Month: June 2012

Want to learn about cryptography? I know where.

By Alexander Trofimov

 Take notice: My new feed address is now http://feed.feedcat.net/806052. Please re-subscribe. Do you have some spare time and want to know how cryptography works? What is the most secure cipher? And why λ is always more than ε… Well, the latter is not true =) Anyhow, there is a place where you can learn more about cryptography for free. Stanford University provides such a course for free at https://www.coursera.org/#course/crypto. I’m at the second week now, and already tampered one cipher text and know how decrypted another (it’s not that tricky, but very time consuming). So welcome to the world of … Continue reading Want to learn about cryptography? I know where.

Looking for a GP object?

By Alexander Trofimov

Take notice: My new feed address is now http://feed.feedcat.net/806052. Please re-subscribe. Well, some time ago I wrote about finding the exact setting in your group policy editor, which is, certainly, quite useful. But this is vital when you try to create a new GPO or find a value in an exact existing one. But what if you want to look at the GPOs in your environment which contain settings from some area? From the age of Server 2003 there is an answer. Not the ideal one, but still, it is better than nothing. So, you need to find which of … Continue reading Looking for a GP object?

Myths #2: PKI edition.

By Alexander Trofimov

Take notice: My new feed address is now http://feed.feedcat.net/806052. Please re-subscribe. BTW, did you know what do certificate template options like “Allow private key to be exported” or “Prompt the user during enrollment and require user input when the private key is used” really do? Do they make you more secure or not? Certainly, some people who read my blog do know the answer, others have already guessed the answer: no. They don’t enforce any behavior on a client: it just communicate the requested by CA features. A good example of it was windows 2003: while you weren’t able export … Continue reading Myths #2: PKI edition.

Trustworthy computing: non-SDL view. Part 2: non-corporate.

By Alexander Trofimov

Do you think my latest post was about corporate products because only corporate products are subject to not being designed to be secure in deployment? No, consumer ones are built the same way. Say, the famous story about Windows Live Mail and Live Mail’s SSL. Till the recent changes you weren’t able to use both of them. Either you expose your communication without using SSL or you couldn’t use convenient client. I was very glad to receive the ability to use them both. To sum up: we have excellent products, which aren’t exploitable in the most of the cases through … Continue reading Trustworthy computing: non-SDL view. Part 2: non-corporate.

Trustworthy computing: non-SDL view

By Alexander Trofimov

Take notice: My new feed address is now http://feed.feedcat.net/806052. Please re-subscribe. Well, finally it is my time to scold Microsoft. I’m not a fun of this type of self-promotion, still I believe that the only way to move forward is to receive, process and answer some constructive criticism. So let’s begin: Several years ago Microsoft announced its widely-known Trustworthy Computing initiative (actually they just celebrated its 10 years). I probably don’t have to remind you the goals and means for the initiative to you, they all can be found without any problems. Anyway, this letter doesn’t pretend to be some … Continue reading Trustworthy computing: non-SDL view

Freebies: books

By Alexander Trofimov

Take notice: My new feed address is now http://feed.feedcat.net/806052. Please re-subscribe.   A couple of books I believe are worth at least stealing a look at. Free books, of course. 1) The book has been advertised in almost every Windows-related blog for several days. I believe that you couldn’t have missed it but just in case you haven’t read about it I give you the link. Introducing Windows Server 2012 is quite small and cannot cover all I would want to know, but it is named “Introducing…”. It’s definitely the place to start if you haven’t been tracking news all … Continue reading Freebies: books

MS SIR #12

By Alexander Trofimov

Okay, better late than never. I finally got to the latest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report. While usually there is not much unexpected this time I was almost shocked with the first section of the document. And I believe it’s excusable, because it is named… How Conflicker CONTINUES to propagate. Conflicker! The three-years-old malware! CONTINUES to be a THREAT! Are we going nuts? =) 60% of people who could have got it (if not for antivirus) have weak admin’s passwords. Also 17 to 42% (XP only) have the vulnerability which is used by the worm. Three years after the patch was … Continue reading MS SIR #12

MS SIR #12

By Alexander Trofimov

Okay, better late than never. I finally got to the latest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report. While usually there is not much unexpected this time I was almost shocked with the first section of the document. And I believe it’s excusable, because it is named… How Conflicker CONTINUES to propagate. Conflicker! The three-years-old malware! CONTINUES to be a THREAT! Are we going nuts? =) 60% of people who could have got it (if not for antivirus) have weak admin’s passwords. Also 17 to 42% (XP only) have the vulnerability which is used by the worm. Three years after the patch was … Continue reading MS SIR #12

Yep, I’m paranoid. The question is am I paranoid enough…

By Alexander Trofimov

Well… It seems like Google finally officially turned up into The Evil Empire. Not that they haven’t behaved that way in the recent years… Neither do I believe that other companies don’t collect my information as well. Still no company has been barefaced enough to declare that my data just is theirs and no one can complain. So, as long as Google went rogue, I decided to go Google-free. For me it is hard, yet not impossible. Here is what I personally have to do: I have my Russian blog on BlogSpot. Since it has been accessible via my own … Continue reading Yep, I’m paranoid. The question is am I paranoid enough…