Privilege Escalation is the act of exploiting Computer bug or design flaw in a software application to gain access to resources which normally would have been protected from an application or user.Privilege escalation using vulnerabilities and unpatched bugs is a common way to get to the root shell with a limited access to machine.An unauthorized root shell access can be very fatal for the victim.The intruder has complete control over the machine and the data on it.It could even get worse if the machine is connected to a network which has valuable data and which generally is as vulnerable the victim machine.

Few Linux Kernel exploits frequently used in such attacks.
Linux Kernel 2.6 UDEV Local Privilege Escalation Exploit

Linux >= 2.6.13 prctl kernel exploit
This creates a root owned core dump into any directory.

Linux kernel <2.6.29 exit_notify() local root exploit

Few windows exploits
MS08-067 Exploit for CN by EMM

MS Windows XP SP2 (win32k.sys) Privilege Escalation Exploit (MS08-025)

Blending of Privelege Escalations  with Remote Code Execution can be very dangerous and potentially fatal for corporate networks which have webservers running on their own network.This can lead to compromising the entire network and the sentive information floating around.In future posts ill show how to carry such an attack capturing a network from the outside.

Disclaimer:All the information above are purely for educational purposes.The author is not responsible for any of the reader’s actions or evil deeds.

Drupal 6.11 had been released with some major security fixes.This is the eleventh maintenance and security patch for drupal 6.Although no new features are being added to drupal 6 anymore,this patch fixes a lot of bugs and performance issues.The most interesting issue that has been fixed is Drupal core Cross Site Scripting vulnerabilities.The XSS attacks occur while outputting the user supplied data where drupal strips the meaningful html tags,attributes and special characters.This vulnerability is limited to forms present on the front page. The user login form is not vulnerable.

Versions Affected

Drupal 5.x before version 5.17.

Drupal 6.x before version 6.11.

Patch

Patch for drupal 6.11

Patch for Drupal 5.17

The information disclosure vulnerability was reported by Moritz Naumann.

In our college internet bandwidth is a bit slow at times.It is very difficult to download packages and install or upgrade directly from internet.It becomes very congested when many users start to download the basic same packages or updates,which can be shared.So I thought of setting up a local repository for my fellow fedora users.Here are the basic steps to create a local yum repository.

First go to Administration in the system panel and services.This lists out all the services that are running on the machine and services,daemons that can be run.We need a web server running to host the packages for others to use.So see that httpd is enabled and running.

Open up your favourite browser and type localhost to see whether the apache server is setup.

Next we to create a few directories for packages we are going to mirror on our machine.All the files of the webserver of the localhost are located at “/var/www/html/”.
So
1.) cd /var/www/html/
Now create a directory yum using the mkdir.
2.) mkdir yum
Now you can define the directory structure to your mirror.I would prefer…
Fedora/9/”base;updates” –for Fedora 9
3.)mkdir -pv /var/www/html/yum/Fedora/9/{base,updates}
If you think you don’t have enough space on particular partition.Then create a folder “base;updates” anywhere you want and link it.
4.) mkdir /home/solo/Downloads/base
5.) mkdir /home/solo/Downloads/updates
6.) ln -s /home/solo/Downloads/base /var/www/html/yum/Fedora/9/base
Now copy the rpm’s that you have in your cd’s or dvd.
7.) cp /mnt/cdrom/Fedora/RPMS/*.rpm /var/www/html/yum/Fedora/9/base/
Next we want to also put the rpm’s which we have downloaded from the internet.Generally yum clears the caches once it installs the packages and its dependencies.So we have to store the packages even after finishing the installation or upgrade.
For this we have make a small change in the yum configuration file.
8.) vim /etc/yum.conf
It presents you with the following

Change the keepcache=0 on line 3 value to 1 from 0.This lets you to store the cache.You can even change the cache directory to our storage directory by specifying on line 2.
Next we have to create base repository headers.Go to the base directory.
9.) cd /var/www/html/Fedora/9/base
10.) createrepo .
This will create the base repository headers and similarly to all the folders on our server.Now we have to make these changes to the yum.conf for using our local repository and all those on our network who wants use your machine as a mirror.
[updates-released]
name=Fedora $releasever – $basearch – Released Updates
mirrorlist=http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=fedora-$releasever&arch=$basearch
baseurl=http://192.168.0.xx/yum/Fedora/9/updates/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

[base]
name=Fedora $releasever – $basearch – Base
baseurl=http://192.168.0.xx/yum/Fedora/$releasever/base/
mirrorlist=http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=fedora-$releasever&arch=$basearch
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

Substitute your machine local ip address for 192.168.0.xx
Have fun mirroring packages and creating a local repository.

