WATCH DOGS 2 PC SPECS AND SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS REVEALED

The Watch Dogs 2 development team has released official specs for the PC version of the game. You’ll find the full list of system requirements and special PC enhancements below:

MINIMUM

Supported OS – (64-bit versions only)
Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10

Processor
Intel Core i5 2400S @ 2.5 GHz | AMD FX 6120 @ 3.5 GHz

RAM
6GB

Video Card
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 (2GB) | AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2GB) or better

Hard Disk Space
50 GB

Peripherals
Windows-compatible keyboard and mouse, Microsoft Xbox One Controller, Dual Shock 4 Controller

Multiplayer
256 Kbps or faster broadband connection

RECOMMENDED

Supported OS – (64-bit versions only)
Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10

Processor
Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.2GHz | AMD FX 8120 @ 3.9 GHz

RAM
8GB

Video Card
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (3GB) | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4GB) | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (3GB) or better | AMD Radeon R9 290 (4GB) or better

Hard Disk Space
50 GB

Peripherals 
Windows-compatible keyboard and mouse, Microsoft Xbox One controller, Dual Shock 4 controller

Multiplayer
256 Kbps or faster broadband connection

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

General
• 4K support
• Stuttering/lag framerate optimization – We employed a fix that makes all controls much more responsive and less framerate-related. We’ve optimized resource creation, GPU VRAM upload and required VRAM for the game.
• No FPS cap
• Full SLI/Crossfire support at launch
• Multiple save file support – This feature allows players to have up to three auto save slots for three separate playthroughs.
• Multi-monitor support with borderless mode and advanced settings that allow for customized placement of menu and HUD.
• Multiple windowed mode options – Windowed mode with flexible/resizable windows, multi-monitor borderless.

Improved Graphic Features
• Screen Space Reflections
• Headlight Shadows – Support for additional shadows from car headlights
• Extra Details Options – Increases the level of detail for all objects in the game, and adds more details to objects in the distance.

Improved Graphics Options
• FOV sliders
• Pixel Density sliders
• Sharpness sliders
• Ultra Textures pack available at launch

• Anti-aliasing options:
o TXAA
o MSAA
o Post Processing Anti-Aliasing options SMAA and FXAA

Improved Keyboard/Mouse controls
• Full adaptation with mouse and keyboard
• We’re using raw mouse input to reduce latency and use the Windows hardware cursor throughout the game without any additional signal filtering to smooth or accelerate mouse movement by default
• Advanced keyboard support – Keyboard hotkeys for every menu and app for faster access. Additionally, all hotkeys can be remapped.
• Mouse-centric UI – Any UI screen, menus or smartphone app supports full mouse interaction, so the player can finish any UI task with the mouse only. Everything is clickable and has appropriate button states.
• Toggle/Hold modes for different controls (aim, sprint, walk, inventory, etc.)

Driving
• Driving has been adapted to suit the keyboard controls, with adjustable steering sensitivity. Same goes for driving camera sensitivity and auto-centering camera behavior

Gamepad support
• On-the-fly switching between mouse and keyboard to gamepad, without any additional options, UI will just switch to gamepad mode
• Supported gamepads: Xbox One controller, PlayStation 4 DualShock controller

Kali Linux 2016.2 Release

New KDE, MATE, LXDE, e17, and Xfce Builds

Although users are able to build and customize their Kali Linux ISOs however they wish, we often hear people comment about how they would love to see Kali with $desktop_environment instead of GNOME. We then engage with those people passionately, about how they can use live-build to customize not only their desktop environment but pretty much every aspect of their ISO, together with the ability to run scripted hooks at every stage of the ISO creation process – but more often than not, our argument is quickly lost in random conversation. As such, we’ve decided to expand our “full” 64bit releases with additional Desktop Environment flavored ISOs, specifically KDE, Mate, LXDE and Enlightenment. These can now be downloaded via our Kali Download page. For those curious to see what the various Desktop Environments look like, we’ve taken some screenshots for you:

Kali Linux Weekly ISOs

Constantly keeping Kali on the bleeding edge means frequent updates to packages on an ongoing basis. Since our last release several months ago, there’s a few hundred new or updated packages which have been pushed to the Kali repos. This means that anyone downloading an ISO even 3 months old has somewhat of a long “apt-get dist-upgrade” ahead of them. To help avoid this situation, from this release onwards, we’ll be publishing updated weekly builds of Kali that will be available to download via our mirrors. Speaking of mirrors, we are always in need of support in this area – if you’re capable of running a high-bandwidth mirror and would like to support our project, please check out our Kali Mirrors page.

