CC2430 Debug Protocol

The following are my notes on the debugging mechanism of the CC2430 and other chips (such as the CC2530) from Chipcon using an 8051 core. These notes do not apply to the upcoming CC430. As most of this was written before I implemented the protocol, plenty of errata are likely to exist.

These notes are intended for those who wish to understand how the device is programmed, not for those who merely want a device programmer. See CCFlasher or the GoodFET for that.

Be sure to have a copy of SWRA124, which is the official documentation for this protocol.

Concerning pins, there are three related to debugging. Debug Data (DATA) is a synchronous, bidirectional data line. Debug Clock (DCLK) is its clock, but its edges also control when commands are interpreted, and it is crucial to initializing the chip’s debugging unit. The third pin, !RST, puts the chip into a reset state when pulled low, but is also used to start the chip with the debugger enabled. The clock idles low, while !RST idles high. Data is posted during the rising edge, sampled during the falling edge. As there is no equivalent of the SPI !SS pin, it is necessary to dead-reckon commands; a command of incorrect length will cause unneighborly consequences.

To initialize the debugger, pull !RST low while sending two clock pulses on DCLK. It will look something like this,

The command byte 0×34 looks something like this,

Concerning commands, once the debugger has been initialized, the chip will accept a command byte, optionally followed by up to three additional parameter bytes. It will then reply with at least one byte, which might be discarded. Some commands reply with two bytes rather than one.

A command byte is composed of 8 bits. Bits 1 and 0–the least significant–contain the number of data bytes following the command. Bit 2 is labeled “return input byte to host”, but it doesn’t appear to be observed regularly by the documented examples. The remaining five bits specify the command itself.

Only twelve commands are described in the documentation, but either 16 or 32 commands are possible, depending upon whether the MSBit is variable or fixed to 0 as a sort of start bit.

These commands were chosen to be easy to implement in hardware. They include CHIP_ERASE, RD_CONFIG, WR_CONFIG, HALT, RESUME, GET_PC, and DEBUG_INSTR. There are no primitive commands for peeking or poking memory, nor for managing flash. Instead, macro commands are built up by using DEBUG_INSTR.

Concerning command execution, it is clear from the documentation that a command with no parameters begins to execute at the instant of the eighth falling debug clock edge. Multi-byte commands likely execute on multiple clock edges, each being the last falling edge of an instruction.

In any case, to debug a command, you simply send DEBUG_INSTR (0×54) summed with the length of the instruction, up to 3 bytes, then read a single byte reply. So to execute “NOP”, send {0×55, 0×00}. Except for a jump, this will not affect the program counter.

Concerning memory access, there are no debugging commands to read or write memory. Instead, DEBUG_INSTR (0×54) is used to do the same. For example, to fetch from Data memory, first debug {0×90, AH, AL} to move the address into the data pointer. Then debug {0xE0, 0, 0} to MOVX from the data pointer into A. The 0’s aren’t part of the instruction, but they are necessary to give the device time to fetch the target of the pointer.

The is the code that fetches a byte from Data memory,

Concerning the writing of Flash, it is necessary to load a RAM buffer, then to copy that buffer into Flash by use of a short assembly script. Flash may only be erased in 2kB pages, and it may only be written as 32-bit words. The code that performs this is found on page 11 of SWRA124, and you’ll find it in Data memory if you look hard enough after a programmer that doesn’t cover its tracks.

You will find this code in the GoodFET source.

You will find the same code in RAM after programming.

Concerning the protection of Code memory, there is a lock bit in a hidden page of Flash memory. By setting the lowest configuration bit (by WR_CONFIG), the lowest 2kB of flash memory will be mapped to a special information region. Clearing the least significant bit of the first byte will lock the chip, causing it to refuse debugging after a full-power reset. Access to debugging instructions can only be regained after executing a CHIP_ERASE, which erases all of Flash memory.

At Black Hat USA in August of 2009, I presented a paper entitled Extracting Keys from Second Generation Zigbee Chips. The vulnerability, demonstrated in the image below, is that Data memory is not cleared along with Flash memory during a CHIP_ERASE. By booting a wireless sensor, then erasing it, then dumping RAM, the attacker can find any keys which are stored within the unit. This works even for constant keys, as 8051 compilers will copy them into RAM in order to make C pointers consistent.

In implementing a debugger, it’s also necessary to watch out for a minor bug. Upon connecting, be sure to DEBUG_INSTR a NOP so as to have the lock bit checked. Failure to do so might cause the lock bit to be misrepresented when checking the device’s status.

In conclusion, the protocol is blessedly simple and the 16 pages of documentation are quite complete when supplemented with the CC2430 datasheet. I hope that these notes might allow you to implement the protocol with less of a headache than I have.

