- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

How to Get Started Using WSL in Windows 10
by Peter Reutemann 20 Feb '18

20 Feb '18

'In this article, we will walk through the process of getting started with WSL on your Windows 10 machine. You must be running the latest version of Windows 10 with Fall Creator Update installed. Then, check which version of Windows 10 is installed on your system by searching on “About” in the search box of the Start menu. You should be running version 1709 or the latest to use WSL. If an older version is installed, you need to download and install the Windows 10 Fall Creator Update (FCU) from this page. Once FCU is installed, go to Update Settings (just search for “updates” in the search box of the Start menu) and install any available updates.' -- source: https://www.linux.com/blog/learn/2018/2/how-get-started-using-wsl-windows-10 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. 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
by Peter Reutemann 20 Feb '18

20 Feb '18

Hi everyone Just to let you know that we have a meeting next Monday: 'Ian Young will be demoing Manjaro (https://manjaro.org/) a Linux distribution that has become very popular recently according to the Linux Journal's poll (https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/02/14/1850259) General discussion on backup tools and strategies: What tool do you use? What approach is working for you? What should you stay away from at all costs?' Details: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/246736977/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. 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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cron Is Becoming Obsolete
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Feb '18

20 Feb '18

I have to get out of the habit of (only) checking various /etc/cron* locations for periodic system tasks. Debian is making more and more use of systemd timer tasks. The nice thing is, you can see them all with a simple command: systemctl status \*.timer Got caught out with this on a client’s machine the other day: when you install the certbot package (for managing certificates issued by Let’s Encrypt) on Debian, it also automatically adds a systemd timer to run certificate renewals twice a day, you don’t need to set up your own cron task to manage this.

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Chrome Extension Brings 'View Image' Button Back
by Peter Reutemann 19 Feb '18

19 Feb '18

'Google recently removed the convenient "view image" button from its search results as a result of a lawsuit with stock-photo agency Getty. Thankfully, one day later, a developer created an extension that brings it back. 9to5Google reports: It's unfortunate to see that button gone, but an easy to use Chrome extension brings it back. Simply install the extension from the Chrome Web Store, and then any time you view an image on Google Image Search, you'll be able to open that source image. You can see the functionality in action in the video below. The only difference we can see with this extension versus the original functionality is that instead of opening the image on the same page, it opens it in a new tab. The extension is free, and it will work with Chrome for Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, or anywhere else the full version of Chrome can be used. 9to5Google has a separate post with step-by-step instructions to get the Google Images "view image" button back.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/02/19/0334208 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. 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 Can't Fix a Nasty Security Bug Without a Massive Code Rewrite
by Peter Reutemann 15 Feb '18

15 Feb '18

'ZDNet reports of a security flaw in Skype's updater process that "can allow an attacker to gain system-level privileges to a vulnerable computer." If the bug is exploited, it "can escalate a local unprivileged user to the full 'system' level rights -- granting them access to every corner of the operating system." What's worse is that Microsoft, which owns Skype, won't fix the flaw because it would require the updater to go through "a large code revision." Instead, Microsoft is putting all its resources on building an altogether new client. From the report: Security researcher Stefan Kanthak found that the Skype update installer could be exploited with a DLL hijacking technique, which allows an attacker to trick an application into drawing malicious code instead of the correct library. An attacker can download a malicious DLL into a user-accessible temporary folder and rename it to an existing DLL that can be modified by an unprivileged user, like UXTheme.dll. The bug works because the malicious DLL is found first when the app searches for the DLL it needs. Once installed, Skype uses its own built-in updater to keep the software up to date. When that updater runs, it uses another executable file to run the update, which is vulnerable to the hijacking. The attack reads on the clunky side, but Kanthak told ZDNet in an email that the attack could be easily weaponized. He explained, providing two command line examples, how a script or malware could remotely transfer a malicious DLL into that temporary folder. ' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/18/02/12/2319257 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. 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 Wants To Collect Data About Your System -- Starting With 18.04 LTS
by Peter Reutemann 15 Feb '18

