Category Archives: Technical

Category for technical content.

What Are “Homoglyph” Attacks?

Posted on 2020-08-07 by mike

As the phrase has started becoming more widely used, it seems worthwhile to explain just what exactly “homoglyph attacks” are. It is perhaps a bit extreme to call them “attacks” as they are effectively used to deceive … especially in … Continue reading →

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Imaging PCs for Offline Analysis

Posted on 2019-09-11 by mike

This is going to be a technical post with requirements for access rights that most people do not have, so it can be ignored. The intention is to file this information in a place that can be widely seen for … Continue reading →

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Zoom Desktop Vulnerability for macOS

Posted on 2019-07-09 by mike

Update: Apple is now silently pushing out an update to remove the Zoom “hidden feature” so you will be please to know that the geeky removal is no longer necessary. Just make sure you have opted in to all recent … Continue reading →

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The Big RDP Vulnerability (CVE-2019-0708)

Posted on 2019-05-16 by mike

Microsoft have released a whole bunch of patches to fix security vulnerabilities this Tuesday (which is quite normal of course), but one unusual aspect was the release of a patch for older versions of Windows that do not normally get … Continue reading →

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Apache: Reducing Information Leaked Through The Headers

Posted on 2018-05-31 by mike

Apache by default announces all sorts of information about itself when you make a connection to it :- $ lynx -head http://some-server-fqdn/ HTTP/1.1 302 Found Date: Thu, 31 May 2018 12:18:22 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.15 (CentOS) Location: https://t-oala-idp-01.iso.port.ac.uk/ Connection: close Content-Type: … Continue reading →

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Apache: Disabling Directory Indexes

Posted on 2018-05-31 by mike

One of the features of Apache that can cause security issues (or at least those who audit security issues may complain about it) is the ability to produce a file listing of a directory if there is no index page … Continue reading →

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Apache: Disable the ETag Header

Posted on 2018-03-29 by mike

By default, the Apache web server has an information disclosure vulnerability where the ETag header shows information about the file containing the object in question. This can contain an “i-node” value which in combination with the use of NFS can permit … Continue reading →

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Apache: Disabling TRACK and TRACE Methods

Posted on 2018-03-29 by mike

By default Apache supports a number of HTTP methods in addition to the ones we normally use – GET (to get objects) and PUSH (to push form data although you can send form data with GET too). These additional methods … Continue reading →

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Apache: Blocking “Dangerous” Files

Posted on 2018-03-27 by mike

There are all sorts of “dangerous” files that can appear within a web server’s document root; some are merely potentially dangerous but some can be genuinely dangerous. For example, if someone uses an editor to change a .php file, it is … Continue reading →

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Processor Bugs: Meltdown and Spectre

Posted on 2018-01-05 by mike

There has been lots of stories relating to two new severe security vulnerabilities (one of which is in every Intel processor for over a decade); the trail of stories starts here. The details of the vulnerability are very highly technical … Continue reading →

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