AskBillFirst – Non-Tech Speak Technology Blog

If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It HackMe

By ASHLEE VANCE

Published: January 20, 2010

Back at the dawn of the Web, the most popular account password was “12345.”

The New York Times

Today, it’s one digit longer but hardly safer: “123456.”

Despite all the reports of Internet security breaches over the years, including the recent attacks on Google’s e-mail service, many people have reacted to the break-ins with a shrug.

According to a new analysis, one out of five Web users still decides to leave the digital equivalent of a key under the doormat: they choose a simple, easily guessed password like “abc123,” “iloveyou” or even “password” to protect their data.

“I guess it’s just a genetic flaw in humans,” said Amichai Shulman, the chief technology officer at Imperva, which makes software for blocking hackers. “We’ve been following the same patterns since the 1990s.”

Imperva found that nearly 1 percent of the 32 million people it studied had used “123456” as a password. The second-most-popular password was “12345.” Others in the top 20 included “qwerty,” “abc123” and “princess.”

More disturbing, said Mr. Shulman, was that about 20 percent of people on the RockYou list picked from the same, relatively small pool of 5,000 passwords.

That suggests that hackers could easily break into many accounts just by trying the most common passwords. Because of the prevalence of fast computers and speedy networks, hackers can fire off thousands of password guesses per minute.

via Simple Passwords Remain Popular, Despite Risk of Hacking – NYTimes.com.

There are several password generation programs available that will make and remember random passwords for different sites and needs. I highly recommend them. The one I use is Roboform. You can read my blog entry about it here: Now What Was That Password Again?

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Microsoft has had it with old versions of Adobe Flash and has issued Security Advisory 979267 to urge users to either uninstall old versions, or upgrade to the latest. More specifically, the software giant is asking users ditch Flash Player 6.0 as the multimedia player plugin contains multiple bugs. Microsoft rarely issues security advisories on third-party products, but since this version of Flash originally came bundled with Windows XP, Microsoft feels it needs to warn its users. Adobe discontinued security support for Flash Player 6.0 in 2006; the current version is Flash 10.0.42.34.The advisory outlines Microsoft’s stance very clearly, making sure to emphasize that the vulnerabilities only occur with the combination of the old version of Flash and old version of Windows other supported versions of Windows do not include the Flash. “The Adobe Flash Player 6 was provided with Windows XP and contains multiple vulnerabilities that could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page. Adobe has addressed these vulnerabilities in newer versions of Adobe Flash Player. Microsoft recommends that users of Windows XP with Adobe Flash Player 6 installed update to the most current version of Flash Player available from Adobe.” The good news is that the advisory says Microsoft is “not aware of attacks that try to use the reported vulnerabilities or of customer impact at this time.”The security advisory was posted on Patch Tuesday, the same day Microsoft releases security patches for all of its software for the month. This month though, the company only posted a single bulletin, Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-001. It affects all supported versions of Windows, but is only rated as “Critical” for Windows 2000, and “Low” for all later versions. As a result, the Adobe Flash flaw is slightly more serious and should take priority.

via Microsoft urges Windows XP users to ditch old Flash version.

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Acer Recalls Notebook Computers Due to Burn Hazard

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following products. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Certain Acer Aspire-series Notebook Computers

Units: About 22,000

Manufacturer: Acer America Corporation, of San Jose, Calif.

Hazard: An internal microphone wire under the palm rest can short circuit and overheat. This poses a potential burn hazard to consumers.

Incidents/Injuries: Acer has received three reports of computers short circuiting, resulting in slight melting of the external casing. No incidents occurred in the United States. No injuries have been reported.

Description: The recalled notebook computer models are the Acer AS3410, AS3410T, AS3810T, AS3810TG, AS3810TZ and AS3810TZG. The computer’s screen size is about 13.3 inches measured diagonally. Not all units are affected. Consumers should contact Acer to determine if their unit is included in the recall.

