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Attackers exploit 0-day vulnerability that gives full control of Android phones
by Peter Reutemann 06 Oct '19

06 Oct '19

'Attackers are exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Google’s Android mobile operating system that can give them full control of at least 18 different phone models, including four different Pixel models, a member of Google’s Project Zero research group said on Thursday night. There’s evidence the vulnerability is being actively exploited, either by exploit developer NSO Group or one of its customers, Project Zero member Maddie Stone said in a post. NSO representatives, meanwhile, said the "exploit has nothing to do with NSO." Exploits require little or no customization to fully root vulnerable phones. The vulnerability can be exploited two ways: (1) when a target installs an untrusted app or (2) for online attacks, by combining the exploit with a second exploit targeting a vulnerability in code the Chrome browser uses to render content. “The bug is a local privilege escalation vulnerability that allows for a full compromise of a vulnerable device,” Stone wrote. “If the exploit is delivered via the Web, it only needs to be paired with a renderer exploit, as this vulnerability is accessible through the sandbox.”' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/10/attackers-exploit-0d… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. 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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Russian Malware 'Patches' Chrome and Firefox To Fingerprint TLS Traffic
by Peter Reutemann 06 Oct '19

06 Oct '19

'A Russian cyber-espionage hacker group has been spotted using a novel technique that involves patching locally installed browsers like Chrome and Firefox in order to modify the browsers' internal components. The end goal of these modifications is to alter the way the two browsers set up HTTPS connections, and add a per-victim fingerprint for the TLS-encrypted web traffic that originates from the infected computers... According to a Kaspersky report published this week, hackers are infecting victims with a remote access trojan named Reductor, through which they are modifying the two browsers. This process involves two steps. They first install their own digital certificates to each infected host. This would allow hackers to intercept any TLS traffic originating from the host. Second, they modify the Chrome and Firefox installation to patch their pseudo-random number generation (PRNG) functions. These functions are used when generating random numbers needed for the process of negotiating and establishing new TLS handshakes for HTTPS connections. Turla hackers are using these tainted PRNG functions to add a small fingerprint at the start of every new TLS connection. The attack is being attributed to Turla, "a well-known hacker group believed to operate under the protection of the Russian government," ZDNet reports. And though the remote-access trojan already grants full control over a victim's device, one theory is the modified browsers offer "a secondary surveillance mechanism" if that trojan was discovered and removed. Researchers believe the malware is installed during file transfers over HTTP connections, suggesting an ISP had been compromised, according to the article. "A January 2018 report from fellow cyber-security firm ESET revealed that Turla had compromised at least four ISPs before, in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet space, also with the purpose of tainting downloads and adding malware to legitimate fil' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/10/06/2242221 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. 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 Might Bring Its Edge Browser To Linux
by Peter Reutemann 06 Oct '19

06 Oct '19

'Microsoft appears to be porting its Edge browser to Linux, reports ZDNet: "We on the MS Edge Dev team are fleshing out requirements to bring Edge to Linux, and we need your help with some assumptions," wrote Sean Larkin, a member of Microsoft's Edge team.... Chrome, of course, is already available for Linux, so Microsoft should be able to deliver Chromium-based Edge to Linux distributions with minimal fuss.... [I]n June Microsoft Edge developers said there are "no technical blockers to keep us from creating Linux binaries" and that it is "definitely something we'd like to do down the road". Despite Chrome's availability on Linux, the Edge team noted there is still work to be done on the installer, updaters, user sync, and bug fixes, before it could be something to commit to properly. Slashdot reader think_nix shared a link to the related survey that the Edge team has announced on Twitter. "If you're a dev who depends on Linux for dev, testing, personal browsing, please take a second to fill out this survey."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/10/05/1723204 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. 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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To Fight Spectre-Like Attacks, Intel Suggests a New Kind of Memory
by Peter Reutemann 06 Oct '19

06 Oct '19

'Intel researchers published a paper last week suggesting a new kind of CPU memory to block side-channel attacks like Meltdown and Spectre, according to ZDNet: SAPM -- or Speculative-Access Protected Memory -- is the work of Intel STORM (STrategic Offensive Research & Mitigations), a team of elite security researchers that Intel assembled since 2017 to work on creating mitigations for all the speculative-execution attacks that have impacted the CPU maker's products. SAPM is only an idea for the moment, and there are no silicon prototypes. Intel STORM engineers only released "the theory and possible implementation options," to provide "a ground base for other researchers to improve upon and also for the industry to consider...." Intel STORM researchers say SAPM will implement protections at the hardware level and will work with both physical and virtual memory addresses. "SAPM can be applied to specific memory ranges, with the attribute that any memory access to such memory type will be instruction-level serialized, meaning that any speculative execution beyond the SAPM-accessing instruction will be stopped pending the successful retirement of this SAPM-accessing instruction," Intel STORM developers said in their short description of SAPM's basic principles... Intel STORM researchers say the second part (backend) of most speculative execution attacks performs the same actions. SAPM was designed to introduce hardware-based protections against the backend part of most attacks. It's because of this concept that Intel's research team believes that SAPM will also future-proof the next generations of Intel CPUs against other -- currently undiscovered -- speculative execution attacks. "Intel STORM researchers don't deny that there's a performance hit," the article adds. "However, this impact is low and could be mitigated further by dropping other existing protections."' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/10/05/0315201 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. 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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COSMO and Psions
by tom butz 06 Oct '19

