Day: March 11, 2011

Microsoft (of course) claims that there is no exploitable bug in the FINAL release of IE 9 that was used to allow a successful attack by an Irish researcher this week on an earlier (IE8) version. Uh huh.

Microsoft: No Pwn2Own bug in IE9

“Computerworld – Microsoft on Thursday said its Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) does not contain the bug exploited this week by an Irish researcher at the Pwn2Own hacking contest.

But while IE9 is not vulnerable to attacks using the same Pwn2Own exploit, up to 99% of IE’s users may be at risk.

On Wednesday, researcher Stephen Fewer of Harmony Security chained three exploits to hack the older IE8, receiving $15,000 and a Sony laptop from HP TippingPoint for his work.

Shortly after Pwn2Own organizer Aaron Portnoy announced Fewer’s success, Microsoft said it had the vulnerabilities in hand and had started investigating.

IE9, however, will not need a patch. ‘The vulnerability was addressed in the RC [release candidate] and RTM [release to the Web] versions of Internet Explorer 9,’ said Jerry Bryant, a group manager with the Microsoft Security Response Center, in an e-mail reply to questions. ‘This update is already in the pipe for down level-versions of Internet Explorer.’

The “Thunderbolt” technology built into the new MacBook Pros is making big news! Thunderbolt is FAST! Faster than USB 3.0… so fast it can transfer a full DVD movie in 30 seconds! Yep… the mind boggles! WANT!

Canon announces future cameras will have Thunderbolt

“Spurred by Apple’s desire for a consolidated, universal cable, Intel unveiled Thunderbolt last month. Previously known as Lightpeak, Thunderbolt not only offers data throughput speeds that put the likes of USB 3.0 to shame, it also merges your computer’s sundry cables into one super umbilical, capable of doing everything from video to audio to data transfer.

It’s fantastic technology, and we can’t wait to see what happens with it. The only problem is that right now, only Apple is really supporting it in their 2011 line-up of MacBook Pros. Sure, a few of the usual accessory makers have said they’ll release the usual line of external hard drives and the like with Thunderbolt capabilities, but we haven’t seen a lot of other big names join the standard.

Consider that remedied. Camera maker Canon has just thrown its support behind Thunderbolt.”

Apple Insider is reporting that Apple may reach the 1 MILLION mark in iPad 2’s sales by this weekend! DEWD!

Don’t be surprised if Apple sells 1M of iPad 2 this weekend, analyst says

“With expanded availability, two colors and a buzzworthy magnetic case, the iPad 2 could more than triple last year’s sales debut and reach a million units over the weekend, one analyst believes.

Brian White with Ticonderoga Securities said in a note to investors on Friday that he “would not be surprised” if sales of the iPad 2 reach 1 million over the weekend. That would easily best last year’s sales of 1 million in just 28 days.

White said the sales pace will also likely continue into the coming weeks, as Apple plans to launch the iPad 2 in 26 more countries on March 25. Friday’s 5 p.m. sales start applies to the U.S. only.”

I knew there were a lot more reasons to love Google Chrome, my favorite browser! At “Pwn2Own” at the CanSecWest security conference participating hackers attempted to hack the major browsers in the field: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. The idea being that the first team of hackers to be able to do it woudl win a $15,000 prize AND the new computer that they were using at the conference to do the hacking!

Sounds cool! BUT… Chrome was not hackable! Dewd! THAT rocks! Why couldn’t they do it? Because the Chrome browser has a “sandbox” that things run in… which creates an isolated area of memory to run in. Cool stuff!