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Submission + - xz/liblzma Backdoored, Facilitating ssh Compromise

Submitted by ewhac
ewhac writes: A backdoor has been discovered in the liblzma data compression library, whose purpose is to facilitate a compromise of ssh. liblzma versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1 are known to be affected. Debian's "unstable" and "testing" repos yesterday rolled back the library by pushing version "5.6.1+really5.4.5-1" to mitigate the exposure. RedHat is also recommending all users roll back to a pre-5.6.0 release.

The backdoor is not in the source code, but rather is in the test suite contained in the distribution tarballs. Hostile payloads masquerading as test data are decompressed during the ./configure phase to modify the Makefile and drop modified versions of liblzma_la-crc32_fast.o and liblzma_la-crc64_fast.o. When the compromised library is loaded by client programs (such as ssh), these in turn install an audit hook in the dynamic linker, allowing them to intercept lookups/calls to RSA_public_decrypt@....plt, which it then replaces with its own code. This compromise appears to have only been discovered in the last few days; study of the precise nature and scope of the compromise is ongoing.

Submission + - Russia's Wikipeida Replacement "Ruwiki" Is Now Live (nypost.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ruwiki, the Russian government approved replacement for Wikipedia, has reportedly gone live. Ruwiki was originally approved in May 2022 and has been in beta testing since mid 2023. The contents of Ruwiki reflects Russian government positions and reportedly incorporate more Russia specific content than Wikipedia. The Russian government is reported to have put substantial resources into the Ruwiki project. Wikipedia itslef has been repeatedly fined by Russian courts for hosting online content contrary to Russian law, much of it regarding the 2022 invasion of Ukraine which is referred to by the Russian government as a "Special Military Operation.". If Wikipedia is blocked it will further isolate Russians and cut off one of the last major independent sources of information still available to them.

Submission + - Glitches, echoes, 'melting the servers' crash DeSantis' campaign Twitter launch (cnn.com)

Submitted by SpzToid
SpzToid writes: Twitter’s livestream event with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis crashed and was delayed on Wednesday as hundreds of thousands of users logged on to hear DeSantis announce his bid for the White House.

Sound from the livestream event — which was held on Twitter Spaces and hosted by owner Elon Musk and tech entrepreneur David Sacks — cut in and out in the first minutes after starting.

“We’ve got so many people here that we are kind of melting the servers,” Sacks said at one point.

More than 500,000 Twitter users joined the event, which was ultimately ended and then restarted, delaying DeSantis’ announcement by nearly half an hour. When the event was relaunched using Sacks’ account, only around 250,000 users ultimately listened in.

Twitter has faced a variety of outages and technical issues since Musk took over the platform late last year. Shortly after acquiring the company, Musk laid off large numbers of technical and other staff and reduced Twitter’s server capacity in an effort to cut costs.

In recent months, Twitter has faced multiple service outages that affected the ability of thousands of users to access the site, to view images and to read tweets on their timelines. Users have also previously reported issues with the app’s two-factor authentication tool, seeing replies listed above a tweet rather than below it and seeing old tweets show up repeatedly in their feed or mentions.

Musk and Sacks admitted on Wednesday that the limited capacity of Twitter’s servers played into the issues it faced getting the DeSantis event underway. “I think you broke the internet there,” Sacks said when the event was relaunched. The pair added that Musk’s following of more than 140 million followers may have also contributed to the issue.

Twitter’s Spaces product was not necessarily built to host events with hundreds of thousands of listeners. Most other Spaces have — at most — several hundred listeners at a time. Spaces was described as a “prototype” and “janky” tool by a former Twitter employee familiar with its development.

“Spaces was largely a prototype, not a finished product,” the former employee told CNN. “It’s a beta test that never ended.”

They added that Spaces relies on a mix of Twitter’s technical infrastructure and Amazon Web Services servers, “things that aren’t intended to handle Twitter-scale traffic.”

Twitter acquired the video streaming platform Periscope in 2015. The former employee said Twitter Spaces had been built on Periscope’s existing infrastructure and not integrated with Twitter properly — which likely contributed to Wednesday’s technical problems.

