The DMZ

TildalWave

01:45

@DavidFreitag microsoft-news.com/…

of course ...

Lenovo Denies Superfish Adware on Its PCs Created Security Risks http://bit.ly/1EYBBxv #eweek #tech

Tweeted by 1n7h35y573m on February 19, 2015 at 8:55 PM

@DavidFreitag heh this is really cool

Stack Exchange

05:07

"Of these four forces, there's one we don't really understand." "Is it the weak force or the strong--" "It's gravity."

Rory Alsop

07:22

*mumbles in sleep* "Don't.... let the bronies near my ponies"

Tweeted by SwiftOnSecurity on February 20, 2015 at 5:21 AM

@Flyk - I'm getting ever more convinced

Terry Chia

@RoryAlsop Onebox it. :)

AviD

08:09

@RoryAlsop ftfy

@TildalWave ahhh Okay I just got the point of this! and their PR release...

ysee, the Jewish holiday of Purim is coming up. Traditionally, it is a day of "backwards" - everything is upside down topsy turvy.

Basically, Lenovo is getting in on the Purim fun :D

Purim

Purim (/ˈpʊərɪm/; Hebrew: פּוּרִים Pûrîm "lots", from the word פור pur, related to Akkadian: pūru) is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire where a plot had been formed to destroy them. The story is recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther (Megillat Ester מגילת אסתר in Hebrew). According to the Book of Esther, Haman, royal vizier to King Ahasuerus (presumed to be Xerxes I of Persia), planned to kill all the Jews in the empire, but his plans were foiled by Mordecai and his cousin and adopted daughter Esther, who had risen to become...

M'vy

@RoryAlsop oh, my...

AviD

08:24

My Little Brony

►

hahahah

My Little Brony Toy Commercial

►

Flyk

09:03

@RoryAlsop heh

mental note to self, if I ever meet you people, dye my hair blonde and sustain an American accent and valleyspeak

oh, and bright red lips

blue contact lenses

enough makeup to make my face look photoshopped

Rоry McCune

@Flyk why?

Flyk

that's her style

jokes, I'm just being slightly bitchy due to having only recently woken up

and not running today

no running actually makes me feel sluggish

and I just left the chat room four times while trying to write that sentence

backspace makes me leave the room when the typing box isn't selected -.-

Terry Chia

@Flyk Yeah, chat should obviously hijack basic keyboard shortcuts with Javascript like all other badly designed webapps out there.

Flyk

or I should add a more complex security layer that not-awake-me can't get bpast

I managed to type a 37 character password to unlock my pc

I can't type a 37 character sentence without multiple typos

go figure

Rоry McCune

@Flyk muscle memory

M'vy

09:16

@Flyk you need training

then you'll be doing it in your sleep

Flyk

I need coffee for my eyes

M'vy

so for the "awake criteria", this shall not be a good one.

Terry Chia

@Flyk Kickstarter it.

Barry Carlyon

Computer requires a blood test to login. Where blood must contain enough coffee

Terry Chia

Computer requires solving a random Project Euler problem to login.

AviD

09:20

Heh. Murika!

Flyk

@AviD great, so the next generation of Americans is going to be even more ignorant

did chat just die for anybody else?

Terry Chia

@Flyk Is that even possible?

AviD

@Flyk but they'll be even more exceptionalist!

Flyk

@TerryChia there are a portion of Americans who're intelligent and possible to have a conversation with

seriously, either chat is half dead or routing issue

AviD

@Flyk yeah, speaking of @ScottPack, I havent seen him around lately

Terry Chia

09:26

@Flyk I'm assuming we were talking about the average American.

@AviD Probably too busy debugging his perl code.

Flyk

oh dear at the pinned stars

Terry Chia

@Flyk I did not notice that. Good job @RоryMcCune.

Flyk

sometimes I read back on some of the things I post here and I'm just like "O_O WAS I EVEN AT THE PC? DID I REALLY SAY THAT?"

+horrified

Rоry McCune

@TerryChia @Flyk thanks I did like that combo

Flyk

no it's more the top pinned star

not really bothered about the other

coffee #3 of the day

with sugar.

Flyk

09:46

> Naturally by defragmenting there should be increase in free space but when i defragmented my free space decreased by 10 GB nearly why it happened?Any one over there can help me.....

