System Security - How a faked anti-spyware program tricks its way onto user's systems.

I ran into System Security a few days ago. This is one of many rogue anti-spyware programs that pops up a now and then. I've captures some screenshots to show how users are tricked into installing this application:

While browsing some web pages the following dialog from Internet Explorer popped up. It falsely claimed that my system needed a "anti viruses check". The system is 100% clean.



If you click OK, the following will appear:



The the observant user will notice the above is just a web page that, tries to mimic the user interface of Windows XP. Web pages cannot access the local disk to scan for malware files.

If you click OK, you will get another faked scan result:



If you click "Remove all", you will get the actual installation file (install.exe):



Now it get dangerous. So far, System Security has not been able to access the system. All scan results and warnings are just faked. But if you choose to install the file install.exe you are in trouble. System security will get access to your computer:



Now that System Security got access to the system it will start showing scan results and warnings, all for the purpose of getting you to buy the program:



Here it falsely claims that some keylogger named Lsas.Blaster.Keylogger is sending my credit card information to a remote server:

Schedule Blogger Post

Did you know you can schedule a blog post while using Blogger? Just type in the date when you want it to be published:

Viewing a Certificate Revocation List (CRL)

A certificate revocation list contains serial numbers for certificates that has been revoked. A revoked certificate should not be trusted. The revokation lists are available at each Certificate Authority, such as Verisign.

I had problems finding information on how to view the contents of a .crl file, so hopefully this will help you. To view the revocation list in plain text, you can use the openssl command line tool:

openssl crl -inform DER -in Class3Commercial.crl -text -noout

Certificate Revocation List (CRL):
Version 1 (0x0)
Signature Algorithm: sha1WithRSAEncryption
Issuer: /O=VeriSign, Inc./OU=VeriSign Trust Network/OU=www.verisign.com/
repository/RPA Incorp. by Ref.,LIAB.LTD(c)98/CN=VeriSign Class 3 CA - Commercial
Content/Software Publisher
Last Update: Apr 15 10:00:08 2009 GMT
Next Update: Apr 25 10:00:08 2009 GMT
Revoked Certificates:
Serial Number: 010E4C379581BA0566F7C99FB5924E20
Revocation Date: Nov 28 17:46:46 2000 GMT
Serial Number: 0110E0DF875EDB73D8F276C87615D025
Revocation Date: Sep 13 21:08:20 1999 GMT
Serial Number: 0118A8D557A89E6B3BBA6DFA5119C8D9
Revocation Date: Jan 25 21:37:21 2000 GMT
Serial Number: 012FADDC287FE873AF9771C160774F0E
Revocation Date: Jul 13 23:31:00 2001 GMT
...

Is there any C++ syntax highlighter that outputs data suitable for pasting into a HTML document?

Anyone know of some tool that given a .cpp or .h file outputs data suitable for pasting into a HTML document?

What I want is something like this:

Input:

//My class
class A
{
};

Output:

<span class="cplusplus-comment">//My class</span>
<span class="cplusplus-keyword">class</span> A
{
};

By having spans marking up the keywords, comments and other parts of the code, it's all about adding some CSS code to the stylesheet to have the c++ code highlighted.

How to get the service pack number using the WIN32 API

To get the service pack number on a Windows machine you can call the GetVersionEx function and pass a pointer to a OSVERSIONINFOEX struct. OSVERSIONINFOEX has two members, wServicePackMajor and wServicePackMinor, which holds the service pack information.

How to block outbound connections with the Windows Firewall

The Windows Firewall for Vista and Windows 7 allows you to block outbound connections, something that Windows XP didn't. To block outgoing connections:

1. Press the Start button.
2. Open Control Panel.
3. Click on Administrative Tools.
4. Click on Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.
5. Click on Windows Firewall Properties.
6. Select the Private Profile tab. (or the Public or Domain tab if you are on that type of network.)
   
7. Choose Block in the drop down for outbound connections.

Now Windows will block outgoing connection. I did however not see any notification when an outbound connection was blocked. There's an option to display a notification about blocked inbound connections, but I could not find anything about outbound connections. Anyone know how to enable these?

What's your brain age?

Ran into this memory game the other day. According to the site it will activate prefrontal region of the brain, it will prevent memory loss and cultivate memory ability and concentration True or not, I don't know, but the silly game can be quite fun.

Once you've finished a round it will estimate your "brain age". Seems I cannot get below 24. I suppose that's pretty decent since I'll be 34 in a few months :)

How do you score?

http://flashfabrica.com/f_learning/brain/e_brain.html



And here's someone with true skills: