Sniffing tools, and camera obscura

This Linux Journal article looks at the linux sniffing tools. It looks at the most common sniffing tool, tcpdump, but also has info on a few tools I wasn't familiar with like p0f, which attempts to do passive OS fingerprinting to see what versions of software are on your net and dsniff, which follows network traffic to look inside traffic like mail, web, etc. if you want to create your own wall of sheep.

And while I'm looking at security and unintended shared content, Schneier's blog has a post about unsecured webcams.

Speaking of worms...

I made a post the other day about worms without mentioning Stuxnet, which may have hosed the nuclear processing going on in Iran. Current theory is that the worm was a joint US/Israel venture, but there are other theories out there.

There have certainly been other instances of computer worms endangering infrastructure both online and offline:
In 2003, the SQL Slammer worm caused network problems in an Ohio nuclear plant, although there was an analog backup for much of the functionality and furthermore the plant was offline.

worms! or, a note on computer security

It's been twenty five years since the release of @Brain, the first PC computer virus.

It wasn't until November of 1988 that the Morris worm[1] ran around the Internet and mucked things up, spurring the creation of CERT.

Trivia: The use of the term "worm" to refer to self-replicating computer worms comes from Brunner's excellent novel "The Shockwave Rider".


[1] When I first encountered the term "RTFM", it was shortly after the worm, and I assumed it meant "Robert T Fucking Morris", which led to a bit of confusion on my part.

Passwords and security

Public Service Announcement and discussion!
Gawker media's database of email addresses and passwords for several hundred thousand users was copied and distributed and password crackers are eagerly attempting to crack everything there and see what else uses those same ID's and passwords.

Password reuse is a common exploit vector -- It seems convenient to use the same low-security password for multiple web forums and other things. But it really does open up holes that lead to bigger exploits. (See also this xkcd.) In particular, don't re-use a password for an email account or anything connected to your credit cards or banking. Using a base password and then some added characters for each web site can be a convenient way to have different passwords that are still reasonably easy to remember. And then there's always PasswordSafe (my favorite), which runs on several common platforms, to securely store passwords.