I was searching for a platform to work in my Research Internship and build an mobile app which works on both a wi-fi and via internet.One of my senior Naidu suggested me to check out Android google latest operating system for mobile phones which runs on a linux kernel 2.6.x.The Google Android developers challenge has started and has prizes worth 10 million$.:)It has a great SDK for the developers to build cool apps for android.

Android Official Website

Nice community for Novice and Advanced Tutorials

A nice e-book by Nicolas Gramlich of AndDev Community

Here a few nice submissions of the android developers challenge.
* ### Navigation-Tools and other location-based applications ###
1. AndNav (Fully featured Navigation system.)
2. Enkin (Interesting navigation concept.)
3. Molib (Molib-Bike finder in Paris.)
4. JamDroid (Traffic-Jam estimation.)
5. Elimatta (Location based chatrooms.)
6. JeeNet (Shared content framework.)
7. Hey Taxi! (hail a taxi or find other methods of transit.)

# ### Location-aware and social-networking services###

1. Commandro (Geo-centered social networking.)
2. ShoutEm (Custom mobile social networks.)
3. PocketJourney (Location aware audio/video content.)
4. Babel
5. Mvite (Friend-Gathering.)
6. Athena (Invitations.)
7. NavXS (Location Based Social Network )
8. Planet Android (Location based chatrooms)
9. Spherency (Sharing information.)
10. androidchat (Location based chatting)
11. Snap! (Common interests.)
12. KudoStar (Social Rating System.)
13. WeatherPhone (Severe Weather Warning System.)
14. Weather Droid (Weather info ; US only.)
15. ZInfo (Location aware information exchange.)
16. MapMyFitness Mobile (Mapped fitness content.)

# ### Games ###

1. Parallel Kingdom (MMORPG, augmented reality)
2. Wi-Fi Army (MMOFPS, augmented reality)
3. Monolith Android (3D tetris like game.)
4. SpaceBugs (Oldschool gamehall shooter)
5. EDU Blaster (Simple shooter with funny idea.)
6. Omnisoft Games (Package of fancy 3D games.)
7. Game Creator (Game creator application.)

# ### Handy System Applications ###

1. handyCalc (Sophisticated Calculator!)
2. Android PoP (VNC style “PC over Phone”!)
3. Marvin (BitTorrent Client.)
4. LiveVison (Live Webcam Viewing.)
5. E-book reader (E-book reader.)
6. DroidStor (Application Control Panel / App-Shop)
7. XLive (Multi-Protocol Chat Client)
8. FluidNexus (P2P / adhoc relief & emergency communication.)
9. Lost Android (Track lost Android-phones.)

# ### Camera, Image-processing & Barcoding ###

1. MoseyCode (Barcodes with live 3D replacement by cam!!)
2. EveryAlbum (Manage photos from social networks.)
3. PixDroid (Image operations.)
4. konzoomer (Barcodes, Price comparison.)
5. AndroidScan (2D Barcode Scanner)

# ### Development Libraries/System Tools ###

1. TrackDroid (Android package management system.)
2. AllBinary Games (Game development library.)
3. OpenIntents (Inter-App communication.)
4. ItzyBit (Monetarize your Android apps.)

# ### MusicPlayers ###

1. Ambient MP (“Shameless copy of Amarok”)

# ### Organizers ###

1. android-shuffle (Personal organizer.)

# ### Security ###

1. FacePass (Face Recognition.)

# ### Others ###

1. Gold Fish View (Golf court tool.)

F9 has been released, so here is a neat semi-hidden feature preview.

F9 will contain a preview of the future kernel based modesetting architecture for users of Intel 915 and above.

To use and test this, add i915.modeset=1 to your kernel command line and watch the future unfold

So far it just enters graphics mode when udev hits, and the X server should use the new modesetting architecture from then on. In theory it should give nearly flicker free startup from udev until login and X should start much faster.

Post F9 the developer’s will hopefully merge in proper support for fast-user-switching which will mostly work locally, just need to write a proper protocol for it.

