Metasploit 2.2 released
Metasploit
Source: HackInTheBox

The Metasploit Project just released version 2.2 of the Metasploit Framework. This release includes a VNC server payload that can be used with almost any of the Windows exploits. The scary thing about this payload is that the VNC server executes as a new thread in the exploited process; without writing any files to the disk drive. Is this the end as we know it for simple remote command shell exploits?

Minnesota teen pleads guilty to unleashing Blaster variant
source: Security Focus

A Minnesota high school senior pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to unleashing a variant of the "Blaster" Internet worm, which crippled more than a million computers last summer. Jeffrey Lee Parson, 19, of Hopkins, Minn., is likely to face 18 months to three years behind bars after pleading guilty to one count of intentionally causing or attempting to cause damage to a protected computer. He also could be ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution, Assistant U.S. Attorney Annette Hayes said. Parson had pleaded not guilty after his arrest last August, but told U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman on Wednesday: "I downloaded the original Blaster worm, modified it and sent it back out on the Internet." Different versions of the Blaster worm, also known as the LovSan virus, crippled computer networks worldwide last summer. Parsons variant launched a distributed denial-of-service attack against a Microsoft Corp. Windows update Web site as well as personal computers. The government estimates Parsons version alone inundated more than 48,000 computers. Parson was charged here last August because Microsoft is based in suburban Redmond. "We appreciate the fact that the defendant has accepted responsibility for the crime he committed," Microsoft deputy general counsel Nancy Anderson said. Parson is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 2; prosecutors have recommended 18 to 37 months behind bars. He had faced a maximum penalty of 10 years and a $250,000 fine. One of Parsons lawyers, Carol Koller, said Parson was young when he committed the attacks and that being arrested made him realize the seriousness of his crime. "He has not touched a computer since the day of his arrest," she said.

eBay buys into Craigslist
source: CNET

<ì>It was only a matter of time
Craig Newmark, founder of the all-purpose community Web site, says eBay was "interested in us for all the right reasons."

eBay has acquired a 25 percent stake in Craigslist, an online listing of classified ads and forums. The two companies said Friday that the deal will allow them to share "expertise, resources and creativity" on behalf of their online communities. Craigslist lets people post or trade information about jobs, apartments and items for sale in 45 cities. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but eBay said the acquisition will not have any impact on its third-quarter or 2004 financial results. Craiglist was launched by Craig Newmark in 1995 in San Francisco.

Newmark stopped carrying advertisements on his site in 1997 to keep his down-home feel, although he has since started charging employers fees to post jobs in some cities.

"Although I never figured that part of Craigslist might be owned by a public company, Meg Whitman and (eBay founder) Pierre Omidyar showed that they were interested in us for all the right reasons," Newmark said in a posting on his Web log.

One of the strongest features of the Web has been the ability to link people with complementary desires, whether for eBay items, Match.com's relationships, or Craigslist's grab bag of locally advertised goods and services. Driving many of these online successes has been consumers' seemingly insatiable desire to save a few dollars, or--whenever possible--pay nothing at all. "Craigslist is an excellent example of how the Internet brings people together," Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay, said in a statement. "Whether it's to trade goods, help neighbors or speak out on important issues, Craigslist has become the online gathering place for local communities." CNET News.com's John Borland contributed to this report.

Turning Slackers Into Workaholics
Source: Reuters

Procrastinating monkeys were turned into workaholics using a gene treatment to block a key brain compound, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.
Blocking cells from receiving dopamine made the monkeys work harder at a task -- and they were better at it, too, the U.S. government researchers found.

Dr. Barry Richmond and colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health used a new genetic technique to block the D2 gene.
"The gene makes a receptor for a key brain messenger chemical, dopamine," Richmond said in a statement. Dopamine is a message-carrying chemical associated with rewards, movement and a variety of other important functions.

