Category: Uncategorised

For the past several years interest in encrypted and anonymous communications has spread to a much wider audience.

VPN providers are particularly popular among BitTorrent users, who by default broadcast their IP-addresses to hundreds of people when downloading a popular file.

The goal of using a VPN is to hide one’s ISP IP-address, but a newly discovered vulnerability shows that this is easily bypassed on some providers.

The problem, uncovered by VPN provider Perfect Privacy (PP), is a simple port forwarding trick. If an attacker uses the same VPN as the victim the true IP-address can be exposed by forwarding traffic on a specific port.

The security flaw affects all VPN protocols including OpenVPN and IPSec and applies to all operating systems.

“Affected are VPN providers that offer port forwarding and have no protection against this specific attack,” PP notes.

For example, if an attacker activates port forwarding for the default BitTorrent port then a VPN user on the same network will expose his or her real IP-address.

The same is true for regular web traffic, but in that case the attacker has to direct the victim to a page that connects to the forwarded port, as Perfect Privacy explains in detail.

The vulnerability affected the setup of various large VPN providers, who were warned last week. This included Private Internet Access (PIA), Ovpn.to and nVPN, who have all fixed the issue before publication.

PIA informs TorrentFreak that their fix was relatively simple and was implemented swiftly after they were notified.

“We implemented firewall rules at the VPN server level to block access to forwarded ports from clients’ real IP addresses. The fix was deployed on all our servers within 12 hours of the initial report,” PIA’s Amir Malik says.

In addition, PIA complimented Perfect Privacy for responsibly disclosing the vulnerability prior to making it public and awarded their competitor with a $5,000 bounty under its Whitehat Alert Security Program.

Not all VPN providers were tested so it is likely that many others are still vulnerable. Hopefully, these will address the issue in the near future.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Wieder wagen sich mehr junge Menschen an ein Studium der Informatik. Trotz Rekordwerten bei den Studienanfängern ist in Deutschland die Zahl der offenen IT-Arbeitsplätze auf rund 43.000 angestiegen. (Studium, Studie)

Auch bei den schon veröffentlichten Episoden von Dreamfall Chapters kommt ab sofort die neueste Version der Unity-Engine zum Einsatz. Das Entwicklerstudio berichtet von massiven Problemen bei der Umstellung. (Dreamfall Chapters, Adventure)

Mehr Hertz schafft aktuell kein Monitor: Asus' neuer ROG-Monitor liefert 165 Hz, zudem wird die Bildausgabe durch G-Sync im gleichen Takt gehalten. Das IPS-Panel löst mit 2.560 x 1.440 Pixeln auf. (Display, Asus)

The Asus Zenbook UX305 line of notebooks are basically entry-level ultrabooks. They’re super thin and light, but they lack a few premium features such as backlit keyboards. But they’re also among the most affordable ultrabooks on the market: prices started at $699 when the first model launched earlier this year, and these days you can often […]

Asus Zenbook UX305CA with QHD+ touchscreen now available for $699 is a post from: Liliputing

Körperschmuck mit Überwachungsfunktion: Tech Tats sind temporäre Tätowierungen mit Sensoren. Sie sollen die Gesundheit des Trägers überwachen. Außerdem soll sich damit bezahlen lassen. (Wearable, Technologie)

Wer schon immer mal seine eigene Kreditkarte kopieren wollte, kann jetzt aktiv werden. Das Tool MagSpoof ermöglicht es, Lesegeräten eine Kreditkarte vorzutäuschen. (Kreditkarte, Arduino)

Domain name blocking has become one of the entertainment industries’ go-to methods for reducing online copyright infringement.

Blocking requests from both the music and movie sector are widespread around Europe, but until now Germany has been excluded.

However, this may soon change. In a landmark ruling the Supreme Court has today opened the door to German pirate site blockades.

The origin of the ruling dates back seven years when German music rights group GEMA, known for its aggressive anti-piracy stance, found music tracks on major file-hosting sites being distributed via the music linking site 3DL.am.

After GEMA failed in its efforts to contact 3DL’s operators to deal with the infringement, the music group tried another tactic.

In a subsequent complaint, GEMA demanded that in order to reduce further copyright infringement, leading German ISP Deutsche Telekom should take technical steps to stop its customers from accessing 3DL.am.

The ISP refused, stating that as a mere ‘dumb pipe’ it has nothing to do with the infringement on the site. Furthermore, blocking one site would simply lead to increasing numbers of similar demands, the ISP argued.

Together with a similar lawsuit against the site Goldesel.to, the case eventually ended up at the Supreme Court which ruled on the issue today.

In its order the court argues that an ISP blockade is warranted if copyright holders have exhausted all their options to identify the operators or hosting providers of pirate sites.

The court also noted that it doesn’t matter if users can circumvent blockades. Simply rendering sites more difficult for the general public to access is sufficient.

GEMA is delighted with the decision and says it will be a great tool to combat online piracy.

“We welcome the judgment of the Supreme Court. This landmark decision was long overdue, since it leads the way in protecting our copyrights in the digital music market,” GEMA CEO Harald Heker says.

“At last we have legal clarity about the fact that ISP blockades of websites that offer illegal copyrighted music works en masse, are permitted. An important step to combat Internet piracy,” he adds.

It’s expected that the first blocking requests will be filed in the near future. While 3DL.am is no longer online, other high-profile pirate sites including The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents are probably high on GEMA’s wish list.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Acers neue Predator-Modelle verfügen über zwei Lüfter, ein dritter kann auf ungewöhnliche Weise nachgerüstet werden: Er wird als Modul in den Laufwerksschacht der Spiele-Notebooks geschoben. (Acer, Core i7)

Eine Umfrage der FIA zeigt, dass Autofahrer interessiert an vernetzten Autos sind, sich gleichzeitig aber auch Gedanken um ihre Daten machen: Der überwältigende Teil der Befragten will selbst über die Datennutzung entscheiden und den Datenstrom eigenmächtig abschalten können. (Connected Car, Datenschutz)