Dropbox - no authentication for 4hours?! Rainy Clouds

Just when the world start to believe and use cloud computing Dropbox addmited having issues with their authentication systems on the 20th of June where anyone could log in on any account without correct password. Another question is the lack of encryption of the sync where files can be seen in plain text.

http://www.cio.co.uk/news/3287251/dropbox-hit-by-password-failure/?olo=rss

Adobe Flex Animations +MS PowerPoint - Computer Based Training (CBT,WBT)

Computer/Web based training requires some sort of presentation component to display the main content and images to the users. Early days for development of first session were no much effective due to amount of time spent for use of adobe flash for simple animation. There was a time for analyses and new approach has been chosen.

The way new approach has been successful was to create a power point slides for each session and they have been broken down to 2,3 or 4 parts depending on the size of the session. Tool has been found to convert the created PowerPoint session into .avi video format using EM Free PowerPoint Video Converter.



After there was a need to convert that .avi format into flash .swf and Free Video to Flash Converter v 4.7.21 build 305 was found to do the job as shown below:



The output became a .swf flash video with all the PowerPoint build in animations and time frame that changes as it has been chosen using converters. Disadvantage of this method was to use Actionscript Timer class in order to trigger events.
.swf files can be easily added within flex applications.

Hidden Password vs Javascript

javascript:(function(){var%20s,F,j,f,i;%20s%20=%20%22%22;
%20F%20=%20document.forms;%20for(j=0;%20j%20{%20f%20=%20F[j];%20for%20(i=0;%20i%20{%20if%20(f[i].type.toLowerCase()%20==%20%22password%22)
%20s%20+=%20f[i].value%20+%20%22\n%22;%20}%20}%20if
%20(s)%20alert(%22Passwords%20in%20forms%20on%20this
%20page:\n\n%22%20+%20s);%20else%20alert(%22There%20are
%20no%20passwords%20in%20forms%20on%20this
%20page.%22);})();

Honeypots , HoneyBOT vs Honeyd

Honeypot is a device on the computer network designed to capture malicious traffic. It disguises itself as real production system but contains dummy information. Often located behind the firewall inside the network and it is used to learn about intruders and detect vulnerabilities. Any connections to it on strange ports may mean that they may be a vulnerability or wrong configuration on the firewall. It can also disguise itself as routers or firewalls. Honeypots are becoming leading security tools especially detecting latest tricks and exploits.

Brief Overview

HoneyBOT – brief
“Development began as a small project to capture attacks of Code Red and Nimda worms which were propagating widely on the internet “in 2001. In September 2005 they had first public release and it’s maintained by Atomic Software solutions.

HoneyBOT open a large number of listening sockets on computer where it is installed. These sockets appear open so that any attempt to connect to them or even an attempt to scan a port is logged as shown on the Figure A1. It requires windows operating system and it has its own graphical user interface therefore is quite user friendly.



Honeyd.- brief

It has been created and developed by Niels Provos who is a Principal Engineer for Google Inc. It has been released it in 2007 under GNU General Public License therefore it developed rapidly due to many people who contributed by fixing bugs and developing the code.

Honeyd is a small daemon that allows you to create virtual nodes on the network.
They can disguise themselves as any operating system or device such as router or switch. It offers wide range of functionality for instance it allows for virtual host to claim multiple addresses. It is supported on unix based operating systems with some attempts towards windows platform - even more complex to set it up.



HoneyBOT functionality.
It has very simple and straightforward options. Even thought by default it opens large number of services (1339) it allows for selection of ports to be opened as well.
It has a build in email alert function that sends a daily e-mail with all the log files.It also checks for updates and allows for anytime log export.

