By the time you read this the Iowa-class battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) should be making its way along the Delaware River, heading back to its permanent mooring on the Camden waterfront after undergoing a twelve week maintenance and repair period at the nearby Philadelphia Navy Yard.

The 888 foot (270 meter) long ship won’t be running under its own power, but even under tow, it’s not often that you get to see one of the world’s last remaining battleships on the move. The New Jersey’s return home will be a day of celebration, with onlookers lining the banks of the Delaware, news helicopters in the air, and dignitaries and veterans waiting eagerly to greet her as she slides up to the pier.

But when I got the opportunity to tour the New Jersey a couple weeks ago and get a first-hand look at the incredible preservation work being done on this historic ship, it was a very different scene. There was plenty of activity within the cavernous Dry Dock #3 at the Navy Yard, the very same slip where the ship’s construction was completed back in 1942, but little fanfare. Staff from North Atlantic Ship Repair, the company that now operates the facility, were laboring feverishly over the weekend to get the ship ready.

While by no means an exhaustive account of the work that was done on the ship during its time in Dry Dock #3, this article will highlight some of the more interesting projects that were undertaken while it was out of the water. After seeing the thought and effort put into every aspect of the ship’s preservation by curator Ryan Szimanski and his team, there’s no doubt that not only is the USS New Jersey in exceptionally capable hands, but that it will continue to proudly serve as a museum and memorial for decades to come.

A Fresh Coat of Paint

The primary goal of putting New Jersey into dry dock was to repaint the hull below the water line, something which had not been done since the ship was deactivated by the US Navy in 1990. Under normal circumstances this is the sort of routine maintenance that would be done every few years, but for a static museum ship, the recommended dry docking interval is 30 years. There was no indication that the hull was in particularly bad shape or in need of emergency repair — most of the work done during this yard period was preventative in nature.

The first step in this process was to remove the old paint, along with any biological growth and rust. Unfortunately, there’s no “easy” way to do this. The entire surface area of the underwater hull, totaling roughly 125,000 square feet (11,600 square meters), was painstakingly cleaned using ultra-high pressure washers operating at approximately 30,000 psi. In some areas, getting close enough to the surface of the hull meant putting workers up on a lift, but for the ship’s relatively flat bottom, personnel had to squat down and spray the surface over their heads.

As the ship is resting on around 300 “keel blocks”, this process had to be done in two separate phases. First, the approximately 90% of the hull that was not covered by the blocks was stripped, painted, and left to dry. Then the dry dock was flooded just enough to get the ship floating , so it could be pulled forward a few feet and dropped back down to uncover the areas of the hull that were previously covered.

Checking for Leaks

Even though the steel of the hull itself might be intact, a large ship will have many openings under the water line that can leak if not properly maintained. According to Ryan the New Jersey has about 165 such openings, ranging from tiny drain lines to massive seawater intakes. While the ship was in operation each one of them would have served an important purpose, but as a floating museum with essentially no operating hardware onboard, they’re a liability.

The easiest solution would have been to simply weld plates over all of them. But part of the arrangement that allows the New Jersey to operate as a museum is that the Navy has the right to take the ship back and reactivate it at any time. Admittedly it’s an unlikely prospect, but those are the rules.

Permanently blocking up all those critical openings would make the ship’s reactivation that much more difficult, so instead, each one was “boxed over” with a custom-made steel enclosure. The idea is that, should the ship ever need to return to operation, these boxes could easily be cut off without damaging the hull.

Only one of these boxes was known to be leaking before pulling New Jersey out of the water, but out of an abundance of caution, the integrity of each one was manually checked by pressurizing them with air. If the box held pressure, it was good to go. If it lost air, then it was sprayed with soapy water and closely inspected for bubbles. If there were no bubbles on the outside that meant the air was leaking into the ship through whatever the enclosed fitting was — a problem the Navy might need to address in World War Three, but not something the museum needed to concern themselves with.

Swapping Out Anodes

To help fight off corrosion ships use a technique known as cathodic protection, which essentially turns the steel of the hull into the cathode of a electrochemical cell. The surrounding water serves as the electrolyte, and blocks made of a metal with a high ionization tendency are mounted to the ship to act as the anode. As electrons flow through this circuit, the sacrificial anode dissolves, sparing the hull and other underwater gear such as the propellers.

New Jersey was fitted with 1,200 anodes when the Navy deactivated her, but unfortunately, they ended up being the wrong type. At the time it was assumed that the ship would be stored in a saltwater port as part of what’s known as the “Mothball Fleet”, so zinc anodes were used. There was no way to know that, a decade later, the ship would be transferred to the fresh waters of the Delaware River to live out the rest of its life as a museum.

