• Random bits

    … well, literally… or pseudo literally? To generate 128 bits of pseudo-randomness: dd if=/dev/urandom bs=16 count=1 2>/dev/null| hexdump |awk ‘{$1=""; printf("%s", $0)}’ | sed ‘s/ //g’ Block size 16 = 16 bytes… do that once (count=1); that’s 16 bytes * 8 bits/byte = 128 bits. I’ve been using this in scripts lately, like “foo=$(…)”.

  • https server

    In conjunction with the openssl scripts… a little bit of python code to fire up an ssl server… lots of them out there, this one is mine. #!/usr/bin/env python # # fire up an HTTPS/ssl web server in the PWD (defaults to localhost:8081) # # optional – give a file name to serve up, like…

  • openssl… let me count the ways I hate you….

    I put a script or two on github; generates a CA and server and client certs, suitable (I hope!) for openvpn and https and all that. Based on the easy-rsa scripts, but I didn’t find them that easy to use. A haiku to openssl: openssl a black crane over the lake may you rot in…

  • progress…

    In case I run into this again… fired up a VM with ubuntu 13.10, 64 bit… and after installing sshd (apt-get install openssh-server) it wouldn’t start; instead I’d get: # services ssh start start: Unknown job: ssh I didn’t see any answers out there, so I waded into the /etc/init.d/ssh script… it calls the “init_is_upstart”…

  • if you’re feeling (digitally) suicidal….

    … here’s how to decrease the security of your mac…. It was one of those situations that are hard to explain, but I wanted to execute an X program on a remote system and have it show up on my Mac’s screen WITHOUT using ssh. This was on Snow Leopard with the XQuartz X server,…

  • Booting a dell server from a remote ISO image

    This is in various scripts and snippets, but I didn’t see it simply by itself…. People sometimes ask me how to reboot a server and boot it off a remote image via the BMC. Dell’s BMC (that little chip that runs IPMI and other things) can speak DMTF/WSMAN/etc/etc, like just about all the servers in…

all-that-jazz all-that-stuff amazing back in the day bash blah-blah bmc bullshit busybox cats certs crypto darpa data dobson dtrace Fast Track feeling good firmware friend hack hax IPMI john dobson love lsof mac memories moon mudge music network openssl packets perl processes RIP security sexism shell ssl uptime vendors wine woohoo