"The gene knockdown triggered a remarkable transformation in the simian work ethic. Like many of us, monkeys normally slack off initially in working toward a distant goal," he added.

For their study, Richmond and colleagues used seven rhesus monkeys. They had to push a lever in response to visual cues on a projection screen, and got a drop of water as a reward.

"They work more efficiently -- make fewer errors -- as they get closer to being rewarded. But without the dopamine receptor, they consistently stayed on-task and made few errors, because they could no longer learn to use visual cues to predict how their work was going to get them a reward."
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Richmond and colleagues said they were trying to figure out how D2 is involved in a type of learning.
Humans and monkeys both use this learning, which involves looking at how much work there is, visually, and deciding how long it will take to complete it.

Monkeys and humans both tend to wait until the last possible minute to finish up the work, and become very adept at estimating how long they have.

Molecular geneticist Edward Ginns created a DNA antisense agent that tricked brain cells into turning off their D2 receptors -- which are molecular doorways used by dopamine to get into cells.

Antisense involves making a kind of mirror-image molecule that looks like a strand of DNA and works to block a gene's action.
Although some employers might take a distinct interest in the work, the NIMH team said they are hoping to understand mental illness.

"In this case, it's worth noting that the ability to associate work with reward is disturbed in mental disorders, including schizophrenia, mood disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder, so our finding of the pivotal role played by this gene and circuit may be of clinical interest," Richmond said.
"For example, people who are depressed often feel nothing is worth the work. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder work incessantly; even when they get rewarded they feel they must repeat the task. In mania, people will work feverishly for rewards that aren't worth the trouble to most of us."

Google says Playboy article could be costly
source: CNET

Search company acknowledges poor timing of interview, which could delay its IPO or even mean a stock buyback.

Google is standing behind a controversial interview of its co-founders in Playboy magazine, even as it acknowledges that the article could put the company in violation of federal rules regarding initial stock offerings.

The search engine company on Friday amended its earlier IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission to take the Playboy article into account. The interview with Sergey Brin and Larry Page, which is hitting the Web and newsstands just days before Google's highly anticipated market debut, could throw a monkey wrench into the proceedings.

The SEC could impose a "cooling off" period that would delay the IPO, currently expected to happen next week, or it could impose a much more expensive requirement that Google buy back shares. The company has said it expects the shares to have an initial price of between $108 and $135 apiece, which could value the company as high as $36 billion.

Despite the last-minute flap, an auction meant to determine the company's initial stock price began as expected Friday morning. The SEC declined to comment on the Playboy article.

KTLA employs stupid people
See, that line is an opinion. KTLA, lied in their stories. I just wanted to get that out. A funny thing is that 'the cyber guy' links to the stories from the stories that he puts on the news. Well the last two stories that offended me and others, he didn't link to. Did he forget the stories or URLs? Well to refresh that idiot Kurt Knutsson and emotionally disturbed Ken Davis here is the run down:

Defcon Cannonball Race:
moloch.org/cannonball
moloch.tv
tommEE.net

Hacker Convention & T-Mobile Sidekick II:
moloch.org
defcon.org

What the hell are you afraid of? That we might post the truth of these stories. Funny thing, wait till next week for the photos and info on the two men that pretended to be "hackers" at the race. I have an audience to entertain.

KTLA.com LA's WB Television Los Angeles Cyberguy

Fucking KTLA!
I hardly swear on this blog but fucking KTLA pretending my race is a secret event? I put out a press release. I advertise this event. Those fuckstick kids with the "secret camera" didn't even go to defcon. They are going to have to watch out. I will post their pictures here, hunt them down. They own DEFCON $80 each. They couldn't even put Defcon Cannonball Run here, they call it race. Fuck twats.
KTLA.com | LA's WB | Television Los Angeles | Cyberguy
http://ktla.trb.com/news/local/feedroom/?track=subnav

