Interesting Software and System News

[fredvries]

SafeFox 1.0.5

If you use Firefox you might have noticed that over time it is getting slower to load during startup and its overall speed will decrease considerably. This is the result of several files becoming too defragmented and becoming too large. Another problem of these files is that they store a great deal of personal and personally identifiable information about you and the sites you visit.

I've created my own little program.

See here for more information and download

[Hard_ROCKER]

Hi malware fighters,

New windows security admin tool EMET version 2: http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2010/07/28/announcing-the-upcoming-release-of-emet-v2.aspx

polonus

Polonus this one is beauty... I discovered it today and allready using it with success.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Microsoft-Security-Tool-Mitigates-Adobe-Zeroday-Vulnerability-140681/

http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2010/09/10/use-emet-2-0-to-block-the-adobe-0-day-exploit.aspx

Microsoft and Adobe Systems announced Sept. 10 that the latest edition of Microsoft's Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit can be used to block attacks. The announcement followed reports that an exploit currently in the wild can bypass Microsoft's data execution prevention feature using a technique known as ROP (return-oriented programming).

"Normally Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) would help prevent successful exploitation," said a post on Microsoft's Security Research & Defense blog. "However, this product ships with a DLL (icucnv36.dll) that doesn't have ASLR turned on. Without ASLR, this DLL is always going to be loaded at a predictable address and can be leverage by an exploit."

EMET 2.0 blocks the exploit by deploying mandatory ASLR as well as export address table access filtering, Microsoft said.

Tool mentioned in other threads aswell:

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=50327.msg426310#msg426310

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=63221.msg536887#msg536887

[polonus]

Hi forum friends,

Yes this can be a great help to harden the good, old XP SP3 to give it Vista or W7 security features. The mitigation is fine for which mitigation has been forseen by the developers of the software, else one can have issues. So use it wisely, but it can be a great help.
I also advise you to run the following tool, and check your every exe, dll, ocx, sys, etc. of your machine with dependency walker and check various dll dependancies, version 2 in various flaw has downloads here: http://www.dependencywalker.com/
I further hand down the translated txt link to the following discussion with the renowned researchers: Didier Stevens (Belgium) and Dutch security expert, Bitwiper,
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.security.nl%2Fartikel%2F34428%2F1%2FMicrosoft_tool_beschermt_tegen_Adobe_Reader-lek.html

Very interesting stuff for the connoisseur,

polonus

[Alan Baxter]

SafeFox 1.0.5

If you use Firefox you might have noticed that over time it is getting slower to load during startup and its overall speed will decrease considerably. This is the result of several files becoming too defragmented and becoming too large. Another problem of these files is that they store a great deal of personal and personally identifiable information about you and the sites you visit.

I've created my own little program.

See here for more information and download

Be sure to back up your Firefox profile before running Fred's little batch file.  It removes many more files than most users would want, including all your bookmarks, passwords, site-specific settings, toolbar configuration, application settings, the security module, and much more.  I don't recommend using it at all.

Edit: Bookmarks are not removed.

[DavidR]

<snip>

Be sure to back up your Firefox profile before running Fred's little batch file.  It removes many more files than most users would want, including all your bookmarks, passwords, site-specific settings, toolbar configuration, application settings, the security module, and much more.  I don't recommend using it at all.

Edit: Bookmarks are not removed.

I echo that sentiment the little program is a disaster (not far short of a piece of malware), removing much, much more, even hacking through installed KB stuff and many more areas totally unrelated to firefox. It left my system unbootable, with an error about hal.dll (I think that is correct) an essential file.

I could have stopped it when I saw it hacking through my system like wildfire, but I left it to see the end result, safe in the knowledge that I would be able to restore my weekly drive image back-up.

So after the un-bootable error, I just popped in my bootable CD to run the Drive Image software and under 30 minutes later I was virtually back to square one having also restored my daily backup for emails, docs, etc. I shudder to think how someone without a robust back-up and recovery strategy would have coped.

[fredvries]

I'm sorry if running the program caused you to lose some data but please keep in mind that the program is posted in forum of an anti-virus program. I personally find my privacy much more valuable than having data on my system that could be harvested by advertising companies (or worse).

Most of which is removed by the program is gathered from this page from Mozilla itself.

[DavidR]

Well I don't know why it took a diversion and ripped through my system like wildfire instead of just that listed in the Mozilla page reference you give. It should basically be in the docs & settings/users or firefox program folders and not go rampaging through system folders. So I guess the code needs looking at.

[Hermite15]

my suggestion is that such stuff is submitted to Mozilla first >>> I saw that here yesterday and there's no way I would have tried it.

[DavidR]

my suggestion is that such stuff is submitted to Mozilla first >>> I saw that here yesterday and there's no way I would have tried it.

I only tried it, because it was here and because others might have done the same to see the effect; safe in the knowledge I could restore my last weekly backup image. If anything I should have run a new image backup first, but it was only three days old.

[nmb]

Lucky me. Hostman blocks access to sites.google.com

[medway01]

Why use iTunes at all when there are many free alternatives available
The following link list's 8 free alternatives.
http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/27/featured/8-free-alternatives-to-itunes-for-windows.html

Thank you bob3160 for this information, I have nothing but trouble with Itunes on my daughters pc,the final straw for this bloatware was deleting one track removed Itunes together with corrupting the widnows drive, I have back up images at hand to fall back on but its the hasle of installing and setting up again thats a pain. Now all I need to do is to try and wean her off itunes :-)
--
Mart

( capt mart if ye speak like a pirate !)

[bob3160]

Aye capt. mart, tis a wise move ye made.
Glad to help a ship mate.

[bob3160]

Something FREE from Ashampoo
http://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/lpa/gift?c=ASH-444LW1
If you can use it, free is always good.

[Dch48]

Something FREE from Ashampoo
http://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/lpa/gift?c=ASH-444LW1
If you can use it, free is always good.

Nice offer, I'm going to try out the Snap 3 program.

[YoKenny]

Something FREE from Ashampoo
http://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/lpa/gift?c=ASH-444LW1
If you can use it, free is always good.

No Ashampoo applications for me!

WinOptimizer will trash your system if you believe what it says!