Microsoft on Thursday said it is working on a security patch for a vulnerability in its DirectX streaming media technology in Windows that could allow someone to take complete control of a computer using a maliciously crafted QuickTime file.

Microsoft offers an easy way to enable a workaround for the latest security hole in DirectX.

(Credit: Microsoft)

The remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way Microsoft DirectShow, audio and video sourcing and rendering software, handles supported QuickTime format files, the company said.

"Microsoft is aware of limited, active attacks that use this exploit code," Microsoft's security advisory said. "If a user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights."

Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 are vulnerable but all versions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 are not vulnerable, according to the advisory.

For the attack to work an attacker would have to lure the victim to visit a malicious Web site that hosts the exploit. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user.

Microsoft said it would release a patch to fix the hole as soon as it is ready for broad distribution. In the meantime, details on a workaround are available here, as well a "fix it" button.

Farkie, ~ Wait.. I am not scolding anyone. This is the newest way to download audio streams off youtube. Perhaps, the record companies like the way it sounds as they too hated youtube for it's convenience in allowing users to watch latest music videos. Now you can copy audio off youtube without going through any recording program.

And the best is yet to come, It allows you to select what format you want as an output , WAV, AVI, and MP3, as well as save entire videos as QuickTime (MOV), Windows Media (WMV), or Flash Video (FLV) files. Did I hear someone shout " Wayyy to go Man "!

You do the watching, they do the hard work. Alright, now where's my mp3 player....

How to use Farkie?

  1. Copy the full web address of the site you wish to download.
  2. Paste the web address into the box at the top of this page.
  3. Click "Download" and wait until it has fully loaded.
  4. Choose a format and it will then download and convert the video.
  5. Be patient, it can take up to 5 minutes depending on the size.
  6. You're done! Enjoy your newly converted YouTube video!

Pirated copies labeled as the Technical Preview of Microsoft's Office 2010 have leaked to the Internet, according to searches on popular file-sharing sites.

Office 2010 joined the also-still-unfinished Windows 7 on BitTorrent Saturday. Searches on the Mininova.org as well as the Pirate Bay tracking site revealed leaked copies of both the 32- and 64-bit editions of the application suite. Commenters on the sites confirmed that the posted versions are tagged Technical Preview, claimed that they worked, but noted that they are unstable.

As of 7 a.m. ET Monday, the most popular torrent on Mininova -- a 1.3GB file of the suite's 32-bit version, showed more than 1,100 total "seeders" -- the term for a computer that has a complete copy of the torrent file -- and about 16,000 "leechers," or computers that have downloaded only part of the complete torrent. More than 5,800 copies of the file had been downloaded over the weekend.

If you want to join the trial , you can go to the microsoft site




Clickjacking is the hijacking of your click, unbeknownst to you. A victim may not even know that the click has been redirected, which means there could be clickjacking attacks going on that no one knows about yet.

The technique was used in a series of prank attacks launched on Twitter. In that case, users clicked on links next to tweets that said "Don't Click" and then clicked on a button that said "Don't Click" on a separate Web page. That second click distributed the original tweet to all of the Twitter user's followers, thus propagating itself rather quickly.




Clickjacking attacks are accomplished by creating something called an iFrame that allows a browser window to be split into segments so that different items can be shown on each. This code is inserted into the target Web page and is invisible to the end user. When the end user's cursor clicks on the section of the page where the malicious iFrame is hiding, the attack is launched to do whatever the attacker desires.

An attacker could hide an iFrame under any innocent link on any Web page--a headline on The New York Times or a "digg this" button on Digg, for instance--and when the victim clicks on the link, the cursor is actually clicking on the hidden iFrame.

Mozilla's mobile version of its firefox browser has been in first alpha, as with Fennec beta 1 for the Alpha 1 for Windows Mobile 6 (download the CAB file) has been tailor-made for the HTC Touch Pro, with an intention to expand to more handsets in future releases. The flashiest feature to expect is support for add-ons. In addition to a list of recommended add-ons is a tab to start searching for more extensions.

As compared to opera mobile 9.5. It is more of a challenge now, as compared to the previous minimo, which was a little lame as compared to opera. The user interface has the Awesome Bar search field front and center, which serves up suggested search terms in addition to showing off your search history. Flick the screen to the left to see bookmarking tools and the add-ons manager in a gutter on the right. Flick to the right to expose the icons that comprise your "tabbed" browsing experience. The rest of the screen is devoted to your Web page.

You can view the tutorial video here



What you see there is quite deceiving as I tested it on a HTC TYTN II which perhaps, has a slower processor as compared to what was on the video. The response time for each action was around 4 to 5 secs, which is quite slow. Not for the impatient sort. The lauching of the program itself took a hell of a time as compared to opera that could start in 1o secs. But one encouraging note about this browser is that it is able to load the whole page layout a lot faster as compared to opera, which is a good start for a beta. I can't wait for it to be finalized.

It is difficult trying to locate a car charger for HTC TYTN II. Maybe it is not difficult to find one for HTC touch, but oddly enough, it don't seem easy to locate. Finally I stumbled on one car charger that really works. I have tried other usb charges before, but they are unable to hold up the device. The rate of discharging is faster than charging.

If you look at this package, it contains the plugs for all the phones including even the strange nokia 3 series usb slot. Even LG plugs are included. I had a problematic time trying to get it to charge. If you look at the user manual, it says that you need to hook up the correct plug to the end of the switchable contact, However, it does not work if you follow the instructions. The TYTN II phone will behave strangely even though the yellow charging light came on. Pressing the on button at the side of the phone once to off the display cannot be activated, as the phone simply refuses. Totally turning it off, will give you a red charging light plus a buzzing sound coming from the Razor charger device. After charging for a few minutes, the phone becomes super hot to the touch, and nothing is charged. What a disappointment. Perhaps the battery is going to be damaged if you keep on doing it.




However, here's the solution. Amazingly, simply turn the cable around and hook the switchable contact end to the charger device and the original end to your phone. Volia.. it charges well, and the battery is increasing even when you surf on HSPDA running full load. I fully recommend this charger as it is quite afforable, $38 for an entire set of phone plugs for nokia, motorola, sony ericsson, LG, Samsung, Iphone, PDA, Digital cameras, HTC and even gameboy, psp and nintendo DS.

Simply go to any singtel hello stores that are located anywhere in town or markets near MRT stations. You don't need to get any other car charger anymore.