June 1, 2012
How to Download and Install the Microsoft Windows 8 Release Preview
Get ready, beta testers. Microsoft debuted Windows 8 Release Preview, which is one of the last steps before a final release of Windows 8 this fall. Versions of the operating system are available for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.
Here's what Microsoft says is new or enhanced over previous beta releases:
As with past betas of Windows 8, Microsoft advises users to not install the operating system on a computer used for day-to-day work. There's also no going back without wiping your hard drive.
You can't downgrade from Windows 8 since it cannot access the recovery partition of your hard drive. If you need to downgrade, ensure you have recovery disks readily available.
f you are already running Windows 8 Consumer Preview or Developer Preview, Microsoft says you can upgrade to Release Preview. There's a downside to upgrading, though: you cannot keep any of your files.
To run Windows 8 Release Preview, your test computer will need a processor with a clock speed of 1GHz or greater, 1GB (32-bit version), or 2GB (64-bit version) of RAM, at least 16GB (32-bit) or 20GB (64-bit) of available hard drive space, and a graphics card that supports DirectX 9 with a WDDM driver.
For select features, you will also need multitouch support, Internet access, and a screen resolution of at least 1024 pixels by 768 pixels.
Where to Download Windows 8 Release Preview
If you meet these requirements, head over to the download page on Microsoft's site and enter your email and country. Since the free Release Preview is available in 14 languages, chances are you'll find a version of the software available for your region.
Clicking 'Download' will start the download of the "Windows 8 Release Preview Setup." Running this application automates most of the set-up process, and selects the appropriate version of the preview for your machine. If you're a bit more daring and technologically savvy, Microsoft has provided direct links to ISO files.
These must be turned into installation media that are burned to a DVD drive or copied to a USB flash drive in order to complete the install. That's the installation process in a nutshell, but again--be wary. This is preview software, so keep mission critical work off your test PC.
Have you installed Windows 8 Release Preview? Did you previously install the Consumer Preview? Let us know your thoughts on this latest release and anything you notice that needs a little work.
Here's what Microsoft says is new or enhanced over previous beta releases:
- New Bing-powered apps, including ones for travel, news, and sports
- Improvements to Mail, Photos, and People apps
- Increased Start personalization
- Better multiple-monitor support
- Better Windows Store navigation
- New family safety and security functionality
- Enhanced touch support for Internet Explorer 10
As with past betas of Windows 8, Microsoft advises users to not install the operating system on a computer used for day-to-day work. There's also no going back without wiping your hard drive.
You can't downgrade from Windows 8 since it cannot access the recovery partition of your hard drive. If you need to downgrade, ensure you have recovery disks readily available.
f you are already running Windows 8 Consumer Preview or Developer Preview, Microsoft says you can upgrade to Release Preview. There's a downside to upgrading, though: you cannot keep any of your files.
To run Windows 8 Release Preview, your test computer will need a processor with a clock speed of 1GHz or greater, 1GB (32-bit version), or 2GB (64-bit version) of RAM, at least 16GB (32-bit) or 20GB (64-bit) of available hard drive space, and a graphics card that supports DirectX 9 with a WDDM driver.
For select features, you will also need multitouch support, Internet access, and a screen resolution of at least 1024 pixels by 768 pixels.
Where to Download Windows 8 Release Preview
If you meet these requirements, head over to the download page on Microsoft's site and enter your email and country. Since the free Release Preview is available in 14 languages, chances are you'll find a version of the software available for your region.
Clicking 'Download' will start the download of the "Windows 8 Release Preview Setup." Running this application automates most of the set-up process, and selects the appropriate version of the preview for your machine. If you're a bit more daring and technologically savvy, Microsoft has provided direct links to ISO files.
These must be turned into installation media that are burned to a DVD drive or copied to a USB flash drive in order to complete the install. That's the installation process in a nutshell, but again--be wary. This is preview software, so keep mission critical work off your test PC.
Have you installed Windows 8 Release Preview? Did you previously install the Consumer Preview? Let us know your thoughts on this latest release and anything you notice that needs a little work.
Categories:
Download Windows 8,
Windows 8
May 28, 2012
How to jailbreak your iOS device on 5.1.1
Absinthe 2.0 has been released, bringing with it an untethered jailbreak for iOS devices running iOS 5.1.1. The jailbreak is compatible with almost every iOS device, with the lone exception being the revised $399 iPad 2 with 32nm A5 chip. A solution for the "new" iPad 2 will be released at a later date.
The jailbreak process using Absinthe 2.0 couldn't be easier. In fact, the developers of the jailbreak claim "it's so easy, your grandma could do it." If your device isn't currently jailbroken, then follow the instructions below:
1. To start, you'll need to head on over to the Greenpois0n Web site to download Absinthe 2.0 for your respective operating system.
2. With your device connected to your PC, open iTunes and right-click on the device you want to jailbreak. Select Back Up from the menu. Wait for the backup to finish and then close iTunes.
3. On your iOS device, go into Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.
4. Open Absinthe 2.0 on your PC, verify that the correct iOS device has been detected, and then click Jailbreak. The jailbreak process will only take a few minutes.
5. Once the jailbreak is complete, close Absinthe 2.0 and launch iTunes again. Right-click on your device name, but this time select "Restore from Backup." Select the backup you just made. Let your device restore and finish syncing before disconnecting.
Once the restore is complete, you'll have a jailbroken device, complete with all of your apps and information as it was before you began.
If you're having issues with the instructions above, give this Reddit link a try. It worked for me.
If you were using a tethered iOS 5.1.1 jailbreak, open Cydia and search for "Rocky Racoon 5.1.1 Untether" and install it.
The jailbreak process using Absinthe 2.0 couldn't be easier. In fact, the developers of the jailbreak claim "it's so easy, your grandma could do it." If your device isn't currently jailbroken, then follow the instructions below:
1. To start, you'll need to head on over to the Greenpois0n Web site to download Absinthe 2.0 for your respective operating system.
2. With your device connected to your PC, open iTunes and right-click on the device you want to jailbreak. Select Back Up from the menu. Wait for the backup to finish and then close iTunes.
3. On your iOS device, go into Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.
4. Open Absinthe 2.0 on your PC, verify that the correct iOS device has been detected, and then click Jailbreak. The jailbreak process will only take a few minutes.
5. Once the jailbreak is complete, close Absinthe 2.0 and launch iTunes again. Right-click on your device name, but this time select "Restore from Backup." Select the backup you just made. Let your device restore and finish syncing before disconnecting.
