Tag Archives: twitter

Highlighting HiR Guest Post: Setting up a Pfsense firewall

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Making security simple to understand and accessible to the masses is half the battle. @biosshadow does a great job of walking you through the conversion of a random disused pc (that sooner or later we’ll end up with) and making it a functional, feature-rich firewall. If you’re curious about linux, open source resources, or the community’s perpetual ongoing quest to immerse in better security, give @biosshadow a follow on twitter, he’s always a great resource for howto links and resources, including the excellent howto’s he develops himself.

His regular blog is in my permanent rss reader list at geek-crack.com and is most worthy of an add to your google reader blog list.

This particular posting is being hosted by @ax0n’s excellent HiR Report site, another great security and admin blog:

Pfsense is a free, as in speech and beer, firewall for home, business, and any other purpose you can think of. It’s based on FreeBSD, so it’s very stable and has a very good TCP/IP stack. It has a serious feature list.

via HiR Information Report: Guest Post: Setting up a Pfsense firewall.

Inspired by @mubix…@corq’s geek wishlist…

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Thanks to @mubix’s post over at his Room362 blog, I’m forced to admit I haz serious, yet whimsical technolust this year.

This is stuff I may or may not get myself, but making the list is fun, and I can later look back at some of the technologies and wonder if they indeed, were hit or miss:

  • ThinkGeek :: Mimo Mini USB Monitor – I’m accustomed to dual monitors, but due to some hardware shortages at work, I forego them. This might be the perfect, personal, low cost answer. It can be your IM screen, or helpdesk alert window, while you do actual work on the larger one, without using up the desk’s real estate. I’m keen on this.
  • GigaByte MicroATX motherboard for my dream HTPC box.
  • Antec Black M Fusion Remote 350 HTPC case Silverstone makes  sexier HTPC  cases, but I’m happy with Antec’s standard fit and low profile. The included remote wins me over.
  • Linux Toys II
  • While not a buyable “item”, I’d like my home workspace to magically look as slick as this on Christmas morning…
  • I’m with @mubix on this, I really like the potential of the Barnes and Noble Nook, as soon as I can buy the thing in-store, and walk out with it…
  • My storage needs trump about everything else, but as a lowly apartment dweller, if I can get all my media center needs cleanly cabled behind this, I’ll be set.
  • An Electrician to hack me up some safe, wall-embeded USB charging jacks, like this.
  • Samson Q2U usb recording pack. Perhaps I can crash some of those Skype call in podcast sessions, with style…

So much nerdiness, so little time.

Thanks @mubix for the awesome ideas =)

Ubuntu Karmic ctrl-alt-backspace lives!

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For those of you that converse with me on twitter, you know I’m a pretty vocal Linux and Ubuntu proponent.

However, as the distribution moves more toward the mainstream, Canonical and the volunteer devs are forced to make decisions for the good of the whole community rather than the whimsy or convenience of more experienced user. I’ve no beef with this philosophy, as long as it contributes to the broader user experience.

Formerly, one of the cooler keyboard combinations in linux has been the ability to restart xserver  (the GUI/Desktop experience that Ubuntu deploys by default) to have a quicker restart than the full unmounting and rebooting of the system.

With Jaunty and Karmic,  this option was removed, ostensibly to prevent accidental keyboard resetting of the end users’ Desktop.

For us power users, this became sort of a nuisance.

Not to worry, however,  for UbuntuGeek.com has you covered with several mechanisms to re-able this convenient ‘reset’ feature for xwindows.

Howto Enable Ctrl + Alt + BackSpace in Ubuntu Jaunty | Ubuntu Geek.

Worth peeking at your VPN Configs: US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU#261869

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This was getting some discussion on teh twitter today, but the list of affected VPN vendors was substantial enough, you might want peek at your own configs. The hyperbole might not yet be warranted, but it might be worth a peek under your hood.

The description of the vuln implies potentially that some VPN vendors’ default settings might make attacks more viable. taken from  US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU#261869:

Vulnerability Note VU#261869

Clientless SSL VPN products break web browser domain-based security models

Overview

Clientless SSL VPN products from multiple vendors operate in a way that breaks fundamental browser security mechanisms. An attacker could use these devices to bypass authentication or conduct other web-based attacks.

Later in the bulletin, a mention of the potential exploit method:

By convincing a user to view a specially crafted web page, a remote attacker may be able to obtain VPN session tokens and read or modify content (including cookies, script, or HTML content) from any site accessed through the clientless SSL VPN. This effectively eliminates same origin policy restrictions in all browsers. For example, the attacker may be able to capture keystrokes while a user is interacting with a web page. Because all content runs at the privilege level of the web VPN domain, mechanisms to provide domain-based content restrictions, such as Internet Explorer security zones and the Firefox add-on NoScript, may be bypassed. For additional information about impacts, please see CERT Advisory CA-2000-02.

There’s a broad variety of affected software- and appliance-based VPNs in the CERT list, it’s certainly worth a call to your vendor to be certain you’re using the safest possible configs for your VPN’s environment. Read full bulletin here.

Russian Hackers Used Stolen US IDs for Georgian Gov Site Attacks

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News Item Alert via @kevitz on twitter:

Russian hackers hijacked American identities and U.S. software tools and used them in an attack on Georgian government Web sites during the war between Russia and Georgia last year, according to new research to be released Monday by a nonprofit U.S. group.

In addition to refashioning common Microsoft Corp. software into a cyber-weapon, hackers collaborated on popular U.S.-based social-networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook Inc., to coordinate attacks on Georgian sites, the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit found. While the cyberattacks on Georgia were examined shortly after the events last year, these U.S. connections weren’t previously known.The research shows how cyber-warfare has outpaced military and international agreements, which don’t take into account the possibility of American resources and civilian technology being turned into weapons.

Identity theft, social networking, and modifying commercial software are all common means of attack, but combining them elevates the attack method to a new level, said Amit Yoran, a former cybersecurity chief at the Department of Homeland Security. “Each one of these things by itself is not all that new, but this combines them in ways we just haven’t seen before,” said Mr. Yoran, now CEO of computer-security company NetWitness Corp.The five-day Russian-Georgian conflict in August 2008 left hundreds of people dead, crushed Georgia’s army, and left two parts of its territory on the border with Russia — Abkhazia and South Ossetia — under Russian occupation.

More detail via WSJ.com.