#94 The Hacker Search Engine “Shodan” is the Scariest Search Engine on Internet

Launched in 2009, Shodan is more of a prying eye across the world through the IoT rather than just a simple search engine. John Matherly, its creator, named his project after the villainous computer in the video game System Shock. As at present, Shodan is living up to his name. Already designated as ‘world’s scariest search engine’, it is commonly called the hacker search engine.

Shodan shows you what Google doesn’t. Designed with an aim to link all the devices connected to the Internet, it took no time to become a play zone for hackers and experimenters. Shodan works by collecting and stacking HTTP addresses from various devices linked over the Internet across the world. The indexing is done on the basis such as country, OS and brand.

Shodan’s scanning power can be assumed from the fact that it can detect the traffic lights, security cameras, control systems for gas stations, power grids, and even nuclear power plants. Most of these public services use little measures for online security and once exposed to hackers or terrorist organizations, the results could be disastrous.

If you have installed Telnet enabled security cameras in your home for “security”, then you might want to put them away. Hackers can breach into your system if your IoT hub is exposed on the Internet using this hacker search engine. It won’t be easy, however, it is not impossible either.

There are a number of devices out there that still run on their default passwords or no passwords at all. Shodan crawls through the Internet for such accessible devices and you are shown 50 of those if you have an account on Shodan. If you could give the website the reason to check these devices with their fees, you would get information of all the devices.

Though, even if you can,  we highly recommend you to not misuse Shodan, the hacker search engine.

#57 What is Google’s New and Upcoming Service Called “YouTube Red”?

Do you remember YouTube’s very own music-focused, subscription based service called Music Key that was launched about a year ago? Well, it didn’t perform well against the competitors like Spotify, Apple Music or Rdio. However, the company is aiming to rejuvenate things by rebranding it.

Interestingly, Google has recently updated its YouTube app that includes a text describing a product called YouTube Red. It’s a service that enables background and ad-free music playback, a feature that was absent in the Music Key subscription service.

This was spotted by Android Police, writes that the rebranding is shown as a notification only when you are leaving a video playing in the background and you switch to another app. This is also shown as a pop-up when you re-open YouTube later.

Take a look it in the screenshots below. To see these changes, you must be having the latest version the Android app on your device.

It should be noted that Music Key still has the “beta” tag associated with it and Google could be planning to relaunch the service as YouTube Red. It’s possible that Google aims to do a lot more that music with YouTube Red and this possible rebranding is just the first step.

The next week, on September 29, Google is holding an event and it’s expected to launch heavy weight products like new Nexus phone as well as Android Marshmallow. We can also witness the launch of the much-awaited YouTube ad-free subscription service and new Chromecast.

It’s expected that YouTube Red will be playing a bigger role in the upcoming Google Movie.

What do think about this rebranding? Did you like the name YouTube Red? Tell us in the comments below.

#54 How to Crash Google Chrome With These 16 Characters in 2 Seconds

Due to a bug in Chromium engine, you can crash someone’s Google Chrome browser just by adding a NULL char in the URL string. The bug was discovered by Andris Atteka and he has explained in his blog.

   

He demonstrated the bug using 26 characters length string, but you crash Google Chrome is using just 16 characters.

How to crash Google Chrome with these 16 characters?

Just copy and paste the following string in your Google Chrome (Chrome 45 or older) address bar, hit Enter and watch your Chrome tab or the whole Chrome browser will crash:

http://b/%%30%30

Be careful, this step will crash your browser instantly!!

The browser crashes even if you hover over the hyperlink given ahead using your mouse pointer: http://b/%%30%30

Why does Chrome browser crash?

“It seems to be crashing in some very old code. In the Debug build, it’s hitting a DCHECK on an invalid URL in GURL, deep in some History code. Given that it’s hitting a CHECK in the Release build, I don’t think this is actually a security bug, but I’m going to leave it as such.”

In my tests, the code affects both Windows and Mac. The bug also affects Opera and Vivaldi browsers, as both are built over the Chromium engine. However, it didn’t affect Chrome for Android.

This bug was only a local DOS issue, so Mr. Atteka didn’t get covered into the company’s bug bounty program.

Such bugs have been observed in the past and were quickly fixed.

Did this bug crash your Google Chrome? Tell us in the comments below.

#52 Google announces event for September 29, might launch Nexus devices

Alongside, Google is also expected to announce public availability of Android Marshmallow v6.0, and a next generation Chromecast. 

Google has announced and sent out invites for a September 29 event in San Francisco. It has not revealed much information regarding what the event will be about, except for the teaser line, “tasty new treats and much more". But, if rumours are to be believed, Google may unveil the upcoming Nexus smartphones, public availability of Android Marshmallow, and the new Chromecast.

Two new Nexus smartphones are expected to be launched this time, made individually by LG and Huawei. Latest word suggests that the phones may be named LG Nexus 5X and Huawei Nexus 6P. There have also been a number of rumours regarding the device specifications. The LG Nexus 5X is expected to come with a 5.2-inch Full HD display, powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 sacs and 3GB of RAM. The phone is also tipped to come with a 12.3MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera, along with a 2700mAh battery pack. It might be priced at $399 (approx. Rs. 26,300) and $449 (approx. Rs. 29,600) for the 16GB and 32GB models respectively. The Huawei Nexus 6P is expected to come with a larger, 5.7-inch Quad HD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 sacs and 3GB of RAM. It is also expected to come with a 13MP rear camera, 8MP front camera and 64GB of internal storage. Both the Nexus smartphones are expected to feature USB Type-C ports, and fingerprint sensors. Android Marshmallow v6.0 is expected to come pre-loaded on them. 

Google is also expected to announce the Chromecast 2 in the event. It is expected to have better WiFi support to enable faster connectivity. Other new features expected on it are social media and image feeds. The company might also unveil Chromecast Audio, which will allow Chromecast to connect with speakers via an auxiliary cord. Apart from under-the-hood changes, the new Chromecast is also expected to feature updates in its design.