- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Compal, the Second-Largest Laptop Manufacturer in the World, Hit By Ransomware
by Peter Reutemann 10 Nov '20

10 Nov '20

'Compal, a Taiwanese electronics company that builds laptops for some of the world's largest computer brands, suffered a ransomware attack over the weekend. From a report: Responsible for the breach is believed to be the DoppelPaymer ransomware gang, according to a screenshot of the ransom note shared by Compal employees with Yahoo Taiwan reporters. According to Taiwanese media, the incident was discovered on Sunday morning and is believed to have impacted around 30% of Compal's computer fleet. Employees arriving at work were greeted by a memo from Compal's IT staff, asking workers to check the status of their workstations and back up important files on systems that were not impacted.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/11/09/1615207 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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FTC Announces a Settlement With Zoom Over Security Issues
by Peter Reutemann 10 Nov '20

10 Nov '20

'Zoom will implement new security practices as part of a proposed settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, the agency announced on Monday. From a report: "Zoom has agreed to a requirement to establish and implement a comprehensive security program, a prohibition on privacy and security misrepresentations, and other detailed and specific relief to protect its user base, which has skyrocketed from 10 million in December 2019 to 300 million in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic," the FTC said in a press release.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/11/09/1645233 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Cyberattackers Now Also Make Linux Versions of Their Ransomware
by Peter Reutemann 09 Nov '20

09 Nov '20

'"Security firm Kaspersky said Friday that it discovered a Linux version of the RansomEXX ransomware," reports ZDNet, "marking the first time a major Windows ransomware strain has been ported to Linux to aid in targeted intrusions." RansomEXX is a relatively new ransomware strain that was first spotted earlier this year in June. The ransomware has been used in attacks against the Texas Department of Transportation, Konica Minolta, U.S. government contractor Tyler Technologies, Montreal's public transportation system, and, most recently, against Brazil's court system (STJ)... The RansomEXX gang creating a Linux version of their Windows ransomware is in tune with how many companies operate today, with many firms running internal systems on Linux, and not always on Windows Server. A Linux version makes perfect sense from an attacker's perspective; always looking to expand and touch as much core infrastructure as possible in their quest to cripple companies and demand higher ransoms. What we see from RansomEXX may soon turn out to be an industry-defining trend, with other big ransomware groups rolling out their Linux versions in the future as well. And, this trend appears to have already begun. According to cyber-security firm Emsisoft, besides RansomEXX, the Mespinoza (Pysa) ransomware gang has also recently developed a Linux variant from their initial Windows version.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/11/07/0541223 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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The Verdict After Hackaday's Teardown of a Raspberry Pi 400: 'Very, Very Slick'
by Peter Reutemann 09 Nov '20

09 Nov '20

'"You can't send Hackaday a piece of gear without us taking it apart," warns an article shared by Slashdot reader beggarwoman. Hackady's verdict? The new Raspberry Pi 400 "is very, very slick." Inside, there's a flat-flex that connects the keyboard, and you see that big aluminum heat sink. It's almost the full size of the keyboard, and it's thick and heat-taped to the CPU. You know it means business. It's also right up against the aluminum bottom of the keyboard, suggesting it could get radiative help that way, and maybe keep your fingers warm in the winter. (I didn't feel any actual heat, but it's gotta go somewhere, right? There are also vents in the underside of the case.) Four PZ1 screws and a little bit of courage to unstick the pad get you underneath the heat spreader to find, surprise!, a Raspberry Pi 4. This was a little anticlimactic, as I've just spent a couple weeks looking over the schematics for my review of the new Compute Module 4, and it's just exactly what you'd expect. It's a Raspberry Pi 4, with all the ports broken out, inside a nice keyboard, with a beefy heat spreader. Ethernet magnetics sit on one side, and the wireless module sits on the other. That's it! "[C]ombine this with a small touch screen, and run it all off of a 5 V power pack, and you've got a ton of portable computing in a very small package. "If you're not mousing around all the time anyway, there's a certain streamlined simplicity here that's mighty tempting."' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/20/11/07/1938245 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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On Older Versions of Android, Many Let's Encrypt-Secured Sites May Stop Working in 2021
by Peter Reutemann 09 Nov '20

09 Nov '20

'This year Let's Encrypt announced that it's issued a billion certificates, and it's been estimated they've made certs for almost 30% of web domains. But Friday they posted that "The DST Root X3 root certificate that we relied on to get us off the ground is going to expire — on September 1, 2021. Fortunately, we're ready to stand on our own, and rely solely on our own root certificate." "However, this does introduce some compatibility woes." Some software that hasn't been updated since 2016 (approximately when our root was accepted to many root programs) still doesn't trust our root certificate, ISRG Root X1. Most notably, this includes versions of Android prior to 7.1.1. That means those older versions of Android will no longer trust certificates issued by Let's Encrypt. Android has a long-standing and well known issue with operating system updates. There are lots of Android devices in the world running out-of-date operating systems. The causes are complex and hard to fix: for each phone, the core Android operating system is commonly modified by both the manufacturer and a mobile carrier before an end-user receives it. When there's an update to Android, both the manufacturer and the mobile carrier have to incorporate those changes into their customized version before sending it out. Often manufacturers decide that's not worth the effort. The result is bad for the people who buy these devices: many are stuck on operating systems that are years out of date. Currently, 66.2% of Android devices are running version 7.1 or above. The remaining 33.8% of Android devices will eventually start getting certificate errors when users visit sites that have a Let's Encrypt certificate. In our communications with large integrators, we have found that this represents around 1-5% of traffic to their sites. Hopefully these numbers will be lower by the time DST Root X3 expires next year, but the change may not be very significant. Let's Encrypt engineer Jacob Hoffman-Andrews explains that "In the time between now and September 29 we plan to start serving certificates with the 'alternate' link relation 186 to allow Automatic Certificate Management Environment (ACME) clients to programmatically select a chain they prefer." But Friday's blog post explains that won't solve everything: There will be site owners that receive complaints from users and we are empathetic to that being not ideal. We're working hard to alert site owners so you can plan and prepare. We encourage site owners to deploy a temporary fix (switching to the alternate certificate chain) to keep your site working while you evaluate what you need for a long-term solution: whether you need to run a banner asking your Android users on older OSes to install Firefox, stop supporting older Android versions, drop back to HTTP for older Android versions, or switch to a CA that is installed on those older versions. Gizmodo notes that Firefox will be unaffected "since it relies on its own certificate store that includes Let's Encrypt's root, though that wouldn't keep applications from breaking or ensure functionality beyond your browser." They describe Let's Encrypt as "the Mozilla-partnered nonprofit," and offers this succinct summary of the problem. "One of the world's top certificate authorities warns that phones running versions of Android prior to 7.1.1 Nougat will be cut off from large portions of the secure web starting in 2021."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/11/08/1654223 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Generating Flag Emojis
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 Nov '20

08 Nov '20

You may have seen our new Foreign Minister, Nanaia Mahuta, tweeting her congratulations to the next President of the USA, including a couple of country flag emojis. I was looking through the Unicode character list for the codes for country flags, and discovered that there aren’t any, as such. Instead, there is this range of special character codes (“Regional indicator symbols”): 1F1E6 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER A ... 1F1FF REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER Z with a note saying These characters can be used in pairs to represent regional codes. In some emoji implementations, certain pairs may be recognized and displayed by alternate means; for instance, an implementation might recognize F + R and display this combination with a symbol representing the flag of France. So for example if I enter U+1F1F3 (the code for N in the above block) followed by U+1F1FF (the code for Z), being the ISO-3166 regional code for NZ, the text-rendering system could replace them with the NZ flag: 🇳🇿. Anyway, I found out this works in YouTube comments as well. (Not that I’m saying the YouTube commenting system is particularly fine -- but that’s another story...)

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EFF Argues RIAA is 'Abusing DMCA' to Take Down YouTube-DL
by Peter Reutemann 08 Nov '20

08 Nov '20

'While the RIAA has objected to a tool for downloading online videos, EFF senior activist Elliot Harmon responds with this question. "Who died and put them in charge of YouTube?" He asks the question in a new video "explainer" on the controversy, and argues in a new piece at EFF.org that the youtube-dl tool "doesn't infringe on any RIAA copyrights." RIAA's argument relies on a different section of the DMCA, Section 1201. DMCA 1201 says that it's illegal to bypass a digital lock in order to access or modify a copyrighted work. Copyright holders have argued that it's a violation of DMCA 1201 to bypass DRM even if you're doing it for completely lawful purposes; for example, if you're downloading a video on YouTube for the purpose of using it in a way that's protected by fair use. (And thanks to the way that copyright law has been globalized via trade agreements, similar laws exist in many other jurisdictions too.) RIAA argues that since youtube-dl could be used to download music owned by RIAA-member labels, no one should be able to use the tool, even for completely lawful purposes. This is an egregious abuse of the notice-and-takedown system, which is intended to resolve disputes over allegedly infringing material online. Again, youtube-dl doesn't use RIAA-member labels' music in any way. The makers of youtube-dl simply shared information with the public about how to perform a certain task — one with many completely lawful applications. Harmon wants to hear from people using youtube-dl for lawful purposes. And he also links to an earlier EFF piece arguing that DMCA 1201 "is incredibly broad, apparently allowing rightsholders to legally harass any 'trafficker' in code that lets users re-take control of their devices from DRM locks..." And EFF's concern over DMCA 1201 has been ongoing: DMCA 1201 has been loaded with terrible implications for innovation and free expression since the day it was passed. For many years, EFF documented these issues in our "Unintended Consequences" series; we continue to organize and lobby for temporary exemptions to its provisions for the purposes of cellphone unlocking, restoring vintage videogames and similar fair uses, as well as file and defend lawsuits in the United States to try and mitigate its damage. We look forward to the day when it is no longer part of U.S. law. But due to the WIPO Copyright Treaty, the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions infest much of the world's jurisdictions too, including the European Union via the Information Society Directive 2001/29/EC.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/11/07/0313228 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Brave Hits 20 Million Monthly Users a Year After 1.0 Release
by Peter Reutemann 06 Nov '20

06 Nov '20

'One year after its first 1.0 release, Brave says it has hit the milestone of 20.5 million active monthly users. "At the same time last year, the browser had 8.7 million active monthly users, and of the 20 million monthly users, 7 million are daily users, which represents more than a doubling of last year's 3 million," reports ZDNet. "Brave added that since Apple allowed browsers other than its own to be the default option on iOS, it has seen its iOS user base increase by a third." From the report: One of the touted features of the browser is that it hates ads, and will go out of its way to block them, unless users decide to see Brave-powered advertisements. To that end, Brave has hit "2 billion ad confirmation events" and completed 2,215 campaigns from over 460 companies. The browser maker says its users have a click-through rate of 9%, way and away outstripping industry averages. The browser also has its own cryptocurrency, Basic Attention Tokens, that users use to "tip" content creators. Thus far, 26 million of the tokens have been sent to creators. At the time of writing, the blockchain-based token is trading for just under 18 cents, meaning $4.6 million has been sent from users. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/11/05/0424253 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Why Do Printers Still Suck?
by Peter Reutemann 06 Nov '20

06 Nov '20

'Just when we need them the most, with print shops locked down, online schooling in session, and everyone working from home, they fail to step up. From a column: Printers have been my enemy ever since I can remember. My first office job involved an evil printer that suffered daily paper jams. Tasked with fixing it, I suffered frequent burns and paper cuts. It had a door you had to close just so, or it would immediately break again with the dreaded phantom paper jam. It tormented me for months, completely indifferent to my cries. There isn't even any paper in it! More than two decades later, printers haven't improved at all. It feels like printer companies stopped innovating sometime in the '90s when sales stopped climbing. In fact, it's almost as if they've regressed. Manufacturers tempt with unbelievably cheap deals on printers and then nail you on expensive ink. To make sure they get their pound of flesh, they focus an inordinate effort on making sure printers only work with proprietary ink cartridges. [...] Three years and a couple of printers later, sick of being gouged for ink cartridges that always seem to run out at the worst moment, I optimistically signed up for a printing subscription plan. The idea is you are charged a flat fee based on how many pages you print each month, and the printer automatically orders ink refills when it's running low. Reading this back, I can only cringe at my naivety. Things were fine for the first few weeks. Then I made the mistake of turning the printer off. It doesn't like to be turned off. It started emailing me, insisting that it needs to be turned on and connected to the internet so the subscription plan can work properly. Every time I turn it on, it prints an ink-heavy test page. It is incredibly good at printing test pages -- it just won't print the document you want. Things got worse when I made the mistake of changing my internet service provider. I forgot about the printer for a while. Then I suddenly needed it. I didn't have time to set up the Wi-Fi, so I plugged directly into the printer with a good old-fashioned cable. It refused to print. I refused to connect it to the internet, so it refused to print for me. To get it working again I had to completely uninstall everything related to the printer, update my drivers, install three separate programs, carry it to another room to plug directly into my desktop, carry it back again, hold down the correct button sequence at the stroke of midnight, spin around three times, and recite the printer incantation into a mirror. It's finally connected and working ... for now. But I know it's only a matter of time before it betrays me again.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/20/11/05/2049213 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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LibreOffice: OpenOffice Should Give Up And Die, Already
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Nov '20

06 Nov '20

Seems OpenOffice still has the edge in brand recognition over LibreOffice, in spite of being a largely moribund project with no major releases in 6 years. Yet, in spite of occasional talk of shutting it down, it continues to lurk, unloved, in some obscure corner of the ASF Orbiting HQ. <https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/15/libreoffice_openoffice_taunts/>

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AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Processors Set a New Performance Bar Over Intel
by Peter Reutemann 06 Nov '20

06 Nov '20

'AMD made bold claims when the company unveiled its new Zen 3-based Ryzen 5000 series processors early last month. Statements like "historic IPC uplift" and "fastest for gamers" were waved about like flags of victory. However, as with most things in the computing world, independent testing is always the best way to validate claims. Today AMD lifted the embargo on 3rd party reviews and, in testing, AMD's new Ryzen 5000 series CPUs set a new performance bar virtually across the board, and one that Intel currently can't touch. There are four processors in the initial Ryzen 5000 series lineup, though it's a safe bet more will be coming later. The current entry point is the Ryzen 5 5600X 6-core / 8-thread processor, followed by the 8-core / 16-thread Ryzen 7 5800X, 12-core / 24 thread Ryzen 9 5900X, and the flagship 16-core / 32-thread Ryzen 9 5950X. All of these new CPUs are backwards compatible with AMD socket AM4 motherboards. In comparison to Zen 2, Zen 3 has a larger L1 branch target buffer and improved bandwidth through multiple parts of its pipeline with additional load/store flexibility. Where Zen 2 could handle 2 load and 1 store per cycle, Zen 3 can handle 3 load and 2 stores. All told, AMD is claiming an average 19% increase in IPC with Zen 3, which is a huge uplift gen-over-gen. Couple that IPC uplift with stronger multi-core scaling and a new unified L3 cache configuration, and Zen 3's performance looks great across a wide variety of workloads for both content creation and gaming especially. AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X, Ryzen 9 5900X, Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 5 5600X will be priced at $799, $549, $449 and $299, respectively and should be on retail and etail shelves starting today.' -- source: https://slashdot.org/story/20/11/05/208242 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Dell Adding Hardware Privacy Driver For Linux
by Peter Reutemann 05 Nov '20

05 Nov '20

'According to Phoronix, a Dell privacy driver is is being prepared for the Linux kernel. From the report: Beginning in Dell's 2021 laptop models they are providing hardware-based "privacy buttons" to disable microphone and camera support. These new Dell privacy buttons are basically hardware kill switches for the microphone and web camera video stream. The Dell privacy driver sent out on Tuesday for the Linux kernel is about manipulating the relevant LEDs and tracking the status of the hardware-based controls where as the actual toggling of the audio/video support is handled by the hardware. The Dell privacy driver in its current form is talked about for the camera and microphone support but the patch does also note a "PRIVACY_SCREEN_STATUS" bit as well. Presumably they will be extending this privacy driver as well for privacy screen handling around reducing the horizontal/vertical viewing angles of the display. The dell-privacy Linux driver in its initial form can be found via the kernel mailing list. It's great seeing Dell working on this driver punctually for Linux ahead of their next-gen laptops. ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/11/04/2216242 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux Mint Introduces Its Own Take On the Chromium Web Browser
by Peter Reutemann 05 Nov '20

05 Nov '20

'Mint's programmers, led by lead developer, Clement "Clem" Lefebvre, have built their own take on Google's open-source Chromium web browser. ZDNet reports: Some of you may be saying, "Wait, haven't they offered Chromium for years? Well, yes, and no. For years, Mint used Ubuntu's Chromium build. But then Canonical, Ubuntu's parent company, moved from releasing Chromium as an APT-compatible DEB package to a Snap. The Ubuntu Snap software packing system, along with its rivals Flatpak and AppImage, is a new, container-oriented way of installing Linux applications. The older way of installing Linux apps, such as DEB and RPM package management systems for the Debian and Red Hat Linux families, incorporate the source code and hard-coded paths for each program. While tried and true, these traditional packages are troublesome for developers. They require programmers to hand-craft Linux programs to work with each specific distro and its various releases. They must ensure that each program has access to specific libraries' versions. That's a lot of work and painful programming, which led to the process being given the name: Dependency hell. Snap avoids this problem by incorporating the application and its libraries into a single package. It's then installed and mounted on a SquashFS virtual file system. When you run a Snap, you're running it inside a secured container of its own. For Chromium, in particular, Canonical felt using Snaps was the best way to handle this program. [...] Lefebvre wrote, "The Chromium browser is now available in the official repositories for both Linux Mint and LMDE. If you've been waiting for this I'd like to thank you for your patience." Part of the reason was, well, Canonical was right. Building Chromium from source code is one really slow process. He explained, "To guarantee reactivity and timely updates we had to automate the process of detecting, packaging and compiling new versions of Chromium. This is an application which can require more than 6 hours per build on a fast computer. We allocated a new build server with high specifications (Ryzen 9 3900, 128GB RAM, NMVe) and reduced the time it took to build Chromium to a little more than an hour." That's a lot of power! Still, for those who love it, up-to-date builds of Chromium are now available for Mint users. ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/11/03/2157255 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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GitHub Warns Users Reposting YouTube-DL They Could Be Banned
by Peter Reutemann 04 Nov '20

04 Nov '20

'On October 23, 2020, the RIAA decided on action to stunt the growth and potentially the entire future of popular YouTube-ripping tool YouTube-DL. The music industry group filed a copyright complaint with code repository Github, demanding that the project be taken down for breaching the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA. While this was never likely to be well received by the hoards of people who support the software, the response was unprecedented. [...] One of the responses was to repost the content to Github itself, where hundreds of YouTube-DL forks kept the flame alight. A copy even appeared in Github's DMCA notice repository where surprisingly it remains to this day. Now, however, Github is warning of consequences for those who continue to use the platform for deliberate breaches of the DMCA. As previously reported, Github is being unusually sympathetic to the plight of the YouTube-DL developers. Most platforms are very happy to simply follow the rules by removing content in response to a DMCA complaint and standing back while declaring "Nothing to do with us folks." Github, on the other hand, has actively become involved to try and get the project reinstated. Unfortunately, however, there is only so far Github can go, something the company made clear in a statement posted to its DMCA repository this weekend. "If you are looking to file or dispute a takedown notice by posting to this repository, please STOP because we do not accept Pull Requests or other contributions to this repository," wrote Jesse Geraci, Github's Corporate Counsel. "Please note that re-posting the exact same content that was the subject of a takedown notice without following the proper process is a violation of GitHub's DMCA Policy and Terms of Service. If you commit or post content to this repository that violates our Terms of Service, we will delete that content and may suspend access to your account as well," Geraci wrote. This statement caused an update to Github's earlier DMCA notice advice.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/11/02/2250200 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Wildly off topic but!!!
by john 03 Nov '20

03 Nov '20

Hi all, I know, but some light relief for those who have not seen these.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QsIQOevMLg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MHDDSekvcE -- Cheers John

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'youtube-dl' Downloading Software Removed From GitHub By RIAA Takedown Notice
by Peter Reutemann 03 Nov '20

03 Nov '20

'The GitHub repository for the popular youtube-dl utility is offline after GitHub received a DMCA takedown notice from the RIAA. The notice claims that "The clear purpose of this source code is to (i) circumvent the technological protection measures used by authorized streaming services such as YouTube, and (ii) reproduce and distribute music videos and sound recordings owned by our member companies without authorization for such use." "Whether you're looking to backup contents of your personal YouTube account or download some of your favorite YouTuber's videos for offline use, many turn to youtube-dl as the most reliable and in-depth tool for downloading videos from YouTube -- along with many, many other sites that have videos like Vimeo, CNN, etc," writes Kyle Bradshaw via 9to5Google. "Beyond simple downloading features, youtube-dl is also able to convert your download into nearly any format, including creating an mp3 of just a video's audio track." "One of the primary bases for the RIAA's claim is that youtube-dl appears to be developed with the explicit intention of enabling the downloading of copyrighted works, with music videos from the likes of Icona Pop, Justin Timberlake, and Taylor Swift being used to test the tool's functionality, a claim which we were able to independently verify." It's now up to the project's creators to file a counterclaim in the hopes of restoring youtube-dl's status on GitHub.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/10/23/2341202 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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NetMarketShare Is Giving Up
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Nov '20

03 Nov '20

One of the two main companies that tracks web browser market share is leaving the business <https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/02/netmarketshare_to_end_browser_stats/>. The main reason given is that the “User-Agent” string that browsers send as part of HTTP requests is becoming less and less useful. But then, that was never a good way of detecting browser functionality anyway. An outfit called the Web Incubator Community Group (WICG) has a new proposal, called “Client Hints”, which is a much more granular way for the server to interrogate client-side capabilities.

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The Raspberry Pi 400 is a Compact Keyboard With a Built-in Computer
by Peter Reutemann 03 Nov '20

03 Nov '20

'The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced the Raspberry Pi 400, a compact keyboard with an ARM-based computer built in. Just plug it into a TV or monitor using one of its two micro HDMI ports, insert a microSD card, attach a power cord and mouse, and you've got yourself a basic computer for day-to-day tasks, coding, or media playback. It's available starting today as a standalone machine for $70 or in a bundle including a mouse, power supply, microSD card, HDMI cable, and beginner's guide for $100. From a report: The hope is the Pi 400's form factor, plus these optional bundled items, makes it more approachable and user-friendly. That's important when you're selling an affordable computer, and it's especially important when you're selling an accessible device to help children learn to code. It looks more like a piece of consumer electronics than the basis for a DIY project. [...] Aside from its keyboard and form factor, the Raspberry Pi 400 is a very similar computer to last year's Raspberry Pi 4. It's got a slightly faster quad-core 1.8GHz ARM Cortex-A72 CPU, up from 1.5GHz in the Pi 4, 4GB of RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 5.0, and 802.11ac Wi-Fi. There are a pair of micro HDMI ports that can each output up to 4K / 60Hz, two USB 3.0 ports, and a single USB 2.0 port. Power is provided via a USB-C port, there's a microSD card slot for storage, and there's a GPIO header for attaching a variety of more niche devices.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/20/11/02/1437202 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Chrome Will Soon Have Its Own Dedicated Certificate Root Store
by Peter Reutemann 03 Nov '20

03 Nov '20

'Google has announced plans to run its own certificate root program/store for Chrome, in a major architectural shift for the company's web browser program. From a report: A "root program" or a "root store" is a list of root certificates that operating systems and applications use to verify the identity of a software program during its installation routine. Browsers like Chrome use root stores to check the validity of an HTTPS connection. They do this by looking at the website's TLS certificate and checking if the root certificate that was used to generate the TLS cert is included in the local root program/store. Since its launch in late 2009, Chrome was configured to use the "root store" of the underlying platform. For example, Chrome on Windows checked a site's TLS certificate against the Microsoft Trusted Root Program, the root store that ships with Windows; Chrome on macOS relied on the Apple Root Certificate Program; and so on. But in a wiki page, shared with ZDNet by one of our readers, Google announced plans to create its own root store, named the Chrome Root Program, that will ship with all versions of Chrome, on all platforms, except iOS.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/11/02/1638225 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Dr. Strangenet—or, how I stopped worrying and embraced the WFH IT apocalypse
by Peter Reutemann 03 Nov '20

03 Nov '20

'We are now a solid two quarters into our new work-from-home bizarro world. Many companies found themselves in a bit of a pickle as workforces went from occasional or limited to everyone all-the-time, throwing up whatever they could provision to allow for remote access and continued productivity (or at least some semblance of it). We're well past the emergency stage, folks. For many of us, this will be ongoing and potentially permanent. And the way we do business will have to change—including how we structure our IT operations.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/features/2020/11/future-of-collaboration-03/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

2 1

Could RISC-V Processors Compete With Intel, ARM, and AMD?
by Peter Reutemann 02 Nov '20

02 Nov '20

'As promised, SiFive has unveiled a new computer featuring the company's SiFive FU740 processor based on RISC-V architecture," reports Liliputing: The company, which has been making RISC-V chips for several years, is positioning its new SiFive HiFive Unmatched computer as a professional development board for those interested in working with RISC-V. But unlike the company's other HiFive boards, the new Unmatched model is designed so that it can be easily integrated into a standard PC... SiFive says the system can support GNU/Linux distributions including Yocto, Debian, and Fedora. "SiFive is releasing the HiFive Unleashed in an effort to afford developers the ability to build RISC-V based systems, using readily available, off-the-shelf parts," explains Forbes: SiFive says it built the board to address the market need for easily accessible RISC-V hardware to further advance development of new platforms, products, and software using the royalty-free ISA... A short video demo shows the HiFive Unmatched installed in a common mid-tower PC chassis, running the included Linux distro, with an AMD Radeon graphics card pushing the pixels. In the video, the HiFive Unmatched is compiling an application and is shown browsing the web and opening a PDF. SiFive also notes that video playback is accelerated in hardware with the included version of Linux. "At the moment, these development PCs are early alternatives, most likely targeted at hobbyists and engineers who may snap them up when they become available in the fourth quarter for $665," notes VentureBeat. But they add that "While it's still early days, it's not inconceivable that RISC-V processors could someday be alternatives to Intel-based PCs and PC processors." The startup has raised $190 million to date, and former Qualcomm executive Patrick Little recently joined SiFive as CEO. His task will be to establish the company's RISC-V processors as an alternative to ARM. This move comes in the wake of Nvidia's $40 billion acquisition of the world's leading processor architecture. If Little is also looking to challenge Intel and AMD in PCs, he'll have his work cut out for him. For starters, SiFive is currently focused on Linux-based PCs, not Microsoft Windows PCs. Secondly, SiFive wouldn't build these processors or computers on its own. Its customers — anyone brave enough to take on the PC giants — would have to do that. "I wouldn't see this as SiFive moving out of the box. It's more like they're expanding their box," said Linley Group senior analyst Aakash Jani. "They're using their core architecture to enable other chip designers to build PCs, or whatever they plan to build."' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/20/11/01/0127253 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Linux Foundation Creates Its Own Versions of Apple/Google Coronavirus Tracing Apps
by Peter Reutemann 02 Nov '20

02 Nov '20

'"The Linux Foundation has formed a new group to provide public health authorities with free technology for tracking the spread of the coronavirus and future epidemics," writes Business Insider. Launched in July, the group has already released two apps "that notify users if they've been in contact with someone who has tested positive with COVID-19." Since these apps are open source, people can contribute code and customize them, allowing regions with similar needs to collaborate, general manager at Linux Foundation Public Health, Dan Kohn, told Business Insider. Developers that want to build an app off these projects can access or download the source code. These apps take advantage of technology launched by Apple and Google, which can be integrated into any app, that uses Bluetooth on people's smartphones to track who a user has been in close proximity with, without identifying the specific people. If anyone tests positive for COVID-19 and uploads that information to a database run by a local public health authority, any user who has been in close contact with that person will get a notification through their app saying they may have been exposed — again, without identifying who has COVID-19. If someone knows that they may have been exposed, they can either self-quarantine or get tested. "Essentially we think exposure notification could have a big impact on reducing the overall rate of exposure," Kohn said. An Oxford University study in April said that if about 60% of the population used a contact tracing app, it could grind the diseases spread to a halt. Researchers on the team also found that digital contact tracing can cut down spread even at much lower levels of usage.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/11/01/0214201 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

New Chinese Laptop Appears With 14nm Loongsoon Quad-Core 3A4000 CPU
by Peter Reutemann 01 Nov '20

01 Nov '20

'"BDY electronics, a Chinese laptop manufacturer, has unveiled an all-new 13.3-inch laptop sporting Longsoon's new Dragon Core 3A4000 quad-core 14nm CPU," reports Tom's Hardware: The biggest feature of this laptop is the CPU, featuring Longsoon's latest 14nm quad-core 3A4000 CPU. Longsoon claims the CPU is 100% faster than the previous generation 3A3000 and is comparable in performance to AMD's "Excavator" cores used in the A8-7680 Godavari architecture. Of course, this demonstrates how far behind Longsoon is from TSMC and Intel in performance, speed, and efficiency of its latest node. However, the chairman of Loongsoon Technologies, Hu Weiwu, says, "14nm and 28nm (for its GPU node) is enough for 90% of applications.," so it appears the company isn't too worried about catching up to the performance leaders like Intel and AMD. Due to this laptop being in the Chinese market, Windows is not supported at all. It only runs Chinese "domestic operating systems" that are typically modified versions of Linux. Fortunately, this does mean you can install any Linux flavor you want on the laptop, which can be handy if you don't want to run China-specific apps only. Slashdot reader Hmmmmmm points out that Loongson's upcoming 3a5000 CPU "will be a 12nm CPU that is 50% faster than the 3A4000."' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/20/10/31/1926242 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

2 1

Software Freedom Conservancy: Microsoft Should Resign from RIAA Over Youtube-DL Takedown Demand
by Peter Reutemann 01 Nov '20

01 Nov '20

'"We believe that youtube-dl has substantial non-infringing uses," argues the non-profit Software Freedom Conservancy. But while that software faces a DMCA takedown notice from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), GitHub's owner Microsoft is also a paying member of the RIAA. The Software Freedom Conservancy argues that this leaves Microsoft "stuck between their industry association's abuses of the law and the needs of FOSS projects for which they provide infrastructure." While under current law (which we object to), complying with the takedown notice is admittedly the fastest way to limit Microsoft's liability, we view Microsoft's membership in the RIAA as a much bigger liability to our community, now that Microsoft controls GitHub. We call on Microsoft to resign from the RIAA and remove their conflict of interest in this matter. This is an important opportunity for Microsoft to stand up for the values of software freedom... To build a strong community of FOSS developers, we need confidence that our software hosting platforms will fight for our rights. While we'd prefer that Microsoft would simply refuse to kowtow to institutions like the RIAA and reject their DMCA requests, we believe in the alternative Microsoft can take the easy first step of resigning from RIAA in protest. We similarly call on all RIAA members who value FOSS to also resign.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/10/31/0416208 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Registering An XSS Attack As A UK Company Name
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 31 Oct '20

31 Oct '20

It is permissible under UK law <https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/30/companies_house_xss_silliness/> to register a company name that, when inserted without escapes into a web page, will trigger certain ... interesting ... behaviour. Companies House blocked such an attempt, but frankly I don’t see why they don’t just allow it. It would serve as a wake-up call to a whole lot of lazy/naïve web developers, anyway.

