RootAdmin.co.uk

I’m playing about currently with a wee bit of search engine optimisation. And still really like Google . I thought i’d take a look at ask.com again.

Other than the fact they brought back Jeeves the butler, their search algorithm appears to be pretty damn smart, it certainly in the few tests i did stayed relatively on par with google, and laughed in the face of bing.com (Microsoft’s new search site)

Think im going to play about with ask.com a bit more

Well on Monday with a huge amount of help from Nick Cook i managed to launch my new site www.snortid.com

SnortID.com allows users to search for Snort ID’s or SID’s. Why not take a look and let me know what you think of it.

Not sure what snort is, well take a look at www.snort.org

Below is a couple of network cable diagrams that i find vry handy to use when im making network cables

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, it is used to translate names to ip addresses and like wise ip addresses to names. there are different types of DNS records to allow DNS to work, some of these are below

A record. Used for storing an IP address (actually only an IPv4 32-bit address) associated with a domain name. Refer to RFC 1035.

CNAME. Canonical name for a DNS alias

MX. Mail Exchanger record. Every MX record specifies a domain name (which must have an A record associated with it) and a priority; a list of mail exchangers is then ordered by priority when delivering mail.

NS. Authoritative name server. Specifies a host name (which must have an A record associated with it), where DNS information can be found about the domain name to which the NS record is attached.

PTR. Domain name pointer, Provides a general direction facility for DNS records.

Learn the Linux shell – Part 1…

Well I am no master in Linux by no stretch of the imagination, I can get my way around a Linux shell, perhaps slowly, but I get there. As many people have taught me some of their knowledge and helped me along in life even if they could not really afford the time, I am a big believer in helping people where I can. I start with the these rules,

· No one is stupid, and they just need some help and

· There’s no such thing as a stupid question, you won’t believe how often the answer to one question just clicks multiple other questions and answers into place

· No one is ever too old to learn

Learning is a fantastic thing and so different for each person, if you enjoy learning about learning you should look up a guy called Marc Prensky – “Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, and designer in the critical areas of education and learning”. In particular his articles about Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives

Anyway….. Back to class.

I will presume in this article you have just installed Linux and have no prior experience of Linux and are sitting in a terminal window.

The Linux shell is a command line utility designed to allow the user to interact with the operating system, it passes any valid command (either from a user or from a file) to the Linux kernel.

There are different versions of the Linux shell; all have slight small differences from each other.

You can easily find out which version of the shell you are running by typing:

echo $SHELL.

I use bash as this is the default for Ubuntu.

NOTE: Bash is with most shells is case sensitive

We may at a later date need the date and time to be set up correctly, might as well do it now.

Ok, so let’s start with the basics, lets ensure your clock is correctly set. From the shell type

Date

Ok so first rule to Linux, never run as root. Ok so you have probably come from a windows background and can’t possibly imagine running all day long without admin rights but i promise you in Linux, you really don’t want to or need to. I’ll explain more later.

For now let’s find out which user we are currently logged in as. At the shell type

Whoami.

Ok so now lets change your password, at the shell type

Passwd

Enter your current password, your new password and confirm your new password.

Let’s move on

File structure

The files on a Linux system are stored in what’s called a hierarchical directory structure, whats a hierarchical directory structure when it’s at home? Simply put this means that files are organised in a tree like pattern of directories (or folders) which may contain more directories or files. The very first folder of the Linux file system is called the root directory. This contains multiple other directories (referred to as sub directories) and files which also contain multiple other sub directories.

Linux does not use the idea of drive letters or splitting the file system up like that and creating multiple tree structures, instead everything comes off of one tree structure.

So, when you log in to you linux box (box is just another name for a system), the working directory is set to be your home directory. This is where you put your files, alot like “My Documents” on a windows box. In most cases your home directory is simply /home/your_user_name, but this may have been changed by a system administrator (if you haven’t set up the linux box). So let’s find out.

To view your current working directory you type the command

Pwd

Pwd is short for “print working directory”

Now let’s see what files and directories we have in our home directory. To do this type

ls

ls simple lists the contents of the working directory.

Ls is a very powerful tool as it has lots of extra options available to it. We will look at more of ls in another article

For now let’s create a new directory for us to play with, let’s call this folder stuff, to create a new directory we use the command

mkdir folder_name

mkdir as in make directory. So lets make our directory by typing

mkdir stuff

now if we type ls we should see a new directory that wasn’t there before, ok so lets go into that folder. To navigate to a new directory (by which i mean a different directory from that of the working directory) we type

cd folder_name

cd simply means change directory, so to get into our “stuff” directory we type

cd stuff

Whilst on the subject of cd I will show you how to move back up the directory tree one folder at a time, so in this example our current shell prompt looks something like

liam@linux: ~/stuff

Now if we type the command cd ..

