Hacking News (29 Posts)

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A new iOS 6.1 hack

#82 - Posted on 14 February 2013 - Author: SM - Category: Hacking

As seen on the Hacker news, there is currently a way to bypass the iPhone lock screen (iPad with SIM too?) running iOS 6.1.x

I had to change the steps listed in “The Hacker news” slightly for it to work:
-Go to emergency call, push down the power button and tap cancel.
-Dial 112 and tap green and inmediately red.
-Go to lock screen, by pressing the power button
-Go to passcode screen, by pressing the home button
-Keep pushing down the power button …1…2…3…seconds and before showing the slider “turn off”…tap the emergency call button and …voila!
-Then without releasing the power button press the home button and let go…

From there you gain full access to the phone application and can change/add/delete conta...
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Old tricks will always work…

#75 - Posted on 17 October 2012 - Author: SM - Category: Hacking, Security

There is something about deception, it can bypass a lot of security controls through a very basic principle, to make you believe about something that isn’t there. It is a bit like magic.

Like this WEBSITE, where you can see an example of what the new HTML5 fullscreen function could make you believe. That you are on a bank website, where in fact you are on a phishing site. The previous link is harmless and only serves as an example, one I would advise you to try yourself (you can’t enter any details anyway in case you haven’t understood it isn’t really a Bank of America website).

Basically, they use the HTML5 Fullscreen function to recreate your browser TABS and URL. If you are not used to browse the internet in full screen mode then you would see the trickstraightaway. However, if you are following the trend to browse in full screen mode, especially on mobile phones or on MACs where app...
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Wipe out/Factory Reset some Android’s phones

#73 - Posted on 25 September 2012 - Author: SM - Category: Hacking

According to this FRENCH WEBSITE, a major security vulnerability has been disclosed at the Ekoparty 2012Security Conferencewhich affects some android handsets. It it is possible to reset those affected handsets to factory default settings and in the process wipe out all data.This vulnerability exploits a “secret” code that can be used to trigger the factory reset automatically, without asking any confirmation from the user. That code is:*2767*3855#

There are different methods known to date to push that code onto those handsets:

– SMS in Wap Push mode (where the user would have to click on a link)

– QR Code

– NFC Protocol

Or… if users go to some websites where either

<frame src="tel:*2767*3855%23" />... 
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A Physical Solution to a Software Problem

#72 - Posted on 17 June 2012 - Author: SM - Category: Hacking

Thinkst is a small security organisation and one of its member recently published a post on their blog regarding the security of an encrypted USB drive. One of his friend lost the password to his USB Freecom Self Encrypted Drive (SED) drive and one of the protection in place was the need to power cycle the hard drive after every 5 bad attempts. This meant a brute force attack was impossible due to the time to plug/unplug the device.

Here comesingenuity, although the author call this a “lame hack”, I actually really like it as he thought outside the box (pun intended). He basically build a new controller to automatically power cycle the drive, and managed to find the lost password after 500 attempts.

I don’t do electronics and am always impressed when hack...
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An interesting timeline representation of the CloudFlare’s hack

#70 - Posted on 12 June 2012 - Author: SM - Category: Hacking, Security

CloudFlare is an interesting young company, a few years old, as introduced in this Bloomberg article. Although it is tempting to just describe it as being similar to Akamaibecauseit provides web acceleration and DOS protection through the use of a Content Distributed Network (CDN), it is also different. As explained by its founder, Matthew Price, it can understand, analyse and protect all requests to a website, not just a subset. It also has a different price model starting with a free offering and generally being much less expensive than the competition even with its pro/business/enterprise options.

In a nutshell, CloudFlare appears to be a service that can help optim...
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Flame and the DEB93D trail

#69 - Posted on 6 June 2012 - Author: SM - Category: Security, Hacking

In the last few weeks there has been a lot of noise about what looks like the latest State sponsored malware, Flame. You can find a lot of information about it from Kaspersky and also from the CrySyS lab who seems to have done some parallel investigation and call it differently (sKyWIper).

This malware is quite interesting for several reasons:
1) It seems to focus on stealing information rather than being directly disruptive.
2) It has been active for 5+ years and has remained undetected until now.
3) It has an option to delete itself, but in doing so leaves one file. a ~DEB93D.tmp file.
4) It is modular and can/has been used to intercept Microsoft update using fake certificates t...
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Windows 8 Picture Password, great but…

#66 - Posted on 2 March 2012 - Author: SM - Category: Hacking

After looking at the new features listed for Windows 8, one in particular caught my attention: The Picture Password Login.
It is a very refreshing approach to authentication!

You are presented with a photo at log in and instead of entering a password, you have to touch the image according to the “allowed” touch sequence you registered your user with. In some respect it is similar to the existing gesture based authentication mechanisms you can find on some smartphones (anyone remember that feature on the Palm V?!), but I think it is taken to the next step.
Microsoft is maybe trying to do to passwords what Apple did to the Walkman.

By providing you with a photo of your choice (i.e.: your own family picture), and a restricted number of gestures (point, draw a line and circle) it is easier to remember a sequence, more natural and more personal. For exemple, you would circle the head of your best friend, touch the feet of your child and stroke your dog&...
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Another iPhone hack, this time with a paperclip!

#64 - Posted on 24 February 2012 - Author: SM - Category: Hacking

There is a new vulnerability with iOS5 powered device with a SIM card. I have tried it and it works.
You need to know the number of your victim and by combining a missed called, removing the SIM card, putting it back in and swiping the missed call alert it is possible to bypass the lock screen and access the phone.

Look at the video from the weirdly named group called iPhoneIslam, you need to get the timing right!

YouTube Direkt

...
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Smile, you are being recorded!

#62 - Posted on 13 February 2012 - Author: SM - Category: Hacking

The BBC has recently ran an article about a hacker who has published details on how to hack a certain type of webcam. This story is interesting for several reasons.

First, it further highlights how fragile our privacy has become since we live in a digital world with details of our life being kept on the internet: personal blogs, twitter feeds, Facebook or Government/Health records, etc. All this data is available online if you have the right access to the system it is held on. But it is not just still photos or lines of texts, it can also be live pictures through personal webcams or state surveillance cameras. Again, that data is available if you have the right credentials. In this case, hundreds of Trendnet webcam users thought/thinks their live video feed was protected through the use of a userid and password, but a bug in its firmware allows anyone to access it by...
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Most websites are vulnerable to a hash collision DOS attack

#60 - Posted on 3 January 2012 - Author: SM - Category: Hacking, Security

By websites, I should really have said Web Applications, but the end result is the same: A server which is serving pages on the Internet could see its CPU usage increasing to a level making that server unusable for a few minutes or more. All that from a relatively small specially crafted malicious HTTP request.

This vulnerability exists in most languages used to develop web applications: PHP, ASP.Net, Java, Python, Ruby, etc. And it has been known to exist in theory since 2003!

Last week, Alexander Klink and Julian Wilde explained at the 28th Chaos Communication Congress in Germany how exactly the theory became reality and the impact on the different web application languages were affected.

The core of the issue is the way hash lists have been implemented in those languages. By “Hash” they both refer to a specific type of data structure and the cryptographic function. A ...
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