MD5 (cache) weaknesses have been known for some time now and security researchers have been recommending against its use for a few years, while predicting that a realistic attack was just around the corner. Research was published today that demonstrates that realistic attacks are possible now. The research deals with a proof of concept collision attack to create fake CA certificate using MD5. The researchers state that a knowledgeable attacker can fake a valid signature on a CA certificate, thereby making it possible to hijack the PKI used to sign SSL certs by pretending to be a valid CA. The researchers website MD5 considered harmful today (cache) has the details. In short, nothing important should use MD5 anymore.

For those that are not familiar with it, SRI has a great project called BotHunter?. Its a snort derivative using special rules and some SRI code to detect bots on your network and to anonymously share data with the BotHunter? folks. The installer is top notch and we really like what the project is doing. Check it out yourself at http://www.bothunter.net

Prometheus Group is proud to announce the release of Atomic Secured Linux 2.0, the latest version of our cutting-edge Unified Security solution for servers.

SANS ISC (cache) brings us a report (cache) of a new method spammers are using to put links into blogs using hidden text. We don't consider this a WordPress vuln, but rather a class of problems revolving around hidden test. This is very reminiscent of the iframe attacks using hidden iframes. In the spirit of making the world a nicer place, we're publishing Modsec rules to protect against this problem. You can download the rules from here. Right now its one rule, but as we discover other ways to protect against this we'll update the file. If you are running ASL or have a subscription to the real time rules, this is included in the latest update automatically.

We've been providing 2.5 signatures and rules to our ASL customers for over a year, and are proud to announce the availability of these rules through the GotRoot? lab website. The free rules are delayed 30 days. Want the rules in real time? Well sign up now! Its only $79.95 a year for a real time subscription to the most comprehensive and widely used WAF rules on the Internet!

We've been been working like mad men on ASL (especially Scott), and we're at the final Beta. 2.0 final is just around the corner. The GUI is slick, tons of new security features, vulnerability scanner, built in support portal and more. Check it out on the ASL website.

For anyone that had problems logging into their accounts, I do apologize for the delay fixing the site. The problem was very very very convulted. Ah the joys of moving boxes, upgrading PHP, MYSQL and Javascript. Logins should be working again for everyone.

Ryan Barnett and I will be giving a talk on Virtual Patching at SANS CDI 2007. Our talk is on December 14th, from 7:30PM to 8:30PM. Drop by and join us, and after please join us for beers and friendly banter.

Heres a link to the official SANS CDI page:

https://www2.sans.org/cdi07/night.php?portal=821dc21b4842373211f7acb46edf6b96

I recently put together a tips and advice article for Virtual Patching for SANS (cache). You can read it here Virtual Patching for Web Applications with ModSecurity (cache). Technical Review of the article was by Ryan Barnett and GIAC Advisory Board, which I greatly appreciate.

iframe attacks seem to be taking a hold with many vulnerable websites. The problem obviously being vulnerable ap plications, which we would all like to see fixed. However, not everyone can be so lucky as to have either perfect applications, or perfect countermeasures against these vulnerabilities. Enter output filtering. We've put together a special set of rules for anyone running apache. This will filter out all your iframe attacks.

2.0 compatible rules were released today. Consider these beta quality rules until further testing is done. Also, the format of the rules has changed considerably in 2.0, so if you want production quality we recommend you use the 1.9 rules with modsecurity 1.9.4.