- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Landmark 2.80 Release of Open Source Blender 3D With Improved UI Now Available
by Peter Reutemann 11 Aug '19

11 Aug '19

'"In the 3D content creation space, where are lot of professional 3D software costs anywhere from 2K to 8K Dollars a license, people have always hoped that the free, open source 3D software Blender would some day be up to the job of replacing expensive commercial 3D software packages," writes Slashdot reader dryriver: This never happened, not because Blender didn't have good 3D features technically, but rather because the Blender Foundation simply did not listen to thousands of 3D artists screaming for a "more standard UI design" in Blender. Blender's eccentric GUI with reversed left-click-right-click conventions, keyboard shortcuts that don't match commercial software and other nastiness just didn't work for a lot of people. After years of screaming, Blender finally got a much better and more familiar UI design in release 2.80, which can be downloaded here. Version 2.80 has many powerful features, but the standout feature is that after nearly 10 years of asking, 3D artists finally get a better, more standard, more sensible User Interface. This effectively means that for the first time, Blender can compete directly with expensive commercial 3D software made by industry leaders like Autodesk, Maxon, NewTek and SideFX. Why the Blender Foundation took nearly a decade to revise the software's UI is anybody's guess.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/08/11/1842258 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 Swap Space Solve System Performance Issues?
by Peter Reutemann 11 Aug '19

11 Aug '19

'Earlier this week on the Linux kernel mailing list, Artem S. Tashkinov described a low-memory scenario where "the system will stall hard. You will barely be able to move the mouse pointer. Your disk LED will be flashing incessantly..." "I'm afraid I have bad news for the people snickering at Linux here," wrote Chris Siebenmann, a sys-admin at the University of Toronto's CS lab. "If you're running without swap space, you can probably get any Unix to behave this way under memory pressure..." In the old days, this usually was not very much of an issue because system RAM was generally large compared to the size of programs and thus the amount of file-backed pages that were likely to be in memory. That's no longer the case today; modern large programs such as Firefox and its shared libraries can have significant amounts of file-backed code and data pages (in addition to their often large use of dynamically allocated memory, ie anonymous pages). A production engineer (now on Facebook's Web Foundation team) wrote about experiencing similar issues years ago when another company had disabled swapping when they replaced or reinstalled machines -- leading to lots of pages from hosts that had to be dealt with. This week they wrote: I stand by my original position: have some swap. Not a lot. Just a little. Linux boxes just plain act weirdly without it. This is not permission to beat your machine silly in terms of memory allocation, either... If you allocate all of the RAM on the machine, you have screwed the kernel out of buffer cache it sorely needs. Back off. Put another way, disk I/O that isn't brutally slow costs memory. Network I/O costs memory. All kinds of stuff costs memory. It's not JUST the RSS of your process. Other stuff you do needs space to operate. If you try to fill a 2 GB box with 2 GB of data, something's going to have a bad day! You have to leave room for the actual system to run or it's going to grind to a stop.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/08/10/041223 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 Spectre-like CPU Vulnerability Bypasses Existing Defenses
by Peter Reutemann 11 Aug '19

11 Aug '19

'Researchers from security firm Bitdefender discovered and reported a year ago a new CPU vulnerability that 'abuses a system instruction called SWAPGS and can bypass mitigations put in place for previous speculative execution vulnerabilities like Spectre,' writes Lucian Constantin for CSO. There are three attack scenarios involving SWAPGS, the most serious of which 'can allow attackers to leak the contents of arbitrary kernel memory addresses. This is similar to the impact of the Spectre vulnerability.' Microsoft released mitigations for the vulnerability in July's Patch Tuesday, although details were withheld until August 6 when Bitdefender released its whitepaper and Microsoft published a security advisory.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/08/10/0523206 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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Remember Autorun.inf Malware In Windows? Turns Out KDE Offers Something Similar
by Peter Reutemann 11 Aug '19

11 Aug '19

'A security researcher has published proof-of-concept (PoC) code for a vulnerability in the KDE software framework. A fix is not available at the time of writing. The bug was discovered by Dominik "zer0pwn" Penner and impacts the KDE Frameworks package 5.60.0 and below. The KDE Frameworks software library is at the base of the KDE desktop environment v4 and v5 (Plasma), currently included with a large number of Linux distributions. The vulnerability occurs because of the way the KDesktopFile class (part of KDE Frameworks) handles .desktop or .directory files. It was discovered that malicious .desktop and .directory files could be created that could be used to run malicious code on a user's computer. When a user opens the KDE file viewer to access the directory where these files are stored, the malicious code contained within the .desktop or .directory files executes without user interaction — such as running the file. Zero user interaction is required to trigger code execution — all you have to do is to browse a directory with a malicious file using any of KDE file system browsing applications like Dolphin. When ZDNet contacted KDE for a comment Tuesday, their spokesperson provided this response. "We would appreciate if people would contact security(a)kde.org before releasing an exploit into the public, rather than the other way around, so that we can decide on a timeline together."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/08/10/2257259 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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Severe local 0-Day escalation exploit found in Steam Client Services
by Peter Reutemann 09 Aug '19

09 Aug '19

'Earlier today, disgruntled security researcher Vasily Kravets released a zero-day vulnerability in the Windows version of the ubiquitous gaming service Steam. The vulnerability allows any user to run arbitrary code with LOCALSYSTEM privileges using just a very few simple commands. The vulnerability lies within Steam Client Service. The service may be started or stopped by unprivileged users. This becomes a problem because, when run,Steam Client Service automatically sets permissions on a range of registry keys. If a mischievous—or outright malicious—user were to symlink one of these keys to that belonging to another service, it becomes possible for arbitrary users to start or stop that service as well. This becomes even more problematic when you realize that it's possible to pass arguments to services that run under extremely privileged accounts—such as msiserver, the Windows Installer service.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/08/severe-local-0-day-escalation-exploi… 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 Ceases Publication
by Peter Reutemann 09 Aug '19

09 Aug '19

'Not too long after Linus Torvalds wrote his own Unix kernel, which he called Linux, in the summer of 1991, a magazine was founded by enthusiasts to focus on the operating system. For nearly three decades Linux Journal has been an authority magazine on all things Linux, but it is now shuttering doors, it said late Wednesday. The announcement comes about two years after the periodical said it would cease to exist, but it was able to find some backing -- from Privacy Internet Access group -- to resume operations later on. The team said on Wednesday that all staff members had been laid off and the company was left with no operating funds to continue in any capacity. It remains committed to keeping the website afloat for another few weeks.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/08/08/1354211 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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Red Hat Joins the RISC-V Foundation
by Peter Reutemann 08 Aug '19

08 Aug '19

'Red Hat has joined the RISC-V Foundation to help foster this open-source processor ISA. Phoronix reports: While we're still likely years away from seeing any serious RISC-V powered servers at least that can deliver meaningful performance, Red Hat has been active in promoting RISC-V as an open-source processor instruction set architecture and one of the most promising libre architectures we have seen over the years. Red Hat developers have already helped in working on Fedora's RISC-V support and now the IBM-owned company is helping out more and showing their commitment by joining the RISC-V Foundation. Red Hat joins the likes of Google, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, SiFive, Western Digital, IBM, and Samsung as among the many RISC-V members. ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/08/08/213253 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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WordPress Team Working on Daring Plan To Forcibly Update Old Websites
by Peter Reutemann 08 Aug '19

08 Aug '19

'The developers behind the WordPress open-source content management system (CMS) are working on a plan to forcibly auto-update older versions of the CMS to more recent releases. From a report: The goal of this plan is to improve the security of the WordPress ecosystem, and the internet as a whole, since WordPress installations account for more than 34% of all internet websites. Officially supported versions include only the last six WordPress major releases, which currently are all the versions between v4.7 and v5.2. The plan is to slowly auto-update old WordPress sites, starting with v3.7, to the current minimum supported version, which is the v4.7 release. The WordPress team said it plans to monitor this tiered forced auto-update process for errors and site breakage. If there's something massively wrong, then auto-update can be stopped altogether. If only a few individual sites break, than those site will be rolled back to their previous versions and the owner will be notified via email.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/08/08/1523212 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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AMD Lands Google, Twitter as Customers With Newest Server Chip
by Peter Reutemann 08 Aug '19

08 Aug '19

'Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday released the second generation of its processor chip for data centers and said that it had landed Alphabet's Google and Twitter as customers. From a report: AMD competes against Intel to supply chips for data centers that power internet-based services. Both firms have come to rely on data center chips for growth because personal computer sales have stagnated as users shifted to mobile devices. AMD's newest generation of server chip, called EPYC, uses a new chip-making technology from its contract manufacturers that helps the chips have better performance while consuming less power. Intel, which makes chips in its own factories instead of relying on contractors, is behind schedule delivering chips made with its own newer manufacturing process. It plans to release them next year.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/08/08/1553202 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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Less TV, More Online
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 Aug '19

08 Aug '19

In Britain, at least <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/08/07/punters_switching_off_telly_boxes_…>, people are spending less time watching conventional broadcast TV and more time watching vids on YouTube and Netflix. In related news, famed (and feared) US ratings agency Nielsen <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190805/08212442723/after-missing-cord-c…> has fallen on hard times as its broadcast (FTA and cable) company customers suffer a similar trend. The irony was that they were the ones forcing it not to make any measurements of the “cord-cutting” phenomenon, because it made them look bad; and as a result its service has now declined into irrelevance.

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What all the stuff in email headers means—and how to sniff out spoofing
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '19

07 Aug '19

'I pretty frequently get requests for help from someone who has been impersonated—or whose child has been impersonated—via email. Even when you know how to "view headers" or "view source" in your email client, the spew of diagnostic wharrgarbl can be pretty overwhelming if you don't know what you're looking at. Today, we're going to step through a real-world set of (anonymized) email headers and describe the process of figuring out what's what. Before we get started with the actual headers, though, we're going to take a quick detour through an overview of what the overall path of an email message looks like in the first place. (More experienced sysadmin types who already know what stuff like "MTA" and "SPF" stand for can skip a bit ahead to the fun part!)' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/08/ars-forensic-files-h… 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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Skype, Slack, other Electron-based apps can be easily backdoored
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '19

07 Aug '19

'The Electron development platform is a key part of many applications, thanks to its cross-platform capabilities. Based on JavaScript and Node.js, Electron has been used to create client applications for Internet communications tools (including Skype, WhatsApp, and Slack) and even Microsoft's Visual Studio Code development tool. But Electron can also pose a significant security risk because of how easily Electron-based applications can be modified without triggering warnings. At the BSides LV security conference on Tuesday, Pavel Tsakalidis demonstrated a tool he created called BEEMKA, a Python-based tool that allows someone to unpack Electron ASAR archive files and inject new code into Electron's JavaScript libraries and built-in Chrome browser extensions. The vulnerability is not part of the applications themselves but of the underlying Electron framework—and that vulnerability allows malicious activities to be hidden within processes that appear to be benign. Tsakalidis said that he had contacted Electron about the vulnerability but that he had gotten no response—and the vulnerability remains. While making these changes required administrator access on Linux and MacOS, it only requires local access on Windows. Those modifications can create new event-based "features" that can access the file system, activate a Web cam, and exfiltrate information from systems using the functionality of trusted applications—including user credentials and sensitive data. In his demonstration, Tsakalidis showed a backdoored version of Microsoft Visual Studio Code that sent the contents of every code tab opened to a remote website.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/08/skype-slack-other-el… 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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Google releases the 6th and final beta for Android Q
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '19

07 Aug '19

'We are quickly approaching launch day for Android Q, Google's 29th release of Android. At some point in the near future we should see a statue-unveiling, official confirmation that this is "Android 10," and the highly anticipated "Q" snack name [Editor's suggestion]. First though, we have to see the sixth-and-final beta release out the door, which is happening today. Android Q Beta 6 is rolling out to Pixel phones now and participating third-party devices in the coming weeks. Final APIs for developers were locked down in Beta 4, so Beta 5 and 6 are mostly about squishing bugs and polishing up the final interface. Fully gestural navigation is a major feature of Android Q, and with the Beta 5 launch came the announcement that gesture navigation would not work with third-party home apps at launch, presumably due to a lack of time to work out the pile of bugs that have been reported. Even with third-party home screen compatibility off the table, it seems like Google will be working on gesture navigation down to the wire. Beta 5 came with a new gesture for the Google Assistant and new rules for developers. In Beta 6, Google says it has "made further refinements to Gesture Navigation in Beta 6 based on user feedback" and now has a sensitivity setting for the back gesture. The back gesture involves swiping in from the edge of the screen, which can interfere with apps that require horizontal scrolling. Newly updated apps are supposed to design around the new back gesture; the sensitivity setting should help find a balance for older apps with conflicting swipe areas.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/08/google-releases-the-6th-and-final-b… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Microsoft Contractors Are Listening To Some Skype Calls
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '19

07 Aug '19

'Contractors working for Microsoft are listening to personal conversations of Skype users conducted through the app's translation service, according to a cache of internal documents, screenshots, and audio recordings obtained by Motherboard. From a report: Although Skype's website says that the company may analyze audio of phone calls that a user wants to translate in order to improve the chat platform's services, it does not say some of this analysis will be done by humans. The Skype audio obtained by Motherboard includes conversations from people talking intimately to loved ones, some chatting about personal issues such as their weight loss, and others seemingly discussing relationship problems. Other files obtained by Motherboard show that Microsoft contractors are also listening to voice commands that users speak to Cortana, the company's voice assistant.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/08/07/1432204 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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FFmpeg 4.2, Open-Source Multimedia Framework Released
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '19

07 Aug '19

'Dubbed "Ada," the FFMpeg 4.2 series introduces some exciting new features and improvements, among which we can mention support for decoding AV1 files via the libdav1d library, support for ARIB STD-B24 caption (profiles A and C) based on the libaribb24 library, and support for decoding HEVC 4:4:4 content in nvdec and cuviddec. FFmpeg 4.2 also comes with support for decoding HEVC 4:4:4 content in VDPAU (Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix), support for using Clang to compile CUDA kernels, the ability for the mov muxer to write tracks with unspecified language instead of English by default, a GIF parser, as well as the removal of the libndi-newtek component.' -- source: https://news.softpedia.com/news/ffmpeg-4-2-ada-open-source-multimedia-frame… 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 Catches Russian State Hackers Using IoT Devices To Breach Networks
by Peter Reutemann 06 Aug '19

06 Aug '19

'Hackers working for the Russian government have been using printers, video decoders, and other so-called Internet-of-things devices as a beachhead to penetrate targeted computer networks, Microsoft officials warned on Monday. "These devices became points of ingress from which the actor established a presence on the network and continued looking for further access," officials with the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center wrote in a post. "Once the actor had successfully established access to the network, a simple network scan to look for other insecure devices allowed them to discover and move across the network in search of higher-privileged accounts that would grant access to higher-value data." Microsoft researchers discovered the attacks in April, when a voice-over-IP phone, an office printer, and a video decoder in multiple customer locations were communicating with servers belonging to "Strontium," a Russian government hacking group better known as Fancy Bear or APT28. In two cases, the passwords for the devices were the easily guessable default ones they shipped with. In the third instance, the device was running an old firmware version with a known vulnerability. While Microsoft officials concluded that Strontium was behind the attacks, they said they weren't able to determine what the group's ultimate objectives were. Microsoft says they have notified the makers of the targeted IoT devices so they can add new protections. "Monday's report also provided IP addresses and scripts organizations can use to detect if they have also been targeted or infected," adds Ars Technica. "Beyond that, Monday's report reminded people that, despite Strontium's above-average hacking abilities, an IoT device is often all it needs to gain access to a targeted network."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/08/06/0115233 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 Performs Poorly In Low RAM / Memory Pressure Situations On The Desktop
by Peter Reutemann 06 Aug '19

06 Aug '19

'It's been a gripe for many running Linux on low RAM systems especially is that when the Linux desktop is under memory pressure the performance can be quite brutal with the system barely being responsive. The discussion over that behavior has been reignited this week. From a report: Developer Artem S Tashkinov took to the kernel mailing list over the weekend to express his frustration with the kernel's inability to handle low memory pressure in a graceful manner. If booting a system with just 4GB of RAM available, disabling SWAP to accelerate the impact/behavior, and launching a web browser and opening new web pages / tabs can in a matter of minutes bring the system down to its knees. Artem elaborated on the kernel mailing list, "Once you hit a situation when opening a new tab requires more RAM than is currently available, the system will stall hard. You will barely be able to move the mouse pointer. Your disk LED will be flashing incessantly (I'm not entirely sure why). You will not be able to run new applications or close currently running ones. This little crisis may continue for minutes or even longer. I think that's not how the system should behave in this situation. I believe something must be done about that to avoid this stall."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/08/06/1839206 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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Final Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Version Released
by Peter Reutemann 06 Aug '19

06 Aug '19

'The last RHEL release, RHEL 7.7, is now available for current Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscribers via the Red Hat Customer Portal. ZDNet reports on what's new: RHEL 7.7's most important updates are support for the latest generation of enterprise hardware and remediation for the recently disclosed ZombieLoad vulnerabilities. The latest RHEL 7 also includes network stack performance enhancements. With this release, you can offload virtual switching operations to network interface card (NIC) hardware. What that means for you is, if you're using virtual switching and network function virtualization (NFV), you'll see better network performance on cloud and container platforms such as Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat OpenShift. RHEL 7.7 users can also use Red Hat's new predictive problem shooter: Red Hat Insights. This uses a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based predictive analytics approach to spot, assess, and mitigate potential problems to their systems before they can cause trouble. For developers, RHEL 7.7 comes with Python 3.6 interpreter, and the pip and setup tools utilities. Previously, Python 3 versions were available only as a part of Red Hat Software Collections. Moving on to the cloud, RHEL 7.7 Red Hat Image Builder is now supported. This feature, which is also in RHEL 8, enables you to easily create custom RHEL system images for cloud and virtualization platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), VMware vSphere, and OpenStack. To help cloud-native developers, RHEL 7.7 includes full support for Red Hat's distributed-container toolkit -- buildah, podman, and skopeo -- on RHEL workstations. After building on the desktop, programmers can use Red Hat Universal Base Image to build, run, and manage containerized applications across the hybrid cloud.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/08/06/208202 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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Half of All Google Chrome Extensions Have Fewer Than 16 Installs
by Peter Reutemann 05 Aug '19

05 Aug '19

'There are 188,620 extensions available on the Chrome Web Store, and while you might think this provides a wide variety of choices for Chrome users, in reality, most of these extensions are dead or dwindling, with very few having active installations. From a report: All in all, about 50% of all Chrome extensions have fewer than 16 installs, meaning that half of the Chrome extension ecosystem is actually more of a ghost town, according to a recent scan of the entire Chrome Web Store conducted by Extension Monitor. Further, 19,379 extensions (just over 10%) have zero installs, and 25,540 extensions (13% of the total) have just one user. The scan found that there are very few Chrome extensions that managed to establish a dedicated userbase. According to Extension Monitor, around 87% of all extensions have fewer than 1,000 installs.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/08/05/144246 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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Huawei Tests Smartphone With Own OS, Could Potentially Start Selling Them Later This Year
by Peter Reutemann 05 Aug '19

05 Aug '19

'Huawei is testing a smartphone equipped with Hongmeng, the company's self-developed operating system, which could potentially go on sale by the end of this year, Chinese state-media outlet Global Times reported. From a report: The release of a Hongmeng-powered smartphone would mark a major step for China's Huawei, the world's second-biggest maker of smartphones, as U.S. government actions threaten its access to Google's Android operating system. The device will be priced at around 2,000 yuan ($288), the Global Times said on Sunday, citing unnamed sources. That will place the device toward the low-end segment of the smartphone market. Huawei executives have previously described Hongmeng as an operating system designed for internet-of-things products. Last month the company said the first major devices powered by Hongmeng would be its upcoming line of Honor-brand smart TVs.' -- source: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/19/08/05/1515218 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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GNOME and KDE Join Forces To Co-Host Linux App Summit
by Peter Reutemann 05 Aug '19

05 Aug '19

'GNOME and KDE are co-hosting this year's Linux App Summit (LAS) in Barcelona from November 12th to 15th. An anonymous reader shared the big announcement: LAS is the first collaborative event co-hosted by the two organizations since the Desktop Summit in 2009. Both organizations are eager to bring their communities together in building an application ecosystem that transcends individual distros and broadens the market for everyone involved. KDE and GNOME will no longer be taking a passive role in the free desktop sector. With the joint influence of the two desktop projects, LAS will shepherd the growth of the FOSS desktop by encouraging the creation of quality applications, seeking opportunities for compensation for FOSS developers, and fostering a vibrant market for the Linux operating system. * "I am excited to see GNOME and KDE working together on LAS, and I believe that the event will help lay down strong foundations for collaborative cross-project development that would benefit Linux users across all distributions and on any compatible device." -- Christel Dahlskjaer, Private Internet Access and freenode Project Lead. * "Together with GNOME, counting with the collaboration of many distributions and application developers, we'll have the opportunity to work side by side, share our perspectives and offer the platform that the next generation of solutions will be built on." -- Aleix Pol Gonzalez, KDE e.V Vice-President says about the inaugural effort about LAS. * "By partnering with KDE we show the desire to build the kind of application ecosystem that demonstrates that Open Source and Free Software are important; the technology and organization we build to achieve this is valuable and necessary." -- GNOME executive director, Neil McGovern * "The desktop wars is not really a thing any more. It makes more sense to work together and pool resources." -- Paul Brown, a KDE Communications Specialist (quoted by ZDNet) ZDNet called the collaboration "a major step forward," giving their story the headline "GNOME and KDE work together on the Linux desktop." But the Twitter feed for the KDE community quickly clarified that KDE "is working with GNOME to create a common, fair, sustainable and open app ecosystem, not a desktop." "The GNOME and KDE communities want to provide users with free and open applications that will respect their privacy and rights. That is what Linux App Summit is about."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/08/03/0240209 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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Google Just Stopped Displaying 'www' and 'https' In Chrome's Address Bar
by Peter Reutemann 04 Aug '19

04 Aug '19

'"Google has finally chopped the 'www' from Chrome's address bar after delaying the controversial move due to a backlash," reports TechRepublic: The move to remove 'www' was initially planned for last year, when Google announced it would cut "trivial subdomains" from the address bar in Chrome 69. Now Google has begun truncating the visible URL in Chrome for desktop and Android, rolling out the change in version 76 of the browser, released this week. By default sites in Chrome now no longer display the "https" scheme or the "www" subdomain, with the visible address starting after this point. To view the full URL, users now have to click the address bar twice on desktop and once on mobile. Google has argued the move is driven by a desire for greater simplicity and usability of Chrome... However the announcement provoked a fresh wave of criticism, from those who say the move will confuse users and even potentially make it easier for them to inadvertently connect to fake sites... There are also some who claim Google's motivation in changing how the URL is displayed may be to make it harder for users to tell whether they are on a page hosted on Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages subdomain... Google says it has also built a Chrome extension that doesn't obfuscate the URL to "help power users recognize suspicious sites and report them to Safe Browsing". Despite the backlash from some online, Chrome isn't the first browser to truncate the URL in this way, with Apple's Safari similarly hiding the full address. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/08/03/0317238 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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Amazon Quietly Gives Alexa's Voice Recordings a 'No Human Review' Option
by Peter Reutemann 04 Aug '19

04 Aug '19

'"Amazon Alexa users can now choose whether human reviewers listen to recordings of their exchanges with the AI assistant," reports VentureBeat, citing an Amazon spokesperson. To ensure people don't listen to voice recordings collected following each exchange with Alexa, go to Settings, tap the Alexa Privacy link, then choose Manage How Your Data Improves Alexa. Users can also delete their voice recordings via the Alexa app or Amazon website. The news follows Amazon's introduction of an "Alexa, delete what I said today" voice command in May... Earlier this week, Google and Apple both pledged to suspend some of their voice data review by people. ' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/08/04/0159227 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 Vulnerabilities Found In WPA3 WiFi Standard
by Peter Reutemann 04 Aug '19

04 Aug '19

'Slashdot reader Artem S. Tashkinov writes: Mathy Vanhoef and Eyal Ronen have recently disclosed two new additional bugs impacting WPA3. The security researched duo found the new bugs in the security recommendations the WiFi Alliance created for equipment vendors in order to mitigate the initial Dragonblood attacks [found by the same two security researchers]. "Just like the original Dragonblood vulnerabilities from April, these two new ones allow attackers to leak information from WPA3 cryptographic operations and brute-force a WiFi network's password," reports ZDNet. More from ZDNet: "[The] Wi-Fi standard is now being updated with proper defenses, which might lead to WPA3.1," Vanhoef said. "Although this update is not backwards-compatible with current deployments of WPA3, it does prevent most of our attacks," the researchers said. But besides just disclosing the two new Dragonblood vulnerabilities, the two researchers also took the chance to criticize the WiFi Alliance again for its closed standards development process that doesn't allow for the open-source community to contribute and prevent big vulnerabilities from making it into the standard in the first place. "This demonstrates that implementing Dragonfly and WPA3 without side-channel leaks is surprisingly hard," the researchers said. "It also, once again, shows that privately creating security recommendations and standards is at best irresponsible and at worst inept." While these type of feedback might be ignored when coming from other researchers, it means more when it comes from Vanhoef. The Belgian researchers is the one who discovered the KRACK attack that broke the WPA2 WiFi authentication standard and forced the WiFi Alliance to develop the WPA3 standard, which it launched in June 2018.' -- source: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/19/08/04/1821237 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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The Listening Post On VPNs
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Aug '19

03 Aug '19

This week’s episode of “The Listening Post” on Al Jazeera <https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2019/07/vazajato-dirty-d…> covers, in the latter part, an overview of the increasing popularity of VPNs. It also mentions some of their potential pitfalls.

