FoxFilter so easily defeated it’s ridiculous ;)
FoxFilter 7.6.1 so easily defeated it’s ridiculous!
That’s Microsoft, allright…
 by in Belegana, Conspiracies, Interesting Links, Internet & Technology, Media, Religion & Politics, Random Rantings |
Sickening stuff: How to Get Your Platform Accepted as a Standard – Microsoft Style
Next time somebody believes your usage of the dollar sign when typing “MS” is childish, re-direct those people to that article….
‘Nuff said…
OMG OMG OMG my theme was hacked!
For fun I was checking out my statistics and discovered that my theme got hacked: the footer and header were replaced, inserting spammy URLs into the outputted page, together with some Google Adsense code.
Yay.
As a result I am now delisted from Google’s index.
Apparently, this has been going on for a couple of months, [...]
Keylogging in Javascript (or “Why the fsck does a password field send the keypress value?”)
Disclaimer: The information in here is purely educational, yada yada yada.
And… it’s not people that abuse things who harm people — it’s the people that put those things there without thinking.
An explaination: I have always been intrigued by HTML forms. As a paranoid person, I have always wondered whether companies or websites are logging [...]
MC Frontalot — Secrets From The Future
| by in Arts & Poetry, Conspiracies, Freedom & Repression, Interesting Links, Internet & Technology, Media, Religion & Politics, Music, Security & Privacy |
Hey again! Long time no post, I know…. busy, life, et cetera, but this I just needed to share.
I was just reading Bruce Schneier’s CRYPTO-GRAM and he linked to this suprisingly good track (direct link to MP3) by MC Frontalot, called Secrets From The Future (direct link to the lyrics).
To quote the chorus:
You can’t [...]
‘Amusing’ Blogger translation bug
So I was trying out some API connection, for which I had set up an account on Blogger. Now, the profile over there is displayed in Dutch .. And it translates the sign ‘Cancer’ to the disease ‘cancer’ in Dutch:
The correct translation is of course, ‘Kreeft‘.
That’s the problem with homonyms, words written the same, [...]
My proposal to reduce unnecessary power consumption: Ban animating internet ads
With the recent focus on what human power consumption does to the environment (you know with initiative like a black Google page to save on energy consumption by computer screens), I suddenly realised something that would greatly reduce even more useless power consumption.
It hit me when my girlfriends’ laptop was starting to have issues because [...]
So I was trying to Google a telephone number…
| by in Computers & Hardware, Freedom & Repression, Internet & Technology, Music Industry & DRM, Random Rantings |
…when suddenly Google suggested the following search term:
09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0
Now what the fuck is that?
WTF!?
| by in Internet & Technology, Software |
More software patent craziness…
Flash player v9.0 for Linux (oh yeah, beta)
I today incidentally discovered the Penguin.SWF blog, which details the development of version 9 of the Flash Player for Linux.
Lucky, because I was just beginning to feel like a handicapped person not being able to reach some information over the last few weeks so.
Shows you how much I care about plugins — this [...]
Linux distro timeline
I just discovered the linux distribution timeline.
Cool graph…
Flaming one company and praising the other — while both companies are trying to accomplish the same goals — really makes you look like an idiot.
| by in Computers & Hardware, Conspiracies, Internet & Technology, Music Industry & DRM, Random Rantings |
So, a lot of negative stuff about the PS3 I read this morning. Lately there was some rumours about stacks of PS3s at numerous stores, like as if nobody wants them. Today another story on Slashdot about PS3s freezing up — reportedly.
Anyways, I wouldn’t have given this any more attention if I didn’t catch somebody [...]
Samba developer resigns from Novell
Gloklaw has an article about a software developer’s resignation from Novell as a result of Novell’s deal with Microsoft, yesterday.
Jeremy Allison, a Samba developer, thinks the patent deal between the two companies will be “damaging to the Novell’s success in the future”,
Whilst the Microsoft patent agreement is in place there is *nothing* we can [...]
Want to own a filesystem?
| by in Internet & Technology, Sad Stuff, Software |
I just caught this Wired article through Slashdot. Hans Reiser, the creator of ReiserFS — a computer file system — is currently in jail because he’s suspected of murdering his wife. (Yeh the tough reality is that the moment somebody dies or disappears, the spouse is the number one suspect.)
He was actually already arrested on [...]
Online treatment for alcoholism
I just caught this news (Dutch) about on-line treatment for alcohol-addiction by some Dutch clinic that specialises in that type of thing.
This ‘treatment’ consists of 7 online chat-sessions with a professional.
Now, I can’t get this image out of my head:
i have a drinking problem
Come, come, elucidate your thoughts.
i drink too much
I’m not sure I understand [...]
White-supremacist butt-fuckers messing wit’ MLK…
I just love this initiative to Googlebomb a white-supremacist website (found it while connecting*the*dots).
The content of the site really is sickening and vile. Of course, such a site should be taken down, but denial of service attacks are childish. And, everybody has a right to express themselves, even a white supremacist.
But… this isn’t expression… [...]
And in a couple of years, Linux users are terrorists, undermining our freedoms…
| by in Conspiracies, Freedom & Repression, Media, Religion & Politics, Music Industry & DRM, Random Rantings, Visions |
So, Microsoft has made the bold claim that their intellectual property is in it.
