Posts by pc-fluesterer.info

Fake job applications pack malware that kills endpoint detection before stealing data

So, it is about time for the LINUX desktop!

At least every position dealing with external data hast to run a sober OS (Linux, xBSD).

Attacks such as this are IMPOSSIBLE under Linux or BSD, at least as long as you adhere to best practice (least privilege and the like).

Google patches Chrome zero-day as in-the-wild exploits surface

Re: Another backdoor?

Basically I completely agree. But in this instance the blunder doesn't simply lead to a crash (as usual), but a "crafted website" can perform RCE. That stinks.

Another backdoor?

"Use after free", exploitable "via a crafted HTML page", leading to RCE.

"Crafted" means: The who knows the key can open the door.

Google may be forced by NSL. Or is it 'obedience in advance'?

Paranoid WhatsApp users rejoice: Encrypted app gets one-click privacy toggle

Signal privacy

You are wrong what Signal concerns. https://www.reddit.com/r/signal/comments/1mqcce3/what_metadata_does_signal_collect_or_expose/

Debian's FreedomBox Blend promises an easier home cloud

Take a sledgehammer to crack a nut?

For a mere "Home cloud" usage the FreedomBox seems to me completely overpowered. I for one use OMV (OpenMediaVault) in a RAID 5 configuration. No direct access from the internet; when I need resources from my LAN I connect via VPN.

OMV: yes. Seagate: no.

I for one can fully recommend OMV. It runs here with 4 large (each 16 TB) HD in RAID 5 plus 1 small HD for the system.

For the disks I employ different models of different brands, but NO Seagate. They are notorious to fail in RAID usage.

Don't click on the LastPass 'create backup' link - it's a scam

Bitwarden and Keepass

nothing to be seen here - move on!

Social Security Administration admits it underreported DOGE dirty dealings

Re: Nothing will come of this as long as King Orange Taco is in charge!

You meant 'HIM', right?

Cyber-stricken Belgian hospitals refuse ambulances, transfer critical patients

'reasonably secure'? Nope.

Which part do you regard as 'reasonably secure'? Lets have a look.

Firewalls and other network gear from Cisco, Citrix, and the rest of the breed: NO.

Everything from Microsoft: NO.

Database from Oracle or the like: NO.

Cloud computing at Amazon, Google, Microsoft: NO.

TBC.

Let alone compliance with best practice (least privilege, brute force protection, MFA, you name it).

New Linux malware targets the cloud, steals creds, and then vanishes

Entry?

"After infecting a victim's machine": How is that accomplished? How would the malware be installed? Evil Maid? Violation of Best Practice?

The whole story to me sounds like an advertisement for the authoring security firm.

Spanish power giant sparks breach probe amid claims of massive data grab

Critical Success Factors

There are two CSF:

1. Do not, repeat NOT, employ proprietary (closed-source) products. They are riddled with backdoors, from network appliance to backoffice. With FOSS there is still no guarantee, but you are better off by orders of magnitude.

2. Adhere do best practice (least privilege, MFA, you name it).

Fake Windows BSODs check in at Europe's hotels to con staff into running malware

"lower-privilege execution path"?

As stated in "Scenario B: Not Administrator": ..."the script falls back to a lower-privilege execution path". What would that be? How would it work?

Unfortunately this path hasn't got elaborated. Does the threat remain or would that mitigate the attack?

Re: WTF can non techies override security software ?

yeah, but that would be - shrug - best practice!

Patch Cisco ISE bug now before attackers abuse proof-of-concept exploit

Re: Cisco?

Same holds true for ALL US network gear. Take Citrix, ... up to and including Sonicwall.

Ransomware attacks kept climbing in 2025 as gangs refused to stay dead

Sulution is FOSS and best practice (was: Re: Solution is to make it illegal to pay ransomeware)

"invent a computer that can't be compromised by opening a malicious email attachment or clicking on a malicious web link"

No need do reinvent the wheel, because it does exist already. Use FOSS (Linux, LibreOffice and the like) AND adhere to best practice (least privilege, network segmentation, you name it). Replace ALL proprietary network gear. Just one current example: https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/08/rcisco_ise_bug_poc

No one said that the migration from the current M$ biotope to a safe system will be easy, but it is possible - and necessary!

