Thread: Ask me about computer / internet security

I deal with security issues on a daily basis at work, I was at one time a hacker, and I just implemented a a https secure chat negotiation in my IRC client. Shoot.

Ask me anything from how something like https works, to the best way to protect your data from unlawful viewing.

I am clueless, so you should tell me everything.

Anything in particular you would like to know?

I recently read about a flaw in TLS that meant you could decrypt HTTPS traffic. If you know about it, could you explain how it works?
Unfortunately I've only seen one article on it, and it's in Norwegian.
Kan avlytte «sikker» webtrafikk på ti minutter

I wanna crack wep via linux, but my linux ( wifiway ) doensn't found any wirless networks

What restrictions are there on the export (to countries other than the United States) of programs that perform AES 256-bit encryption on files? I have a program that I will be releasing soon and wanted to know if the government prohibits this. I've done some research and wasn't able to come to a conclusion.

Where you a hacker , cracker or skid ?

Okay I got a question. The first thing I did when I got my computer was uninstall internet explorer and then deleted it(after downloading firefox). Then I got the no script thing for firefox. I also got avira as virus protection. Assuming I don't do anything stupid like randomly downloading files I know nothing about, how safe do you think my computer is, considering I surf the web a lot? And what would you suggest to make it more secure?

Originally Posted by PR0G4P4RV18

What restrictions are there on the export (to countries other than the United States) of programs that perform AES 256-bit encryption on files? I have a program that I will be releasing soon and wanted to know if the government prohibits this. I've done some research and wasn't able to come to a conclusion.

That's a question for a lawyer, not an engineer.

Originally Posted by Alric

Okay I got a question. The first thing I did when I got my computer was uninstall internet explorer and then deleted it(after downloading firefox). Then I got the no script thing for firefox. I also got avira as virus protection. Assuming I don't do anything stupid like randomly downloading files I know nothing about, how safe do you think my computer is, considering I surf the web a lot? And what would you suggest to make it more secure?

Firefox is less secure than you think. It's better than IE, but it's architecture is not modern. Chrome and Safari use a technique called sandboxing, which isolates each tab in a process. This is good for two reasons, it protects the entire browser from crashing if flash does, and it can put restrictions on the processes. So even if you open your browser with super user permissions, the actual javascript/plugins still runs at normal privileges, preventing it from installing things on your computer without you knowing.

Thanks, I think I will try out chrome, which I have heard good things about. I don't think firefox is perfect though, which is why I use that no script thing and it does block a ton of things. Though some websites will not work with it, unless you give them access.

I do know IE is the worst thing possible though. Just having it on your computer and never using it is a liability. Do you know how that works? I think viruses can open and use IE and use it to download stuff without you even knowing.

That really ticked me off once, years ago I got a virus and IE popups would start showing up when IE wasn't even running. It even happened when I thought IE was uninstalled. Since then IE has not gotten any better and I have made the habit of always uninstalling and deleting IE the moment I got a new computer.

Yeah, I know how that's works. You can not fully uninstall IE. Windows uses it internally. In fact, your file browser, is IE. Open up IE and type in C:\ in the address bar, it'll display it exactly as you would expect in the file browser. Your control panel is also IE (I think, I know it used to be.) The part that connects to the internet is also in heavy use by the rest of Windows. Windows updates, sending stats, it's all done through the IE libraries.

Programs aren't one thing. They are a collection of lots and lots of other little pieces, called shared libraries. Microsoft has several types of them, most OS's just have one or two. This is how programs share functionality, they don't have the same code pieces underneath, they connect to a shared piece of code and use it.

Wow, I didn't know that. It really works, I tried it and was able to go to a website from the file browser and control panel. It also worked the other way and I could look up files in my web browser, which is really weird. Though it used firefox instead of IE, so I am thinking it might use your default browser. Though now that I think back, I do remember the old file browser(in an earlier edition of windows) had an option for searching files or the web(and some other options), but I never used those.