Analysing the Security of Google's implementation of OpenID Connect

Many millions of users routinely use their Google accounts to log in to relying party (RP) websites supporting the Google OpenID Connect service. OpenID Connect, a newly standardised single-sign-on protocol, builds an identity layer on top of the OAuth 2.0 protocol, which has itself been widely adopted to support identity management services. It adds identity management functionality to the OAuth 2.0 system and allows an RP to obtain assurances regarding the authenticity of an end user. A number of authors have analysed the security of the OAuth 2.0 protocol, but whether OpenID Connect is secure in practice remains an open question. We report on a large-scale practical study of Google's implementation of OpenID Connect, involving forensic examination of 103 RP websites which support its use for sign-in. Our study reveals serious vulnerabilities of a number of types, all of which allow an attacker to log in to an RP website as a victim user. Further examination suggests that these vulnerabilities are caused by a combination of Google's design of its OpenID Connect service and RP developers making design decisions which sacrifice security for simplicity of implementation. We also give practical recommendations for both RPs and OPs to help improve the security of real world OpenID Connect systems

The relationship between physical and psychological complaints and quality of life in severely injured patients

Purpose: The purpose of this study was two-fold. The first goal was to investigate which variables were associated with the remaining physical limitations of severely injured patients after the initial rehabilitation phase. Second, we investigated whether physical limitations were attributable to the association between psychological complaints and quality of life in this patient group. Methods: Patients who were 18 years or older and who had an injury severity score (ISS). >. 15 completed a set of questionnaires at one time-point after their rehabilitation phase (15-53 months after their trauma). The Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment (SMFA) questionnaire was used to determine physical limitations. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Dutch Impact of Event Scale and the Cognitive Failure Questionnaire were used to determine psychological complaints, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment instrument-BREF was used to measure general Quality of Life (QOL).Differences in physical limitations were investigated for several trauma- and patient-related variables using non-parametric independent-sample Mann-Whitney U tests. Multiple linear regression was performed to investigate whether the decreased QOL of severely injured patients with psychological complaints could be explained by their physical limitations. Results: Older patients, patients with physical complaints before the injury, patients with higher ISS scores, and patients who had an injury of the spine or of the lower extremities reported significantly more physical problems. Additionally, patients with a low education level, patients who were living alone, and those who were unemployed reported significantly more long-term physical problems.Severely injured patients without psychological complaints reported significantly less physical limitations than those with psychological complaints. The SMFA factor of Lower extremity dysfunctio

Nonsaturating magnetoresistance and nontrivial band topology of type-II Weyl semimetal NbIrTe4

Weyl semimetals, characterized by nodal points in the bulk and Fermi arc states on the surface, have recently attracted extensive attention due to the potential application on low energy consumption electronic materials. In this report, the thermodynamic and transport properties of a theoretically predicted Weyl semimetal NbIrTe4 is measured in high magnetic fields up to 35 T and low temperatures down to 0.4 K. Remarkably, NbIrTe4 exhibits a nonsaturating transverse magnetoresistance which follows a power-law dependence in B. Low-field Hall measurements reveal that hole-like carriers dominate the transport for T $>$ 80 K, while the significant enhancement of electron mobilities with lowering T results in a non-negligible contribution from electron-like carriers which is responsible for the observed non-linear Hall resistivity at low T. The Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations of the Hall resistivity under high B give the light effective masses of charge carriers and the nontrivial Berry phase associated with Weyl fermions. Further first-principles calculations confirm the existence of 16 Weyl points located at kz = 0, $\pm$0.02 and $\pm$0.2 planes in the Brillouin zone.Comment: 5 figures, 1 tabl

High temperature dewatering of ethanol by vapour permeation and pervaporation with HybSi® membranes

