Tag Archive for: released

OpenBSD 7.1 released, including Apple M1 support • The Register

/in


The OpenBSD Project has released version 7.1 of its eponymous OS for 13 different computer architectures, including Apple’s M1 Macs.

OpenBSD is the security-focused member of the BSD family. Project leader Theo de Raadt co-founded the NetBSD project in 1993, but after disagreements with other core team members, he left and forked the NetBSD 1.0 codebase, releasing OpenBSD 1.2 in 1996. As a generalization, OpenBSD focuses on robustness and security, NetBSD focuses on supporting as many different platforms as possible, and FreeBSD focuses on providing a rich modern OS for the most popular platforms.

Version 7.1 is the 52nd release since then, in which time only two remote holes have been found in the default installation.

As with Linux distros, it’s hard to measure usage numbers, but according to surveys such as BSDstats both it and NetBSD trail fairly distantly behind FreeBSD in popularity – then again, installing a data-collecting survey app is the kind of behavior one might expect an OpenBSD user to assiduously avoid.

It supports a surprisingly wide range of hardware: x86-32, x86-64, ARM7, Arm64, DEC Alpha, HP PA-RISC, Hitachi SH4, Motorola 88000, MIPS64, SPARC64, RISC-V 64, and both Apple PowerPC and IBM POWER. Notably, “Support for Apple Silicon Macs has improved and is ready for general use.”

The Reg FOSS desk ran up a copy in VirtualBox, and we were honestly surprised how quick and easy it was. By saying “yes” to everything, it automatically partitioned the VM’s disk into a rather complex array of nine slices, installed the OS, a boot loader, an X server and display manager, plus the FVWM window manager. After a reboot, we got a graphical login screen and then a rather late-1980s Motif-style desktop with an xterm.

It was easy to install XFCE, which let us set the screen resolution and other modern niceties, and there are…

Source…

Mystery remains on why US released prominent Russian hacker

/in


The Justice Department has declined to provide a clear explanation as to why a well-known Russian hacker was released home last year amid warnings from President Joe Biden that the Kremlin may soon carry out cyberattacks against the United States.

Aleksei Burkov is a cybercriminal who ran two noted underground hacking operations. After he was arrested by Israeli law enforcement in 2015, the Kremlin put a lot of effort into stopping him from being extradited to the U.S. Burkov eventually arrived in the U.S. in 2019, where he pleaded guilty to a host of crimes and received a nine-year sentence, though given credit for the time spent in Israeli prison.

But he was mysteriously deported back to Russia in late September, years before the sentence was completed.

Bryan Vorndran, the assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, was unable to explain why during a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday when pressed by Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican.

“Mr. Burkov was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service, not by the FBI,” Vorndran said. “I don’t know specifics. What I do know is that there was no swap or concession.”

He said it was “a Department of Justice question” when asked why Burkov was let go.

Jordan asked if letting Burkov go was a good idea, and he replied he wasn’t in a position to comment, leading the Ohio Republican to say, “The head of cyber is not in a position to comment.” Vorndran said only that “it was a Department of Justice decision through the U.S. courts process.”

Jordan asked, “Do you think it helps to release the most notorious Russian hacker we’ve ever apprehended?”

“I’m not going to answer any questions about Mr. Burkov,” Vorndran replied. “It’s a Secret Service case.”

RUSSIA AND CHINA DOUBLE DOWN ON PARTNERSHIP AMID UKRAINE INVASION

President Joe Biden spoke at a business roundtable last week in which he warned about the likelihood Putin would deploy cyberattacks.

“As I’ve said, the magnitude of Russia’s cyber capacity is fairly consequential,…

Source…

Week in review: Kali Linux 2022.1 released, attackers leveraging Microsoft Teams to spread malware

/in


Week in review

Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news, articles and interviews:

Kali Linux 2022.1 released: New tools, kali-linux-everything, visual changes
Offensive Security has released Kali Linux 2022.1, the latest version of its popular open source penetration testing platform.

DDoS attacks knock Ukrainian government, bank websites offline
Unknown attackers have mounted disruptive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against several Ukrainian government organizations and state-owned banks.

Attackers use Microsoft Teams as launchpad for malware
Hackers are starting to realize that Microsoft Teams is a great means of spreading tentacles throughout an organization’s systems; since the start of the year, Avanan has been seeing hackers increasingly dropping malware in Teams conversation.

Open banking innovation: A race between developers and cybercriminals
In this interview with Help Net Security, Karl Mattson, CISO at Noname Security, explains the wide usage of open banking and how it can easily be exploited if adequate security measures are not implemented.

Online fraud skyrocketing: Gaming, streaming, social media, travel and ecommerce hit the most
An Arkose Labs report is warning UK commerce that it faces its most challenging year ever. Experts analyzed over 150 billion transaction requests across 254 countries and territories in 2021 over 12 months to discover that there has been an 85% increase in login attacks and fake consumer account creation at businesses.

Qualys Context XDR: Bringing context to an organization’s security efforts
In this interview with Help Net Security, Jim Wojno, Senior Director of XDR at Qualys, explains the advantages of using Qualys Context XDR and how it can provide clarity through context.

The importance of implementing security scanning in the software development lifecycle
Veracode published a research that finds most applications are now scanned around three times a week, compared to just two or three times a year a decade ago. This represents a 20x increase in average scan cadence between 2010 and 2021.

How QR code ease of use has broaden the attack surface
In this interview with Help Net Security, Neil Clauson,…

Source…

January 2022 HarmonyOS Mobile security patch details released

/in


Recently, Huawei has released the latest January 2022 security patch details for the HarmonyOS system that protect the device against threats. Now, there is a huge number of Huawei devices running on HarmonyOS 2.0 software in the Chinese market.

In December 2021, Huawei completed the HarmonyOS rollout to eligible devices including the very old flagship Mate 9 and P10. Currently, HarmonyOS 2.0 software system is limited to the Chinese market.

Earlier, it was reported that Huawei will debut HarmonyOS for the global consumer in 2022. But, we have received an official reply from Huawei on this matter, the company clearly mentioned that currently, there is no plan for smartphones outside China to upgrade to HarmonyOS. Read more

Yes! this news is really disappointing but global users do not need to worry because Huawei is currently delaying the HarmonyOS plan due to some reasons. Until then, you can enjoy EMUI 12 that comes with HarmonyOS vibes.

On the other hand, on December 23, 2021, at the Huawei flagship launch conference, Huawei CBG CEO – Richard Yu announced that HarmonyOS reached 300 million devices among them 200 million is from Huawei and 100 million third parties.

To be mentioned, there are a lot of activities going inside Huawei including preparation for the next version, HarmonyOS 3.0. But, it doesn’t affect the monthly software and security update rollout for its devices.

January 2022 HarmonyOS security

HarmonyOS 2.0 January 2022 security patch:

The January 2022 security patch brings fixes for 1 high and 3 medium level CVE in the framework, 5 high and 5 medium levels of CVEs in the system, 3 high and 2 medium levels of CVEs in the application. However, it doesn’t resolve any CVE in the kernel this time.

Likewise, it fixes a massive count of 111 CVEs found in the third-party libraries. If the security patch of your Huawei phone or tablet is 2022-01-01 or later, all issues described in this update and the HarmonyOS Security Bulletin – January 2022 have been resolved.

Note – CVE – CVE, short for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, is a list of publicly disclosed computer security flaws. When someone refers to a CVE, they mean a security flaw that’s been assigned a CVE ID…

Source…