Lists all of the journal entries for the day.

Wed, 18 Jul 2007

6:25 AM - Mac OS X Worm?

An anonymous security researcher has claimed to create a Mac Worm for OS X. The worm uses mDNSresponder as the attack vector. For people unfamiliar with that software, it is effectively Bonjour (aka Rendevouz). What I find interesting about this article is that it does not explore the attack vector on other operating systems. Apple open sourced mdnsresponder. It is in the FreeBSD and MidnightBSD ports system and was previously used as an optional feature for many open source projects including KDE. The open source community has created an alternative package named avahi (sp?) that is under a better license than Apple's open source terms. The FreeBSD project has encouraged use of this code instead for many of their ports.

However, Bonjour is available on Windows. iTunes uses it and Apple has shipped it for printer sharing with their wireless routers for some time. The software runs as root on OS X. Presuming there is code reuse with the windows counterpart, this worm could effect many operating systems.

There is a catch though. This service is limited to your local network. It will not traverse the internet. (local subnet) So if I execute the worm at home, it could only infect/attack my other machines but could not go after people in the outside. One caveat is if you use public wireless networks. You could get infected at a coffee shop, work or a university and bring it home to trash your home Mac or PC as well

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/07/17/anonymous-blogger-claims-proof-of-concept-mac-worm

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6:48 AM - NASDAQ fails to kick Dell of the exchange

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20070717/tc_pcworld/134673

Dell gets a free pass after failing to file their earnings reports on time for four consecutive quarters. Why are they special?

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7:17 AM - New Harry Potter book leaked to the net

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/books/17cnd-potter.html?ei=5065&en=0733e90a3f03c8b7&ex=1185336000&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=printvd

Looks like the ending is clear on this book.

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