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Hackers exploited Word flaw for months while Microsoft investigated

reuters.com

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Re: Hackers exploited Word flaw for months while Microsoft investigated

#61

Post by literallycancer »

jmcdiesel wrote: post #3
gwu78 wrote: post #2

https://mobile.twitter.com/hashbreaker/status/85322416941220... The strange "counterargument" I commonly see on HN to any suggestion that Microsoft closed source software could potentially be unsafe for use on an internet-connected computer is that the company has "improved" since some earlier 1990's/2000's time period. Are these commenters suggesting that other, open source operating system choices have not also imp…

Their users don't need to be allowed to freely evaluate the source, period. When you write software, you control its distribution. What the users are free to do, however, is use an operating system/stack that they CAN evaluate the source of. If linux or any other open source alternative was a better actual product, it would find its way to the top of the market. In fact, it already has, on the server... by far. But l…

>If linux or any other open source alternative was a better actual product, it would find its way to the top of the market.

If only the world worked like this..

You probably won't see it happen today, but in the past, it wasn't uncommon for Microsoft to threaten companies with made-up charges, bribe the police to raid their offices and steal their hardware and data, just because they opted to use a different product.

Re: Hackers exploited Word flaw for months while Microsoft investigated

#62

Post by davidgerard »

jmcdiesel wrote: post #3
gwu78 wrote: post #2

https://mobile.twitter.com/hashbreaker/status/85322416941220... The strange "counterargument" I commonly see on HN to any suggestion that Microsoft closed source software could potentially be unsafe for use on an internet-connected computer is that the company has "improved" since some earlier 1990's/2000's time period. Are these commenters suggesting that other, open source operating system choices have not also imp…

Their users don't need to be allowed to freely evaluate the source, period. When you write software, you control its distribution. What the users are free to do, however, is use an operating system/stack that they CAN evaluate the source of. If linux or any other open source alternative was a better actual product, it would find its way to the top of the market. In fact, it already has, on the server... by far. But l…

> But linux wasn't made to be easy to use, to be quick and easy to install, to install other software onto, etc...

You can only say that in comparison to Windows if you haven't tried installing both any time in the past 15 years.

Re: Hackers exploited Word flaw for months while Microsoft investigated

#63

Post by goodplay »

kobeya wrote: post #52
aurelianito wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. That, in turn, will give the economic incentive to not have the vulnerabilities in the first place.

Or for software not to get written in the first place.

>Or for [buggy] software not to get written in the first place.

FTFY

We place too much trust and rely too much on computer systems these days to have the luxury to write software like we used to.

Re: Hackers exploited Word flaw for months while Microsoft investigated

#64

Post by interfixus »

dahauns wrote: post #54
interfixus wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"But linux wasn't made to be easy to use, to be quick and easy to install, to install other software onto, etc" For what it's worth (which may be not a great deal): I have installed a lot of Windows and Linux over the years, but my Windows experience has been lackin further and further behind these last few years. A short while ago, I had to a rare chance of setting up two identical machines side by side, one with Wi…

You needed twenty minues for choco install latexdistofchoice ? (Yeah, I know, I'm being a bit facetious. I omitted three additional lines of PS to first install chocolatey...)

I need a lot more than twenty minutes to learn about and ascertain the validity of some third party installation robot, which your choco-thing appears to be.

I then need some minutes to get it started.

And yes, installation proces itself took something on the scale of ten to twenty minutes.

Pacman -Syu (or Pamac if you're in a clicky mood) took care of everything in less time than the BibTeX took to download download.

Re: Hackers exploited Word flaw for months while Microsoft investigated

#65

Post by flukus »

shakna wrote: post #53
flukus wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Really? You mention in another thread, you used Ubuntu. So you apparently didn't notice this [0] or this [1]? Neither of those solutions are user friendly are they?. You think an average person knows what grub is? I did come across the second one actually, but I have no idea if the solution is still relevant or not. I haven't seen anything to indicate what login manager I'm even running, where is this information d…

> Neither of those solutions are user friendly are they? Neither is Windows. [0] Changing a login screen is a bit of a technical thing, for technical reasons. Maybe it could be better, but at the moment, everyone sucks equally. > I haven't seen anything to indicate what login manager I'm even running, where is this information displayed? Most distros use systemd nowadays, so this is something that is becoming easier:…

Thanks. Systemd is one of those things that's changed since I last ran linux so I've got a bit of learning to do there. Turns out ubuntu gnome is running gdm, which isn't surprising.

