McAfee: Trojan targets Windows Mobile
,----[ Quote ]
| McAfee has unearthed a Windows Mobile PocketPC Trojan that disables security,
| installs via a memory card, can’t be uninstalled and makes itself your home
| page.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=904
Windows Mobile has back doors, courtesy of the NSA (details below).
Malware removes rival rootkits
,----[ Quote ]
| Virus writers have competed for control of vulnerable PCs several times in
| the past. For example, in 2005 separate groups of hackers released a barrage
| of worms in a battle to seize control of Windows PCs vulnerable to the then
| infamous Windows Plug-and-Play (PnP) vulnerability.
`----
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/02/28/rootkit_wars/
Joy.
Recent:
Microsoft's executive shuffle expected Thursday
,----[ Quote ]
| Also leaving is Pieter Knook, longtime head of Microsoft's Windows Mobile
| unit.
`----
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9871715-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Microsoft cans key conference
,----[ Quote ]
| SOFTWARE giant Microsoft has decided that it does not love its popular Mobile
| and Embedded DevCon any more and has pulled the plug.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/01/16/microsoft-cans-key-conference
Months ago:
Cryptome: NSA has access to Windows Mobile smartphones
,----[ Quote ]
| First time in history Cryptome.org has released information about the
| characteristics of NSA’s network surveillance.
`----
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/1028
Microsoft confirms that XP contains random number generator bug
,----[ Quote ]
| As recently as last Friday, Microsoft hedged in answering questions about
| whether XP and Vista could be attacked in the same way, saying only that
| later versions of Windows "contain various changes and enhancements to the
| random number generator."
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9048438&intsrc=hm_list
Appended below (in order):
i) the effect of back doors being found (zombies everywhere)
ii) compelling evidence of government involvement
iii) Windows mobile suckage and vulnerabilities
Related:
In zombies we trust
,----[ Quote ]
| A little over a year ago, I wrote an editorial where in back-of-the-envelope
| style (.pdf) I estimated that perhaps 15-30% of all privately owned computers
| were no longer under the sole control of their owner. In the intervening
| months, I received a certain amount of hate mail but in those intervening
| months Vint Cert guessed 20-40%, Microsoft said 2/3rds, and IDC suggested
| 3/4ths. It is thus a conservative risk position to assume that any random
| counterparty stands a fair chance of being already compromised.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=661
Over 50% of corporate desktops infected with malware: IronPort
,----[ Quote ]
| The report also reveals that more than 50% of corporate desktops
| worldwide are infected with some type of spyware with the rate of
| infection as high as 70% in the United States. Trojans or malicious
| system monitors represented over 7% of the infections. Rootkits and
| trick loaders, which reinstall spyware and other obfuscation techniques,
| make remediation very difficult thus prevention is the key to stopping
| these threats.
`----
http://www.crn-india.com/breakingnews/stories/66870.html
Botnet 'pandemic' threatens to strangle the net
,----[ Quote ]
| Cerf estimated that between 100 million and 150 million of the
| 600 million PCs on the internet are under the control of hackers,
| the BBC reports.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/26/botnet_threat/
House passes Restore Act with no telecom immunity provision
,----[ Quote ]
| The House of Representatives has passed the Restore Act, which facilitates
| broad surveillance of foreign terror groups while restoring the Foreign
| Intelligence Surveillance Act Court's oversight of communications between
| foreign and domestic surveillance targets. The Restore Act controversially
| does not include a provision granting telecom companies retroactive legal
| immunity for their involvement in the NSA wiretap program.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071116-house-passes-restore-act-with-no-telecom-immunity-provision.html
,----[ Quote ]
| "Is this a good idea or not? For the first time, the giant software maker
| is acknowledging the help of the secretive agency, better known for
| eavesdropping on foreign officials and, more recently, U.S. citizens as
| part of the Bush..."
`----
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/01/nsa_helps_micro_1.html
Microsoft could be teaching police to hack Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft may begin training the police in ways to break the
| encryption built into its forthcoming Vista operating system.
`----
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2150555/microsoft-teaching-police-hack
UK holds Microsoft security talks
,----[ Quote ]
| "UK officials are talking to Microsoft over fears the new version of
| Windows could make it harder for police to read suspects' computer files."
