- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Microsoft Teams Stores Auth Tokens As Cleartext In Windows, Linux, Macs
by Peter Reutemann 15 Sep '22

15 Sep '22

'Security analysts have found a severe security vulnerability in the desktop app for Microsoft Teams that gives threat actors access to authentication tokens and accounts with multi-factor authentication (MFA) turned on. BleepingComputer reports: "This attack does not require special permissions or advanced malware to get away with major internal damage," Connor Peoples at cybersecurity company Vectra explains in a report this week. The researcher adds that by taking "control of critical seats -- like a company's Head of Engineering, CEO, or CFO -- attackers can convince users to perform tasks damaging to the organization." Vectra researchers discovered the problem in August 2022 and reported it to Microsoft. However, Microsoft did not agree on the severity of the issue and said that it doesn't meet the criteria for patching. With a patch unlikely to be released, Vectra's recommendation is for users to switch to the browser version of the Microsoft Teams client. By using Microsoft Edge to load the app, users benefit from additional protections against token leaks. The researchers advise Linux users to move to a different collaboration suite, especially since Microsoft announced plans to stop supporting the app for the platform by December. ' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/22/09/14/1939242 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Exploring GNOME-Based UIs For Mobile Linux Devices
by Peter Reutemann 15 Sep '22

15 Sep '22

'"The GNOME desktop environment is one of the most popular user interfaces and suites of apps available for desktop Linux distributions," writes Liliputing. "Now a team of developers have been working to bring GNOME to mobile devices running Linux-based operating systems." GNOME Shell for mobile provides a touch-friendly user interface optimized for smartphones and tablets. And while it looks a bit like Android or iOS at first glance, there are a few key differences. The GNOME team have outlined some of them in an article about recent updates to GNOME Shell on mobile. Like other modern mobile user interfaces, you interact with GNOME shell using taps, swipes, and other gesture-based navigation. What's different is that Android has three different views for navigation: a home screen, app drawer, and multitasking view. iOS has two: home screen and multitasking. But GNOME Shell has a single screen that allows you to view and launch apps and switch between running apps using gestures. There's no need to wait for a new screen to load. In a nutshell, you can swipe up from the bottom of the any screen to view a list of installed apps, thumbnail images showing all currently running apps, and a search box. You can tap an app icon to launch a new app, enter a term in the search box to find an app, or swipe between running apps to switch which app runs in the foreground. You can also keep swiping upward to shrink the multitasking thumbnails and provide more room for app icons. And you can flick thumbnail previews upward to remove an app from the multitasking section. Typing in the search box will bring up relevant results including apps and settings. "One interesting new feature here is that notifications can be swiped away horizontally to close, and notification bubbles can be swiped up to hide them..." the developers point out. "While the current version is definitely still work in progress, it's quite usable overall, so we feel it would make sense to start having experimental GNOME OS Nightly images with it." But Liliputing also notes that it's not the only GNOME-based UI for mobile devices. There's also Purism's Phosh UI — the default UI for the PureOS on its Librem 5 smartphone (and available for other mobile Linux distros including Debian). And Purism recently bragged that its smartphone is now also "the first mobile computer with a truly convergent OS" — meaning it can run on multiple hardware platforms, with apps adapting to their hardware. The Librem 5 [smartphone] uses the same convergent PureOS as our Librem 14 laptop and Mini PCs, with the same adaptive applications that make the Librem 5 more than merely a phone, it's a mobile computer in your pocket that can shape shift into a laptop, tablet, desktop, or even a server.... Scale your Librem 5 up to be a full laptop by attaching the Nexdock. Because our core apps are adaptive, they are ready to run on whatever screen you have.... With phosh-mobile-settings installed, you can flip the nexdock around and use the big screen just like a tablet.... Don't have a laptop dock? The Librem 5 can also act like a desktop computer when connected to a screen, keyboard, and mouse using our USB-C dock. Using the beta phom virtual mouse app, you can turn your Librem 5 into a touchpad mouse while it's connected to the big screen. With the Librem 5, you can keep your desktop computer in your pocket and connect to a bigger screen at home or at the office and use the same apps on the bigger screen without restarting.... With the Librem 5 phone, you're getting much more than smartphone to run mobile-only apps; you're getting a laptop, tablet, desktop, all running software that respects your privacy and freedom.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/22/09/11/047224 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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DuckDuckGo, Proton, Mozilla Throw Weight Behind Bill Targeting Big Tech 'Surveillance'
by Peter Reutemann 15 Sep '22

15 Sep '22

'A group of privacy-focused organizations have signed a letter imploring US Congress leaders to schedule a vote on a bill that would hamper data collection by tech giants and promote user access to online privacy tools. From a report: In its letter to Congress, addressed to the likes of Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi, the alliance argued that the continued suppression of the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) allows "dominant firms" to "limit competition and restrict user choice" when accessing privacy-focused technologies and products. It also accused tech giants of forcing users into accepting their policies of "perpetual surveillance" because of their positions as "gatekeepers," and of using their "influence in society" to steer users away from rival services more committed to privacy. Signatories included the likes of DuckDuckGo, Proton, Brave and Mozilla, among others, representing sectors ranging from VPN and search to web browsers, office software, and more. The letter to Congress fighting for the revival of the AICOA hit back at the idea that the US technology industry is a free market. The 13 signatories, all of which are relatively small in stature, claim the tech giants deliberately wield the depth and breadth of their product portfolios to establish unassailable monopolies.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/22/09/14/1644244 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux Foundation Announces the OpenWallet Foundation To Develop Interoperable Digital Wallets
by Peter Reutemann 14 Sep '22

14 Sep '22

'The Linux Foundation has announced plans for a new collaborative initiative designed to support interoperability across digital wallets, built on an open source bedrock. From a report: The OpenWallet Foundation (OWF), as the new effort is called, is the brainchild of Daniel Goldscheider, CEO of open banking startup Yes.com, though today's announcement reveals a broad gamut of buy-ins from multiple industry players including Okta, Ping Identity, Accenture, CVS Health, OpenID Foundation, among several other public and private bodies. With the Linux Foundation serving as the project's host, this gives OWF sizeable clout as it strives to enable what Goldscheider calls a "plurarity of wallets based on a common core," according to a press release. The news also comes as regulatory bodies across the globe are moving to support competition through enforcing interoperability across systems, including Europe which is currently trying to make messaging interoperability a thing.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/22/09/13/1350232 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Raspberry Pi OS improves menus, networking, camera possibilities
by Peter Reutemann 14 Sep '22

14 Sep '22

'The latest Raspberry Pi OS version adds menu search, a more mainstream network and VPN manager, and plenty of camera and machine learning possibilities through a new open source camera package.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/09/raspberry-pi-os-adds-easier-network… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Article: 10 Best Self-Hosted Apps for Your Raspberry Pi
by Peter Reutemann 12 Sep '22

12 Sep '22

It's actually 10 categories with several applications listed for each: 1. Media Server 2. File Sync Server 3. Virtualization Platform 4. Ads Blocker 5. Image Hub 6. Home Automation 7. Security Center 8. News Aggregator 9. Password Manager 10. Gaming Console Full details in the following article: https://linuxiac.com/best-self-hosted-raspberry-pi-apps/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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New Linux malware combines unusual stealth with a full suite of capabilities
by Peter Reutemann 11 Sep '22

11 Sep '22

'Researchers this week unveiled a new strain of Linux malware that's notable for its stealth and sophistication in infecting both traditional servers and smaller Internet-of-things devices. Dubbed Shikitega by the AT&T Alien Labs researchers who discovered it, the malware is delivered through a multistage infection chain using polymorphic encoding. It also abuses legitimate cloud services to host command-and-control servers. These things make detection extremely difficult. "Threat actors continue to search for ways to deliver malware in new ways to stay under the radar and avoid detection," AT&T Alien Labs researcher Ofer Caspi wrote. "Shikitega malware is delivered in a sophisticated way, it uses a polymorphic encoder, and it gradually delivers its payload where each step reveals only part of the total payload. In addition, the malware abuses known hosting services to host its command and control servers."' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/09/new-linux-malware-co… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Android 13 Raises Minimum System Requirement To 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage
by Peter Reutemann 10 Sep '22

