Archive for the ‘Security’ Category

Win32_OperatingSystem class missing

Saturday, February 2nd, 2019

We were fortunate to not have an issue for the wannacry ransomware. It was time to make sure this this never happened. We have a script designed to tell us when a system lacked the patching it needed.

While running it on one system; I received a rather peculiar error: 

Win32_OperatingSystem class missing

I tried all the usual repairs and and tried to rebuild the WMI repository. Still the error persisted.

The following commands solved this issue: 

cd %windir%\system32\wbem
for /f %%s in ('dir /s /b *.mof *.mfl') do mofcomp %%s

Information came from the following Technet entry.

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Posted in Malware, PowerShell, Security, Windows | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Adblock Plus now sells ads?

Tuesday, September 13th, 2016

This used to be an add blocker but they have been positioning themselves as an advertiser preaching the nonsense of acceptable ads. It’s an old approach.  Present a new “service” and then start doing what was done before but you have people paying for it.  When cable TV first appeared, the big selling point was “ad free.” Once the base was established; it changed we are going to introduce ads so we don’t have to charge more. Now we pay for the privileged of getting ads.

Adblock at the moment doesn’t charge but in time there will be paid levels to “reduce” ads or better control them.

I am dumping them.

Look into uBlock origin. They have a link for an iOS 9 product and I know they have addons for Chrome and Firefox.

Souce.

 

Posted in Apple, iPad, iphone, Security, Windows | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Disable UAC on Windows 2012

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2014

I had a need to disable User Account Control on a server 2012 installation.

I had set UAC to “Never notify” but still ran into issues. I learned that UAC is not really disabled with server 2012.

I should note this goes against Microsoft’s best practices but sometimes you need to do that to get things done when a customer won’t give you time to research a better way.

You need to use Regedit and follow this steps.

  1. From a CMD or poweredit; type Regedit then hit enter
  2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system
  3. Double click on EnableLUA
  4. Change the Value data to a 0
  5. Click OK, then reboot the server

After that the error went away.

Normally, I would list the error but I had lost the message(this blog entry was on my todo).

Posted in 8 2012 setup, Security, UAC | Tagged | Leave a comment

Counterspy Enterprise discontinued.

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013

A major problem of IT people is the tendency to keep everything with the justification of “But I might need this some day!” I was cleaning my cube and found our old copy of Counterspy Enterprise. Keep or toss?

I did a quick check on the Net and found the product had been discontinued with a suggestion to upgrade it to Vipre Enterprise. Sounds nice but for two problems 1) The upgrade chance was two years ago.  2) My current company likes SEP.

Into the recycle bin it goes.

Posted in Security, Software, Windows | Tagged | Leave a comment

New Black Hole Exploit kit

Monday, November 19th, 2012

A security person on one of my lists posted this link. Rather heavy stuff but interesting if you want to learn this topic.

This is a worthwhile link to add to your collection: malware.dontneedcoffee.com

 

Posted in Malware, Security | Leave a comment