Computer Weekly – Securing Wireless Communications at the Physical Layer – Playboy – ModSecurity 2.5 – Certified Ethical Hacking Study Guide

Computer Weekly - 8-14th December 2009

Download:

http://uploading.com/files/8d89cm49/Computer%2BWeekly%2B-%2B8-14th.rar/

or

http://sharingmatrix.com/file/787301/Computer%20Weekly%20-%208-14th.rar

Ruoheng Liu, Wade Trappe, "Securing Wireless Communications at the Physical Layer"

The book focuses on a recently emerging topic in security. Specifically, the book focuses on physical layer security. Whereas conventional security mechanisms involve cryptography that operates at higher layers of the protocol stack, the methods described in this book secure communications at the physical layer.

The area of physical layer security is an emerging field of research that has seen an explosion of research in the past few years. This trend is only expected to continue as there is a growing need to secure wireless communications without conventional cryptographic network security protocols.

The proposed book will consist of contributions from roughly a dozen of the leading research groups in this emerging area. For the first time, important results will be collected together. Important topics will include the secrecy rate of MIMO wireless systems, practical codes for the dissemination of secrets, and authentication of wireless transmitters using waveform-level properties.

Download:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DFPTWXB1

Playboy #12 (December/2009/Hungary)

Download:

http://depositfiles.com/files/6ub66fgzf

or

http://uploading.com/files/am5514de/Pboy_Hung12.rar/

Magnus Mischel , "ModSecurity 2.5"

Prevent web application hacking with this easy to use guide
Secure your system by knowing exactly how a hacker would break into it
Covers writing rules in-depth and Modsecurity rule language elements such as variables, actions, and request phases
Covers the common attacks in use on the Web, and ways to find the geographical location of an attacker and send alert emails when attacks are discovered
Packed with many real-life examples for better understanding

Download:

http://depositfiles.com/files/zj332huaf

or

http://extabit.com/file/28xhhf9xvirvx

Certified Ethical Hacking Study Guide

The EC-Councils Certified Ethical Hacker has emerged as one of todays most sought-after certifications.
This is the only official review guide to the test, covering all CEH exam objectives, from ethics and testing to securing wired and wireless networks.
Written industry expert Kimberly Graves, this concise, focused guide is ideal for people who have taken CEH classes and need a last-minute review.
The CD-ROM features two bonus exams, 150 flashcard questions, a searchable glossary of key terms, and hacking tools used in the EC-Councils CEH training.

Download:

http://hotfile.com/dl/19391330/9f5d462/Ethical_Hacking_and_Countermeasures.rar.html

MS MPEG2 DirectShow Exploit

Summary:

On July 6th, 2009 a zero day vulnerability in a component of the Windows operating system controlling
MPEG2 videos became publicly distributed. The attack code is currently present on several malware
servers in Asia and being used to infect unwitting clients who have been redirected to these servers. This
vulnerability will allow the remote control of clients who are pushed to malicious web servers via XSS or
phishing techniques. Microsoft has not issued a patch for this vulnerability, but they have recommended a
common workaround for dealing with ActiveX vulnerabilities which we have included below under
‘Recommended Preventative Actions’. Only older versions of Windows (2000, XP, 2003) are vulnerable to
this, as Vista and later operating systems have architecture which prevents the vulnerable code from being
exposed to the malicious control object. Major IDS/IPS/AV vendors have released signatures to detect
exploits against this vulnerability.

Severity: MEDIUM

We consider this to be a ‘medium’ severity event. We have not, to this date, seen high infection ratesamongst our monitored networks, but vendors are just now releasing signatures to detect the exploit comingback from a malicious webserver to a vulnerable client. This exploit is not related to any worms, but isbeing used to install Trojan software which may then perform additional attacks on vulnerable hosts viaother exploit vectors. While normally we would give ActiveX exploits a low severity, there over the past 18months there have been a proliferation of SQL Injection attacks resulting in legitimate ASP.NET sitesunwittingly serving up malicious javascript, that ‘trusting’ the intention of a site is no longer prudent forsurfing behavior We feel the multitude of the hacked web environments hosting up active pages with malicious javascript inclusions, coupled with newer methods of attack obfuscation, added to the knowledgethat MPEG2 is an EXTREMELY popular media format justifies this severity.

How to Determine Whether You Are Vulnerable:

All 2003 and XP systems will be vulnerable to this unless specific actions have been taken to:
[1] Disable ActiveX altogether (not recommended in many environments)
[2] Are not using Internet Explorer at all
[3] Disabled Windows Media Software by some 3rd party application
[4] Have updated A/V software which detects the attack and mitigates it
[5] Have set the kill-bit for ActiveX Control Object (CLSID 0955AC62-BF2E-4CBA-A2B9-
A63F772D46CF)
[6] Perform an automated Scan on hosts that are in the Windows 2003/XP tranche of Operating Systems.

Recommended Preventive Actions:

Oddly, Microsoft has discovered that no ActiveX control objects which interface with MSvidctl.dll are
needed by Internet Explorer. On Windows XP and 2003 systems they may all be safely disabled by using
the tool Microsoft provides for at URL: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972890. Later systems such as
Windows Vista, 2008, v7 do not appear to be vulnerable.