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Did Facebook End The Encryption Debate?
by Peter Reutemann 02 Aug '19

02 Aug '19

'Forbes contributor Kalev Leetaru argues that "the encryption debate is already over -- Facebook ended it earlier this year." The ability of encryption to shield a user's communications rests upon the assumption that the sender and recipient's devices are themselves secure, with the encrypted channel the only weak point... [But] Facebook announced earlier this year preliminary results from its efforts to move a global mass surveillance infrastructure directly onto users' devices where it can bypass the protections of end-to-end encryption. In Facebook's vision, the actual end-to-end encryption client itself such as WhatsApp will include embedded content moderation and blacklist filtering algorithms. These algorithms will be continually updated from a central cloud service, but will run locally on the user's device, scanning each cleartext message before it is sent and each encrypted message after it is decrypted. The company even noted that when it detects violations it will need to quietly stream a copy of the formerly encrypted content back to its central servers to analyze further, even if the user objects, acting as true wiretapping service... If Facebook's model succeeds, it will only be a matter of time before device manufacturers and mobile operating system developers embed similar tools directly into devices themselves, making them impossible to escape... Governments would soon use lawful court orders to require companies to build in custom filters of content they are concerned about and automatically notify them of violations, including sending a copy of the offending content. Rather than grappling with how to defeat encryption, governments will simply be able to harness social media companies to perform their mass surveillance for them, sending them real-time alerts and copies of the decrypted content. Putting this all together, the sad reality of the encryption debate is that after 30 years it is finally over: dead at the hands of Facebook. If the company's new on-device content moderation succeeds it will usher in the end of consumer end-to-end encryption and create a framework for governments to outsource their mass surveillance directly to social media companies, completely bypassing encryption. In the end, encryption's days are numbered and the world has Facebook to thank. ' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/07/27/206248 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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Apple’s AirDrop and password sharing features can leak iPhone numbers
by Peter Reutemann 02 Aug '19

02 Aug '19

'Apple makes it easy for people to locate lost iPhones, share Wi-Fi passwords, and use AirDrop to send files to other nearby devices. A recently published report demonstrates how snoops can capitalize on these features to scoop up a wealth of potentially sensitive data that in some cases includes phone numbers. Simply having Bluetooth turned on broadcasts a host of device details, including its name, whether it's in use, if Wi-Fi is turned on, the OS version it’s running, and information about the battery. More concerning: using AirDrop or Wi-Fi password sharing broadcasts a partial cryptographic hash that can easily be converted into an iPhone’s complete phone number. The information—which in the case of a Mac also includes a static MAC address that can be used as a unique identifier—is sent in Bluetooth Low Energy packets. The information disclosed may not be a big deal in many settings, such as work places where everyone knows everyone anyway. The exposure may be creepier in public places, such as a subway, a bar, or a department store, where anyone with some low-cost hardware and a little know-how can collect the details of all Apple devices that have BLE turned on. The data could also be a boon to companies that track customers as they move through retail outlets. As noted above, in the event someone is using AirDrop to share a file or image, they’re broadcasting a partial SHA256 hash of their phone number. In the event Wi-Fi password sharing is in use, the device is sending partial SHA256 hashes of its phone number, the user’s email address, and the user’s Apple ID. While only the first three bytes of the hash are broadcast, researchers with security firm Hexway (which published the research) say those bytes provide enough information to recover the full phone number.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/08/apples-airdrop-and-p… 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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When Open Source Software Comes With a Few Catches
by Peter Reutemann 02 Aug '19

02 Aug '19

'As open source software grows more popular, and important, developers face an existential question: How to make money from something you give away for free? An anonymous reader shares a report: The Open Source Initiative standards body says an open source license must allow users to view the underlying source code, modify it, and share it as they see fit. Independent developers and large companies alike now routinely release software under these licenses. Many coders believe open collaboration results in better software. Some companies open their code for marketing purposes. Open source software now underpins much technology, from smartphone operating systems to government websites. Companies that release software under open source licenses generate revenue in different ways. Some sell support, including Red Hat, which IBM acquired for $34 billion earlier this month. Others, like cloud automation company HashiCorp, sell proprietary software based on the open source components. But with the rise of cloud computing, developers see their open source code being bundled into services and sold by other companies. Amazon, for example, sells a cloud-hosted service based on the popular open source database Redis, which competes with a similar cloud-hosted service offered by Redis Labs, the sponsor of the open source project. To protect against such scenarios, companies behind popular open source projects are restricting how others can use their software. Redis Labs started the trend last year when it relicensed several add-ons for its core product under terms that essentially prohibit offering those add-ons as part of a commercial cloud computing service. That way, Amazon and other cloud providers can't use those add-ons in their competing Redis services. Companies that want the functionality provided by those add-ons need to develop those features themselves, or get permission from Redis Labs. [...] Analytics company Confluent and database maker CockroachDB added similar terms to their licenses, preventing cloud computing companies from using some or all of their code to build competing services. Taking a slightly different tack, MongoDB relicensed its flagship database product last year under a new "Server Side Public License" (SSPL) that requires companies that sell the database system as a cloud service also release the source code of any additional software they include.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/08/01/1522211 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 Office 365 Declared Illegal In German Schools Over Privacy Concerns
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Aug '19

01 Aug '19

Rules over data access mean that none of the cloud-based suites (whether from Apple, Google or Microsoft) can be used in the German state of Hesse <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/07/germany-threatens-to…>. Who will blink first?

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GitHub Starts Blocking Developers In Countries Facing US Trade Sanctions
by Peter Reutemann 01 Aug '19

01 Aug '19

'After a developer based in the Crimea region of Ukraine was blocked from GitHub this week, the Microsoft-owned software development platform said it has started restricting accounts in countries facing U.S. trade sanctions. GitHub lists Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syris as countries facing U.S. sanctions. ZDNet reports: As the developer reports, his website https://tkashkin.tk, which is hosted on GitHub, now returns a 404 error. He also can't create new private GitHub repositories or access them. While his website could easily be moved to another hosting provider, the block does pose a challenge for his work on GameHub, which has an established audience on GitHub. GitHub does offer developers an appeal form to dispute restrictions but [the developer] told ZDNet that, at this point, there's nothing to gain by appealing the restriction. "It is just pointless. My account is flagged as restricted and, in order to unflag it, I have to provide a proof that I don't live in Crimea. I am in fact a Russian citizen with Crimean registration, I am physically in Crimea, and I am living in Crimea my entire life," he said. "For individual users, who are not otherwise restricted by U.S. economic sanctions, GitHub currently offers limited restricted services to users in these countries and territories. This includes limited access to GitHub public repository services for personal communications only," it says. GitHub notes on its page about U.S. trade controls that its paid-for on-premise software -- aimed to enterprise users -- may be an option for users in those circumstances. "Users are responsible for ensuring that the content they develop and share on GitHub.com complies with the U.S. export control laws, including the EAR (Export Administration Regulations) and the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)," GitHub says. "The cloud-hosted service offering available at Github.com has not been designed to host data subject to the ITAR and does not currently offer the ability to restrict repository access by country. If you are looking to collaborate on ITAR- or other export-controlled data, we recommend you consider GitHub Enterprise Server, GitHub's on-premises offering."' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/07/26/2157202 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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Google Reveals Fistful of Flaws In Apple's iMessage App
by Peter Reutemann 31 Jul '19

31 Jul '19

'Google researchers have shared details of five flaws in Apple's iMessage software that could make its devices vulnerable to attack. The BBC reports: In one case, the researchers said the vulnerability was so severe that the only way to rescue a targeted iPhone would be to delete all the data off it. Another example, they said, could be used to copy files off a device without requiring the owner to do anything to aid the hack. Apple released fixes last week. But the researchers said they had also flagged a sixth problem to Apple, which had not been rectified in the update to its mobile operating system. Apple's own notes about iOS 12.4 indicate that the unfixed flaw could give hackers a means to crash an app or execute commands of their own on recent iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches if they were able to discover it. Apple has not commented on this specific issue, but has urged users to install the new version of iOS, which addresses Google's other discoveries as well as a further range of glitches and threats. One of the two Google researchers involved - Natalie Silvanovich - intends to share more details of her findings at a presentation at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas next month.' -- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/19/07/30/237228 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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The Hottest Phones For the Next Billion Users Aren't Smartphones
by Peter Reutemann 31 Jul '19

31 Jul '19

'Millions of first-time internet consumers from the Ivory Coast to India and Indonesia are connecting to the web on smart feature phones that cost only about $25. "[T]hese hybrid phones, fueled by inexpensive mobile data, provide some basic apps and internet access in addition to calling and texting," the Wall Street Journal reports. >From the report: While global smartphone sales began sliding last year as markets became saturated, smart feature phone shipments tripled to around 75 million from 2017, according to research firm Counterpoint. Some 84 million are likely to be shipped this year. Even as rich nations start to roll out 5G technologies, some 3.4 billion people around the world remain cut off from the internet, according to We Are Social, another research firm. Most of them already use traditional, unconnected mobile phones, meaning they can easily make the transition to similarly shaped devices capable of high-speed web connections. Smart feature phones aren't only inexpensive, but they also have physical keypads that are less intimidating than touch screens for those new to the technology. Meanwhile, their batteries last for days, a bonus in places where electricity is unreliable. There is a trade-off for the low price. The devices typically have slower and less powerful components, only basic cameras and their screens are usually just a few inches in size, factors that contribute to their longer battery life. There also are fewer apps available for smart feature phones.' -- source: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/19/07/30/2317234 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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Chrome 76 Arrives With Flash Blocked By Default
by Peter Reutemann 31 Jul '19

31 Jul '19

'Google today launched Chrome 76 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. The release includes Adobe Flash blocked by default, Incognito mode detection disabled, multiple PWA improvements, and more developer features. You can update to the latest version now using Chrome's built-in updater or download it directly from google.com/chrome. Google has been taking baby steps to kill off Flash for years. In 2015, Chrome started automatically pausing less important Flash content. In 2016, Chrome started blocking "behind the scenes" Flash content and using HTML5 by default. In July 2017, however, Adobe said it would kill Flash by 2020. With Chrome 76, Flash is now blocked by default. Users can still turn it on in settings, but next year, Flash will be removed from Chrome entirely.' -- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/19/07/30/2059214 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 Bill Would Ban Autoplay Videos and Endless Scrolling
by Peter Reutemann 31 Jul '19

31 Jul '19

Though not relevant to NZ legally speaking, it is still good to see that there is movement to avoid design that disadvantages the user: 'A new bill, sponsored by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), targets snapstreaks, YouTube autoplay, and endless scrolling that, the bill alleges, are designed in a way to make services "addictive." Reader Zorro writes: Hawley's Social Media Addiction Reduction Technology Act, or the SMART Act, would ban these features that work to keep users on platforms longer, along with others, like Snapstreaks, that incentivize the continued use of these products. If approved, the Federal Trade Commission and Health and Human Services could create similar rules that would expire after three years unless Congress codified them into law. "Big tech has embraced a business model of addiction," Hawley said. "Too much of the 'innovation' in this space is designed not to create better products, but to capture more attention by using psychological tricks that make it difficult to look away." Deceptive design played an enormous part in last week's FTC settlement with Facebook, and Hawley's bill would make it unlawful for tech companies to use dark patterns to manipulate users into opting into services. For example, "accept" and "decline" checkboxes would need to be the same font, color, and size to help users make better, more informed choices. "Social media companies deploy a host of tactics designed to manipulate users in ways that undermines their wellbeing," said Josh Golin, executive director of campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/07/30/1742213 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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Apple's AWDL Protocol Plagued By Flaws That Enable Tracking and MitM Attacks
by Peter Reutemann 31 Jul '19

31 Jul '19

'Apple Wireless Direct Link (AWDL), a protocol installed on over 1.2 billion Apple devices, contains vulnerabilities that enable attackers to track users, crash devices, or intercept files transferred between devices via man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks. From a report: These are the findings of a research project that started last year at the Technical University of Darmstadt, in Germany, and has recently concluded, and whose findings researchers will be presenting later this month at a security conference in the US. The project sought to analyze the Apple Wireless Direct Link (AWDL), a protocol that Apple rolled out in 2014 and which also plays a key role in enabling device-to-device communications in the Apple ecosystem. While most Apple end users might not be aware of the protocol's existence, AWDL is at the core of Apple services like AirPlay and AirDrop, and Apple has been including AWDL by default on all devices the company has been selling, such as Macs, iPhones, iPads, Apple watches, Apple TVs, and HomePods. But in the past five years, Apple has never published any in-depth technical details about how AWDL works. This, in turn, has resulted in very few security researchers looking at AWDL for bugs or implementation errors.' -- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/19/07/30/1723254 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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200 Million Devices -- Some Mission-Critical -- Vulnerable To Remote Takeover
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jul '19

29 Jul '19

'About 200 million Internet-connected devices -- some that may be controlling elevators, medical equipment, and other mission-critical systems -- are vulnerable to attacks that give attackers complete control, researchers warned on Monday. In all, researchers with security firm Armis identified 11 vulnerabilities in various versions of VxWorks, a slimmed-down operating system that runs on more than 2 billion devices worldwide. Billed collectively as Urgent 11, the vulnerabilities consist of six remote code flaws and five less-severe issues that allow things like information leaks and denial-of-service attacks. None of the vulnerabilities affects the most recent version of VxWorks or any of the certified versions of the OS, including VxWorks 653 or VxWorks Cert Edition. For the 200 million devices Armis estimated are running a version that's susceptible to a serious attack, however, the stakes may be high. Because many of the vulnerabilities reside in the networking stack known as IPnet, they can often be exploited by little more than boobytrapped packets sent from outside the Internet. Depending on the vulnerability, exploits may also be able to penetrate firewalls and other types of network defenses. The most dire scenarios are attacks that chain together multiple exploits that trigger the remote takeover of multiple devices. "Such vulnerabilities do not require any adaptations for the various devices using the network stack, making them exceptionally easy to spread," Armis researchers wrote in a technical overview. "In most operating systems, such fundamental vulnerabilities in the crucial networking stacks have become extinct, after years of scrutiny unravelled and mitigated such flaws." VxWorks-maker Wind River says the latest release of VxWorks "is not affected by the vulnerability, nor are any of Wind Rivers' safety-critical products that are designed for safety certification, such as VxWorks 653 and VxWorks Cert Edition used in critical infrastructure." Wind River issued patches last month and is in the process of notifying affected customers of the threat.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/07/29/2059248 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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Open Source RISC-V License Helps Alibaba Sidestep US Trade War
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jul '19

29 Jul '19

'"RISC-V is open source, so it's much more resistant to government bans," reports Tom's Hardware: The Alibaba Group Holding, China's largest e-commerce company, unveiled its first self-designed chip, Xuantie 910, based on the open source RISC-V instruction set architecture. As reported by Nikkei Asian Review, the chip will target edge computing and autonomous driving, while the RISC-V's open source license may help Alibaba side-step the U.S. trade war altogether. Alibaba doesn't intend to manufacture the chips itself. Instead, it could outsource production to other Chinese semiconductor companies, such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. According to Nikkei, the Chinese government has been encouraging wealthy Chinese companies from various industries to enter the semiconductor industry in recent years. The government's efforts accelerated when the trade war with the U.S. started last year. It reportedly forced foreign companies to transfer their technology and IP to Chinese companies if they wanted any chance at the local Chinese market. "Most Chinese companies are still wary about whether Arm's architecture and Intel's architecture and technical support would remain accessible amid tech tension and further geopolitical uncertainties," Sean Yang, an analyst at research company CINNO in Shanghai, said, according to Nikkei. "It would be very helpful for China to increase long-term semiconductor sufficiency if big companies such as Alibaba jump in to build a chip (design) platform which smaller Chinese developers can just use without worrying about being cut off from supplies." The article also notes that using RISC-V will give Alibaba "the ability to completely customize and extend the ISA of the processors built on top of it without having to get permission from any company first."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/07/29/0224256 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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'No More Ransom' Decryption Tools Prevent $108M In Ransomware Payments
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jul '19

29 Jul '19

'On the three-year anniversary of the No More Ransom project, Europol announced today that users who downloaded and decrypted files using free tools made available through the No More Ransom portal have prevented ransomware gangs from making profits estimated at at least $108 million... However, an Emsisoft spokesperson told ZDNet that the $108 million estimate that Europol shared today is "actually a huge underestimate. They're based on the number of successful decryptions confirmed by telemetry -- in other words, when the tools phone home to confirm they've done their job," Emsisoft told ZDNet... Just the free decryption tools for the GandCrab ransomware alone offered on the No More Ransom website have prevented ransom payments of nearly $50 million alone, Europol said. The project, which launched in July 2016, now hosts 82 tools that can be used to decrypt 109 different types of ransomware. Most of these have been created and shared by antivirus makers like Emsisoft, Avast, and Bitdefender, and others; national police agencies; CERTs; or online communities like Bleeping Computer. By far the most proficient member has been antivirus maker Emsisoft, which released 32 decryption tools for 32 different ransomware strains... All in all, Europol said that more than three million users visited the site and more than 200,000 users downloaded tools from the No More Ransom portal since its launch. One Emisoft researcher said they were "pretty proud" of their decryptor for MegaLocker, "as not only did it help thousands of victims, but it really riled up the malware author."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/07/28/2358258 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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Penetration Testing Toolkit Includes Exploit For 'Incredibly Dangerous' Bluekeep Vulnerability
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jul '19

28 Jul '19

'In May, Microsoft released a patch for a bug in several versions of Windows that is so bad that the company felt it even had to release a fix for Windows XP, an operating system that (has been unsupported) for five years. That vulnerability is known as BlueKeep, and it has kept a lot of security researchers up at night. They are worried that someone could write an exploit for it and make a worm that could wreak havoc the way WannaCry or NotPetya -- two viruses that spread almost uncontrollably all over the world locking thousands of computers -- did.... Researchers were so worried about this vulnerability that for months, no one has published the code for a proof-of-concept exploit. In other words, no one wanted to be the guy to even prove that this type of malware was even possible to write. Until now. On Tuesday, Immunity, a long time US government contractor, announced that it had developed an exploit for BlueKeep and included it into its penetration testing toolkit Canvas, which is available only to paying subscribers. Canvas customers, can now exploit this bug using Immunity's own code. ZDNet notes that Canvas licenses "cost between thousands and tens of thousands of US dollars," but also adds that "hackers have been known to pirate or legitimately buy penetration testing tools."' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/07/27/042203 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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In 80 Days, Google Will Require Chrome Extensions To Request 'The Least Amount of Data'
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jul '19

28 Jul '19

'"Google is giving Chrome extension makers until October 15 to minimize the amount of data they collect during browser sessions or face expulsion from the Chrome Web Store," reports PC Magazine: The change addresses how the extensions generally need to request certain permissions from your browser in order to function. However, some of these permissions can be pretty powerful; they can include the ability to take desktop screenshots, capture audio from a microphone, and collect data from the local file system, among other things, which can open the door to potential abuse. The risks prompted Google to work toward securing the 180,000+ Chrome extensions on the company's official web store. "We're requiring extensions to only request access to the least amount of data," the company said in a Tuesday blog post. "While this has previously been encouraged of developers, now we're making this a requirement for all extensions."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/07/27/0420225 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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Privacy-Focused Android Q Still Lets Advertisers Track You
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jul '19

28 Jul '19

'"The upcoming version of the Android operating system is taking a strong focus on privacy," reports SD Times, "but the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) believes it could still do better." Android Q's new privacy features include: user control over app access to device location, new limits on access to files in shared external storage, restrictions on launching activities, and restrictions on access to the device's hardware and sensors... "However, in at least one area, Q's improvements are undermined by Android's continued support of a feature that allows third-party advertisers, including Google itself, to track users across apps," Bennett Cyphers, engineer for the EFF, wrote in a post. "Furthermore, Android still doesn't let users control their apps' access to the Internet, a basic permission that would address a wide range of privacy concerns." According to Cyphers, while Android Q has new restrictions on non-resettable device identifies, it will allow unrestricted access for its own tracking identifier [called "advertising ID"]... "Facebook and other targeting companies allow businesses to upload lists of ad IDs that they have collected in order to target those users on other platforms," he wrote... "On Android, there is no way for the user to control which apps can access the ID, and no way to turn it off. While we support Google taking steps to protect other hardware identifiers from unnecessary access, its continued support of the advertising ID -- a "feature" designed solely to support tracking -- undercuts the company's public commitment to privacy," he wrote... Cypher also noted that while Apple's iOS has similar identifiers for advertisers that contradict with its privacy campaign, it does enable users to turn off the tracking. In fact, Android Q also ships with an "opt out of ad personalization" checkbox where users can indicate that they don't want Google's identifier to track them, Cyphers reports -- but "the checkbox doesn't affect the ad ID in any way. "It only encodes the user's 'preference', so that when an app asks Android whether a user wants to be tracked, the operating system can reply 'no, actually they don't.' Google's terms tell developers to respect this setting, but Android provides no technical safeguards to enforce this policy."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/07/27/0526206 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

Airbus A350 Software Bug Forces Airlines To Turn Planes Off and On Every 149 Hours
by Peter Reutemann 26 Jul '19

26 Jul '19

'Some models of Airbus A350 airliners still need to be hard rebooted after exactly 149 hours, despite warnings from the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) first issued two years ago. In a mandatory airworthiness directive (AD) reissued earlier this week, EASA urged operators to turn their A350s off and on again to prevent "partial or total loss of some avionics systems or functions." The revised AD, effective from tomorrow (26 July), exempts only those new A350-941s which have had modified software pre-loaded on the production line. For all other A350-941s, operators need to completely power the airliner down before it reaches 149 hours of continuous power-on time. Concerningly, the original 2017 AD was brought about by "in-service events where a loss of communication occurred between some avionics systems and avionics network" (sic). The impact of the failures ranged from "redundancy loss" to "complete loss on a specific function hosted on common remote data concentrator and core processing input/output modules." In layman's English, this means that prior to 2017, at least some A350s flying passengers were suffering unexplained failures of potentially flight-critical digital systems.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/07/25/1932229 Oh dear... 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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VLC player has a critical flaw – and there’s no patch yet
by Peter Reutemann 25 Jul '19

25 Jul '19

'On the flip side, there are currently no known cases of the vulnerability being exploited in the wild Germany’s national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-Bund) has issued a security advisory to alert users of VLC media player of a severe vulnerability affecting this extremely popular open-source software. “A remote, anonymous attacker can exploit the vulnerability in VLC to execute arbitrary code, cause a denial-of-service condition, exfiltrate information, or manipulate files,” said CERT-Bund, which also discovered the security loophole. The memory-corruption flaw is known to reside in the player’s latest release, 3.0.7.1, but may also be present in its earlier versions. It affects the program’s Windows, Linux and UNIX versions and has earned a score of 4 out of 5 on the German agency’s severity scale.' -- source: https://cybersafe.mcttrainingconsultant.com/?p=14585 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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Advanced mobile surveillanceware, made in Russia, found in the wild
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jul '19

24 Jul '19

'Researchers have discovered some of the most advanced and full-featured mobile surveillanceware ever seen. Dubbed Monokle and used in the wild since at least March 2016, the Android-based application was developed by a Russian defense contractor that was sanctioned in 2016 for helping that country’s Main Intelligence Directorate meddle in the 2016 US presidential election. Monokle uses several novel tools, including the ability to modify the Android trusted-certificate store and a command-and-control network that can communicate over Internet TCP ports, email, text messages, or phone calls. The result: Monokle provides a host of surveillance capabilities that work even when an Internet connection is unavailable.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/07/advanced-mobile-surv… 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 Raspberry Pi 4 Needs a Fan'
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jul '19

24 Jul '19

'Author and programmer Jeff Geerling explains in a blog post why the new Raspberry Pi 4 needs a fan. Unlike previous Pis that didn't require a fan or heatsink to avoid CPU throttling, the Pi 4 is a different beast and "pretty much demands a fan," writes Geerling. "Not only does the CPU get appreciably hot even under normal load, there are a number of other parts of the board that heat up to the point they are uncomfortable to touch." After 5 minutes at idle, he recorded the CPU/System-on-a-Chip (SoC) was around 60C, and it climbed to the 60-70C range when using the USB ports. "[I]magine if you're truly using the Pi 4 as a desktop replacement, with at least one external USB 3.0 hard drive attached, WiFi connected and transferring large amounts of data, a USB keyboard and mouse, a few browser windows open (the average website these days might as well be an AAA video game with how resource-intense it is), a text editor, and a music player," writes Geerling. "This amount of load is enough to cause the CPU to throttle in less than 10 minutes." So, Geerling did what any programmer and DIYer would do and decided to add a fan himself to the official case -- and in addition to the blog post describing the process, he made a 22-minute-long video showing you what he did. From the post: Without any ventilation, it's kind of a little plastic oven inside the Pi 4 case. A heat sink might help in some tiny way, but that heat has nowhere to go! So I decided to follow the lead of Redditor u/CarbyCarberson and put a fan in the top cover. [...] After installing the fan, I booted the Pi and ran "stress --cpu 4" and let it go for an hour. The entire time, the CPU's temperature stayed at or under 60C (140F), a full 20C lower than the throttling point. There are some other options which may be even easier than modifying the official case, like the Fan Shim from Pimoroni or purchasing a 3rd party case with a fan built in. But this option was easy enough and all I needed to complete the project was a $4 fan and a $7 hole saw drill bit (which I can use for other projects in the future). ' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/07/17/2254204 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

'Fortnite' Creator Epic Games Supports Blender Foundation With $1.2 Million
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jul '19