10 Sep '22

'Android 13 has recently hit the streets, and with it, Google is raising the minimum requirements for Android phones. From a report: Google's latest blog post announced that the minimum amount of RAM for Android Go, the low-end version of Android, is now 2GB for Android 13, whereas previously, it was 1GB. Esper's Mishaal Rahman and Google Product Expert Jason Bayton also claim the minimum storage requirements have been bumped up to 16GB, though Google doesn't seem to have publicly documented this anywhere. The increase in system requirements means any phone that doesn't meet the minimum specs won't be able to update to Android 13. New phones launching with Android 13 will need to meet the minimum requirements to be eligible for Play Store licensing, though launching with an older version of Android (with lower requirements) will still be an option for a while. Technically, anyone can grab the Android source code and build anything with it, but if you want to license the Google apps and have access to the Google-trademarked brand "Android," you'll need to comply with Google's rules.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/09/09/1742200 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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New Zealand programming contest
by Peter Reutemann 09 Sep '22

09 Sep '22

Hi everyone I just got notified that the New Zealand programming contest is on tomorrow. More information on the Hamilton event is available from here: https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~tl108/nzpc-hamilton/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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New wave of data-destroying ransomware attacks hits QNAP NAS devices
by Peter Reutemann 08 Sep '22

08 Sep '22

'Network hardware-maker QNAP is urging customers to update their network-attached storage devices immediately to protect them from a new wave of ongoing ransomware attacks that can destroy terabytes of data in a single stroke. Singapore-based QNAP said recently that it has identified a new campaign from a ransomware group known as DeadBolt. The attacks take aim at QNAP NAS devices that use a proprietary feature known as Photo Station. The advisory instructs customers to update their firmware, suggesting there is a vulnerability that’s under exploit, but the company makes no explicit mention of a CVE designation that security professionals use to track such security flaws.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/09/new-wave-of-data-des… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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NASA Going RISC-V
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Sep '22

07 Sep '22

NASA’s space probes have been using a PowerPC-based computing architecture going back over two decades, so it’s about time for a refresh. So now SiFive <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/09/06/nasas_spaceflight_computer_risc_v/> is going to supply NASA with a new computing platform based on its X280 RISC-V CPU. “RISC” is supposed to stand for “Reduced Instruction Set Computing”. However, many current RISC architectures (including ARM and POWER/PowerPC) have seen a large blowout of their instruction-set size when they started adding SIMD vector operations. These instructions operate on fixed-length sets of around 4, 8 or 16 operands, performing the same operation on all operands simultaneously (hence “SIMD”, standing for “Single Instruction, Multiple Data”). Trouble is, you need a lot of different variants of each instruction for coping with different data types. While vector operations are important for many uses, RISC-V takes a different approach, harking back to the old supercomputers designed by the legendary Seymour Cray: instead of having to operate on all operands simultaneously, the instructions operate elementwise on variable-length arrays (the original Cray-1 design allowed for arrays of up to 64 elements at a time), with operands being processed sequentially through a multi-stage pipeline. This should help keep things simpler, while still making it fast.

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Google Chrome Emergency Update Fixes New Zero-Day Used in Attacks
by Peter Reutemann 07 Sep '22

07 Sep '22

'Google has released Chrome 105.0.5195.102 for Windows, Mac, and Linux users to address a single high-severity security flaw, the sixth Chrome zero-day exploited in attacks patched this year. From a report: "Google is aware of reports that an exploit for CVE-2022-3075 exists in the wild," the company said in a security advisory published on Friday. This new version is rolling out in the Stable Desktop channel, with Google saying that it will reach the entire user base within a matter of days or weeks. It was available immediately when BleepingComputer checked for new updates by going into the Chrome menu > Help > About Google Chrome. The web browser will also auto-check for new updates and automatically install them after the next launch.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/22/09/06/1424200 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Slick new phishing-as-a-service kit emerges
by Peter Reutemann 06 Sep '22

06 Sep '22

'itnews reports: Security researchers at Resecurity have detailed a new phishing-as-a-service kit, EvilProxy, that provides an easy to use interface to attack users with accounts for major online brands, and the ability to bypass multifactor authentication (MFA). Reverse proxies to attack multifactor authentication, such as Modlishka, have been available for several years, but EvilProxy makes it it possible to easily create and deliver advanced phishing links through a graphical user interface, Resecurity said. EvilProxy sits between a victim and the real site the user is trying to connect to, capturing their valid session cookies, to bypass the need to authenticate with user names, passwords, and / or two-factor authentication tokens, the security vendor explained. This includes accounts that have MFA enabled with short messaging text service, or application tokens.' -- source: https://www.itnews.com.au/news/slick-new-phishing-as-a-service-kit-emerges-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Peter Eckersley, Co-Creator of Let's Encrypt, Dies at 43
by Peter Reutemann 06 Sep '22

06 Sep '22

'Seven years ago, Slashdot reader #66,542 announced "Panopticlick 2.0," a site showing how your web browser handles trackers. But it was just one of the many privacy-protecting projects Peter Eckersley worked on, as a staff technologist at the EFF for more than a decade. Eckersley also co-created Let's Encrypt, which today is used by hundreds of millions of people. Friday the EFF's director of cybersecurity announced the sudden death of Eckersley at age 43. "If you have ever used Let's Encrypt or Certbot or you enjoy the fact that transport layer encryption on the web is so ubiquitous it's nearly invisible, you have him to thank for it," the announcement says. "Raise a glass." Peter Eckersley's web site is still online, touting "impactful privacy and cybersecurity projects" that he co-created, including not just Let's Encrypt, Certbot, and Panopticlick, but also Privacy Badger and HTTPS Everywhere. And in addition, "During the COVID-19 pandemic he convened the the stop-covid.tech group, advising many groups working on privacy-preserving digital contact tracing and exposure notification, assisting with several strategy plans for COVID mitigation." You can also still find Peter Eckersley's GitHub repositories online. But Peter "had apparently revealed recently that he had been diagnosed with cancer," according to a tribute posted online by security company Sophos, noting his impact is all around us: If you click on the padlock in your browser [2022-09-0T22:37:00Z], you'll see that this site, like our sister blog site Sophos News, uses a web certificate that's vouched for by Let's Encrypt, now a well-established Certificate Authority (CA). Let's Encrypt, as a CA, signs TLS cryptographic certificates for free on behalf of bloggers, website owners, mail providers, cloud servers, messaging services...anyone, in fact, who needs or wants a vouched-for encryption certificate, subject to some easy-to-follow terms and conditions.... Let's Encrypt wasn't the first effort to try to build a free-as-in-freedom and free-as-in-beer infrastructure for online encryption certificates, but the Let's Encrypt team was the first to build a free certificate signing system that was simple, scalable and solid. As a result, the Let's Encrypt project was soon able to to gain the trust of the browser making community, to the point of quickly getting accepted as a approved certificate signer (a trusted-by-default root CA, in the jargon) by most mainstream browsers.... In recent years, Peter founded the AI Objectives Institute, with the aim of ensuring that we pick the right social and economic problems to solve with AI: "We often pay more attention to how those goals are to be achieved than to what those goals should be in the first place. At the AI Objectives Institute, our goal is better goals." ' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/22/09/05/0241217 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Attacks on Linux Servers Rose 75% Over Last Year, Warn Security Researchers
by Peter Reutemann 05 Sep '22

05 Sep '22

'"There's been a big rise in ransomware attacks targeting Linux," reports ZDNet, "as cyber criminals look to expand their options and exploit an operating system that is often overlooked when businesses think about security." According to analysis by cybersecurity researchers at Trend Micro, Linux servers are "increasingly coming under fire" from ransomware attacks, with detections up by 75% over the course of the last year as cyber criminals look to expand their attacks beyond Windows operating systems. Linux powers important enterprise IT infrastructure including servers, which makes it an attractive target for ransomware gangs — particularly when a perceived lack of threat to Linux systems compared with Windows means that cybersecurity teams might choose to focus on defending Windows networks against cybercrime. Researchers note that ransomware groups are increasingly tailoring their attacks to focus specifically on Linux systems. For example, LockBit is one of the most prolific and successful ransomware operations of recent times and now offers the option of a Linux-based variant that is designed to target Linux systems and has been used to conduct attacks in the wild.... And it isn't just ransomware groups that are increasingly turning their attentions towards Linux — according to Trend Micro, there's been a 145% increase in Linux-based cryptocurrency-mining malware attacks, where cyber criminals secretly exploit the power of infected computers and servers to mine for cryptocurrency for themselves. One of the ways cyber criminals are compromising Linux systems is by exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities. According to the report, these flaws include CVE-2022-0847 — also known as Dirty Pipe — a bug that affects the Linux kernel from versions 5.8 and up, which attackers can use to escalate their privileges and run code. Researchers warn that this bug is "relatively easy to exploit". The article recommends installing all security patches as soon as they're available — and implementing multi-factor authentication across your organization.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/22/09/03/1940245 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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policy.nz
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 05 Sep '22

