Help Support my Blog!

Virgin Mobile USA
Glasses USA
Amazon
Newegg
VPN4ALL
Netflix
Hulu
CafePress

 

Subscribe to Paul’s Tech Talk Affiliate Marketing Blog

Subscribe to Paul’s Tech Talk Science Fiction Blog

Subscribe to Paul’s Tech Talk Scams Blog

  • Acer 11.6
    Acer 11.6" Laptop 2GB 16GB | C710-2856
    Acer

    Currently  in process review this Acer Chrome book and boy is it nice!

Navigation
Sponsors

Entries in Browser (9)

Friday
Feb272009

Rogue Fake Codecs on the Rise

Panda Labs has been talking about Adware/VideoPlay and they are seeing a lot of variants on this.   They even play a game, find the difference in the installation screen:



Now as you can see this look to be the same agreement in all those difference installation.  Some things to consider Never install any software from a website that you don't know Nothing about about.

Panda Labs also talks about these new variants in regards to what they do:

This file spreads by making copies of itself in the removable drives and it also creates an autorun.inf in order to be run when they are accessed. This file collects the data stored in the browsers, such as cookies, passwords, profiles, email accounts, etc, and connects to a remote address to send the information.
[Via Panda Labs Blog]

[ad#ad2-right]As you can see this makes you have very little security with your system.  I talk about Identity theft, and why you should always worry about your identity.   This however will make your passwords less secure and maybe even compromise you system to the point of having a data breach.   You need to be careful when you come by this, some fake codecs have been know to be scareware.  In which, the fake codecs installs a Trojan to tell you have a virus and try to make you buy a fake program to get rid of the Virus.  In one of my recent posts about Codecs and Facebook, I talked about the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack and how that will prevent you from installing these sociable links from friends and family.  The nice thing about this pack is it install all the really good codecs that you might come across on the web.  If you have this installed and there's a website that says you need a special codec, you'd know that it is either a fake codec or the author who made the video doesn't standardize.   In which case you will be more willing to leave that site without installing that codec.

If you follow these steps and also consider installing an Anti-virus and Firewall, you will be in a much better shape then when you first started out. Remember only you can prevent from getting a virus. You should also consider doing the registry edit that will prevent Autorun. As you can tell these new variants also are spread through USB and other removable media. This is the other way these programs are using to infect other systems.
Monday
Feb232009

Being a Bad BOT!

badbot1

I had the strangest thing happen today, Seemed a Bad Bot was Crawling my pages. I was getting at least 60 page views an hour from this bad Bot!! The individual IP's of this Bad Are:
65.208.151.112
65.208.151.113
65.208.151.114
65.208.151.115
65.208.151.116
65.208.151.117
65.208.151.118
65.208.151.119


[ad#ad2-right]After the first initial hour of this going on, I started wondering what this bot was doing.   I did some more research into this little bot.   I did find out it is owned by Kintiskton LLC.  (Twitter Search)

Anyways It bothers me that when you do a Google Search for this company, it comes back with no company.  Some people have already did there research and have come up with very little.

I dug even more and some are saying this might be Homeland Security, and I have my own thoughts on this.   I might be paranoid myself but if there is no company out there and the IP keeps coming back, I assume it is BAD mojo.  Some people worry that it is a hacker probing for vulnerabilities and that worried me.

I decided with the Help from Godaddy, to ban the lot of IPs.  I figure someone is trying to get information or trying something they shouldn't, I'll stop it myself.   If you have Wordpress and are also having problems with this ip, you can ban it by adding this to your HtAccess file:

order allow,deny
deny from 65.208.151.112
deny from 65.208.151.113
deny from 65.208.151.114
deny from 65.208.151.115
deny from 65.208.151.116
deny from 65.208.151.117
deny from 65.208.151.118
deny from 65.208.151.119
allow from all


This is how you block those ip in the HtAccess file. Thanks to Wordpress for showing me how.
Tuesday
Dec162008

IE vulnerability in the Wild

Well this was bound to happen, hackers found this vulnerability and is using it for their own purposes.  [ad#ad2-right]It seems they put a virus on your system.  Microsoft has issued an Recommendation and to check out Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-055.
"What we've seen from the exploit so far is it stealing game passwords, but it's inevitable that it will be adapted by criminals," he said. "It's just a question of modifying the payload the trojan installs."