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4713018.stm
Microsoft patents the mother of all adware systems
,----[ Quote ]
| The adware framework would leave almost no data untouched in its quest to
| sell you stuff. It would inspect "user document files, user e-mail files,
| user music files, downloaded podcasts, computer settings, computer status
| messages (e.g., a low memory status or low printer ink)," and more. How could
| we have been so blind as to not see the marketing value in computer status
| messages?
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070717-microsoft-patents-the-mother-of-all-adware-systems.html
Why proprietary code is bad for security
,----[ Quote ]
| Tho Skype is using an encrypted protocol, it’s still their own, non-disclosed
| code and property. So we don’t know what it contains.
|
| [...]
|
| It’s time to stop accepting that we are the bad guys, and to stop consuming
| things we just don’t understand (and cannot, because they are proprietary,
| closed-source systems).
|
| Say no to companies, or even governments who treat you like this. Start using
| open sourced products and protocols wherever you can. Even if you could
| still never understand the code used in these systems, there are still lots
| of people who can, and who will examine it. The magic word here is “peer
| review” - your friend or buddy or neighbour may be able to understand all
| that, and to help. No, not with Skype or Windows or any black box from Cisco.
`----
http://wolfgang.lonien.de/?p=394
Beware of Skype
,----[ Quote ]
| The Skype network has been a concern of government intelligence agencies
| since its inception because it provides a worldwide network of encrypted VoIP
| calls to potential “terrorists”. So how coincidental is it that 10 days after
| Bush signs into law a Bill giving the government authority to track foreign
| calls that go through U.S. networks that Skype, for the first time in its
| existence, undergoes a massive worldwide outage?
|
| [...]
|
| But there are FOSS alternatives to Skype people really should start
| considering now. One is the OpenWengo Project. Businesses, and even
| individuals, should also consider setting up their own Asterisk servers with
| encryption.
`----
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/node/2479
Skype staff play good cop bad cop with Linux users
,----[ Quote ]
| Thank goodness for another staff member, Ryan Hunt, who injected a
| little decorum into the thread, and more than a little honesty, by
| admitting “With 1.4 we're taking it back to basics so we can do it
| right - because that's what you deserve” and stating that “One of
| the features at the heart of 1.4 is the greatly improved audio
| quality and stability.
`----
http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1501.html
Spy Master Admits Error
,----[ Quote ]
| Intel czar Mike McConnell told Congress a new law helped bring down a terror
| plot. The facts say otherwise.
`----
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20749773/site/newsweek/
FBI ducks questions about its remotely installed spyware
,----[ Quote ]
| There are plenty of unanswered questions about the FBI spyware that, as we
| reported earlier this week, can be delivered over the Internet and implanted
| in a suspect's computer remotely.
`----
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9747666-7.html
United States Government Online Watchdogs? Part of the war on terror?
,----[ Quote
| Is there anyone in the abandonia community with a US based connection who is
| experiencing this watchdog behavior? Are any foreign Vista users experiencing
| similar attacks from their own countries ministries and governing agencies?"
`----
http://www.whitedust.net/news/3984/United_States_Government_Online_Watchdogs?_Part_of_the_war_on_terror?.../
Back doors in Windows XP...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGlNTEQ0RzM
Mother of all spyware...
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Forget-about-the-WGA-20-Windows-Vista-Features-and-Services-Harvest-User-Data-for-Microsoft-58752.shtml
Police eats your CPU cycles and disk space...
,----[ Quote ]
| Vista—Microsoft’s latest operating system—may prove to be most
| appropriately named, especially for those seeking evidence of how a
| computer was used.
`----
http://www.abanet.org/journal/ereport/jy13tkjasn.html
Will Microsoft Put The Colonel in the Kernel?
,----[ Quote ]
| "The kernel meets The Colonel in a just-published Microsoft patent
| application for an Advertising Services Architecture, which delivers targeted
| advertising as 'part of the OS.'
