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Biometric and App Logins Will Soon Be Pushed Across the Web
by Peter Reutemann 10 Apr '18

10 Apr '18

'Soon, it will be much easier to log into more websites using a hardware key plugged into your laptop, a dedicated app, or even the fingerprint scanner on your phone. Motherboard: On Tuesday, a spread of organizations and businesses, including top browser vendors such as Microsoft and Google, announced a new standards milestone that will streamline the process for web developers to add extra login methods to their sites, potentially keeping consumers' accounts and data more secure. "For users, this will be a natural transition. People everywhere are already using their fingers and faces to 'unlock' their mobile phones and PCs, so this will be natural to them -- and more convenient," Brett McDowell, executive director at the FIDO Alliance, one of the organizations involved in setting up the standard, told Motherboard in an email. "What they use today to 'unlock' will soon allow them to 'login' to all their favorite websites and a growing number of native apps that already includes Bank of America, PayPal, eBay and Aetna," he added. Passwords continue to be one of the weaker points in online security. A hacker may phish a target's password and log into their account, or take passwords from one data breach and use them to break into accounts on another site. The login standard, called Web Authentication (WebAuthn), will let potentially any website or online service use apps, security keys, or biometrics as a login method instead of a password, or use those alternative approaches as a second method of verification. The key here is making it easy and open for developers to use, and for it to work across all different brands of browsers. The functionality is already available in Mozilla's Firefox, and will be rolled out to Microsoft's Edge and Google Chrome in the new few months. Opera has committed to supporting WebAuthn as well.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/18/04/10/1357241 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux: Beep Command Can Be Used to Probe for the Presence of Sensitive Files
by Peter Reutemann 10 Apr '18

10 Apr '18

'Catalin Cimpanu, writing for BleepingComputer: A vulnerability in the "beep" package that comes pre-installed with Debian and Ubuntu distros allows an attacker to probe for the presence of files on a computer, even those owned by root users, which are supposed to be secret and inaccessible. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2018-0492, has been fixed in recent versions of Debian and Ubuntu (Debian-based OS). At its core, the bug is a race condition in the beep utility that allows the OS to emit a "beep" sound whenever it is deemed necessary. Security researchers have discovered a race condition in the beep package that allows an attacker to elevate his code to root-level access.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/04/10/142218 Cheers, peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux Computer Maker System76 To Move Manufacturing To the US
by Peter Reutemann 10 Apr '18

10 Apr '18

'Linux computer manufacturer System76 made its mark in part because of its commitment to open source principles and doing what it believes is right. Last year it released its homegrown Linux, Pop!_OS. In early March, System76 founder Carl Richell tweeted about the company's plans to locate its computer manufacturing factory in Denver, Colorado. By moving its manufacturing from China to the United States, System76 is offering more proof that it's not afraid to buck prevailing tech norms to do things "the System76 way." Carl Richell, founder and CEO of System76, says in a Twitter exchange that they anticipate shipping products from the factory by the end of the year.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/04/10/1626202 Here's a link to Pop!_OS: https://system76.com/pop It's based on Ubuntu: https://system76.com/pop/tech Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Firefox Follows Chrome and Blocks the Loading of Most FTP Resources
by Peter Reutemann 10 Apr '18

10 Apr '18

'Mozilla says it will follow in the steps of Google Chrome and start blocking the loading of FTP subresources inside HTTP and HTTPS pages. >From a report: By FTP subresources, we refer to files loaded via the FTP protocol inside img, script, or iframe tags that have a src="ftp://". FTP links placed inside normal angle bracket links or typed directly in the browser's address bar will continue to work. The reasoning is that FTP is an insecure protocol that doesn't support modern encryption techniques and will inherently break many other built-in browser security and privacy features, such as HSTS, CSP, XSA, or others. Furthermore, many malware distribution campaigns often rely on compromising FTP servers and redirecting or downloading malware on users' computers via FTP subresources. Mozilla engineers say FTP subresource blocking will ship with Firefox 61, currently scheduled for release on June 26.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/04/10/188244 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Torvalds Opposes Tying UEFI Secure Boot to Kernel Lockdown Mode
by Peter Reutemann 08 Apr '18

08 Apr '18

'The kernel lockdown feature further restricts access to the kernel by user-space with what can be accessed or modified... Pairing that with UEFI SecureBoot unconditionally is meeting some resistance by Linus Torvalds. The goal of kernel lockdown, which Linus Torvalds doesn't have a problem with at all, comes down to "prevent both direct and indirect access to a running kernel image, attempting to protect against unauthorised modification of the kernel image and to prevent access to security and cryptographic data located in kernel memory, whilst still permitting driver modules to be loaded." But what has the Linux kernel creator upset with are developers trying to pair this unconditionally with UEFI SecureBoot. Linus describes Secure Boot as being "pushed in your face by people with an agenda." But his real problem is that Secure Boot would then imply Kernel Lockdown mode... "Tying these things magically together IS A BAD IDEA."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/04/07/2159245 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Programmer Unveils OpenGL Bindings for Bash
by Peter Reutemann 08 Apr '18

