- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Email Provider ProtonMail Says It Hacked Back, Then Walks Claim Back
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '17

17 Aug '17

'On Wednesday, encrypted email provider ProtonMail claimed it had hacked someone who was impersonating its service in phishing emails, and the company then swiftly deleted the tweet. Early Wednesday morning, the security researcher known as x0rz tweeted out a series of screenshots allegedly showing someone sending emails that directed targets to a fake ProtonMail login screen. "You have an overdue invoice," the message read. In response, ProtonMail said it had taken action. "We also hacked the phishing site so the link is down now," ProtonMail tweeted. Depending on the context and what exactly the retaliating organization did, hacking back can be illegal. Hacking could violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or perhaps even wiretapping legislation. A recently proposed bill would attempt to legalize the practice. ProtonMail swiftly deleted its tweet, but not before x0rz could grab and subsequently tweet a screenshot. x0rz then deleted his own tweet at the request of ProtonMail.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/08/16/2021257/email-provider-protonmail-sa… 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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Review: System76’s Galago Pro solves “just works” Linux’s Goldilocks problem
by Peter Reutemann 16 Aug '17

16 Aug '17

'In recent years, the PC industry has finally spawned a few manufacturers offering up machines with Linux pre-installed to eliminate this issue. By this point, I've tested most of them around Ars: Dell's XPS and Precision lines both have Linux-friendly offerings, and dedicated Linux manufacturers like System76 have long offered decent hardware with Linux pre-installed. In all this testing, I've yet to encounter a driver problem, which is the real benefit of a machine with Linux pre-installed. (Though to be fair, I could say the same for the Lenovo x240 that serves as my daily driver.) Still, finding the perfect Linux laptop has always been and remains something of a Goldilocks problem: this one is too big, this one is too underpowered, this one has too little RAM, this one lacks a big SSD, and so on. Generally speaking, if you want power and storage you're going to end up with something too big to comfortably throw in a bag and carry all day. The Dell Precision 7520 and the System76 Oryx Pro are good examples of this. [...] What Linux users like myself have long wanted is a laptop with roughly the form factor and weight of a Macbook pro, but with the option to get 32GB of RAM or 3TB of storage. This is the mythical unicorn of pre-built Linux machines, a laptop that is both reasonably lightweight and powerful. And that, my fellow Linux users, is refreshingly what System76 has managed to deliver with its new Galago Pro laptop.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/08/review-system76s-galago-pro-solves-… 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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OpenSource.com Test-Drives Linux Distros From 1993 To 2003
by Peter Reutemann 14 Aug '17

14 Aug '17

'A unique trait of open source is that it's never truly EOL (End of Life). The disc images mostly remain online, and their licenses don't expire, so going back and installing an old version of Linux in a virtual machine and getting a precise picture of what progress Linux has made over the years is relatively simple... Whether you're new to Linux, or whether you're such an old hand that most of these screenshots have been more biographical than historical, it's good to be able to look back at how one of the largest open source projects in the world has developed. More importantly, it's exciting to think of where Linux is headed and how we can all be a part of that, starting now, and for years to come. The article looks at seven distros -- Slackware 1.01 (1993), Debian 0.91 (1994), Jurix/S.u.S.E. (1996), SUSE 5.1 (1998), Red Hat 6.0 (1999), Mandrake 8.0 (2001), and Fedora 1 (2003). Click through for some of the highlights.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/08/12/0341251 Cheers, Pete -- 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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Clamping Down On VPNs
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 12 Aug '17

12 Aug '17

“The Listening Post” on Al Jazeera this week <http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2017/08/great-firewall-up…> talks among other things about the attempts by China and other countries to clamp down on their citizens’ access to virtual private networks. While these have many legitimate “non-political” applications (particularly for business), they can also be used to bypass state censorship. China, as you may know, has the most advanced system for restricting access within its borders to sources of content outside them that the state has deemed undesirable. The plan for ensuring that this clampdown on VPNs is done in a way that doesn’t hurt its own business interests is to license VPN providers within the country, and make sure they allow state monitoring, and do not give access to “undesirable” sites. Apple, for one, has acquiesced to China’s demands and removed VPN apps from its Iphone app store within the PRC. However, as one of those interviewed in the piece points out, on the Android side there are 400 different app stores accessible within China, and it would be quite another matter to make sure they all comply with the new law.

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That Reminds Me ...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 10 Aug '17

10 Aug '17

... I finally got around to writing up some notes on the tips I presented for accessing the systemd journal at that talk last year <https://github.com/WLUG/meetings/tree/master/2016/2016-06-27>.

