Linux Network Security - Page 20

Discover Network Security News

Browser Makers Focus on Reducing Malware and Phishing

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Mozilla, the company behind the open-source browser Firefox, announced previously that the next version of it browser, Firefox 3, will include a host of security features, among them protection against malicious downloads from Web sites. Dubbed malware protection, the feature will use a hash of the Web site's address, or URL, to compare against a list of sites known to host malicious downloads. I am glad to see web browsers are starting to take Internet security seriously. Do you think they are on the right direct as far as helping Internet security?

Bill Keys
Mar 13, 2008

Open Source Tool of The Month: Winner for 2007

The votes are in, and for 2007, Nmap has been voted by the community over at Linuxquestions.org as the most popular Network Security Application. To some, it may have seemed that Nmap had this award locked up, but this was not the case. Coming in at a hair under 25% of the total vote, it beat out its nearest competitor Wireshark by only 4%, hardly a resounding victory. What it means is that open source network security applications are getting to a very mature state where the competition is healthy and competitive; it's great to see. In all, there were a total of 12 entrants in to the category including Snort, ClamAV, Nessus and Firestarter among others in this wide-ranging category. As a side note, many suggestions mentioned the need to create a Firewall Distro Poll, as opposed to just an application poll. Do you think there should be a separate poll? Would your list have included other network security applications?

Brittany Day
Feb 25, 2008

Password Hasher Firefox Extension

Well seen as though we were talking about breaking passwords, here

Bill Keys
Feb 15, 2008

Mozilla Dismisses New Firefox Flaw Warning

Published reports of an information leakage vulnerability affecting fully patched versions of the open-source Firefox browser have been greatly exaggerated, according to Mozilla chief evangelist Mike Shaver. Shaver's sharp retort follows the release of an advisory by hacker Ronald van den Heetkamp claiming that the most recent Firefox 2.0.0.12 is susceptible to a bug that allows hackers to view sensitive information on a target machine.

Bill Keys
Feb 12, 2008

The future of Network Security

Who needs network security? Why don't we just build encryption and antimalware protection into end-points and simply enjoy open networks? From a security perspective that's always best and it's in line with the Jericho Forum vision. But in the real world it's not so simple. At the very least we need protective measures in networks to guarantee availability and performance. Beyond that there is huge potential to deliver value through security features in networks. I found this article to be a interesting read. The author points out many different parts of network security. What do you think about the future of network security?

Bill Keys
Feb 07, 2008

Phishers use DNS Tricks to Direct Users to Bad Sites

San Francisco - The latest information on phishing indicates that fraudsters are increasingly using malicious software to direct users to their deceptive sites. The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) said in a new report Thursday that it saw a sharp rise in November in malware that directs users to DNS servers controlled by phishers. DNS servers play a crucial role in locating Web sites. The servers translate a domain name into an IP address, enabling a Web site to be located and accessed through a browser. What can be done to increase DNS security? With how visible DNS servers are and how important they are to the internet can we ever fully protect them from miss use?

Bill Keys
Feb 01, 2008

First Case of "Drive-by Pharming" Identified in the Wild

The theory is now a reality. Symantec reported Tuesday that drive-by pharming, in which a hacker changes the DNS settings on a customer

Brittany Day
Jan 23, 2008

Internet security: What Will Work

San Francisco - In the first column of this year, I discussed computer security outlook and hopes for 2008. I forecast more of the same that we saw in 2007: more spam, more malware, more bad guys basically owning the Internet and our connected computers. I don't see any trends or new leaders with significant power to change the status quo. what do you see for Internet security in 2008? One thing is true computer security is more important then ever.

Bill Keys
Jan 18, 2008

Unicornscan v0.4.7 Released for Download - Fast Port Scanner

Unicornscan is a new information gathering and correlation engine built for and by members of the security research and testing communities. It was designed to provide an engine that is Scalable, Accurate, Flexible, and Efficient. It is released for the community to use under the terms of the GPL license. Have you heard about the port scanning tool called Unicormscan? There are so many port scanning tools out there but do you think Unicornscan has any advantages of the others?

Bill Keys
Jan 10, 2008

Firefox Hit With Spoofing Bug

A serious flaw in how Firefox handles log-ons could be used by identity thieves to dupe users into disclosing passwords, a noted security researcher said Wednesday. Aviv Raff, an Israeli researcher best known for ferreting out browser flaws, revealed the Firefox spoofing vulnerability on his personal blog, and posted a demonstration video there. He did not go public with any proof-of-concept code or working exploit, however. Have you heard about the latest FireFox vulnerability? When do you think the developers will release a patch fixing the bug?

Bill Keys
Jan 04, 2008

Securing Joomla! Installations

Joomla! is a well-known content management system, mature enough to be used by thousands of amateur and professional Web portals. Installation is a breeze and consists of six click-next steps. However, a default Joomla! installation is not necessarily a secure one, so let's see how we can protect our portal from potential attackers. The first rule of security when it comes to Joomla! is "update frequently," because whenever a new version comes out, it usually comprises several user-reported bug and security fixes.