How to Detect Potential Attacks:

Intrusion Detection Systems which have recently come out withsignatures to detect some facet of this attempted exploit. We are currently investigating efficacy of these signatures and will be updating managed and monitored devices according.
Snort
SourceFire
McAfee
Tipping Point
IDP
Cisco
Popular Antivirus Software are detecting attacks as ‘JS/Exploit.CVE-2008-0015.A.Gen trojan’

What to do if You Have Been Attacked:

Typically workstations, laptops and desktops running XP or 2003 are the ones likely to fall victim to this
type of attack. Recommend consulting your security policy for the Incident Response
procedure as it pertains to the asset which is compromised. Infection should be considered serious, and
Windows MSRT may or may not be enough to remove the Trojan Software that the attacker has installed.

Detailed Analysis:

From Microsoft:
Customers who are using Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 are not affected because the
ability to pass data to this control within Internet Explorer has been restricted.
By default, Internet Explorer on Windows Server 2003 and 2008 runs in a restricted mode that is
known as Enhanced Security Configuration. Enhanced Security Configuration is a group of
preconfigured settings in Internet Explorer that can reduce the likelihood of a user or administrator
downloading and running specially crafted Web content on a server. This is a mitigating factor for
Web sites that you have not added to the Internet Explorer Trusted sites zone. See also Managing
Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration.
By default, all supported versions of Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express open
HTML e-mail messages in the Restricted sites zone. The Restricted sites zone helps mitigate
attacks that could try to exploit this vulnerability by preventing Active Scripting and ActiveX
controls from being used when reading HTML e-mail messages. However, if a user clicks a link in
an e-mail message, the user could still be vulnerable to exploitation of this vulnerability through
the Web-based attack scenario.
In a Web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a Web site that contains a Web page that is
used to exploit this vulnerability. In addition, compromised Web sites and Web sites that accept or
host user-provided content or advertisements could contain specially crafted content that could
exploit this vulnerability. In all cases, however, an attacker would have no way to force users to
visit these Web sites. Instead, an attacker would have to persuade users to visit the Web site,
typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or Instant Messenger message that
takes users to the attacker’s Web site.
An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the
local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be
less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

Suggested Reading:

• http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/972890.mspx
• http://blogs.technet.com/srd/archive/2009/07/06/new-vulnerability-in-mpeg2tunerequest-activexcontrol-
object-in-msvidctl-dll.aspx
• http://www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-0015

Windows 7 Remote Admin Tools – Controls Windows Server 2008 from your Windows 7 desktop

Microsoft provides a client-side remote server toolset that finally hits the mark!

With the implementation of  Windows 7, Microsoft has released its latest Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 and for the first time, I can imagine turning to Microsoft for remote management instead of all my favorite third-party tools.

Seriously — since I began my IT career I have been in search of tools to manage admin tasks more efficiently. Whenever I needed to manage my Windows servers or to handle administration tasks from my desktop, I have traditionally looked to third-party tools like Hyena, NETIQ, DGard Network Manager, and SPICEWORKS. Of course, Microsoft has provided admin packs to install on the desktop but they were quite lacking and often only handled a few of the administrative tasks.

When I found myself in situations where spending or implementing open source just did not play into the plan….remote desktop connections always saved the day. And Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 is looking pretty good. It allows you to manage Windows Server 2008 R2 roles and features (it also allows to manage core servers remotely). The toolset provides some support for Windows Server 2008 (pre-R2) and Windows Server 2003 (will not support the core installation of Server 2003).
Some of the management tools include:

Active Directory (all the AD management tools are included)
DHCP Manager
DNS Manager

But it goes a bit further offering access to:
Server Manager
File Services Managements
AD certificate services
and even
Hyper-V Management

I have to say, for the first time ever, I am pretty impressed with the number of tasks that can be taken care of with the remote administrative tools pack as well as the speed at which they launched and ran (even when I had multiple tools running at once). You will need to have Windows 7 Enterprise, Professional, or Ultimate editions to install the remote server administrative tools. But if you are running in a network you need one of these versions anyway.

Not to be overlooked is the fact that the tool is free and you do not need to run in a remote session to manage your servers. Check out the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/48745

Top 10 SQL Server 2008 Features for the Database Administrator (DBA)

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 provides a number of enhancements and new functionality, building on previous versions. Administration, database maintenance, manageability, availability, security, and performance, among others, all fall into the roles and responsibilities of the database administrator. This article provides the top ten new features of SQL Server 2008 (referenced in alphabetical order) that can help DBAs fulfill their responsibilities. In addition to a brief description of each feature, we include how this feature can help and some important use considerations.

Activity Monitor

When troubleshooting a performance issue or monitoring a server in real time, it is common for the DBA to execute a number of scripts or check a number of sources to collect general information about what processes are executing and where the problem may be. SQL Server 2008 Activity Monitor consolidates this information by detailing running and recently executed processes, graphically. The display gives the DBA a high-level view and the ability to drill down on processes and view wait statistics to help understand and resolve problems.

To open up Activity Monitor, just right-click on the registered server name in Object Explorer and then click Activity Monitor, or utilize the standard toolbar icon in SQL Server Management Studio. Activity Monitor provides the DBA with an overview section producing output similar to Windows Task Manager and drilldown components to look at specific processes, resource waits, data file I/Os, and recent expensive queries, as noted in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Display of SQL Server 2008 Activity Monitor view from Management Studio

NOTE: There is a refresh interval setting accessed by right-clicking on the Activity Monitor. Setting this value to a low threshold, under 10 seconds, in a high-volume production system can impact overall system performance.

