Technical Tidbits

Well, they just keep coming out of the woodwork don’t they? Okay, bad metaphor to use woodwork in reference to the web. But you get the picture.

Yet another security flaw has been found in Chrome. Thank God it’s still in beta!

InformationWeek has published that a Vietnamese security company, Bach Khoa Internet Security (BKIS) has posted a proof of concept demonstrating how a long title and the SaveAs command in Chrome can create a buffer overflow and allow a hacker to remotely attack the computer and gain full control.

(And to all my Advanced PC Students….. what did I tell you about the buffer overflow problem??)

For those of you who don’t understand a word of what I just wrote in the explanation, here comes a Debbie explanation.

You’ve experienced a buffer overflow whether you realize what it was or not. Have you ever sent a BIG job to your printer and suddenly have it start printing out weird characters at the top of each page and just continued and continued and continued to keep printing these one line, three character pages? If so, you’ve experienced a buffer overflow on your printer!

This happens in programs when programmers fail to program into the code a way to handle too much data coming into it. We call this an “unchecked buffer” because the programming code doesn’t check or handle limits to the data it can hold.

Buffer overflows are so old and so well known it makes me sick to think that programmers are still not checking this in the code! It’s probably the most widely known method of hacking or exploiting there is.  But I won’t go on one of my rants. That’s not what this is about.

Just wanted you to be aware that this is yet another reason not to be using this browser. And remember, it’s yet another Big Brother Browser disguised as nice, “do no harm” Google.

written by Admin \\ tags: big brother browser, browser security, buffer overflow, chrome security, google, google browser, google chrome, Security, security flaw, unchecked buffer, vulnerability

I didn’t realize when I wrote the last post that everyone thought I was NOT going to write about security! I’ll have to watch my words since so many of you are really reading them! (Don’t let those numbers fool you on the side up there! I’ve found out I have a following that doesn’t subscribe!)

I’ve pointed you in the direction of the comic book about the making of Google Chrome, and if you didn’t get a chance to read it, or didn’t understand it, let me tell you a bit about the way this was built.

It was built on the same framework as Apple’s Safari and many other browsers using an Open Source application building program called Webkit but also borrowed and modified certain code from Mozilla Firefox.  Mozilla Firefox however, is built using C++ programming code and JavaScript. It’s open source code, meaning it’s available to see and use, but it’s not built on some pre-existing kit so to speak, as Webkit has allowed for programs like Safari and now the Google Chrome.

If that’s confusing to you, that’s okay. You are probably not a programmer! And that’s okay too!

The point I want to make is that Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are built on two different types of programming bases and while they are being compared to each other by many a reviewer out there today (and some who are using my Big Brother Browser phrase!), they are built in two distinctly different ways.

As all of my students are used to, I’ll use one of the Debbie analogies I’m famous for.

Think of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox as two houses in a subdivision. Google Chrome is a pre-fab where the developer has already built the frames, walls, and sub-structures for the house and delivers them to the lot. The builder puts the pieces together to make the house that is unique to the home buyers by the way they put the pieces together.

Firefox however, is built from the ground up by a developer who drew the plans, poured the foundation and started adding the structural pieces by cutting the wood and pounding the nails.

Now, does that make either house better than the other? Structurally, no. That’s not what this comparison is about. I just wanted you to see that these two browsers are constructed differently. So let’s not confuse the issues.

That being said, Google Chrome states in the comic book that they put their pieces together in a segmented way that is called sandbox threads. What this means to the average user is that instead of the browser being exposed to a bad guy because it is constructed in one single thread that handles all the interaction with a website, the individual pieces are like rooms of their own that are meant to keep the bad guys away from the main house.

Mozilla Firefox is built similar to that concept in that the bad guys cannot access the main structure of the house, but the entire browser is built on one thread, so the rooms have hallways connecting them to the house but no doors to isolate a single room.

Does that make sense?

What this means to us as users is that Google Chrome claims that because the way they built their browser they are theoretically more secure than the other browsers because their doors are supposed to slam shut should a bad guy get in.

We’ve all experienced the lock up of a browser whether it is Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, or Opera. When something goes wrong in one of those rooms, because they all connected, the browser (or house) locks up.

Google Chrome states it’s not supposed to do that. But in my previous post, I pointed out that my LinkedIn Flash utility to add a contact manually did lock up the browser - however briefly. (Now mind you I have Dual Core processor too!)

Now you may be asking, “Ok, Debbie. What does this have to do with security?” Well, I’m glad you asked! (SMILE)

Aviv Raffon, a security research created a file that showed how Google Chrome could be exploited by a technique called Carpet Bombing. I tested his research (which is called a Proof of Concept), and it didn’t work with me. Why? Because I had already configured the options in the Chrome browser NOT to automatically download files but to always ask me where to put them! And this is standard security procedure on any new installation! (But then again, no one probably knows that because no one believes it will happen to them! As is evidenced by our lack of sales on our anniversary course special! Sorry, had to rant for a second.)

But, on the assumption that most users don’t have the knowledge I do and leave the browser as its default setting, then yes, people can be exploited without even knowing it.

Now, does that alone make Chrome unsecure? No. Then what does?

Well, the problem lies in the mash up of the way Chrome is put together. By borrowing and modifying the code from Mozilla’s Firefox and using it within the Webkit framework, we’re not too sure what we are dealing with.

Now, according to an InformationWeek article, a researcher has shown that Google Chrome can be crashed by a malicious link.

Another security researcher, Rishi Narang, claimed to have found a way to crash Chrome with a malicious link.