24 Jul '19

'Apparently having a lot of people playing Fortnite is good for the open source community too. Epic Games' MegaGrants program just awarded the Blender Foundation with $1.2 million over the next three years...to further the success of the free and open source 3D creation suite. It's part of the company's $100 million "MegaGrants" program, according to the announcement. "Open tools, libraries and platforms are critical to the future of the digital content ecosystem," said Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games. "Blender is an enduring resource within the artistic community, and we aim to ensure its advancement to the benefit of all creators."' -- source: https://games.slashdot.org/story/19/07/21/1551251 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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Chances of destructive BlueKeep exploit rise with new explainer posted online
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jul '19

23 Jul '19

'A security researcher has published a detailed guide that shows how to execute malicious code on Windows computers still vulnerable to the critical BlueKeep vulnerability. The move significantly lowers the bar for writing exploits that wreak the kinds of destructive attacks not seen since the WannaCry and NotPetya attacks of 2017, researchers said. As of three weeks ago, more than 800,000 computers exposed to the Internet were vulnerable to the exploit, researchers from security firm BitSight said last week. Microsoft and a chorus of security professionals have warned of the potential for exploits to sow worldwide disruptions. The risk of the bug, found in Microsoft's implementation of the remote desktop protocol, stems from the ability for attacks to spread from one vulnerable computer to another with no interaction required of end users.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/07/explainer-for-exploi… May you live in interesting times (as a Windows users)... 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

cycling through windows of same application
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jul '19

23 Jul '19

Hi everyone Just learned something new by accident... ;-) Using "Alt+`" (the key above Tab), you can limit the cycling to the windows of that application, e.g., all Firefox or LibreOffice Writer/Calc windows in a workspace. Useful alternative to "Alt+Tab" which cycles through all Windows in a workspace. >From the looks of it, cycling through multiple terminal windows doesn't work. I presume, this is because they are different processes rather than child windows. Tested on Linux Mint 19.1 MATE desktop. -- source: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1160167 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

SUSE Names Melissa Di Donato New CEO
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jul '19

22 Jul '19

'Melissa Di Donato, SAP's former COO, has been named SUSE's new CEO. ZDNet reports: London-based Di Donato is a well-known technology leader. In particular, she has a proven track record in sales and business operations. Besides being SAP's COO, she was also the company's chief revenue officer. In SAP's latest quarter, SAP saw an increase of 11% year-over-year revenues. Much of that came from the cloud -- where SAP saw 40% year-over-year growth. SAP's cloud is built on SUSE's Linux servers and OpenStack cloud. Di Donato succeeds Nils Brauckmann. While officially Brauckmann is retiring, there seems to be more to the story. On LinkedIn, Brauckmann wrote: "I care very deeply for the SUSE business and its employees, and this difficult decision is based entirely on personal reasons. I am pleased to be handing over the reins to such a talented and accomplished leader as Melissa Di Donato." In his SUSE statement, Brauckman added: "She is a proven and dynamic change agent, and many of her achievements have occurred in subscription businesses that exist in high-growth cloud environments." In April, then-CEO Nils Brauchmann said his company would soon be the largest independent Linux company. This comes after Brauckmann delivered eight years of continuous expansion during his tenure, including record-breaking revenues in FY18, reports ZDNet. "Under Di Donato's leadership, SUSE will continue to focus on growth and expansion. What that means is she's expected to advance SUSE's core business and emerging technologies, both organically and through add-on acquisitions."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/07/22/2038259 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

Dropbox Brings Back Support For ZFS, XFS, Btrfs And eCryptFS On Linux
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jul '19

22 Jul '19

'Speaking of Dropbox, the online storage cloud service has enabled support for ZFS and XFS on 64-bit Linux systems, and eCryptFS and Btrfs on all Linux systems. The move comes after it recently pulled support for all file storage systems on Linux except Ext4. From a report: Dropbox stopped supporting folder syncing to drives with filesystems it deemed "uncommon", which on Linux meant anything but Ext4, upsetting quite a few users. The reason cited for this was that "a supported file system is required as Dropbox relies on extended attributes (X-attrs) to identify files in the Dropbox folder and keep them in sync", which doesn't really make sense since there are many filesystems that support xattr (extended attributes) on Linux. After this change was announced, various workarounds started to appear online, including one that I posted on Linux Uprising. There was even a new unofficial, open source Dropbox client developed for this reason (which is also much lighter than the official client by the way). But this didn't last long though, as last week, the Dropbox 77.3.127 beta changelog says that Dropbox has added back support for ZFS (on 64-bit systems only), XFS (on 64bit systems only), Btrfs and eCryptFS.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/07/22/1534200 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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This pixel tracking demo shows how easy it is to make a creepy surveillance tool
by Peter Reutemann 19 Jul '19

19 Jul '19

'The Superhuman controversy from earlier this month, in which a former Silicon Valley exec blew the lid off a series of controversial email surveillance tools offered by the up-and-coming startup, has prompted a bit of soul searching among those in the tech industry. But in twisted fashion, the public blasting of a company like Superhuman has been the tech equivalent of opening Pandora’s Box, unearthing all sorts of free and easily available tools that have done this for years and can be employed by anyone with just the tiniest shred of tech savvy. For instance, an open source, Python-based web tool called Supertracker has popped up on Github, courtesy of Delian Asparouhov, an investor with the venture capital firm Founder’s Fund. It lets anyone create their own tracking pixel, coyly disguised as either a transparent image, an image of the pokémon pikachu, or a not-so-subtle magnifying glass. Creating it is as easy as inputting a user name, picking a tracking pixel image, and hitting the enter key. From there, you can save the image, paste it in the body of any email, and send it off. Whoever opens it will have the when and even the where transmitted back to you. Of course, you can do similar styles of tracking with any number of available Superhuman competitors and browser extensions. But Asparouhov’s tool has the added benefit of walking you through the process step by step and laying out just how simple it is to siphon away this kind of sensitive info with a few simple lines of code. (He also outlines some good defenses against this type of surveillance.) ' -- source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/19/20700843 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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China's Tech Giants Have a Second Job: Helping Beijing Spy on Its People
by Peter Reutemann 19 Jul '19

19 Jul '19

'Tencent and Alibaba are among the firms that assist authorities in hunting down criminal suspects, silencing dissent and creating surveillance cities. From a report: Alibaba Group's sprawling campus has collegial workspaces, laid-back coffee bars and, on the landscaped grounds, a police outpost. Employees use the office to report suspected crimes to the police, according to people familiar with the operation. Police also use it to request data from Alibaba for their own investigations, these people said, tapping into the trove of information the tech giant collects through its e-commerce and financial-payment networks. In one case, the police wanted to find out who had posted content related to terrorism, said a former Alibaba employee. "They came to me and asked me for the user ID and information," he recalled. He turned it over. The Chinese government is building one of the world's most sophisticated, high-tech systems to keep watch over its citizens, including surveillance cameras, facial-recognition technology and vast computers systems that comb through terabytes of data. Central to its efforts are the country's biggest technology companies, which are openly acting as the government's eyes and ears in cyberspace. Companies including Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings and Baidu, are required to help China's government hunt down criminal suspects and silence political dissent. Their technology is also being used to create cities wired for surveillance.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/07/19/1443207 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

Huawei Says Hongmeng OS Isn't Designed as an Android Replacement
by Peter Reutemann 19 Jul '19

19 Jul '19

'Huawei reportedly wants to keep using Google's Android operating system in its phones instead of jumping to its self-developed Hongmeng system. From a report: Company senior vice president Catherine Chen told reporters in Brussels this week that the Hongmeng OS isn't even designed for phones, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua. Chen apparently said Hongmeng is for industrial use, noting that it contains far fewer lines of code than a phone OS, and has much lower latency than a phone, meaning it can process a very high volume of data messages with little delay. Latest episode in a confusing narrative about what Huawei even intends to do. The company's executives have previously said on record that its homegrown operating system is designed to replace Android on its handsets. One executive said the operating system would be released by last month -- a target that Huawei has missed.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/07/19/1524253 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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A Rust-Based TLS Library Outperformed OpenSSL in Almost Every Category
by Peter Reutemann 19 Jul '19

19 Jul '19

'A tiny and relatively unknown TLS library written in Rust, an up-and-coming programming language, outperformed the industry-standard OpenSSL in almost every major category. From a report: The findings are the result of a recent four-part series of benchmarks carried out by Joseph Birr-Pixton, the developer behind the Rustls library. The findings showed that Rustls was 10% faster when setting up and negotiating a new server connection, and between 20 and 40% faster when setting up a client connection. But while handshake speeds for new TLS connections are important, most TLS traffic relies on resuming previously negotiated handshakes. Here, too, Rustls outperformed the aging OpenSSL, being between 10 and 20% in resuming a connection on the server-side, and being between 30 and 70% quicker to resume a client connection. Furthermore, Rustls also fared better in sheer bulk performance -- or the speed at which data is transferred over the TLS connection. Birr-Pixton said Rustls could send data 15% faster than OpenSSL, and receive it 5% faster as well.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/07/19/1546224 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

My browser, the spy: How extensions slurped up browsing histories from 4M users
by Peter Reutemann 18 Jul '19

18 Jul '19

'When we use browsers to make medical appointments, share tax returns with accountants, or access corporate intranets, we usually trust that the pages we access will remain private. DataSpii, a newly documented privacy issue in which millions of people’s browsing histories have been collected and exposed, shows just how much about us is revealed when that assumption is turned on its head. DataSpii begins with browser extensions—available mostly for Chrome but in more limited cases for Firefox as well—that, by Google's account, had as many as 4.1 million users. These extensions collected the URLs, webpage titles, and in some cases the embedded hyperlinks of every page that the browser user visited. Most of these collected Web histories were then published by a fee-based service called Nacho Analytics, which markets itself as “God mode for the Internet” and uses the tag line “See Anyone’s Analytics Account.” Web histories may not sound especially sensitive, but a subset of the published links led to pages that are not protected by passwords—but only by a hard-to-guess sequence of characters (called tokens) included in the URL. Thus, the published links could allow viewers to access the content at these pages. (Security practitioners have long discouraged the publishing of sensitive information on pages that aren't password protected, but the practice remains widespread.)' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/07/dataspii-inside-the-… 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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Slack Resets Passwords For 1% of Its Users Because of 2015 Hack
by Peter Reutemann 18 Jul '19

18 Jul '19

'Slack published more details about a password reset operation that ZDNet reported earlier today. According to a statement the company published on its website, the password reset operation is related to the company's 2015 security breach. In March 2015, Slack said hackers gained access to some Slack infrastructure, including databases storing user credentials. Hackers stole hashed passwords, but they also planted code on the company's site to capture plaintext passwords that users entered when logging in. At the time, Slack reset passwords for users who it believed were impacted, and also added support for two-factor authentication for all accounts. But as ZDNet reported earlier today, the company recently received a batch of Slack users credentials, which prompted the company to start an investigation into its source and prepare a password reset procedure. "We immediately confirmed that a portion of the email addresses and password combinations were valid, reset those passwords, and explained our actions to the affected users," Slack said. In a message on its website, Slack said this batch of credentials came via its bug bounty program. The company said it initially believed the data came from users who had their PCs infected with malware, or users who reused passwords across different services.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/07/18/1610221 Yep, been one of them... 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 Explore Using Rust
by Peter Reutemann 18 Jul '19

18 Jul '19

'Microsoft plans to explore using the Rust programming language as an alternative to C, C++, and others, as a way to improve the security posture of its and everyone else's apps. From a report: The announcement was made yesterday by Gavin Thomas, Principal Security Engineering Manager for the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC). "You're probably used to thinking about the Microsoft Security Response Center as a group that responds to incidents and vulnerabilities," Thomas said. "We are a response organization, but we also have a proactive role, and in a new blog series we will highlight Microsoft's exploration of safer system programming languages, starting with Rust." The end game is to find a way to move developers from the aging C and C++ programming language to so-called "memory-safe languages." Memory-safe languages, such as Rust, are designed from the ground up with protections against memory corruption vulnerabilities, such as buffer overflows, race conditions, memory leaks, use-after free and memory pointer-related bug' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/19/07/17/1630241 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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Firefox To Warn When Saved Logins are Found in Data Breaches
by Peter Reutemann 18 Jul '19

18 Jul '19

'Starting in Firefox 70, Mozilla aims to have the browser report when any of your saved logins were found in data breaches. This will be done through their partnership with the Have I Been Pwned data breach site. From a report: Mozilla is slowly integrating their independent Firefox Monitor service and the new Firefox Lockwise password manager directly into Firefox. Mozilla is also considering premium services based around these features in the future. As part of this integration, Firefox will scan the saved login names and passwords and see if they were exposed in a data breach listed on Have I been Pwned. If one is found, Firefox will alert the user and prompt them to change their password. This new feature will only work, though, for data breaches that exposed passwords and when the password was saved prior to an associated data breach.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/07/17/1933231 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Fwd: Join us at the Red Hat & Ingram Micro Partner Day!
by Roger Hardy 17 Jul '19

17 Jul '19

Below was the source of that. In my experience, this is usually more sales than technical, but can be interesting all the same. Sorry for the spam..... What’s new with Red Hat?To make sure our emails get to your inbox, add imnz_ms(a)ingrammicro.co.nz to your address book.Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.Dear Rodger, You’re invited to join Ingram Micro and Red Hat as we bring you the very first Red Hat Partner Day. We’ll be presenting updates and insights on the newest technologies and architectures in hybrid multi-cloud solutions to help you: Learn how Red Hat's latest technologies can help you and your customers break down the barriers to true hybrid and multi-cloud environments.Understand how to use automation and intelligent management of cloud technologies to reduce security risks and exposures.Find out what’s new and happening at Red Hat.LOCATIONSAucklandRydges Hotel Hobson Room Tuesday, 23 July 2019 8:30 am - 11:40 am WellingtonThe Intercontinental Wellington Room Thursday, 25 July 2019 8:30 am - 11:40 amAGENDA8:30 - 9:30Breakfast9:30 - 9:35Welcome9:30 - 10:15Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 with Insights and Ansible Automation10:15 - 10:55Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4: Enterprise Kubernetes & the Future of Open Hybrid Cloud10:55 - 11:10Industry Trends11:10 - 11:40Panel Discussion on Strategic portfolio Hybrid Cloud Register Now For more information, please contact: helen.chan(a)ingrammicro.com.Ingram Micro (N.Z.) Ltd 78 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632nz.ingrammicro.com Follow on Twitter Follow on Linkedin Like on Facebook Copyright © 2019, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Ingram Micro New Zealand 78 Apollo Drive Rosedale Auckland, 0632 New Zealand Standard terms and conditions apply View our privacy policy Update preferences Unsubscribe

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Red Hat Tech Talk: Hybrid Cloud New Zealand
by Peter Reutemann 17 Jul '19

17 Jul '19

Just saw the following (free, I believe) event come through on the NZOSS mailing list and thought people on here might be interested as well: Red Hat Tech Talk: Hybrid Cloud New Zealand At this afternoon event, meet our experts, hear what's new at Red Hat and get the latest insights on: - How to deliver innovative apps through containers - Security, compliance and governance for apps and workloads that run on a mix of public and private clouds - Automation and management capabilities for genuine portability of workloads into public cloud - How Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and Red Hat OpenShift 4 are transformational for hybrid clouds Select from two cities: Auckland - 23 July Wellington - 25 July Event registration: https://events.redhat.com/profile/form/index.cfm?PKformID=0x69788abcd# 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

Giving Greylisting A Try
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Jul '19

15 Jul '19

I have decided to try installing sqlgrey on my VPS to see if that cuts down on the volume of spam. The basic idea is more than a decade old, and I can’t find much in the way of newer testimonials as to how wonderful it continues to be. On the other hand, I can’t see anyone saying it is now a terrible idea that should have a stake put through its heart and buried in an unmarked grave at midnight and forgotten. (Actually I’m posting this message just to see how legitimate mail makes it through the greylist obstacle course; it’s only been running less than an hour, and has already blocked 10 spam messages so far.)

2 7

meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jul '19

15 Jul '19

Hi everyone We have a WLUG meeting next Monday: "Ben Radburnd will showcase GalliumOS (https://galliumos.org/) on his Chromebook." Details: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/257884291/ 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

What Does Ubuntu's Post-Unity Future Look Like?
by Peter Reutemann 14 Jul '19

14 Jul '19

'Following Canonical's pivot away from its internally-developed Unity user interface and Mir display server, Ubuntu has enjoyed two relatively low-drama years, as the Linux Desktop market homogenized during its transition back to a customized GNOME desktop. In a review of the most recent release, TechRepublic's Jack Wallen declared that "Ubuntu 19.04 should seriously impress anyone looking for a fast and reliable Linux desktop platform." Largely, it's been a slow-and-steady pace for Ubuntu since the pivot from Unity to GNOME, though the distribution made headlines for plans to end support for 32-bit support. This prompted Valve, operators of games marketplace Steam, to re-think its approach toward Ubuntu, which it previously characterized as "as the best-supported path for desktop users." TechRepublic's James Sanders interviewed Will Cooke, director of engineering for Ubuntu Desktop at Canonical, about the distribution's long-term plans for legacy 32-bit support, shipping a desktop in a post-Unity-era Ubuntu, and why Linux should be the first choice for users migrating from Windows 7 prior to the end of support. >From the interview: When we did the switch to GNOME Shell from Unity, we did a survey [asking] people straightforward questions like, "What sort of features do you want to see continue in Ubuntu Desktop?" The answer came through very, very clearly that people liked having the launcher on the left, and they wanted to keep that feature there. They liked having desktop icons and they wanted to keep that feature there. We've made decisions based on data from our user base, from our community. They have provided that feedback and we've done what the majority of people want. Sometimes that doesn't go with the ideals of GNOME design, but we're comfortable with delivering what we see as value on top of GNOME. That's delivering a product which gives people consistency between the old days of Unity 7, and the new days of GNOME Shell. That transition was as easy as possible, everybody had a chance to have a say in it, and the answers were pretty clear. ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/07/13/0425257 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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What's New in Linux 5.2?
by Peter Reutemann 14 Jul '19

14 Jul '19

'Linux 5.2 has been released. This release includes Sound Open Firmware, a project that brings open source firmware to DSP audio devices; open firmware for many Intel products is also included. This release also improves the Pressure Stall Information resource monitoring to make it usable by Android; the mount API has been redesigned with new syscalls; the BFQ I/O scheduler has gained some performance improvements; a new CLONE_PIDFD flag lets clone(2) return pidfs usable by pidfd_send_signal(2); Ext4 has gained support for case-insensitive name lookups; there is also a new device mapper target that simulates a device that has failing sectors and/or read failures; open source drivers for the ARM Mali t4xx and newer 6xx/7xx have been added. Many other new drivers, features and changes can be found in the changelog. But there's more besides supporting "a handful of extra ARM-powered single-board computers," according to CRN: The biggest feature in 5.2 is probably support for Intel's forthcoming Comet Lake architecture, which will power the tenth generation of its Core desktop and mobile CPUs due. The new silicon is due to ship late in 2019 and appear in products early the next year. Linux 5.2 also includes many tweaks that improve its performance on laptops.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/07/13/0436246 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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Intel Patches Two New Security Flaws
by Peter Reutemann 14 Jul '19

14 Jul '19

'This week Intel announced two new patches, according to Tom's Hardware: The flaw in the processor diagnostic tool (CVE-2019-11133) is rated 8.2 out 10 on the CVSS 3.0 scale, making it a high-severity vulnerability. The flaw [found by security researcher Jesse Michael from Eclypsium] "may allow an authenticated user to potentially enable escalation of privilege, information disclosure or denial of service via local access," according to Intel's latest security advisory. Versions of the tool that are older than 4.1.2.24 are affected. The second vulnerability, found by Intel's internal team, is a medium-severity vulnerability in Intel's SSD DC S4500/S4600 series sold to data center customers. The flaw found in the SSD firmware versions older than SCV10150 obtained a 5.3 score on the CVSS 3.0 scale, so it was labeled medium-severity. The bug may allow an unprivileged user to enable privilege escalation via physical access. As one of the flaws was uncovered by Intel itself and for the other the Eclypsium research coordinated with Intel for its disclosure, Intel was able to have ready the patches in time for the public announcement. ' -- source: https://slashdot.org/story/19/07/13/2027223 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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PC Sales Are Up--Or Are They?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 12 Jul '19

12 Jul '19

Another report highlighting the usual discrepancy in analysis of PC sales between IDC and Gartner <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/07/gartner-idc-agree-th…>: the difference seems down to the fact that one includes Chromebooks in their definition of a “PC”, while the other one counts Microsoft Surface tablets instead. Obvious conclusion: if it weren’t for Chromebooks, the PC market would be a pretty gloomy place indeed.

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The Most Clever 'Zip Bomb' Ever Made Explodes a 46MB File To 4.5 Petabytes
by Peter Reutemann 11 Jul '19

11 Jul '19

'Programmer and engineer David Fifield has unveiled a brand-new Zip bomb that explodes a 46-megabyte file to 4.5 petabytes of data. Fifield's new type of "Zip bomb" or "compression bomb" is particularly novel because he "figured out how to 'overlap' files inside of a Zip archive, allowing for compression rates far beyond those of a traditional archive," reports Motherboard. From the report: In an email interview, Fifield noted that, while 42.zip (which has a 106 billion-to-one compression ratio and has been hosted on the same single-serving website for at least 15 years) gets much of the attention, he finds later attempts more technically interesting. "eI find 42.zip inspiring on an aesthetic level -- not so much the file itself but the circumstances around it," Fifield said. "It's like folklore. There must have been many examples of the same basic idea, but for whatever reason 42.zip is the one that had staying power." Fifield noted that part of what makes his process possible was by coming up with ways to handle cyclic redundancy checks, or CRCs, a basic error-correction functionality baked into Zip, PNG, Ethernet, and numerous other technical standards. Messing around with CRC -- 32 checksums, as they're called, was where Fifield said he learned the most. Fifield, who will present his findings at the USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies (WOOT) conference next month, noted that while the work itself adds to a history of research and likely will be superseded in the future, its benefit from an awareness standpoint is importan' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/07/10/2341251 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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Linode Democratizes Cloud GPUs: Brings Powerful Nvidia GPUs To Its Linux Cloud
by Peter Reutemann 11 Jul '19

11 Jul '19

'Linode today launched new GPU-optimized cloud computing instances tailored specifically for developers and businesses requiring massive parallel computational power. The new instances are built on NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 GPU cards with all three major types of processing cores (CUDA, Tensor, and Real-Time Ray Tracing) available to users. Linode is one of the first cloud providers to deploy NVIDIA's latest GPU architecture. These new GPU instances give scientists, artists, and engineers working on artificial intelligence, graphic visualization, and complex modeling a cost-competitive alternative to hyperscale cloud providers.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/07/10/1826238 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

Academics Steal Data From Air-Gapped Systems Via a Keyboard's LEDs
by Peter Reutemann 11 Jul '19

11 Jul '19

'The Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock LEDs on a keyboard can be used to exfiltrate data from a secure air-gapped system, academics from an Israeli university have proved. From a report: The attack, which they named CTRL-ALT-LED, is nothing that regular users should worry about but is a danger for highly secure environments such as government networks that store top-secret documents or enterprise networks dedicated to storing non-public proprietary information. he attack requires some pre-requisites, such as the malicious actor finding a way to infect an air-gapped system with malware beforehand. CTRL-ALT-LED is only an exfiltration method. But once these prerequisites are met, the malware running on a system can make the LEDs of an USB-connected keyboard blink at rapid speeds, using a custom transmission protocol and modulation scheme to encode the transmitted data. A nearby attacker can record these tiny light flickers, which they can decode at a later point, using the same modulation scheme used to encode it.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/07/10/1836232 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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Samba 4.11 Removes SMB1 File-Sharing Protocol Version By Default
by Peter Reutemann 11 Jul '19

11 Jul '19

'Samba says version 4.11.0 will switch off previously on-by-default support for the aging and easily subverted SMB1 protocol. Slashdot reader Jeremy Allison - Sam shares a report from The Register detailing the new changes: The open-source SMB toolkit's developers say the Samba 4.11 build, currently in preview, will by default set SMB2_02 as the earliest supported version of the Windows file-sharing protocol. Admins will still have the option to allow SMB1 on their servers if they so choose, but support will be turned off by default. The move by Samba to drop SMB1 can be seen as long overdue, given that Microsoft has been moving to get rid of the file-server protocol version from its operating systems for several years now, even before it was revealed to be one of the NSA's favorite weak points to exploit. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/07/10/2119238 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 Contractors Are Secretly Listening To Your Assistant Recordings
by Peter Reutemann 11 Jul '19

11 Jul '19

'A new report from Belgian broadcaster VRT News describes the process by which Google Home recordings end up being listened to by contractors -- and the scary part is that it apparently doesn't take much, if anything, to start a recording. While the recordings are not listened to live, audio clips are sent to subcontractors. The Next Web reports: VRT, with the help of a whistleblower, was able to listen to some of these clips and subsequently heard enough to discern the addresses of several Dutch and Belgian people using Google Home -- in spite of the fact some hadn't even uttered the words "Hey Google," which are supposed to be the device's listening trigger. The person who leaked the recordings was working as a subcontractor to Google, transcribing the audio files for subsequent use in improving its speech recognition. They got in touch with VRT after reading about Amazon Alexa keeping recordings indefinitely. According to the whistleblower, the recordings presented to them are meant to be carefully annotated, with notes included about the speakers presumed identity and age. From the sound of the report, these transcribers have heard just about everything. Personal information? Bedroom activities? Domestic violence? Yes, yes, and yes. While VRT only listened to recordings from Dutch and Belgian users, the platform the whistleblower showed them had recordings from all over the world -- which means there are probably thousands of other contractors listening to Assistant recordings. The VRT report states that the Google Home Terms of Service don't mention that recordings might be listened to by other humans. The report says that the recordings are identified by numbers rather than user names, but VRT "was able to pick up enough data from the recordings to find the addresses of the users in question, and even confront some of the users in the recordings -- to their great dismay," reports The Next Web. What does Google have to say about all this? That they only transcribe and use "about 0.2% of all audio clips" to improve their voice recognition technology.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/07/10/2153210 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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Internet group brands Mozilla ‘internet villain’ for supporting DNS privacy feature
by Peter Reutemann 10 Jul '19