DBAs can also use Activity Monitor to perform the following tasks:

• Pause and resume Activity Monitor with a simple right-click. This can help the DBA to “save” a particular point-in-time for further investigation without it being refreshed or overwritten. However, be careful, because if you manually refresh, expand, or collapse a section, the data will be refreshed.
• Right-click a line item to display the full query text or graphical execution plan via Recent Expensive Queries.
• Execute a Profiler trace or kill a process from the Processes view. Profiler events include RPC:Completed, SQL:BatchStarting, and SQL:BatchCompleted events, and Audit Login and Audit Logout.

Activity Monitor also provides the ability to monitor activity on any SQL Server 2005 instance, local or remote, registered in SQL Server Management Studio.

[SQL Server] Audit

Having the ability to monitor and log events, such as who is accessing objects, what changes occurred, and what time changes occurred, can help the DBA to meet compliance standards for regulatory or organizational security requirements. Gaining insight into the events occurring within their environment can also help the DBA in creating a risk mitigation plan to keep the environment secure.

Within SQL Server 2008 (Enterprise and Developer editions only), SQL Server Audit provides automation that allows the DBA and others to enable, store, and view audits on various server and database components. The feature allows for auditing at a granularity of the server and/or database level.

There are server-level audit action groups, such as:

• FAILED_LOGIN_GROUP, which tracks failed logins.
• BACKUP_RESTORE_GROUP, which shows when a database was backed up or restored.
• DATABASE_CHANGE_GROUP, which audits when a database is created, altered, or dropped.

Database-level audit action groups include:

• DATABASE_OBJECT_ACCESS_GROUP, which is raised whenever a CREATE, ALTER, or DROP statement is executed on database objects.
• DATABASE_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP, which is raised when GRANT, REVOKE, or DENY is utilized for database objects.

There are also audit actions, such as SELECT, DELETE, or EXECUTE. For more information, including a full list of the audit groups and actions, see SQL Server Audit Action Groups and Actions.

Audit results can be sent to a file or event log (Windows Security or System) for viewing. Audit information is created utilizing Extended Events, another new SQL Server 2008 feature.

By using SQL Server 2008 audits, the DBA can now answer questions that were previously very difficult to retroactively determine, such as “Who dropped this index?”, “When was the stored procedure modified?”, “What changed which might not be allowing this user to access this table?”, or even “Who ran SELECT or UPDATE statements against the [dbo.Payroll] table?”

For more information about using SQL Server Audit and some examples of implementation, see the SQL Server 2008 Compliance Guide.

Backup Compression

This feature has long been a popular request of DBAs for SQL Server. The wait is finally over, and just in time! Many factors, including increased data retention periods and the need to physically store more data have contributed to the recent explosion in database size. Backing up a large database can require a significant time window to be allotted to backup operations and a large amount of disk space allocated for use by the backup file(s).

With SQL Server 2008 backup compression, the backup file is compressed as it is written out, thereby requiring less storage, less disk I/O, and less time. In lab tests conducted with real customer data, we observed in many cases a reduction in the backup file size between 70% and 85%. Testing also revealed around a 45% reduction in the backup and restore time. It is important to note that the additional processing results in higher processor utilization. To help segregate the CPU intensive backup and minimize its effect on other processes, one might consider utilizing another feature mentioned in this paper, Resource Governor.

The compression is achieved by specifying the WITH COMPRESSION clause in the BACKUP command (for more information, see SQL Server Books Online) or by selecting it in the Options page in the Back Up Database dialog box. To prevent having to modify all existing backup scripts, there is also a global setting to enable compressing all backups taken on a server instance by default. (This setting is accessed by using the Database Settings page of the Server Properties dialog box or by running sp_configure with backup compression default set to 1.) While the compression option on the backup command needs to be explicitly specified, the restore command automatically detects that a backup is compressed and decompresses it during the restore operation.

Backup compression is a very useful feature that can help the DBA save space and time. For more information about tuning backup compression, see the technical note on Tuning the Performance of Backup Compression in SQL Server 2008. NOTE: Creating compressed backups is only supported in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise and Developer editions; however, every SQL Server 2008 edition allows for a compressed backup to be restored.

Central Management Servers

DBAs are frequently responsible for managing not one but many SQL Server instances in their environment. Having the ability to centralize the management and administration of a number of SQL Server instances from a single source can allow the DBA to save significant time and effort. The Central Management Servers implementation, which is accessed via the Registered Servers component in SQL Server Management Studio, allows the DBA to perform a number of administrative tasks on SQL Servers within the environment, from a single management console.

