Protect your Linux servers from XorDdos, a botnet scanning the internet for SSH servers with weak passwords, Microsoft warns. . Microsoft has seen a 254% increase in activity over the past few months from XorDDoS, a roughly eight-year-old network of infected Linux machines that is used for distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. XorDdos conducts automated password-guessing attacks across thousands of Linux servers to find matching admin credentials used on Secure Shell (SSH) servers. SSH is a secure network communications protocol commonly used for remote system administration. . The GigaDDoS network experiences a notable 254% increase in operations, focusing on Linux servers that possess vulnerable SSH login details. Safeguard your infrastructure!. XorDDoS Botnet, Linux Password Protection, SSH Security, DDoS Threat. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Old passwords never die – they just become easier to decode. That’s the message from a tight-knit community of tech history enthusiasts who have been diligently cracking the passwords used by some of the original Unix engineers four decades ago. Learn more: . On 3 October, an enthusiast on the Unix Heritage Society mailing list asked a question about cracking passwords stored in old Unix systems. The source code for various revisions of Unix from the seventies onward is available online for anyone to download, and these revisions store the passwords for various staff members in the etc/passwd file. Unix hashed these passwords by running them through an algorithm called descrypt (also known as crypt(3)), which used the original DES encryption algorithm and limited the password length to eight characters. This was good enough to stop people recovering the password from the original hashes at the time, but 40 years on, computers are a little bit faster. The link for this article located at Naked Security is no longer available. . Uncover how aficionados are deciphering Unix passcodes, shedding light on legacy frameworks and their relevance to contemporary cybersecurity challenges.. Unix Cracking, Password Security, DES Encryption, Tech History. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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