10 Jul '19

'An industry group of internet service providers has branded Firefox browser maker Mozilla an “internet villain” for supporting a DNS security standard. The U.K.’s Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA), the trade group for U.K. internet service providers, nominated the browser maker for its proposed effort to roll out the security feature, which they say will allow users to “bypass UK filtering obligations and parental controls, undermining internet safety standards in the UK.” Mozilla said late last year it was planning to test DNS-over-HTTPS to a small number of users.' -- source: https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/05/isp-group-mozilla-internet-villain-dns-pr… 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

Skype Snap App Remains Hopelessly Outdated
by Peter Reutemann 10 Jul '19

10 Jul '19

'The official Skype Snap app for Linux has not been updated in nearly six months, and Microsoft is yet to say why. When introducing the cross-distro build in early 2018, the company said the Skype Snap app would give it the "... ability to push the latest features straight to our users, no matter which device or distribution they happen to use." Clearly, not. Because at the time of writing this post the Skype Snap app sits on version 8.34.0.78, which the Snapcraft store reports was 'last updated' in November 2018. However, the "regular" Linux version available to download from the Skype website is on version 8.47.0.73, released June 2019.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/07/09/2014250 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

IBM Closes Its $34 Billion Acquisition of Red Hat
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jul '19

09 Jul '19

'IBM closed its $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat, the companies announced Tuesday. From a report: The deal was originally announced in October, when the companies said IBM would buy all shares in Red Hat for $190 each in cash. The acquisition of Red Hat, an open-source, enterprise software maker, marks the close of IBM's largest deal ever. It's one of the biggest in U.S. tech history. Excluding the AOL-Time Warner merger, it follows the $67 billion deal between Dell and EMC in 2016 and JDS Uniphase's $41 billion acquisition of optical-component supplier SDL in 2000. Under the deal, Red Hat will now be a unit of IBM's hybrid cloud division, according to the original announcement. The companies said Red Hat's CEO, Jim Whitehurst, would join IBM's senior management team and report to CEO Ginni Rometty. IBM previously said it hoped its acquisition of Red Hat will help it do more work in the cloud, one of its four key growth drivers, which are also social, mobile and analytics. The company lags behind Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud infrastructure business. IBM has seen three consecutive quarters of declining year-over-year revenue. But some analysts are hopeful about the Red Hat deal's opportunity to bring in new business.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/07/09/1740223 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

Logitech Wireless USB Dongles Vulnerable To New Hijacking Flaws
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jul '19

09 Jul '19

'A security researcher has publicly disclosed new vulnerabilities in the USB dongles (receivers) used by Logitech wireless keyboards, mice, and presentation clickers. New submitter raikoseagle shares a report: The vulnerabilities allow attackers to sniff on keyboard traffic, but also inject keystrokes (even into dongles not connected to a wireless keyboard) and take over the computer to which a dongle has been connected. When encryption is used to protect the connection between the dongle and its paired device, the vulnerabilities also allow attackers to recover the encryption key. Furthermore, if the USB dongle uses a "key blacklist" to prevent the paired device from injecting keystrokes, the vulnerabilities allow the bypassing of this security protection system. Marcus Mengs, the researcher who discovered these vulnerabilities, said he notified Logitech about his findings, and the vendor plans to patch some of the reported issues, but not all.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/07/09/182246 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

Raspberry Pi Admits To Faulty USB-C Design On the Pi 4
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jul '19

09 Jul '19

'The Raspberry Pi 4 was announced two weeks ago as a major new upgrade to the line of cheap single-board hobbyist computers. The Pi 4 featured a faster CPU, options for up to 4GB of RAM, and a new, modern USB-C port for power delivery. The Pi 4 was the Raspberry Pi Foundation's first ever USB-C device, and, well, they screwed it up. As detailed by Tyler Ward, the Raspberry Pi 4 has a non-compliant USB-C charging port and doesn't work with as many chargers as it should. Thanks to the open nature of Raspberry Pi (even the schematics are online!), Ward was able to discover that Raspberry Pi just didn't design its USB-C port correctly. Two "CC" pins on a USB-C port are supposed to each get their own 5.1K ohms resistor, but Raspberry Pi came up with its own circuit design that allows them to share a single resistor. This is not a compliant design and breaks compatibility with some of the more powerful USB-C chargers out there. Whether your USB-C charger works with the Pi 4 has to do with whether it uses an "e-marked" cable. E-marked cables are fully featured USB-C cables with chips inside that negotiate power management, accessory modes, data rates, and other communication specs. Since the Pi 4 USB-C port is wired incorrectly, these smart cables will detect the Pi 4 as an "Audio Adaptor Accessory" and refuse to charge them. Usually, e-marked cables are more expensive and come with larger, higher-powered items, like a USB-C laptop. After reports started popping up on the Internet, Raspberry Pi cofounder Eben Upton admitted to TechRepublic that "A smart charger with an e-marked cable will incorrectly identify the Raspberry Pi 4 as an audio adapter accessory and refuse to provide power." Upton went on to say, "I expect this will be fixed in a future board revision, but for now users will need to apply one of the suggested workarounds. It's surprising this didn't show up in our (quite extensive) field testing program."' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/07/09/1934205 I'll stick with my RPi3 for the time being... 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 Blocks UAE Bid To Become an Internet Security Guardian After Hacking Reports
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jul '19

09 Jul '19

'Firefox browser maker Mozilla is blocking the United Arab Emirates' government from serving as one of its internet security gatekeepers, citing Reuters reports on a UAE cyber espionage program. From a report: Mozilla said in a statement on Tuesday it was rejecting the UAE's bid to become a globally recognized internet security watchdog, empowered to certify the safety of websites for Firefox users. Mozilla said it made the decision because cybersecurity firm DarkMatter would have administered the gatekeeper role and it had been linked by Reuters and other reports to a state-run hacking program. Reuters reported in January that Abu Dhabi-based DarkMatter provided staff for a secret hacking operation, codenamed Project Raven, on behalf of an Emirati intelligence agency. The unit was largely comprised of former U.S. intelligence officials who conducted offensive cyber operations for the UAE government. Former Raven operatives told Reuters that many DarkMatter executives were unaware of the secretive program, which operated from a converted Abu Dhabi mansion away from DarkMatter's headquarters.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/07/09/1945241 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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Firefox 68 Arrives With Darker Reader View, Recommended Extensions, and IT Customizations
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jul '19

09 Jul '19

'Mozilla today launched Firefox 68 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. Firefox 68 includes a darker reader view, recommended extensions, IT Pro customizations, and more. From a report: As part of this release, Mozilla has curated a list of recommended extensions "that have been thoroughly reviewed for security, usability, and usefulness." You can find the list on the Get Add-ons page in the Firefox Add-ons Manager (about:addons). While Firefox has had dark mode for months, the Reader View's dark contrast only covered the text area. Now, when you change the contrast to dark, all sections of the site (including sidebars and toolbars) will be immersed in dark mode. With Firefox 60, Mozilla introduced an enterprise version of the browser that employers can customize. This let IT professionals configure Firefox for their organization, either using Group Policy on Windows or a JSON file that works across Windows, Mac, and Linux. With Firefox 68, Mozilla has added more enterprise policies -- to configure or remove the new tab page, turn off search suggestions, and so on.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/07/09/1959238 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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After 25 Months, Debian 10 'buster' Released
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jul '19

07 Jul '19

'"After 25 months of development the Debian project is proud to present its new stable version 10 (code name 'buster'), which will be supported for the next 5 years thanks to the combined work of the Debian Security team and of the Debian Long Term Support team." In this release, GNOME defaults to using the Wayland display server instead of Xorg. Wayland has a simpler and more modern design, which has advantages for security. However, the Xorg display server is still installed by default and the default display manager allows users to choose Xorg as the display server for their next session. Thanks to the Reproducible Builds project, over 91% of the source packages included in Debian 10 will build bit-for-bit identical binary packages. This is an important verification feature which protects users against malicious attempts to tamper with compilers and build networks. Future Debian releases will include tools and metadata so that end-users can validate the provenance of packages within the archive. For those in security-sensitive environments AppArmor, a mandatory access control framework for restricting programs' capabilities, is installed and enabled by default. Furthermore, all methods provided by APT (except cdrom, gpgv, and rsh) can optionally make use of "seccomp-BPF" sandboxing. The https method for APT is included in the apt package and does not need to be installed separately... Secure Boot support is included in this release for amd64, i386 and arm64 architectures and should work out of the box on most Secure Boot-enabled machines. The announcement touts Debian's "traditional wide architecture support," arguing that it shows Debian "once again stays true to its goal of being the universal operating system." It ships with several desktop applications and environments, including the following: - Cinnamon 3.8 - GNOME 3.30 - KDE Plasma 5.14 - LXDE 0.99.2 - LXQt 0.14 - MATE 1.20 - Xfce 4.12 "If you simply want to try Debian 10 'buster' without installing it, you can use one of the available live images which load and run the complete operating system in a read-only state via your computer's memory... Should you enjoy the operating system you have the option of installing from the live image onto your computer's hard disk."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/07/07/0426205 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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This Week On GitHub
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Jul '19

07 Jul '19

Just some random things I found: * BOOTSTRA.386 <https://github.com/kristopolous/BOOTSTRA.386> -- a Bootstrap theme to make your website look like a text display from the 1980s. Does require JavaScript. * GitHarvester <https://github.com/metac0rtex/GitHarvester> -- scans through GitHub repos for wp-config.php files that people might have “accidentally” published. Those familiar with WordPress may realize that this file can contain such sensitive things username and password information for connecting to a MySQL database. * Arduino-TV-B-Gone <https://github.com/shirriff/Arduino-TV-B-Gone>. TV-B-Gone was intended as a universal remote that could switch off any TV. This project implements the same thing on an Arduino. And they wonder why we can’t have nice things ...

1 0

Privacy-First Browsers Look To Take the Shine Off Google's Chrome
by Peter Reutemann 06 Jul '19

06 Jul '19

'Google's Chrome now reigns as the biggest browser on the block, and the company is facing challenges similar to Microsoft's from competitors, as well as government scrutiny. But Google faces a new wrinkle -- a growing realization among consumers that their every digital move is tracked. "I think Cambridge Analytica acted as a catalyst to get people aware that their data could be used in ways they didn't expect," said Peter Dolanjski, the product lead for Mozilla's Firefox web browser, referring to the scandal in which a political consulting firm obtained data on millions of Facebook users and their friends. And in something of a poetic role reversal, Microsoft is positioning itself to pick up the slack from people who may be fed up with Google's Chrome browser and its questionable privacy practices. Microsoft is expected to release an overhaul of its latest browser, called Edge, in the coming months. Microsoft is just one of a number of companies and organizations looking to take a piece out of Google -- some using the company's own open-source software. One name that might be familiar to most consumers -- Mozilla's Firefox browser -- is also a veteran of the "browser wars" of two decades ago. The nonprofit Mozilla, which has been biting at the heels of leading browsers for most of its existence, is introducing more aggressive privacy settings to try to stand out and take advantage of the privacy stumbles by Google and other tech giants.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/07/05/152233 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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Google Maintains a List of Everything You Ever Bought Using Gmail, Even if You Delete All Your Emails
by Peter Reutemann 06 Jul '19

06 Jul '19

'In May, I wrote up something weird I spotted on Google's account management page. I noticed that Google uses Gmail to store a list of everything you've purchased, if you used Gmail or your Gmail address in any part of the transaction. If you have a confirmation for a prescription you picked up at a pharmacy that went into your Gmail account, Google logs it. If you have a receipt from Macy's, Google keeps it. If you bought food for delivery and the receipt went to your Gmail, Google stores that, too. You get the idea, and you can see your own purchase history by going to Google's Purchases page. Google says it does this so you can use Google Assistant to track packages or reorder things, even if that's not an option for some purchases that aren't mailed or wouldn't be reordered, like something you bought at a store. At the time of my original story, Google said users can delete everything by tapping into a purchase and removing the Gmail. It seemed to work if you did this for each purchase, one by one. This isn't easy -- for years worth of purchases, this would take hours or even days of time. So, since Google doesn't let you bulk-delete this purchases list, I decided to delete everything in my Gmail inbox. That meant removing every last message I've sent or received since I opened my Gmail account more than a decade ago. Despite Google's assurances, it didn't work.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/07/05/1728200 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

Fake Samsung Firmware Update App Tricks More Than 10 Million Android Users
by Peter Reutemann 06 Jul '19

06 Jul '19

'Over ten million users have been duped in installing a fake Samsung app named "Updates for Samsung" that promises firmware updates, but, in reality, redirects users to an ad-filled website and charges for firmware downloads. From a report: "I have contacted the Google Play Store and asked them to consider removing this app," Aleksejs Kuprins, malware analyst at the CSIS Security Group, told ZDNet this week in an interview, after publishing a report on the app's shady behavior earlier today. The app takes advantage of the difficulty in getting firmware and operating system updates for Samsung phones, hence the high number of users who have installed it. "It would be wrong to judge people for mistakenly going to the official application store for the firmware updates after buying a new Android device," the security researcher said. "Vendors frequently bundle their Android OS builds with an intimidating number of software, and it can easily get confusing."' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/07/05/1456200 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 Set To Offer Ad-Free News Consumption Capability on Firefox For $5 Per Month
by Peter Reutemann 06 Jul '19

06 Jul '19

'As previously announced, Mozilla has started to tease the launch of a new $5 monthly subscription to a variety of online news publishers that involves no ads. The idea is that a single, low subscription fee gives you access to a number of sites with the ads removed. From a report: You pay a monthly fee to Mozilla, and this money is shared with its partners to help fund an ad-free internet experience. More than this, Mozilla says that the subscription fee will also grant access to audio versions of articles, article synchronization and more. In a page which promises people the chance to "support the sites you love, avoid the ads you hate", Mozilla says: "We've partnered with some of the world's greatest publishers to bring you a better journalism experience. We share your payment directly with the sites you read. They make more money which means they can bring you great content without needing to distract you with ads just to keep the lights on.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/07/05/1712247 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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Almost a Third of World's Top VPNs Are Secretly Owned By Chinese Firms, Study Finds
by Peter Reutemann 06 Jul '19

06 Jul '19

'Almost a third (30%) of the world's top virtual private network (VPN) providers are secretly owned by six Chinese companies, according to a study by privacy and security research firm VPNpro. The study shows that the top 97 VPNs are run by just 23 parent companies, many of which are based in countries with lax privacy laws. Six of these companies are based in China and collectively offer 29 VPN services, but in many cases, information on the parent company is hidden to consumers. Researchers at VPNpro have pieced together ownership information through company listings, geolocation data, the CVs of employees and other documentation. In some instances, ownership of different VPNs is split amongst a number of subsidiaries. For example, Chinese company Innovative Connecting owns three separate businesses that produce VPN apps: Autumn Breeze 2018, Lemon Cove and All Connected. In total, Innovative Connecting produces 10 seemingly unconnected VPN products, the study shows. Although the ownership of a number of VPN services by one company is not unusual, VPNpro is concerned that so many are based in countries with lax or non-existence privacy laws. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/07/05/1944235 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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Tor Project To Fix Bug Used For DDoS Attacks On Onion Sites For Years
by Peter Reutemann 06 Jul '19

06 Jul '19

'"The Tor Project is preparing a fix for a bug that has been abused for the past years to launch DDoS attacks against dark web (.onion) websites," reports ZDNet. "Barring any unforeseen problems, the fix is scheduled for the upcoming Tor protocol 0.4.2 release." The bug has been known to Tor developers for years, and has been used to launch Slow Loris-like attacks on the web servers that run the Tor service supporting an .onion site. It works by opening many connections to the server and maxing out the CPU. Since Tor connections are CPU intensive because of the cryptography involved to support the privacy and anonymity of the network, even a a few hundreds connections are enough to bring down dark web portals. A tool to exploit the bug and to automate DDoS attacks has been around for four years, and has been used by hackers to extort dark web marketplaces all spring. At least two markets selling illegal products have shut down after refusing to pay attackers. To get the bug fixed, members of a dark web forum banded together and donated to the Tor Project to sponsor the bug's patch.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/07/05/208230 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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Google Apologizes To Andrew Little Over Botched Name Suppression
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 05 Jul '19

05 Jul '19

Whaddaya know, sometimes it is possible to get a response from a human at a powerful, faceless megacorporation that doesn’t feel it has to abide by your country’s laws <https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/07/google-apologises-to-andrew…>. However, the remedy involves turning off a service completely: “In light of the concerns you expressed this week, Google has… suspended Google Trends emails about searches trending in New Zealand.” Be careful what you wish for?

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Interview With PINE64 On the Upcoming Release of the PineBook Pro
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jul '19

05 Jul '19

'One of the consequences of the explosive popularity of the Raspberry Pi is the flourishing of competing ecosystems of single-board computers (SBCs). Aside from the accessibility a $35 price tag offers, the foremost benefit of the Raspberry Pi is the community -- the proliferation of projects and integrations that center around the Raspberry Pi, and the ease-of-use that creates, makes competing products that look better on spec sheets a disappointment when taken out of the box. PINE64 has attempted to head this off by fostering an involved community; the PINE64 website explains their philosophy as "the community gets to actively shape the devices, as well as the social platform, of PINE64 from the ground up. The goal is to deliver ARM64 devices that you really wish to engage with and a platform that you want to be a part of." The first-generation Pinebook was available in an 11.6" or 14" configuration, with a quad-core Allwinner A64, 2GB RAM, 16GB eMMC, and 1366x768 display for $99, beating Nicolas Negroponte's OLPC XO-1, a decade after that project sputtered. PINE64 is differentiating itself by building not just SBCs, but notebooks, tablets, and phones with community input and feedback. Ahead of the release of the Pinebook Pro this summer, a Rockchip RK3399-based ARM laptop with 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB eMMC, and a 14" 1080p display, TechRepublic interviewed PINE64 community manager Lukasz Erecinski about the Pinebook Pro, and the PINE64 community philosophy. An excerpt from the interview: TechRepublic: Why is Pine64 building a device ecosystem of not just SBCs, but also finished devices, like tablets, laptops, and phones? Lukasz Erecinski: While SBCs are and will remain our bread and butter, there is no denying that our vision for PINE64 has expanded beyond the SBC market. The core aim of our project remains the same however -- to foster a community and bring affordable ARM64 devices to developers and end-users. You have correctly identified that we are building eco-systems; that is to say, we strive for convergence between our SBCs and other ARM64 devices we manufacture. In result, when evaluating future SOCs, we're not only considering if they'll make for good SBCs but also laptops, modules, tablets, etc. As time progresses, you will see more and more of this type of convergence across devices from us. Allwinner A64 and Rockchip RK3399 are two examples of what we strive for: the Pine64-LTS, the SOPine, Pinebook, PineTab and PinePhone all share the Allwinner A64, whilst the RockPro64, Pinebook Pro and SORock (upcoming module akin to the SOPine) use the Rockchip RK3399.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/07/05/0045229 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 Bans Content 'Showing Users How To Bypass Secure Computer Systems'
by Peter Reutemann 04 Jul '19

04 Jul '19

'Kody Kinzie from the Null Byte YouTube channel on Tuesday said YouTube banned a video he made about launching fireworks over Wi-Fi for the 4th of July. According to YouTube's Community Guidelines, you are not allowed to post content "showing users how to bypass secure computer systems or steal user credentials and personal data." Doing so will apparently result in a strike. The Register notes that this written policy "first appears in the Internet Wayback Machine's archive of web history in an April 5, 2019 snapshot." "I'm worried for everyone that teaches about infosec and tries to fill in the gaps for people who are learning," Kinzie said on Twitter. "It is hard, often boring, and expensive to learn cybersecurity." Security professionals like Tim Erlin, VP of product management and strategy at cybersecurity biz Tripwire, also finds the policy questionable. "Google's intention here might be laudable, but the result is likely to stifle valuable information sharing in the information security community," he said. "In cybersecurity, we improve our defenses by understanding how attacks actually work. Theoretical explanations are often not the most effective tools, and forcing content creators onto platforms restricted in distribution, like a paid training course, simply creates roadblocks to the industry. Sharing real world examples brings more people to the industry, rather than creating more criminals." ' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/07/03/2121250 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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Android Q(&A): Android Engineers take us on a deep dive of Android Q
by Peter Reutemann 04 Jul '19

04 Jul '19

'As has become tradition for Ars at Google I/O, we recently sat down with some of the people who make Android to learn more about Google's latest OS. For 2019, the talk was all about Android Q and this year's big engineering effort, Project Mainline. Mainline's goal is to enable Google (and sometimes OEMs!) to directly update core parts of the OS without pushing out a whole system update. If that sounds technical and challenging, well, it is. This year running the Ars Android Interview Gauntlet we have veteran interviewee Dave Burke, VP of engineering for Android. As the head of Team Android, Burke is an encyclopedia of Android knowledge and always manages to come up with insightful answers to my grab bag of esoteric questions. And returning for the second year in a row is Iliyan Malchev, principal engineer at Android, the lead of Project Treble, and all-around Linux integration guru.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/07/android-qa-android-engineers-take-u… 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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Amazon confirms it keeps your Alexa recordings basically forever
by Peter Reutemann 04 Jul '19

04 Jul '19

'If you (like so many of us) hate listening to recordings of your own voice, you may be in for an unpleasant future, as Amazon has confirmed it hangs on to every conversation you've ever had with an Alexa-enabled device until or unless you specifically delete them. That confirmation comes as a response to a list of questions Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware) sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in May expressing "concerns" about how Amazon uses and retains customers' Alexa voice assistant data. Amazon's response to Coons, as first reported by CNET, confirms that the company keeps your data as long as it wants unless you deliberately specify otherwise. "We retain customers' voice recordings and transcripts until the customer chooses to delete them," Amazon said—but even then there are exceptions.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/amazon-confirms-it-keeps-your-a… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Someone Is Spamming and Breaking a Core Component of PGP's Ecosystem
by Peter Reutemann 04 Jul '19

04 Jul '19

'A new wave of spamming attacks on a core component of PGP's ecosystem has highlighted a fundamental weakness in the whole ecosystem. From a report: Unknown attackers are spamming a core component of the ecosystem of the well-known encryption software PGP, breaking users' PGP installations and clients. What's worse, there may be no way to stop them. Last week, contributors to the PGP protocol GnuPG noticed that someone was "poisoning" or "flooding" their certificates. In this case, poisoning refers to an attack where someone spams a certificate with a large number of signatures or certifications. This makes it impossible for the the PGP software that people use to verify its authenticity, which can make the software unusable or break. In practice, according to one of the GnuPG developers targeted by this attack, the hackers could make it impossible for people using Linux to download updates, which are verified via PGP.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/07/03/2048235 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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File-Storage App 4shared Caught Serving Invisible Ads and Making Purchases Without Consent
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jul '19

03 Jul '19

'With more than 100 million installs, file-sharing service 4shared is one of the most popular apps in the Android app store. But security researchers say the app is secretly displaying invisible ads and subscribes users to paid services, racking up charges without the user's knowledge -- or their permission -- collectively costing millions of dollars. From a report: "It all happens in the background... nothing appears on the screen," said Guy Krief, chief executive of London-based Upstream, which shared its research exclusively with TechCrunch. The researchers say the app contains suspicious third-party code that allowed the app to automate clicks and make fraudulent purchases. They said the component, built by Hong Kong-based Elephant Data, downloads code which is "directly responsible" for generating the automated clicks without the user's knowledge. The code also sets a cookie to determine if a device has previously been used to make a purchase, likely as a way to hide the activity.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/07/03/1738253 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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D-Link To Undergo Security Audits For 10 Years as Part of FTC Settlement
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jul '19

03 Jul '19

'D-Link has agreed to a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission in regards to a 2017 lawsuit in which the US government agency accused the Taiwanese hardware maker of misrepresenting the security of its devices and ignoring vulnerability reports. From a report: As part of the settlement, D-Link has promised to implement a new software security program for its routers and Internet-connected cameras. The company has also agreed to subject itself to ten years of biennial security audits from a third-party, independent auditor. The FTC gets to choose the auditor, while D-Link got to decide the certifications the auditor must obtain before allowing it to review its security program.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/07/03/1926220 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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Google Earth Ported To Browsers With WebAssembly
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jul '19

03 Jul '19

'The Google Earth team recently released a beta preview of a WebAssembly port of Google Earth. The new port runs in Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers, including Edge (Canary version) and Opera, as well as Firefox. From a report: The port thus brings cross-browser support to the existing Earth For Web version, which uses the native C++ codebase and Chrome's Native Client (NaCl) technology. Difference in multi-threading support between browsers leads to varying performance. Google Earth was released 14 years ago and allowed users to explore the earth through the comfort of their home. This original version of Google Earth was released as a native C++ based application intended for desktop install because rendering the whole world in real time required advanced technologies that weren't available in the browser. Google Earth was subsequently introduced for Android and iOS smartphones, leveraging the existing C++ codebase through technologies such as NDK and Objective-C++. In 2017, Google Earth was released for the Chrome browser, using Google's Native Client (NaCl) to compile the C++ code and run it in the browser.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/07/02/1919251 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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Mageia 7 Linux Distro Released
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jul '19

03 Jul '19

'If you're looking to try out a Linux distro that is not based on Ubuntu, Mageia 7 might be worth your consideration. It arrives two years after the release of Mageia 6 -- so unsurprisingly, the changelog is fairly long. The Mageia developers share the significant packages that have been updated below. Significant package updates include: kernel 5.1.14, rpm 4.14.2, dnf 4.2.6, Mesa 19.1, Plasma 5.15.4, GNOME 3.32, Xfce 4.14pre, Firefox 67, Chromium 73, and LibreOffice 6.2.3. Donald Stewart, Mageia developer, adds: There are lots of new features, exciting updates, and new versions of your favorite programs, as well as support for very recent hardware. There are classical installer images for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, as well as live DVDs for 64-bit Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, and 32-bit Xfce.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/07/02/201232 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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Google's Robots.txt Parser is Now Open Source
by Peter Reutemann 02 Jul '19

02 Jul '19

'For 25 years, the Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP) was only a de-facto standard. This had frustrating implications sometimes. On one hand, for webmasters, it meant uncertainty in corner cases, like when their text editor included BOM characters in their robots.txt files. On the other hand, for crawler and tool developers, it also brought uncertainty; for example, how should they deal with robots.txt files that are hundreds of megabytes large? Today, we announced that we're spearheading the effort to make the REP an internet standard. While this is an important step, it means extra work for developers who parse robots.txt files. We're here to help: we open sourced the C++ library that our production systems use for parsing and matching rules in robots.txt files. This library has been around for 20 years and it contains pieces of code that were written in the 90's. Since then, the library evolved; we learned a lot about how webmasters write robots.txt files and corner cases that we had to cover for, and added what we learned over the years also to the internet draft when it made sense.' -- source: https://search.slashdot.org/story/19/07/01/153253 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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Nostalgia At Glastonbury ...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 02 Jul '19

02 Jul '19

>From <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/07/01/microsoft_round_up/>, another sighting of Windows XP in mission-critical use: Unfortunate songstress Neneh Cherry was warbling through her set when the veteran OS finally gave up the ghost. Alas, XP was dealing with the stage back projection, meaning that the audience lurched from being vaguely surprised to learn that Cherry was still around to the horrifying realisation that so was XP.

