 Feature: Cracked! Part 2: Watching and Waiting | |
In the second article Noel continues the story of when some Unix boxes that he
helped admin were cracked. This article talks about watching the cracker
with a sniffer and talking to the the FBI's Computer Crimes Squad.
"On this Linux box I set up a sniffer to watch for traffic going to the ISP and some of the sites we had suspected he was
coming from. We thought that by watching him to see were he was coming from and what he was doing that we could get
some idea of who he was, what his motivations were and most important what he was doing. We also thought that we could
use this to find out what kind of skills he had. Was he a script kiddie, or a super cracker like it was claimed?"
(Submitted by Noel
Wed May 10, 2000 )
Read more or comment (12107 Bytes, 1 comment) [Email this link] |
| AppWatch: PostgreSQL 7.0 released | |
| The much anticipated Foreign Keys have been implemented, performance
improvements thanks to an Optimizer Overhaul, an updated psql and _many_
bugfixes. All the links and more details at
AppWatch.com.
(Submitted by John D. Rowell
Wed May 10, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Building a Linux Bunker: Basic Firewalling | |
Security Focus talks about what it takes to turn your spare box into a firewall in:
Building a Linux Bunker: Basic Firewalling.
"Some basic issues need to be addressed. This is not an ordinary host, and should not be seen that way. This
host should be exclusively used for firewalling and NAT, and nothing else. This means that you should not
run other services. Also, if you are going to redirect some service to an inside machine, make sure the
service is not susceptible to known vulnerabilities, and that you keep up to date with patches. Failure to do
this can render your firewall useless."
(Submitted by Noel
Tue May 9, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Playing chess over the internet | |
Machine of the month tells us how to
Play chess over the net.
"However, then I started focusing more on free software and wanting everything on the system to be under a free software
license. I didn't think anything was available but boy was I wrong.
In this article, we will take a look at freechess.org and services that can provide similiar things. And we will talk about what
the software setup you will need is if you want to use those services under Debian GNU/Linux."
(Submitted by Noel
Tue May 9, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Pow-Wow With Apache's Hackers | |
| Can you be scalped nicely? Apache seems to think being red in the face beats being red
in the accounting department after an embarrassing encounter with some clever and
well-meaning hackers. By Michelle Head at
http://www.LinuxNews.com/news/?1,123
(Submitted by LinuxNews.com
Tue May 9, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Feature: Getting Your Interfaces to Talk | |
Lance Spitzner
Tells us how to configure, troubleshoot, and modify system interfaces under Solaris.
"Once you have confirmed at the hardware and driver level that everything works, the fun can begin. The place to start is the
ifconfig command. This powerful command allows you configure and modify your interfaces in real time. However, any
modifications made with ifconfig are not permanent. When the system reboots, it will default to its previous configuration.
I will first show you how to make all modifications with the ifconfig command. The second half of this article will cover
making these modifications permanent by modifying the proper configuration files."
(Submitted by Noel
Mon May 8, 2000 )
Read more or comment (12790 Bytes, 1 comment) [Email this link] |
| SCO Answers Questions About Linux | |
slashdot talks to David McCrabb, President of
SCO's Server Division in
SCO Answers Questions About Linux.
"Monterey and Linux-64 will be an important platform for the Itanium market. Both are expected to be available in the
same time frame. Customers demand that Monterey have the ability to run Linux applications. This will be an important
area of interoperability that we will stress with the Monterey product line."
(Submitted by Noel
Mon May 8, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Linux Immune to E-Mail Virus | |
| For those of you who live in a cave, a new strain of computer virus is on the
loose, happily worming its way through systems that use Microsoft Outlook
across the country. The happy companies that remain unaffected include those
running Linux or operating systems other than Windows for their e-mail
clients. (May 5, 2000) By Michelle Head at http://www.LinuxNews.com/news/?1,117
(Submitted by LinuxNews.com
Sun May 7, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Transparent Security for Personal Internet Traffic | |
| An article by the VN.Rydia team describes the
need for a secure, private, transparent Virtual Network on the internet. Read the article for their explanation.
(Submitted by Dormando
Sun May 7, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| A Colombian Church Becomes a Linux School | |
| From the confines of a Colombian church in a community he declines to
name, Jaime Herazo attempts to bring a full-color world to schoolchildren
on a black-and-white screen. (May 3, 2000) By Michelle Head at http://www.LinuxNews.com/news/?1,110
(Submitted by LinuxNews.com
Sat May 6, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Linux on handheld devices | |
WirelessDevNet.com is running two articles on Linux for handheld devices:
Microwindows: Enabling Graphical Apps On Embedded Linux Devices and Linux For Handhelds: Fact Or Fiction?
Linux on the desktop may have to overcome the timidity of end users however
the internals can be completely hidden on a handheld device. In a
marketplace where Handspring produced a lower-cost device and immediately
began outselling Palm, it seems to be only a matter of time before a large
manufacturer goes with the lower-cost/higher-reliability Linux OS.
(Submitted by WirelessDevNet
Sat May 6, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Fighting Against Spam. | |
Sendmail.net talks to
Sunil Paul founder and chairman of Brightmail, Inc. (which is hosting Spam
Summit 2000) and a leader in the fight against spam.
"Now, both on the technology side and on the policy side, the
global character of the Internet has been a key aspect of the spam
problem. The campaign to end open relays, for example, has been
more effective in the US than elsewhere. Is this a significant issue?"
(Submitted by Noel
Fri May 5, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Three Big Bets | |
Sun is pinning its future
on massive scale, continuous real-time access, and an integrated hardware/software stack.
