Browser Updates

1.   Without emphasizing on the need of why we should always keep our browsers updated,I am briefly bringing out here how to check and update your browsers.These browsers are invariably the most commonly used one's ...so I just updated few of them although the browsers exists in plenty!!!!

Firstly

To check the version of your Web Browser, Open the  Browser 

and do the following actions :

For Opera Browser

Click on “Main Menu > Help > About Opera”.

For Firefox

Click “Main Menu >Help> About Firefox.

For Internet Explorer

Press Alt+H and Click on “About Internet Explorer”.

For Apple Safari

Press Alt+H and Click on “About Safari”.

Secondly

To check whats the latest version doing the surfing....i advise two options...either you can simply ask google or check form the respective websites of the web browser...or another easy(but third party) way out is to check the latest versions available for download at http://www.filehippo.com/software/internet/browsers/

HIT WICKET & OUT- Microsoft Genuine Patch crashes WINDOWS 7

1.     This is some news from the corridors of Microsoft.A genuine MS patch released for Windows 7.The patch in the dispute is "Microsoft Security Bulletin MS13-036"

2.  Redmond from Microsoft's Security Response blog blamed the glitch on conflicts with third-party software:

We are aware that some of our customers may be experiencing difficulties after applying security update 2823324, which we provided in security bulletin MS13-036 on Tuesday, April 9. We’ve determined that the update, when paired with certain third-party software, can cause system errors. As a precaution, we stopped pushing 2823324 as an update when we began investigating the error reports, and have since removed it from the download centre.

Contrary to some reports, the system errors do not result in any data loss nor affect all Windows customers. However, all customers should follow the guidance that we have provided in KB2839011 to uninstall security update 2823324 if it is already installed.

3.   That means Windows 7 users should uninstall the security patch Microsoft issued on Tuesday because some PCs failed to restart after applying the update.....:-).Microsoft has advised users of Win 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2* to roll-back the patch.

4.   More about the patch here.Thanks http://www.theregister.co.uk/security/

GPS SPOOF!!!!

1.   Unlike the regular IT hacks wherein we keep seeing MAC spoofing,IP spoofing etc....what can one imagine if a GPS is spoofed.....:-)...can it make a plane land at a wrong coordinate?...YES!!!if it goes by the claims of a Iranian.

2. A US stealth drone was captured by spoofing its GPS coordinates, a hack that tricked the bird into landing in Iranian territory instead of where it was programmed to touch down...Phew..i bet u will read that again(Source :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/15/us_spy_drone_gps_spoofing/ )

3.   The 1700-word article cited an unnamed Iranian engineer who said he's studying the inner workings of the American bat-wing RQ-170 Sentinel that recently went missing over Iranian airspace. He said the spoofing technique made the craft “land on its own where we wanted it to, without having to crack the remote-control signals and communications” from the US control center.(Source :http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/15/us_spy_drone_gps_spoofing/ )

4. Thats hell of a HACK...if it actually is!!!!!!salutes to the guy who could do it in real....now i wonder what all could land at forbidden places if it is really possible.....:-)

5. Thanks http://www.theregister.co.uk

FUDUNTU : Ubuntu + Fedora

1.     How about the best from Ubuntu and Fedora into one single OS?... that's rightly heard....the name is FUDUNTU....few things about this mentioned below :

- Website at http://www.fuduntu.org/

- Fuduntu aims to fit somewhere between Fedora and Ubuntu

- Fuduntu is a lighthearted and fun Linux distribution

 - Option to download directly as well as through torrent

- Fuduntu is optimized for on the go computing(good for Laptop and Netbook users )

- Improved battery life of 30% or more over other Linux distributions.

- The latest Fuduntu 2013.2 has LibreOffice, GIMP, Thunderbird, and other software that takes up a lot of space, approximately 10GB of disk space when installed. However, if you don’t need all that, try out the Lite version, where ISO weighs 800 MB and eats up 6 GB when installed.

2.   The download has started and if I feel it worth will show up with something about it...btw the looks are promising!!!!!