05 Sep '22

Thought I’d mention this handy website <https://policy.nz/2022> which happens to be relevant to the NZ situation right now, namely the upcoming local-body elections. It’s a compilation of relevant policy info that election candidates of all persuasions up and down the country were able and willing to supply. Go look up the elections in your own area, and see what your candidates are standing for, so you can make a more informed choice. (Or more rationalizations for the choice you’ve already made. But hey, I won’t judge...) Participation in local-body elections in NZ is typically pretty poor, even with mail-in voting. Yes, there are some gaps in their coverage, but still, maybe this will help raise the numbers who vote. Go, be informed!

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TIL: Shiny Apps
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 Sep '22

04 Sep '22

Came across this article <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-what-nz-flu-data-is-revealing-about-…> about improving the accuracy of tracking Covid-19 rates by looking at self-reporting data on general flu-like symptoms. By careful analysis, they can estimate numbers of Covid-19 cases versus influenza cases, and tell if dropping reported case numbers are actually a result of dropping infections, versus lower rates of testing. The software they developed is called a “Shiny app”. Digging a bit further, I discovered that “Shiny” <https://shiny.rstudio.com/> is a framework for building web-based apps in the R statistical-analysis language.

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Chrome Extensions With 1.4M Installs Covertly Track Visits and Inject Code
by Peter Reutemann 02 Sep '22

02 Sep '22

'Google has removed browser extensions with more than 1.4 million downloads from the Chrome Web Store after third-party researchers reported they were surreptitiously tracking users' browsing history and inserting tracking code into specific ecommerce sites they visited. ArsTechnica: The five extensions flagged by McAfee purport to offer various services, including the ability to stream Netflix videos to groups of people, take screenshots, and automatically find and apply coupon codes. Behind the scenes, company researchers said, the extensions kept a running list of each site a user visited and took additional actions when users landed on specific sites. The extensions sent the name of each site visited to the developer-designated site d.langhort.com, along with a unique identifier and the country, city, and zip code of the visiting device. If the site visited matched a list of ecommerce sites, the developer domain instructed the extensions to insert JavaScript into the visited page. The code modified the cookies for the site so that the extension authors receive affiliate payment for any items purchased. To help keep the activity covert, some of the extensions were programmed to wait 15 days after installation before beginning the data collection and code injection.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/22/09/01/1647229 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Debian Replaces Google with DuckDuckGo as Chromium's Default Search Engine
by Peter Reutemann 30 Aug '22

30 Aug '22

'A story from the Linux/Open Source news site It's FOSS: While Firefox is still the default web browser in Debian, you can find the Chromium browser in the repositories. Chromium is the open source project upon which Google has built its Chrome web browser. It is also preferred by many Linux users as it provides almost the same features as Google Chrome. Earlier, Chromium used Google as the default search engine in Debian. However, Debian is going to use DuckDuckGo as the default search engine for Chromium. It all started when bug report #956012 was filed in April 2020, stating to use DuckDuckGo as the default search engine for the Chromium package. You can see the decision was not taken in any hurry, as the maintainers took more than two years to close the bug report. The reason for the change goes as stated in the official package update announcement. Change default search engine to DuckDuckGo for privacy reasons. Set a different search engine under Settings -> Search Engine (closes: #956012). ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/22/08/29/0443230 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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ARM’s Morello Runs CheriBSD
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 29 Aug '22

29 Aug '22

“CHERI” is a project at Cambridge University based on a very old concept for implementing memory/process protection on computer hardware: that of “capabilities”. Instead of having specially-trusted kernel code run in a privileged mode that is allowed to do pretty much anything, capabilities allow for a more decentralized model, with distribution and separation of different areas of trust. The capability concept fell out of favour, because its implementation overhead was greater than the processor-privilege-level (also often described as “privilege rings”) concept that is so commonplace today. But with the increase in security vulnerabilities like Meltdown and Spectre, there is increasing interest in alternative approaches that might reduce complexity, hopefully with less of a performance cost than the fixes that were needed to mitigate those vulnerabilities. ARM Ltd’s experimental “Morello” chip is an implementation of the CHERI concept. And it has got as far as running CheriBSD, which is a specially-adapted variant of FreeBSD. This now includes Wayland as the GUI server, and it provides a KDE Plasma desktop on top of that, according to <https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/26/cheri_computer_runs_kde/>. All this code has been tweaked, where appropriate, to remove the assumptions of arbitrary access to process memory allowed by conventional C pointers, in favour of the more restricted access controlled by capabilities. The CHERI project started with MIPS-based hardware, and besides being on ARM now, it looks to be coming to RISC-V as well. By the way, the Linux kernel has already (mis)used the term ”capability” to refer to an entirely different concept <https://manpages.debian.org/bullseye/manpages/capabilities.7.en.html>. Those familiar with the process-privilege system on old VMS from DEC may notice some resemblance ...

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Will Google's 'Cross-Device' Development Kit Bring Android Apps to Non-Android Devices?
by Peter Reutemann 29 Aug '22

29 Aug '22

'Google is trying "to make it easier for developers to create Android apps that connect in some way across a range of devices," reports the Verge. Documentation for the software development kit says it will simplify development for "multi-device experiences." "The Cross device SDK is open-source and will be available for different Android surfaces and non-Android ecosystem devices (Chrome OS, Windows, iOS)," explains the documentation, though the current developer preview only works with Android phones and tablets, according to the Verge. But they report that Google's new SDK "contains the tools developers need to make their apps play nice across Android devices, and, eventually non-Android phones, tablets, TVs, cars, and more." The SDK is supposed to let developers do three key things with their apps: discover nearby devices, establish secure connections between devices, and host an app's experience across multiple devices. According to Google, its cross-device SDK uses Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and ultra-wideband to deliver multi-device connectivity.... [I]t could let multiple users on separate devices choose items from a menu when creating a group food order, saving you from passing your phone around the room. It could also let you pick up where you left off in an article when swapping from your phone to a tablet, or even allow the passengers in a car to share a specific map location with the vehicle's navigation system. It almost sounds like an expansion of Nearby Share, which enables users on Android to transfer files to devices that use Chrome OS and other Androids. In April, Esper's Mishaal Rahman spotted an upcoming Nearby Share update that could let you quickly share files across the devices that you're signed into Google with. Google also said during a CES 2022 keynote that it will bring Nearby Share to Windows devices later this year. "This SDK abstracts away the intricacies involved with working with device discovery, authentication, and connection protocols," argues Google's blog post, "allowing you to focus on what matters most — building delightful user experiences and connecting these experiences across a variety of form factors and platforms."' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/22/08/27/219224 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Debian Considers Changing How It Handles Non-Free Firmware
by Peter Reutemann 29 Aug '22

29 Aug '22

'"Debian currently doesn't load non-free firmware by default on its systems," reports Phoronix, "even when it means no working hardware support/acceleration without those binary elements. Not loading the non-free firmware can also mean missing out on security updates or for addressing usability issues." Now the Debian community is discussing three proposals on how non-free firmware should be handled going forward (before a vote in September). Proposal A and B both start with the same two paragraphs: We will include non-free firmware packages from the "non-free-firmware" section of the Debian archive on our official media (installer images and live images). The included firmware binaries will normally be enabled by default where the system determines that they are required, but where possible we will include ways for users to disable this at boot (boot menu option, kernel command line etc.). When the installer/live system is running we will provide information to the user about what firmware has been loaded (both free and non-free), and we will also store that information on the target system such that users will be able to find it later. The target system will also be configured to use the non-free-firmware component by default in the apt sources.list file. Our users should receive security updates and important fixes to firmware binaries just like any other installed software. But Proposal A adds that "We will publish these images as official Debian media, replacing the current media sets that do not include non-free firmware packages," while Proposal B says those images "will not replace the current media sets," but will instead be offered alongside them. And Proposal C? "The Debian project is permitted to make distribution media (installer images and live images) containing packages from the non-free section of the Debian archive available for download alongside with the free media in a way that the user is informed before downloading which media are the free ones.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/22/08/28/0242228 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Pine64 Touts Its RISC-V-Based Single-Board Computer and Soldering Irons
by Peter Reutemann 29 Aug '22