Because of this, the zinc anodes didn’t corrode away as was intended. In fact when the dry dock was drained, it was revealed that the anodes were in nearly perfect condition. You could even still read the manufacturing info stamped into many of them. On the plus side, they’ll make for excellent souvenirs in the museum’s gift shop. But in terms of corrosion protection, they didn’t do a thing.

Luckily, fresh water is relatively forgiving, so the battleship didn’t suffer too badly for this lack of functioning cathodic protection. Even so, it was decided to install 600 aluminum anodes in place of the originals, which are more suitable for the conditions the ship is stored in.

Closing Off the Shafts

Before New Jersey went in for this yard period, there was some debate about removing its propellers and drive shafts. The idea being that the huge openings in the hull which the shafts pass through were a long-term liability. But not only would this have deviated from the museum’s overall goal of keeping the ship as intact as possible, it would have been a considerable undertaking.

Instead it was decided to seal off where the shafts pass through the hull with custom-made steel enclosures, much like the other openings on the bottom of the ship. In addition, the shafts were wrapped with fiberglass where they pass through the support brackets on the rear of the ship. The fiberglass isn’t expected to be a permanent solution like the steel boxes around the shafts, but should provide at least some measure of protection.

Lots and Lots of Caulk

One of the surprising things discovered upon inspecting the hull of New Jersey was that caulking had been applied to all the seams along the riveted hull plates. At least in theory, this shouldn’t be necessary, as the overlapping plates are designed to be watertight. But if the Navy thought it was worth the time and expense to do it, there must have been a reason.

Sure enough, a dive into the ship’s onboard reference library revealed a document from October of 1990 that described a persistent water intrusion issue on the ship. Basically, water kept getting inside the hull, but they couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Although the Navy couldn’t actually find any leaks between the hull plates, the document went on to explain that the decision was made to caulk them all anyway in hopes that it would solve the issue.

Since the ship hadn’t been taking on any mysterious water while docked in Camden, it would appear the fix worked. As such, it was decided to re-caulk the roughly 18,000 linear feet (5,500 meters) of plate seams just like the Navy did in 1990. Since the manufacturer of the product was mentioned in the document, the museum was even able to get the exact same caulking used by the Navy 34 years ago.

Views From Dry Dock

Documentation for the Future

Walking along the ship’s massive hull, the projects I’ve listed here were the most obvious to even the untrained eye. But as I said at the start, this isn’t a complete list of the work done to the USS New Jersey during its dry docking. It’s hard to overstate the scale of the restoration work that was accomplished in such a short amount of time. It took years of planning by a team of very dedicated individuals to pull this off.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. Ryan Szimanski and his team have done an incredible job of documenting the entire dry docking process on the ship’s official YouTube channel. Putting all of this information out for the public to view and learn from will undoubtedly inform the restoration efforts on other museum ships going forward, but even if you don’t have a battleship in your backyard, it makes for fascinating viewing.

youtube.com/embed/jcScaxaF2PQ?…

Air ride suspensions have several advantages over typical arrangements, but retrofitting a system to a vehicle that didn’t come with it can get pricey fast, especially if you want to go beyond the basics. The Open Source Air Suspension Management Controller aims to give people a fully customizable system without the expense or limitations of commercial units.

The project started as an upgrade to a basic commercial system, so it assumes that you’re bringing your own “bags, tank, compressor, tubing and fittings, gauges and manual paddle switches.” The current board uses an Arduino Nano, but the next revision based on the ESP32 will allow for a wider feature set.

With a Bluetooth connection and Android app, you can control your ride height from a phone or integrated Android head unit. Currently, the app shows the pressure readings from all four corners and has controls for increasing or decreasing the pressure or airing all the way up or down to a given set point.

Want to know how air suspensions work? How about this LEGO model? If you want a suspension with active tuning for your bike, how about this Arduino-powered mod?

Tomorrow (Thursday) EU governments are to vote on a bill (officially called “child sexual abuse regulation” but known as “chat control”) that would require automated searches in and disclosure of private chats, including end-to-end encrypted chats, that might contain illegal photos or videos.[1] If a user refuses this “upload moderation” of their chats, they would be blocked from receiving or sending images, videos and URLs. 48 politicians from Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands have published a letter to their governments calling for rejection of the latest version of the chatcontrol proposal, arguing that mass surveillance violates fundamental rights and would fail in court.[2] Signal and Threema have announced they would end their services in the EU if forced to implement the proposed automated monitoring (so-called “client-side scanning”). Whatsapp head Will Cathcart warned “scanning peoples messages like the EU is proposing breaks encryption”.[3] Last night NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was the latest to weigh in on X, calling the proposal “a terrifying mass surveillance measure”.