Submission + - A Paralyzed Man Can Walk Naturally Again With Brain and Spine Implants (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Gert-Jan Oskam was living in China in 2011 when he was in a motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed from the hips down. Now, with a combination of devices, scientists have given him control over his lower body again. “For 12 years I’ve been trying to get back my feet,” Mr. Oskam said in a press briefing on Tuesday. “Now I have learned how to walk normal, natural.” In astudypublished on Wednesday in the journal Nature, researchers in Switzerland described implants that provided a “digital bridge” between Mr. Oskam’s brain and his spinal cord, bypassing injured sections. The discovery allowed Mr. Oskam, 40, to stand, walk and ascend a steep ramp with only the assistance of a walker. More than a year after the implant was inserted, he has retained these abilities and has actually showed signs of neurological recovery, walking with crutches even when the implant was switched off. “We’ve captured the thoughts of Gert-Jan, and translated these thoughts into a stimulation of the spinal cord to re-establish voluntary movement,” Grégoire Courtine, a spinal cord specialist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, who helped lead the research, said at the press briefing.

In the new study, the brain-spine interface, as the researchers called it, took advantage of anartificial intelligence thought decoderto read Mr. Oskam’s intentions — detectable as electrical signals in his brain — and match them to muscle movements. The etiology of natural movement, from thought to intention to action, was preserved. The only addition, as Dr. Courtine described it, was the digital bridge spanning the injured parts of the spine. [...] To achieve this result, the researchers first implanted electrodes in Mr. Oskam’s skull and spine. The team then used a machine-learning program to observe which parts of the brain lit up as he tried to move different parts of his body. This thought decoder was able to match the activity of certain electrodes with particular intentions: One configuration lit up whenever Mr. Oskam tried to move his ankles, another when he tried to move his hips.

Then the researchers used another algorithm to connect the brain implant to the spinal implant, which was set to send electrical signals to different parts of his body, sparking movement. The algorithm was able to account for slight variations in the direction and speed of each muscle contraction and relaxation. And, because the signals between the brain and spine were sent every 300 milliseconds, Mr. Oskam could quickly adjust his strategy based on what was working and what wasn’t. Within the first treatment session he could twist his hip muscles. Over the next few months, the researchers fine-tuned the brain-spine interface to better fit basic actions like walking and standing. Mr. Oskam gained a somewhat healthy-looking gait and was able to traverse steps and ramps with relative ease, even after months without treatment. Moreover, after a year in treatment, he began noticing clear improvements in his movement without the aid of the brain-spine interface. The researchers documented these improvements in weight-bearing, balancing and walking tests. Now, Mr. Oskam can walk in a limited way around his house, get in and out of a car and stand at a bar for a drink. For the first time, he said, he feels like he is the one in control.

Submission + - US Senators issued satellite phones (cbsnews.com)

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: Amid growing concerns of security risks to members of Congress, over 50 senators have been issued satellite phones for emergency communication, people familiar with the measures told CBS News. The devices are part of a series of new security measures being offered to senators by the Senate Sergeant at Arms, who took over shortly after the protest an the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The satellite phone technology has been offered to all 100 senators. CBS News has learned at least 50 have accepted the phones, which Senate administrative staff recommend senators keep in close proximity during their travels.

In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee last month, Senate Sergeant at Arms Karen Gibson said satellite communication is being deployed "to ensure a redundant and secure means of communication during a disruptive event."

Gibson said the phones are a security backstop in the case of an emergency that "takes out communications" in part of America. Federal funding will pay for the satellite airtime needed to utilize the phone devices.

Submission + - Envisioning a Simplified Intel Architecture (intel.com)

Submitted by j3x0n
j3x0n writes: The long life of Intel® Architecture has resulted in a rich software ecosystem with an enormous installed base that extends from PCs to the cloud to mobile and from embedded devices to supercomputers and beyond.

Since its introduction over 20 years ago, the Intel® 64 architecture became the dominant operating mode. As an example of this evolution, Microsoft stopped shipping the 32-bit version of their Windows 11 operating system. Intel firmware no longer supports non UEFI64 operating systems natively. 64-bit operating systems are the de facto standard today. They retain the ability to run 32-bit applications but have stopped supporting 16-bit applications natively.

With this evolution, Intel believes there are opportunities for simplification in our hardware and software ecosystem.

