melonBlog

Baton down the hatches (ports)!
here's an interesting article by Brett Glass that explains a bit about TCP/IP and UDP ports, (a subject i need to know alot more about - especially with all those hackers out there trying outdo eachother!) and also gives you some options and utilities to make yourself more informed about whats going on on your machine and what ports you have open to the world. You really should go to grc.com and runs the 'shields up' test to check your system vunerabilities.

Someone from 074.b.004...
I switched off my rule in kerio to filter out attempts to connect to port 135, to see what would happen...

...2 mins later...

Someone from 074.b.004.pth.iprimus.net.au [211.26.97.74], port 4436 wants to connect to port 135 owned by'Generic Host Process for Win32 Services' on your computer

Deny...

...seconds later...

Someone from 211.26.115.41, port 3307 wants to connect to port 135 owned by 'Generic Host Process for Win32 Services' on your computer

Deny...

Someone from 041.a.002.ncl.iprimus.net.au [211.26.132.41], port 3425 wants to connect to port 135 owned by 'Generic Host Process for Win32 Services' on your computer

...re-activate rule!

how sus' is that?! plenty of infected machines out there!

Flash MX 2004 : Actionscript 2.0
::excert from moock-updates::

Macromedia has announced the next version of flash. entitled "Flash MX
2004", the product comes in two flavours now: the regular edition (Flash MX
2004) and a pro edition (Flash MX Professional 2004). the pro edition is
geared towards advanced application developers and high-end video producers.

complete details:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/

I get regular email updates from Colin Moock he really knows his sh#t when it comes to flash! here on his weblog, moockblog, he discusses Actionscript 2.0 and gives examples of the new class constructor. an excellent resource!

worms then firewalls!
Take care! i somehow managed to get this nasty little trojan on my new laptop... how annoying... i was connected for a few minutes yesterday when i got an RPC error telling me my machine was about to shut down...hmmm i thought that cant be right... Gonna have to be alot more diligent from now on as i spent about 10 hours tryng to clean my machine... i think i got the little bugger now but i'll be keeping a close eye on my connection lights for a few weeks! this Trojan waits until you are connected and then downloads an app (msblast.exe) onto your machine and gives the attacker access to run any code on your machine, it also does a Denial of service attack on the windowsupdate.com site, where there is a patch to 'supposedly' fix the vunerability which is an RPC buffer overflow error in XP and leaves a note on the breached machine telling bill gates to stop spening money and fix his fricken software! i'm all for that, but hey get the fuck off my machine! here's some more information and links to some handy clean up tools and firewall software. and finally more info from computer associates.

stepping stone
Arrived back in my old home town yesterday evening... oh my god it's now a reality! it's just a stepping stone, just a stepping stone...that'll be my mantra for the next 3 months... lordy what a slow town. it's gonna be good catching up with a few old friends and i just have my mind set on the future. I fly out on the 11th of November for Nihon, going via Korea as that worked out 600 bucks cheaper... just hope they are not firing nukes when i get there as i'd really love to get to my destination without any radiation burns ;)

Packed everything onto a large truck today and sent it interstate, I'll be following it on Saturday, the house is empty and suddenly the journey ahead seems all the more 'happening'. It's gonna be good catching up with everyone- family, friends- back home, and i just have to make sure i dont spend too much money, so i'm set for the big journey in ju-ichigatsu. Pbs sounds like he's having a great time.