[ale] semi [OT] cool info, sn podcast, FIXING SSD'S, linksys router flaws, more
David Tomaschik
david at systemoverlord.com
Sun Jan 20 19:16:51 EST 2013
On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 8:04 AM, Matthew <simontek at gmail.com> wrote:
> speaking of pod casts, does anyone else watch/listen to pauldotcom or hak5?
I'm a big fan of both. Some people think hak5 is a bit "simplistic", but
it's still interesting, and I appreciate their efforts to open the security
world up to more people. Plus, the WiFi Pineapple and the USB Rubber Ducky
are awesome.
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 10:44 AM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <
> atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> The latest security now podcast had lots of good info I wanted to share.
>> Some of you already know much of what they cover and some are above the
>> level the podcast is aimed at. However, I find the info useful so I would
>> just say use it for what it's worth to you.
>>
>> http://www.grc.com/**securitynow.htm <http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm>- show web page
>> http://twit.tv/sn - show web page on This Week In Tech network
>>
>> http://media.grc.com/sn/sn-**387.mp3 <http://media.grc.com/sn/sn-387.mp3>- show audio
>> http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-387.**pdf <http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-387.pdf> -
>> transcript
>>
>> I'll reference pages in the transcript for each item. Not sure of the
>> exact position in the audio.
>>
>> * p2 - They spent a while discussing yet another of the seemingly
>> endless zero day exploits in Java as well as disconnecting it from your
>> browser while leaving it on the system, if you have to. - p2
>>
>> * p6 - They discussed the USB drives brings down power plant issue for
>> a while. - p6
>>
>> * p7 - They discussed a flaw which allows someone to get root access to
>> certain Linksys routers, hopefully only from within the LAN side of the
>> device. This could affect 70,000,000 routers. Info here
>> bit.ly/linksys0day which links to http://www.defensecode.com/**
>> article/upcoming_cisco_**linksys_remote_preauth_root_**exploit-33<http://www.defensecode.com/article/upcoming_cisco_linksys_remote_preauth_root_exploit-33>. According to Leo's and Steve's opinion, Cisco has been extremely
>> negligent in patching flaws in the Linksys product line. There was also a
>> fiasco recently where they tried to disable the control panel in their new
>> routers and force users to log into a Cisco web account just to be able to
>> administer their router. I don't think I'll be buying any Linksys
>> products. - p7
>>
>> * p8 - A short discussion about an article comparing various USB
>> chargers. Apparently some are much better and some are much worse. I
>> haven't read it yet but it sounds cool. Info here bit.ly/usbchargewhich links to
>> http://www.arcfn.com/2012/10/**a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-**
>> apple-is.html<http://www.arcfn.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-apple-is.html>. This is a very detailed article. - p8
>>
>> * p10 - FIXING SSD's - A number of listeners have reported that A)
>> their relatively new SSD's are failing to read properly, and B) you can
>> sometimes fix them with SpinRite. This is important info. According to
>> Steve, the economics of the SSD market are forcing producers to operate at
>> the very bleeding edge of what is technically possible for the price
>> they're selling the product at. Sometimes, they cross over to the wrong
>> side of that fence. According to Steve, the units are JUST RELIABLE ENOUGH
>> to sell them, just like HDD's.
>>
>> Imagine this, you have a microscopic storage tank for electrons, a
>> capacitor, which is VERY microscopic. You stick a VERY small charge of
>> electrons into the storage tank through a lid which is inherently leaky.
>> The more you use it, the more leaky it gets. Not only that, you try to
>> fill it either 1/4 1/2 3/4 or full, and then sense what state it's in to
>> read back 2 bits of data. (MLC cells) The engineers know this won't work
>> sometimes, so they rely on lots of ECC (error correction code) to make it
>> work. Sometimes, even that fails, and you get "sectors" that won't read
>> properly.