[4]It is not yet clear whether the proponents among EU governments will be able to convince enough EU governments to make a qualified majority, which is why tomorrow’s agenda item is marked as “possible”.[1] Against this backdrop Pirate Party Member of the European Parliament Patrick Breyer, who co-negotiated the European Parliament’s position on the proposal[5], has published a call on citizens to reach out to EU governments, listing several governments that may yet be undecided.

[6]“Europeans need to understand that they will be cut off from using commonplace secure messengers if chat control is adopted – that means losing touch with your friends and colleagues around the world”, warns Breyer. “Do you really want Europe to become the world leader in bugging our smartphones and requiring blanket surveillance of the chats of millions of law-abiding Europeans? The European Parliament is convinced that this Orwellian approach will betray children and victims by inevitably failing in court. We call for truly effective child protection by mandating security by design, proactive crawling to clean the web and removal of illegal content – none of which is contained in the Belgium proposal governments will vote on tomorrow. We have one day left to make our governments take a different approach of effective and rights-respecting protection while saving our privacy and security online!”

[1] Agenda for tomorrow’s meeting: data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/d…
[2] Open letter by EU lawmakers: patrick-breyer.de/en/lawmakers…
[3] Statement by head of Whatsapp: x.com/wcathcart/status/1803178…
[4] Statement by Edward Snowden: x.com/Snowden/status/180312759…
[5] Summary of the European Parliament’s position: patrick-breyer.de/en/posts/cha…
[6] Breyer’s call for action: patrick-breyer.de/en/council-t…

Breyer’s website on the chat control proposal: chatcontrol.eu/en/feed

patrick-breyer.de/en/chat-cont…

Questo Memories Have Faces esce a quasi dieci anni di distanza da Inside Out Your Mind, ultimo vagito su trentatré della band, dimostrandosi, a mio modesto avviso, ancora superiore al suo già di per sé brillantissimo predecessore;  a riprova, se mai ce ne fosse bisogno, di come passione, competenza e sacro fuoco non abbandonino chi di certe sonorità si è reso uno dei più credibili e quotati alfieri.

@Musica Agorà

iyezine.com/the-loons-memories…

The Loons - Memories Have Faces

The Loons - Memories Have Faces - The Loons - Dream In Jade Green - The Loons

^{Il Santo (In Your Eyes ezine)}

Ad ulteriore dimostrazione di quanto ho scritto in occasione delle sue precedenti uscite, i nove pezzi di questo nuovo album si aprono con suggestioni tra il deserto e lo spazio infinito di Dirty Ground passando poi all'andamento doloroso di Light the Incense.
@Musica Agorà

iyezine.com/black-snake-moan-l…

Black Snake Moan - Lost In Time 

Black Snake Moan - Lost In Time  - Black Snake Moan - Lost In Time: - Black Snake Moan

^{Il Santo (In Your Eyes ezine)}

“The healer” su Thrill Jockey Records è il quinto disco sulla lunga distanza per i Sumac, gruppo di punta del rumorismo e della totale libertà musicale. Il gruppo formato da Nick Yacyshyn, Brian Cook e Aaron Turner torna a disegnare ardite parabole nei consumati cieli della musica moderna. @Musica Agorà

iyezine.com/sumac-the-healer

Sumac - The healer

Sumac - The healer - Sumac: una delle più particolari e meravigliose esperienze sonore che possiate compiere in questi tempi aridi. - Sumac

^{Massimo Argo (In Your Eyes ezine)}

I did something recently I haven’t done in a long time: I recompiled the Linux kernel. There was a time when this was a common occurrence. You might want a feature that the default kernel didn’t support, or you might have an odd piece of hardware. But these days, in almost all the cases where you need something like this, you’ll use loadable kernel modules (LKM) instead. These are modules that the kernel can load and unload at run time, which means you can add that new device or strange file system without having to rebuild or even restart the kernel.

Normally, when you write programs for Linux, they don’t have any special permissions. You typically can’t do direct port I/O, for example, or arbitrarily access memory. The kernel, however, including modules, has no such restriction. That can make debugging modules tricky because you can easily bring the system to its knees. If possible, you might think about developing on a virtual machine until you have what you want. That way, an errant module just brings down your virtual machine.

