Zero Day Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution

e-Cop has received reports about a zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer allowing remote code execution being targeted in the wild.

The vulnerability, CVE-2014-1776, is a remote code execution vulnerability. The vulnerability exists in the way that Internet Explorer accesses an object in memory that has been deleted or has not been properly allocated. The vulnerability may corrupt memory in a way that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user within Internet Explorer. An attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit this vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website. This vulnerability has been reported to affect all current versions (IE6 through IE11) of Internet Explorer.

Workaround/ Advices:
Microsoft is currently investigating this issue and no patches are yet available (as of the time of this email was sent).

Microsoft has offered Workarounds and Suggested Actions at the following advisory:
-          https://technet[dot]microsoft[dot]com/en-US/library/security/2963983

xrdp session unable to log on. Hang on sending login info to session manager for CentOS 5

I tried logging on to the linux box using the Remote Desktop Protocol and I was unable to log on. Instead, I had this message below and nothing happens. If I click the "ok" button, it returns to login screen.

connecting to sesman ip 127.0.0.1 port 3350
sesman connect ok
sending login info to session manager, please wait…

I manage to solve the issue by

Step 1: Cleaning up the /tmp/.X11-unix

• See  xrdp_mm_process_login_response: login failed

Step 2: Stop the VNC-Server and xrdp. Uninstall the VNCServer and xrdp to clean up all the processes

# service xrdp stop
# service vnc-server stop 

# yum remove vnc*
# yum remove xrdp

Step 3: Find and clean up the vncserver and xrdp orphan sessions

# ps -afe|grep vnc*
# kill -9 process_id_of_orphaned_vnc_process

# ps -afe|grep xrdp
# kill -9 process_id_of_orphaned_xrdp_process

Step 4: Yum install vnc-server and xrdp and start the services

# yum install vnc-server
# yum install xrdp

# service vnc-server start
# service xrdp start 

Try logging to the Linux Box using Remote Desktop Protocol again.

Installing cp2k on CentOS 6 via yum

CP2K is a program to perform atomistic and molecular simulations of solid state, liquid, molecular, and biological systems.

If you are installing cp2k on the linux box, you may want to use the good old yum. Make sure you have EPEL repository on. For more information, do take a look at Repository of CentOS 6 and Scientific Linux 6

For serial cp2k

# yum install cp2k

For OpenMPI

# yum install cp2k-openmpi

For MPICH2

# yum install cp2k-mpich2 

Using mod_reqtimeout to make HTTP Server less vulnerable for DOS Attack for CentOS

This steps are for CentOS 5 and 6

Step 1: Upgrade Apache HTTP to the latest version

# yum update httpd

Step 2: Edit the httpd.conf.

# vim /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Inside httpd.conf. Scroll all the way to LoadModule.......... section and add the line

LoadModule reqtimeout_module modules/mod_reqtimeout.so

Step 3: Create a /etc/httpd/conf.d/reqtimeout.conf and put in the informationbelow

<ifmodule reqtimeout_module>
RequestReadTimeout header=10-20,minrate=500
RequestReadTimeout body=10,minrate=500
</ifmodule>

Step 4: To check whether the apache module is loaded, do

# apachectl -M

Or

apache2ctl -M

References:

1. Mitigating WAS QID 150085 Slow HTTP POST Vulnerability on Apache

Redhat Summit 2014 Innovation Awards winner. Horray City-State Singapore

From Red Hat

Category: Emerging Technologies
Recognizing the most successful illustration of cutting-edge deployment and business value from Red Hat’s emerging technology portfolio.

Winner: Nanyang Technological University:
Due to high computing demand by researchers and students, Nanyang Technological University, a research-intensive university in Singapore, sought an open hybrid cloud infrastructure to link the school's private cloud with its Amazon Web Services public cloud. The university deployed Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure, Red Hat’s solution for building and managing an open, private Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud based on datacenter virtualization and management technologies. Nanyang Technological University reduced costs by 30 percent by integrating their public and private clouds. The school increased flexibility afforded by the Red Hat and Amazon Web Services cloud solution during computing traffic spikes and provided secure data replication.


- See more at Red Hat Honors Outstanding Open Source Advancement with Eighth Annual Red Hat Innovation Awards

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From Computerworld


Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has emerged as the winner in the Emerging Technology category of the eighth annual Red Hat Innovation Awards.

The award ceremony took place at Red Hat Summit 2014 in San Francisco, California.

NTU is the first to implement a Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure solution in Singapore and is now used as a reference for adoption of hybrid cloud solutions amongst academic institutions locally and in the region.

- See more at: http://www.computerworld.com.sg/tech/industries/nanyang-technological-university-of-singapore-wins-technology-award/#sthash.oiFkcXqK.dpuf