We can move backup the directory one folder at a time

I think we have learnt enough for one small lesson, so we will leave it there and return to learn some more linux shortly

I said i would try to hack my phone – the Nokia E71 in other ways, so i tried using Nessus.

for those who dont know what nessus is, “The Nessus® vulnerability scanner, is the world-leader in active scanners, featuring high speed discovery, configuration auditing, asset profiling, sensitive data discovery and vulnerability analysis of your security posture. Nessus scanners can be distributed throughout an entire enterprise, inside DMZs, and across physically separate networks.”

The only thing i managed to find out – was this (and im not surprised it didnt turn up much becuase of the results of my NMAP Scan i did earlier this week “network scan results nokia e71″ and the fact that Nessus doesnt have much if anything for symbian devices)

Host Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) Resolution

192.168.1.69 resolves as Unknown-00-24-7d-80-ed-69.home. Nessus ID : 12053

Nessus Scan Information

Information about this scan : Nessus version : 4.0.1 (Build 1021) Plugin feed version : 200906130634 Type of plugin feed : HomeFeed (Non-commercial use only) Scanner IP : 192.168.1.66 Port scanner(s) : nessus_syn_scanner Port range : default Thorough tests : no Experimental tests : no Paranoia level : 1 Report Verbosity : 1 Safe checks : yes Optimize the test : yes CGI scanning : disabled Max hosts : 40 Max checks : 5 Recv timeout : 5 Backports : None Scan Start Date : 2009/6/13 13:26 Scan duration : 455 sec Nessus ID : 19506

Ethernet card brand

Synopsis : The manufacturer can be deduced from the Ethernet OUI. Description : Each ethernet MAC address starts with a 24-bit ‘Organizationally Unique Identifier’. These OUI are registered by IEEE. See also : http://standards.ieee.org/faqs/OUI.html http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/index.shtml Risk factor : None Plugin output : The following card manufacturers were identified : 00:24:7d:80:ed:69 : Nokia Danmark A/S Nessus ID : 35716

Im currently playing with windows 7 on my laptop (and quite impressed too) but after providing a print screen of a ping of myNetwork scan results for Nokia E71 post , I noticed in the command line utility it said it was “Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7100]”

ok so wich is it – is it Windows 7 or Windows 6? Microsoft please make up your mind.

Well tonight I decided not to go to bed at a normal time, stayed up a bit later and ran an Nmap network scan against my phone to see if i could find any backdoors or vulnerabilities for the device. i ran an intese scan against my phone

What i found was i can Ping the device successfully

My phone is currently Nokia’s E71

After running the nmap command “nmap -sS -sU -T4 -A -v -PE -PA21,23,80,3389 192.168.1.254″, i got the following output :

Starting Nmap 4.85BETA9 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2009-06-08 22:31 GMT Daylight Time

NSE: Loaded 28 scripts for scanning.

Initiating ARP Ping Scan at 22:31

Scanning 192.168.1.75 [1 port]

Completed ARP Ping Scan at 22:31, 0.25s elapsed (1 total hosts)

Initiating Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 22:31

Completed Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 22:31, 0.00s elapsed

Initiating SYN Stealth Scan at 22:31

Scanning Unknown-00-24-7d-80-ed-69.home (192.168.1.75) [1000 ports]

Increasing send delay for 192.168.1.75 from 0 to 5 due to 39 out of 96 dropped probes since last increase.

Completed SYN Stealth Scan at 22:31, 8.67s elapsed (1000 total ports)

Initiating UDP Scan at 22:31

Scanning Unknown-00-24-7d-80-ed-69.home (192.168.1.75) [1000 ports]

Increasing send delay for 192.168.1.75 from 0 to 50 due to 11 out of 26 dropped probes since last increase.

Increasing send delay for 192.168.1.75 from 50 to 100 due to max_successful_tryno increase to 5

Increasing send delay for 192.168.1.75 from 100 to 200 due to max_successful_tryno increase to 6

Warning: Giving up on port early because retransmission cap hit.

UDP Scan Timing: About 9.70% done; ETC: 22:37 (0:04:49 remaining)

UDP Scan Timing: About 15.51% done; ETC: 22:38 (0:05:32 remaining)

UDP Scan Timing: About 28.01% done; ETC: 22:39 (0:05:11 remaining)

UDP Scan Timing: About 36.07% done; ETC: 22:39 (0:04:49 remaining)

UDP Scan Timing: About 42.61% done; ETC: 22:39 (0:04:24 remaining)

UDP Scan Timing: About 48.80% done; ETC: 22:39 (0:04:00 remaining)

UDP Scan Timing: About 54.80% done; ETC: 22:39 (0:03:34 remaining)

UDP Scan Timing: About 60.54% done; ETC: 22:39 (0:03:08 remaining)

