New Botnet for Linux.

           Earlier days attackers used to develop a bot program for Windows only as they are used in large scale and now Linux users are increasing on large scale. Recently a DDoS has been detected that originated from Linux bots.

           Due to the increase in the number of Linux running servers and the desktops the attackers started developing a bot program for Linux and the one has been used to launch a DDoS on large scale of about 179 Gbps.

           Bot net is a collection of compromised system and the bots are usually used to carry out a malicious activity such as DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack in which the attacker will be hidden and the attack will be carried out.

           The new bot for Linux #XOR botnet targets Linux systems. The bot program resides in the machine such as router program and the program migrates and will carry out a brute force attack on the SSH login credentials.

            Once the SSH credentials has been compromised the bot program will now have a root privilege and the program will execute a simple script program to download a malicious files and the system will be compromised at root level.

            Akamai's Security Intelligence Response Team (SIRT) has seen DDoS attacks and then they observed it is consuming a bandwidth of few to 179 Gbps which is more traffic than a corporate can handle.

            They have also provided the ways to detect and delete the XOR Botnet files

Identify malicious files in two directories (/boot and /etc/init.d)
Identify the supporting processes responsible
Kill the malicious processes
Delete the malicious files in (/boot and /etc/init.d)

            They also suggested to disable the root login from secure shell to prevent further attacks.

P.S : The post is to create awareness and not to be misused.

NeoKylin - China's new OS.

               It is said that China wants to be an individual IT economy relying only on their products and not on any other products like Facebook or Google which are already banned in China. Now China has developed a new Operating system for their usage.

               Microsoft Stopped their support for Windows XP earlier time and this can created some problem for many users and China did not want to extend their support and also not to jump into Windows 7 instead they created a new operating system.

                The new operating system China developed is similar to that of Windows XP and it has been developed by Shanghai-based China Standard Software Company and already running on more than 40 % of overall commercial units in China sold by Dell.


                The new operating system has all similar features to that of Windows XP and it includes the normal My Computer and other icons in the native Chinese language. It includes a Neoshine office that is similar to that of Microsoft office package.

                 It incorporates Linux Terminal and the OS runs in Linux Kernel. It incorporates the pre-installed applications such as 

Firefox Web Browser
Music Player
Open source image editor GIMP.
A calculator

                Microsoft to promote Windows 10 join hands with Baidu but they have developed a new OS #NeoKylin.

P.S : The post is to create awareness and not to create any negative impact.

Lenovo agian caught for Pre-installed Spyware.

                   The leading laptop manufacturing company #Lenovo already caught for the two times for implanting the spyware or malware earlier this year. Now it is third time Lenovo has been accused of pre-installing a spyware in its devices.

                    Lenovo leads in laptop sales but there are not upto the international standards in customer support and it is the third time they are being caught for pre-installing spyware in their models.

                     First time Lenovo has been accused of implanting a malware in the name of #Superfish malware and they have then released a software piece for removing that malware but many users complained that the software bricks their system.

                     Second time it is the inbuilt code or software that has been attached with the BIOS and then they have accepted that and they removed it in the upcoming models.

                     Now for the third time it is the spyware that has been used for collecting Feedback from the users. Of course it is common for companies to collect Feedback but selling the feedback to online marketers is not usual thing.

                      Lenovo models has three files that are responsible for collecting information and they also contain the file in the name #Omniture, which is a online marketing company and data analytics company.

                      To check or to remove the spyware from your model if you have, do the following

Download #TaskSchedulerView as per your architecture
Search for Lenovo Customer Feedback Program 64
Disable it from running 
Additionally you can rename the C:/Program Files(x86)\Lenovo


                     Users are recommended to do the same if you are concerned about the privacy of your data.

P.S : The post is to create awareness and not to create any negative impact.

Facebook Dislike button facts.

            Few weeks ago Facebook announced that they are gonna launch a new feature that is the #Dislike or #Empathy button on the comment section of the Facebook. Recently there has been many news that has been released related to this case.

            First of all it is not a #Thumbs Down button as expected by many users. Thumbs down button may lead to the bad behavior and feeling and may relate to bullying so the Thumbs down icon will not be there as like Thumbs up like button.

             In the patent illustration the Facebook Dislike or Empathy button will be just like a Emoji like many other smileys. Near to the comment section like button there will be a emoji options that allows the users to select sad, happy or down like emojis.

              Of course the Facebook comment section allows the users to insert emojis the dislike feature will be just an additional option and not the new Thumbs down as expected.

               Most importantly there has been a message that goes viral in Facebook Messenger is that "Get the Facebook Dislike Feature", Spammers are using this spam message to get some credentials from the users.

                Once a user clicks on the link then the user will be redirected to the page where he/she will be asked to enter the credentials and the survey also involves some personal information that can be used by the spammers.

