Best Tool for the Job | TechSNAP 80

Show Notes:

Get TechSNAP on your Android:

• Callisto – Android App
• Jupiter Broadcasting – Android App by ShaneQful

Browser Affiliate Extension:

• Jupiter Broadcasting Affiliate Extensions for Chrome and Firefox

Samsung creates new Log Structured File System, F2FS for NAND Flash

• Also known as the Flash-Friendly File System
• A file system designed to take advantage of, and avoid some of the drawbacks to SSDs and other flash based storage devices
• It is based on the concept of a Log Structured File System, with some redesign (LSFS is a very old design, based on assumptions that did not come true)
• What is a Log Structured File System
  • Proposed in 1988
  • Stores data in a circular log file, constantly writing new changes to the head of the log
  • Recovers more easily from unexpected shutdowns
  • Based on the assumption that writes need to be faster, as reads will be almost free due to caching
  • Gains speed, especially on rotary devices because writes are done contiguously, instead of seeking to various places
  • SSDs reduce seek times, making discontiguous reads no longer a performance detriment
  • Requires a garbage collection process, where blocks at the tail of the log that are still in use (not superseded by updated blocks) must be rewritten to the head of the log so that the tail can be overwritten by the new head
  • Most modern implementations are not actually circular, but rather break the disk up into segments, and garbage collect the least used segments
• F2FS was designed by Samsung to allow Android based devices to make better use of their eMMC storage
• F2FS is focused on SSDs and other block devices rather than raw NAND devices
• There are other Log Structured File System implementations such as NILFS and BSD-LFS
• There is a FreeBSD project NANDFS to implement a Log Structured File System on raw NAND devices, removing the controller logic/layer from an SSD and allowing the file system to make all of the decisions

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WoW exploit allows attackers to kill entire cities

• On October 7th, all player and even NPC characters in a number of cities of various servers in the MMO World of Warcraft started dying mysteriously
• Videos show characters just falling over dead in rapid succession
• Forum Thread reporting the issue
• A hotfix has been applied to resolve the issue
• Official Blizzard Response

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Mozilla pulls Firefox 16 from website due to flaw

• Mozilla has removed the Firefox 16 downloads from their website, reverting to offering 15.0.1
• A vulnerability was found in Firefox 16 that could allow a malicious website to determine what URLs you had visited, and have access to the URLs and possibly URL parameters, which could disclose sensitive information or authentication tokens
• The vulnerable version was pulled from the download page less than a day after it was posted
• No users were automatically updated to Firefox 16, only users to manually downloaded it are vulnerable
• All users of Firefox 16 should downgrade to 15.0.1, any users still using 16 will be automatically upgraded to 16.0.1 when it is released
• Firefox 16 was released with patches for 24 known vulnerabilities , 21 of which were labelled critical
• BBC Coverage

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Microsoft issues a slew of bad DMCA requests

• Microsoft has stepped up its automated DMCA requests, causing it to incorrectly ask Google to censor/remove search results linking to AMC Theatres, the BBC, Buzzfeed, CNN, HuffingtonPost, TechCrunch, RealClearPolitics, Rotten Tomatoes, ScienceDirect, Washington Post, Wikipedia, the U.S. Government and many more sites
• In another request the software giant seeks the removal of a URL on Spotify.com
• Claiming to be attempting to prevent unauthorized distribution of the Windows 8 Beta, Microsoft listed 65 “infringing” web pages, nearly half of which have nothing to do with Windows 8

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Thanks to GoDaddy, take a peek at their Data Center:

• Tech.GoDaddy.com – Data Center – YouTube

Feedback:

• What I wish the new hires “knew”.
• What will be in the news the week in October when Allan is at Euro BSD Con?
• Setting up a large scale monitoring system for Linux/Mac/Windows?
  • Often times a function of the driver for the RAID controller, even under Linux/BSD
  • Many controllers offer some type of SNMP agent
• Hegemon8’s batch of questions
• A few Linux SysAdmin questions
• What is an IPKVM?
  • IP-KVM is KVM (keyboard video mouse), over IP
  • Original KVMs allowed you to manage multiple machines from a single keyboard/monitor/mouse
  • IP-KVMs allow you to do this remotely, over the internet, most IP-KVMs also include ‘virtual media’, which allows you to mount DVD or USB images from your client machine, allowing you to rescue or install the OS from across the world
  • I regularly use IP-KVM to manage servers all over europe from my desk
  • Most IP-KVM systems support SSL
• Varnish instead of NGINX in front of Apache?
  • Varnish can be faster, but has no support for something like FastCGI to handle applications
  • Varnish does not support SSL
  • Varnish is probably less useful during a DDoS attack, because it uses 1 thread per connection, whereas NGINX uses a fixed number of threads and is event driven. For a large number of simultaneous connections, NGINX will likely use less system resources
  • Varnish is fast and awesome
• Some guy names Chris asks about ISPs tracking users

Round-Up:

• DHS Issued False ‘Water Pump Hack’ Report; Called It a ‘Success’
• Is TLS provably secure? There is no right answer
• Verizon Details Their Uses for Location Data – Like Tracking Demographics at Large Events
• Cybercrime gang recruiting botmasters for large scale attacks on US banks, because EU banks require 2 factor auth for wire transfers
• Your tax dollars at work: local cops now paid with federal money to troll IRC
• India Minister of Telecom says Telcos should switch to charging only for data, rather than voice calls
• OnLive acquired for just under $5 million
• IETF started HTTP/2.0, including HSTS support