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Vol. 14, #27 - Jun 22, 2009 - Issue #732
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The OS That WILL Not Die...
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- Editors Corner
- The OS That WILL Not Die...
- Investigating Abuse? Five Ways To Stay Anonymous
- What Are The Best Security Blogs?
- Quotes Of The Week
- Webinars and Seminars
- Windows Internals Classes From David Solomon Expert Seminars
- BriForum 2009 - You May Qualify For A Registration Discount
- Admin Toolbox
- Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without
- Tech Briefing
- Google Add-in Breaks Outlook Search
- IT Infrastructure: Seven Steps For Cutting Data Center Costs
- Virtualization Testing And Development Environments
- Gathering And Documenting Your Windows Desktop Security Policies
- Troubleshooting Poor Windows Logon Performance In AD Environments
- Windows Server News
- Novell Tool To Link Linux Management To MS System Center Server
- Running Office Communications Server? Here's Two Free Books
- What Windows 7 And Server 2008 R2 Can Do For Your Business
- Third Party News
- It's Amazing - The Constant Amount Of New Vulnerabilities
- WServerNews Fave Links
- This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
- WServerNews - Product of the Week
- Tighten Network Security Breaches With Mypassword
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Tighten Network Security breaches with myPassword
Security breaches have become more of a problem in the past 12 months,
according to the CompTIA's latest State of IT Security survey. Even though
the number of breaches have remained the same, the damage is more severe
and average total costs of each IT breach is $85k+. Is your exposure time to
security incidents too long? And, as your company tightens security, do your
users struggle to remember their growing collection of ever-changing credentials?
Use myPassword, a self-service password management tool. Streamlines AD password
administration by empowering users to reset their own passwords and unlock
accounts through an easy and secure web interface!
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-myPassword
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Editors Corner |
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The OS That WILL Not Die...
I cannot believe I'm writing this, but Redmond just did it again. Yup, XP's
death was again greatly exaggerated. They initially said that sales of the
old warhorse would stop six months after the release of Win7. But Michael
Silver of Gartner screamed bloody murder as that would cause a whole lot
of trouble for managing PCs in enterprises. Guess what, a few hours later
Redmond backtracked and said it would extend the aged OS's lifespan in
the post-Windows 7 world to as late as April 2011. You definitely want to
do your "migration homework" before going to Win7, and deal with the IE6
apps you may have forgotten about...
"Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate customers will have the option to
downgrade to Windows XP Professional from PCs that ship within 18 months
following the general availability of Windows 7 or until the release of
a Windows 7 service pack, whichever is sooner, and if a service pack is
developed," a company spokeswoman said in an e-mail.
It's obvious that Redmond would -like- to kill XP as soon as they can.
They only make 15 bucks selling it to netbook vendors, compared to an
estimated $75 or more per copy of Vista on a notebook. Win7's biggest
competitor is not Mac, or Linux, or even Vista, it's XP. And if I can
end off with a bit of a tongue-in-cheek remark.. some one last week
commented that Win7 really is nothing more than Vista SP2, but cleverly
repositioned and re-branded. ;-)
Investigating Abuse? Five Ways To Stay Anonymous
I found a longish article that described the tools you can use to stay
fully anonymous when you are doing some sleuthing to investigate wrongdoing
on your network or other abuse. The first five FAVE LINKS show where to
find these (mostly online) tools.
What Are The Best Security Blogs?
Some one asked our CEO Alex Eckelberry this question. Since he's deep
into this area, he came up with a few suggestions that make a lot of
sense if you want to keep up-to-date with this field. Here goes, with
the first two being the most important:
Quotes Of The Week
"Those to whom evil is done / Do evil in return" -- W.H. Auden
"We have the greatest opportunity the world has ever seen, as long as we
remain honest -- which will be as long as we can keep the attention of
our people alive. If they once become inattentive to public affairs, you
and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors would all become
wolves." -- Thomas Jefferson
"Life's not about waiting for the storms to pass... It's about learning
to dance in the rain." -- Vivian Greene
Warm regards, and thank you for being a WServerNews subscriber. No trees
were killed in the sending of this message, but a large number of electrons
were terribly inconvenienced. Please tell your friends about us.
