Learn to Secure Linux The Fun Way
by amp on Jul.18, 2010, under General, Linux, PC Maintenance, Pro Tips, Tutorials, Web Resources
DVL Distro
You must admit; one of the most popular activities among the IT world is downloading and trying new operating systems. Why? Because we are looking for one that meets all requirements of what we do. This would include..
- Easy to use..
- Easy to configure and set up..
- Easy to manage and above all..
- AS SECURE AS POSSIBLE.
What if that isn’t your goal? Maybe your goal is to have something as vulnerable as possible so that you can LEARN to secure nearly any Linux OS. That is the goal of Damn Vulnerable Linux.
DVL is a linux distribution based off Backtrack 2.0. It’s filled with all sorts of tools and exploits as well as all the services such as SSHD and Apache that are out-dated and vulnerable to attacks. The main goal of this distro is to teach you how to secure, reverse engineer code, and most of all…LEARN.
This is by far one of the coolest things I have come across and I am recommending it highly.
Damn Vulnerable Linux (DVL) is everything a good Linux distribution isn’t. Its developers have spent hours stuffing it with broken, ill-configured, outdated, and exploitable software that makes it vulnerable to attacks. DVL isn’t built to run on your desktop – it’s a learning tool for security students.
The main idea behind DVL was to build up a training system that I could use for my university lectures. My goal was to design a Linux system that was as vulnerable as possible, to teach topics such as reverse code engineering, buffer overflows, shellcode development, Web exploitation, and SQL injection.
Of course one of the obvious warnings they give you is to not use it as an actual operating system and if you ask me that goes without saying.
Give it a shot and see what you can learn. I’m having fun on it already! 
UNetbootin – Create bootable flash drives for almost anything.
by amp on Jul.08, 2010, under File System, General, PC Maintenance, Products, Reviews & Previews, Web Resources
UNetbootin is free software aimed at anyone looking to create USB-Bootable installs for Linux distributions.
“UNetbootin allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions without burning a CD. It runs on both Windows and Linux. You can either let UNetbootin download one of the many distributions supported out-of-the-box for you, or supply your own Linux .iso file if you’ve already downloaded one or your preferred distribution isn’t on the list.”
The wonderful thing about UNetbootin is the fact that this does not just work for linux distributions that I have found but it also works for any other boot-cd you might find. As long as you have an ISO of a disk that is supposed to boot on startup, it can make it so.
Therefore, you are not limited to just ISO’s of Fedora, Ubuntu, etc. I have created USB bootable flash drives with MultiBoot, Hirens, and others as well as Windows XP, Windows 7, etc. Why you need to do this? Want to install Windows XP on your netbook? Need to remove a windows password?
If you have already used it before, leave a comment about what you have done with it.
Commit Web 2.0 Suicide
by amp on Jun.20, 2010, under PC, Pro Tips, Reviews & Previews, Web Resources
Web 2.0 Suicide Machine
Who doesn’t love being on the latest social networking site?
That’s what I thought.
…but, if you are one of the millions that are on Facebook, Myspace, twitter, and wish you had never joined; don’t worry. There is hope.
A friend of mine was going out for a job interview with a very important company. Of course he had a profile on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and a few others. Being worried about evidence of activities they wouldn’t like for obvious reasons he had to go through and scrape as much of his pictures, status updates, friends, etc that he could. My friend spent a good day removing whatever he could find. Of course, this could have been easier..
The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine will take care of all the work for you. The automated website / script will login to your accounts, remove all your friends, remove all status updates and tweets, and make your profile and information completely private and removed. Basically, it kills your “social network” profiles.
If you watch South Park at all, you already know about this and probably wondered, “Hm…I wonder if it’s real” and I can assure you it is. The only difference is you won’t be sucked into a Tron 2.0-like Facebook internet mall environment where everyone ignores you while you are transported by Facebook-Guards.
If you are wondering which episode of South Park this was featured on follow the link below to download the episode via ThePirateBay.
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5505157 – South Park : Episode 04, Season 14 :: “You have 0 Friends.”
Cover Your Tracks! : Hiding Your Bittorrent traffic and Protecting Your Privacy
by amp on Jun.05, 2010, under Pro Tips
Keeping yourself hidden from the prying eyes of big brother is a big deal to a lot of people. Mostly this idea makes itself visible the more and more one hears about Cease and Desist notices from ISP’s warning about Dreamworks, Microsoft, and other major companies watching them download movies and music.
Although BitTorrenting has many many uses as a legit method of acquiring files it is not always illegal. What is it exactly? It’s a protocol and it is up to you whether you are using it for legit purposes or not.
I will admit I do seed quite a bit of stuff. Mostly it tends to be various free stock photos from various websites or one of the most popular; brush packs I have compiled for Photoshop. These are both two things you could legally seed as they are freely available for download on the internet.
Lets say you want to hide your traffic as best as you can anyways… Here are a few methods. (continue reading…)
Photoshop Tutorial : Turn Any Picture Into a Drawing
by amp on May.22, 2010, under Photoshop, Pro Tips, Tutorials, Web Resources
Alec Baldwin
Got another one for you, this time it’s real quick. A few simple steps and less than two minutes later you can have this wonderful drawing outline you can use to cheat in your art class. This tutorial can make it extremely easy to trace or just use as sort of a stencil to color in, paint, etc.
Give it a shot and let’s see your results!
P.S. If you want the original of Alec Baldwin from 30 rock that I used, follow this link to Google Images.
Special Note : To get a better view of the video, watch it directly on YouTube so you can select HD (720p).
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