1 0

Is X.Org Server Abandonware?
by Peter Reutemann 31 Oct '20

31 Oct '20

'Phoronix ran a story this morning with this provocative headline: "It's Time To Admit It: The X.Org Server Is Abandonware." The last major release of the X.Org Server was in May 2018 but don't expect the long-awaited X.Org Server 1.21 to actually be released anytime soon. This should hardly be surprising but a prominent Intel open-source developer has conceded that the X.Org Server is pretty much "abandonware" with Wayland being the future. [Or, more specifically, that "The main worry I have is that xserver is abandonware without even regular releases from the main branch."] This comes as X.Org Server development hits a nearly two decade low, the X.Org Server is well off its six month release regimen in not seeing a major release in over two years, and no one is stepping up to manage the 1.21 release. A year ago was a proposal to see new releases driven via continuous integration testing but even that didn't take flight and as we roll into 2021 there isn't any motivation for releasing new versions of the X.Org Server by those capable of doing so. Red Hat folks have long stepped up to manage X.Org Server releases but with Fedora Workstation using Wayland by default and RHEL working that way, they haven't been eager to devote resources to new X.Org Server releases. Other major stakeholders also have resisted stepping up to ship 1.21 or commit any major resources to new xorg-server versions.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/10/25/1523253 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

2 1

NSA “Learned Its Lesson” About Crypto Backdoors -- Take Their Word For It
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 29 Oct '20

29 Oct '20

Some years ago, the US National Security Agency was quite keen to see the “Dual EC DRBG” pseudorandom number generator become widely adopted for secure encryption purposes <https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/28/nsa_backdoor_wyden/>. But two independent researchers at Microsoft discovered that there were weaknesses in the algorithm, that could be exploited to implant backdoors -- that is, it was possible to compromise the algorithm such that the output still looked random, but a knowledgeable attacker would be able to predict enough statistical characteristics of the bitstream to fatally weaken its randomness. Naturally you can figure out what the NSA were assuming -- that they would be the only ones in the world with the capability to take advantage of such a weakness. This turned out to be wrong. Apparently a report was written up about “lessons learned” from this episode (would it be too much to assume it concluded that such backdoors should never be planted again?) ... but the NSA cannot find the report.

1 0

Hackers Can Now Reverse Engineer Intel Updates Or Write Their Own Custom Firmware
by Peter Reutemann 29 Oct '20

29 Oct '20

'Researchers have extracted the secret key that encrypts updates to an assortment of Intel CPUs, a feat that could have wide-ranging consequences for the way the chips are used and, possibly, the way they're secured. The key makes it possible to decrypt the microcode updates Intel provides to fix security vulnerabilities and other types of bugs. Having a decrypted copy of an update may allow hackers to reverse engineer it and learn precisely how to exploit the hole it's patching. The key may also allow parties other than Intel -- say a malicious hacker or a hobbyist -- to update chips with their own microcode, although that customized version wouldn't survive a reboot. "At the moment, it is quite difficult to assess the security impact," independent researcher Maxim Goryachy said in a direct message. "But in any case, this is the first time in the history of Intel processors when you can execute your microcode inside and analyze the updates." Goryachy and two other researchers -- Dmitry Sklyarov and Mark Ermolov, both with security firm Positive Technologies -- worked jointly on the project. The key can be extracted for any chip -- be it a Celeron, Pentium, or Atom -- that's based on Intel's Goldmont architecture. In a statement, Intel officials wrote: "The issue described does not represent security exposure to customers, and we do not rely on obfuscation of information behind red unlock as a security measure. In addition to the INTEL-SA-00086 mitigation, OEMs following Intel's manufacturing guidance have mitigated the OEM specific unlock capabilities required for this research. The private key used to authenticate microcode does not reside in the silicon, and an attacker cannot load an unauthenticated patch on a remote system."' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/20/10/28/217212 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Wikimedia Is Moving To GitLab
by Peter Reutemann 29 Oct '20

29 Oct '20

'The Wikimedia Foundation, the American non-profit organization that owns the internet domain names of many movement projects and hosts sites like Wikipedia, has decided to migrate their code repositories from Gerrit to Gitlab. Slashdot reader nfrankel shares the announcement: For the past two years, our developer satisfaction survey has shown that there is some level of dissatisfaction with Gerrit, our code review system. This dissatisfaction is particularly evident for our volunteer communities. The evident dissatisfaction with code review, coupled with an internal review of our CI tooling and practice makes this an opportune moment to revisit our code review choices. While Gerrit's workflow is in many respects best-in-class, its interface suffers from usability deficits, and its workflow differs from mainstream industry practices. This creates barriers to entry for the community and slows onboarding for WMF technical staff. In addition, there are a growing number of individuals and teams (both staff and non-staff) who are opting to forgo the use of Gerrit and instead use a third-party hosted option such as GitHub. Reasons vary for the choice to use third-party hosting but, based on informal communication, there are 3 main groupings: lower friction to create new repositories; easier setup and self-service of Continuous Integration configuration; and more familiarity with pull-request style workflows. All these explanations point to friction in our existing code-review system slowing development rather than fostering it. The choice to use third-party code-hosting hurts our collaboration (both internal and external), adds to the confusion of onboarding, and makes it more difficult to maintain code standards across repositories. At the same time, there is a requirement that all software which is deployed to Wikimedia production is hosted and deployed from Gerrit. If we fail to address the real usability problems that users have with Gerrit, people will continue to launch and build projects on whatever system it is they prefer -- Wikimedia's GitHub already contains 152 projects, the Research team has 127 projects. This raises the question: if Gerrit has identifiable problems, why can't we solve those problems in Gerrit? Gerrit is open source (Apache licensed) software; modifications are a simple matter of programming. [...] Upstream has improved the UI in recent releases, and releases have become more frequent; however, upgrade path documentation is often lacking. The migration from Gerrit 2 to Gerrit 3, for example, required several upstream patchsets to avoid the recommended path of several days of downtime. This is the effort required to maintain the status quo. Even small improvements require effort and time as, often, our use-case is very different from the remainder of the Gerrit community. ' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/10/28/2114259 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

RIAA's YouTube-DL Takedown Ticks Off Developers and GitHub's CEO
by Peter Reutemann 28 Oct '20

28 Oct '20

'An RIAA takedown request, which removed the YouTube-DL repository from GitHub, has ticked off developers and GitHub's CEO. Numerous people responded by copying and republishing the contested code, including in some quite clever ways. Meanwhile, GitHub's CEO is "annoyed" as well, offering help to get the repo reinstated. TorrentFreak reports: Soon after the RIAA notice took YouTube-DL offline many developers spoke out in protest. They believe that the music industry group went too far and started to republish copies of the code everywhere. Over the past several days, we have seen hundreds of new forks and copies appear online. These were also posted to GitHub, where YouTube-DL forks remain easy to find and continue to be uploaded. The code was also posted in some places one wouldn't expect. For example, there's still a copy in GitHub's DMCA notice repository, which some people find quite amusing. And the list of pull requests can be quite entertaining in themselves. One of the most creative responses we've seen was posted to Twitter by @GalacticFurball who encoded YouTube-DL into images that can be easily shared, encouraging others to share these as well. "I would also suggest that you save and repost the images, as one single source kind of defeats the point. Maybe start a hashtag trend or something. Make songs, and poetry. Get that data out there." This triggered even more creativity, with people finding alternative means to share the code online, all to counter the RIAA's takedown request. Meanwhile, GitHub's CEO Nat Friedman wasn't sitting still either. While the Microsoft-owned developer platform had to respond to the takedown notice, Friedman himself actively reached out to YouTube-DL's developers to help them get their project reinstated. The CEO joined YouTube-DL's IRC channel hoping to connect with the owner of the repository so he can help to get it unsuspended. "GitHub exists to help developers. We never want to interfere with their work. We want to help the youtube-dl maintainers defeat the DMCA claim so that we can restore the repo," Friedman told TorrentFreak, explaining his actions. GitHub's CEO suggested that YouTube-DL won't be reinstated in its original form. But, the software may be able to return without the rolling cipher circumvention code and the examples of how to download copyrighted material. ' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/10/27/2230218 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Facebook Further Borgs Its Oculus Acquisition
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 27 Oct '20

27 Oct '20

When Facebook first acquired VR headset company Oculus back in 2014, the CEO of the latter claimed “I guarantee that you won't need to log into your Facebook account every time you wanna use the Oculus Rift.” That statement, to reuse an old phrase from the Vietnam War, is no longer operative <https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/27/facebook_oculus_accounts/>. They have also threatened to ban accounts that try to share more than one headset, but have resiled from that by popular demand, at least temporarily. Candidate for quote of the week: “While I do completely understand your concerns, we do need to have you comply with the Facebook TOS.”

1 0

Chrome OS May Finally Be Getting a Dark Mode
by Peter Reutemann 27 Oct '20

27 Oct '20

'The Verge: Chrome OS may finally be getting a dark mode, but so far it's only been spotted in its experimental Canary channel, Android Central reported. Before you go tinkering with Canary just be advised: Canary is Google's "bleeding edge" Chrome OS path, which receives daily updates of features before they've been widely tested. It can only be accessed from Chromebooks switched into a special developer mode (not to be confused with the Chrome OS Developer channel). Google warns that Canary can be "unstable." But at the moment, to activate dark mode on your Chromebook, you need to have the Canary channel installed. Once you've done that, Android Central says you just open Chrome and type in chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark and chrome://flags/#enable-webui-dark-mode into the URL bar. I should note I tried this on my older Chromebook and wasn't able to get it to work. But here's the view Android Police captured. Android Central says the dark mode has some bugs, but notes it seems to apply across the UI, not just as darker backgrounds. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/10/26/2047207 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Study shows which messengers leak your data, drain your battery, and more
by Peter Reutemann 27 Oct '20

27 Oct '20

'Link previews are a ubiquitous feature found in just about every chat and messaging app, and with good reason. They make online conversations easier by providing images and text associated with the file that’s being linked. Unfortunately, they can also leak our sensitive data, consume our limited bandwidth, drain our batteries, and, in one case, expose links in chats that are supposed to be end-to-end encrypted. Among the worst offenders, according to research published on Monday, were messengers from Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Line.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/10/study-shows-which-me… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Linux Flying Your Plane!?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 27 Oct '20

27 Oct '20

Linux hardware guru Greg Kroah-Hartman on the use of Linux in safety-critical systems <https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/26/linux_kernel_intel/>: What does he think about using Linux in a safety-critical environment? “Anyone who’s ever flown in a plane, it’s been controlled by Linux, for the past decade, so it’s in safety-critical environments today,” he said, grinning. “It runs telecoms systems, it runs stock markets, it runs satellites, it keeps mega yachts from tipping over, it’s been in automotive as well, in the head units for a long time … nobody wants to write an operating system, they just want to write applications to solve their problems.” He also has a warning for those trying to selectively backport security fixes to older kernel versions.

1 0

Vint Cerf Is Working on an Internet for Outer Space
by Peter Reutemann 27 Oct '20

27 Oct '20

'"TCP/IP doesn't work at interplanetary distances," 77-year-old Vinton Cerf tells Quanta magazine. "So we designed a set of protocols that do." Specifically, bundle protocols: a disruption/delay-tolerant networking (DTN) protocol with nodes that can also store information: A data packet traveling from Earth to Jupiter might, for example, go through a relay on Mars, Cerf explained. However, when the packet arrives at the relay, some 40 million miles into the 400-million-mile journey, Mars may not be oriented properly to send the packet on to Jupiter. "Why throw the information away, instead of hanging on to it until Jupiter shows up?" Cerf said. This store-and-forward feature allows bundles to navigate toward their destinations one hop at a time, despite large disruptions and delays... So, a couple decades after conceiving of bundle protocols, is the interplanetary internet up and running? We don't have to build the whole thing and then hope somebody uses it. We sought to get standards in place, as we have for the internet; offer those standards freely; and then achieve interoperability so that the various spacefaring nations could help each other. We're taking the next obvious step for multi-mission infrastructure: designing the capability for an interplanetary backbone network. You build what's needed for the next mission. As spacecraft get built and deployed, they carry the standard protocols that become part of the interplanetary backbone. Then, when they finish their primary scientific mission, they get repurposed as nodes in the backbone network. We accrete an interplanetary backbone over time. In 2004, the Mars rovers were supposed to transmit data back to Earth directly through the deep space network — three big 70-meter antennas in Australia, Spain and California. However, the channel's available data rate was 28 kilobits per second, which isn't much. When they turned the radios on, they overheated. They had to back off, which meant less data would come back. That made the scientists grumpy. One of the JPL engineers used prototype software — this is so cool! — to reprogram the rovers and orbiters from hundreds of millions of miles away. We built a small store-and-forward interplanetary internet with essentially three nodes: the rovers on the surface of Mars, the orbiters and the deep space network on Earth. That's been running ever since. We've been refining the design of those protocols, implementing and testing them. The latest protocols are running back-and-forth relays between Earth and the International Space Station... We did another test at the ISS where the astronauts were controlling a little robot vehicle in Germany.' -- source: https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/10/25/2329239 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

So How Good Is Edge on Linux?
by Peter Reutemann 26 Oct '20

26 Oct '20

'"No one asked Microsoft to port its Edge browser to Linux," writes Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at ZDNet, adding "Indeed, very few people asked for Edge on Windows. "But, here it is. So, how good — or not — is it..?" The new release comes ready to run on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and openSUSE Linux distributions... Since I've been benchmarking web browsers since Mosaic rolled off the bit assembly line, I benchmarked the first Edge browser and Chrome 86 and Firefox 81 on my main Linux production PC.... First up: JetStream 2.0, which is made up of 64 smaller tests. This JavaScript and WebAssembly benchmark suite focuses on advanced web applications. It rewards browsers that start up quickly, execute code quickly, and run smoothly. Higher scores are better on this benchmark. JetStream's top-scorer — drumroll please — was Edge with 136.971. But, right behind it within the margin of error, was Chrome with a score of 132.413. This isn't too surprising. They are, after all, built on the same platform. Back in the back was Firefox with 102.131. Next up: Kraken 1.1. This benchmark, which is based on the long-obsolete SunSpider, measures JavaScript performance. To this basic JavaScript testing, it added typical use-case scenarios. Mozilla, Firefox's parent organization, created Kraken. With this benchmark, the lower the score, the better the result. To no great surprise, Firefox took first place here with 810.1 milliseconds (ms). Following it was Chrome with 904.5ms and then Edge with 958.8ms. The latest version of WebXPRT is today's best browser benchmark. It's produced by the benchmark professionals at Principled Technology. This company's executives were the founders of the Ziff Davis Benchmark Operation, the gold-standard of PC benchmarking. WebXPRT uses scenarios created to mirror everyday tasks. These include Photo Enhancement, Organize Album, Stock Option Pricing, Local Notes, Sales Graphs, and DNA Sequencing. Here, the higher the score, the better the browser. On this benchmark, Firefox shines. It was an easy winner with a score of 272. Chrome edges out Edge 233 to 230. The article concludes that "Oddly, Edge, which turned in a poor performance when I recently benchmarked it on Windows, did well on Linux. Who'd have guessed...? Edge is a good, fast browser on Linux. If you're a Windows user coming over to Linux or you're doing development work aimed at Edge, then by all means try Edge on Linux. It works and it works well." Yet Vaughan-Nichols admits he's still not going to switch to Edge. "Chrome is more than fast enough for my purposes and I don't want my information tied into the Microsoft ecosystem. For better or worse, mine's already locked into the Googleverse and I can live with that."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/10/25/0118218 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Snopes.com Exposes 4chan Campaign to 'Kindle Mistrust in Snopes'
by Peter Reutemann 26 Oct '20

26 Oct '20

'"This is the perfect moment to do this. This is an age of conspiracies for boomers... Let's kindle their mistrust in Snopes and other fact checkers," wrote one 4chan poster. Snopes.com later reported: In October 2020, a series of threads was posted to the anonymous internet forum 4Chan as part of operation "Snopes-Piercer," a smear campaign with the stated goal of "red-pilling some normies" — internet slang for a propaganda technique in which distorted, fabricated, or skewed information is used to further a self-determined "truth." In order to "red-pill" these people (one thread noted that "boomers" were the primary target), the plan was to create and circulate doctored screenshots of Snopes fact checks to make it appear as if Snopes fact-checkers addressed claims that we had not. Over the next few days, users created and shared these fake Snopes screenshots in a number of additional 4chan threads. These images were also posted on social media sites, like Twitter.... Some were humorous (we did not actually address the claim that CNN reporter Chris Cuomo was actually Fredo from "The Godfather"), some were insidious (we did not really publish a fact check questioning the Holocaust), and some were political (we did not publish a fact check questioning the results of the 2020 election before the election happened)... These red pill campaigns all follow a basic formula. The user decides what they want to be true and then they set out to find, or manufacture, the evidence to support that truth. A concerted effort is then made to spread these false narratives to as wide an audience as possible in order to "red-pill" the general population. In this formula, the desired "truth" comes first. The "evidence" comes second. It goes without saying that this method is antithetical to the mission of Snopes, fact-checkers in general, journalists, and anyone seeking an objective view of reality.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/10/24/1952242 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

'Apple, Google and a Deal That Controls the Internet'
by Peter Reutemann 26 Oct '20

26 Oct '20

'The New York Times' looks at "a deal that controls the internet" — Apple's agreement to feature Google as the preselected search engine for iPhones, saying America's Justice Department views it "as a prime example of what prosecutors say are Google's illegal tactics to protect its monopoly and choke off competition..." The scrutiny of the pact, which was first inked 15 years ago and has rarely been discussed by either company, has highlighted the special relationship between Silicon Valley's two most valuable companies — an unlikely union of rivals that regulators say is unfairly preventing smaller companies from flourishing. "We have this sort of strange term in Silicon Valley: co-opetition," said Bruce Sewell, Apple's general counsel from 2009 to 2017. "You have brutal competition, but at the same time, you have necessary cooperation." Apple and Google are joined at the hip even though Mr. Cook has said internet advertising, Google's bread and butter, engages in "surveillance" of consumers and even though Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder, once promised "thermonuclear war" on his Silicon Valley neighbor when he learned it was working on a rival to the iPhone. Apple and Google's parent company, Alphabet, worth more than $3 trillion combined, do compete on plenty of fronts, like smartphones, digital maps and laptops. But they also know how to make nice when it suits their interests. And few deals have been nicer to both sides of the table than the iPhone search deal. Nearly half of Google's search traffic now comes from Apple devices, according to the Justice Department, and the prospect of losing the Apple deal has been described as a "code red" scenario inside the company. When iPhone users search on Google, they see the search ads that drive Google's business. They can also find their way to other Google products, like YouTube. A former Google executive, who asked not to be identified because he was not permitted to talk about the deal, said the prospect of losing Apple's traffic was "terrifying" to the company. The Justice Department, which is asking for a court injunction preventing Google from entering into deals like the one it made with Apple, argues that the arrangement has unfairly helped make Google, which handles 92 percent of the world's internet searches, the center of consumers' online lives... [C]ompetitors like DuckDuckGo, a small search engine that sells itself as a privacy-focused alternative to Google, could never match Google's tab with Apple. Apple now receives an estimated $8 billion to $12 billion in annual payments — up from $1 billion a year in 2014 — in exchange for building Google's search engine into its products. It is probably the single biggest payment that Google makes to anyone and accounts for 14 to 21 percent of Apple's annual profits. That's not money Apple would be eager to walk away from. In fact, Mr. Cook and Mr. Pichai met again in 2018 to discuss how they could increase revenue from search. After the meeting, a senior Apple employee wrote to a Google counterpart that "our vision is that we work as if we are one company," according to the Justice Department's complaint. The article remembers Steve Jobs unveiling the iPhone in 2007 — and then inviting Google CEO Eric Schmidt onto the stage. Schmidt, who was also on Apple's board of directors, joked "If we just sort of merged the two companies, we could just call them AppleGoo." He'd also added that with Google search on the iPhone, "you can actually merge without merging."' -- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/20/10/25/180214 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Slashdot Asks: How Do You Feel About Btrfs?
by Peter Reutemann 25 Oct '20

25 Oct '20

'Linux Journal re-visiting the saga of the btrfs file system (initially designed at Oracle in 2007): The btrfs filesystem has taunted the Linux community for years, offering a stunning array of features and capability, but never earning universal acclaim. Btrfs is perhaps more deserving of patience, as its promised capabilities dwarf all peers, earning it vocal proponents with great influence. Still, [while] none can argue that btrfs is unfinished, many features are very new, and stability concerns remain for common functions. Most of the intended goals of btrfs have been met. However, Red Hat famously cut continued btrfs support from their 7.4 release, and has allowed the code to stagnate in their backported kernel since that time. The Fedora project announced their intention to adopt btrfs as the default filesystem for variants of their distribution, in a seeming juxtaposition. SUSE has maintained btrfs support for their own distribution and the greater community for many years. For users, the most desirable features of btrfs are transparent compression and snapshots; these features are stable, and relatively easy to add as a veneer to stock CentOS (and its peers). Administrators are further compelled by adjustable checksums, scrubs, and the ability to enlarge as well as (surprisingly) shrink filesystem images, while some advanced btrfs topics (i.e. deduplication, RAID, ext4 conversion) aren't really germane for minimal loopback usage. The systemd init package also has dependencies upon btrfs, among them machinectl and systemd-nspawn . Despite these features, there are many usage patterns that are not directly appropriate for use with btrfs. It is hostile to most databases and many other programs with incompatible I/O, and should be approached with some care. The original submission drew reactions from three disgruntled btrfs users. But the article goes on to explore providers of CentOS-compatible btrfs-enabled kernels, ultimately opining that "There are many 'rough edges' that are uncovered above with btrfs capabilities and implementations, especially with the measures taken to enable it for CentOS. Still, this is far better than ext2/3/4 and XFS, discarding all the desirable btrfs features, in that errors can be known because all filesystem content is checksummed." It would be helpful if the developers of btrfs and ZFS could work together to create a single kernel module, with maximal sharing of "cleanroom" code, that implemented both filesystems... Oracle is itself unwilling to settle these questions with either a GPL or BSD license release of ZFS. Oracle also delivers a btrfs implementation that is lacking in features, with inapplicable documentation, and out-of-date support tools (for CentOS 8 conversion). Oracle is the impediment, and a community effort to purge ZFS source of Oracle's contributions and unify it with btrfs seems the most straightforward option... It would also be helpful if other parties refrained from new filesystem efforts that lack the extensive btrfs functionality and feature set (i.e. Microsoft ReFS). Until such a day that an advanced filesystem becomes a ubiquitous commodity as Linux is as an OS, the user community will continue to be torn between questionable support, lack of features, and workarounds in a fragmented btrfs community. This is an uncomfortable place to be, and we would do well to remember the parties responsible for keeping us here. So how do Slashdot's readers feel about btrfs?' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/10/24/0146258 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Google Patched an Actively-Exploited Zero-Day Bug in Chrome
by Peter Reutemann 25 Oct '20

