origins and increasing popularity of Blender. But more than popularity, it seems it is now (somewhat grudgingly) winning actual respect among 3D artists. Pixar even lists Blender as one of the packages it officially supports in the latest release of RenderMan. My main beef with the article is the writer keeps saying “commercial” when he means “proprietary”, seemingly reserving the use of “proprietary” for when he means “in-house”. If you don’t think Blender can be “commercial”, just look at some of its users mentioned in the article. A quote from one of those users: “In 10 years of using proprietary 3D software, we never received usable support from either software vendor or reseller – except on problems with registering our licences.”

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Classic Linux Joke Even Less Funny Than Previously Thought
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 02 Feb '16

02 Feb '16

On some UEFI-based systems, the old “rm -rf /” trick for destroying your system may do more than annihilate your software installation, it may also brick your machine. This is because it is possible to mount a virtual kernel filesystem that gives access to persistent UEFI configuration data read/write, and deleting this data makes it impossible for your machine to boot. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/02/delete_efivars_linux/>

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Towards A Ten-Million-Core Supercomputer
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 02 Feb '16

02 Feb '16

Europe’s ExaNeSt project is putting together a small prototype of what will eventually be a supercomputer with 10 million ARM cores. Why ARM? Because the performance bottleneck in a super is not the CPUs, but the interconnect between them. So it makes sense to use more power-efficient cores to keep the overall cost down. The main cost of running a super, or indeed any massively-multiprocessor installation (data centre, cloud service, render farm etc) is the electricity bill. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/02/buddy_can_you_spare_ten_meeelion_ar…>

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Using IPv6 with Linux? You’ve likely been visited by Shodan and other scanners
by Peter Reutemann 02 Feb '16

02 Feb '16

"One of the benefits of the next-generation Internet protocol known as IPv6 is the enhanced privacy it offers over its IPv4 predecessor. With a staggering 2128 (or about 3.4×1038) theoretical addresses available, its IP pool is immune to the types of systematic scans that criminal hackers and researchers routinely perform to locate vulnerable devices and networks with IPv4 addresses. What's more, IPv6 addresses can contain regularly changing, partially randomized extensions. Together, the IPv6 features cloak devices in a quasi anonymity that's not possible with IPv4. Now, network administrators have discovered a clever way that scanners are piercing the IPv6 cloak of obscurity. By setting up an IPv6-based network time protocol service most Internet-connected devices rely on to keep their internal clocks accurate, the operators can harvest huge numbers of IPv6 addresses that would otherwise remain unknown. The server operators can then scan hundreds or thousands of ports attached to each address to identify publicly available surveillance cameras, unpatched servers, and similar vulnerabilities." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/02/using-ipv6-with-linux-youve-likely-… 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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Bloat: How and Why UNIX Grew Up (and Out)
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 31 Jan '16

31 Jan '16

The original versions of common utilities like “cat”, “grep” and “ls” on V6 Unix from 1976 could measure their disk and RAM usage in bytes in just five figures. A few decades later, and the corresponding programs on a modern Linux distro are orders of magnitude larger. Why? Here is a detailed (and technical) analysis from the 2012 Linux.conf.au <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbv9L-WIu0s> which takes you step by step through all the contributions to the difference. They isolated most of these by modifying the code, selectively taking out features, and building it in different ways. Conclusion: you may call it “bloat”, but if you want a modern system, it’s pretty much unavoidable.

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High-severity bug in OpenSSL allows attackers to decrypt HTTPS traffic
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jan '16

28 Jan '16

"Maintainers of the OpenSSL cryptographic code library have fixed a high-severity vulnerability that made it possible for attackers to obtain the key that decrypts communications secured in HTTPS and other transport layer security channels. While the potential impact is high, the vulnerability can be exploited only when a variety of conditions are met. First, it's present only in OpenSSL version 1.0.2. Applications that rely on it must use groups based on the digital signature algorithm to generate ephemeral keys based on the Diffie Hellman key exchange. By default, servers that do this will reuse the same private Diffie-Hellman exponent for the life of the server process, and that makes them vulnerable to the key-recovery attack. DSA-based Diffie-Hellman configurations that rely on a static Diffie-Hellman ciphersuite are also susceptible." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/01/high-severity-bug-in-openssl-allows… 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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What’s The Cheapest Wi-Fi Access Point?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 27 Jan '16

27 Jan '16

Someone has hacked a cheapie wireless SD card reader to turn it into a wi-fi access point running OpenWRT: <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Zsun-WiFI-With-OpenWRT>. The most obvious thing it lacks is any kind of wired network port...

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