Monthly Archives: August 2015

Security

Required Group Policy Preference Actions for Microsoft Security Bulletin MS14-025

Original release date: August 07, 2015

US-CERT is aware of continued exploitation of insecurely stored passwords in Group Policy Preferences, due to incomplete implementations of Microsoft Security Bulletin MS14-025. Systems may still be vulnerable to exploitation if administrators have not cleared all previously stored passwords from their environment. An attacker may decrypt these passwords and use them to gain escalated privileges.

US-CERT strongly recommends that administrators employ the PowerShell script provided in Microsoft  Knowledge Base Article 2962486 and follow the included instructions for clearing all “CPassword” preferences from their environment.

This product is provided subject to this Notification and this Privacy & Use policy.

CentOS

Release for CentOS Linux 6.7 i386 and x86_64

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We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of CentOS Linux
6.7 and install media for i386 and x86_64 Architectures. Release Notes
for 6.7 are available at
http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS6.7 - we recommend
everyone review these release notes.

CentOS Linux 6.7 is derived from source code released by Red Hat, Inc.
for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7. All upstream variants have been
placed into one combined repository to make it easier for end users.
Workstation, server, and minimal installs can all be done from our
combined repository. All of our testing is only done against this
combined distribution.

There are many fundamental changes in this release, compared with the
past CentOS Linux 6 releases, and we highly recommend everyone study
the upstream Release Notes as well as the upstream Technical Notes
about the changes and how they might impact your installation. (See
the 'Further Reading' section if the CentOS release notes link above).

All updates since the upstream 6.7 release are also on the CentOS
mirrors as zero day updates. When installing CentOS-6.7 (or any other
version) from any of our media, you should always run 'yum update'
after the install to apply these.

Users consuming our centos-cr repositories will already be running all
the packages that make up CentOS-6.7, and all updates released since.
They will notice only the centos-release rpm update today when moving
to CentOS Linux 6.7. For more information on the CR repository for
future updates, see this link:
http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/CR

Release Announcements for all updated packages are available here:
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-cr-announce/

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Upgrading From Prior Major CentOS Versions:

We recommend everyone perform a fresh reinstall rather than attempt an i
n
place upgrade from other major CentOS versions (CentOS-2.1, CentOS-3.x,
CentOS-4.x, CentOS-5.x).

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Upgrading from CentOS-6.0 / 6.1 / 6.2 / 6.3 / 6.4 / 6.5 or 6.6

CentOS Linux is designed to automatically upgrade between releases
within a major version (in this case, CentOS-6). Unless you have
edited your yum default configuration, a 'yum update' should move your
machines seamlessly from any previous CentOS Linux 6.x release to 6.7.
We also test this in our QA cycles and have noticed no problems, any
issues would be mentioned in the Release Notes.

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Downloading CentOS Linux 6.7 for new installs:

When possible, consider using torrents to obtain our ISOs. Usually it
is also the fastest means to download the distro.

The install media is split into various formats. We have made efforts
to ensure that most install types and roles can be done from DVD-1
itself, and the minimal install ISO is only tested to deliver a
minimal install set, when used as an ISO format ( either on cd or usb
). While other forms of installs ( eg. pxe delivered ) might work from
the minimal ISO, they are neither tested not supported. The only
format where we support the entire set of install options and delivery
mechanisms is via the complete CentOS Linux 6.7 tree, wihch can also
be created by consolidating all content from DVD1 and DVD2.

We no longer produce CD size images for the entire CentOS Linux 6
distribution, however the minimal install and netinstall iso images
are small enough to fit on all CD grade media.

Torrent files for the DVD's are available at :
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6.7/isos/i386/CentOS-6.7-i386-bin-DVD1to
2.torrent
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6.7/isos/x86_64/CentOS-6.7-x86_64-bin-DV
D1to2.torrent

You can also use a mirror close to you to get any of our ISOs:
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6.7/isos/

If you need to update a local mirror, you can choose from our mirror
network http://www.centos.org/download/mirrors/ Most mirrors will
allow downloads over http, ftp and rsync.

Note: Some UEFI machines can not use the 'netinstall' ISOs, but either
the DVD or minimal ISOs will work with UEFI. Secure Boot must be
disabled to install CentOS 6

+++++++++++++++++++++++
sha1sum for the CentOS-6.7 ISOS:

i386:
f3aa74fd6ddc7b14ed4cf81db8135aee57814791  CentOS-6.7-i386-bin-DVD1.iso
eb5c85158903968f8655c5e8fc6b8b537a6e27ad  CentOS-6.7-i386-bin-DVD2.iso
1860eb4d69c39ca274c6e2e9670d9e4fa77ea29c  CentOS-6.7-i386-minimal.iso
710c24a02b8ff8fd9783defbc13a43c6b6877027  CentOS-6.7-i386-netinstall.iso

x86_64:
7bb8c1c23a4fdef93e6f0a6347d570e5764d0b38  CentOS-6.7-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso
79f58df5723f723fc62d5e8831ada38072096a46  CentOS-6.7-x86_64-bin-DVD2.iso
2ed5ea551dffc3e4b82847b3cee1f6cd748e8071  CentOS-6.7-x86_64-minimal.iso
c3678c6b72cbf2ed9b4e8a1ddb190fd262db8b7f  CentOS-6.7-x86_64-netinstall.i
so


+++++++++++++++++++++++
Cloud Images:

Images for various on-premise and off-premise Cloud environments are
currently under development for CentOS Linux 6.7 and will be released
in the coming days. Everyone looking to join and help with the CentOS
Cloud efforts is encouraged to join the CentOS-devel list where such
issues are discussed (
http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-devel ).

