Archive for the ‘browser’ Category

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Major Android vulnerability for Samsung Galaxy phones (and others)

Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

There is a major risk to lose all your data when you’re using the internet with your Samsung Galaxy phone. Your phone will reset.

You can test here to see if your vulnerable: USSD-Android-vulnerability.html It will show your IMEI number on the phone, when you’re vulnerable. Just open the page with your mobile phone.

Contrary to what you have read somewhere else, the vulnerability doesn’t need you to click anything, loading a page (with malicious advertisements) can be enough. Some advice say that you should read all links carefully. Nonsense, that won’t help.

This bug is also called the Android Reset bug or Android Wipe bug.

Workaround / Solution

Please install this app to secure yourself ASAP.

`TelStop` will do nothing, just ask you what to do, and prevent the default dangerous handling.

Details

The vulnerability is caused by automatic handling of so called USSD `tel` URI by the dialer system. USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) can display certain information, like your IMEI number or perform specific special features like a Factory Reset (loss of all your data).

Just adding this code to any website can trigger the bug:


<iframe src="tel:123"></iframe>

It isn’t limited to the `tel` URI, also `callto:123` can be used in some browsers, e.g. Opera browsers.

With JavaScript any link can be infected, so it’s a real danger.

It isn’t a browser or Android bug, it’s a bug in TouchWizz, Samsungs own interface layer. Apparently HTC and Motorola made the same mistake.

On a Samsung Galaxy S 2.3.6 phone all tested browsers were vulnerable, stock browser, Firefox, Dolphin, Opera Mobile, Opera Mini.

In the latest firmware (4.0.4) for the Samsung Galaxy III the bug was patched, apparently Samsung was aware of the bug for some time.

Reported Vulnerable phones

(This list is incomplete, sometimes it depends of firmware version)

  • Samsung Galaxy S (Android 2.3.6)
  • Samsung Galaxy S II
  • Samsung Galaxy S III (any firmware below 4.0.4)
  • Samsung Galaxy Gio
  • Samsung Galaxy Advance
  • HTC One X (HTC Sense 4.0 on Android 4.0.3)
  • HTC Desire
  • Motorola Defy (Android 2.3.5)
  • Sony Xperia Active
  • Sony Xperia Arc S

Please add a comment with your phone model if your experience this bug too, and don’t forget to install the workaround.

updated 27/9  sony phones added

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Screens are getting bigger and wider and uberwide: 30720×768

Thursday, April 5th, 2012

While taking a look at the screen-resolution tab of the Technology -> Browsers and OS section of Google analytics for this site, I found  a visitor with a baffling 30720×768 screen-resolution.

I know I have geeky visitors, but wow, that’s what you  call a widescreen.

What kind of a device is it?

  • A new Apple super touch-screen for elephants?
  • A Microsoft touchtable?
  • A stretched Limousine laptop?
  • A new Chinese invention for one screen per schoolclass?
  • An interactive bar in the Google Android Cafe?
  •  Or just a browser bug or proxy hacker?

Anyone a clue?

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Is Google’s Chrome Reduced Pagerank a penalty (II)?!

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

Actually I doubt if there is any real penalty.

Probably Google will advertise more; that will raise the bidding for adds on `browser` keywords. So Microsoft has to pay more for there adds for Internet Explorer 9 on the Google pages. It might benefit Google eventually 😉 .

IMHO the complete bidding system for adds is murky, it’ isn’t exactly transparent, and being able to drive up your own prices doesn’t seem to help much.

A real penalty would include a stop for advertisements.

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Why I use Opera as my main browser

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

Yeah, I use it since the Phoenix Alpha’s but the main reason is…
(more…)

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The beauty of WebGL

Friday, July 1st, 2011

We have seen some demo’s with fishtanks and aquariums, but I found a much more elegant showcase here. It stresses the beauty of infinity and brings focus to the relationship between simplicity and complexity, often found in nature.

An intriguing animated M.S. Escher drawing.

You can see the working example here:
http://wakaba.c3.cx/w/escher_droste.html

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Browser performance and CPU load

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

Chromium is using 2 cores and Opera isn’t running full speed on Sunspider JS benchmark. That is the outcome of a simple test running TOP while taking the sunspider benchmark on a quadcore (AMD 630) Ubuntu 64 machine with the three main browsers: Chromium, Firefox and Opera. Opera 11.11 is surprisingly never using more then 80% CPU while Firefox 4 is using 100% and Chromium 12 150%. A quadcore can take 400%, when all 4 CPU cycles are fully utilized. Opera is the slowest performer on the benchmark, no surprise and Firefox is somehow disabling graphical output: nearly no load on X-server, and no visual graphical output, while Opera and in a lesser extent Chromium show a lot of flickering and flashing. Opera is also putting a bigger load on Compiz, the compositing window manager for Linux, AKA 3d eye candy. But Opera, as said before, is also giving more visual feedback about downloading files and stuff with an animated icon in the addressbar.

Sunspider benchmark results

Firefox 4:	Total:		   355.6ms +/- 2.6%
Chromium 12:  Total:		   348.2ms +/- 4.9%
Opera 11.11:  Total:		   413.2ms +/- 3.3%

TOP results

Firefox 4
Tasks: 277 total,   2 running, 273 sleeping,   1 stopped,   1 zombie
Cpu(s): 27.1%us,  3.5%sy,  0.0%ni, 69.0%id,  0.3%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   5093632k total,  5016508k used,	77124k free,   220824k buffers
Swap:  9055228k total,		0k used,  9055228k free,  2074600k cached

PID USER	  PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM	TIME+  COMMAND
7063 user	   20   0  923m 325m  41m R  101  6.5   2:46.61 firefox-bin
2193 root	   20   0  235m 131m  32m S   12  2.6  12:11.16 Xorg
3119 user	   20   0  374m  62m  20m S	8  1.3   5:13.44 compiz

Chromium 12
Tasks: 280 total,   3 running, 273 sleeping,   3 stopped,   1 zombie
Cpu(s): 44.0%us,  9.0%sy,  0.0%ni, 46.3%id,  0.8%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   5093632k total,  4856072k used,   237560k free,   217760k buffers
Swap:  9055228k total,		0k used,  9055228k free,  2011968k cached

PID USER	  PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM	TIME+  COMMAND
7317 user	   20   0  880m  81m  26m R  102  1.6   1:20.46 chromium-browse
2193 root	   20   0  243m 138m  40m S   44  2.8  13:07.53 Xorg
7295 user	   20   0  519m  51m  31m R   41  1.0   0:37.04 chromium-browse
3119 user	   20   0  374m  62m  20m S   11  1.3   5:33.46 compiz

Opera 11.11
Tasks: 280 total,   4 running, 272 sleeping,   3 stopped,   1 zombie
Cpu(s): 23.3%us, 11.3%sy,  0.0%ni, 64.1%id,  1.2%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.2%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   5093632k total,  4849588k used,   244044k free,   217972k buffers
Swap:  9055228k total,		0k used,  9055228k free,  2004908k cached

PID USER	  PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM	TIME+  COMMAND
6051 user	   20   0  863m 428m  29m S   81  8.6  13:51.12 opera
2193 root	   20   0  236m 131m  32m R   47  2.6  13:22.27 Xorg
3119 user	   20   0  374m  62m  20m R   18  1.3   5:38.20 compiz

Conclusion

Seems that Opera isn’t going full throttle on benchmarks. I wonder why that is. Chromium is the only browser that is using multiple cores, but it isn’t actually much faster than Firefox. Another interesting thing is that Chromium feels the snappier browser but actually is stressing your PC more.

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