‘Unauthorized Code’ In Juniper Firewalls Could Decrypt VPN Traffic

m2pc writes: Ars Technica reports that Juniper Networks firewalls have been discovered to include “unauthorized code” inserted into their ScreenOS software. Juniper has has published an advisory addressing the matter, with instructions to patch the affected devices. From the Ars article: “NetScreen firewalls using ScreenOS 6.2.0r15 through 6.2.0r18 and 6.3.0r12 through 6.3.0r20 are affected and require immediate patching. Release notes published by Juniper suggest the earliest vulnerable versions date back to at least 2012 and possibly earlier. … The first flaw allows unauthorized remote administrative access to an affected device over SSH or telnet. Exploits can lead to complete compromise. ‘The second issue may allow a knowledgeable attacker who can monitor VPN traffic to decrypt that traffic, ‘ the advisory said.” The rogue code was discovered during a recent internal source code review conducted by Juniper. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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‘Unauthorized Code’ In Juniper Firewalls Could Decrypt VPN Traffic

Go To Jail For Visiting a Web Site? Top Law Prof Talks Up the Idea

David Rothman writes: Eric Posner, the fourth most-cited law professor in the U.S., says the government may need to jail you if you even visit an ISIS site after enough warnings. He says, “Never before in our history have enemies outside the United States been able to propagate genuinely dangerous ideas on American territory in such an effective way—and by this I mean ideas that lead directly to terrorist attacks that kill people. The novelty of this threat calls for new thinking about limits on freedom of speech. The law would provide graduated penalties. After the first violation, a person would receive a warning letter from the government; subsequent violations would result in fines or prison sentences. The idea would be to get out the word that looking at ISIS-related websites, like looking at websites that display child pornography, is strictly forbidden” There would be exemptions for Washington-blessed journalists and others. Whew! Alas, this man isn’t Donald Trump — he is a widely respected University of Chicago faculty member writing in Slate. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Go To Jail For Visiting a Web Site? Top Law Prof Talks Up the Idea

Universal Remote Desktop Coming To Windows 10 Soon

jones_supa writes: For those using the Continuum feature of Windows and who work from home or in the office, you’ll be pleased to know that the Remote Desktop Universal app is not only happening but will be released soon as a Technical Preview. This follows up on the Remote Desktop preview, which is already available for PC. The news came from Jason of the Microsoft Continuum team: “We’ve heard a lot of buzz around being able to connect to a remote desktop from Continuum for phone. We are excited to share that the Remote Desktop Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app will be released very soon in Technical Preview.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Universal Remote Desktop Coming To Windows 10 Soon

Steel Treatment Paves the Way For Radically Lighter, Stronger, Cheaper Cars

Zothecula writes: Radically cheaper, quicker and less energy-intensive to produce than regular steel, Flash Bainite is stronger than titanium by weight, and ductile enough to be pressed into shape while cold without thinning or cracking. It’s now being tested by three of the world’s five largest car manufacturers, who are finding they can produce thinner structural car components that are between 30-50 percent lighter and cheaper than the steel they’ve been using, while maintaining the same performance is crash tests. Grain of salt: the positive claims here are mostly coming from the company responsible for the process. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Steel Treatment Paves the Way For Radically Lighter, Stronger, Cheaper Cars