25 Oct '20

'"Google released an update to its Chrome browser that patches a zero-day vulnerability in the software's FreeType font rendering library that was actively being exploited in the wild, Threatpost reported this week: Security researcher Sergei Glazunov of Google Project Zero discovered the bug which is classified as a type of memory-corruption flaw called a heap buffer overflow in FreeType. Glazunov informed Google of the vulnerability on Monday. Project Zero is an internal security team at the company aimed at finding zero-day vulnerabilities. By Tuesday, Google already had released a stable channel update, Chrome version 86.0.4240.111, that deploys five security fixes for Windows, Mac & Linux — among them a fix for the zero-day, which is being tracked as CVE-2020-15999 and is rated as high risk. "Google is aware of reports that an exploit for CVE-2020-15999 exists in the wild," Prudhvikumar Bommana of the Google Chrome team wrote in a blog post announcing the update Tuesday... "The fix is also in today's stable release of FreeType 2.10.4," Ben Hawkes, technical lead for the Project Zero team, tweeted. Meanwhile, security researchers took to Twitter to encourage people to update their Chrome browsers immediately to avoid falling victim to attackers aiming to exploit the flaw... In addition to the FreeType zero day, Google patched four other bugs — three of high risk and one of medium risk — in the Chrome update released this week... So far in the last 12 months Google has patched three zero-day vulnerabilities in its Chrome browser.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/10/25/029202 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Chrome Caught Exempting Google Sites From User Requests To Delete Data
by Peter Reutemann 25 Oct '20

25 Oct '20

'This week the Verge reported: If you ask Chrome to delete all cookies and site data whenever you quit the browser, it's reasonable to expect that this policy applies to all websites. Recently, though, a bug in the browser meant data wasn't being removed for two sites in particular: Google and YouTube. This problem was first documented by iOS developer Jeff Johnson on his blog. Johnson found that in Chrome version 86.0.4240.75, "local storage" data for Google.com and YouTube.com stuck around even after restarting the browser. We've been able to replicate similar behavior... The Register notes that Chrome's behavior could allow Google to stash cookie-style data as site data, allowing it to track users even when they think they're being careful by deleting their cookie and site data every time they close the browser. In a statement, Google said it was aware of the issue and was working on a fix... At least one of the affected sites, YouTube, appears to have already been fixed. After we upgraded the Chrome browser to version 86.0.4240.111, YouTube's local storage data seems to successfully purge after a restart, although the data from Google.com still sticks around.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/10/25/0155246 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Options For ps
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 Oct '20

25 Oct '20

One look at the man page for ps(1) <https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/ps.1.html> and you see all the different traditional option syntaxes it tries to be compatible with. The BSD style doesn’t even prefix options with dashes, which can lead to ambiguities and is best avoided. If this is what you’re used to, try to wean yourself off it. To list some useful info about all processes, you can do ps -ef or, for even more info, try ps -eF One thing I find annoying about this it reports less precision in process start times for long-running processes. To get around this, you can use a custom format. For example ps -eo pid,ppid,lstart,tty,etime,cmd shows some similar info to the default “-f” format, but always includes start time and elapsed time to the nearest second, regardless of how long the process has been running. Another useful command to use with ps is pgrep(1) <https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/pgrep.1.html>, which lets you filter processes to get information for according to various criteria. Or you could just use grep(1) on the output from ps, as I suspect a lot of people do. ;)

1 1

Debian Donates 10,000 Euros to Fund Free and Decentralized Livestreaming
by Peter Reutemann 25 Oct '20

25 Oct '20

'PeerTube (developed by Framasoft) is "the free and decentralized alternative to video platforms, providing you over 400,000 videos published by 60,000 users and viewed over 15 million times," according to its web site. But now they're exploring livestreaming, writes Debian developer Phil Hands (Slashdot reader #2,365): Holding DebConf20 online this year highlighted the effort involved in setting up Live Streaming using Free Software — something that is beyond the reach of many smaller events which is where PeerTube with Live Streaming should be a perfect fit. In June PeerTube had posted a roadmap with a humble request for donations in lieu of a crowdfunding campaign: At a time when no one knows what the future holds, we deem it inappropriate to start a crowdfunding campaign and threaten not to do our best on PeerTube if we don't get the necessary funds. We believe in the public utility of PeerTube, so much so that we commit to working on it for six months to make this v3 happen, even if we must do it with our own funds (which we had already done for v2). We still hope that by sharing this roadmap as widely as possible, some of you will support us in our approach with a donation that will allow us to fund this project. And this week PeerTube's official Twitter feed announced that "Thanks to Debian's €10,000 donation we've just reached the 4th step of our PeerTube fundraising" — livestreaming. "Many thanks to all those who donated. And it's not too late to contribute." "We hope this unconventional gesture from the Debian project will help us make this year somewhat less terrible," added the Debian blog, "and give us, and thus humanity, better Free Software tooling to approach the future." It describes their donation as "a strong sign of recognition from an international project — one of the pillars of the Free Software world — towards a small French association which offers tools to liberate users from the clutches of the web's giant monopolies." And secondly, "it's a substantial amount of help in these difficult times, supporting the development of a tool which equally belongs to and is useful to everyone. The strength of Debian's gesture proves, once again, that solidarity, mutual aid and collaboration are values which allow our communities to create tools to help us strive towards Utopia."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/10/24/010213 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

WHO To Grant Wikipedia Free Use of Its Published Material To Combat Covid Misinformation
by Peter Reutemann 23 Oct '20

23 Oct '20

'As part of efforts to stop the spread of false information about the coronavirus pandemic, Wikipedia and the World Health Organization announced a collaboration on Thursday: The health agency will grant the online encyclopedia free use of its published information, graphics and videos. The collaboration is the first between Wikipedia and a health agency. From a report: "We all consult just a few apps in our daily life, and this puts W.H.O. content right there in your language, in your town, in a way that relates to your geography," said Andrew Pattison, a digital content manager for the health agency who helped negotiate the contract. "Getting good content out quickly disarms the misinformation." Since its start in 2001, Wikipedia has become one of the world's 10 most consulted sites; it is frequently viewed for health information. The agreement puts much of the W.H.O.'s material into the Wikimedia "commons," meaning it can be reproduced or retranslated anywhere, without the need to seek permission -- as long as the material is identified as coming from the W.H.O. and a link to the original is included. "Equitable access to trusted health information is critical to keeping people safe and informed," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O.'s director general. His agency translates its work into six official languages, which do not include, for example, Hindi, Bengali, German or Portuguese, so billions of people cannot read its documents in their native or even second language. Wikipedia articles, by contrast, are translated into about 175 languages. The first W.H.O. items used under the agreement are its "Mythbusters" infographics, which debunk more than two dozen false notions about Covid-19. Future additions could include, for example, treatment guidelines for doctors, said Ryan Merkley, chief of staff at the Wikimedia Foundation, which produces Wikipedia. If the arrangement works out, it could be extended to counter misinformation regarding AIDS, Ebola, influenza, polio and dozens of other diseases, Mr. Merkley said, "But this was something that just had to happen now." Eventually, live links will be established that would, for example, update global case and death numbers on Wikipedia as soon as the W.H.O. posts them, Mr. Pattison said.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/10/22/1833243 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

2 5

Firefox 'Site Isolation' Feature Enters User Testing, Expected Next Year
by Peter Reutemann 23 Oct '20

23 Oct '20

'Site Isolation is a modern browser security feature that works by separating each web page and web iframes in their own operating system process in order to prevent sites from tampering or stealing with each other's data. The feature was first deployed with Google Chrome in mid-2018, with the release of Chrome 67. Although initially, Site Isolation was meant to be deployed as a general improvement to Chrome's security posture, the feature came just in time to serve as a protective measure against the Spectre vulnerability impacting modern CPUs. Seeing the feature's success, Mozilla also announced plans to support it with the Firefox browser in February 2019, as part of an internal project codenamed Fission. For both Google and Mozilla, implementing Site Isolation was a time-consuming operation, requiring engineers to re-write large chunks of their browsers' internal architecture. The process took about two years for both Google and Mozilla. While Site Isolation is now a stable feature inside Chrome, this work is now nearing its completion inside Firefox. According to an update to the Project Fission wiki page, Site Isolation can now be enabled inside versions of Firefox Nightly, the Firefox version where new features are tested.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/10/22/1717203 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Ubuntu Linux 20.10 'Groovy Gorilla' is Here With Renewed Raspberry Pi Focus
by Peter Reutemann 23 Oct '20

23 Oct '20

'As stated earlier, new Ubuntu versions come April and October, and wouldn't you know it, we are at the end of the latter. With Halloween a bit more than a week away, Canonical today releases Ubuntu 20.10. Ubuntu's version numbering scheme is based on year (YY), a period, and the month (MM). For instance, the previous stable version was released this past April and it is numbered as 20.04. In addition, Canonical (the operating system's owner) assigns names -- sequentially and alphabetically. The alphanumeric code name is always based on two words starting with the same sequential letter -- an adjective followed by an animal name. The aforementioned 20.04 is named "Focal Fossa." This time, the operating system will be called Ubuntu 20.10 "Groovy Gorilla." This new version of the desktop operating system is loaded with fixes, new features, and a renewed focus on the now-iconic Raspberry Pi. Yes, folks, with a compatible Pi (models with 4GB or 8GB of RAM), you can now have the full Ubuntu desktop experience.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/10/22/1737224 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Vector Instructions: Everything Old Is New Again
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 Oct '20

22 Oct '20

This article <https://www.sigarch.org/simd-instructions-considered-harmful/> (linked from <https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/21/sifive_vector_cpu_core/>) goes into how RISC-V implements vector instructions, and how this differs from the conventional SIMD approach taken by existing architectures like x86, ARM and MIPS. These CPUs add instructions that can operate on two, four or eight operands at once, in parallel. One drawback is that every new data type (and every new extension to dealing with greater parallelism) requires a new set of instructions, and so we a massive growth in the size of instruction sets for these machines over time. And then there is the trickiness of generating code using these instructions: even though you mostly leave it to the compiler to worry about this sort of thing nowadays, it still involves the generation of complicated sequences to set up a loop and deal with odd numbers of operands that don’t fit into the exact multiples that the instructions can deal with. So you wonder why a small sequence of source code can generate a whole lot of machine code. RISC-V, on the other hand, hearkens back to the grand-daddy of vector machines, the original Cray supercomputer family from the 1970s and 1980s. Here you have a vector-length register, which tells the CPU how many operands you have. You then set up operand pointer registers and write basically one instruction that operates on a single set of operands, and leave it to the hardware to automatically repeat this operation the required number of times, batching the iterations up to whatever size a particular implementation can handle in parallel. So the same code can run unchanged on future hardware with more parallel function units, and automatically take advantage of the greater performance.

1 0

TrueNAS R-series hyperconverged appliances blend storage and compute
by Peter Reutemann 22 Oct '20

22 Oct '20

'Today, storage vendor iXsystems is launching a new R-series hyperconverged infrastructure appliance for its TrueNAS product line—and the first alpha release of TrueNAS SCALE, a Debian Linux-based version of the TrueNAS storage distribution. The new R-series appliances are designed to run either traditional, FreeBSD-based TrueNAS, or the new Debian-based TrueNAS SCALE. The series launches with four models—all rack-mounted—ranging from the 1U, 16-bay TrueNAS R10 to the up to 12U, 52 bay TrueNAS R50. All four models offer Ethernet connectivity up to dual 100GbE, as well as optional dual 32Gb Fibre Channel and Intel Xeon CPUs. The three larger models are expandable via separate JBOD shelves as well. TrueNAS itself is an OpenZFS-based storage distribution, which can be purchased preinstalled on NAS hardware or installed by users on their own generic PC equipment. It offers users the rich feature set of the ZFS filesystem—including block-level checksums and data healing, advanced storage topologies, atomic COW snapshots, rapid asymmetric replication, and more—along with a broad range of network sharing protocols, including SMB, NFS, sFTP, and iSCSI.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/10/ixsystems-launches-new-hyperconverg… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Mozilla Fears 'Collateral Damage' in Google Antitrust Case
by Peter Reutemann 22 Oct '20

22 Oct '20

'Mozilla has responded to the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit against Google, but rather than commending the DOJ's action, the Firefox browser maker has voiced concerns that its commercial partnership could make it "collateral damage" in the fight against Google's alleged monopolistic practices. From a report: The DOJ, with support from 11 U.S. states, confirmed yesterday that it is suing Google for allegedly violating anti-competition laws by crowding out rivals in the internet search and advertising markets. "Small and independent companies such as Mozilla thrive by innovating, disrupting, and providing users with industry-leading features and services in areas like search," Mozilla chief legal officer Amy Keating wrote in a blog post. "The ultimate outcomes of an antitrust lawsuit should not cause collateral damage to the very organizations -- like Mozilla -- best positioned to drive competition and protect the interests of consumers on the web." Mozilla has a long and complicated history with Google. In recent years, Mozilla has launched countless privacy campaigns against the internet giant's various online properties, and just last month it introduced a new browser add-on to crowdsource research into YouTube's opaque recommendation algorithm. On the other hand, Mozilla relies heavily on royalties from a search engine partnership with Google. The duo recently extended their deal to make Google the default search engine inside Firefox in the U.S. and other markets, which will reportedly secure Mozilla up to $450 million over the next three years.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/10/21/1633207 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Microsoft Releases Chromium-Based Edge Preview For Linux
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '20

21 Oct '20

'Last month, Microsoft officials said they'd release a preview of the new Chromium-based Edge browser for Linux some time in October. On October 20, Microsoft made good on the promise, making available the Edge Dev Channel build for Linux. ZDNet reports: The new release supports Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and openSUSE Linux distributions. Microsoft is planning to release weekly builds, like it does with the Dev Channel builds for other platforms. To get started, users can download and install a .deb or .rpm package directly from the Edge Insider site, which will configure a system to get future automatic updates. Or users can install Edge from Microsoft's Linux Software Repository. More detailed instructions are available on Microsoft's Chredge-on-Linux blog post. ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/10/20/2144234 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Seven Mobile Browsers Vulnerable To Address Bar Spoofing Attacks
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '20

21 Oct '20

'In a report published today by cyber-security firm Rapid7, the company said it worked with Pakistani security researcher Rafay Baloch to disclose ten new address bar spoofing vulnerabilities across seven mobile browser apps. From a report: Impacted browsers include big names like Apple Safari, Opera Touch, and Opera Mini, but also niche apps like Bolt, RITS, UC Browser, and Yandex Browser. The issues were discovered earlier this year and reported to browser makers in August. The big vendors patched the issues right away, while the smaller vendors didn't even bother replying to the researchers, leaving their browsers vulnerable to attacks. "Exploitation all comes down to 'JavaScript shenanigans'," said Rapid7's Research Director, Tod Beardsley. The Rapid7 exec says that by messing with the timing between when the page loads and when the browser gets a chance to refresh the address bar URL, a malicious site could force the browser to show the wrong address.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/10/20/1850252 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Backblaze Hard Drive Stats Q3 2020
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '20

21 Oct '20

'Backblaze's Q3 2020 hard drive stats: As of September 30, 2020, Backblaze had 153,727 spinning hard drives in our cloud storage ecosystem spread across four data centers. Of that number, there were 2,780 boot drives and 150,947 data drives. This review looks at the Q3 2020 and lifetime hard drive failure rates of the data drive models currently in operation in our data centers and provides a handful of insights and observations along the way. [...] There are several models with zero drive failures in the quarter. That's great, but when we dig in a little we get different stories for each of the drives. The 18TB Seagate model (ST18000NM000J) has 300 drive days and they've been in service for about 12 days. There were no out of the box failures which is a good start, but that's all you can say. The 16TB Seagate model (ST16000NM001G) has 5,428 drive days which is low, but they've been around for nearly 10 months on average. Still, I wouldn't try to draw any conclusions yet, but a quarter or two more like this and we might have something to say. The 4TB Toshiba model (MD04ABA400V) has only 9,108 drive days, but they have been putting up zeros for seven quarters straight. That has to count for something. The 14TB Seagate model (ST14000NM001G) has 21,120 drive days with 2,400 drives, but they have only been operational for less than one month. Next quarter will give us a better picture. The 4TB HGST (model: HMS5C4040ALE640) has 274,923 drive days with no failures this quarter.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/20/10/20/1927247 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Adblockers Installed 300,000 Times Are Malicious and Should Be Removed Now
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '20

21 Oct '20

'Adblocking extensions with more than 300,000 active users have been surreptitiously uploading user browsing data and tampering with users' social media accounts thanks to malware its new owner introduced a few weeks ago, according to technical analyses and posts on Github. Hugo Xu, developer of the Nano Adblocker and Nano Defender extensions, said 17 days ago that he no longer had the time to maintain the project and had sold the rights to the versions available in Google's Chrome Web Store. Xu told me that Nano Adblocker and Nano Defender, which often are installed together, have about 300,000 installations total. Four days ago, Raymond Hill, maker of the uBlock Origin extension upon which Nano Adblocker is based, revealed that the new developers had rolled out updates that added malicious code. The first thing Hill noticed the new extension doing was checking if the user had opened the developer console. If it was opened, the extension sent a file titled "report" to a server at https://def.dev-nano.com/. "In simple words, the extension remotely checks whether you are using the extension dev tools -- which is what you would do if you wanted to find out what the extension is doing," he wrote. The most obvious change end users noticed was that infected browsers were automatically issuing likes for large numbers of Instagram posts, with no input from users. Cyril Gorlla, an artificial intelligence and machine learning researcher at the University of California in San Diego, told me that his browser liked more than 200 images from an Instagram account that didn't follow anyone. The screenshot to the right shows some of the photos involved.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/10/20/2116228 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Surface Duo review—Orphaned Windows hardware makes a poor Android device
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '20

20 Oct '20

'After one of the strangest run-ups to launch in smartphone history, the Microsoft Surface Duo is here. Microsoft's first-ever Android phone (sorry, we're not counting the Nokia X) was announced and demoed an entire year before its release, hinting at what a long and winding road the Surface Duo took from inception to shipping. The hardware apparently dates back to plans to revitalize Windows for phones, but after that plan fell through, the hardware was upcycled into the most head-scratching Android phone of the year. The Surface Duo sales pitch is that foldable display technology isn't ready yet, so try this best-we-can-do-right-now version that features two rigid, 5.6-inch OLED displays attached together with a 360 hinge. Microsoft is calling this a "productivity" device thanks to it having the side-by-side app capability of a tablet-style foldable smartphone without any of the janky display technology. Microsoft's website also says the Duo was designed to "inspire people to rethink how they want to use the device in their pocket," indicating that the company definitely sees this as a primary device. I bring up Microsoft's sales pitch because, boy, is the Surface Duo bad at doing the things Microsoft says it's supposed to be good at. The phone feels like it was made without any respect to ergonomics, hand size, pocket-size, or anything that makes a good Android phone. It has crippling productivity problems that negate any benefit you could get from the two-screen design, it's extremely awkward in day-to-day use, and it's very buggy. The phone is missing a whole host of features you would expect for the stratospheric $1400 asking price, and even the hardware that is here seems like it's a least a year old. The Surface Duo feels like a phone that was slapped together without a plan, and the reports of the phone's history indicate that's what actually happened. We would like to gently welcome Microsoft to the Android ecosystem, but we are not grading $1400 smartphones on a curve. Microsoft needed to knock this out of the park. Instead, the company turned in a borderline incompetent smartphone that I really had to force myself to use during the review period.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/10/surface-duo-review-orphaned-windows… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Google Chat goes free in 2021, while Hangouts loses features this month
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '20

20 Oct '20

'With the rise of Google Chat, Google Hangouts is going to die. Google initially announced this all the way back in 2018, and now we're getting more details about the service's slow shutdown and transition plans for the services that rely on it. We've already seen Hangouts lose location sharing and SMS support, and in the blog post, Google announced that phone calls, Google Fi support, and Google Voice support will soon be stripped away from the service.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/10/google-chat-goes-free-in-2021-while… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Fancy Bear imposters are on a hacking extortion spree
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '20

20 Oct '20

'Ransomware attacks that tear through corporate networks can bring massive organizations to their knees. But even as these hacks reach new popularity highs—and new ethical lows—among attackers, it's not the only technique criminals are using to shake down corporate victims. A new wave of attacks relies instead on digital extortion—with a side of impersonation. On Wednesday, the Web security firm Radware published extortion notes that had been sent to a variety of companies around the world. In each of them, the senders purport to be from the North Korean government hackers Lazarus Group, or APT38, and Russian state-backed hackers Fancy Bear, or APT28. The communications threaten that if the target doesn’t send a set number of bitcoin—typically equivalent to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars—the group will launch powerful distributed denial of service attacks against the victim, walloping the organization with a fire hose of junk traffic strategically directed to knock it offline. This type of digital extortion—give us what we’re asking for and we won’t attack you—has resurfaced repeatedly throughout the last decade. But in recent months, criminals have attempted to capitalize on fear about high-profile nation-state attacks, combined with anxieties related to rising ransomware attacks, to try to make some extra money.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/10/fancy-bear-imposters… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Hackers are using a severe Windows bug to backdoor unpatched servers
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '20

20 Oct '20

'One of the most critical Windows vulnerabilities disclosed this year is under active attack by hackers who are trying to backdoor servers that store credentials for every user and administrative account on a network, a researcher said on Friday. Zerologon, as the vulnerability has been dubbed, gained widespread attention last month when the firm that discovered it said it could give attackers instant access to active directories, which admins use to create, delete, and manage network accounts. Active directories and the domain controllers they run on are among the most coveted prizes in hacking, because once hijacked, they allow attackers to execute code in unison on all connected machines. Microsoft patched CVE-2020-1472, as the security flaw is indexed, in August. On Friday, Kevin Beaumont, working in his capacity as an independent researcher, said in a blog post that he had detected attacks on the honeypot he uses to keep abreast of attacks hackers are using in the wild. When his lure server was unpatched, the attackers were able to use a powershell script to successfully change an admin password and backdoor the server.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/10/hackers-are-using-a-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Raspberry Pi Foundation Launches Compute Module 4 for Industrial Users
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '20

20 Oct '20

'The Raspberry Pi Foundation is launching a new product today -- the Compute Module 4. From a report: If you've been keeping an eye on the Raspberry Pi releases, you know that the flagship Raspberry Pi 4 was released in June 2019. The Compute Module 4 features the same processor, but packed in a compute module for industrial use cases. A traditional Raspberry Pi is a single-board computer with a ton of ports sticking out. Compute Modules are somewhat different. Those system-on-module variants are more compact single-board computers without any traditional port. It lets you create a prototype using a traditional Raspberry Pi, and then order a bunch of Compute Modules to embed in your commercial products. "Over half of the seven million Raspberry Pi units we sell each year go into industrial and commercial applications, from digital signage to thin clients to process automation," Eben Upton wrote on the Raspberry Pi blog. Some things are strictly similar between the Raspberry Pi 4 and the Compute Module 4, such as the 64-bit ARM-based processor with VideoCore VI graphics. This is going to represent a huge upgrade for previous Compute Module customers. In particular, you get much better video performance with 4Kp60 hardware decode for H.265 videos, 1080p60 hardware decode for H.264 videos, 1080p30 hardware encode of H.264 videos. You can also take advantage of the dual HDMI interfaces to connect up to two 4K displays at 60 frames per second.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/10/19/175255 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Three npm Packages Opened Remote-Access Shells on Linux and Windows Systems
by Peter Reutemann 19 Oct '20

19 Oct '20

'"Three JavaScript packages have been removed from the npm portal on Thursday for containing malicious code," reports ZDNet. "According to advisories from the npm security team, the three JavaScript libraries opened shells on the computers of developers who imported the packages into their projects." The shells, a technical term used by cyber-security researchers, allowed threat actors to connect remotely to the infected computer and execute malicious operations. The npm security team said the shells could work on both Windows and *nix operating systems, such as Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and others. All three packages were uploaded on the npm portal in May (first) and September 2018 (last two). Each package had hundreds of downloads since being uploaded on the npm portal. The packages names were: plutov-slack-client nodetest199 nodetest1010 "Any computer that has this package installed or running should be considered fully compromised. All secrets and keys stored on that computer should be rotated immediately from a different computer," the npm security team said.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/10/18/2321208 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux 5.10 Solves the Year 2038 Problem Until 2486
by Peter Reutemann 19 Oct '20

19 Oct '20

'The Linux 5.10 kernel's XFS file-system will have two new on-disk meta-data capabilities, reports Phoronix: 1. The size of inode btrees in the allocation group is now recorded. This is for increasing redundancy checks and also allowing faster mount times. 2. Support for timestamps now until the year 2486. This "big timestamps" feature is the refactoring of their timestamp and inode encoding functions to handle timestamps as a 64-bit nanosecond counter and bit shifting to increase the effective size. This now allows XFS to run well past the Year 2038 problem (where storing the time since 1970 in seconds will no longer fit in a signed 32-bit integer and thus wraparound) to now the Year 2486. Making a new XFS file-system with bigtime enabled allows a timestamp range from December 1901 to July 2486 rather than December 1901 to January 2038. For preserving backwards compatibility, the big timestamps feature is not currently enabled by default. ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/10/17/2237236 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Bash Hackers’ Wiki
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Oct '20

18 Oct '20

Found this useful collection of Bash tips and tricks. May not be all that well maintained, but I found some handy pages, like this list <https://wiki.bash-hackers.org/scripting/bashchanges> of the more interesting features that were introduced in the various versions of Bash. I was looking for something like this because the Bash version in my Debian Unstable installations was just upgraded to 5.1.

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Need A New Computer For Homeschooling? How About a 2007-Vintage MacBook?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 17 Oct '20

17 Oct '20

PC sales have been given a boost by, among other things, the need for schooling the young ones from home, but there’s no reason why they need the latest and greatest hardware for this. How about something from over a decade ago? Here a long-time collector of same <https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/16/need_a_new_computer_for/> reports how Apple-branded gear from that era can be obtained quite cheaply, is a lot easier to service and upgrade than the current stuff, and while it is not supported by current versions of Apple’s own OS, something like Linux will work just fine. That way you get a modern web browser, and enough grunt to stream video. What more could you ask for?

1 0

Quote Of The Week: The State Of Microsoft
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Oct '20

16 Oct '20

>From this <https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2020/10/15/microsoft_adopting_goog…> reader comment: ... today's Microsoft users really are left with best guesses [as to what their software is doing]. It's sad that web searches reveal that everybody's first concern on [Macs]/Linux is installing 3rd party things, but the first concern for everybody on Windows is uninstalling 1st party things. Ironically, nobody on Windows seems to use the term "jailbreak” ... ... yet.

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Should Windows Move To A Linux Kernel?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Oct '20

16 Oct '20

An engineer at Canonical has poured cold water <https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/15/even_2020_cannot_bring_forth/> over the suggestion by Eric Raymond that Microsoft might move to substituting a Linux kernel over its own in the Windows OS. Sure, the idea seems complicated and expensive, and very likely troublesome, too. But since when have Windows upgrades not been troublesome? Even updates between different versions of what is ostensibly all the same OS, Windows 10, have been far from smooth lately. Attempting the level of compatibility needed for every Win32 API and syscall would be a huge undertaking. Consider that the WINE folks have already provided a usable fraction of this, with resources that are only a drop in the bucket compared to those available to Microsoft. And as for the vast array of drivers enjoyed by the NT kernel, Barnes reckoned that shunting them into Linux would cost millions. Sure. But would it cost as much as having to continue maintaining them? Particularly since most of those drivers would not be needed, because Linux already has its own native ones. Furthermore, rebasing Windows on Linux could have the ironic effect of stifling competition should a kernel monoculture take hold. Interesting to discuss this use of the term “monoculture”. Linux is already adaptable to a wider range of platforms and applications than Windows can manage. This in spite of the fact that the Windows NT kernel has been fragmented into a number of different versions, including about 5 or 6 different ones for ARM, with little or no compatibility between them. Linux is able to manager better interoperability than that, even between versions for entirely different architectures.