Oh SuperUser

M'vy

ah ah

Rоry McCune

@Flyk it was the combo, but it's messed up now 'cause the order is wrong..

Flyk

10:03

OH NO

I have more SU rep than sec.se

Rоry McCune

@Flyk user... user...

Flyk

hm?

M'vy

I still have more rep in French usage than sec.se even if I don't contribute to FLU since long.

AviD

1

Q: Lenova/Superfish certifcate?

I'd like to have a look at the Lenova/Superfish root certificate being used in the wild. Can someone provide it, or a textual output of it with: cat superfish.cert | openssl x509 -text -noout I've worked through articles like Lenovo PCs ship with man-in-the-middle adware that breaks HTTPS conn...

M'vy

I guess it's the beta-effect

AviD

10:09

times like this that I miss NaRQ.

Flyk

I wish I could spread my arqade rep around to every network I actually want to use

AviD

it IS clear, and it is not broad at all, and it IS ontopic. but it's not a question.

M'vy

@Flyk :)

AviD

even off topic for "break the security without demonstrating concepts involved" doesnt work, because it does

M'vy

holy c!! 41k?

Flyk

10:11

41k isn't much

M'vy

well my cumulated rep is 28k

Flyk

it's just more than the 3k required to do close votes through the review queue

AviD

@Flyk really? thats your edit? hardly worth a click

Flyk

@AviD :D

superuser accepts "removed thanks"

I can't believe you just rejected it

AviD

@Flyk I didnt

Flyk

10:12

I know, I was aiming for dramatic effect

AviD

I dont bother dealing with them

ahh right, right. not enough drama. Carry on.

Flyk

oh what's that, a mod that refuses to action half of the stuff because it's beneath them?

SHOCKED

"comment flags are not worth my time", etc

AviD

hehe, yeah, thats what I said.

but doing good on the drama.

Flyk

I try

everybody assumes during these moments that I'm sat going grrrrrrrr

my face is hurting from the massive grin

AviD

@Flyk "them" being trivial + correct edits. I.e. you're not wrong, but IMO it does not deserve an edit.

@Flyk we all assume that

Flyk

10:15

@AviD sure it does, it's community consensus that noise is removed from posts

AviD

unless we're busy assuming your mouth is otherwise occupied

Flyk

@AviD swallowing has nothing to do with the mouth, it's a throat action

AviD

@Flyk but it still leaves a similar amount of noise, via an extra edit, editor, etc

Flyk

619

Q: Should 'Hi', 'thanks,' taglines, and salutations be removed from posts?

I edit a lot of posts every day. I often run across posts with 'Hi' and 'Thanks' on the top and the bottom of the post respectively. I also run across things like: --User Should these items be removed during the editing of the post by an editor?

discussion edits etiquette quality-filter signatures

AviD

so if there is anything else worth editing, great, otherwise I will let better minds than I (i.e. community) decide

Flyk

10:16

@AviD that noise is invisible unless you look for it, the noise I removed was visible to everybody

AviD

@Flyk IIII KNNOOOOWWW

@Flyk so is @Simon

Flyk

no, Simon is definitely visible noise

mouth full of lumpy salty curdling mineral filled nastiness

gulp.

fine, I am off to super user where my effort is appreciated

hmpf

Rory Alsop

yerk

morning

M'vy

@RoryAlsop g'morning too

Flyk

can somebody explain DNS leaking to me

is this a windows specific phenomenon?

AviD

10:22

97

A: Should 'Hi', 'thanks,' taglines, and salutations be removed from posts?

I personally do not think that salutations and taglines alone justify an edit for them to be removed from a post. If the question or answer has other reasons to justify an edit, sure go ahead and clean them up while you're in there. But as a general rule of thumb for me, I don't think it's a bi...

Flyk

@AviD you can't choose a <100 voted answer when a >600 voted answer exists

pls

AviD

@Flyk uhhh why not?

Flyk

I could effortlessly create a post stating all AviDs are wrong

that wouldn't make it correct if there is a more upvoted post saying all AviDs are right

AviD

its Meta. odds are the most upvoted answers are completely wrong.

@Flyk upvotes != correct

Flyk

it's AviD, odds are that everything he says is fundamentally flawed

AviD != correct

AviD

10:24

@Flyk I'm gonna start using this for Diaper's Nasty Stuff.