Nintendo invents a gamepad built from a touchscreen

Nintendo has said precious little about its plans for the NX (other than that it won’t be like a Wii U ), but it might have hinted at what’s coming through some recent paperwork. The console maker has filed for a patent on a gamepad design where a touchscreen would cover the entire front panel. You’d still have familiar elements like analog sticks (poking through the display) and shoulder buttons, but the usual front-facing buttons would be replaced by context-aware touch. The move would give you the adaptability of a smartphone interface with the primary controls you’re used to in a TV system — you could even use the controller on its side, or get visual effects when you press buttons. It wouldn’t require a gigantic body like the Wii U’s gamepad, either, and a card slot could take game data directly. This is just an application, and there’s no certainty that Nintendo will use this design any time soon, if at all. However, as The Verge notes , the would-be patent does line up with rumors that Nintendo will use Sharp’s free-form displays in a future product. Theoretically, this could be the technology behind the NX’s standard-issue gamepad. Moreover, the Wall Street Journal has heard that the NX would include a “mobile unit” that could be used separately from the main console. Given the presence of that card slot, it’s possible that you could play titles solely on the gamepad and take it with you — who needs separate TV and handheld consoles when your NX is both at the same time? The finished machine could be far less exciting, but it’s evident that Nintendo has at least been thinking about non-traditional hardware. Via: SlashGear , NeoGAF Source: USPTO

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Nintendo invents a gamepad built from a touchscreen

Locked Intel Skylake CPUs Can Be Overclocked After BIOS Update

jjslash writes: For a few years now, Intel CPU overclocking has been limited to more expensive Core i5 and Core i7 ‘K’ processors. Skylake launched this year with the rumor of strong non-K processor overclocking through an adjustable base clock, but that never eventuated… until now. In overclocking circles it was rumored that BCLK (base clock) overclocking might become a possibility in Skylake processors, but it would be up to motherboard manufacturers to circumvent Intel’s restrictions. Asrock, Asus and a few other motherboard manufacturers are said to be issuing a BIOS update soon that will unlock base clock overclocking on Z170 motherboards. TechSpot has got an early look, overclocking a locked Core i3-6100 to 4.7GHz on air cooling. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Locked Intel Skylake CPUs Can Be Overclocked After BIOS Update

AVG, McAfee, Kaspersky Antiviruses All Had a Common Bug

An anonymous reader writes: Basic ASLR was not implemented in 3 major antivirus makers, allowing attackers to use the antivirus itself towards attacking Windows PCs. The bug, in layman terms, is: the antivirus would select the same memory address space every time it would run. If attackers found out the memory space’s address, they could tell their malicious code to execute in the same space, at the same time, and have it execute with root privileges, which most antivirus have on Windows PCs. It’s a basic requirement these days for software programmers to use ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) to prevent their code from executing in predictable locations. Affected products: AVG, McAfee, Kaspersky. All “quietly” issued fixes. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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AVG, McAfee, Kaspersky Antiviruses All Had a Common Bug

Microsoft Open Sources and Forks Windows Live Writer Into Open Live Writer

SmartAboutThings writes: Windows Live Writer is a blogging tool that Microsoft originally released back in 2006, and it still remains popular today, which has prompted Microsoft to promise that it will make it open source earlier this year. Now the company has officially open-sourced and forked Windows Live Writer into Open Live Writer, having put its repositories on GitHub already. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Open Sources and Forks Windows Live Writer Into Open Live Writer

WordPress 4.4 Arrives

An anonymous reader with news of the newest release of open source WordPress, which adds a slew of new features to the blog management tool that will “make your site more connected and responsive.” You can download the new release now from WordPress.org/Download (7.3MB). WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that powers 25 percent of the Web. The latest version is dubbed “Clifford” in honor of jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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WordPress 4.4 Arrives

Google Finds D-Wave Machine To Be 10^8 Times Faster Than Simulated Annealing

An anonymous reader sends this report form the Google Research blog on the effectiveness of D-Wave’s 2X quantum computer: We found that for problem instances involving nearly 1000 binary variables, quantum annealing significantly outperforms its classical counterpart, simulated annealing. It is more than 10^8 times faster than simulated annealing running on a single core. We also compared the quantum hardware to another algorithm called Quantum Monte Carlo. This is a method designed to emulate the behavior of quantum systems, but it runs on conventional processors. While the scaling with size between these two methods is comparable, they are again separated by a large factor sometimes as high as 10^8. A more detailed paper is available at the arXiv. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Google Finds D-Wave Machine To Be 10^8 Times Faster Than Simulated Annealing