                 Users are recommended not to click on those links and not to respond to any such messages because it may migrate through your contact list and there is no Thumbs Down icon for dislike or empathy feature by Facebook.

P.S : The post is to create awareness and not to be misused.

iOS 9 hack allows hackers to access photos and contact lists.

                  Apple released its new mobile operating system in September 16 iOS 9 and it has been downloaded by millions of users. Recently a news has been revealed that the iOS 9 passcode can be bypassed and the contacts and photos can be accessed.

                   iOS 9 has been released and a firm has released a news that about 1 million dollars can be rewarded if any bug has been found on the iOS 9 and the bug bounty program is going on now.

                   A hacker found a new way of bypassing the passcode feature that iOS 9 has. Passcode serves as an entry point to the device and it can be replaced with biometric fingerprint feature. The simple way has been found that bypasses the passcode or fingerprint lock.

                     The hack can be done in about 90 seconds just by doing the following

Type passcode of about 3 to 4 according to the passcode enabled.

Hold the home button and open Siri and ask What is Time ?

Tap Clock icon and enter some character in the city field and copy it.

Click on the Share option.

Tap Message icon and and type something and press return and double tap on contact name on the top

Select "Create New Contact" and Tap on "Add Photo" and then "Choose Photo"


                    Now you can access to the photo library and also the contact list without even having the passcode and of course even if the biometric passcode has been enabled.

                     Apple is yet to fix this issue and it can be prevented simply by disabling Siri in lock screen in the Settings menu.

P.S : The post is to create awareness and not to be misused.

Microsoft's New Linux - Azure Cloud Switch.

                Linux operating system is one such that changed the entire computing world and now many servers and many users also started using Linux operating system. Recently there is a news that Microsoft is going to release its own Linux operating system.

                Linux has been ignored by many users earlier stating that it has no GUI and it is hard to operate but after that due to the increase in cyber threats and also the flexibility it provides the users are increasing drastically.

                 These days Linux has no GUI on its own but can be managed by any third party GUI such as KDE and Chinnamon and many more. Now Microsoft has developed a new Linux operating system in the name #Azure Cloud Switch (ACS).

                  This new operating system has been developed to make it easier to handle the hardware from multiple vendors (hardware such as router, switch etc.) that powers Microsoft's cloud services.

                   Microsoft describes it by stating that "Cross - platform modular operating system for data center networking built on Linux" or simply "Commodity switch software stack for data center networks".

                     ACS is not for desktop or servers in near future it is not for consumer usage it has been developed mainly by Microsoft as an internal tool to debug and test their products with higher speed. It has been demonstrated in #SIGCOMM on August 2015.

                      If you are more interested in knowing about ACS in depth you can view the complete article.

P.S : The post is to create awareness and not to create any negative impact.

iOS 9 new features.

             Apple rolled out it's new mobile operating system for mobiles under the name iOS 9 on September 16 2015 and millions of users has upgraded their devices. There are many features that can be made to maintain privacy.

              Apple iOS 9 allows the users to have 6 digit passcode instead of traditional 4 digit passcode. Of course in old iOS 4 digit passcode can be replaced by complex passcode default one is 4 digits and now it is 6 digit passcode in default.

               Apple as usual warns the user each time the app uses the location services and it is common to share the location with the map app and any app that needs location but why app like facebook needs the location. Users can disable the location service for this type of app to maintain privacy.

                Apple also has a feature that allows the device to keep the data encrypted with Keychain that can be configured with the master password. Passcode will encrypt the data and in addition to that the keychain will provide additional security.

                 Another feature is that using #DuckDuckGo search engine. Google and other search engine are accused of saving users search related data. Users are recommended to use this DuckDuckGo search engine in Safari to evade tracing that are being made by service providers.

                 In addition to these features Apple also allows many settings that maintain privacy of the users and they also stated that the battery life will be increased and now will last more than one hour than existing.

                Of course the Jailbreaking tool has been developed but the users are recommended not to do that since it voids warranty and make the device vulnerable. 

P.S : The post is to create awareness and not to create any negative impact.

Bypasssing Android Lock Feature.

                  Android has been used by millions of users and now the latest version yet to be released is the version #Android M and one of the feature that prevents the hackers from entering into the device is the lock. Recently a hacker revealed the way to bypass #Android lock.

                  Whatever smart device it may be it is secured with the PIN lock or Pattern lock or any Password lock to prevent the an unauthorized access to the device. The PIN or Pattern lock can be bypassed using the ADB earlier since it is saved in the local file.

                  Now a security researcher and a hacker revealed the method which is very simple and very less time consuming to bypass the Android Lock. To perform the hack the version vulnerable to the hack is #Android 5.0 and 5.1 (LMY47V).

                  The hack is named as #Magic Trick and it is assigned a vulnerability #CVE-2015-3860 "Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability in Lock Screen". 

