September 2011 | Linux Blog

Graphical grub2 Configuration Manager - Grub Customizer

The goal of Grub Customizer is to create a complete and intuitive graphical grub2/burg configuration interface. The main feature is the boot entry list configuration - but not simply by modified the grub.cfg: to keep the dynamical configuration, this application will only edit the script order and generate proxies (script output filter), if required. To get more information about how it works, look here: https://answers.launchpad.net/grub-customizer/+faq/1355.
Version 2.0 introduces the ability to change the grub2/burg setting like the default entry, timeouts, menu visibility, screen resolution, background image and colors (grub2 only) and much more.

Since version 1.5 you can use it to repair and configure grub2/burg using a live cd (and Grub Customizer, which has to be installed as usual at the live system before using it). All the required partitions will be automatically mounted when choosing the root partition and some sub partitions on the "partition chooser" (a dialog which pops up, when you start Grub Customizer inside a live system).

Tool to Audit Web Application Security - Lilith

LiLith is a tool written in Perl to audit web applications. This tool analyses webpages and looks for html <form> tags , which often refer to dynamic pages that might be subject to SQL injection or other flaws.

How the entire "scanning" process works is different from so called "CGI scanners", such as nikto and n-stealth. This program will surf to a website and crawls through all the links, just as a user would to. On any possible input field, such as text boxes, page id's, ... LiLith will attempt to inject any characters that might have a special meaning for any underlying technology, such as SQL.

Any Web applications scanner can never perform a full 100% correct audit. Therefore, a manual re-check is necessary. Hence, be aware that Lilith might come up with several false positives.

Hack Into Wi-Fi (WEP and WPA Encrypted) Networks - Wifite

Author is NOT responsible for any damage or illegal actions caused by the use of this program.
Use on your own risk!

Wifite is made to attack multiple WEP and WPA encrypted networks at the same time. this tool is customizable to be automated with only a few arguments. wifite can be trusted to run without supervision.

Wifite features:
* Sorts targets by power (in dB); cracks closest access points first
* Automatically deauths clients of hidden networks to decloak SSIDs
* Numerous filters to specify exactly what to attack (wep/wpa/both, above certain signal strengths, channels, etc)
* Customizable settings (timeouts, packets/sec, channel, change mac address, ignore fake-auth, etc)
* "anonymous" feature; changes MAC to a random address before attacking, then changes back when attacks are complete
* all WPA handshakes are backed up to wifite.py's current directory
* Smart WPA deauthentication -- cycles between all clients and broadcast deauths
* Stop any attack with Ctrl+C -- options: continue, move onto next target, skip to cracking, or exit
* Switching WEP attack methods does not reset IVs
* Intel 4965 chipset fake-authentication support; uses wpa_supplicant workaround
* SKA support (untested)
* Displays session summary at exit; shows any cracked keys
* All passwords saved to log.txt
* built-in updater: ./wifite.py -upgrade

Create and Manage Encrypted Folder (EncFS) in Ubuntu with Cryptkeeper

EncFS creates a virtual encrypted filesystem which stores encrypted data in the rootdir directory and makes the unencrypted data visible at the mountPoint directory. The user must supply a password which is used to (indirectly) encrypt both filenames and file contents.

If EncFS is unable to find a supported filesystem at the specified rootdir, then the user will be asked if they wish to create a new encrypted filesystem at the specified location. Options will be presented to the user allowing some control over the algorithms to use. As EncFS matures, there may be an increasing number of choices.

EncFS offers several advantages over other disk encryption software simply because each file is stored individually as an encrypted file somewhere else in the host's directory tree.

Securing Service using TCP_WRAPPERS

Using TCP_WRAPPERS makes securing your servers against outside intrusion is a lot simpler and painless. TCP_WRAPPERS is controlled from two files:

/etc/hosts.allow
/etc/hosts.deny

hosts.allow is checked first, and the rules are checked from first to last. If it finds a rule that explicitly allows you in (i.e., a rule allowing your host, domain, subnet mask, etc.) it lets you connect to the service. If it fails to find any rules that pertain to you in hosts.allow, it then goes to check hosts.deny for a rule denying you entry.