Once the restore is complete, you'll have a jailbroken device, complete with all of your apps and information as it was before you began.
If you're having issues with the instructions above, give this Reddit link a try. It worked for me.
If you were using a tethered iOS 5.1.1 jailbreak, open Cydia and search for "Rocky Racoon 5.1.1 Untether" and install it.
May 25, 2012
Best Websites to Get University Level Education For Free
Not headed back to school this fall? You could be, minus the exorbitant tuition and without even leaving your chair. The web has made it easier than ever before to get a free education, and you'd join the ranks of great thinkers in history who were also self-taught, like Joseph Conrad, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Paul Allen, Agatha Christie and Ernest Hemingway. You, too, can be an autodidact; the breadth of free educational materials available online is absolutely astonishing.
This article introduces you to the three best websites to get started.
Khan Academy
The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization, created in 2006 by Bangladeshi American educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. With the stated mission of "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere", the website supplies a free online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history, healthcare and medicine, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics, cosmology, organic chemistry, American civics, art history, microeconomics and computer science.
Coursera
Coursera is an educational for-profit company founded by professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller from Stanford University, located in Mountain View, California. Coursera was launched shortly after Udacity -- a similar venture by former Stanford Professor Sebastian Thrun, and shortly before edX, a similar not-for-profit initiative by MIT and Harvard.
Coursera has created partnerships with reputed Universities including University of Stanford; Michigan; Princeton; and Pennsylvania, and provides free online courses in the fields of Computer Science; Healthcare, Medicine and Biology; Society, Networks and Information; Humanities and Social Science; Mathematics and Statistics; and Economic, Finance and Business. Each course includes short video lectures on different topics and assignments to be submitted, usually on a weekly basis. In most humanities and social science courses, and other assignments where an objective standard may not be possible, a peer review system is used.
Academic Earth
Academic Earth is a website launched March 24, 2009, by Richard Ludlow and co-founders Chris Bruner and Liam Pisano, which offers free online video lectures from universities such as UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Michigan, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale in the subjects of Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, English, Entrepreneurship, History, Law, Mathematics, Medicine, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, and Religion.
This article introduces you to the three best websites to get started.
Khan Academy
The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization, created in 2006 by Bangladeshi American educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. With the stated mission of "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere", the website supplies a free online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history, healthcare and medicine, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics, cosmology, organic chemistry, American civics, art history, microeconomics and computer science.
Coursera
Coursera is an educational for-profit company founded by professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller from Stanford University, located in Mountain View, California. Coursera was launched shortly after Udacity -- a similar venture by former Stanford Professor Sebastian Thrun, and shortly before edX, a similar not-for-profit initiative by MIT and Harvard.
Coursera has created partnerships with reputed Universities including University of Stanford; Michigan; Princeton; and Pennsylvania, and provides free online courses in the fields of Computer Science; Healthcare, Medicine and Biology; Society, Networks and Information; Humanities and Social Science; Mathematics and Statistics; and Economic, Finance and Business. Each course includes short video lectures on different topics and assignments to be submitted, usually on a weekly basis. In most humanities and social science courses, and other assignments where an objective standard may not be possible, a peer review system is used.
Academic Earth
Academic Earth is a website launched March 24, 2009, by Richard Ludlow and co-founders Chris Bruner and Liam Pisano, which offers free online video lectures from universities such as UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Michigan, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale in the subjects of Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, English, Entrepreneurship, History, Law, Mathematics, Medicine, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, and Religion.
Categories:
Academic Earth,
Coursera,
Education,
How-tos,
Khan Academy,
Online Degree,
Study
May 22, 2012
How to fix battery issues after upgrading to iOS 5.1.1
After Apple's iOS 5.1.1 update was released last two week, several users began reporting that their iOS devices had taken a significant battery life hit.
While the issues are not common to most users, it appears as though some iPhone and iPad owners found that the battery life they had come to expect was not apparent after updating to iOS 5.1.1 using Apple's over-the-air updating.
If you find your device is not getting the battery life it once was, a few troubleshooting tips provided by Apple Support Communities user sbaily4 could be of help.
First, be sure you have a good backup of your iPhone or iPad. Plug your device into your Mac or PC, open iTunes, and sync it.
Open Settings and tap to navigate to General > Reset. Tap "Reset All Settings" at the top of the screen. This option does not delete your content (music, videos, photos, or apps) so you won't lose anything important.
Your iPhone or iPad will then prompt you for basic setup information including reconnecting to your Wi-Fi network, as if you had just purchased the device. Now, use your device so that the battery drains completely to zero percent.
Now, plug your device into a power source (preferably a wall outlet) and let it charge, undisturbed, to a full 100 percent. If your battery percentage is not showing up, open Settings and navigate to General >Usage. Under battery usage, flip the switch to On.
This process should resolve any battery issues resulting from the iOS 5.1.1 update, especially if it was performed over the air. If you find that your battery life is still not up to par, plug your device into your Mac or PC, open iTunes, and perform a restore -- first from a backup and then, if that does not resolve the issue, as a new device.
Have you experienced any issues, battery life or otherwise, after upgrading to iOS 5.1.1? Let me know in the comments!
While the issues are not common to most users, it appears as though some iPhone and iPad owners found that the battery life they had come to expect was not apparent after updating to iOS 5.1.1 using Apple's over-the-air updating.
If you find your device is not getting the battery life it once was, a few troubleshooting tips provided by Apple Support Communities user sbaily4 could be of help.
First, be sure you have a good backup of your iPhone or iPad. Plug your device into your Mac or PC, open iTunes, and sync it.
Open Settings and tap to navigate to General > Reset. Tap "Reset All Settings" at the top of the screen. This option does not delete your content (music, videos, photos, or apps) so you won't lose anything important.
Your iPhone or iPad will then prompt you for basic setup information including reconnecting to your Wi-Fi network, as if you had just purchased the device. Now, use your device so that the battery drains completely to zero percent.
Now, plug your device into a power source (preferably a wall outlet) and let it charge, undisturbed, to a full 100 percent. If your battery percentage is not showing up, open Settings and navigate to General >Usage. Under battery usage, flip the switch to On.
This process should resolve any battery issues resulting from the iOS 5.1.1 update, especially if it was performed over the air. If you find that your battery life is still not up to par, plug your device into your Mac or PC, open iTunes, and perform a restore -- first from a backup and then, if that does not resolve the issue, as a new device.
