Even though it is the Apple II version written in 6502 assembly language, it was a pleasant experience to dive in the code of that mythical game: As usual there were many fascinating sofware wizardries to discover. The Apple II apparent poor environment for game programming was actually ground to unmatched innovation and creativity : From self-modifying code, in-house bootloader, clever floppy disc format to skewing lookup tables: Prince Of Persia features engineering treasures in every modules. ...

Everything described here is based on a project I completed in early 2011, which was originally started several years earlier. While attending CanSecWest in 2009, Anibal Sacco and Alfredo Ortega from Core Security did a presentation on ’Persistent BIOS Infection’ where they demonstrated how it was possible to patch the BIOS to do some nasty/awesome things. Their Phrack write-up is here: http://www.phrack.com/issues.html?issue=66&id=7. At the time this seemed really cool, but I never ended up getting the chance to try it out. A year later I needed to do a term project for school, so I decided to revisit BIOS hacking, and implement some of it myself. ...

Hace un par de semanas, DynDNS cambió su política de uso de las cuentas gratuitas para incluir una cláusula por la cual es necesario hacer mínimo un login al mes si no se quieren perder los dominios que tengamos: Starting now, if you would like to maintain your free Dyn account, you must log into your account once a month. Failure to do so will result in expiration and loss of your hostname. This activity helps us eliminate hostnames that are no longer needed and/or dormant. Note that an update client will not suffice for this monthly login. ...

Recently, an Android application came to us for analysis. At a glance, we knew this one was special. All strings in the DEX file were encrypted, and the code was obfuscated. The file turned out to be a multi-functional Trojan, capable of the following: sending SMS to premium-rate numbers; downloading other malware programs, installing them on the infected device and/or sending them further via Bluetooth; and remotely performing commands in the console. Now, Kaspersky Lab’s products detect this malicious program as Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a ...

sshpass es un programa que nos permite iniciar sesión en un servidor SSH de forma no interactiva y sin utilizar claves, para lo que deberemos proporcionar la contraseña como argumento del programa. Para conectar a un servidor SSH, es preferible utilizar claves, además de tener en cuenta otros sistemas de seguridad, como la autenticación en dos pasos, pero puede haber escenarios en los que sshpass sea una alternativa a considerar. Su uso es sencillo: ...

I dumped the ROM of a Tamagotchi using the code execution ability I posted previously. I wrote 6502 code that dumped each byte of the memory space of the Tamagotchi, and output it over port A (which is usually the Tamagotchi button input) via SPI. » Natalie Silvanovich | kwartzlab.ca

In March, readers followed along as Nate Anderson, Ars deputy editor and a self-admitted newbie to password cracking, downloaded a list of more than 16,000 cryptographically hashed passcodes. Within a few hours, he deciphered almost half of them. The moral of the story: if a reporter with zero training in the ancient art of password cracking can achieve such results, imagine what more seasoned attackers can do. Imagine no more. We asked three cracking experts to attack the same list Anderson targeted and recount the results in all their color and technical detail Iron Chef style. The results, to say the least, were eye opening because they show how quickly even long passwords with letters, numbers, and symbols can be discovered. ...

No cabe duda de que en los últimos años hemos avanzado mucho en Seguridad de la Información. Poco a poco, entre las empresas comienza a implantarse la idea de que la seguridad es un ámbito al que hay que prestar una atención específica e independiente, más allá de lo que muchos consideran ”los informáticos”. Sin embargo, si no es bueno caer en el catastrofismo, no debemos ser demasiado indulgentes: queda mucho camino por recorrer y los avances no siempre se producen a la velocidad a la que, afortunadamente para los delincuentes, serían recomendables o deseables. A diario se producen noticias de empresas u organizaciones con una fuerte inversión en seguridad cuya infraestructura tecnológica es vulnerada, lo que da una idea del desequilibrio de fuerzas existente. ...

This article describes linux booting process in detail, what are the steps involved, which scripts run, what configuration files are read and their order, from turning on the system till getting the login prompt. Although this article projects a general view of booting a Linux system, but some configuration files and commands can be Red Hat specific. You can also download linux boot process pdf version for future reference. » Raghu | expertslogin.com

The algorithm converts pixels from a source image into squares in the Tetris playfield, one row at a time from the bottom up. To generate an individual square, the algorithm assembles a structure consisting of a rectangular region fully supported by a single square protruding from the bottom. When the rectangular region is completed, its rows are cleared, leaving behind the protruding square. Three examples of the process appear below ...