History

Some form of module support has been around since Linux 1.2. However, modern kernels can be built to include support for things or support them as modules. For example, you probably don’t want to put drivers for every single known video card in your kernel. But it is perfectly fine to build dozens or hundreds of modules you might need and then load the one you need at run time.

LKMs are at the heart of device drivers, file system drivers, and network drivers. In addition, modules can add new system calls, override existing system calls, add TTY line disciplines, and handle how executables run.

In Use

If you want to know what modules you have loaded, that’s the lsmod command. You’ll see that some modules depend on other modules and some don’t. There are two ways to load modules: insmod and modprobe. The insmod command simply tries to load a module. The modprobe command tries to determine if the module it is loading needs other modules and picks them up from a known location.

You can also remove modules with rmmod assuming they aren’t in use. Of course, adding and removing modules requires root access. You can usually run lsmod as a normal user if you like. You might also be interested in depmod to determine dependencies, and modinfo which shows information about modules.

Writing a Module

It is actually quite easy to write your own module. In fact, it is so simple that the first example I want to look at is a little more complex than necessary.

This simple module can load and unload. It leaves a message in the system messages (use dmesg, for example) to tell you it is there. In addition, it allows you to specify a key (just an arbitrary integer) when you load it. That number will show up in the output data. Here’s the code:
#include <linux/module.h>
#include <linux/moduleparam.h>
#include <linux/printk.h>

MODULE_AUTHOR("Al Williams");
MODULE_DESCRIPTION("Hackaday LKM");
MODULE_LICENSE("GPLv2"); // many options, GPL, GPLv2, Proprietary, etc.

static int somedata __initdata=0xbeef; // this is just some static variable available only at init
static int key=0xAA; // you can override this using insmod
// Note 0644 means that the sysfs entry will be rw-r--r--
module_param(key,int,0644); // use module_param_named if you want different names internal vs external
MODULE_PARM_DESC(key,"An integer ID unique to this module");

static int __init had_init(void)
{
// This is the usual way to do this (don't forget \n and note no comma after KERN_INFO), but...
printk(KERN_INFO "Hackaday is in control (%x %x)\n",key,somedata);
return 0;
}

static void __exit had_exit(void)
{
// ... you can also use the pr_info macro which does the same thing
pr_info("Returning control of your system to you (%x)!\n",key);
}

module_init(had_init);
module_exit(had_exit);</pre>

This isn’t hard to puzzle out. Most of it is include files and macros that give modinfo something to print out. There are some variables: somedata is just a set variable that is readable during initialization. The key variable has a default but can be set using insmod. What’s more, is because module_param specifies 0644 — an octal Linux permission — there will be an entry in the /sys/modules directory that will let the root set or read the value of the key.

At the end, there are two calls that register what happens when the module loads and unloads. The rest of the code is just something to print some info when those events happen.

I printed data in two ways: the traditional printk and using the pr_info macro which uses printk underneath, anyway. You should probably pick one and stick with it. I’d normally just use pr_info.

Building the modules is simple assuming you have the entire build environment and the headers for the kernel. Here’s a simple makefile (don’t forget to use tabs in your makefile):
<pre>obj-m += hadmod1.o

PWD := $(CURDIR) # not needed in most cases, but useful if using sudo

all:
make -C /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build M=$(PWD) modules

clean:
make -C /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build M=$(PWD) clean</pre>

Once you build things, you should have a .ko file (like hadmod.ko). That’s the module. Try a few things:

1. sudo insmod hadmod.ko # load the module
2. sudo dmesg # see the module output
3. cat /sys/modules/hadmodule/key # see the key (you can set it, too, if you are root)
4. sudo rmmod hadmod.ko # unload the module
5. sudo insmod hadmod.ko key=128 # set key this time and repeat the other steps

That’s It?

That is it. Of course, the real details lie in how you interact with the kernel or hardware devices, but that’s up to you. Just to give a slightly meatier example, I made a second version of the module that adds /proc/jollywrencher to the /proc filesystem. Here’s the code:
#include <linux/init.h>
#include <linux/module.h>
#include <linux/moduleparam.h>
#include <linux/printk.h>
#include <linux/uaccess.h>
#include <linux/fs.h>
#include <linux/proc_fs.h> // Module metadata
#include <linux/version.h>

MODULE_AUTHOR("Al Williams");
MODULE_DESCRIPTION("Hackaday LKM1");
MODULE_LICENSE("GPLv2"); // many options, GPL, GPLv2, Proprietary, etc.