They can subscribe here:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Subscribe
PS: Did you know this newsletter has a sister publication for XP users
called WXPnews? You can subscribe here, and tell your friends:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-WXPNews
PPS: And of course we also have our weekly VistaNews. You can subscribe
here, and tell your friends too:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-VistaNews
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Automated Uninstall of Symantec AV
No more 2-day SEP V11 Migration Classes! Sunbelt built VIPRE Enterprise; a
completely new technology combining corporate antivirus plus an enterprise
antispyware solution for total endpoint security designed by admins for
admins. And that means EASY DEPLOYMENT. Save your IT budget and don't renew
products from Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro, Learn how VIPRE Enterprise
takes much less resources than the competition! It's clearly time to ditch
expensive, bloated, old-style AV products. Competitive Upgrade price: $10
per seat:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-VIPRE-Enterprise
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Webinars and Seminars |
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Windows Internals Classes From David Solomon Expert Seminars
Dave Solomon and his cohorts will be teaching his Windows OS internals
classes in Sydney (Sept 14), San Francisco (Sept 28), and a virtual class
Oct 19&21 - find out more at:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Solomon-Seminar
BriForum 2009 - You May Qualify For A Registration Discount
Hosted by industry analyst and blogger, Brian Madden, this exclusive three
day event brings together top notch virtualization experts from across the
globe and is only happening once this year - July 21 - 23 at the Hilton
Chicago Hotel. Now more than ever, you can't afford to fall behind the
learning curve or be uninformed on any cost or time saving technology
like desktop and application virtualization. Learn how to leverage these
projects now and get hands on experience with the tools and resources
that should be on your radar for the second half of the year and beyond.
To learn more about this event and to find out if you qualify for one of
the many registrant fee discounts, visit the event website or contact
Jackie Anderson, 781-657-1380.
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-BriForum
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Admin Toolbox |
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Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without
Simplify your life with mPowerTools - 100+ Reports - Tackle AD chores in bulk
A Search & Replace Tool - you'll never script again & no 3rd party databases!
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-mPowerTools
Leverage your log data: collect, archive, search, proactively diagnose issues,
with EventTrackerPULSE:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Pulse
Ben Zachary from the Sunbelt NTSYSADMIN List wrote this: "I came across this
today, pretty slick, even has its own web engine you can enable if you want
to hit the indexer remotely." It locates files and folders by name instantly:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-VoidTools
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Tech Briefing |
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Google Add-in Breaks Outlook Search
Redmond and Google exchanged harsh words this week. Redmond Microsoft said
on its blog that Google's new Outlook plug-in has a "serious bug/flaw" that
could break Outlook Search as it changes a registry key and disables the
ability to search Outlook data.
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Outlook-Search
Google spokesperson Andrew Kovacs has answered that users of the Apps Sync
plug-in can still search Outlook data by using Outlook's default search,
"and we're working with Microsoft to enable search with Windows Desktop
Search as well." It appears that uninstalling the plug-in should fix the
problem. More at Google:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Google-Apps-Sync
IT Infrastructure: Seven Steps For Cutting Data Center Costs
eWEEK has a good item that may help you a lot doing more with less budget:
"Rationalizing hardware, consolidating facilities and better managing energy
costs are among the ways IT administrators can reduce their data center
costs, according to a report from industry research firm Gartner. While all
seven suggestions put forth by Gartner are common-sense steps that have
been discussed to some extent for years, the global recession is putting
even more pressure on IT managers to find ways to do more while trimming
expenses, according to Gartner analyst Rakesh Kumar. By taking the necessary
steps, enterprises can find significant savings in their data centers.
For example, Kumar said, removing a single x86 server can save more than
$400 a year in energy costs alone. The recommendations are part of a study
by Gartner titled "How to Cut Your Data Center Costs" that the research
firm announced June 11." Point 4, 'Renegotiate Contracts' is especially
applicable to yearly maintenance contracts that are already budgeted.
Having a good look at the high renewal cost of endpoint security tools
and renegotiate or swapping them out wholesale might save you a significant
chunk of budget. Here are the seven slides:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Data-Center-Costs
Virtualization Testing And Development Environments
This expert video reviews the best practices for using virtualization to
create testing and development environments. Learn which hypervisors are
best and find out how to test 64-bit operating systems on the leading
hypervisors.
