Linked by Jordan Spencer Cunningham on Mon 14th Jun 2010 23:58 UTC
Recently, the Linux version of UnrealIRCd was discovered to have had a Trojan worm its way into the source code. Even more embarrassing for the developers of Unreal is that the Trojan's been holding open the backdoor in the source code since November of 2009-- not very recently. And, of course, bloggers and press in general are taking the opportunity of another breach in Linux security to point out doomsday devices that don't really exist.
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RE[5]: Comment by yoshi314@gmail.com
by saynte on Wed 16th Jun 2010 07:38
in reply to "RE[4]: Comment by yoshi314@gmail.com"
Member since:2007-12-10
Sorry, but Aristocracies is absolutely right. He has provided data to back-up the claim that the daemon is popular in its field, and (as he stated) even if the numbers of servers aren't large, the clients would be more considerable (Wikipedia has some estimate of a half-million IRC clients).
He is also correct that you went off on several tangents unrelated to the topic of potential impact of this vulnerability, calling IRC obscure, anyone who installed this incompetent, a few guesses based on total IP space, etc.
Your argument is appears incredibly weak compared to his, you may want to stop discussing this if you can't produce better formed responses that are actually on-topic.
RE[6]: Comment by yoshi314@gmail.com
by lemur2 on Wed 16th Jun 2010 11:38
in reply to "RE[5]: Comment by yoshi314@gmail.com"
Member since:2007-02-17
Sorry, but Aristocracies is absolutely right. He has provided data to back-up the claim that the daemon is popular in its field, and (as he stated) even if the numbers of servers aren't large, the clients would be more considerable (Wikipedia has some estimate of a half-million IRC clients).
He is also correct that you went off on several tangents unrelated to the topic of potential impact of this vulnerability, calling IRC obscure, anyone who installed this incompetent, a few guesses based on total IP space, etc.
Your argument is appears incredibly weak compared to his, you may want to stop discussing this if you can't produce better formed responses that are actually on-topic.
He is also correct that you went off on several tangents unrelated to the topic of potential impact of this vulnerability, calling IRC obscure, anyone who installed this incompetent, a few guesses based on total IP space, etc.
Your argument is appears incredibly weak compared to his, you may want to stop discussing this if you can't produce better formed responses that are actually on-topic.
Aristocracies is the one who went of on the tangent. It was his whole point that this IRC server daemon was somehow in his view not an obscure application, when clearly it is. It could scarcely be more obscure. Even though there is a Linux version, it is included in no Linux distribution repositories at all. I merely mentioned this in passing.
Furthermore, it truly is incompetent, both of the application authors and of anyone who installed it, to have been caught out by this trojan. There was totally no need to have been so caught out, since there are a number of means readily available to distribute Linux applications securely, so that trojans cannot get a look in. Signing the package is a very obvious thing to have done, but these developers failed to do even that. The developers even admitted to being very embarrassed by their utter lack of even the simplest security measures.
Anyone who had even the vaguest understanding of normal methods of distribution of Linux software should not have touched this particular package with a ten foot barge pole.
Unsigned binary packages simply downloaded from a server and manually installed is the absolutely classic vector for trojan horse malware injection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_horse_%28computing%29
Trojan horses can be installed through the following methods:
* Software downloads (e.g., a Trojan horse included as part of a software application downloaded from a file sharing network)
* Software downloads (e.g., a Trojan horse included as part of a software application downloaded from a file sharing network)
I'm sorry, but this is in the very first page of security 101 for dummies ... don't do this. Don't do unsigned binary installation packages. Refuse point blank to ever install such things.
Edited 2010-06-16 11:51 UTC
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 20:46 UTC
"And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 17:32 UTC
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.More News »
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Member since:
2007-02-17
Absolutely. You are ESPECIALLY at risk if you are in the habit of downloading unsigned binary packages and installing them, unchecked in any way, on your system. I couldn't agree more. This applies for ANY OS, and for any type of applictaion, not merely IRC server applications.
What reputation? They haven't got a reputation worth schmick if they simply ignore the secure distribution methods for Linux applications that are freely available to them, and they simply plonk an unsigned binary package on a server somewhere, and then fail to check it for many months. No-one in their right mind would be using a package such as that, or indeed running their software. That would be utterly crazy, asking for trouble.
What, we are up to 0.000026% now (ten times as many users who run it in client mode). Whoopee. That really takes it well out of the "obscure" class now ... NOT!!!!
Diddums is going to have another ad hominem potshot at me now? How quaint.
Edited 2010-06-16 06:04 UTC