08 Apr '18

'Compiled languages have long provided access to the OpenGL API, and even most scripting languages have had OpenGL bindings for a decade or more. But, one significant language missing from the list is our old friend/nemesis Bash. But worry no longer! Now you can create your dazzling 3D visuals right from the comfort of your command line! "You'll need a system with both Bash and OpenGL support to experience it firsthand," explains software engineer Michael Conrad, who created the first version 13 years ago as "the sixth in a series of 'Abuse of Technology' projects," after "having my technical sensibilities offended that someone had written a real-time video game in Perl. "Back then, my primary language was C++, and I was studying OpenGL for video game purposes. I declared to my friends that the only thing worse would be if it had been 3D and written in Bash. Having said the idea out loud, it kept prodding me, and I eventually decided to give it a try to one-up the 'awfulness'..."' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/18/04/07/0035203 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Intel drops plans to develop Spectre microcode for ancient chips
by Peter Reutemann 04 Apr '18

04 Apr '18

'Intel has scaled back its plans to produce microcode updates for some of its older processors to address the "Spectre variant 2" attack. Core 2 processors are no longer scheduled to receive updates, and, while some first generation Core products have microcode updates available already, others have had their update cancelled.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/04/intel-drops-plans-to-develop-spectr… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Fedora 28 Beta Linux Distro is Finally Here
by Peter Reutemann 03 Apr '18

03 Apr '18

'Today, version 28 of the Fedora finally achieves beta status. After a short delay -- it was scheduled to be available a week earlier -- the distro is back on track, and looking better than ever. As is typical now, there are three versions of the operating system -- Atomic Host, Server, and Workstation. While all three have their places, normal desktop computer users will want to focus on Workstation. While there are plenty of new features (and bugs), the most exciting aspect of Fedora 28 Workstation is the inclusion of the GNOME 3.28 desktop environment.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/04/03/1846233 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux Kernel To Lose A Few Architectures
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Apr '18

03 Apr '18

Looking at the source code <https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/latest/source/> for the latest (4.16) Linux kernel, I see support for 31 different major processor architectures currently <https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/latest/source/arch>. However, the next, 4.17 kernel is due to drop the ability to run on 8 of them <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/03/linux_kernel_4_16_released/>, due to the fact that nobody is using them any more--or at least, nobody with an interest in implementing new kernels <http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1804.0/00306.html>. Interesting to read Arnd Bergmann’s observations on what these dead-end architectures have in common: In the end, it seems that while the eight architectures are extremely different, they all suffered the same fate: There was one company in charge of an SoC line, a CPU microarchitecture and a software ecosystem, which was more costly than licensing newer off-the-shelf CPU cores from a third party (typically ARM, MIPS, or RISC-V). It seems that all the SoC product lines are still around, but have not used the custom CPU architectures for several years at this point. In contrast, CPU instruction sets that remain popular and have actively maintained kernel ports tend to all be used across multiple licensees.

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Adobe Is Helping Some 60 Companies Track People Across Devices
by Peter Reutemann 31 Mar '18

31 Mar '18

'Neowin reports of Adobe's recent announcement of its new Marketing Cloud Device Co-op initiative: The announcement of the new solution for tracking customers across devices was made at the Adobe Summit this week in Las Vegas to a digital marketing conference. According to an Adobe blog post released earlier this month citing Forrester, consumers are increasingly accessing multiple devices before making a purchase decision -- an average of 5.5 connected devices per person. This behavior creates a challenge for retailers, who cannot easily target people in their marketing campaigns, ultimately depending on Facebook or Google to track people instead of devices. Both Facebook and Google are able to do this job because of the massive amount of users logged into their ecosystems regularly, so most retailers have been opting to use those platforms as a way to reach potential customers. But Adobe's approach is to provide a platform agnostic solution acting as a glue between the world's biggest brands' own data management platforms. In order for Device Co-op to work, each company that has joined the initiative will provide Adobe with "cryptographically hashed login IDs" and HTTP header data, which Adobe claims will completely hide the customer's identity. This data will be used to create groups of devices used by the same person or household, which will then be made available to all the members of the initiative so they can target people on different devices, instead of creating one customer profile per device, as can be seen from the example given in the image above. Until now, some 60 companies have joined the Adobe initiative, including brands such as Subway, Sprint, NFL, Lenovo, Intel, Barnes & Noble, and Subaru. Also, preliminary measurements made by Adobe indicate that Device Co-op could link up to 1.2 billion devices worldwide, based on the amount of accesses seen by current members. But it is important to note that the initiative is currently collecting data of U.S. and Canada users only. Adobe is claiming the initiative will not disclose a user's identity to its members, including any personal data, but, given the recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, many will be skeptical of those claims. Thankfully, Adobe is allowing users to completely opt out all of their devices from the services via this website.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/18/03/31/0059259 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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