Linux Blog

White Paper - Keep Your PCs Safe while Surfing the Web

"Keep Your PCs Safe while Surfing the Web"

Learn how Qualys BrowserCheck can make sure your PCs and browsers are up to date.

The Web has become a hub of information and productivity, making the web browser one of the most-used applications. This has drawn the attention of cyber criminals—making it a potential Achilles heel for security. This paper from the Bradley Strategy Group describes how users and businesses can protect their PCs using Qualys BrowserCheck, a free cloud-based service.

Offered Free by: Qualys, Inc.
Download your free copy of "Keep Your PCs Safe while Surfing the Web" - here

White Paper - Security and Trust: The Backbone of Doing Business Over the Internet

"Security and Trust: The Backbone of Doing Business Over the Internet"

Gaining the trust of online customers is vital for the success of any company that requires sensitive data to be transmitted over the Web. Most consumers are concerned that their sensitive information will be intercepted in-transit, or perhaps the destination web site is manned by imposters with malicious intent.

Read this white paper and learn how to best implement a security strategy that keeps consumers' information secure and instills the confidence they need to proceed with transactions.

Sponsored by: Symantec Website Security Solutions
Download you free copy of "Security and Trust: The Backbone of Doing Business Over the Internet" -- here

Whitepaper - The Importance of DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance)

"The Importance of DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance)"

With over 144 billion emails sent every day, spammers and phishers have a rapidly growing playground for their attacks.

Keeping your customers safe goes hand in hand with keeping them happy. For instance, customers are 42% less likely to do business with a company that has undergone a phishing attack.

Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) has been created as a standard to help properly authenticate your sends and monitor and report phishers that are trying to send from your name. Download this white paper and learn why to keep your brand and customers safe from virtual attackers, implementing DMARC is critical for your email sends.

Download your free copy of "The Importance of DMARC" - here

eBook - A guide to programming Linux kernel modules

"The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide"

A guide to programming Linux kernel modules.
An excellent guide for anyone wishing to get started on kernel module programming. The author takes a hands-on approach starting with writing a small "hello, world" program, and quickly moves from there.

Far from a boring text on programming, Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide has a lively style that entertains while it educates.

Download your free copy of "The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide" -- here

eBook - Understanding the Linux Virtual Memory Manager

"Understanding the Linux Virtual Memory Manager"

Finally, a comprehensive guide to the Linux VM! This book describes VM in unprecedented detail, presenting both theoretical foundations and a line-by-line source code commentary.

VM's behavior affects every Linux kernel subsystem and dramatically impacts overall performance. But until now, there was only one way to understand VM: study the poorly documented source one line at a time. Now there's an easier, faster alternative. It systematically covers everything from physical memory description to out-of-memory management. Coverage includes:

* Linux VM 2.4 architecture in depth-with diagrams and call graphs
* Physical memory description, page tables, address spaces, and memory allocation
* High memory, swapping, shared memory, and much more
* Expert guidance for analyzing the code of any open source project
* New Linux 2.6 kernel features in every chapter

Well organized and superbly written, Understanding the Linux Virtual Memory Manager will be indispensable to every kernel programmer and researcher.

Download your free copy of "Understanding the Linux Virtual Memory Manager" - here

eBook - Beginner's Guide to SSL Certificates

"Beginner's Guide to SSL Certificates: Making the Best Choice When Considering Your Online Security Options"

SSL stands for “Secure Socket Layer.” It is a technology that establishes a secure session link between the visitor's web browser and your website so that all communications transmitted through this link are encrypted and are, therefore, secure. SSL is also used for transmitting secure email, secure files, and other forms of information.

Whether you are an individual or a company, you should approach online security in the same way that you would approach physical security for your home or business. Not only does it make you feel safer but it also protects people who visit your home, place of business, or website. It is important to understand the potential risks and then make sure you are fully protected against them. In the fast-paced world of technology, it is not always easy to stay abreast of the latest advancements. For this reason it is wise to partner with a reputable Internet security company.