Whonix : Not just another ANONYMOUS OS!!!

1.     When u simply Google on "How to surf Anonymously on the web ? ".....u get a whooping 5,510,000 results in 0.19 seconds!!!!!but when u have such a plethora of options..how do u actually decide on which is actually worth? So there is TOR, then there is Anonymous OS.....did some one think Incognito?....:-)..so we have millions in the line!...so now what I am going to mention here is about Whonix OS.....few points about this as follows :

- An anonymous general purpose Operating System based on Virtual Box, Debian GNU/Linux and Tor.

- By Whonix design, IP and DNS leaks are impossible.

- Not even malware with root rights can find out the user's real IP/location.

- Whonix consists of two (virtual) machines.

-  One VM solely runs Tor and acts as a gateway, which we call Whonix-Gateway.

-  The other VM, which we call Whonix-Workstation, is on a completely isolated network.

-  Only connections through Tor are possible.

2.  When you download the image from the source forge site at http://sourceforge.net/projects/whonix/files/whonix-0.5.6/ you get basically three files.Two in the appliance format and one as a vmdk.So here is the basic diagram explaining the working architecture in WHONIX.

(Click on the image to enlarge)

3.   There is a small difference when we install this OS.Unlike the regular OSs wherein you get the .iso image of the OS and you install it in the typical manner,here the files you need to install are actually virtual appliances in form of .ovf and .ova format.How the installation is done is shown in the video cast below :

Twitter Session Cookie Vulnerability

1.    This one is pretty easy to show and understand..but the only thing not understandable is the fact that it actually exists even today.....so this one is about Twitter Session Cookie Vulnerability.I got to know of this at Null's delhi meet where Rishi Narang (http://www.wtfuzz.com/ )gave this demonstration of which I made a video cast subsequently and uploaded it here at your tube.

2.    In brief it goes like this...u login into your twitter account,an auth_token cookie is generated in the crowd  of various other cookies.Now this cookie only will be able to log you in your twitter account from anywhere across the web....simply watch how to exploit!!!!

3.   Thanks Rishi Narang @ http://www.wtfuzz.com/

Raspberry Pi : Whats this?

1.    Over last few months I have been seeing this term being mentioned in newly raised OS and applications...in the form like such and such OS/Application is Raspberry Pi compatible...so initially it did not  make me enthu enough to do some google/wiki on this..but when I read about Kali Linux being compatible with this Raspberry Pi...i thought I must see this when knowing it is just a click away...so goes like this for the first time readers about Raspberry Pi......

-  Raspberry Pi is a Credit-Card-Sized Single-Board Computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation 

- Developed and introduced with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools....(sounds grt...we never had this...bugged with 8086 boards in our times...)

-  It has a Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip (SoC)

-  Includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor 

-  Offers OEM Fiited 256 megabytes of RAM, later upgradable upto 512MB.

-  Does not include a built-in hard disk or solid-state drive, but uses an SD card for booting and long-term storage.

-  Extremely useful for Engineering Students for Projects Related to Robotics

2.    How does it look like ?

Click to Enlarge
Image Courtesy : http://www.derkbraakman.com

Click to Enlarge
Image Courtesy : http://www.raspberrypi.org

3.    More at http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

MODULAR DATA CENTERs

1.   Modular data center system's are a portable method of deploying data center capacity ie an alternative to the typical building set up like traditional data center.

2.   In general Modular data centers come in two types of form factors. 

-    Containerized Data Centers  fits data center repository (servers, storage and networking equipment) into a standard shipping container.A perfect example of this is the NEBULA@NASA.Few details of this are mentioned below :

How Nebula Looks Like ?