Crims disconnect Wired subscribers from their privacy, publish deets online

Re: Unfortunately arsTECHNICA is also a product of Condé Nast; and I'm a subscriber ... :-(

AFAICS there were no credentials leaked. So why change anything?

AFAICS there were no credentials leaked.

Gootloader malware back for the attack, serves up ransomware

In other words: Adhere to best practice

A protection easy to to employ is: NoScript. On unknown domains it keeps JS blocked by default, which is an very sound approach. Beyond that you can block "untrusted" domains (tracking, ads) for good, and of course you can allow JS for trustworthy domains.

Granted, this protection fails if a "trustworthy" domain is hacked and altered.

How malware vaccines could stop ransomware's rampage

Re: Cooperation and the security industry

"If an open source community made significant progress combatting malware" -- it has already!

There is Linux (and xBSD for that), LibreOffice and so forth.

Linux is many orders of magnitude more resilient against cyber crime than Windows.

Very true. The only viable prevention is: Run a system that is resilient by design and by default - FOSS

Full ACK!

Micro$oft is an US firm and as such underlies government gag orders (NSL). It does not only exhibit poor design but deliberate backdoors* as well, just like any other proprietary product (need I name network appliances?).

FOSS rulez!

*) Preview pane of Outlook anyone?

Anti-fraud body leaks dozens of email addresses in invite mishap

Gmail -- spot the error

move on, nothing to see here!

China blames US for cyber break-in, claims America is world's biggest bit burglar

Re: No mercy for using Apple

I for one don't trust any closed-source OS. FOSS rulez!

No mercy for using Apple

"exploited a security flaw in a foreign mobile phone brand's messaging service"

So they use iPhone and iMessage? No mercy.

Backdoors in iMessage are long known. Pegasus anyone?

Hijacker helper VoidProxy boosts Google, Microsoft accounts on demand

Use Password Manager!

No Password Manager (PWM) falls for a fake login site. If you use a PWM with automatic credential input, and it doesn't do that in the legit looking site, that's red alert. NEVER put in existing credentials manually, and you're done with phishing.

Nokia successor HMD spawns secure device biz with Euro-made smartphone

As long as Qualcomm is in it, the Three-Letter-Agencies are in it.

If you don't control EVERYTHING in the device, including baseband, you never know which backdoors may be hidden in the proprietary HW and code. Qualcomm is a US-firm that has gotten a NSL for sure. Qualcomm has a record of security holes suspected to be backdoors. I for one wouldn't put money on this device.

Fortinet discloses critical bug with working exploit code amid surge in brute-force attempts

Backdoor?

"improper neutralization of special elements used in an OS command"

Just saying.

The who knows the key opens the door.

MX Linux 25 loses systemd toggling power as Debian 13 looms

RasPi: Alpine?

https://alpinelinux.org/downloads/

China warns citizens to beware backdoored devices, on land and under the sea

That's the thief shouting "Stop the thief!"

Nothing to see here, move along.

Cisco scores a perfect 10 - sadly for a critical flaw in its comms platform

"Mistake"?

"forget" hardcoded credentials is a mistake?

Or is it intention, perhaps because Uncle Sam wanted this backdoor?

Anyway this is unbelievable and unforgivable.

Cisco fixes two critical make-me-root bugs on Identity Services Engine components

Re: another two backdoors found?

Incompetence? At market leader Cisco? You're kidding, aren't you.

another two backdoors found?

What a pity ...

Why backdoor?

"insufficient validation of user-supplied input" is either a severe malpractice - or a deliberate backdoor.

"uploading a crafted file" means that the one who knows the key can trick the system.

Experts count staggering costs incurred by UK retail amid cyberattack hell

Re: Aaaaand...

It is not about pumping more money into the same pipes.

It is about migration to systems inherently resilient.

In other words: FOSS.

Yes, I assume that they already adhere to best practice. Otherwise that would be the starting point.

