- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Launching 2015: a New Certificate Authority To Encrypt the Entire Web
by Peter Reutemann 18 Nov '14

18 Nov '14

"Today EFF, Mozilla, Cisco, and Akamai announced a forthcoming project called Let's Encrypt. Let's Encrypt will be a certificate authority that issues free certificates to any website, using automated protocols (demo video here). Launching in summer 2015, we believe this will be the missing piece that deprecates the woefully insecure HTTP protocol in favor of HTTPS." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/11/18/1830229 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Crowdfunded Linux Voice Magazine Releases First Issue CC-BY-SA
by Peter Reutemann 18 Nov '14

18 Nov '14

"Linux Voice, the crowdfunded GNU/Linux magazine that Slashdot has covered previously, had two goals at its launch: to give 50% of its profits back to the community after one year, and release each issue's contents under the Creative Commons after nine months. Well, it's been nine months since issue 1, so the whole thing is now online and free to share. Readers and supporters have also made audio versions of articles, for listening to on the commute to work." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/11/18/1636234 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Turning a Rasberry Pi into a Tor Gateway with Sphirewall
by Michael Lawson 17 Nov '14

17 Nov '14

Earlier this month Sphirewall released support for Tor as a transparent gateway, we thought it would be neat to get it running on the Pi and show it of a little bit. Half shameless plug, half interesting use case for Sphirewall and a Pi. http://sphirewall.net/blog.html?post_id=2 (Also 100% kiwi ;)) -- Michael Lawson

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Docker - (was: Re: WLUG meeting next Monday)
by Peter Reutemann 17 Nov '14

17 Nov '14

Ian pointed out that my reply to a meeting announcement might confuse people... So, just to clarify, there is no meeting next week, but on the 24th (AGM). Cheers, Peter On Thu, Nov 6, 2014 at 2:31 PM, Peter Reutemann <fracpete(a)waikato.ac.nz> wrote: >> We have a meeting coming up next Monday: >> >> "Virtualization has been become commonplace nowadays, with lots of >> different implementations. Docker provides an as-thin-as-possible >> approach, making use of the kernel's functionality of resource >> isolation, eliminating the need for installing an operating system for >> the guest system. >> Andrew Parnasov will give an introduction to Docker, how to set it up, >> how to use and what it can be used for." >> >> http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/197652482/ > > Just have come across this here: > > "Google Container Engine (Alpha) > > Run Docker containers on Google Cloud Platform, powered by Kubernetes. > Container Engine takes care of provisioning and maintaining the > underlying virtual machine cluster, scaling your application, and > operational logistics like logging, monitoring, and health > management." > > -- source: https://cloud.google.com/container-engine/ > > Cheers, Peter > -- > Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ > http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Fedora Looks To Make /usr World-Readable
by Peter Reutemann 17 Nov '14

17 Nov '14

"Fedora developers are looking at requiring all files that be placed in /usr world-readable. Developers are seeking a mandate that all Fedora packages must not install any non-world-readable files within /usr. Right now some Fedora packages do not honor this and restrict permissions to certain files/directories. Stakeholders are after making the user directory world-readable since containerized copies of Fedora can have the directory bind-mounted into the container, support for virtualization use-cases, and for better systemd handling. " -- source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTgzOTE Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Longtime Debian Developer Tollef Fog Heen Resigns From Systemd Maintainer Team
by Peter Reutemann 17 Nov '14

17 Nov '14

'Debian developer Tollef Fog Heen submitted his resignation to the Debian Systemd package maintainers team mailing list today (Sun. Nov. 16th, 2014). In his brief post, he praises the team, but claims that he cannot continue to contribute due to the "load of continued attacks...becoming just too much." Presumably, he is referring to the heated and, at times, even vitriolic criticism of Debian's adoption of Systemd as the default init system for its upcoming Jessie release from commenters inside and outside of the Debian community. Currently, it is not known if Tollef will cease contributing to Debian altogether. A message from his twitter feed indicates that he may blog about his departure in the near future.' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/11/16/2142244 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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81% of Tor Users Can Be De-anonymized By Analysing Router Information
by Peter Reutemann 15 Nov '14

15 Nov '14

"A former researcher at Columbia University's Network Security Lab has conducted research since 2008 indicating that traffic flow software included in network routers, notably Cisco's 'Netflow' package, can be exploited to deanonymize 81.4% of Tor clients. Professor Sambuddho Chakravarty, currently researching Network Anonymity and Privacy at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, uses a technique which injects a repeating traffic pattern into the TCP connection associated with an exit node, and then compares subsequent aberrations in network timing with the traffic flow records generated by Netflow (or equivalent packages from other router manufacturers) to individuate the 'victim' client. In laboratory conditions the success rate of this traffic analysis attack is 100%, with network noise and variations reducing efficiency to 81% in a live Tor environment. Chakravarty says: 'it is not even essential to be a global adversary to launch such traffic analysis attacks. A powerful, yet non- global adversary could use traffic analysis methods [] to determine the various relays participating in a Tor circuit and directly monitor the traffic entering the entry node of the victim connection.'" -- source: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/14/11/14/1851245 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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FreeBSD 10.1 Released
by Peter Reutemann 15 Nov '14

15 Nov '14

"Version 10.1 of the venerable FreeBSD operating system has been released. The new version of FreeBSD offers support for booting from UEFI, automated generation of OpenSSH keys, ZFS performance improvements, updated (and more secure) versions of OpenSSH and OpenSSL and hypervisor enhancements. FreeBSD 10.1 is an extended support release and will be supported through until January 1, 2017." -- source: http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/14/11/14/2159223 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Ubuntu Linux Will Work To Slowly Demphasize 32-bit
by Peter Reutemann 13 Nov '14

13 Nov '14

"Canonical isn't yet prepared to drop 32-bit Ubuntu ISOs outright, but over time -- and particularly at or just after Ubuntu 16.04 -- they will work to demphasize the existence of the 32-bit releases and work to push more users to 64-bit Ubuntu as a main focus. " -- source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTgzODE Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Security Distros Compared: Tails vs. Kali vs. Qubes
by Peter Reutemann 13 Nov '14

13 Nov '14

"If you're interested in security, you've probably already heard of security-focused Linux distros like Tails, Kali, and Qubes. They're really useful for browsing anonymously, penetration testing, and tightening down your system so it's secure from would-be hackers. Here are the strengths and weaknesses of all three. - Tails Provides Security Through Anonymity - Kali Is All About Offensive Security - Qubes Offers Security Through Isolation" -- source: http://goo.gl/vomgra Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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