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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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A biological approach to security
1 day, 20 hours ago
Over at the Open Sources blog, Savio Rodrigues calls attention to two critical security vulnerabilities in the Spring Framework for Java. They were discovered by security consultancy Ounce Labs, which disclosed the exploits in a detailed report. If you use Spring for critical business applications, you'll definitely want to be aware of the threats and take appropriate measures. -
Linux Kernel Vulnerabilities closed, 2.6.25.11 released
1 day, 23 hours ago
The Stable team (Linux kernel developers) have announced the release of Linux kernel 2.6.25.11.They have strongly recommended any one who uses Linux kernel 2.6.25 on multiuser x86-64 system to upgrade to the vesion 2.6.25.11. The user with restriced previlleges are able to escalate their access previlleges. The announcer has not given any details of the vulnerability but it was supposed to caused by the filtereing of the LDT. -
WordPress logins made more secure than most online bank accounts
2 days, 18 hours ago
The PhoneFactor plug-in adds a second form of authentication to WordPress administrative logins. Bloggers log in to WordPress with their user name and password (just like they do today) and instantly they get a call. They answer the call and press # to complete their WordPress log in. A hacker would need to know the blogger’s log in information and have physical possession of their phone to log in. -
Cybercrime Organizational Structures and Modus Operandi
4 days, 22 hours ago
Finjan announced the latest findings by its Malicious Code Research Center. The report explores the trend of loosely organized clusters of hackers trading stolen data online being replaced by hierarchical cybercrime organizations. These organizations deploy sophisticated pricing models, crimeware business models refined for optimal operation, crimeware drop zones, and campaigns for optimal distribution of the crimeware. -
Is DNSSEC the answer to Internet security?
6 days, 12 hours ago
The technology to secure the DNS system has been around for four years, yet many servers don't use it. -
Book review: Network Warrior
1 week, 2 days ago
The Cisco CCNA network associate certification validates the ability to install, configure, operate, and troubleshoot medium-size routed and switched networks, including implementation and verification of connections to remote sites in a WAN. "Network Warrior" is a book intended for those who earned CCNA or a similar level of certification and want to push forward with analyzing interesting real world examples. -
Cybercriminals Reinvent Attack Methods
1 week, 5 days ago
Cybercriminals are not only leveraging new technologies to propagate cybercrime, but are also reinventing forms of social engineering to cleverly ensnare both consumers and businesses, according to a Trend Micro report. As a result, the last six months saw an upswing in Web threats, but steady decreases in adware and spyware that are generated by outdated technical methods and can no longer compete with high-level security solutions. -
Linux Security: Easy as 1-2-3
3 weeks, 1 day ago
Paul Rubens"Linux is a secure OS." You've probably heard this statement from time to time, and compared to Windows you could argue that it is. But really it's kind of a meaningless statement: no system which is connected to a network or used by human beings is completely secure, and if it was it would probably be useless. -
Microsoft tools address SQL injection attacks
3 weeks, 4 days ago
On Tuesday, Microsoft issued new tools to assist Microsoft ASP and ASP.NET technologies against recent Web-based attacks. -
The demand for RFID and biometric security solutions
3 weeks, 5 days ago
Government and security agencies worldwide increasingly demand high-tech solutions to secure their borders. In response, the security industry is developing technology that will prevent rogue elements from crossing international borders without also creating bottlenecks. Some of the latest security technologies are not flawless and in order to reduce false positives and distinctly recognize every individual, the security market has developed a multi-factor authentication technology that integrates two different technologies — RFID and biometrics. -
Threat of an Embedded Security Disaster
4 weeks ago
For many years, embedded systems have been quietly working behind the scenes of almost all modern technologies, from automobiles to factory floors to space exploration missions. Increasingly, these critical embedded systems are built from COTS software, and often incorporate standards-based network connectivity. Just as the early networked desktop PCs and servers were unprepared to address the new security implications of network connectivity, today's embedded systems present a significant new security concern, which must be addressed immediately and systematically. -
Creating chroot sftp Jails with Jailkit
4 weeks, 1 day ago