Bug Fixes and OS Improvements

During these past few months, we’ve been busy adding new relevant tools to Kali as well as fixing various bugs and implementing OS enhancements. For example, something as simple as adding HTTPS support in busybox now allows us to preseed Kali installations securely over SSL. This is a quick and cool feature to speed up your installations and make them (almost) unattended, even if you don’t have a custom built ISO.

To set a preseed file during an install process, choose the “install” option, then hit “tab” and enter the preseed directive, together with a URL pointing to your actual preseed file.

preseed/url=https://www.kali.org/dojo/preseed.cfg

Kali “sana” Repositories Retired

We announced the “sana” release EOL a few months ago along with its public repositories. We’ve given a few months grace and are now finally purging the “sana” repositories from our servers. For anyone who still needs them, they can be found archived at old.kali.org.

Exciting News Coming Up!

We are really excited about these changes to Kali as we continue to improve and expand the best Linux-based penetration testing framework around. Beyond these distribution changes, there have been a number of other project-related events such as the multitude of times that Kali has been featured on the hit USA network series Mr Robot and the Official Kali Linux Twitter account becoming a verified account.

We have a lot of exciting announcements that will be coming in the next few weeks, so if you are not already following us on Twitter, be sure to do so! If you are attending the ekoparty conference we will be there doing the Kali Dojo, so be sure to drop by and say hello. And as always, if you find any issues in this new release of Kali, be sure to report it on our bug tracker.

source: http://kali.org

Download video from YouTube directly

If you want to download video from YouTube directly just type ‘ss’ before YouTube in url as you can see below

it will take you to Download YouTube Videos, Facebook and many others! website

this way you can download video from YouTube directly.

How to install certificate in android

WHY Certificate?

Well, certificate helps you a lot in many different ways, it allows you to access websites which might be blocked by your firewall.

Just see the video below :

Smartphone Hacks

Want to know which app was used last time in your phone is pretty much easy by moving to recent app history or app switcher like this…

But what if someone has cleared it….don't worry I'm with you.

Open your phone dialer and press *#*#4636#*#*

It will open up something like this.

Click on Usage Statistics.

Something like this will open up.

Move to Sort by - dropdown menu.

click on last time used.

All done now see the statistics with full details.

I was using quora last time !

( Works on snapdragon chipsets only. Press. *#*#4636#*#* on your phone to check it now.)

This code isn't limited to this use only.

It has too many handy features also.

Look this. .

Or this..

Or this..

Hope you'll have your hands on this now.

Pokemon GO

Here are some facts about Pokemon GO —

• It has 2 times the number of downloaders of tinder.
• Nintendo stock is up by over 50% since Pokémon GO came out.
• It is developed by Niantic Labs which used to be an internal startup at Google.
• The Pokemon servers are crashing as millions are playing the game at the same time.
• Pokemon Go requires users to walk around and explore their real-life surroundings in search of Pokemon. This has apparently inspired gamers to get outdoors and get moving.
• Gizmodo predicts that millions of young Americans will eventually learn the metric system because of Pokémon GO, which displays distance in kilometers instead of miles.

Youtube Hacks

Everyone uses Youtube for various reasons (me for entertainment :P) but sometimes knowing a little bit of tweak saves a lot of time and efforts for us.

Here are some Youtube hacks (tweaks basically) which will make your life easy:

1.Add “/leanback” (without quotes) at the end of video url and see the magic.

e.g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVshimAZXCk/leanback

notice the /leanback at the last of video URL

2.Just put “ss” befor the video URL and download it without any downloader

e.g  https://www.ssyoutube.com/watch?v=RVshimAZXCk

NOTE: you have to put “ss” after” www ”

PC games you should try

Few of the most amazing PC games  so far are as follows:
1. Crysis 3

With a lot of power-ups and wonderful suit upgrades, this game is addictive.
2. Tom Clancy Splinter Cell Conviction-Blacklist

Again extremely well defined graphics and wonderful gameplay. A must play for every gamer.
3. Far Cry 3

Graphics are a treat for eyes and one of the best shooter games which will definitely create an adrenaline rush.
4. GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas

These two games were the best of their time. (feeling nostalgic)
5. Elder Scroll Skyrim V

The most diverse fantasy game, the magic and combat skills are fantastic.