Ethanol is one of the most important commodity chemicals used in a broad range of applications and can be produced by the hydrolysis of ethylene, though by far the largest fraction of ethanol is produced via fermentation mainly using 1st generation feedstock. Regardless of the source of the ethanol, from fermentation or from direct hydration of ethylene, the product is normally a dilute aqueous solution. The product is fed to a distillation system to concentrate ethanol. The separation of ethanol and water is complicated because ethanol and water form an azeotrope at 95.6 weight% ethanol. It is not possible to produce pure ethanol from an azeotropic mixture by normal distillation. Pervaporation is a method for dehydration of organics such as ethanol, which substantially avoids drawbacks of azeotropic distillation and adsorption. As the pervaporation process is not governed by thermodynamic equilibria and the selectivity is determined by the difference in permeation rates of components through the membrane, mixtures of components with close boiling points and azeotropic mixtures can be effectively separated. Pervaporation exhibits its highest efficiency in a concentration range of the ethanol-water mixture where distillation is least effective, namely, at high ethanol concentrations of 90-95 wt.%, especially in the vicinity of the azeotropic concentration. Previous studies have shown that hybrid distillation processes combined with either pervaporation or vapour permeation can be very attractive for the separation of liquid mixtures. Such a hybrid process leads to large energy savings when the membrane is used for breaking the azeotrope. At the preferred process conditions currently available commercial polymer and zeolite membranes cannot be used. In this study, the focus is on membrane stability at higher operating temperatures in a water ethanol mixture for sol–gel derived Hybsi® membranes and the membrane performance in pervaporation and vapour permeation. The stability of the membranes is one of the crucial factors of their application in industrial separation processes. A comparison between pervaporation and vapour permeation has been made in which water removal from ethanol has been used as an example. By applying higher temperatures and thus higher driving forces in the membrane unit the required membrane area and the total costs of the process are strongly reduced. The comparison was based on endurance tests, in the dehydration of ethanol at 150°C. The high hydrothermal and chemical stability of the membrane was proven in continuous measurements (24/7) that lasted for periods of over 500 days. The membrane performance was followed during this period of time by measuring the flux and membrane selectivity. Both in pervaporation and vapour permeation a good and stable membrane performance was obtained after a stabilisation period and from a flux and selectivity point of view at 150°C both membrane operation options show similar results. Detailed test results will be presented. For ethanol dehydration vapour permeation would be preferred above pervaporation as advantage can be taken of the vapour already present at the top of the distillation column which will still be used to remove major part of the water present. The presented results show that HybSi® membranes are applicable in the dehydration of ethanol by pervaporation and vapour permeation at higher temperatures. The high temperature use leads to a broadened application window and will open up markets that have so far been inaccessible for commercially available pervaporation and vapour permeation membranes

Effects of switching to PI monotherapy on measures of lipoatrophy: meta-analysis of six randomized HIV clinical trials

Background: Switching from triple combination treatment to protease inhibitor (PI) monotherapy may prevent or reverse adverse events related to long-term nucleoside analogues. Lipoatrophy is associated with long-term use of thymidine analogues (zidovudine and stavudine). Methods: A detailed MEDLINE search was conducted to identify randomised clinical trials of triple combination treatment versus PI monotherapy. Summary results from analysis of changes in body composition (DEXA analysis) were collected: the mean change in limb fat and trunk fat to Week 48 or 96, and the percentage of patients with lipoatrophy (20% reduction from baseline in limb fat) or lipohypertrophy (20% rise from baseline in trunk fat). Results: Six randomised trials of PI monotherapy versus triple therapy with data on body composition changes, measured by DEXA scanning at baseline and Week 48 or 96, were identified: Abbott-613 (LPV/r vs ZDV/3TC/EFV, induction-maintenance trial, n=105), Monark (LPV/r vs ZDV/3TC/LPV/r, first-line trial, n=63), Kalesolo (LPV/r vs LPV/r +2NRTIs, switch trial, n=42), MONOI (DRV/r vs DRV/r + 2NRTIs, switch trial, n=156), MONARCH (DRV/r vs DRV/r + 2NRTIs, switch trial, n=30) and KRETA (LPV/r vs LPV/r + ABC/3TC, switch trial, n=74). In the meta-analysis, there were greater rises in limb fat in the PI monotherapy arms than the triple therapy arms (mean difference =277g, 95% CI=+36 to+517g, p=0.024). The percentage of patients with lipoatrophy was significantly lower in the PI monotherapy arms (4%) than the triple therapy arms (20%), (p=0.0005). There was no difference between PI monotherapy and triple therapy for mean change in trunk fat (mean difference=−73g, 95% CI = −621 to +475g, p=ns). There was also no significant difference in the risk of lipohypertrophy between the PI monotherapy arms (32%) and the triple therapy arms (27%) (p=ns). In each of the four analyses, there was no evidence for heterogeneity of treatment effects between the trials (Cochran's Q tests, p=ns for each comparison). Conclusions: In this meta-analysis, the risk of lipoatrophy was significantly lower for patients taking PI monotherapy, compared to triple therapy. There was no significant difference between the arms for lipohypertrophy. However, several of the trials included zidovudine in the control arm, which carries a higher risk of lipoatrophy than tenofovir and abacavir, which are now more widely used

Effects of temperature and adsorbates on the composition profile of Pt-Rh nanocatalysts : A comparative study

Monte-Carlo simulation technique has been used to investigate the effect of temperature and adsorbed gases on the composition profile of unsupported Pt-Rh nanocatalysts. For a 2406 atom fcc cubo-octahedral Pt$_{\rm{}50}$Rh$_{\rm{}50}$ nanocatalyst the shell-wise composition for all the eight shells has been simulated. For the temperatures 700 K, 1000 K and 1300 K, the top shell of clean Pt-Rh nanocatalysts is found to be mildly Pt-enriched, while the second shell is Pt-depleted. The Pt concentration of the top shell shows a maximum at T = 1000 K. In presence of a quarter monolayer of adsorbed oxygen the top shell shows Rh enrichment, while all the other shells show Pt-enrichment. This is true for all the three temperatures for which the composition profiles have been studied.Comment: 9 pages (LATEX), 4 postscript figures ; Accepted for publication in Physica