2.5 Admins 210: Ryzen Up

AMD will patch some old Ryzens against SinkClose now, but their benchmarking methods for newer CPUs didn’t live up to everyday reality. Plus Bcachefs devs annoy Linus Torvalds, the US government sues a college over compliance issues, and Jim disappoints a patron.

 

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News

AMD’s Ryzen 3000 CPUs to get SinkClose patch after all

AMD explains, promises partial fixes for Ryzen 9000 performance problems

Linus Torvalds Begins Expressing Regrets Merging Bcachefs

After cybersecurity lab wouldn’t use AV software, US accuses Georgia Tech of fraud

 

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We were asked about monitoring your network for new device connections.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2.5 Admins 209: Faulty Defaults

Insecure SSH implementations and a weak key that let a researcher control 200 MW of electrical capacity reignites the debate about versioned protocols vs pluggable protocols, follow-up on sharing files from your LAN with people on the Internet, and the pros and cons of encrypted backups.

 

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News/discussion

Researchers find insecure SSH implementations everywhere

512-bit RSA key in home energy system gives control of “virtual power plant”

 

Feedback

Syncthing

Resilio

Send

OnionShare

Warp

Immich

 

Free consulting

We were asked about the pros and cons of encrypted backups.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1Password

Extended Access Management: Secure every sign-in for every app on every device. Support the show and check it out at 1password.com/25a

 

 

 

 

 

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2.5 Admins 208: All CPUs suck

Forcing Windows to undo updates and a separate IPv6 vulnerability, hardware bugs in AMD and Intel CPUs, and using Samba on Linux with Active Directory.

 

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News

Your victim’s Windows PC fully patched? Just force undo its updates and exploit away

CVE-2024-38063 – Security Update Guide – Microsoft – Windows TCP/IP Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Almost unfixable “Sinkclose” bug affects hundreds of millions of AMD chips

SMM LOCK BYPASS

Intel’s crashing 13th and 14th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs: all the news and updates

 

Free Consulting

We were asked about using Samba on Linux with Active Directory.

 

map acl inherit = yes
acl_xattr:ignore system acls = yes
acl_xattr:default acl style = windows

Setting up a Share Using Windows ACLs

 

 

 

 

 

Automox

Check out the brand new Autonomous IT podcast. Listen in as a variety of experts in the IT Operations space discuss the latest Patch Tuesday releases, mitigation tips, and custom automations to help with CVE remediations. Listen now on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2.5 Admins 207: Insecure Boot

Secure boot is compromised on hundreds of devices, Amazon’s desperate attempt to make money from Alexa, and how to decide which open source software on GitHub to trust.

 

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News/discussion

Secure Boot is completely broken on 200+ models from 5 big device makers

old and related

Amazon’s paid Alexa is coming to fill a $25 billion hole dug by Echo devices

Alexa had “no profit timeline,” cost Amazon $25 billion in 4 years

 

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We were asked about how to decide which open source software on GitHub to trust.

 

 

 

 

 

1Password

Extended Access Management: Secure every sign-in for every app on every device. Support the show and check it out at 1password.com/25a

 

 

 

 

 

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2.5 Admins 206: CrowdStruck

How and why the recent huge Windows outage was caused by a bad CrowdStrike update and how it could have been avoided, a hilariously dumb ESXi vulnerability, and using SAS drives with a PCIe card.

 

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News

A closer look at what caused the CrowdStrike Windows crashes

Ransomware gangs are loving this dumb but deadly ESXi flaw

Jake Williams on Twitter

 

Free Consulting

We were asked about using SAS drives with a PCIe card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2.5 Admins 205: Dogs Hate BTC

How a Bitcoin mine made life in a Texas town absolutely miserable, why paying for extended support for end of life Windows versions is just doubling down on technical debt, and the best way to manage router redundancy.

 

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News/discussion

Inside the ‘Nightmare’ Health Crisis of a Texas Bitcoin Town

Enterprises urged to think carefully about Windows 10 extended support options

 

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We were asked about managing router redundancy.

 

 

 

 

 

1Password

Extended Access Management: Secure every sign-in for every app on every device. Support the show and check it out at 1password.com/25a

 

 

 

 

 

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2.5 Admins 204: Maybe Don’t 5

A widely-used login system is still using MD5 which is bad news, miscreants took over some domains when they moved from Google to Squarespace, Linksys’ sloppy app isn’t a huge problem but is a bad sign, and why backing up an Android phone in one go is pretty much impossible without root.

 

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News

New Blast-RADIUS attack breaks 30-year-old protocol used in networks everywhere

Squarespace migration linked to DNS hijacking, claims report

Linksys Velop routers send Wi-Fi passwords in plaintext to US servers

 

Free Consulting

We were asked about backing up Android phones.

 

 

 

Automox

Check out the brand new Autonomous IT podcast. Listen in as a variety of experts in the IT Operations space discuss the latest Patch Tuesday releases, mitigation tips, and custom automations to help with CVE remediations. Listen now on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2.5 Admins 203: Yet more free consulting

We didn’t get to all of your questions for our Episode 200 free consulting special so here is another full episode of your questions and our answers. Our thoughts on a new UK smart devices law, backing up 30TB off-site, how to learn ZFS, SMB vs other ways to share files, and backing up secrets.

 

Smart devices: new law helps citizens to choose secure products

FreeBSD Mastery: ZFS

FreeBSD Mastery: Advanced ZFS

 

 

 

 

 

1Password

Extended Access Management: Secure every sign-in for every app on every device. Support the show and check it out at 1password.com/25a

 

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2.5 Admins 202: Microsoft’s Underwater Again

Why we didn’t mention pocket fluff when we talked about USB-C charging issues, Microsoft abandons its promising underwater data center experiment and didn’t monitor it’s SSL certs, why you should be careful which WordPress plugins and themes you install,an Australian ISP’s tech debt comes due, and remoting into desktop Linux.

 

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News

Microsoft ends Project Natick underwater data center experiment despite success

Microsoft declares its underwater data center test was a success

Shouting in the Datacenter

Backdoor slipped into multiple WordPress plugins in ongoing supply-chain attack

Coding error in forgotten API blamed for massive data breach

Microsoft hits snooze again on security certificate renewal

 

 

Free Consulting

We were asked about remoting into desktop Linux.

NoMachine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2.5 Admins 201: CVEs everywhere

Vulnerabilities in Asus hardware make us think there should be some regulations about what can be sold as a router, a VPN feature that we hadn’t heard of is removed from Windows, and why we don’t believe that Microsoft will ever take security as seriously as they claim.

 

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News/discussion

High-severity vulnerabilities affect a wide range of Asus router models

Dear Asus router user: You’ve been pwned, thanks to easily exploited flaw

Microsoft to remove DirectAccess from Windows, recommends switching to Always On VPN

Microsoft fixes hack-me-via-Wi-Fi Windows security hole

CVE-2024-30078

Microsoft in damage-control mode, says it will prioritize security over AI

Pluralistic: Microsoft pinky swears that THIS TIME they’ll make security a priority

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tailscale

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Automox

Check out the brand new Autonomous IT podcast. Listen in as a variety of experts in the IT Operations space discuss the latest Patch Tuesday releases, mitigation tips, and custom automations to help with CVE remediations. Listen now on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

See our contact page for ways to get in touch.