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Essential security for Linux servers (2013)
Father, Founder, and FuturistBuilding bestinterest.app and podcasting for coparents.Learn more about me.
Ubiquiti developer charged with extortion, causing 2020 “breach”
Last year, I posted a series of articles about a purported “breach” at Ubiquiti. My sole source for that reporting was the person who has since been indicted by federal prosecutors for his alleged wrongdoing – which includes providing false information to the press.
Chrome client “variations” can be used to identify you (2020)
Until now I used Chrome with a few settings tweak like disabling sending usage statistics, uBlock origin, no crash reports and so on.
The Fraud Supply Chain
Fraud is largely conducted by professionals operating in specialized firms, which have their own ecosystem of evil.
Testing Phone-Sized Faraday Bags
Complex software is, to put it mildly, hard to get right (for details, see almost any other posting on this or any other security blog). Especially for gadgets that are rich with microphones, cameras, location and environmental sensors, and communication links (such as, you know, smartphones), errors and security…
No U PNP
Previously on Deep Space Nine, we discussed (read: I complained about) the short life and quick death of DLNA. On the way, I mentioned DLNA's dependence on UPnP as an underlying autoconfiguration protocol. Let's talk a bit more about UPnP, because it's 1) an interesting protocol, 2) widely misunderstood, and 3)…
The internet is held together with spit and baling wire
A visualization of the Internet made using network routing data. Image: Barrett Lyon, opte.org.
Multi-Account Containers to “Exchange messages with programs other than Firefox”
A new version of Firefox Multi-Account Containers requires permission to “Exchange messages with programs other than Firefox.”
Is Microsoft Stealing People’s Bookmarks?
I received email from two people who told me that Microsoft Edge enabled synching without warning or consent, which means that Microsoft sucked up all of their bookmarks. Of course they can turn synching off, but it’s too late. Has this happened to anyone else, or was this user error of some sort? If this is real, can…
The ‘Zelle fraud’ scam: how it works, how to fight back
One of the more common ways cybercriminals cash out access to bank accounts involves draining the victim’s funds via Zelle , a “peer-to-peer” (P2P) payment service used by many financial institutions that allows customers to quickly send cash to friends and family. Naturally, a great deal of phishing schemes that…
Backdooring Rust crates for fun and profit
Supply chains attacks are all the rage these days, whether to deliver RATs, cryptocurrencies miners, or credential stealers. In Rust, packages are called crates and are (most of the time) hosted on a central repository: https://crates.io for better discoverability. We are going to study 8 techniques to achieve Remote…
I hate password rules
The other day, I was creating a new account on the web. It was financial in nature, which means it gets one of my most secure passwords. I used Password Safe to generate this 16-character alphanumeric password: :s^Twd.J;3hzg=Q~ Which was rejected by the site, because it didn’t meet its password security rules. It took…
Chrome may start restricting requests to private networks
You're probably reading this page because you've attempted to access some part of my blog (Wandering Thoughts) or CSpace , the wiki thing it's part of. Unfortunately you're using a browser version that my anti-crawler precautions consider suspicious, most often because it's too old (most often this applies to versions…
OAuth with Cloudflare workers on a statically generated site
An article on implementing OAuth user registration for a newsletter on a statically generated site using Cloudflare workers.
Hoax email blast abused poor coding in FBI website
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed today that its fbi.gov domain name and Internet address were used to blast out thousands of fake emails about a cybercrime investigation. According to an interview with the person who claimed responsibility for the hoax, the spam messages were sent by abusing…
Sign arbitrary data with your SSH keys
ssh-keygen can sign and verify signatures, and it's way better than PGP
macOS Zero-Day Used Against Hong-Kong Activists
Google researchers discovered a MacOS zero-day exploit being used against Hong Kong activists. It was a “watering hole” attack, which means the malware was hidden in a legitimate website. Users visiting that website would get infected. From an article: Google’s researchers were able to trigger the exploits and study…
I'm unsure of the security of simultaneous multithreading on modern x86 CPUs
You're probably reading this page because you've attempted to access some part of my blog (Wandering Thoughts) or CSpace , the wiki thing it's part of. Unfortunately you're using a browser version that my anti-crawler precautions consider suspicious, most often because it's too old (most often this applies to versions…
ProctorU is dystopian spyware
As part of my MSc, I have to take an online exam. Obviously, this means I am highly likely to cheat by looking up things on Wikipedia or by having a bit of paper with notes on it. EVIL! So, the exam body requires me to install ProctorU. It's a service which lets someone watch you through your laptop camera while you…
$ sudo rm -rf / === NPM install
🔎I authored this blog post whilst I was an employee of Gitpod for Gitpod. I no longer work at Gitpod. In what seems like a long time ago, in part because it is, I learned the catastrophic capabilities of this command the hard way, and I'm sure folks my
REvil Ransom Arrest, $6M Seizure, and $10M Reward
The U.S. Department of Justice today announced the arrest of Ukrainian man accused of deploying ransomware on behalf of the REvil ransomware gang, a Russian-speaking cybercriminal collective that has extorted hundreds of millions from victim organizations. The DOJ also said it had seized $6.1 million in cryptocurrency…
iPhone apps can tell many things about you through the accelerometer
Nearly every modern smartphone is equipped with an accelerometer, which, as the name implies, is a sensor that measures acceleration. It’s most commonly used for detecting the device’s orientation. It also has many other uses, whether as a game controller in racing games, as a pedometer for counting daily steps, or to…
Beg Bounties
When someone passed me hundreds of thousands of records on kids taken from CloudPets a few years ago [https://www.troyhunt.com/data-from-connected-cloudpets-teddy-bears-leaked-and-ransomed-exposing-kids-voice-messages/] , I had a nightmare of a time getting in touch with the company. They'd