A DEMO ON HOW TO HACK SSL

A researcher has found a convincing way to hack the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol used to secure logins to a range of Websites, including e-commerce and banking sites.
Using a specially-created app, 'SSLstrip', a researcher calling himself Moxie Marlinspike demonstrated to Black Hat Arlington, Va attendees at last weekend's conference how vulnerable many SSL connections were to an involved but clever man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack where a hacker could proxy traffic from users accessing genuine secure https:// website logins.
To prove the usefulness of the attack to a hypothetical criminal, he claimed the hack had given him access to 117 e-mail accounts, 16 credit card numbers, 7 PayPal log-ins and over 300 other "miscellaneous secure logins" in a 24-hour period. Sites involved included Ticketmaster, Paypal, LinkedIn, Hotmail, and Gmail.
The clever bit is that the attack didn't need to touch the encrypted SSL traffic at all, simply exploit the fact that users almost never call https directly, instead accessing that by calling a conventional http web page first. That fact makes it possible to monitor and map the traffic between the browser and website before the SSL is set up securely, putting itself between the two so that neither site is aware that anything is amiss.
According to Marlinspike, the hack is also able to overcome the possibility that the browser will generate invalid certificate warnings from the fake proxy site, even passing back convincing if bogus favicons such as the traditional https padlock. The only signal that something is wrong would be the lack of the https:// address in the toolbar, something few users would likely notice, he said.

"Lots of times the security of HTTPS comes down to the security of HTTP, and HTTP is not secure," says Marlinspike in his presentation summary . "If we want to avoid the dialogs of death, start with HTTP not HTTPS."
Importantly, the visual indicators that help ordinary users detect such attacks should once again be emphasised, overturning some years in which developers, including browser developers, had downplayed such reinforcement.
"Once we've got control of that, we can do all kinds of stuff to re-introduce the positive indicators people might miss," he says.
An indirect hack on the secure web infrastructure was reported some weeks ago, whereby a flaw in the MD5 encryption algorithm was used to fool certificate authorities into accepting a bogus certificate as the real thing.

WHAT PROGRAMS I RUN AT STARTUP . .

Let's just put it this way.. You boot your computer and you let these programs load at startup... your entire Microsoft Office, your Quicktime is always there so why not your Winamp too, and your day is not complete without your tinkering with Photoshop and with Adobe Reader as well. While you're at it, I think you're going to need some guardians, so let's include your all security tools.. your anti virus/spywares in real time. Now we know what happens next when we boot and load all these programs at startup, and it's the right after, I'm stressing here. Most likely these programs will be in the system tray, unused, still in memory usage and running in background. Personally, I have nothing against those programs, in fact I like them, I just don't want their files running around causing extra overhead everytime even when they are not in use.

With the exception of various Microsoft autoloading programs that can't be disabled, here is a brief round up of what programs I allow to autoload at startup and this changes from time to time:

- Security first for my computer, with the Windows Security Center running in background, I let go running my security tools like my antivirus and firewall, and enable my anti spyware to realtime only when I go online.

- useful utilities like MYUsbOnly, which locks my usb ports against uninvited usb devices, 3D Audio Configuration, and Web Accelerator- my accelerator sometimes tends to run long diagnostics when I go online without me enabling it first, so I put it on standby and ready.


- I let go a bit with my desktop decoratives or rather just improving my Windows' interface with WinCustomize-LogOn and Vista Start Menu.
Some Some programs' autoloading can be disabled automaticaly right during the installation stage with their check or uncheck options to appear in the system tray. On already installed programs you can disable them by going to their Menus, Options or Preferences settings, or through their icon's settings in the system tray, there is likely a " to appear in the system tray or startup" option which you can uncheck. There are also some autoloading programs whose icons never appear in the system tray but autoloads everytime are running in the background. With Glary Utilities' Startup Manager these programs are now visible and you can just simply uncheck them to disable their autoloading or even delete their entry. You can also Add Program to startup if you want to. In some cases, there are programs that need to be keep running all the time, from boot to shutdown, for them to function fully, so always be careful and gather the details first about a particular program before disabling it.