> I'm guessing the partition type is NTFS, so try ntfs-config.

Ext4 actually, windows has never touched this machine :) I did the fstab thing (I think) on the last install but this is getting beyond my comfort zone.

> Neither is Windows. [0]

IME windows has always gone the other way, it will default to a lower resolution which is uglier but more usable. And the login menu is at the resolution of the last user. I did have an issue recently where windows 10 was constantly switching resolutions though, it was the first time I've been grateful for the dell/intel crapware that fixed it.

Re: Hackers exploited Word flaw for months while Microsoft investigated

#66

Post by flukus »

kevingadd wrote: post #44
shakna wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can't change login screen resolution (haven't seen a way to do this on any distro I've tried). Really? You mention in another thread, you used Ubuntu. So you apparently didn't notice this [0] or this [1]? The issue with this and complexity, is that login screen resolution is often handled by GRUB, not Linux. Edit: In future you can drop into a commandline via Ctrl+Alt+F1 > Secondary drives require manual mounting (…

Ubuntu's support for less-common screen resolutions is atrocious. Aside from its poor support for hi-dpi, if you try to install it when using low-res display hardware (like VirtualBox's emulated GPU) some of the important installer UI extends off the screen and cannot be seen or clicked .

The worst thing is that with Qt or Gtk there is zero excuse for this. Someone went out of there way to created a fixed width window.

Re: Hackers exploited Word flaw for months while Microsoft investigated

#67

Post by flukus »

bitexploder wrote: post #48
flukus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ubuntu 17.04. Is that recent enough for you? I've tried antergos, red hat and a couple of others, all with similar issues. Many I didn't get far with because I simply couldn't read the login screen. Antergos doesn't even have user switching working out of the box but it was the only one that supported my graphics card until very recently. I used the gnome variant of each.

Ubuntu 16.04 or Fedora are likely to work better than 17.04. Regardless there is still hardware that does not have the best compatibility. Ubuntu does handle individual high DPI displays well though.

I've got the new line of radeon graphics card. 16.04 only supported some It was quite frustrating to read about ATI's new open source drivers, purchase that hardware explicitly because of that and still have it not work, but it's nice that it's improved so much too.

Re: Hackers exploited Word flaw for months while Microsoft investigated

#68

Post by aurelianito »

kobeya wrote: post #52
aurelianito wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. That, in turn, will give the economic incentive to not have the vulnerabilities in the first place.

Or for software not to get written in the first place.

If the security externalities impose on the society a burden that is bigger than the benefit provided by the software not writing it in the first place seems like a good idea.

Re: Hackers exploited Word flaw for months while Microsoft investigated

#69

Post by dahauns »

interfixus wrote: post #64
dahauns wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You needed twenty minues for choco install latexdistofchoice ? (Yeah, I know, I'm being a bit facetious. I omitted three additional lines of PS to first install chocolatey...)

I need a lot more than twenty minutes to learn about and ascertain the validity of some third party installation robot, which your choco-thing appears to be. I then need some minutes to get it started. And yes, installation proces itself took something on the scale of ten to twenty minutes. Pacman -Syu (or Pamac if you're in a clicky mood) took care of everything in less time than the BibTeX took to download download…

> I need a lot more than twenty minutes to learn about and ascertain the validity of some third party installation robot, which your choco-thing appears to be.

> Pacman -Syu

So it's basically "I know one system much better than the other". And your ignorance is somehow the fault of the OS now?

Re: Hackers exploited Word flaw for months while Microsoft investigated

#70

Post by adrianN »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #42
adrianN wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That still requires that a third party is allowed to flash things on my screen without my explicit consent.

Does it? We already have a solution to this, which I hate: walled gardens. I'm exploring options that preserve the peace while not letting companies effectively own their users. Maybe there is no answer that makes everybody happy. That's why it's worth asking questions. Just so I understand this, you're saying that if you have a piece of hardware that's say, taking down the local ISP because you're running compromise…

I don't want other people to be able to change things on my computer. If my setup is causing problems on their end, they have my contact information and can tell me over traditional routes. An ISP can cut off my internet connection if they detect suspicious traffic.
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