Brittany Day
Jan 04, 2008

Dynamic Web White-listing for Squid

This is a pretty neat tool for those using Squid Cache and looking for a pro-active tool for securing web acccess in their company (or house if you have a devious sibling). The goal of Whitetrash is to provide a user-friendly and sysadmin-friendly proxy that makes it significantly harder for malware to use HTTP and SSL for: Have you heard this about tool? If so do you feel it's worth implementing to help secure web access.

Bill Keys
Dec 27, 2007

Monitoring Real-time user logins.

Whowatch is an console, interactive users and process monitoring tool.It displays information about the users currently logged on to the machine, in real-time. Besides standard informations (login name, tty,host, user

Bill Keys
Dec 24, 2007

Build secure Web applications with OWASP

Applications made specifically for web can be tricky and insecure. In fact, based on the array of projects available, it can be a surprise that new web applications get the due security they require. In comes OWASP, a collaborative, security-based organization made for helping improve the security of web-focused applications. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) comes to the rescue of Web application architects with tools, frameworks, and guidelines to improve security in applications. Security expert Mark Curphey founded OWASP in 2000. The project is supported by the not-for-profit OWASP Foundation and has five non-paid board members and about 130 project and chapter leaders.

Brittany Day
Dec 20, 2007

Master Port Scanning with Nmap

What's on your network and how vulnerable is it to a hacker attack? Having a clear picture of this is a vital part of effective network administration, and one way to build up such a picture is by network mapping using a port scanner. Nmap is a powerful tool for helping identify areas in your network which needs to be tighten up. This articles talks about how you can identify these weaknesses by using Nmap.

Bill Keys
Dec 17, 2007

Linux Traffic Analysis, Quick and Simple

Full-featured traffic analyzers for Linux systems such as ntop and vnstat are widely available, but sometimes you just want a simple program that gives you fast, basic information about the amount of traffic going in and out of the hosts on your network. Darkstat, a packet sniffer that runs as a background process, fills that role. It gathers statistics about network usage and displays them over HTTP. It's an important security practice to know what traffic is going in and out of your network. Have you looked at your network traffic lately?

Bill Keys
Dec 07, 2007

Handful of Bugs Squashed in Firefox Security Fix

Mozilla has released an update to its Firefox browser, fixing a widely publicized flaw in the open-source software. The 2.0.0.10 update fixes a handful of memory corruption flaws that crash Firefox, and a cross-site request forgery flaw that could give attackers a way to get unauthorized access to certain Web sites. But the most anticipated bug fix in this release addresses a problem in the way Firefox processes files that are compressed using the .jar (Java Archive) format. What's your opinion on how browsers like Firefox handles special Web links that are used to execute possibly harmful application? Are they doing enough to help prevent these types of attacks?

Bill Keys
Nov 28, 2007

Scalable Public Key Infrastructure for both OpenSWAN and OpenVPN

User management and the related cryptographic authentication infrastructure is a major hurdle in deploying scalable, manageable VPNs (Virtual Private Networks). After introducing VPNs and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and discussing some of the benefits and challenges of two popular VPN implementations, we'll document how to build a scalable PKI to simplify VPN authentication management. Read on for an interesting account on how to setup your secure VPN, including common pitfalls, gotchas, and example configurations. Let us know any tips you would give sysadmins in setting up OpenSWAN and OpenVPN!

Brittany Day
Nov 19, 2007

With Web 2.0, a New Breed of Malware Evolves

San Francisco - Web 2.0 technologies may be laying the groundwork for a new generation of hacker tools, a noted security researcher said Wednesday. Google Mashups, RSS feeds, search, all of these can be misused by hackers to distribute malware, attack Web surfers and communicate with botnets, said Petko Petkov, a security researcher speaking at the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) U.S. 2007 conference, held on eBay's campus We all know that Web 2.0 gives the security community a challenge but what can we do? Do the old security practices of strong firewall, validating input, etc continue to protect web servers in this age of web 2.0 or do we need to research new ways of protection?

Bill Keys
Nov 15, 2007

Firefox Security Flaw Affecting Gmail's Users

Last week, security companies around the world spotted a new vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox which could allow the attackers to use a malicious JAR file to harm users' computers. The security flaw is still there and moreover, it seems it affects most websites on the Internet including the super search giant Google. This article talks about a Firefox add-on called NoScript to help avoid this attack. Have you ever used this extension? Also which software do you think will be first to release a patch preventing this attack?

Bill Keys
Nov 12, 2007

Linux Network Security - Page 20

Linux Pentesting Distros: An Essential Tool for Strengthening Network Security

Enhancing Network Security with Linux Proxy Servers

OPNsense 24.7 'Thriving Tiger': Elevating Open-Source Network Security and Performance