Daily Tech News 3 July 2024

• Everything new is old again: A critical vulnerability in OpenSSH that was fixed all the way back in 2006 is back again. (ZDNet)
  
  Oops. Also, fuck.
  
  Dubbed regreSSHion - it has a cute name, so you know it's serious the bug lets you log into a server by not logging into it.
  
  That is, you start the login process repeatedly - a hundred times in parallel, if you can - and never complete it, and attach a sneaky payload that has a tiny chance of blowing up on the target server when your login times out.
  
  On older 32-bit systems it takes a few hours on average for this to work.
  
  On 64-bit systems it's more complicated to exploit and would take a week or more of constant effort; since the bug has only just been reported nobody has demonstrated a successful attack against a 64-bit system yet, so it may take even longer.
  
  Reviewing all the servers at work turned up one vulnerable system; every other server was properly locked down. I don't know who set it up, but I curse their name. Whatever it is.

• GPUs can now use PCIe-attached memory of SSDs to extend their capacity. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Not yours, though. New and extremely expensive GPUs.
  
  
  
• It don't seem like it should be that way, but it do: Why is Chile so long? (Uncharted Territories)
  
  If it were not on the opposite side of the planet, Chile would stretch from the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.
  
  And the answer is: After bat shit went out of favour, Chile was the part of South America nobody else wanted.
  
  
  
• 48 memory slots and not much else. (Serve the Home)
  
  AMD's latest Epyc server CPUs can support 24 memory slots each - 48 in a dual-CPU system - up from just 8 on the original Epyc chips in 2017.
  
  Nobody actually puts that many slots on a motherboard because it just takes up too much room, and really 24 is plenty.
  
  Nobody but Gigabyte anyway.
  
  
  
• This electric car battery takes just four minutes to charge. (CNN)
  
  It's also much smaller than typical EV batteries - in terms of capacity and range as well as weight, unfortunately - but if you can really charge it in four minutes that might not be the end of the world.
  
  
  
• SpaceX wants to run 120 Starship launches per year from Florida and its competitors (what competitors) aren't happy. (Tech Crunch)
  
  SpaceX already launches more payload to orbit than everyone else in the world combined. This schedule would be like nuking your enemies' sailing ships in a game of Civilization.

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:34 AM

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