TechLetters #185 root cause of CrowdStrike-made global IT catastrophe. Trump campaign hacked. Dating apps privacy.
Security
Root cause analysis of CrowdStrike Falcon bug. You know, the one that lead to a huge IT catastrophe. "The Rapid Response Content for Channel File 291 instructed the Content Interpreter to read the 21st entry of the input pointer array. However, the IPC Template Type only generates 20 inputs. As a result, once Rapid Response Content was delivered that used a non-wildcard matching criterion for the 21st input, the Content Interpreter performed an out-of-bounds read of the input array" and resulted in a system crash. This, in turn, lead to this reaching the first page of New York Times.
Offensive uses of LLMs in propaganda. As I demonstrate in my upcoming book, LLMs are efficient tools for propaganda generation pipelines. Personas may create specially tailored content, including proper style and and using linguistic jargon and buzzwords. Here’s how to improve such designs.
Trump campaign is hacked. And some documents are leaking. Threat actor is unclear. Files about JD Vance vetting allegedly leaked, but they are based on public information. Despite the initial accusations I would be cautious with any finger pointing or attribution. Microsoft warned that Iran is actively trying to interfere and hack U.S. elections. Influence campaign attempts were detected. "a group run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence unit—sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor"
Privacy
Dating app leaking location data. Privacy Analysis of dating apps like Tinder, Badoo, Bumble, or Grindr. Some leak user’s location data, and also more. Some of the apps (Grindr, Badoo) even leak precise location data.
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