Homoglyph attacks: How to create an internet hoax
For decades, social psychologists have understood that the link between attitudes and conduct is convoluted, if not weak. Both online and offline, this is
The Asian domain-name extortion scam
We are a leading internet solutions organization in Asia, and we have something urgent to confirm with you. Yesterday we received a formal application from a company called ” Varmer Investment Co., Ltd “. They were trying to apply for ” instapaper ” as Brand Name and following Domain Names through our organization:
Changing Passwords
How often should you change your password? I get asked that question a lot, usually by people annoyed at their employer’s or bank’s password expiration policy: people who finally memorized their current password and are realizing they’ll have to write down their new password. How could that possibly be more secure…
Deceiving Users with the Facebook Like Button
Facebook just launched a super-easy widget called "The Facebook Like Button". Website owners can add a simple iframe snippet to their html, enabling a nice "Like" button with a count of other people's "Likes" and a list of faces of people if any of them are your friends. The advantage of this new tool is that you…
Facebook's DKIM RSA key should be crackable
If Facebook sends you a mail they will sign it using DKIM . Here are the headers from a mail I received the other day: DKIM-Signature: v=1...
Securing your ssh server
A social nerd writing about everything
Return-Oriented Programming without Returns (on the x86)
We show that on the x86 it is possible to mount a return-oriented programming attack without using any return instructions. Our new attack instead makes use of certain instruction sequences that behave like a return; we show that these sequences occur with sufficient frequency in large Linux libraries to allow…
Overclocking SSL
(This is a write up of the talk that I gave at Velocity 2010 last Thursday. This is a joint work of myself, Nagendra Modadugu and Wan-Teh Chang.)
Schneier on Security: Technology Shouldn't Give Big Brother a Head Start
China is the world’s most successful Internet censor. While the Great Firewall of China isn’t perfect, it effectively limits information flowing in and out of the country. But now the Chinese government is taking things one step further. Under a requirement taking effect soon, every computer sold in China will have to…
Input type="password" Needs to Grow Up
Thoughts and musings of Dennis Forbes, expert software developer/architect and AI engineer
PDF exploit in iOS 4
Link to: http://www.loopinsight.com/2010/08/01/jailbreakme-returns-offers-jailbreak-for-iphone-4-and-ipad/
Android security model is inadequate, and it needs a firewall
I have an Android phone, and while it’s good that Android does have some sandboxing, permissions and security against rogue apps, I’m not very happy with the security model and how it a…
Schneier on UAE to Ban BlackBerrys
The United Arab Emirates—Dubai, etc.—is threatening to ban BlackBerrys because they can’t eavesdrop on them. At the heart of the battle is access to the data transmitted by BlackBerrys. RIM processes the information through a handful of secure Network Operations Centers around the world, meaning that most governments…
Schneier on Filming the Police
In at least three U.S. states, it is illegal to film an active duty policeman: The legal justification for arresting the “shooter” rests on existing wiretapping or eavesdropping laws, with statutes against obstructing law enforcement sometimes cited. Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 12 states in…
Firesheep, a day later
Most importantly, I certainly never expected there would be this much attention all at once, and within the first 24 hours.
Careful when hosting 3rd party apps on subdomains, or how I hacked Facebook
In the past few years it has become common for site owners to run 3rd party tools on their site. A good example would be Wordpress or other ...
Protect Your Site with a Blackhole for Bad Bots
Tutorial shows how to setup a blackhole bot trap using PHP in just a few easy steps.