Have you experienced any issues, battery life or otherwise, after upgrading to iOS 5.1.1? Let me know in the comments!
Linux Kernel 3.4 released
Version 3.4 of the Linux kernel was officially rolled out Sunday, in what maintainer Linus Torvalds called a "calm" release cycle.
"Sure, I always wish for the -rc's to calm down more quickly than they ever seem to do, but I think on the whole we didn't have any big disruptive events, which is just how I like it. Let's hope the 3.5 merge window is a calm one too," he wrote in his announcement.
Such peace has not always been the norm. As recently as last year, controversies over hypervisor support roiled the Linux community, which is known for the full-throated tenor of its debates.
Some of the most important new features in Linux 3.4, according to Kernel Newbies, include substantial updates to the BTRFS file system and new support for graphics hardware from Nvidia, Intel and AMD.
New repair and data recovery tools, error handling improvements and larger metadata blocks were all added to BTRFS in Version 3.4, and support for Intel's Medfield smartphone graphics architecture, Nvidia GeForce 600 "Kepler" devices, and AMD's 7000-series Radeon cards were all included as well.
Along with those additions, a host of other features found their way into Linux 3.4, including a new application binary interface aimed at melding some of the advantages of both 32-bit and 64-bit system architectures. The Yama security module has also been added.
According to a report from Phoronix, Version 3.5 will see additional graphical support improvements. What's more, the publication noted that the process of building Linux support for Intel's forthcoming Haswell processor architecture -- due out in early 2013 -- has begun in earnest.
"Sure, I always wish for the -rc's to calm down more quickly than they ever seem to do, but I think on the whole we didn't have any big disruptive events, which is just how I like it. Let's hope the 3.5 merge window is a calm one too," he wrote in his announcement.
Such peace has not always been the norm. As recently as last year, controversies over hypervisor support roiled the Linux community, which is known for the full-throated tenor of its debates.
Some of the most important new features in Linux 3.4, according to Kernel Newbies, include substantial updates to the BTRFS file system and new support for graphics hardware from Nvidia, Intel and AMD.
New repair and data recovery tools, error handling improvements and larger metadata blocks were all added to BTRFS in Version 3.4, and support for Intel's Medfield smartphone graphics architecture, Nvidia GeForce 600 "Kepler" devices, and AMD's 7000-series Radeon cards were all included as well.
Along with those additions, a host of other features found their way into Linux 3.4, including a new application binary interface aimed at melding some of the advantages of both 32-bit and 64-bit system architectures. The Yama security module has also been added.
According to a report from Phoronix, Version 3.5 will see additional graphical support improvements. What's more, the publication noted that the process of building Linux support for Intel's forthcoming Haswell processor architecture -- due out in early 2013 -- has begun in earnest.
Categories:
Linux,
Linux Kernel,
Linux Kernel 3.4
Nmap 6 Released For Download - Network Discovery & Security Auditing Tool
It’s been a while since the last major release of Nmap. The latest major version has just been released, version 6 – and is now available for download!
Nmap (Network Mapper) is a security scanner originally written by Gordon Lyon used to discover hosts and services on a computer network, thus creating a "map" of the network. To accomplish its goal, Nmap sends specially crafted packets to the target host and then analyzes the responses. Unlike many simple port scanners that just send packets at some predefined constant rate, Nmap accounts for the network conditions (latency fluctuations, network congestion, the target interference with the scan) during the run. Also, owing to the large and active user community providing feedback and contributing to its features, Nmap has been able to extend its discovery capabilities beyond simply figuring out whether a host is up or down and which ports are open and closed; it can determine the operating system of the target, names and versions of the listening services, estimated uptime, type of device, and presence of a firewall.
Nmap runs on GNU/Linux, Microsoft Windows, Solaris, HP-UX and BSD variants (including Mac OS X), and also on AmigaOS and SGI IRIX. GNU/Linux is the most popular Nmap platform with Windows following it closely.
Major Improvements in v6.00
NSE Enhanced – The Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) has exploded in popularity and capabilities. This modular system allows users to automate a wide variety of networking tasks, from querying network applications for configuration information to vulnerability detection and advanced host discovery. The script count has grown from 59 in Nmap 5 to 348 in Nmap 6, and all of them are documented and categorized in our NSE Documentation Portal. The underlying NSE infrastructure has improved dramatically as well.
Better Web Scanning – As the Internet has grown more web-centric, Nmap has developed web scanning capabilities to keep pace. When Nmap was first released in 1997, most of the network services offered by a server listened on individual TCP or UDP ports and could be found with a simple port scan. Now, applications are just as commonly accessed via URL path instead, all sharing a web server listening on a single port. Nmap now includes many techniques for enumerating those applications, as well as performing a wide variety of other HTTP tasks, from web site spidering to brute force authentication cracking. Technologies such as SSL encryption, HTTP pipelining, and caching mechanisms are well supported.
Full IPv6 Support – Given the exhaustion of available IPv4 addresses, the Internet community is trying to move to IPv6. Nmap has been a leader in the transition, offering basic IPv6 support since 2002. But basic support isn’t enough, so we spent many months ensuring that Nmap version 6 contains full support for IP version 6. And we released it just in time for the World IPv6 Launch. We’ve created a new IPv6 OS detection system, advanced host discovery, raw-packet IPv6 port scanning, and many NSE scripts for IPv6-related protocols. It’s easy to use too—just specify the -6 argument along with IPv6 target IP addresses or DNS records. In addition, all of our web sites are now accessible via IPv6. For example, Nmap.org can be found at 2600:3c01::f03c:91ff:fe96:967c.
New Nping Tool – The newest member of the Nmap suite of networking and security tools is Nping, an open source tool for network packet generation, response analysis and response time measurement. Nping can generate network packets for a wide range of protocols, allowing full control over protocol headers. While Nping can be used as a simple ping utility to detect active hosts, it can also be used as a raw packet generator for network stack stress testing, ARP poisoning, Denial of Service attacks, route tracing, etc. Nping’s novel echo mode lets users see how packets change in transit between the source and destination hosts. That’s a great way to understand firewall rules, detect packet corruption, and more.
Better Zenmap GUI results viewer – While Nmap started out as a command-line tool and many (possibly most) users still use it that way, we’ve also developed an enhanced GUI and results viewer named Zenmap. One addition since Nmap 5 is a “filter hosts” feature which allows you to see only the hosts which match your criteria (e.g. Linux boxes, hosts running Apache, etc.) We’ve also localized the GUI to support five languages besides English. A new script selection interface helps you find and execute Nmap NSE scripts. It even tells you what arguments each script supports.