REMOVING A MALICIOUS EXE. {My Search and Destroy against kavo exe.}

File extensions are the last characters after the period in the name of a file and identifies the type of data found in the file like .gif, .jpg, .bmp associates with image files. Legitimate .exe extensions are executable files that contains code for a program that helps run your computer and the infected ones and allow parasites associated with the file to operate invisibly in background unless the malicious file is removed.
Thats what usually happens, I leave my computer unattended, now comes someone, who wants to copy/save a file, then without thinking inserts a virus infected usb device into my computer without AV scanning..and voila.. a malicious .exe found a new habitat in my computer. I know at that time I'm dealing with a "nobody tells situation" so I have to deal with that malicious .exe directly firsthand.
Now various anti virus and anti rootkit scans reveals vague malicious autorun.ini or autorun.inf files which refreshes everytime after deletion. I then checked my task manager and various auturuns monitors, but the system appears normal, and this .exe hid itself pretty well or already masking as a legitimate file. Unexpectedly, the autorun monitor of my Revo Uninstaller reveals a kavo .exe in my Windows folder. Online research reveals that kavo .exe is used by PWSteal.Lineage, a trojan lineage game password stealer. Opting for manual removal, first I end/block it's process with my Revo's autorun monitor then I reboot my computer into safemode but with System Restore setting Off to prevent the malicious file from creating backups. Words of caution, be careful when deleting or blocking processes with autoruns monitor or you maybe targetting a legitimate file as well. Then I proceeded to the Windows folder and deleted the kavo .exe and to play it safe, the newly saved Word files and images from the infected usb device, sorry to the owner. I then reboot to normal mode, updated my AVG 7.5 Free Edition and run a scan again. Results detected the TrojanPSW, autoruns .ini and .inf, and and finally a kavo .exe who found its way in the System Volume. After wiping off all the malicious files and cleaning my registry files I reboot my computer to Normal Mode and then turn the System Restore back On. For an added security measure I installed MyUSBOnly thereby locking all device ports in my computer and setting the device whitelist to empty, just a precaution because I sometimes left my own devices lying around.
Kavo .exe is rated from moderate to low danger level trojan in various sites. Now with the new and more dangerous trojans/spywares, dealing with them will not be a simple story, and fighting with updated security suites and tools always helps. And last but not the least, as Sun Tzu stated, "Know Your Enemy", read all you can, be informed and updated of all new Virus Definitions Updates from various sites.

HOW ABOUT A LITTLE DISK MANAGEMENT HELP

After discussing autoruns monitors in my past post, now I am going to introduce a colorful tool. This free tool, WinDirStat, scans and checks all your drive's files and displays a result in form of a colorful treemap.

Now this colorful treemap shows each file in your drives, MP3s, DATs, JPGs, even game's BIKs, in a colored rectangle form and it's size is in proportion to the file's size. With this tool, you now have the data which file occupies a large space in your drives and its location with options to relocate or delete. As the screenshot illustrates, I have a rather large mp3 file as indicated by the blue colored rectangle, followed by dat files, which are to be converted saved movies from discs for my ipod and cell phone. Then clicking on my main drive on the left panel, there's 325mb unknown file that needs to be check. You can click on a colored rectangle and in an instant leads you to the location of that file. You can also click a file in both right and left panel and it leads you to its location on colored treemap below. With WinDirStat I can now monitor my PC in a colorful different perspective and once installed it occupies a mere 1.41 mb space in my drive.