Limiting Linux System Users - limits.conf

Almost all Linux distributions ship with PAM support making it universally available. PAM limits provide a single standardized interface to setting user limits, instead of having to write complex shell configuration files (such as /etc/profile) you simply edit the "limits.conf" file. As well applying limits selectively through the command shell is very difficult, whereas with PAM applying limits globally, on groups or on individual users is quite simple. To enable PAM limits you need to add a line such as:

session required /lib/security/pam_limits.so

to the appropriate Pam configuration file (/etc/pam.d/sshd). You can then define limits, typically these are in "/etc/security/limits.conf" or a similar location. Because most of these limits are enforced by the shell the system cannot log all violations of limits (you will be notified in syslog when a user exceeds the number of times they are allowed to login, however you will not receive a warning if the user tries to use more disk space then they are allowed to).

GUI Toolkit for Database Developers and Administrator - TOra

TOra is an open-source multi-platform database management GUI that supports accessing most of the common database platforms in use, including Oracle, MySQL, and Postgres, as well as limited support for any target that can be accessed through Qt's ODBC support. TOra has been built for various Linux distributions, Mac OS X, MS Windows, and UNIX platforms.

In addition to regular query and data browsing functionality, it includes several additional tools useful for database administrators and developers – which aims to help the DBA or developer of database application. Features PL/SQL debugger, SQL worksheet with syntax highlighting, DB browser and a comprehensive set of DBA tools.

Anonymous web surfing using TOR - Ubuntu Linux

Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol.

Installing Tor under Ubuntu:
Add the following repositories to your /etc/apt/sources.list file

deb http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org natty main

How to Prevent Package from Getting Upgraded - Ubuntu Linux

Synaptic is a graphical package management program for Debian based Linux distributions. It provides the same features as the apt-get command line utility with a GUI front-end based on Gtk+. The Synaptic package manager enables the user to install, to upgrade or to remove software packages. To install a package a user must search for the package they want and mark it for installation. Changes are not applied instantly; the user must first mark all changes and then apply them.

There are times where you don not want a particular package from getting upgraded, follow the steps below to prevent any package in your Ubuntu system from getting upgraded using Synaptic package manager with few clicks.

Open Source Antispyware Tool - Nixory

Nixory is a free and open source antispyware tool written in Python/PyGTK aimed at removing malicious tracking cookies from your browser. It currently supports Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. It runs on all OS, including Windows, Linux and MacOSX.

A cookie, in the internet terminology, is a piece of text which your browser stores on your computer when requested by a website you are visiting. Cookies can be used in different useful ways: for authentication, for storing site preferences, for shopping cart contents, but can be also used by companies in less useful places. For example, they can use cookies to track your computer data and IP address for marketing purposes, putting your privacy at risk.

Nixory will protect your browser from this kind of malicious tracking cookies.

Nixory Features include:
* Ice Eye heuristic system
* Update stats for number of scans, removed objects and more
* Customizable options
* Remove Tool for found data miner
* Enable to ignore selected data miner groups
* Enable to write a Scan Log with accurate details
* Multi-Language support (English, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Spanish(AR), Catalan)
* Multi-profiles of Firefox support
* Flexible management of memory

Powerful Firewall Manager built on top of Iptables - Vuurmuur

Vuurmuur is a powerful firewall manager built on top of iptables that works with Linux kernels 2.4 and 2.6. It has a simple and easy to learn configuration that allows both simple and complex configurations.

The configuration can be fully configured through an Ncurses GUI, which allows secure remote administration through SSH or on the console.

Vuurmuur has powerful monitoring features, which allow the administrator to look at the logs, connections and bandwidth usage in realtime. It makes use of IPTrafficVolume for keeping track of the traffic volume per interface.

The program is divided into three part. One element (the middle-end) converts humanly-readable rules, hosts, groups, networks, zones, interfaces and services into a iptables ruleset (or optional into a bash-script). The second element is a small daemon that converts the Netfilter logs to easy readable logs. The final element is an Ncurses-based user interface (the front-end) to manage the firewall.

Configuring IP aliases under Ubuntu Linux

IP aliasing is the process of adding more than one IP address to a network interface. Typical uses of IP aliasing are virtual hosting of Web and FTP servers. It is fairly simple to set up an IP alias. You merely have to configure the network interface on the system to listen for the additional IP address.

Below are the steps for configuring IP alias under Ubuntu Linux:
If you want to put IP alias on an interface, first find the interface, use command

ifconfig

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