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Passwords are here to stay
At least for the short to medium term. That is the, quite obvious, conclusion drawn in a Newsweek article entitled "Building a Better Password." The article goes inside the CyLab at Carnegie-Mellon University to understand how passwords may...
Posted Sat, Oct 10 2009 by jesper | 4 comment(s)
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And finally, standard user malware
Today I finally got wind of my first piece of true standard user malware. MS Antispyware 2008 has turned standard user. The version in question installs the binaries in c:\documents and settings\all users\application data\<something>, and makes...
Posted Mon, Aug 31 2009 by jesper | 4 comment(s)
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Please do not e-mail my social security number
Recently I had a very interesting incident. I wrote an article some time in 2008 and the publisher paid me a little bit of money for it. That means the publisher must send a report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS - the U.S. tax department) reporting...
Posted Tue, Jan 27 2009 by jesper | 12 comment(s)
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Is MS08-067 Wormable?
A couple of weeks ago Microsoft released an out-of-band security update in bulletin MS08-067 . Looking at the type of vulnerability and the fact that the issue was already being exploited in the wild at the time, this was a good decision. If you have...
Posted Tue, Nov 4 2008 by jesper | 5 comment(s)
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Anatomy of a Hack 2008
A few years ago I delivered a very popular presentation I called "Anatomy of a Hack." Well, actually, I called it "How to Get Your Network Hacked in 10 Easy Steps" but the marketing department at my previous employer thought that title...
Posted Fri, Aug 22 2008 by jesper | 8 comment(s)
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Buy the original Olympic Torch from Beijing
"Buy the original Olympic Torch from Beijing" That was one of the fake headlines in the latest "CNN.com Daily Top 10" malware spam I've been getting lately. This particular spam is a fake newsfeed which redirects you to one of...
Posted Fri, Aug 8 2008 by jesper | 1 comment(s)
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Phishing for a Tax Refund
What's wrong with this picture? If you answered "why would the IRS use a web server in Korea to ask for information about my tax refund" you are a winner! This is a phishing site preying on people who do not know that all you need to do...
Posted Sun, May 4 2008 by jesper | 2 comment(s)
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Mitigate the Image Uploader Vulnerabilities
The big security news this week is the six vulnerabilities found in various image uploader ActiveX controls. In case you haven't seen the news , there are exploits available publicly for remote vulnerabilities in five different ActiveX controls. US...
Posted Wed, Feb 6 2008 by jesper | 4 comment(s)
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Using Autoplay on Vista To Stop Attacks
The January issue of TechNet Magazine has an article I wrote about how to hack a system using autoplaying USB flash drives. While it is not possible to stop all attacks from USB tokens, Vista does include some interesting protective measures. However...
Posted Sun, Dec 23 2007 by jesper | 1 comment(s)
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Is Firefox More Secure than Internet Explorer?
Well, sure it is. According to the Firefox web site, which must of course be untainted by marketing claims since it is Mozilla, " Firefox continues to lead the way in online security". OK, marketing hyperbole aside, I'm a data guy. I care...
Posted Fri, Nov 30 2007 by jesper | 6 comment(s)
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What They Teach Kids These Days
Sweden has always been a little "cutting edge," if you know what I mean. Little did I know, however, just how cutting edge. This picture was snapped in a toy store in Stockholm last week: I probably stood there stunned for a good two minutes...
Posted Mon, Sep 3 2007 by jesper | 1 comment(s)
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The Protocol Handler Saga Continues: Say What Secunia?
Sometimes you just have to wonder how far people will go to lend undeserved credibility to opinions. The Protocol Handler Saga is rapidly becoming a religious war. The latest entry is related to a very cool exploit that Billy Rios and Nate McFeters published...
Posted Thu, Jul 26 2007 by jesper | 11 comment(s)
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Hey, Mozilla: Quotes Are Not Legal in a URL
When I was a child, I learned a saying that I still find important to keep in mind: Those who are sitting in a glass house shall not throw stones The good folks at Mozilla may want to look up what that really means. Two days ago, Mozilla published Firefox...
Posted Fri, Jul 20 2007 by jesper | 36 comment(s)
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New Firefox Available
Mozilla has published a new Firefox. Version 2.0.0.5 fixes the FirefoxURL protocol handler issue by changing the calling convention for the protocol handler. Instead of the old calling convention: C:\\PROGRA~1\\MOZILL~2\\FIREFOX.EXE -url “%1″ -requestPending...
Posted Thu, Jul 19 2007 by jesper | 2 comment(s)
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Blocking the Firefox -> IE 0-day
Thor Larholm, unhelpfully, published details on what he claims is a 0-day exploit for Internet Explorer (IE) yesterday. This exploit is actually for Firefox, but Thor exploited it by making IE launch Firefox. Firefox creates three protocol handlers. A...
Posted Tue, Jul 10 2007 by jesper | 28 comment(s)
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