6. Counter Strike 1.6

How can I forget this. The most famous and addictive games. This game teaches us graphics is not the only thing on which a game sells.

Backdoor attacks

The today’s business environment, companies must do everything in their power to prevent network breaches. With attacks coming from nearly all sides, it can sometimes be difficult to ensure that every vector and point of entry is protected.

Recently, there has been an increase in backdoor attacks. Here, we’ll take a look at just what a backdoor attack entails, what makes them such a dangerous risk factor and how enterprises can protect themselves.

The basics of a backdoor attack
According to Trend Micro’s report, “Backdoor Use in Targeted Attacks,” applications that allow for remote access to computers – known as backdoors – are often used for targeted attacks. In these types of breaches, hackers leverage backdoor programs to access the victim’s network. The benefit of this attack vector is that the backdoor itself can help cybercriminals break into the infrastructure without being discovered.

“Often initially used in the second (point of entry) or third (command-and-control [C&C]) stage of the targeted attack process, backdoors enable threat actors to gain command and control of their target network,” report authors Dove Chiu. Shih-Hao Weng and Joseph Chiu wrote. “In fact, research reveals that many of the backdoors used in targeted attacks have been especially designed with the ability to bypass any kind of intrusion detection system (IDS).”

Intrusion strategies in backdoor attacks
Backdoors not only provide a disguised point of entry for hackers, but can also offer a number of strategies for intrusion. Trend Micro’s report noted that these include:

• Port binding: Utilized before firewalls were commonplace, port binding involves specific information configurations to reveal where and how messages are transmitted and delivered within the network.
• Connect-back: Once firewalls were put in place on many networks, hackers began using the connect-back approach, where backdoors are leveraged to connect the targeted systems to cybercriminals’ C&C server systems. This also allows for a reverse connection from the servers to the victim platform through ports not under firewall protection.
• Connect availability use: This strategy involves the use of several malware samples to not only breach the network, but remain there undetected for long periods of time. This extends the window hackers have to steal sensitive data from the target. The first malware, or “first-line backdoor,” serves as a platform to download the second sample, the “second-line backdoor,” which performs the actual theft of information.
• Legitimate platform abuse: The report noted that abusing legitimate platforms has become more common especially as hackers must now work harder to side-step security systems. Within this strategy, cybercriminals abuse a valid platform – like a blog, for example – and utilize it to for the storage of C&C server data.

These are just a few attack strategies that can be carried out with backdoors. Trend Micro noted that other approaches include common services protocol or file header abuse, protocol or port listening, custom DNS lookup use and port reuse.

In addition, Tripwire noted that software isn’t the only system that can have a backdoor. Hardware componentsincluding authentication tokens, network appliances, surveillance systems and certain communication infrastructure devices can also have malicious backdoors allow for cybercriminal intrusion.

How to protect against backdoor attacks
Cloud Security Alliance noted that because many backdoor attacks are known for being able to prevent detection by many discovery tools, protecting against them can be difficult. However, there are strategies that can be leveraged to help reduce the risk of a breach of this kind.

First and foremost, companies should have firewalls in place that can block entry points from all but authorized users. This is especially important as execution of a port binding backdoor attack is nearly impossible should a firewall be present.

In addition, Cloud Security Alliance encouraged robust network monitoring particularly of any open source-based programs.

“Unlike surpassing huge barriers in influencing (or writing) an industry standard, open-source projects enable someone to choose any of the missions of open-source projects in hundreds of mirroring sites opening up a broad surface of attack,” Cloud Security Alliance stated.

In this way, businesses should be choosy about the open-source applications they use and ensure that they come from a reputable source.

Network monitoring is also key when it comes to protection from backdoor attacks. Monitoring can help guarantee that any suspicious activity – such as information being gathered by a command and control server – is flagged with network administrators. IT staff can then react quickly to get to the root of the issue, stop the attack and mitigate any damage.