Honeyd Functionality.
Honeyd is far more complex in terms of functionality, it emulates different operating systems using the same fingerprint database used by nmap (nmap.prints).It also can disguised itself as routers, here’s example:

create router
set router personality "Cisco 4500-M running IOS 11.3(6) IP Plus"
add router tcp port 23 "/usr/bin/perl scripts/router-telnet.pl"
set router default tcp action reset
set router uid 2500 gid 2500 set router uptime 1736485
bind 192.168.1.150 router
Another important function is ability to run subsystems, as in above example of router there is a script that is added to the port that will creating some interaction between the system and attacker. With the large number or these so called subsystems it’s possible to create the most ‘real’ environment and log the attackers moves.
An example of outcome for telneting into above router shown below:





I believe that two tools that I have compared has many strengths and weaknesses. Starting with HoneyBOT it is very easy to install and use due to graphical user interface and very user-friendly controls, there is plenty of web based guides and support and updates provided by Atomic software solutions. The weakness is the default configuration that opens more than a thousand ports which makes it look too obvious rather than a real production server. Another disadvantage is the way the file logs are presented , without any sort of programming skills to apply some filtering it may be really time talking to go through them in order to indentify the attacker. Lastly the fact that it’s a really small application and requires an operating system to run is a huge weakness due to power consumption, cost and management.

Honeyd is quite advanced in terms of functionality, it allows to create multiple honeypots at the time and to link multiple ip addresses with one honeypot. It can disguise itself as a real production system due to subsystem functionality that enables to run perl scripts that are executed while intruder tries to connect. Additionally it can also emulate routers and actually route traffic therefore ‘disguised’ network topologies may be created .Daemon is really small and it doesn’t need a dedicated server to run, all of the above can be managed from a single configuration file which is a big advantage. The most important weakness is the complexity of advanced functions and hardly any support.

To conclude even though honeyd scored slightly less points than HoneyBOT I believe it’s a better piece of software. The scope for further development is extraordinary, the implementation of the whole spoofed networks with subsystems and routing is just great environment for detection of latest exploits etc.It has some weaknesses but in my opinion support will come as soon as people realise the potential. The developer is currently working on the new release.

GeForce 9600GT 512MB [Overclocking]

Graphics card is much more easier to overclock then a PCU.
A freeware RivaTuner does the trick.
Each card has Core clock, Shader clock and memory clock and in GeForce 9600GT for instance it's 650/1625/900.
Currently I run it at 701/1752/1000 which gives much better FPS,
RivaTuner allows for monitoring the temperature, its best not to exceed 80C, however GeForce cards can handle up to 120C!!!


My card reaches 65C under load although if i push the specs a bit higher it occasionally crashes.

To test FPS use 3DMark 11 for latest cards and 3DMark 6,7 for older ones.

Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.2GHz to 3.25Ghz[Overclocking]

E4500 turn out to be a great when it comes to overclocking.
First of all download CPU-Z and RealTemp to monitor hardware and temperature.
Secondly download Prime95 which will allow to test the processor under 100% load also called stressing.

The best way to overclock PCU is to do so though the BIOS.
To start you can set FSB Memory clock mode to linked and increase FSB by 20-50mhz (that will decrease your ram performance for now). Load the system and prime95 and check the temperature. Here it's done @2.75Ghz





Keep increasing the FSB until the temperature start to reach 67-70C as 72C is max for this Intel processor.If you can afford get different cooler.
After stable PCU, unlinked it from memory (you can also overclock the memory a bit 20-50mhz and give a bit of vol. between 1.8-2.2 - which is max BE CAREFUL!) I run my crossair PC6400 at 1000mhz (800mhz stock) 1.95v

My E4500 is now @3.25GHz (FSB 275x11) but I have seen people with some £20 quid worth of cooling push it towards @3.6GHz.

The current 3.06Ghz CPU gets quite hot after 3H of prime95 stressing. I ignore it as even playing latest games graphics card to most of the work. PCU shouldn't be getting as hot.

www.learnbash.co.uk/learnbash.html

Final year project completed.

Project tittle : Development of an interactive computer based training that allows students to learn Bourne Again Shell (BASH) scripting language.

Main reason for the project is the lack of such products. Moreover the end product is also to help students undertaking Operating Systems module at University of East London and is expected to be used as a part of a practical sessions of that module, as well as any interested world wide web user

The application has been build using Adobe Flex Builder 4 and Actions Script 3.0.
The session were .ppt files converted into .avi and converted once more into .swf format which has been implemented in Flex.



