Tag: Software
Watcher version 1.1.0 is now available for download from Microsoft’s repository of open-source projects. The Redmond company is not the author of Watcher, but it is certainly recommending the tool via its online hotspot dedicated to the Security Development Lifecycle. Put together by Casaba Security, Watcher is designed to enhance Fiddler proxy, a tool developed by Eric Lawrence, IE program manager. In this context, the plug-in from Casaba Security complements Lawrence’s web debugging proxy, closely monitoring and analyzing HTTP traffic.
“Watcher is a plug-in for Eric Lawrence’s Fiddler proxy aimed at helping developers and testers find security issues in their web-apps fast and effortlessly. Because it works passively at runtime, you have to drive it by opening a browser and cruising through your web-app as an end user. For the developer, the tool can provide a quick sanity check, so you can find problems and hot-spots that warrant further attention. In the hands of a pen-tester it can assist in finding issues that lead to other attacks like XSS and CSRF,” revealed Chris Weber of Casaba Security. Read More»
Posted in Internet | No Comments »
It’s time to continue from where I left off in my previous article regarding registry tweaks for your Microsoft Windows XP operating system. Therefore, in part ten of your tweaking saga we’ll go through a few more important tweaks for your Start Menu. So if the previous article caught your attention and you’re interested in finding out more ways in which you can easily customize the look and feel of your Start Menu, rest assured that this article won’t disappoint you either.
On the other hand, if this is your first encounter with the Microsoft Windows XP registry saga, you should start by going back a bit, to the first article, which explains the concept behind these articles and the few steps that must be followed before heading on to the tweaking part. Otherwise, it’s highly probable you won’t understand what’s with the bolded lines below and, more importantly, what exactly you should do with them in case the tweak sounds really appealing, so make sure you read the first article. Now that you’ve created your tweaks.reg file and wrote Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00, let’s continue our free tutorial on how to personalize your system’s Start Menu. Read More»
Posted in Windows XP | 1 Comment »
Contrary to some of the stories circulating in the more excitable sections of the media millions of PCs didn’t suddenly blow up following the much-anticipated reactivation of the Conflicker C virus on April 1st. In fact, at the time of writing nothing much seemed to have happened and the world moved on to more important matters. Nevertheless, this virus, and its ilk do present an ongoing threat, especially for PC owners who do not keep their security software and Windows Updates current. By the way, if you have any concerns about Conflicker C and malware in general and you think your PC may be infected I wouldn’t ask Google. I typed in ‘Conflicker C Removal’ a couple of days ago and the first three hits all led to websites carrying the virus!
If you have been lax with your security updates then your best bet is to download the free Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool, which scans your PC for Conflicker and a raft of other nasties, but in the end the best way to avoid becoming infected is to install a decent anti-virus program and regularly sweep your PC with cleaners like AdAware, A-Squared and Spybot.
Posted in Software | 1 Comment »
The release of proof-of-concept exploit code for an unresolved critical bug that allows for remote arbitrary code execution on the latest stable version of Mozilla Firefox has put developers on alert. A fix will be included in the 3.0.8 version of the browser, which is scheduled for release in a few days.
The vulnerability is described on SecurityFocus as a “Boundary Condition Error” and allows an attacker to execute potentially malicious code by calling a malformed XML file from a Web page. Parsing a specially crafted “root” XML tag in an XSL file results in a memory-corruption error.
These drive-by types of attacks have become the weapon of choice for many of today’s malware distributors. Cross-site scripting (XSS) weaknesses are used to inject rogue exploit-serving IFrames into legitimate pages. These exploits target vulnerabilities in popular software such as Adobe Reader, Flash Player, or the browsers themselves. Read More»
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Windows 7 will most likely offer users a pleasant surprise, at least through its redefined interface and the set of redesigned tools it brings. The plain old calculator suffered a beautiful transformation into a more consumer-oriented product capable of serving both more science prone users as well as the average Joe.
As you probably know, the application can be downloaded as a standalone product here, and run from portable devices with no problem at all, as it requires no installation; a double click on the executable will suffice to launch it. It works nicely on Vista but I bet that you’d appreciate complete integration in the operating system so that it would be automatically launched instead of the plain old version of Windows Calculator.
