Ryan Naraine

Editors Note: Since the posting of this story, AOL has clarified its terms of service for its AIM service, insisting the controversial privacy clause does not pertain to user-to-user instant messaging communication. Click here to read the updated story. America Online, Inc. has quietly updated the terms of service for its AIM instant messaging application, […]

At least two public exploits are circulating for a trio of vulnerabilities in the open-source MySQL database engine, security experts warned on Friday. According to alerts released on security mailing lists, the most serious flaw can be exploited by malicious users to compromise a vulnerable system. In some cases, malicious local users could also perform […]

Finnish anti-virus specialist F-Secure Corp. on Thursday announced plans to add rootkit-detection features to its product suite, joining a growing list of security vendors tackling the stealthy threat. At the CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany, F-Secure lifted the wraps off the new BlackLight Rootkit Elimination Technology, offering the tool as a free beta through Apr. […]

A computer hobbyist who published technical details of a security flaw he found in a French anti-virus product has been fined the equivalent of $6,700 and barred from releasing any further information on the topic. The fine against researcher Guillaume Tena was handed down in a French court on Tuesday, ending a three-year-old criminal case […]

Microsoft Corp.s newest operating systems can be penetrated by an old-school-type denial-of-service attack, according to a warning from a security researcher. In a SecurityFocus advisory, researcher Dejan Levaja warned that Windows Server 2003 and XP Service Pack 2 (with Windows Firewall turned off) could lead to LAND attacks. A LAND attack is a remote denial-of-service […]

Its not such a quiet patch day for users of Microsoft Corp.s older operating systems. The software giant on Tuesday updated two previously released bulletins to add critical security fixes for customers running Windows 98, 98SE and ME. The decision to release patches for Windows 98 and ME users is described as a “bonus” because […]

Security researchers have spotted the first signs of a new cell-phone worm that uses multiple replication techniques to attack Symbian Series 60 devices. The latest threat, identified as Commwarrior.A, uses a combination of Bluetooth and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) to propagate, a sign that virus writers are becoming more sophisticated, according to a warning from […]

Anti-virus vendors report an increased chatter of virus activity on Microsoft Corp.s Microsoft Network messenger Sunday night through Monday. In what appears to be a concentrated attack on users of the MSN instant messaging client, security experts warn that several new worms with unique replication techniques have been launched alongside mutants of the known Bropia […]

Microsoft Research is showing off prototypes for two security projects aimed at containing zero-day Internet worms and thwarting malicious code execution attacks. At the companys annual TechFest event in Redmond, Wash., Microsoft Corp. engineers presented the first glimpse of a new technology code-named Vigilante that proposes a brand-new approach to automate worm containment. The Vigilante […]

Internet security specialist iDefense Inc. has released a reverse-engineering tool to the open-source community as part of its controversial strategy of buying the rights to information on security flaws found by underground researchers. The decision to roll out the IDA Sync tool was driven by a need to “contribute to the cycle” of making flaw-finding […]

Microsoft is giving security administrators a day off next Tuesday. One month after releasing a whopping dozen bulletins to cover 17 security flaws in a range of products, Microsoft Corp. announced that there would be no new advisories this month. While IT administrators will get a reprieve from patching, a company spokesman said it is […]

RealNetworks Inc. on Wednesday rolled out new versions of its flagship RealPlayer software to zap a pair of potentially dangerous security bugs. In an advisory, the digital media company, based in Seattle, confirmed that the security holes could cause buffer overflows and allow an attacker to run malicious code on vulnerable machines. Affected products include […]