static char logo[]=
" \n"\
" \n"\
" \n"\
" #@@@@@@ ,@@@@@@ \n"\
" &@@@@@* &@@@@@, \n"\
" @@@@@@% @@@@@@# \n"\
" @@ .@@@@@@@@@ .@@@@@@@@@ .@# \n"\
" &@@@& /@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@* \n"\
" @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@# @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@, \n"\
" &@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@* ,@@@@@@@@@@@@% &@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@* \n"\
" ,*. @@@@@@@@@@@/ .@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@& &@@@@@@@@@@# ** \n"\
" @@@@@@, &@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@, %@@@@@& \n"\
" ,@& /@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@ \n"\
" &@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@* \n"\
" %@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@. \n"\
" @@@@@@ #@@@@@@@. /@@@@@@ \n"\
" /@@@@& @@@@@@. @@@@@ \n"\
" ,@@@@% (@@@@@@@@@@&* @@@@@ \n"\
" @@@@@# @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@% @@@@@& \n"\
" /@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@, #@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ \n"\
" @@ *@@@@@@@@@@@@@& ( @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ .@( \n"\
" %@@@@@. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@% #@@@@@* \n"\
" (%&%((@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@% ,@@@@@@@@@@*#&/ \n"\
" @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@( @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@& \n"\
" @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@*@@@@@@/%@@@@@& *@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@# \n"\
" @@@@. @@@@@@@@@@@. .. . . (@@@@@@@@@@# /@@@* \n"\
" @, %@@@@@@@@ .@@@@@@@@. \n"\
" ,@@@@@( @@@@@@ \n"\
" *@@@@@@ (@@@@@@ \n"\
" @@@@@@, %@@@@@@ \n"\
" \n"\
" ";

static struct proc_dir_entry *proc_entry;
static ssize_t had_read(struct file *f, char __user * user_buffer, size_t count, loff_t * offset)
{
size_t len;
if (*offset>0) return 0; // no seeking, please!
copy_to_user(user_buffer,logo,len=strlen(logo)); // skipped error check
*offset=len;
return len;
}

#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= KERNEL_VERSION(5,6,0)
static struct proc_ops procop = // prior to Linux 5.6 you needed file_operations
{
.proc_read=had_read
};
#else
static struct file_operations procop =
{
.owner=THIS_MODULE,
.read=had_read
#endif

static int __init had_init(void)
{
// This is the usual way to do this (don't forget \n and note no comma after KERN_INFO), but...
printk(KERN_INFO "Hackaday<1>; is in control\n");
proc_entry=proc_create("jollywrencher",0644,NULL,&procop);
return 0;
}

static void __exit had_exit(void)
{
// ... you can also use the pr_info macro which does the same thing
pr_info("Returning control of your system to you...\n");
proc_remove(proc_entry);
}

module_init(had_init);
module_exit(had_exit);

The only thing here is you have an extra function that you have to register and deregister with the kernel. However, that interface changed in Kernel 5.6, so the code tries to do the right thing. Until, of course, it gets changed again.

Once you load this module using insmod, you can cat /proc/jollywrencher to see your favorite web site’s logo.

Of course, this is a dead simple example, but it is enough to get you started. You can grab all the source code online. One great way to learn more is to find something similar to what you want to build and take it apart.

We don’t suggest it, but you can write an LKM in Scratch. If you really want to learn the kernel, maybe start at the beginning.

VMware ha risolto una serie di vulnerabilità critiche in vCenter Server, tra cui l’esecuzione di codice in modalità remota e l’escalation dei privilegi locali.

Gli sviluppatori hanno fornito correzioni per tre problemi contemporaneamente: CVE-2024-37079, CVE-2024-37080, CVE-2024-37081.

• CVE-2024-37079 : una vulnerabilità critica di heap overflow nell’implementazione del protocollo DCERPC in vCenter Server che consente a un utente malintenzionato con accesso alla rete di inviare pacchetti appositamente predisposti e potrebbe potenzialmente portare all’esecuzione di codice in modalità remota (punteggio CVSS 9,8).
• CVE-2024-37080 : un altro problema critico di heap overflow nel protocollo vCenter Server DCERPC. Come CVE-2024-37079, consente a un utente malintenzionato con accesso alla rete di sfruttare un overflow dell’heap inviando pacchetti modificati, che possono portare all’esecuzione di codice remoto (punteggio CVSS 9,8).
• CVE-2024-37081 : esiste una vulnerabilità dovuta a un’errata configurazione di sudo in vCenter Server, che consente a un utente locale autenticato di sfruttare il bug per aumentare i propri privilegi a root (7.8 sulla scala CVSS).