The procedure is actually a matter of gaining full control of the much dreaded, vital file keeper, System32 folder. Normally, you do not have access to modifying the data in it, not even if you run your account in administrator mode or become the administrator by running the command net user administrator /active:Yes in Command Prompt. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7, Windows Vista | 1 Comment »
Symantec Security Response encourages all users and administrators to adhere to the following basic security “best practices” to prevent the virus attack to your computer:
1. Use a firewall to block all incoming connections from the Internet to services that should not be publicly available. By default, you should deny all incoming connections and only allow services you explicitly want to offer to the outside world.
2. Enforce a password policy. Complex passwords make it difficult to crack password files on compromised computers. This helps to prevent or limit damage when a computer is compromised.
3. Ensure that programs and users of the computer use the lowest level of privileges necessary to complete a task. When prompted for a root or UAC password, ensure that the program asking for administration-level access is a legitimate application. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Software | No Comments »
February 19, 2009 by
Jason An issue originally associated with Windows Vista upgrades has come back to haunt Windows 7, as the operating system was released in Beta stage to the general public at the start of January 2009. According to Microsoft’s Nanda Lella, upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 is a process that will kill more than just the Ultimate Extras additions, if in fact the end users run the high-end edition of Windows XP’s successor. Lella revealed that the Vista to Windows 7 Beta upgrade would cause the RSS feeds associated with Internet Explorer to no longer update.
This is by no means a new issue. In fact, approximately a couple of years back, Vista users were running into the same issue. The context however, was a tad different. At that time IE feeds were killed by Vista to Vista upgrades. “Our investigations show that these tend to occur after upgrades from one pre-release build of Windows Vista to another version. If you’re encountering this issue, first make sure that the feed URL is still valid by manually updating the feed (press F5 while viewing the feed in IE7),” explained Walter vonKoch, Microsoft program manager. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7, Windows Vista | 3 Comments »
February 14, 2009 by
Jason One of the most important feature which almost every windows user wants in windows is to protect the private files with password. Many people keep some of the very sensitive files on their hard drive and other portable drives which they don’t want other to see.
Androsa (Password Protect Files Via Ghacks.net) is a free password file protector to protect your confidential documents or any other file with a secret password. It lets you lock any file in windows with a secret password.
When ever you password protect any files with this program it will convert the file into an encrypted file which can be opened only with software and de-protected by entering the correct password. You can select among different encryptions method at the time of password protecting your files with this program.
Let’s see how simple you can password protect any program with this software. Read More»
Posted in Computer | No Comments »
January 24, 2009 by
Jason The Elevation PowerToys that have been initially made available for Windows Vista can now also be integrated with the first Beta of Windows 7. Fighting a bug in Win 7 Beta, Michael Murgolo, a senior consultant with Microsoft Services – U.S. East Region, and the maker of the Elevation PowerToys for Windows Vista, has tweaked the tools, permitting users to integrate them with the current development milestone of the next iteration of Windows.
“The Elevate command in the Elevation PowerToys does not work correctly in the Windows 7 Beta. The application is launched elevated, but the arguments are not passed to the application. It turns out that this is caused by a known bug in the Windows 7 Beta. The ShellExecute method of the Shell Scripting Objects does not pass the argument parameter when it is stored in a variable,” Murgolo stated.
The issue was reported in December 2008, and this week Murgolo managed to come up with a solution designed to bypass the Windows 7 bug and allow the Elevation PowerToys to play nice with the operating system. Following the changes delivered by the developer, users should no longer have any issues when it comes down to the integration of the Elevation PowerToys into Windows 7 Beta. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
January 22, 2009 by
Jason
Mozilla aims to build a new program designed to harvest end-user data for its open source projects, but especially Firefox. Firefox Test Pilot is currently nothing more than an initiative debuted under the Mozilla Labs umbrella, in order to lay out the concept behind the project, and to attract interest and identify a software engineer to lead the program. According to Aza Raskin, head of user experience at Mozilla Labs, Test Pilot will be used to gather Firefox usage information, feedback that will subsequently be used to evolve the design process of the open source browser.
“Test Pilot is a still-in-concept platform for a new user-testing program for Mozilla that aims to build a 1% representative sample of the Firefox user base for soliciting wide participation and structured feedback for interface and product experiments,” Raskin stated.
One important aspect of the new program is that Mozilla actually envisions building an entire feedback platform, which could scale beyond Firefox, to Thunderbird and Seamonkey, and subsequently to every Mozilla Labs project. Raskin indicated that the Test Pilot, served to users as an extension of Firefox, would first of all require them to answer non-personally-identifiable questions, in order to classify them in accordance with the locale, technical level etc. Read More»
Posted in Firefox | No Comments »
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