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Google and Intel Warn of High-Severity Bluetooth Security Bug In Linux
by Peter Reutemann 15 Oct '20

15 Oct '20

'An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google and Intel are warning of a high-severity Bluetooth flaw in all but the most recent version of the Linux Kernel. While a Google researcher said the bug allows seamless code execution by attackers within Bluetooth range, Intel is characterizing the flaw as providing an escalation of privileges or the disclosure of information. The flaw resides in BlueZ, the software stack that by default implements all Bluetooth core protocols and layers for Linux. Besides Linux laptops, it's used in many consumer or industrial Internet-of-things devices. It works with Linux versions 2.4.6 and later. So far, little is known about BleedingTooth, the name given by Google engineer Andy Nguyen, who said that a blog post will be published "soon." A Twitter thread and a YouTube video provide the most detail and give the impression that the bug provides a reliable way for nearby attackers to execute malicious code of their choice on vulnerable Linux devices that use BlueZ for Bluetooth. Intel, meanwhile, has issued this bare-bones advisory that categorizes the flaw as privilege-escalation or information-disclosure vulnerability. The advisory assigned a severity score of 8.3 out of a possible 10 to CVE-2020-12351, one of three distinct bugs that comprise BleedingTooth. "Potential security vulnerabilities in BlueZ may allow escalation of privilege or information disclosure," the advisory states. "BlueZ is releasing Linux kernel fixes to address these potential vulnerabilities." Intel, which is a primary contributor to the BlueZ open source project, said that the most effective way to patch the vulnerabilities is to update to Linux kernel version 5.9, which was published on Sunday. Those who can't upgrade to version 5.9 can install a series of kernel patches the advisory links to. Maintainers of BlueZ didn't immediately respond to emails asking for additional details about this vulnerability. Ars Technica points out that since BleedingTooth requires proximity to a vulnerable device, there's not much reason for people to worry about this vulnerability. "It also requires highly specialized knowledge and works on only a tiny fraction of the world's Bluetooth devices," it adds.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/10/15/0043232 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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KDE Plasma 5.20 Released
by Peter Reutemann 15 Oct '20

15 Oct '20

'KDE's Plasma 5.20 is now available, bringing a bunch of refinements as well as some larger features. Some of the KDE Plasma 5.20 highlights include (via Phoronix): - Numerous fixes to the KWin window manager / compositor including a number of Wayland fixes. Among the Wayland work in Plasma 5.20 includes Klipper support and middle-click paste, mouse and touchpad support nearly on par to X11, window thumbnails in the task manager, crash fixes, and more. - Improved notifications. - Different redesigns and additions to the KDE System Settings from SMART monitoring to better looking interfaces. - Redesigned on-screen displays. - Various tack manager and system tray improvements. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/10/14/0058213 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Zoom To Roll Out End-to-End Encrypted (E2EE) Calls
by Peter Reutemann 15 Oct '20

15 Oct '20

'Video conferencing platform Zoom announced today plans to roll out end-to-end encryption (E2EE) capabilities starting next week. From a report: E2EE will allow Zoom users to generate individual encryption keys that will be used to encrypt voice or video calls between them and other conference participants. These keys will be stored locally and will not be shared with Zoom servers, meaning the software company won't be able to access or intercept any ongoing E2EE meetings. Support for E2EE calls will first be part of Zoom clients to be released next week. To use the new feature, users must update theri clients next week and enable support for E2EE calls at the account level. This green shield will contain a lock if E2EE is active. If the lock is absent, Zoom will use its default AES 256-bit GCM encryption scheme, which the company uses to secure current communications, but which the company can also intercept.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/10/14/1722237 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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WordPress Versus Jamstack
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Oct '20

14 Oct '20

Welcome to a new buzzword: “Jamstack”, which stands for “JavaScript, APIs and HTML Markup”. Or, in other words, websites made up of static pages, with all the dynamism implemented by JavaScript running on the browser. Hmm, maybe not quite all--that “APIs” part does still imply server-side dynamism of some sort. Seems the founder of WordPress is less than keen on the idea. WordPress, of course, is built very heavily around PHP code doing dynamic things (like reading and writing databases) server-side. Maybe the difference between the two is more one of degree and centralization rather than anything hard-and-fast. <https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/13/wordpress_matt_vs_netlify_matt/>

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Oh, Those Lascivious Sinful Onions ...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Oct '20

14 Oct '20

A seed company had one of its ads banned by Facebook after the image in it was deemed to contain “overtly sexual positioning”. To the normal human eye it just looks like a picture of some onions. Not even the most depraved imagination seems incapable of conjuring more than that out of it. Judge for yourself <https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/13/in_brief_ai/> ...

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Meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 13 Oct '20

13 Oct '20

Hi everyone Due to labour day, our next (and last meeting before the AGM) will be next Monday already. Ian will talk a few minutes about his experience upgrading his Ubuntu to 20.04.1. However, we could do with additional content. Suggestions? Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 577-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Notepad++/Windows -> Notepadqq/Linux
by Peter Reutemann 13 Oct '20

13 Oct '20

Hi everyone Today, I was looking for a (graphical) text editor that could search through a directory structure and replace a particular string in lots of config files. Just using find in conjunction with sed wasn't gonna cut it, as I needed to inspect each individual file first (but then do a single subversion commit covering all the files). While searching on alternativeto.net for an alternative to Notepad++, using this URL: https://alternativeto.net/software/notepad-plus-plus/ I came across Notepadqq, which had the desired functionality: https://notepadqq.com/ Just like Notepad++, it also has syntax highlighting for lots of different file types. It's great to have such a wide variety of editors out there! :-) Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Long-term WLUG member featured in a good-news article
by Eric Light 13 Oct '20

13 Oct '20

Hi everyone! I apologise if this isn't appropriate here (it does verge on a political post), but I noticed a familiar name in The Spinoff today. Most of you will know Roderick Aldridge from his membership in the WLUG over the years. It's been quite nice to see his writing on non-technical issues as well. https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/12-10-2020/im-80-years-old-ive-never-touch… Thanks Roderick :) E -------------------------------------------- Q: Why is this email five sentences or less? A: http://five.sentenc.es

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Linux 5.9 Boosts CPU Performance With FSGSBASE Support
by Peter Reutemann 13 Oct '20

13 Oct '20

'FSGSBASE support in Linux "has the possibility of helping Intel/AMD CPU performance especially in areas like context switching that had been hurt badly by Spectre/Meltdown and other CPU vulnerability mitigations largely on the Intel side," Phoronix wrote back in August. As it started its journey into the kernel, they provided a preview on August 10: The FSGSBASE support that was finally mainlined a few days ago for Linux 5.9 is off to providing a nice performance boost for both Intel and AMD systems... FSGSBASE support for the Linux kernel has been around a half-decade in the making and finally carried over the finish line by one of Microsoft's Linux kernel engineers... FSGSBASE particularly helps out context switching heavy workloads like I/O and allowing user-space software to write to the x86_64 GSBASE without kernel interaction. That in turn has been of interest to Java and others...On Linux 5.9 where FSGSBASE is finally mainlined, it's enabled by default on supported CPUs. FSGSBASE can be disabled at kernel boot time via the "nofsgsbase" kernel option. Today on the Linux kernel mailing list, Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 5.9: Ok, so I'll be honest - I had hoped for quite a bit fewer changes this last week, but at the same time there doesn't really seem to be anything particularly scary in here. It's just more commits and more lines changed than I would have wished for. And Phoronix reported: Linux 5.9 has a number of exciting improvements including initial support for upcoming Radeon RX 6000 "RDNA 2" graphics cards, initial Intel Rocket Lake graphics, NVMe zoned namespaces (ZNS) support, various storage improvements, IBM's initial work on POWER10 CPU bring-up, the FSGSBASE instruction is now used, 32-bit x86 Clang build support, and more. See our Linux 5.9 feature overview for the whole scoop on the many changes to see with this kernel.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/10/12/0029215 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Apple's T2 Security Chip Has an Unfixable Flaw
by Peter Reutemann 13 Oct '20

13 Oct '20

'A recently released tool is letting anyone exploit an unusual Mac vulnerability to bypass Apple's trusted T2 security chip and gain deep system access. The flaw is one researchers have also been using for more than a year to jailbreak older models of iPhones. But the fact that the T2 chip is vulnerable in the same way creates a new host of potential threats. Worst of all, while Apple may be able to slow down potential hackers, the flaw is ultimately unfixable in every Mac that has a T2 inside. From a report: In general, the jailbreak community haven't paid as much attention to macOS and OS X as it has iOS, because they don't have the same restrictions and walled gardens that are built into Apple's mobile ecosystem. But the T2 chip, launched in 2017, created some limitations and mysteries. Apple added the chip as a trusted mechanism for securing high-value features like encrypted data storage, Touch ID, and Activation Lock, which works with Apple's "Find My" services. But the T2 also contains a vulnerability, known as Checkm8, that jailbreakers have already been exploiting in Apple's A5 through A11 (2011 to 2017) mobile chipsets. Now Checkra1n, the same group that developed the tool for iOS, has released support for T2 bypass. On Macs, the jailbreak allows researchers to probe the T2 chip and explore its security features. It can even be used to run Linux on the T2 or play Doom on a MacBook Pro's Touch Bar. The jailbreak could also be weaponized by malicious hackers, though, to disable macOS security features like System Integrity Protection and Secure Boot and install malware. Combined with another T2 vulnerability that was publicly disclosed in July by the Chinese security research and jailbreaking group Pangu Team, the jailbreak could also potentially be used to obtain FileVault encryption keys and to decrypt user data. The vulnerability is unpatchable, because the flaw is in low-level, unchangeable code for hardware. "The T2 is meant to be this little secure black box in Macs -- a computer inside your computer, handling things like Lost Mode enforcement, integrity checking, and other privileged duties," says Will Strafach, a longtime iOS researcher and creator of the Guardian Firewall app for iOS. "So the significance is that this chip was supposed to be harder to compromise -- but now it's been done."' -- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/20/10/12/1854254 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5304 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Five-Eyes Nations + Japan, India Ask Big Tech To Bake Backdoors Into Everything
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 12 Oct '20

12 Oct '20

The abovementioned nations have issued a joint statement <https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/11/international_statementon_end_to_end…> where they “urge industry to address our serious concerns where encryption is applied in a way that wholly precludes any legal access to content”. One of the ways to do this is “Enable law enforcement access to content in a readable and usable format where an authorisation is lawfully issued, is necessary and proportionate, and is subject to strong safeguards and oversight”. To the extent that this is not calling for restrictions on strong encryption altogether, merely on its wide adoption by certain large companies, I can live with it. Just so long as we are not forced into using the products and services provided by these companies as an inescapable part of our daily lives.

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The Unreasonable Effectiveness Of The Julia Programming Language
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 10 Oct '20

10 Oct '20

A report from the recent JuliaCon <https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/10/the-unreasonable-effectiveness-of-t…>: Six years ago, I wrote in these pages about the enduring prominence of Fortran for scientific computing and compared it with several other languages. I ended that article with a prediction that, in 10 years, a new language called Julia stood a good chance of becoming the one that scientists would turn to when tackling large-scale numerical problems. My prediction was not very accurate, though. It actually only took Julia about half that time. He goes on to talk about the “two-language problem” and the “expression problem”, and how Julia solves these through its “multiple-dispatch” feature. A key point is that, even with all these advanced features, it manages to maintain program speed close to that of C++.

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controlling network manager from the console
by Peter Reutemann 08 Oct '20

08 Oct '20

Hi everyone For a project at work, I'm working with a Nvidia Jetson Nano (https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/autonomous-machines/embedded-systems/jetson-na…) In order to get it hooked up to the wireless network, I came across the following tutorial: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/adding-wifi-to-the-nvidia-jetson/all The interesting tidbit in this article was the "nmcli" tool (https://linux.die.net/man/1/nmcli) to control the network manager from the console. Really neat! 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/

3 3

Botched Excel Import May Have Caused Loss Of 15,841 UK COVID-19 Cases
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Oct '20

07 Oct '20

Looks like someone tried to load a file of nationwide Coronavirus test results into Microsoft Excel, and exceeded its maximum-row limit <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/10/excel-glitch-may-have-caused-uk…>. The omission has since been fixed.

1 2

Free Software Foundation Turns 35
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Oct '20

07 Oct '20

<https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/06/fsf_35/>: The FSF is keen that all should don their sandals and share in the celebration, perhaps by trying out an approved GNU/Linux distribution, or switching out a proprietary app like Microsoft Office for LibreOffice, or Adobe Photoshop for the GNU Image Manipulation Program. Heck, one could even have a crack at GNU Emacs and celebrate a keyboard shortcut or two.

1 0

Python 3.9 Is Out
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Oct '20

07 Oct '20

Worth noting from <https://devclass.com/2020/10/06/python-3_9/>: * Merging of dictionaries with “|” and “|=” operators * Generics in type hints * General expressions now allowed in decorators (I didn’t actually realize there were restrictions before) * New PEG parser, with option to revert to old parser for now (not that I expect to notice any difference between the two) * Deprecation of features for Python 2 backward compatibility (to be removed altogether in 3.10)

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Oracle vs Google Goes To The US Supreme Court
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Oct '20

07 Oct '20

The US Supreme Court is due to hear Google’s appeal tomorrow <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/10/google-asks-supreme-court-to-ov…> against the CAFC ruling that APIs are copyrightable and that Google infringed Oracle’s copyright on the Java APIs. A few companies (including GitHub) have filed “amicus curiae” briefs explaining why allowing the verdict against Google to stand will have unfortunate consequences for the entire software industry. The CAFC (Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit) is a notoriously “intellectual-property-friendly” court, shall we say. They wouldn’t even have got the chance to rule on the original verdict by Judge Alsup, except that the suit initially included a patent claim (that was very quickly thrown out). Definite points to Oracle’s lawyers for doing this: like a chess strategy where you advance a seemingly unimportant pawn in the opening moves that is immediately sacrificed, but the long-term consequences for your opponent’s position only become apparent some time later in the game.

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Developers Are Managing 100× More Code Than They Were 10 Years Ago
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 05 Oct '20

05 Oct '20

This survey <https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/10/sourcegraph-devs-are-managing-100x-…> reports on the explosion in typical source code bases that seems to have occurred over the past decade. I have a couple of concerns with this: * The obvious quantity-versus-quality issue. How much of this is due to things like node.js pulling in hundreds of dependencies for a comparatively small class library? Clearly, “managing” does not mean “writing” or even “maintaining”. * The use of “technology” as some kind of synonym for “information technology”. You mean it didn’t require “technology” to conduct insurance, retail, food and beverage businesses before? After all, pencil and paper are “technologies”, too. And if you think they are easy things to make, well ... try making them yourself. </rant>

1 0

What Operating Systems Keep Things Running In Space?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 05 Oct '20

05 Oct '20

Nice report <https://arstechnica.com/features/2020/10/the-space-operating-systems-bootin…> going into some details on the proprietary VxWorks (popular with NASA) and the open-source RTEMS (originating from the US military, now heavily used by ESA). Also mentions SpaceChain, which was developed in order to implement a BitCoin network in space. This is based on Sylix, which comes from the Chinese military, but is now open-source as well. And there is some use of Linux, but only in situations where hard-realtime constraints can be guaranteed by lower-level custom hardware. Summary: VxWorks and RTEMS are pretty much identical in basic features and maturity/reliability, but RTEMS does have an edge in configurability.

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DigitalOcean’s “Hacktoberfest” Backfires
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Oct '20

03 Oct '20

Cloud company Digital Ocean has started its seventh annual “Hacktoberfest” <https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/01/digitalocean_hacktoberfest_pull_requ…>, promising free T-shirts to those who submit “quality” pull requests to online open-source repositories. Seems this year, the “quality” proviso is being roundly ignored. Many project maintainers are being deluged with trivial and pointless patches, many of whose submittors readily admit they are only doing it for the T-shirt. Choice quote: Imagine an arsonist declaring, "Only you can prevent forest fires," and you can get a sense of the frustration among open source maintainers. Actually, I’m surprised this hasn’t happened in previous years. But then again, maybe it has: "Hacktoberfest has never generated anything of value for open source ... It’s a marketing stunt which sends a deluge of low-effort contributions to maintainers, leaving them to clean up the spam." There’s also a link to a rather pungently-named Twitter account which is collecting examples of these useless patch submissions.

2 1

Developers Try Again To Upstream Motorola 68000 Series Support In LLVM
by Peter Reutemann 01 Oct '20

01 Oct '20

'Hobbyist developers are trying once again to get a Motorola 68000 back-end merged into the upstream LLVM compiler. Phoronix reports: The Motorola 68000 series processors have been around since the 80's thanks to the likes of the early Apple Macintosh computers. Fast forward to 2020, the Motorola 68000 is still a popular target for vintage computer enthusiasts and hobbyists. Community developers have worked on improving the Linux kernel support for M68k hardware like early Apple Powerbooks as recently as a few years ago and the compiler support is a continued target. GCC 11 due out next year was looking to drop the M68k target over its unmaintained status. Hobbyists though stepped up there so the M68k support will remain in GCC. Now developers are also looking at adding M68k support to the LLVM compiler. This isn't the first time that M68k support for LLVM has been brought up albeit never successfully landed to date. Building off the past failures to get the Motorola 68000 series support upstreamed, developers last week sent out new patches proposing this back-end -- this time they are showing more clarity about the developers involved and being committed to supporting the code, the sustainability of the code, and responding quickly to code review comments. This patch series is the latest attempt at upstreaming Motorola 68000 series support in LLVM. Besides all the back-end specific code there is also some common LLVM code changes that fall under greater scrutiny. ' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/20/09/30/225226 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

Xen Project Officially Ports Its Hypervisor To Raspberry Pi 4
by Peter Reutemann 30 Sep '20

30 Sep '20

'The Xen Project has ported its hypervisor to the 64-bit Raspberry Pi 4. The Register reports: The idea to do an official port bubbled up from the Xen community and then reached the desk of George Dunlap, chairman of the Xen Project's Advisory Board. Dunlap mentioned the idea to an acquaintance who works at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and was told that around 40 percent of Pis are sold to business users rather than hobbyists. With more than 30 million Arm-based Pis sold as of December 2019, and sales running at a brisk 600,000-plus a month in April 2020, according to Pi guy Eben Upton, Dunlap saw an opportunity to continue Xen's drive towards embedded and industrial applications. Stefano Stabellini, who by day works at FPGA outfit Xilinx, and past Apache Foundation director Roman Shaposhnik took on the task of the port. The pair clocked that the RPi 4's system-on-chip used a regular GIC-400 interrupt controller, which Xen supports out of the box, and thought this was a sign this would, overall, be an easy enough job. That, the duo admitted, was dangerous optimism. Forget the IRQs, there was a whole world of physical and virtual memory addresses to navigate. The pair were "utterly oblivious that we were about to embark on an adventure deep in the belly of the Xen memory allocator and Linux address translation layers," we're told. [The article goes on to explain the hurdles that were ahead of them.] "Once Linux 5.9 is out, we will have Xen working on RPi4 out of the box," the pair said. [...] Stefano Stabellini told The Register that an official Xen-on-RPi port will make a difference in the Internet-of-Things community, because other Arm development boards are more costly than the Pi, and programmers will gravitate towards a cheaper alternative for prototyping. He also outlined scenarios, such as a single edge device running both a real-time operating system alongside another OS, each dedicated to different tasks but inhabiting the same hardware and enjoying the splendid isolation of a virtual machine rather than sharing an OS as containers. George Dunlap also thinks that an official Xen-on-RPi port could also be of use to home lab builders, or perhaps just give developers a more suitable environment for their side projects than a virtual machine or container on their main machines. Stay tuned to Project EVE's Github page for more details about how to build your own Xen-for-RPi. Hacks to get it up and running should also appear on the Xen project blog.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/20/09/29/2025213 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

Cloudflare's Privacy Crusade Continues With a Challenge To Google Analytics
by Peter Reutemann 30 Sep '20

30 Sep '20

'Fortune: Cloudflare is launching a privacy-friendly rival to Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free toolkit that's used by website administrators across the globe to help them track the behavior of the people visiting those sites -- how they find them, what they do there, the devices they're using, and so on. However, the service -- the most popular of its kind -- also helps Google track websites' visitors, so it can better profile them for advertising purposes. This privacy-invasive aspect makes many people squeamish. And that's where Cloudflare would now like to step in. Around its birthday every year, the decade-old company -- which went public last year -- announces a move intended to "give back" to the wider Internet community. These moves are often related to privacy. On Tuesday, it unveiled Cloudflare Web Analytics, a free-to-use toolkit that largely replicates what Google Analytics offers -- minus the invasive tracking, and thus the ability to assess the performance of targeted ads carried on websites. Cloudflare Web Analytics is immediately available to the company's paid customers, but any website owner will be able to use it from some point in the coming months. Cloudflare's scale is crucial here [...] because it takes substantial resources to run a free analytics platform, and Cloudflare already has a giant network that can support the load. Cloudflare Web Analytics isn't the company's only big announcement this week. "On Monday, Cloudflare launched a beta testing program for a cloud technology called Durable Objects," the report adds. "You can read the technical explanation here, but in essence this is a tool that allows developers of online services to make those services comply with the increasing number of data-localization and data-protection laws that limit where users' data is supposed to go." "With Durable Objects, Cloudflare says, it is possible to specify where particular data will reside on Cloudflare's network, so -- for example -- a German user's data does not have to leave Germany. Or, with an eye to other current news, a service such as TikTok could ensure that U.S. users' data never leaves the U.S., without having to create a separate version of its service for that country." ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/29/2011226 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

Google Removes 17 Android Apps Caught Engaging In WAP Billing Fraud
by Peter Reutemann 30 Sep '20

30 Sep '20

'Google has recently removed 17 Android applications from the official Play Store because they were infected with the Joker (aka Bread) malware. ZDNet reports: "This spyware is designed to steal SMS messages, contact lists, and device information, along with silently signing up the victim for premium wireless application protocol (WAP) services," Zscaler security researcher Viral Gandhi said this week. The 17 malicious apps were uploaded on the Play Store this month and didn't get a chance to gain a following, having been downloaded more than 120,000 times before being detected. Following its internal procedures, Google removed the apps from the Play Store, used the Play Protect service to disable the apps on infected devices, but users still need to manually intervene and remove the apps from their devices. But this recent takedown also marks the third such action from Google's security team against a batch of Joker-infected apps over the past few months. [...] The way these infected apps usually manage to sneak their way past Google's defenses and reach the Play Store is through a technique called "droppers," where the victim's device is infected in a multi-stage process. Malware authors begin by cloning the functionality of a legitimate app and uploading it on the Play Store. This app is fully functional, requests access to dangerous permissions, but also doesn't perform any malicious actions when it's first run. Because the malicious actions are usually delayed by hours or days, Google's security scans don't pick up the malicious code, and Google usually allows the app to be listed on the Play Store. But once on a user's device, the app eventually downloads and "drops" (hence the name droppers, or loaders) other components or apps on the device that contain the Joker malware or other malware strains. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/28/236245 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

Ubuntu - Online upgrade to 20.04.1 now available
by Ian Stewart 29 Sep '20

29 Sep '20

Hi All, I mentioned last night at the WLUG meeting that there had been a delay in releasing the Ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04.1 online upgrade. As of today, the Focal Fossa (20.04.1 LTS) Point-Release Status Tracking webpage<https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/focal-fossa-20-04-1-lts-point-release-status…> is still showing Status 20.04.1 Released! Upgrades from 18.04 to 20.04.1 still disabled ...but with... Upgrade blockers None Previously two bugs, 1891680<https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1891680> and 1876506<https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/focal/+source/os-prober/+bug/1876506> had been shown as the "upgrade blockers". These bugs were fixed in the last few weeks. Despite the above message, today on my Ubuntu Mate 18.04 laptop, I ran the GUI application "Software Updater". When it completed it stated: The software on this computer is up to date. However, Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS is now available (you have 18.04). I clicked on "Upgrade". There were 384 new packages to install and 1547 packages to upgrade requiring about 1.4GB of downloading. On my rather slow 1.4GHz CPU, but with reasonably fast internet and a SSD it took 50 minutes to do the upgrade. cheers, Ian. PS: The upgrade kept my python Version 2 at V2.7.18 and upgraded Python3 to 3.8.2. If I had done a fresh install from DVD/USB of Ubuntu 20.04.1 it would not have installed Python 2.

