August 13, 2007 (Computerworld) — The DirectX software development kit Microsoft issued in 2002 contains a critical vulnerability, a Polish researcher claimed as he released attack code that can hijack Windows PCs by tempting Internet Explorer users to malicious sites.

According to Krystian Kloskowski, who posted exploit code on the milw0rm.com site, the FlashPix ActiveX control included with DirectX Media 6.0 SDK contains a buffer overflow bug that can be exploited. More importantly, according to an advisory issued by US-CERT on Sunday, “because the FlashPix ActiveX control is marked ‘Safe for Scripting,’ Internet Explorer can be used as an attack vector for this vulnerability.”

Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6) can be leveraged to exploit the flaw, noted Kloskowski, but he did not say if the newer IE 7 is also a workable attack vector. For its part, Microsoft acknowledged it is investigating Kloskowski’s claim but it did not answer a query about whether IE 7 users are at risk. A company spokeswoman, however, said Microsoft would provide a patch if necessary and added: “We’re currently unaware of any attacks trying to use the claimed vulnerability or of customer impact.”

The likely attack scenario, said US-CERT, would…

August 13, 2007 (Computerworld) — Microsoft Corp. last week released a pair of Windows Vista updates that had leaked onto the Internet at the end of July, but the company didn’t say when it will begin pushing them to users via Windows Update.

One of the updates is pegged as a performance booster for the new operating system, while the other addresses reliability issues. They include a long list of non­security bug fixes, including one to improve the speed of Vista’s wake-from-hibernation function and another that’s designed to more quickly calculate the time needed to copy or move large directories.

In addition, several fixes are intended to resolve compatibility glitches between the operating system and third-party video drivers.

A Microsoft spokeswoman said the updates will become available through Windows Update, the software vendor’s automated patching service, “at a later date.”

When the previews of the updates found their way onto the Internet, there was speculation that they were related to the upcoming Vista Service Pack 1 and that they might even be harbingers of SP1’s release.

That doesn’t appear to be the case, but Microsoft confirmed that it has released early code for both…

It has been a long time coming. Finally Microsoft has dusted off the old code for the Mac version of Remote Desktop. I have been suffering with version 1.0 for some time now - and it was severely lacking in features.

The new beta is quite stable and includes the following:

Universal Binary
Runs natively on both Intel-based and PowerPC-based Macs.

Remote Desktop Protocol 6.0
Provides better compatibility with Windows Vista, improved security features, and many other improvements.

Multiple Sessions (FINALLY!)
Lets you connect to multiple Windows-based computers at the same time.

Improved User Experience
Provides a true Mac experience and improved usability.

Improved Customization Options
Lets you change application preferences, including…

As you probably already noticed, I’ve been doing quite a bit of posts that include video demos of devices and software in my posts. A few folks have asked me how I produce these videos and I’d like to outline the exact process I use in producing these Read More……(read more)