### Issue 1440 - Monday 30th August, 2021

## In Today's Issue

- A very bad vulnerability in Azure's Cosmos DB that exposes not just yours, but everyone else's data
- Apple not happy with CBA's CEO comments about Apple Wallet & Treasurer wants more digital wallet regulations
- Microsoft tries to clarify Windows 11 minimum hardware specs, adds more confusion in the process
- Cloudflare has a crack at AWS's insane bandwidth costs
- Cheap Amazon Eero 6, Nikon Z6 camera, Seagate & Toshiba big HDDs, 7% cashback on HN gift cards, Red Dead Redemption 2 for PS4, Coles Mobile SIM

## The News

### A very bad vulnerability in Azure's Cosmos DB that exposes not just yours, but everyone else's data

A new flaw in Microsoft Azure's Cosmos DB called "Chaos DB" is being described as "the worst cloud vulnerability you can imagine" by the security researchers that found it. Apparently "misconfiguration in the Jupyter feature opens up a privilege escalation exploit. That exploit could be abused to gain access to other Cosmos DB customers' primary keys (according to Wiz, any other Cosmos DB customer's primary key), along with other secrets". So not only does this fuck up your database, it fucks up the database of any other Cosmos DB customer too if they haven't followed Microsoft's advice and manually rotated any primary key. After spending the last few days mucking around with AWS, I can totally empathise with anyone misconfiguring Cosmos DB - this stuff is bloody complicated!

### Apple not happy with CBA's CEO comments about Apple Wallet & Treasurer wants more digital wallet regulations

Apple is upset with Commonwealth Bank's CEO for telling a parliamentary inquiry that Apple has 80% market share in digital wallets (based on usage of CBA POS terminals) and saying that access to the NFC chip on iOS devices is a pain in the arse compared to Android. Apple argues that it's only 10% of all card usage in Australia and harps on again that closed access to NFC on iOS is a security feature. Meanwhile, the federal Treasurer has signaled he plans to overhaul the payment system in Australia, based on this just published review, saying that "the review showed the need for reform to account for disruptive technologies like digital wallets, cryptocurrencies and buy now pay later services". The recommendations are kinda boring, but there's a few in there relating to giving the RBA and the Treasurer more powers to regulate payment systems.

### Microsoft tries to clarify Windows 11 minimum hardware specs, adds more confusion in the process

A little more info about the Windows 11 hardware compatibility situation has been revealed by The Verge. Apparently minimum hardware requirement of an 8th-gen Intel CPU or newer, is only applicable to upgrade scenarios. If you want to install fresh (i.e: download the ISO and install manually) it'll work on basically any relatively modern PC that runs Windows 10. The catch however, is that if the PC isn't 8th-gen Intel or newer, "it may not be entitled to get Windows Updates, even security ones". No security updates? That's bad. You do not want to be using your primary computer without security updates! It's also a shitty situation for people with perfectly good PCs but lack the technical skills or desire to do a clean install of Windows.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Cloudflare has a crack at AWS's insane bandwidth costs

Cloudflare had a public whinge about the cost of Amazon Web Services' bandwidth for data sent outside of Amazon's network (e.g: punters at home or work accessing your service). They reckon Amazon pays sweet fuck all for bandwidth due to the sheer size of their operation, but charge an insane markup on it, far beyond what is reasonable. In the USA, Cloudfare estimate customers pay 80x the cost of bandwidth than what Amazon pays for it. In Sydney it's "only" 8x. Amazon also happens to be the only major cloud vendor not part of the Bandwidth Alliance, which waive or massively discount bandwidth charges for data passing between each other. I'm not 100% sure of Cloudflare's angle here (why do they give a fuck what AWS customers pay?) but they raise a good point.

## Bargains

- Amazon Eero 6 mesh wi-fi 3-pack - $319 + delivery from Bing Lee
- Nikon Z6 Mirrorless Camera (Body Only) - $1669.95 from Amazon (other Nikon cameras on sale too & don't forget Shopback/Cashrewards extra cashback)
- Seagate BarraCuda Pro 12TB 3.5" HDD - $449 + shipping from Shopping Express
- 7% cashback on Harvey Norman gift cards from ShopBack
- Red Dead Redemption II for PS4 - $32 at Amazon
- Toshiba 16TB MG Series Enterprise 3.5" HDD - $589.49 from Amazon UK (not sure about warranty status)
- Coles Mobile (Optus MVNO) 365-day SIM with 120GB data & unlimited calls/SMS - $125 from Coles

## The End

📻 How I Could Just Kill a Man - Rage Against The Machine

😎 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon.

💬 Did you know that The Sizzle has a Slack group? Join in and chat with other subscribers like you.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info? Visit the customer portal.

The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.​