Faster scans – In Nmap’s 15-year history, performance has always been a top priority. Whether scanning one target or a million, users want scans to run as fast as possible without sacrificing accuracy. Since Nmap 5 we’ve rewritten the traceroute system for higher performance and increased the allowed parallelism of the Nmap Scripting Engine and version detection subsystems. We also performed an intense memory audit which reduced peak consumption during our benchmark scan by 90%. We made many improvements to Zenmap data structures and algorithms as well so that it can now handle large enterprise scans with ease.
You can download Nmap v6.00 here:
Linux: nmap-6.00.tar.bz2
Windows: nmap-6.00-win32.zip
Or read more here.
Nmap (Network Mapper) is a security scanner originally written by Gordon Lyon used to discover hosts and services on a computer network, thus creating a "map" of the network. To accomplish its goal, Nmap sends specially crafted packets to the target host and then analyzes the responses. Unlike many simple port scanners that just send packets at some predefined constant rate, Nmap accounts for the network conditions (latency fluctuations, network congestion, the target interference with the scan) during the run. Also, owing to the large and active user community providing feedback and contributing to its features, Nmap has been able to extend its discovery capabilities beyond simply figuring out whether a host is up or down and which ports are open and closed; it can determine the operating system of the target, names and versions of the listening services, estimated uptime, type of device, and presence of a firewall.
Nmap runs on GNU/Linux, Microsoft Windows, Solaris, HP-UX and BSD variants (including Mac OS X), and also on AmigaOS and SGI IRIX. GNU/Linux is the most popular Nmap platform with Windows following it closely.
Major Improvements in v6.00
NSE Enhanced – The Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) has exploded in popularity and capabilities. This modular system allows users to automate a wide variety of networking tasks, from querying network applications for configuration information to vulnerability detection and advanced host discovery. The script count has grown from 59 in Nmap 5 to 348 in Nmap 6, and all of them are documented and categorized in our NSE Documentation Portal. The underlying NSE infrastructure has improved dramatically as well.
Better Web Scanning – As the Internet has grown more web-centric, Nmap has developed web scanning capabilities to keep pace. When Nmap was first released in 1997, most of the network services offered by a server listened on individual TCP or UDP ports and could be found with a simple port scan. Now, applications are just as commonly accessed via URL path instead, all sharing a web server listening on a single port. Nmap now includes many techniques for enumerating those applications, as well as performing a wide variety of other HTTP tasks, from web site spidering to brute force authentication cracking. Technologies such as SSL encryption, HTTP pipelining, and caching mechanisms are well supported.
Full IPv6 Support – Given the exhaustion of available IPv4 addresses, the Internet community is trying to move to IPv6. Nmap has been a leader in the transition, offering basic IPv6 support since 2002. But basic support isn’t enough, so we spent many months ensuring that Nmap version 6 contains full support for IP version 6. And we released it just in time for the World IPv6 Launch. We’ve created a new IPv6 OS detection system, advanced host discovery, raw-packet IPv6 port scanning, and many NSE scripts for IPv6-related protocols. It’s easy to use too—just specify the -6 argument along with IPv6 target IP addresses or DNS records. In addition, all of our web sites are now accessible via IPv6. For example, Nmap.org can be found at 2600:3c01::f03c:91ff:fe96:967c.
New Nping Tool – The newest member of the Nmap suite of networking and security tools is Nping, an open source tool for network packet generation, response analysis and response time measurement. Nping can generate network packets for a wide range of protocols, allowing full control over protocol headers. While Nping can be used as a simple ping utility to detect active hosts, it can also be used as a raw packet generator for network stack stress testing, ARP poisoning, Denial of Service attacks, route tracing, etc. Nping’s novel echo mode lets users see how packets change in transit between the source and destination hosts. That’s a great way to understand firewall rules, detect packet corruption, and more.
Better Zenmap GUI results viewer – While Nmap started out as a command-line tool and many (possibly most) users still use it that way, we’ve also developed an enhanced GUI and results viewer named Zenmap. One addition since Nmap 5 is a “filter hosts” feature which allows you to see only the hosts which match your criteria (e.g. Linux boxes, hosts running Apache, etc.) We’ve also localized the GUI to support five languages besides English. A new script selection interface helps you find and execute Nmap NSE scripts. It even tells you what arguments each script supports.
Faster scans – In Nmap’s 15-year history, performance has always been a top priority. Whether scanning one target or a million, users want scans to run as fast as possible without sacrificing accuracy. Since Nmap 5 we’ve rewritten the traceroute system for higher performance and increased the allowed parallelism of the Nmap Scripting Engine and version detection subsystems. We also performed an intense memory audit which reduced peak consumption during our benchmark scan by 90%. We made many improvements to Zenmap data structures and algorithms as well so that it can now handle large enterprise scans with ease.
You can download Nmap v6.00 here:
Linux: nmap-6.00.tar.bz2
Windows: nmap-6.00-win32.zip
Or read more here.
Categories:
Hacking Tools,
Network Hacking,
Nmap,
Nmap 6,
Port Scanner
May 13, 2012
How To Protect Yourself From DNSChanger
In July the Internet Systems Consortium will permanently shut down DNS servers deployed to serve as temporary surrogates for rogue DNS servers shut down as part of Operation Ghost Click, an FBI operation that brought down an Estonian hacker ring last year. If your PC is one of the more than 1 million computers infected that carry DNSChanger you might unknowingly be relying on one of the FBI's temporary servers to access the Internet, and if you don't eliminate DNSChanger from your PC before the FBI pulls the plug on its servers, you'll be left without Internet access. Read on to learn how to discover whether you're infected with DNSChanger, and what you can do to eliminate it from your system.
How to Tell Whether DNSChanger Has Infected Your PC
To figure out whether you've been infected with DNSChanger, just point your Web browser to one of the (admittedly amateur-looking) DNSChanger Check-Up websites that Internet security organizations maintain across the globe. The link above will take you to a DNS Changer Check-Up page in the United States that the DNS Changer Working Group maintains; if you live outside the United States, you can consult the FBI's list of DNSChanger Check-Up websites to find an appropriate service for your region.
Unfortunately, if your router is infected, those websites will think that your PC is infected, even though it may be clean; worse, if your ISP redirects DNS traffic, your PC may appear to be clean even though your DNS settings may have been maliciously altered. If you want to be certain that your PC is free of DNSChanger malware, you need to manually look up the IP addresses of the DNS servers that your PC contacts to resolve domain names when browsing the Web.