29 Aug '22

'PINE64's August update included photos of their first prototype for its upcoming Star64 single-board computer, "the first true RISC-V single-board computer from us...but as I wrote last month it certainly isn't the last RISC-V piece of hardware you'll be seeing from us." Just as a short recap: Star64 comes with a StarFive JH7110 64bit CPU sporting quad SiFive FU740 cores clocked at 1.5GHz. The SOC is equipped with BXE-2-32 from Imagination Technologies, which is said to be a solid mid-range GPU. Star64 will be available in two configurations — with 4Gb and 8GB of RAM, similarly to the Quartz64. Both hardware versions include USB 3.0 and a PCIe slot as well as two native Gigabit Ethernet NICs.... Along the long leading edges you'll find PCIe on one end and GPIO on the other. At one end of the board you'll find a digital video output, a double-stacked Gigabit Ethernet port and a 12V barrel plug for power. On the opposite side, you'll find 3x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, an audio jack as well as a power button. There are also two U.FL ports for antennas — one for bluetooth and the other for WiFi.... The Star64 also has an MiPi display output complete with a touch panel (TP) input, a 12V power port, a CSI camera port and an eMMC slot. A micro SD card slot can be found at the bottom of the PCB. Similarly to the RockPro64 and Quartz64, the 12V port on the Star64 can be used for powering other hardware directly from the board — a popular example is powering one or multiple SSDs connected to a PCIe SATA adapter. I'll add that, at least in theory, the Star64 would make a great network-attached storage device because of its SoCs low thermals and idle power. I am looking forward to seeing NAS-focused Linux or BSD* OSes available for the board. Speaking of software, efforts to support the SoC in Linux have already begun. I've been told that both Debian and Fedora are already being ported to the StarFive JH7110, which is great news. We are certain that many other OSes will follow swiftly — especially once we start delivering the Star64 to interested developers. On the subject of availability: the Star64 will be available in a few weeks time, and will initially be available to developers. Given the interest in the Star64's and the SoC powering I hope to see functional distributions available for the board soon after launch. The announcement also included an update on their PinecilV2 smart mini portable soldering iron (built with a 32-bit RISC-V SoC). "The Pinecil V2 landed earlier this month and sold out almost instantly. The next production run of the ought to be available soon however..."' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/22/08/28/1759238 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Heroku Announces Plans To Eliminate Free Plans, Blaming 'Fraud and Abuse'
by Peter Reutemann 29 Aug '22

29 Aug '22

'After offering them for over a decade, Heroku announced this week that it will eliminate all of its free services -- pushing users to paid plans. From a report: Starting November 28, the Salesforce-owned cloud platform as a service will stop providing free product plans and shut down free data services and soon (on October 26) will begin deleting inactive accounts and associated storage for accounts that have been inactive for over a year. In a blog post, Bob Wise, Heroku general manager and Salesforce EVP, blamed "abuse" on the demise of the free services, which span the free plans for Heroku Dynos and Heroku Postgres as well as the free plan for Heroku Data for Redis. [...] Wise went on to note that Heroku will be announcing a student program at Salesforce's upcoming Dreamforce conference in September, but the details remain a mystery at this point. For the uninitiated, Heroku allows programmers to build, run and scale apps across programming languages including Java, PHP, Scala and Go. Salesforce acquired the company for $212 million in 2010 and subsequently introduced support for Node.js and Clojure and Heroku for Facebook, a package to simplify the process of deploying Facebook apps on Heroku infrastructure. Heroku claims on its website that it's been used to develop 13 million apps to date.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/22/08/26/188231 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Google's Fuchsia OS is Taking Over Smart Displays, Now on Its Second Device
by Peter Reutemann 26 Aug '22

26 Aug '22

'The kingdom of Google's third major operating system, Fuchsia, is growing a little wider today. ArsTechnica: 9to5Google reports Google completed the rollout of Fuchsia to the Google Nest Hub Max. Along with the original Nest Hub/Google Home Hub, that puts two of Google's three smart displays on the new OS, with the one holdout being the 2nd Gen Nest Hub. The Nest Hub Max is the first device running Fuchsia that Google is currently selling -- the Home Hub only got Fuchsia after it had been discontinued. The Google smart display user interface is written in Flutter, a Google programming language designed for portability, which runs on Android, iOS, Fuchsia, and the weird cast platform Nest Hubs typically use. So it's not right to describe the user interface as "similar" after the OS swap -- it's the exact same code because Flutter runs on nearly everything. You are getting a slightly newer code version, though, and it comes with a Bluetooth menu. If you dive into the settings and hit "about device," you'll see a "Fuchsia Version" field that will say something like "6.20211109.1.3166243." It's a bit weird to do an entire OS switch to the futuristic, secretive Fuchsia project and then have basically nothing to show (or say) for it in terms of obvious improvements in performance or security. You can dive into the minutia of the Fuchsia source code, but it continues to be a mystery in terms of what practical benefits it offers consumers. Google never talks about Fuchsia, so not much is known about what, exactly, Google is accomplishing here.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/08/25/1856206 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux 6.1 Will Make It A Bit Easier To Help Spot Faulty CPUs
by Peter Reutemann 26 Aug '22

26 Aug '22

'While mostly of benefit to server administrators with large fleets of hardware, Linux 6.1 aims to make it easier to help spot problematic CPUs/cores by reporting the likely socket and core when a segmentation fault occurs, which can help in spotting any trends if routinely finding the same CPU/core is causing problems. Queued up now in TIP's x86/cpu branch for the Linux 6.1 merge window in October is a patch to print the likely CPU at segmentation fault time. Printing the likely CPU core and socket when a seg fault occurs can be beneficial if routinely finding seg faults happening on the same CPU package or particular core.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/22/08/25/1841209 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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DuckDuckGo now offers anti-tracking email service to everyone
by Peter Reutemann 26 Aug '22

26 Aug '22

'DuckDuckGo's tracker-removing email service, which has been available in private beta for a year, is now open to anyone who uses a DuckDuckGo mobile app, browser extension, or Mac browser. It has also added a few more privacy tools. The service provides you a duck.com email address, one intended to be given out for the kind of "Subscribe to our newsletter for 20 percent off" emails you know exist only to harvest data and target you for ads. Email sent to your duck.com address forwards to your chosen primary email—but with trackers removed. Email Protection now also fixes up links, strips them of tracking modifiers, upgrades unencrypted HTTP URLs to HTTPS where possible, and, for the rare necessary reply, allows you to send directly from your duck address instead of exposing your primary email. During their closed beta, DuckDuckGo claims that 85 percent of the emails it processed contained hidden trackers.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/08/duckduckgo-now-offers-anti-tracking… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Experts Warn of Widespread Exploitation Involving Hikvision Cameras
by Peter Reutemann 25 Aug '22

25 Aug '22

'Both government and criminal hacking groups are still targeting Hikvision cameras with a vulnerability from 2021, according to reports from several security researchers. From a report: Cybersecurity firm CYFIRMA released a report this week saying Russian cybercriminal forums are awash with hackers looking to collaborate on exploiting Hikvision cameras using the command injection vulnerability CVE-2021-36260. "Specifically in the Russian forums, we have observed leaked credentials of Hikvision camera products available for sale," the company's researchers said. "These can be leveraged by hackers to gain access to the devices and exploit further the path of attack to target an organization's environment." CYFIRMA reported they found that more than 80,000 Hikvision cameras are still vulnerable to the critical command injection flaw, which carries a CVSS score of 9.8 out of 10. Of the more than 80,000 vulnerable cameras, more than 100 nations and 2,300 organizations are impacted.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/08/24/1856244 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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FSearch 0.2 File Search Utility Removes Snap Support
by Peter Reutemann 24 Aug '22