“An issue exists in how chrome behaves with undefined-handlers in chrome.dll version 0.2.149.27,” Narang explained on the Evil Fingers Web site. “A crash can result without user interaction. When a user is made to visit a malicious link, which has an undefined handler followed by a ’special’ character, the Chrome crashes with a Google Chrome message window ‘Whoa! Google Chrome has crashed. Restart now?’ ”
Source:http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210300297

Curious about this crash and undefined-handlers - which I also preach about in my hacking course - I went to Rishi Narang’s website quoted in the article. What concerns me is that in his research he found:

It crashes on “int 3″ at 0×01002FF3 as an exception/trap, followed by “POP EBP” instruction when pointed out by the EIP register at 0×01002FF4.
Source: http://evilfingers.com/advisory/google_chrome_poc.php

For my students who’ve taken my hacking course, you should remember the assignment that covered the EIP register hacking example. This is NOT good!

The EIP register is a name for memory access. It’s hard to say without more testing just how far this could allow a malcode writer to get into your system. Either way, it’s an early warning sign for me that more security testing needs to be done and that preliminary indications are that this is not a secure browser as being touted.

As for me, I’m rolling back to IE 7 and giving the Big Brother Browser the boot. I’m also uninstalling Google Chrome. I’ll let the hard-core researchers test it more fully. I don’t care to get spied on any more than I already am even if it is for free! I’ll stick with my Mozilla Firefox and browse happy with my extensions and plug-ins.

If you are still foolish enough to use these unsecure wolves in sheeps clothing - aka big brother browsers, please consider taking our courses. You’re going to need them one day!

Coming soon…….
Our Director of Emerging Technology is currently very angry. He’s reformatting and reinstalling his not-even-3-month old hard drive. Reason? ZoneLabs ForceField. He’s got a story to tell you!

In the meantime, I’ll be commenting on the death of Web 2.0 over the weekend. So stay tuned…..

written by Admin \\ tags: Big brother, big brother browser, browser security, chrome security, firefox, google, google browser, google chrome, google comic book, Internet Explorer, mozilla, Security

This will be short and sweet today as I’m a bit behind in my work.

Since I downloaded and installed Google’s Chrome, I’ve been using it periodically to start testing its capabilities.

Here’s a few things I’ve noticed so far that still needs to be fixed or further work done.

The first signs of trouble I had was when I logged in to my LinkedIn account and tried to manually add a contact. The interface on LinkedIn uses a flash component which Google Chrome seemed to struggle with. For a brief second or two, my entire Chrome “hung” and I was unable to click other tabs.

Once the hang up seemed to correct itself, I checked the memory usage for that tab and my suspicions were confirmed. However, in Google’s description of the way Chrome was built, my whole browser should not have “hung” as I experienced.

Secondly, I opened Chrome first thing this morning to view my average morning ritual websites, as it were. Immediately a problem appeared on my visiting tarot.com. Google Chrome does not honor pure CSS drop down menu’s!

The first image is a screen shot of my browser with a mouse over the horoscope menu item in Google Chrome. You will notice that there are no sub-menu’s appearing.

(Click to view larger Image)

The next image is a screen shot of how the site menu’s should appear and do in Firefox.

(Click to view larger image)

This is not acceptable Google! CSS is a widely used web standard and I’m surprised that this isn’t being translated properly.

More tomorrow….

written by Admin \\ tags: chrome, chrome beta, Flash, google, google browser, google chrome, hung

After my sad disappointment about IE 8, I tempered my excitement this morning when I heard that Google was releasing Chrome - their new browser offering.  I’m assuming it’s their answer to the Microsoft Big Brother Browser - IE 8.

I guess I’m jaded. We all know Google makes a ton of money on it’s search engine advertisers. So, I just kind of assumed that there would be the same kind of issues with Chrome as their was IE 8.  More spying, more lining their pockets, yada, yada.

Well, I’m a bit more hopeful, although still a bit skeptical because I have not used it fully yet. But so far, it’s looking good! Okay, no. It’s looking GREAT!

Before I downloaded it, I took a look at their comic book describing how it was made. I don’t want to ruin that experience for you so I will not comment on it in this post. I’ll probably give you a day to read the full thing first.

So, if you haven’t heard about this or read their comic book, do so before you download the program. You will miss a significant amount of information if you pass that book up! (But I will be discussing much of it in Part 2.)

It took me a while to find the actual download, but I did. There it was on the page in all it’s Google glory!

(Click to view larger image)

Doesn’t it just look like a shining beacon of hope?

So, I click to download and I’m taken to this page:

(Click to view larger image)

Oh, I get it! Here’s the gotcha! They want me to report my crashes so they can spy on me! I click the privacy link and expected to see the litany of legal jargon I received from Microsoft and here’s what I see:

What a refreshing sight after the nightmare from Microsoft! I guess I should also tell you that unlike Microsoft’s proprietary IE 8, Google’s Comic book let’s you in on the secret that this is all Open Source! I felt I should tell you that before we go further because Open Source licenses are much different then Microsoft’s licenses and legal mumbo-jumbo.

Okay, now for the install.

Do you remember the setup process I had to go through to install IE 8?

Check out the setup screens from Google Chrome below:

Now I have to pause here for a second. Isn’t this screen a refreshing difference from Microsoft’s esoteric and obscure error messages? How cute is this??

(Click to view large image)

Oh! And guess what they have too? Incognito mode! And guess what? They don’t need to send back information on your browsing habits to do it!  Imagine that!

(Click to view larger image)

If you just can’t wait, you can install Google Chrome here:
http://tools.google.com/chrome/

But remember, I haven’t investigated it thoroughly yet. So keep a healthy dose of skepticism - although I know it’s hard for me to do that right now! This is really a fun browser!

Hey Google! I need a Tor proxy plugin! (GRIN)

written by Admin \\ tags: big brother browser, chrome, chrome beta, google, google browser, google chrome, google comic book, google new browser, incognito, Microsoft, microsoft IE 8, privacy, private browsing, Security