Yodm 3D is a 3D desktop environment for windows XP and Vista which linux had for years.Although its not as Compiz for linux,it gives a feel of the 3D desktop environment. Here is a video of Yodm 3D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PgHSYLqyJQ Here are a few screenshots To rotate the 3D desktop cube: CTRL+SHIFT+Left/Right = Swith to next or previous desktop. CTRL+SHIFT+Up = Activate Yod’m 3D and show a “far” or “wide-angle” view of the current desktop, and then press Left or Right to select turn the desktop cube. CTRL+SHIFT+Down = Activate and show a “near” or “tele-photo” view of the current desktop, and then press Left or Right to switch rotate the desktop. Hold down CTRL+SHIFT to use the mouse to turn and rotate the cube horizontally. Use the scroll wheel to zoom in or out. To move a windows to another desktop (total of virtual 4 desktops): 1. Click and hold on the title bar of the window (not maximized if possible). 2. Press and hold on CTRL+SHIFT keys to activate the Yod’m 3D cube. 3. When the cube is activated, move the window to the left or right. 4. Release CTRL+SHIFT keys. To change the wallpaper of a desktop: The wallpaper of each desktop (total of 4 virtual desktops available) can be changed by using Display Settings of Windows Vista or Windows XP. To switch to another application immediately: Click on the Yod’m 3D icon in the taskbar, the list of the windows opened in other desktop appear. Then click on the application to switch to the desktop instantly. Features of Yod’m 3D: * Scroll arrow at the dockbar to manage shortcut icon. * Transparent color for the title. * Progress bar for thumbnails of copy, download and the loading of Internet explorer’s pages. * Management of windows screenshot will avoid waiting for hanged application. * Wallpaper for each virtual desktop. * Background image support. * Notification message if an application “flash” in the taskbar of another desktop. * List of the windows of other virtual desktop in the menu accessible by clicking on taskbar icon. Requirements: *Windows XP/Vista *Graphic Card with DirectX 9 support Download: http://www.otakusoftware.com/script/download.php?product=deskspacetrial http://download1us.softpedia.com/dl/7539a061574d148f2a396ef8f6904e0a/47f7e946/100070702/software/os_enhance/Yodm3D.zip

So here we go.My first crush was Suse Linux 10.2, but I use Fedora mostly for my daily purpose.
It is pretty easy and painless to install.You have to be care full at a couple of places if u are installing linux on your machine for the first time.While partioning the drives where there is a potential possibility of your linux being installed on the entire hard drive thus removing any other os like windows.Once you’ve installed Fedora you would be needing some warez to customize to desktop.
Mplayer(If you are using Fedora or Suse else you wouldn’t have to worry if other distro’s like Mandriva as they have pre-installed gstreamer plugins for mp3 playback)
If you are using linux for the first time and wondering how to play mp3’s.Although there isnt any pre-installed music players for playing mp3’s download codec’s for the default music player such as banshee and rhythmBox else mplayer would play virtually any format of multimedia.Mplayer is very easy to find on google.After following the readme file the installation must be complete.Well the gui should be enabled while compliling for the gui interface or you would have to play your songs from terminal.
Beryl window manager
This was the most attractive feature for me when I installed linux for the first time-The 3-d cube effect.In the latest Suse 10.3,11.0 Alpha and Mandriva 2008 have beryl shipped in the cd itself with most of the video drivers.
Beryl gives a 3-d cube effect of linux to the user,where the workspaces are put on each side of the cube.There are a lot of additional features in Beryl which are worth exploring.Well it pretty much screwed many of frnds systems which dint have good enough graphics card(prolly the reason)
Beryl can be installed from the Fedora repositories using Yum.There are many other alternatives of beryl such as compiz XGL desktop of Mandrake i guess not very sure.
http://beryl-project.org/
A video of beryl…….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD7QraljRfM
Yum
Yum(Yellow Dog Updater,Modifier) is a software management tool for Fedora.Softwares and packages can be installed and updated using yum.For installing beryl using yum
go to root using su
then
yum -y install beryl
Exporting Proxy for Yum
If behind a firewall or a proxy,one would have to configure it by going to the yum configuration file.
vim /etc/yum.conf
Then open the file yum.conf in any editor and then export the proxy.
proxy=http://your-username:password@your-proxy-server:portnumber
if your servers requires autentication.
now yum is ready to use.Yum can be used to install libraries and various packages.
RPM’s
Red hat package management system.The can be installed by just clicking it,the softwares manager looks after the rest.If you have a problem installing a rpm one can always do it using The terminal.
go to root :su
cd .. to the folder of the rpm
rpm -ivh filename-of-the-rpm.rpm
Rpm can also be installed directly from a ftp


rpm -U ftp://myserver.myorg.net/upgrades/bar-2.2.rpm
One could always force install a rpm if failing due to some dependencies.
http://www.rpm.org/

DC++ on fedora.
DC++(direct connect)is a peer to peer file sharing client.A very powerful when using in LAN or on high speed internet lines.It works either on Valknut or Dc++ port of linux Linuxdcpp as the clients.

//This is my first post post.c

#include<stdio.h>

main()

{

printf(“Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!\n”);

return 0;

}