Semester 1 2022 has snuck up on me again. This semester as part of the UNSW and ADFA run Master of Cyber Security degree, I’m taking the blue team core unit ZEIT8026 Cyber Defence - Network Security Operations (SecOps) lectured by Dr Waqas Haider and Dr Nour Moustafa. Unlike its sister red team unit ZEIT8020 Cyber Offense - Cyber Network Operations (CNO) which I took in 2018, ZEIT8026 aims to lay the foundational knowledge of cyber defence operations: ...
Update: 2022-04-26: Overhauling to be simplier and bsd/clang friendly. Rules of engagement Style The language Basic Types Integer Types Real and Complex Floating Types void Memory Access Operators Strings The Pre Processor Macros Patterns vtables person_s.h print_vtable.h print_vtable.c main.c Libraries C standard library C POSIX library Unit Testing Sample C code Rules of engagement How I program C by Eskil Steenberg Notes on Programming in C by Rob Pike The Ten Commandments for C Programmers by Henry Spencer Style suckless FreeBSD man 9 style The language Basic Types Integer Types C99 with stdbool.h introduced boolean type _Bool (1 byte), and macros true (1) and false (0). ...
This is an amazing piece of hacker folklore was created on January 8, 1986 by The Mentor. Source: http://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The following was written shortly after my arrest... \/\The Conscience of a Hacker/\/ by +++The Mentor+++ Written on January 8, 1986 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"... Damn kids. They're all alike. But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him? I am a hacker, enter my world... Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me... Damn underachiever. They're all alike. I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..." Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike. I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by me... Or thinks I'm a smart ass... Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here... Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike. And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found. "This is it... this is where I belong..." I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all... Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike... You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us will- ing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert. This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike. +++The Mentor+++
I’m moving lots of my machines back to Debian in the yearning for rock solid stability and a complete distribution that just works. Debian was the first GNU/Linux I ever used as a teenager back in late 90s and I’ve fond memories of it. Starting with the official amd64 install guide. Preparation Make USB key I quickly discovered I want the image that includes proprietary firmware, so I can get my (nasty) wifi card working as quickly as possible. ...
Oliver Powell put this amazing original list together in 2016. While I didn’t appreciate the gravity of the list at the time, the talks have actually changed how I think about programming. Each of the presenters is not only incredibly intelligent but they have some serious credentials and achievements behind them. They in essence have much wisdom to impart. For example Rich Hickey, the creator of Closure, is brilliantly articulate and thought provoking. ...
Intro Getting started with mutt 2022 setup cron GPG crypto Address book integration pam-gnupg Intro If you haven’t heard of mutt you’re missing out. Mutt is a small but very powerful text-based mail client for UNIX operating systems It’s a command line based mail reader (MUA). The neomutt project is a contemporary fork of the original mutt with added features, patch sets and fixes. I started seriously using mutt as my full-time mail client in 2012. I found its simplicity refreshing. It quickly became apparent how much useless baggage modern graphical mail clients (e.g., thunderbird, outlook, etc) actually bog you down with, not to mention the harrowing way they actually encode mail. Its taken me a long time to appreciate this: ...
From an ancient post I previously did…I need to refresh my mind on this topic often enough thought it worthy of breaking it out. How Linux systems figure out what program should open a file Programs that handle arbitrary files (e.g. web browsers, irc clients, file managers) delegate to a general purpose resource handler. XDG MIME Applications is the ubiquitous option here, and is not only an implementation, but a full blown specification. ...
Google Workspace (formally Google Apps, formally G Suite) After years of frustration in the Google platform, specifically G Suite (also known as Google Apps or Google Workspace) it all recently came to a head for me after I received a couple of Google Nest cameras as gifts last Christmas. Having been a strong Google proponent since the late 90’s, when Google was a cool startup bucking the trend with their famous do not be evil mission, Googles brand within the technical community rose to dizzying heights. Ever since the Google brand has always had a strong influence on me and I have happily recommended their products to people I care about. ...
This is how I like to create digital copies (i.e., backups) of my physical DVD collection, which I own legitimately. I don’t condone piracy or theft. Backup instructions Rip physical DVD media makemkv Transcode mkv to m4v container using Fast 1080p30 preset in handbrake. Passthrough UTF-8 subtitles if you like those. Copy to media backup server rsync --protect-args -av --progress Season8 "shnerg@172.16.1.32:/data/TV/Penn & Teller Bullshit/" Software MakeMKV transcoder that deals with proprietary (and usually encrypted) disc into a set of MKV files Handbrake general video transcoder The C source is available as tarballs makemkv-bin-1.16.5.tar.gz and makemkv-oss-1.16.5.tar.gz. The Linux release includes full source code for MakeMKV GUI, libmakemkv multiplexer library and libdriveio MMC drive interrogation library. ...
Last year I decided in addition to my amazing ErgoDox EZ to look for a 75% layout keyboard (think a more minimal version of ten-keyless). After wasting far too much time on r/MechanicalKeyboards the Glorious GMMK PRO hit my radar. Short for Glorious Modular Mechanical Keyboard, the pro version cuts the previous full sized keyboard version down to a 75% design with a digital rotary dial. GMMK PRO is an ultra premium, gasket-mounted 75% layout keyboard built for enthusiasts, gamers, and professionals. ...