`----
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/14/043200
Austria OKs terror snooping Trojan plan
,----[ Quote ]
| Austria has become one of the first countries to officially sanction the use
| of Trojan Horse malware as a tactic for monitoring the PCs of suspected
| terrorists and criminals.
|
| [...]
|
| Would-be terrorists need only use Ubuntu Linux to avoid the ploy. And even if
| they stuck with Windows their anti-virus software might detect the malware.
| Anti-virus firms that accede to law enforcement demands to turn a blind eye
| to state-sanctioned malware risk undermining trust in their software, as
| similar experience in the US has shown.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/23/teutonic_trojan/
Schäuble renews calls for surreptitious online searches of PCs
,----[ Quote ]
| In his speech towards the end of the national conference of the Junge Union,
| the youth organization of the ruling conservative Christian Democratic Union
| (CDU), in Berlin the Federal Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble has
| again come out in favor of allowing authorities to search private PCs
| secretly online and of deploying the German Armed Forces in Germany in the
| event of an emergency.
`----
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/97755/from/rss09
Is My Boss Reading My Personal E-mail?
,----[ Summary ]
| Your employer can monitor all electronic communication
| to and from work equipment, especially when it's sent
| over the corporate network
`----
http://yahoo.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2006/tc20061025_457356.htm
Botnet 'pandemic' threatens to strangle the net
,----[ Quote ]
| Cerf estimated that between 100 million and 150 million of the
| 600 million PCs on the internet are under the control of hackers,
| the BBC reports.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/26/botnet_threat/
Encrypted E-Mail Company Hushmail Spills to Feds
,----[ Quote ]
| Hushmail, a longtime provider of encrypted web-based email, markets itself by
| saying that "not even a Hushmail employee with access to our servers can read
| your encrypted e-mail, since each message is uniquely encoded before it
| leaves your computer."
|
| But it turns out that statement seems not to apply to individuals targeted by
| government agencies that are able to convince a Canadian court to serve a
| court order on the company.
`----
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/11/encrypted-e-mai.html
No email privacy rights under Constitution, US gov claims
,----[ Quote ]
| This appears to be more than a mere argument in support of the
| constitutionality of a Congressional email privacy and access scheme. It
| represents what may be the fundamental governmental position on
| Constitutional email and electronic privacy - that there isn't any. What is
| important in this case is not the ultimate resolution of that narrow issue,
| but the position that the United States government is taking on the entire
| issue of electronic privacy. That position, if accepted, may mean that the
| government can read anybody's email at any time without a warrant.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/04/4th-amendment_email_privacy/
Can FOSS save your privacy?
,----[ Quote ]
| Well, the Bush regime has already claimed "we don't need no steenkin
| warrant" to listen to your phone calls, see what websites you visit,
| scan your emails, and now, with the revelation of a new
| "signing statement", it?s even claiming the authority to read your
| physical mail. When the government becomes the biggest threat to
| your privacy, you better take advantage of the legion of privacy
| advocates creating FOSS to help you retain what little bit of privacy
| you can still have.
|
| [...]
|
| However, just because your privacy is being threatened doesn't mean
| you have to accept it. There is a growing array of FOSS being
| developed to provide us with the ability to control our privacy.
| It's about time we all start using it.
`----
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/can_foss_save_your_privacy
Polippix: The Political Linux Distribution of Denmark
,----[ Quote ]
| From what I have been able to determine, PROSA, the Association of
| Computer Professionals, is the group responsible for its development
| and distribution. Their feelings on how privacy is being affected in
| the country of Denmark are rather obvious, and it looks as if they
| are not going to take these concerns lying down.
`----
http://www.madpenguin.org/cms/?m=show&id=7822
Microsoft exec calls XP hack 'frightening'
,----[ Quote ]
| "You can download attack tools from the Internet, and even script kiddies can
| use this one," said Mick.
|
| Mick found the IP address of his own computer by using the XP Wireless
| Network Connection Status dialog box. He deduced the IP address of Andy's
| computer by typing different numerically adjacent addresses in that IP range
| into the attack tool, then scanning the addresses to see if they belonged to
| a vulnerable machine.
|
| Using a different attack tool, he produced a security report detailing the
| vulnerabilities found on the system. Mick decided to exploit one of them.
