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Monthly Archives: May 2008
Apple Updates for Multiple Vulnerabilities
Can’t remember hearing about MAC needing "security updates", but it appears as they are becoming more popular they are starting to enjoy some of the attention of hackers previously reserved for Microsoft Operating Systems.
Original release date: May 29, 2008
Source: US-CERT
Systems Affected
* Mac OS X prior to v10.5.3
* Mac OS X Server prior to v10.4.11
Overview
Apple has released Security Update 2008-003 and OS X version 10.5.3 to correct multiple vulnerabilities affecting Apple Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server. Attackers could exploit these vulnerabilities to execute arbitrary code, gain access to sensitive information, or cause a denial of service.
I. Description
Apple Security Update 2008-003 and Apple Mac OS X version 10.5.3 address a number of vulnerabilities affecting Apple Mac OS X and OS X Server versions prior to and including 10.4.11 and 10.5.2. Further details are available in the US-CERT Vulnerability Notes Database. The update also addresses vulnerabilities in other vendors’ products that ship with Apple OS X or OS X Server.
II. Impact
A remote, unauthenticated attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code.
III. Solution
Upgrade
Install Apple Security Update 2008-003 or Apple Mac OS X version 10.5.3. These and other updates are available via Software Update or via Apple Downloads.
Posted in Alert
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Coupon Convert!
Well not really, but I did have an interesting experience at Ralph’s the other day. With the cost of gas raising almost daily, and me anticipating my new car, we decided to logon to Ralph’s web site to check out their ‘specials’. I never was one to clip coupons or look through the papers, but somehow finding that Ralph’s post this on-line with an easy interface to click to add the sale items to a printable shopping list, it was now not only convenient, but a time saver. Menus could then be easily planned around the sale items–another time saver.
So off to the store we went, list in-hand. We loaded an entire cart with all of the items we needed–everything from apples to steaks and everything in between. When we got to the check-out counter I watch the total climb as the clerk passed each item through the scanner–$100–$200–$230–the total finally topping out at $247.92. Then I handed the clerk my Ralph’s Club Card (senior edition). She scanned the card and I gleefully watched the total on the register start rolling backwards–dollar by dollar–until the final total was $147.62! To quote from the bottom of my register receipt a "verified total savings of $100.30". I’ve used the card for years, and it has always saved $10.00 here $30.00 there and one time I think I saved about $40.00, but never a savings that really seemed to matter. But saving over $100.00 was an eye-opener.
I found a method of checking the sale items that was both convenient and time-saving and could save us over $100.00 per week at the supermarket!
Check it out, I think you’ll like it: http://www.ralphs.com
Posted in Miscellaneous
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Linux Operating System Security Flaws May Have Compromised Your Certificates.
WHO IS IMPACTED AND WHY?
For customers who host their sites on a Debian OS (or its derivatives) to generate a key pair used to request a certificate, that key pair (and the corresponding certificate) is vulnerable.
This is due to a flaw in the Debian-specific random number generation that results in relatively predictable key pair values, making them highly exploitable.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
If you or your customers are running Debian operating systems and derivatives (such as Ubuntu) released between September 17, 2006 and May 12, 2008 you should deploy a recently released Debian patch and revoke and replace all SSL and Code Signing certificates for which keys were created on these operating systems. Debian has released a testing tool to confirm whether your certificates are affected. This tool and other useful information can be found here:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/2008/msg00152.html
NOTE: Inland Pacific Consulting does not host any accounts on Debian Operating Systems. We host strictly on the new Microsoft Windows 2008 64 bit operating system. Consequently none of our clients are effected by the above security flaw.
Posted in Alert, Technical
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30 Free Ways to Market Your Site
I stumbled on this article "30 Free Ways to Market Your Site" by Carrie Hill from her column "Little Biz" on Search Engine Watch that had some excellent ideas for marketing a small business web-site that I thought were especially relevant with the economy slowing and budgets tightening and wanted to share some of them with you.
Not only are her suggestions relevant to building the link popularity of your site, but they help in getting you familiar with, and involved in, the on-line community. Most small businesses are members of their local Chamber of Commerce or other networking groups, but many small business owners are not familiar with the same networking communities and opportunities that exist on-line. Following these tips is a perfect introduction to the on-line community and a good guide to how to become involved.
You will find that the knowledge gained while investigating and following many of these steps will be as big an asset to your company growth as the potential business you may generate.
Here are some of my favorites (some new, others nice reminders of things forgotten):
1. Write a press release on a new product or offering and send it to some free press release distribution sites. [ed. on-line]
2. Send the press release to your local media outlets, or any niche media outlets that may be interested in what you do. [ed. print]
13. Start a blog.
17. Submit a product (or 20) to GoogleBase. [ed. This is a new beta service of Google http://base.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=59260]
22. Install Web analytics on your site, if you don't already have them. [ed. If you don't use these on a site we host--ask us to install them for you.]
