This is a quick little post to show off some of the capabilities of an ssh tunnel. So, the back story. Earlier today, i was having a problem. There is a server on lcsd2.org that i needed gui (Apple Remote Desktop) access to. In the past, there is an ipsec based vpn i could use that was as simple as a single mouse click. Unfortunately, UW has decided, for whatever reason, that outbound ipsec tunnels shouldn’t be allowed. I can’t connect. However, i do have ssh access to a server on the inside of the network, and thats how this works. Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for the ‘Interesting Tech Crap’ Category
30
Jul
My Gear
There is a new page in the about section titled “My Gear” with a list of my computer setup at home complete with pictures. So check it out, and, let me know in the comments what you’ve got. Send me a link. If i get several good ones i may post them.
Have you ever needed to get into a mac but didn’t know the password. Maybe you forgot it. Maybe your roommate changed it and headed off for christmas break. Maybe you stole it in an airport and now want to use it. Whatever the situation, you need in but don’t have the credentials. I’m here to help.
In Mac OS X there are at least two methods for resetting a password. And it does require resetting. This isn’t windows, you can’t just boot off a cd and automatically crack the password. Apple decided to used modern encryption techniques 10 years ago that were probably 10 years old then to protect your passwords. Microsoft still hasn’t.
Method number 1: Follow the instructions here to boot off a disc and reset your password the apple way.
Method number 2: Follow my instructions below and reset it the “cool” way.
5
May
A kitten prank.
Earlier today, i was sitting down, watching tv with my brother. We were both on laptops doing other things at the same time. He started watching an episode of loaded featuring 50 cent. I do not like 50 cent. After several minutes of the god-awful, talentless, garbage, i got sick of it. Did I go the pansy route and ask him to change it? No! I took the high road and made a few changed to my dns server causing all sites he tried to go to, to instead, go to kittenwar.com. I’ll show you how i did it.
2
Apr
Google apps, jabber.
As very few of you know, (maybe i should actually put something in the about me section) i started this little website as a project to learn linux better and to learn to manage a webserver. Since then, this little project has turned into something i actually care about and take a measure of pride in. This is due in no small part to the miracle that is google apps for your domain.
I like managing a webserver. I like manually managing bind and apache from the command line. I like the sense of control i feel when i am able to make any changes i want any time i want. What i don’t like though, is email. Email is evil. Go ahead, take a look at the configuration files for sendmail sometime. Try postfix, not much better. I don’t want to do email but i want to get email. So what did i do? I went with google apps for your domain.
31
Mar
99.13% uptime
I’ve been using host-tracker for a while now to monitor my uptime. Today they sent me my quarterly report and i’m pleased to report, to you, that my uptime is better than many for pay shared hosting providers. My little server that i put together myself, running directly on the grid with no UPS, running off a little tiny slow home dsl connection, and connected to that connection via an old wireless bridge is better than some datacenters. That is just awesome. Below i have included the report they sent me, whitespace and all.
Quarterly report 2008-01 http://www.jessecole.org Total uptime:99.13% Downtime:6 hour(s) 13 min(s) Quarterly uptime:99.13% Downtime:6 hour(s) 13 min(s) Month 2008-03 Uptime:99.13% Downtime:6 hour(s) 13 min(s)
*Update*So, wordpress helpfully stripped the white space. Yay!
17
Jan
dns queries
In a previous post i explained how i run a server, etc. etc. Since i have absolutely nothing else to write about, i’m posting a part II of sorts for that post. This time its about the dns server i run. A few months ago i switched my internal network over to use my own locally hosted dns server. The following are the top queries its received from the internal hosts.
| 16527 | time.apple.com | |
| 16188 | www.google.com | |
| 4513 | weather.wapp.wii.com | |
| 4235 | ad.yieldmanager.com | |
| 2315 | news.wapp.wii.com | |
| 1907 | www.symantec.com | |
| 1852 | ad.doubleclick.net | |
| 1612 | 105.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa | |
| 1347 | cfh.wapp.wii.com | |
| 1320 | 202-177-19-148.kdd.net.hk.jessecole.org |
Ok, we can see we have several very popular sites. The first is not quite what you’d expect, its time.apple.com. You don’t think about it but every computer and device you own likely keeps itself synchronized with a time server. Every time it goes to synchronize, it has to do a dns lookup. Actually this number is a tad distorted by the fact that my router decided it should update its time 10 or 11 times a day, (thank you Dlink). I actually got sick of it a made it use the ip address for time.apple.com instead of the hostname so hopefully that number won’t go up so much.
The next most popular query is for www.google.com. No surprise there. Every time you type in the website or use the search bar in your browser and possibly even just visiting certain websites will cause a query to be performed.
The most interesting out of all these though is the fact that, in my top 10 queries, 2 of them (ad.yieldmanager.com and ad.doubleclick.com) are well known ad servers. What a waste of time and bandwidth that is. In the future, i may start blocking queries to well known ad sites just to avoid giving them stats on us.
7
Jan
ssh attempts
So. I run a server. And by that i mean i have a computer with many different services running on it that are accessible over a network. One of these services is ssh. Over the past few months while my computer has been exposed to the internet, i have received thousands of automated ssh login attempts by people doing a dictionary attack trying common usernames and password. I have decided to post some of the ip address and some of the more common usernames attempted. The first column is number of attempts since Oct 28 06:47:05.
| 1319 | 202.177.19.148 | 692 | root | |
| 352 | 84.200.29.111 | 81 | admin | |
| 275 | 213.223.16.236 | 79 | test | |
| 168 | 211.53.78.104 | 41 | guest | |
| 156 | 208.100.6.172 | 34 | user | |
| 137 | 61.218.44.69 | 27 | clark | |
| 120 | 216.234.56.210 | 23 | oracle | |
| 105 | 205.206.124.18 | 21 | smith | |
| 104 | 209.189.91.8 | 21 | anderson | |
| 84 | 210.192.124.242 | 19 | staff |
ps. For the love of god if you know how to format that so that both columns are next to each other, tell me! I’ll give you a treat. Really, it will happen.
*Update* I cheated and got a table to do what i want. If anyone can tell me a better way please do. The treat thing still stands.
*Update 2* Nevermind, i’ve decided i like the way looks. After looking around a bit, it appears that there really isn’t a more elegant solution so i’m going to stick with it.
This is a guide for setting up key-based authentication on the mac.
Key-based authentication is an alternative way of authenticating over ssh. Instead of a user name and password, you use a public/private key pair and authenticate this way. A user can optionally be specified as well.
To begin you’ll need to open Terminal.app in your Applications/Utilities folder.
Issue the following command into terminal:
mkdir ~/.ssh