Sponsored by: Symantec Website Security Solutions
Offered Free by: Symantec Corporation

Download your free copy of "Beginner's Guide to SSL Certificates" - here

eBook - Managing Linux Systems with Webmin

"Managing Linux Systems with Webmin System Administration and Module Development - Free 808 page eBook"

Easy, browser-based Linux/UNIX administration with Webmin--step by step.
Webmin gives you an easy, browser-based solution for virtually any day-to-day Linux/UNIX administration task. Now, there's a definitive Webmin guide for every beginning-to-intermediate sysadmin. Written by Webmin's primary developer, Managing Linux® Systems with Webmin; delivers authoritative, step-by-step coverage of the latest version of Webmin, from basic installation to centrally managing multiple servers. Coverage includes:

* How Webmin works--and how to install and secure it
* Using Webmin to configure basic system services, including file systems, users/groups, and printing
* Configuring Apache, Sendmail, Squid, Samba, MySQL, PostgreSQL, FTP services, and more
* Cluster modules: configuring multiple systems from one master server
* Webmin modules: configuring Webmin itself
* Full API documentation and instructions for writing your own Webmin modules and themes

Jamie Cameron walks you through more than 50 essential Webmin tasks--offering all the background you need, step-by-step instructions, extensive screen captures, and listings of the underlying configuration files that are being modified. Whether you're new to Linux/UNIX system administration or you simply want an alternative to the command line, Managing Linux® Systems with Webmin will be an indispensable resource.

Download your free copy of "Managing Linux Systems with Webmin" - here

eBook - Linux Patch Management: Keeping Linux Systems Up To Date

"Linux Patch Management: Keeping Linux® Systems Up To Date"

Linux® Patch Management offers Linux professionals start-to-finish solutions, strategies, and examples for every environment, from single computers to enterprise-class networks.

Michael Jang presents patching solutions for Red Hat, Fedora, SUSE, Debian, and other distributions. He systematically covers both distribution-specific tools and widely used community tools, such as apt and yum. This book's streamlined patch management techniques minimize impacts on users, networks, and administrators, and address applications as well as the underlying OS. Whatever your role in managing Linux® systems, Linux Patch® Management will reduce your costs, enhance the availability of your systems, and dramatically improve your personal efficiency.

* The first start-to-finish guide to patching Linux® systems in production environments For Red Hat, Fedora, SUSE, Debian, and other leading distributions
* Comprehensive coverage of apt, yum, Red Hat Network, YaST Online Update, Zenworks Linux Management, and other tools
* High-efficiency techniques that minimize impacts on networks, users, and administrators
* Consolidating patches on a Red Hat network, including cached updates, as well as patching systems based on RHEL rebuild distributions
* Working with SUSE's update systems, including YaST Online Update and Zenworks Linux Management
* Making the most of apt commands and the GUI-based Synaptic Package Manager
* Configuring apt for RPM distributions such as Fedora and SUSE Linux
* Creating repositories that can manage gigabytes of patches on diverse Linux® systems
* Updating networks of Linux computers without overloading WAN or Internet connections
* Configuring yum clients, including coverage of emerging GUI tools such as Yum Extender

By: Michael Jang. Published by Prentice Hall. Part of the Bruce Perens' Open Source Series.

Download your free copy of "Linux Patch Management: Keeping Linux Systems Up To Date" - here

eBook - User Mode Linux

"User Mode Linux®"
In this book, you'll find authoritative advice on bootup, compilation, administration, specialized configurations, and much more.

With User Mode Linux®; you can create virtual Linux machines within a Linux computer and use them to safely test and debug applications, network services, and even kernels. You can try out new distributions, experiment with buggy software, and even test security. Now, for the first time, the creator and maintainer of User Mode Linux®; shows how to put it to work hands-on. Jeff Dike covers everything from getting started through running enterprise-class User Mode Linux® servers. Coverage includes:

* What User Mode Linux® is, how it works, and its uses in Linux networks
* Key applications, including server consolidation, development, and disaster recovery
* Booting and exploration: logins, consoles, swap space, partitioned disks, and more
* Copy-On-Write (COW): UML's efficient approach to storing filesystem changes
* In-depth discussion of User Mode Linux® networking and security
* Centrally managing User Mode Linux® instances, and controlling their hardware resources
* Implementing clusters and other specialized configurations
* Setting up User Mode Linux® servers, step-by-step: small-scale and large-scale examples
* The future of virtualization and User Mode Linux®

Whether you're a netadmin, sysadmin, teacher, student, or programmer, User Mode Linux®--the technology and this book--is indispensable.

