SECURITY WARNINGS & Notices - Please post them here

[polonus]

Hacker hijacks unlocked machines through usb=device: https://github.com/samyk/usbdriveby

polonus

[polonus]

Google "Goliath" versus the Content Industry news leaked out via Sony Hack: http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/12/7382287/project-goliath

polonus

[polonus]

Certain parties will try disable the Tor Network within a couple of days by taking down the "drectory authorities".
Tor users will be warned when the network will be incapicitated.
Who are the alleged attackers is not known so far.
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/possible-upcoming-attempts-disable-tor-network
It is rumored however that Tor will be brought down over the weekend
and a  swoop could be related to the US government's investigation into the Sony Pictures mega-hack
or that this might be used as a pretext to take it down.

polonus

P.S. We will see things like this: ERROR: Gateway Timeout

While trying to retrieve the URL http://128.31.0.39/:

No route to host
Your cache administrator is webmaster.

Generated Sat, 20 Dec 2014 14:25:53 GMT by ::ffff:192.168.177.1 (Mikrotik HttpProxy)
Read: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8774833

[bob3160]

It's The Season:

[polonus]

NTP versions not stable, not completely tested and with issues and now also found to be  exploitable.
Verdict: stop using it: https://blog.hboeck.de/archives/863-Dont-update-NTP-stop-using-it.html

In stead use: http://chrony.tuxfamily.org/

polonus

[Asyn]

Staples Provides Update on Data Security Incident
http://staples.newshq.businesswire.com/statement

[polonus]

As predicted in an earlier post in this thread: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/22/stay_away_popular_tor_exit_relays_look_raided/
Previous warning from admin: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.network.tor.user/34619
Servers have been blacklistened and form no danger now to Tor-users.

polonus

[polonus]

Google Safebrowsing blocked 39.000 infested WP-sites: http://blog.sucuri.net/2014/12/soaksoak-malware-compromises-100000-wordpress-websites.html
Check your site with: https://wordpress.org/plugins/sucuri-scanner/
Lots of sites became infested because the vulnerable plog-in software did not have the latest patches.

polonus

[Asyn]

Windows: Elevation of Privilege in ahcache.sys/NtApphelpCacheControl
https://code.google.com/p/google-security-research/issues/detail?id=118

[polonus]

75% of PHP installations unsafe: http://blog.ircmaxell.com/2014/12/php-install-statistics.html
blog link author = Anthony Ferrara 
Remember there is nothing wrong with PHP, but there is so much more wrong with PHP programming.
In combination with outdated CMS and in the hands of/adviced by people with no insight a very, very dangerous code-brew however 
For checking info see this resources: http://php.net/manual/en/function.phpinfo.php   
Check version number with exploit and you have a beginner's attack formula.
So PHP and server version number info proliferation is still a big problem.

polonus

[polonus]

GoGO in-flight WiFi uses a false Google certificate to filter streaming video -> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/06/gogo_ssl/

At least where net equality is concerned we know where these guys stand in that discussion - the priviliged and those that can paywill have the fast lane, the others are forced down the slow lane and they force it in by all means.

polonus

[REDACTED]

I'm probably not posting this on the right forum, and I don't know if this is a problem with my Avast software or my other anti-virus program (AdvancedSystemCare by IObit) but--- I keep getting this message window that says - SearchProtection.exe - Fatal Application Exit  Unhandled exception. It then has a ExpCode number, ExpFlag, and Exp address.   The window says I should report it immediately.
What do I do?

[DavidR]

I'm probably not posting this on the right forum, and I don't know if this is a problem with my Avast software or my other anti-virus program (AdvancedSystemCare by IObit) but--- I keep getting this message window that says - SearchProtection.exe - Fatal Application Exit  Unhandled exception. It then has a ExpCode number, ExpFlag, and Exp address.   The window says I should report it immediately.
What do I do?

You're right - this topic isn't correct, this is for security based announcements.

You can start a new topic in the Viruses & Worms sub-forum https://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=4.0. This however may not be necessary as I believe the crux of the matter is your comment "my other anti-virus program, having multiple AVs installed is asking for conflict issues as both dogs fight over one bone.

So I would suggest that you uninstall "AdvancedSystemCare by IObit" - you might also do a search for IObit in the forums as there as some disturbing reports.

[Pondus]

In the news – Managed internet devices and biometry
http://blogs.norman.com/2015/business/managed-internet-devices-biometry

Biometric access control has gained popularity with mobile phones in recent years. We have seen it used in movies for years, where iris- and fingerprint scanners have been portrayed as a fool-proof way of identifying users. There are two problems with this:
– The methods are not fool proof, as demonstrated at the CCC conference.
– Your biometric information cannot be changed. Once copied by a perpetrator, a person cannot use it for identification anymore.

[bob3160]

AOL halts malicious ads served by its advertising platform
Guess that's why they call it AOhelL