Oh my fucking god. This is serious because there are plenty of stupid people in this world to believe that crap. Fuck, the critical majority, in each and every issue, is dumber than a horses ass and knows just enough to [...]
Quote Of The Week #34
I was listening some old-school music the other day (because I love to reminisce) and couldn’t resist using it as this weeks QOTW…It was Ice-T’s Power album, the song Radio Suckers I was listening to, hearing the following line again (which doesn’t even apply to rap-music only):
We shouldn’t sell out,we should just yell out
And get [...]
Death to corporate mafia!
| by in Conspiracies, Freedom & Repression, Internet & Technology, Media, Religion & Politics, Random Rantings |
When I read shit like this it makes my fucking heart bleed.
PROPRIETARY software emperor Microsoft has struck a deal with the Linux reseller Novell to make it easier for customers to use both Linux and Microsoft’s Windows software.
The deal will make the Vole a SuSE Linux seller and will mean the pair will share technology. [...]
Recording an end-user’s movements on a website — copyright infringement?
This post on Slashdot got me thinking of something that I’ve been thinking about a couple of years ago.
Who says that websites aren’t already recording your movements?
I mean — earlier in this century I was thinking that, when you are a big corporation, and you have some ‘comments, complaints & suggestions‘ section on [...]
Sure, blame some ‘hacker’…
…while actually the system itself is vulnerable as fuck.
It’s not funny when the feds come around to take all your hardware for exposing a three year old hole (which could’ve been abused all along). ‘Taking down’ this guy doesn’t really solve any problems caused by this poor system.
Technology is mankinds Achilles-heel, I tell [...]
brain-tag.net
Don’t you hate it when you go and eat somewhere and the grub’s awful? Not because of the cook, but because of the ingredients? Or, are you (or do you know) a picky eater? Doesn’t it suck that it seems hard to find new menu’s to eat?
That’s what we were discussing when we had some [...]
If they can’t even protect their ‘most valuable good’…
Reading about that ATM hack again today I was thinking this:
If they can’t even protect their ‘most valuable good’, how can we expect voting machines to tell the truth?
OM-MF-G
Just discovered this here (by following a link, by the way, in one of the comments below this other amazing story):
He noticed an alphanumeric code printed on the key [of the Diebold voting machine], and remarked that he had a key at home with the same code on it. The next day he brought in [...]
MythTV + MythStreams + lastFMProxy = fun too :)
Yesterday, one of my new colleagues pointed my attention to last.FM, an internet radio station. Well, there are plenty internet radio stations, but what sets this one apart from the rest is the fact that you can specify what songs you like, so that some kind of profile is created. I had already heard of [...]
Not having anything to hide; rather fearing other peoples interpretation of the facts…
| by in Computers & Hardware, Conspiracies, Freedom & Repression, Media, Religion & Politics, Security & Privacy, Software, Visions |
The title of this post has always been my biggest fear about Big Brother watching everybody’s move, registering everything they buy, et cetera.
See, I really have nothing to hide. I fear that ‘The Man’ only wrongly interprets the information and I get Red Flagged for nothing.
People always thought I was kidding when I said that, [...]
Give up your PIN-code to some criminal holding you at gun-point?
| by in Belegana, Freedom & Repression, Health, Ideas & Concepts, Media, Religion & Politics, Random Rantings, Security & Privacy, The Netherlands, Visions |
Well, go to jail already! In the Netherlands, the police will label anybody that hands over their PIN-code, as a ’suspect of a criminal act’. Of course, there are things to be said against, and pro…. But, of course, I’m more leaning towards against: I didn’t fucking ask for a fucking banking-card that is protected [...]
The irony: Windows broken before shipped…
| by in Conspiracies, Freedom & Repression, Humour, Interesting Links, Music Industry & DRM, Random Rantings, Security & Privacy |
So, while a Microsoft spokesman was trying to relay its wet-dream to listeners (i.e. was intellectually masturbating) on the security in Window Vista, a Polish female researcher was demonstrating how the ’security’ can be bypassed, thus resulting in exactly the same unsafe situation as with earlier Windows variants.
Real funny, that.
Safe computing is impossible if the [...]
BlackHat conference demoes US citizen-only targetting smart-bomb, triggered by RFID chip on their passport
| by in Freedom & Repression, Interesting Links, Media, Religion & Politics, Random Rantings, Security & Privacy |
Just read that, at the BlackHat conference in Las Vegas, some folks demoed a bomb that will explode if an American passport is in its vicinity — a scenario not that hard to imagine.
Basically, RFID passports do not guarantee the safety and security they were invented for in the first place.
Now, I am not [...]
They said the technology wouldn’t be abused in such a way — but …. it is.
| by in Conspiracies, Freedom & Repression, Media, Religion & Politics, Random Rantings, Security & Privacy |
Okay so I read this stuff here (Dutch) which tells about how surveillance camera’s (put there to increase public safety) are now being abused to give parking-tickets.
Of course they say ‘these wrongly parked cars are hindering the ambulances‘. Although that may be true, that sure is hell isn’t the real reason they’re doing this. It’s [...]
WordPress 2.0.4 security release available
If you haven’t already — please upgrade WordPress to version 2.0.4. According to the developers, over 50 bugs have been fixed and the issue with the ‘Anyone can register‘-thing has now been addressed.
Spread the Word, Press..
