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Macworld have recently commented on an article that was released on the 'net a few days back about a flaw in DNS that could leave many servers vulnerable to attack (see US-CERT's Vulnerability Note VU#800113).

The issue exploits the DNS cache with "poisoned" data and so far it is believed that no one has been able to make use of this vulnerability; however it is only a matter of time and it is advised that system administrators update their DNS software with the recently published fix.

The attack can be used to redirect victims to malicious servers on the internet by targeting the DNS servers that serve as signposts for all of the internet's traffic. By tricking an internet service provider's (ISPs) servers into accepting bad information, attackers could redirect that company's customers to malicious sites without their knowledge.

What remains to be seen however is how quickly people (mainly ISPs) will patch their servers in order to stop any potential problems. The likely scenario is that the first attacks will be from people testing out the vulnerability.

There is more indepth information on the issue on Wired, and apparently you can use DNS-OARC to test your DNS for the vulnerability.

There are legitimate reasons for having an invalid SSL certificate. If you are a developer and have a development environment that is a copy of a secure environment you may also have a self-certified SSL certificate to simulate the live environment. In the case of IE7 this would warn the user, advise against it, but provide a link to continue anyway or cancel. In the case of Firefox 3.0 they try to deter users more by giving them the option to, then having to confirm and then going through a dialogue box to further accept that you are about to use an invalid certificate. For those who are unsure how to do this I've added an article to help.

Article: Firefox 3.0 and Invalid SSL Certificates

If you've got a development site that uses an self-created SSL certificate to simulate a live, secure environment, you will find a few problems arise when using Firefox 3.0 - this article explains how to solve it.

Apple have a released a guide in the form of a PDF that describes different ways of securing OS X "Leopard" using the Terminal.

This guide is for users of Mac OS X v10.5 or later. If you're using this guide, you should be an experienced Mac OS X user, be familiar with the Mac OS X user interface, and have some experience using the Terminal application's command-line interface. You should also be familiar with basic networking concepts.

Some instructions in this guide are complex, and deviation could cause serious adverse effects on the computer and its security. These instructions should only be used by experienced Mac OS X users, and should be followed by thorough testing.

Link: Leopard Security Configuration