Gli errori elencati riguardano VMware vCenter Server versioni 7.0 e 8.0, nonché VMware Cloud Foundation versioni 4.x e 5.x.

Le patch per VMware vCenter Server erano incluse nelle versioni 8.0 U2d, 8.0 U1e e 7.0 U3r. E per Cloud Foundation, sono state aggiunte correzioni in KB88287.

Secondo il produttore non esistono contromisure alternative efficaci per queste vulnerabilità, pertanto si consiglia a tutti gli utenti di installare gli ultimi aggiornamenti il ​​prima possibile.

L'articolo VMware vCenter Server: 2 RCE da 9,8 di score e una Privilege Escalation da Patchare subito proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

La potenza dei computer moderni continua a crescere, rendendo possibile la risoluzione più rapida di problemi sempre più complessi. Uno degli effetti collaterali di questo fenomeno è la possibilità di hackerare quelle password che solo pochi anni fa sembravano ineludibili.

Un recente studio di Kaspersky Lab ha scoperto che una scheda grafica RTX 4090 può indovinare una password di otto cifre composta da lettere e numeri in soli 17 secondi. E oltre la metà di tutte le password utilizzate nel cyberspazio (59%) possono essere violate in meno di un’ora.

Per autenticare gli utenti, i siti Web memorizzano le coppie login-password come hash anziché in testo non crittografato. Gli hash proteggono le password in caso di perdite aggiungendo un salt prima dell’hash per impedire l’uso delle rainbow table. Nonostante l’irreversibilità degli hash, un utente malintenzionato che riesce ad accedere a un database trapelato può provare a indovinare le password utilizzando strumenti già pronti, che sono disponibili pubblicamente.

Lo studio ha analizzato 193 milioni di password trapelate disponibili su vari siti del dark web. Le password non sono state raccolte o archiviate da Kaspersky Lab stessa. Sono stati utilizzati vari algoritmi per stimare il tempo necessario per decifrare una password utilizzando metodi di forza bruta, inclusi attacchi a dizionario e attacchi di forza bruta su combinazioni di caratteri comuni.

Il metodo della forza bruta è semplice e diretto: il computer prova tutte le password possibili finché non trova quella corretta. Questo approccio è meno efficace per le password lunghe. Il tempo di cracking dipende direttamente dalla lunghezza della password e dal numero di tipi di caratteri in essa contenuti.

Le password più popolari (28%) includono lettere maiuscole, caratteri speciali e numeri. La maggior parte di queste password sono difficili da decifrare utilizzando metodi di forza bruta: circa il 5% può essere indovinato in un solo giorno, ma il restante 85% impiega più di un anno per indovinarlo.

Le password che contengono solo lettere, numeri o caratteri speciali sono le meno forti. La maggior parte di queste password può essere violata entro un giorno. Le statistiche hanno mostrato che le password complesse costituite solo da lettere iniziavano con 11 caratteri, mentre nel campione non c’erano password complesse costituite solo da numeri.

Esistono algoritmi che ottimizzano il processo di hacking, tenendo conto delle combinazioni di caratteri più comuni come “12345” o “qwerty”. Ad esempio, l’algoritmo zxcvbn stima la complessità di una password determinandone lo schema e calcolando il numero di iterazioni necessarie per decifrarla.

Lo studio ha utilizzato vari algoritmi ottimizzati come 3gram_seq e ngram_opt_corr. Questi metodi tengono conto della probabilità che i caratteri successivi appaiano in base a quelli precedenti. Gli algoritmi ottimizzati possono fornire un vantaggio significativo nella velocità di hacking.

Dallo studio è emerso che il 45% di tutte le password può essere indovinato in meno di un minuto, il 59% in meno di un’ora e il 73% in meno di un mese. E solo il 23% delle password impiega più di un anno per essere decifrate.

La maggior parte (57%) delle password contiene una parola del dizionario, il che ne riduce notevolmente la forza. La metà di queste password può essere violata in meno di un minuto e il 67% in meno di un’ora. Solo il 12% di queste password sono abbastanza forti.

Le GPU moderne sono in grado di decifrare le password a una velocità incredibile. Per proteggere i tuoi account, ti consigliamo di utilizzare password casuali generate dal computer. Altrimenti si consiglia di utilizzare password lunghe che comprendano lettere maiuscole e minuscole, numeri e caratteri speciali, evitando le parole del dizionario.