WordPress, Blogs, Vulnerability, Security
Sysadmin Appreciation Day!
From sysadminday.com:
If you can read this, thank your sysadmin.
A sysadmin unpacked the server for this website from its box, installed an operating system, patched it for security, made sure the power and air conditioning was working in the server room, monitored it for stability, set up the software, and kept backups in case anything went [...]
Finally, Metallica realises most of their CDs is crap
| by in Music, Music Industry & DRM, Random Rantings |
Remember that these guys were anti P2P? Metallica just signed a deal with Napster and iTunes to make single song downloads available. They already had the complete albums available online but it seems those guys finally realised nobody was buying their overpriced CDs as most of the songs are crap.
And they’re doing it with a [...]
WordPress users: Disable ‘Anyone can register‘!
Through Darknet I discovered that apparently a vulnerability has been found in WordPress that could allow evil people to do nasty stuff. Details remain vague though, but according to Dr Dave, one should disable the Anyone can register thingy in the Options of their weblog to prevent the vulnerability being exploited.
The details are kept vague [...]
Knowing Microsoft, their iPod-killer will probably be released “too zune”… :P
…and I couldn’t withhold this User Friendly cartoon:
Humour, Zune, iPod
Blow-up doll for insecure female drivers
So some company is marketing a blow-up doll for women who are insecure about driving at night, alone. Apparently, the presence of what appears to other people as a real person, gives them enough security to drive around town.
Now, I wonder — do women over-estimate the blow-up dolls’ size, too?
However sexist the whole concept [...]
Verichip RFID clonable (thus totally unsafe), despite the company’s promises
I just heard from somebody that on HOPE, a presentation was given how easily the Verichip RFID chip implant can be cloned (thus identities stolen, people posing as other people getting easier because nowadays, somehow, everything must be digital or something.
Basically, the work is done by this device, called the proxmark3, that;
[it] can do almost [...]
Trains to be equiped with TV screens for travel-info, news..
I just read this initiative to equip trains with TV screens. These TV screens will display travel-information, alternating with news and advertisements.
No escape from the propaganda they call TV — get brainwashed while commuting… Two-Minutes Hate, anyone?
On voice recognition to access bank-account information…
Bright idea, voice recognition (Dutch article) to access bank account information.
A user can authenticate themselves to the bank, using their voice as their passport. Anyone that remember the film Sneakers will remember that, basically, you could record and playback somebody’s bank-account number after you’ve snooped from them. “My voice is my passport”…
That said, [...]
McKinnon to be extradited to America after all
| by in Computers & Hardware, Freedom & Repression, Internet & Technology, Media, Religion & Politics, Sad Stuff, Security & Privacy |
Seems like the pleads didn’t help Gary McKinnon at all. Because of a dumb extradition treaty he’ll be extradited to the US. For, according to the media,
[..] the “biggest military hack of all time” [..]
Which in itself is absolute bullshit because the ‘biggest military hack’, at least strategically, is the forced usage of Microsoft Windows [...]
French anti-DRM ruling threatens innovation as they see it
So I read this (Dutch) article about critics of the recent anti-DRM ruling in France. They try to convince everybody that such a ruling ‘threatens innovation‘. (Of course, the ‘critics’ are the companies that invested in this stuff.)
In the long run, they say, the public will get back ‘less innovation’ because of rulings like [...]
On smell-technology…
It’s amusing to see how ‘new’, almost magical technologies get embraced with so-much naivety. Slashdot has this little blurb about an article in the New Scientist on ’smell-technology’;
“Simply point the gadget at a freshly baked cookie, for example, and it will analyse its odour and reproduce it for you using a host of non-toxic chemicals. [...]
Programming the Cell Broadband Processor
A colleague just pointed me to this post linking to some articles on programming the Cell Broadband Processor (the technology that powers the Playstation 3). If you’re into that stuff you might want to check it out.
I also noted that, although Sony’s marketing machine is slowly being put into motion, there’s quite a bunch [...]
On Bluecasting…
I read this article about a Dutch shop that sends messages to Bluetooth enabled devices. Apparently — this is not spam. Because, by its definition, spamming is only spam if you are abusing some ’service’. As Bluetooth is not a communication-service, i.e. one doesn’t have to subscribe or pay to use it, you can spam [...]
One third of Europeans lack basic computer skills
As reported by The Register yesterday, a third of the EU citizens lack basic computer skills:
Eurostat found that 37 per cent of people aged between 16 and 74 had no basic computer skills and were unable to complete tasks such as using a mouse to copy a file or folder.
I find the action of ‘copying [...]
MySpace sued after assault on minor, but what is this really about?
I just read that parents sued MySpace for $ 14 milion in damages after their child got assaulted in real life after having her profile publicly posted on a social networking site.
The lawyer stated that:
MySpace is more concerned about making money than protecting children online.
Of course, parents can’t hardly be blamed for neglecting their kids [...]
An Open Letter To Hip-Hop About Some Real Important Shit
Just discovered Davey D’s Open Letter To Hip-Hop About Some Real Important Shit through Guerrillafunk.com, regarding net neutrality and how these possible changes will change your life and the lack of focus on this issue.
Anyway your next steps should you choose is to call your Senator’s office and tell them to stand up and protect [...]
On the Belgium kidnapping…
| by in Health, Security & Privacy |
So, a couple of days ago, a couple of young girls went missing in Belgium. Immediately, it was all over the media that some pedophile or whatever may have taken them.