Download WinDirStat

MONITOR YOUR PC's AUTORUNS

There sometimes comes a funny feeling of paranoia when my PC is acting strange. After running anti spyware and anti virus scans with normal results, but still my computer is sluggish. Now comes the need to know feeling what processes and services are running in my computer, usually I run it with Glary Utilities' process manager. Glary works just like your Windows Task Manager but richer. It monitors your computer's running processes, CPU usage percentage, memory usage, program manufacturer, and also rates the program in terms of Trustworthy, Safer, Safe, or Unknown. When in doubt about a running program, you can always go online to obtain more information before finally ending or deleting its running process. Besides the process manager Glary Utilities also comes with a startup manager, file shredder, registry cleaner, junk, disk, and temp files cleaners and various helpful services.
There is also an autorun scan in Revo Uninstaller, whereby a trojan kavo.exe hiding in my computer was identified and named as such, thus making removal easier. Autoruns Systernals also provides a more richer detail of your running programs and services, but whatever autorun monitor you use, be always careful before ending or deleting a running program.

CONVERT PDF FILES WITHOUT SOFTWARES

You can convert PDF files to Word, Text, Excel even .jpg free without downloading or paying for converter softwares. Check out ZamZar for your free online conversion.


To convert, just follow their simple 4 steps procedure:
Upload your file
Choose the conversion format
Enter your e-mail address to receive the converted files
Click Convert

Then you will be advised that your file will be sent to via email address that you entered and will be stored for 24 hours after receipt. As for me, I checked my email after a couple of minutes and the ZamZar message is already there with the download link.
Unfortunately, PDF files cannot be directly converted to Excel. Following the usual ZamZar procedure, first, you have to convert your PDF file to Text format, then download the Text file from your ZamZar email, and save the file to your computer. Now open your Microsoft Excel, click File, then Open, when you see the Open File box, below at the Files of Type, change the All Microsoft Excel Files to All Files. Now all files will be visible including your converted Text file. Go to the folder where you saved your converted Text file, Select your Text file and click Open. What you'll see next is another box labeled as Text Import Box. Just check Delimited and click Next.



At the Step 2 box, under Delimiters check Space and click Next. Voila, now you will find your Text file divided into columns by vertical lines.



Click Next and at Step 3 click Finish, now save your file as Microsoft Excel. I admit the finished converted Excel file is not completely finish for my taste yet, so as I have to do some editing for it {a PDF revenue tax form for my bookkeeping purposes} to suit my usage. Also the common Excel formula function bar is not present.

UNLOCK YOUR MMC for Nokia Users

There are plenty of ways of unlocking password guarded MMCs like downloading MMC unlockers or formatting through PC. Why I prefer this unlocking technique, because it is simple without using a PC, no unlockers, and much safer for your data. This can be done by using the famous Fexplorer, a more extensive file manager than the Nokia build in file manager. With Fexplorer you can easily manipulate your files, copy, cut, paste your files to your choice location, you can even rename various file extensions so you can send copyrighted files. That is why whenever I have a new Nokia unit Fexplorer is one of the first applications I install first.

Here's how we find the password for your MMC:

1. Download and Install Fexplorer

2.Open your Fexplorer and you can see C, D, E, Z filing. Move your directional pad up down to highlight C.

3.Press right on your pad, then press Options, then "File", press right, select "Find".

4.You will see a "File To Find" window, type in "mmcstore", then press OK.

5.You will notice that your phone may seem to load for a few seconds, then you will see a "MMC Store" file, press Options, highlight File, press right, select "Editor{Viewer}"

6.Now you can see the password in plain text.


Now you can open your MMC or Remove Password whenever or whatever you like.

HOW TO SPEED DOWNLOAD YOUTUBE,GOOGLE VIDZ WITHOUT DOWNLOADERS

Want to download videos files from free video hosting sites like YouTube, Google, Break.com, iFilm, and etc. Of course you can using assorted free downloaders for this and that.Now most of these free downloaders are slow when downloading videos files from those video hosting sites.There's a faster way and just for a variation, why don't you try this.
Let's try YouTube videos.. First go to the YouTube video page of your choice and copy the watch url, not the embed code, of your choice video. Go then to KeepVid and paste the copied watch url in the download address bar and then click download.


Then at the DOWNLOAD Page you will be prompted with the following options with instructions:
.flv for low quality video
mp4 for high quality video
Just follow the right click and save instructions and simple as that you are already downloading.