24 Aug '22

Since we were discussing find during this week's meeting, I thought some of you might be interested in this post: 'FSearch, the GTK-based lightning-fast file search tool, now has a new version, 0.2, that significantly improves its functionality. Many Linux users believe the only options for searching for files are those built into the operating system. Of course, the ‘find’ command or the file search capability provided by the file manager does an excellent job. But what if you could go to the next level using a handy graphical tool that searches for files at the speed of light? Meet FSearch. FSearch is an open-source standalone file search utility based on GTK3 inspired by Everything Search Engine. Because it is written in C, FSearch offers incredibly fast search speed, which is the application’s main advantage.' -- source: https://linuxiac.com/fsearch-0-2-file-search-utility/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Can You Ban Source Code?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 Aug '22

24 Aug '22

Let me see if I understand what’s going on here <https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/24/github_eff_tornado_cash/>: * “Tornado Cash” is a cryptocurrency “mixing” service. This takes input cryptocoins and outputs the same value again, but in a mix of different cryptocoins that makes it harder to trace where the input came from. * Tornado Cash is also the name of the open-source software written to implement this service. * The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated the Tornado Cash service as an illegal money-laundering operation. It also appears the principal developers (of the service and the software) are wanted internationally by financial crime investigators, and one has already been arrested. * Presumably in response to this, GitHub has shut down the accounts of those developers, and also removed the original Tornado Cash source code repo. * However, it’s not clear that GitHub was legally obliged to do any of this -- did the OFAC sanctions include the source code as well? Or were they contravening the GitHub terms and conditions somehow--if so, which one(s)? * In any case, lots of other copies of the Tornado Cash source code remain available on GitHub, untouched. And no doubt there are copies elsewhere.

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Unix legend, who owes us nothing, keeps fixing foundational AWK code
by Peter Reutemann 24 Aug '22

24 Aug '22

'A Princeton professor, finding a little time for himself in the summer academic lull, emailed an old friend a couple months ago. Brian Kernighan said hello, asked how their US visit was going, and dropped off hundreds of lines of code that could add Unicode support for AWK, the text-parsing tool he helped create for Unix at Bell Labs in 1977. "I have tested this a fair amount but clearly more tests are needed," Kernighan wrote in the email, posted in late May as a kind of pseudo-commit on the onetrueawk repo by longtime maintainer Arnold Robbins. "Once I figure out how ... I will try to submit a pull request. I wish I understood git better, but in spite of your help, I still don't have a proper understanding, so this may take a while."' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/08/unix-legend-who-owes-us-nothing-kee… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Lightweight Linux laptop crams a 99 Wh battery inside
by Peter Reutemann 24 Aug '22

24 Aug '22

'Ultralight laptops are great for slipping into a bag and traveling with, and they look pretty stylish. However, a trim build often comes with trade-offs. Battery capacity is a common one, as companies struggle to fit larger batteries into machines that are under an inch thick. German PC-maker Tuxedo Computers' latest ultralight InfinityBook Pro 14 seeks to address that challenge with a massive battery. The InfinityBook Pro 14 - Gen7 announced today comes with either big storage or a big battery. The company is selling it with the option for a 99 watt-hour (Wh) battery, which is about as big as a lithium battery can be while being allowed on an airplane (100 Wh).' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/08/lightweight-linux-laptop-crams-a-99… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Hyundai Uses Example Keys For Encryption System
by Peter Reutemann 23 Aug '22

23 Aug '22

'"Hyundai predictably fails in attempting to secure their car infotainment system with a default key lifted from programming examples," writes Slashdot reader sinij. "This level of security is unfortunately expected from auto manufacturers, who also would like to sell you always-connected Car2Car self-driving automobiles." Cryptographer and security experience Bruce Schneier writes: "Turns out the [AES] encryption key in that script is the first AES 128-bit CBC example key listed in the NIST document SP800-38A [PDF]," writes an unidentified developer under the name "greenluigi1." Luck held out, in a way. "Greenluigi1" found within the firmware image the RSA public key used by the updater, and searched online for a portion of that key. The search results pointed to a common public key that shows up in online tutorials like "RSA Encryption & Decryption Example with OpenSSL in C." Two questions remain: 1.) How did the test key get left behind? 2) Was it by accident or design?' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/22/08/22/227245 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 23 Aug '22

23 Aug '22

Hi everyone We have a meeting next Monday with the following topic: "Command-line tools under Linux are the bread and butter of sysadmins, but any user can benefit from a wide variety of hidden gems. In this meetup, we will explore essential command-line tools that one should be aware of. Please join us if you would like to learn about them or even demo your personal set of useful tools!" Details: https://www.meetup.com/waikatolinuxusersgroup/events/283776695/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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The New USB Rubber Ducky Is More Dangerous Than Ever
by Peter Reutemann 21 Aug '22

21 Aug '22

'The USB Rubber Ducky "has a new incarnation, released to coincide with the Def Con hacking conference this year," reports The Verge. >From the report: To the human eye, the USB Rubber Ducky looks like an unremarkable USB flash drive. Plug it into a computer, though, and the machine sees it as a USB keyboard -- which means it accepts keystroke commands from the device just as if a person was typing them in. The original Rubber Ducky was released over 10 years ago and became a fan favorite among hackers (it was even featured in a Mr. Robot scene). There have been a number of incremental updates since then, but the newest Rubber Ducky makes a leap forward with a set of new features that make it far more flexible and powerful than before. With the right approach, the possibilities are almost endless. Already, previous versions of the Rubber Ducky could carry out attacks like creating a fake Windows pop-up box to harvest a user's login credentials or causing Chrome to send all saved passwords to an attacker's webserver. But these attacks had to be carefully crafted for specific operating systems and software versions and lacked the flexibility to work across platforms. The newest Rubber Ducky aims to overcome these limitations. It ships with a major upgrade to the DuckyScript programming language, which is used to create the commands that the Rubber Ducky will enter into a target machine. While previous versions were mostly limited to writing keystroke sequences, DuckyScript 3.0 is a feature-rich language, letting users write functions, store variables, and use logic flow controls (i.e., if this... then that). That means, for example, the new Ducky can run a test to see if it's plugged into a Windows or Mac machine and conditionally execute code appropriate to each one or disable itself if it has been connected to the wrong target. It also can generate pseudorandom numbers and use them to add variable delay between keystrokes for a more human effect. Perhaps most impressively, it can steal data from a target machine by encoding it in binary format and transmitting it through the signals meant to tell a keyboard when the CapsLock or NumLock LEDs should light up. With this method, an attacker could plug it in for a few seconds, tell someone, "Sorry, I guess that USB drive is broken," and take it back with all their passwords saved. ' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/22/08/19/2136257 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ubuntu Upgrades Now Arrive with a Simple Prompt (and Security Fixes)
by Peter Reutemann 21 Aug '22

21 Aug '22

'"After a slight delay due to an installer issue, the first point release for Ubuntu 22.04 has been officially released," swrites Jack Wallen for TechRepublic. "Although point releases are often overlooked by users, because they aren't major upgrades, this time around you should certainly run the upgrade immediately." The biggest reason is that this point release combines all of the security fixes and improvements that have been added since the initial release of Jammy Jellyfish. So, if you haven't bothered to upgrade Ubuntu 22.04 since you first installed it, which you should have been doing all along, this point upgrade will add everything you've missed in one fell swoop. One of the biggest upgrades for end users will be the ability of 20.04 users to upgrade to the latest release without having to touch the command line. At some point, users of 20.04 will see an upgrade prompt on their desktops, allowing them to easily make the jump to 22.04.1. This is a big deal because previously such upgrades would have required running several commands. That means no more: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade -y sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y sudo do-release-upgrade -y Another point release found in 22.04.1 is GNOME 42, which features a new enhanced dark mode and switches to Wayland by default, with the inclusion of Xorg for unsupported hardware.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/22/08/20/021216 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Hackers Are Stealing Session Cookies To Bypass Multi-factor Authentication
by Peter Reutemann 21 Aug '22

