Kafka Monthly Digest - May 2020

From releases, to Kafka Improvement Proposals (KIPs), to blogs, check out what’s going on in the Apache Kafka community for May 2020.

In this 28th edition of the Kafka Monthly Digest, I’ll cover what happened in the Apache Kafka community in May 2020.

For last month’s digest, see Kafka Monthly Digest: April 2020.

Releases

2.6.0: On May 5, Randall Hauch volunteered to run the 2.6.0 release. KIP freeze happened on May 20, and feature freeze was on May 27. The release date is currently expected for the end of June. For the full details, see the release plan in the wiki.

2.5.1: On May 29, John Roesler volunteered to be the release manager for 2.5.1. The release plan for this bugfix version is available on the wiki.

KIPs

Last month, the community submitted 16 KIPs (KIP-604 to KIP-619), and these are the ones that caught my eye.

• KIP-604: Remove ZooKeeper Flags from the Administrative Tools. As work to remove Zookeeper is under way, this KIP is for removing the --zookeeper flag from all command line tools in the next major release, 3.0. This flag is already deprecated, and all tools can use the --bootstrap-server flag to directly connect to Kafka.

• KIP-612: Ability to Limit Connection Creation Rate on Brokers. Receiving new client connections uses some CPU on brokers. While this is normally negligible, a connection storm can apply significant load onto brokers. Connection storms can be caused by “well-behaved” clients, for example, when a large application with dozens of clients restarts. This KIP aims at providing a new configuration, max.connection.creation.rate, to enable cluster administrators to limit client connections creations.

• KIP-613: Add end-to-end latency metrics to Streams. At the moment, Kafka Streams does not provide end-to-end latency metrics. This makes it hard to build and operate realtime applications. This KIP aims at adding a number of end-to-end latency metrics to understand how long it takes for records to flow through a topology.

• KIP-618: Atomic commit of source connector records and offsets. This KIP’s goal is to strengthen the delivery guarantees for source connectors. In addition to source records, source connectors also write their current offsets to Kafka. Currently, these 2 writes are done independently. This can cause some record duplication, for example, if a source record is produced but the associated offset is not. This KIP proposes grouping these 2 writes in a transaction to provide exactly-once semantics for source connectors.

#apache kafka #messaging #apache

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Citrix Bugs Allow Unauthenticated Code Injection, Data Theft

Multiple vulnerabilities in the Citrix Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and Gateway would allow code injection, information disclosure and denial of service, the networking vendor announced Tuesday. Four of the bugs are exploitable by an unauthenticated, remote attacker.

The Citrix products (formerly known as NetScaler ADC and Gateway) are used for application-aware traffic management and secure remote access, respectively, and are installed in at least 80,000 companies in 158 countries, according to a December assessment from Positive Technologies.

Other flaws announced Tuesday also affect Citrix SD-WAN WANOP appliances, models 4000-WO, 4100-WO, 5000-WO and 5100-WO.

Attacks on the management interface of the products could result in system compromise by an unauthenticated user on the management network; or system compromise through cross-site scripting (XSS). Attackers could also create a download link for the device which, if downloaded and then executed by an unauthenticated user on the management network, could result in the compromise of a local computer.

“Customers who have configured their systems in accordance with Citrix recommendations [i.e., to have this interface separated from the network and protected by a firewall] have significantly reduced their risk from attacks to the management interface,” according to the vendor.

Threat actors could also mount attacks on Virtual IPs (VIPs). VIPs, among other things, are used to provide users with a unique IP address for communicating with network resources for applications that do not allow multiple connections or users from the same IP address.

The VIP attacks include denial of service against either the Gateway or Authentication virtual servers by an unauthenticated user; or remote port scanning of the internal network by an authenticated Citrix Gateway user.

“Attackers can only discern whether a TLS connection is possible with the port and cannot communicate further with the end devices,” according to the critical Citrix advisory. “Customers who have not enabled either the Gateway or Authentication virtual servers are not at risk from attacks that are applicable to those servers. Other virtual servers e.g. load balancing and content switching virtual servers are not affected by these issues.”

A final vulnerability has been found in Citrix Gateway Plug-in for Linux that would allow a local logged-on user of a Linux system with that plug-in installed to elevate their privileges to an administrator account on that computer, the company said.