                   To perform the magic trick only the following actions are required.

Get access to device and open Emergency Dialer
Type a long string and copy paste it until it reach the input limit 
Copy the text and open camera app accessible without unlocking
Drag Notification bar and  select Settings icon it will prompt to enter a password
Paste the long string copied earlier
Go to camera app click some photos simultaneously inputting the password string

                   That's all after some few seconds the home button on the bar will disappear and it is the indication of the camera app crashing. The camera app will crash in few seconds and the Home screen will be displayed with all its contents.

                    The patch has been released for the users from Google and it can be found here. 

P.S : The post is to create awareness and not to be misused.
               

Most awesome passwords ever seen.

             There has been a hack done few weeks earlier and the team responsible is "#Sinosure Prime and they have hacked around 11 millions of #Ashley Madison user accounts. Recently a member related to the hack revealed the password list.

             Actually it is said that the longer your password the longer time it takes to break but due to the advancement of the Technology the speed at which the computer cracks increases so the password should not only be longer but also be stronger.

               Stronger password in the sense it should be more complex. Combination of Upper Case, Lower case, Symbols and numbers. But many wont do that because it is difficult to remember such complex passwords.

               In detail if a password compromise has been attempted a list of words will be created by computers using combinations and consider you have a password "12345" it will be the combination obviously created by computer.

               It doesnot even contain the alphabets it is upto you to believe it only takes few seconds or less to break this password. The more combination the more time it takes to break.

                The passwords that has been compromised are very simple and you can also see how many number of users has the passwords. Take a look at an image below

 

              The image says everything and there are still many users who are using this list passwords in many sites and will surely suffer if an attack has been attempted. Make your choice.

P.S : The post is to create awareness and not to be misused.

Windows 7 or 8 upgrades to Windows 10 automatically.

              Windows 10 has been rolled out by Microsoft few weeks earlier and there has been many complaints that has been made from the users. Recently there has been another problem reported by many users.

               Users running Windows 7 and Windows 8 with their Windows Update enabled experienced some slow internet and also some updation during system boots. It is nothing other than #Windows 10 has been automatically downloaded and is ready to install.

                Few weeks back Windows 10 will be updated only when the user requested it and they will be served accordingly but now Microsoft is automatically trying to install Windows 10 on the user computer without their permission.

                 Windows 7 and Windows 8 users if felt some file in the name of Windows-BT then it is the installation file for the Windows 10 and it will try to install the operating system every time user boots the system.

                  Previously Windows 10 has the problems of consuming users bandwidth and now it is not only the Bandwidth but also the Storage capacity since the download file is from 3.5 to 6 Gb consuming huge space in memory.

                  Microsoft promised that they will install Windows 10 in about billions of systems but it is a different strategy for reaching goal.

                    Lets see how to check that your system already started this secret upgrading,

Open the partition that has the existing operating system installed (By default : c:/ )
Enable the Display of Hidden files
Look for the file with name $Windows.~BT.

                      If you can locate the file congrats your system already downloaded the Windows 10 installation file and to ensure that check the Internet usage. If not congrats you are not yet targeted. To disable this automatic upgradation stay tuned for next post.

P.S : The post is to create awareness and not to create any negative impact.
                

Deadly WhatsApp Hack Technique.

                  WhatsApp recently announced that they are having nearly 900 million active users and yes it is one such message service that almost replaced the default messaging option in mobile phone. Recently a vulnerability has been revealed that makes an attacker easy to hack WhatsApp account.

                  #WhatsApp Web is one such feature rolled out by the team which allows the users to check their messages through web client and it is also made available for iPhone users recently.

                    The vulnerability that has been revealed put around 200 million user accounts vulnerable and the malicious actions that can be taken by an attackers are

Take complete control over the system
Install any application or software
RAT (Remote Administration Tool) installation
Turning the system into a BOT.

                    The vulnerability resides in the feature that allows users to share the contact via Vcard. WhatsApp accepts any Vcard in the form of .Bat (Batch) file and through this the account can be used to hack a system.

                     To exploit the vulnerability an attacker needs to send the malicious code containing file in the name of Vcard to the victim or the target, the moment he / she opens the file the code will be executed and the account can be used to hack the system.

                     WhatsApp has been notified about this vulnerability and the patch has been made and the new version has been rolled out.

                      Versions before V0.1.4481 is vulnerable and so the users are recommended to update their WhatsApp as soon as possible to avoid cyber attacks.

P.S : The post is to create awareness and not to be misused.

Windows 10 has in-built Keylogger.

                        Windows 10 has been accused for many features that violates user's privacy and now another feature has been revealed that is more scary than the others. Recently Windows 10's keylogger feature has been made public.

                          Everyone while installing Windows will go through Express setting to finish the  installation quickly or to save time according to their perspective. This may leave some of the features that are not liked by many users.