To look up which DNS servers your Windows 7 PC is using, open your Start menu and either run the Command Prompt application or type cmd in the Search field. Once you have a command prompt open, type ipconfig /allcompartments /all at the command line and press Enter. A big block of text should appear; scroll through it until you see a line that says 'DNS Servers', and copy down the string(s) of numbers that follow (there may be more than one string here, meaning that your PC accesses more than one DNS server).
It's even easier for Mac OS X users to determine the IP addresses of the DNS servers that their PC uses. Open the Apple menu (usually located in the upper-left corner of the screen) and select System Preferences. Next, click the Network icon to open your Network Settings menu; navigate to Advanced Settings, and copy down the string(s) of numbers listed in the DNS Server box.
Once you know the IP addresses of the DNS servers that your PC is using, head over to the FBI DNSChanger website and enter those addresses into the search box. Press the big blue Check Your DNS button, and the FBI's software will tell you whether your PC is using rogue DNS servers to access the Internet.
What to Do If Your PC Is Infected by DNSChanger
If your PC is infected with DNSChanger, you'll have to do some intensive work to get rid of it. DNSChanger is a powerful rootkit that does more than just alter DNS settings; if you've been infected with DNSChanger, your safest course is to back up your important data, reformat your hard drive(s), and reinstall your operating system.
If you're leery of reformatting your entire PC, you can try rooting out the DNSChanger rootkit with a free rootkit removal utility such as Kaspersky Labs' TDSSKiller. As the name implies, Kaspersky released the program to help PC owners seek and destroy the TDSS rootkit malware, but it also detects and attempts to eliminate DNSChanger and many other forms of rootkits.
If the infected PC is on a network, you'll have to check every other PC on the network for signs of infection, and then check your router's settings to ensure that it isn't affected (DNSChanger is programmed to change router DNS settings automatically, using the default usernames and passwords of most modern routers). To do this, copy down your router's DNS server IP addresses (located in your router's settings menu) and check them against the FBI's IP address database mentioned above. If your router is infected, reset the router and confirm that all network settings are restored to the manufacturer's defaults.
When you're done, repeat the steps outlined above to verify that your PC is no longer infected with DNSChanger. With all traces of this vicious malware eliminated, you should have nothing to fear when the FBI shuts down the ISC's temporary DNS servers in July.
How to Tell Whether DNSChanger Has Infected Your PC
To figure out whether you've been infected with DNSChanger, just point your Web browser to one of the (admittedly amateur-looking) DNSChanger Check-Up websites that Internet security organizations maintain across the globe. The link above will take you to a DNS Changer Check-Up page in the United States that the DNS Changer Working Group maintains; if you live outside the United States, you can consult the FBI's list of DNSChanger Check-Up websites to find an appropriate service for your region.
Unfortunately, if your router is infected, those websites will think that your PC is infected, even though it may be clean; worse, if your ISP redirects DNS traffic, your PC may appear to be clean even though your DNS settings may have been maliciously altered. If you want to be certain that your PC is free of DNSChanger malware, you need to manually look up the IP addresses of the DNS servers that your PC contacts to resolve domain names when browsing the Web.
To look up which DNS servers your Windows 7 PC is using, open your Start menu and either run the Command Prompt application or type cmd in the Search field. Once you have a command prompt open, type ipconfig /allcompartments /all at the command line and press Enter. A big block of text should appear; scroll through it until you see a line that says 'DNS Servers', and copy down the string(s) of numbers that follow (there may be more than one string here, meaning that your PC accesses more than one DNS server).
It's even easier for Mac OS X users to determine the IP addresses of the DNS servers that their PC uses. Open the Apple menu (usually located in the upper-left corner of the screen) and select System Preferences. Next, click the Network icon to open your Network Settings menu; navigate to Advanced Settings, and copy down the string(s) of numbers listed in the DNS Server box.
Once you know the IP addresses of the DNS servers that your PC is using, head over to the FBI DNSChanger website and enter those addresses into the search box. Press the big blue Check Your DNS button, and the FBI's software will tell you whether your PC is using rogue DNS servers to access the Internet.
What to Do If Your PC Is Infected by DNSChanger
If your PC is infected with DNSChanger, you'll have to do some intensive work to get rid of it. DNSChanger is a powerful rootkit that does more than just alter DNS settings; if you've been infected with DNSChanger, your safest course is to back up your important data, reformat your hard drive(s), and reinstall your operating system.
If you're leery of reformatting your entire PC, you can try rooting out the DNSChanger rootkit with a free rootkit removal utility such as Kaspersky Labs' TDSSKiller. As the name implies, Kaspersky released the program to help PC owners seek and destroy the TDSS rootkit malware, but it also detects and attempts to eliminate DNSChanger and many other forms of rootkits.
If the infected PC is on a network, you'll have to check every other PC on the network for signs of infection, and then check your router's settings to ensure that it isn't affected (DNSChanger is programmed to change router DNS settings automatically, using the default usernames and passwords of most modern routers). To do this, copy down your router's DNS server IP addresses (located in your router's settings menu) and check them against the FBI's IP address database mentioned above. If your router is infected, reset the router and confirm that all network settings are restored to the manufacturer's defaults.
When you're done, repeat the steps outlined above to verify that your PC is no longer infected with DNSChanger. With all traces of this vicious malware eliminated, you should have nothing to fear when the FBI shuts down the ISC's temporary DNS servers in July.
May 3, 2012
Kaspersky: Apple security is like Microsoft's in 2002
Apple customers are more at risk from malware now because of their misconception that their iDevices and Macs are secure and because of Apple's poor attitude to security, according to experts.
David Emm, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab confirmed that Apple had cultivated the image of the Mac as intrinsically safer than PCs and now that Macs were under attack from bot armies like the Flashback Trojan, the fruity firm would have to change its attitude.
"I think it will take some time before we see a significant change in attitude from Apple," he said. "It's not simply about code, but about adopting a different security posture and updating and reviewing processes that reflect this."
Because Mac users have long believed that their computers are safe from malware - and Apple fostered this belief in ads like the 2006 one that compared the healthy Mac to the sick PC - they are intrinsically more at risk compared to wary Microsoft users.
"Even when Apple added signature detection to Mac OS, in the form of it's 'XProtect' module, it was done quietly, without any sort of fanfare," says Emm.
