HackNBlog @ Salamanteri Server

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I was and still am going to install Greasemonkey plugin for my SwiftFox (optimived version of Firefox, with patches an code optimization for CPU in use).

There are however security issues - some fixed unlless you use old version (in case you have old ccomputer that can’t run veru modern FF) and some are easy to prevent. IF you read the documentiation, and in this case the section “Avoid Common Pitfalls“. Of course reading the whole manual is a good idea.

I may infact intead of regular FF plugins start making Greasemonkey scripts, though that willl require the user to installl Greasemonkey to get my add-on - oh welll, I could think that if he doesn’t then he does not need it - or better yet, maybe he does not even deserve it (tee-hee, I make a joke).

Anyway, have a nice day - I have gone FF add-on mental, pretty soon I will post all add-ons that I installed and yound actually worthy to keep.

I believe most here have already read about Google starting up an operating system of their own, Chrome OS to compete with Windows as their next project. I’ll share some of my feelings about good, bad and the futile related to this hopefully neat project.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Google want’s to provide users with an OS that boots up lightning fast and ready for web in seconds from switching power on. They want the system not to clutter up but always run as fast as anew. They want to provide an OS where there is no fuss and fighting with new hardware, configuring the system (that usually needs knowledge below the average) and no updates that break things or change&confuse the user interface. This all sounds good - and it also already sound familiar.

Gathered not from Chrome OS official blog but from a zdnet blog entry, let’s check some known facts:

• It runs on top of Linux kernel.
• It will boot directly into the Chrome Web browser
• It will be aimed primarily at netbooks
• It will run on both x86 and ARM processors
• It will not be designed to have local storage; all data will be stored in the cloud
• Google will not entice developers to build software to run on the Chrome OS; instead, they want them to build Web apps that will run on any standards-based browser
• The three most important features will be “speed, simplicity and security”, according to Google
• Google will release the software to the open source community before the end of 2009
• Announced Chrome OS hardware partners: Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba.
• Netbooks running Chrome OS will be available in the second half of 2010

Ok, I dont know how long (actually only 2 days according to stats) this site was down. The reasons:

1. I don’t live alone and sometimes my roommate likes to take pills. I got nothing against that, but then he comes to my room, brings some of his stuff here and takes some of mine away… Actioning irrationally he sometimes does other things too - this time he plugged off the power from my switch where my server is linked into. So that caused first problem.
2. My friend restarted computer. Before I had my httpd start automatically at boot but now that it also keeps https server it asks password when starting… Obviously it thus has to be hand started by me right after booting (there was, btw, no need for reboot anyway, that was all my friends stupidity).

Well, I just restarted apache and everything should be working fine again…

Now there seems to be a similiar new case in Facebook. It seems like te send a fake message from one of your friends showing your firends name and picture and a link to a video. Opening link seems like YouTube but has a message in middle of screen telling that you need to install new version or Adobe Flash Player.

Cliking on install will however not update Flash but instead instead a new version of Koobface worm. This worm is also spread on MySpace and, unlike the last one I posted about, on Friendster.

Koobface will let black hats to run commands on infected computers. Naturally this will only be a problem for Windows users as the worm cant infect other OS’s but according to stast of my blog quite a few visitors I get are using a Windows system so I decided it to be best to warn people again.

There is more information about this on security site TrendMicro and on F-Secure Malware Information Pages.

From the page:

In just 20 minutes, he found and cloned the passports of two very unaware US citizens

Do watch the 5-minute video: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/video-hacker-war-drives-san-francisco-cloning-rfid-passports/.

Btw, Steve, if offended about me copying your entry, take contact and I’ll remove or rewrite the thing. Hope you wont though ;)

Someone had googled the text in title of this article on google and end up on my site.

To restart sshd on Fedora just run (as root on console): /etc/init.d/sshd restart

I hope that clears things up.

Perhaps you, like many *nix users, like to remotely connect to your desktop and/or servers and thus are propably running an ssh-server. If so and you have ever checked logs for failed attempts to log in then you know that attempts to login with random usernames and passwords are made constantly. And finally, if you are like me, you are constantly worried that your username and the password, even though naturally a hard one to come up with, might one day be entered by person - or rather a brute force password cracking script - and thus your system getting compromized. There is a simple tool to deny hosts from connecting the ssh-server (couple tools even, but here is one) after failing defined number of times - and if configured to, the program will send email report of new denied hosts and suspicious connection attempts. denyhosts is the program I use for this, and here is how to set up it:

Note! This post discusses a lot about program here and often elsewhere called “SecureROM” - apparently the correct name would be SecuROM

Something interesting I bumped into… There is a good bunch of examples of why DRM protection of software (usually games) is a bad idea. Most notable reasons being as simple as following: While DRM protection has not prevented a single game from becoming available as pirate copy with protection being removed, for those willing to buy the game the copy protection does instead create problems ranging from minor annoying to outrageous problems concerning functionality of the whole operating system. This alone should be reason enough to abandon DRM technologies but still several companies don’t seem to understand this… Today I bumped into good example of how trying to use DRM as futile attempt to prevent a game from being pirated can also be a massive failure creating a huge loss in game sales and resulting to 100% opposite effect than what was hoped. Electronic Arts has been using a DRM system named “SecureROM” on some of their games, including their hit game “Spore” which has resulted in huge losses for the company itself. This protection software can rightfully be considered as highly harmful malware. Some of the things the user should know of what happens when you install Spore obtained from legitimate source and thus requiring SecureROM:

• SecureROM is cant be uninstalled by uninstalling Spore, nor with uninstaller of it’s own. The user has to do certain special steps to get rid of it.
• SecureROM constantly monitors usage of the system and thus creates possible and severe security risks, uses system resources (CPU and memory) all the time and thus generally lowers usability and security of the system.
• Cripples functionality of the whole operating system. According to several users this malware has, for example, prevented the OS from recognizing some hardware changes like installing a new dvd-drive. Some users have also reported not being able to burn any data on DVD’s. In some cases apparently the whole OS has stopped to function after CPU or motherboard change (or other large changes in hardware) when SecureROM is installed.
• and more…

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I decided to enable SSL-secured access to this server. The system running Salamanteri is Fedora 7 Linux + Apache 2 (at the moment of writing) so at least with Fedora 7 anything I did should work too. Yes, I wrote a description for those webmasters without knowlege about everything (should be easy enough to adapt my “guide” for other distributions or unixes.

Whatever the reason you might want to connect securely (https://salamanteri.homelinux.net/wordpress/), my reason was gaining a way to securely login to administration page without separate ssh-tunnel.

How to do it?

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I decided it best to inform MySpace and/or FaceBook users about a new nasty malware spreading trough messages seeming to come from the users friend. I found this information from another blog, but here’s a quote from there:

The messages look like they contain links to video clips. When clicked on they prompt the recipient to download an executable file that purports to be the latest version of Flash Player. Instead, it is the worm itself, infecting yet another victim.

Go read the whole article from Dan Morrils IT security blog.