TrueCrypt 6.2 Released

Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux.

New features in 6.2:

• The I/O pipeline now uses read-ahead buffering, which improves read performance especially on solid-state drives, typically by 30-50%.  (Windows)

Improvements, bug fixes, and security enhancements:

• The boot loader now supports motherboards with BIOSes that reserve large amounts of base memory (typically for onboard RAID controllers). Note: In order to be able to take advantage of this improvement under Windows Vista, you will have to install Service Pack 1 or higher first. Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista resolved an issue causing a shortage of free base memory during system boot.  (Windows Vista/XP/2008/2003)
• Mounting using the ‘Auto-Mount Devices‘ feature may take significantly less time as partitions containing unencrypted filesystems are now skipped.  (Windows)
• When volumes that are mounted as read-only or removable are saved as favorite volumes, they are mounted as read-only and/or removable when ‘Mount Favorite Volumes‘ is used.
• When a multiple-pass wipe algorithm is selected when performing in-place encryption of a non-system volume, the header areas will be wiped before the encrypted headers are written to the disk. Note: On an existing volume, you can perform such an operation by changing its password and/or keyfiles.  (Windows)
• Many other minor improvements, bug fixes and security enhancements.  (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux)

Home:
http://www.truecrypt.org/

Download:
http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads

Posted in Internet, Linux, Privacy, Security, Software, Windows | No Comments

AutoRun changes in Windows 7

The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) have announced some AutoRun changes for Windows 7.

Currently Conficker and other malware is taking advantage of the AutoRun functionality as a spreading mechanism. AutoRun is used to start some programs automatically when a CD or another media is inserted into a computer. The main purpose of AutoRun is to provide a software response to hardware actions that a user starts on a computer.

In order to help prevent malware from spreading (such as Conficker) using the AutoRun mechanism, the Windows 7 engineering team made two important changes to the product:

1. AutoPlay will no longer support the AutoRun functionality for non-optical removable media. In other words, AutoPlay will still work for CD/DVDs but it will no longer work for USB drives. For example, if an infected USB drive is inserted on a machine then the AutoRun task will not be displayed. This will block the increasing social engineer threat highlighted in the SIR. The dialogs below highlight the difference that users will see after this change. Before the change, the malware is leveraging AutoRun (box in red) to confuse the user. After the change, AutoRun will no longer work, so the AutoPlay options are safe
2. A dialog change was done to clarify that the program being executed is running from external media.

Source:
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/04/29/autorun-changes-in-windows-7

Posted in Hardware, Networking, Privacy, Security, Windows | 1 Comment

Cain & Abel v4.9.30 Released

Cain & Abel is a password recovery tool for Microsoft Operating Systems. It allows easy recovery of various kind of passwords by sniffing the network, cracking encrypted passwords using Dictionary, Brute-Force and Cryptanalysis attacks, recording VoIP conversations, decoding scrambled passwords, recovering wireless network keys, revealing password boxes, uncovering cached passwords and analyzing routing protocols. The program does not exploit any software vulnerabilities or bugs that could not be fixed with little effort. It covers some security aspects/weakness present in protocol’s standards, authentication methods and caching mechanisms; its main purpose is the simplified recovery of passwords and credentials from various sources, however it also ships some “non standard” utilities for Microsoft Windows users.

New in version 4.9.30:

• Added support for the following codecs in VoIP sniffer: G722, Speex-16Khz, Speex-32Khz, AMR-NB, AMR-WB.
• Added Certificate Collector ability to generate self-signed or chained fake certificates.
• Added certificate format conversion function (from PKCS#12 to PEM).
• Added support for Licensing Mode Terminal Server connections in APR-RDP sniffer filter.
• Added channel hopping capability on A, BG and ABG channels in Passive Wireless Sniffer.
• Added support for A channels in Passive Wireless Sniffer.
• Added automatic detection of RX/TX ABG channels for AirPcap NX adapters.
• WEP ARP Injection thread now avoid sending packets to disassociated stations.
• AirPcap library upgrade to version 4.0.0 (to support the new AirPcap NX adapters from CACE Technologies).
• Winpcap library upgrade to version 4.1 beta 5.
• OpenSSL library upgrade to version 0.9.8j.

Download:
http://www.oxid.it/cain.html

Posted in Internet, Networking, Privacy, Security, Software, Windows | No Comments

Make Windows Vista Defrag Less Often

I just noticed this today but it looks as though the Disk Defragmenter in Windows Vista is scheduled to run once a week by default.

Personally, I think that with these newer and more efficient operating systems, not to mention the growing sizes of hard drives, that this is completely overkill.  Maybe monthly at least?  Quarterly?  But weekly is way too much in my option.  When I look at the options for rescheduling it shows Monthly as being the max amount of time that you can choose:

If you choose to keep it scheduled, at least go with the Monthly option.  Your hard drive will thank you.

Posted in Hardware, Windows | No Comments

Google Chrome update patches XSS vulnerability

Mark Larson, the Google Chrome Project Manager, has posted an advisory on the Google Chrome Releases blog advising of a high risk vulnerability in the Chrome web browser. The cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability is caused by an error in handling URLs in the ChromeHTML URI handler, allowing an attacker to remotely execute code, violating the same origin policy.

For an attack to be successful, a victim must first be convinced by an attacker to visit a specially crafted malicious HTML page with Internet Explorer, causing Chrome to launch, open multiple tabs and run scripts. The attack, however, only works if the Chrome browser is not already running.

Source:
http://www.h-online.com/security/Google-Chrome-update-patches-XSS-vulnerability–/news/113144

Posted in Internet, Security, Software | No Comments