Another protection measure involves the use of an anti-malware solution. Trend Micro noted that because some backdoor attacks include the emulation of network traffic, the network activity therefore appears genuine and does not set off any alarms. However, an anti-malware system like Trend Micro OfficeScan is able to detect backdoors if this kind.

Backdoor attacks present a considerable threat to businesses, but understanding how they happen and how they can be prevented can go a long way toward better protection.

Booting Kali Over HTTP

Booting Kali Over HTTP

The basic premise involves using the Kali Live kernel and initrd for booting, while calling the Kali root filesystem through an HTTP URI. The initial boot process can take place over the network (via PXE) or a minimal Kali Linux USB/CD – while the remote root filesystem is a squashfs image served over HTTP via an Apache server.

In this example, the initial kernelboot via PXE and we will obtain the kernel, initrd, and squashfs filesystem we need for this exercise from a full Kali Linux release ISO from within the “live” directory. We copy the initrd and kernel into the TFTP root folder, while the squashfs file goes into the web root:

mkdir /mnt/iso
mount -o loop kali-linux-1.1.0a-amd64.iso /mnt/iso/
cp /mnt/iso/live/{initrd.img,vmlinuz} /tftpboot/
cp /mnt/iso/live/filesystem.squashfs /var/www/
apachectl start

In this example, we’ll obtain the kernel, initrd, and squashfs filesystem from a full Kali Linux Bootable ISO (in the “live” directory) and then proceed to boot the kernel and initrd over PXE. Once the Kali boot screen appears, we need to alter a few boot parameters as shown in the screen shot below:

As the squashfs filesystem loads to RAM, the filesystem itself can’t be larger than the amount of RAM available on the computer – meaning that for booting a standard Kali ISO as shown above, we’d need at least 4 GB of RAM. Of course, this can be remedied by making a smaller, custom Kali ISO images, perhaps with different toolsets and uses.

Source : offensive security 

Kali linux or zANTI ?

Kali linux or zANTI?

Well most of us will be knowing about Kali Linux ,next version of Backtrack,but some might be unaware of zAnti,

Let me describe it first,

zAnti is basically the mobile version of backtrack, no no! it's not provided by backtrack but its functionality is same as it.

you can check it more about it on Google.

On comparing I personally felt that ZAnti is more handy than Kali Linux,

Kali may be powerful but overall I would prefer zAnti for beginners to pentesting as it:

• Does not involves those crappy command lines.
• Excellent GUI
• Powerful

Most common software bugs

Following are the most common software errors that aid you in software testing. This helps you to identify errors systematically and increases the efficiency and productivity of software testing. This topic surely helps in finding more bugs more effectively :) . Also, you can use this as a checklist while preparing test cases and while performing testing.

Types of errors with examples:
User Interface Errors: Missing/Wrong Functions, Doesn’t do what the user expects, Missing information, Misleading, Confusing information, Wrong content in Help text, Inappropriate error messages. Performance issues - Poor responsiveness, Can't redirect output, inappropriate use of key board.

Error Handling: Inadequate - protection against corrupted data, tests of user input, version control; Ignores – overflow, data comparison, Error recovery – aborting errors, recovery from hardware problems.

Boundary related errors: Boundaries in loop, space, time, memory, mishandling of cases outside boundary.

Calculation errors: Bad Logic, Bad Arithmetic, Outdated constants, Calculation errors, Incorrect conversion from one data representation to another, Wrong formula, Incorrect approximation.

Initial and Later states: Failure to - set data item to zero, to initialize a loop-control variable, or re-initialize a pointer, to clear a string or flag, Incorrect initialization.

Control flow errors: Wrong returning state assumed, Exception handling based exits, Stack underflow/overflow, Failure to block or un-block interrupts, Comparison sometimes yields wrong result, Missing/wrong default, Data Type errors.

Errors in Handling or Interpreting Data: Un-terminated null strings, Overwriting a file after an error exit or user abort.

Race Conditions: Assumption that one event or task finished before another begins, Resource races, Tasks starts before its prerequisites are met, Messages cross or don't arrive in the order sent.

Load Conditions: Required resources are not available, No available large memory area, Low priority tasks not put off, Doesn't erase old files from mass storage, Doesn't return unused memory.