Said Mr Ferguson: "If users can find an alternative browser, then that's good mitigation against the threat."

[Via BBC News]

[ad#ad2-left]I personally like to recommend a program that will do a better job at security and that is Firefox,  I also suggest people use the Thunderbird and not Microsoft mail program.  This will greatly reduce your likely hood of getting a virus or Trojan.   Most of the time hackers like to find new ways to infection to get into your system.  If you want to preven having a virus in the future, I'd recommend going to my Malware Resource and check out a good firewall and anti-virus.   This will prevent you from getting some of the viruses and other types of malware.
Sunday
Dec072008

Facebook : Beware Spam for breakfast. (Virus)

In today's society, we've been to complacent with people with people clicking links for the social group. In one such article on Channel Web, a nice little blog, says this:
[ad#ad2-right]


The worm was discovered by IT security provider Kaspersky Lab, which said the threat, Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b, is targeting Facebook users by creating spam messages and sending them to the infected user's friends via the site.

"Unfortunately, users are very trusting of messages left by 'friends' on social networking sites," said Alexander Gostev, senior virus analyst at Kaspersky Lab, in a statement. "So, the likelihood of a user clicking on a link like this is very high."


[Via Channel Web]



This seems to be a problem people thinking that a link someone sends them is a real good link but actually is a link to a video site. According to this article the links people are sending are actually a fake video link, telling you have to download some update to flash player, by downloading this program. The user gets involved with the virus and the fun begins. So how can you prevent this from happening, two ways one is a very good group of software to make sure you have the latest and greatest video codecs. That too can be something they'll say you need and if you've already installed this list of codecs then you know they'll not telling the truth and you can quickly get away from the site laughing.


[ad#ad2-left]What's this program name, it is call the K-lite Mega Codec pack. In this Pack you will be able to play almost everything without having to go download another program. This is done by people who want you to have all the latest codecs installed so you don't have to go by a program you'll only going to use once a month.



Once you've done that, you'll no longer have to worry for the most part about codecs. There will be times when you might have to visit that site and update them but that will be far less.


The other thing you must remember is if it says you must update your player. That should be a sign that there is something. I'll always go to the site and check for example Adobe. If it says I need to update my flash I'll manually type it into my browser. This way you will know you have the latest updates, if you need to update the flash player by all means go to here and update.


If you got the virus I'd check out my Anti-virus and Anti-Spyware page and that should show you will you need to get rid of the Virus. This virus is very easy to get rid of, just download any one of the anti-virus software and install it. Don't forget to update the virus database while your at it. That should fix the problem pretty fast. Remember the only way to prevent from getting the virus is YOU.

Wednesday
Nov262008

Microsoft issues Vista patches out of Monthly Patch Cycle!

KB957321,KB959108,KB959130


Microsoft issues Out of cycle patch for Vista.   These patches are as Followed:
[ad#ad2-right-1]

Kb957321


An update rollup is available for the Microsoft Windows Imaging Component (WIC) in Windows Vista or in Windows Server 2008. This update rollup resolves the problems that are documented in the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
954708 An update to add support for the serialization of complex Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) data types in the Windows Imaging Component

945060 There may be inconsistencies in the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) and Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) values for an image file in Windows Vista and in Windows XP

The Windows Portable Device (WPD) API collects and transfers Software Quality Metrics (SQM) data to Microsoft servers. The SQM data is collected only on an opt-in basis through the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program. An update is available that disables the collection and transfer of SQL data to Microsoft servers.



This update affects Windows Vista-based computers, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)-based computers, and Windows Server 2008-based computers that are in the Microsoft Windows Media Player Customer Experience Improvement Program.

On a Windows Vista-based computer or on a Windows Server 2008-based computer, you install a third-party Web browser. You set the third-party Web browser as the default Web browser. Then, you run the Connect to the Internet Wizard. However, if you select the Browse the Internet now option, Windows Internet Explorer starts instead of the third-party Web browser that you set as the default Web browser.


[ad#ad2-right]This seems to be not so important.  All of these are not really security related but it does surprise me that Microsoft wanted to release these out of Cycle.   If your planning on using your Vista laptop during the holidays you might want to update your vista machine before you go.  I don't think there is going to be any major issues with this but if there is, you can always remove these updates later.
Tuesday
Nov252008

Some program Vulnebilities Detected!!