The moment I heard that I was thinking: and they jump to this conclusion because… ? The guy’s missing? Cellular phone data implicated him in [...]
Sure, telephone numbers, etcetera, will all be replaced by a single email-address
| by in Computers & Hardware, Ideas & Concepts, Internet & Technology, Random Rantings, Software, The Netherlands |
Some Dutch researcher suggests that, in the long run, (mobile) telephone numbers will disappear and will be replaced by one email-address.
Although we can put people on the moon and make money of prolonging the problems of sickness, the spam problem most probably still won’t be solved. Not even touching the privacy-related issues there arise if [...]
Native Google Earth for Linux — beta, of course ;)
A colleague send me a link to this post telling there’s a (beta) Google Earth for Linux now!
Finally, no more tinkering with Wine, which doesn’t really enhance stability and stuff….
You can download it here.
Google Earth, Linux
Web 1.0 vs 2.0
| by in Humour, Internet & Technology |
I just found this thing right here that show the differences between Web 1.0 and 2.0 — and how stuff has changed.
Stupid buzzwords.
They forgot to put an extra 0 (zero) in front of those version numbers…
Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Humour
New ‘cybercrime’ laws in effect…
| by in Freedom & Repression, Internet & Technology, Media, Religion & Politics, Random Rantings, Security & Privacy, The Netherlands |
Well, in the Netherlands anyway.
Today, parliament decided to accept 2 new laws in order to make it easier to repress, suppress and oppress.
See, this new law has some things in it that could effectively send anyone to Gbay, or at least some jail.
Now it is made illegal to intrude a computer system.
No matter [...]
Amnesty International: Irrepressible.info
You might already have heard about it — because of increasing Internet censorship, Amnesty International started the irrepressible.info site. I read about this site a few days ago, but today, after signing the pledge, I also found some time to include censored fragments in the header of this page. (Banners in my header are displayed [...]
The broken laptop Amir sold…
A colleague pointed me to this site about a guy that bought a laptop over the internet through eBay, finally received a broken laptop.
The fun thing is, although broken, the laptop contains a gem of personal information. Information that this new owner now has happily posted on the internet as a form of pay-back.
The seems [...]
The obvious flaw in Biometrics…
I just discovered this advisory on the Full-Disclosure mailing-list which warns for one of the many obvious flaws in those biometric authentication schemes that everybody wants to roll out, everywhere.
Yeah it’s funny.
And yeah — it’s oh-so true…
Biometrics, Vulnerability, Security
Ayaan: the ‘plot’ continues…
| by in Freedom & Repression, General, Media, Religion & Politics, Random Rantings, Security & Privacy, The Netherlands |
Now it’s mentioned on the news that she believes that the Dutch government should protect her, even when she’s in the US.
She says that the governments responsibility doesn’t end at the border. Well, last time I checked the Dutch law I read that is only applicable on Dutch territory.
Yeah yeah, so she wants us [...]
Who owns your PC and why ‘off’ should be ‘off’.
Just received Bruce Schneier’s latest Crypto-Gram which makes some interesting points.
One refers to this column by Bruce posted on Wired:
You own your computer, of course. You bought it. You paid for it. But how much control do you really have over what happens on your machine? Technically you might have bought the hardware and software, [...]
Just when I was thinking `One must be a real idiot to believe the WTC went down because of two mere planes”
| by in Conspiracies, Freedom & Repression, General, Media, Religion & Politics, Random Rantings, Security & Privacy |
….I peruse the Full-Disclosure mailing-list to read that some of the guys there think Loose Change is complete bullshit.
That obviously proves there’s too many idiots in the IT security business too.
We’ve been blinded with ‘expert opinions’ on the whole WTC collapse but hell, you have to be a real moron to think that it wasn’t [...]
New (search) kid on the block: ‘Clusty’
Forgive my ignorance if you have already heard about this, but while reading the most recent 2600 issue — a reader mentioned the Clusty search-engine which I had never heard about until then.
Although this search-engine also makes money from advertisements, this one isn’t as intrusive as Google’s services (from a privacy point-of-view that is).
I have [...]
Weird McAfee ‘uvscan’ issue (solved though)
So, the mail-server is scanning incoming and outgoing email for virusses using the McAfee command line virus scanner for Linux.
Today I found out I was getting loads of reports in my email, though:
Scanning could not be performed due to the following error:
Missing or invalid DAT
WTF? The file’s there and looks OK. Re-downloading it didn’t seem [...]
ISC banking site survey
The Internet Storm Center asked readers to send in links to their banking sites, in order to find out whether they use SSL and other characteristics.
The results of this survey can be found on page here. It’s quite interesting to note that there seem only a few banks confirmed to require SSL and Two Factor [...]
Deniable filesystems
Bruce Schneier, on his blog, mentions the project Rubberhose that implements a ‘Deniable Filesystem‘.
The whole idea about these ‘deniable’ filesystems is, that, and I quote Bruce here:
The basic idea was the fact that the existence of ciphertext can in itself be incriminating, regardless of whether or not anyone can decrypt it. I wanted to create [...]
Suspicious Walmart scanning system
Tony Herrera, last Tuesday, blogged about Walmart having this weird scanning system, a story which I just need to share:
This story involving Glenn Harcsar an English Teacher and his eight-months pregnant wife while they were shopping at a Sam’s Club in Monroeville, PA.
