16 Sep 2006
Hacker Finds Multiple PDF Backdoors

Wonderful! One less safe format for documents! You'd think Adobe would've learned from the M$ macro virus fiasco of a few years back, but apparently they can't resist adding more and more "features" with bigger and bigger holes.

Eweek.com has a story about a British security researcher figuring out a way to manipulate legitimate features in Adobe PDF files to open backdoors for computer attacks. David Kierznowski, a penetration testing expert specializing in Web application testing, has released proof-of-concept code and two sample PDF files to demonstrate how the Adobe Reader program can be rigged to launch Web-based attacks without any user action. He claims there are least seven different ways to backdoor a PDF.

(link) [Slashdot]

07:43 /Technology | 2 comments | permanent link

iPod fans 'shunning iTunes store'

I'm not so sure we're "shunning" it - we're just taking our existing collections and putting them we we can listen anytime. I'm pretty typical here, according to the article, as our of 1598 songs in my iTunes library, only 74 were purchased from the iTunes Store. That's about 4.63%. I bought the songs I wanted, by the piece. I've only purchased two complete albums, because it was actually cheaper to buy them from iTunes than it was from a store (due to the number of songs on each, I suspect).

In short, I think we're doing exactly what Apple expected. At least they don't seem to be complaining about sales volume...

A report into the habits of iPod owners reveals they prefer free music to tracks they have to pay for.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

07:42 /Technology | 4 comments | permanent link

Unsafe on Any Plate

Earthbound Farms Bagged Fresh SpinachWell, the truth is out. According to this updated CNN article the item pictured at the left is responsible for the latest E. coli outbreak.

Note the label. Note the USDA Organic seal.

Note also, from the article, that this product is sold under several brand names, including Rave Spinach, Natural Selection Foods, Dole, Earthbound Farm, Trader Joe's, Ready Pac and Green Harvest.

This is factory farmed produce, sprayed down with shit (literally) from a feedlot and foisted onto an unsuspecting public as "organic". The problem is with the USDA here: the standards for getting the organic seal are so arcane and essentially useless as to make the description meaningless.

Hammerstead Farms could probably not get this seal, despite our use of sustainable practices, free ranging animals and absolutely no unsafe feeds - Hel, the only critters we feed additionally are the chickens, and we never use fertilizer or irrigation water (as if we needed that!) from any outside source.

But we have some old fence posts treated with CCA (an arsenic compound). And according to the regs, we'd have to replace all of them, in case the cows cribbed them.

Free range cows don't crib fenceposts - they have real trees with real bark to munch if they get the urge for some heavy fiber. Feedlot cattle will crib fence posts - no trees in your typical feedlot.

My neighbors are soybean and corn guys, and they treat their fields, which are contiguous to my pasture, with various herbicides. They're pretty careful - one look at the weedline around my paddocks would confirm that, but the USDA is worried about toxic runoff, and would insist on a large (at least 50 foot) buffer between me and them before I'd be considered for certification.

Yet the folks producing this spinach got certified.

Here's a fairly good writeup from 2002 on what the standards mean in practice, and why some farmers (like me) won't participate.

As for the folks calling for more government regulation to solve this problem, I can assure them that this farm met the strictest government standards available. And that more regulation would only be used to put folks like me completely out of business, and wouldn't slow down companies like this a lickin' whit.

So understand this: our food supply is inherently unsafe. And there's nothing the government can or will do to make it safe. The safety of your food is up to you: buy local produce and meats, follow your food to the source and know where and from whom it comes. Or hit the local supermarket and roll the dice.

07:35 /Agriculture | 3 comments | permanent link

Charges dropped in Wis. necrophilia case

Ok, we got quite a run going here! Most of my favorite songs from Python, Pratchett and Dr. Demento seem to be coming to life somehow. Remember Jimmy Cross?

I Want My Baby Back

I want my baby back
Gotta have my baby back
I miss her oh so much
Can't live without her touch

[Spoken]
I don't hardly know where to begin. I remember we were cruising home from the Beatles concert. I'd had such a wonderful evening, sitting there watching my baby screaming, and tearing her hair out, and carrying on. She was so full of life. Then, well, we were about three miles from home when all of a sudden it started to rain. And I do mean rain. I couldn't hardly see nothing. Well, we kept driving for about another mile when all of a sudden I see this stalled car right smack in front of me. Well, I wasn't about to slam on the brakes 'cause I didn't have none to start with. So I swerved to the left. And what do I see - some mushhead on a motorcycle headin' right at us. And I knew at last me and my baby were about to meet the leader of the
[Crash sounds]
pack.

Well, when I come to, I looked around
And there was the leader
And there was the pack
And over there was my baby
And over there was my baby
And waaaayyy over there was my baby

I want my baby back
Gotta have my baby back
I miss her oh so much
Can't live without her touch

[Spoken]
It's been many months now since that fateful night. And you know something, I've tried. Believe me, I have tried. But I just can't make it without my baby.

[Digging sounds in background]

So I've decided I'm going to have her back one way or another. Oh, baby, I dig you so much.

[Digging sounds continue, then the sound of metal hitting wood]
Hot dang, pay dirt!

Creaking sound of hinges opening, then a "door" closing]

[Muffled]
I've got my baby back
Now, I've got my baby back
I love her oh so much
Can't live without her touch

I've got my baby back

AP - A judge on Friday dismissed charges of attempted sexual assault against three men accused of trying to dig up a woman's body to have sex with the corpse, noting that Wisconsin has no law against necrophilia.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

07:02 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link