Features :

    -  40-foot long container

    -  Designed in consultation with CISCO

    -  built inside a FOREST container from Verari Systems

    -  Self-service platform built from open source software

    -  Each shipping container data center can hold up to 15,000 CPU cores

    -  Can accommodate files as large as eight terabytes 

    -  Can accommodate an individual file system of 100 terabytes

    -  Makes easier for NASA scientists to share large/complex data sets

2.   Another form of modular data center fits data center equipment into a facility composed of Prefabricated components.Example is HP’s version of this type of modular data center, which it calls Flexible Data Center.How this looks like is shown below :

Keystroke Dynamics Software : We all type UNIQUELY

1.     As on date Passwords are the most common form of identification but at the same time they are also the weakest. Though they are gradually being offered with replacements from the field of bio metrics,picture passwords and OTPs etc...still it will take its time before passwords are a forgotten past..now comes another cool option to identify uniquely....the concept is likely to surprise you if you have not heard of it before!!!!this is known as Keystroke Dynamics.The key points about this are bought out below in brief :

- Know as  Deepnet Security’s TypeSense keystroke dynamics software.

- TypeSense is an authentication solution based on the science of typeprint recognition that uses keystroke dynamics to accurately identify a user by the way they type characters across a keyboard. 

- Keystroke Dynamics technology extracts the distinctive characteristics found in typed sequences of characters, and creates a statistically unique signature from the typing patterns of a person. 

- These distinctive features include the duration for which keys are held and the elapsed time between successive keystrokes. This type of software runs in the background and constantly monitors your key stokes, learns your style, and can detect if your computer’s been hijacked.

- It’s relatively user-friendly and low-cost. 

- It’s mobile and can be used to access your online accounts from anywhere and can be easily integrated in your existing authentication infrastructure.

2.    But as on date the limitation is that typing style can vary greatly depending on whether you are tired, distracted, angry, medicated, or any number of other circumstances. These variations can cause the software to make false positive or negative errors.

3.    At DEFCON : 17, Andrea Barisani and Daniele Bianco demonstrated how to sniff keystrokes using unconventional side channel attacks. Wires in PS/2 keyboards leak information from the data wire into the ground wire which acts like an antenna. The leaked information about the keyboard strokes can be detected on the power outlet, as well as other wires on the same electrical system. By slicing open one of these lines, cutting the ground wire and attaching a probe, the line can be monitored and the signal isolated by filtering out the noise using software such as Scilab. The waves from the oscilloscope and the data can be streamed to the hacker’s computer where additional software is used to extract the victim’s keystroke information.Well..well ..well......there is no end!!!!

4.     Thanks https://www.mafiasecurity.com/access-control/keystroke-dynamics/ and http://www.deepnetsecurity.com/tokens/bio/typesense/

HP LaserJet Pro printers : Telnet Vulnerable

1.    A critical vulnerability discovered in few LaserJet Pro printers that could give remote attackers access to sensitive data. The latest breach expose by Germany security expert, Christoph von Wittich.In brief points below :

-   HP LaserJet Professional printers contain a telnet debug shell which could allow a remote attacker to gain unauthorized access to data.

-   Christoph von Wittich,the guy detected the vulnerability during a routine network scan of his company's corporate network.

-   Vulnerability could also be used for a denial-of-service attack.

-   As long as the printer is not connected to the Internet, this vulnerability should not cause much trouble for the end user,".

-  Effected printers include

      HP LaserJet Pro P1102w
      HP LaserJet Pro P1102
      HP LaserJet Pro P1606dn
      HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf MFP
      HP LaserJet Pro M1213nf MFP
      HP LaserJet Pro M1214nfh MFP
      HP LaserJet ProM1216nfh Multifunction Printer,
      HP LaserJet Pro M1217nfw Multifunction Printer,
      HP LaserJet Pro M1218nfs MFP
      HP LaserJet Pro M1219nf MFP
      HP LaserJet Pro CP1025nw
      HP LaserJet Pro CP1025nw

2.    Now for HP something like this is not new....even in past about 2 years back in dec 2011,a vulnerabilty was discovered wherein "Print of one malicious document can expose your whole LAN".

3.    In-fact I discussed a past case at Feb 2012 last year here....3 months after that happened.HP seems to be busy with printing only....high time they start focusing serious work on security aspects too!!!!

4.    Thanks THN....The Hacker News