Quote of the Day – Tim Cook (2/17/2016)

While we believe the FBI’s intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.

Tim Cook – A Message to Our Customers

February 16, 2016


[First, go read the whole thing; all of it. There are different things that can be used for quotes, but that final line says it all.

If you’re having trouble understanding why they wouldn’t help the government there’s a couple different things going on here. If you read their security document for iOS there is little that can actually be done. While no one on this side of the fence is supporting the actions of those asshats that shot up a Christmas party the most common argument I’ve seen has been appeal to emotion to catch those that supported them.

Yes, I want to catch them. Then break into their phone!!! Apple is aiding and abetting by not helping. No they’re not because there’s a lot more at stake than just one phone despite the claims by the government. Anything they build can be used against any other iPhone. Not only that, if it falls into the wrong hands it can be used for criminal enterprise.

Tim used the following line as well:

Criminals and bad actors will still encrypt, using tools that are readily available to them.

This is most definitely true. As pointed out to me by Ashley, if you replace the words and shift the subject this reads like letter from the President of the NRA.

I came to the following realization which cements just how important and how right this stance is. What the FBI wants fails the Jews in the Attic test. To think that this will only be used in this one case is naïve and without forethought.  There is no way you will keep a genie like this in the bottle. At some point it’s going to get out and it’s not going be pretty.

Say what you will about Apple, but at least they have the balls to stand up and not just play dead due to an “Appeal to Emotion.” -B ]

 

I’d say I told you so…

But what’s the point? The people who realize that using Javascript for everything is a bad idea don’t need me lecturing them. The people who want to use Javascript for everything couldn’t create a secure system, much less understand the realities of a hostile environment if their life depended on it. Their fandom precedes the ability for critical thinking.

This is why when I read this, this morning;

This impacts Node at the Buffer to UTF8 String conversion and can cause a process to crash. The security concern comes from the fact that a lot of data from outside of an application is delivered to Node via this mechanism which means that users can potentially deliver specially crafted input data that can cause an application to crash when it goes through this path.

I said, “And nothing will change.” At least, as a minor saving grace, HTTP(S) headers do not fall vulnerable to this particular bug, but that’s mainly the headers there is question to the remainder of the processing.

The fact is, nothing is perfect, nothing is fool-proof, and frankly my hate for Javascript is largely due to the people I find who fall over themselves defending it. Does it serve a purpose? Yup, you bet. Is is a hammer that should be used while seeing every problem as a nail? Absolutely NOT.

 

Screw The Facebooks…

So if you’re friends/follow me on Facebook you will have probably noticed that I, who am normally active and full of commentary have been dead silent. Not only that if you try to hit up my Facebook page it is gone. Every comment I ever wrote, everything. Facebook has scrubbed me entirely from its system.

What was my transgression I hear you ask. You would think I was excessively nasty or offensive or did something that pissed someone off and the answer to that is a simple no. That isn’t to say I don’t say things that are offensive to some or that I don’t poke the bear, it’s just that I don’t do it in a manner that I walk into someone else’s house to do it.

No the burr up Facebook’s ass is they seem to think my name is not my real name. Let me repeat that, they thinks my name isn’t a real name. Evidently the idea that someone is named with my unique name is just too damn hard to fathom. Now it should be noted I only used my last initial because well they wouldn’t let me suppress the damn thing otherwise. Frankly I’m not a fan of stalkers, supporting stalkers, or making it easier for stalkers, yet here Facebook is doing exactly that. Sure you could do some digging and find my Facebook page, not the one tied to the blog, but the fact of the matter is I’d rather keep the people who are missing the order of fries and the drink in their happy meal away from my personal page. I use the FB mainly to keep in touch with friends and family, if I feel like a debate it’s here or twitter. News flash Facebook, you claim this is to make sure people can find me. Everyone who knows me can find me, quite easily I might add. So please STFU.

So now that my account is disabled though, with no real note of when they will re-enable it if at all, I am wondering. Why do we need Facebook? Why do we need a centralized cloud which can censor everything? I’ve chatted with friends about a possible alternative method to remove the central gate-keeper. The main reason we haven’t is because well who cares? Facebook works right? Why is it worth my time? Well all the sudden you’ve taken the guy with the idea and the means and given him a motive.

So in the mean-time, maybe I should just blog more. Because eventually, we’re not going to need you Mark Zuckerberg and when that day comes you’ll merely be like Tom from MySpace.

Quote of the Day – Bruce Schneier (8/26/2014)

The White House is refusing to release details about the security of healthcare.gov because it might help hackers. What this really means is that the security details would embarrass the White House.

Bruce Schneier – Security by Obscurity at Healthcare.gov Site
August 26th, 2014


[I have nothing else to add. -B]

 

Beware of the Snake Oil

So browsing through my FB feeds this morning I saw this “paid advertisement.”