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The Infrastructure Mess Causing Countless Internet Outages
by Peter Reutemann 02 Jul '19

02 Jul '19

'Border Gateway Protocol has served the internet well for decades. But when it goes wrong, you notice it. From a report: In a weeks-long stretch in 2014, hackers stole thousands of dollars a day in cryptocurrency from owners. In 2017, internet outages cropped up around the United States for hours. Last year, Google Cloud suffered hours of disruptions. Earlier this month, a large swath of European mobile data was rerouted through the state-backed China Telecom. And on Monday, websites and services around the world -- including the internet infrastructure firm Cloudflare -- experienced hours of outages. These incidents may sound different, but they actually all resulted from problems -- some accidental, some malicious -- with a fundamental internet routing system called the Border Gateway Protocol. The web is distributed, but it's also interconnected. It needs to be so that data can move around worldwide without all being controlled by a single entity. So every time you load a website or send an email, BGP is the system responsible for optimizing the route that data takes across these sprawling, intertwined networks. And when it goes wrong, the whole internet feels it. Originally conceived in 1989 (on two napkins), the version of BGP used today remains largely unchanged since 1994. And though BGP has scaled surprisingly well, there's no denying that the internet is very different than it was 25 years ago. In fact, the way BGP was designed introduces risk of outages, manipulations, and data interception -- all of which have come to pass. The internet's backbone routers -- massive industrial nodes usually run by internet service providers, not the Linksys at your house -- each control a set of IP addresses and routes. ISPs and other large organizations use BGP to announce these routes to the world and calculate paths. Think of it like planning a cross-country drive: You need to know the different route options in each area, so you can stop at all the right corn mazes and the world's largest rocking chair without adding too much extra driving each day. But if your GPS is outdated, you could wind up at a dead end or on a new road that totally bypasses the salt flats.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/07/01/1316206 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 Usage on Azure Has Surpassed Windows, Microsoft Developer Reveals
by Peter Reutemann 02 Jul '19

02 Jul '19

'Three and a half years ago, Mark Russinovich, Azure CTO, Microsoft's cloud, said, "One in four [Azure] instances are Linux." Next, in 2017, Microsoft revealed that 40% of Azure virtual machines (VM) were Linux-based. Then in the fall of 2018, Scott Guthrie, Microsoft's executive VP of the cloud and enterprise group, told me in an exclusive interview, "About half Azure VMs are Linux". Now, Sasha Levin, Microsoft Linux kernel developer, in a request that Microsoft be allowed to join a Linux security list, revealed that "the Linux usage on our cloud has surpassed Windows." Shocking you say? Not really. Linux is largely what runs enterprise computing both on in-house servers and on the cloud. Windows Server has been declining for years. In the most recent IDC Worldwide Operating Systems and Subsystems Market Shares report covering 2017, Linux had 68% of the market. Its share has only increased since then.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/07/01/1333252 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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Germany to publish standard on modern secure browsers
by Peter Reutemann 02 Jul '19

02 Jul '19

'Germany's cyber-security agency is working on a set of minimum rules that modern web browsers must comply with in order to be considered secure. The new guidelines are currently being drafted by the German Federal Office for Information Security (or the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik -- BSI), and they'll be used to advise government agencies and companies from the private sector on what browsers are safe to use.' -- source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/germany-to-publish-standard-on-modern-secure-… 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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Ebooks Purchased From Microsoft Will Be Deleted This Month Because You Don't Really Own Anything Anymore
by Peter Reutemann 02 Jul '19

02 Jul '19

'Anyone who bought ebooks through the Microsoft Store is in for a rude shock in the coming days. The good news? You can get a refund. The bad news? All of your books are going to be deleted this month. Microsoft announced in April that it would stop selling ebooks and that any books the company already sold would stop working in early July because the DRM servers were being shut off. Yes, you read that correctly. Those books that you “bought” are going to disappear. Even the “free” books that you downloaded through Microsoft will be deleted.' -- source: https://gizmodo.com/ebooks-purchased-from-microsoft-will-be-deleted-this-mo… Possible solution to keep the books - remove the DRM: https://www.techradar.com/news/software/how-to-remove-ebook-drm-with-calibr… https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/drm-removal-tools-for-ebooks/ https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/ebooks-formats-drm-and-you-%… 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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Ask Slashdot: What's Your 'Backup' Browser?
by Peter Reutemann 01 Jul '19

01 Jul '19

'Slashdot's gotten over 17,000 votes in its poll about which web browser people use on their desktop. (The current leader? Firefox, with 53% of the vote, followed by Chrome with 30%.) But Slashdot reader koavf asks an interesting follow-up question: "What's everyone's go-to Plan B browser and why?"' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/06/30/2220257 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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Linus Torvalds Sees Lots of Hardware Headaches Ahead
by Peter Reutemann 30 Jun '19

30 Jun '19

'Linux founder Linus Torvalds "warns that managing software is about to become a lot more challenging, largely because of two hardware issues that are beyond the control of DevOps teams," reports DevOps.com. An anonymous reader shares their report about Torvalds remarks at the KubeCon + CloudNative + Open Source Summit China conference: The first, Torvalds said, is the steady stream of patches being generated for new cybersecurity issues related to the speculative execution model that Intel and other processor vendors rely on to accelerate performance... Each of those bugs requires another patch to the Linux kernel that, depending on when they arrive, can require painful updates to the kernel, Torvalds told conference attendees. Short of disabling hyperthreading altogether to eliminate reliance on speculative execution, each patch requires organizations to update both the Linux kernel and the BIOS to ensure security. Turning off hyperthreading eliminates the patch management issue, but also reduces application performance by about 15 percent. The second major issue hardware issue looms a little further over the horizon, Torvalds said. Moore's Law has guaranteed a doubling of hardware performance every 18 months for decades. But as processor vendors approach the limits of Moore's Law, many developers will need to reoptimize their code to continue achieving increased performance. In many cases, that requirement will be a shock to many development teams that have counted on those performance improvements to make up for inefficient coding processes, he said.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/06/28/2245250 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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Tech Press Rushes To Cover New Linus Torvalds Mailing List Outburst
by Peter Reutemann 30 Jun '19

30 Jun '19

'"Linux frontman Linus Torvalds thinks he's 'more self-aware' these days and is 'trying to be less forceful' after his brief absence from directing Linux kernel developers because of his abusive language on the Linux kernel mailing list," reports ZDNet. "But true to his word, he's still not necessarily diplomatic in his communications with maintainers..." Torvalds' post-hiatus outburst was directed at Dave Chinner, an Australian programmer who maintains the Silicon Graphics (SGI)-created XFS file system supported by many Linux distros. "Bullshit, Dave," Torvalds told Chinner on a mailing list. The comment from Chinner that triggered Torvalds' rebuke was that "the page cache is still far, far slower than direct IO" -- a problem Chinner thinks will become more apparent with the arrival of the newish storage-motherboard interface specification known as Peripheral Express Interconnect Express (PCIe) version 4.0. Chinner believes page cache might be necessary to support disk-based storage, but that it has a performance cost.... "You've made that claim before, and it's been complete bullshit before too, and I've called you out on it then too," wrote Torvalds. "Why do you continue to make this obviously garbage argument?" According to Torvalds, the page cache serves its correct purpose as a cache. "The key word in the 'page cache' name is 'cache'," wrote Torvalds.... "Caches work, Dave. Anybody who thinks caches don't work is incompetent. 99 percent of all filesystem accesses are cached, and they never do any IO at all, and the page cache handles them beautifully," Torvalds wrote. "When you say the page cache is slower than direct IO, it's because you don't even see or care about the *fast* case. You only get involved once there is actual IO to be done." "The thing is," reports the Register, "crucially, Chinner was talking in the context of specific IO requests that just don't cache well, and noted that these inefficiencies could become more obvious as the deployment of PCIe 4.0-connected non-volatile storage memory spreads." Here's how Chinner responded to Torvalds on the mailing list. "You've taken one single statement I made from a huge email about complexities in dealing with IO concurrency, the page cache and architectural flaws in the existing code, quoted it out of context, fabricated a completely new context and started ranting about how I know nothing about how caches or the page cache work." The Register notes their conversation also illustrates a crucial difference from closed-source software development. "[D]ue to the open nature of the Linux kernel, Linus's rows and spats play out in public for everyone to see, and vultures like us to write up about."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/06/28/2339245 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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Google's New ReCAPTCHA Has a Dark Side
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jun '19

28 Jun '19

'We've all tried to log into a website or submit a form only to be stuck clicking boxes of traffic lights or storefronts or bridges in a desperate attempt to finally convince the computer that we're not actually a bot. For many years, this has been one of the predominant ways that reCaptcha -- the Google-run internet bot detector -- has determined whether a user is a bot or not. But last fall, Google launched a new version of the tool, with the goal of eliminating that annoying user experience entirely. Now, when you enter a form on a website that's using reCaptcha V3, you won't see the "I'm not a robot" checkbox, nor will you have to prove you know what a cat looks like. Instead, you won't see anything at all. Google is also now testing an enterprise version of reCaptcha v3, where Google creates a customized reCaptcha for enterprises that are looking for more granular data about users' risk levels to protect their site algorithms from malicious users and bots. But this new, risk-score based system comes with a serious trade-off: users' privacy. According to two security researchers who've studied reCaptcha, one of the ways that Google determines whether you're a malicious user or not is whether you already have a Google cookie installed on your browser. It's the same cookie that allows you to open new tabs in your browser and not have to re-log in to your Google account every time. But according to Mohamed Akrout, a computer science PhD student at the University of Toronto who has studied reCaptcha, it appears that Google is also using its cookies to determine whether someone is a human in reCaptcha v3 tests. Akrout wrote in an April paper about how reCaptcha v3 simulations that ran on a browser with a connected Google account received lower risk scores than browsers without a connected Google account. "Because reCaptcha v3 is likely to be on every page of a website, if you're signed into your Google account there's a chance Google is getting data about every single webpage you go to that is embedded with reCaptcha v3 -- and there many be no visual indication on the site that it's happening, beyond a small reCaptcha logo hidden in the corner," the report adds.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/06/27/2139219 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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WireGuard on Windows early preview
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jun '19

28 Jun '19

'WireGuard is a new peer-to-peer VPN technology that has the potential for greater speed, smaller attack surface, and easier configuration than commonly used and better-established VPN platforms such as OpenVPN and IPSec. It has been available on Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, Android, and even iOS for quite some time now, with Windows being the one platform frustratingly missing. There are good reasons for that—lead developer Jason Donenfeld didn't want to inherit the problems of OpenVPN's OpenTAP adapter code, and when he investigated Microsoft's built-in VPN API, he didn't like that either. So his first move was to take a giant step backward on the Windows platform and develop an extremely simple virtual adapter that could be used not only for WireGuard, but also for other projects that might need the same kind of very basic, socket-and-tunnel functionality. This became Wintun. For the moment, WireGuard for Windows is still in what creator Jason Donenfeld refers to as "pre-alpha," with an alpha build due out sometime in the next week or two. The good news is that it's an easy install now, with no dev-fu required to get it running happily on a Windows 10 (or Server 2016, as seen below) system. There are self-contained, signed MSI installers for both 64-bit and 32-bit builds there; downloading and running them just works, with no complaints from Defender about unsigned or untrusted anything. I was curious about what makes v0.0.14 "pre-alpha" rather than merely "alpha." Donenfeld told me one reason he called it pre-alpha was to keep journalists like me (as well as the generally unadventurous) from writing about it before it's ready.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/06/taking-a-spin-on-wir… Here's the link the article covering the Linux version: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/08/wireguard-vpn-review-fast-connectio… 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 Launches GeckoView-Powered Firefox Preview For Android
by Peter Reutemann 27 Jun '19

27 Jun '19

'Mozilla today announced Firefox Preview, a pilot of its new Android browser. Firefox Preview, which is powered by Mozilla's own GeckoView engine, will ultimately replace the current Firefox for Android mobile app "this fall." At the same time, Mozilla has put Firefox Focus for Android development on hold. If you're a developer or just an early adopter, you can download Firefox Preview from Google Play. On desktop, Firefox is the second most popular browser after Chrome. Firefox holds about 10% desktop market share, according to Net Applications. On mobile, however, Firefox has less than 0.5% share. Despite regular releases alongside the desktop browser over the years, Firefox's mobile share has not improved.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/06/27/1720215 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

Researchers Demonstrate How US Emergency Alert System Can Be Hijacked and Weaponized
by Peter Reutemann 27 Jun '19

27 Jun '19

'After an emergency alert was accidentally sent to Hawaii residents last year, warning of an impending nuclear ballistic missile attack, researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder were prompted to ask the question: How easy would it be to exploit the nation's emergency alert systems, wreaking havoc on the American public via fake or misleading alerts? In short, they found that it wasn't very difficult at all. Motherboard reports: Their full study was recently unveiled at the 2019 International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services (MobiSys) in Seoul, South Korea. It documents how spoofing the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) program to trick cellular users wasn't all that difficult. To prove it, researchers built a mini "pirate" cell tower using easily-available hardware and open source software. Using isolated RF shield boxes to mitigate any real-world harm, they then simulated attacks in the 50,000 seat Folsom Field at the University. 90 percent of the time, the researchers say they were able to pass bogus alerts on to cell phones within range. The transmission of these messages from the government to the cellular tower is secure. It's the transmission from the cellular tower to the end user that's open to manipulation and interference, the researchers found. The vulnerability potentially impacts not just US LTE networks, but LTE networks from Europe to South Korea. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/06/26/2347257 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

Security firms demonstrate subdomain hijack exploit vs. EA/Origin
by Peter Reutemann 26 Jun '19

26 Jun '19

'Israeli security firms Check Point and CyberInt partnered up this week to find, exploit, and demonstrate a nasty security flaw that allows attackers to hijack player accounts in EA/Origin's online games. The exploit chains together several classic types of attacks—phishing, session hijacking, and cross-site scripting—but the key flaw that makes the entire attack work is poorly maintained DNS.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/06/security-firms-demon… 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

Intel, Arm To Help Create New IoT Standard For Device Onboarding
by Peter Reutemann 26 Jun '19

26 Jun '19

'Intel is working with rival Arm to create a new industry standard for an important issue in the Internet of Things market: making sure that devices are properly configured and connected to the cloud. From a report: The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker announced on Wednesday that the company is a founding member of the new IoT Technical Working Group within the FIDO Alliance, an industry consortium founded by PayPal, Lenovo and others in 2012 to develop standards for password-less authentication. The goal of FIDO's IoT Technical Working Group, which will also include experts from Microsoft, Google and Amazon, is to create a standard specification for "large-scale IoT onboarding," the process in which devices are configured and connected to IoT cloud management services at the time of installation. Lorie Wigle, the executive in charge of Intel's platform security efforts, told CRN that it is important to create a standard around IoT onboarding because many companies currently face challenges with the practice when it comes to handling large-scale deployments and security. [...] Once FIDO develops the standard, market forces will compel companies to adhere and participate, according to Wigle, who said it will also increase device variety, lower costs and accelerate deployments.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/06/26/1524200 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 Now Allows Users To Auto-Delete Their Location History
by Peter Reutemann 26 Jun '19

26 Jun '19

'Google today began rolling out location history deletion tools to Android and iOS, giving users a relatively simple way to limit the scope of Google's location tracking. Users can only choose between deleting data after three or 18 months. In a blog post, Google wrote: Choose a time limit for how long you want your activity data to be saved -- 3 or 18 months -- and any data older than that will be automatically deleted from your account on an ongoing basis. These controls are coming first to Location History and Web & App Activity and will roll out in the coming weeks.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/06/26/1730250 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 Will Give You a Fake Browsing History To Fool Advertisers
by Peter Reutemann 26 Jun '19

26 Jun '19

'Security through obscurity is out, security through tomfoolery is in. >From a report: That's the basic philosophy sold by Track THIS, "a new kind of incognito" browsing project, which opens up 100 tabs crafted to fit a specific character -- a hypebeast, a filthy rich person, a doomsday prepper, or an influencer. The idea is that your browsing history will be depersonalized and poisoned, so advertisers won't know how to target ads to you. It was developed as a collaboration between mschf (pronounced "mischief") internet studios and Mozilla's Firefox as a way of promoting Firefox Quantum, the newest Firefox browser. [...] Just a warning -- if you use Track THIS it may take several minutes for all 100 tabs to load. (I used Chrome as my browser.) But when as it gradually loads, it's like taking a first-person journey through someone else's consciousness.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/06/26/192258 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

Microsoft Discovers The Command Line
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Jun '19

26 Jun '19

A review <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/25/microsofts_new_terminal_put_throug…> of Microsoft’s revamped Windows Terminal app. Features like session tabs and customizable profiles should be familiar to users of Linux terminal apps. The biggest downside seems to be that this is a UWP app, which means it only works with specific versions of Window 10. Actually, Windows had a sort-of-remotable/virtualizable-command-line support before. The difference is, all the *nix-type systems implement this using “PTY” (“pseudo-terminal”) devices, which one process (like an SSH server or GUI terminal emulator) can open and use to drive other processes on the other side, which act as though they are connecting to a real terminal. All the fancy screen stuff (e.g. direct addressing, coloured text) is done by sending in-band “escape sequences”, which real terminals (which are all museum pieces now) used to respond to, and which the terminal emulators nowadays faithfully mimic. However, Microsoft didn’t like the whole escape-sequence idea; instead, it implemented a whole API it called “ConHost”, where the application had to make special calls to affect the display in special ways. This sounds more advanced than the crude-sounding escape-sequence idea from the 1970s, yet it turns out that the Microsoft approach makes it awkward to implement those same SSH servers and GUI terminal emulators that we take for granted in the Linux world. So now the company is back-pedalling away from that, and towards good old PTYs and escape sequences, in its new “ConPTY” architecture. There is still one issue I don’t think they’ve addressed yet, though <https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/all/2019/06/25/microsofts_new_termin…>: ... a working select() would be nice. MS's function cannot wait across a set of fd's of different types (such as a serial port and a network socket). In the end I gave up and used the cygwin platform, which has a working select(), which was enough to do the job of talking to a telehone exchange via RS232 and fielding network requests at the same time. The unix philosophy that at the end of the day, everything is a file, pays huge dividends. Using cygwin also gave me a nice simple tcgetattr()/tcsetattr() which allowed serial port setup in a tiny amount of code, compared to the sheer lovecraftian horror that is the windows API for such things. I still find it remarkable that the Cygwin folks were able to implement a function on top of Windows that Microsoft itself seems unable to figure out.

2 1

Steam and Ubuntu clash over 32-bit libs
by Peter Reutemann 26 Jun '19

26 Jun '19

'It has been a tumultuous week for gaming on Linux. Last Tuesday afternoon, Canonical's Steve Langasek announced that 32-bit libs would be frozen (kept as-is, with no new builds or updates) as of this October's interim 19.10 release, codenamed "Eoan Ermine." Langasek was pretty clear that this did not mean abandoning support for running 32-bit applications, however. "While this means we will not provide 32-bit builds of new upstream versions of libraries, there are a number of ways that 32-bit applications can continue to be made available to users of later Ubuntu releases, as detailed in [4]. We will be working to polish the 32-bit support story over the course of the 19.10 development cycle. To follow the evolution of this support, you can participate in the discourse thread at [5]." Unfortunately, that part of the announcement may not have been entirely clear to all who read it. This group may include Steam lead Pierre-Loup Griffais, who responded by breaking up with Ubuntu in a tweet. "Ubuntu 19.10 and future releases will not be officially supported by Steam or recommended to our users. We will evaluate ways to minimize breakage for existing users, but will also switch our focus to a different distribution, currently TBD." Two days later, Canonical issued another public statement making it very explicit that support for commonly used 32-bit libs would be continued. That statement has been widely reported as an "about-face" from Canonical, but it appears to be more of a clarification of the original statement. The heart of the issue is that 32-bit computing represents an incredibly wide attack surface, with lessening amounts of active maintenance to discover, analyze, and patch flaws and exploits. Canonical, like any company, needs to apply its developer resources intelligently, so it looks for ways to remove unnecessary cruft where possible. The vast majority of 32-bit code is cruft. "We will put in place a community process to determine which 32-bit packages are needed to support legacy software, and can add to that list post-release if we miss something that is needed... We do think it’s reasonable to expect the community to participate and to find the right balance between enabling the next wave of capabilities and maintaining the long tail," Canonical said in a statement. "Nevertheless, in this case it’s relatively easy for us to change plan and enable natively in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS the applications for which there is a specific need." Canonical also promised it would work with "the WINE, Ubuntu Studio and gaming communities to use container technology to address the ultimate end of life of 32-bit libraries; it should stay possible to run old applications on newer versions of Ubuntu. Snaps and LXD enable us both to have complete 32-bit environments, and bundled libraries, to solve these issues in the long term."' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/06/steam-and-ubuntu-clash-over-32-bit-l… The article mentions "Solus", which I've only come across once before in 2017. Anybody keen on giving that a swirl at the next meeting? -- project page: https://getsol.us/home/ 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

Oracle Dyn DNS Services Shutting Down in 2020
by Peter Reutemann 25 Jun '19

25 Jun '19

'Oracle has sent the following email to customers of DYN service: Since Oracle acquired Dyn in 2016 (and subsequently acquired Zenedge), the engineering teams have been working diligently to integrate Dyn;s products and network into the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. With the completion of this upgrade to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Oracle is announcing the end-of-life for the free Standard DNS service in favor of the enhanced, paid subscription version on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure platform. On May 31, 2020, the 'EOL Date', the Standard DNS will be retired and will no longer be available. The following capabilities are not currently supported in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure DNS: Webhop (HTTP redirect), Dynamic DNS, Zone transfer to external nameservers, and DNSSEC. ' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/19/06/25/1920223 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

New Silex Malware is Bricking IoT Devices, Has Scary Plans
by Peter Reutemann 25 Jun '19

25 Jun '19

'A new strain of malware is wiping the firmware of IoT devices in attacks reminiscent of the old BrickerBot malware that destroyed millions of devices back in 2017. From a report: Named Silex, this malware began operating earlier today, about three-four hours before this article's publication. The malware had bricked around 350 devices when this reporter began investigating its operations, and the number quickly spiked to 2,000 wiped devices by the time we published, an hour later. Attacks are still ongoing, and according to an interview with the malware's creator, they are about to intensify in the coming days. According to Akamai researcher Larry Cashdollar, who first spotted the malware earlier today, Silex works by trashing an IoT device's storage, dropping firewall rules, removing the network configuration, and then halting the device. It's as destructive as it can get without actually frying the IoT device's circuits. To recover, victims must manually reinstall the device's firmware, a task too complicated for the majority of device owners' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/06/25/2018218 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 Reverses Decision, Says It Will Continue To Support 32-bit Packages
by Peter Reutemann 25 Jun '19

25 Jun '19

'Canonical has issued a statement on Ubuntu's 32-bit future, saying it will continue to build and maintain a 32-bit archive going forward. >From a report: Of course, there was some negativity surrounding the decision -- as is common with everything in the world today. In particular, developers of WINE were upset, since their Windows compatibility layer depends on 32-bit, apparently. In a statement, Canonical said: "Thanks to the huge amount of feedback this weekend from gamers, Ubuntu Studio, and the WINE community, we will change our plan and build selected 32-bit i386 packages for Ubuntu 19.10 and 20.04 LTS. We will put in place a community process to determine which 32-bit packages are needed to support legacy software, and can add to that list post-release if we miss something that is needed. Community discussions can sometimes take unexpected turns, and this is one of those. The question of support for 32-bit x86 has been raised and seriously discussed in Ubuntu developer and community forums since 2014. That's how we make decisions."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/06/24/1826241 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

