CyberSecurity Institute

Representatives at the Cupertino, Calif.-based company were quick to point out that the threat was merely a so-called proof-of-concept virus–a worm developed by someone to show that vulnerabilities are present in a particular type of system–and not a virus already spreading in the wild.

However, Oliver Friedrichs, senior manager of Symantec’s Security Response Team, said W64.Rugrat.3344 can attack 64-bit Microsoft Windows files successfully. He said the virus does not infect 32-bit files and will not run on 32-bit Windows systems. Since 64-bit systems have yet to proliferate widely, Symantec maintains that the virus does not yet represent a serious threat. “We always see early adopters trying to find a way to attack new technology right away, as we did with 32-bit, so it’s not surprising to see this,” Friedrichs said. “But we do expect to see more of these, as 64-bit technology becomes more prominent.”

The 64-bit market is expected to grow rapidly. By the end of next year, most Intel chips, will be 64-bit capable, and virtually all of rival Advanced Micro Devices’ processors will be 64-bit chips. Software titan Microsoft is also pushing the high-end market forward. Earlier this month, Chairman Bill Gates asked hardware makers to start writing 64-bit drivers for their software.

Among the advantages of 64-bit software is the ability to gracefully accommodate more physical memory than the 4GB limit in 32-bit systems.

Symantec said it was not expecting widespread copycats of W64.Rugrat.3344, since the affected assembly code requires fairly advanced technical knowledge. Symantec said W64.Rugrat.3344 was created in IA64 (Intel Architecture) assembly code and infects IA64 executable files, excluding .dll files. The security specialists reported that W64.Rugrat.3344 also infects files that are in the same folder as the virus, as well as all files within related subfolders.

Symantec is currently updating its Norton AntiVirus product line to protect against W64.Rugrat.3344 and expects to have versions of the software armed to defeat the virus ready by the end of the day Thursday. The company earmarked the 64-bit virus as a Level 1, or the least dangerous sort of threat ranked on its five-tiered ratings system, but warned users to update their virus protection systems as quickly as possible.

The company earmarked the 64-bit virus as a Level 1, or the least dangerous sort of threat ranked on its five-tiered ratings system, but warned users to update their virus protection systems as quickly as possible.

More info: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5221949.html?tag=adnews

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it had agreed to combine its Caller ID efforts with the SPF, a specification crafted by Pobox.com Chief Technology Officer Meng Wong.

A recent crop focuses on the idea that ISPs could publish the range of Internet Protocol addresses associated with their e-mail domains. If there’s no match, the recipient’s ISP can safely assume that the message is spam–or at least fraudulently addressed. The combined SPF and Caller ID, which has yet to be named, will use XML (Extensible Markup Language) to let Net service providers post IP addresses in the Domain Name System, the giant database that translates alphanumeric domain names like “news.com” into numerical IP addresses for Web servers.

“The convergence of the two proposals is a very positive milestone in the war on spam and brings together the best of both SPF and Caller ID,” said Microsoft spokesman Sean Sundwall. AOL, which in December began testing SPF, hailed Microsoft’s collaboration with Wong. “We welcome Microsoft to the position we have long held concerning the attributes of SPF,” AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said. “And on the need for a joint standard that is about more than one technical standard, one technology or one company. We were the first ISP to agree to test and implement SPF, back in December, and we think this convergence is the right approach at the right time.”

Other systems for authenticating mail are also in progress. Sendmail and Yahoo have gotten behind DomainKeys, which authenticates e-mail through digital signatures and is not mutually exclusive with DNS-based systems.

More info: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5220253.html

The technology, which won’t be available until the software giant releases Windows Server 2003 R2 in the second half of 2005, will interoperate with other companies’ identity management software, said Michael Stephenson, lead program manager for Windows Server 2003. “Federated identity lets companies securely extend their applications to suppliers and external users,” he said.

Though the software the company plans to show off won’t be available anytime soon, Stephenson wanted to underscore that Microsoft is playing well with others: “We have been working closely with others in the industry on interoperability.” Microsoft’s interoperability demonstration is the latest move in the software giant’s plans to push for the ubiquitous use of identity management and Web services.

Along with IBM, the company has been a cheerleader for the adoption of the Web Services standard by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, or OASIS.

WS-Security, which includes many of the federated identity specifications, passed muster in April. The Web Services framework competes to some extent with the E-Business Extensible Markup Language (ebXML), which has also been adopted by OASIS.

Both sets of services aim to allow Web sites to offer services to other e-commerce sites.

However, to share identity between sites on the Web and between servers inside a company only three options currently exist: the security assertion markup language (SAML) 1.1, the WS-Security standard or the Liberty Alliance’s standard, which has become the base for the next version of SAML, 2.0. Such identity services promise to allow partners to share secure access to services by letting a person who signs in to one server access any other partner’s server without having to sign in.

Originally, Microsoft had hoped that its Passport service would be the single-stop place for people to store their information on the Web. However, businesses and consumers did not agree, and so the software giant started to work on federated services. While Microsoft played well with its partners, the software giant and the Liberty Alliance are still at odds. Microsoft and the Liberty Alliance have still not committed to supporting each others’ standards. Stephenson said he is “very hopeful” that the two will work together.

The Liberty Alliance boasted on Monday that it offers the most mature method for sharing identity information. “The WS family of specifications in general, with the exception of WS-Security, are not in any usable standards form,” said Michael Barrett, vice president of privacy and security for American Express and president of Liberty Alliance’s management board.

More info: http://news.com.com/Microsoft+to+show+off+ID+federation/2100-7347_3-5219584.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news