Jun 30, 2010

Airport Express joining DD-WRT wireless using WPA2

Okay, I've been hammering away at this for hours so I am posting something about it.

This afternoon something hosed my wireless router, big time. Not sure what happened but it wasn't acting right. I managed to get it reset back to defaults and it worked fine. This is good because I thought it was burned up or something.

I managed to get all my settings and DHCP reservations back but I couldn't get my Airport Express to join the WPA2 Personal network. Eventually I loaded the old firmware image and took some screen shots before it failed again.

Apparently the Airport Express will NOT use TKIP WPA Algorithms. It must use AES. As soon as I set it to AES the Airport Express turned green and I had my music. I haven't tried TKIP+AES. Perhaps that will work too. I'm too tired to test it.

I searched high and low but all I could find was information on using WDS in this environment. I found nothing relating to what WPA Algorithms the Airport Express should use. So, here it is.

Jun 23, 2010

Andriod App FAIL

Nice... I'll take my "locked down" iPhone any day.


Fifth of Android Apps Expose Private Data: "WrongSizeGlass writes 'CNet is reporting that a fifth of Android apps expose private data. The Android market threat report details the security issues uncovered. Dozens of apps were found to have the same type of access to sensitive information as known spyware does, including access to the content of e-mails and text messages, phone call information, and device location. 5% of the apps were found to have the ability to make calls, and 2% can send text messages, without the mobile user doing anything.'

Home Network Filtering Service from OpenDNS

More great services from OpenDNS.


Click here to  read FamilyShield is a No-Setup Adult Content Blocker for Your Router
FamilyShield is a No-Setup Adult Content Blocker for Your Router [Content Filtering]: "

OpenDNS already offered a great content filtering tool that you could set up on your home Wi-Fi router. Now the DNS provider is making it easier to block impressionable eyes from adult content—and clever proxies and other work-arounds, too. More »

iOS To Make Its Desktop Debut With Next iMac Revision?

iOS To Make Its Desktop Debut With Next iMac Revision?: "iOS To Make Its Desktop Debut With Next iMac Revision?: '

IOS on the next iMac? That’s the rumor going around this morning. The deal is that Apple wants to bring touch controls to its desktop offerings, and will use the next iMac revision to test the waters a bit. So, you’ll have your standard Mac OS X installation, but then when you activate “touch screen mode,” you’ll switch over to iOS.

Jun 21, 2010

Expanding a Windows Boot Volume in VMWare

This was originally posted here. I have copied it for posterity and archival purposes =)

How to expand/grow a Windows system/boot disk under VMWare in a simple way

On several places it is written that it is somewhat problematic to expand the boot disk:
"...Windows DiskPart utility, it can extend (expand) only data volumes..."
            - VMware FAQ
But it is not hard to do it, and you don't need any disk utilities except diskpart.exe which is included in Windows.
The only guarantee I will give is that this has been working for me. ;-)
Follow this steps on your own risk:
1. Shut down the VMware Virtual Machine.
2. Make a complete Clone of the Virtual Machine. (Keep this clone as a backup if the procedure does not work for some reason.)
3. Locate the utility vmware-vdiskmanager.exe and the original disk file you want to expand. Open a command window and run the command below. Modify paths, file names and disk size as needed.
4. The VI Client can also be used to expand the disk after the clone is complete.

"C:\Program\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe" -x 8GB "C:\Documents and
Settings\userhome\My documents\My Virtual Machines\Win2k3test\Windows Server 2003, Standard
Edition.vmdk"
This takes some time to complete.
There's a lot more you can do with vmware-vdiskmanager.exe. If curious, se links on the VMware FAQ page above.
4. Edit the cloned Virtual Machine. Add the just expanded original disk to the machine.
5. Boot the clone VM. You will se the expanded drive on a new "drive letter". Open a command prompt and run diskpart.exe:
  • Run "list volume". Look for the volume number for the expanded drive.
  • Run "select volume x", where x is number for the expanded disk.
  • Run "extend".  The volume will instantly be extended.
  • Exit from diskpart.
6. Shut down the cloned machine and remove the expanded disk from the cloned machine.
7. Boot the original virtual machine. You should now have a larger volume.
You might want to run "chkdsk /f /r" and reboot to be sure the disk is ok. This Control take a long time to complete.
I hope this works for you! Please email me if this screws things up for you so that I can improve this guide or warn others!
Good luck!

Jun 16, 2010

Group Policy Resource Guide

Group Policy Resource Guide: "Providing some links and information about tools and resources that exist for free, all pertaining to Group Policy."

Jun 14, 2010

Rogue facebook application acting like a worm, (Mon, Jun 14th)

Rogue facebook application acting like a worm, (Mon, Jun 14th): "Reader Freddie showed us a Sophos report of an application that has gone rogue by spamming your cont ..."

Text Editors

Wish I knew who to credit for this image =/

I've always been a vi man myself. I'll pull out emacs for heavy lifting but I always end up in a man page or my emacs hint sheet. But notepad, bleh.

Of course XKCD has regular updates on the subject as well.

Jun 12, 2010

Ipad Classic

iPad Gets Encased in a Macintosh Classic:



There are plenty of iPad stands to choose from, but none quite like this gutted Macintosh Classic that houses the futuristic iPad in its vintage case. Although the Mac's display area is almost the same size as the iPad's, the tablet's resolution totally clobbers that of the old computer from 1990. 1990 doesn't seem like that long ago, but look how far we've come! Obviously, this modded case is not the best idea for travel, but it is perfect for watching movies, or TV shows at home, since you can sit back, relax, and not have to hold the iPad yourself.

However, this isn't the only amazing iPad case mod that we've seen. Check out a few other notables - including a few DIY iBook and Macintosh Plus mods, a healthy kitchen cabinet project, and of course, the April Fool's joke heard 'round the world - in the gallery below!

Jun 11, 2010

IT Audit Automation: Windows Baseline Audits

IT Audit Automation: Windows Baseline Audits:
"Managing the security of your Windows workstations is a fairly simple task when you leverage technologies like Group Policy. Even so, individual systems within the domain can change for a wide variety of reasons. It could be that we have users who are starting and stopping services, it may be that malware is finding its way in or any of a variety of other possibilities. How can we monitor how our workstations are changing?

I’ve long been a strong proponent of compliance automation. To this end, I’ve included a script at the end of this post that can be used as a starting point for pulling out any WMIC based information from Windows computers within your domain. In fact, the script will first pull a complete list of all of the domain computers and then work its way through that list, either creating a baseline or comparing each system to the pre-existing baseline for that system.

With a minimum of effort you can easily extend this script to send notifications to the domain administrators when changes are detected or new systems are identified. This is the perfect starting point not only for compliance management but even for early malware detection.

In a future article look forward to some tools and scripts that will allow you to perform zero day malware detection in your environment using the same scripting concepts explored here.

Download the script here: Windows_Baselines

For a comprehensive course on how to identify critical controls, validate that the correct controls are in place and validate processes, consider the SANS 6 day course, “Advanced System & Network Auditing“. David Hoelzer is the SANS IT Audit Curriculum Lead and the author of several SANS IT Audit related courses."