Flyk

@AviD -.-

AviD

changing diapers is more fun if you geek out about them.

Flyk

ok so is DNS leaking a windows specific thing? What is it? How does it happen? Why does it happen?

Do I really need to continue maintaining manual routes to prevent it from happening?

Maybe I should get a new router and set up the VPN connection from the router

AviD

also the 600+ answer does not answer the question. It answers a different, though similar and related, question.

Flyk

see, I completely secured my machine and then it FAILED DAMNYOUSTUPIDCRUCIALSSD

AviD enters straw man mode against somebody who wasn't even being serious

AviD

10:25

@Flyk no, not windows specific

kinda built in to the protocol assumptions.

@Flyk ohhh it IS hard to tell.

Flyk

and now the websites I use to confirm anonymity reveals both my current location and my VPN location

AviD

oh hang on, I realized I think we're talking about different things.

Flyk

yes

AviD

heh

Flyk

I understand it's difficult for a mere mortal to keep up with my ADDness

AviD

10:27

I think you're talking about e.g. a browser request leaks the target hostname over unprotected DNS?

Flyk

I'm already like three conversations ahead of where I was, while you're still arguing about the first conversation

@AviD no that's webrtc

I'm not that casual.

How fucking rude.

It's fine, I've fixed it

AviD

I was talking about things like unauthorized zone transfers.

Flyk

didn't even need this room full of security professionals

AviD

@Flyk wut

Flyk

webrtc allowing listing of all IP addresses your machine has

AviD

10:29

2

Q: What is a DNS leak?

I'm planning on getting a VPN service (probably Privateinternetaccess) and read that it is imperative to plug DNS leaks. The only information I found on google describing what these are is here and I don't find it very detailed. What is a DNS leak? Why is it such a huge compramise if a regular on...

vpn dns

@Flyk thats not what I was saying

Flyk

who knows what you're saying, are you still talking about me editing "thanks!" out of that post?

AviD

hehehe

Flyk

I like how this site thinks I'm in germany

even though I'm "in" holland

while actually being in israel pretending to be in japan

AviD

nevermind, just use this: lmgtfy.com/?q=dns+leak

Flyk

from my laptop on miami beach

2 mins ago, by Flyk

It's fine, I've fixed it

now I'm only in germany

AviD

10:31

what was broken

never mind

Flyk

rather than in germany, france, italy

@AviD apparently svchost ignores routing

and will just Do It's Own Thing™

but only when DHCP is enabled

because... why?

shrug

and now I have my IP monitoring goodness back setup

so when my VPN drops I lose internet connectivity

♫ I always wondered what friendship could be

♫ Until you all shared it's magic with me

♫ Big adventure, tons of fun, a beautiful heart faithful and strong, sharing, kindness it's an easy feat - and magic makes it all complete

♫ Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

♫ Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

♫ la la la la la and something with strings

♫ these are a few of my favorite things

♫ Cream colored pones and something and something

♫ Doorbells and sleigh bells and something with noodles

♫ la la do fly with the moon on their wings

♫ These are a few of my favorite things

Rory Alsop

~~INSTRU~~ MENTAL BREAK

Flyk

ts ts ts ts ts... .booooom WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUB

Rory Alsop

@Flyk pfffft

Flyk

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH WUBWUBWUBWUB WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH DOOOOOOOOOOOO DRRRRRRRRRR WUBWUBWUB

sorry

Rory Alsop

10:42

@Flyk you've got a tappet loose there on your valve sprocket, miss

2

that'll cost ye

that's an MOT fail

Flyk

I tell you what I do have, speaking of cars

after some really dodgy driving the other day, I have a whirring

the pitch changes with speed and it's not related to the engine

Rory Alsop

@Flyk dodgy....how?

whirring where?

Flyk

because rolling down hill with the engine off still results in the noise

back driver side

Rory Alsop

if it's speed and not engine, then it's wheels/axles

Flyk

dodgy like getting angry at public transport being in my way and ramping off the sidewalk to get around it

Rory Alsop

10:44

ok. does it change when you have the brakes pressed a bit

Flyk

it changes with speed and is a constant hum

so if I brake, I slow down, and the pitch drops

it's inaudible at 10km/h and there's no vibration in the steering

Rory Alsop

likely possibles depending on noise: tyre damage - more likely to be a flick flick flick or swish swish swish noise; axle/joint damage - humming

Flyk

oh and if I turn right, it gets much louder

and if I turn left it goes away until the car levels out again

Rory Alsop

and you have done a quick check to make sure nothing is actually rubbing on the wheel?