From this mornings mail bag
seen on dc-stuff and replied to

Subj: Defcon 12 press coverage -- FUD lives
Monday saw local boy Kurt the Cyber Guy (hey, I don't name these things,
he's funny all by himself) dissing the con, in all its dangers. Using old
footage, from last year mostly, and a bit of the parking lot from this year
(must not have been able to get a badge), we see the evil hackers at work,
yet again. The best was saved for today.

tommEE pickles, fancy hair and all, captured on sekrit cameras, for the
CannonBall Run. The show's been captured on videotape, and my favorite is
the part where they show hidden camera commentary, and then tommEE being
all official like, and saying no, don't break the law, when the visible
camera crew shows up. Nice to know that the run was apparently, well,
compromised, by a camera crew. Videotaped, of course. The web site for KTLA
is rather sparse (i.e. the links for this story are near useless), but I
bet someone can be persuaded to turn it into streaming video (and you
already know who you are).

My guess is that the underground camera men appear on OTHER people's video,
since I saw a few of them there. Be fun to combine the streams, or at least
make still photos of them. Maybe even a wanted poster, or two.

So, anyone see Kurt the Cyber Guy wandering around the con? I didn't, but
then, I wasn't looking. He's blond, just a tiny bit on the pudgy side, and
I believe that his picture is on the KTLA web site. My guess is that he
never made it inside, at least not this year.

---

Subj: re: Defcon 12 press coverage -- FUD lives
Ok. I have egg on my face. The fifth team that never showed at the finish was "undercover producers". Secret Cam glasses and all. I was totally forthcoming with everyone that day. The official news guy, "Ken Davis" harassed us for at least 30 minutes. All of the acts displayed, were with safety in mind. We became annoyed with the style of reporting and started being uncooperative when the reporting became unbearable. ThatÂ?s when the gin came out. I never drank on this video and if anything, this news reporting was slander.

The undercover thing just makes me feel bad. I support defcon and they felt that news should come into a public parking lot, to an advertised event, and make it sound secret. This will not stop this event and if you want to join my next adventure that might re-locate the egg on my face to some other faces, email me.

VIDEO: moloch.tv
PICTURES: moloch.org/cannonball3

I will get the new video on my site as soon as I can since they use my videos in their clip. If any one has any media attorney friends, pass the story.

thanks,

tommEE pickles
moloch.org
moloch.tv
tommEE.net

Ok, I think I recovered from DEFCON.
Well, Defcon has come and gone but I think I still have some battle scars. The 3rd Annual DEFCON Cannonball Run went just fine. We had 5 teams ready to race and before we were off, the local news showed up. A man, who we later found out, Ken Davis, harassed us for 30 minutes on camera. He even had a copy of the website in hand.

Five teams were there, each one of us getting ready for the race. Then the cop showed up. Ken Davis was quickly approached by the cop and Ken showed him the website. We talked with the police and everything was cool. The cop even said "I have real crime to fight". When he left, he said "I am team #7 right".

We (team overslept) arrived at the convention in 4 hours 20 minutes. Team Sodomy arrived in 3 hours 58 minutes, team Bizzaro arrived in 4 hour 22 minutes and team Evil Mofo was late with 7 hours and 15 minutes. The chicago 2600 team never showed.

Thursday night is a blur, and so is Friday. I remember setting up my vendor booth and doing the dunk tank. The dunk tank was very cool. Thanks to everyone who donated.

Sunday was the big shocker. Somehow $1100 of my shirt money went missing. This clobbered me. I tried making it up on Sunday afternoon but shirt sales were only mediocre.

Sunday night was my friends from hektik.org party. Awesome.

I came home monday.
pics at moloch.org/defcon12
video at moloch.tv

Watch your phones
==================================
Airscanner Research Labs Advisory
==================================

Airscanner Research Labs have discovered the first "in the wild" symbian
based trojan.
For more information please read this article:
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=327994&seqNum=1

This is a cell phone based dialer trojan.


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Airscanner Corp
http://www.airscanner.com
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