Posted in General
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Windows Live Writer
For those of you thinking of starting a blog, just setting up could seem a bit daunting. New terminology–ping-backs, track-backs, technorati, digg-it, etc. can seem overwhelming too. And then there’s writing your articles, posting your articles and managing articles in-progress.
I’ve found there is nothing really easy about researching the technology, but there are a ton of web-sites and blogs dedicated to understanding these things and the understanding comes with time. At first, I just started posting directly on my blog, which worked and meant I didn’t have to learn much new. But as I started writing more articles this didn’t prove to be the easiest way of doing things.
Then I discovered that there are tools for writing blog articles off-line on your computer and then publishes them automatically when they have been completed. There are many of these tools, but the one I found that I like the best is Windows Live Writer and can be found here: http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/. It does everything that you will need to do when writing and publishing articles–add categories, keywords, control comments, add you slug (oops, there’s another one of those terms again), add your article excerpt or summary, set publishing dates in advance, manage tags, etc. There are even 5 short (3 minutes or so) videos that walk you through everything from getting started to publishing your first post at the above link. Windows Live Writer even has the capability to manage several blogs at the same time, should you really get into it and have more than one! This is actually convenient for me, as I manage the blogs of several of our clients.
Once you make the decision to start a blog, it becomes addictive. The hardest part is just making up your mind to do it and getting started. So don’t put it off any longer, start your blog today!
Posted in General
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DotNetNuke New Product Offering
We are excited to be making available the latest version of DotNetNuke (V4.8.2) to our hosting clients. DotNetNuke puts the power to create, manage and publish Web content in your hands. You can take an active role in managing information on your Web site, intranet, or extranet.
With DotNetNuke, you simply identify yourself as a site administrator, browse to the area on the site where you want to create or edit content, and click on the appropriate content management option. You can easily create, manage and publish Web content, regardless of your technical skill level. The browser-based content management system make anyone a webmaster with little or no training required.
Click here for additional information on hosting plans and pricing options, or call us direct at 323-463-8300.
Posted in General
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Too much excitement for me!
This past Wednesday April 30th, while getting ready for work and watching the morning news, the lead story was of a major fire in Hollywood which turned out to be The Basque Restaurant and Night Club (featured in George Clooney's Oceans 11 when the club was called Deep) located diagonally across the street from my building (The Taft Building) on the corner of Hollywood and Vine. All traffic on Vine was reported blocked and Hollywood Blvd. traffic was at a stand-still, so I didn't even attempt making it to the office until late that afternoon. It was enough watching the 40 foot flames on TV.
When I got to the office traffic was pretty much back to normal but fire trucks were still everywhere and the smell of smoke was everywhere. My office reeked of smoke so all I did was check mail and make sure everything was OK and left for the day–cursing that I just paid $450.00 to have the drapes cleaned two weeks ago. I wondered (hoped) if Fabreze would do the trick and get the smell out. Fortunately when I returned the next day, the smell of smoke was gone.
There are still fire trucks and arson investigators there today. Here are two interesting articles from the LAFD blog regarding the fire.
http://lafd.blogspot.com/2008/04/hollywood-and-vine-basques-in-morning.html
And because of the historic significance of the building and the fact that it is the only single story building left at the corner of Hollywood and Vine, the subsequent arson investigation…
http://lafd.blogspot.com/2008/05/atf-national-response-team-joins.html
This was only three days after the well know eatery "Off Vine" burned down on April 27th at 5:20 p.m. This restaurant was about two blocks from my building. Fortunately the owners will be re-opening, as this was a favorite lunch spot for me.
http://lafd.blogspot.com/2008/04/blaze-erupts-at-landmark-hollywood.html
Posted in General
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Windows Vista, Java, ieSpell and IE Browser Crashes–Mystery Solved
Here's yet another story about strange and quirky things happening for supposedly no reason. (It turns out there is a reason, but why Microsoft would think that a user would know this intuitively is beyond me.) So many things that seemingly 'go wrong' in Vista that are actually caused by the 'enhanced security features' Microsoft incorporated into Vista to protect users from viruses and other attacks while connected to the Internet.
As a preface to the story, let me briefly explain one of these 'protection enhancements' called "Data Execution Prevention" or "DEP". Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is a security feature that is intended to prevent a program from running in a place in your computer's memory that is not usually intended to run programs. This helps prevent certain exploits of your system. However, there are some programs that need to use this 'protected' area legitimately, and this is where the problems begin.
And now back to the story–when browsing to some web sites, I noticed that Internet Explorer would crash and I would sometimes get a warning something to the effect of 'DEP or Data Execution Protection had to close the program to protect me'. I was already somewhat familiar with DEP because of some other problems I experienced previously, so I decided to use the same fix–add Internet Explorer to the list of programs that would not be protected by DEP. (DEP protects programs from executing in certain memory areas that are considered off-limits for safety reasons.)
So, I proceeded to unprotect Internet Explorer and try navigating to the site that was giving me all the problems. CRASH! I was stumped, but since it was only this one website that I really wasn't that concerned if I got to or not, I just ignored the problem.
Posted in Alert, Technical
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