Download your free copy of "User Mode Linux" -- here

eBook - Java Application Development on Linux

"Java™ Application Development on Linux® - Free 599 Page eBook"

Linux is the fastest-growing Java development platform because it saves money and time by serving as a platform for both development and deployment. But developers face significant platform-specific challenges when managing and deploying Java applications in a controlled production environment.

Written for Java and Linux developers alike, Java™ Application Development on Linux® is the hands-on guide to the full Java application development lifecycle on Linux.

Determined to spare other developers hours of trial and error, Albing and Schwarz demonstrate the platform, tools, and application development by showing realistic, easy-to-follow examples. After a simple command-line application introduces basic tools, this program leads readers through business-logic object analysis, database design, Java servlet UIs, Java Server Pages (JSP) UIs, Swing GUIs, and Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) GUIs. Scaling up to the enterprise level provides the opportunity to use both the JBoss Application Server and the Apache Geronimo Application Servers, and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB).

Readers learn how to:
* Use development tools available on Linux, such as the GNU Compiler for Java (gcj), Ant, the NetBeans IDE, IBM's Eclipse Java IDE, JUnit, and SunONE Studio
* Develop business logic layers using Java DataBase Connectivity (JDBC)
* Add a Web interface using servlets and JSPs
* Add a GUI using Sun's Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) and IBM's SWT
* Deploy EJBs in Linux

The authors conclude by demonstrating how a hierarchy of budgets can be created, tracked, and shared with Concurrent Versions System (CVS). Java™ Application Development on Linux® can propel you from a standing start to the full-speed development and deployment of Java applications on Linux.

By Carl Albing, Michael Schwarz. Published by Prentice Hall. Part of the Bruce Perens' Open Source Series.

Download your free copy of - Java Application Development on Linux -- here

eBook - Linux Quick Fix Notebook

Instant access to precise, step-by-step solutions for every essential Linux administration task from basic configuration and troubleshooting to advanced security and optimization.

If you're responsible for delivering results with Linux, Linux® Quick Fix Notebook brings together all the step-by-step instructions, precise configuration commands, and real-world guidance you need. This distilled, focused, task-centered guide was written for sysadmins, netadmins, consultants, power users...everyone whose livelihood depends on making Linux work, and keeping it working.

This book's handy Q&A format gives you instant access to specific answers, without ever forcing you to wade through theory or jargon. Peter Harrison addresses virtually every aspect of Linux administration, from software installation to security, user management to Internet services--even advanced topics such as software RAID and centralized LDAP authentication. Harrison's proven command-line examples work quickly and efficiently, no matter what Linux distribution you're using. Here's just some of what you'll learn how to do:

* Build Linux file/print servers and networks from scratch
* Troubleshoot Linux and interpret system error messages
* Control every step of the boot process
* Create, manage, secure, and track user accounts
* Install, configure, and test Linux-based wireless networks
* Protect your network with Linux iptables firewalls
* Set up Web, email, DNS, DHCP, and FTP servers

And much more...
By Peter Harrison. Published by Prentice Hall. Part of the Bruce Perens' Open Source Series.

Download your free copy of "Linux Quick Fix Notebook" - here

White Paper - There's an App for That, But is it Secure?

"There's an App for That, But is it Secure?"

This Tech Dossier will outline proven best practices to mitigate risk and embrace mobility without trepidation.

Security has eroded over the past decade as companies strive to create applications for multiple platforms by farming design and development out to subcontractors. This trend has strained the processes and governance put in place to ensure application security.