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A look at OpenSUSE based Gecko Linux
by Peter Reutemann 10 Aug '17

10 Aug '17

'I was sitting at home writing future articles for Ghacks and I decided on a spur of the moment whim that I wanted to try out a distribution I had never touched before. I’ve tried countless systems over the years, from the typical Ubuntu and Debian based systems, to Arch based systems like Manjaro, even Gentoo based systems like Sabayon. However, I was thinking about it and OpenSUSE used to be one of my favourite distributions to use but I’ve never actually sat down and tried a respin of an OpenSUSE based system; so I started digging around into what some popular ones were...And Gecko Linux caught my eye.' -- source: https://www.ghacks.net/2017/08/06/a-look-at-opensuse-based-gecko-linux/ 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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exa a modern replacement for ls written in rust for Linux/Unix
by Peter Reutemann 09 Aug '17

09 Aug '17

'ls is a command to show files in Linux and Unix-like operating systems. A ls command first appeared in a version of AT&T UNIX as well as in Multics. BSD and GNU Coreutils package provides the ls command with minor syntax changes. There is now third alternative named exa. It is a modern replacement for ls. The exa uses colors for information by default, helping you distinguish between many types of files, such as whether you are the owner, or in the owning group. It also has extra features not present in the original ls, such as viewing the Git status for a directory or recursing into directories with a tree view. The exa command written in Rust, so it’s small, fast, and portable.' -- source: https://www.cyberciti.biz/open-source/command-line-hacks/exa-a-modern-repla… 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 55 Arrives With WebVR on Windows, Performance Panel, and Click-to-Play Flash
by Peter Reutemann 08 Aug '17

08 Aug '17

'Mozilla today made available a new update to Firefox for Windows to introduce support for WebVR, that the company says, will enable desktop VR users to dive into web-based experiences with ease. Firefox 55 also includes performance panel, faster startup when restoring multiple tabs, a quicker way to search across various search engines, and click-to-play Flash by default. From a report: WebVR is an experimental JavaScript API that provides support for virtual reality devices, such as the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Google Cardboard. As its name implies, the technology is meant for browsers. If you find a web game or app that supports VR, just click the VR goggles icon visible on the web page to experience it using your VR headset. WebVR supports navigating and controlling VR experiences with handset controllers or your movements in physical space. [...] Firefox 55 also allows users to adjust the number of processes and how much resources they want to allocate to any of them. This setting is at the bottom of the General section in Options. In fact, if your computer has more than 8GB of RAM, Mozilla recommends "bumping up the number of content processes that Firefox uses" because it will make Firefox faster, though at the expense of using more memory. In its own tests on Windows 10, the company found that Firefox uses less memory than Chrome, even with eight content processes running.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/08/08/143246 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Mozilla’s new file-transfer service isn’t perfect, but it’s drop-dead easy
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

'Mozilla is testing a new service that makes it dead simple and quick for people to semi-securely share files with anyone on the Internet. Send, as the service is called, allows senders to encrypt any 1-gigabyte or less file and upload it to a Mozilla server. The service then creates a link with a long, complex string of letters in it that's required to download and decrypt the file. Mozilla will automatically delete the encrypted file as soon as it's downloaded or within 24 hours of being uploaded, even if no one has downloaded it.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/08/mozillas-new-file-tr… 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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OpenSSL Support In Debian Unstable Drops TLS 1.0/1.1 Support
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

'Debian Linux "sid" is deprecating TLS 1.0 Encryption. A new version of OpenSSL has been uploaded to Debian Linux unstable. This version disables the TLS 1.0 and 1.1 protocol. This currently leaves TLS 1.2 as the only supported SSL/TLS protocol version. This will likely break certain things that for whatever reason still don't support TLS 1.2. I strongly suggest that if it's not supported that you add support for it, or get the other side to add support for it. OpenSSL made a release 5 years ago that supported TLS 1.2. The current support of the server side seems to be around 90%. I hope that by the time Buster releases the support for TLS 1.2 will be high enough that I don't need to enable them again. This move caused some concern among Debian users and sysadmins. If you are running Debian Unstable on server tons of stuff is going to broken cryptographically. Not to mention legacy hardware and firmware that still uses TLS 1.0. On the client side (i.e. your users), you need to use the latest version of a browser such as Chrome/Chromium and Firefox. The Older version of Android (e.g. Android v5.x and earlier) do not support TLS 1.2. You need to use minimum iOS 5 for TLS 1.2 support. Same goes with SMTP/mail servers, desktop email clients, FTP clients and more. All of them using old outdated crypto. This move will also affect for Android 4.3 users or stock MS-Windows 7/IE users (which has TLS 1.2 switched off in Internet Options.) Not to mention all the mail servers out there running outdated crypto.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/08/07/1823244 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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