Tech Bytes: Getting Traditional Networks Cloud-Ready With Singtel (Sponsored)

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast, we continue our conversation with sponsor Singtel on how to make your existing WAN communicate with cloud services more effectively. The traditional MPLS network lacks the flexibility to support modern cloud services, such as breaking out traffic for content inspection or security scanning. Our guest to help us understand how to get your traditional network more cloud-ready is Mark Seabrook, Global Solutions Manager at Singtel.

The post Tech Bytes: Getting Traditional Networks Cloud-Ready With Singtel (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Log4j hearing: ‘Open source is not the problem’

The high-tech community is still trying to figure out the long-term impact of the serious vulnerability found late last year in the open-source Apache Log4j software, and so is the US Senate.“Open source is not the problem,” stated Dr. Trey Herr, director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative with Atlantic Council think tank during a US Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Government Affairs hearing this week. “Software supply-chain security issues have bedeviled the cyber-policy community for years.”Experts have been predicting a long-term struggle to remedy the Log4j flaw and its impact. Security researchers at Cisco Talos for example stated that Log4j will be widely exploited moving forward, and users should patch affected products and implement mitigation solutions as soon as possible.To read this article in full, please click here

Log4j hearing: ‘Open source is not the problem’

The high-tech community is still trying to figure out the long-term impact of the serious vulnerability found late last year in the open-source Apache Log4j software, and so is the US Senate.“Open source is not the problem,” stated Dr. Trey Herr, director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative with Atlantic Council think tank during a US Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Government Affairs hearing this week. “Software supply-chain security issues have bedeviled the cyber-policy community for years.”Experts have been predicting a long-term struggle to remedy the Log4j flaw and its impact. Security researchers at Cisco Talos for example stated that Log4j will be widely exploited moving forward, and users should patch affected products and implement mitigation solutions as soon as possible.To read this article in full, please click here

Threat Landscape Report – Malware in Linux-Based Multi-Cloud Environments 

Ransomware-as-a-service has become an increasingly more visible threat to organizations, and we continue to see sophisticated ransomware attacks across multi-cloud environments. A new VMware Threat Analysis Unit report exposes just how agile attackers have become by weaponizing ransomware, cryptojacking, and Remote Access Tools (RATs) in Linux-based environments. The report clearly outlines the steps attackers take once they’ve obtained a foothold in their target cloud environment, either executing ransomware or deploying cryptojacking components. In addition to these two types of attacks, our threat researchers also present how threat actors implant themselves using RATs.  

 In the report, a team of highly skilled and dedicated threat researchers and security professionals provide an in-depth analysis to these key findings: 

  • Malware targeting Linux-based systems is fast, becoming an attacker’s way into high-value, multi-cloud environments. The report uncovers that Linux is the most used operating system across multi-cloud environments, as 78% of the most popular websites are powered by Linux.  
  • Ransomware targeting Linux-based systems is becoming highly sophisticated. The main threats in most multi-cloud environments are ransomware, cryptojacking, and RATs. However, ransomware targeting these systems has evolved to target host images and require high-level host monitoring and analysis. 
  • Monero Continue reading

Using the Linux fold command to make text more readable

The Linux fold takes lines of text and breaks them into chunks based on the arguments that you provide. With no arguments, fold will break lines at 80 characters.The first example below uses a single-line text file that includes indications of character positions. First, we count the number of characters and lines in the file using the wc -l and wc -l command:$ wc -c wide_text 251 wide_text $ wc -l wide_text 1 wide_text So, this file has 251 characters (including a carriage return) and a single line of text. Next, we display the file using the cat command:To read this article in full, please click here

Using the Linux fold command to make text more readable

The Linux fold takes lines of text and breaks them into chunks based on the arguments that you provide. With no arguments, fold will break lines at 80 characters.The first example below uses a single-line text file that includes indications of character positions. First, we count the number of characters and lines in the file using the wc -l and wc -l command:$ wc -c wide_text 251 wide_text $ wc -l wide_text 1 wide_text So, this file has 251 characters (including a carriage return) and a single line of text. Next, we display the file using the cat command:To read this article in full, please click here

Private automation hub – Multi-Hub for resilience

Ansible Content Collections have become the new standard for distributing Ansible content (playbooks, roles, modules, and plugins). Collections have been fully supported since Ansible 2.9 and for the last 2 years, the Ansible community has been on a journey to move to this new way of packaging and consuming Ansible content. With Ansible 2.9, Collections were optional, but as of 2.10 they are a requirement. The ability to be able to install and use Collections as needed is increasingly important.

To help customers manage Collections, private automation hub was released with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 1.2. Private automation hub can be deployed in a datacenter or cloud provider and allows users to synchronise and curate content from various sources:

  • Certified and supported content from automation hub hosted on console.redhat.com
  • Self-supported community content from Ansible Galaxy
  • Private content

With private automation hub in place, customers can control the Ansible content that they publish and make available within their organisation. Users can either consume these Collections from the command line or directly from within automation controller. 