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Using-Virtualization
Gathering And Documenting Your Windows Desktop Security Policies
Having the right security documentation for your Windows-based network
should be a top priority. Once you've designed the proper foundation
for the security of your Windows desktop environment, the next step is
putting the right security policies in place. Follow these proven
techniques for ensuring success with this process and making sure
they're actually working to your advantage:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Desktop-Security
Troubleshooting Poor Windows Logon Performance In AD Environments
When troubleshooting any performance problem, you must first define what
is an acceptable delay. Establishing these standards helps provide a
benchmark for completing projects in a timely fashion. Learn what
factors and steps you have to look at to create a timing template for
troubleshooting Windows logon performance issues at your organization:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Logon-Performance
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Windows Server News |
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Novell Tool To Link Linux Management To MS System Center Server
Novell plans to release yet another tool that is the product of its
three-year-old integration agreement with Microsoft, this time a
plug-in for Microsoft's management tools that lets users manage Novell's
Suse Linux. The tool, which will ship June 19, was produced as part of
Novell's involvement with the Microsoft/Novell Interoperability Lab,
which opened in 2007.
Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Management Pack for Microsoft System
Center Operations Manager, is designed to extend across seven Suse Linux
Enterprise OS services the monitoring capabilities within Operations
Manager 2007 R2. Users will be able to monitor both Linux and Windows
environments from one console.
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Novell-Tool
Running Office Communications Server? Here's Two Free Books
For those of you who are into OCS: Here is where you can pick up two
free and useful books about it at MS Press:
- Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit at:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-R2-Resource-Kit
- Programming for Unified Communications with Microsoft Office
Communications Server 2007 R2
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-E-Book
What Windows 7 And Server 2008 R2 Can Do For Your Business
Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 will be generally
available to end users on October 22. The final versions will be available
much earlier for partners and vendors, probably as early as the end of July.
It's a good time to determine the potential benefit these two new OSen
will have on your enterprise. This tip discusses key features of each product
and considerations for determining which product will provide the greatest
return on investment:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Win7-Server-2008-R2
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Third Party News |
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It's Amazing - The Constant Amount Of New Vulnerabilities
You really need a network vulnerability scanner. This is not a luxury, it's
a -must- have tool. The Top 5 Reasons why it's a great idea to buy SNSI
together with VIPRE Enterprise are:
- Both are essential pieces of the layered security you need to make your
network compliant.
- The SNSI vulnerability scanner is essential to find zero-day threats and
helps you fix them.
- SNSI's weapons-grade database is constantly updated by top security experts.
- Scans all MS apps but also dozens of other popular apps (that often need
patching).
- Licensed by Admin, not IP, meaning it's extremely affordable - and multi
platform!
SNSI uses the latest Mitre Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) list
of computer incidents. It also contains the latest SANS/FBI top 20
vulnerability list. SNSI also uses the latest CERT, CIAC Microsoft and
FedCIRC (Department of Homeland Security) advisories.New Checks
L2475 Ocsinventory authentication result vulnerability - FC
L2476 Pidgin XMPP file transfer weakness - FC
L2477 OpenSC mingw32 incorrect public key exponent vulnerability - FC
L2489 Pidgin XMPP file transfer weakness - Oracle Linux
L2495 Wireshark CPHAP/PN-DCP dissector & Tektronix .rf5 flaws - Oracle Linux
L2496 Wireshark CPHAP/PN-DCP dissector & Tektronix .rf5 flaws - RHE
L2497 Cscope long #include & source-code tokens pathnames flaw - RHE
