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Chandrayaan-3

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  Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. It consists of Lander and Rover configuration. It will be launched by LVM3 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota. The propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit. The propulsion module has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit. Lander payloads:  Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site; Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations. A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies. Rover payloads:  Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope
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Experts Identify IE Exploit on Indian Defense Site, Find Link to PlugX RAT

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Most security firms are currently busy analyzing the  latest Internet  Explorer (IE) zero-day exploit . One of these companies is AlienVault  which has not only found websites that host the malicious code, but it has   also uncovered a connection to  the PlugX RAT. Experts have identified a new version of the moh2010.swf Flash file utilized in the attacks that leverage the IE exploit. Their analysis led them to a file called Nv.exe which is used by Nvidia for several of its applications.  As it turns out, the cybercriminals are relying on Nv.exe to load a DLL file which executes the binary content of another component named Nv.mp3.  The malicious payload present in this Nv.mp3 file is actually a version of the PlugX Remote Administration Trojan (RAT).  “We know that the group actively using the PlugX malware also called Flowershow had access to the Internet Explorer ZeroDay days before it was uncovered. Due tot he similarities of the new discovered exploit code a
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AlientVault Tracks Down Developer of PlugX RAT

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Security experts at AlienVault have tracked down the creator of the PlugX Remote Access Tool (RAT), used in hacker attacks around the world. To their surprise, the brains behind the software was actually one of the directors of a Chinese IT company. The sleuths analysed the traces of PlugX activity, and identified the suspected programmer, which led them to his address, photo and the name of the company he was working for – ChinaNSL Technology. Digital detective work AlienVault has been tracking PlugX, also known as Korplug, for the past few months, analysing the payloads of the attacks and collecting intelligence. Malware builder known as “whg” PlugX is a backdoor malware with a high damage potential. Once on the system, it executes commands from a remote malicious user, effectively compromising the affected computer. The tool was mainly used by hackers in Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea and against Tibetan organizations. The security experts were almost certain that the
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Password Strength and Age Considerations

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At Redzone, we are frequently asked about password strength and policy recommendations as it relates to password cracking. There are a few considerations around password strength, length, and changes when it comes to establishing a good password policy. Let’s take a look at three common methods of password cracking: brute force, dictionary, and rainbow tables. With brute force attacks, a password is created and hashed using the same hashing algorithm of the operating system then the hash is compared to the hash for an existing user’s password. A brute force attack will systematically analyze combinations until the right password is found. Let’s look at the following statistics using  GRC’s Password Brute Force Calculator : Short Password with Varying Complexities  Password password Password Passw9rd P@ssw9rd  Length 8 8 8 8  Size of Character Set a 26 52 62 95  Possible Passwords b 2.17 x 10 11 5.45 x 10 13 2.22 x 10 13 6.70 x 10 15  Fas
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