Author: gpanther

  • All natural numbers are special

    From the department of too-geeky-joke-to-be-funny comes the following one: All natural numbers are special: 0 is special because it is the first natural number 1 is special because it is the neutral element for multiplication 2 is special because it is the first even number 3 is special because it is the first odd prime…

  • Spammers use Google as redirector

    It seems that this isn’t a new thing (see others noticing it here and here), however I’ve been just hit by a couple of these today, so I blog about it 🙂 Google offers a service which creates redirects with arbitrary targets. Just enter http://www.google.com/url?q=<an-url-of-your-wish< and it will issue a 302 permanently moved header and…

  • What is not AJAX?

    Not everything involving browser scripting is AJAX. The following two things are not AJAX: Yellow fading effect on web pages Downloading and running an executable in Internet Explorer if you have your Internet Zone security level set to low.

  • HIPS – just a pretty UI?

    Disclaimer: the viewpoints and ideas expressed here an entirely my own and are by no means representative for any institution I am affiliated with. Also I do not want to offend anybody, since I realize that the amount of work it takes to create some of these programs and the wealth of knowledge one must…

  • Hack the Gibson – episodes 63, 64 and 65

    Read the reason for these posts. Read Steve Gibson’s response. Hello all. I have little time lately to blog. Also the latest episodes of Security Now seem to contain less and less errors, allowing me to do one post for three episodes. Episode #63 Steve Gibson says: But frankly, you know, a personal firewall, a…

  • Cookie viruses? Me thinks not

    The only reader of mine had a question: what is my opinion about cookie viruses? (If you also read this blog, I apologize and also I’m werry happy in this case that I have more than reader. If you have questions or topics you would like me to discuss, please post them in the comments)…

  • How to know what you’ve installed?

    I’m doing a presentation on wireless as a school project (so that it can be included in a book ;)) and came across the following problem: neither OpenOffice 2 nor Gimp can read SVG files so I had to convert them in something which they can display (preferably PNG since it can preserve the transparency…

  • Do NOT simplify when you are explaining!

    Or at least make it very clear when you do so! Simplifications and metaphors are very dangerous because they hide some detail deemed non-important by the person who is using them. But you can’t know in which context your explanation will be read (if you are posting it on the Internet), so be sure to…

  • The perfect solution?

    I’ve been experimenting with different collaboration solutions, and I think I may just have found the one: Socialtext. What I really like: It is open source (just click the for developers link) It is free (if you don’t want the support) It is written in Perl It has an API for manipulating the pages (I…

  • Two contest you might enjoy

    Two contests you might consider checking out if you are a security person: The Hitchhackers Guide to the Galaxy – HTML / scripting oriented The malware analisys quiz 7 from SANS – a challenge oriented more at disassembly, and be aware! this is a real malware sample! Good luck