“You’ve been identified by our scanning system. You’re not going to be allowed [...]
IRLB WTF?
| by in Conspiracies, Freedom & Repression, Internet & Technology, Media, Religion & Politics, Random Rantings, Security & Privacy |
On this page on Ebaumsworld I read the next insane thing the US will attempt to do in order to take away even more of our freedoms:
Washington D.C. – (March 28, 2006) – The Internet Regulations and Legislation Bureau, better known as the IRLB, is the newest United States governmental agency. The IRLB is [...]
Freedom: the net slowly closes in…
| by in Conspiracies, Freedom & Repression, Media, Religion & Politics, Random Rantings, Security & Privacy, The Netherlands |
In the Netherlands, there’s this new law that ‘the man‘ wants introduced. Of course, it’s one of those repressive laws that get introduced because of this so-called “War On Terror” — which, logically, cannot ever end.
Do we all want to be lead to the slaughters into the war that nobody can win?
Yeah, the [...]
Protected: Increasing storage by reducing the data (delta-compressed storage)
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
When things get too complex to comprehend…
| by in Humour, Internet & Technology, Software |
…stuff like this happens. This was already posted on The Register last friday — but in case you missed this excellent act of stupidity, here is a quote:
This tale kicked off yesterday when Tuttle’s city manager Jerry Taylor fired off an angry message to the CentOS staff. Taylor had popped onto the city’s web site [...]
Another day, another trojan — yet not so usual
The Register reports on Deutsche Bank and the (Dutch) Postbank being targeted by a new piece of spyware.
This one, dubbed Trojan-Spy.Win32.Bancos.pw reportedly intercepts HTTPS traffic and captures so-called TAN tokens. These tokens are pieces of information that should identify a banks real customer to finalise a banking transaction.
If infected by this piece of malware, and [...]
Gmail — growing pains?
| by in Internet & Technology, Software |
Recently I have been getting these a lot:
Today, too, I got an internal server error when I wanted to view an image somebody mailed me…
Gmail, Google, Growing Pains
Firefox 2.0alpha1 available for preview!
I just discovered through Digg.com that Firefox 2.0alpha1 has been released:
I’ve been test-driving the Mozilla suite for years now, so I’m already downloading it. You too can check out what’s new here and download it from this FTP site.
NOTE: Do not install this version if you don’t like to test-drive bleeding-edge stuff. This version will [...]
MPAA & RIAA get even sicker…
Just when you think the Motion Picture and Music Industry Asses of America can’t get any sicker — they do just that…
Oh — we don’t mind if DRM fucks up your computer or does real acts of terrorism. As long as our ‘intellectual property’ is safe.
Bastards make me puke — they really are the new [...]
RFID tags can be infected by virii
The Register reports that RFID tags can be infected by virii:
Dutch researchers have warned that RFID tags – small microchips, which can be used to tag products or animals – can be infected with computer viruses.
A group under the guidance of Andrew Tanenbaum at the Amsterdam Free University made the world’s RFID “malware” publicly available. [...]
Schneier: Data Mining For Terrorists
I just received Schneier’s latest CRYPTOGRAM which has quite an interesting articled entitled Data Mining for Terrorists.
To quote the intro (emphasis mine):
In the post 9/11 world, there’s much focus on connecting the dots. Many believe that data mining is the crystal ball that will enable us to uncover future terrorist plots. But even in the [...]
Several vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office software
| by in Computers & Hardware, Media, Religion & Politics, Random Rantings, Security & Privacy, Software |
More specifically, the piece of shit they dare call ‘Excel’. Yes, it excells in fucking up documents. But I slightly digress.
Let’s look at the timeline that this vulnerability was reported:
Yesterday, ZDI reported:
2006.01.24 – Vulnerability reported to vendor
2006.02.21 – Digital Vaccine released to TippingPoint customers
2006.03.13 – Vulnerability information provided to ZDI security partners
2006.03.14 – Coordinated public release of advisory
Ah, so Microsoft knew about this [...]
Ten best security live cd distro’s
Yesterday, an article on 10 Best Security Live CD Distros (Pen-Test, Forensics & Recovery) was posted on Darknet.
Live CD’s are the type of operating systems that fit on a CD, can boot almost any hardware, and allow you to use the machine to quite a large extent. The distro’s mentioned in the article are not [...]
WordPress 2.0.2 Security Update
In case you did not know already (like I did), a security heads-up if you use WordPress 2.x:
An important security issue has been brought to the attention of the WordPress team and we have worked diligently to bring you a new stable release that addresses it. Our latest version 2.0.2 contains several bugfixes and security [...]
GNU Privacy Guard vulnerability discovered
According to this post on the GPG mailing-list, GPG doesn’t detect the injection of unsigned data. That is rather a serious issue, so upgrading to the latest version is advised:
In the aftermath of the false positive signature verfication bug
(announced 2006-02-15) more thorough testing of the fix has been done
and another vulnerability has been detected.
This new [...]
Post-Mortem Data Destruction
I just posted my first article on Darknet about `Post-Mortem Data Destruction‘. This article roughly details a system for detecting the event of your death and destroying all your private information when this happens.
