Matasano Chargen - Latest Comments in Predictions 2007: Ptacek vs. Lawson

Re: Predictions 2007: Ptacek vs. Lawson

Derek — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:41:38 -0000

I know this is late, but I have to add...

"Two years ago nobody would have predicted that the TSA would try to ban a phase of matter"

I have to say... when I heard the following conversation at a TSA checkpoint during one of my travels last year (in Detroit), I was worried we were going down the slippery slope to ban *all* phases.

TSA Worker: You can't bring this on.
Traveler: That's my deodorant.
TSA Worker: Yes, no liquids are allowed through the security checkpoint.
Traveler: That deodorant is not a liquid - it's a solid.
TSA Worker: It's a solid form *of* a liquid.
Traveler: (jaw drops)

Yes, I truly heard that. And I thought of all the things around which were solid forms of liquids. I was going to explain that to the TSA worker, but that was a bridge too far...

Re: Predictions 2007: Ptacek vs. Lawson

Thomas Ptacek — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 10:58:34 -0000

Two years ago nobody would have predicted that the TSA would try to ban a phase of matter, and compared to that, running a rebranded virus scanner on a USB stick seems pretty tame.

Re: Predictions 2007: Ptacek vs. Lawson

Dan Ingevaldson — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:41:08 -0000

I love the range of these predictions and I was with you up until the TSA one. Tom, this one has got to me tongue in cheek. :) TSA checks on individuals will continue to focus on long, sharp and/or pointy things or loaded 45s. The liquid thing is a total debacle and as Nate pointed out, its rife with holes. There is no chance that TSA is going to do anything more than power-up tests which airport security used to do with mobiles and laptops before the TSA was formed and before 9/11.

Here's my flight security prediction for 2007. There will be another easily preventable attack in 2007 that is somehow associated with transportation somewhere in the world and the US government will start to get serious about profiling passengers just like the Israelis do. This practice will lead to less intrusive individual inspections while focusing technology expenditures where they will actually do some good.

Re: Predictions 2007: Ptacek vs. Lawson

Thomas Ptacek — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:51:56 -0000

And when MOAB finds an OSX vuln, we'll count it.

Re: Predictions 2007: Ptacek vs. Lawson

Thomas Ptacek — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:51:29 -0000

I agree. The spirit (but not the letter) of my prediction was just that "SP1 and Win2K don't count".

Re: Predictions 2007: Ptacek vs. Lawson

Matt — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:49:15 -0000

"there will be more exploitable Apple vulnerabilities announced in 2007 than will be announced for Windows XP SP2."

Not that I particularly disagree with your thesis, but isn't it a little disingenuous to compare vulns in all OSX versions with just SP2 vulns? Vista is out and Leopard is rumored to ship early this year, and those are going to be the high-profile targets for new vulnerability discovery. So I'm seeing your comparison as "new vuln count in new shiny OS (Leopard) plus already-hammered-on OS (Tiger) versus new vuln count in already-hammered-on OS (XP SP2)." Also, are we counting MOAB vulns against Apple in this one? ;)