Raspberry Pi 4 Featuring Faster CPU, Up To 4GB of RAM Launched
by Peter Reutemann 25 Jun '19

25 Jun '19

'Raspberry Pi today introduced a new version of its popular line of single-board computer. The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B is the fastest Raspberry Pi ever, with the company promising "desktop performance comparable to entry-level x86 PC systems." The specifications are: A 1.5GHz quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A72 CPU (~3x performance); 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB of LPDDR4 SDRAM; full-throughput Gigabit; Ethernet; dual-band 802.11ac wireless networking; Bluetooth 5.0; two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports; dual monitor support, at resolutions up to 4K; VideoCore VI graphics, supporting OpenGL ES 3.x; 4Kp60 hardware decode of HEVC video; and complete compatibility with earlier Raspberry Pi products. It starts at $35.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/06/24/141229 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

Resilient?
by Ian Young 24 Jun '19

24 Jun '19

Alas several attempts to unzip the Resilient desktop file have failed - never got as far as trying to write a USB. Mostly failure was silent - Engampra and File Roller. Ark in KDE did condescend to say 'Failed to write data for entry'. ~ Ian Y

2 1

Potent Firefox 0-day used to install undetected backdoors on Macs
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jun '19

23 Jun '19

'Hackers exploited a pair of potent zero-day vulnerabilities in Firefox to infect Mac users with a largely undetected backdoor, according to accounts pieced together from multiple people. Mozilla released an update on Tuesday that fixed a code-execution vulnerability in a JavaScript programming method known as Array.pop. On Thursday, Mozilla issued a second patch fixing a privilege-escalation flaw that allowed code to break out of a security sandbox that Firefox uses to prevent untrusted content from interacting with sensitive parts of a computer operating system. Interestingly, a researcher at Google's Project Zero had privately reported the code-execution flaw to Mozilla in mid April. On Monday, as Mozilla was readying a fix for the array.pop flaw, unknown hackers deployed an attack that combined working exploits for both vulnerabilities. The hackers then used the attack against employees of Coinbase, according to Philip Martin, chief information security officer for the digital currency exchange.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/06/potent-firefox-0day-… 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

Re: [wlug] Chrome 'Has Become Surveillance Software. It's Time to Switch'
by mailinglist 23 Jun '19

23 Jun '19

I thought Chrome being an extension of Google was fairly obvious.The thing I don't understand is why duck duck go and Firefox are free.Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.-------- Original message --------From: Peter Reutemann <fracpete(a)waikato.ac.nz> Date: 23/06/2019 10:49 (GMT+12:00) To: wlug List <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> Subject: [wlug] Chrome 'Has Become Surveillance Software. It's Time to Switch' '"You open your browser to look at the Web. Do you know who is lookingback at you?" warns Washington Post technology columnist Geoffrey A.Fowler:Over a recent week of Web surfing, I peered under the hood of GoogleChrome and found it brought along a few thousand friends. Shopping,news and even government sites quietly tagged my browser to let ad anddata companies ride shotgun while I clicked around the Web. This wasmade possible by the Web's biggest snoop of all: Google. Seen from theinside, its Chrome browser looks a lot like surveillance software...My tests of Chrome vs. Firefox unearthed a personal data caper ofabsurd proportions. In a week of Web surfing on my desktop, Idiscovered 11,189 requests for tracker "cookies" that Chrome wouldhave ushered right onto my computer but were automatically blocked byFirefox. These little files are the hooks that data firms, includingGoogle itself, use to follow what websites you visit so they can buildprofiles of your interests, income and personality... And that's notthe half of it. Look in the upper right corner of your Chrome browser.See a picture or a name in the circle? If so, you're logged in to thebrowser, and Google might be tapping into your Web activity to targetads. Don't recall signing in? I didn't, either. Chrome recentlystarted doing that automatically when you use Gmail.Chrome is even sneakier on your phone. If you use Android, Chromesends Google your location every time you conduct a search. (If youturn off location sharing it still sends your coordinates out, justwith less accuracy.)The columnist concludes that "having the world's biggest advertisingcompany make the most popular Web browser was about as smart asletting kids run a candy shop," and argues that through itsDoubleclick and other ad businesses, Google "is the No. 1 cookie maker-- the Mrs. Fields of the web."He also reports that Firefox is now working on ways to block browser"fingerprintin'-- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/06/21/1922233Cheers, Peter-- Peter ReutemannDept. of Computer ScienceUniversity of Waikato, NZ+64 (7) 858-5174http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/http://www.data-mining.co.nz/_______________________________________________wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nzUnsubscribe: https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

1 0

Chrome 'Has Become Surveillance Software. It's Time to Switch'
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jun '19

22 Jun '19

'"You open your browser to look at the Web. Do you know who is looking back at you?" warns Washington Post technology columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler: Over a recent week of Web surfing, I peered under the hood of Google Chrome and found it brought along a few thousand friends. Shopping, news and even government sites quietly tagged my browser to let ad and data companies ride shotgun while I clicked around the Web. This was made possible by the Web's biggest snoop of all: Google. Seen from the inside, its Chrome browser looks a lot like surveillance software... My tests of Chrome vs. Firefox unearthed a personal data caper of absurd proportions. In a week of Web surfing on my desktop, I discovered 11,189 requests for tracker "cookies" that Chrome would have ushered right onto my computer but were automatically blocked by Firefox. These little files are the hooks that data firms, including Google itself, use to follow what websites you visit so they can build profiles of your interests, income and personality... And that's not the half of it. Look in the upper right corner of your Chrome browser. See a picture or a name in the circle? If so, you're logged in to the browser, and Google might be tapping into your Web activity to target ads. Don't recall signing in? I didn't, either. Chrome recently started doing that automatically when you use Gmail. Chrome is even sneakier on your phone. If you use Android, Chrome sends Google your location every time you conduct a search. (If you turn off location sharing it still sends your coordinates out, just with less accuracy.) The columnist concludes that "having the world's biggest advertising company make the most popular Web browser was about as smart as letting kids run a candy shop," and argues that through its Doubleclick and other ad businesses, Google "is the No. 1 cookie maker -- the Mrs. Fields of the web." He also reports that Firefox is now working on ways to block browser "fingerprintin' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/06/21/1922233 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

Mattermost Raises $50 Million For Its Open Source Slack Alternative
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jun '19

22 Jun '19

'Mattermost, a startup developing what it characterizes as an open source messaging alternative to Google's Hangouts Chat, Atlassian's HipChat, Slack, and Microsoft Teams, today announced the closure of a $50 million series B funding round. The round was led by Y Combinator's Continuity Fund, with participation from new investor Battery Ventures, as well as existing investors Redpoint and S28 Capital. The capital infusion follows a $20 million series A in February and a $3.5 million seed round in February 2017 and brings the Palo Alto, California-based company's total raised to roughly $70 million. As part of the round, Twitter COO Ali Rowghani will join Mattermost as board director and Battery Ventures' Neeraj Agarwal will join as a board observer. The raise comes as monthly downloads of the open source project pass 10,000. To date, more than 1,000 contributors have helped translate Mattermost into 16 languages.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/06/22/0243233 Haven't even heard of Mattermost before... In terms of "Slack": "Should Slack-Like Chat Clients Replace Email?" https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/06/21/2233229 Personally, I'm not a fan of chat, as it is even more disruptive than email. 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 Has Almost Half of The World's Supercomputers, Explores RISC-V and ARM
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jun '19

22 Jun '19

'Ten years ago, China had 21 systems on the Top500 list of the world's largest supercomputing systems. It now has 219, according to the biannual listing, which was updated just this week. At its current pace of development, China may have half of the supercomputing systems on the Top500 list by 2021.... U.S. supercomputers make up 116 of the latest Top500 list. Despite being well behind China in total system count, the U.S. leads in overall performance, as measured by the High Performance Linpack (HPL) benchmark. The HPL benchmark is used to solve linear equations. The U.S. has about 38% of the aggregate Top500 list performance. China is in second, at nearly 30% of the performance total. But this performance metric has flip-flopped between China and the U.S., because it's heavily weighted by the largest systems. The U.S. owns the top two spots on the latest Top500 list, thanks to two IBM supercomputers at U.S. national laboratories. These systems, Summit and Sierra, alone, represent 15.6% of the HPL performance measure. Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64, says China is concerned the U.S. may limit its x86 chip imports, and while China may look to ARM, they're also investigating the RISC-V processor architecture. Paresh Kharya, director of product marketing at Nvidia, tells Tech Target "We expect x86 CPUs to remain dominant in the short term. But there's growing interest in ARM for supercomputing, as evidenced by projects in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Supercomputing centers want choice in CPU architecture.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/06/22/1617211 Looks like such sanctions would backfire for US companies, by losing major customers for their products. 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

Coincidence Of The Week (Or Not?)
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 Jun '19

21 Jun '19

Just reading through this announcement <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/21/facebook_pyrobot/> of a new Python framework from Facebook called PyRobot, built on top of ROS (the Robot Operating System). Which led me to thinking of the origin of the word “robot”, which comes from a play by Karel Čapek, called “Rossum’s Universal Robots”, from 1920. And the original mastermind behind Python is named Guido van Rossum. And so another circle closes ...

1 0

Enter The Virtual Supercomputer
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 Jun '19

21 Jun '19

A company called Descartes Labs has become number 136 on the top500 supercomputer list just by paying for a large enough collection of nodes on its Amazon Web Services account <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/20/supercomputer_aws/>. However, Dr Paul Calleja, directory of the University of Cambridge Research Computing Services, argues that this is not really cost-effective compared to buying your own actual gear, and the I/O performance is not that good anyway. Such a cloud cluster may score well on LINPACK, but not so well on real-world supercomputing problems. Dr Calleja advocates using OpenStack to build a “hybrid” combination of on-premise physical hardware backed up by cloud services for those times when you need a bit of a (temporary) boost. And for learner supercomputer drivers, there is always the option of a Raspberry π cluster to practise on, before being allowed behind the wheel of a real big-iron machine ...

1 0

Flushing All iptables Rules
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 Jun '19

21 Jun '19

I have a script that I run on my Internet router machine to set up iptables rules for NAT forwarding and various other things. To ensure things are consistent, it starts by deleting any existing packet filter rules. The following sequence used to work for this: if test -f /proc/net/ip_tables_names; then for table in $(cat /proc/net/ip_tables_names); do iptables -t $table -F done fi However, while the file /proc/net/ip_tables_names still exists in current kernels, it no longer lists the names of tables for which rules are defined; instead, its contents are now always empty. It turns out there is now a new “nftables” interface for managing packet filter rules. The nice thing is, it has a command for listing all defined tables. For example, on my router machine, the command nft list tables prints out table ip filter table ip nat which means there are two tables named “filter” and “nat”, both part of the “ip” protocol stack. Interestingly, the nft(8) man page does not mention the “list tables” command (at least on Debian), only the more specific “list table «table»” form, which print out the rules within a given table. However, the nftables wiki <https://wiki.nftables.org/wiki-nftables/index.php/Quick_reference-nftables_…> does give all the details. As usual, the Arch Linux wiki entry <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nftables> offers some additional useful info.

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next lug meet
by Ian Young 20 Jun '19

20 Jun '19

Greets If required I may be able to find a few words about a new project on Distrowatch last week named Resilient Linux. Listed on GitHub. https://github.com/marco-buratto/resilientlinux Seems to have some interesting aspects. It would help if the iso image could unzip successfully. Should anyone obtain such let me know. ~ Ian Y

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Microsoft’s Linux Strategy
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Jun '19

19 Jun '19

When Microsoft first embraced Docker and containers some years ago, no doubt people thought it was trying to nab some of that “virtualization-lite” action for its own Windows platform--at least I know I did. But with the release of WSL 2, which includes a full Linux kernel in Windows, it looks like this strategy has changed <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/18/the_future_of_docker_on_windows_is…>: The Docker news is of no interest to developers using Windows Containers, but there are not many of them. At Microsoft's Build conference last month, Gabe Monroy, lead program manager for the Azure Container Compute team, was asked whether Windows Containers are for legacy and Linux Containers for new projects. "I think that is a fair description," he said, demonstrating how the company's thinking on the subject has shifted. It seems Microsoft is now pushing the concept of develop on Windows, deploy on Linux. It is clearly hoping that those Linux deployments will happen on its Azure cloud, and so it still profits that way. Also, WSL 2 actually makes for worse Linux-Windows integration compared to WSL 1, which emulated the Linux APIs on top of Windows: Similarly, WSL 2 makes life better for developing Linux applications on Windows, but there are downsides. Running Linux in a VM as opposed to redirecting system calls is better for compatibility but inherently worse for integration. One aspect of this is that in WSL 2 I/O performance to files within the Linux VM is much faster, but I/O performance between Linux and the host is worse. Another is that WSL 2 has no access to serial or USB ports. Seems to me the obvious way to fix this, at least partially, is to flip things round, so instead of virtualizing Linux on top of Windows, you virtualize Windows on top of Linux. Then both your development and deployment platforms become fundamentally Linux-based. How long before that happens?

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Birthplace Of BASIC Gets A Memorial Marker
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Jun '19

18 Jun '19

The US state of New Hampshire has added a marker <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/17/plaque_for_basic_birthplace_new_ha…> commemorating the creation of the BASIC programming language by professors Kemeny and Kurtz and a bunch of their students at Dartmouth College, back in 1964. The marker is not actually on College property, but on the nearest available state highway location.

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Linux PCs, Servers, Gadgets Can Be Crashed by 'Ping of Death' Network Packets
by Peter Reutemann 17 Jun '19

17 Jun '19

'The Register reports that it is possible to crash network-facing Linux servers, PCs, smartphones and tablets, and gadgets, or slow down their network connections, by sending them a series of maliciously crafted packets. It is also possible to hamper FreeBSD machines with the same attack. Patches and mitigations are available, and can be applied by hand if needed, or you can wait for a security fix to be pushed or offered to your at-risk device. A key workaround is to set /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_sack to 0. At the heart of the drama is a programming flaw dubbed SACK Panic aka CVE-2019-11477: this bug can be exploited to remotely crash systems powered by Linux kernel version 2.6.29 or higher, which was released 10 years ago.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/06/17/2018227 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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RKWard on Linux Mint 19.1 fails to start up
by Peter Reutemann 17 Jun '19

17 Jun '19

Hi everyone In case you're trying to use RKWard (GUI environment for the R language) on Linux Mint 19.1 and you keep getting the following error message: "The KDE installation could not be found (kreadconfig5). When moving / copying RKWard, make sure to copy the whole application folder, or create a shorcut / link, instead." Then simply install the following package: libkf5config-bin For instance, you can do this using apt-get: sudo apt-get install libkf5config-bin -- source: https://rkward-devel.narkive.com/M5x9XHCk/rkward-0-7-0-is-available 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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A New Hidden Way of Web Browser Profiling, Identification and Tracking
by Peter Reutemann 17 Jun '19

17 Jun '19

'Researchers from Austria's Graz University of Technology "have devised an automated system for browser profiling using two new side channel attacks that can help expose information about software and hardware," reports The Register. The researchers recently presented a paper titled "JavaScript Template Attacks: Automatically Inferring Host Information for Targeted Exploits," which The Register says "calls into question the effectiveness of anonymized browsing and browser privacy extensions... " Long-time Slashdot reader Artem S. Tashkinov shared their report: One of the side-channel attacks developed for JavaScript Template Attacks involve measuring runtime differences between two code snippets to infer the underlying instruction set architecture through variations in JIT compiler behavior. The other involves measuring timing differences in the memory allocator to infer the allocated size of a memory region. The boffins' exploration of the JavaScript environment reveals not only the ability to fingerprint via browser version, installed privacy extension, privacy mode, operating system, device microarchitecture, and virtual machine, but also the properties of JavaScript objects. And their research shows there are far more of these than are covered in official documentation. This means browser fingerprints have the potential to be far more detailed -- have more data points -- than they are now. The Mozilla Developer Network documentation for Firefox, for example, covers 2,247 browser properties. The researchers were able to capture 15,709. Though not all of these are usable for fingerprinting and some represent duplicates, they say they found about 10,000 usable properties for all browsers.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/06/16/232241 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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next meeting - topics?
by Peter Reutemann 14 Jun '19

14 Jun '19

Hi everyone At the moment, we don't have a speaker for this month's meeting (June 24th): https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/257884282/ Any volunteers? I was thinking of quickly demoing how to generate .deb packages from your code - I've forked an unmaintained plugin, which does that for Maven projects (= java based), i.e., I know a teeny bit about the process. Apart from the command-line tools, there are also GUI tools available for achieving this. 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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CERN Ditches Microsoft to 'Take Back Control' With Open Source Software
by Peter Reutemann 14 Jun '19

14 Jun '19

'CERN is best known for pushing the boundaries of science and understanding, but the famed research outfit's next major experiment will be with open-source software. From a report: The European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, and also known as home of the Large Hadron Collider, has announced plans to migrate away from Microsoft products and on to open-source solutions where possible. Why? Increases in Microsoft license fees. Microsoft recently revoked the organisations status as an academic institution, instead pricing access to its services on users. This bumps the cost of various software licenses 10x, which is just too much for CERN's budget' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/06/12/1839213 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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The Unstoppable Rise Of The Machines
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Jun '19

14 Jun '19

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a robot that will always beat a human at rock-paper-scissors: <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/06/rock-paper-scis.html>.

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Windows 10's Linux Kernel Is Now Available
by Peter Reutemann 13 Jun '19

13 Jun '19

'Microsoft released a new Windows 10 Insider Preview build this week featuring the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2. WSL 2 includes a real Linux kernel that lets you run more Linux software on Windows and with better performance than WSL 1. From a report: This is part of Windows 10 Insider Preview build 18917, released on June 12, 2019. It's part of the fast ring of updates. You can experiment with it today, although you'll have to join the Windows Insider program and get unstable builds of Windows 10 on your PC. Microsoft's Windows Command Line blog offers more information about WSL 2, complete with an install guide, list of user experience changes, and more documentation. To install WSL 2 on the latest insider build, run the following command in a PowerShell window launched with Administrator permissions: Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/06/13/1442201 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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Google Promises To Play Nice With Ad Blockers (Again)
by Peter Reutemann 13 Jun '19

13 Jun '19

'After being ripped to shreds by angry users, Google engineers have promised this week that the upcoming changes to Chrome's extensions system won't cripple ad blockers, as everyone is fearing. Instead, the company claims that the new extension API changes will actually improve user privacy and bring speed improvements. Furthermore, Google also promised to raise a maximum limit in one of the upcoming APIs that should address and lay to rest the primary criticism brought against the new extensions API by developers of ad blockers during the last six months.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/06/13/1522245 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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System76's Supercharged Linux-powered Gazelle Laptop is Finally Available
by Peter Reutemann 13 Jun '19

13 Jun '19

'The System76 Gazelle laptop is finally available. From a report: What makes this laptop so special (besides its pre-installed Linux-based operating System), is its impressive specifications. You see, System76 has supercharged it with a 9th generation Intel Core i7 Processor (9750H) and NVIDIA GTX 16-Series Graphics. It even has something the pricey MacBook Pro doesn't -- the ability to be configure with up to 64GB. Yeah, Apple's laptop can only have a maximum of 32GB. The Gazelle can be configured with additional top specs, such as an NVMe SSD up to 2TB. Actually, it can accommodate two such drives, so you can theoretically have 4TB of speedy storage. You can opt for either a 15 or 17-inch display, both of which have a 1080p resolution. Regardless of screen size, you get a full keyboard too, meaning it has a number pad on the right. It ships with Ubuntu or Pop!_OS pre-installed and starts at $1099.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/06/13/189249 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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Yubico To Replace Vulnerable YubiKey FIPS Security Keys
by Peter Reutemann 13 Jun '19

13 Jun '19

'Yubico said today it plans to replace certain hardware security keys because of a firmware flaw that reduces the randomness of cryptographic keys generated by its devices. From a report: Affected products include models part of the YubiKey FIPS Series, a line of YubiKey authentication keys certified for use on US government networks (and others) according to the US government's Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). According to a Yubico security advisory published today, YubiKey FIPS Series devices that run firmware version 4.4.2 and 4.4.4 contain a bug that keeps "some predictable content" inside the device's data buffer after the power-up operation. This "predictable content" will influence the randomness of cryptographic keys generated on the device for a short period after the boot-up, until the "predictable content" is all used up, and true random data is present in the buffer. This means that for a short period after booting up YubiKey FIPS Series devices with the affected 4.4.2 and 4.4.4 versions will generate keys that can be either recovered partially, or in full, depending on the cryptographic algorithm the key is working with for a particular authentication operation.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/06/13/1844232 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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If you haven’t patched Vim or NeoVim text editors, you really, really should
by Peter Reutemann 13 Jun '19

13 Jun '19

'A recently patched vulnerability in text editors preinstalled in a variety of Linux distributions allows hackers to take control of computers when users open a malicious text file. The latest version of Apple’s macOS is continuing to use a vulnerable version, although attacks only work when users have changed a default setting that enables a feature called modelines. Vim and its forked derivative, NeoVim, contained a flaw that resided in modelines. This feature lets users specify window dimensions and other custom options near the start or end of a text file. While modelines restricts the commands available and runs them inside a sandbox that’s cordoned off from the operating system, researcher Armin Razmjou noticed the source! command (including the bang on the end) bypassed that protection.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/06/if-you-havent-patche… 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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WordPress.com VIP Platform Outage Reverts Sites To Default Themes
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jun '19

12 Jun '19

'Web blog hosting platform WordPress.com is currently facing a significant technical issue that has resulted in premium blogs going down or reverting to using default themes. Impacted sites include major news outlets like BBC America, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, VentureBeat, DroneDJ, and Electrek; but also many companies that were using the WordPress.com's VIP offering to host corporate blogs, such as Facebook, the Wikimedia Foundation, and others. Automattic, the company behind the WordPress.com service has admitted to the technical issue in a series of tweets and a blog post from its engineering staff.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/06/11/1812219 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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'RAMBleed' Rowhammer Attack Can Now Steal Data, Not Just Alter It
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jun '19

12 Jun '19

' A team of academics from the US, Austria, and Australia, has published new research today detailing yet another variation of the Rowhammer attack. From a report: The novelty in this new Rowhammer variety -- which the research team has named RAMBleed -- is that it can be used to steal information from a targeted device, as opposed to altering existing data or to elevate an attacker's privileges, like all previous Rowhammer attacks, have done in the past. [...] In a research paper [PDF] published today, academics unveiled RAMBleed, the first Rowhammer attack that can actively deduce and steal data from a RAM card. To do this, researchers had to come up and combine different techniques, which, when assembled, would permit a RAMBleed attack to take place.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/06/11/1931214 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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The Biggest Data Breach Archive On the Internet Is For Sale
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jun '19

12 Jun '19

'Troy Hunt, the owner and founder of the well-known and respected data breach notification website "Have I Been Pwned," announced today that he's actively looking for a buyer. "To date, every line of code, every configuration and every breached record has been handled by me alone. There is no 'HIBP team,' there's one guy keeping the whole thing afloat," Hunt wrote. "It's time for HIBP to grow up. It's time to go from that one guy doing what he can in his available time to a better-resourced and better-funded structure that's able to do way more than what I ever could on my own." Motherboard reports: Over the years, Have I Been Pwned has become the repository for data breaches on the internet, a place where users can search for their email address and see whether they have been part of a data breach. It's now also a service where people can sign up to get notified whenever their accounts get breached. It's perhaps the most useful, free, cybersecurity service in the world. Hunt said he's already had informal conversations with some organizations that might be interested in buying the service. Hunt said he's engaged the financial consulting firm KPMG to look for a buyer. In the post, Hunt shared some staggering numbers that explain just how big Have I Been Pwned has become: 8 billion breached records, nearly 3 million people subscribed to notifications, who have been emailed about a breach 7 million times, 150,000 unique visitors to the site on a normal day, 10 million on an abnormal day. Regardless of who buys the site, Hunt made a series of commitments on the future of Have I Been Pwned: searches should remain free for consumers, the platform should expand and grow, and, finally, he wants to stay involved in some capacity. ' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/06/11/2017231 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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Security Is Always Down To The Weakest Link
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Jun '19

11 Jun '19

Nice non-paywalled report <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12235615> into how the National Party (and others) were able to obtain supposedly-confidential details of today’s Budget announcements. In summary, a “clone” was made of the Treasury website, containing the Budget info, that was supposed to be swapped for the current production site later today. It was not publicly accessible, at least directly. However, the search function on the public site was inadvertently sucking up the confidential info from the clone server as well, and carefully-worded searches would reveal bits of such info as search context, even if the actual documents being indexed were not accessible in full. The Police have decided that, even though such leaks are considered a serious matter, the accesses were “not unlawful”. Which seems a refreshing change from, say, the UK, where someone was prosecuted and jailed some years ago just for putting “../” into a URL ...