#vulnerabilities #adc #citrix #code injection #critical advisory #cve-2020-8187 #cve-2020-8190 #cve-2020-8191 #cve-2020-8193 #cve-2020-8194 #cve-2020-8195 #cve-2020-8196 #cve-2020-8197 #cve-2020-8198 #cve-2020-8199 #denial of service #gateway #information disclosure #patches #security advisory #security bugs

Qualcomm Bugs Open 40 Percent of Android Handsets to Attack

Researchers identified serious flaws in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoC and the Hexagon architecture that impacts nearly half of Android handsets.

Six serious bugs in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile chipset impact up to 40 percent of Android phones in use, according research released at the DEF CON Safe Mode security conference Friday.

The flaws open up handsets made by Google, Samsung, LG, Xiaomi and OnePlus to DoS and escalation-of-privileges attacks – ultimately giving hackers control of targeted handsets. Slava Makkaveev, a security researcher with Check Point, outlined his discoveryand said while Qualcomm has provided patches for the bug, most OEM handset makers have not yet pushed out the patches.

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The faulty Qualcomm component is the mobile chip giant’s Snapdragon SoC and the Hexagon architecture. Hexagon a brand name for Qualcomm’s digital signal processor (DSP), part of the SoC’s microarchitecture. DSP controls the processing of real-time request between the Android user environment and the Snapdragon processor’s firmware – in charge of turning voice, video and services such GPS location sensors into computationally actionable data.

Makkaveev said the DSP flaws can be used to harvest photos, videos, call recordings, real-time microphone data, and GPS and location data. A hacker could also cripple a targeted phone or implant malware that would go undetected.

The six flaws are CVE-2020-11201, CVE-2020-11202, CVE-2020-11206, CVE-2020-11207, CVE-2020-11208 and CVE-2020-11209. Using a fuzzing technique against handsets with the vulnerable chipset, Check Point was able to identify 400 discrete attacks.

The prerequisite for exploiting the vulnerabilities is the target would need to be coaxed into downloading and running a rogue executable.

Qualcomm declined to answer specific questions regarding the bugs and instead issued a statement:

“Providing technologies that support robust security and privacy is a priority for Qualcomm. Regarding the Qualcomm Compute DSP vulnerability disclosed by Check Point, we worked diligently to validate the issue and make appropriate mitigations available to OEMs. We have no evidence it is currently being exploited. We encourage end users to update their devices as patches become available and to only install applications from trusted locations such as the Google Play Store.” – Qualcomm Spokesperson

The flaws were brought to Qualcomm’s attention between February and March. Patches developed by Qualcomm in July. A cursory review of vulnerabilities patched in the July and August Google Android Security Bulletins reveal patches haven’t been yet been pushed to handsets. For that reason, Check Point chose not to reveal technical specifics of the flaws.

What technical details that are available can be found in a DEF CON Safe Mode video posted to online. Here Makkaveev shares some technical specifics.

#hacks #mobile security #vulnerabilities #cve-2020-11201 #cve-2020-11202 #cve-2020-11206 #cve-2020-11207 #cve-2020-11208 #cve-2020-11209 #def con safe mode #digital signal processor #dos #dsp #escalation of privileges attack #google #hexagon architecture #lg #oneplus #qualcomm #samsung #snapdragon #soc #xiaomi

Kafka Spark Streaming | Kafka Tutorial

In this kafka spark streaming tutorial you will learn what is apache kafka, architecture of apache kafka & how to setup a kafka cluster, what is spark & it’s features, components of spark and hands on demo on integrating spark streaming with apache kafka and integrating spark flume with apache kafka.

# Kafka Spark Streaming #Kafka Tutorial #Kafka Training #Kafka Course #Intellipaat

Kafka Monthly Digest - May 2020

From releases, to Kafka Improvement Proposals (KIPs), to blogs, check out what’s going on in the Apache Kafka community for May 2020.

In this 28th edition of the Kafka Monthly Digest, I’ll cover what happened in the Apache Kafka community in May 2020.

For last month’s digest, see Kafka Monthly Digest: April 2020.

