A vulnerability has been reported in Kaspersky Antivirus, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service).

The vulnerability is caused due to an error in the scan engine when processing PE files. This can be exploited to cause an endless loop via a specially crafted PE file containing an invalid value in the “NumberOfRvaAndSizes” field within the Optional Windows Header section.

Successful exploitation prevents further scanning of files.

The vulnerability is reported in version 6.0 for Windows and 5.5-10 for Linux of the scan engine. Prior versions may also be affected.

According to Kaspersky, all affected products are updated automatically via the regular signature-update functionality.

PC World Senior Editor Tom Spring signed up for 32 online accounts. Then tried to cancel all of them. The most difficult to cancel: NetZero. The easiest to cancel: Consumer Reports Online and The New York Times TimesSelect. His experience was rated on a number of criteria, and highlights the hoops that commercial enterprises put in place to keep their ‘customers’.

From the article: ‘I had a hard time canceling my $5 monthly Gold Classmates.com account, too. I couldn’t find any information on how to cancel until I entered the word cancel In the site’s search engine. Classmates.com spokesperson John Uppendahl confirmed that there is no other way to find cancellation information. But that was only the first hoop I had to jump through to cancel my membership. Classmates.com also forced me to click through several Web pages reminding me of the benefits I’d lose. Finally my clicking ended at a generic Member Support e-mail contact page containing a blank ‘Your Question’ field. Though the form said nothing about cancellations, I used it to request that the service cancel my subscription. The next day I received an e-mail message confirming that the service had accepted my request.’”

Source: Slashdot

The German government confirmed Tuesday that it had decided to opt out of a multimillion-euro research effort to build a European search engine that would compete with Google, in what one participant described as a disagreement with France over the basic design of the project.

French participants in the secretive project, called Quaero, which means “I seek” in Latin, vowed to continue their efforts to develop the search engine, possibly with funding from the European Union.

The project was first revealed in April 2005 by President Jacques Chirac of France and the former German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, as a European response to the U.S. search giant Google, but now it will have to proceed without support from the largest EU country.

Source: International Herald Tribune

CD players in automobiles could go the way of eight-track tapes with in-dash systems like one Ford Motor Co. and Microsoft Corp. are jointly producing to link cars with cell phones and personal music players.

The “Sync” system being unveiled Sunday at the North American International Auto Show connects popular iPods and all other digital music players - including Microsoft’s nascent Zune - to in-dash software through a USB port. Drivers will be able to pick songs, artists or genres using voice activation or controls on the steering wheel.

The system also links Bluetooth-capable smart phones and personal digital assistants to the car’s electronics, allowing the car system to pick up Internet broadcasts. An electronic voice even will read inbound text messages through the sound system, complete with a vocabulary of slang abbreviations such as “LOL” for “laughing for loud.”

Source: AP