Screen Shot 2014-08-13 at 7.15.30 AM

I all the sudden felt a recon red team exercise coming on. I go head and click on over to the website. There was a lot of snake oil in that page and as someone who understands this crap from a system’s perspective, any time you use wireless there are serious possibilities for remote vulnerabilities or exploits. So when I saw this line, my bull crap meter red lined.

Old wired technology. Traditional alarm companies want to put wires in your walls, because they know that ripping their wires out is hard and expensive.

On that above quote, let me tell you, removing wires is not that difficult. It’s called a pair of dykes, knife, spackle, and paint.  I can “remove” that wire in about 5 minutes for about 15 bucks. Actually I can remove every wire associated to any alarm system.  Hell if it’s actually dropped into an electrical box, just put a blank cover plate on it for like 10 cents.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the concept and give it two thumbs up from that stand point and for most burglars this will probably be fine, until someone makes an App that turns off, disables, or denies service to any SimpliSafe system. Given the sensors communicate wirelessly with a central base station, this seems not only possible, but very within the realm of possibility.

Further as it’s a wireless system said app can now tell me which homes have something inside that they feel the need to protect using a system that I am now capable of disabling.

As I said above, great concept but if one thing as an engineer has taught me, especially with some time in product development, I have never seen someone come in with an idea and really consider security and take it serious from the start. It’s always an afterthought and treated like a bug. Even more than that, wireless is often thrown around like a buzzword as if it’s somehow better just because.  There are serious benefits to wireless but like everything it’s a trade-off.

If I had extra time now I’d totally pick up a system to beat the crap out of. My advice, it’s probably better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick but eventually it will be the equivalent of painting an invisible radiating target on your house. For the most part you’re not protecting your house from people like me which is the one saving grace. That said, this will be a joke to any determined attacker for the reasons outlined above.

If they want to send me a system to evaluate, seriously not asking cause my time is precious right now, I’m more than happy to withdraw my basic observations above should they be proven wrong.

*Again I haven’t actually dug into said product, this is based on a review of their site literature and advertising. I am merely providing this as an educational service and food for thought. If you’re from SimpliSafe and feel epic butt-hurt from the above, contact me and we can chat about it.

Quote of the Day – Ry Jones (2/24/2014)

In WireShark I trust.

Ry JonesThere is no evidence to support that claim.
February 24th, 2014


[Yup.  As a geek this kicked over my giggle box.  Doubly so since I’ve been in that same position.

Well I don’t care what you say, WireShark shows no traffic related to X when you’re process is running.  So you’re craps broken, deal with it!

I’ve noticed it is a unique individual who will just willingly admit, “Yup I screwed up, give me a couple minutes so I can fix that.” Most of the time people are more interested in saving face and making themselves not look bad.

I find it better to look good by admitting my mistake and fixing the problem, but that’s just me.  -B]

This made me laugh…

I was about to just straight up bit bucket this thing but decided to at least take a look since all I saw was the name when I glanced on my phone.  I’m glad I did because I needed a good laugh.

From: Amy <[email protected]>
Subject: ATTENTION the-minuteman.org OWNER!!!

Message Body:
Hello the-minuteman.org owner,

My name is Amy and I am a private investigator with 20 years of experience. PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE SERIOUSLY! While browsing the internet just now, I found out there are some people talking BAD about your website the-minuteman.org at a few online forums and Facebook groups. They are creating Bad Reputation about your website the-minuteman.org! They even say the-minuteman.org is a big liar and many people had believed them!

I decided to capture some screen shots of their activities and make it into a FREE report for you.

Please download the report that I made for your website the-minuteman.org here : [link removed for safety]

Your contact form does not allow file upload, so I uploaded it into a free file hosting site called cleanfiles.net, they host files for free so you are required to complete a short survey before downloading your report.

Take a look into this matter RIGHT NOW! Download your report here : [link removed for safety]

P/S: I am just trying to help. If you DON’T CARE about your REPUTATION you can ignore my message.

Amy.


This mail is sent via contact form on The Minuteman http://www.the-minuteman.org

Obviously you’re not familiar with me or this website.  I am well known and take pleasure in the idea that some people hate me.  I’m well aware of people writing bad things about me on the internet.  I just make sure when I find it I return the favor.

I’m reasonably sure Amy that my reputation with those I actually respect is quite well intact.  In the words of Winston Churchill:

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.

Thanks for confirming I’ve done my job.

Quote of the Day–Me* 6/12/2013

Good lord, that a lot of porn.  How could the NSA categorize it and make sure they have everyone’s kinks right?

Barron – Conversation

June 12th, 2013


[For context I read this article this morning which had this note in it:

Considering that, according to Cisco, the total world Internet traffic for 2012 was 1.1 exabytes per day…

My immediate thought was that was a whole lot of porn and bitching across the internet.  I then someone asked me why I said wow.  To which I informed them of the 1.1 exabyte estimate and immediately followed it with the quote above… It seems the prudent comment to make.

If you don’t understand why I would think that would be a prudent comment to make, I give you:

–B

*It’s my blog and I can quote myself if I damn well please!]