Releases

2.6.0: On May 5, Randall Hauch volunteered to run the 2.6.0 release. KIP freeze happened on May 20, and feature freeze was on May 27. The release date is currently expected for the end of June. For the full details, see the release plan in the wiki.

2.5.1: On May 29, John Roesler volunteered to be the release manager for 2.5.1. The release plan for this bugfix version is available on the wiki.

KIPs

Last month, the community submitted 16 KIPs (KIP-604 to KIP-619), and these are the ones that caught my eye.

• KIP-604: Remove ZooKeeper Flags from the Administrative Tools. As work to remove Zookeeper is under way, this KIP is for removing the --zookeeper flag from all command line tools in the next major release, 3.0. This flag is already deprecated, and all tools can use the --bootstrap-server flag to directly connect to Kafka.

• KIP-612: Ability to Limit Connection Creation Rate on Brokers. Receiving new client connections uses some CPU on brokers. While this is normally negligible, a connection storm can apply significant load onto brokers. Connection storms can be caused by “well-behaved” clients, for example, when a large application with dozens of clients restarts. This KIP aims at providing a new configuration, max.connection.creation.rate, to enable cluster administrators to limit client connections creations.

• KIP-613: Add end-to-end latency metrics to Streams. At the moment, Kafka Streams does not provide end-to-end latency metrics. This makes it hard to build and operate realtime applications. This KIP aims at adding a number of end-to-end latency metrics to understand how long it takes for records to flow through a topology.

• KIP-618: Atomic commit of source connector records and offsets. This KIP’s goal is to strengthen the delivery guarantees for source connectors. In addition to source records, source connectors also write their current offsets to Kafka. Currently, these 2 writes are done independently. This can cause some record duplication, for example, if a source record is produced but the associated offset is not. This KIP proposes grouping these 2 writes in a transaction to provide exactly-once semantics for source connectors.

#apache kafka #messaging #apache

Google’s Chrome 86: Critical Payments Bug, Password Checker Among Security Notables

Google’s latest version of its browser, Chrome 86, is now being rolled out with 35 security fixes – including a critical bug – and a feature that checks if users have any compromised passwords.

As of Tuesday, Chrome 86 is being promoted to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux and will roll out over the coming days. The versions of the browser for Android and iOS were also released Tuesday, and will become available on Google Play and the App Store this week.

Included in the newest browser version is a critical flaw (CVE-2020-15967) existing in Chrome’s payments component. The flaw, reported by Man Yue Mo of GitHub Security Lab, is a use-after-free vulnerability. Use after free is a memory-corruption flaw where an attempt is made to access memory after it has been freed. This can cause an array of malicious impacts, from causing a program to crash, to potentially leading to execution of arbitrary code.

Use-after-free bugs have plagued Google Chrome in the past year. In fact, all seven high-severity vulnerabilities fixed by Google in Chrome 86 were use-after-free flaws – ranging from ones affecting Chrome’s printing (CVE-2020-15971), audio (CVE-2020-15972), password manager (CVE-2020-15991) and WebRTC (CVE-2020-15969) components (WebRTC is a protocol for rich-media web communication).

Further details of the bugs are not yet available, as “access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix,” according to Google’s Tuesday post.

Password Check

The Android and iOS versions of Chrome 86 will also come with a new security feature, which will send a copy of user’s usernames and passwords using a “special form of encryption.” That then lets Google check them against list of passwords known to be compromised.

“Passwords are often the first line of defense for our digital lives,” Abdel Karim Mardini, senior product manager with Chrome, said in a Tuesday post. “Today, we’re improving password security on both Android and iOS devices by telling you if the passwords you’ve asked Chrome to remember have been compromised, and if so, how to fix them.”

At the back end, when Google detects a username and password exposed by a data breach, it stores a strongly hashed and encrypted copy of the data. Then, when Chrome users log into a website, the feature sends a strongly hashed and encrypted version of their username and password to Google – meaning the company never derives usernames or passwords from the encrypted copy, it said.

#vulnerabilities #web security #android #chrome #chrome 86 #compromised password #credential stuffing #cve-2020-15967 #cve-2020-15969 #cve-2020-15971 #cve-2020-15972 #cve-2020-15991 #encryption #google #google payments #https #ios #linux #mac #password check #patches #safety check #security fix #security improvements #windows