Flyk

er, no, wheels are dirty

Rory Alsop

10:46

oh - there is a Mechanics stack exchange, you know... worth a quick ask there. Paulster is an experienced mechanic (I have only experienced the cars I have owned)

@Flyk lol

Flyk

@RoryAlsop I know, I usually take all my car problems to there

TildalWave

@AviD Basically nobody really cares for excuses anymore. If they wanna appear as non trustworthy then that's their marketing choice. A stupid one, but it's theirs to make. And consumers will make theirs. Do naive people still buy notebooks? Yes. Does Lenovo wanna exclusively limit themselves to that market? I doubt it. Expect heads to roll because press turds like that don't keep your shares price up anymore. Quite the opposite.

Flyk

I might get around to it eventually

I've booked it in for repairs, no doubt some extortion will happen there

I should probably gain an idea of the fault before turning up

just to prevent the inevitable gender abuse

Rory Alsop

@Flyk oh - you must have a different user name that I don't know

Flyk

@RoryAlsop you are mistaken

Rory Alsop

10:50

@Flyk yup - worth doing. Remember to tell them you think it's: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/20160676#20160676

Flyk

I mean

Rory Alsop

@Flyk Oh - a search for kalina and flyk returns nil

Flyk

Count the sec.se members on this post

12

Q: Is it safe to drive a car that has got a broken suspension spring?

Yesterday I was driving home from work and heard a loud noise which I can only really describe as a "clang". After looking at it today, it looks like the spring for the front left (passenger side) suspension has snapped at the bottom. Here is a picture of the damage: I've already had a couple...

suspension

Rory Alsop

hmm - why did that not work for me

search b0rked

Flyk

I miss that focus

I battered it so much and it just kept going

my new one seems to break at the slightly bit of misuse

Rory Alsop

10:51

@Flyk heh - a year ago. Do you just hammer cars in the winter?

Subarus take everything!

Every now and then I repair the body/wheel damage from all the sliding through gravel sideways I do, but they cope amazingly well with jumps, potholes, etc

Flyk

in the end I killed that focus by spinning out in the snow, into a skip

Rory Alsop

@Flyk heh - ooops.

Flyk

it wasn't really an oops

it was more of several hours of driving around in the snow applying liberal handbrake

thinking "eventually, this is going to end badly"

Rory Alsop

@Flyk but hopefully not painfully

Flyk

and then finally losing it and having several seconds of super slow motion as the skip approached the side of the car

@RoryAlsop oh, I drove away

just the entire passenger side of the car was fucked

Rory Alsop

10:54

@Flyk I love those moments on the track - your brain goes into an amazing adrenaline space

TildalWave

oh hey a DMZ event!

:)

Flyk

@RoryAlsop amazing how much happens in a year

@RoryAlsop yeah, it was properly surreal

it felt like I had the time to fix it but the car just didn't respond to anything once it was in the skid

I feel that day was completely worth it though

because a few months later in my next car, the back end flicked out on ice and I knew how to control it

Rory Alsop

@Flyk that's how we trained my mum in bad weather control. Once she was about 60.

A day in a frozen car park, with me hoiking on the handbrake :-)

Flyk

I used an industrial estate on a sunday

nice circular industrial estate with wide roads

managed to get up to 50 on roads that really didn't want you doing 50

where the car would just go into a slide every time you tried to turn

Rory Alsop

@TildalWave If none of the regulars want to draft up posts, I'll try and get another one. Not today though. Reckon I'll do a cross post for the blog and the Mensa magazine

@Flyk nice. fun

Flyk

10:57

that's the biggest irony

I lost control doing ~15

Rory Alsop

Mate of mine used to teach speed handling at Silverstone. In a long Volvo estate

so slidy

Flyk

after several hours

mechanics.se reckons its bearings

wait, is that safe to drive?

surely if the part of the car that holds the wheel to the car is about to fail, you should like... not drive it

I suppose I best go find a hire car for tonight

Rоry McCune

@Flyk well it might have a bearing on the safety I guess

(Disclaimer I know nothing about cars I just liked the pun :) )

Flyk

I'd like to leave you with one thought, but I'm not sure you have anywhere to put it!