| Using the attack tool, Mick built a piece of malware in MS-DOS, giving it a
| payload that would exploit the flaw within a couple of minutes.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6218238.html
Duh! Windows Encryption Hacked Via Random Number Generator
,----[ Quote ]
| GeneralMount Carmel, Haifa – A group of researchers headed by Dr. Benny
| Pinkas from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Haifa
| succeeded in finding a security vulnerability in Microsoft's "Windows 2000"
| operating system. The significance of the loophole: emails, passwords, credit
| card numbers, if they were typed into the computer, and actually all
| correspondence that emanated from a computer using "Windows 2000" is
| susceptible to tracking. "This is not a theoretical discovery. Anyone who
| exploits this security loophole can definitely access this information on
| other computers," remarked Dr. Pinkas.
|
| Editors Note: I believe this "loophole" is part of the Patriot Act, it is
| designed for foreign governments. Seriously, if you care about security,
| privacy, data, trojans, spyware, etc., one does not run Windows, you run
| Linux.
`----
http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/general/14365/duh-windows-encryption-hacked-via-random-number-generator
"Trusted" Computing
,----[ Quote ]
| Do you imagine that any US Linux distributor would say no to the
| US government if they were requested (politely, of course) to add
| a back-door to the binary Linux images shipped as part of their
| products ? Who amongst us actually uses the source code so helpfully
| given to us on the extra CDs to compile our own version ? With
| Windows of course there are already so many back-doors known and
| unknown that the US government might not have even bothered to
| ask Microsoft, they may have just found their own, ready to
| exploit at will. What about Intel or AMD and the microcode on
| the processor itself ?
`----
http://tuxdeluxe.org/node/164
,----[ Quote ]
| In relation to the issue of sharing technical API and protocol
| information used throughout Microsoft products, which the
| states were seeking, Allchin alleged that releasing this
| information would increase the security risk to consumers.
|
| "It is no exaggeration to say that the national security is
| also implicated by the efforts of hackers to break into
| computing networks. Computers, including many running Windows
| operating systems, are used throughout the United States
| Department of Defense and by the armed forces of the United
| States in Afghanistan and elsewhere."
`----
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Allchin
How NSA access was built into Windows
,----[ Quote ]
| A careless mistake by Microsoft programmers has revealed that
| special access codes prepared by the US National Security Agency
| have been secretly built into Windows.
|
| [...]
|
| The first discovery of the new NSA access system was made two years
| ago by British researcher Dr Nicko van Someren. But it was only a
| few weeks ago when a second researcher rediscovered the access
| system. With it, he found the evidence linking it to NSA.
`----
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/5/5263/1.html
NSA Builds Security Access Into Windows
,----[ Quote ]
| A careless mistake by Microsoft programmers has shown that special access
| codes for use by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) have been secretly
| built into all versions of the Windows operating system.
`----
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990903S0014
Reaching for Apple, Falling Short
,----[ Quote ]
| Frankly, Windows Mobile 6 is a mess. Common features require an infinitude of
| taps and clicks, and the ones you need most are buried in menus. Apparently
| the Windows Mobile 6 team learned absolutely nothing from Windows Mobile 1,
| 2, 3, 4 and 5.
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/technology/personaltech/08pogue.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Windows Mobile flaws could crash phones
,----[ Quote ]
| A security firm has found a pair of security bugs in Microsoft's
| Windows Mobile which, if exploited, could crash phones and other
| devices running the software.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6155141.html
Trend Micro Finds More Windows Mobile Flaws
,----[ Quote ]
| Trend Micro has again discovered flaws related to Windows Mobile.
| Both of the newly found vulnerabilities are flaws in applications
| that ship by default with Microsoft?s mobile device OS.
`----
http://blog.trendmicro.com/trend-micro-finds-more-windows-mobile-flaws/
Microsoft shows its hand to stay in the mobile web war
,----[ Quote ]
| Repeatedly it has been asked of Microsoft, why not throw away Windows
| Mobile and build a new generation of software on top of the prevalent
| smart phone operating systems -- Symbian and Linux, or add Windows
| Mobile only as an afterthought?
