It's good to see different groups working together to improve security. This week another browser manufacturer announced future support for an initiative relating to Transport Layer Security (TLS, the successor to SSL).

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) describes a method for a web site to tell client browsers that they should only interact with it over secure transport, i.e. TLS Whilst there have been browser plugins which support this draft specification, support for HSTS was announced for v4 of Google Chrome in January, and last week for v4 of Mozilla Firefox. Hopefully Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 and ,a href="http://www.opera.com/">Opera will also adopt this.

Why is it important? Some attacks mean that TLS is vulnerable if there are redirects from non-TLS (e.g. http://www.example.com) to TLS (https://www.example.com) content. And if part, or all, of your web site is only meant to be accessed over SSL, HSTS should be implemented now, ready for mainstream adoption.

Further details are provided on the W3C page at Strict Transport Security (STS) and the draft IETF specification is at HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS).

HTTP Strict Transport Security(author unknown)11067853532291698348

Someone sent me this quote in an attempt to convince me that we should focus on vulnerabilities and not threats…I don’t think they are mutually exclusive, but here nor there… Our data tells us that focusing on vulnerabilities is more effective in reducing risk than focusing on threats.  In fact, of nine specific types of threats we [...] amritw

IBM DB2 9.7 before FP2 does not perform the expected access control on the monitor administrative views in the SYSIBMADM schema, which allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information via unspecified vectors.

IBM DB2 9.7 before FP2, when AUTO_REVAL is IMMEDIATE, allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (loss of privileges) to a view owner by defining a dependent view.

Unspecified vulnerability in IBM DB2 9.1 before FP9, 9.5 before FP6, and 9.7 before FP2 on Windows Server 2008 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (trap) via vectors involving "special group and user enumeration."

The DB2DART program in IBM DB2 9.1 before FP9, 9.5 before FP6, and 9.7 before FP2 allows attackers to bypass intended file access restrictions via unspecified vectors related to overwriting files owned by an instance owner.

Unspecified vulnerability in the DB2STST program in IBM DB2 9.1 before FP9, 9.5 before FP6, and 9.7 before FP2 has unknown impact and attack vectors.

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Free CGI Moo moobbs2 before 1.03 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unspecified vectors.

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Free CGI Moo moobbs before 1.03 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unspecified vectors.

Untrusted search path vulnerability in Adobe Captivate 5.0.0.596, and possibly other versions, allows local users, and possibly remote attackers, to execute arbitrary code and conduct DLL hijacking attacks via a Trojan horse dwmapi.dll that is located in the same folder as a .cptx file. NOTE: the provenance of this information is unknown; the details are obtained solely from third party information.

Untrusted search path vulnerability in ATL MFC Trace Tool (AtlTraceTool8.exe), as used in Microsoft Visual Studio, allows local users, and possibly remote attackers, to execute arbitrary code and conduct DLL hijacking attacks via a Trojan horse dwmapi.dll that is located in the same folder as a TRC, cur, rs, rct, or res file.

The extSetOwner function in the UfProxyBrowserCtrl ActiveX control (UfPBCtrl.dll) in Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2010 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via an invalid address that is dereferenced as a pointer.

SQL injection vulnerability in search.aspx in BugTracker.NET 3.4.3 and earlier allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands via a custom field to the search page.

The IPersistPropertyBag2::Read function in QTPlugin.ocx in Apple QuickTime 6.x, 7.x, and other versions allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via the _Marshaled_pUnk attribute, which triggers unmarshaling of an untrusted pointer.

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the HTML Speech Incubator Group, whose mission is to determine the feasibility of integrating speech technology in HTML5 in a way that leverages the capabilities of both speech and HTML (e.g., DOM)... W3C Staff

Cisco IOS XR 3.4.0 through 3.9.1, when BGP is enabled, does not properly handle unrecognized transitive attributes, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (peering reset) via a crafted prefix announcement, as demonstrated in the wild in August 2010 with attribute type code 99, aka Bug ID CSCti62211.

Unspecified vulnerability in Software Distributor (sd) in HP HP-UX B.11.11, B.11.23, and B.11.31 allows local users to gain privileges via unknown vectors.

Heap-based buffer overflow in the RLE decompression functionality in the TranscribePalmImageToJPEG function in generators/plucker/inplug/image.cpp in Okular in KDE SC 4.3.0 through 4.5.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted image in a PDB file.

Buffer overflow in ftpd in IBM AIX 5.3 and earlier allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a long NLST command.

IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS) 7.x before 7.0.0.13, and WebSphere Application Server Feature Pack for Web Services 6.1.0.9 through 6.1.0.32, when a JAX-WS application is used, does not properly handle an IncludeTimestamp setting in the WS-Security policy, which has unspecified impact and remote attack vectors.