Tag Archive for: Hackaday

Security Hacks | Hackaday | Page 86

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On February 20th, servers hosting the Linux Mint web site were compromised and the site was modified to point to a version of Mint with a backdoor installed. Very few people were impacted, fortunately; only those who downloaded Mint 17.3 Cinnamon on February 20th. The forum user database was also compromised.

What is most impressive here is not that Linux Mint was compromised, but the response and security measures that were already in place that prevented this from becoming a bigger problem. First, it was detected the same day that it was a problem, so the vulnerability only lasted less than a day. Second, it only affected downloads of a specific version, and only if they clicked a specific link, so anyone who was downloading from a direct HTTP request or a torrent is unaffected. Third, they were able to track down the names of three people in Bulgaria who are responsible for this hack.

As far as the forum compromise, the breech netted usernames, emails, and encrypted passwords, as well as personal information that forum users may have entered in signatures or private messages. It’s always nice to see when compromised sites are not storing passwords in plain text, though.

There is one security measure which should have protected against this and failed for a couple of reasons, and that’s the signature. Normally, the file download is accompanied by a signature which is generated from the file, like an MD5 or SHA checksum. By generating the checksum of the downloaded ISO file and comparing it to the reported signature on the web site, one can confirm that the file has downloaded correctly and that it is the same file. In this case anyone downloading the bad ISO should have caught that the downloaded file was not the official one because the signatures did not match. This can fail. Most people are too lazy to check (and there is no automated checking process). More importantly, because the attackers controlled the web site, they could change the site to report any signature they wanted, including the signature for the bad ISO file.

If you are affected by this, you should change your password on the forum and anywhere you use the same email/password. More…

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Hack Media: Security Podcasts | Hackaday

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Here are some security podcasts from the last week. Feel free to suggest additional ones. There is never a shortage of podcasts on the internet, about the internet.

Security Catalyst 19 The Secrets of Risk Management (With Ron Woerner) 25:33 SC was suggested last week by sometimes co-host [matt yoder]. It’s a nice interview with Woerner about his experience implementing a risk management program at a large company. I was happy to hear about several upcoming security conventions in Omaha (i.e. ones I don’t have to fly to). Michael Santarcangelo does a great job hosting too.

Security Now! #28 Listener Feedback Q&A #4 40:24 [sentinel] corrected me last week; the ARP spoofing show is next week. This episode does maintain some interest because it is structured by listener questions. Leo mentions that he might make his OPML file public since he tracks about 50 sites. I was thinking about doing this. I’ve currently got about 160 sites in Bloglines (I trim the fat from time to time). It’s certainly no comparison to the 500+ monster that the Engadget writers maintain.

PaulDotCom Security Weekly – Episode 16 51:18 was suggested by co-host [Larry Pesce]. This is a pretty fun group podcast. They mentioned a favorite quote by Geer at ShmooCon, “We need security because at any moment the bad guys are only 150ms away; just ping China”. They also pointed out that there is a GPL version of the Spinning Cube of Potential Doom.

CyberSpeak Feb 25 72:08 Lots of interesting stuff coming from the feds. It starts with Mike Younger discussing some of the problems in validating email since Outlook and Lotus Notes both let you edit messages you’ve already received and ones you’ve already sent. They point out a nice deny hosts script to prevent brute force dictionary attacks. Check the entry’s comments for other solutions. They also mentioned that you should check for firmware updates for your firewire write-blocking devices if you want to read the HPA of a drive. The LiveAmmo podcast from last week specifically stated that you should avoid USB and Firewire write-block devices because they might not be able to access HPA.

LiveAmmo: Digital Forensics and Hacking Investigations,…

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Ask Hackaday: Who Wants An All DC House?

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Sometimes when working on a righteous hack, we get goosebumps while watching our code execute faster than we could ever possibly comprehend. Seeing the pixels of the LCD come alive, hearing the chatter of relays and the hum of fans…it’s an amazing thing what electricity can do. And it is equally amazing when you realize that it all started one hundred and thirty five years ago, when [Thomas Edison] changed the world forever with the first practical electric light bulb.

That bulb was lit by a Direct Current – the same thing that runs the computer you’re reading this article on. The same thing that runs many of the hacks you read about here on Hack a Day, and almost all electronic devices in your house. But somewhere in the mix must exist a device that changes the Alternating Current from your wall outlet to the needed DC. Why? Why is it that we transport electricity as AC only to convert it to DC in our homes? You might answer:

“This argument was played out in the War of Currents back in the 1880’s.”

Indeed, it was. But that was a long time ago. Technology has changed. Changed so much to the point that the arguments in the War of Currents might no longer be valid. Join us after the break, where we rehash these arguments, and explore the feasibility of an all DC environment.

a cluster of wall warts

Let’s see…110 AC in, 5V DC out, 1000ma…this should work. Quick check with the meter to make sure it’s actually 5V and not 50 and you’re up and running. Each and every one of us has done this at some point in our lives. But why do we have to? Is there any reason we can’t have DC outlets? We’ve seen USB ports built into outlets while strolling the isles of our favorite hardware stores, but most are unlikely to be switch mode supplies.

You would still need AC for kitchen appliances and such. But consider changing these over to DC. Imagine a house where everything ran on DC!

Let’s take it further and imagine running DC from the power station to your house. This brings us back to the War of Currents. We all know that it’s relatively easy to step AC voltage up and down. You just need a transformer. But it’s not that easy with DC, so running DC over long distances is just…

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Eavesdropping By LED | Hackaday

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If you ever get the feeling someone is watching you, maybe they are listening, too. At least they might be listening to what’s coming over your computer speakers thanks to a new attack called “glow worm.” In this novel attack, careful observations of a power LED on a speaker allowed an attacker to reproduce the sound playing thanks to virtually imperceptible fluctuations in the LED brightness, most likely due to the speaker’s power line sagging and recovering.

You might think that if you could see the LED, you could just hear the output of the speaker, but a telescope through a window 100 feet away appears to be sufficient. You can imagine that from a distance across a noisy office you might be able to pull the same trick. We don’t know — but we suspect — even if headphones were plugged into the speakers, the LED would still modulate the audio. Any device supplying power to the speakers is a potential source of a leak.

On the one hand, this is insidious because, unlike more active forms of bugging, this would be pretty much undetectable. On the other hand, there are a variety of low-tech and high-tech mitigations to the attack, too. Low tech? Close your blinds or cover the LED with some tape. High tech? Feed a random frequency into the LED to destroy any leaking information. Super spy tech? Put fake speakers in front of your real speakers that silently playback misinformation on their LEDs.

The video plays samples of recovered speech and, honestly, it was clear enough but not great. We wondered if a little additional signal processing might help.

Passive bugs are hard to find. Even a fancy junction detector won’t tell you if your speakers are compromised by glow worm.

 

 


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