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Getting Help:

The best place to start when looking for help with CentOS is at the
wiki ( http://wiki.centos.org/GettingHelp ) which lists various
options and communities who might be able to help. If you think there
is a bug in the system, do report it at http://bugs.centos.org/ - but
keep in mind that the bugs system is *not* a support mechanism. If you
need supported software with Support Level Agreements, people to call
and response times then we recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

If you have questions you would like to field at us in real time, come
join the office hours on Wed or Thu of every week. You can find
details on these at http://wiki.centos.org/OfficeHours

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Meet-ups and Events:

If you would like to get involved in helping organize, run, present or
sponsor a CentOS Dojo or even just want more details then join the
CentOS Promo list:
http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-promo and drop an
email introducing yourself. We are very keen to find help to run
events around the world, and also to find people who can represent
CentOS at various community events around the world.

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Contributing and joining the project:

We are always looking for people to join and help with various things
in the project. If you are keen to help out a good place to start is
the wiki page at http://wiki.centos.org/Contribute . If you have
questions or a specific area you would like to contribute towards that
is not covered on that page, feel free to drop in on #centos-devel at
irc.freenode.net for a chat or email the centos-devel list
(http://lists.centos.org).

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Thanks to everyone who contributed towards making CentOS Linux 6.7,
especially the effort put in, as always, by the QA
(http://wiki.centos.org/QaGroup) and Build teams.

A special shout out to all the donors who have contributed hardware,
network connectivity, hosting and resources over the years. The CentOS
project now has a fairly well setup resource pool, solely thanks to
the donors.

Enjoy!


- -- 
Karanbir Singh, Project Lead, The CentOS Project
+44-207-0999389 | http://www.centos.org/ | twitter.com/CentOS
GnuPG Key : http://www.karan.org/publickey.asc
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Avast

Going on a trip? Be sure to pack Wi-Fi protection.

Protect your devices when on unsecured Wi-Fi with Avast SecureLine VPN.

Protect your devices when on unsecured Wi-Fi with Avast SecureLine VPN.

Relying on your hotel to protect you when using their free guest Wi-Fi  is not a good idea.

Even the best hotel chains are vulnerable to hackers, so having a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is vital for your protection. I will tell you how easy it is to use below. But first, here’s how cybercrooks can get their victims: One way is through buggy equipment such as the critical vulnerability discovered last March in ANTlabs’s InnGate product used by 277 hotels, convention centers, and data centers in 29 countries. The InnGate provides temporary guest access to a Wi-Fi connection. By breaking into this piece of equipment, an attacker gets full read and write access to a Linux file system and from there can launch attacks against guests on the affected hotel’s Wi-Fi. Another tactic hackers take is to create a fake Wi-Fi network, call it something innocuous like “Hotel Guest Wi-Fi”, and lure unsuspecting victims to their rogue connection. What the hackers do is set up their own access point and hope you’ll connect to theirs instead of the public Wi-Fi network.

What do hackers want?

It depends on who you are and what information you have on your devices. For normal people with normal jobs, typically, the hacker can watch your online activity, read your email, steal your account passwords and if they go deeply enough, potentially steal your credit card information, which is the precursor to identity theft. “There is seemingly no limit to what they could do,” say the researchers who discovered the InnGate vulnerability. Victims’ laptops or mobile devices can be also be infected with malware. Last year, the DarkHotel cyberspies gained access to the computers of high-level executives, government agencies and NGOs, and U.S. executives traveling in Asia, probably to steal nuclear secrets.

How do you protect yourself on free Wi-Fi?

Maybe you’re not packing your country’s nuclear launch codes, but allowing someone to snoop around your private files and steal your Facebook or bank passwords is not acceptable. Thankfully, there is an easy solution to protect yourself when you log on to any free Wi-Fi hotspot anywhere in the world. SecureLine VPN is a one-push-of-the-button little program that connects you to one of 23 servers around the world, giving you your own private encrypted network that no one can spy on. You can use SecureLine on your PC, Mac, and Android devices. All you do is install the program or app, then when you log onto the free Wi-Fi, you start up SecureLine and it automatically connects to the nearest server. You can also choose to connect to any of the other servers, which gives you the benefit of seeing geo-restricted content when you’re traveling. Usually these connections are super-fast, so you don’t even notice a slow-down. SecureLine VPN is a subscription service offered by Avast, but comes with a free trial. Install it now and see how easy it is to be protected.

Follow Avast on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+ where we keep you updated on cybersecurity news every day.