                          One such feature is similar to that of #Keylogger in Windows 10. Let's take a look at the keylogger. Keylogger is a malware that actually records all the keystrokes that are being made by the users and will send them to the attackers.

                          Windows 10 has such kind of feature as in-built and it is left enabled by default when you opted Express setting while Windows 10 installation. However according to many sources it is more than a Keylogger.

                          #Windows feature records all the keystrokes you made and the word you speak with Cortana, a digital assistant and also the thing you write using stylus or any other material on the screen.

                            They are collecting all the things as stated above and send it to Microsoft for further comfort of the user as stated by Microsoft. Many if went with Express setting then you are being watched.

                             If you want to disable this feature Go to Setting --> Privacy setting. Under that Select General --> Send Microsoft Info about how I write to help us improve typing and speaking in future disable it. 

                             And then go to Speech, Inking and Typing and select "Stop getting to Know me" option. This will disable the feature that collects keystrokes and speech and even writing.

P.S :  The post is to create awareness and not to create any negative impact.

Apple's new Battery lasts 7 days.

             All the devices that are being used are using advanced battery such as Lithium-ion or Lithium-ion polymer battery to store charge that can be used by the device. Recently Apple filed a patent for a battery that lasts for almost 7 days.

              Battery percentage is one of the scary feature for all the users and Apple being pioneer in the battery life for Macbooks that has battery backup upto 12 hours with continuous discharge now moved one step forward and developed something bigger.

               #Apple filed a patent for the developing of a battery that last for almost 7 days and is known as #Fuel Cell Technology and as per the patent published the important features stated are

Fuel cell converts fuel to electric power
A controller for monitoring and an interface for displaying status of the battery
A fan to cool the cell
Internal rechargeable battery.

                  The fuel cells schematic representation of architecture is as shown below

 

                    Apple is now focused on Macbooks for this #Fuel Cell Technology as they stated that #Magsafe connector instead of #Lightning Connector and they also stated that iPhones can also use this technology.

                    Already #Hydrogen fuel cells has been used in iPhone 6 prototype announced this month that has been made by #British firm Intelligent Energy.

P.S : The post is to create awareness and not to create any negative impact.

Chrome 45 - Saves RAM and Battery much.

                  Google owns the web browser #Google Chrome and has released the version 43 few months before and there has been many problems stated by the users. Recently new version Chrome 45 has been released that has much more important feature.

                    #Google Chrome 43 has got problems such as #Consuming more CPU usage and another complaint is that due to the autoplay or flash the #laptop battery has been draining much faster.

                       Considering the above complaints made by many users Google fixed them and released the new version #Google Chrome 45 and now it consumes RAM less than 10 % which is much less than many browsers in the market.

                        Let's have a look at the important features, the main feature is that the loading time of the tab where the users left off. This made the users to load the tabs much faster. The technique used is that it will load the recent tab at first and then one before and so on. This allows the user to access the important tab very fast.

                         Another important feature that allows the users to have more battery life is that in the new version of Chrome the autoplay option for flash videos and the advertisement loading is restricted thus the resource utilization will be reduced much more.

                          Chrome 45 will monitor the resource the system using and will stop loading the tabs if the system has less than 10 percent of resources available at that time. Google stated that the laptop battery backup time increases by 15 percent with the new version.

                          Chrome 45 addresses the problems which Windows 10 users felt and now the new version is available for download from their official site and can be found here.

P.S : The post is to create awareness and not to create any negative impact.

Microsoft Starting Spying Windows 7 and Windows 8.

            It been a few weeks since the launch of Windows 10 and millions of people upgraded their systems to Windows 10 and few after upgrading revert the action due to the stringent privacy policies. Recently a news has been released stating that Windows 7 and 8 also started spying.

            #Windows 10 has many features that may cause some users to feel that Microsoft is interfering in the user's privacy such as #Wi-Fi sense and there is no disabling option for the Windows Update option. Even thought the settings can be changed many users disliked the act.

               Before few days the Microsoft released some updates that has to be made to Windows 7 and Windows 8 and they are the update that helps the Microsoft to start spying on the users. The updates are as 

KB3068708
KB3022345
KB3075249
KB3080149

                These updates has been released and the updates enables the "#Diagnostics and Telemetry Tracking" feature in the system which allows the system to exchange information with the Microsoft server even the privacy setting has been enabled in the system.

                 These updates bypass user preferences in the system and then starting to exchange information with the following two servers according to the gHacks article

vortex-win.data.microsoft.com
settings-win.data.microsoft.com

                   If you have installed you can uninstall them by going to Control Panel -> View Installed Updates -> Remove the above stated updates. Once done you can hide them to prevent them from installing while rebooting.

P.S : The post is to create awareness and not to create any negative impact.