Post Mortem Data Destruction, Darknet, Navaho Gunleg
Florida Voting Machine Logs Reveal Anomalies
| by in Conspiracies, Freedom & Repression, Interesting Links, Media, Religion & Politics, On The Road..., Security & Privacy |
I knew it, the rest of the world knew it, and now it seems the 95 percent naive American fucks that decide the US’s future are slowly waking up to the truth as well.
According to this posting on Slashdot,
“Having ’successfully sued former Palm Beach County (FL) Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore to get the [...]
Free (as in beer) Media: If we don’t watch out it’s gone
Just read this article on the RIAA’s latest bullshit.
Presumable, first they say copying a bought CD is OK.
Now they say it’s infringing use. From the article:
If I understand what the RIAA is saying, “perfectly lawful” means “lawful until we change our mind.” So your ability to continue to make copies of your own CDs on [...]
On more reason to use open source software.. And why they don’t want you to use it.
All you Microsoft users in the UK, be warned. The BBC reports that the UK government wants a backdoor in Microsoft Vista:
Windows Vista is due to be rolled out later this year. Cambridge academic Ross Anderson told MPs it would mean more computer files being encrypted.
He urged the government to look at establishing “back door” [...]
New watermarking technology for music
I was just reading this article here about a new watermarking technology from the Fraunhofer Institute (the guys that made piracy, errrr, music compression possible).
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Integrated Publication and Information Systems Institute have successfully tested a software system, based on the group’s own digital watermarking technology, for tracking pirated audio files in P2P [...]
Darknet relaunch
Darknet is being relaunched:
Darknet is currently undergoing a relaunch, it has been rebuilt from scratch in a new style using a powerful and extensible open source CMS called Wordpress.
We are looking for people to write articles about anything to do with Hacking, Cracking or Information Security.
Topics such as tutorials, discussions, news, exploits, tool releases, coding [...]
Firefox users surf safer
According to Yahoo! News, two University of Washington professors went out to investigate looking for spyware on the Internet during 2005:
“We can’t say whether Firefox is a safer browser or not,” said Henry Levy, one of the two University of Washington professors who, along with a pair of graduate students, created Web crawlers to scour [...]
Google Desktop privacy concerns
Hot from the EFF’s site:
“Coming on the heels of serious consumer concern about government snooping into Google’s search logs, it’s shocking that Google expects its users to now trust it with the contents of their personal computers,” said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. “Unless you configure Google Desktop very carefully, and few people will, Google [...]
Another fine example of short-sightedness…
Over the recent months, ’secret’ government information has been leaked through various channels: officials leaving PCs on the pavement for garbage-disposal and leaving information, plain-text, in rented cars on USB sticks.
OK — let it sink in for a while…
What do you think they are doing to prevent this?
Still write checks? Beware of check-washing!
A post on Schneiers’ weblog pointed me to this article about Check Washing:
Using a process known as check washing, mail snatchers erase the ink on a check with chemicals found in common household cleaning products or on the shelves of your local Walmart and then rewrite the checks to themselves, increasing the amount payable by [...]
Microsoft’s AV software will be expensive
Just read an article which states Microsoft’s new AV ’service’ will cost about 50 dollars per year.
Knowing Microsoft’s track-record regarding ’security software’ and their carefully constructed End-User Licence Agreements, I find it highly probable that it ain’t worth a fucking dime.
Yeh yeh — I know they’ll say they’ll use that money to make more [...]
Dshield is famous!
I visited Dshield.org today and noticed this diary entry:
Super-secret spy agency sensor grid – $Billions
Security for a visit from the President of the United States – $Millions
Showing the President that your prime source of information is a bunch of volunteers – PRICELESS!
Where would this world be without volunteers?
Volunteers, NSA, DShield, SANS
On Google News and plain old newspapers
Some talk on the Internet today on various newspapers starting a lobbying campaign to stop Google News aggregating their news-content:
A group representing global newspaper publishers has launched a lobbying campaign to challenge search engines like Google that aggregate news content. The move comes as the newspaper industry’s traditional business model is under pressure with [...]
WinAmp exploit in the wild — better upgrade…
For you Windows-users out there, ISC reports that, apart WinAmp 5.12 being vulnerable to some exploit that allows for remote code execution, that also an exploit has been discovered in the wild.
Also, WinAmp 5.13 is already available, so you better upgrade as soon as possible.
Threats, Security
RFID passports ‘cracked’…
| by in Freedom & Repression, Media, Religion & Politics, Random Rantings, Security & Privacy, The Netherlands |
Fear the Dutch — according to The Register, face and fingerprints swiped in Dutch biometric passport crack:
Dutch TV programme Nieuwslicht (Newslight) is claiming that the security of the Dutch biometric passport has already been cracked. As the programme reports here, the passport was read remotely and then the security cracked using flaws built into the [...]
DNA ‘evidence’ not what it’s cranked up to be.
A colleague of mine told me about this chimera syndrome. Basically 1 person ends up with 2 DNA profiles because of something that happened in the embryonic phase.
Fun thing about his is, that basically, everybody can have this affliction. Thing is — they will only know that the moment they discover you have it.
Ain’t [...]
Damn those patents!
What the f….. — this patent-business is insane. The Registers reports on a smileys-patent.
It isn’t about protecting ones intellectual property anymore. Nowadays companies just look around, think of something that is used everywhere, and will attempt to patent it.
