We see a lot of hacks where the path to success is pretty obvious, if maybe strewn with all sorts of complications, land-mines, and time-sinks. Then we get other hacks that are just totally out-of-the-box. Maybe the work itself isn’t so impressive, or even “correct” by engineering standards, but the inner idea that’s so crazy it just might work shines through.

This week, for instance, we saw an adaptive backlight LED TV modification that no engineer would ever design. Whether it was just the easiest way out, or used up parts on hand, [Mousa] cracked the problem of assigning brightnesses to the LED backlights by taking a tiny screen, playing the same movie on it, pointing it at an array of light sensors, and driving the LEDs inside his big TV off of that. No image processing, no computation, just light hitting LDRs. It’s mad, and it involves many, many wires, but it gets the job done.

Similarly, we saw an answer to the wet-3D-filament problem that’s as simple as it could possibly be: basically a tube with heated, dry air running through it that the filament must pass through on it’s way to the hot end. We’ve seen plenty of engineered solutions to damp filament, ranging from an ounce of prevention in the form of various desiccant storage options, to a pound of cure – putting the spools in the oven to bake out. We’re sure that drying filament inline isn’t the right way to do it, but we’re glad to see it work. The idea is there when you need it.

Not that there’s anything wrong with the engineering mindset. Quite the contrary: most often taking things one reasonable step at a time, quantifying up all the unknowns, and thinking through the path of least resistance gets you to the finish line of your project faster. But we still have to admire the off-the-wall hacks, where the way that makes the most sense isn’t always the most beautiful way to go. It’s a good week on Hackaday when we get both types of projects in even doses.

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Il file rockyou.txt, famigerata lista di 14 milioni di password nate dall’attacco RockYou del 2009, è un pezzo di storia della sicurezza informatica. Nel corso degli anni la sua “eredità” si è evoluta: partendo dal file originale, gli attaccanti hanno aggiunto password da vari data breach, arrivando a RockYou2021 con ben 8,4 miliardi di record.

Queste enormi liste possono venire utilizzate per il credential stuffing e attacchi brute-force, compromettendo la sicurezza degli utenti meno esperti, come accaduto quest’anno a Levi Strauss. La realtà delle cose è differente ed esistono metodi più efficaci utilizzati dagli attaccanti per questo tipo di operazioni.

La Collection RockYou2024

Con la versione del 2021 avevamo già raggiunto cifre elevate, ma la nuova release segna (apparentemente) l’apice: RockYou2024 è stata pubblicata dall’utente “ObamaCare”.

Questa nuova versione aggiunge 1,5 miliardi di record a quella del 2021, arrivando a un totale di 10 miliardi di credenziali. Sebbene una wordlist possa avere diverse utilità, per gli aggressori informatici possederne una così grande (specialmente nel 2024 con data breach sempre più frequenti) è potenzialmente un sogno che si avvera. L’utente non ha specificato la natura dei nuovi record, ma sottolinea che provengono da recenti database violati.

Conclusioni – non è tutto oro quello che luccica

Questo nuovo file potrebbe sembrare una risorsa preziosa per gli hacker, ma è necessario analizzare il contenuto per determinarne il vero valore :

1. “Garbage Data” = Il file unzipped ha una dimensione di 146GB, ma un’analisi più attenta rivela diverse incongruenze. Innanzitutto, la maggior parte delle stringhe da 32 caratteri sono hash grezzi (circa 15GB), così come lo sono quelle da 60 caratteri (altri 15GB circa), vanificando le promesse di “ObamaCare”. Inoltre, il file inizia con un gran numero di caratteri “0x00” inutili all’inizio del file oltre a nomi di società e stringhe casuali. È probabile che “ObamaCare” abbia voluto raggiungere a tutti i costi i 10 miliardi di record per ottenere fama o attenzione, senza preoccuparsi della qualità dei dati aggiuntivi.
2. Veri rischi e vere minacce = Anche aggiungendo 2 miliardi di record alla versione del 2021, i rischi rimangono sostanzialmente uguali a quelli di 3 anni fa. La dimensione di questo file non dovrebbe spaventare più di tanto. In scenari reali, gli aggressori informatici preferiscono acquistare credenziali mirate su marketplace illegali (broker di credenziali) piuttosto che ricorrere ad attacchi brute-force con enormi wordlist. Le minacce esperte adottano un approccio più preciso, creando wordlist personalizzate in base ai loro obiettivi. Dizionari,word rules e strumenti come Kewl, Crunch, Awk e Sed sono le vere armi usate, consentendogli di agire in modo intelligente invece di affidarsi a wordlist ingombranti.

Sebbene una wordlist enorme come RockYou2024 possa generare clamore ed attirare l’attenzione, il rischio sottostante non è poi così significativo. I black-hat esperti utilizzano metodi mirati e eseguire brute-force con dati non raffinati risultano inefficaci e non necessari. Con l’uscita di RockYou2024 non c’è stato alcun collasso della sicurezza né un enorme rischio per la sicurezza come è stato descritto in queste ultime ore.

L'articolo La Collection RockYou2024 è stata pubblicata! 10 Miliardi di Credenziali Compromesse proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

[Gilles Messier] at the Our Own Devices YouTube channel recently took a look at an interesting device — an electric lantern powered by a candle. At first glance, this sounds completely absurd. Why use a candle to power LEDs when you can use the light from the candle itself? This gadget has a trick up its sleeve, though. It lets candle light out and uses the heat from the candle flame to generate power for the LEDs.

The small Peltier “solid-state heat pump” module in the lantern acts as a thermoelectric generator, converting heat from the candle into electricity for the LEDs. The genius of the device is how it handles the candle “exhaust”. A bimetallic disk in the chimney of the lantern closes when the air inside the device is hot. The Peltier device converts the heat differential to electricity, causing the air inside the lantern to cool. Meanwhile, the candle is beginning to starve for oxygen. Once the air cools down a bit, the disk bends, allowing stale smoke out, and fresh air in, allowing the candle to burn brightly again. Then the cycle repeats.

[Gilles] does a deep dive into the efficiency of the lantern, which is worth the price of admission alone. These lanterns are pretty expensive — but Peltier modules are well-known by hackers. We’re sure it won’t be too hard to knock together a cheap version at home.

youtube.com/embed/Sy3tBv81LvI?…

When you think of solar energy, you probably think of flat plates on rooftops. A company called WAVJA wants you to think of spheres. The little spheres, ranging from one to four inches across, can convert light into electricity, and the company claims they have 7.5 times the output of traditional solar panels and could later produce even more. Unfortunately, the video below doesn’t have a great deal of detail to back up the claims.

Some scenes in the video are clearly forward-looking. However, the so-called photon energy system appears to be powering a variety of real devices. It’s difficult to assess some of the claims. For example, the video claims 60 times the output of a similar-sized panel. But you’d hardly expect much from a tiny 4-inch solar panel.

What do you think? Do they really have layers of exotic material? If we were going to bet, we’d bet these claims are a bit of hyperbole. Then again, who knows? We’ll be watching to see what technical details emerge. We have to admit that quotes like this from their website don’t make us especially hopeful:

…relies on the use of multiple layers of materials and special spheres to introduce sunlight and generate a significant amount of luminosity, which is then transformed into electricity using a silicon conductor module…

There are ways to make solar technology more efficient. But we do see a lot of solar energy claims that are — well — inflated.

youtube.com/embed/H-8y8uG6Ojw?…