Sean Michael Kerner

The latest Linux 2.6.27 kernel release is out with support for Webcams as well as a new file system for SSDs (solid state disks) among its improvements. The continued evolution of Linux overall is about pushing the envelope of technology capabilities as it battles for mind and market share against Windows and Unix. “The 2.6.27 […]

Though Apple’s Mac OS X operating system itself is not open source, it does include many components that are — which also means that it’s potentially susceptible to the same vulnerabilities that have affect open source projects. As a result, open source applications in particular are strongly represented on the list of patched items in […]

From the “you might want to check this out” files: The first time I ever saw Mandrake Linux (now Mandriva) was on a retail store shelf. That was probably 9 years ago and to be honest in the last few years I personally haven’t seen Mandriva running much (as I shoulder surf desktops at conferences) […]

COMMENTARY: I spent a few days this week at the SecTor conference in Toronto, an event that isn’t quite the Black Hat of the North (though maybe we could call it the Black Toque of the North). What made this event interesting for me is the mix of technology approaches discussed, ranging from no-tech hacking […]

From the “yet another attack vector” files: Security researcher Robert Hanson (aka Rsnake) is warning of a new class of vulnerabilities that he is referring to as Clickjacking. So far Adobe has already issued an advisory for its Flash player to protect against Clickjacking vulnerabilities that could be exploited. Understanding clickjacking isn’t that easy – […]

TORONTO — Hacking into systems (albeit for testing purposes) is apparently getting easier with the upcoming open source Metasploit 3.2 framework, according to its creator. During a packed presentation at that SecTor conference here yesterday, Metasploit creator H. D. Moore detailed some of the new features in the upcoming Metasploit 3.2 release. They include names […]

From the “hacking for good” files: TORONTO. Johnny ‘I hack stuff’ Long is by his own admission a hacker. Does that mean he’s a bad dude? No – not even close. Long is in Toronto at the SecTor conference giving a keynote on No Tech Hacking. Before he started his keynote he began with a […]

From the “so that’s what $1 billion buys” files: MySQL co-founder David Axmark is leaving Sun. MySQL developer Kaj Arno broke the news on his blog in which he copied parts of Axmark’s resignation letter in which he rages against the authority of Sun. I have thought about my role at Sun and decided that […]

From the “not all presentations are created equal” files: TORONTO. The term Google Hacking is not a new one – and it’s definitely an interesting topic to learn about how you can use Google to attack or protect sites. That was the promise of the Googless session at SecTor run by OWASP researcher Christian Heinrich. […]

TORONTO. One of the things missing at the Black Hat Las Vegas event this year was a talk by H D Moore, creator of the open source Metasploit hacking framework and one of the most influential hackers on Earth. Back in the summer I had emailed Moore to see what was going on – and […]

From the “what there is more to open source than just Linux?” files: As I had predicted earlier this year LinuxWorld is no more. Well not quite. LinuxWorld the big Linux show that occurs ever year in San Francisco is morphing into a new show called OpenSource World.  The re-naming follows a move by O’Reilly […]

From the “IP addresses alone are not enough” files: Aza Raskin is set to announce today a new Mozilla Labs project called Geode which is a geotagging effort. Identifying content by location isn’t new for the web, IP addresses generally speaking can be used for geotargetting purposes but geotagging on the client side browser is […]