1 0

Eric S. Raymond: Is Microsoft Switching To a Linux Kernel That Emulates Windows?
by Peter Reutemann 28 Sep '20

28 Sep '20

'Most of Microsoft's money now comes from its cloud service Azure, points out open-source advocate Eric S. Raymond. Now he posits a future where Windows development will "inevitably" become a drag on Microsoft's business: So, you're a Microsoft corporate strategist. What's the profit-maximizing path forward given all these factors? It's this: Microsoft Windows becomes a Proton-like emulation layer over a Linux kernel, with the layer getting thinner over time as more of the support lands in the mainline kernel sources. The economic motive is that Microsoft sheds an ever-larger fraction of its development costs as less and less has to be done in-house. If you think this is fantasy, think again. The best evidence that it's already the plan is that Microsoft has already ported Edge to run under Linux. There is only one way that makes any sense, and that is as a trial run for freeing the rest of the Windows utility suite from depending on any emulation layer. So, the end state this all points at is: New Windows is mostly a Linux kernel, there's an old-Windows emulation over it, but Edge and the rest of the Windows user-land utilities don't use the emulation. The emulation layer is there for games and other legacy third-party software. Economic pressure will be on Microsoft to deprecate the emulation layer... Every increment of Windows/Linux convergence helps with that — reduces administration and the expected volume of support traffic. Eventually, Microsoft announces upcoming end-of-life on the Windows emulation. The OS itself , and its userland tools, has for some time already been Linux underneath a carefully preserved old-Windows UI. Third-party software providers stop shipping Windows binaries in favor of ELF binaries with a pure Linux API... ...and Linux finally wins the desktop wars, not by displacing Windows but by co-opting it. Perhaps this is always how it had to be.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/09/27/193250 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

GNU is Not Unix Emacs Developers (Including Richard Stallman) Discuss How to Build a More 'Modern' Emacs
by Peter Reutemann 27 Sep '20

27 Sep '20

'LWN.net re-visits the emacs-devel mailing list, where the Emacs 28 development cycle has revived discussions about how to make the text editor more "modern" and attractive to new users: A default dark theme may not be in the future, leading one to think that there may yet be hope for the world in general. But there does seem to be general agreement that Emacs could benefit from a better, more centralized approach to color themes, rather than having color names hard-coded throughout various Elisp packages. From that, a proper theme engine could be supported, making dark themes and such easily available to those who want them... Another area where Emacs is insufficiently "modern", it seems, has to do with keyboard and mouse bindings. On the keyboard side, users have come to expect certain actions from certain keystrokes; ^X to cut a selection, ^V to paste it, etc. These bindings are easily had by turning on the Cua mode, but new users tend not to know about this mode or how to enable it. Many participants in the discussion said that this mode should be on by default. That, of course, would break the finger memory of large numbers of existing Emacs users, who would be unlikely to appreciate the disruption. Or, as Richard Stallman put it: It is not an option to change these basic key bindings to imitate other, newer editors. It would create a different editor that we Emacs users would never switch to. It is unfortunate that the people who implemented the newer editors chose incompatibility with Emacs.... The situation with mouse behavior is similar; as several participants in the discussion pointed out, users of graphical interfaces have come to expect that a right-button click will produce a menu of available actions. In Emacs, instead, that button marks a region ("selection"), with a second click in the same spot yanking ("cutting") the selected text. Many experienced Emacs users have come to like this behavior, but it is surprising to newcomers. The right mouse button with the control key held down does produce a menu defined by the current major mode, but that is evidently not what is being requested here; that menu, some say, should present global actions rather mode-specific ones. Stallman suggested offering a "reshuffled mode" that would bring the context menu to an unadorned right-button click, and which would add some of the expected basic editing commands there as well. This would be relatively easy to do, he said, since mouse bindings are separate from everything else. Besides, as he noted, the current mouse behavior was derived from "what was the standard in X Windows around 1990"; while one wouldn't want to act in haste, it might just be about time for an update. Other proposed changes involved "discoverability," including the default enabling of various modes, although to incorporate them into GNU Emacs "would often require the author to sign copyrights over to the Free Software Foundation, which is not something all authors are willing to do..."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/09/25/2213230 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

Bored Developer Creates 'DOS Subsystem For Linux'
by Peter Reutemann 27 Sep '20

27 Sep '20

'iTnews: A software engineer in Melbourne is whiling away the city's lockdown by creating a tool that DOS users so far have lacked: an integrated Linux environment similar to what Windows 10 users enjoy... "I first started out just seeing if I could get Linux booting from the DOS command line, and that turned out to be straightforward enough so I thought it'd be fun to see if I could continue executing DOS once Linux was running," Charlie Somerville said. "I'm mostly surprised by how smoothly the whole thing works given how *dodgy* it all is haha," he added. DOS Subsystem for Linux runs a real copy of MS-DOS under the QEMU virtual machine, and starts up from that, Somerville said... "Helpfully Linux seems to leave the first megabyte of memory (where DOS lives) intact during its own boot process, so it's just a matter of jumping back to the right place to continue DOS execution," he added. Somerville had it pointed out to him that this approach of running DOS under vm8086 is actually how early Windows worked. "Kinda cool to rediscover the technique so many years later," Somerville said.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/09/26/048223 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

Firefox 81 Released, Can Now Be Your Default Browser in iOS
by Peter Reutemann 27 Sep '20

27 Sep '20

'Engadget reports: One big benefit of iOS 14 is that you can set non-Apple-made apps as your default, including for email and web browsing. Hot on the heels of you being able to set Chrome and Gmail as your clients of choice, Firefox is enabling you to make its browser the default on iPhones and iPads. Naturally, you'll need to have both the latest version of the operating system and the apps, and then just make the switch inside settings. Meanwhile, Bleeping Computer profiles some of the new features in this week's release of Firefox 81, including: The ability to control videos via your headset and keyboard even if you're not using Firefox at the time - A new credit card autofill feature for Firefox users in the U.S. and Canada - A new theme called AlpenGlow - Firefox can now be set as the default system PDF viewer' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/09/26/0454229 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

Bug Allowed Hijacking Other Firefox Mobile Browsers on the Same Wi-Fi Network
by Peter Reutemann 27 Sep '20

27 Sep '20

'"Mozilla has fixed a bug that can be abused to hijack all the Firefox for Android browsers on the same Wi-Fi network and force users to access malicious sites, such as phishing pages," reports ZDNet: The bug was discovered by Chris Moberly, an Australian security researcher working for GitLab. The actual vulnerability resides in the Firefox SSDP component. SSDP stands for Simple Service Discovery Protocol and is the mechanism through which Firefox finds other devices on the same network in order to share or receive content (i.e., such as sharing video streams with a Roku device). When devices are found, the Firefox SSDP component gets the location of an XML file where that device's configuration is stored. However, Moberly discovered that in older versions of Firefox, you could hide Android "intent" commands in this XML and have the Firefox browser execute the "intent," which could be a regular command like telling Firefox to access a link... The bug was fixed in Firefox 79; however, many users may not be running the latest release. Firefox for desktop versions were not impacted. ' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/09/26/0443215 Chers, 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

killedbygoogle.com
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Sep '20

26 Sep '20

Came across this <https://killedbygoogle.com/> little hall of -- shame? sadness? quiet desperation? schadenfreude? -- listing projects that Google created and later abandoned, or is in the process of abandoning. Found it in a reader comment to this report <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/23/google_sunsets_chrome_web_store/> on the death of Chrome Web Store payments. By the way: Neighbourly is dead? I keep seeing mentions of neighbourly.co.nz in the local free papers -- is that different?

3 2

Facebook “Took A Page From Big Tobacco’s Playbook”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Sep '20

26 Sep '20

Some former Facebook employees are testifying to the US Congress <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/09/former-facebook-manager-we-took…> as part of a hearing into the role social media platforms play in spreading extremist and radical content. Tim Kendall, former director of monetization, says: “We took a page form Big Tobacco’s playbook, working to make our offering addictive at the outset.” After making some more direct comparisons with how tobacco companies made their product more addictive, he talked about “engagement”, which was the measure Facebook tried to maximize above all else: “We initially used engagement as sort of a proxy for user benefit,” Kendall explained. “But we also started to realize that engagement could also mean [users] were sufficiently sucked in that they couldn’t work in their own best long-term interest to get off the platform... We started to see real-life consequences, but they weren’t given much weight. Engagement always won, it always trumped.” If a company becomes large and powerful, and cannot be trusted to exercise that power responsibly, then it must be taken from them.

1 0

Researchers Found the Manual For the World's Oldest Surviving Computer
by Peter Reutemann 24 Sep '20

24 Sep '20

'Researchers will be able to gain a deeper understanding of what's considered the world's oldest surviving (digital) computer after its long-lost user manual was unearthed. Engadget reports: The Z4, which was built in 1945, runs on tape, takes up most of a room and needs several people to operate it. The machine now takes residence at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, but it hasn't been used in quite some time. An archivist at ETH Zurich, Evelyn Boesch, discovered the manual among her father's documents in March, according to retired lecturer Herbert Bruderer. Rene Boesch worked with the Swiss Aeronautical Engineering Association, which was based at the university's Institute for Aircraft Statics and Aircraft Construction. The Z4 was housed there in the early 1950s. Among Boesch's documents were notes on math problems the Z4 solved that were linked to the development of the P-16 jet fighter. "These included calculations on the trajectory of rockets, on aircraft wings, on flutter vibrations [and] on nosedive," Bruderer wrote in a Association of Computing Machinery blog post.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/20/09/23/2058222 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

Wikipedia is getting a new look for the first time in 10 years. Here’s why.
by Peter Reutemann 24 Sep '20

24 Sep '20

'In order to make the desktop experience more readable and less overwhelming to new users, Wikipedia is being redesigned to move page elements, collapse in the sidebar, and decrease the maximum line width. From Diff, the Wikimedia community blog: Forthcoming changes to the desktop include a reconfigured logo, collapsible sidebar, table of contents, and more! You can see the full list of new features on MediaWiki. These changes will happen incrementally over a long period of time, to allow for ample user testing and feedback. If all goes to plan, these improvements will be the default on all wikis by the end of 2021, timed with Wikipedia's 20th birthday celebrations.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/09/23/1822218 Link to gallery of images that show the differences/new features: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Web/Desktop_Improvements#What_featur… 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

meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 24 Sep '20

24 Sep '20

Hi everyone We have a meeting next Monday, but no topic/speaker yet. Any ideas? Maybe some bash scripting or some useful command-line utilities? I came across "pigz" (https://linux.die.net/man/1/pigz) today by accident... 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 2

“LokiBot,” the malware that steals your most sensitive data, is on the rise
by Peter Reutemann 24 Sep '20

24 Sep '20

'Federal and state officials are seeing a big uptick in infections coming from LokiBot, an open source DIY malware package for Windows that’s openly sold or traded for free in underground forums. It steals passwords and cryptocurrency wallets, and it can also download and install new malware. In an alert published on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency and the Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center said LokiBot activity has scaled up dramatically in the past two months. The increase was measured by “EINSTEIN,” an automated intrusion-detection system for collecting, correlating, analyzing, and sharing computer security information across the federal civilian departments and agencies. “CISA has observed a notable increase in the use of LokiBot malware by malicious cyber actors since July 2020,” Tuesday’s alert stated. “Throughout this period, CISA’s EINSTEIN Intrusion Detection System, which protects federal, civilian executive branch networks, has detected persistent malicious LokiBot activity.”' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/lokibot-the-malware-… 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

Lenovo begins selling OEM Ubuntu PCs to the general public
by Peter Reutemann 24 Sep '20

24 Sep '20

'Beginning today, Lenovo is offering a greatly expanded selection of OEM Linux PCs to the general public. Earlier this year, Lenovo began offering Fedora Linux pre-installed on laptop systems including Thinkpad P1 Gen 2, Thinkpad P53, and Thinkpad X1 Gen 8. Today's announcement makes Ubuntu Linux available on a considerably broader swath of both desktop and laptop PCs.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/lenovo-launches-new-oem-linux-think… 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

Firefox usage is down 85% despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up 400%
by Peter Reutemann 24 Sep '20

24 Sep '20

'Mozilla recently announced that they would be dismissing 250 people. That's a quarter of their workforce so there are some deep cuts to their work too. The victims include: the MDN docs (those are the web standards docs everyone likes better than w3schools), the Rust compiler and even some cuts to Firefox development. Like most people I want to see Mozilla do well but those three projects comprise pretty much what I think of as the whole point of Mozilla, so this news is a a big let down. The stated reason for the cuts is falling income. Mozilla largely relies on "royalties" for funding. In return for payment, Mozilla allows big technology companies to choose the default search engine in Firefox - the technology companies are ultimately paying to increase the number of searches Firefox users make with them. Mozilla haven't been particularly transparent about why these royalties are being reduced, except to blame the coronavirus. I'm sure the coronavirus is not a great help but I suspect the bigger problem is that Firefox's market share is now a tiny fraction of its previous size and so the royalties will be smaller too - fewer users, so fewer searches and therefore less money for Mozilla. The real problem is not the royalty cuts, though. Mozilla has already received more than enough money to set themselves up for financial independence. Mozilla received up to half a billion dollars a year (each year!) for many years. The real problem is that Mozilla didn't use that money to achieve financial independence and instead just spent it each year, doing the organisational equivalent of living hand-to-mouth. Despite their slightly contrived legal structure as a non-profit that owns a for-profit, Mozilla are an NGO just like any other. In this article I want to apply the traditional measures that are applied to other NGOs to Mozilla in order to show what's wrong.' -- source: http://calpaterson.com/mozilla.html 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

Buy Them Up, Shut Them Down
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Sep '20

23 Sep '20

The latest in a long line of IoT devices being bricked or crippled because their essential servers are being shut down is the Libra “smart” weighing scale from Adidas <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/22/adidas_libra_scale/>. This product was originally created by a small startup, which was later acquired by the big company ... with the usual all-too-frequent consequences. The article includes a catalogue of similar examples, including a “lifetime subscription” that turned out to be anything but, and an attempt to impose subscription fees on users who thought they were getting a fixed-price product. I wonder how long the customers will continue to get taken in ...

1 0

Russia Wants To Ban the Use of Secure Protocols Such As TLS 1.3, DoH, DoT, ESNI
by Peter Reutemann 23 Sep '20

23 Sep '20

'The Russian government is working on updating its technology laws so it can ban the use of modern internet protocols that can hinder its surveillance and censorship capabilities. According to a copy of the proposed law amendments and an explanatory note, the ban targets internet protocols and technologies such as TLS 1.3, DoH, DoT, and ESNI. Moscow officials aren't looking to ban HTTPS and encrypted communications as a whole, as these are essential to modern-day financial transactions, communications, military, and critical infrastructure. Instead, the government wants to ban the use of internet protocols that hide "the name (identifier) of a web page" inside HTTPS traffic.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/22/157245 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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Microsoft Is Bringing Edge To Linux
by Peter Reutemann 23 Sep '20

23 Sep '20

'Edge is finally coming to Linux. At Ignite 2020 today, Microsoft announced that Edge for Linux will be available in the Dev preview channel starting in October. Linux users will be able to download the preview from the Microsoft Edge Insider website or from their native Linux package manager. Microsoft will start with the Ubuntu and Debian distributions, with support for Fedora and openSUSE coming afterwards. "Linux stands out in that, while it has a relatively small desktop population in terms of what you might call typical consumer or end user, developers are often overrepresented in that population, and especially in areas like test automation, or CI/CD workloads for their web apps," Edge program manager Kyle Pflug told VentureBeat. "Edge on Linux is a natural part of our strategy to reduce fragmentation and test overhead for web developers. By providing the same rendering behavior and tools across platforms, developers can build and test sites and web apps in their preferred environment and be confident in the experience their customers will have."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/09/22/1924237 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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Linux Journal Is Back
by Peter Reutemann 23 Sep '20

23 Sep '20

'On August 7, 2019, Linux Journal laid off all staff members and was left with no operating funds to continue in any capacity. Today, the technology magazine announced that they've secured a deal to keep the site alive indefinitely under the ownership of Slashdot Media. Linux Journal writes: We will begin publishing digital content again as soon as we can. If you're a former Linux Journal contributor or a Linux enthusiast that would like to get involved, please contact us and let us know the capacity in which you'd like to contribute. We're looking for people to cover Linux news, create Linux guides, and moderate the community and comments. We'd also appreciate any other ideas or feedback you might have. Right now, we don't have any immediate plans to resurrect the subscription/issue model, and will be publishing exclusively on LinuxJournal.com free of charge. Our immediate goal is to familiarize ourself with the Linux Journal website and ensure it doesn't ever get shut down again. We're ecstatic to be able to take the helm at Linux Journal, and ensure that this legendary Linux resource and community not only stays alive forever, but continues to grow and improve. Reach out if you'd like to get involved!' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/09/22/2243209 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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NZ Govt Unveils “Algorithm Charter”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 Sep '20

22 Sep '20

The Charter <https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/28/new_zealand_algorithm_charter/> requires Government departments who sign on to it to “maintain transparency” about the algorithms they use, but does not make them reveal the actual details of these algorithms. Nor does it explain what it means by an “algorithm”.

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Automated Unit Testing: Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 Sep '20

22 Sep '20

A company called Diffblue has a product that uses AI techniques to automatically generate unit tests for your code <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/21/diffblue_let_ai_code_unit_tests/>. Only problem is, it doesn’t actually know what the intent of your code is, so it assumes it is correct to begin with, and generates tests on that basis. So who tests the test code? It falls back to a human to ensure the tests make sense. But doesn’t that defeat the point of having them done automatically? Unless you only use the system to catch regressions--things that were previously working, but get broken by newer changes to the code. Even then, it seems to me there is a likelihood of false positives, caused by refactoring of functionality between different modules; too many of these, and the humans are going to start ignoring the test results.

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GNOME Gets New Versioning Scheme
by Peter Reutemann 22 Sep '20

22 Sep '20

'The GNOME 3 desktop environment was officially released in 2011, and in 2020 we are still on version 3.x. Yeah, despite many massive changes over the last (almost) decade, we have been stuck with point releases for GNOME 3. For instance, just last week, GNOME 3.38 was released. Historically, the stable releases all ended in even numbers, with pre-release versions ending in odd. For fans of the DE, such as yours truly, we have simply learned to live with this odd versioning scheme. Well, folks, with the next version of GNOME, the developers have finally decided to move on from version 3.x. You are probably thinking the new version will be 4.0, but you'd be very wrong. Actually, following GNOME3.38 will be GNOME 40. "After nearly 10 years of 3.x releases, the minor version number is getting unwieldy. It is also exceedingly clear that we're not going to bump the major version because of technological changes in the core platform, like we did for GNOME 2 and 3, and then piling on a major UX change on top of that. Radical technological and design changes are too disruptive for maintainers, users, and developers; we have become pretty good at iterating design and technologies, to the point that the current GNOME platform, UI, and UX are fairly different from what was released with GNOME 3.0, while still following the same design tenets," says Emmanuele Bassi, The GNOME Foundation.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/09/21/1652221 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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Mozilla WebThings IoT Platform Spun Out As an Independent Open Source Project
by Peter Reutemann 22 Sep '20

22 Sep '20

'Following a round of layoffs at Mozilla, their WebThings IoT platform is being spun out as an independent open source project by former employees, with a new commercial sponsor. WebThings is an open platform for monitoring and controlling devices over the web, built on W3C Web of Things standards. It includes WebThings Gateway which is a software distribution for smart home gateways focused on privacy, security and interoperability and the WebThings Framework which is a collection of re-usable software components to help developers build their own web things. The project will be renamed from "Mozilla WebThings" to "WebThings" and will move to a new home at https://webthings.io/ Users will be able to opt-in to receive software updates from the new community run update servers and be offered the opportunity to transition to a replacement remote tunnelling service before Mozilla servers are shut down at the end of the year.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/21/185236 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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Could Open Source Licensing Stop Big Pharma Profiteering On Taxpayer-Funded Covid-19 Vaccines?
by Peter Reutemann 21 Sep '20

21 Sep '20

'Two professors at the University of Massachusetts have co-authored a new essay explaining how open source licensing "could keep Big Pharma from making huge profits off taxpayer-funded research" in the international, multi-billion-dollar race for a Covid-19 vaccine: The invention of the "General Public License," sometimes referred to as a viral or reciprocal license, meant that should an improvement be made, the new software version automatically inherits the same license as its parent. We believe that in a time of a global pandemic, a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine should be licensed with General Public License-like properties... Fortunately, some pharmaceutical companies, national governments, nonprofits like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and international organizations like the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Initiatives — which supports vaccine development — are putting policies in place that embrace openness and sharing rather than intellectual property protection. Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Initiatives officials have stated that all of their funding agreements require that "appropriate vaccines are first available to populations when and where they are needed to end an outbreak or curtail an epidemic, regardless of ability to pay." That's an important start. However, when there is a safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine, the U.S. and other national governments need to create contractual agreements with firms that provide fair and reasonable funding to cover their costs or even some reasonable profit margin while still mandating the open sharing of the processes for vaccine production, quality assurance and rapid global distribution.' -- source: https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/09/20/2359229 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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Browser Extension uMatrix Ends Active Development
by Peter Reutemann 21 Sep '20

21 Sep '20

'Raymond Hill, known online as gorhill, has set the status of the uMatrix GitHub repository to archived; this means that it is read-only at the time and that no updates will become available. The uMatrix extension is available for several browsers including Firefox, Google Chrome, and most Firefox and Chromium-based browsers. It is a privacy and security extensions for advanced users that provides firewall-like capabilities when it is installed... Hill suggests that developers could fork the extension to continue development under a new name. There is also the chance that Hill might resume development in the future but there is no guarantee that this is going to happen. For now, uMatrix is no longer in active development. ' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/09/20/2124248 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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DuckDuckGo Is Growing Fast
by Peter Reutemann 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

'DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused search engine, announced that August 2020 ended in over 2 billion total searches via its search platform. While Google remains the most popular search engine, DuckDuckGo has gained a great deal of traction in recent months as more and more users have begun to value their privacy on the internet. DuckDuckGo saw over 2 billion searches and 4 million app/extension installations, and the company also said that they have over 65 million active users. DuckDuckGo could shatter its old traffic record if the same growth trend continues. Even though DuckDuckGo is growing rapidly, it still controls less than 2 percent of all search volume in the United States. However, DuckDuckGo's growth trend has continued throughout the year, mainly due to Google and other companies' privacy scandal.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/09/17/2036241 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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Patient Dies After Hospital Hit By Ransomware Attack
by Peter Reutemann 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

'A patient died after a German hospital was hit by ransomware attack, when hackers thought they were targeting a university. German authorities said that what appears to have been a misdirected hacker attack impacted systems at a major hospital in Duesseldorf, and a woman who needed urgent admission died after she had to be taken to another city for treatment. Duesseldorf police established contact and told the attacker that the hospital, and not the university, had been affected, endangering patients. The attacker then withdrew the extortion attempt and provided a digital key to decrypt the data.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/17/144257 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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YouTube's Recommendation System is Criticized as Harmful. Mozilla Wants To Research It
by Peter Reutemann 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

'YouTube's video recommendation system has been repeatedly accused by critics of sending people down rabbit holes of disinformation and extremism. Now Mozilla, the nonprofit that makes the Firefox browser, wants YouTube's users to help it research how the controversial algorithms work. From a report: Mozilla on Thursday announced a project that asks people to download a software tool that gives Mozilla's researchers information on what video recommendations people are receiving on the Google-owned platform. YouTube's algorithms recommend videos in the "What's next" column along the right side of the screen, inside the video player after the content has ended, or on the site's homepage. Each recommendation is tailored to the person watching, taking into account things like their watch history, list of channel subscriptions or location. The recommendations can be benign, like another live performance from the band you're watching. But critics say YouTube's recommendations can also lead viewers to fringe content, like medical misinformation or conspiracy theories. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/17/150228 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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Cloudflare and the Wayback Machine, Joining Forces For a More Reliable Web
by Peter Reutemann 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

'Cloudflare and the Internet Archive are now working together to help make the web more reliable. Websites that enable Cloudflare's Always Online service will now have their content automatically archived, and if by chance the original host is not available to Cloudflare, then the Internet Archive will step in to make sure the pages get through to users. From a report: Cloudflare has become core infrastructure for the Web, and we are glad we can be helpful in making a more reliable web for everyone."The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has an impressive infrastructure that can archive the web at scale," said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. "By working together, we can take another step toward making the Internet more resilient by stopping server issues for our customers and in turn from interrupting businesses and users online." For more than 20 years the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has been archiving much of the public Web, and making those archives available to journalists, researchers, activists, academics and the general public, in total to hundreds of thousands of people a day. To date more than 468 billion Web pages are available via the Wayback Machine and we are adding more than 1 billion new archived URLs/day. We archive URLs that are identified via a variety of different methods, such as "crawling" from lists of millions of sites, as submitted by users via the Wayback Machine's "Save Page Now" feature, added to Wikipedia articles, referenced in Tweets, and based on a number of other "signals" and sources, such multiple feeds of "news" stories. An additional source of URLs we will preserve now originates from customers of Cloudflare's Always Online service. As new URLs are added to sites that use that service they are submitted for archiving to the Wayback Machine. In some cases this will be the first time a URL will be seen by our system and result in a "First Archive" event.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/17/1544222 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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Mozilla Shuts Down Firefox Send and Firefox Notes Services
by Peter Reutemann 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

'Mozilla is shutting down two of its legacy products, Firefox Send and Firefox Notes, the company announced today. From a report: "Both services are being decommissioned and will no longer be a part of our product family," a Mozilla spokesperson told ZDNet this week. Of the two, the most beloved was Firefox Send, a free file-sharing service, and one of the few that supported sharing files in encrypted formats. Launched in March 2019, the service gained a dedicated fanbase but Send was taken offline earlier this summer after ZDNet reported on its constant abuse by malware groups. At the time, Mozilla said that Send's shutdown was temporary and promised to find a way to curb the service's abuse in malware operations. But weeks later, things changed after Mozilla leadership laid off more than 250 employees as part of an effort to re-focus its business on commercial products.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/17/1923240 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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Billions of Devices Vulnerable To New 'BLESA' Bluetooth Spoofing Attack
by Peter Reutemann 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

'"Billions of smartphones, tablets, laptops, and IoT devices are using Bluetooth software stacks that are vulnerable to a new security flaw disclosed over the summer," reports ZDNet. Named BLESA (Bluetooth Low Energy Spoofing Attack), the vulnerability impacts devices running the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol, and affects the reconnection process that occurs when a device moves back into range after losing or dropping its pairing. A successful BLESA attack allows bad actors to connect with a device (by getting around reconnection authentication requirements) and send spoofed data to it. In the case of IoT devices, those malicious packets can convince machines to carry out different or new behavior. For humans, attackers could feed a device deceptive information. BLESA impacts billions of devices that run vulnerable BLE software stacks. Vulnerable are BLE software libraries like BlueZ (Linux-based IoT devices), Fluoride (Android), and the iOS BLE stack. Windows' BLE stack is not impacted.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/09/16/220211 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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Microsoft To Open-Source Windows Security-Testing Tool
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Sep '20

16 Sep '20

Ever wondered how Microsoft manages to keep Windows so secure? You won’t have to wonder for much longer, as it is planning to open-source OneFuzz <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/16/microsoft_open_sources_fuzzing_tool/>, a key tool it uses to probe its OS for vulnerabilities. Yes, third-party developers! Soon you, too, will be able to achieve truly Microsoftian levels of code quality!

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Microsoft To Build Data Centre In Auckland
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Sep '20

16 Sep '20

The Overseas Investment Office has approved <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=123654…> Microsoft’s proposal to build a cloud data centre in Auckland: The applicant was Microsoft NZ - 100 per cent owned by a Bermuda entity but ultimately controlled by Microsoft Corporation in the US. Wonder why Bermuda is involved ...

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Microsoft Submits Linux Kernel Patches For a 'Complete Virtualization Stack' With Linux and Hyper-V
by Peter Reutemann 16 Sep '20

16 Sep '20

'Microsoft has submitted a series of patches to the Linux kernel with its aim being "to create a complete virtualization stack with Linux and Microsoft Hypervisor." The Register reports: The patches are designated "RFC" (Request for comments) and are a minimal implementation presented for discussion. The key change is that with the patched kernel, Linux will run as the Hyper-V root partition. In the Hyper-V architecture, the root partition has direct access to hardware and creates child partitions for the VMs it hosts. "Just think of it like Xen's Dom0," said Microsoft principal software engineer Wei Liu. Hyper-V's architecture is more similar to Xen than it is to KVM or to VMware's ESXi, and Liu acknowledged that "we drew inspiration from the Xen code in Linux," specifically for code handing interrupts. Until now, the Hyper-V root partition had to run Windows. Microsoft has also ported Intel's open-source Cloud Hypervisor, a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) written in Rust that normally runs on KVM, the hypervisor that is built into the Linux kernel. Cloud Hypervisor itself is currently in "very early pre-alpha stage." Even when Linux is the root partition, it will still run on top of Microsoft's hypervisor, a thin layer running with ring -1 privileges. It will no longer be necessary to run Windows on that hypervisor, though, enabling Microsoft to call the new arrangement "a complete virtualization stack with Linux."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/09/15/207219 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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New Windows exploit lets you instantly become admin. Have you patched?
by Peter Reutemann 16 Sep '20

16 Sep '20

'Researchers have developed and published a proof-of-concept exploit for a recently patched Windows vulnerability that can allow access to an organization’s crown jewels—the Active Directory domain controllers that act as an all-powerful gatekeeper for all machines connected to a network. CVE-2020-1472, as the vulnerability is tracked, carries a critical severity rating from Microsoft as well as a maximum of 10 under the Common Vulnerability Scoring System. Exploits require that an attacker already have a foothold inside a targeted network, either as an unprivileged insider or through the compromise of a connected device.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/new-windows-exploit-… 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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European Police Malware Could Harvest GPS, Messages, Passwords, More
by Peter Reutemann 16 Sep '20

16 Sep '20

'The malware that French law enforcement deployed en masse onto Encrochat devices, a large encrypted phone network using Android phones, had the capability to harvest "all data stored within the device," and was expected to include chat messages, geolocation data, usernames, passwords, and more, according to a document obtained by Motherboard. From the report: The document adds more specifics around the law enforcement hack and subsequent takedown of Encrochat earlier this year. Organized crime groups across Europe and the rest of the world heavily used the network before its seizure, in many cases to facilitate large scale drug trafficking. The operation is one of, if not the, largest law enforcement mass hacking operation to date, with investigators obtaining more than a hundred million encrypted messages. "The NCA has been collaborating with the Gendarmerie on Encrochat for over 18 months, as the servers are hosted in France. The ultimate objective of this collaboration has been to identify and exploit any vulnerability in the service to obtain content," the document reads, referring to both the UK's National Crime Agency and one of the national police forces of France. As well as the geolocation, chat messages, and passwords, the law enforcement malware also told infected Encrochat devices to provide a list of WiFi access points near the device, the document reads.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/09/15/1517203 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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Nvidia To Buy ARM
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Sep '20

15 Sep '20

So, SoftBank has found a buyer for ARM, and it’s graphics-card maker Nvidia <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/14/nvida_arm_acquisition/>. The price is US$40 billion, including US$12 billion in cash. NVidia promises to maintain the open licensing model, and promises to “turbocharge” it with its own R&D resources. SoftBank makes a modest profit on the deal.