UDP Scan Timing: About 66.53% done; ETC: 22:39 (0:02:42 remaining)

UDP Scan Timing: About 72.54% done; ETC: 22:39 (0:02:13 remaining)

UDP Scan Timing: About 78.89% done; ETC: 22:39 (0:01:42 remaining)

UDP Scan Timing: About 84.37% done; ETC: 22:39 (0:01:16 remaining)

UDP Scan Timing: About 90.63% done; ETC: 22:39 (0:00:46 remaining)

Completed UDP Scan at 22:42, 638.74s elapsed (1000 total ports)

Initiating Service scan at 22:42

Scanning 245 services on Unknown-00-24-7d-80-ed-69.home (192.168.1.75)

Service scan Timing: About 0.41% done

Service scan Timing: About 6.53% done; ETC: 23:10 (0:26:14 remaining)

Service scan Timing: About 12.65% done; ETC: 23:04 (0:18:59 remaining)

Service scan Timing: About 18.78% done; ETC: 23:01 (0:15:52 remaining)

Service scan Timing: About 24.90% done; ETC: 23:00 (0:13:50 remaining)

Service scan Timing: About 31.02% done; ETC: 23:00 (0:12:14 remaining)

Service scan Timing: About 37.14% done; ETC: 22:59 (0:10:52 remaining)

Service scan Timing: About 43.27% done; ETC: 22:59 (0:09:37 remaining)

Service scan Timing: About 49.39% done; ETC: 22:59 (0:08:27 remaining)

Service scan Timing: About 55.51% done; ETC: 22:58 (0:07:21 remaining)

Service scan Timing: About 61.63% done; ETC: 22:58 (0:06:17 remaining)

Service scan Timing: About 67.76% done; ETC: 22:58 (0:05:14 remaining)

Service scan Timing: About 73.88% done; ETC: 22:58 (0:04:13 remaining)

Service scan Timing: About 80.00% done; ETC: 22:58 (0:03:13 remaining)

Service scan Timing: About 86.12% done; ETC: 22:58 (0:02:13 remaining)

Service scan Timing: About 92.24% done; ETC: 22:58 (0:01:14 remaining)

Completed Service scan at 22:58, 935.05s elapsed (245 services on 1 host)

Initiating OS detection (try #1) against Unknown-00-24-7d-80-ed-69.home (192.168.1.75)

NSE: Script scanning 192.168.1.75.

NSE: Starting runlevel 1 scan

Initiating NSE at 22:58

Completed NSE at 22:58, 30.02s elapsed

NSE: Script Scanning completed.

Host Unknown-00-24-7d-80-ed-69.home (192.168.1.75) is up (0.068s latency).

All 2000 scanned ports on Unknown-00-24-7d-80-ed-69.home (192.168.1.75) are closed (1755) or open|filtered (245)

MAC Address: 00:24:7D:80:ED:69 (Unknown)

Device type: switch|general purpose|phone

Running: Bay Networks embedded, IBM i5/OS V5, Nokia Symbian OS 9.X|10.X, Sony Ericsson embedded, Sony Ericsson Symbian OS 9.X

Too many fingerprints match this host to give specific OS details

Network Distance: 1 hop

So as you can see, no port open to go probing at, ill have to rethink how to hack my phone but thtat i for a later date

I’m fed up with getting through to call centers and having loads of options and having their expensive numbers.

What i’m about to teach you is not fail proof, it only works for certain company’s and their telephone systems.

Instead of pressing their predefined options, try pressing the number 0 or * or # if that does not work try one of these repeatedly.

One site has already done some of the ground work for you on this – gethuman.com:

http://www.gethuman.com/uk/ or http://www.gethuman.com/us/ or http://www.gethuman.com/canada

Fed up of paying to call them – take a look at http://www.saynoto0870.com. they provide the geographical alternative number (0131 020 etc) for lots of non-geographical number (0845 0870 etc)business’s want you to use to contact them. Another thing to look out for is if the company provides an international alternative just drop the +44 and change it to 0.

Oh and Be nice one you do get through, alot of these call center staff hear nothing but angry customers, your more likely to get somewhere, besides manners costs nothing. Something to bare in mind is that you wouldn’t like it if they called you up at your work and you were angry at them, and rememeber that 99% of them, dont enjoy what they do but work to live and dont live to work – its just a job to put food on the table.

Well Microsoft has launch their new beta of their new search engine – now bing.com and bing.net.

It’s believed that Microsoft has hired London-based ad agency JWT to head up an $100m ad campaign to push its rebranded search engine.

in my opinion they need to spend a lot more than that just to get a better algorithm for searching the Internet. The site feels slower compaired to their rival google,  in my opinion Microsoft need to give up the idea of converting people from googling it, and if their beta is much to go by my advise would be, don’t Bing it…..just bin it!