"I think Mac customers are more at risk because of the historical mis-perception about Mac security. But I would hope that Flashfake will be a wake-up to anyone using a Mac, that they need to secure themselves from online threats."
Eugene Kaspersky, founder and CEO at the Lab, told Computer Business Review last week and confirmed to Pro Hacking Tricks that Apple was about ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security.
Kaspersky Lab thinks that this is just the start of the attacks that the fruity firm can expect now that Macs have become so much more popular.
"For many years I've been saying that from a security point of view there is no big difference between Mac and Windows," he said.
"Cyber criminals have now recognised that Mac is an interesting area. Now we have more, it's not just Flashback or Flashfake. Welcome to Microsoft's world, Mac. It's full of malware."
April 26, 2012
VMware source code stolen, impact unclear
The stolen code amounts to a single file from sometime around 2003 or 2004, the company says in a blog post.
"The fact that the source code may have been publicly shared does not necessarily mean that there is any increased risk to VMware customers," according to the blog written by Iain Mulholland, director of the company's Security Response Center.
The code was stolen from a Chinese company called China Electronics Import & Export Corporation (CEIEC) during a March breach, according to a posting on the Kaspersky Threat Post blog.
The code along with internal VMware emails were posted online three days ago.
VMware didn't respond immediately to a request for more information about the impact of the breach on customers.
Eric Chiu, president of virtualization security firm Hytrust, says it's hard to say what VMware customers should do because there's not enough detail about how the exposed code is being used in current products.
In general, though, customers should review the security for virtual environments to address the fact that a compromised hypervisor exposes multiple virtual machines.
While the incident is reminiscent of the breach last year of RSA source code, the circumstances differ. An RSA partner was breached and that breach was used to send a malware-laced email to an RSA staffer who opened it.
In VMware's case, the CEIEC network was hacked and finding the source code was fortuitous.
This is what VMware posted in a blog: "Yesterday, April 23, 2012, our security team became aware of the public posting of a single file from the VMware ESX source code and the possibility that more files may be posted in the future. The posted code and associated commentary dates to the 2003 to 2004 timeframe.
"The fact that the source code may have been publicly shared does not necessarily mean that there is any increased risk to VMware customers. VMware proactively shares its source code and interfaces with other industry participants to enable the broad virtualization ecosystem today. We take customer security seriously and have engaged internal and external resources, including our VMware Security Response Center, to thoroughly investigate. We will continue to provide updates to the VMware community if and when additional information is available."
Categories:
Source Code Stolen,
Tech News,
VMware
April 5, 2012
Speed your browser by changing your DNS
Most people use the default DNS settings provided by their ISP, and while they are usually sufficient for most purposes, there are plenty of free options out there, like OpenDNS and Google DNS. Namebench is a free app that checks to see whether your current settings are optimized and, if not, which free option is best for you. Here's how to use it:
Download and install Namebench.
Fire it up and choose your settings. Keep the top two boxes checked. If you're concerned about network censorship, check the third box, and if you want to help the developers, check the last box. You can tweak the rest if you're outside U.S. or want to experiment with different browsers.
Click Start Benchmark and wait while Namebench runs its tests. It should take several minutes. A browser tab should pop open when Namebench is done and give you a list of DNS servers and how much faster they are than the one you're currently using, unless yours are already the fastest possible.
Namebench does not change your settings, but it's generally pretty easy to do it yourself. Check with the instructions you got from your ISP to set up your modem and/or router and just substitute the DNS addresses you received from Namebench for the addresses given by your ISP. It's best to do this with your router, as it will assign that DNS address for all the devices attached to it.
That's it! This can dramatically improve your browsing speed, and it's fairly easy to work through.
Download and install Namebench.
Fire it up and choose your settings. Keep the top two boxes checked. If you're concerned about network censorship, check the third box, and if you want to help the developers, check the last box. You can tweak the rest if you're outside U.S. or want to experiment with different browsers.
Click Start Benchmark and wait while Namebench runs its tests. It should take several minutes. A browser tab should pop open when Namebench is done and give you a list of DNS servers and how much faster they are than the one you're currently using, unless yours are already the fastest possible.
Namebench does not change your settings, but it's generally pretty easy to do it yourself. Check with the instructions you got from your ISP to set up your modem and/or router and just substitute the DNS addresses you received from Namebench for the addresses given by your ISP. It's best to do this with your router, as it will assign that DNS address for all the devices attached to it.
That's it! This can dramatically improve your browsing speed, and it's fairly easy to work through.
Chinese websites 'defaced in Anonymous attack'
Targets hit in the mass defacement included government sites, its official agencies, trade groups and many others.
A message put on the hacked sites said the attack was carried out to protest against the Chinese government's strict control of its citizens.
It urged Chinese people to join Anonymous and stage their own protests against the regime.
Attack pattern
The announcement about the defacements was made via an Anonymous China account that was established in March. A list of the 485 sites affected was put on the Pastebin website. Separate Pastebin messages posted email addresses and other personal details stolen when sites were penetrated.
Sites defaced had the same message posted to them that chided the nation's government for its repressive policies.
It read: "Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible, today websites are hacked, tomorrow it will be your vile regime that will fall."
China has one of the most comprehensive web surveillance systems in the world, known as the Great Firewall of China, that reinforces its broader social controls. The system polices where Chinese people can go online and tries to restrict what they can talk about.
On defaced pages, the Anonymous attackers also posted links to advice that could help people avoid official scrutiny of what they do and say online. Much of the advice was in English so it is unclear how much help it would be.
There has been no official confirmation of the defacements. News wires reported that government officials had denied any had taken place.
However, many of the sites listed are now offline and a few others displayed a hacked page for a long time rather than their own homepage.
April 3, 2012
Unpatched Java Vulnerability Exploited – Macs Infected With Flashback Malware
A Java vulnerability that hasn't yet been patched by Apple is being exploited by cybercriminals to infect Mac computers with a new variant of the Flashback malware, according to security researchers from antivirus firm F-Secure.
Flashback is a computer Trojan horse for Mac OS that first appeared in September 2011. The first variant was distributed as a fake Flash Player installer, but the malware has been changed significantly since then, both in terms of functionality and distribution methods.
Back in February, several antivirus companies reported that a new Flashback version was being distributed through Java exploits, which meant that the infection process no longer required user interaction.
The Java vulnerabilities targeted by the February exploits dated back to 2009 and 2011, so users with up-to-date Java installations were protected.