21 Aug '22

'Hackers are stealing cookies from current or recent web sessions to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA), according to an eSecurity Planet report. The attack method, reported by Sophos researchers, is already growing in use. The "cookie-stealing cybercrime spectrum" is broad, the researchers wrote, ranging from "entry-level criminals" to advanced adversaries, using various techniques. Cybercriminals collect cookies or buy stolen credentials "in bulk" on dark web forums. Ransomware groups also harvest cookies and "their activities may not be detected by simple anti-malware defenses because of their abuse of legitimate executables, both already present and brought along as tools," the researchers wrote. Browsers allow users to maintain authentication, remember passwords and autofill forms. That might seem convenient, but attackers can exploit this functionality to steal credentials and skip the login challenge. Behind the scenes, browsers use SQLite database files that contain cookies. These cookies are composed of key-value pairs, and the values often contain critical information such as tokens and expiration dates. Adversaries know the exact name and location of these files for all major browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and even Brave, on various operating systems. That's why the attack can be scripted. It's not uncommon to find such scripts along with other modules in info-stealing and other malware. For example, the latest version of the Emotet botnet targets cookies and credentials stored by browsers, which include saved credit cards. According to the Sophos researchers, "Google's Chrome browser uses the same encryption method to store both multi-factor authentication cookies and credit card data." To gain initial access, attackers can also perform phishing and spear-phishing campaigns to implant droppers that can deploy cookie-stealer malware stealthily. The cookies are then used for post-exploitation and lateral movements. Cybercriminals can use them to change passwords and emails associated with user accounts, or trick the victims into downloading additional malware, or even deploy other exploitation tools such as Cobalt Strike and Impacket kit. Users should not use built-in features to save passwords unless the browser encrypts them with, at least, a master password. It's recommended that users uncheck the setting called "remember passwords," and users should probably not allow persistent sessions as well. Developers can be part of the problem if they don't secure authentication cookies properly. Such cookies must have a short expiration date. Otherwise, the persistent authentication could turn into a persistent threat. You can have great security processes and still get hacked because the cookies do not have the necessary flags (e.g., HttpOnly, Secure attribute). For example, authentication cookies must be sent using SSL/TLS channels. Otherwise the data could be sent in plain text and attackers would only have to sniff traffic to intercept credentials.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/22/08/20/0332200 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Free, Secure, and Open-Source: How FileZilla is Making an Old School Protocol Cool Again
by Peter Reutemann 21 Aug '22

21 Aug '22

'It's a free and open-source, cross-platform FTP application that allows secure file transfering — and it's making an old-school protocol cool again, according to a recent blog post. Started about 21 years ago — and downloaded by millions each year — FileZilla remains "committed to their role in liberating technology, by making it accessible, open and also secure," according to the blog post. But it also explains how FileZilla has beefed up that security through a collaboration with the internet freedom nonprofit, the Open Technology Fund (or "OTF"): Over the past year, FileZilla has utilised support from OTF to undertake two activities that enhanced and ensured the security of their tools. The first was integrating FileZilla Server with Let's Encrypt, a free, automated, and open source certificate authority that ensures secure communication between the two end-points sending or receiving a file via FileZilla.... Secondly, FileZilla ran a penetration test, a service offered by OTF's Red Team Lab. A team of independent researchers attempted to force access to the FileZilla server to see if they could gain control. These researchers were highly skilled, and the testing was extensive. The team conducting the test only found very minor security vulnerabilities that FileZilla were able to fix immediately. As a result of this process, anyone wanting to use the FileZilla software can trust that it has been cross-scrutinised by a third party and found to be secure.... FileZilla respects users' confidentiality: they do not track your behaviour, nor sell your data to other companies. While they do have advertisements on their website, they are posted exactly as advertisements would be posted in a newspaper. Nobody knows that you are reading the advertisements, or that you decided to call or connect to the advertised website. The advertisement has simply been attached to the webpage, without any underlying tracking.... . "Our mission hasn't changed in over 20 years: design, develop, maintain and enhance free tools to securely transfer files with ease and reliability," said Tim Kosse, FileZilla Lead Developer. This decision was a political one taken by FileZilla, to always preserve the freedom of their tools, and of their users. "We aren't the typical commercial open-source venture that starts doing things for free, and over time, closes this and that to make money" said Roberto Galoppini, FileZilla Director of Strategy. "While you might not see FileZilla listed at the NYSE [New York Stock Exchange] any time soon, the freedom of our tools will never be questioned...." [I]f you work in an industry that requires the secure transfer of sensitive files, or if you simply have personal photographs or videos you want to keep confidential, using proprietary platforms to share or store them can put your information at risk of being exposed.... FileZilla offers an alternative that is secure and private. Their tools are developed by a team that is deeply invested in protecting users' confidentiality, and liberating technology is central to their work and decision-making.... At the same time, projects like FileZilla remind us that there exists a global community of technologists, activists, coders, bloggers, journalists, software developers, and mindful internet users making internet freedom a lived reality and daily practice. Supporting, experimenting with and using free and open source tools, such as the FileZilla client and server, enables us to disinvest from the capitalist pursuit of corporate control of technology and unchecked surveillance of our data. Rather, we can step into alignment with an alternative, parallel narrative being created by a community of resistance that is grounded in principles of cooperation, solidarity, commons and openness.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/22/08/20/2031207 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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eternal terminal
by Peter Reutemann 18 Aug '22

18 Aug '22

Hi everyone Facing recurring ssh connection interruptions with long running processes, my go-to solution is to use "screen" on the remote server. But that doesn't get around the problem of my ssh sessions being defunct or closed ("broken pipe"). Doing a quick internet search, I've just come across "eternal terminal": "Eternal Terminal (ET) is a remote shell that automatically reconnects without interrupting the session. " https://eternalterminal.dev/ https://github.com/MisterTea/EternalTerminal Does anybody have any experience with it? Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Android could go 64-bit only in 2023, starting with the Pixel tablet
by Peter Reutemann 18 Aug '22

18 Aug '22

'Android 13 hit AOSP the other day, and included in the code source dump is an interesting commit spotted by Esper's Mishaal Rahman. It sounds like Google is planning to—or at least experimenting with—moving the upcoming Pixel tablet to a 64-bit-only build of Android. The commit doesn't beat around the bush, saying: "Move tangor to 64-bit only." "Tangor" is the codename for the already-announced Pixel tablet. iOS, with its single hardware manufacturer, has been 64-bit only since 2017. Android has a million moving parts split across a bunch of different companies, so getting to 64-bit only is going to be a long road. Getting there is worth the effort, though, with a promise of increased performance and additional security features. The Google Play app ecosystem is probably furthest along in supporting 64 bit. Any apps written entirely in Java or Kotlin already get automatic 64-bit compatibility from the system. Google mandated that Google Play apps using native code (usually these are games) needed to provide 64-bit versions back in 2019. There were exceptions for a few popular SDKs like Adobe Air and Unity, but these exceptions were ended in August 2021, when all apps were required to have 64-bit versions. As for hardware, every SoC should support 64-bit by now, and some flagship Android SoCs are actually reducing their ability to run 32-bit code. Any flagship chip following the recommended ARM design only supports 32-bit processing on three of the eight cores—the other five are 64-bit only. ARM wants to drop 32-bit support entirely from its 2023 flagship SoC design, but there are already rumors stating that Qualcomm doesn't want to follow that recommended design. The most likely reason is because of China. Google's 64-bit app requirements apply only to apps in Google Play, which doesn't exist in China. China has a big collection of competing app stores with more lax policies, so 32-bit apps have not been phased out as aggressively. China is working on this issue, though, with the top-five Chinese app stores—from Alibaba, Baidu, OPPO, Tencent, and Xiaomi—agreeing to ban 32-bit-only apps by the end of this month. There's also the issue of 64-bit compatibility among packed-in apps from OEM skins, which app store rules don't apply to. Rahman found another commit that suggests 64-bit-only support might be a regular feature of 2023's Android 14, so the Pixel tablet, which is already officially confirmed for next year, is looking like a test run to see how everything goes.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/08/google-might-give-the-pixel-tablet-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Update Chrome now to patch actively exploited zero-day
by Peter Reutemann 18 Aug '22