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Australian Cyber Security Centre Recommends Not Paying Ransomware
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 13 Sep '20

13 Sep '20

From <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/12/follow_security_basics_and_you/>: Paying a ransom does not guarantee decryption of data. Open source reporting indicates several instances where an entity paid the ransom but the keys to decrypt the data were not provided. The ACSC has also seen cases where the ransom was paid, the decryption keys were provided, but the adversary came back a few months later and deployed ransomware again. The likelihood that an Australian [organisation] will be retargeted increases with every successful ransom payment. ...

1 0

DPL: Debian Project Has Plenty Of Money But Not Enough Developers
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Sep '20

11 Sep '20

A report <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/10/debian_project_address/> by the current Debian Project Leader, Jonathan Carter, on the current state of the Mother Of All Linux Distros. They are not short of funds, but they have too few project contributors trying to do too much: The culture of the community is not to spend money unnecessarily. “Debianites don’t like spending money,” he said. “They feel guilty.” It’s probably also the largest Linux distro: In 2009, there were 22,000 binary packages for the i386 architecture in Lenny, the current release at the time. Today there are over 61,000 amd64 binary packages in Bullseye, the forthcoming release. After Bullseye, “100,000 packages is a serious reality on the horizon,” he said. I like this quote: “Debian is a bottomless pit of problems. It’s inherent in the work we do. We’re affected by nearly every problem that exists in the realm of computer science.” How about that for the ultimate geek brag? 🐧

1 0

Some Of Our Open-Access Journals Are Missing
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Sep '20

11 Sep '20

“Open-Access” scientific journals make research papers available online for free. They have become popular as awareness has spread of the practices of traditional publishers like Elsevier, which charge research groups to publish their papers in journals, and then charge hefty subscription fees to those same groups, and all the rest of their customers, for copies of those journals. And then claiming copyright on those papers, on top of it. (And what about the parties the providing the most expensive part of the publication service, namely the fellow researchers doing the peer review? Nope, they don’t get any payment for this at all.) However, this does make the financial model of these Open-Access journals a bit precarious. And perhaps it’s not too surprising that several of them have disappeared since their founding. Operations like the Internet Archive do have the resources to grab copies of their content before they do, but it helps to be aware that these sorts of sites are particularly vulnerable to vanishing. <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/10/open_access_journal/>

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System76’s Lemur Pro: A powerful, ultralight OEM Linux laptop
by Peter Reutemann 11 Sep '20

11 Sep '20

'System76's Lemur Pro is a 14.1-inch, lightweight powerhouse of an OEM Linux laptop, with an attractive black-finished magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis. If you're looking for a laptop that gets the occasional jealous look at coffee shops (or technical conferences), the Lemur Pro will not disappoint. As configured at $1,563, the Lemur Pro is not a cheap laptop—but it doesn't look, feel, or perform like one, either. The Intel Comet Lake CPU wouldn't be our first choice if we designed a laptop from scratch, but as an entire system, it's hard to find much fault with the Lemur Pro—particularly when limiting the field to OEM Linux laptops alone.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/system76s-lemur-pro-a-powerful-ultr… 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

Android 11 Go Could Make Cheap Phones Up To 20% Faster
by Peter Reutemann 11 Sep '20

11 Sep '20

'Following the official release of Android 11 earlier this week, Google also has some updates in store for the stripped-down version of Android designed for phones with lower specs. From a report: For Android 11 (Go Edition), the most important upgrade is just generally speedier performance, with Google claiming that apps will launch 20% faster in Android 11 Go compared to Android 10 Go. Meanwhile, when it comes to messaging, Android 11 Go is also getting a dedicated section for conversations in the notification tray, so you can see all your ongoing texts in one place, regardless of the specific app. On top of that, Android 11 Go is also getting Google's gesture-based navigation just like vanilla Android 11. Instead of a row of buttons along the bottom of the screen, you can swipe up to go home, swipe in from either side to go back, or swipe up and hold to see your recently used apps. Also, with digital privacy becoming increasingly important, Google is giving Android 11 Go more granular security settings including the ability to grant apps access to hardware like cameras, microphones, or GPS on a one-time basis. And when it comes to apps you haven't used in a long time, Android 11 Go will automatically reset app permissions to prevent old settings that you've probably forgotten about from comprising your security. But perhaps the biggest change for Android 11 Go is that previously, Go Editions of Android were limited to phones with 1GB of RAM. However, with smartphone memory becoming cheaper and more accessible, Android 11 Go has been updated to support phones with up to 2GB of RAM. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/10/1650235 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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Ransomware Accounted For 41% of All Cyber Insurance Claims in H1 2020
by Peter Reutemann 11 Sep '20

11 Sep '20

'Ransomware incidents accounted for 41% of cyber insurance claims filed in the first half of 2020, according to a report published today by Coalition, one of the largest providers of cyber insurance services in North America. From a report: The high number of claims comes to confirm previous reports from multiple cyber-security firms that ransomware is one of today's most prevalent and destructive threats. "Ransomware doesn't discriminate by industry. We've seen an increase in ransom attacks across almost every industry we serve," Coalition added. "In the first half of 2020 alone, we observed a 260% increase in the frequency of ransomware attacks amongst our policyholders, with the average ransom demand increasing 47%," the company added. Among the most aggressive gangs, the cyber insurer listed Maze and DoppelPaymer, which have recently begun exfiltrating data from hacked networks, and threatening to release data on specialized leak sites, as part of double extortion schemes. Based on cyber insurance claims filed by customers who faced a ransomware attack in the first half of 2020, Coalition said the Maze ransomware gang was the most greedy, with the group requesting ransom demands six times larger than the overall average.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/09/10/1829253 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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Vivaldi Browser Adds a Pause Button For the Internet
by Peter Reutemann 10 Sep '20

10 Sep '20

'It can be hard to tear yourself away from the never-ending stream of content provided by the internet, so Vivaldi decided to make taking a break easier by introducing a pause button. PCMag reports: Version 3.3 of the Vivaldi browser introduces a new feature called "Break Mode." Rather than having to close your browser, Break Mode allows you to effectively pause your access to the internet with a button press. Once installed, Vivaldi 3.3 displays a pause button on the status bar. When pressed, Break Mode is engaged, which "mutes and stops HTML5 audio and videos, hides all tabs, panels, and other content leaving the screen clean." It's also possible to trigger Break Mode with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + "." and to activate it via the browser's Quick Commands. The Vivaldi team sees it as a way of allowing you to "interact with the physical world" while at the same time not having to remember which tabs you had open or what you were viewing when you're ready to return. Pressing the pause button again resumes access just as you left it. Break Mode also acts as a very simple and quick way to hide what you were doing on the internet, which could come in very handy seeing as we're spending so much more time at home together. Other new features include more options for customizing themes as well as adding a new "Private" theme, highlighting base domains to help identify malicious web pages, easier cropping of URLs in the address bar making it easier to visit different parts of a website, and enhancements to the built-in tracker and ad blocker allowing whole pages to be easily blocked.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/09/1933207 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

Windows 10 Themes Can Be Abused To Steal Windows Passwords
by Peter Reutemann 09 Sep '20

09 Sep '20

'Specially crafted Windows 10 themes and theme packs can be used in 'Pass-the-Hash' attacks to steal Windows account credentials from unsuspecting users. Windows allows users to create custom themes that contain customized colors, sounds, mouse cursors, and the wallpaper that the operating system will use. Windows users can then switch between different themes as desired to change the appearance of the operating system. A theme's settings are saved under the %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes folder as a file with a .theme extension, such as 'Custom Dark.theme.' Windows themes can then be shared with other users by right-clicking on an active theme and selecting 'Save theme for sharing,' which will package the theme into a '.deskthemepack' file. These desktop theme packs can then be shared via email or as downloads on websites, and installed by double-clicking them. This weekend security researcher Jimmy Bayne (@bohops) revealed that specially crafted Windows themes could be used to perform Pass-the-Hash attacks. Pass-the-Hash attacks are used to steal Windows login names and password hashes by tricking a user into accessing a remote SMB share that requires authentication. When trying to access the remote resource, Windows will automatically try to login to the remote system by sending the Windows user's login name and an NTLM hash of their password. In a Pass-the-Hash attack, the sent credentials are harvested by the attackers, who then attempt to dehash the password to access the visitors' login name and password.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/08/2017228 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

Amiga Fast File System Makes Minor Comeback In New Linux Kernel
by Peter Reutemann 09 Sep '20

09 Sep '20

'The Amiga Fast File System (AFFS) is making a minor comeback in the new version of the Linux kernel. The Register reports: As noted by chief penguin Linus Torvalds in his weekly state-of-the-kernel report, a change to AFFS popped up among what he described as a collection of "the usual suspects" in new submissions to the kernel over the last week. The Amiga was ahead of its time, but is now largely a curiosity. However Suse developer David Sterba has noticed that "The basic permission bits (protection bits in AmigaOS) have been broken in Linux' AFFS - it would only set bits, but never delete them. Also, contrary to the documentation, the Archived bit was not handled." "Let's fix this for good, and set the bits such that Linux and classic AmigaOS can coexist in the most peaceful manner," he added. Torvalds appears to have agreed inasmuch as Sterba's code has made it into rc4 of version 5.9 of the Linux kernel. Torvalds said that while rc4 is a big release -- he rated it as "larger than usual" -- it's still "well within the normal range, and not something I'll lose any sleep over."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/09/08/203224 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

Google Begins Rolling Out Android 11
by Peter Reutemann 09 Sep '20

09 Sep '20

'Google today launched Android 11, the latest version of its mobile OS, and pushed the source code to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). From a report: Unlike previous major versions, Android 11 is not only arriving as an over-the-air update to Pixel phones first, but also on OnePlus, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Realme phones "with more partners launching and upgrading devices over the coming months." That's a major departure for Android, updates for which take months to arrive thanks to carriers and device makers dragging their feet. It doesn't help that Android is the dominant mobile operating system available on thousands of different device configurations, powering over 2.5 billion monthly active devices. [...] Android 11 brings a long list of new features. Google originally split them into three themes: People, Controls, and Privacy. But there is also support for 5G, new screen types, and call screening. There's even a frame rate API for helping apps and games adopt variable refresh rates, which will be a big focus over the next few years as phones and TVs adopt the feature from computer monitors. Google also expanded the Neural Networks API for running computationally intensive machine learning operations.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/08/1710224 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

Western Digital is trying to redefine the word “RPM”
by Peter Reutemann 08 Sep '20

08 Sep '20

'Last week, the fine Redditors of /r/DataHoarder got upset with Western Digital again—this time, for misrepresenting the rotational speed of their WD Red Network Attached Storage hard drives. (Although the linked post brings things to a head, members of the German-language forum hardwareluxx.de began investigating the issue more than year ago.) We found this controversy reminiscent of earlier complaints that Western Digital was not properly disclosing use of Shingled Magnetic Recording technology in their NAS drives. But the new complaint is that Western Digital calls 7200RPM drives "5400 RPM Class"—and the drives' own firmware report 5400 RPM via the SMART interface. Recently, redditor /u/Amaroko set out to prove or disprove earlier netizens' findings. For each of several drive models, Amoroko placed a sample of that drive on an empty cardboard box, with a Blue Yeti mic held directly above it, then powered the drive on. Spectral analysis of the recorded audio using Adobe Audition showed a baseline frequency of 120Hz for two models of WD 8TB "5400 RPM class" drive. 120 cycles/sec multiplied to 60 secs/min comes to 7,200 cycles/min. So in other words, these "5400 RPM class" drives really were spinning at 7,200rpm.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/western-digital-is-trying-to-redefi… 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

Arm's New Linux-Capable Cortex-R82 Processor Will Enable Drives That Both Store and Process Data
by Peter Reutemann 07 Sep '20

07 Sep '20

'"Arm has announced its first 64 bit, Linux-capable Cortex-R processor, designed for computational storage solutions," reports Electronics Weekly. SiliconAngle calls it "a chip designed to enable a new generation of storage devices that will not only hold data but also help process it." Such devices are part of an emerging hardware category known as computational storage. The technology promises to provide a speed boost for latency-sensitive workloads such as machine learning and real-time analytics applications. Normally, the task of storing data and processing it is relegated to separate components inside a system. The disk or flash drive holds onto the information while a separate processor does the processing. Data has to travel from the storage drive to the processor and back every time an operation is carried out, which creates delays that can slow down performance. The emerging computational storage devices Arm targets attempt to do away with these delays to speed up applications. Instead of sending information to a separate chip for processing, the storage drive processes it locally using its built-in controller. A controller is a tiny computing module inside flash and disk drives that normally performs only low-level tasks such as writing and reading data. Arm's new Cortex-R82 is designed to serve as the controller for computational storage devices. It's available as a chip design that hardware makers can license and customize based on their needs. "The extra computing power allows the chip to run a full Linux distribution as well as applications, all directly inside a storage drive."' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/20/09/06/0110227 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

Is There A Google-Free Future For Firefox?
by Peter Reutemann 07 Sep '20

07 Sep '20

'Forbes reports: Firefox is exploring subscriptions and other "value exchange" services to ease its financial dependence on rival Google, according to the browser's lead developer. Firefox maker, Mozilla, is in the uneasy position of being financially dependent on its search deal with Google, which accounts for the majority of the organization's revenue. Although Mozilla only last month renewed the search deal, ensuring Google remains the default search engine for Firefox in the U.S. and other territories, the company is keen to explore other ways of raising revenue, including charging users for services. Mozilla's partnership with Google is an uncomfortable alliance, not only because the companies distribute rival browsers, but because their values are markedly different. While Google generates the vast bulk of its revenue from online advertising, Firefox's developers expend much of their effort creating tools that thwart advertisers, including the automatic blocking of third-party tracking tools and social-media trackers. "At Mozilla, we tend to believe things are at their best when users have this transparent value exchange," said Dave Camp, senior vice president of Firefox at Mozilla. "The advertising model has become a default way to fund things on the internet and to fund products, and we're pretty interested — not just for financial reasons, but actually for health of the internet reasons — to explore how can we do better for users than advertising." Mozilla recently began charging users $4.99 per month for its VPN product and Camp says the company is exploring other subscription products. "We don't have any immediate plans in the Firefox team to do add-on services or anything like that at the moment, but we're going to look at other ways to get some value exchange going on," said Camp.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/09/06/0122206 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

Do Developers Trust Each Other Too Much?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Sep '20

06 Sep '20

From <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/04/disclosure_developer_targeting/>: ... much of it is down to exploiting the trust developers put into shared code and software stacks. By selecting a developer and studying their projects, an attacker would be able to map out the software stack being used. From there, the attacker would pick out a weak spot in that stack – say, a dependency or GitHub project – and slip poisoned code in. This could be as simple as slipping attack code into StackOverflow. ... "Most developers consider themselves to be moderately intelligent but not stupid," mused Jones. "I have found most developers are highly intelligent, but also highly stupid."

1 0

'Linusgate': Debian Project Leaders Want To Ban Linus Torvalds For His Manners
by Peter Reutemann 06 Sep '20

06 Sep '20

'Artem S. Tashkinov writes: 253 emails have been leaked from private (high-level) mailing lists of Debian, in which its representatives vocally complain about the talk Linus Torvalds gave at the most recent DebConf conference. Some people insist that he should be permanently banned from future conferences because the language he uses is inappropriate and infringes on the project's Code of Conduct. This could set a very bad precedent for the open source community, which has recently seen an influx of various CoC policies applied to a number of high-profile projects mostly after very vocal concerns from the people who barely participate in the open source community. Some observers believe that it's a plot by Microsoft to destroy the open source movement from the inside.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/09/04/2218239 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

AWS Introduces a Rust Language-Oriented Linux for Containers
by Peter Reutemann 06 Sep '20

06 Sep '20

'ZDNet reports: An anonymous reader shares this enthusiastic report from ZDNet: Earlier this year, Linus Torvalds approved of adding drivers and other components in Rust to Linux.* Last week, at the virtual Linux Plumbers Conference, developers gave serious thought to using the Rust language for new Linux inline code. ["Nothing firm has been determined yet," reported Phoronix, "but it's a topic that is still being discussed."] And, now Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced that its just-released Bottlerocket Linux for containers is largely written in Rust. Mozilla may have cut back on Rust's funding, but with Linux embracing Rust, after almost 30-years of nothing but C, Rust's future is assured. Rust was chosen because it lends itself more easily to writing secure software. Samartha Chandrashekar, an AWS Product Manager, said it "helps ensure thread safety and prevent memory-related errors, such as buffer overflows that can lead to security vulnerabilities." Many other developers agree with Chandrashekar. Bottlerocket also improved its security by using Device-mapper's verity target. This is a Linux kernel feature that provides integrity checking to help prevent attackers from overwriting core system software or other rootkit type attacks. It also includes the extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF), In Linux, eBPF is used for safe and efficient kernel function monitoring. * Linus's exact words were "people are actively looking at, especially doing drivers and things that are not very central to the kernel itself, and having interfaces to do those, for example, in Rust. People have been looking at that for years now. I'm convinced it's going to happen one day." The article also reminds readers that AWS's Bottlerocket "is also designed to be quick and easy to maintain... by including the bare essentials needed to run containers..." "Besides its standard open-source elements, such as the Linux kernel and containerd container runtime, Bottlerocket's own code is licensed under your choice of either the Apache 2.0 or the MIT license."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/09/04/2342226 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

Spotting Security Vulns By Monitoring The Linux Kernel Mailing List
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 05 Sep '20

05 Sep '20

This research <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/04/linux_kernel_flaws/> shows that it is possible to get clues about security vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel simply by looking for patches published with lower than usual discussion about their purpose. In some cases they were able to spot these up to nearly 6 months in advance of their being publicly disclosed. Not all such patches are to address security issues. With itself raises other troubling questions. And of course, mailing lists for other open-source projects can be just as fruitful sources of similar information.

2 1

Is It Plugged In?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 05 Sep '20

05 Sep '20

A standard question with phone- or online-based troubleshooting is to ask the user if the misbehaving gear in question is actually plugged in. Sometimes they take the implication less than kindly. But here <https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2020/09/04/on_call/#c_4102668> is a wonderfully tactful way to phrase the question: If it was obvious from the phone call that the power wasn't on, she would tell the user that they'd had problems with a batch [of] power cables and ask them to check the serial number on the wall plug. After a minute she usually got a sheepish reply that the problem seemed to have gone away....

1 0

nload - network throughput monitor
by Peter Reutemann 05 Sep '20

05 Sep '20

Hi there When being logged into servers remotely, pulling large docker images can take quite a while. On my desktop, I find the network traffic monitor in my taskbar rather handy to check throughput and whether a large transfer across the network has finished. However, I've always wanted to have an alternative for the console. Well, the other week I came across one that suits me: nload - Real time network traffic monitor for the text console https://github.com/rolandriegel/nload Available from Arch/Debian/Ubuntu repos (package "nload"). 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 3

Lenovo Releases First Fedora Linux ThinkPad Laptop
by Peter Reutemann 04 Sep '20

04 Sep '20

'Today, Lenovo has released a ThinkPad with Red Hat's community Linux, Fedora. ZDNet reports: First in this new Linux-friendly lineup is the X1 Carbon Gen 8. It will be followed by forthcoming versions of the ThinkPad P1 Gen2 and ThinkPad P53. While ThinkPads are usually meant for business users, Lenovo will be happy to sell the Fedora-powered X1 Carbon to home users as well. The new X1 Carbon runs Fedora Workstation 32. This cutting-edge Linux distribution uses the Linux Kernel 5.6. It includes WireGuard virtual private network (VPN) support and USB4 support. This Fedora version uses the new GNOME 3.36 for its default desktop. The system itself comes standard with a 10th Generation Intel Core 1.6Ghz i5-10210U CPU, with up to 4.20 GHz with Turbo Boost. This processor boasts 4 Cores, 8 Threads, and a 6 MB cache. It also comes with 8MBs of LPDDR3 RAM. Unfortunately, its memory is soldered in. While that reduces the manufacturing costs, Linux users tend to like to optimize their hardware and this restricts their ability to add RAM. You can upgrade it to 16MBs, of course, when you buy it for an additional $149. For storage, the X1 defaults to a 256GB SSD. You can push it up to a 1TB SSD. That upgrade will cost you $536. The X1 Carbon Gen 8 has a 14.0" Full High Definition (FHD) (1920 x 1080) screen. For practical purposes, this is as high-a-resolution as you want on a laptop. I've used laptops with Ultra High Definition (UHD), aka 4K, with 3840x2160 resolution, and I've found the text to be painfully small. This display is powered by an integrated Intel HD Graphics chipset. For networking, the X1 uses an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 802.11AX with vPro (2 x 2) & Bluetooth 5.0 chipset. I've used other laptops with this wireless networking hardware and it tends to work extremely well. The entire default package has a base price of $2,145. For now, it's available for $1,287. If you want to order one, be ready for a wait. You can expect to wait three weeks before Lenovo ships it to you.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/09/03/206205 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

ARM Co-Founder Hermann Hauser: 'It's In Nvidia's Interests To Destroy Arm'
by Peter Reutemann 04 Sep '20

04 Sep '20

'SoftBank is in advanced talks with US chip company Nvidia to sell Arm -- with a price in the region of 32 billion euros reportedly being thrown around. But Nvidia's purchase of the Cambridge-based chip designer would not only strike a blow to the UK's technological sovereignty, but would result in the destruction of Arm itself, Arm co-founder Hermann Hauser has claimed. Nvidia recently overtook Intel as the most valuable microprocessor company in the world, and its great wealth right now provides it a unique opportunity, says Hauser. "They are the semiconductor company that can buy Arm to destroy it -- and it is very much in its interest to destroy Arm because they [would] gain a lot more than the 40 billion that they pay for it," he claims. Hauser says the acquisition would allow Nvidia to swipe "the microprocessor crown from Intel", and become the chip supplier for 95 per cent of mobile phones, 90 per cent of embedded controllers for the internet of things, as well as taking the PC and data centre markets. Hauser says that an Arm acquisition is a means for Nvidia to become the dominant microprocessor company in the world, "at the same time as they can prevent their main competitors" from making use of further Arm developments. Instead, competitors would need to "scramble" to create their own architecture, handing Nvidia the edge. Up until now, Arm's business model is acting as the "Switzerland of the semiconductor industry" -- maintaining relations with many customers around the world. "Most of them of course, are competitors of Nvidia," says Hauser. Japanese technology investment firm SoftBank acquired Arm in 2016, but ensured the company's continued neutrality. ' -- source: https://slashdot.org/story/20/09/03/2019200 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

Kiwis Get Poorer Netflix
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Sep '20

03 Sep '20

A comparison of Netflix services available in various regions <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&obje…> shows NZ near the bottom in terms of quality and choice. The study concludes that Canada and the UK get the best service overall, though South Korea gets the best content-quality rating. Presumably this doesn’t apply to those using VPNs ...

1 0

Hackers are exploiting a critical flaw affecting >350,000 WordPress sites
by Peter Reutemann 03 Sep '20

03 Sep '20

'Hackers are actively exploiting a vulnerability that allows them to execute commands and malicious scripts on Websites running File Manager, a WordPress plugin with more than 700,000 active installations, researchers said on Tuesday. Word of the attacks came a few hours after the security flaw was patched. Attackers are using the exploit to upload files that contain webshells that are hidden in an image. From there, they have a convenient interface that allows them to run commands in plugins/wp-file-manager/lib/files/, the directory where the File Manager plugin resides. While that restriction prevents hackers from executing commands on files outside of the directory, hackers may be able to exact more damage by uploading scripts that can carry out actions on other parts of a vulnerable site. NinTechNet, a website security firm in Bangkok, Thailand, was among the first to report the in-the-wild attacks. The post said that a hacker was exploiting the vulnerability to upload a script titled hardfork.php and then using it to inject code into the WordPress scripts /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php and /wp-includes/user.php.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/hackers-are-exploiti… 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

YouTube More Popular Than TV In NZ
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Sep '20

01 Sep '20

The only local media company maintaining an “encouraging” market share is TVNZ, according to <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=123611…>. YouTube is the most popular “site, station or channel”, reaching 51% of Kiwis daily. Overall, it seems free-to-air TV has remained stable, while pay TV has fallen, leading to an overall decline in “linear TV”.