Hardware: Wrong Device, Device unavailable, Underutilizing device intelligence, Misunderstood status or return code, Wrong operation or instruction codes.

Source, Version and ID Control: No Title or version ID, Failure to update multiple copies of data or program files.

Testing Errors: Failure to notice/report a problem, Failure to use the most promising test case, Corrupted data files, Misinterpreted specifications or documentation, Failure to make it clear how to reproduce the problem, Failure to check for unresolved problems just before release, Failure to verify fixes, Failure to provide summary report.

:)

GOOGLE CHROME EXPLOITS ON ANDROID

Well after a long time ,I am back with some other interesting stuffs about Google chrome which you owe on your android devices.

Its all about Accessing  developer mode in Google Chrome on your Android 

Which is basically getting at the back end of your Google Chrome and manipulating its properties like  dedicating amount of RAM it will use,tracking IP Addresses and many other developer options.

So lets begin 

1.Open Google chrome

2. Type the following command without "."

"chrome://chrome-urls/"

3. You would see various kinds of commands like chrome://flags, chrome://chrome-urls, ( let i have to allocate RAM that chrome would use then I would go for “chrome://flags”

4. For accessing all kinds of Chrome Developer keywords just type “chrome://chrome-urls”

5. Bingo  

enjoy the freedom to manipulate things as per as your need
copyright of www.itsvivek.net

Man-in-the-middle attack

Description

The man-in-the middle attack intercepts a communication between two systems. For example, in an http transaction the target is the TCP connection between client and server. Using different techniques, the attacker splits the original TCP connection into 2 new connections, one between the client and the attacker and the other between the attacker and the server, as shown in figure 1. Once the TCP connection is intercepted, the attacker acts as a proxy, being able to read, insert and modify the data in the intercepted communication.

The MITM attack is very effective because of the nature of the http protocol and data transfer which are all ASCII based. In this way, it’s possible to view and interview within the http protocol and also in the data transferred. So, for example, it’s possible to capture a session cookie reading the http header, but it’s also possible to change an amount of money transaction inside the application context,

The MITM attack could also be done over an https connection by using the same technique; the only difference consists in the establishment of two independent SSL sessions, one over each TCP connection. The browser sets a SSL connection with the attacker, and the attacker establishes another SSL connection with the web server. In general the browser warns the user that the digital certificate used is not valid, but the user may ignore the warning because he doesn’t understand the threat. In some specific contexts it’s possible that the warning doesn’t appear, as for example, when the Server certificate is compromised by the attacker or when the attacker certificate is signed by a trusted CA and the CN is the same of the original web site.

MITM is not only an attack technique, but is also usually used during the development step of a web application or is still used for Web Vulnerability assessments.

MITM Attack tools

There are several tools to realize a MITM attack. These tools are particularly efficient in LAN network environments, because they implement extra functionalities, like the arp spoof capabilities that permit the interception of communication between hosts.

• PacketCreator
• Ettercap
• Dsniff
• Cain e Abel

MITM Proxy only tools

Proxy tools only permit interactiion with the parts of the HTTP protocol, like the header and the body of a transaction, but do not have the capability to intercept the TCP connection between client and server. To intercept the communication, it’s necessary to use other network attack tools or configure the browser.

• OWASP WebScarab
• Paros Proxy
• Burp Proxy
• ProxyFuzz
• Odysseus Proxy
• Fiddler (by Microsoft)

Heartbleed Bug

The Heartbleed Bug

The Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library. This weakness allows stealing the information protected, under normal conditions, by the SSL/TLS encryption used to secure the Internet. SSL/TLS provides communication security and privacy over the Internet for applications such as web, email, instant messaging (IM) and some virtual private networks (VPNs).

The Heartbleed bug allows anyone on the Internet to read the memory of the systems protected by the vulnerable versions of the OpenSSL software. This compromises the secret keys used to identify the service providers and to encrypt the traffic, the names and passwords of the users and the actual content. This allows attackers to eavesdrop on communications, steal data directly from the services and users and to impersonate services and users.

What leaks in practice?

