### Issue 2100 - Friday 31st May, 2024

Hi folks! Justin Warren here. Long time Sizzle reader, first time Sizzle guest editor, filling in for Anthony today. You may remember me from The Crux, a weekly newsletter about enterprise technology, or my silly stickers.

## In Today's Issue

- eSafety age assurance trial outsourced, won't involve social media
- Cooler Master customer data breach confirmed
- Directory traversal bug in Check Point Remote Access VPNs
- Utopia Must Fall: A retro vector-graphics-esque game in your browser
- Festival of capitalism

## The News

### eSafety age assurance trial outsourced, won't involve social media

eSafety's trial of unlikely-to-work age assurance tech is to be outsourced to a "third party expert selected through a competitive process", according to InnovationAus. Social media companies won't be required to participate in the trial, though, despite all the noise being made about social media lately. Sounds awesome and totally not a complete waste of everyone's time. I can hardly wait to read the report.

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### Cooler Master customer data breach confirmed

Well known PC case, fan, power-supply and hardware maker Cooler Master has lost control of its Fanzone database. Someone(s) calling themselves 'Ghostr' copied 103 GB of database containing info from over 500,000 customers. The Fanzone site was used to register producy warranties, raise support tickets, and request RMAs which means handing over personal information like name, physical address, email address, etc. Apparently we're making progress on cybersecurity.

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### Directory traversal bug in Check Point Remote Access VPNs

Another day, another victory for `../` over the promises of expensive security appliances. The bug lets an attacker grab whatever files they want from the device, without authenticating. Watchtowr Labs has published a detailed blog explaining how the vulnerability labelled CVE-2024-24919 works. It's our old friends directory traversal and poorly sanitised user input. The explanation is a nice overview of how this kind of reverse engineering works. Better go patch if you admin any of these devices.

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## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Utopia Must Fall: A retro vector-graphics-esque game in your browser

It's Friday, so why not distract yourself with this nifty retro-style vector graphics game called Utopia Must Fall? The game feels like they started with Mission Control, then added elements of Asteroids and Galaga and also a tech tree upgrade mechanic. With a side of "hippies welcome the aliens" from Independence Day. There's also a downloadable version for Windows and Mac over on Steam. The developers are still putting the finishing touches on the game but it's pretty neat and looks very cool.

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## Bargains

- Dell S2722QC 27" 4K UHD 60Hz USB-C Monitor - $359.70 Delivered from Dell.
- $200 Sign-up credit for electricty with AGL - For new/moving customers only.
- Google Pixel Buds Pro $150 (Was $300), Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro $225 (Was $350) - Optus EOFY sale is on.
- Free game! Plasma on Steam - A sandbox robot/engineering/builder thing. PC only, but Proton works pretty well on Linux these days.
- XFX Qicksilver Radeon RX 7900 GRE Magair Gaming 16GB Graphics Card - $789 from Scorptec.
- Gigabyte AM4 MicroATX B550M K DDR4 Motherboard - $99 Delivered from Metrocom.

## Image Of The Day

Alfred Pasieka - Microchip surface, 3D reconstruction. 500x magnification (2011 Nikon Photomicrography Competition)

## The End

📻 Something In The Air (Bonobo Remix) - Maya Jane Coles

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## Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

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.