Security researchers have discovered a new vulnerability in open source software that attackers could exploit to launch malware attacks. Developers have since released a patch for the bug in the GnuTLS cryptographic code library, which could place Linux and other open source software users at risk for problems such as buffer overflow attacks. GnuTLS is an open-source implementation of Internet encryption protocols including Secure Sockets Layer; Transport Layer Security; and Datagram Transport Layer Security, used in various Linux distributions. An infected server could exploit the vulnerability during the handshake between the Secure Sockets Layer and Transport Layer Security, culminating in the crash of vulnerable clients. It could also allow attackers to execute code on the system. The vulnerability was reported by Joonas Kuorilehto, a principal systems engineer at Codenomicon, the same vendor of vulnerability-testing tools responsible for finding the Heartbleed flaw in the OpenSSL Internet-security protocol earlier this year. (Ars Technica)(PC World)(Red Hat Bug Tracker)
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Study: Chromecast Users Circumventing Network TV Viewing Restrictions
A new study finds a third of Google Chromecast owners are using the digital media streaming adapter daily to download and watch television shows on their TVs—rather than other devices such as computers, smartphones, and tablets—in violation of network viewing restrictions. Typically, broadcasters specify the types of devices on which consumers can watch downloaded content for free or for a fee, based on licensing agreements with content providers. However, in an August 2013 online survey of 3,000 broadband households, market research firm Parks Associates found that Chromecast owners are watching current TV shows on their televisions via the Hulu online servicefor free, designed for viewing via conventional computers, instead of paying the service’s subscription charge for viewing televised content via Internet-connected TVs, mobile devices, and game consoles. They are also using Chromecast to view sports events that are streamed online but not broadcast, noted the Parks Associates researchers, which also violates viewing restrictions. “Chromecast is giving people in Hollywood headaches right now,” stated Parks Associates’ director of consumer analytics John Barrett. “All the wrangling over licensing restrictions doesn’t mean much if consumers can simply circumvent them.” (The Los Angeles Times)(Mashable)(Parks Associates)
Friday, November 8, 2013
Microsoft Halts Updates for Windows RT Users
Microsoft has temporarily removed the Windows RT 8.1 update, designed to enable the user to update from Windows RT to Windows RT 8.1, from the Windows Store after users reported that it rendered users’ Surface tablet computers useless. Microsoft has not indicated when the update will be available again, nor has it indicated what specifically caused the devices to be bricked. Windows RT is an operating system for mobile devices using ARM microprocessors. (ZDNet)(SlashGear)
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Disaster is just a click away: Computer scientist, psychologist look at developing visual system to warn Internet users of safety risks
Eugene Vasserman, assistant professor of computing and information sciences, and Gary Brase, associate professor of psychology, are researching how to help computer users who have little to no computer experience improve their Web browsing safety without security-specific education. The goal is to keep users from making mistakes that could compromise their online security and to inform them when a security failure has happened.
"Security systems are very difficult to use, and staying safe online is a growing challenge for everyone," Vasserman said. "It is especially devastating to inexperienced computer users, who may not spot risk indicators and may misinterpret currently implemented textual explanations and visual feedback of risk."
Vasserman, whose expertise is in building secure networked systems, and Brase, who studies decision-making and the rationality behind people's choices, are developing a simple visual messaging system that would show novice computer users an easily understandable, relatable warning regarding their security decisions. These could be a choice to visit a website with an expired security certificate, or a website that is know to contain malware, among other online dangers. The idea is to have users make a gut reaction decision based on the message.
"The challenge is to get people to make the right decision," Vasserman said. "For example, sometimes a browser will show a dialog box saying this website has an expired SSL certificate, and sometimes the safer behavior is for people to still proceed and accept the expired certificate. But sometimes a website can pose a serious threat. We want people to make good choices without having to understand the technical detail, but we don't want to make the choice for them; we want to show them the importance and danger level of that choice."
Their project, "Education-optional Security Usability on the Internet," was recently awarded nearly $150,000 by the National Science Foundation. Researchers are using the funding to develop, test and evaluate the effectiveness of new and existing educational tools to find which ones case users to make better online security choices.
This system should minimize the use of traditional text warnings and icons, according to Vasserman.
The messaging system created will also likely be used in a medical project that Vasserman and colleagues are developing. The researchers are designing a secure network for hospitals and doctors' offices so medical devices can communicate with each other to monitor and relay information about a patient's health. Having a system that shows instantaneously recognizable consequences could be helpful to physicians and hospital engineers, who are not familiar with cybersecurity, make a correct decision quickly about what to do with a medical device that has a security problem.
"Presenting bad things with some sort of visual image is tricky because you want to convey to the user that this is not good, but you also don't want to traumatize them," Vasserman said. "For example, some people are terrified of snakes so that may be too intense of an image to use. When this is applied to a medical environment you have to especially conscious, so there are more considerations."