We have tested some of our own services from attacker's perspective. We attacked ourselves from outside, without leaving a trace. Without using any privileged information or credentials we were able steal from ourselves the secret keys used for our X.509 certificates, user names and passwords, instant messages, emails and business critical documents and communication.

How to stop the leak?

As long as the vulnerable version of OpenSSL is in use it can be abused. Fixed OpenSSL has been released and now it has to be deployed. Operating system vendors and distribution, appliance vendors, independent software vendors have to adopt the fix and notify their users. Service providers and users have to install the fix as it becomes available for the operating systems, networked appliances and software they use.

---

Q&A

What is the CVE-2014-0160?

CVE-2014-0160 is the official reference to this bug. CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) is the Standard for Information Security Vulnerability Names maintained byMITRE. Due to co-incident discovery a duplicate CVE, CVE-2014-0346, which was assigned to us, should not be used, since others independently went public with the CVE-2014-0160 identifier.

Why it is called the Heartbleed Bug?

Bug is in the OpenSSL's implementation of the TLS/DTLS (transport layer security protocols) heartbeat extension (RFC6520). When it is exploited it leads to the leak of memory contents from the server to the client and from the client to the server.

What makes the Heartbleed Bug unique?

Bugs in single software or library come and go and are fixed by new versions. However this bug has left large amount of private keys and other secrets exposed to the Internet. Considering the long exposure, ease of exploitation and attacks leaving no trace this exposure should be taken seriously.

Is this a design flaw in SSL/TLS protocol specification?

No. This is implementation problem, i.e. programming mistake in popular OpenSSL library that provides cryptographic services such as SSL/TLS to the applications and services.

What is being leaked?

Encryption is used to protect secrets that may harm your privacy or security if they leak. In order to coordinate recovery from this bug we have classified the compromised secrets to four categories: 1) primary key material, 2) secondary key material and 3) protected content and 4) collateral.

What is leaked primary key material and how to recover?

These are the crown jewels, the encryption keys themselves. Leaked secret keys allow the attacker to decrypt any past and future traffic to the protected services and to impersonate the service at will. Any protection given by the encryption and the signatures in the X.509 certificates can be bypassed. Recovery from this leak requires patching the vulnerability, revocation of the compromised keys and reissuing and redistributing new keys. Even doing all this will still leave any traffic intercepted by the attacker in the past still vulnerable to decryption. All this has to be done by the owners of the services.

What is leaked secondary key material and how to recover?

These are for example the user credentials (user names and passwords) used in the vulnerable services. Recovery from this leak requires owners of the service first to restore trust to the service according to steps described above. After this users can start changing their passwords and possible encryption keys according to the instructions from the owners of the services that have been compromised. All session keys and session cookies should be invalidated and considered compromised.

What is leaked protected content and how to recover?

This is the actual content handled by the vulnerable services. It may be personal or financial details, private communication such as emails or instant messages, documents or anything seen worth protecting by encryption. Only owners of the services will be able to estimate the likelihood what has been leaked and they should notify their users accordingly. Most important thing is to restore trust to the primary and secondary key material as described above. Only this enables safe use of the compromised services in the future.

What is leaked collateral and how to recover?

Leaked collateral are other details that have been exposed to the attacker in the leaked memory content. These may contain technical details such as memory addresses and security measures such as canaries used to protect against overflow attacks. These have only contemporary value and will lose their value to the attacker when OpenSSL has been upgraded to a fixed version.

Recovery sounds laborious, is there a short cut?

After seeing what we saw by "attacking" ourselves, with ease, we decided to take this very seriously. We have gone laboriously through patching our own critical services and are dealing with possible compromise of our primary and secondary key material. All this just in case we were not first ones to discover this and this could have been exploited in the wild already.

How revocation and reissuing of certificates works in practice?

If you are a service provider you have signed your certificates with a Certificate Authority (CA). You need to check your CA how compromised keys can be revoked and new certificate reissued for the new keys. Some CAs do this for free, some may take a fee.

Am I affected by the bug?

You are likely to be affected either directly or indirectly. OpenSSL is the most popular open source cryptographic library and TLS (transport layer security) implementation used to encrypt traffic on the Internet. Your popular social site, your company's site, commerce site, hobby site, site you install software from or even sites run by your government might be using vulnerable OpenSSL. Many of online services use TLS to both to identify themselves to you and to protect your privacy and transactions. You might have networked appliances with logins secured by this buggy implementation of the TLS. Furthermore you might have client side software on your computer that could expose the data from your computer if you connect to compromised services.