Certain legacy modes have little utility in modern operating systems besides bootstrapping the CPU into the 64-bit mode. It is worth asking the question, “Could these seldom used elements of the architecture be removed to simplify a 64-bit mode-only architecture?”
 

Submission + - Twitter Reactivates Donald Trump's Account Following Trump Twitter Poll Win (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The realDonaldTrump Twitter account of former President Donald Trump has been reinstated following a Twitter poll over the last 24 hours. Reportedly the poll was viewed by more than 134 million, and more than 15 million responded. The outcome of the vote on Trump's reinstatement was 51.8% for, 48.2% against. It is unclear if Trump will return to Twitter after forming a competing social media platform, Truth Social. Twitter recently has restored accounts for the Babylon Bee, Jordan Peterson, and Kathy Griffin as well.

Submission + - Trailblazing Star Trek Actress Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) Has Passed Away (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Actress Nichelle Nichols has passed away due to natural causes at age 89. Nichols first worked professionally at age 14 as a singer and dancer before moving on to New York. She worked in nightclubs, including with the Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton Hampton bands before moving to Hollywood. After a variety of small parts she landed the role she would become best known for — the trailblazing role on the original Star Trek series (1968–1969) where she played the role of Star Fleet officer Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, the ship's communications officer. As the communications officer Lieutenant Uhura demonstrated technical ability and exercised the authority of an officer in a uniformed service. The cultural impact of that at the time is notable. While Star Trek was being developed and broadcast the United States was in the midst of a civil rights revolution as the vestiges of Jim Crow, segregation, and other forms of discrimination were being torn down. The character of Lieutenant Uhura caught the attention of Civil Rights leaders. Nichelle Nichols "... often recalled how Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan of the show and praised her role. She met him at a civil rights gathering in 1967, at a time when she had decided not to return for the show’s second season. “When I told him I was going to miss my co-stars and I was leaving the show, he became very serious and said, ‘You cannot do that’” . . . “‘You’ve changed the face of television forever, and therefore, you’ve changed the minds of people’”. — "That foresight Dr. King had was a lightning bolt in my life,” Nichols said. Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner had what is believed to be the first interracial kiss broadcast on television. Nichols was a popular guest at Star Trek conventions following her appearance on the original series and the Star Trek movies.
  Astronaut Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space, said she watched Nichols on “Star Trek” all the time when she was young, adding she loved the show. Jemison eventually got to meet Nichols.

Comment Re:Are the Social Media Companies (Score 2) 21

by cold fjord (#62257819) Attached to: Twitter Misses Ad Revenue, User Growth Estimates

They may be trying to force more people that visit into getting accounts to see content, so the situation may be more advertising for what may be the same number of people visiting the site. Ad growth, yes, but maybe not real growth in site users. If they keep banning interesting accounts they may start bleeding followers to other sites. It would be better if Twitter as a company recognized its shortcomings, but not likely to happen. Twitter has blocked newspapers announcing their stories, people with serious professional, scientific, or medical credentials from sharing their expertise, and arbitrarily blocked political statements. They aren't good actors. Twitter has been compared to a sewer. Sewers server a vital role in civilization which is something I doubt can be said about Twitter.

Comment Re:Virtual Terrorism? (Score 1) 98

Perhaps you could share your thinking with us? How do you think the possibilities offered by Minecraft to recreate buildings and cityscapes as shown in the first link suffer in comparison to the use of sand tables for rehearsals such as that shown in the second link? Keep in mind that the use of sand tables for rehearsals is common for the military, and they have their limits.

Sandt table: This string represents the street, and the paper cup is the building.
Minecraft: The street scene represents the street, and the building is the building. Oh, and the layout of the streets and the floor plan of the building are the same as the real ones. Sure, you can enter the building.

Comment Twitter freedom (Score 3, Insightful) 21

by cold fjord (#62257601) Attached to: Twitter Misses Ad Revenue, User Growth Estimates

On Twitter you are free to mouth the politically correct position held by the monoculture of the company or their hired "fact checkers.". Expressing anything that departs from the view of the monoculture for long periods of time seems to eventually lead to trouble. It's a poor choice to bet your professional life, business, political campaign, or public life on Twitter without a robust backup plan if you are a normal person. There is a strong argument that they abuse their Section 230 protections.

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