DATE: Saturday, January 14th, 2012
START TIME: 12:00 AM EST
END TIME: 2:00 AM EST
DURATION: Up to 2 hours

During this maintenance window our operations team will be:

• Applying recently released security updates and patches to managed Windows servers.
• Applying recently released security updates and patches to managed Linux servers.

The standard maintenance window occurs every second Saturday, for a duration of 2 hours, beginning at 12am and ending at 2am.

Additional maintenance windows may be required and will be announced in advance.

See our maintenance schedule for 2012.

It is a bit cliche but we can’t help it. All of us at goHost are excited about 2012! We worked hard behind the scenes in 2011 laying the ground work for some new things we have in store this year.

In the coming weeks expect to see a number of new services, upgrades, and enhancements to our existing services. We have a lot of things in the pipeline and will be rolling out changes slowly at first. Many of the new services will be focused on helping all our customers get and stay secure in the cloud.

As we grow our service offerings, please share with us your thoughts, concerns or even any ideas.

Thank you all for your support and we look forward to working with you in 2012.

A denial-of-service attack (DoS) overloads the server with multiple requests, effectively making it unable to serve a website to new visitors. Usually such an attack strong enough to overwhelm a server requires a lot of horsepower on the attacker’s side. This vulnerability however makes things significantly easier for an attacker.

Microsoft has released an emergency/out-of-band update (KB2659883 and MS11-100) to mitigate this issue in ASP.NET and .NET Frameworks.

All our Windows Server systems have already been patched with MS11-100.

Researchers recently presented their research at the 28c3 Security Conference. The specific details relate to hashing algorithms and managing hash collisions. A specially crafted request can force a website to consume all CPU resources in an effort to resolve and manage the hash collisons. The net effect of this increased CPU load can lead to a DoS on the website.

Without fixing the core hashing algorithims and functions there are a number of workarounds that can be used to mitigate the impact of the HashDos vulnerability.

• Reduce the length/size of HTTP parameters that can send via POST.
• Reduce the number of HTTP parameters accepted by the web application framework.
• Limit the amount of CPU time that any given thread is allowed to run.

These workarounds may negatively impact the operations of your web application and should be reviewed and tested before being deployed into a production enviroment.

References and further reading:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_collision
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/advisory/2659883
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms11-100
• http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2011/12/29/asp-net-security-update-is-live.aspx
• http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2011/12/27/more-information-about-the-december-2011-asp-net-vulnerability.aspx

DATE: Saturday, December 17th, 2011
START TIME: 12:00 AM EST
END TIME: 2:00 AM EST
DURATION: Up to 2 hours

During this maintenance window our operations team will be:

• Applying recently released security updates and patches to managed Windows servers.
• Applying recently released security updates and patches to managed Linux servers.

Details: On December 7th Applicure Technologies will host a Virtual Conference which includes a panel of security experts and Web hosting market leaders. The panel will feature in-depth discussion of defense techniques for the most common attacks and security vulnerabilities as well as methods to increase revenue while reducing support costs.

• Learn More and View the Full Agenda
• Register for the Virtual Conference

Read more about our Web Application Firewall service.

This updated version of Plesk includes a number of new features and many performance improvements including:

• New! Configurable PHP settings
• New! Support for Web Deploy and Web Matrix
• New! Control over Apache Modules
• New! Quick Preview of websites
• New! Mobile Server Monitor and Mobile Server Manager

You can read more about the features of Plesk 10.4 or contact us to get Plesk 10.4 today.

DATE: Saturday, November 12th, 2011
START TIME: 12:00 AM EST
END TIME: 2:00 AM EST
DURATION: Up to 2 hours

During this maintenance window our operations team will be:

• Applying recently released security updates and patches to managed Windows servers.

DATE: Saturday, October 22nd, 2011
START TIME: 12:00 AM EST
END TIME: 2:00 AM EST
DURATION: Up to 2 hours

During this maintenance window our operations team will be:

• Applying recently released security updates and patches to managed Windows servers.
• Applying recently released security updates and patches to managed Linux servers.

dotDefender is an advanced, customizable software web application firewall that provides protection against malicious attacks and website defacements.

This updated release includes a number of enhancements including:

• New user interface with improved workflow.
• Increased speed, performance, and stability.
• Updated security ruleset compatible with many web applications.

Advanced web application firewall protection via dotDefender is now available as an addon for all our hosting services. Contact us to find out more.