"I can't tell you what we have under development right now, but I can tell you
this: The company that can build massive scalability into its architecture, that
understands how to support and build continuous real-time capability, and puts
together a seamless, integrated stack -- that's the company that's going to win,
and win big. Because that's what it will take to make our customers successful in
this new Net economy. "
(Submitted by Noel
Fri May 5, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Workstation Security Primer | |
about.com brings us this
Workstation Security Primer.
"There are an awful lot of crackers and "script kiddies" out
there, and the number increases every day. If you administer a
Linux network or a series of Linux servers, you're probably
already security conscious, but if you're in
the fastest growing segment of Linux users
-- the Linux on the desktop or Linux at home
camp -- you probably are in need of a little
security advice, even if you don't know it yet."
(Submitted by Noel
Thu May 4, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a Supercluster! | |
| Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able
to scale 276 nodes in a single bound... the Supercluster known as JET is
designer Greg Lindahl's latest effort, and at the rate it's going, it may
be sending IBM's Los Lobos to the doghouse. By Greta Durr at http://www.LinuxNews.com/news/?1,107
(Submitted by LinuxNews.com
Thu May 4, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Printing Banners and Signs | |
Oreilly tells us how to make fancy
Banners and Signs under Linux.
"To make a fancy poster or sign containing graphics, multiple typefaces
and a specific, detailed design, your best bet is to use a tool like the
GIMP to make an image file, save it as Encapsulated PostScript (EPS),
and print that."
(Submitted by Noel
Thu May 4, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Detecting and Decoding MStream DDOS | |
| Recently a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack tool known as "mstream"
has surfaced inside both the computer underground and security community. In
response to the surfacing of this attack tool and the published analysis of
its inner workings, we have developed a set of SNP-L scripts and attack
signatures which allow one to detect and decode "mstream" network activity.
The full write-up is available here.
(Submitted by Elliot Turner
Wed May 3, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Feature: Cracked! Part 1: Denial and Truth | |
In the first of a new series of articles Noel begins the story of when some Unix
boxes that he helped admin were cracked.
"The phone rings or an email comes in and someone tells you that they have reason to believe that your box or boxes have
been cracked. Do you believe it? Is it true? What do you do next? What should you not do? This is the situation any System
Administrator can find themselves in. After all anyone can get these calls and emails. I got a call last month that someone
was being attacked from a mail server. It turned out that it was not an attack it was an identd query that was being
misunderstood. But some times the call is for real."
(Submitted by Noel
Wed May 3, 2000 )
Read more or comment (9410 Bytes, 21 comments) [Email this link] |
| Linux Community Drives Philips to Release USB Spec | |
| Prompting Dutch electronics superpower Philips into the Open Source arena is one thing. Convincing
it to give would-be Linux developers a chance to bring its products up-to-speed with the Linux
Community without signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is quite another. (May 2, 2000) By
Greta Durr at http://www.LinuxNews.com/news/?1,99
(Submitted by LinuxNews.com
Wed May 3, 2000 )
Comment (2 comments) [Email this link] |
| Dear Diary: System Log Book | |
Linux Care tells us about using a
system log book.
"As good as they are, however, depending solely on
vendor supplied utilities is asking for trouble. I can't even
count the number of times I wish I had more information
than these utilities furnish. For instance, although I am a
big fan of simplified installs via Red Hat and Debian
packages, I often fall back on good old fashion source
tarballs for some applications. The result is a system
whose configuration is not documented anywhere.
That's bad."
(Submitted by Noel
Tue May 2, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| The Network Block Device | |
Linux Journal tells is what a
Network Block Device is and what you can use it for.
"A network block device (NBD) driver makes a remote resource look like a local device in Linux,
allowing a cheap and safe real-time mirror to be constructed."
(Submitted by Noel
Tue May 2, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Building a Jumpstart Server for Solaris | |
Sysadmin Mag tells us how to
Build a Jumpstart Server for Solaris.
"This article deals with the Solaris
version of network install. Solaris and graphical user
interfaces have never been the best match (no offense);
the same goes for the Solaris network installation
product, "Jumpstart". To get a working Jumpstart
server, you will have to do some additional configuring
that cannot be done by using a GUI. To avoid the use
of a GUI altogether, I will discuss a complete manual
configuration."
(Submitted by Noel
Mon May 1, 2000 )
Comment (1 comment) [Email this link] |
| Feature: IDing remote hosts, without them knowing | |
Lance Spitzner tells us about
IDing remote hosts, without them knowing using Passive Fingerprinting.
"One of the challenges of network security is learning about the bad guys. To understand
your threats and better protect against them, you have to Know Your Enemy. Passive
Fingerprinting is a method to learn more about the enemy, without them knowing it.
Specifically, you can determine the operating system and other characteristics of the remote
host using nothing more then sniffer traces. Though not 100% accurate, you can get
surprisingly good results."
(Submitted by Noel
Mon May 1, 2000 )
Read more or comment (10092 Bytes, 7 comments) [Email this link] |
| Exploring SGML DocBook | |
Linux Weekly News tells us all about
SGML DocBook.
"Suppose you have to write a handbook for your project and you have not much time, which
editing tool would you use? In Linux several solutions exist, one of these is using SGML
DocBook."
(Submitted by Noel
Sun Apr 30, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| Getting Small with Linux, Part 3 | |
Linux Journal tells us more about how to
get small with Linux.
"This time around, I want to talk about some of those specialized applications. The real power of
Linux is as a network operating system. When dealing with Linux and the impressive group of
(occasionally hyperactive) developers out there, anything is possible. Sure, you can play Civilization:
Call to Power; and Quake on Linux, but the real reason Linux is so cool is not because it plays well,
but because it works well. Better yet, it networks well. Allow me to present today's micro contenders
as examples."
(Submitted by Noel
Sun Apr 30, 2000 )
Comment [Email this link] |
| [Older News] |