Just got done looking at some of my security sites and according to SecuriTeam there are are several programs that have vulnerabilities. here are the Ones that I've found:
Google chrome is vulnerable to URI Obfuscation vulnerability.
An attacker can easily perform malicious redirection by manipulating the browser functionality. The link can not be traversed properly in status address bar.This could facilitate the impersonation of legitimate web sites in order to steal sensitive information from unsuspecting users. The URI specified with @ character with or without NULL character causes the vulnerability.


[ad#ad2-right]iPhone Configuration Web Utility for Windows Directory Traversal
iPhone Configuration Web Utility lets "you easily create, sign and distribute configuration profiles using a web browser". A vulnerability in iPhone Configuration Web Utility allows remote attackers to access files that reside outside the bounding root directory of the program's files folder.


Streamripper Multiple Buffer Overflows
Streamripper "records Shoutcast and Live365 MP3 streams to a hard disk, creating separate files for each track. Runs under Unix and Windows." Secunia Research has discovered some vulnerabilities in Streamripper, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system.


Amaya URL Bar Stack Overflow Vulnerability
A vulnerability in Amaya browser allows remote attackers to cause it to overflow an internal buffer which in turn can be leveraged to execute arbitrary code.

These are the ones that I found and wanted to let you know about these so you can make your system even more secure.   if I find any others I'll let you know!!!
Wednesday
Sep032008

Fixing the Adobe Problem!!

If your have been having problems with Flash Players stoping after 2 seconds of playing.  I have a few ideas to try to get rid of the problem.  It used to happen all the time with Vista in the early days.  Here's what I did to occasionally get the flash player to work:

[ad]


  • Cleaning out the Prefetch Directory! -- Having seen this from time to time. If you have programs startup that might need to be refreshed this will refresh them so that they run like new. You occasionally can get programs that will load in a odd way and this will fix that also.






  • You want to be more anonymous? -- Cleaning out your cache on your browser can sometimes fix the problem. It's like anything else it can sometimes be corrupted.






  • Some Important programs to prevent yourself from having viruses and Malware!! -- Having seen this with my own two eyes, if you have a viruses or malware on your system that too can cause problems with playback of flash media.  So just double check making sure you don't have any viruses.




  • Adobe Flash tips and Tricks! -- Also having found this out.  Adobe actually keeps the flash video on there servers cached or sometimes somewhat buffered to help with playback.  Clean the cache out at the source sometimes fixes the problem also.




[ad]

Now having used some of these tricks to get flash players to run has on occasion worked for some strange reason or another.  Although I don't know if this will fix the 2 second playing video problem I get the feeling it should since in theory it has everything to do with cache and corruptions of the files. If you can come up with some other tips or tricks to fix the problem let me know!!
Tuesday
Oct302007

Run a Better Google Talk on Your Desktop with Prism

prism-gtalk.pngEver since Google updated the web-based Google Talk gadget, I've firmly felt that the web-based Google Talk is head and shoulders above the desktop client (if you don't need file transfer or voice calls, that is). Last week we told you about Prism, Mozilla's update to the stripped-down browser and web application environment WebRunner. Put the two together (using this URL when you create the Prism application) and you've got what feels very much like a desktop version of the Google Talk gadget. Prism is still very early in development, currently Windows-only, and—honestly—requires way more memory than I'd like (around 30MB for my Google Talk), but with more time and development, the single-use approach to web applications as desktop apps could catch on. Thanks Jon!

Friday
Oct192007

Joost Coming To The Browser?


Joost CEO Mike Volpi just suggested on stage at Web 2.0 that Joost is working on a browser-based version of its peer-to-peer Internet TV service. “At some point, when we can deliver the quality that Joost is known for, we will deliver an in-browser experience,” he told the audience here. I got up and asked him if he faces any legacy issues, since Joost is based on a peer-to-peer client that must currently be downloaded. His answer was that it is possible to separate the file-sharing from the viewing experience and that in fact Joost is working on just such a browser-based solution. It’s not clear whether people would still need to download a separate piece of software to do the P2P file-streaming or whether that could just be a browser plug-in. But with in-browser Flash video about to get a whole lot better over the next few months, Joost will have to respond with it’s own browser-based expereince.
Does that mean it will be integrated into Internet Explorer 8 when it comes out?