With the amount of corrupt fucks in the whole system it seems possible too. Stranger patents have [...]
Lame browser detection scripts…
So — I change my Useragent to get rid of those irritating lame browser detection scripts that warn me that the site might note work not using Internet Exploder, like my banking site. Anyways, I placed `MSIE 6.0 Sucks’ or something in there, right after the `Firefox 1.5.x’ identifier.
Now this happens visiting lkml.org:
WTF?! Now that [...]
Sue that Mofo Picture Association of America!
Hahaha, that’s some bad publicity. The Register reports on the MPAA making an ass of itself. I quote:
But on Monday the MPAA admitted it had made a copy of the film but claimed, because their staff were the subject of the film, they were not breaking copyright law. An MPAA spokeswoman said: “We made [...]
This is most probably piracy…
| by in Humour, Music Industry & DRM |
A buddy of mine just sent me a link to this picture:
Now that is either someone that creates really popular home-made DVDs, or this is definately piracy…
Piracy, Funny
Liberty is Security
An interesting article linked-to on Perilocity, claiming that Liberty Is Security.
In this age where every terrorist action seems to be met by politicians and the public rushing to clamp down on the liberty of people who had nothing to do with it, my mantra is Benjamin Franklin’s comment:
They that can give up essential liberty to [...]
Internet Exploder 7 reeks on the Internet
One is surprised this kind of stuff leaks?
MS Windows intensional backdoors: how the hell can you be sure?
A lot of talk last week on Windows vulnerabilities actually being intentional, mainly because Steve Gibson started the whole issue by stating that the recent WMF-vulnerability is possibly an intentional backdoor (link to Slashdot-thread), implemented by Microsoft, exactly for the sake of exploiting it to get on peoples’ machines.
Well, true or not, one has to [...]
Netscape Webmail SNAFU?
Why is the account reset and zapped?
Taiwan wants cheap Microsoft software….
Well, actually, Taiwan’s parliament has voted to end the dependence on Microsoft softwareand wants to cut governments’ purchases by 25%.
But we have seen this happen before so we know what could possibly happen. Countries that say they want to get rid of Microsoft software, or use only Open Source software, only to later retract that [...]
Microsoft’s FAT patent upheld
Well, that’s expected when a big company has talks with the patent-office without any representation for the other parties. It shows the sick state of the patent-system — only the big bad, close to criminal, companies will actually benefit from it. A private person will not have the resources.
But anyways, this could enable Microsoft to [...]
Webservers: Latest Netcraft survey shows 69.15 percent is Apache
A recent Netcraft survey shows that 69.15 percent of the total websites on the Internet run the Apache webserver.
Isn’t ‘choice‘ a wonderful thing?
Apache, Webservers
Insane music-industry…
From this interesting article on Groklaw, on the dangerous potential consumer lock-in that DRM will undoubtly cause (definately worth a read if you wonder where that silly stuff is heading), I hit this BBC article stating the following amazing fact:
Musical instrument shops must pay an annual royalty to cover shoppers who perform a recognisable riff [...]
MS’s WMF patch could be plagiarized
According to the post here, the patch released by Microsoft to guard against the WMF vulnerability, seems plagiarized from the ‘home-brew’ patch originally written by Ilfak Guilfanov:
Microsoft disallowed SETABORT. Same as Ilfak’s… rearranged a bit. See for yourselves below. If that is the best solution, we see no harm in that either. It just seems [...]
Turn an ordinary single-use camera into an RFID-Zapper
I just discovered this German RFID-Zapper project which looks pretty interesting:
I’ll most definately built myself one as soon as the documentation’s up there.
Zap those tags!
RFID-Zapper
Main stream media
The always seem get their shit incorrect…
How to figure out if someone is snooping your email
Interesting tips on Bruce Schneier’s web-blog.
Dangerous WMF vulnerability in I.E.
| by in Internet & Technology, Software |
A nice, though quite typical, start of the new year for Microsoft: there’s quite a fuss today and yesterday about a new and pretty dangerous vulnerability in Internet Exploder (in the implementation of their own WMF format for f*ck-sakes!).
Obviously, no ‘vendor response’ yet (i.e. in the form of releasing a patch), and it seems not [...]
Obvious 21th century propaganda…
Yesterday and today it’s pretty all over IT sites — the CAN-SPAM Act works.
Well, it really doesn’t — they just want you to believe that it works, so you re-gain any trust because you think the government actually achieved something. Believe me, they really haven’t. Check your mailbox on a US based email-service — I [...]
What’s this ‘Divide-and-Conquer’ thing with Wikipedia?
The commercial encyclopedae shall be very amused with what’s currently happening. Now the founders are fighting amongst themselves.
That can’t be a good thing and I wonder where this will lead us….. Probably to another paid-for reference that nobody will use because cheaper, or even free, alternatives are available. I just hope that in a [...]
Excellent Richard Stallman interview
ZNet is running a nice interview with Richard M. Stallman (well, for the laymen anyways) that explains the Free Software principle, the movement, and the people.
It is really worth a read if you are wondering about this open, free software stuff you’ve heard so much about.
A noteworthy quote:
The idea is not just to [...]
Those son-of-a-bitch Wikipedia vandals!
Of course, the let’s flame ‘m again because our future may be threatened by the wiki concept Register picked this story up pretty quickly, another bunch of vandals fucked up Wikipedia content.