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Dotcom’s Lawyer Says Movie Copyright Warnings Are “Propaganda”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Jun '19

11 Jun '19

The defence in the Kim Dotcom extradition case carefully explains why the cases of copyright infringement at issue are civil, not criminal matters, why there is a need for “safe harbour” provisions for ISPs (and services like Megaupload), and warns against the US Justice Department trying to shop around NZ law to find more criminal charges to hit him with. <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12239483>

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Opera, Brave, Vivaldi To Ignore Chrome's Anti-Ad-Blocker Changes, Despite Shared Codebase
by Peter Reutemann 11 Jun '19

11 Jun '19

'Despite sharing a common Chromium codebase, browser makers like Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi don't have plans on crippling support for ad blocker extensions in their products -- as Google is currently planning on doing within Chrome. From a report: The three browsers makers have confirmed to ZDNet, or in public comments, of not intending to support a change to the extensions system that Google plans to add to Chromium, the open-source browser project on which Chrome, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi are all based on.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/06/10/1651256 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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Large 'GoldBrute' RDP Botnet Hunts For Exposed Servers With Weak Passwords
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jun '19

08 Jun '19

'The Internet Storm Center reports: RDP, the remote desktop protocol, made the news recently after Microsoft patched a critical remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2019-0708). While the reporting around this "Bluekeep" vulnerability focused on patching vulnerable servers, exposing RDP to the Internet has never been a good idea. Botnets have been scanning for these servers and are using weak and reused passwords to gain access to them. The latest example of such a botnet is an ongoing malicious campaign we are refering to as "GoldBrute". This botnet is currently brute forcing a list of about 1.5 million RDP servers exposed to the Internet... Each bot will only try one particular username and password per target. This is possibly a strategy to fly under the radar of security tools as each authentication attempt comes from different addresses. Long-time Slashdot reader UnderAttack writes: Infected systems will retrieve target lists from the command and control server and attempt to brute force credentials against the list, while at the same time looking for more exposed servers. With all the attention spent on patching RDP servers for the recent "BlueKeep" vulnerability, users should also make sure to just not expose RDP in the first place. Even patched, it will still be susceptible to brute forcing.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/06/08/0322234 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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Ubuntu MATE 19.10 Is Ditching VLC for GNOME MPV
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jun '19

07 Jun '19

'GNOME MPV (now known as Celluloid) will be the default media player in Ubuntu MATE 19.10. From a report: The app supplants the versatile VLC meda player, which the MATE desktop-toting distro has shipped with following the results of a community poll back in 2017. So why the change now? Better desktop integration. That's according to Ubuntu MATE's Martin Wimpress who revealed news of the swap in the latest Ubuntu MATE monthly update on Patreon: "We will be dropping VLC from the pre-installed applications and shipping GNOME MPV instead. GNOME MPV will soon be renamed to Celluloid. The reasons for switching to GNOME MPV are similar to swapping out Thunderbird for Evolution; better desktop integration." Size is another factor. GNOME MPV takes up a comparatively svelte 27MB on the ISO image, whereas Qt5-based VLC requires closer to 70MB.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/06/06/1840240 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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The Ambitious Plan To Reinvent How Websites Get Their Names
by Peter Reutemann 06 Jun '19

06 Jun '19

'When you type in a URL to your browser and press "enter," your browser sends that name to a network of computers called the Domain Name System (DNS), which converts it into IP addresses. These numbers are what allow your browser to find the right server on the internet and connect to it. When you navigate to a website, you are trusting a handful of organizations that have been charged with keeping the DNS working and secure. "To people like Steven McKie, a developer for and investor in an open-source project called the Handshake Network, this centralized power over internet naming makes the internet vulnerable to both censorship and cyberattacks," reports MIT technology review. "Handshake wants to decentralize it by creating an alternative naming system that nobody controls. In doing so, it could help protect us from hackers trying to exploit the DNS's security weaknesses, and from governments hoping to use it to block free expression." From the report: The system would be based on blockchain technology, meaning it would be software that runs on a widely distributed network of computers. In theory, it would have no single point of failure and depend on no human-run organization that could be corrupted or co-opted. Handshake's software is a heavily modified version ("fork") of Bitcoin, and just as Bitcoin's network of miners protects the cryptocurrency from manipulation and makes it virtually impossible for authorities to shut down, a similar network could keep a permanent, censorship-resistant record of internet names. The Handshake team is far from the first to try to create a decentralized naming system for the web. But unlike previous efforts, Handshake isn't trying to replace DNS but work with it. Besides ICANN, there's yet another class of organization whose job Handshake aims to decentralize. See that little padlock icon in your browser bar, to the left of the domain name? That means your computer has verified that your connection to this website is encrypted and that the site is authentic, not a fake one designed by a criminal trying to steal your login credentials. It does that by checking the veracity of a string of numbers called the site's digital certificate, issued by one of a number of so-called certificate authorities. These entities, many of which are for-profit companies, are crucial to internet security. They can also get hacked. And if one gets breached, and an attacker can start issuing fake certificates, it undermines the security of the whole internet. But if website names are managed on a tamper-resistant blockchain, then you don't need certificate authorities; the naming system itself can provide the guarantee that the site you're connected to is real. That's what Handshake aims to do. ' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/06/06/0028220 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 RCE Vulnerability Impacts Nearly Half of the Internet's Email Servers
by Peter Reutemann 06 Jun '19

06 Jun '19

'A critical remote command execution (RCE) security flaw impacts over half of the Internet's email servers, security researchers from Qualys have revealed today. The vulnerability affects Exim, a mail transfer agent (MTA), which is software that runs on email servers to relay emails from senders to recipients. According to a June 2019 survey of all mail servers visible on the Internet, 57% (507,389) of all email servers run Exim -- although different reports would put the number of Exim installations at ten times that number, at 5.4 million. In a security alert shared with ZDNet earlier today, Qualys, a cyber-security firm specialized in cloud security and compliance, said it found a very dangerous vulnerability in Exim installations running versions 4.87 to 4.91. The vulnerability is described as a remote command execution -- different, but just as dangerous as a remote code execution flaw -- that lets a local or remote attacker run commands on the Exim server as root. Qualys said the vulnerability can be exploited instantly by a local attacker that has a presence on an email server, even with a low-privileged account. lBut the real danger comes from remote hackers exploiting the vulnerability, who can scan the internet for vulnerable servers, and take over systems. The vulnerability was patched with Exim 4.92, on February 10, 2019, "but at the time the Exim team released v4.92, they didn't know they fixed a major security hole," reports ZDNet. "This was only recently discovered by the Qualys team while auditing older Exim versions. Now, Qualys researchers are warning Exim users to update to the 4.92 version to avoid having their servers taken over by attackers."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/06/06/0046234 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

Germany: Backdoor Found in Four Smartphone Models; 20,000 Users Infected
by Peter Reutemann 06 Jun '19

06 Jun '19

'The German Federal Office for Information Security (or the Bundesamt fur Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik -- BSI) has issued security alerts today warning about dangerous backdoor malware found embedded in the firmware of at least four smartphone models sold in the country. Impacted models include the Doogee BL7000, the M-Horse Pure 1, the Keecoo P11, and the VKworld Mix Plus (malware present in the firmware, but inactive). All four are low-end Android smartphones. The BSI said the phones' firmware contained a backdoor trojan named Andr/Xgen2-CY.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/06/06/199249 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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Google Launches Android Q Beta 4 With Final APIs and Official SDK
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jun '19

05 Jun '19

'Google today launched the fourth Android Q beta with final Android Q APIs and the official SDK. If you're a developer, this is your fourth Android Q preview, and you can start testing your apps against this release by downloading it from developer.android.com/preview. The preview includes system images for the Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, Pixel 3a, Pixel 3a XL, and the official Android Emulator. If you're already enrolled in the beta program, you'll automatically get the update to Beta 4. Like Beta 3, Google is also bringing Android Q Beta 4 to third-party phones "over the coming weeks." The Beta 4 doesn't bring many new features -- it's more about finalizing what was already added, such as the additional privacy and security features, multitasking bubbles, and system-wide dark mode. Google is however "opening publishing on Google Play to apps that are compiled against, or optionally targeting, API 29," the report adds. "You can thus now push updates to users through Google Play to test your app's compatibility, including on devices running Android Q Beta' -- source: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/19/06/05/2123245 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 75 Released With Web Share API File Support, Numeric Separators and Secret Reader Mode
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jun '19

05 Jun '19

'Google this week released Chrome 75 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. The release includes hint for low latency canvas contexts, files supported in the Web Share API, numeric separators, and more developer features. [...] Next, files are now supported by the Web Share API. For years, Google has been working to bring native sharing capabilities to the web. The Web Share API allows web apps to invoke the same share dialog box as a native app. The implementation brings a new method and a new shareData property. Numeric literals now allow underscores (_, U+005F) as separators to make them more readable. Underscores can only appear between digits, and consecutive underscores are not allowed. There is also a reader mode that is not enabled by default. From a report: The big feature included with Chrome 75 is the addition of a hidden Reader Mode, similar to the one included with Firefox. This new Reader Mode is not active by default and must be turned on using one of Google Chrome's experimental flags -- which until recently has only been available in the Chrome Canary distribution. To enable and test Chrome's new Reader Mode, users must visit the chrome://flags/#enable-reader-mode section, and enable the Reader Mode option, as in the screenshot below. Chrome for Android includes these two features: 1. Generate strong and unique passwords with Chrome's built-in password manager. 2. Quickly look up your passwords by tapping any password field and using the new keyboard option.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/06/05/1357233 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

238 Google Play apps with >440 million installs made phones nearly unusable
by Peter Reutemann 04 Jun '19

04 Jun '19

'If the prevalence of abusive Google Play apps has left you numb, this latest report is for you. Carefully concealed adware installed in Google-approved apps with more than 440 million installations was so aggressive that it rendered mobile devices nearly unusable, researchers from mobile security provider Lookout said Tuesday. BeiTaAd, as the adware is known, is a plugin that Lookout says it found hidden in emojis keyboard TouchPal and 237 other applications, all of which were published by Shanghai, China-based CooTek. Together, the 238 unique apps had a combined 440 million installs. Once installed, the apps initially behaved normally. Then, after a delay of anywhere between 24 hours and 14 days, the obfuscated BeiTaAd plugin would begin delivering what are known as out-of-app ads. These ads appeared on users' lock screens and triggered audio and video at seemingly random times or even when a phone was asleep.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/06/238-google-play-apps… 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 Replaces Bash With Zsh as the Default Shell in macOS Catalina
by Peter Reutemann 04 Jun '19

04 Jun '19

'Starting with macOS Catalina, Macs will now use zsh as the default login shell and interactive shell across the operating system. From a report: All newly created user accounts in macOS Catalina will use zsh by default. Bash will still be available, but Apple is signaling that developers should start moving to zsh on macOS Mojave or earlier in anticipation of bash eventually going away in macOS. Apple hasn't explained exactly why it's making this change, but bash isn't exactly a modern shell as it's implemented in macOS, and a switch to something less aging makes a lot more sense for the company. Apple is stuck using version 3.2 of bash that has been licensed under GPLv2, as newer versions are licensed under GPLv3. Apple has kept clear of using GPLv3 packages in macOS as the license is generally more restrictive to companies like Apple that sign their own code and it includes explicit patent grants, ' -- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/19/06/04/1645240 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

2 1

Firefox Starts Blocking Third-Party Cookies By Default
by Peter Reutemann 04 Jun '19

04 Jun '19

'Mozilla today announced a slew of privacy improvements. The company has turned on Enhanced Tracking Protection, which blocks cookies from third-party trackers in Firefox, by default. Mozilla has also improved its Facebook Container extension, released a Firefox desktop extension for its rebranded Lockwise password keeper, and updated Firefox Monitor with a dashboard for multiple email addresses. Mozilla added basic Tracking Protection to Firefox 42's private browsing mode in November 2015. The feature blocked website elements (ads, analytics trackers, and social share buttons) based on Disconnect's tracking protection rules. With the release of Firefox 57 in November 2017, Mozilla added an option to enable Tracking Protection outside of private browsing. (Tracking Protection was not turned on by default because it can break websites and cut off revenue streams for content creators who depend on third-party advertising.)' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/06/04/1636241 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

Dell Begins Pre-Installing Linux On Range of Precision Laptops
by Peter Reutemann 31 May '19

31 May '19

'"While Linux-preloaded laptops have been available for years from smaller companies, and have represented a fraction of their own sales with the much-admired XPS 13 developer model, Dell now offers a range of Precision models pre-installed with Ubuntu Linux," writes Slashdot reader Freshly Exhumed. Phoronix reports: At the start of May Dell announced an Ubuntu Linux option for their entry-level ~$700 Precision laptop while now they are closing out May by offering up Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on their higher-tier Precision laptop models. Ubuntu Linux has landed for the rest of Dell's current generation Precision mobile workstation line-up with support for the Precision 5540, 7540, and 7740. The Precision 5540 offers options of Xeon E or 9th Gen Core CPUs with up to 64GB of RAM and options for a NVIDIA Quadro T2000. The Precision 7540/7740 meanwhile are more powerful mobile workstations with supporting up to 128GB of ECC RAM and latest generation processors. The Precision 7740 model can also accomodate NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 series graphics. Additional details can be found via this blog post by Dell's Barton George.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/05/30/2154256 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

Advanced Linux backdoor found in the wild escaped AV detection
by Peter Reutemann 30 May '19

30 May '19

'Researchers say they’ve discovered an advanced piece of Linux malware that has escaped detection by antivirus products and appears to be actively used in targeted attacks. HiddenWasp, as the malware has been dubbed, is a fully developed suite of malware that includes a trojan, rootkit, and initial deployment script, researchers at security firm Intezer reported on Wednesday. At the time Intezer’s post went live, the VirusTotal malware service indicated Hidden Wasp wasn’t detected by any of the 59 antivirus engines it tracks, although some have now begun to flag it. Time stamps in one of the 10 files Intezer analyzed indicated it was created last month. The command and control server that infected computers report to remained operational at the time this article was being prepared. Some of the evidence analyzed—including code showing that the computers it infects are already compromised by the same attackers—indicated that HiddenWasp is likely a later stage of malware that gets served to targets of interest who have already been infected by an earlier stage. It’s not clear how many computers have been infected or how any earlier related stages get installed. With the ability to download and execute code, upload files, and perform a variety of other commands, the purpose of the malware appears to be to remotely control the computers it infects. That's different from most Linux malware, which exists to perform denial of service attacks or mine cryptocurrencies.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/05/advanced-linux-backd… 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

libmtp error: could not delete object.
by John 29 May '19

29 May '19

Hi All, I have just got a 16gig micro sd card with my Granddaughters data on it. I managed to delete almost completely all the data but there are ten files that will not delete either on the phone or my computer the phone say the files are deleted but they remain the computer returns a "could not delete" error. I tried "sudo apt-get install mtp-server libmtpserver-dev" But got a error msg unable to locate mtp and libmtpserver. Any one can help please................ Cheers John..

2 1

Chinese Military To Replace Windows OS Amid Fears of US Hacking
by Peter Reutemann 29 May '19

29 May '19

'Amidst an escalating trade war and political tensions with the US, Beijing officials have decided to develop a custom operating system that will replace the Windows OS on computers used by the Chinese military. From a report: The decision, while not made official through the government's normal press channels, was reported earlier this month by Canada-based military magazine Kanwa Asian Defence. Per the magazine, Chinese military officials won't be jumping ship from Windows to Linux but will develop a custom OS. Thanks to the Snowden, Shadow Brokers, and Vault7 leaks, Beijing officials are well aware of the US' hefty arsenal of hacking tools, available for anything from smart TVs to Linux servers, and from routers to common desktop operating systems, such as Windows and Mac. Since these leaks have revealed that the US can hack into almost anything, the Chinese government's plan is to adopt a "security by obscurity" approach and run a custom operating system that will make it harder for foreign threat actors -- mainly the US -- to spy on Chinese military operations.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/05/28/1613221 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

W3C and WHATWG Sign Agreement To Collaborate on a Single Version of HTML and DOM
by Peter Reutemann 29 May '19

29 May '19

'W3C and the WHATWG signed an agreement today to collaborate on the development of a single version of the HTML and DOM specifications. >From a blog post: The Memorandum of Understanding jointly published as the WHATWG/W3C Joint Working Mode gives the specifics of this collaboration. This is the culmination of a careful exploration effective partnership mechanisms since December 2017 after the WHATWG adopted many shared features as their work-mode and an IPR policy. The HTML Working Group which we will soon recharter will assist the W3C community in raising issues and proposing solutions for the HTML and DOM specifications, and bring WHATWG Review Drafts to Recommendation. Motivated by the belief that having two distinct HTML and DOM specifications claiming to be normative is generally harmful for the community, and the mutual desire to bring the work back together, W3C and WHATWG agree to the following terms: W3C and WHATWG work together on HTML and DOM, in the WHATWG repositories, to produce a Living Standard and Recommendation/Review Draft-snapshots. WHATWG maintains the HTML and DOM Living Standards. W3C facilitates community work directly in the WHATWG repositories (bridging communities, developing use cases, filing issues, writing tests, mediating issue resolution). W3C stops independent publishing of a designated list of specifications related to HTML and DOM and instead will work to take WHATWG Review Drafts to W3C Recommendations.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/05/28/1353243 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's Chrome Becomes Web 'Gatekeeper' and Rivals Complain
by Peter Reutemann 28 May '19

28 May '19

'Few home-grown Google products have been as successful as Chrome. Launched in 2008, it has more than 63% of the market and about 70% on desktop computers, according to StatCounter data. Mozilla's Firefox is far behind, while Apple's Safari is the default browser for iPhones. Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Edge browsers are punchlines. From a report: Google won by offering consumers a fast, customizable browser for free, while embracing open web standards. Now that Chrome is the clear leader, it controls how the standards are set. That's sparking concern Google is using the browser and its Chromium open-source underpinnings to elbow out online competitors and tilt entire industries in its favor. Most major browsers are now built on the Chromium software code base that Google maintains. Opera, an indie browser that's been used by techies for years, swapped its code base for Chromium in 2013. Even Microsoft is making the switch this year. That creates a snowball effect, where fewer web developers build for niche browsers, leading those browsers to switch over to Chromium to avoid getting left behind. This leaves Chrome's competitors relying on Google employees who do most of the work to keep Chromium software code up to date. Chromium is open source, so anyone can suggest changes to it, but the majority of programmers who approve contributions are Google employees, and any major disagreements get settled by a small circle of senior Google employees. Chrome is so ascendant these days that web developers often don't bother to test their sites on competing browsers. Google services including YouTube, Docs and Gmail sometimes don't work as well on rival browsers, sending frustrated users to Chrome. Instead of just another ship slicing through the sea of the web, Chrome is becoming the ocean.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/19/05/28/1845238 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

Huawei's Android Replacement OS Will Launch in June, Company Exec Says
by Peter Reutemann 28 May '19

28 May '19

'Huawei's home-grown operating system -- codenamed HongMeng -- that's set to replace Android once the Huawei ban from Google comes into full effect, will be commercially rolled out next month, a Middle East head for the firm revealed exclusively to TechRadar Middle East. From a report: On May 20, Google announced that it would partially cut off Huawei devices from its Android operating system but was given an extension till August 19 by the US White House. "Huawei knew this was coming and was preparing. The OS was ready in January 2018 and this was our 'Plan B'," said Alaa Elshimy, Managing Director and Vice President of Huawei Enterprise Business Group Middle East. "We did not want to bring the OS to the market as we had a strong relationship with Google and others and did not want to ruin the relationship. Now, we are rolling it out next month' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/05/28/1524239 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

Cell phones
by John 25 May '19

25 May '19

Does anyone know where I can re-cycle some cell phones?? Cheers John..

2 1

Programmers’ Question Time
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 May '19

24 May '19

I think Verity Stob <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/05/23/verity_stob_column_may/> has outdone herself: Some people, when confronted with a problem, think “I know, I’ll use FP.” Now they have two problems... Although actually they still think they’ve got one problem, because the problem counter is now immutable.

1 0

Antergos Linux Has Been Discontinued
by Peter Reutemann 23 May '19

23 May '19

'An Arch Linux based distribution, Antergos, has been discontinued. The project's primary goal was to make Arch Linux available to a wider audience of users by providing a streamlined, user friendly experience including a safe place for users to communicate, learn, and help one another. There have been 931,439 unique downloads of Antergos Linux since 2014. The primary reason for ending support for it was that the developers no longer have enough free time to properly maintain the distribution. They came to this decision because they believe that continuing to neglect the project would be a huge disservice to the community. Taking this action now, while the project's code still works, provides an opportunity for interested developers to take what they find useful and start their own projects. For existing Antergos users: there is no need to worry about installed systems as they will continue to receive updates directly from Arch. Soon, an update will be released that will remove the Antergos repos from system along with any Antergos-specific packages that no longer serve a purpose due to the project ending. Once that is completed, any packages installed from the Antergos repo that are in the AUR will begin to receive updates from there. The Antergos Forum and Wiki will continue to be available until such time it becomes clear that users have moved on to other projec' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/05/23/1813214 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

Crowdfunded Android Console Ouya Will Be Shut Down On June 25th
by Peter Reutemann 23 May '19

23 May '19

'Razer, the gaming hardware manufacturing company that purchased Ouya's software assets in mid-2015, announced today that the crowdfunded Android console will cease functioning on June 25th. "That date will mark the unremarkable end of what began as a runaway Kickstarter success story: the inexpensive Ouya mini-console was powered by Android and introduced games such as TowerFall," reports The Verge. "But despite being positioned as the indie console, Ouya never quite took off after its $8.5 million crowdfunding campaign. The goal was to move Android's indie gaming scene to TV screens -- with exclusive Ouya-only titles mixed in -- but the execution didn't pan out." From the report: The hardware has been discontinued ever since Razer acquired Ouya's software assets in 2015. So it's somewhat surprising that the platform has continued to plod along for nearly four additional years. But that all ends next month. Accounts will be deactivated on June 25th. After that, Razer says "access to the Discover section will no longer be available. Games downloaded that appear in Play may still function if they do not require a purchase validation upon launch." But by and large, games on the Ouya platform will stop working after the cutoff date. Razer notes that some developers might choose to help their Ouya customers by activating the same game on some other platform (i.e., Google Play) where available following the shutdown. Razer's own Forge TV device will continue functioning as an Android TV set-top box, but the Forge TV games store is also going offline come the 25th. Part of Razer's thinking behind the Ouya acquisition was to propel its long-term Android TV gaming ambitions. The company has clearly shifted its priorities over the last few years, as indicated by the decision to finally shut down Ouya once and for all.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/05/22/2042225 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 Memo Tells Staff To Stop Working With Huawei
by Peter Reutemann 22 May '19

22 May '19

'UK-based chip designer ARM has told staff it must suspend business with Huawei, according to internal documents obtained by the BBC. ARM instructed employees to halt "all active contracts, support entitlements, and any pending engagementsâ with Huawei and its subsidiaries to comply with a recent US trade clampdown. From a report: ARM's designs form the basis of most mobile device processors worldwide. In a company memo, it said its designs contained "US origin technology." As a consequence, it believes it is affected by the Trump administration's ban. One analyst described the move, if it became long-term, as an "insurmountable" blow to Huawei's business. He said it would greatly affect the firm's ability to develop its own chips, many of which are currently built with ARM's underlying technology, for which it pays a licence.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/05/22/141215 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 and iOS Devices Impacted By New Sensor Calibration Attack
by Peter Reutemann 22 May '19

22 May '19

'A new device fingerprinting technique can track Android and iOS devices across the Internet by using factory-set sensor calibration details that any app or website can obtain without special permissions. From a report: This new technique -- called a calibration fingerprinting attack, or SensorID -- works by using calibration details from gyroscope and magnetometer sensors on iOS; and calibration details from accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer sensors on Android devices. According to a team of academics from the University of Cambridge in the UK, SensorID impacts iOS devices more than Android smartphones. The reason is that Apple likes to calibrate iPhone and iPad sensors on its factory line, a process that only a few Android vendors are using to improve the accuracy of their smartphones' sensors. "Our approach works by carefully analysing the data from sensors which are accessible without any special permissions to both websites and apps," the research team said in a research paper published yesterday. "Our analysis infers the per-device factory calibration data which manufacturers embed into the firmware of the smartphone to compensate for systematic manufacturing errors [in their devices' sensors]," researchers said. This calibration data can then be used as a fingerprint, producing a unique identifier that advertising or analytics firms can use to track a user as they navigate across the internet.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/05/22/1852204 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

decompressing large zip files
by Peter Reutemann 22 May '19

22 May '19

Hi there Once in a while, I get large zip files from clients. Since they are running Windows, their zip tool doesn't have the same 4GB limitation that the unzip command-line tool under Linux usually has. Today, I once again had to deal with a large file and had some time to look into a solution that wouldn't involve copying the file onto a Windows box for converting the archive. If you have p7zip-full installed, you can use: 7z x file.zip If you have Java installed, you can use: jar xf file.zip Found here: https://serverfault.com/questions/235139/how-to-unzip-files-bigger-than-4gb 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 13

Google Says Some G Suite User Passwords Were Stored In Plaintext Since 2005
by Peter Reutemann 21 May '19

21 May '19

'Google says a small number of its enterprise customers mistakenly had their passwords stored on its systems in plaintext. The exact number was not disclosed. "We recently notified a subset of our enterprise G Suite customers that some passwords were stored in our encrypted internal systems unhashed," said Google vice president of engineering Suzanne Frey. Slashdot reader pegdhcp appears to be one of the users impacted by this security lapse: I am sharing a message that I received from G Suite, redacted. They are having some serious problem... If you missed the message or somehow tend to ignore sometimes extremely frequent and unnecessary G Suite messages like I do, this one can be important depending on your settings.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/05/21/223208 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

Huawei Considers Rivals To Google's Android After US Ban
by Peter Reutemann 21 May '19