With this increased reliance on Collections and therefore private automation hub, Ansible Automation Platform 2.1 introduced the Continue reading

The Nvidia-Arm deal is off

Now it is official Nvidia has announced that its proposed acquisition of ARM Holdings from SoftBank Group Corp. has been terminated.The parties agreed to terminate the agreement because of “significant regulatory challenges preventing the consummation of the transaction,” despite considerable efforts by the parties to assuage concerns over the deal.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] Arm will now start preparations for an initial public offering (IPO), possibly during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.To read this article in full, please click here

The Nvidia-Arm deal is off

Now it is official Nvidia has announced that its proposed acquisition of ARM Holdings from SoftBank Group Corp. has been terminated.The parties agreed to terminate the agreement because of “significant regulatory challenges preventing the consummation of the transaction,” despite considerable efforts by the parties to assuage concerns over the deal.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] Arm will now start preparations for an initial public offering (IPO), possibly during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.To read this article in full, please click here

Intel partners with RISC-V, invests $1B in foundry ecosystem

Intel has joined RISC-V International association, an open hardware standards organization dedicated to designing and building ultralow-power processors. The news comes on the heels of another Intel announcement, that it is investing $1 billion in foundry services.Bob Brennan, vice president of customer solutions engineering for Intel Foundry Services (IFS), will be joining both the RISC-V Board of Directors and Technical Steering Committee. Intel is also partnering with several RISC-V leaders, including Andes Technology, Esperanto Technologies, SiFive and Ventana Micro Systems.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] The RISC-V ecosystem uses an open collaboration model, similar to how Linux and other open-source software products are developed. This is unique in chip design. Developers have freedom to design their processors for specific domains and industries. RISC-V started as a project at UC Berkeley and has gained many supporters, but Intel is by far the biggest supporter to back the project.To read this article in full, please click here

Intel partners with RISC-V, invests $1B in foundry ecosystem

Intel has joined RISC-V International association, an open hardware standards organization dedicated to designing and building ultralow-power processors. The news comes on the heels of another Intel announcement, that it is investing $1 billion in foundry services.Bob Brennan, vice president of customer solutions engineering for Intel Foundry Services (IFS), will be joining both the RISC-V Board of Directors and Technical Steering Committee. Intel is also partnering with several RISC-V leaders, including Andes Technology, Esperanto Technologies, SiFive and Ventana Micro Systems.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] The RISC-V ecosystem uses an open collaboration model, similar to how Linux and other open-source software products are developed. This is unique in chip design. Developers have freedom to design their processors for specific domains and industries. RISC-V started as a project at UC Berkeley and has gained many supporters, but Intel is by far the biggest supporter to back the project.To read this article in full, please click here

OMG: VTP Is Insecure

One of my readers sent me an interesting pointer:

I just watched a YouTube video by a security researcher showing how a five line python script can be used to unilaterally configure a Cisco switch port connected to a host computer into a trunk port. It does this by forging a single virtual trunk protocol (VTP) packet. The host can then eavesdrop on broadcast traffic on all VLANs on the network, as well as prosecute man-in-the-middle of attacks.

I’d say that’s a “startling revelation” along the lines of “OMG, VXLAN is insecure” – a wonderful way for a security researcher to gain instant visibility. From a more pragmatic perspective, if you enable an insecure protocol on a user-facing port, you get the results you deserve1.

While I could end this blog post with the above flippant remark, it’s more fun considering two fundamental questions.

Read more …

OMG: VTP Is Insecure

One of my readers sent me an interesting pointer:

I just watched a YouTube video by a security researcher showing how a five line python script can be used to unilaterally configure a Cisco switch port connected to a host computer into a trunk port. It does this by forging a single virtual trunk protocol (VTP) packet. The host can then eavesdrop on broadcast traffic on all VLANs on the network, as well as prosecute man-in-the-middle of attacks.

I’d say that’s a “startling revelation” along the lines of “OMG, VXLAN is insecure” – a wonderful way for a security researcher to gain instant visibility. From a more pragmatic perspective, if you enable an insecure protocol on a user-facing port, you get the results you deserve1.

While I could end this blog post with the above flippant remark, it’s more fun considering two fundamental questions.

Read more …

Gratuitous ARP – GARP

GARP (Gratuitous ARP): Is an ARP message sent without request. Mainly used to notify other hosts in the network of a MAC address assignment change. When a host receives a GARP it either adds a new entry to the cache table or modifies an existing one. I will expand more about GARP in the next section, as it’s the one that concerns us most from a security point of view.

Gratuitous ARP

GARP messages

GARP Request: A regular ARP request that contains the source IP address as sender and target address, source MAC address as sender, and broadcast MAC address (ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff) as a target. There will be no reply to this request

GARP Reply: The source/destination IP addresses AND MAC addresses are set to the sender addresses. This message is sent to no request.

GARP Probe: When an interface goes up with a configured IP address, it sends a probe to make sure no other host is using the same IP; hence, preventing IP conflicts. A probe has the sender IP set to zeros (0.0.0.0), the target IP is the IP being probed, the sender MAC is the source MAC, and the target MAC address Continue reading

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