Prior to collaborating with Brase, Vasserman and Sumeet Gujrati, a doctoral candidate in computing and information sciences, tested the effectiveness of textual and visual communication for security messages and workflows.
Researchers spent more than 90 hours collecting data by observing volunteers use a piece of popular software that encrypts files on a computer.
The on-screen instructions asked users to select a location to store the encrypted files, but users often selected an existing file due to the phrasing of the instructions. This prompted an on-screen warning message stating that the selected file would be erased and all of the information inside of it would be lost. Users then had to decide to continue and erase the file or cancel the process and start over.
"I sat in the room many times and watched as people read the warning message carefully, sometimes even re-reading it, and then watched as they clicked on 'yes' and destroyed the file," Vasserman said. "Because the information being conveyed to them in the message was not immediately clear, many users specifically deleted the file they wanted to protect. I see that as an indicator that a text warning is not effective at getting users to make the correct choice."
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App protects Facebook users from hackers
A recent four-month experiment conducted by several UC Riverside engineering professors and graduate students found that the application they created to detect spam and malware posts on Facebook users' walls was highly accurate, fast and efficient.
The researchers also introduced the new term "socware" -- pronounced "sock-where" -- to describe a combination of "social malware," encompassing all criminal and parasitic behavior on online social networks.
Their free application, MyPageKeeper, successfully flagged 97 percent of socware during the experiment. In addition, it was only incorrect -- flagging posts of socware that did not fit into those categories -- 0.005 percent of the time.
The researchers also found that it took an average of .0046 seconds to classify a post, which is far quicker than the 1.9 seconds it takes using the traditional approach of web site crawling. MyPageKeeper's more efficient classification also translates to lower costs, cutting expenses by up to 40 times.
"This is really the perfect recipe for socware detection to be viable at scale: high accuracy, fast, and cheap," said Harsha V. Madhyastha, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at UC Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering.
Madhyastha conducted the research with Michalis Faloutsos, a professor of computer science and engineering, and Md Sazzadur Rahman and Ting-Kai Huang, both Ph.D. students. Rahman presented the paper outlining the findings at the recent USENIX Security Symposium 2012.
During the four-month experiment, which was conducted from June to October 2011, the researchers analyzed more than 40 million posts from 12,000 people who installed MyPageKeeper. They found that 49 percent of users were exposed to at least one socware post during the four months.
"This is really an arms race with hackers," said Faloutsos, who has studied web security for more than 15 years. "In many ways, Facebook has replaced e-mail and web sites. Hackers are following that same path and we need new applications like MyPageKeeper to stop them."
The application, which is already attracting commercial interest, works by continuously scanning the walls and news feeds of subscribed users, identifying socware posts and alerting the users. In the future, the researchers are considering allowing MyPageKeeper to remove malicious posts automatically.
The key novelty of the application is that it factors in the "social context" of the post. Social context includes the words in the post and the number of "likes" and comments it received.
For example, the researchers determined that the presence of words -- such as 'FREE,' 'Hurry,' 'Deal' and 'Shocked' -- provide a strong indication of the post being spam. They found that the use of six of the top 100 keywords is sufficient to detect socware.
The researchers point out that users are unlikely to 'like' or comment on socware posts because they add little value. Hence, fewer likes or comments are also an indicator of socware.
Furthermore, MyPageKeeper checks URLs against domain lists that have been identified as being responsible for spam, phishing or malware. Any URL that matches is classified as socware.
During the four-month experiment, the researchers also found:
A consistently large number of socware notifications are sent every day, with noticeable spikes on a few days. For example, 4,056 notifications were sent on July 11, 2011, which corresponded to a scam that went viral conning users into completing surveys with the pretext of fake free products.Only 54 percent of socware links have been shortened by URL shorteners such as bit.ly and tinyurl.com. The researchers thought this number would be higher because URL shorteners allow the web site address to be hidden. They also found that many scams use somewhat obviously "fake" domain names, such as http://iphonefree5. com and http://nfljerseyfree. com, but users seem to fall for it and click the link.Certain words are much more likely to be found in Facebook socware than in e-mail spam. For example, "omg" is 332 times more likely to appear in Facebook socware. Meanwhile, "bank" is 56 times more likely to appear in e-mail spam.Twenty percent of socware links are hosted inside of Facebook.This activity is so high that the researchers expect that Facebook will have to do more to protect its users against socware.
"Malware on Facebook seems to be hosted and enabled by Facebook itself," Faloutsos said. "It's a classic parasitic kind of behavior. It is fascinating and sad at the same time."
App: https://apps.facebook.com/mypagekeeper/
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Riverside. The original article was written by Sean Nealon.
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