L2498 Cscope long #include & source-code tokens pathnames flaw - RHE
L2506 Wireshark CPHAP/PN-DCP dissector & Tektronix .rf5 flaws - CentOS
L2507 Cscope long #include & source-code tokens pathnames flaw - CentOS
H24 OpenSSL ASN.1 string printing Vulnerabilities HP-UX
H165 OVNNM 7.5 SNMP/MIB Vulnerability - HP-UX 11
L2380 SquirrelMail map_yp_alias/XSS & style sheet flaws - Oracle Linux
L2386 Freetype font engine file linking weakness - Oracle Linux
L2470 Libmodplug CSoundFile::ReadMed vulnerability - MDV
L2471 File cdf_read_sat compound document weakness - MDV
L2472 Gstreamer plugins PNG info_callback & endrow_callback flaws - MDV
L2473 MySQL Apr-utl .htaccess/mod_dav & apr_brigade flaws - MDV
L2474 Libsndfile1 voc_ & aiff_ read_header errors - MDV
L2478 Apache HTTPD compression structure & NOEXEC errors RHE
L2479 CUPS NULL pointer dereference flaw - RHE
L2480 Firefox multiple security vulnerabilities June 2009 - RHE
L2481 Kernel maximum NFS length & - Rhexit_notify errors - RHE
L2482 CUPS pdftops/directory services/&- R ippreadIO flaws - RHE
L2483 SeaMonkey multiple security vulnerabilities June 2009 - RHE
L2484 Apache HTTPD compression structure & NOEXEC errors - Sci Linux
L2485 CUPS pdftops/directory services/&- R ippreadIO flaws - Sci Linux
L2486 Firefox multiple security vulnerabilities June 2009 - Sci Linux
L2487 SeaMonkey multiple security vulnerabilities June 2009 - Sci Linux
L2488 NTP NTPv4 public key authentication flaw - Oracle Linux
L2490 Apache HTTPD compression structure & NOEXEC errors - Oracle Linux
L2491 CUPS NULL pointer dereference flaw - Oracle Linux
L2492 CUPS pdftops/directory services/&- R ippreadIO flaws - Oracle Linux
L2493 Firefox multiple security vulnerabilities June 2009 - Oracle Linux
L2494 SeaMonkey multiple security vulnerabilities June 2009 - Oracle Linux
L2499 Cscope long #include & source-code tokens pathnames flaw - Oracle Linux
L2500 Cscope long #include & source-code tokens pathnames flaw - RHE
L2501 SquirrelMail map_yp_alias/XSS & style sheet flaws - CentOS
L2502 Apache HTTPD compression structure & NOEXEC errors - CentOS
L2503 CUPS pdftops/directory services/&- R ippreadIO flaws - CentOS
L2504 CUPS NULL pointer dereference flaw - CentOS
L2505 SeaMonkey multiple security vulnerabilities June 2009 - CentOS
M11 Safari Multiple Vulnerabilities
M22 MS Office 2004 Multiple Vulnerabilities - Mac OS X
M23 MS Office 2008 Multiple Vulnerabilities - Mac OS X
M52 Java Multiple Vulnerabilities - Mac OS X 10.5
M53 Java Multiple Vulnerabilities - Mac OS X 10.4 and older
M57 Adobe Reader Multiple Vulnerabilities - Mac OS X
M140 Mozilla Firefox XSL and XUL Vulnerabilities - Mac OS X
S314 GnuTLS X.509 certificate chain validation vulnerability - Solaris 10
S473 Rpc.nisd server vulnerability - Solaris
W206 CA BrightStor ArcServe Backup Message Engine RPC Vulnerability
W1019 Gumblar.cn/JSRedir-R Trojan Evidence Found
W2096 IBM DB2 Remote Access Vulnerability
W2358 Rollup of ActiveX Kill Bits (June 2009)
W2536 IBM WebSphere Application Server Vulnerability
W2559 Firefox Multiple Vulnerabilities
W2984 Adobe Acrobat/Reader Multiple Vulnerabilities
W3120 Apple Safari Multiple Vulnerabilities - XP/W2K3/Vista/W2K8
Updated Checks
W1142 Anti-virus Signature Outdated - McAfee
W1986 Anti-virus Signature Outdated - Symantec
W1999 Anti-virus Signature Outdated - Trend Micro
W2067 Anti-virus Signature Outdated - F-Secure
W2070 Anti-virus Signature Outdated - CA eTrust
H131 OpenView NNM 7.01/7.51/7.53 vulnerabilities - HP-UX 11
H159 Kerberos admin/client vulnerabilities - HP-UX 11
M76 ClamXav / ClamAV signatures not the latest - Mac OS X
M80 Virex signature file out of date - Mac OS X
S198 OpenSSL ASN.1 printing vulnerability - Solaris 10
W2012 Anti-virus signature outdated - Avast! 4
W2013 Anti-virus signature outdated - AVG 8 - W2K/XP/W2K3
W2842 Thunderbird Engine Crash Vulnerabilities
W2843 SeaMonkey POST Vulnerability
W3608 Active Directory Application Mode memory handling flaws - W2K3/XP
Sunbelt Network Security Inspector version 2.0.2670.0 Definition Set 182
was released June 19, 2009. Sunbelt Software recommends you download the
new SNSI Vulnerability Update Definitions 182, scan, and patch your
machines today. To get the latest SNSI version, visit:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-SNSI
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WServerNews Fave Links |
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This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
- Need a fake name? Pick your nationality and gender then instantly receive
a new name, address, phone number, usable email address, mother's maiden name,