18 Aug '22

'Google announced an update on Wednesday to the Stable channel of its Chrome browser that includes a fix for an exploit that exists in the wild. CVE-2022-2856 is a fix for "insufficient validation of untrusted input in Intents," according to Google's advisory. Intents are typically a way to pass data from inside Chrome to another application, such as the share button on Chrome's address bar. As noted by the Dark Reading blog, input validation is a common weakness in code. The exploit was reported by Ashley Shen and Christian Resell of the Google Threat Analysis Group, and that's all the information we have for now. Details of the exploit are currently tucked behind a wall in the Chromium bugs group and are restricted to those actively working on related components and registered with Chromium. After a certain percentage of users have applied the relevant updates, those details may be revealed. Google says the update—104.0.5112.101 for Mac and Linux and 104.0.5112.102/101 for Windows—will "roll out over the coming days/weeks," but you can (and should) manually update Chrome now (check the "About" section of your settings). There are 10 other security fixes included in the update. Dark Reading notes that this is Chrome's fifth zero-day vulnerability disclosed in 2022.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/08/update-chrome-now-to… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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VLC-Developer VideoLan Says India Blocking Site Endangers Its Own Citizens
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '22

17 Aug '22

'VideoLan, the developer of popular media player VLC, says Indian telecom operators have been blocking its website since February of this year in a move that is potentially impacting some users in one of the open source firm's largest markets. From a report: "Most major ISPs [internet service providers] are banning the site, with diverse techniques," VideoLan president and lead developer Jean-Baptiste Kempf said of the blocking in India, in an email to TechCrunch. India represents 10% of all VLC users worldwide, he said. The website's traffic has seen an overall drop of 20% as a result of the blocking in India. [...] VLC, downloaded over 3.5 billion times worldwide, is a local media player that doesn't require internet access or connection to any particular service online for the vast majority of its features. But by blocking the website, India is pushing its citizens to "shady websites that are running hacked version of VLC. So they are endangering their own citizens with this ban," Kempf added.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/22/08/16/146257 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Google Releases Android 13, Rolling Out First To Pixel Phones
by Peter Reutemann 16 Aug '22

16 Aug '22

'This year's major Android update, Android 13, is officially releasing today for Googleâ(TM)s Pixel phones, the search giant has announced. >From a report: The annual update is getting an official release a little earlier than usual, following Android 12's release last October and Android 11's release in September 2020. The list of updates arriving with this year's version of Android is likely to be familiar if you've been keeping up with Android 13's beta releases. There's the ability to customize non-Google app icons to match your homescreen wallpaper that we saw in Android 13's first developer preview, a new permission to cut down on notification spam, and a new option to limit which of your photos and videos an app can access. Back in January, we wrote that Google planned to spend this year catching up with Apple's ecosystem integrations, and there's more evidence of this in Android 13's official release. The update includes support for spatial audio with head tracking, which is designed to make sounds appear as though they're coming from a fixed point in space when you move your head while wearing compatible headphones, similar to a feature Apple offers for its AirPods. Today's post doesn't say exactly which headphones this will work with, but Google previously announced it would be updating its Pixel Buds Pro to offer support for spatial audio. Secondly, there's the ability to stream messages from apps including Google Messages directly to a Chromebook, similar to iMessage on the Mac.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/08/15/1747228 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux 6.0 Arrives With Performance Improvements and More Rust Coming
by Peter Reutemann 16 Aug '22

16 Aug '22

'Linux creator Linus Torvalds has announced the first release candidate for the Linux kernel version 6.0, but he says the major number change doesn't signify anything especially different about this release. ZDNet: While there is nothing fundamentally different about this release compared with 5.19, Torvalds noted that there were over 13,500 non-merge commits and over 800 merged commits, meaning "6.0 looks to be another fairly sizable release." According to Torvalds, most of the updates are improvements to the GPU, networking and sound. Torvalds stuck to his word after releasing Linux kernel 5.19 last month, when he flagged he would likely call the next release 6.0 because he's "starting to worry about getting confused by big numbers again." On Sunday's release of Linux 6.0 release candidate version 1 (rc-1), he explained his reasoning behind choosing a new major version number and its purpose for developers. Again, it's about avoiding confusion rather than signaling that the release has major new features. His threshold for changing the lead version number was .20 because it is difficult to remember incremental version numbers beyond that. "Despite the major number change, there's nothing fundamentally different about this release - I've long eschewed the notion that major numbers are meaningful, and the only reason for a 'hierarchical; numbering system is to make the numbers easier to remember and distinguish," said Torvalds. Torvalds lamented some Rust-enabling code didn't make it into the release. The Register adds: "I actually was hoping that we'd get some of the first rust infrastructure, and the multi-gen LRU VM, but neither of them happened this time around," he mused, before observing "There's always more releases. This is one of those releases where you should not look at the diffstat too closely, because more than half of it is yet another AMD GPU register dump," he added, noting that Intel's Gaudi2 Ai processors are also likely to produce plenty of similar kernel additions. "The CPU people also show up in the JSON files that describe the perf events, but they look absolutely tiny compared to the 'asic_reg' auto-generated GPU and AI hardware definitions," he added.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/22/08/15/199255 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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NetBSD 9.3: A 2022 OS That Can Run On Late-1980s Hardware
by Peter Reutemann 14 Aug '22

14 Aug '22

'Version 9.3 of NetBSD is here, able to run on very low-end systems and with that authentic early-1990s experience. The Register reports: Version 9.3 comes some 15 months after NetBSD 9.2 and boasts new and updated drivers, improved hardware support, including for some recent AMD and Intel processors, and better handling of suspend and resume. The next sentence in the release announcement, though, might give some readers pause: "Support for wsfb-based X11 servers on the Commodore Amiga." This is your clue that we are in a rather different territory from run-of-the-mill PC operating systems here. A notable improvement in NetBSD 9.3 is being able to run a graphical desktop on an Amiga. This is a 2022 operating system that can run on late-1980s hardware, and there are not many of those around. NetBSD supports eight "tier I" architectures: 32-bit and 64-bit x86 and Arm, plus MIPS, PowerPC, Sun UltraSPARC, and the Xen hypervisor. Alongside those, there are no less than 49 "tier II" supported architectures, which are not as complete and not everything works -- although almost all of them are on version 9.3 except for the version for original Acorn computers with 32-bit Arm CPUs, which is still only on NetBSD 8.1. There's also a "tier III" for ports which are on "life support" so there may be a risk Archimedes support could drop to that. This is an OS that can run on 680x0 hardware, DEC VAX minicomputers and workstations, and Sun 2, 3, and 32-bit SPARC boxes. In other words, it reaches back as far as some 1970s hardware. Let this govern your expectations. For instance, in VirtualBox, if you tell it you want to create a NetBSD guest, it disables SMP support. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/08/12/1958253 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Microsoft Urges Windows Users To Run Patch For DogWalk Zero-Day Exploit
by Peter Reutemann 14 Aug '22

14 Aug '22

'Computerworld reports: Despite previously claiming the DogWalk vulnerability did not constitute a security issue, Microsoft has now released a patch to stop attackers from actively exploiting the vulnerability. [...] The vulnerability, known as CVE-2022-34713 or DogWalk, allows attackers to exploit a weakness in the Windows Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT). By using social engineering or phishing, attackers can trick users into visiting a fake website or opening a malicious document or file and ultimately gain remote code execution on compromised systems. DogWalk affects all Windows versions under support, including the latest client and server releases, Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022. The vulnerability was first reported in January 2020 but at the time, Microsoft said it didn't consider the exploit to be a security issue. This is the second time in recent months that Microsoft has been forced to change its position on a known exploit, having initially rejected reports that another Windows MSDT zero-day, known as Follina, posed a security threat. A patch for that exploit was released in June's Patch Tuesday update. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/08/12/2037213 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Google's New Bug Bounties Include Their Custom Linux Kernel's Experimental Security Mitigations
by Peter Reutemann 14 Aug '22

14 Aug '22

'Google uses Linux "in almost everything," according to the leader of Google's "product security response" team — including Chromebooks, Android smartphones, and even Google Cloud. "Because of this, we have heavily invested in Linux's security — and today, we're announcing how we're building on those investments and increasing our rewards." In 2020, we launched an open-source Kubernetes-based Capture-the-Flag (CTF) project called, kCTF. The kCTF Vulnerability Rewards Program lets researchers connect to our Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) instances, and if they can hack it, they get a flag, and are potentially rewarded. All of GKE and its dependencies are in scope, but every flag caught so far has been a container breakout through a Linux kernel vulnerability. We've learned that finding and exploiting heap memory corruption vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel could be made a lot harder. Unfortunately, security mitigations are often hard to quantify, however, we think we've found a way to do so concretely going forward.... First, we are indefinitely extending the increased reward amounts we announced earlier this year, meaning we'll continue to pay $20,000 — $91,337 USD for vulnerabilities on our lab kCTF deployment to reward the important work being done to understand and improve kernel security. This is in addition to our existing patch rewards for proactive security improvements. Second, we're launching new instances with additional rewards to evaluate the latest Linux kernel stable image as well as new experimental mitigations in a custom kernel we've built. Rather than simply learning about the current state of the stable kernels, the new instances will be used to ask the community to help us evaluate the value of both our latest and more experimental security mitigations. Today, we are starting with a set of mitigations we believe will make most of the vulnerabilities (9/10 vulns and 10/13 exploits) we received this past year more difficult to exploit. For new exploits of vulnerabilities submitted which also compromise the latest Linux kernel, we will pay an additional $21,000 USD. For those which compromise our custom Linux kernel with our experimental mitigations, the reward will be another $21,000 USD (if they are clearly bypassing the mitigations we are testing). This brings the total rewards up to a maximum of $133,337 USD. We hope this will allow us to learn more about how hard (or easy) it is to bypass our experimental mitigations..... With the kCTF VRP program, we are building a pipeline to analyze, experiment, measure and build security mitigations to make the Linux kernel as safe as we can with the help of the security community. We hope that, over time, we will be able to make security mitigations that make exploitation of Linux kernel vulnerabilities as hard as possible. "We don't care about vulnerabilities; we care about exploits," Vela told the Register. "We expect the vulnerabilities are there, they will get patched, and that's nice and all. But the whole idea is what do to beyond just patching a couple of vulnerabilities." In total, Google paid out $8.7 million in rewards to almost 700 researchers across its various VPRs last year. "We are just one actor in the whole community that happens to have economic resources, financial resources, but we need the community to help us make the Kernel better," Vela said. "If the community is engaged and helps us validate the mitigations that we have, then, we will continue growing on top of that. But the whole idea is that we need to see where the community wants us to go with this...." [I]t's not always about the cash payout, according to Vela, and different bug hunters have different motivations. Some want money, some want fame and some just want to solve an interesting problem, Vela said. "We are trying to find the right combination to captivate people." ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/22/08/13/064239 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Researchers Find Vulnerability In Software Underlying Discord, Microsoft Teams, and Other Apps
by Peter Reutemann 12 Aug '22

12 Aug '22

'Motherboard reports: A group of security researchers found a series of vulnerabilities in the software underlying popular apps like Discord, Microsoft Teams, Spotify and many others, which are used by tens of millions of people all over the world. At the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, the researchers presented their findings, detailing how they could have hacked people who use Discord, Microsoft Teams, and the chat app Element by exploiting the software underlying all of them: Electron, which is a framework built on the open source Chromium and the cross-platform javascript environment Node JS. In all these cases, the researchers submitted vulnerabilities to Electron to get them fixed, which earned them more than $10,000 in rewards. The bugs were fixed before the researchers published their research. Aaditya Purani, one of the researchers who found these vulnerabilities, said that "regular users should know that the Electron apps are not the same as their day-to-day browsers," meaning they are potentially more vulnerable. In the case of Discord, the bug Purani and his colleagues found only required them to send a malicious link to a video. With Microsoft Teams, the bug they found could be exploited by inviting a victim to a meeting. In both cases, if the targets clicked on these links, hackers would have been able to take control of their computers, Purani explained in the talk. For him, one of the main takeaways of their research is that Electron is risky precisely because users are very likely to click on links shared in Discord or Microsoft Teams.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/22/08/11/211256 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Raspberry Pi-Powered Anti-Tracking Tool Checks If You're Being Followed
by Peter Reutemann 12 Aug '22

12 Aug '22

'Matt Edmondson, a hacker and digital forensics expert, built a Raspberry Pi-powered anti-tracking tool that "scans for nearby devices and alerts you if the same phone is detected multiple times within the past 20 minutes," reports Wired. The device, which can be carried around or placed in a car, consists of parts that cost around $200 in total. From the report: The homemade system works by scanning for wireless devices around it and then checking its logs to see whether they also were present within the past 20 minutes. It was designed to be used while people are on the move rather than sitting in, say, a coffee shop, where it would pick up too many false readings. The anti-tracking tool, which can sit inside a shoebox-sized case, is made up of a few components. A Raspberry Pi 3 runs its software, a Wi-Fi card looks for nearby devices, a small waterproof case protects it, and a portable charger powers the system. A touchscreen shows the alerts the device produces. Each alert may be a sign that you are being tailed. The device runs Kismet, which is a wireless network detector, and is able to detect smartphones and tablets around it that are looking for Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections. The phones we use are constantly looking for wireless networks around them, including networks they've connected to before as well as new networks. Edmondson says Kismet makes a record of the first time it sees a device and then the most recent time it was detected. But to make the anti-tracking system work, he had to write code in Python to create lists of what Kismet detects over time. There are lists for devices spotted in the past five to 10 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes, and 15 to 20 minutes. If a device appears twice, an alert flashes up on the screen. The system can show a phone's MAC address, although this is not much use if it's been randomized. It can also record the names of Wi-Fi networks that devices around it are looking for -- a phone that's trying to connect to a Wi-Fi network called Langley may give some clues about its owner. "If you have a device on you, I should see it," he says. In an example, he showed WIRED that a device was looking for a network called SAMSUNGSMART. To stop the system from detecting your own phone or those of other people traveling with you, it has an "ignore" list. By tapping one of the device's onscreen buttons, it's possible to "ignore everything that it has already seen." Edmondson says that in the future, the device could be modified to send a text alert instead of showing them on the screen. He is also interested in adding the capability to detect tire-pressure monitoring systems that could show recurring nearby vehicles. A GPS unit could also be added so you can see where you were when you were being tracked, he says. [...] Edmondson has no plans to make the device into a commercial product, but he says the design could easily be copied and reused by anyone with some technical knowledge. Many of the parts involved are easy to obtain or may be lying around the homes of people in tech communities. For those interested, Edmondson open-sourced its underlying code and plans to present the research project at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas this week.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/22/08/11/2143207 Anybody interested in exploring that project and demoing it at our September meeting slot? Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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SGX, Intel's Supposedly Impregnable Data Fortress, Has Been Breached Yet Again
by Peter Reutemann 10 Aug '22

10 Aug '22

'Intel's latest generation of CPUs contains a vulnerability that allows attackers to obtain encryption keys and other confidential information protected by the company's software guard extensions, the advanced feature that acts as a digital vault for security users' most sensitive secrets. From a report: Abbreviated as SGX, the protection is designed to provide a fortress of sorts for the safekeeping of encryption keys and other sensitive data, even when the operating system or a virtual machine running on top is maliciously compromised. SGX works by creating trusted execution environments that protect sensitive code and the data it works with from monitoring or tampering by anything else on the system. SGX is a cornerstone of the security assurances many companies provide to users. Servers used to handle contact discovery for the Signal Messenger, for instance, rely on SGX to ensure the process is anonymous. Signal says running its advanced hashing scheme provides a "general recipe for doing private contact discovery in SGX without leaking any information to parties that have control over the machine, even if they were to attach physical hardware to the memory bus." The example is purely hypothetical. Signal spokesperson Jun Harada wrote in an email: "Intel alerted us to this paper... and we were able to verify that the CPUs that Signal uses are not impacted by the findings of this paper and therefore are not vulnerable to the stated attack." Key to the security and authenticity assurances of SGX is its creation of what are called "enclaves," or blocks of secure memory. Enclave contents are encrypted before they leave the processor and are written in RAM. They are decrypted only after they return. The job of SGX is to safeguard the enclave memory and block access to its contents by anything other than the trusted part of the CPU.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/22/08/09/1814258 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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