AdwareAdware is software that presents banner ads or in pop-up windows through a bar that appears on a computer screen. Those advertising spots usually can’t be removed and are consequently always visible. The connection data allow many conclusions on the usage behavior and are problematic in terms of data security.BackdoorsA backdoor can gain access to a computer by going around the computer access security mechanisms.A program that is being executed in the background generally enables the attacker almost unlimited rights. User’s personal data can be spied with the backdoor’s help, but are mainly used to install further computer viruses…

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SecurityTube is a site which has recently caught our attention. The site has quite a variety of videos from various sources related to security and hacking. Videos range from DEFCON talks, to documentaries, step by step how tos, and even proof of concept vulnerability videos. It’s certainly a great resource for anyone looking for something a bit more involved then a plain text writeup, and offers a way for you to catch those hacker conference talks you missed. Many of the videos come with a bit of a background information as well, so it’s far more informative then your…

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[Laurent Gaffié] has discovered an exploit that effects Windows Vista, Windows 7, and possibly Windows Server 2008 (unconfirmed). This method attacks via the NEGOTIATE PROTOCOL REQUEST which is the first SMB query sent. The vulnerability is present only on Windows versions that include Server Message Block 2.0 and have the protocol enabled. A successful attack requires no local access to the machine and results in a Blue Screen of Death.
[Laurent] has a proof of concept available with her writeup in the form of a python script (please, white hat use only). There is no patch for this vulnerability but…

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micro Torrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint It was designed to use as little cpu memory and space as possible while offering all the functionality expected from advanced clients With BitTorrent you can download files faster and contribute by sharing files and bandwidth nbsp We 39 ve added UDP tracker support uTP has been improved significantly over the previous alpha with many bugs fixed and performance improvements It 39 s no longer hidden in Advanced settings The setup dialog has been overhauled to make it much easier to use and…

The Linux4nano project has been working to port the Linux kernel onto the iPod Nano along with other iPods in general. Although the iPodLinux project has had luck with some older iPods, newer models protect firmware updates with encryption. One of the ways they plan on running code on the device is through a vulnerability in the notes program; it causes the processor to jump to a specific instruction and execute arbitrary code. To take advantage of this, they first need to figure out where their injected code ends up in the memory. Currently, they are testing every memory…

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[Alan] has just posted an Ubuntu screencast that will take you through a crash course in the Ubuntu repositories. If you are new to Ubuntu this will give you a much better grasp on how software repositories are handled.
The different types of updates are discussed: Security updates fix bugs that cause a system vulnerability. Updates (generic) are for bug fixes that aren’t a security threat. Proposed updates are for testing before an update hits the ‘updates’ section. Finally, backports are updates from a newer version that have been ‘backported‘ so systems running older versions of Ubuntu can have…

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Researchers are sounding the alarm for a serious administrator password-reset vulnerability affecting the latest version of WordPress, the popular open-source blog publishing platform. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to compromise the admin account of any wordpress/wordpress-mu 2.8.3 and older.
The flaw, which can be exploited via the browser, gives an attacker a trivial way to compromise the admin account of any WordPress of WordPress MU (multiple user) installation.
The attack uses an ability of PHP to not only set values on variables, but also make them arrays. Basically a GET request can add data like: http://www.example.com?data
PHP takes…

On the eve of the Black Hat security conference, malicious hackers posted a 29,000-line file detailing embarrassing attacks that took complete control of servers and websites run by several high-profile security researchers, including Dan Kaminsky and Kevin Mitnick.
The file posted on security mailing lists claimed to have obtained more than four years’ worth of data from Kaminsky, and as proof, it offered a smattering of emails, instant messages, and other communications that laid out sensitive research work and intimate personal conversations. It also revealed multiple passwords Kaminsky used and back-end configurations for Kaminsky’s website (doxpara.com), which was yanked offline…