1 0

Linux Developers Continue Evaluating The Path To Adding Rust Code To The Kernel
by Peter Reutemann 31 Aug '20

31 Aug '20

'Phoronix reports: As mentioned back in July, upstream Linux developers have been working to figure out a path for adding Rust code to the Linux kernel. That topic is now being further explored at this week's virtual Linux Plumbers Conference... To be clear though, these Rust Linux kernel plans do not involve rewriting large parts of the kernel in Rust (at least for the foreseeable future...), there would be caveats on the extent to which Rust code could be used and what functionality, and the Rust support would be optional when building the Linux kernel. C would remain the dominant language of the kernel and then it's just a matter of what new functionality gets added around Rust if concerned by memory safety, concurrency, and other areas where Rust is popular with developers. Various upstream developers have been interested in Rust for those language benefits around memory safety and security as well as its syntax being close to C. There would be a to-be-determined subset of Rust to be supported by the Linux kernel.... While the Rust code would be optional, the developers do acknowledge there are limitations on where Rust is supported due to the LLVM compiler back-ends. But at least for x86/x86_64, ARM/ARM64, POWER, and other prominent targets there is support along with the likes of RISC-V. Nothing firm has been determined yet but it's a topic that is still being discussed at the virtual LPC this week and surely over the weeks/months ahead on the kernel mailing list. There is Rust-For-Linux on GitHub with a prototype kernel module implementation. There is also the PDF slides from Thursday's talk on the matter. It's not clear to me that this is a done deal. But the article argues that "it's still looking like it will happen, it's just a matter of when the initial infrastructure will be in place and how slowly the rollout will be..."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/08/29/2250237 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

HBO Max Cranks Up the Widevine DRM, Leaves Linux Users in the Cold
by Peter Reutemann 27 Aug '20

27 Aug '20

'Jim Salter, reporting for ArsTechnica: A reader tipped us off today that HBO Max stopped working a couple of weeks ago for Linux users, under any Web browser. Any attempt to play back a video on the streaming service on a Linux system -- regardless of distribution or browser -- returns an error saying, "We're having trouble playing this video. Please try again later." Unfortunately, trying again later won't help -- the root cause of the problem is that the Widevine DRM attempting to protect HBO Max's content from pirates is refusing to recognize any Linux system as a known platform. We saw the same thing happen in January, when CBS All Access suddenly stopped working on Linux in the same way. When we asked CBS executives if they had enabled the Verified Media Path (VMP) requirement on their Widevine server, they suddenly clammed up -- but later that day, the service miraculously worked for Linux users again. We did verify that HBO Max will not work on Linux browsers and that the problem is -- once again -- Widevine DRM refusing to issue a license. Although HBO Max has not returned requests for comment at press time, it seems very likely that the cause here is the same as it was for CBS All Access back in January. It seems like somebody enabled Verified Media Path on the Widevine server, and since the Linux kernel is not a verified media path, Linux users can't get a license and can't watch the content.' -- source: https://slashdot.org/story/20/08/26/1923213 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

Code-execution bug in Pulse Secure VPN threatens patch laggards everywhere
by Peter Reutemann 27 Aug '20

27 Aug '20

'Organizations that have yet to install the latest version of the Pulse Secure VPN have a good reason to stop dithering—a code-execution vulnerability that allows attackers to take control of networks that use the product. Tracked as CVE-2020-8218, the vulnerability requires an attacker to have administrative rights on the machine running the VPN. Researchers from GoSecure, the firm that discovered the flaw, found an easy way to clear that hurdle: trick an administrator into clicking on a malicious link embedded in an email or other type of message.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/code-execution-bug-i… 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

Google: Jetpack Compose Lets Android Developers Write Apps With 'Dramatically Less Code'
by Peter Reutemann 27 Aug '20

27 Aug '20

'Google today released the alpha version of Jetpack Compose, its UI toolkit for helping developers "build beautiful UI across all Android platforms, with native access to the platform APIs." From a report: While an alpha release means it is definitely not production ready, Jetpack Compose promises to let Android developers build apps using "dramatically less code, interactive tools, and intuitive Kotlin APIs." The alpha release also includes new tools including Animations, Constraint Layouts, and performance optimizations. Android Jetpack, which Google launched at its I/O 2018 developer conference, is a set of components for speeding up app development. Think of it as the successor to Support Library, a set of components that makes it easier to leverage new Android features while maintaining backwards compatibility. Jetpack Compose, which Google first showed off at its I/O 2019 developer conference, is an unbundled toolkit meant to simplify UI development by combining a reactive programming model with Kotlin.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/20/08/26/1749231 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

Requiring Plain-Text Email Is A “Barrier To Entry” For Linux Kernel Development, Says Somebody Or Other
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Aug '20

26 Aug '20

Seems plain-text e-mails are just too hard to work with nowadays <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/25/linux_kernel_email/>: “It is a fairly specific workflow that is a challenge for some newer developers to engage with. As an example, my partner submitted a patch to OpenBSD a few weeks ago, and he had to set up an entirely new mail client which didn’t mangle his email message to HTML-ise or do other things to it, so he could even make that one patch. That’s a barrier to entry that’s pretty high for somebody who may want to be a first-time contributor.” ... It turned out, though, that this time Outlook was not guilty. “I think it was actually Gmail that was a barrier. And he also couldn’t do it from Apple Mail. It is just that the modern mail client has intentionally moved towards HTML,” ...

2 1

Firefox Daylight For Android Arrives With Enhanced Tracking Protection, New UI
by Peter Reutemann 26 Aug '20

26 Aug '20

'After more than a year of development, Mozilla today launched Firefox 79 for Android, branded Firefox Daylight. Like with Firefox 57 Quantum, Firefox Daylight gets its own name as it marks "a new beginning for our Android browser." The new version is "an entirely overhauled, faster, and more convenient product." Firefox Daylight includes Enhanced Tracking Protection on by default, a new user interface, Mozilla's own mobile browser engine GeckoView, and a slew of new features. Mozilla is rolling out the new Firefox for Android globally, starting in Germany, France, and the U.K. today, and North America starting August 27.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/08/25/1511257 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

A New Botnet Is Covertly Targeting Millions of Servers
by Peter Reutemann 26 Aug '20

26 Aug '20

'Wired reports: FritzFrog has been used to try and infiltrate government agencies, banks, telecom companies, and universities across the US and Europe. Researchers have found what they believe is a previously undiscovered botnet that uses unusually advanced measures to covertly target millions of servers around the world. The botnet uses proprietary software written from scratch to infect servers and corral them into a peer-to-peer network, researchers from security firm Guardicore Labs reported on Wednesday. Peer-to-peer (P2P) botnets distribute their administration among many infected nodes rather than relying on a control server to send commands and receive pilfered data. With no centralized server, the botnets are generally harder to spot and more difficult to shut down. The botnet, which Guardicore Labs researchers have named FritzFrog, has a host of other advanced features, including: In-memory payloads that never touch the disks of infected servers; At least 20 versions of the software binary since January; A sole focus on infecting secure shell, or SSH, servers that network administrators use to manage machines; The ability to backdoor infected servers; and A list of login credential combinations used to suss out weak login passwords that's more "extensive" than those in previously seen botnets. Taken together, the attributes indicate an above-average operator who has invested considerable resources to build a botnet that's effective, difficult to detect, and resilient to takedowns. The new code base -- combined with rapidly evolving versions and payloads that run only in memory -- make it hard for antivirus and other end-point protection to detect the malware. The botnet has so far succeeded in infecting 500 servers belonging to "well-known universities in the US and Europe, and a railway company."Once installed, the malicious payload can execute 30 commands, including those that run scripts and download databases, logs, or files. To evade firewalls and endpoint protection, attackers pipe commands over SSH to a netcat client on the infected machine. Netcat then connects to a "malware server." (Mention of this server suggests that the FritzFrog peer-to-peer structure may not be absolute. Or it's possible that the "malware server" is hosted on one of the infected machines, and not on a dedicated server. Guardicore Labs researchers weren't immediately available to clarify.)' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/08/25/1947246 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

Windows 95 Released a Quarter Century Ago
by Peter Reutemann 26 Aug '20

26 Aug '20

'Windows 95 was released a full quarter century ago today, on August 24th, 1995. Long gone, nearly forgotten? I'm surprised to not have come across a retrospective article yet. I've linked to the Wikipedia article. As for me I still haven't grown to re-like The Rolling Stones "Start Me Up" yet. I got so sick of hearing it with all the pre-launch and post-launch hype, as the song was tied heavily to the Win 95 launch event. Microsoft paid the Stones a princely sum to use it. I still remember how exciting it was to see the full-length, full-screen video included on the installation CD-ROM, "Buddy Holly" by Weezer. Mind-blowing to watch a whole music video on your computer. Crappy resolution by our standards today, and a very limited palette to my memory. But as I said, amazing in the day. Windows 95 had many fans and many critics. At the time, I recall it as an exciting OS (or GUI on top of DOS, if you prefer). PC users were riveted to all the magazine and other media coverage pre-launch. I remember it fondly (with all the obligatory respect due Mac OS, the Amiga, and all the other early GUIs of course).' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/08/25/1936234 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

Chrome 85 Arrives With Tab Management, 10% Faster Page Loads, and PDF Improvements
by Peter Reutemann 26 Aug '20

26 Aug '20

'Google today launched Chrome 85 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. Chrome 85 brings tab management changes, 10% faster page loads, PDF improvements, and a slew of developer features. From a report: Google is promising under-the-hood performance improvements with Chrome 85. You can expect two types of speed gains: Profile Guided Optimization, which delivers up to 10% faster page loads, and Tab Throttling, which helps reduce the impact of idle background tabs. The latter, however, is coming to the Beta channel meaning it's not yet ready. Profile Guided Optimization is a compiler optimization technique where the most performance-critical parts of the code can run faster. Profile Guided Optimization prioritizes the most common tasks using real usage scenarios that match the workflows of Chrome users around the world.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/08/25/1741206 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

Chinese-Made Smartphones Are Secretly Stealing Money From People Around the World
by Peter Reutemann 25 Aug '20

25 Aug '20

'When Mxolosi saw a Tecno W2 smartphone in a store in Johannesburg, South Africa, he was attracted to its looks and functionality. But what really drew him in was the price, roughly $30 -- far less than comparable models from Samsung, Nokia, or Huawei, Africa's other top brands. It was another sale for Transsion, the Chinese company that makes Tecno and other low-priced smartphones, as well as basic handsets, for the developing world. Since releasing its first smartphone in 2014, the upstart has grown to become Africa's top handset seller, beating out longtime market leaders Samsung and Nokia. But its success can come at a price. Mxolosi, an unemployed 41-year-old, became frustrated with his Tecno W2. Pop-up ads interrupted his calls and chats. He'd wake up to find his prepaid data mysteriously used up and messages about paid subscriptions to apps he'd never asked for. He thought it might be his fault, but according to an investigation by Secure-D, a mobile security service, and BuzzFeed News, software embedded in his phone right out of the box was draining his data while trying to steal his money. Mxolosi's Tecno W2 was infected with xHelper and Triada, malware that secretly downloaded apps and attempted to subscribe him to paid services without his knowledge. Secure-D's system, which mobile carriers use to protect their networks and customers against fraudulent transactions, blocked 844,000 transactions connected to preinstalled malware on Transsion phones between March and December 2019. Secure-D Managing Director Geoffrey Cleaves told BuzzFeed News that Mxolosi's data was used up by the malware as it attempted to subscribe him to paid services. Along with South Africa, Tecno W2 phones in Ethiopia, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, and Myanmar were infected.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/08/24/2139209 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

Bridgefy, the Messenger Promoted For Mass Protests, Is a Privacy Disaster
by Peter Reutemann 25 Aug '20

25 Aug '20

'Bridgefy, a popular messaging app for conversing with one another when internet connections are heavily congested or completely shut down, is a privacy disaster that can allow moderately-skilled hackers to take a host of nefarious actions against users, according to a paper published on Monday. The findings come after the company has for months touted the app as a safe and reliable way for activists to communicate in large gatherings. Ars Technica reports: By using Bluetooth and mesh network routing, Bridgefy lets users within a few hundred meters -- and much further as long as there are intermediary nodes -- to send and receive both direct and group texts with no reliance on the Internet at all. Bridgefy cofounder and CEO Jorge Rios has said he originally envisioned the app as a way for people to communicate in rural areas or other places where Internet connections were scarce. And with the past year's upswell of large protests around the world -- often in places with hostile or authoritarian governments -- company representatives began telling journalists that the app's use of end-to-end encryption (reiterated here, here, and here) protected activists against governments and counter protesters trying to intercept texts or shut down communications. [R]esearchers said that the app's design for use at concerts, sports events, or during natural disasters makes it woefully unsuitable for more threatening settings such as mass protests. They wrote: "Though it is advertised as 'safe' and 'private' and its creators claimed it was secured by end-to-end encryption, none of aforementioned use cases can be considered as taking place in adversarial environments such as situations of civil unrest where attempts to subvert the application's security are not merely possible, but to be expected, and where such attacks can have harsh consequences for its users. Despite this, the Bridgefy developers advertise the app for such scenarios and media reports suggest the application is indeed relied upon." The researchers are: Martin R. Albrecht, Jorge Blasco, Rikke Bjerg Jensen, and Lenka Marekova from Royal Holloway, University of London. After reverse engineering the app, they devised a series of devastating attacks that allow hackers -- in many cases with only modest resources and moderate skill levels -- to take a host of nefarious actions against users. The attacks allow for: deanonymizing users; building social graphs of users' interactions, both in real time and after the fact; decrypting and reading direct messages; impersonating users to anyone else on the network; completely shutting down the network; and performing active man-in-the-middle attacks, which allow an adversary not only to read messages, but to tamper with them as well. "The key shortcoming that makes many of these attacks possible is that Bridgefy offers no means of cryptographic authentication, which one person uses to prove she's who she claims to be," the report adds. "Instead, the app relies on a user ID that's transmitted in plaintext to identify each person. Attackers can exploit this by sniffing the ID over the air and using it to spoof another user." The app also uses PKCS #1, an outdated way of encoding and formatting messages so that they can be encrypted with the RSA cryptographic algorithm. "This encoding method, which was deprecated in 1998, allows attackers to perform what's known as a padding oracle attack to derive contents of an encrypted message," reports Ars.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/08/24/2228219 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

Apple Apologizes To WordPress, Won't Force the Free App To Add Purchases After All
by Peter Reutemann 25 Aug '20

25 Aug '20

'On Friday, the internet erupted in a small way to learn that Apple had successfully forced WordPress to monetize its free app -- forcing it to sell premium plans and custom domain names seemingly just so that Apple could get its traditional 30 percent cut. But one afternoon and evening of surprise and outrage later, Apple is backing off. The company is issuing a rare on-the-record apology, and it says that WordPress will no longer have to add in-app purchases now that all is said and done. Here's Apple's full statement: "We believe the issue with the WordPress app has been resolved. Since the developer removed the display of their service payment options from the app, it is now a free stand-alone app and does not have to offer in-app purchases. We have informed the developer and apologize for any confusion that we have caused." You'll notice that Apple is positioning this as the developer -- WordPress -- having done the right thing and removed the "display of their service payment options from the app," and to my knowledge that is technically true. But as far as I'm aware, that didn't happen today: it happened weeks or months ago.' -- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/20/08/24/204211 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

Open Source Sustainability is Really a People Problem
by Peter Reutemann 24 Aug '20

24 Aug '20

'Matt Asay, a former COO of Canonical now working at AWS, argues that the question of open source sustainability "is really a people problem." But to make the case, he cites comments by Tobie Langel, formerly W3C's testing lead (and a former member of Facebook's Open Source and Web Standards Team) who's now founded an open-source strategies consulting firm whose clients include Mozilla, Intell, Google, and Microsoft. Much of the "open source sustainability" discussion has focused on the one thing that really needs no help being sustained: software. As Tobie Langel rightly points out, "Open source code isn't a scarce resource. It's the exact opposite, actually: It's infinitely reproducible at zero cost to the user and to the ecosystem." Nor is sustainability really a matter of funding, though this gets closer to the truth. No, open source sustainability is really a people problem. Or, as Langel highlights, "In open source, the maintainers working on the source code are the scarce resource that needs to be protected and nurtured." Over the past several weeks, I've interviewed a number of maintainers for popular open source projects. In every case, they talked about how they contribute because it's fun, but also acknowledged that some aspects of open source development can make it decidedly "un-fun" (e.g., demanding users who complain about missing features or existing bugs but don't contribute code or fixes). Most have found ways to turn their passion into financial independence, but Langel stresses that cash is critical to keeping open source humming along... "Without revenue, there is no maintenance, and without maintenance, the commons becomes toxic very quickly... As new security issues are discovered, open source code that isn't updated becomes a security risk..." Langel is absolutely correct to argue, "In an ecosystem with infinite resources, the attention needs to be on the people taking care of and maintaining that resource, because that's where the bottleneck is." Again, that's partly a question of money, but it's even more a question of treating people with dignity and respect, while making open source communities a fun, welcoming place.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/08/23/0447224 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

Virtual Influencers: Who Needs Real People?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Aug '20

23 Aug '20

You probably know that celebrities can earn a lot by promoting products to their followers on social media. Some of these don’t actually have a flesh-and-blood job: they are famous for nothing more than being such “influencers”. Some advertisers have now decided to shortcut the process by creating their own “virtual influencers”: essentially, animated CG characters that they can control totally and much more easily than managing real people <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/21/virtual_instagram_influencers/>. If all their interactions happen online, why do they need to be real?

1 0

Chrome/Chromium Now Accounting For Half Of All DNS Root Server Traffic
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Aug '20

23 Aug '20

Google’s Chrome (and its Chromium-based offshoots) include some elaborate workarounds to detect ISPs hijacking “no such domain” responses to advertise their own DNS services. Unfortunately, these workarounds lead to the generation of a lot of traffic to the DNS root servers <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/21/chromiums_dns_network/>. Firefox is able to implement something similar, but with less impact on the Internet at large.

1 0

Google Fixes Major Gmail Bug Seven Hours After Exploit Details Go Public
by Peter Reutemann 21 Aug '20

21 Aug '20

'Google has patched on Wednesday a major security bug impacting the Gmail and G Suite email servers. From a report: The bug could have allowed a threat actor to send spoofed emails mimicking any Gmail or G Suite customer. According to security researcher Allison Husain, who found and reported this issue to Google in April, the bug also allowed attachers to pass the spoofed emails as compliant with SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance), two of the most advanced email security standards. However, despite having 137 days to fix the reported issue, Google initially delayed patches past the disclosure deadline, planning to fix the bug somewhere in September. Google engineers changed their mind yesterday after Husain published details about the bug on her blog, including proof-of-concept exploit code.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/08/20/1522226 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

Some Email Clients Are Vulnerable To Attacks Via 'mailto' Links
by Peter Reutemann 21 Aug '20

21 Aug '20

'A lesser-known technology known as "mailto" links can be abused to launch attacks on the users of email desktop clients. From a report: The new attacks can be used to secretly steal local files and have them emailed as attachments to attackers, according to a research paper published last week by academics from two German universities. The "vulnerability" at the heart of these attacks is how email clients implemented RFC6068 -- the technical standard that describes the 'mailto' URI scheme. Mailto refer to special types of links, usually supported by web browsers or email clients. These are links that, when clicked, they open a new email compose/reply window rather than a new web page (website). RFC6068 says that mailto links can support various parameters. When used with mailto links, these parameters will pre-fill the new email window with predefined content.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/08/20/177204 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

The Legend Of The Melbourne Citadel
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 Aug '20

21 Aug '20

It appears there is a 2300-foot tall building in Melbourne, at least according to the latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/20/flight_simulator_bing_fawkner_tower/>. This would make it the second-tallest in the world. It originated from a mistaken entry into the OpenStreetMap database (since corrected), which Flight Simulator nevertheless managed to incorporate into its map data. There’s even a linked video of a player trying to land on it, before a future update deletes it from the game. Spoiler alert: yes, you can land, with the right sort of aircraft and a bit of effort. And you can even take off again. Another amusing item from the report comes from Microsoft’s use of AI to fill in road traffic flows. There is one case where the map data seems to omit the fact that there is a traffic tunnel through a building, with the result that the software has the cars going vertically up and down the sides of the building.

1 0

Linux Is Taking Over
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 Aug '20

21 Aug '20

Seems like The Register’s BorkBorkBork column, featuring public examples of embedded systems falling over, is including more and more Linux-based screwups, e.g. <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/20/bork/>: RailPoint has form for bork. Its Windows-based signage has already featured in these pages and back then the company told us it was "about to upgrade all of our production machines to a custom Linux build to improve their stability and generally operate with more efficiency". Behold the stability and efficiency. *Sigh*

1 0

'Real' Programming Is an Elitist Myth
by Peter Reutemann 20 Aug '20

20 Aug '20

'When people build a database to manage reading lists or feed their neighbors, that's coding -- and culture. From an essay: We are past the New York City Covid-19 peak. Things have started to reopen, but our neighborhood is in trouble, and people are hungry. There's a church that's opened space for a food pantry, a restaurant owner who has given herself to feeding the neighborhood, and lots of volunteers. [...] It's a complex data model. It involves date fields, text fields, integers, notes. You need lots of people to log in, but you need to protect private data too. You'd think their planning conversations would be about making lots of rice. But that is just a data point. The tool the mutual aid group has settled on to track everything is Airtable, a database-as-a-service program. You log in and there's your database. There are a host of tools like this now, "low-code" or "no-code" software with names like Zapier or Coda or Appy Pie. At first glance these tools look like flowcharts married to spreadsheets, but they're powerful ways to build little data-management apps. Airtable in particular keeps showing up everywhere for managing office supplies or scheduling appointments or tracking who at WIRED has their fingers on this column. The more features you use, the more they charge for it, and it can add up quickly. I know because I see the invoices at my company; we use it to track projects. "Real" coders in my experience have often sneered at this kind of software, even back when it was just FileMaker and Microsoft Access managing the flower shop or tracking the cats at the animal shelter. It's not hard to see why. These tools are just databases with a form-making interface on top, and with no code in between. It reduces software development, in all its complexity and immense profitability, to a set of simple data types and form elements. You wouldn't build a banking system in it or a game. It lacks the features of big, grown-up databases like Oracle or IBM's Db2 or PostgreSQL. And since it is for amateurs, the end result ends up looking amateur. But it sure does work. I've noticed that when software lets nonprogrammers do programmer things, it makes the programmers nervous. Suddenly they stop smiling indulgently and start talking about what "real programming" is. This has been the history of the World Wide Web, for example. Go ahead and tweet "HTML is real programming," and watch programmers show up in your mentions to go, "As if." Except when you write a web page in HTML, you are creating a data model that will be interpreted by the browser. This is what programming is. Code culture can be solipsistic and exhausting. Programmers fight over semicolon placement and the right way to be object-oriented or functional or whatever else will let them feel in control and smarter and more economically safe, and always I want to shout back: Code isn't enough on its own. We throw code away when it runs out its clock; we migrate data to new databases, so as not to lose one precious bit. Code is a story we tell about data.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/20/08/19/146204 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/

3 2

235 Million Instagram, TikTok and YouTube User Profiles Exposed In Massive Data Leak
by Peter Reutemann 20 Aug '20

20 Aug '20

'Forbes: The security research team at Comparitech today disclosed how an unsecured database left almost 235 million Instagram, TikTok and YouTube user profiles exposed online in what can only be described as a massive data leak. The data was spread across several datasets; the most significant being two coming in at just under 100 million each and containing profile records apparently scraped from Instagram. The third-largest was a dataset of some 42 million TikTok users, followed by just under 4 million YouTube user profiles. Comparitech says that, based on the samples it collected, one in five records contained either a telephone number or email address. Every record also included at least some, sometimes all, the following information: Profile name; Full real name; Profile photo; and Account description. Statistics about follower engagement, including: Number of followers; Engagement rate; Follower growth rate; Audience gender; Audience age; Audience location; Likes; Last post timestamp; Age; and Gender. "The information would probably be most valuable to spammers and cybercriminals running phishing campaigns," Paul Bischoff, Comparitech editor, says. "Even though the data is publicly accessible, the fact that it was leaked in aggregate as a well-structured database makes it much more valuable than each profile would be in isolation," Bischoff adds. Indeed, Bischoff told me that it would be easy for a bot to use the database to post targeted spam comments on any Instagram profile matching criteria such as gender, age or number of followers. The data appeared to have originated from a company called Deep Social, which was banned by both Facebook and Instagram in 2018 after scraping user profile data. The company was wound down sometime after this. The researchers reached out to Deep Social, which then forwarded the disclosure to a Hong Kong-registered social media influencer data-marketing company called Social Data. Social Data shut down the database about three hours after the researchers' initial email. "Social Data has denied any connection between itself and Deep Social," reports Forbes, citing Comparitech.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/08/19/212230 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

More PowerShell Users On Linux Than Windows?!?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

According to this <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/18/powershell_71_preview_6/>: While the Linux useragent continues to be responsible for the lion's share of daily usage (and Ubuntu the distro of choice), Windows has continued to rise in popularity, according to the figures. which surprises me just a little bit, considering this was a tool originally designed to bring more advanced command-line facilities to Windows, not Linux. Maybe they should fix those Linux-specific bugs <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/23/your_wget_is_broken_and_should_die_…> after all...

1 0

Chrome 86 Will Warn Users About Insecure Forms On HTTPS Pages
by Peter Reutemann 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

'While there's wide HTTPS adoption today, HTTP content on secure pages still persists. Google has been working to stamp that out, and Chrome is now turning its attention to and warning about insecure forms. "These 'mixed forms' (forms on HTTPS sites that do not submit on HTTPS) are a risk to users' security and privacy," says Google in a blog post. "Information submitted on these forms can be visible to eavesdroppers, allowing malicious parties to read or change sensitive form data." 9to5Google reports: The Google browser today removes the address bar's lock icon from sites with mixed forms. However, this proved to deliver an "unclear" experience that "did not effectively communicate the risks associated with submitting data in insecure forms." Starting in version 86, due to hit stable in October, Chrome will provide a more aggressive warning about insecure forms. Autofill will be disabled, but the built-in password manager will continue to offer "unique passwords." The company argues it's safer than reusing credentials. Next, the form will show red warning text underneath the field: "This form is not secure. Autofill has been turned off. The last measure will throw up a full-page warning communicating the potential risks. It gives users an option to cancel the action, but there will be a "Send anyway" button. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/08/18/0033257 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

Linux Kernel NTFS Driver
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

This article <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/18/paragon_tries_to_contribute_ntfs/>, about the submission of a new Linux kernel driver for accessing Microsoft NTFS volumes (i.e. the kind of filesystems that are standard among Windows users), had me confused for a moment. It mentions limitations of the current kernel driver, like not being able to create or delete files or directories. I thought this kind of problem had been solved for Linux over a decade ago. And indeed it has, in the form of NTFS-3G, which is a userspace driver that connects via FUSE, and is available as a standard package for Debian and derivatives. I know this works, because just a few weeks ago, for example, I was at some friends’ place, and transferred several dozen gigabytes of files to an external hard drive of theirs from my Debian-Unstable-running laptop, without thinking twice about it, even though they are exclusively Windows users. I suppose a kernel driver offers higher performance, in principle, than one running in userspace. But I can’t imagine many Linux-based workloads that make heavy use of NTFS volumes.

2 1

meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

Hi everyone We have a meeting coming up next Monday: "With VPNs being in the news frequently (and often for sad reasons like selling logs despite assurances that no such logs would exist), let's have a hands-on session with WireGuard (https://www.wireguard.com/) a VPN tunnel that is easier to use and configure than IPSec and faster than OpenVPN." Details: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/266792032 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 1

Microsoft: Improving The “Outage Experience”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

Seems that, when something goes wrong with Microsoft’s cloud service, customers expect to find out what has happened by visiting the Azure Status page. How silly of them <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/18/dont_use_azure_status_page/>: The place to look, Kubba said, is in the Azure Portal under Service Health. The public Azure status page is "only used to communicate widespread outages" so likely to be ineffective in discovering what may be wrong. "Despite this, we constantly find that customers visit the Azure Status page to determine the health of services on Azure," complained Kubba – though we presume that if an outage blocks access to the portal, the Status page would then be the right place to look. In other cases, it is not much use since "more than 95 per cent of our incidents" do not appear there, according to Kubba. A further complication is that Azure DevOps (which is where Pipelines live) is not integrated into the Azure portal, and many Azure DevOps users only hang around the DevOps portal. Therefore, there is a separate Azure DevOps status page, making this a third site that needs to be bookmarked for tracking outages.