How widespread is this?

The most notable software using OpenSSL are the open source web servers like Apache and nginx. The combined market share of just those two out of the active sites on the Internet was over 66% according toNetcraft's April 2014 Web Server Survey. Furthermore OpenSSL is used to protect for example email servers (SMTP, POP and IMAP protocols), chat servers (XMPP protocol), virtual private networks (SSL VPNs), network appliances and wide variety of client side software. Fortunately many large consumer sites are saved by their conservative choice of SSL/TLS termination equipment and software. Ironically smaller and more progressive services or those who have upgraded to latest and best encryption will be affected most. Furthermore OpenSSL is very popular in client software and somewhat popular in networked appliances which have most inertia in getting updates.

What versions of the OpenSSL are affected?

Status of different versions:

• OpenSSL 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f (inclusive) are vulnerable
• OpenSSL 1.0.1g is NOT vulnerable
• OpenSSL 1.0.0 branch is NOT vulnerable
• OpenSSL 0.9.8 branch is NOT vulnerable

Bug was introduced to OpenSSL in December 2011 and has been out in the wild since OpenSSL release 1.0.1 on 14th of March 2012. OpenSSL 1.0.1g released on 7th of April 2014 fixes the bug.

How common are the vulnerable OpenSSL versions?

The vulnerable versions have been out there for over two years now and they have been rapidly adopted by modern operating systems. A major contributing factor has been that TLS versions 1.1 and 1.2 came available with the first vulnerable OpenSSL version (1.0.1) and security community has been pushing the TLS 1.2 due to earlier attacks against TLS (such as the BEAST).

How about operating systems?

Some operating system distributions that have shipped with potentially vulnerable OpenSSL version:

• Debian Wheezy (stable), OpenSSL 1.0.1e-2+deb7u4
• Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS, OpenSSL 1.0.1-4ubuntu5.11
• CentOS 6.5, OpenSSL 1.0.1e-15
• Fedora 18, OpenSSL 1.0.1e-4
• OpenBSD 5.3 (OpenSSL 1.0.1c 10 May 2012) and 5.4 (OpenSSL 1.0.1c 10 May 2012)
• FreeBSD 10.0 - OpenSSL 1.0.1e 11 Feb 2013
• NetBSD 5.0.2 (OpenSSL 1.0.1e)
• OpenSUSE 12.2 (OpenSSL 1.0.1c)

Operating system distribution with versions that are not vulnerable:

• Debian Squeeze (oldstable), OpenSSL 0.9.8o-4squeeze14
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
• FreeBSD 8.4 - OpenSSL 0.9.8y 5 Feb 2013
• FreeBSD 9.2 - OpenSSL 0.9.8y 5 Feb 2013
• FreeBSD 10.0p1 - OpenSSL 1.0.1g (At 8 Apr 18:27:46 2014 UTC)
• FreeBSD Ports - OpenSSL 1.0.1g (At 7 Apr 21:46:40 2014 UTC)

How can OpenSSL be fixed?

Even though the actual code fix may appear trivial, OpenSSL team is the expert in fixing it properly so fixed version 1.0.1g or newer should be used. If this is not possible software developers can recompile OpenSSL with the handshake removed from the code by compile time option-DOPENSSL_NO_HEARTBEATS.

Should heartbeat be removed to aid in detection of vulnerable services?

Recovery from this bug might have benefitted if the new version of the OpenSSL would both have fixed the bug and disabled heartbeat temporarily until some future version. Majority, if not almost all, of TLS implementations that responded to the heartbeat request at the time of discovery were vulnerable versions of OpenSSL. If only vulnerable versions of OpenSSL would have continued to respond to the heartbeat for next few months then large scale coordinated response to reach owners of vulnerable services would become more feasible. However, swift response by the Internet community in developing online and standalone detection tools quickly surpassed the need for removing heartbeat altogether.

Can I detect if someone has exploited this against me?

Exploitation of this bug does not leave any trace of anything abnormal happening to the logs.

Can IDS/IPS detect or block this attack?