Central Management Servers allow the DBA to register a group of servers and apply functionality to the servers, as a group, such as:

• Multiserver query execution: A script can now be executed from one source, across multiple SQL Servers, and be returned to that source, without the need to distinctly log into every server. This can be extremely helpful in cases where data from tables on two or more SQL Servers needs to be viewed or compared without the execution of a distributed query. Also, as long as the syntax is supported in earlier server versions, a query executed from the Query Editor in SQL Server 2008 can run against SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000 instances as well. For more information, see the SQL Server Manageability Team Blog, specifically Multiple Server Query Execution in SQL Server 2008 .
• Import and evaluate policies across servers: As part of Policy-Based Management (another new SQL Server 2008 feature discussed in this article), SQL Server 2008 provides the ability to import policy files into particular Central Management Server Groups and allows policies to be evaluated across all of the servers registered in the group
• Control Services and bring up SQL Server Configuration Manager: Central Management Servers help provide a central place where DBAs can view service status and even change status for the services, assuming they have the appropriate permissions
• Import and export the registered servers: Servers within Central Management Servers can be exported and imported for use between DBAs or different SQL Server Management Studio instance installations. This is an alternative to DBAs importing or exporting into their own local groupings within SQL Server Management Studio.

Be aware that permissions are enforced via Windows authentication, so a user might have different rights and permissions depending on the server registered within the Central Management Server group. For more information, see Administering Multiple Servers Using Central Management Servers and a Kimberly Tripp blog: SQL Server 2008 Central Management Servers-have you seen these?

Data Collector and Management Data Warehouse

Performance tuning and troubleshooting are a time-consuming tasks that can require in-depth SQL Server skills and an understanding of database internals. Windows System monitor (Perfmon), SQL Server Profiler, and dynamic management views (DMVs) helped with some of this, but they were often intrusive, laborious to use, or the dispersed data collection methods were cumbersome to easily summarize and interpret.

To provide actionable performance insight, SQL Server 2008 delivers a fully extensible performance data collection and warehouse tool also known as the data collector. The tool includes several out-of-the-box data collection agents, a centralized data repository for storing performance data called management data warehouse, and several precanned reports to present the captured data. The data collector is a scalable tool that can collect and assimilate data from multiple sources such as dynamic management views , Perfmon, Transact-SQL queries, by using a fully customizable data collection frequency. The data collector can be extended to collect data for any measurable attribute of an application.

Another helpful feature of the management data warehouse is that it can be installed on any SQL Server and then collect data from one or more SQL Server instances within the environment. This can help minimize the performance impact on production systems and improve the scalability in terms of monitoring and collecting data from a number of servers. In lab testing we observed around a 4% reduction in throughput when running the agents and the management data warehouse on a server running at capacity (via an OLTP workload). The impact can vary based on the collection interval (as the test was over an extended workload with 15-minute-pulls into the warehouse), and it can be exacerbated during intervals of data collection. Finally, some capacity should be considered, because the DCExec.exe process will take up some memory and processor resources, and writes to the management data warehouse will increase the I/O workload and space allocation needed where the data and log files are located.

The diagram (Figure 2) below depicts a typical data collector report.

Figure 2: Display of SQL Server 2008 Data Collector Report

This report shows SQL Server processing over the period of time data was collected. Events such as waits, CPU, I/O, memory usage, and expensive query statistics are collected and displayed. A DBA can also drill down into the reports to focus on a particular query or operation to further investigate, detect, and resolve performance problems. This data collection, storage, and reporting can allow the DBA to establish proactive monitoring of the SQL Server(s) in the environment and go back over time to understand and assess changes to performance over the time period monitored. The data collector and management data warehouse feature is supported in all editions (except SQL Server Express) of SQL Server 2008.

Data Compression

The ability to easily manage a database can greatly enhance the opportunity for DBAs to accomplish their regular task lists. As table, index, and file sizes grow and very large databases (VLDBs) become commonplace, the management of data and unwieldy file sizes has become a growing pain point. Also, with more data being queried, the need for large amounts of memory or the necessity to do physical I/O can place a larger burden on DBAs and their organizations. Many times this results in DBAs and organizations securing servers with more memory and/or I/O bandwidth or having to pay a performance penalty.

Data compression, introduced in SQL Server 2008, provides a resolution to help address these problems. Using this feature, a DBA can selectively compress any table, table partition, or index, resulting in a smaller on-disk footprint, smaller memory working-set size, and reduced I/O. The act of compression and decompression will impact CPU; however, this impact is in many cases offset by the gains in I/O savings. Configurations that are bottlenecked on I/O can also see an increase in performance due to compression.

In some lab tests, enabling data compression resulted in a 50-80% saving in disk space. The space savings did vary significantly with minimal savings on data that did not contain many repeating values or where the values required all the bytes allocated by the specified data type. There were also workloads that did not show any gains in performance. However, on data that contained a lot of numeric data and many repeating values, we saw significant space savings and observed performance increases from a few percentage points up to 40-60% on some sample query workloads.