15 Feb '18

' In an announcement on Ubuntu mailing list, Will Cooke, on behalf of the Ubuntu Desktop team, announced Canonical's plans to collect some data related to the users' system configuration and the packages installed on their machines. From a report: Before you read anything further, it's important to note that users will have the option to opt-out of this data collection. The company plans to add a checkbox to the installer, which would be checked by default. The option could be like: "Send diagnostics information to help improve Ubuntu." As per your convenience, you can opt-out during the installation. An option to do the same will also be made available in the Privacy panel of GNOME Settings. With this data collection, the team wishes to improve the daily experiences of the Ubuntu users. It's worth noting that the collected data will be sent over encrypted connections and no IP addresses will be tracked. To be precise, the collected data will include: flavour and version of Ubuntu, network connectivity or not, CPU family, RAM, disk(s) size, screen(s) resolution, GPU vendor and model, OEM manufacturer, location (based on the location selection made during install), no IP information, time taken for Installation, auto-login enabled or not, disk layout selected, third party software selected or not, download updates during install or not, livePatch enabled or not.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/02/15/1410203 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. 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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DeepFakes Explained
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Feb '18

15 Feb '18

Heard about the latest hot new trend on the Internet? Slightly disturbing, even? It’s splicing someone’s face into a video in place of that of an entirely unrelated person, to make it look like they’re the one in the scene. Except that the result doesn’t look fake at all--you’d think it was real. Naturally, Rule 34 applies. But here <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XchCsYtYMQ> is a watchable, and entirely SFW, overview of how it all works. Oh, and the software for doing this is all over GitHub.

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Manjaro at meeting
by Ian Young 15 Feb '18

15 Feb '18

I have been using Manjaro of late so could try to summon up something to say ~ IanY

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Critical Telegram flaw under attack disguised malware as benign images
by Peter Reutemann 14 Feb '18

14 Feb '18

'Makers of the Telegram instant messenger have fixed a critical vulnerability that hackers were actively exploiting to install malware on users' computers, researchers said Tuesday. The flaw, which resided in the Windows version of the messaging app, allowed attackers to disguise the names of attached files, researchers from security firm Kaspersky Lab said in a blog post. By using the text-formatting standard known as Unicode, attackers were able to cause characters in file names to appear from right to left, instead of the left-to-right order that's normal for most Western languages.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/02/telegram-app-purged-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. 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’s compiler-level Spectre fix shows how hard this problem will be to solve
by Peter Reutemann 14 Feb '18

14 Feb '18

'The Meltdown and Spectre attacks that use processor speculative execution to leak sensitive information have resulted in a wide range of software changes to try to limit the scope for harm. Many of these are operating system-level fixes, some of which depend on processor microcode updates. But Spectre isn't a simple attack to solve; operating system changes help a great deal, but application-level changes are also needed. Apple has talked about some of the updates it has made to the WebKit rendering engine, used in its Safari browser, but this is only a single application. Microsoft is offering a compiler-level change for Spectre. The "Spectre" label actually covers two different attacks. The one that Microsoft's compiler is addressing, known as "variant 1," concerns checking the size of an array: before accessing the Nth element of an array, code should check that the array has at least N elements in it. Programmers using languages like C and C++ often have to write these checks explicitly. Other languages, like JavaScript and Java, perform them automatically. Either way, the test has to be done; attempts to access array members that don't exist are a whole class of bugs all on their own. [...] In fairness, Microsoft does warn that "there is no guarantee that all possible instances of variant 1 will be instrumented," but as Kocher's examination shows, it's not simply that some Spectre-vulnerable code will escape the compiler's fixes. Much—and perhaps even most—Spectre-vulnerable code will escape. And even if it were only a few instances, bad guys would be able to locate the unprotected routines and focus their attacks accordingly.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/02/microsofts-compiler-level-spectre-f… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. 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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