Sold at: ABS Computer Technologies, D&H Distributing, Fry’s Electronics, Ingram Micro, Radio Shack, SED/American Express, Synnex Corporation, SYX Distribution, Tech Data Corporation and other retailers nationwide and Amazon.com from June 2009 through October 2009 for between $650 and $1,150.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should stop using the recalled notebook computers immediately and contact Acer to determine if their notebook is affected and to receive a free repair.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Acer toll-free at (866) 695-2237 anytime, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.acer.com

via Acer Recalls Notebook Computers Due to Burn Hazard.

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Adobe confirms PDF zero-day attacks. Disable JavaScript now | Zero Day | ZDNet.com.

[UPDATE:  Adobe plans to patch this issue on January 12, 2010 ]

Malicious hackers are exploiting a zero-day (unpatched) vulnerability in Adobe’s ever-present PDF Reader/Acrobat software to hijack data from compromised computers. According to an advisory from Adobe, the critical vulnerability exists in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.2 and earlier versions.  It is being exploited in the wild.

We can tell you that this exploit is in the wild and is actively being used by attackers and has been in the wild since at least December 11, 2009. However, the number of attacks are limited and most likely targeted in nature. Expect the exploit to become more wide spread in the next few weeks and unfortunately potentially become fully public within the same timeframe. We are fully aware of all the details related to the exploit but do not plan to publish them for a few reasons:

1. There currently is no patch or update available that completely protects against this exploit.
2. There is little to no detection of these malicious PDF files from most of the major Antivirus vendors.

With that said we can tell you that this vulnerability is actually in a JavaScript function within Adobe Acrobat [Reader] itself. Furthermore the vulnerable JavaScript is obfuscated inside a zlib stream making universal detection and intrusion detection signatures much more difficult.

In the interim, Adobe PDF Reader/Acrobat users are urged to immediately disable JavaScript:

Click: Edit -> Preferences -> JavaScript and uncheck Enable Acrobat JavaScript

Or, better yet, use an alternative PDF Reader software program.

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Just a note – I posted this in 2009 at this time and I see it’s going around this year again. The e-mail that touts this virus is a hoax.

With a subject line like that, how could I ignore it? I received an e-mail from a friend who asked if this was real? According to the message, Norton, Snopes, CNN, Microsoft and McAfee are all legitimizing this so it must be true, right? Well, in this case, it’s partially right in that it’s a warning to be careful. However, there are a lot of scare tactics used which should tell you that the content isn’t true. Read the e-mail message below and I’ll explain myself afterwards.

Hi,

A check made with Norton Anti-Virus indicates that they are gearing up for this virus!

Snopes was checked as well, and it is for real. Get this E-mail message sent around to all your contacts ASAP.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled ‘POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,’ regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which ‘burns’ the whole hard disc C drive of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address on his/her contact list. That is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it!

If you receive a mail called’ POSTCARD,’ even if it is sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN.

It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS.
REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US

In this case, it says the virus will be delivered via an electronic card.  One of the ways that malware can get onto a computer is by clicking on a link or opening an attachment in an e-mail that will then download and try to install the payload. One way that the malware writers try to get you to click on the link is by making it look like it’s an e-card from a friend or family member. That’s been going on for sometime. So, that being said, you need to be careful anytime/everytime you think about clicking on a link in an e-mail, especially if it’s an e-card greeting. Legitimate greetings will tell you to go to a website and enter a code to see the greeting so you won’t have to click on a link.

Any time you get an e-mail message telling you to pass it on to everyone you know, especially since everyone is preparing for it and Snopes says it’s true (even though in this case Snopes really doesn’t even discuss it), question it. Go to an antivirus website and check their “hot” virus list. Mcafee’s Threat Center, Symantec Threat Explorer, US Government Threat Center will let you know what’s the current threats are. Then, you can decide whether to pass it on to everyone in your contacts or not.

Consider this with any message that you get “to pass on”. There was a warning from people about Facebook letting Google index everything about you starting that day. I saw the warning in several e-mails, a couple of groups and on Facebook.  I little detective work showed that Facebook had actually been doing that for the past 2 years, but not with “everything”, only with what the user has designated to be shared to everyone. What is set to be seen by only friends doesn’t and won’t be indexed.

So, if you receive a warning, take it as such and check the validity. Feel free to e-mail me and I’ll let you know if it’s legitimate or not and if so, what you need to do to protect yourself. Comments?

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