On May 28th, 2009 Microsoft released MS Security Advisory 971778 titled Vulnerability in Microsoft DirectShow Could Allow Remote Code Execution. This vulnerability should be considered high-risk as it allows for remote code execution through a browser using the Windows Media Player ActiveX control. In this blog post I provide a brief walk through of details of this issue and touch upon how it can be exploited in a reliable fashion.  read more »

Adobe’s Shockwave Player contains a critical vulnerability that could be exploited by remote hackers to take complete control of Windows computers, according to a warning from the software maker.
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The Twitter account belonging to venture capitalist and Mac evangelist Guy Kawasaki was hijacked yesterday and used to push malware to some 140,000 Twitter users. The attack (screenshot above) included a link to what purported to be a “sex tape video free download” linked to Gossip Girls star Leighton Meester but, after a series of clicks, the end result was a malicious Trojan.
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Approximately 24 hours ago, the Iranian opposition coordinated an ongoing cyber attack that has successfully managed to disrupt access to major pro-Ahmadinejad Iranian web sites, including the President’s homepage which continues returning a “The maximum number of user reached, Server is too busy, please try again later…” message.
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Researchers from Remote-Exploit.org, the home of the BackTrack pen-testing Linux distribution, have recently released an open source wireless keyboard sniffer Keykeriki, capable of sniffing and decoding keystrokes of Microsoft 27Mhz based keyboards through on-the-fly deciphering of XOR based encryption.

Their wartyping — decoding signals from wireless keyboards — proof of concept is based on a research paper published by the group one and a half years ago:  read more »

Adobe’s Shockwave Player contains a critical vulnerability that could be exploited by remote hackers to take complete control of Windows computers, according to a warning from the software maker.The flaw affects Adobe Shockwave Player 11.5.0.596 and earlier versions. Details from Adobe’s advisory:This vulnerability could allow an attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability to take control [...]

Mozilla’s security engineers are working on new technology that promises to mitigate a large class of Web application vulnerabilities, especially the cross-site scripting (XSS) plague against modern Web browsers.The project, called Content Security Policy, is designed to shut down XSS attacks by providing a mechanism for sites to explicitly tell the browser which content is [...]

The massive protests in Iran are powered by access to Facebook, Twitter and other Internet services even though the Iranian government has blocked access to them from inside Iran. How are the Iranians managing to get to the sites? Here are four tools and techniques Iranians are using to evade Internet censorship.

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After my niece badly corrupted her PC a few years ago after using Kazaa, I’ve been left with a bad taste in my mouth for that file-sharing site. I’m a huge music fan, and sharing music online is pretty much Kazaa’s raison d’etre. But I don’t go there because I know it’s rife with spyware and adware. I hadn’t heard much about it recently.

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I have received this mail today:
"Dear windows User,

Following a recent outbreak of the conflicker worm also known as downadup or trojan/brisv.a affecting over 15million Microsoft Windows users.. Merely
visiting a lot of popular sites could have gotten you infected. The virus exploited a vulnerability in all windows versions and products including the windows xp and vista operating systems. Researchers at Microsoft have
been working closely with Symantec, the creators of Norton antivirus and have come up with a removal tool for the conflicker virus. The average anti-virus  read more »

Just surf the net and you’ll be offered plenty of opportunity to buy into some bogus antivirus promotions. Even legitimate web sites are teeming with these scareware pitches. If you click on one of the links to learn more about “protecting” your hard drive, you’ll get bombarded with continued sales pitches – even if you decline purchase. If you do make the purchase then all you’ll end up with is some cyber snake oil for your PC – no real antivirus protection. You will have added to the coffers of the scareware purveyors though.  read more »

A well-known security consultant says Apple is struggling to effectively protect its users against malware and other online threats and suggests executives improve by adopting a secure development lifecycle to design its growing roster of products.  read more »

In its ads, Apple may tout better security than Microsoft, but a number of well-known security pros say that the company isn't doing enough to keep Mac users safe. And now one of those security pros warns about five ways that Apple has failed on security --- and recommends five fixes.

Rich Mogull, a well-known security consultant and founder of the security firm Securosis, warns on his blog that although

It's clear that Apple considers security important...the company also struggles to execute effectively when faced with security challenges.  read more »

In the latest iPhone Dev Team post on their blog, they hint at having found an exploit in the 3.0 firmware to use with YellowSn0w. However, they stress that it will not be released until 3.0 becomes GM so that it can work for the public release, and not just with the few select developers who are using 3.0.  read more »

Misspelled versions of two popular Google services are among the Top 10 sites hosting exploits for use in drive-by malware download attacks.

On the heels of two massive drive-by attacks -- ten of thousands of hijacked sites launching attacks via the browser -- Google released a list showing that malicious hackers are typo-squatting on its domains to evade detection and to keep malware sites alive for long periods.
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From panda labs blog:
If you are using dynamic web applications, such as Content Management Software, E-Commerce or blogging software, then it's especially important to make sure that those applications are always up-to-date with the latest security patches. If you don't, not only do you put your viewers at risk for possible SQL injection related infections, but you also open up to the possibility of a data breach, which can leak all kinds of sensitive data out to the hands of cyber criminals.  read more »

Just surf the net and you’ll be offered plenty of opportunity to buy into some bogus antivirus promotions. Even legitimate web sites are teeming with these scareware pitches. If you click on one of the links to learn more about “protecting” your hard drive, you’ll get bombarded with continued sales pitches – even if you decline purchase. If you do make the purchase then all you’ll end up with is some cyber snake oil for your PC – no real antivirus protection. You will have added to the coffers of the scareware purveyors though.  read more »

The WHO will shortly declare swine H1 a true pandemic. Fortunately, the disease is still mild enough to allow for preparation, planning and a LOT of serious thinking.

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In today's podcast: China requires Web filtering software on PCs; Nvidia says packaging problems hasn't hurt its laptop GPU business; and Intel invests in Japanese WiMax operator.

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