>>
>> A number of listeners to the podcast have reported that they've used
>> SpinRite to fix SSD's which are giving failures to read. SpinRite has
>> various operational levels. It is now apparent that there is value in
>> forcing an SSD controller to periodically read all of the "disk" in the
>> same way it's useful to do this to a hard drive. In the case of an SSD, it
>> forces the controller to acknowledge weak storage cells and either refresh
>> the data (electrical charge) or relocate it. The user that contacted the
>> show was having problems with a balky SSD running on a Mac. He moved the
>> SSD to a pc and ran SpinRite on it at Level 1 - read only and don't try to
>> recover data. He got a number of unrecoverable sector errors. Upon
>> Steve's advice, he ran SpinRite on Level 2. This is also read only, but
>> invokes a massive statistical analysis routine to try to recover unreadable
>> sectors by reading the raw data up to 2000 times. On a HDD, SpinRite would
>> fly the heads in to the sector from many different locations to account for
>> mechanical variances in the read mechanism. On an SSD, this does not
>> apply. However, the statistical data analysis on bad sectors is still
>> valid. Note that something like badblocks can exercise the drive's
>> controller. However, it cannot do the extensive data recovery on
>> unreadable sectors that SpinRite can. In any case, once the user had run
>> the SpinRite level 2 process on the drive, the unreadable sectors had been
>> recovered sufficiently to put the drive in the Mac and it worked fine.
>>
>> To give you an idea of how Steve feels about the reliability (or lack of
>> it) of SSD's, he is using some in a server, but for him to feel safe, they
>> had to be:
>> - OWC premium brand
>> - Single Level Cell memory rather than Multi Level Cell (very
>> expensive)
>> - Massively overprovisioned with spare sectors
>> - Configured in fully redundant RAID such that any two drives can fail
>> and the server still works
>>
>> - p10 in the transcript
>>
>> * p15 - They talk about using Java apps, like CrashPlan or MineCraft,
>> without allowing Java to be active in the web browser. - p15
>>
>> * p17 - They talk about new technology involving filling HDD's with
>> helium, which allows higher platter speed and higher aerial density. - p17
>>
>> * p19 - They talk about how to configure a PS3 for UPNP using a DMZ
>> without endangering your network.
>> Glossary - PS3 - Play Station 3
>> - UPNP - Universal Plug and Play
>> - Demilitarized Zone (in the router) -
>> p19
>>
>> For those that don't know, UPNP is a potentially dangerous technology
>> that allows an application to open ports in your router's firewall, for
>> games to work, etc., without your knowledge or permission. In many cases,
>> you cannot even tell what's been opened. If something malicious does get
>> inside your firewall, either through a web page or an application, it can
>> swing the doors of your firewall open wide and let all it's malware friends
>> in. The best idea is to disable it unless you need it.
>>
>> * p19 - They discuss The Quite Canine project - An ongoing (very cool)
>> design for a simple high frequency sound blaster that can be used to
>> convince barking and / or aggressive dogs that you encounter to shut up and
>> leave without harming them. - p19
>>
>> * p24 - Reminder by a listener of a year old problem in a large number
>> of Linksys routers of a flaw in the WPS security system which allows the
>> WPA password to be cracked in less than 10 hours by sniffing the traffic.
>> Apparently, yet again, Cisco has dropped the ball an not fixed it. The
>> moral of the story is, disable WPS on your router, if you even can.
>> Apparently, on some of the Linksys routers, the disable function doesn't
>> work. - p24
>>
>> I found these links:
>>
>> http://lifehacker.com/5873407/**how-to-crack-a-wi+fi-networks-**
>> wpa-password-with-reaver<http://lifehacker.com/5873407/how-to-crack-a-wi+fi-networks-wpa-password-with-reaver>
>> http://arstechnica.com/**business/2011/12/researchers-**
>> publish-open-source-tool-for-**hacking-wifi-protected-setup/<http://arstechnica.com/business/2011/12/researchers-publish-open-source-tool-for-hacking-wifi-protected-setup/>
>>
>> I hope you find this info helpful and useful. There appears to be a
>> never ending supply of security problems to talk about.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Ron
>>
>> --
>>
>> (To whom it may concern. My email address has changed. Replying to
>> former
>> messages prior to 03/31/12 with my personal address will go to the wrong
>> address. Please send all personal correspondence to the new address.)
>>
>> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
>> call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
>> mailing lists and such. I don't always see new email messages very
>> quickly.)
>>
>> Ron Frazier
>> 770-205-9422 (O) Leave a message.
>> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
>>
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--
David Tomaschik
OpenPGP: 0x5DEA789B
http://systemoverlord.com
david at systemoverlord.com
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