SQL Server 2008 supports two types of compressions: row compression, which compresses the individual columns of a table, and page compression, which compresses data pages using row, prefix, and dictionary compression. The amount of compression achieved is highly dependent on the data types and data contained in the database. In general we have observed that using row compression results in lower overhead on the application throughput but saves less space. Page compression, on the other hand, has a higher impact on application throughput and processor utilization, but it results in much larger space savings. Page compression is a superset of row compression, implying that an object or partition of an object that is compressed using page compression also has row compression applied to it. Also, SQL Server 2008 does support the vardecimal storage format of SQL Server 2005 SP2. However, because this storage format is a subset of row compression, it is a depreciated feature and will be removed from future product versions.

Both row and page compression can be applied to a table or index in an online mode that is without any interruption to the application availability. However, a single partition of a partitioned table cannot be compressed or uncompressed online. In our testing we found that using a hybrid approach, where only the largest few tables were compressed, resulted in the best performance in terms of saving significant disk space while having a minimal negative impact on performance. Because there are disk space requirements, similar to what would be needed to create or rebuild an index, care should be taken in implementing compression as well. We also found that compressing the smallest objects first, from the list of objects you desire to compress, minimized the need for additional disk space during the compression process.

Data compression can be implemented via Transact-SQL or the Data Compression Wizard. To determine how compressing an object will affect its size, you can use the sp_estimate_data_compression_savings system stored procedure or the Data Compression Wizard to calculate the estimated space savings. Database compression is only supported in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise and Developer editions. It is implemented entirely within the database and does not require any application modification.

For more information about using compression, see Creating Compressed Tables and Indexes.

Policy-Based Management

In a number of business scenarios, there is a need to maintain certain configurations or enforce policies either within a specific SQL Server, or many times across a group of SQL Servers. A DBA or organization may require a particular naming convention to be implemented on all user tables or stored procedures that are created, or a required configuration change to be defined across a number of servers in the same manner.

Policy-Based Management (PBM) provides DBAs with a wide variety of options in managing their environment. Policies can be created and checked for compliance. If a target (such as a SQL Server database engine, a database, a table, or an index) is out of compliance, the administrator can automatically reconfigure it to be in compliance. There are also a number of evaluation modes (of which many are automated) that can help the DBA check for policy compliance, log and notify when a policy violation occurs, and even roll back the change to keep in compliance with the policy. For more information about evaluation modes and how they are mapped to facets (a PBM term also discussed in the blog), see the SQL Server Policy-Based Management blog.

The policies can be exported and imported as .xml files for evaluation and implementation across multiple server instances. Also, in SQL Server Management Studio and the Registered Servers view, policies can be evaluated across multiple servers if they are registered under a local server group or a Central Management Server group.

Not all of the functionality of Policy-Based Management can be implemented on earlier versions of SQL Server. However, the policy reporting feature can be utilized on SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000. For more information about administering servers by using Policy-Based Management, see Administering Servers by Using Policy-Based Management in SQL Server Books Online. For more information about the technology itself, including examples, see the SQL Server 2008 Compliance Guide.

Predictable Performance and Concurrency

A significant problem many DBAs face is trying to support SQL Servers with ever-changing workloads, and achieving some level of predictable performance (or minimizing variance in plans and performance). Unexpected query performance, plan changes, and/or general performance issues can come about due to a number of factors, including increased application load running against SQL Server or version upgrades of the database itself. Getting predictable performance from queries or operations run against SQL Server can greatly enhance the DBAs ability to meet and maintain availability, performance, and/or business continuity goals (OLAs or SLAs).

SQL Server 2008 provides a few feature changes that can help provide more predictable performance. In SQL Server 2008, there exist some enhancements to the SQL Server 2005 plan guides (or plan freezing) and a new option to control lock escalation at a table level. Both of these enhancements can provide a more predictable and structured interaction between the application and the database.

First, plan guides:

SQL Server 2005 enabled greater query performance stability and predictability by providing a new feature called plan guides to enable specifying hints for queries that could not be modified directly in the application. For more information, see the Forcing Query Plans white paper. While a very powerful feature, the USE PLAN query hint only supported SELECT DML operations and were often cumbersome to use due to the sensitivity of the plan guides to the formatting.

SQL Server 2008 builds on the plan guides mechanism in two ways: It expands the support for the USE PLAN query hint to cover all DML statements (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, MERGE), and it introduces a new plan freezing feature that can be used to directly create a plan guide (freeze) any query plan that exists in the SQL Server plan cache, as in the following example.

sp_create_plan_guide_from_handle

@name = N’MyQueryPlan’,

@plan_handle = @plan_handle,

@statement_start_offset = @offset;

A plan guide created by either means has a database scope and is stored in the sys.plan_guides table. Plan guides are only used to influence the query plan selection process of the optimizer and do not eliminate the need for the query to be compiled. A new function, sys.fn_validate_plan_guide, has also been introduced to validate existing SQL Server 2005 plan guides and ensure their compatibility with SQL Server 2008. Plan freezing is available in the SQL Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, and Developer editions.

Next, lock escalation:

Lock escalation has often caused blocking and sometimes even deadlocking problems, which the DBA is forced to troubleshoot and resolve. Previous versions of SQL Server permitted controlling lock escalation (trace flags 1211 and 1224), but this was only possible at an instance-level granularity. While this helped some applications work-around the problem, it caused severe issues for others. Another problem with the SQL Server 2005 lock escalation algorithm was that locks on partitioned tables were directly escalated to the table level, rather than the partition level.

