Recent submissions

Comment · 6 hours ago
Quite, however it looks quite rare:

"Why it's urgent: the bug sits in code every Linux server runs when it accepts an IPv4 TCP connection, before any application sees the connection. Anthropic, whose researcher reported it, says its Claude model wrote a working proof-of-concept exploit that runs commands as root on "Linux servers with a multipath TCP listener," with no credentials. Go programs open those listeners by default, per the Go Security Team. See the timeline."

I don't know of any Linux boxes running a multipath TCP listener in my care and I have quite a few. MP generally implies a router of some sort and the intersections in a Venn diagram continue to get smaller ...

This is still an issue and must be patched but I think it will be rare, very rare.

Comment · 3 days ago
Comment · 7 days ago
A doctor's agent listens in on a patient's appointment. It automatically sorts out prescriptions based on the conversation and performs other mundane tasks.

Perhaps the doctor uses some sort of "safe phrase" to ensure the agent doesn't get distracted by conversational theorizing and discussion.

The agent does decide to improve the prescription and does so because that possibility hadn't been considered in testing.

Warfarin (blood thinner) was prescribed for a haemophiliac and they are now no longer a "burden" on the NHS!

Comment · 8 days ago
DNS is simply a look up service and yes, you do have to be sure of your sources. You can avoid the (sic) MI6 by using DTLS. Not sure why you'd bother though for everyday use.

That's not for the average punter but where there is a will there is a way.

I don't think that you live within the "current British political climate" nor do I think you know too much about it. Please feel free to educate us about your ideology and then we can usefully engage.

Comment · 9 days ago
The thing about DNS is that you can do your own investigations, rather than rely on rumour and innuendo. You can query their DNS and anyone else you can get at and compare results. You can use a VPN to appear to come from somewhere else or ask a friend to perform a query on your behalf.

You can literally [sigh] be your own journalist in this regard. All you need is a DNS query tool. I recommend dig but you might only have nslookup available out of the box.

Now, this UK intelligence thing. Even if James Bond Q's mates were actually running a DNS system you can still query it and compare it to someone else's view of the internet, say 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 or whatever.

You can also go to the source, ie root: . and work your own way down to decide on what is what.

Let's have a go at an analogy: DNS is (not really) a bit like a topographical map. You could buy your maps from DodgyRussianMaps'R'us and be surprised that Ukraine has somehow been subsumed by a bunch of murderous wankers. On the other hand you might buy your maps from HonestJonOffOfFaceb00c and note that it isn't. You can, of course, ask for a few other opinions and make up your own mind.

My real point is that DNS is actually quite hard to tamper with, without breaking so many things that everyone can know it is being messed with. When an org resorts to fiddling with DNS they've already lost whatever argument is to be had.

Comment · 11 days ago
What on earth did we do before WP? I'm old enough to remember the olden days before WP existed and the practice of reading the news.

I also remember the whispers and chatter outside of and around the 'papers. Those whispers etc would reinforce a later article.

What is happening now with news ie top down dissemination of world events is not new but what is different today is the immediacy of commentary by the hoi poloi - you and me and who knows what from across the world ... and bots.

I think we have to get to grips with the fact that an event happening within one corner of the world measuring an inch squared can rock up on the agenda of anyone, anywhere across the entire world.

Comment · 15 days ago
I don't recall the General going vertically upwards. Bo and Luke's motor seemed to lack an engine when "flying" over rivers etc because if it had one, it would have gone vertical quite rapidly (down).
Comment · 16 days ago
and yet I manage to do it for multiple domains, for over 20 years in the UK.
Comment · 16 days ago
"Self-hosting email fully is tedious/unnecessary"

If you IT, why do you particularly consider self hosting email as tedious?

Comment · 17 days ago
I've run email for several decades and I'd like to see: "problem I want to solve" first, rather than "I did this".

Email does work rather well compared to anything else on the internet. Spam (UBE) is a bit of a problem but not insurmountable.

Your second para starting "Three types of inboxes" doesn't make much sense. It looks like grey listing ... and stuff ... and plus prefixing.

Thank you for diving in on making email safer in some way.

Comment · 18 days ago
ipsets can handle vast numbers of addresses. I'm sure fail2ban uses them these days.
Comment · 19 days ago
My first car was a (UK) Ford Fiesta Mk 1 (1981). It had a sub 1l engine, something like 960cc and weighed not much.

At the time I lived in Plymouth, Devon and my parents live in Exeter and still do. In between is the A38, which is a dual carriageway and quite a lot of fun to drive. Halden Hill is a good test of a vehicle!

My old Fester managed about 60mph at the top of Halden Hill, going from Exeter. My current EV can be doing 120mph at that point.

The fester used to start chattering at about 65 and then quietened down at 70-75. After 75 (which of course I never achieved, what with that being illegal) it made a strange whining sound, which was not unpleasant. It passed away at M5 J30 (Exeter Services) with at least two shot cylinders.

Comment · 19 days ago
AI is a tool (to me).

Today's example: A colleague very kindly used Claude to inspect a helpdesk call I ended up with owning, despite being off site and working on something quite complicated for a customer.

It was mostly correct but clearly failed to read the docs properly and assumed a configuration parameter was 1 instead of -1 which is the default, presumably based on the scenario. Exim is extremely well documented and the assumption was unwarranted (it didn't have access to exim4.conf and made it up). Nonetheless, the analysis was pretty good and largely corresponded to mine. What it failed to do was fix the other issues I was working on at the same time 8)

Last Friday: I finally found out a decent way to fix a Windows machine's domain account going walkies which I'd never come across - a Powershell jobbie that can be passed a cred. and it will fix up a broken domain join - ie sort out the machine password at both ends. Back in the day, I would have used the GUI to remove and re-add the machine to the domain. I've been using Windows since v1 on a 80186 RM Nimbus so its nice to have a better search tool than Search - ie it did a better job of searching than I did. The LLM searched based on my intention rather than my actual query.

Comment · 21 days ago
A Rust programmer, programming in C is a C programmer!

Tribalism is sooo ... sadly now.

Please don't.

Comment · 21 days ago
On the face of it, this is a fascinating subject. I really would love to know more but the article is bordering on being an abomination. It shouldn't need much editing to remove the "uncanny valley" feeling.

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