21 May '19

'Huawei said it's working on its own operating system for its mobile handsets and will consider rivals to Google's Android, after the U.S. blacklisted the company, threatening its partnerships with chip, component and software suppliers. From a report: The Chinese telecom equipment giant said Tuesday it was in talks with the Alphabet about how to proceed after Google confirmed it would cut access to some of Huawei's operating system features for the company's new devices in response to the announcement. Should Google's system no longer be available, "then the alternative option will naturally come out -- either from Huawei or someone else," Abraham Liu, Huawei's representative to the European Union institutions, said at an event in Brussels on Tuesday. Liu said Huawei had been working on its own operating system but that he didn't have the details about when this would be ready. Huawei would do everything in its power to mitigate the impact of the U.S. decisions, Liu said' -- source: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/19/05/21/1357240 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 67 Arrives With New Performance and Privacy Features, Voice Search Widget on Android
by Peter Reutemann 21 May '19

21 May '19

'Mozilla today launched Firefox 67 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. From a report: The 10th release since Mozilla's big Firefox Quantum launch in November 2017 doubles down on performance and privacy. Firefox 67 includes deprioritizing least commonly used features, suspending unused tabs, faster startup, blocking of cryptomining and fingerprinting, Private Browsing improvements, voice input in the Android search widget, and more. [...] Firefox 67 is better at performing tasks at the optimal time, resulting in faster "painting" of the page. Specifically, the browser deprioritizes least commonly used features and delays set Timeout to prioritize scripts for things you need. Mozilla says Instagram, Amazon, and Google searches now execute between 40% and 80% faster. Firefox also now scans for alternative style sheets after page load and doesn't load the auto-fill module unless there is a form to complete. Next, Firefox 67 detects if your computer's memory is running low (under 400MB) and suspends unused tabs. If you do click on a tab that you haven't used or looked at in a while, it will reload where you left off. Finally, Firefox 67 promises faster startup for users that customized their browser with an add-on.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/05/21/1636224 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

First Official Version of Tor Browser for Android Released on Play Store
by Peter Reutemann 21 May '19

21 May '19

'The Tor Project today made the first stable version of its privacy-focused browser available on the Google Play Store. From a report: This new mobile browser integrates the Tor protocol stack into a standalone browser and replaces Orfox as the main way to navigate the Tor network from an Android device. Tor Project developers have been working on this browser for eight months now, since September 2018, when they first released an alpha version for public testing. "We made it a priority to reach the rising number of users who only browse the web with a mobile device," said Isabela Bagueros, Executive Director of the Tor Project. "These users often face heavy surveillance and censorship online, so it is critical for us to reach them. We made sure there are no proxy bypasses, that first-party isolation is enabled to protect you from cross-site tracking, and that most of the fingerprinting defenses are working," the Tor team added.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/05/21/1835256 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

Intel Performance Hit 5x Harder Than AMD After Spectre, Meltdown Patches
by Peter Reutemann 21 May '19

21 May '19

'Phoronix has conducted a series of tests to show just how much the Spectre and Meltdown patches have impacted the raw performance of Intel and AMD CPUs. While the patches have resulted in performance decreases across the board, ranging from virtually nothing to significant depending on the application, it appears that Intel received the short end of the stick as its CPUs have been hit five times harder than AMD, according to ExtremeTech. From the report: The collective impact of enabling all patches is not a positive for Intel. While the impacts vary tremendously from virtually nothing to significant on an application-by-application level, the collective whack is about 15-16 percent on all Intel CPUs without Hyper-Threading disabled. Disabling increases the overall performance impact to 20 percent (for the 7980XE), 24.8 percent (8700K) and 20.5 percent (6800K). The AMD CPUs are not tested with HT disabled, because disabling SMT isn't a required fix for the situation on AMD chips, but the cumulative impact of the decline is much smaller. AMD loses ~3 percent with all fixes enabled. The impact of these changes is enough to change the relative performance weighting between the tested solutions. With no fixes applied, across its entire test suite, the CPU performance ranking is (from fastest to slowest): 7980XE (288), 8700K (271), 2990WX (245), 2700X (219), 6800K. (200). With the full suite of mitigations enabled, the CPU performance ranking is (from fastest to slowest): 2990WX (238), 7980XE (231), 2700X (213), 8700K (204), 6800K (159). In closing, ExtremeTech writes: "AMD, in other words, now leads the aggregate performance metrics, moving from 3rd and 4th to 1st and 3rd. This isn't the same as winning every test, and since the degree to which each test responds to these changes varies, you can't claim that the 2990WX is now across-the-board faster than the 7980XE in the Phoronix benchmark suite. It isn't. But the cumulative impact of these patches could result in more tests where Intel and AMD switch rankings as a result of performance impacts that only hit one vendor."' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/05/20/228218 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

>20, 000 Linksys routers leak historic record of every device ever connected
by Peter Reutemann 21 May '19

21 May '19

'This post has been updated to add comments Linksys made online, which says company researchers couldn't reproduce the information disclosure exploit on routers that installed a patch released in 2014. Representatives of Belkin, the company that acquired Linksys in 2013, didn't respond to the request for comment that Ars sent on Monday. Ars saw the statement only after this article went live. More than 20,000 Linksys wireless routers are regularly leaking full historic records of every device that has ever connected to them, including devices' unique identifiers, names, and the operating systems they use. The data can be used by snoops or hackers in either targeted or opportunistic attacks. Independent researcher Troy Mursch said the leak is the result of a flaw in almost three dozen models of Linksys routers. It took about 25 minutes for the Binary Edge search engine of Internet-connected devices to find 21,401 vulnerable devices on Friday. A scan earlier in the week found 25,617. They were leaking a total of 756,565 unique MAC addresses. Exploiting the flaw requires only a few lines of code that harvest every MAC address, device name, and operating system that has ever connected to each of them. The flaw allows snoops or hackers to assemble disparate pieces of information that most people assume aren’t public. By combining a historical record of devices that have connected to a public IP addresses, marketers, abusive spouses, and investigators can track the movements of people they want to track. The disclosure can also be useful to hackers. The Shadowhammer group, for instance, recently infected as many as 1 million people after hacking the software update mechanism of computer maker ASUS. The hackers then used a list of about 600 MAC addresses of specific targets that, if infected, would receive advanced stages of the malware.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/05/33-linksys-router-mo… 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 Distros Without Systemd (2019)
by Peter Reutemann 20 May '19

20 May '19

'It's 2019 -- who has switched to systemd, who hasn't and what can I use if I don't like systemd? Here's the answer in short. >From the blog post: If you are reading this post you're very much likely not a fan of systemd already. So we won't preach on why systemd is bad, but today we'll focus more on what are the alternatives out there. Our approach is obviously not for settling for less but for changing things for the better. We have started the world after systemd project some time ago and the search isn't over. So what are the non-systemd distros out there? The author makes a case for why you should consider the suggested distros, but here's the list: Devuan, Alpine Linux, Artixlinux, Void, Slackware, Gentoo, and GNU GUIX.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/05/20/1916226 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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Opera Reborn 3: No modern browser is perfect, but this may be as close as it gets
by Peter Reutemann 20 May '19

20 May '19

'When Opera Software unveiled a new look and feel for its browser earlier this year, the company made a big deal of the impending changes. "We put Web content at center stage," the Opera team declared on its blog. And early previews of the design appeared to be quite pared down, allowing users to browse "unhindered by unnecessary distractions" as the Opera team put it. Well Opera recently released what the company refers to as Reborn 3, the latest version of its flagship desktop browser, and it's tempting to dismiss the name as little more than marketing hype. But given the relentless and utterly unspectacular updates that the Chromium project releases every six weeks, it can also be hard to denote actual big releases of browsers based on Chromium—hence the "Reborn" moniker. After spending some time with Reborn 3, however, the name seems accurate. For Opera, this is a significant update that goes far beyond what arrived with the move to Chromium 60. Opera Reborn 3—or Opera 60 if you want to stick with version numbers—transitions a slew of features that recently debuted in Opera's mobile browsers to the desktop. The big three in this release are support for blockchain-secured transactions, a crypto wallet to go with the mobile version, and a new overall look with light and dark themes available. So if you haven't checked out Opera lately, it's worth revisiting, especially for those older Opera fans still smarting about the switch from Opera's Presto rendering engine to Google's Blink rendering engine.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/05/review-opera-once-le… 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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Is The Global Internet Disintegrating?
by Peter Reutemann 20 May '19

20 May '19

''The global internet is disintegrating," argues BBC Future, calling Russia "one of a growing number of countries that has had enough of the Western-built, Western-controlled internet backbone...aided as much by advances in technology as by growing global misgivings about whether the open internet was ever such a good idea to start with." "The new methods raise the possibility not only of countries pulling up their own drawbridges, but of alliances between like-minded countries building on these architectures to establish a parallel internet..." It's DNS that Russia has been setting its sights on... The plan -- which was met with skepticism from much of the engineering community, if not dismissed outright -- was to create a Russia-only copy of the DNS servers (the internet's address book, currently headquartered in California) so that citizens' traffic would be exclusively directed to Russian sites, or Russian versions of external sites. It would send Russian internet users to Yandex if they typed in Google, or the social network VK instead of Facebook. To lay the groundwork for this, Russia spent years enacting laws that force international companies to store all Russian citizens' data inside the country -- leading some companies such as LinkedIn to be blocked when they refused to comply... According to estimates from the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, China is now engaged in some 80 telecommunications projects around the world -- from laying cables to building core networks in other countries, contributing to a significant and growing Chinese-owned global network... One possibility is a scenario where enough countries join Russia and China to develop a similar infrastructure to a point where they could sustain each other economically without doing business with the rest of the world, meaning they could shut themselves off the Western internet. Smaller countries might prefer an internet built around a non-Western standard, and an economic infrastructure built around China might be the "third way" that allows countries to participate in a semi-global economy while being able to control certain aspects of their populations' internet experience. Maria Farrell of the Open Rights Group (an internet freedom organisation) tells BBC Future that "Nations like Zimbabwe and Djibouti, and Uganda, they don't want to join an internet that's just a gateway for Google and Facebook" to colonise their digital spaces. And there's also fears about western espionage. "Along with every other expert interviewed for this article, Farrell reiterated how unwise it would be underestimate the ongoing reverberations of the Snowden revelations..."' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/05/19/1652253 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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Google Ends Android Collaboration With Huawei. No Gmail, Play Store For Future Huawei Phones
by Peter Reutemann 19 May '19

19 May '19

'Alphabet Inc's Google has suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware and software products except those covered by open source licenses, a source close to the matter told Reuters on Sunday, in a blow to the Chinese technology company that the U.S. government has sought to blacklist around the world. Huawei Technologies Co Ltd will immediately lose access to updates to the Android operating system, and the next version of its smartphones outside of China will also lose access to popular applications and services including the Google Play Store and Gmail app... Huawei will continue to have access to the version of the Android operating system available through the open source license that is freely open to anyone who wishes to use it. But Google will stop providing any technical support and collaboration for Android and Google services to Huawei going forward, the source said.' -- source: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/19/05/19/1829216 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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Google Pushes Kotlin Over Java for Android Development
by Peter Reutemann 18 May '19

18 May '19

'Google "officially declared Kotlin the go-to language for Android development last week at its Google I/O developer conference," reports Mike Melanson's "This Week in Programming" column, "and the company is backing that up with a couple of initiatives around making it easier (and free) to learn the language now used by a majority of Android developers." Google teamed up with Udacity to offer Developing Android Apps with Kotlin , a free, self-paced online course on how to build Android apps with Jetpack and Kotlin, meant for people who have programming experience and are comfortable with Kotlin basics. Google also announced "Kotlin/Everywhere, a series of community-driven events focussing on the potential of Kotlin on all platforms," which it is putting on in conjunction with JetBrains. Of course, this leaves the question that has been asked many times before -- why Kotlin? -- and IT consultant Kristen Carter offers a take on how Android app development became Kotlin-first. Carter offers some business angles, such as the 2010 lawsuit against Google by Oracle, which predates Kotlin by just a year, and she speculates may have been the impetus behind the language's development as "Google has always wanted to get away from the [Java] ecosystem." At the same time, Carter offers some language-specific reasoning too, such as the comparably succinct nature of Kotlin, the absence of Java's NullPointerExceptions, and the ease with which Java developers could transition to Kotlin. Carter ends her piece by posing the possibility that Oracle "knows the significance of Java in android app development" and could "ship Java with a few upgrades in its next version to take on Kotlin."' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/19/05/17/2355248 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 John the Ripper Cracks Passwords On FPGAs
by Peter Reutemann 18 May '19

18 May '19

'Long-time Slashdot reader solardiz has long bring an advocate for bringing security to open environments. Wednesday he contacted Slashdot to share this update about a piece of software he's authored called John the Ripper: John the Ripper is the oldest still evolving password cracker program (and Open Source project), first released in 1996. John the Ripper 1.9.0-jumbo-1, which has just been announced with a lengthy list of changes, is the first release to include FPGA support (in addition to CPU, GPU, and Xeon Phi). This is a long-awaited (or long-delayed) major release, encompassing 4.5 years of development and 6000+ commits by 80+ contributors. From the announcement: "Added FPGA support for 7 hash types for ZTEX 1.15y boards [...] we support: bcrypt, descrypt (including its bigcrypt extension), sha512crypt & Drupal7, sha256crypt, md5crypt (including its Apache apr1 and AIX smd5 variations) & phpass. As far as we're aware, several of these are implemented on FPGA for the very first time. For bcrypt, our ~119k c/s at cost 5 in ~27W greatly outperforms latest high-end GPUs per board, per dollar, and per Watt. [...] We also support multi-board clusters (tested [...] for up to 16 boards, thus 64 FPGAs, [...] on a Raspberry Pi 2 host)' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/05/18/1841245 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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Severe Linux Kernel Flaw Found In RDS
by Peter Reutemann 18 May '19

18 May '19

'Linux systems running kernels prior to 5.0.8 require patching after news emerged of a high-severity flaw that could be remotely exploited. According to the NIST advisory, CVE-2019-1181 is a race condition affecting the kernel's rds_tcp_kill_sock in net/rds/tcp.c "leading to a use-after-free, related to net namespace cleanup." The RDS bit refers to systems running the Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) for the TCP module, which means only systems that run applications using this are affected. The attention-grabbing part is that this opens unpatched systems to remote compromise and denial of service without the need for system privileges or user interaction. On the other hand, the attack complexity is described as 'high', and any such attack would need to be launched from the local network.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/05/18/2122204 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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SoftBank and the 300-year plan
by Ian Young 17 May '19

17 May '19

Perhaps some may not have seen these recent articles about SoftBank which owns ARM. The most detailed I have come across so far. The SoftBank CEO has a 300-year plan it seems. Even the 2035 plan is spectacular. "By 2035 there will be a trillion connected devices, he [Son] said – a vast Internet of Things of autonomous vehicles, smart robots and artificially intelligent sensors, and Arm would be the company behind all these devices." https://www.wired.co.uk/article/softbank-vision-fund https://www.fastcompany.com/90285552/the-most-powerful-person-in-silicon-va…

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Techweek
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 17 May '19

17 May '19

For those wanting to know what events are on for Techweek next week, start here <https://www.cultivateit.nz/page/techweek-19-waikato/>. Yes, our own little WLUG meeting on Monday is part of the fun. ;)

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Wi-Fi Transmission Overhead?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 May '19

16 May '19

I’m currently copying a few gigabytes of files from my main workstation onto my laptop via wi-fi. Looking at dstat, on the workstation, it is reading about 4MB/s from the disk, but the network data transmission rate is a bit over twice that, more like 9MB/s. At the laptop end, it is receiving about 4MB/s over the network, which more closely matches the data being read from disk on the transmit side, but not the transmission rate. Has anybody else seen something similar?

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SSH Password-Guessing Attacks
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 May '19

16 May '19

I suppose you know that if you put a machine on the Internet with an SSH server listening on port 22, you are going to get bombarded with password-guessing login attempts. Previously, I thought that moving the SSH server to a nonstandard port was sufficient to block these. But now I am seeing these attacks happening on my Rimu VPS anyway. Should I bother to change the port again?

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Why Linux On Desktop 'Failed': A Discussion With Mark Shuttleworth
by Peter Reutemann 15 May '19

15 May '19

'Mark Shuttleworth, founder and CEO of Canonical, summed it in a few words: "I think the bigger challenge has been that we haven't invented anything in the Linux that was like deeply, powerfully ahead of its time." He also said that "if in the free software community we only allow ourselves to talk about things that look like something that already exists, then we're sort of defining ourselves as a series of forks and fragmentations." He added that it seems the desktop Linux people want to be angry at something. We wanted to do amazing things with Unity but the community won't let us do it, so here we are. He also commended Google folks for what they have built for Chrome OS.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/05/15/1523252 Hmm... Multiple virtual desktops, natively supported Windows, finally available with Windows 10 (though terrible to use!). Even fvwm2 in 1998 or 1999 was better than Windows' current implementation... Talking about something amazing... 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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Google Recalls Its Bluetooth Titan Security Keys Because of a Security Bug
by Peter Reutemann 15 May '19

15 May '19

'Google today disclosed a security bug in its Bluetooth Titan Security Key that could allow an attacker in close physical proximity to circumvent the security the key is supposed to provide. From a report: The company says that the bug is due to a "misconfiguration in the Titan Security Keys' Bluetooth pairing protocols" and that even the faulty keys still protect against phishing attacks. Still, the company is providing a free replacement key to all existing users. The bug affects all Titan Bluetooth keys, which sell for $50 in a package that also includes a standard USB/NFC key, that have a "T1" or "T2" on the back.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/05/15/1728202 Rather than "Titan", they should have called it "Achilles"... ;-) 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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So Long Dual-Booting Windows on a Chromebook: Project Campfire is deprecated
by Peter Reutemann 15 May '19

15 May '19

'Project Campfire turned up in the Chromium world this past August. The intent was to let a Chromebook boot not just into Chrome OS but directly into another operating system such as Linux or Windows. I thought the latter was a positive outcome since it would allow Chromebooks to natively run Windows desktop apps on a Chromebook, and add value to devices. Unfortunately, the project is shutting down. Spotted in code, there are comments and code removals that make it clear Project Campfire is being deprecated.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/05/15/1752208 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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Google Is About To Have a Lot More Ads On Phones
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '19

14 May '19

'The Verge reports on the new ad types Google announced today that will start showing up throughout its mobile products, including some that interrupt the core Google search and discovery experiences. From the report: Google searches on mobile will soon include "gallery" ads that allow advertisers to display multiple images for users to swipe through. You'll also begin to see ads in Google's discover feed -- the feed of news stories that you find built into many Android home screens, inside the Google app, and on Google's mobile homepage -- though they'll only appear in select locations for now. The new ad formats are meant to make ads a lot more noticeable. In a blog post, Google ad chief Prabhakar Raghavan says that, in tests, gallery ads resulted in "up to 25 percent more interactions" than traditional search ads. Gallery ads will only be launching on mobile, not the desktop. Discover ads will appear in Google's mobile app, as well as on the discover feed on Android phones. Google tells us those ads won't appear in the discover feed that's built into the google.com mobile homepage. [...] The discover feed -- a personalized feed of recommended news stories that Google displays on mobile -- will also be getting ads for the first time. They'll appear just like any other story, with an image on top, a headline, and a subject field with more information. But they'll have a small badge that says "ad" to let users know it's sponsored. Those ads will extend to YouTube as well, where they'll slot in alongside recommended videos. Discover ads will also roll out later this year. ' -- source: https://search.slashdot.org/story/19/05/14/2014207 Time to switch your Google Apps to FOSS ones: https://f-droid.org/ 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 Patches 'Wormable' Flaw in Windows XP, 7 and Windows 2003
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '19

14 May '19

'Microsoft today is taking the unusual step of releasing security updates for unsupported but still widely-used Windows operating systems like XP and Windows 2003, citing the discovery of a "wormable" flaw that the company says could be used to fuel a fast-moving malware threat like the WannaCry ransomware attacks of 2017. From a report: The vulnerability (CVE-2019-0708) resides in the "remote desktop services" component built into supported versions of Windows, including Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2008. It also is present in computers powered by Windows XP and Windows 2003, operating systems for which Microsoft long ago stopped shipping security updates. Microsoft said the company has not yet observed any evidence of attacks against the dangerous security flaw, but that it is trying to head off a serious and imminent threat.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/05/14/1943243 A bit like "what is dead may never die"... ;-) 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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'Hard-To-Fix' Cisco Flaw Puts Work Email At Risk
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '19

14 May '19

'Security researchers have discovered serious vulnerabilities affecting dozens of Cisco devices. The flaws allow hackers to deceive the part of the product hardware that checks whether software updates come from legitimate sources. Experts believe this could put emails sent within an organization at risk as they may use compromised routers. Messages sent externally constitute less of a risk, however, as they tend to be encrypted. The California-based firm said it is working on "software fixes" for all affected hardware. "We've shown that we can quietly and persistently disable the Trust Anchor," Red Balloon chief executive Ang Cui, told Wired magazine. "That means we can make arbitrary changes to a Cisco router, and the Trust Anchor will still report that the device is trustworthy. Which is scary and bad, because this is in every important Cisco product. Everything." Security experts believe that the vulnerability could cause a major headache for Cisco, which has listed dozens of its products as vulnerable on its website. "We don't know how many devices could have been affected and it's unlikely Cisco can tell either," said Prof Alan Woodward, a computer security expert based at Surrey University. "It could cost Cisco a lot of money."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/05/14/1945212 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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Huawei Says It is Willing To Sign 'No-Spy' Agreements With Governments
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '19

14 May '19

'Huawei is willing to sign no-spy agreements with governments, including Britain, the Chinese telecommunications company's chairman said on Tuesday as the United States pressures European countries to shun the firm over spying concerns. From a report: Washington has told allies not to use Huawei's technology to build new 5G telecommunications networks because of worries it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying, an accusation the firm has denied.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/05/14/1531257 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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Intel CPUs Released in Last 8 Years Impacted by New Zombieload Side-Channel Attack
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '19

14 May '19

'Academics have discovered a new class of vulnerabilities in Intel processors that can allow attackers to retrieve data being processed inside a CPU. From a report: The leading attack in this new vulnerability class is a security flaw named Zombieload, which is another side-channel attack in the same category as Meltdown, Spectre, and Foreshadow. Just like the first three, Zombieload is exploited by taking advantage of the speculative execution process, which is an optimization technique that Intel added to its CPUs to improve data processing speeds and performance. For more than a year, academics have been poking holes in various components of the speculative execution process, revealing ways to leak data from various CPU buffer zones and data processing operations. Meltdown, Spectre, and Foreshadow have shown how various CPU components leak data during the speculative execution process. Today, an international team of academics -- including some of the people involved in the original Meltdown and Spectre research -- along with security researchers from Bitdefender have disclosed a new attack impacting the speculative execution process. This one is what researchers have named a Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS) attack, and targets a CPU's microarchitectural data structures, such as the load, store, and line fill buffers, which the CPU uses for fast reads/writes of data being processed inside the CPU. [...] In a research paper published today, academics say that all Intel CPUs released since 2011 are most likely vulnerable. Processors for desktops, laptops, and (cloud) servers are all impacted, researchers said on a special website they've set up with information about the Zombieload flaws.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/05/14/1721242 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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Academics Improve SHA-1 Collision Attack, Make It Actually Dangerous
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '19

14 May '19

'"Attacks on the SHA-1 hashing algorithm just got a lot more dangerous last week with the discovery of the first-ever 'chosen-prefix collision attack,' a more practical version of the SHA-1 collision attack first carried out by Google two years ago," reports ZDNet. Google's original research allowed attackers to force duplicates for specific files, but this process was often at random. A new SHA-1 collision attack variation (a chosen-prefix attack) detailed last week allows attackers to choose what SHA-1-signed files or data streams they want to forge on demand, making SHA-1 an attack that is now practical in the real world, albeit at a price tag of $100,000 per collision.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/05/13/2255229 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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Is It Finally the Year of 'Linux on the Desktop' ?
by Peter Reutemann 13 May '19

13 May '19

'"2019 is truly, finally shaping up to be the year of Linux on the desktop," writes PC World's senior editor, adding "Laptops, too!" But most people won't know it. That's because the bones of the open-source operating system kernel will soon be baked into Windows 10 and Chrome OS, as Microsoft and Google revealed at their respective developer conferences this week... Between lurking in Windows 10 and Chrome OS, and the tiny portion of actual Linux distro installs, pretty much any PC you pick up will run a Linux kernel and Linux software. Macs won't, but it's based on a Unix-like BSD system that already runs many Linux apps with relative ease (hence Apple's popularity with developers). You have to wonder where that leaves proper Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Linux Mint, though. They already suffer from a minuscule user share, and developers may shift toward Windows and Chrome if the Linux kernels in those operating systems get the same job done. Could this fruit wind up poisonous over the long term? We'll have to see. That said, Linux is healthier than ever. The major distros are far more polished than they used to be, with far fewer hardware woes than installs of yesteryear. You can even get your game on relatively well thanks to Valve's Proton technology, which gets many (but not all) Steam games working on Linux systems. And hey, Linux is free. Normal users may never be aware of it, but 2019 may finally be the year of Linux on the desktop -- just not Linux operating systems on the desktop. ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/05/13/0336224 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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meeting *next* Monday (May 20th)
by Peter Reutemann 13 May '19

13 May '19

Hi everyone Due to lining up with Techweek 2019, we shifted our monthly WLUG meeting to next week (May 20th). 'Lawrence D'Oliveiro will give an intro to Nagios (https://www.nagios.org/) an extensible system for monitoring all kinds of behaviour on a Linux box. He will also discuss writing your own plugins, to add monitoring of system characteristics that Nagios does not already provide as standard. The examples will be in Python, though they can be done in any language. This Meetup is part of the Techweek19 Waikato festival of innovation.' More details: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/257884277/ 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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