Although the heartbeat can appear in different phases of the connection setup, intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS) rules to detect heartbeat have been developed. Due to encryption differentiating between legitimate use and attack cannot be based on the content of the request, but the attack may be detected by comparing the size of the request against the size of the reply. This implies that IDS/IPS can be programmed to detect the attack but not to block it unless heartbeat requests are blocked altogether.

Has this been abused in the wild?

We don't know. Security community should deploy TLS/DTLS honeypots that entrap attackers and to alert about exploitation attempts.

Can attacker access only 64k of the memory?

There is no total of 64 kilobytes limitation to the attack, that limit applies only to a single heartbeat. Attacker can either keep reconnecting or during an active TLS connection keep requesting arbitrary number of 64 kilobyte chunks of memory content until enough secrets are revealed.

Is this a MITM bug like Apple's goto fail bug was?

No, this does not require a man in the middle attack (MITM). Attacker can directly contact the vulnerable service or attack any user connecting to a malicious service. However in addition to direct threat the theft of the key material allows man in the middle attackers to impersonate compromised services.

Does TLS client certificate authentication mitigate this?

No, heartbeat request can be sent and is replied to during the handshake phase of the protocol. This occurs prior to client certificate authentication.

Does OpenSSL's FIPS mode mitigate this?

No, OpenSSL Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) mode has no effect on the vulnerable heartbeat functionality.

Does Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) mitigate this?

Use of Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS), which is unfortunately rare but powerful, should protect past communications from retrospective decryption. Please seehttps://twitter.com/ivanristic/status/453280081897467905how leaked tickets may affect this.

Can heartbeat extension be disabled during the TLS handshake?

No, vulnerable heartbeat extension code is activated regardless of the results of the handshake phase negotiations. Only way to protect yourself is to upgrade to fixed version of OpenSSL or to recompile OpenSSL with the handshake removed from the code.

Who found the Heartbleed Bug?

This bug was independently discovered by a team of security engineers (Riku, Antti and Matti) at Codenomicon and Neel Mehta of Google Security, who first reported it to the OpenSSL team. Codenomicon team found heartbleed bug while improving the SafeGuard feature in Codenomicon's Defensics security testing tools and reported this bug to the NCSC-FI for vulnerability coordination and reporting to OpenSSL team.

What is the Defensics SafeGuard?

The SafeGuard feature of the Codenomicon's Defensics security testtools automatically tests the target system for weaknesses that compromise the integrity, privacy or safety. The SafeGuard is systematic solution to expose failed cryptographic certificate checks, privacy leaks or authentication bypass weaknesses that have exposed the Internet users to man in the middle attacks and eavesdropping. In addition to the Heartbleed bug the new Defensics TLS Safeguard feature can detect for instance the exploitable security flaw in widely used GnuTLS open source software implementing SSL/TLS functionality and the "goto fail;" bug in Apple's TLS/SSL implementation that was patched in February 2014.

Who coordinates response to this vulnerability?

Immediately after our discovery of the bug on 3rd of April 2014, NCSC-FI took up the task of verifying it, analyzing it further and reaching out to the authors of OpenSSL, software, operating system and appliance vendors, which were potentially affected. However, this vulnerability had been found and details released independently by others before this work was completed. Vendors should be notifying their users and service providers. Internet service providers should be notifying their end users where and when potential action is required.

Is there a bright side to all this?

For those service providers who are affected this is a good opportunity to upgrade security strength of the secret keys used. A lot of software gets updates which otherwise would have not been urgent. Although this is painful for the security community, we can rest assured that infrastructure of the cyber criminals and their secrets have been exposed as well.

What can be done to prevent this from happening in future?

The security community, we included, must learn to find these inevitable human mistakes sooner. Please support the development effort of software you trust your privacy to.Donate money to the OpenSSL project.

Where to find more information?

This Q&A was published as a follow-up to the OpenSSL advisory, since this vulnerability became public on 7th of April 2014. The OpenSSL project has made a statement athttps://www.openssl.org/news/secadv_20140407.txt. NCSC-FI published an advisory athttps://www.cert.fi/en/reports/2014/vulnerability788210.html. Individual vendors of operating system distributions, affected owners of Internet services, software packages and appliance vendors may issue their own advisories.