One of the things I both love and hate about my job is getting assigned new projects. They can be about anything and everything. A few months back I was given an assignment to create some chroot jails for a group of customers so that they could securely upload files with sftp. The requirement was that the customers needed to be able to upload file, but in a secure and private way. Customer One should not be able to see Customer Two's files, for example. And neither customer should be able to browse the filesystem of the server. I was also asked to define a process whereby our support staff could add new jails as needed. -
One in three IT staff snoops on colleagues
4 weeks, 1 day ago
One in three information technology professionals abuses administrative passwords to access confidential data such as colleagues' salary details, personal e-mails or board-meeting minutes, according to a survey. -
The Rise of User Circumvention and Risky Unauthorized Activities
1 month, 1 week ago
This podcast discusses how end users are actively skirting IT security controls with anonymous, external proxies and tunneling applications, enabling risky and unauthorized activities. -
PCI mandate stresses importance of web application security
1 month, 1 week ago
On June 30, another refresh of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) will upgrade Web application security testing from a best practice to a mandatory practice. The deadline forces merchants and vendors to take a closer look at application-layer security and emphasizes its importance in fighting increasing online threats. Finding and mitigating vulnerabilities is the greater goal of PCI’s Web application security initiative, as it acknowledges what security professionals have known for a long time - security needs to be addressed from the very beginning. - More News
Linux.com : Security
Patches coming today for DNS vulnerability
Whether you're running Linux, Windows, Cisco, Sun, or other DNS servers, you are at risk from a newly discovered vulnerability. So says Dan Kaminsky, head of penetration testing research at IO Active, who accidently discovered the DNS "design flaw" earlier this year.
Free Locknote for Windows offers fast free file encryption
Steganos Locknote is a handy little GPL-licensed utility for Windows, built using the Crypto++ class library. It is designed to keep text files secure, so you can store your sensitive information and passwords without having to worry about the information falling into the wrong hands.
Deposition challenges Trend Micro patent on virus scans
Goran Fransson, a Swedish developer and entrepreneur, has given a deposition in the Barracuda-Trend Micro case that appears to seriously undermine Trend Micro's patent on gateway virus scanning.
Smart ACL management with Eiciel
The traditional file permission model, where read, write, and execute permissions are set on each file for the user, group, and others (UGO) has one drawback: It can't be used to define per-user or per-group permissions. For that, you need to employ access control lists (ACL). Eiciel is a graphical tool that integrates with the Nautilus file manager and allows for easy ACL management.
Test your environment's security with BackTrack
In the field of penetration testing, BackTrack is today's premier Linux distribution. Designed for, created by, and used by security professionals around the globe, BackTrack is the result of a merger between two earlier, competing distributions -- WHAX and Auditor Security Collection. The most recent beta version was released on June 10.
Barracuda CEO Dean Drako explains why his company is publically fighting Trend Micro patent suit (video)
It's unusual for companies engaged in patent litigation to comment on how the fight is going. But Barracuda Networks CEO Dean Drako has openly sought FOSS community support for his company's defense again a Trend Micro lawsuit that, while filed against his company, is really about ClamAV. We've written about this before, as have others. In this video, however, we'll let Dean tell you in his own words what's going on -- and why.
Fwknop and single packet authorization
Protecting servers by placing them behind a firewall is a best-practice methodology for systems administrators, but it's not a panacea: those systems are still visible to network scanners such as nmap and nessus. While services like SMTP and HTTP may need to be accessible to the public, most enterprises also have private internal servers that require external access by traveling support staff. For those users, fwknop, an open source utility that provides single packet authorization, can help sysadmins hide their servers from network nasties.
Security Alert: Debian OpenSSL flaw affects many systems
Well-known security researcher H. D. Moore, creator of the MetaSploit Project, has posted his findings on the recently discovered Debian-packaged OpenSSL bug. Moore documents the cause of the bug and explains how easily attackers can create every possible key the flawed OpenSSL implementation can generate.
Protecting directory trees with gpgdir
gpgdir uses GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) to encrypt and decrypt files or a directory tree. You could accomplish the same objective by tarring the filesystem up and then encrypting the tar.gz file with GnuPG, but then you would still have to shred or wipe every file in the original directory tree. With gpgdir the whole tree is encrypted in one command.
