Category Archives: Software

One Week After Grave Vulnerability Revealed, WireGuard Moving Into Linux Kernel For 5.6

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Linux kernel network stack maintainer and GCC steering committee member David S. Miller has committed WireGuard VPN into the net-next tree all but assuring that the VPN software will become part of the Linux 5.6 kernel release (archived). This comes less than one week after revelations that most VPN implementations, including WireGuard, are vulnerable to session hijacking on most *nix network stacks. At this time WireGuard is being implemented into kernel as a standalone module with CONFIG_WIREGUARD and CONFIG_WIREGUARD_DEBUG menu options.

Linus Torvalds stepped down from his former position actively shaping Linux kernel development back in September 2018 after he took his intersectional daughter's suggestions seriously.

VPN Breaking Zero Day Effective Against Many *nix Systems Burned

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RecentlyBurnedWorkandLivingVanA zero day that allows nearby network actors to detect and inject payloads into VPN tunnels has been revealed (archived). All VPN implementations appear to be affected including allegedly "hardened" ones like WireGuard and IKEv2/IPSec while the vulnerability hits numerous *nix TCP/IP stacks including those by Apple, Google, OpenBSD, and Linux. Linux appear to be most gravely affected when running versions of systemd published after November 28th, 2018 when the default "reverse ip path filtering" default was changed to more easily facilitate hijacking VPN sessions in this manner.

The original disclosures to the Openwall oss-security mailing lists are presented in full below: Continue reading →

Python Runtime Differences Across Platforms Do Different Math

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A group of chemists at the University of Hawaii published a paper in Organic Letters documenting numerous ways that the math performed by Python differs across the operating systems Python code can be run on (archived). The scripts revealing Pythonistic mathematics to be operating system dependent were intended to process nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy data. The scripts were originally described in Nature Protocols in 2014 went so far as to offer differing results across Mac OS X releases. This is far from the first indictment of misapplying computing tools in the modeling of reality.

Richard Stallman Targeted For Depersoning And MIT Eviction Over Defense Of Minsky

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Microsoft featured speaker and human mushroom Richard Stallman has been targeted for depersoning and eviction at MIT over his defense of Minsky's enjoyment of friendship with Jeffery Epstein (archived, archived). Stallman erred by engaging the new leftist insanity within the pedantic framework of his old leftist insanity. The cultural revolution in the Anglo colonies appears to be continuing its pursuit of passive, derealized purity.

Another Open BMC Bung: Virtual USB Open To Anywhere

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Yet another set of "Baseband Management Controllers" has been documented to compromise the systems in which they are implanted (archived). This latest batch of openings allows access from the network to a "virtual USB hub", and that vitual USB hub allows all of the mischief possible with a physical USB port. Or, almost all of it. The virtual USB port can't be meaningfully plugged with virtual epoxy to the same effect a real port can be plugged with real epoxy.

Vim And Neovim Vulnerable To Code Execution Through "Modelines" In Hostile Text Files

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A defect in the Vim and Neovim text editors has been found which allows the execution of commands when hostile text files are opened though an opening provided by "modelines" functionality intented to specify custom editor options (archived). One again there is no substitute for hygiene to keep the vermin away.

ROWHAMMER Being Used To Read From Vulnerable RAM

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The ROWHAMMER vulnerability in DRAM which allows running processes to fuck with memory allocated to other processes is being developed into reliable side channel leaks reading from memory (archived). The importance of computing hygiene continues to be supported by the unforgiving march of time.

The full text of the academic paper is presented below: Continue reading →

50,000 Microsoft SQL Servers Captured And Sent To Altcoin Mines

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More than 50,000 machines running Microsoft SQL server have been captured through a piece of malware calling itself Nanshou (archived). The captured machines have pressed into service of their new masters and made to slave away in the altcoin mines. Microsoft SQL server software listening on a port open to the attacker provides all the opening Nanshou needs to capture root on affected boxes.

New Microsoft Chromium Based Browser To Include Legacy IE Attack Surface

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Microsoft has announced that while making their newest browser from Google's Chromium code, they will also be including a legacy "Internet Explorer Mode" for "businesses" and South Korea (archived). Apparently Microsoft's accumulated technical debt is so great that in brushing away the mess of its past, it needs to bundle the mess it was trying to escape with the perceived solution.