Improperly validating user input has become a common scenario in security exploits these days. Recently there was a flaw in the way digg sanitized user input allowing the hacker to have his articles auto dugg. Although it took digg awhile to fix the issue, it is now resolved. The problem is that these types of attacks are becoming more common. Websites these days are rapidly evolving and changing. Programmers are pressured into producing working code in the shortest amount of time leaving room for security flaws to be left un checked. Read more »

There comes a point where a site can have too many advertisements or there simply isn’t enough space for another ad. We also don’t want to distract our users from the content too much. This is where ad rotating can come in handy. With rotating you can have two ads displayed in the same space. Read more »

Stupid Ubuntu tricks: 5 Steps for resetting a forgotten password - I prefer to use a live cd and use this method but I had a friend that forget his Ubuntu username password the other day and he didn’t have a live CD. This article came in handy.

The Anti-Virus Test File - I have known about this for awhile but is worthing checking out if you haven’t tried it. It’s basically a file that most/all anti-virus programs should pick up. It’s good for testing and seeing if you can get files past your anti-virus program. Read more »

1. Everything in Linux is a file, even your hard drives. (dev/hda1) No c:/ stuff. Linux is based on a directory system which is all contained in ‘/‘, aka root.

The ’slash’ is very important, for example, /mnt will start at / and look for mnt. If you type mnt/file it will look in the current directory that you are in for the folder ‘mnt’ and the file ‘file’. This was very confusing for someone that isn’t used to typing paths into the command line. Windows users are used to typing c:/ for the root directory so they may forget that / is the top level. Read more »

Hackers try to cause seizures on epilepsy site - Wow… just, wow… Computer security may now be life threatening. This is a very scary.

Compiz Fusion Truly Spherical Desktop View Arrives! - Another cool effect is released for Compiz. This one is kinda cool.

The heron has landed: a review of Ubuntu 8.04 - A nice review on the latest version of Ubuntu. Read more »

After listening to an episode of the Security Now Podcast I was fascinated by the idea of multi-factor authentication. In the perfect paper password episode they discussed using one time passwords that were written on a credit card sized piece of paper. Each time you log in you would have to supply both your password and a pseudo-random one time use password that is on your credit sized perfect paper password card. The next time you logged in you would have to supply the next one time password from the card. When all the passwords are used up you would print another card and start the process over. Read more »