Baker College wins National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition
Baker College of Flint, Mich., defeated defending champion Texas A&M University and four other regional winners from across the country to capture the third annual National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, which concluded in San Antonio, Texas, over the weekend. Texas A&M finished a close second, and the University of Louisville took third. Also competing for the championship were the Community College of Baltimore County, Mount San Antonio College of Los Angeles County, and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Ubuntu machine uncracked in Pwn to Own contest
At this year's CanSecWest conference, would-be crackers could try their skills on three separate laptops: One running OS X, one running Ubuntu, and one running Vista. At the end of the three-day security conference in Vancouver, Canada, last week, both the Mac OS X Leopard and Vista machines had been cracked, leaving only the Ubuntu box uncompromised.
Encrypt volumes through a cross-platform GUI with TrueCrypt 5.0
Last month the TrueCrypt Foundation released TrueCrypt 5.0, which finally introduces a Linux GUI for the cross-platform encryption application. TrueCrypt 5.0's numerous other enhancements include a Mac OS X port, XTS operation mode, the ability to encrypt a system partition or drive under Windows, and the addition of the SHA-512 hash algorithm.
Protecting filesystems and swap space with Cryptmount
Cryptmount allows you to encrypt both your filesystems and swap space. An encrypted filesystem can be stored on a block device like a normal filesystem -- for example, using /dev/sda2 -- or inside a normal file in another filesystem. This later method is especially handy when you would like to work with an encrypted filesystem without changing your partition tables or working with the Logical Volume Manager (LVM). Cryptmount can also encrypt your swap space so that information from an encrypted filesystem is not inadvertently made less secure by the Linux kernel swapping a process out to disk.
In latest release, Nmap looks better than ever
December's release of Nmap 4.50 marked the popular port-scanning tool's tenth anniversary. The 4.50 release includes Zenmap, a cross-platform GUI front end for Nmap which includes a command creation wizard, a scripting engine, and a host of other improvements. Zenmap makes it easier than ever to use Nmap.
Efficient rsyncrypto hides remote sync data
The rsync utility is smart enough to send only enough bytes of a changed file to a remote system to enable the remote file to become identical to the local file. When that information is sensitive, using rsync over SSH protects files while in transit.To protect the files when they are on the server you might first encrypt them with GPG. But the manner in which GPG encrypts slightly changed files foils rsync's efficiency.rsyncrypto allows you to encrypt your files while still allowing you to leverage the speed of rsync.
Celebrity advice on keeping your Linux desktop secure
One of the main reasons people move from Windows to Linux is the promise of greater security from malware on the Internet. Everyone knows you need to add extra security to try to keep a Windows desktop safe, but what do you have to do to accomplish the same thing on Linux? To answer that question, we asked a number of well-known Linux kernel hackers and a security expert for their thoughts on the matter.
Mystery infestation strikes Linux/Apache Web sites
According to a press release issued earlier this month by Finjan, a security research firm, compromised Web servers are infecting thousands of visitors daily with malware that turns their Windows machines into unwitting bots to do the bidding of an as yet unidentified criminal organization. Security firms ScanSafe and SecureWorks have since added their own takes on the situation, though with varying estimates on the number of sites affected. All reports thus far say the compromised servers are running Linux and Apache.
Securing Linux laptops
Laptop and notebooks are being stolen at an ever-increasing rate. In 2004, Safeware Insurance which sells computer insurance, estimated 600,000 laptop and notebooks a year were being stolen. In 2006 an estimated 750,000 were being swiped, according to Absolute Software a company that makes computer tracking products -- and does not support Linux. LoJack For Laptops, another computer tracing company -- which also does not support Linux -- says FBI statistics show 2 million laptop and notebook computers were stolen in the US in a recent year. While the figures may not agree in detail, they all show that laptop and notebook theft is a major problem -- and if you're not careful, your Linux laptop might be next.
Build secure Web applications with OWASP
Developing secure applications has always been a difficult task. Software that manages critical functions once serviced only users on internal networks; today, applications run on Web servers accessible to users anywhere in the world. Not only have the scope and magnitude of Web applications increased, but so has the complexity of securing them. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) comes to the rescue of Web application architects with tools, frameworks, and guidelines to improve security in applications.
PacketProtector turns SOHO router into security powerhouse
PacketProtector is an embedded Linux distribution based on OpenWRT, the first popular distribution designed to run on a number of wireless routers commonly found in SOHO settings. Like X-Wrt, which we reviewed earlier this year, PacketProtector extends OpenWrt by offering additional functionality to enhance network security right out of the box.