However, that's no longer the case with the latest variant of the malware, Flashback.K, which is being distributed by exploiting an unpatched Java vulnerability, security researchers from F-Secure said in a blog post Monday.
Oracle released a fix for the targeted vulnerability, which is identified as CVE-2012-0507, back in February and it was included in an update for the Windows version of Java.
However, since Apple distributes a self-compiled version of Java for Macs, it ports Oracle's patches to it according to its own schedule, which can be months behind the one for Java on Windows.
Security experts have long warned that this delay in delivering Java patches on Mac OS could be used by malware writers to their advantage, and the new Flashback.K malware confirms that they were right.
After being dropped and executed on the system via the CVE-2012-0507 exploit, the new Trojan horse prompts a dialog window that asks the user for their administrative password.
Regardless of whether the user inputs the password or not, the malware still infects the system, F-Secure said in its description of the malware. The Trojan's purpose is to inject itself into the Safari process and modify the contents of certain Web pages.
There are rumors that a new exploit for a different unpatched Java vulnerability is currently being sold on the underground market and could be used to target Mac users in a similar way in the future, the F-Secure researchers said.
"If you haven't already disabled your Java client, please do so before this thing really become an outbreak," they said. The antivirus company provides instructions on how to do this.
Apple stopped including Java by default in Mac OS X starting with version 10.7 (Lion). However, if Lion users encounter a Web page that requires Java, they are prompted to download and install the runtime and might later forget that they have it on their computers.
Flashback is a computer Trojan horse for Mac OS that first appeared in September 2011. The first variant was distributed as a fake Flash Player installer, but the malware has been changed significantly since then, both in terms of functionality and distribution methods.
Back in February, several antivirus companies reported that a new Flashback version was being distributed through Java exploits, which meant that the infection process no longer required user interaction.
The Java vulnerabilities targeted by the February exploits dated back to 2009 and 2011, so users with up-to-date Java installations were protected.
However, that's no longer the case with the latest variant of the malware, Flashback.K, which is being distributed by exploiting an unpatched Java vulnerability, security researchers from F-Secure said in a blog post Monday.
Oracle released a fix for the targeted vulnerability, which is identified as CVE-2012-0507, back in February and it was included in an update for the Windows version of Java.
However, since Apple distributes a self-compiled version of Java for Macs, it ports Oracle's patches to it according to its own schedule, which can be months behind the one for Java on Windows.
Security experts have long warned that this delay in delivering Java patches on Mac OS could be used by malware writers to their advantage, and the new Flashback.K malware confirms that they were right.
After being dropped and executed on the system via the CVE-2012-0507 exploit, the new Trojan horse prompts a dialog window that asks the user for their administrative password.
Regardless of whether the user inputs the password or not, the malware still infects the system, F-Secure said in its description of the malware. The Trojan's purpose is to inject itself into the Safari process and modify the contents of certain Web pages.
There are rumors that a new exploit for a different unpatched Java vulnerability is currently being sold on the underground market and could be used to target Mac users in a similar way in the future, the F-Secure researchers said.
"If you haven't already disabled your Java client, please do so before this thing really become an outbreak," they said. The antivirus company provides instructions on how to do this.
Apple stopped including Java by default in Mac OS X starting with version 10.7 (Lion). However, if Lion users encounter a Web page that requires Java, they are prompted to download and install the runtime and might later forget that they have it on their computers.
Categories:
Java,
MAC,
Malware,
Vulnerability
March 28, 2012
Top 10 Best & Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2012
This list is based on traffic rank and reports from Compete and Alexa, though we are all aware that Alexa isn't perfect and that Compete has plenty of flaws, but putting the two services to use at the same time on similar niche proved worthwhile.
So here we are, a compiled list of the 10 most-visited torrent sites at the start of the new year.
1. The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay (commonly abbreviated TPB) is a Swedish website that hosts magnet links, which allow users to share electronic files, including music, computer games and software, via BitTorrent. The Pirate Bay bills itself as "The world's most resilient BitTorrent site" (as of 2012, "The galaxy's most resilient...") The Pirate Bay is currently ranked as the 78th most visited website in the world and 20th in Sweden by Alexa Internet, has over 5.5 million registered users and, as of February 2012, hosts more than 4 million torrent files. According to the Los Angeles Times, The Pirate Bay is "one of the world's largest facilitators of illegal downloading" and "the most visible member of a burgeoning international anti-copyright or pro-piracy movement".
2. Torrentz
Torrentz is a Finland-based[2] meta-search engine for BitTorrent that is run by an individual known as Flippy. It indexes torrents from various major torrent sites such as yourBittorrent and offers compilations of various trackers per torrent that are not necessarily present in the default .torrent file, so that when a tracker is down, other trackers can do the work. It was the second most popular torrent website after The Pirate Bay in 2010[3], and it currently has a traffic rank of 145 on Alexa.
3. KickassTorrents
Founded in 2009, KickassTorrents is one of the youngest sites in the list, and this year it moved up to the top 3. Responding to the increasing worries about domain seizures, the site moved from its kickasstorrents.com domain to kat.ph a few months ago. The site continues to innovate and release new features every other week, and it currently ranks 257 on Alexa.
4. IsoHunt
IsoHunt is a BitTorrent index with over 1.7 million torrents in its database and 20 million peers from indexed torrents. With 7.4 million unique visitors as of May 2006, isoHunt is one of the most popular BitTorrent search engines. Thousands of torrents are added to and deleted from it every day. Users of isoHunt perform over 40 million unique searches per month. On October 19, 2008, isoHunt passed the 1 petabyte mark for torrents indexed globally. The site is the third most popular BitTorrent site as of 2008. According to isoHunt, the total amount of shared content was more than 13.44 petabytes as of September 29, 2011.
5. BTjunkie
BTJunkie was a BitTorrent search engine operating between 2005 and 2012. It used a web crawler (similar to Google) to search for torrent files from other torrent sites and store them on its database. It had nearly 4,000,000 active torrents and about 4,200 torrents added daily (compared to runner-up Torrent Portal with 1,500), making it the largest torrent site indexer on the web. During 2011, BTJunkie was the 5th most popular BitTorrent site.
6. ExtraTorrent
ExtraTorrent is one of those robust torrent indexes that doesn’t make the news very often. Compared to last year the site has moved up a spot and is now the 6th most popular torrent venue.
