61
Topics /
Security & Privacy
The most popular blog posts about security & privacy on Hacker News. 240 posts.
62
Google Home (in)Security
TL;DR: An undocumented API in Google home devices is easily exploitable. This command will reboot any on your local network: nmap –open -p 8008 192.168.1.0/24 | awk ‘/is up/ {print up};…
63
Twitter's Secret “Guest Mode”
Twitter has an undocumented feature which lets you follow accounts without being logged in. Here's how I found it, and how you can use it. My crappy old TV has a crappy old web browser on it. One boring Sunday, I decided to see which websites worked and which didn't on a 6 year old browser. Anything using LetsEncrypt…
64
65
Why Searching Through 500M Pwned Passwords Is So Quick
In the immortal words of Ricky Bobby, I wanna go fast [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qJGsSuFRIg]. When I launched Pwned Passwords V2 last week [https://www.troyhunt.com/ive-just-launched-pwned-passwords-version-2/], I made it fast - real fast - and I want to talk briefly here
66
TLS 1.3 and Proxies
I'll generally ignore the internet froth in a given week as much as possible, but when Her Majesty's Government starts repeating misunderstandings about TLS 1.3 it is necessary to write something, if only to have a pointer ready for when people start citing it as evidence.
67
Credit card fraud warning signs
Avoid accepting fraudulent credit card orders by paying attention to these warning signs.
68
The ‘app’ you can’t trash: how SIP is broken in High Sierra
When you can’t remove an app which you installed just a few minutes ago, you know there’s something wrong. Here’s the solution, and why this is bad security.
69
Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction
The Chinese government has long been suspected of hiring as many as 2,000,000 people to surreptitiously insert huge numbers of pseudonymous and other deceptive writings into the stream of real social media posts, as if they were the genuine opinions of ordinary people. Many academics, and most journalists and…
70
71
So Your Startup Received the Nightmare GDPR Letter
Some dumb lawyer figured it would be fun to give GDPR trolls a form letter to use to inflict maximum damage on unsuspecting companies. The reason why this is dumb is simple: the GDPR serves a legitimate need but by decreasing the signal:noise ratio handcrafted requests from users with a legitimate concern can get…
72
Website Glitch Let Me Overstock My Coinbase
Coinbase and Overstock.com just fixed a serious glitch that allowed Overstock customers to buy any item at a tiny fraction of the listed price. Potentially more punishing, the flaw let anyone paying with bitcoin reap many times the authorized bitcoin refund amount on any canceled Overstock orders.
73
Remote Code Execution in Alpine Linux
tl;dr I found several bugs in apk, the default package manager for Alpine Linux. Alpine is a really lightweight distro that is very commonly used with Docker...
74
USB Reverse Engineering: Down the Rabbit Hole
Thanks for the featured writeup Hackaday! Make sure to check out the comments over there as well. Looks like Hackernoon picked it up as well, make sure to check in with the comments there too. It would be great if you could also head over to Hacker News, give an upvote, and join in the comments there. Let's get this…
75
Bloomberg’s ‘The Big Hack’
One way or the other, there is more to come on this story, and either Bloomberg’s or Apple’s and Amazon’s credibility is going to take a significant hit.
76
The Legitimisation of Have I Been Pwned
There's no way to sugar-coat this: Have I Been Pwned [https://haveibeenpwned.com/] (HIBP) only exists due to a whole bunch of highly illegal activity that has harmed many individuals and organisations alike. That harm extends all the way from those in data breaches feeling a sense of
77
Beyond Passwords: 2FA, U2F and Google Advanced Protection
Last week I wrote a couple of different pieces on passwords, firstly about why we're going to be stuck with them for a long time yet [https://www.troyhunt.com/heres-why-insert-thing-here-is-not-a-password-killer/] and then secondly, about how we all bear some
78
U.S. Secret Service Warns ID Thieves Are Abusing USPS’s Mail Scanning Service
A year ago, KrebsOnSecurity warned that “Informed Delivery,” a new offering from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that lets residents view scanned images of all incoming mail, was likely to be abused by identity thieves and other fraudsters unless the USPS beefed up security around the program and made it easier for…
79
Demystifying CORS
CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) is subject tinged with dread for many web developers. Like tales of a mythical sea beast, every developer has a story to tell about the day CORS seized upon one of their web requests, dragging it down into the inexorable depths, never to be seen again.
80
Spectre and the end of langsec
wingolog: article: spectre and the end of langsec
81
Hackers Breached Virginia Bank Twice in Eight Months, Stole $2.4M
Hackers used phishing emails to break into a Virginia bank in two separate cyber intrusions over an eight-month period, making off with more than $2.4 million total. Now the financial institution is suing its insurance provider for refusing to fully cover the losses.
82
A Recycled IP Address Caused Me to Pirate Books by Accident
Let me tell you a story on how a subdomain of mine managed to serve 390,000+ PDF books without any of my servers being compromised.
83
Into the Borg – SSRF inside Google production network
Intro - Testing Google Sites and Google Caja In March 2018, I reported an XSS in Google Caja, a tool to securely embed arbitrary html/javascript in a webpage. In May 2018, after the XSS was fixed, I r
84
Panera Bread did nothing about its customer data vulnerability for eight months
tl;dr: In August 2017, I reported a vulnerability to Panera Bread that allowed the full name, home address, email address, food/dietary…
85
7-Zip: Multiple Memory Corruptions via RAR and ZIP
Blog about anti-virus software vulnerabilities.
86
87
88
‘Jackpotting’ Attacks Hit U.S. ATMs
ATM “ jackpotting ” — a sophisticated crime in which thieves install malicious software and/or hardware at ATMs that forces the machines to spit out huge volumes of cash on demand — has long been a threat for banks in Europe and Asia, yet these attacks somehow have eluded U.S. ATM operators. But all that changed this…
89
Google bug bounty for security exploit that influences search results
Short version: For the $12 cost of a domain, I was able to rank in Google search results against Amazon, Walmart etc. for high value money terms in the US. The…
90
Qualcomm, National Security, and Patents
The Trump administration blocked Broadcom’s acquisition of Qualcomm, and I think it was the right move. Understanding why means understanding Qualcomm and Broadcom’s plan for the compan…