1 0

An Alexa Bug Could Have Exposed Your Voice History To Hackers
by Peter Reutemann 18 Aug '20

18 Aug '20

'Findings published on Thursday by the security firm Check Point reveal that Alexa's Web services had bugs that a hacker could have exploited to grab a target's entire voice history, meaning their recorded audio interactions with Alexa. Amazon has patched the flaws, but the vulnerability could have also yielded profile information, including home address, as well as all of the "skills," or apps, the user had added for Alexa. An attacker could have even deleted an existing skill and installed a malicious one to grab more data after the initial attack. [...] For an attacker to exploit the vulnerabilities, they would need first to trick targets into clicking a malicious link, a common attack scenario. Underlying flaws in certain Amazon and Alexa subdomains, though, meant that an attacker could have crafted a genuine and normal-looking Amazon link to lure victims into exposed parts of Amazon's infrastructure. By strategically directing users to track.amazon.com -- a vulnerable page not related to Alexa, but used for tracking Amazon packages -- the attacker could have injected code that allowed them to pivot to Alexa infrastructure, sending a special request along with the target's cookies from the package-tracking page to skillsstore.amazon.com/app/secure/your-skills-page. At this point, the platform would mistake the attacker for the legitimate user, and the hacker could then access the victim's full audio history, list of installed skills, and other account details. The attacker could also uninstall a skill the user had set up and, if the hacker had planted a malicious skill in the Alexa Skills Store, could even install that interloping application on the victim's Alexa account. Both Check Point and Amazon note that all skills in Amazon's store are screened and monitored for potentially harmful behavior, so it's not a foregone conclusion that an attacker could have planted a malicious skill there in the first place. Check Point also suggests that a hacker might be able to access banking data history through the attack, but Amazon disputes this, saying that information is redacted in Alexa's responses. "The security of our devices is a top priority, and we appreciate the work of independent researchers like Check Point who bring potential issues to us," an Amazon spokesperson told WIRED in a statement. "We fixed this issue soon after it was brought to our attention, and we continue to further strengthen our systems. We are not aware of any cases of this vulnerability being used against our customers or of any customer information being exposed."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/08/17/2129202 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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Text Editor Notepad++ Banned In China After 'Stand With Hong Kong' Update
by Peter Reutemann 18 Aug '20

18 Aug '20

'The website of Notepad++ is banned in China as of Monday, "obviously due to" its release of editions named "Free Uyghur" and "Stand with Hong Kong," the source code and text editor announced on Twitter. TechCrunch reports: First released in 2003 by France-based developer Don Ho, free-to-use Notepad++ operates on Windows and supports some 90 languages. In his release notices for the two editions, Ho openly voiced his concerns over "human rights" conditions, respectively in the Xinjiang autonomous region and Hong Kong. Tests by TechCrunch found that the Notepad++ ban only applies to its Download page -- which showcases the special editions and thus politically sensitive language -- when one tries to reach it from Chinese browsers developed by Tencent (QQ Browser and WeChat's built-in browser), Alibaba (UC Browser), 360 and Sogou. These services flag the page as containing content "prohibited" by local regulators. Notepad++'s home page, on the other hand, remains unblocked through these local browsers. One can still access the full site from Chrome and DuckDuckGo in China. The ban began as early as August 12 when a user notified Ho of the ban, the developer told TechCrunch. He has never been contacted by any Chinese government authority and does not plan to take measures to cope with the website restriction.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/08/17/2028235 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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Reviewer Calls Linux-based PinePhone 'the Most Interesting Smartphone I've Tried in Years'
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '20

17 Aug '20

'A review at the Android Police site calls Pine64's new Linux-based PinePhone "the most interesting smartphone I've tried in years," with 17 different operating systems available (including Fedora, Ubuntu Touch, SailfishOS, openSUSE, and Arch Linux ARM): There's a replaceable battery, which is compatible with batteries designed for older Samsung Galaxy J7 phones. It's good to know that even if PinePhone vanished overnight, you could still purchase new batteries for around $10-15... There's a microSD card slot above the SIM tray, which supports cards up to 2TB in size. While it can be used as extra storage, just like the SD slots in Android phones and tablets, it can also function as a bootable drive. If you write an operating system image to the SD card and put it in the PinePhone, the phone will boot from the SD card. This means you can move between operating systems on the PinePhone by simply swapping microSD cards, which is amazing for trying out new Linux distributions without wiping data. How great would it be if Android phones could do that? Finally, the inside of the PinePhone has six hardware killswitches that can be manipulated with a screwdriver. You can use them to turn off the modem, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, microphone, rear camera, front camera, and headphone jack. No need to put a sticker over the selfie camera if you're worried about malicious software — just flip the switch and never worry about it again.... For a $150 phone produced in limited batches by a company with no previous experience in the smartphone industry, I'm impressed it's built as well as it is... I look forward to seeing what the community around the PinePhone can accomplish. A Pine64 blog post this weekend touts "a boat-load of cool and innovative things" being attempted by the PinePhone community, including users working on things like a fingerprint scanner or a thermal camera, plus a community that's 3D-printing their own custom PinePhone cases. And Pine64 has now identified three candidates for a future keyboard option (each of which can be configured as either a slide-out or clamshell keyboard): I feel like we have finally gotten into a good production rhythm; it was only last month we announced the postmarketOS Community Edition of the PinePhone, and this month I am here to tell you that the factory will deliver the phones to us at the end of this month... I don't know about you, but I think that this is a rather good production pace. At the time of writing, and based on current sale rates, the postmarketOS production-run will sell out in a matter of days... While I have no further announcements at this time, what I will say is that we have no intention of slowing down the pace now until February 2021 (when Chinese New Year begins)...' -- source: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/20/08/17/0115227 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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Can Firefox Be Saved?
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '20

17 Aug '20

'"Even with another infusion of cash from Google, you have to wonder just how long Firefox will survive as a viable, mainstream web browser," argues ZDNet contributing editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols: I've been using Mozilla's Firefox browser since it was still in beta. In 2004, for a while, it was my favorite web browser. Not because it was open-source, but because it was so much better and more secure than Internet Explorer. That was then. This is now. Firefox is in real danger of dying off... Mozilla and Firefox still produced important work. You need to look no further than the JavaScript, Rust, and WebAssembly languages. They were also champions of security and privacy. Projects such as embracing DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) and overall security improvements were great, but users didn't care. With the arrival of Google's Chrome browser, users turned from Firefox to Chrome as their favorite browser... Firefox is on its way to irrelevance. Making matters even worse, Mozilla's just had its second round of layoffs... As technology writer Matthew MacDonald put it, "Mozilla "." Firefox's security and development teams have also been hard hit. This is bad. In January. Mitchell Baker, Mozilla Corporation CEO and Mozilla Foundation chairperson, said it let people go because of declining interest in Firefox, and thus reduced earnings, and that Mozilla was looking for more revenue from "sources outside of search" but "this did not happen." It still isn't happening. According to Mozilla's latest annual report, the majority of its revenue is still generated from global browser search partnerships. This includes the deal negotiated with Google in 2017... Baker assured onlookers that Mozilla would "ship new products faster and develop new revenue streams." These include its bookmarking app Pocket; its virtual rooms Hubs; and its $4.99-a-month Firefox VPN. Excuse me if I don't buy any of these new revenue sources.... Firefox will live on in one way or the other. It's open source after all. But Firefox as an important browser, or Mozilla as a significant open-source developer hub? No. I can't see it. Those days are done. Firefox is officially on my endangered species list. Technology writer Matthew MacDonald ended his Medium essay on a more hopeful note. "If you have the skills and time, the best possible support is to join the Mozilla community and contribute to their code base."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/08/15/1955237 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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Happy Birthday to Debian, CPAN, and Mutt
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '20

17 Aug '20

'27 years ago today, in 1993, Debian first appeared in the world. August 16th has since been recognized as "DebianDay," celebrated shortly before the annual Debian Conference — with lots of ways to get involved, according to Debian.org: Today is also an opportunity for you to start or resume your contributions to Debian. For example, you can scratch your creative itch and suggest a wallpaper to be part of the artwork for the next release, have a look at the DebConf20 schedule and register to participate online (August 23rd to 29th, 2020), or put a Debian live image in a DVD or USB and give it to some person near you, who still didn't discover Debian. Our favorite operating system is the result of all the work we do together. Thanks to everybody who has contributed in these 27 years, and happy birthday Debian! And the same day is also the 25th anniversary of CPAN, the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network: On the 16th August 1995, Andreas König uploaded Symdump 1.20 to CPAN. There were other things already on CPAN, but this was the first true upload, to be followed by more than 6,500 people who have released over 35,000 distributions in 230k releases. So it seems appropriate that 16th August be designated CPAN Day, to celebrate CPAN, and all the authors who've made it what it is. That blog post urges readers to celebrate the anniversary "by doing something related to CPAN: release something, blog about your favourite module, or email its author thanking her or him." Finally, Slashdot reader JobSnijders reminds us that Mutt is also enjoying a birthday: The email client that aims to suck a little bit less celebrates its 25th anniversary!' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/08/16/1652249 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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How Qualcomm Shook Down The Cell Phone Industry For Almost 20 Years
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Aug '20

15 Aug '20

A pretty sobering read <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/05/how-qualcomm-shook-down-the-cel…>: Qualcomm's first weapon against competitors: patent licensing terms requiring customers to pay a royalty on every phone sold—not just phones that contained Qualcomm's wireless chips. Sound familiar? Judge Koh draws a direct parallel to licensing behavior that got Microsoft in legal trouble in the 1990s. Microsoft would offer PC makers a discount if they agreed to pay Microsoft a licensing fee for every PC sold—whether or not the PC shipped with a copy of MS-DOS. This effectively meant that a PC maker had to pay twice if it shipped a PC running a non-Microsoft operating system. There’s a lot more--the article reads like a catalogue of gangster-like tactics. All of which is perfectly all right under the US interpretation of “Free Enterprise”, of course ... Also, reading the details of how Qualcomm managed to sabotage Intel’s efforts to develop 5G chips, it seems to me that Qualcomm is directly responsible for the situation today where US companies are lagging behind Chinese ones like Huawei in 5G capability.

1 1

LibreOffice 7.0
by Peter Reutemann 14 Aug '20

14 Aug '20

Hi everyone I completely missed the release of LibreOffice 7.0 at the start of August: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/7.0 Notable changes: - ODF 1.3 support - EMF+ import improved - improved import/export of docx/xlsx/pptx files - Python 2.7 support removed, uses Python 3 by default - Macromedia flash export removed 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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GPT-3 Raises Complex Questions for Philosophy and Policy
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Aug '20

14 Aug '20

From <https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2020/08/13/gpt-3-raises-complex-questions-for…>: GPT-3, a powerful, 175 billion parameter language model developed recently by OpenAI, has been galvanizing public debate and controversy ... Why the hype? GPT-3 is unlike other natural language processing (NLP) systems, the latter of which often struggle with what comes comparatively easily to humans: performing entirely new language tasks based on a few simple instructions and examples. Instead, NLP systems usually have to be pre-trained on a large corpus of text, and then fine-tuned in order to successfully perform a specific task. GPT-3, by contrast, does not require fine tuning of this kind: it seems to be able to perform a whole range of tasks reasonably well, from producing fiction, poetry, and press releases to functioning code, and from music, jokes, and technical manuals, to “news articles which human evaluators have difficulty distinguishing from articles written by humans”. Also note this: ... GPT-3 has been trained on us—on a lot of things that we have said and written—and ends up reproducing just that, racial and gender bias included. OpenAI acknowledges this in their own paper on GPT-3,where they contrast the biased words GPT-3 used most frequently to describe men and women, following prompts like “He was very…” and “She would be described as…”. The results aren’t great. For men? Lazy. Large. Fantastic. Eccentric. Stable. Protect. Survive. For women? Bubbly, naughty, easy-going, petite, pregnant, gorgeous.

1 0

FBI and NSA Expose New Linux Malware Drovorub, Used by Russian State Hackers
by Peter Reutemann 14 Aug '20

14 Aug '20

'The FBI and NSA have published today a joint security alert containing details about a new strain of Linux malware that the two agencies say was developed and deployed in real-world attacks by Russia's military hackers. From a report: The two agencies say Russian hackers used the malware, named Drovorub, was to plant backdoors inside hacked networks. Based on evidence the two agencies have collected, FBI and NSA officials claim the malware is the work of APT28 (Fancy Bear, Sednit), a codename given to the hackers operating out of military unity 26165 of the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) 85th Main SpecialService Center (GTsSS). Through their joint alert, the two agencies hope to raise awareness in the US private and public sectors so IT administrators can quickly deploy detection rules and prevention measures.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/08/13/174237 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

Mozilla Extends its Google Search Deal
by Peter Reutemann 13 Aug '20

13 Aug '20

'Mozilla and Google have extended their search deal for another three years, news outlet ZDNet reported Wednesday, citing sources familiar with thee matter. Mozilla confirmed the news. From a report: The new search deal will ensure Google remains the default search engine provider inside the Firefox browser until 2023 at an estimated price tag of around $400 million to $450 million per year. Mozilla officials are expected to announce the search deal's extension later this fall, in November, when the organization is scheduled to disclose its 2019 financial figures. Terms of the new deal were leaked to this reporter after Mozilla announced plans to lay off more than 250 employees on Wednesday in a move that had many users fearing for the browser maker's future, as Mozilla's current Google search deal was scheduled to expire at the end of the year. However, several sources have confirmed that the organization is sound financially, and the layoffs were part of a restructuring of its core business, with Mozilla moving away from its current role of internet standards steward and experimental approach to its product catalog to more commercially-viable offerings that generate revenues on their own.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/08/13/0012243 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

Google Makes Building Android Apps on Chrome OS Easier
by Peter Reutemann 13 Aug '20

13 Aug '20

'Google today launched ChromeOS.dev, a new site that aims to help developers get started with building Android apps for the company's Linux-based operating system. With today's update, Google is also making it easier to build and test Android applications on Chromebooks. From a report: The new ChromeOS.dev site, which is available in English and Spanish for now, is meant to "help developers maximize their capabilities on the platform through technical resources/tutorials, product announcements, code samples and more," a Google spokesperson told us. As Google notes in today's announcement, in the last quarter, Chromebook unit sales were up 127% year-over-year in the last quarter, compared to 40% for notebook sales in general. To help Android developers do all of their work on a Chromebook if they so desire, Google now offers the full Android Emulator on Chrome OS to test apps right on their Chromebooks. The team also made deploying apps on Chrome OS (M81 and newer) much easier. Developers can now deploy and test apps directly without having to use developer mode or connect devices via USB.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/20/08/12/193214 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

TikTok Tracked User Data Using Tactic Banned By Google
by Peter Reutemann 12 Aug '20

12 Aug '20

'TikTok skirted a privacy safeguard in Google's Android operating system to collect unique identifiers from millions of mobile devices, data that allows the app to track users online without allowing them to opt out, a Wall Street Journal analysis has found. The tactic, which experts in mobile-phone security said was concealed through an unusual added layer of encryption, appears to have violated Google policies limiting how apps track people and wasn't disclosed to TikTok users. TikTok ended the practice in November, the Journal's testing showed. The identifiers collected by TikTok, called MAC addresses, are most commonly used for advertising purposes. The White House has said it is worried that users' data could be obtained by the Chinese government and used to build detailed dossiers on individuals for blackmail or espionage. In a statement, a spokesperson said the company is "committed to protecting the privacy and safety of the TikTok community. Like our peers, we constantly update our app to keep up with evolving security challenges." The company said "the current version of TikTok does not collect MAC addresses."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/08/11/2120246 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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upcoming meeting
by Peter Reutemann 12 Aug '20

12 Aug '20

Hi everyone With the country moving up levels again today [1], I will reevaluate next week whether we are still allowed to meet on campus for our August WLUG meeting. At this stage, the university only seems to assess events of more than 100 people. However, they are requiring social distancing, which is a bit more difficult when you have a hands-on meeting (wireguard). For the time being, stay safe and be kind! Cheers, Peter [1] https://covid19.govt.nz/updates-and-resources/latest-updates/new-zealands-a… -- 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

Android is Becoming a Worldwide Earthquake Detection Network
by Peter Reutemann 12 Aug '20

12 Aug '20

'Google is creating a worldwide, Android phone-powered earthquake alert system. The first part of that system is rolling out today. If you opt in, the accelerometer in your Android phone will become one data point for an algorithm designed to detect earthquakes. Eventually, that system will automatically send warnings to people who could be impacted. From a report: It's a feature made possible through Google's strengths: the staggering numbers of Android phones around the world and clever use of algorithms on big data. As with its collaboration with Apple on exposure tracing and other Android features like car crash detection and emergency location services, it shows that there are untapped ways that smartphones could be used for something more important than doomscrolling. Google is rolling out the system in small stages. First, Google is partnering with the United States Geological Survey and the California Office of Emergency Services to send the agencies' earthquake alerts to Android users in that state. Those alerts are generated by the already-existing ShakeAlert system, which uses data generated by traditional seismometer' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/08/11/1440235 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

Mozilla Lays Off 250 Employees While it Refocuses on Commercial Products
by Peter Reutemann 12 Aug '20

12 Aug '20

'The Mozilla Corporation announced today it was laying off approximately 250 staff members in a move to shore up the organization's financial future. From a report: The layoffs were publicly announced in a blog post today. Employees were notified hours before, earlier this morning, via an email sent by Mitchell Baker, Mozilla Corporation CEO and Mozilla Foundation Chairwoman. Baker's message cited the organization's need to adapt its finances to a post-COVID-19 world and re-focus the organization on new commercial services. Baker said that after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mozilla attempted to minimize the healthcare crisis' financial impact with "immediate cost-saving measures such as pausing our hiring, reducing our wellness stipend and cancelling our All-Hands [meetings]." However, Baker said that Mozilla's "pre-COVID plan is no longer workable." "We have talked about the need for change -- including the likelihood of layoffs -- since the spring. Today these changes become real," the Mozilla CEO said today.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/08/11/1458214 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

China Blocking ESNI Connections
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Aug '20

11 Aug '20

TLS 1.3 (the latest version of the protocol used for “HTTPS” connections) adds a feature called “Encrypted Server Name Indication” (ESNI). This removes a loophole where the initial exchange, in which the browser indicates to the server which (of possibly many) virtual host names it is trying to connect to, is sent unencrypted. Reports <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/11/china_blocking_tls_1_3_esni/> are saying that the Great Firewall of China is trying to block all such connection attempts, just in case any of them happen to be to “banned” sites. However, it is (currently) possible to manipulate the packet stream in such a way as to fool this filtering, so the connection can go through.

1 0

CrowPi 2 Raspberry-π-Based Laptop Incl Development Board
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Aug '20

11 Aug '20

Review <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0WGyY7njWQ> of a laptop-styled unit built around a Raspberry π 4. Lift off the (wireless) keyboard, to reveal a built-in development board with a whole bunch of extra components on it for you to play with. Also comes with a few sensors that you can connect to conduct various experiments, plus two game controllers and a remote control. Oh, and some cardboard cut-out-and-fold Minecraft blocks.

1 0

Boeing 747 Navigation Databases Updated Via 3½” Floppy Drives
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Aug '20

11 Aug '20

A group of security hackers took advantage of British Airways’ decommissioning of its Boeing 747 fleet to have a nose round inside one before the scrap dealers moved in <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/10/boeing_747_floppy_drive_updates_walk…>. The navigation database has to be updated every 28 days. This is done by bringing along a 3½” floppy disk with the new info and putting it into an onboard drive. On the bright side, there really seemed to be a good separation between the customer-accessible in-flight entertainment systems and those used to manage critical aircraft systems.

2 1

Snapdragon chip flaws put >1 billion Android phones at risk of data theft
by Peter Reutemann 10 Aug '20

10 Aug '20

'A billion or more Android devices are vulnerable to hacks that can turn them into spying tools by exploiting more than 400 vulnerabilities in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip, researchers reported this week. The vulnerabilities can be exploited when a target downloads a video or other content that’s rendered by the chip. Targets can also be attacked by installing malicious apps that require no permissions at all. >From there, attackers can monitor locations and listen to nearby audio in real time and exfiltrate photos and videos. Exploits also make it possible to render the phone completely unresponsive. Infections can be hidden from the operating system in a way that makes disinfecting difficult. Snapdragon is what’s known as a system on a chip that provides a host of components, such as a CPU and a graphics processor. One of the functions, known as digital signal processing, or DSP, tackles a variety of tasks, including charging abilities and video, audio, augmented reality, and other multimedia functions. Phone makers can also use DSPs to run dedicated apps that enable custom features.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/snapdragon-chip-flaw… 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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Researcher Discovers New 'HTTP Request Smuggling Attack' Variants
by Peter Reutemann 10 Aug '20

10 Aug '20

'Some scary new variants of "HTTP request smuggling" have been discovered by Amit Klein, VP of security research at SafeBreach, reports Security Week: Specifically, an HTTP request smuggling attack, which can be launched remotely over the internet, can allow a hacker to bypass security controls, gain access to sensitive data, and compromise other users of the targeted app. While the attack method has been known for more than a decade, it still hasn't been fully mitigated. Klein has managed to identify five new attack variants and he has released proof-of-concept (PoC) exploits. He demonstrated his findings using the Abyss X1 web server from Aprelium and the Squid caching and forwarding HTTP web proxy. The developers of Abyss and Squid have been notified of the vulnerabilities exploited by Klein during his research, and they have released patches and mitigations. One of the attacks bypasses the OWASP ModSecurity Core Rule Set (CRS), which provides generic attack detection rules for ModSecurity or other web application firewalls. OWASP has also released fixes after being notified. Klein told SecurityWeek ahead of his talk on HTTP request smuggling at the Black Hat conference that an attacker needs to find combinations of web servers and proxy servers with "matching" vulnerabilities in order to launch an attack, which makes it difficult to determine exactly how many servers are impacted. However, an attacker can simply try to launch an attack to determine if a system is vulnerable. "The attack is not demanding resource-wise, so there's no downside to simply trying it," Klein said. In his research, he demonstrated a web cache poisoning attack, in which the attacker forces the proxy server to cache the content of one URL for a request of a different URL. He says attacks can be launched en-masse through a proxy server against multiple different web servers or against multiple proxy servers... While there haven't been any reports of HTTP request smuggling being used in the wild, Klein has pointed out that attacks may have been launched but were not detected by the target.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/08/09/0047219 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

Linus Torvalds: Linux 5.8 "One of our Biggest Releases of All Time"
by Peter Reutemann 10 Aug '20

10 Aug '20

'This week saw the release Linux 5.8, which Linus Torvalds called "one of our biggest releases of all time," reports TechRepublic: The new version of the Linux kernel brings a number of updates to Linux 5.7 spanning security, core components, drivers, memory management, networking and improvements to the kernel's design, amongst others. This includes updates for Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization platform, Intel Tiger Lake Thunderbolt support, improvements to Microsoft's exFAT file system, and support for newer Intel and ARM chips. Torvalds said the kernel had received over 15,000 merge requests and that around 20% of all the files in the kernel source repository had been modified. "That's really a fairly big percentage, and while some of it is scripted, on the whole it's really just the same pattern: 5.8 has simply seen a lot of development," Torvalds said. Translated into numbers, Linux 5.8 includes over 800,000 new lines and over 14,000 changed files. It also received one of the biggest number of merge requests during its merge window — over 14,000 non-merge commits and more than 15,000 including merges, according to Torvalds. "5.8 looks big. Really big," he added.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/08/09/2046232 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

Infographic: Ubuntu from 2004 to 20.04 LTS
by Peter Reutemann 09 Aug '20

09 Aug '20

'Today, the first point release of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS went live! To celebrate, we wanted to share how Ubuntu has evolved since the first release in 2004 to where we are today with 20.04. Thanks to those in the community and our users for your contributions and joining us on this journey. Upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS now!' -- source: https://ubuntu.com/blog/infographic-ubuntu-from-2004-to-20-04-lts 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/

4 4

Scientists Rename Human Genes To Stop Microsoft Excel From Misreading Them as Dates
by Peter Reutemann 08 Aug '20

08 Aug '20

'There are tens of thousands of genes in the human genome: minuscule twists of DNA and RNA that combine to express all of the traits and characteristics that make each of us unique. Each gene is given a name and alphanumeric code, known as a symbol, which scientists use to coordinate research. But over the past year or so, some 27 human genes have been renamed, all because Microsoft Excel kept misreading their symbols as dates. From a report: The problem isn't as unexpected as it first sounds. Excel is a behemoth in the spreadsheet world and is regularly used by scientists to track their work and even conduct clinical trials. But its default settings were designed with more mundane applications in mind, so when a user inputs a gene's alphanumeric symbol into a spreadsheet, like MARCH1 -- short for "Membrane Associated Ring-CH-Type Finger 1" -- Excel converts that into a date: 1-Mar. This is extremely frustrating, even dangerous, corrupting data that scientists have to sort through by hand to restore. It's also surprisingly widespread and affects even peer-reviewed scientific work. One study from 2016 examined genetic data shared alongside 3,597 published papers and found that roughly one-fifth had been affected by Excel errors.' -- source: https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/08/06/147226 This auto-interpreting and getting things wrong has always annoyed me about Excel and other spreadsheet applications. Not sure whether there ever was an option to turn off this "auto-detect of content type"... 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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Yet Another Spreadsheet Screwup
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 Aug '20

08 Aug '20

The British Army had to retract a bunch of notifications about promotions incorrectly sent out <https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/07/army_promotion_excel_snafu/>. I suspect the phrase “incorrectly sorted” means they forgot to select all the right columns before doing a sort of the rows, leading to a scrambling of the data. This kind of thing is all too common.

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The Next Step In SSD Evolution: NVMe Zoned Namespaces Explained
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '20

07 Aug '20

'In June we saw an update to the NVMe standard. The update defines a software interface to assist in actually reading and writing to the drives in a way to which SSDs and NAND flash actually works. Instead of emulating the traditional block device model that SSDs inherited from hard drives and earlier storage technologies, the new NVMe Zoned Namespaces optional feature allows SSDs to implement a different storage abstraction over flash memory. This is quite similar to the extensions SAS and SATA have added to accommodate Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) hard drives, with a few extras for SSDs. 'Zoned' SSDs with this new feature can offer better performance than regular SSDs, with less overprovisioning and less DRAM. The downside is that applications and operating systems have to be updated to support zoned storage, but that work is well underway. The NVMe Zoned Namespaces (ZNS) specification has been ratified and published as a Technical Proposal. It builds on top of the current NVMe 1.4a specification, in preparation for NVMe 2.0. The upcoming NVMe 2.0 specification will incorporate all the approved Technical Proposals, but also reorganize that same functionality into multiple smaller component documents: a base specification (one for each command set of block, zoned, key-value, and potentially more in the future), and separate specifications for each transport protocol (PCIe, RDMA, TCP). The standardization of Zoned Namespaces clears the way for broader commercialization and adoption of this technology, which so far has been held back by vendor-specific zoned storage interfaces and very limited hardware choices. [...]' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/20/08/06/1916230 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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Can Killing Cookies Save Journalism?
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '20

07 Aug '20

'In May 2018, as the European Union’s landmark privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation, went into effect, the main Dutch public broadcaster set in motion a grand experiment. The leadership at Nederlandse Publieke Omroep—essentially the BBC of the Netherlands—interpreted the law strictly, deciding that visitors to any of its websites would now be prompted to opt in or out of cookies, the tracking technology that enables personalized ads based on someone’s browsing history. And, unlike with most companies, who assume that anyone who skips past a privacy notice is OK with tracking, any NPO visitor who clicked past the obtrusive consent screen without making a choice would be opted out by default. The results weren’t terribly surprising: 90 percent of users opted out. Here is where the ad tech industry would have predicted calamity. A study performed by Google last year, for example, concluded that disabling cookies reduced publisher revenue by more than 50 percent. (Research by an independent team of economists, however, pegged the cookie premium at only 4 percent. Needless to say, there were methodological differences.) If the Google study was right, then NPO should have been heading for financial disaster. The opposite turned out to be true. Instead, the company found that ads served to users who opted out of cookies were bringing in as much or more money as ads served to users who opted in. The results were so strong that as of January 2020, NPO simply got rid of advertising cookies altogether. And rather than decline, its digital revenue is dramatically up, even after the economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic.' -- source: https://www.wired.com/story/can-killing-cookies-save-journalism/ 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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