Inoltre, è una buona idea controllare la robustezza delle tue password utilizzando strumenti specializzati. Se mostrano che la tua password è debole, dovresti cambiarla. Inoltre, su tutti gli account importanti deve essere configurata l’autenticazione a due fattori, in modo che anche se la tua password viene rubata o indovinata, gli hacker non saranno in grado di accedere ai tuoi dati.

Inoltre, e non ci stancheremo mai di dirlo, l’utilizzo della Multi Factor Authentication ove sia possibile, risulta sempre la scelta più saggia oggi.

L'articolo Password senza Futuro! Le nuove GPU aprono il 59% di tutte le Password del Web in meno di un’ora proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

The Frame AR glasses by Brilliant Labs, which contain a small display, are an entirely different approach to hacker-accessible and affordable AR glasses. [Karl Guttag] has shared his thoughts and analysis of how the Frame glasses work and are constructed, as usual leveraging his long years of industry experience as he analyzes consumer display devices.

It’s often said that in engineering, everything is a tradeoff. This is especially apparent in products like near-eye displays, and [Karl] discusses the Frame glasses’ tradeoffs while comparing and contrasting them with the choices other designs have made. He delves into the optical architecture, explaining its impact on the user experience and the different challenges of different optical designs.

The Frame glasses are Brilliant Labs’ second product with their first being the Monocle, an unusual and inventive sort of self-contained clip-on unit. Monocle’s hacker-accessible design and documentation really impressed us, and there’s a pretty clear lineage from Monocle to Frame as products. Frame are essentially a pair of glasses that incorporate a Monocle into one of the lenses, aiming to be able to act as a set of AI-empowered prescription glasses that include a small display.

We recommend reading the entire article for a full roundup, but the short version is that it looks like many of Frame’s design choices prioritize a functional device with low cost, low weight, using non-specialized and economical hardware and parts. This brings some disadvantages, such as a visible “eye glow” from the front due to display architecture, a visible seam between optical elements, and limited display brightness due to the optical setup. That being said, they aim to be hacker-accessible and open source, and are reasonably priced at 349 USD. If Monocle intrigued you, Frame seems to have many of the same bones.

Un attore di minacce, noto come IntelBroker, ha affermato di aver ottenuto e messo in vendita dati rubati da Apple. Questi dati includono il codice sorgente di tre strumenti utilizzati all’interno del sito web di Apple.

IntelBroker è attivo nel dark web ed è associato a un gruppo chiamato CyberNiggers. È specializzato nella vendita di accessi a sistemi compromessi e ha condotto attacchi contro aziende importanti come Zscaler ed Europol. IntelBroker opera su forum underground come XSS, Breachforums ed Exposed, dove vende dati sensibili a prezzi sorprendentemente bassi. Inoltre, sviluppa ransomware e si è distinto per la sua abilità nel compromettere sistemi di alto profilo, agendo come intermediario per l’accesso iniziale ai sistemi (Initial Access Broker).

Secondo IntelBroker, la violazione ha portato alla compromissione delle seguenti informazioni, utilizzate all’interno del sito web di Apple:

• AppleConnect-SSO

AppleConnect-SSO (Single Sign-On) è un sistema di autenticazione sviluppato da Apple che consente agli utenti di accedere a diverse applicazioni e servizi utilizzando un unico set di credenziali.

Questo strumento è particolarmente utile per le organizzazioni che utilizzano numerosi servizi Apple, poiché riduce la necessità di gestire più password e semplifica il processo di accesso.

• Apple-HWE-Confluence-Advanced

Apple-HWE-Confluence-Advanced è uno strumento avanzato di gestione della documentazione e collaborazione basato su Confluence, una piattaforma ampiamente utilizzata per la gestione della conoscenza e la collaborazione tra team. Questo strumento è personalizzato per soddisfare le esigenze specifiche dell’ambiente hardware di Apple (HWE – Hardware Engineering), offrendo funzionalità avanzate per la gestione dei progetti, la documentazione tecnica e la collaborazione tra i team.

• AppleMacroPlugin

AppleMacroPlugin è un plugin sviluppato per migliorare l’efficienza e l’automazione dei processi all’interno delle applicazioni Apple. Questo plugin consente agli utenti di creare e utilizzare macro, ossia sequenze registrate di comandi e azioni, per automatizzare attività ripetitive e complesse. È uno strumento prezioso per gli utenti avanzati che desiderano ottimizzare il loro flusso di lavoro e risparmiare tempo.

