System7

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Archive for December, 2009

Happy New Years: The files are coming….and ReCaptcha

Dec 29

Posted by The Gunslinger in system7 | No Comments

We’re working on restoring the original System7 file archive.  You can view what we’ve restored over at Files.System7.  We’ve replaced the user /credit system with the ReCaptcha service.  We don’t want users to register (which no one likes) but we also want to protect ourselves from leechers aka wget’ers.

If you haven’t heard how ReCaptcha works, not only does it block bots & spam but it performs a beneficial community OCR service at the same time.  Every time you complete a captcha you’re also helping decipher a word which couldn’t be understood by a scanner (OCR).  Currently your efforts are being used to aid in digitizing old versions of the New York Times.  Honestly, not sure how that helps the starving children of Africa…

Using ReCaptcha, you’re given 2 words in the captcha phrase, 1 is known and 1 is unknown.  If you type the known word correctly it will assume you also knew the word which OCR could not interpret.  (The unknown word is actually given to multiple people and they must all have the same answer for it to be accepted).  Read more about ReCaptcha here…

Transportation Security Administration: What a joke…

Dec 16

Posted by The Gunslinger in news | No Comments

I previously wrote about how you could get a knife on board a plane without first having it in your luggage or on your person.  Now some folks have done a study and tested various “safe” objects and how lethal they are by using a dead pig (stabbing the pig’s neck, measuring blood loss). If that’s not enough, someone leaked a copy of the TSA’s Screening Standard Operating Procedures which is out there on Wikileaks.  There’s a great article titled ‘TSA: Worst Than Useless‘ which I recommend everyone read.

It’s great the TSA employs people.  But why not keep paying them and allow them to just stay at home?  They inconvenience so many people and don’t provide any value; as Schneier says, it’s complete security theatre.  I understand that unemployment is very high today in the United States (> 10%).  Why not create something like the Tennessee Valley Authority and pay folks to work on public projects even if it’s picking up trash or beautifying state parks?

Update: Search engines with best privacy policy

Dec 11

Posted by The Gunslinger in privacy | 1 Comment

I previously posted about search engine Ask.com’s AskEraser privacy feature.  After reading this article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Several Facts about Google and HTTPS, I learned about the ixquick search engine which appears to have an even better privacy policy.

ixquick highlights:

  • doesn’t record your IP address
  • creates NO unique cookie IDs
  • privacy data deleted within 48 hours
  • uses POST instead of GET requests to further mask search data
  • EU endorsed (and EU has some of the best privacy laws in the world)

On a side note, here’s the 2005 CNET article where Google was used to discover several personal details about Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Pen Testing 101 Presentation

Dec 9

Posted by The Gunslinger in pentest | No Comments

PaulDotCom has an excellent penetration testing presentation covering your primary 6 tools: nmap, nessus, hydra, pass-the-hash, metasploit, and cain & abel.  Check it out here: http://pauldotcom.com/TriplePlay-NetworkPenTestingTools.pdf

Secure your machine…Whitelist

Dec 8

Posted by The Gunslinger in networking, security | No Comments

I previously talked about a blacklisting method to reduce the number of ssh brute force attempts against your machine.  When you follow a blacklisting methodology, in theory, it could never end which is why people are screaming ‘whitelist’ today.  If you’re not ready to deny all and not absolutely sure of which IP you’ll be riding in on (back to home base) then you may want to take a look at the options below…

Most brute forcing today usually comes from Asia or Eastern Europe — blocking continents (if you can get away with it) is great practice.  Below are some links where you can copy & paste problematic IP ranges into your .htaccess or hosts.deny file….

Apache .htaccess block format

Country IP Blocks – choose a country and select the output in many formats (CIDR, hosts.deny, etc)

‘Analyzing Malicious Documents’ cheat sheet

Dec 7

Posted by The Gunslinger in malware | No Comments

Just saw this at the Internet Storm Center…Analyzing Malicious Documents Cheat Sheet Some really great info covering Microsoft Office documents and PDFs.  Mentions some useful tools to help with analysis and the general approach to be followed depending on type of document.