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/06/microsoft_deepfish_mobile_browser/
Palm's Fat Hand
,----[ Quote ]
| Samsung' Blackjack and Motorola's Q, while easy on the eyes, are
| hampered by Microsoft's unintuitive Windows Mobile operating
| system.
`----
http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/08/iphone-treo-palm-tech-wireless-cx_rr_0509palm.html?partner=yahootix
Vista-Windows Mobile 6.0 file-sync fix due in mid-June
,----[ Quote ]
| Even though Windows Vista has been out since January (or November,
| if you're a business customer), there are still products and applications
| -- including some from Microsoft itself -- that don't work with Vista.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=480
I'm breaking up with Windows Mobile
,----[ Quote ]
| But tomorrow, I'm saying goodbye, or at least fare-well to my Windows
| Mobile days.
`----
http://onemanshouting.com/tech/2007/06/05/ImBreakingUpWithWindowsMobile.aspx
T-Mobile Wing Review
,----[ Quote ]
| With that said, Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 is a disappointment.
| Working with a number of applications or "heavy" documents was
| painful. The delay was too much, especially in Word and PowerPoint
| files that it wasn?t possible for us to work with the device without
| messing up somewhere and not realizing it in the end. This lag is
| present across a number of other scenarios as well.
`----
http://www.cooltechzone.com/Departments/Featured_Story/T-Mobile_Wing_Review_200706042861/
HTC takes a gamble with new brand and OS strategy
,----[ Quote ]
| Despite making gains in the enterprise and becoming a fairly robust
| and well recognized, if relatively minor, smartphone platform, Windows
| Mobile will clearly be just an element in the mobile picture, and
| probably a small one compared to Linux and the growing family of
| Java-oriented OSs like Symbian/Series 60 or Sun's new developments.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/18/htc_new_strategy/
Microsoft Hides Its Mobile and Business Apps Divisions
,----[ Quote ]
| The company is folding its two worst-performing divisions -- Microsoft
| Business Solutions (its business applications unit) and its Mobile and
| Embedded units -- into the Microsoft Business Division and Microsoft Home
| and Entertainment units, respectively.
`----
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1990243,00.asp?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535
How to crash a Windows mobile using MMS
,----[ Quote ]
| Security researchers have released proof-of-concept code that exploits
| vulnerabilities in MMS implementations in mobile phones running
| mobile versions of Windows.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/02/windows_mms_vuln/
70 percent of smartphones use Symbian
,----[ Quote ]
| At 3GSM it became clear that 70 percent of all smartphones use Symbian.
|
| Linux accounts for 16.9 percent of the smartphone market and only
| 4.6 percent uses Microsoft Windows Mobile.
`----
http://www.dvhardware.net/article17134.html
Microsoft doesn't deny Windows Mobile flaw
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has refused to deny that the most recent version of
| Windows Mobile leaves data poorly secured on handsets.
`----
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39284532,00.htm
Mobile Security, Virtualization on tap at MS Hacking Meet
,----[ Quote ]
| Plus, we've got a couple of talks on Windows Mobile and more about automated
| exploit creation-- this time using Metasploit."
`----
http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20070922/tc_pcworld/137478
Airscanner Vulnerability Summary: Windows Mobile Security Software Fails the
Test
,----[ Quote ]
| Since developers are not in a hurry to keep their users information
| secure... we feel compelled to publish - with exclusivity granted to us
| by author till August 21, 2006 - an article, that reveals various
| problems with Windows Mobile software from various software vendors!
| This article is a "must read" for any serious user of Windows Mobile...
`----
http://msmobiles.com/news.php/5474.html
Review of Windows Mobile 6.0 for PPC (Crossbow) operating system
,----[ Quote ]
| Regrettably, this world lacks miracles and this case is just another
| proof of that. The system still doesn?t offer support for several
| active windows in Internet Explorer, so that you are limited to a
| single window at a time, also profiles are missing in WM; the office
| applications haven?t been enhanced either. Nor were the multimedia
| tools. What the company has really got to do is keep on tuning
| Office Mobile, extending Windows Live, release Windows Media Mobile
| 11 and so on.
`----
http://www.mobile-review.com/pda/articles/wm-crossbow-en.shtml
|
|