Le attività di IntelBroker rappresentano una seria minaccia per la sicurezza informatica, mettendo in evidenza come anche le grandi aziende tecnologiche come Apple possano essere vulnerabili agli attacchi informatici.

L'articolo IntelBroker Colpisce Ancora! Mette in vendita il codice di Apple nell’underground criminale proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

With few exceptions, power transmission is a field where wobbling is a bad thing. We generally want everything running straight and true, with gears and wheels perfectly perpendicular to their shafts, with everything moving smoothly and evenly. That’s not always the case, though, as this pericyclic gearbox demonstrates.

Although most of the components in [Retsetman] model gearboxes seem familiar enough — it’s mostly just a collection of bevel gears, like you’d see inside a differential — it’s their arrangement that makes everything work. More specifically, it’s the shaft upon which the bevel gears ride, which has a section that is tilted relative to the axis of the shaft. It’s just a couple of degrees, but that small bit of inclination, called mutation, makes the ring gear riding on it wobble as the shaft rotates, allowing it to mesh with one or more ring gears that are perpendicular to the shaft. This engages a few teeth at a time, transferring torque from one gear to another. It’s easier to visualize than it is to explain, so check out the video below.

Gearboxes like these have a lot of interesting properties, with the main one being gear ratio. [Retsetman] achieved a 400:1 ratio with just 3D printed parts, which of course impose their own limitations. But he was still able to apply some pretty serious torque. The arrangement is not without its drawbacks, of course, with the wobbling bits naturally causing unwelcome vibrations. That can be mitigated to some degree using multiple rotatins elements that offset each other, but that only seems to reduce vibration, not eliminate it.

[Retsetman] is no stranger to interesting gearboxes, of course, with his toothless magnetic gearboxes coming to mind. And this isn’t the only time we’ve seen gearboxes go all wobbly, either.

youtube.com/embed/Z-zUTS5FPPc?…

Thanks to [Keith Olson] for the tip.

Oltre alle conoscenze tecniche e tecnologiche, il Security auditor deve sapere mantenere un’indipendenza di azione e di pensiero. Questo aspetto, su tutti gli altri, ne fa una professione di elevato spessore

L'articolo Come diventare Security auditor, professione in piena evoluzione proviene da Cyber Security 360.

Un gruppo di ricercatori ha scoperto una vulnerabilità critica nell'architettura ARM v8.5-A. Un problema che, se sfruttato, potrebbe mettere a rischio la sicurezza dei sistemi operativi e dei browser più diffusi. Ecco tutti i dettagli e le soluzioni di risposta e mitigazione

L'articolo TIKTAG, l’attacco che viola le funzioni di sicurezza delle CPU Arm: Chrome e Linux a rischio proviene da Cyber Security 360.

I correntisti sono tra le vittime privilegiate dei malviventi informatici e delle loro frodi online. Per questo motivo, la normativa italiana, in linea con le direttive europee in tema di due diligence sulla clientela, impone alle banche di adottare misure di verifica piuttosto stringenti. Che c’è da sapere

L'articolo Bonifico errato, frode informatica e falso conto corrente: la verifica dell’identità da parte delle banche proviene da Cyber Security 360.

Sono state identificate due vulnerabilità in alcuni modelli di router Asus che, qualora venissero sfruttate, potrebbero consentire agli attori delle minacce di eludere il sistema di autenticazione ed eseguire codice dannoso sui dispositivi sensibili per prenderne il controllo. Ecco come mitigarle

L'articolo Vulnerabilità nei router Asus consente di prendere il controllo dei dispositivi: i dettagli proviene da Cyber Security 360.

La NIS 2 introduce un innovativo quadro di vigilanza, affidato alle autorità competenti, differenziato per garantire un elevato livello di cibersicurezza, stabilendo un regime di controllo completo per i soggetti essenziali e un approccio più leggero e reattivo per i soggetti importanti. Ecco le misure reattive e proattive da adottare per prepararsi efficacemente

L'articolo NIS 2: come adottare una procedura per affrontare efficacemente le azioni di vigilanza proviene da Cyber Security 360.

Nell'era digitale, la cyber security è un pilastro imprescindibile per affrontare minacce sempre più sofisticate e implementare politiche di sicurezza robuste e complete. Sono le sfide che i leader del G7 si impegnano ad affrontare per rafforzare la cyber resilienza collettiva grazie al nuovo gruppo di lavoro cyber. I punti cardine

L'articolo Cyber security, dal G7 l’impegno per un cyberspazio aperto, resiliente e sicuro proviene da Cyber Security 360.