7. Demonoid
Demonoid is a website and BitTorrent tracker created by an anonymous programmer (supposedly of Serbian origin) known only by the pseudonyms "Deimos" and "Zajson". The website indexes torrents uploaded by its members. Demonoid.com was ranked the 538th most popular website overall in December 2010, according to Alexa. Demonoid's torrent tracker had an estimated three million peers in September 2007. The site had over 252,427 torrents indexed as of May 3, 2009 (torrents uploaded prior to August 4, 2005 were removed to free server resources).
8. EZTV
Unlike the other sites in the top 10, TV-torrent distribution group EZTV is a niche site specializing in TV content only. Despite its fair share of downtime this year, EZTV has managed to get a spot in the top 10 for the first time in its six year existence.
9. Bitsnoop
BitSnoop is another newcomer that gained a large audience this year. This didn’t go unnoticed by the RIAA, who filed a complaint at the U.S. District Court of Columbia and obtained a subpoena to reveal the identity of BitSnoop’s owner a few months ago.
10. 1337x
1337x is also new to the top 10, and focuses more on the community aspect than some competitors. The site’s owners say they started 1337x to “fill an apparent void where it seemed there was a lack of quality conscience ad free torrent sites with public trackers.” Its 10th place this year proves that they’re getting the success formula right.
Categories:
Best Torrent Site,
P2P Program,
Peer to Peer,
Torrent
March 24, 2012
How to use VPN to defeat Deep Packet Inspection
Imagine a technology that can stop spam and malware, identify and block illegal downloads, and allow ISPs to prioritize the data they transmit by content as well as by type. Sounds pretty good.
Now imagine a technology that gives network managers and governments the ability to monitor everything you do on the Internet, including reading and recording your e-mail and other digital communications, and tracking your every move on the Web.
Of course, it's the same technology--deep packet inspection (DPI) by name. That's how governments around the world are able to spy on their citizens' online activities and control their access to the Internet.
ISPs have long been able to record every site you visit and track what you do on those sites. They can and do block access to specific sites.
But only recently has it become practical from a bandwidth and resource perspective for network providers to read all the data in the packets sent from and delivered to their customers' computers without slowing their networks to a crawl.
North Korea, China, Iran, and other countries routinely use deep packet inspection to block Internet content and keep tabs on their citizens.
The easiest way to cover your Web tracks is to encrypt your data and network connection. The most popular encryption services use a virtual private network(VPN).
Free VPN services come with a price
The free HTTPS Everywhere Firefox add-on from the Electronic Frontier Foundation automatically encrypts connections on sites that support the technology. Unfortunately, not all sites support HTTPS, among other limitations.
A more thorough technique for preventing your Web activities from being recorded is to establish a VPN connection. The Tech Support Alert site rates several free VPN services in its guide to anonymous-surfing products.
Topping the list are CyberGhost VPN, ProXPN, and SecurityKiss.
I tried the free versions of ProXPN and OpenVPN's Private Tunnel, but the first is too slow (and annoying), and the second gives you only 100MB of data transfers. The paid versions of both products remove these limitations, as you might have guessed.
It took only a few minutes to install ProXPN and sign up for a free account. Click the red lock icon that appears in the Windows notification area or Mac menu bar to establish an encrypted connection.
Once your VPN connection is established, hover over the green lock icon to view the IP address and other information about the VPN server you're linking through.
The free version's slow 100Kbps maximum transfer speed harkens back to the pre-broadband days of dial-up modems. Also, when you open your browser you have to click through an annoying ProXPN "upgrade now" screen to get to your designated home page.
Not much encryption offered by the free version of OpenVPN's Private Tunnel
Apart from the 100MB data limit, the open-source Private Tunnel service is a breeze to sign up for and use. But most Internet users will burn through the free version's data-transfer allotment in a couple of days. As with ProXPN, Private Tunnel places an icon on the desktop that you click to establish an encrypted connection.
The service offers 50GB of protected data transfers for $12 a year, 100GB for $20 per year, and 500GB for $50 per year; the company estimates that most people transfer between 50GB and 100GB of data per year.
By comparison, the free version of the OpenVPN-based SecurityKiss service provides up to 300MB of encrypted data transmissions per month for free. An account allowing up to 20GB per month costs $3.97 for one month or $31.71 for one year; while the service's unlimited plan costs $13.25 for one month or $119.26 for one year. (Three-month and six-month plans with various data limits are also available.)
Many people will respond to the privacy threat posed by deep packet inspection with a big yawn. After all, if you don't want to be tracked, don't use the Internet. But privacy advocates such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are unanimous in their opposition to indiscriminate online eavesdropping, whether it's done by public or private entities. For the time being, it remains possible to keep the trackers at bay. Use it or lose it.
Categories:
Deep Packet Inspection,
DPI,
Encryption,
Freeware,
How-tos,
VPN
March 15, 2012
Anonymous operating system prompts security warnings
More than 26,000 people have downloaded an operating system which members of the Anonymous hacker group claim to have created.
The software is based on a version of the open-source operating system Linux and comes outfitted with lots of website sniffing and security tools.
The "official" Anonymous group has distanced itself from the software.
In a widely circulated tweet, AnonOps claimed the operating system was riddled with viruses.
The operating system is available via the Source Forge website - a well-known repository for many custom code projects.
The 1.5GB download is based on Ubuntu - one of the most popular versions of the Linux operating system. The software's creators say they put it together for "education purposes to checking the security of web pages (sic)".
It asked people not to use it to destroy webpages.
Soon after the operating system became available, the AnonOps account on Twitter posted a message saying it was fake and "wrapped in trojans".
The creators of the OS denied it was infected with viruses adding that, in the world of open-source software, "there were no viruses".
Code check
After downloading and running the software, Rik Ferguson, director of Trend Micro's European security research efforts, said it was "a functional OS with a bunch of pre-installed tools that can be used for things like looking for [database] vulnerabilities or password cracking".
It also included tools such as Tor that can mask a person's online activities. In many ways, he said, it was a pale imitation of a version of Linux known as Back Track that also comes with many security tools already installed.
Mr Ferguson said he was starting work to find out if there were any viruses or booby-traps buried in the code.
Graham Cluley, senior researcher at hi-tech security firm Sophos, wondered who would be tempted to use it.
"Who would want to put their trust in a piece of unknown software written by unknown people on a webpage that they don't know is safe or not?" he asked.He warned people to be very wary, adding that some hacktivists keen to support the work of Anonymous had been tricked earlier in the year into installing a booby-trapped attack tool.
"Folks would be wise to be very cautious," he said.
Categories:
AnonOps,
Anonymous,
Anonymous-Os Live
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