SQL Server 2008 offers a solution for both of these problems. A new option has been introduced to control lock escalation at a table level. By using an ALTER TABLE command, option locks can be specified to not escalate, or escalate to the partition level for partitioned tables. Both these enhancements help improve the scalability and performance without having negative side-effects on other objects in the instance. Lock escalation is specified at the database-object level and does not require any application change. It is supported in all editions of SQL Server 2008.

Resource Governor

Maintaining a consistent level of service by preventing runaway queries and guaranteeing resources for mission-critical workloads has been a challenge. In the past there was no way of guaranteeing a certain amount of resources to a set of queries and prioritizing the access. All queries had equal access to all the available resources.

SQL Server 2008 introduces a new feature called Resource Governor, which helps address this issue by enabling users to differentiate workloads and allocate resources as they are requested. Resource Governor limits can easily be reconfigured in real time with minimal impact on the workloads that are executing. The allocation of the workload to a resource pool is configurable at the connection level, and the process is completely transparent to the application.

The diagram below depicts the resource allocation process. In this scenario three workload pools (Admin Workload, OLTP Workload, and Report Workload) are configured, and the OLTP Workload pool is assigned a high priority. In parallel, two resource pools (Admin Pool and Application Pool) are configured with specific memory and processor (CPU) limits as shown. As a final step the Admin Workload is assigned to the Admin Pool and the OLTP and Report workloads are assigned to the Application Pool.

Below are some other points you need to consider when using Resource Governor.

• Resource Governor relies on login credentials, host name, or application name as a ‘resource pool identifier’, so using a single login for an application, depending on the number of clients per server, might make creating pools more difficult.
• Database-level object grouping, in which the resource governing is done based on the database objects being referenced, is not supported.
• Resource Governor only allows resource management within a single SQL Server instance. For managing multiple SQL Server instances or processes within a server from a single source, Windows System Resource Manager should be considered.
• Only processor and memory resources can be configured. I/O resources cannot be controlled.
• Dynamically switching workloads between resource pools once a connection is made is not possible.
• Resource Governor is only supported in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise and Developer editions and can only be used for the SQL Server database engine; SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) cannot be controlled.

Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)

Security is one of the top concerns of many organizations. There are many different layers to securing one of the most important assets of an organization: its data. In most cases, organizations do well at securing their active data via the use of physical security, firewalls, and tightly controlled access policies. However, when physical medium such as the backup tape or disk on which the data resides is compromised, the above security measures are of no use, because a rouge user can simply restore the database and get full access to the data.

SQL Server 2008 offers a solution to this problem by way of transparent data encryption (TDE). TDE performs real-time I/O encryption and decryption of the data and log files by using a database encryption key (DEK). The DEK is a symmetric key secured by using a certificate stored in the master database of the server, or an asymmetric key protected by an Extensible Key Management (EKM) module.

TDE is designed to protect data ‘at rest’, which means the data stored in the .mdf, .ndf, and .ldf files cannot be viewed using a hex editor or other means. However, data that is not at rest, such as the results of a SELECT statement in SQL Server Management Studio, will continue to be visible to users who have rights to view the table. Also, because TDE is implemented at the database level, the database can leverage indexes and keys for query optimization. TDE should not be confused with column-level encryption, which is a separate feature that allows encryption of data even when it is not at rest.

Encrypting a database is a one-time process that can be initiated via a Transact-SQL command or SQL Server Management Studio, and it is executed as a background thread. You can monitor the encryption or decryption status using the sys.dm_database_encryption_keys dynamic management view. In a lab test we conducted, we were able to encrypt a 100 GB database using the AES_128 encryption algorithm in about an hour. While the overhead of using TDE is largely dictated by the application workload, in some of the testing conducted that overhead was measured to be less than 5%. One potential performance impact to be aware of is this: If any database within the instance does have TDE applied, the tempDB system database is also encrypted. Finally, of note when combining features:

• When backup compression is used to compress an encrypted database, the size of the compressed backup is larger than if the database were not encrypted, because encrypted data does not compress well.
• Encrypting the database does not affect data compression (row or page).

TDE enables organizations to meet the demands of regulatory compliance and overall concern for data privacy. TDE is only supported in the SQL Server 2008 Enterprise and Developer editions and can be enabled without changing existing applications. For more information, see Database Encryption in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition or the SQL Server 2008 Compliance Guide discussion on Using Transparent Data Encryption.

In conclusion, SQL Server 2008 offers features, enhancements, and functionality to help improve the Database Administrator experience. While a Top 10 list was provided above, there are many more features included within SQL Server 2008 that help improve the experience for DBA and other users alike. For a Top 10 feature set for other SQL Server focus areas, see the other SQL Server 2008 Top 10 articles on this site. For a full list of features and detailed descriptions, see SQL Server Books Online and the SQL Server 2008 Overview Web site.

