Rodney Campbell's Blog

Windows Mobile security software insecure
Security outfit Airscanner has slammed Windows Mobile security software as insecure and buggy. In a paper posted, the report condemns Windows Mobile as lacking any decent security infrastructure.

VoIP Security
There’s no doubt that Voice over IP (VoIP) is the future of telephony. What started as a rather cumbersome way for budget-conscious enthusiasts to talk to each other using their computers has now developed into something of much greater significance – IP telephony, a new way of delivering fully-featured phone services that promises big cost savings and opens the way for a whole new range of multimedia communication services.

A Guide to Information Security Certifications
Many people are confused by the massive number of information security certifications available today. Some people already have one or more and are looking to expand, while others are just getting started with certification and need a place to start. This guide aims to help with both scenarios.

Windows Updates Downloader
Windows Updates Downloader is a small utility that allows you to download all of the current Windows critical updates. All updates are downloaded directly from microsoft.com to your computer with a single mouse click.

Spyware's Growing Arsenal
Spyware's threat is getting nastier. Infection rates are on the rise, in part thanks to the surging popularity of social-networking sites like MySpace.com. We're finding that the social-networking sites like MySpace are turning out to be hotbeds for spyware. It doesn't help that many younger users aren't sufficiently cautious either.

Pen Testing in the Palm of Your Hand
A portable hacking device equipped with hundreds of exploits and an automated exploitation system will go on sale in the United States in October.

U.K. police – Let us seize encryption keys
Because British law enforcement officers don't have the authority to seize encryption keys, an increasing number of criminals are able to evade justice, a senior police officer said.

Backlash Against British Encryption Law
The BBC is reporting on some backlash against the British Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) that came into force in 2000, which makes it a criminal act to refuse to decrypt files on a computer.

Trojan Encrypts Stolen Data, Relays it Through ICMP Packets
An unnamed Trojan horse program designed to steal information from infected computers sends the data back to the attackers through Internet Control Messaging Protocol (ICMP) packets; most other malware that sends data back uses HTTP packets or email. The Trojan installs itself as an Internet Explorer (IE) helper object and waits for computer users to enter sensitive data. The Trojan encrypts the purloined information before it is placed in the data section of an ICMP packet; the packet appears legitimate to network administrators and egress filters. 

All-in-one security devices face challenges
The multipurpose security appliances that consolidate firewall/VPN, content filtering, intrusion prevention and more into a single box are winning favor as easy-to-manage devices.

How Cisco secures its own networks
For a year John Stewart has been CSO at Cisco. He's in charge of a team of 60 information security professionals who play a role in IT architecture, policy, audit and incident response to protect an internal user base of about 48,000 employees worldwide.

Hackers beware – You are what you type
In an InfoWorld interview, computer forensics expert Dr. Neal Krawetz reveals how key taps and other clues can identify online bad guys.

Black Hat – No network is safe
If a skilled penetration specialist wants to get into your network, he can and will. Period.

Spike PHP Security Audit Tool
An open source tool to do static analysis of php code for security exploits.

Security Success Depends on Good Management
No matter what technical measures you introduce, people will do and say careless things under insecure conditions.

An 'Ethical Hacker' On Protecting Your Identity
Canada.com is running an article by Terry Cutler, a 'certified Ethical Hacker', who wants to get the word out on protecting their identities from a growing number of risks. The piece covers shopping online, keeping your personal information contained, and avenues of inquiry if your identity is stolen.

How to Crack a Website – XSS, Cookies, Sessions
Informit.com provides an insiders look at a real life XSS attack and how it was used to bypass the authentication scheme of an online web application, leading to "shell" access, an admin account, and more. XSS attacks are often discussed in theory — this walk through illustrates just how dangerous these types of attacks can be in reality.

Are you running Internet Explorer 7 and having problems with some sites not working properly or even completely rejecting you when they used to work when you were running IE6?

A http header called the "User Agent String" sent by your browser to the server identifies the major version of the browser to web sites so that the sites can offer certain functionality on particular browser versions. In some cases, websites might misidentify a new version of IE as an outdated version, with results ranging from rendering and behavior issues to total rejection of the user.

The following utility temporarily changes registry keys on an IE 7.0 installation to allow a user to mimic an IE 6.0 installation as a simple workaround until problematic sites update their code. It also offers users the option to report these problematic sites to Microsoft.

The following utility once installed opens an Internet Explorer 7.0 window that is configured to report its identity to websites as being Internet Explorer 6.0:

Download: User Agent String Utility version 2

IRC bot exploits the 5-day old MS-06040 vulnerability
Hopefully everybody followed the advice given less than a week ago. We've just located the first bot exploiting one the remote code execution vulnerabilities patched in last Tuesday's patch set by Microsoft.

PocketPC MMS Code Injection/Execution Vulnerability
Multiple buffer overflows in MMS parsing code, allow denial-of-service and remote code injection/execution via MMS.

SANS Tip of the Day – Use the features of your switches
Chances are that you have very smart switches in your corporate environment, but only use them for a small portion of their capability to do some VLANs.

AutoPatcher for Windows XP/2003/2000 – August 2006 – Full, Lite & Update
AutoPatcher is a comprehensive collection of patches, addons and registry tweaks in an installation package designed for Windows XP/2003/2000 to quickly patch a system with the most current updates and tweaks available, so you can update your system quick and easily and requires no user interaction once you have selected what to install.