TildalWave

@RoryAlsop I thought maybe @AviD could write a post about infosec related PR stunts, like: How to spin your business out of a pickle and does denial still work? :)

Flyk

11:16

@RoryAlsop DNS Leaking: Dealing with the nasty that leaks out the sides

/cc @Avid

Nוnɛfוngɛrϛ

@RoryAlsop are you still doing qotw?

Flyk

11:33

Is this a good question for the site?

Terry Chia

@Flyk Yes, if it's not a dupe.

Flyk

google says it isn't

Terry Chia

+1

Flyk

there is a "What is a DNS leak" question (as linked in my question)

but not a "how do I protect myself against..." question

Terry Chia

@Flyk Do some research and write an answer, I'll upvote and bounty. :)

(I want to see you with more rep than @Simon)

2

Flyk

11:35

I already know how to fix my particular instance so the linked tools stop telling me where I am

I don't know if it's the correct answer, best practice, or anything

<- totally under qualified to be here

Rory Alsop

@Flyk bearings can be rough for quite a long time

Flyk

@RoryAlsop I'm going to be doing more than 1000km this weekend

Rory Alsop

@Nוnɛfוngɛrϛ yes....except for 'w'

@Flyk motorway, or fun twisty turny b-roads

Flyk

@RoryAlsop "motorway" at high speeds

regardless of whether you say it should be safe or not, I'm far too easily scared to even try it and have already got a hire car coming here

Rory Alsop

Generally I'd be okay with it for motorway at around legal speeds or a bit higher. Worst case, even if rear wheel bearing goes it's not usually a crazy incident. Wheel should stay on...

front wheel I wouldn't try

Flyk

11:39

I have an opel mokka on the way over here

Rory Alsop

@Flyk is that good?

Flyk

psh, it's an opel

it's hardly classy

Rory Alsop

must be a european version of a vauxhall

Flyk

think they're vauxhalls in the UK

yeah

Rory Alsop

dunno which one the mokka is

Flyk

11:40

it's like a mini suv thing

Rory Alsop

ahh - the chevrolet aveo

probably cope with kerbs...

Nוnɛfוngɛrϛ

@RoryAlsop correct. I can buy Opels here, no Vauxhall.

Flyk

Is this a good question for the site ?

Rory Alsop

@Flyk does it still leak your IP despite using VPN's?

TildalWave

> I took a look at the thread Open Source vs Closed Source Systems discussing the same topic, but it rather discusses open source vs. closed source from a security point of view in general. Interesting discussion, however not enough for me to make a decision.

s/"not enough for me to make a decision"/"not enough for others to make the decision for me"

from here security.stackexchange.com/questions/82057/…

Flyk

11:50

@RoryAlsop yes

TildalWave

it must be one of those days

and they're doing rocket science nowadays too space.stackexchange.com/questions/8217/… (uses a design from 1967, asks about fabrication process in 2015)

Flyk

@RoryAlsop well, yes and no

It reveals my machine's internal (192.168.x) IP

but not the IP assigned by my ISP

TildalWave

oh shit it's Friday?

Flyk

@TerryChia TBH, I just want sec.se to appear in my top five sites

@TildalWave yes

TildalWave

@Flyk and New Moon :)

Flyk

11:52

@TerryChia which in turn would be more rep than simon

OH MY GOD

YOU HAVE A TAG CLEANING POST ON META

that is like, my favorite thing ever

TRiG

in UX Chat, 21 hours ago, by Ben Brocka

Woooah, a spambot barfed its post recipe on my blog, it's beautiful o_o // http://pastebin.com/U7jv9jxS http://t.co/tlrHBHa5Oj

Tweeted by renaudbedard on February 17, 2015 at 11:24 PM

Flyk

(in the context of Stack Exchange)

I can't take part though, people will complain about "too minor edits"

@RoryAlsop @AviD if I work through tools and come across questions that are closed and unrecoverable (ie: offtopic), can I flag them for deletion?

will you have a mardy if I end up flagging loads of stuff

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