A database of events in time was in dispute, as explained by the EFF Press Room
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is pleased to announce that a copyright lawsuit threatening an important database of time zone information has been dismissed. The astrology software company that filed the lawsuit, Astrolabe, has also apologized and agreed to a ‘covenant not to sue’ going forward, which will help protect the database from future baseless legal actions and disruptions.
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In a statement, Astrolabe said, “Astrolabe’s lawsuit against Mr. Olson and Mr. Eggert was based on a flawed understanding of the law. We now recognize that historical facts are no one’s property and, accordingly, are withdrawing our Complaint. We deeply regret the disruption that our lawsuit caused for the volunteers who maintain the TZ database, and for Internet users.”
In Part 1 of this article, I provide an overview of how to uniquely identify a virtual machine in both a vSphere vCenter and vCloud Director environment. In this article, we will look at an example environment and show you how to extract the information needed to uniquely identify a VM using both the vSphere API and vCloud API.
The Easy Bay Express has an interesting article that tries to identify officers involved in protests by reviewing footage for unique markings on their uniform.
Two stripes and a star, OPD’s insignia for acting sergeants, are visible on the officer’s left sleeve. In both clips, the officer is holding his shotgun with his right hand on the trigger, his helmet visor is up and the numbers “35” are visible on his helmet. According to an OPD roster of the three-digit helmet numbers assigned to individual officers and the personnel detail for October 25, Officer Robert Roche is the only one with a helmet number beginning with “35” who was assigned to a Tango Team that night. Roche’s helmet number that night was “357,” according to OPD records.
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Sergeant Chris Bolton, chief of staff to Police Chief Howard Jordan, said the investigation into the [October 25, Marine veteran Scott] Olsen incident is ongoing. “Any known or alleged uses of force against Mr. Olsen are assigned to an independent investigator,” Bolton said in a statement. “Based on available video, photographs, and reports, the department has identified several officers that they are subjects of those open investigations.” Bolton added, however, that “no investigative findings or discipline have been announced or imposed.”
vmauthd_version : Discovers the version details for a vmauthd service
esx_fingerprint : Fingerprints (down to the build number) of a stand-alone ESX server
vmware_http_login : Attempts to brute force local VMware credentials via the Web Services interface
vmauthd_login : Attempts to brute force local VMware credentials via the vmauthd service
vmware_enum_users : Enumerates both local and domain VMware user accounts
vmware_enum_permissions : Enumerates locally-defined user and group permissions on a VMware instance
vmware_enum_sessions : Enumerates active VMware login sessions
vmware_enum_vms : Enumerates all local virtual machines on the local VMware instance
vmware_host_details : Discovers host hardware and software details of the VMware host machine
poweroff_vm : Powers off a virtual machine via the VMware Web Services interface
poweron_vm : Powers on a virtual machine via the VMware Web Services interface
tag_vm : Writes a user-defined “tag” to the VMware logs as proof of compromise
vmware_screenshot_stealer : Grabs screenshots of VMware guest operating systems as proof of compromise
terminate_esx_sessions : Disconnects a user from the ESX server
Finding weak passwords is a great example of old threats and vulnerabilities applied to new environments. VMware gives consumers the ability to set strong password restrictions but that does not mean systems will always be configured properly. These tests are an excellent way to validate vSphere hardening procedures in an organization.
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