Russian hacker-zine analysis of Skype anti-reverse-engineering measures

/ Security

Russian hacker magazine Xakep Online has posted an interesting analysis of all the measures Skype goes to to avoid reverse-engineering of their protocol and code. If you can’t read the original Russian you can get the gist (as I did) from the Google translation. A few highlighted techniques:

  • Binary file is fully encrypted and dycrypted as it’s dynamically loaded into memory.
  • Eliminated almost all static function calls, and critical procedures are called via a dynamically-obtained pointer determined via obfuscated code. That makes figuring out what’s going on in a debugger difficult.
  • Recognizes the Windows kernel-mode debugger SoftICE and refuses to run when it sees it.
  • Measure how long it takes to execute certain sections of code to try to detect whether it’s being run in emulation. (I’m not sure how this would work, given the range of CPUs it has to run on…)
  • Do a checksum of the resulting decrypted code.

The article also goes into all the ways Skype routes around firewalls by looking for open ports, and suggests that along with encrypted traffic and peer-to-peer distribution it’s the perfect tool to deliver a worm, trojan or virus payload under the radar of virus checkers and firewalls… if only you can find a way to get the target client to run your code. Essentially you’re left with just one level of protection, namely Skype itself. I’m not convinced this is any more problematic than the Swiss-cheese that is Windows security already, but it’s something to think about as we go forward.

(Thanks to Sergey for the link and summary of the Russian!)

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Big meteor shower Sept 1st 2007

/ Events

This coming September 1st (Saturday of Labor Day weekend) at about 11:36 ± 20 minutes UT (4:36 am PDT) the Earth will be passing through the dust trail of Comet Kiess, the only known case of crossing the dust trail of a known long-period comet in our lifetime. It’ll create an impressive meteor shower called the Aurigids, since the meteors will appear around the constellation Auriga. The shower will be visible from California, Oregon, Hawaii and the Eastern Pacific, with best viewing towards the East and NorthEast.

Wonder if it’d be visible from Black Rock City?

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Anoto-based Audio Notebook

/ Media Technology

Today’s NYT has a blurb on Livescribe, the new company founded by LeapFrog’s Jim Marggraff to turn the Anoto-based FLY Pentop Computer into a note-taking application for students. His application is basically Lisa Stifelman’s 1997 Audio Notebook system but without all the extraneous hardware that was necessary back then: take notes on paper while the pen records the lecture. Tap on the note later and the pen recites whatever it recorded just before you wrote it.

As the article notes, pen-based input has had a long and difficult life, but I’ve always thought that if anything will be the killer app that brings it into the mainstream, this would be it. If their implementation is good, they’ve got a chance of really making a big splash.

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Maker contests at Instructables.com

/ Hacks

instructables-robot.jpg

Instructables.com (a Squid-labs startup founded by friends of mine from MIT) has three contests going for the best handmade item plus accompanying instructions on how to make it, something like $15,000 in prize money (not to mention bragging rights):

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Torturous questions

/ Politics

Republican candidates at last Tuesday’s debate were asked about a now tired hypothetical:

The questions in this round will be premised on a fictional, but we think plausible scenario involving terrorism and the response to it. Here is the premise: Three shopping centers near major U.S. cities have been hit by suicide bombers. Hundreds are dead, thousands injured. A fourth attack has been averted when the attackers were captured off the Florida coast and taken to Guantanamo Bay, where they are being questioned. U.S. intelligence believes that another larger attack is planned and could come at any time.

First question to you, Senator McCain. How aggressively would you interrogate those being held at Guantanamo Bay for information about where the next attack might be?

As an editorial in the Washington Post points out, only John McCain got the answer right: when you torture your prisoners you actually make things worse, both in terms of world opinion and in wasting time on the unreliable information it produces. The trouble is, Hume’s hypothetical is actually two questions: a surface question about torture and an emotional question about what the candidate would be willing to sacrifice in the name of security. Personally I’d like to see the second question made more explicit. For example, how about asking one of these:

  • “Would you be willing to saw off your left leg with no anesthetic to stop a terrorist attack?”
  • “If you could go back in time and murder the 5-year-old Osama bin Laden with your bare hands, would you do it?”
  • “Would you be willing to repeal the First Amendment if it would stop another 9/11-sized attack? What about the Second Amendment? Would you raise taxes? Would you give up your immortal soul? How about your chances for re-election?”

Or maybe we should make the whole question less hypothetical. How about this?

“Gentlemen, on your left is Jerry (dressed in an Osama bin Laden mask), who is holding device that in one minute will send a million volts through the chairs of 10 random people sitting in our audience. To your right you see a switch that will disable the device, but will also drop poor Mrs. Grinwald here into this vat of hungry sharks. The decision is yours, but please be prepared to explain your actions.

Our TV audience will then vote for their favorite response via SMS, and the top 5 candidates will go on to the next round of questions.”

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