It’s to be expected that a lot of commercial companies really don’t like Wikipedia. If you read what the former editor of Encyclopedia Britannica [...]
Freenode IRC network under attack
| by in Internet & Technology |
My favourite IRC network is currently ‘experiencing a large-scale nuisance-bot infestation‘.
I wasn’t online at the time these attacks began so I have absolutely no idea as to what nuisance they exactly cause.
Thinking about this, the culprit is probably some 1337 h4×0r messing around with his zombie network out of some grudge, or possible a contracted [...]
Stanley Williams: Bloods offered their guns in exchange for his life.
According to this article on Indymedia, the Bloods-gang apparently offered their guns in exchange for Stanley Williams’ life.
Like with most news, this never was mentioned in main stream media, just like this was ignored by The Terminator.
Stanley Williams, Crips & Bloods, Gangs, Peace
Microsoft Hit Creator: The R&B Edition
| by in Humour, Music Industry & DRM, Software |
While perusing the Public Enemy Board I just found this hilarous image:
Haha!
Funny Images, RnB
Wikipedia rules!
Just read on Slashdot that, the magazine Nature ran an article in which 42 science-related articles on both Wikipedia and Britannica were compared.
The article stated that Wikipedia had about 4 errors per page, where as Britannica had an average of 3.
One person looked a bit farther and found out some interesting information, such as Wikipedia [...]
EU accepts retention laws
And I can see this technology being used to remove ‘repressive’ elements from society.
Train to Schiphol airport halted because of a passenger with a suspicious suitcase and a police officers mis-judgment.
This morning, the Dutch authorities stopped a train on its way to Schiphol airport because one police officer thought someone walking around with a suitcase was suspicious.
The train was stopped for over 2 hours, with all the passengers still in it — to find out that the guy was totally innocent.
I wonder how these things [...]
ValuHack 1.2 ported to NG-BASIC
I just finished porting the 1337 hacking tool ValuHack (version 1.2) to NG-BASIC, my Javascript BASIC interpreter.
On “self-destructing” text messages…
What a load of crap that is!
Javascript BASIC Interpreter has graphics support!
My BASIC interpreter (development version) now has graphics support.
Firefox 1.5 DOS PoC released
But is it really the first PoC that can mess with your browser?
Adam Curry is an ignorant bastard
Adam Curry’s actions prompted Wikipedia to stop anonymous posting and editing.
Another day, another email scam…
Another day, another email scam:
From: DayleAderholdumnzf@screaming.net
To: ****************
Hello,
My friend give me your e-mail address. I think you are from Nederland, so you can help me.
I am a programmer from Russia, I have some clients from Nederland that ready to pay me sending money by Bank transfer to a Nederland bank account, they dont have Western Union [...]
On the Holloway-case…
Dr. Phil interview wrongly suggests the three guys had sex with her.
WordPress 1.5 Information Leakage
| by in Security & Privacy, Software |
WordPress 1.5 publicly available ‘wp-mail.php’ script ‘leaks’ the senders’ email-address.
What about Webserver security?
What about web-server security? Nice to focus on the software the end-users use, but servers can play a *very* important role here, too.
IE: Here we go again…
I.E. vulnerability more serious than previously thought.
Notorious B.M.G.
Why is Sony getting all the blame? Why are we all brianless f**ks that seem to repeat other peoples’ words, just for the sake of it, blind to the fact that it’s the B.M.G. part of the company that is responsible for this debacle.
RIAA backs rootkits
RIAA just officially buried DRM, by implying Sony’s tactics are OK.
Gartner: piece of tape will bypass any kind of DRM
Future DRM implementations that stay ‘downwards compatible’ with current CD players shall always fail.
AJAX — WTF?
Reading Slashdot the following posting caught my eye:
Bill Gates has sent out another memo heralding the latest big development in the industry, as he sees it. This time it’s web-based software using technology such as AJAX (that MS ‘invented but failed to exploit’).
Now, I have noticed this term AJAX (link to article that invented the [...]
Mozilla/Firefox Security Extension
An idea for a browser security extension to catch phishing/pharming attempts. In fact, the idea is not limited to browsers only.
Sony to recall CDs
Finally, Sony officially recalls the CDs containing the messed-up DRM solution from First4Internet.
Dutch politician’s life threatened online
Culprit turns out to be a 14 year old kid.
Dead sparrow memorial site ‘hacked’
Pr0n-sites-opening Javascript inserted on dead sparrow memorial site.
Sony.BMG.Rootkit: The plot thickens
Rootkit not only contains LAME code, but FFmpeg & VLC code as well.
Sory Electronics
| by in Humour, Music Industry & DRM |
I just discovered this page, Sory Electronics, set-up because of Sony’s latest DRM solution that totally back-fired on them.
I thought the link’s quite amusing. In my opinion, boycotting Sony’s other products doesn’t seem like a solution for this; I don’t thing this might cause Sony to actually apologize for what happened. Sadly, [...]
Sony.BMG.Rootkit Misinformation
According to the BBC, Sony is to recall the copy-protected CDs. Nothing surprising there, of course, but it’s this quote that stands out:
The software was widely criticised because it used virus-like techniques to stop illegal copies being made.
First of all; the ‘virus-like techniques’ don’t work because the ‘protection-mechanism’ can be used against itself. As it [...]
