PSA: GPG vulnerability: Signing can be compromised

schneier reports on a recently-discovered vulnerability which allows a GPG-signed message to be modified after digitally signing it, without disturbing the signature verification.

The bug is fixed in GPG 1.4.2.2.  Follow instructions here for download.

(Note:  Upgrading to GnuPG 1.4.x may require you to upgrade readline to v5.0 or newer.)

Hypocrisy 101

"Religious beliefs are sacred to people, and at all times should be respected and honored, [...] As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years, I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices."

So said Isaac Hayes, who quit South Park (he's the voice of Chef) in protest over an episode lampooning Scientology.¹  (Hayes, it turns out, is a dedicated and outspoken Scientologist.)

Uh-oh.  Sorry, Isaac.  Your true colors are showing.  South Park has been making fun of Christianity² for the past nine years ("Dude!  You can't say 'pigfucker' in front of Jesus!"), and you never had a problem with that:

"South Park" co-creator Matt Stone responded sharply in an interview with The Associated Press Monday, saying, "This is 100 percent having to do with his faith of Scientology... He has no problem -- and he's cashed plenty of checks -- with our show making fun of Christians."

So it's fine to poke fun at the other guy's religious beliefs, huh, Isaac, but yours are sacred and inviolable?  I have news for you:  What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.  But then, there's a lot of that around these days.  Not that I'd, say, draw parallels to Muslim clerics grandstanding over Danish cartoons about Mohammed, or anything like that.  After all, Isaac hasn't called for anyone to be killed over it.  (Yet.)

(And frankly, well, who needs to lampoon Scientology?  It's practically self-lampooning.)

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[1] Link from yndy

[2] And, well, everyone else for that matter, really....