- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Hijacking Open Source
by Peter Reutemann 29 Sep '14

29 Sep '14

'Somewhere along the line, we’ve lost the spirit of what open source is supposed to be. Cloud computing, the rise of social networks, and data mining personal information on a massive scale has led to an explosion of interest in server side open source, but personal open source still languishes in comparison. Linux.com is running a story entitled Back to the Source: Why FOSS is More Important Than Ever questioning if freedom is still at the heart of open source, and wondering if this is what winning actually looks like. “Open Source” is more popular than ever, but it’s not because we live in an enlightened age of freedom, it’s because the term has been hijacked. ' -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/hijacking-open-source Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Fwd: [NZLUG] ALERT: Remote code-exec in bash (CVE-2014-6271)
by Peter Reutemann 26 Sep '14

26 Sep '14

Typo... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Volker Kuhlmann <hidden(a)paradise.net.nz> Date: Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 10:23 AM Subject: Re: [NZLUG] ALERT: Remote code-exec in bash (CVE-2014-6271) To: NZ Linux Users Group <nzlug(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz> On Thu 25 Sep 2014 08:33:37 NZST +1200, Clark Mills wrote: > [ from /. thread ] > > This is the test to see if you are vulnerable: > > env x='() {:;}; echo vulnerable' bash -c "echo this is a test" Thanks for that. http://beta.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=5750159&cid=47985625 However, your code here seems to have a serious copy/paste/etc error in it: > bash > env x='() {:;}; echo vulnerable' bash -c "echo this is a test" bash: x: line 0: syntax error near unexpected token `{:' bash: x: line 0: `x () {:;}; echo vulnerable' bash: error importing function definition for `x' this is a test > env x='() { :;}; echo vulnerable' bash -c "echo this is a test" vulnerable this is a test GNU bash, version 4.2.42(1)-release (x86_64-suse-linux-gnu) Volker -- Volker Kuhlmann is list0570 with the domain in header. http://volker.top.geek.nz/ Please do not CC list postings to me. _______________________________________________ NZLUG mailing list NZLUG(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/nzlug -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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First Shellshock Botnet Attacking Akamai, US DoD Networks
by Peter Reutemann 26 Sep '14

26 Sep '14

'The Bash "Shellshock" bug is being used to spread malware to create a botnet, that's active and attacking Akamai and Department of Defense networks. "The 'wopbot' botnet is active and scanning the internet for vulnerable systems, including at the United States Department of Defence, chief executive of Italian security consultancy Tiger Security, Emanuele Gentili, told iTnews. 'We have found a botnet that runs on Linux servers, named “wopbot", that uses the Bash Shellshock bug to auto-infect other servers,' Gentili said."' -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/09/25/236256 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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GNOME 3.14 Released
by Peter Reutemann 25 Sep '14

25 Sep '14

"GNOME 3.14 was released today and it includes some interesting changes such as re-worked default theme, multi-touch gestures for both the system and applications, and new animations. Information including details on all the new features, can be found here." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/09/24/2155241 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Kali NetHunter turns Android device into hacker Swiss Army knife
by Peter Reutemann 25 Sep '14

25 Sep '14

"One of the tools we've leaned on heavily in some of our lab testing of software privacy and security is Kali Linux. The Debian-based operating system comes packaged with a collection of penetration testing and network monitoring tools curated and developed by the security training company Offensive Security. Today, the Kali developer team and Offensive Security released a new Kali project that runs on a Google Nexus device. Called NetHunter, the distribution provides much of the power of Kali with the addition of a browser-driven set of tools that can be used to launch attacks on wireless networks or on unattended computers via a USB connection." -- source: http://bit.ly/1veUgAz Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Fwd: [NZLUG] ALERT: Remote code-exec in bash (CVE-2014-6271)
by Peter Reutemann 24 Sep '14

24 Sep '14

FYI ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Clark Mills <c.mills(a)auckland.ac.nz> Date: Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 8:33 AM Subject: Re: [NZLUG] ALERT: Remote code-exec in bash (CVE-2014-6271) To: NZ Linux Users Group <nzlug(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz> [ from /. thread ] This is the test to see if you are vulnerable: env x='() {:;}; echo vulnerable' bash -c "echo this is a test" On 25/09/14 08:16, Jaco wrote: > > bash is borked. > > http://www.csoonline.com/article/2687265/application-security/remote-exploi… > > This bad. > This is very, VERY bad. > > Please go patch! _______________________________________________ NZLUG mailing list NZLUG(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/nzlug -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Saturday Workshop
by Bruce Kingsbury 24 Sep '14

24 Sep '14

I'll be running another Saturday Linux Workshop this weekend; Saturday September 27th, 2014 10:00 am – 2:00 pm *Te Whare O Te Ata* 60a Sare Cres Hamilton, 3214 07 2820577 This is a GNU/Linux-focused workshop where people can bring their PCs, Laptops, Pi's, Android devices etc for trouble-shooting and to learn or try out new skills. All visitors welcome - light lunch provided - gold coin donation appreciated

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Debian Switching Back To GNOME As the Default Desktop
by Peter Reutemann 24 Sep '14

24 Sep '14

"Debian will switch back to using GNOME as the default desktop environment for the upcoming Debian 8.0 Jessie release, due out in 2015. The decision is based on accessibility and systemd integration, along with a host of other reasons. Debian switched away from GNOME back in 2012." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/09/23/2312251 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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DuckDuckGo Now Blocked In China
by Peter Reutemann 23 Sep '14

23 Sep '14

"Privacy-oriented search engine DuckDuckGo is now blocked in China. On Sunday DuckDuckGo founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg confirmed to Tech in Asia that the team has noticed the blockage in China on Twitter. DuckDuckGo had been working fine in mainland China since its inception, aside from the occasional 'connection reset' experienced when accessing many overseas websites from within the country. But now the search engine is totally blocked in China. ... [T]he GreatFire index of blocked sites suggest that DuckDuckGo got whacked on September 4. DuckDuckGo joins Google in being censored and blocked in the nation. Google, after years of being throttled by China's Great Firewall since the web giant turned off its mainland China servers in 2010, was finallyblocked totally in June this year." -- source: http://search.slashdot.org/story/14/09/23/0052206 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Outlining Thin Linux
by Peter Reutemann 23 Sep '14

23 Sep '14

'Deep End's Paul Venezia follows up his call for splitting Linux distros in two by arguing that the new shape of the Linux server is thin, light, and fine-tuned to a single purpose. "Those of us who build and maintain large-scale Linux infrastructures would be happy to see a highly specific, highly stable mainstream distro that had no desktop package or dependency support whatsoever, so was not beholden to architectural changes made due to desktop package requirements. When you're rolling out a few hundred Linux VMs locally, in the cloud, or both, you won't manually log into them, much less need any type of graphical support. Frankly, you could lose the framebuffer too; it wouldn't matter unless you were running certain tests," Venezia writes. "It's only a matter of time before a Linux distribution that caters solely to these considerations becomes mainstream and is offered alongside more traditional distributions."' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/09/22/2245217 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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