Peter Zelezny has discovered a vulnerability in Firefox, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system. The vulnerability is caused due to the shell script used to launch Firefox parsing shell commands that are enclosed within backticks in the URL provided via the command line. This can e.g. be exploited to execute arbitrary shell commands by tricking a user into following a malicious link in an external application which uses Firefox as the default browser (e.g. the mail client Evolution on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4). . This vulnerability can only be exploited on Unix / Linux based environments. The vulnerability has been confirmed in version 1.0.6 on Fedora Core 4 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. Other versions and platforms may also be affected. Solution: Update to version 1.0.7. /en-US/firefox/products/ The link for this article located at secunia.com is no longer available. . A security flaw has been identified in Firefox on Linux platforms, enabling command execution through specially crafted URLs. Urgent updates are advised.. Firefox Vulnerability, Linux Command Injection, Command Execution Risk. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
The Internet front door to almost every bank and financial services company in the world is guarded by two sets of firewalls defining a DMZ. Nearly every e-commerce site sits in a similar DMZ in what has become the de facto standard in Web security architecture. According to Sun Microsystems, "In today's tumultuous times, having a sound firewall/DMZ environment is your first line of defense against external threats." But I would argue that guarding the perimeter is lulling organizations into a false sense of security that results in ignoring the implementation of other security mechanisms in their applications and databases. . In contrast, the Internet front door to MIT doesn't have a DMZ and pretty much doesn't even have a firewall. Universities begin with an assumption that everything is open, but these large organizations are arguably no more vulnerable to external threats than banks and financial institutions, and perhaps less vulnerable to internal threats. The link for this article located at ComputerWorld.com is no longer available. . Banks and universities adopt distinct security strategies based on their operational needs; banks emphasize strong defenses, while universities lean towards openness. Firewalls Security, Network Defense Strategies, External Threat Management, DMZ Best Practices. . Benjamin D. Thomas
If your organisation suffered a computer crime in the past few years and reported it to AusCERT, it was probably an attack from outside your walls. Nearly 90 per cent of Australian organisations that reported an incident were attacked externally, according to the 2002 Australian Computer Crime and Security Survey. This is the first time the threat of being attacked from outside surpassed the likelihood of an assault from inside.. . .. If your organisation suffered a computer crime in the past few years and reported it to AusCERT, it was probably an attack from outside your walls. Nearly 90 per cent of Australian organisations that reported an incident were attacked externally, according to the 2002 Australian Computer Crime and Security Survey. This is the first time the threat of being attacked from outside surpassed the likelihood of an assault from inside. It might be increasingly difficult to keep out external hackers but there are signs IT managers are finding it easier to win support within companies for improving security. Management consulting firm McKinsey & Co recently studied security best practices at Fortune 500 companies. About 30 of these companies, including AOL Time Warner, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft and Visa International, had appointed a chief security officer or other senior executive to oversee information security. In some cases, this executive had the power to stop the launch of new products or systems, and answered only to the chief executive. The recent AusCERT study stated that 70 per cent of Australian organisations surveyed had increased spending on information security in the past year. . Fortify your company's defense mechanisms in the face of escalating external vulnerabilities by adopting insights from proven industry standards.. IT Security Management, External Hacking Threats, Information Security. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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