The scope for this project is excellent and there is still plenty that is planned to achieve in the future. After all the bugs are fixed and application is stable, rest of the sessions are ready to be developed. That includes some interesting sessions such as Network Security or Firewalls where BASH would be used to automate some advanced tasks. Another crucial thing would be to expand console component not only to accepts strings as ‘cd /home/ and then while accessing ‘pwd’ to display that current directory but far more than that. A console that simulates unix text editor and allow user to write scripts and analyses them. At some point console component would have allocated disk space so that it can emulate file system and user can create, copy and move files which would be very useful in the session where the task is to move the users from one volume to another.
Moreover users could register on the website and keep record of the sessions they have completed and maintain the same emulated environment with their files etc. That will require additional disk space depending on the number of users.
Another aspect to enchant is to index the page with Google and do searching optimization tasks to make the web based training popular on the World Wide Web.
Android is gaining popularity and recently released 3.0 Honeycomb software designed especially for tablets. Tables average screen size is 10’inch and they have flash support (except Apple) therefore the application could be optimized towards tables if needed. (Geere, D. 2011)
Moreover Adobe Air package offers a possibility for converting this already made application to Adobe Air , that means that the application could be downloaded as a standalone application and run even without network connection.
New ideas for further enchantments are coming every day. There seem to be no ending.

Personal Reflections

To conclude the project has been successful even though the result is below personal expectation. Based on the users feedback there is still plenty to improve such as console component and other bits and pieces. There is still few bugs that were found during testing that need to be fixed before proceeding towards creating of more advanced sessions. Overall look of the web based training is pleasurable for the eye and attracts new users, therefore there is a big scope for future enchantments listed above. Due to some constrains there was less time for this project than expected and deadlines were really tight nonetheless successful. If there was anything that I would change with the application is better use of Action Script libraries and use classes such as event. COMPLETE rather than to start timers for each session. The attempt was made to make different way to make it work however Flex Builder version 4 has not been that stable. Time is needed for evaluation and sorting out the application component by component, which eventually will become superb.

Personal Development

Throughout the project I have learnt how to work really hard and meet my deadlines and especially how to use my time efficiently. I have learnt Bourne Again Shell scripting language, Flex syntax and ActionScript 3.0 which is a massive progress for me in such a short period of time. I have also developed the ways to think outside the box while quick research on PowerPoint and then conversion to video and then to flash. It was also very good for me to use these tools. Flex Builder 4 has been designed with the same GUI as eclipse did so it’s much easier for me now to write code in Java or PHP using eclipse after knowing all the tricks and being familiar with the interface and functions.

Sample of the code for session component.

protected function session1_clickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
{
//clear interaction panel
interaction.removeAllElements();
// start timer and listener
var timer:Timer = new Timer(205000,1);
timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, ses1con1);
timer.start();
// add session .swf file to the loader.
interaction.addElement(loader);
loader.source="sessions/session1.swf";
// play mp3 for the session
snd = new Sound(new URLRequest("audio/session1.mp3"));
snd.play();

}

protected function ok1_clickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
{
// victory mp.3 play for guessing correct answer
victory.play();
// display that correct answer was chosen
Alert.show("Correct answer! Keep it up!","Good",Alert.OK);
// clear interaction panel
interaction.removeAllElements();
interaction.addElement(loader);
// load session, sound and timer
loader.source="sessions/session1_1.swf";
snd = new Sound(new URLRequest("audio/session1_1.mp3"));
var timer2:Timer = new Timer(95000,1);
timer2.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, ses1con2);
timer2.start();
snd.play();
}


I would like to thank:

Mike Kretsis who is senior lecturer at University of East London and my project supervisor, without whose help and support throughout, this project would not have been possible.

My lovely partner Margareta for all the support and care she gave me.

All the participants who agreed and evaluated this project, even more for those who were critical.