Author: Mike Weiner

Contributor: Burzin Patel,Sanjay Mishra

Reviewers: Lubor Kollar, Kevin Cox, Bill Emmert, Greg Husemeier, Paul Burpo, Joseph Sack, Denny Lee, Lindsey Allen, Mark Souza

Evoluce ONE – 47 inches

47-inch multitouch display, touting Full HD (or 1920 x 1080) resolution and “Integrated-Through-Screen-Optics,” which allow it to recognize an unlimited number of simultaneous inputs. The ONE also features haptic feedback and is compatible with Windows 7’s multitouch features right out of the box, with support for some “other OS” also planned. If you’re thinking this looks like a legit competitor to Microsoft’s Surface, well, you’d be right.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/evoluce-one-gives-you-47-inches-of-multitouch-surface-to-play-wi/

Samurai Web Testing Framework

The Samurai Web Testing Framework is a live linux environment that has been pre-configured to function as a web pen-testing environment. The CD contains the best of the open source and free tools that focus on testing and attacking websites. In developing this environment, we have based our tool selection on the tools we use in our security practice. We have included the tools used in all four steps of a web pen-test.

Starting with reconnaissance, we have included tools such as the Fierce domain scanner and Maltego. For mapping, we have included tools such WebScarab and ratproxy. We then chose tools for discovery. These would include w3af and burp. For exploitation, the final stage, we included BeEF, AJAXShell and much more. This CD also includes a pre-configured wiki, set up to be the central information store during your pen-test.

 

The Samurai Web Testing Framework is a LiveCD focused on web application testing. We have collected the top testing tools and pre-installed them to build the perfect environment for testing applications.

http://samurai.inguardians.com/

Damn Vulnerable Web App

Damn Vulnerable Web App (DVWA) is a PHP/MySQL web application that is damn vulnerable. Its main goals are to be an aid for security professionals to test their skills and tools in a legal environment, help web developers better understand the processes of securing web applications and aid teachers/students to teach/learn web application security in a class room environment.

Vulnerabilities:

SQL Injection

XSS Stored/Reflected

LFI (Local File Inclusion)

RFI (Remote File Inclusion)

Command Execution

Upload Script

Login Brute Force

Full Path Disclosure

PHP-IDS

And much more…

Damn Vulnerable Web App is damn vulnerable! Do not upload it to your hosting provider’s public html folder or any working web server as it will be hacked. I recommend downloading and installing XAMPP onto a local machine inside your LAN which is used solely for testing.

We do not take responsibility for the way in which any one uses Damn Vulnerable Web App (DVWA). We have made the purposes of the application clear and it should not be used maliciously. We have given warnings and taken measures to prevent users from installing DVWA on to live web servers. If your web server is compromised via an installation of DVWA it is not our responsibility it is the responsibility of the person/s who uploaded and installed it.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/dvwa/files/dvwa-1.0.6.zip/download

3. Seminer – Günümüz Güvenlik Tehditlerine Genel Bakış ve Microsoft İstihbarat Raporu (SIR)

Etkinlik Kimliği: 1032428118

10 Aralık 2009 Perşembe 14:00 – 10 Aralık 2009 Perşembe 17:00 İstanbul,

Microsoft İstanbul Ofisi

Levent – Bellevue Residence

Levent Mahallesi, Aydın Sokak No: 7 İstanbul 34340

Türkiye

Dil(ler):	Türkçe.
Ürün(ler):	Güvenlik.
Hedef Kitle(ler):	BT Konusunda Karar Veren Kişi, Diğer Bilgi Sektörü Çalışanları, Teknik Etkili BDM ve Uyg./LOB Uzmanı.

Etkinliğe Genel Bakış

Bu seminerimizde çevrimiçi ortamda en çok karşılaşılan güvenlik tehditlerinin neler olduğu, Türkiye’nin bu konudaki durumu da ele alınarak ayrıntısıyla anlatılacak; Microsoft’un 2009′da yayınlanacak yeni “Security Intelligence Report“undan alınan istatistikler ve olaylarla günümüz tehditleri üzerinde durulacaktır.

Seminer İçeriği:
• Microsoft SIR Raporundan Genel Başlıklar

• Güvenlik Raporunda Türkiye ile ilgili Başlıklar
• SIR Raporunda Öne Çıkan Güvenlik Tehditleri

• Yeraltı (Underground) Ekonomisi
• Çevrimiçi Suçlar

• Türkiye’de Hukuki Süreç

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032428118&culture=tr-TR

Global Windows® 7 Launch Party

Windows® 7 Launch Party is underway…

..and soon hosts will be among the first to see, use, and share Windows® 7 with their guests. Each host will be receiving a free party pack that includes a special, Signature Edition of Windows® 7 Ultimate.

Right now they are setting up their parties after choosing from four party themes — PhotoPalooza, Media Mania, Setting Up With Ease, and Family Friendly Fun. Each one is an exploration of the easy and exciting new ways to have fun and get things done with your PC.

Windows® 7 is designed to make your PC simpler and the things you do every day easier. Now lucky hosts and guests are about to see it before anyone else. And become a part of Windows® 7 history.

http://www.houseparty.com/windows7