/e/ OS 3.0: Slightly less clunky, slightly more private

Installer

For some devices flashing is as easy as 123.

https://doc.e.foundation/devices look for "/e/OS installer"

https://iode.tech/iodeos-official-supported-devices/ look for "iodéOS installer compatible".

Otherwise, flashing an officially supported device is no rocket science.

You can buy some ready to use at

https://murena.com/products/smartphones/ (/e/OS) or

https://shop.iode.tech/ (iodé).

One more alternative worth mentionig: iodé

I have own experience with LineageOS, /e/OS, ShiftOS, VollaOS, and iodé. The latter is my favourite.

You can buy devices new and used with iodé installed already and with warranty.

Sitecore CMS flaw let attackers brute-force 'b' for backdoor

Re: Open System

... if it really were stupidity, and not a deliberate backdoor. Just sayin'.

Russia's Fancy Bear swipes a paw at logistics, transport orgs' email servers

And, will the endangered companies draw conclusions? Spoiler: improbable

In the report I can read (part of Initial Access TTPs):

- Outlook NTLM vulnerability (CVE-2023-23397)

- Exploitation of Internet-facing infrastructure, including corporate VPNs [T1133], via public vulnerabilities and SQL injection [T1190]

- Exploitation of WinRAR vulnerability (CVE-2023-38831)

What would the use of FOSS change here?

No more questions.

Unending ransomware attacks are a symptom, not the sickness

Re: Would the "thumb down" please elaborate?

You are right. FOSS is not perfect. But still it is a 1000 times more secure than proprietary products, particularly those with deliberate backdoors.

Would the "thumb down" please elaborate?

I am really interested.

The pricipal culprit: Proprietary prducts with backdoors

Yes, you could make life easy and blame attacks on not employing MFA.

But if you use network gear riddled with backdoors for the three-letter-agencies, you are lost. Anyone remember the US-Telcos case?

The only fundamental solution is the migration to FOSS on all levels from network gear to the back office servers.

Denmark and Estonia both have built their Civil Services completely on FOSS. Ransomware attacks are plain unknown.

Yahoo? Serously????

The firm has been hacked several times and has lost ALL of its dats to cybercrooks. The who uses Yahoo these days must be ...

Ninite to win it: How to rebuild Windows without losing your mind

"a criminal waste" -- or an opportunity to buy HW for all kinds of non-M$ uses cheap. :-)

Blue Shield says it shared health info on up to 4.7M patients with Google Ads

Re: Why no mention of penalizing Google?

Nice dream ...

What to do once your Surface Hub v1 becomes an 84-inch, $22K paperweight

no need for "retro-arch"

The core-i7-4xxx can run any contemporary Linux. If Nvidia isn't in the way.

Cardiff's children's chief confirms data leak 2 months after cyber risk was 'escalated'

Name names

Where sat the weakness exploited? Cisco, Citrix, ... Micro$oft, Oracle, ...? Anyway a proprietary product, amirite?

So to prevent a recurrence will they consider migration to FOSS as in Denmark or Estonia?

The answer is: NO, for a variety of reasons. :-(

Qilin ransomware gang boasts of cyberattacks on cancer clinic, Ob-Gyn facility

Lessons learned?

So, what ramifications will follow?

None, of course.

Perhaps a bit of user training, because a user was the culprit, no?

But I bet that they will continue using M$ and other closed-source sh.t, buggy and riddled with backdoors.

Consider migration to FOSS? Oh, nooo!

Before that could happen the hell freezes over.

Oh well.

Microsoft unveils finalized EU Data Boundary as European doubt over US grows

Not to forget the PATRIOT Act!

There's CLOUD and FISA and PATRIOT.

Did you forget the "beware - irony" tag?

If not meant ironically I would understand your post as devious.

Crimelords and spies for rogue states are working together, says Google

The real source of all trouble

All proprietary products, regardless weather from China or the US, are riddled with backdoors. A "good" backdoor doesn't exist, because every backdoor will be found by rogue exploiters at some point in time. The only valid protection would be by FOSS. That’s all.