You would be forgiven for thinking that encrypting PDFs, before they are stored or sent via email, keeps their contents away from prying eyes. But according to researchers in Germany, it might be time to revisit that assumption after they discovered weaknesses in PDF encryption which could be exploited to reveal the contents of a file to an attacker. Learn more: . Dubbed ‘PDFex’ (PDF exfiltration), the weaknesses documented in Practical Decryption exFiltration: Breaking PDF Encryption by researchers from Ruhr University Bochum and the Münster University of Applied Sciences, offer two attack methods, each with three variants that depend on which PDF viewer is used to open a target document. The link for this article located at Naked Security is no longer available. . Vulnerabilities highlighted by analysts in PDF encryption may jeopardize file integrity via various attack techniques.. PDF Security Flaws, Document Encryption Risks, PDFex Research Insights. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
SSL is a wonderful protocol, but it is frequently used badly. This note is intended to point out some of the more common errors made by applications using SSL. This checklist should be useful for application developers, system administrators, and the occasional penetration tester. This note assumes you have at least a casual knowledge of SSL, but is not a paper about cryptography. If you know enough to write an SSL library, you will know every single one of the mistakes I mention below, plus a few more. Still, I hope that those of you who are writing SSL toolkits will consider why these mistakes are made. Perhaps it will help you design your toolkits so that novices use them correctly. . The link for this article located at Fr33d0m is no longer available. . Frequent SSL blunders by developers, system admins, and security testers. Discover ways to enhance your SSL implementation!. SSL Errors, Application Security, Encryption Guidance. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
You would have to be living in a cave not to have heard about the problems with wireless security for networking. Even as more organizations (and homes) take advantage of wireless networking, we hear about "war driving" and that the security features were poorly designed.. . .. You would have to be living in a cave not to have heard about the problems with wireless security for networking. Even as more organizations (and homes) take advantage of wireless networking, we hear about "war driving" and that the security features were poorly designed. WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy) was intended to provide the same level of privacy over wireless networks that one would expect from wired networks. WEP is part of the IEEE 802.11 standard document, and defines how encryption must be used to support authentication, integrity, and confidentiality of packets transmitted using wireless equipment. ALl the wireless vendors support 802.11. The IEEE standards committee chose to use RC4, a proven encryption algorithm. But designing systems that use cryptographic tools has often proved harder than it appears. Let's take a look at just how 802.11 networks work, and see just where the problems lie, and what, if anything, can be done to mitigate the problems. The link for this article located at Rik Farrow / Spirit is no longer available. . Wireless security networking vulnerabilities threaten both organizations and individuals, requiring strong encryption, updates, training, and authentication to safeguard data. Wireless Security, 802.11 Standards, Networking Issues, Encryption Flaws. . Anthony Pell
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