birthday, credit card number, expiration date (not valid of course), social
security number, job occupation and UPS tracking number. Dang, fraud is easy:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Generated-Identity
- Need to hide your IP? TOR (The Onion Router) is a complex set of networks
that bounce your browsing request across the globe to its final destination,
making your IP appear to be from the last TOR volunteer network host. The
XB Browser, formally known as Tor Park, is a free and easy-to-use browser
with TOR ready to run -- no tricky setup or installation steps:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-xBBrowser
- You can check your own IP address with your normal browser and then do the
same thing on the XB browser.. you will find a totally different IP number!
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-IPChecker
- With this email address spoofer you can easily use any email address as the
sender and anonymously send your email to someone. Combine with the XB Browser
and really hide yourself:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Send-Email
- This site allows you to buy a calling card that is preset for spoofing. You
can display any number on the caller ID, record the call and change voice:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Spoof-Card
- GizmoSMA allows you to send an anonymous txt message to any phone. You
cannot spoof the number on this site, but 'my-cool-sms.com' is a for-pay
site that does allow this:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-SMS
- Vladimir and Maria of the Moscow Cat Theatre combine their love of cats and
stage to create a captivating act. No IDEA you could teach cats all this:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Moscow-Cat
- Kevin Richardson mingles with lions and other wild animals. If you are on a
safari, definitely don't try this. WOW:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Lion-Whisperer
- Ever seen Sprint's Now Network? A whole page of widgets that are pretty cool:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Now-Network
- It's all about getting to that second date. A funny ad produced by BBDO
Argentina:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-The-Call
- "What is a browser?" was the question Google asked over 50 passersby of
different ages and backgrounds in New York. It's quite disparaging:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Browser
- Abandoned places in the world. People -used- to live here, but no more...
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Abandoned-Places
- Boy discovers (really interbreeds) microbes that actually eat plastic:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Microbe
- Affordable, practical home wind power generation is becoming a reality.
The EarthTronics Honeywell wind turbine works in "low wind" areas, can
be installed on a house or business rooftop and pays for itself in less
than 2 years:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Windmill
- Celine Dion and Elvis Presley performing their now famous duet "If I Can
Dream" on American Idol. Check out the technical backgrounder; really cool!:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Idol
- We just sent an Atlas5 rocket back to the moon, and here is a site with a
whole bunch of cool moon stuff like tons of hi-rez endless images & links:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-MoonViews
- The 15 stupidest ways to lose your job:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Job-Loss
- The ultimate pool hustler - 7 years old:
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-Pool-Boy
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WServerNews - Product of the Week |
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Tighten Network Security Breaches With Mypassword
Security breaches have become more of a problem in the past 12 months,
according to the CompTIA's latest State of IT Security survey. Even though
the number of breaches have remained the same, the damage is more severe
and average total costs of each IT breach is $85k+. Is your exposure time to
security incidents too long? And, as your company tightens security, do your
users struggle to remember their growing collection of ever-changing credentials?
Use myPassword, a self-service password management tool. Streamlines AD password
administration by empowering users to reset their own passwords and unlock
accounts through an easy and secure web interface!
http://www.wservernews.com/090622-My-Password
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Email me: