Internet 6.0
By Simson Garfinkel
The Net Effect

The next version of the Internet Protocol, IPv6, will supply the world with addresses by the trillions. Too bad it will also make the Net slower and less secure.

It will be the biggest, the most drastic, and the most comprehensive change to the underlying structure of the Internet in more than 20 years. The deployment of IPv6—the sixth version of the Internet Protocol—will be a massive undertaking that will require the reconfiguration of more than 100 million computers. Not since the adoption of the Internet Protocol itself in January 1983 has there been such a fundamental shift. But when the IPv6 rollout is finally done, not all the effects will be positive: the new Version 6 Internet will be slower, more friendly to peer-to-peer-based copyright violation systems, and the computers on it will almost certainly be less secure. More....

The Enemy Within: Firewalls and Backdoors
by Bob Rudis, CISSP, and Phil Kostenbader, CISSP

Can your security infrastructure protect you when you've left the key under the mat?

As a modern IT professional you've done all the right things to keep the "bad guys" out: you protected your network with firewalls and/or proxies, deployed anti-virus software across all platforms, and secured your mobile workstations with personal firewalls. You may even be in the process of designing and deploying an enterprise-wide network and host intrusion detection framework to help keep an even closer eye on what's going on. Even with all this, are you really safe? Can your multiple-lines of defense truly protect your network from modern methods of intrusion?

This article presents an overview of modern backdoor techniques, discusses how they can be used to bypass the security infrastructure that exists in most network deployments and issues a wake-up call for those relying on current technologies to safeguard their systems/networks. More....

Kazaa Delivers More Than Tunes

By Kim Zetter

Story location: Wired

07:00 AM Jan. 09, 2004 PT

Forty-five percent of the executable files downloaded through Kazaa, the most popular file-sharing program, contain malicious code like viruses and Trojan horses, according to a new study.

Out of 4,778 files downloaded in one month, Bruce Hughes, director of malicious code research at security firm TruSecure, found that nearly half of them contained various types of nefarious code. More....

Designing Network Security- Book Review

Slashdot

Weighing in at a hefty 745 pages, Designing Network Security is a concise and authoritative guide to the sometimes daunting task of designing secure networks - with a special emphasis placed on Cisco solutions, of course. The book is divided into three major sections:basic theory and essentials; policy design and best practices; and implementation with Cisco hardware. In my opinion this book is best suited as a reference book for those who already have a firm foundation in security and networking, but could also be of value to beginner level techs with a bit of patience. While the topics that are covered have all pertinent information discussed, some might wish that there were a bit more explanation of the Hows and Whys. More....

New Trojan masquerades as Windows XP update

Intruder is considered low-risk
By Paul Roberts, IDG News

ServiceJanuary 09, 2004

Security companies are warning Internet users about a new Trojan horse program spreading via spam e-mail and masquerading as a Windows XP software update from Microsoft.

The program, known as "Xombe" or "Dloader-L," arrives as an executable attachment in spam e-mail messages purporting to come from windowsupdate@microsoft.com and installs itself on victim's computers when users open the attachment. More....

IT security critical for SMEs

BY ZEA SILVA, SECURITY BUSINESS UNIT MANAGER, FIRST TECHNOLOGY

[Johannesburg, 9 January 2004] - Possibly the most critical aspect of any small to medium enterprise's (SME's) information technology infrastructure is the security of that system.

That's according to Zea Silva, security business unit manager at independent IT solutions company, First Technology . More....

Fix for URL Spoofing Security Vulnerability Checked in to Mozilla Trunk and 1.6 Branch

Wednesday January 7th, 2004

The latest nightly builds of Mozilla feature a fix for the URL spoofing security vulnerability discovered in several browsers last month. A patch was checked in to the trunk and 1.6 branch yesterday, meaning that both the forthcoming Mozilla 1.6 and Mozilla Firebird 0.8 will be immune to the flaw.

In vulnerable versions of Mozilla, the address displayed in the Status Bar while hovering over a link is truncated if the characters %00 are present in the URL of the destination page. An attacker could exploit this to make a link that goes to http://www.microsoft.com%01%00@evilscam.net (real location evilscam.net) but appears in the Status Bar as simply http://www.microsoft.com. By fooling a user into believing that he or she is visiting a trusted site, an attacker could trick him or her into revealing sensitive information such as credit card details. More....

Word's password feature 'not a security tool'
Munir Kotadia
ZDNet UK
January 07, 2004, 17:40 GMT

Microsoft has hit back at critics of Word's password-protect feature, which the company has admitted is not safe from hackers.

The tool is intended to make collaboration easier, Microsoft told ZDNet UK, explaining that users should invest in digital signatures or an Adobe Acrobat-type application if they want security.

A set of relatively simple instructions on how to bypass the security of a password-protected Word document was published on the Internet on Friday. Thorsten Delbrouck, chief information officer of German security company Guardeonic Solutions, informed Microsoft about the vulnerability in November 2003. A week later, Microsoft updated its Knowledge Base to warn users that the feature should not be used for security purposes. More....

Vulnerabilities

08 January 2004

07 January 2004

06 January 2004