06 Oct '19

The Psions were good as long as there was still a dial-up Internet around: they could even generate the DTMF-tones out of telephone-numbers and use them to dial using your phone's microphone. I've kept a 3c-model because of its database program. None of the Psions actually were phones. As they only supported dial-up Internet, I had a look for ISP's that still supported that, and found one (serving the Australian Outback). Unfortunately they didn't accept new customers. As far as second screens are concerned, a while ago there was a Finnish/Russian phone/PDA that had a black and white additional screen on its back. That one drew very little power and could be used for notes and - checking who called. Typing, however, was as clumsy as on any phone. The COSMO features a colour-screen on its back - coloured LEDs instead obviously would've been as user-friendly as Morse-code (for telling you who was calling, if you didn't want to open your phone). In a perfect world, developers would have come up with a Psion keyboard, Internet/WiFi/Bluetooth capability and a black and white screen at the back. Today's cameras are good at taking/watching photos/videos, and they are a lot less chunky.

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Psion Reborn
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 05 Oct '19

05 Oct '19

The Cosmo Communicator should be shipping to its backers next week <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/04/planet_launches_cosmo_communicator…>. It has more than a passing resemblance to the Psion clamshell pocket PCs of the 1990s, except this one has an open design, intended to allow it to run a choice of open-source operating systems. This looks to be a niche market, compared to the millions of units shipped by all the usual big-name vendors. But if they can make enough money--and keep enough customers happy--to stay in business, why not?

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Award For “Most Spectacular Misuse Of Microsoft Excel”?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 Oct '19

04 Oct '19

Astronaut Tim Peake blames the spreadsheet for his dialling a wrong number during his stint on the International Space Station <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/02/future_decoded_peake/>: "I'm still blaming that on the software, I imported my contacts address book in Excel and all the 9s got rounded up to 0s…" Will people never learn <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8wO4ppE9L8> ...

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Attorney General Bill Barr Will Ask Zuckerberg To Halt Plans For End-To-End Encryption Across Facebook's Apps
by Peter Reutemann 03 Oct '19

03 Oct '19

'Attorney General Bill Barr, along with officials from the United Kingdom and Australia, is set to publish an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking the company to delay plans for end-to-end encryption across its messaging services until it can guarantee the added privacy does not reduce public safety. From a report: A draft of the letter, dated Oct. 4, is set to be released alongside the announcement of a new data-sharing agreement between law enforcement in the US and the UK; it was obtained by BuzzFeed News ahead of its publication. Signed by Barr, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, acting US Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, and Australian Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton, the letter raises concerns that Facebook's plan to build end-to-end encryption into its messaging apps will prevent law enforcement agencies from finding illegal activity conducted through Facebook, including child sexual exploitation, terrorism, and election meddling. "Security enhancements to the virtual world should not make us more vulnerable in the physical world," the letter reads. "Companies should not deliberately design their systems to preclude any form of access to content, even for preventing or investigating the most serious crimes." The letter calls on Facebook to prioritize public safety in designing its encryption by enabling law enforcement to gain access to illegal content in a manageable format and by consulting with governments ahead of time to ensure the changes will allow this access. While the letter acknowledges that Facebook, which owns Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, captures 99% of child exploitation and terrorism-related content through its own systems, it also notes that "mere numbers cannot capture the significance of the harm to children."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/10/03/1847213 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. 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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MorphOS 3.12 Released
by Peter Reutemann 03 Oct '19

03 Oct '19

'Mike Bouma shares a post from MorphZone, detailing the latest update to the AmigaOS-like computer operating system known as MorphOS: The MorphOS development team is proud to announce the public release of MorphOS 3.12. This new version introduces brand new dual-monitor capabilities to various Powerbook laptops as well as G5 desktop systems, and features improved thermal management, fan control and dynamic CPU frequency switching, which provide increased energy efficiency and reduced noise levels. Additionally, the Helios Firewire stack has been fully integrated into the core OS and we added support for hundreds of modern printers and scanners. The installation and troubleshooting guides should be carefully read prior to installation. You can download MorphOS 3.12 here.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/10/02/219220 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. 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 Ryzen Pro 3000 series desktop CPUs will offer full RAM encryption
by Peter Reutemann 02 Oct '19

02 Oct '19

'Monday, AMD announced Ryzen Pro 3000 desktop CPUs would be available in Q4 2019. This of course raises the question, "What's a Ryzen Pro?" The business answer: Ryzen Pro 3000 is a line of CPUs specifically intended to power business-class desktop machines. The Pro line ranges from the humble dual-core Athlon Pro 300GE all the way through to Ryzen 9 Pro 3900, a 12-core/24-thread monster. The new parts will not be available for end-user retail purchase and are only available to OEMs seeking to build systems around them. >From a more technical perspective, the answer is that the Ryzen Pro line includes AMD Memory Guard, a transparent system memory encryption feature that appears to be equivalent to the AMD SME (Secure Memory Encryption) in Epyc server CPUs. Although AMD's own press materials don't directly relate the two technologies, their description of Memory Guard—"a transparent memory encryption (OS and application independent DRAM encryption) providing a cryptographic AES encryption of system memory"—matches Epyc's SME exactly. AMD Memory Guard is not, unfortunately, available in standard Ryzen 3000 desktop CPUs. If you want to build your own Ryzen PC with full memory encryption from scratch, you're out of luck for now.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/10/amd-ryzen-pro-3000-series-desktop-c… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. 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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