Download your free copy of "There's an App for That, But is it Secure?" -- here

Display Dialog boxes from shell scripts - Whiptail

whiptail is a lightweight replacement for dialog, to provide dialog boxes for shell scripts. It is built on the newt windowing library rather than the ncurses library, allowing it to be smaller in embedded environments such as installers, rescue disks, etc.

Currently, these types of dialog boxes are implemented:
yes/no box, menu box, input box, message box, text box, info box, checklist box, radiolist box gauge box, and password box.

whiptail is designed to be drop-in compatible with dialog, but has less features: some dialog boxes are not implemented, such as tailbox, timebox, calendarbox, etc.

Whiptail Installation:
Open the terminal and type following command to install whiptail:

sudo apt-get install whiptail

Securely erase files and partition from magnetic media - Wipe

Recovery of supposedly erased data from magnetic media is easier than what many people wouldlike to believe. A technique called Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) allows any moderately funded opponent to recover the last two or three layers of data written to disk; wipe repeatedly overwrites special patterns to the files to be destroyed, using the fsync() call and/or the O_SYNC bit to force disk access. In normal mode, 34 patterns are used (of which 8 are random). These patterns were recommended in an article from Peter Gutmann (pgut001@cs.auckland.ac.nz) entitled "Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory". A quick mode allows you to use only 4 passes with random patterns, which is of course much less secure.

Encrypting a whole partition with cryptoloop, for example, does not help very much either, since there is a single key for all the partitions.

Therefore wipe is best used to sanitize a harddisk before giving it to untrusted parties (i.e. sending your laptop for repair, or selling your disk).

Convert webpages (HTML) to PDF using webkit - wkhtmltopdf

Wkhtmltopdf is a command line utility that can be used to convert a webpage / html to PDF.

Wkhtmltopdf Features:
* Convert web pages into PDF documents using webkit
* Adding headers and footers (static version only)
* TOC generation (static version only)
* Batch mode conversions
* (Linux) No longer requires an XServer to be running (however the X11 client libs must be installed)

Wkhtmltopdf Installation:
Open the terminal and type following command to intall Wkhtmltopdf:

sudo apt-get install wkhtmltopdf

Wkhtmltopdf Usage:
Wkhtmltopdf is command line utility, the following lists some usages for wkhtmltopdf
To convert a remote HTML file to PDF:

wkhtmltopdf http://www.google.com google.pdf

To convert a local HTML file to PDF:

wkhtmltopdf my.html my.pdf

You can also convert to PS files if you like:

wkhtmltopdf my.html my.ps

FLV Metadata Injector for FLV files - Yamdi

yamdi stands for Yet Another MetaData Injector and is a metadata injector for FLV files. It adds the onMetaData event to your FLV files. yamdi should run under *BSD, Linux and Windows and is published under the BSD license.

Yamdi features:
* Large file support
* H.264 support
* onMetaData, onLastSecond, onLastKeyframe events
* low memory footprint
* XML metadata output
* Binaries for Win32 and Win64 are available

Mount archives for read/write under Ubuntu Linux - Archivemount

Archivemount is a FUSE based file system for Unix variants, including Linux. Its purpose is to mount archives to a mount point where it can be read from or written to as with any other file system. This makes accessing the contents of the archive, which may be compressed, transparent to other programs, without decompressing them. The archive formats that archivemount supports are:

* Old-style tar archives, .
* Most variants of the POSIX “ustar” format, .
* The POSIX “pax interchange” format, .
* GNU-format tar archives, .
* Most common cpio archive formats, .
* ISO9660 CD images (with or without RockRidge extensions), .
* Zip archives. .

Rip Audio CDs in Linux with Sound Juicer

Sound Juicer is an application front-end to the Cdparanoia CD ripping library. It allows the user to extract audio from compact discs and convert it into audio files that a personal computer or digital audio player can understand and play. It supports ripping to any audio codec supported by a GStreamer plugin, such as mp3 (via LAME), Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and uncompressed PCM formats.

Sound Juicer is designed to be easy to use and to work with little user intervention. For example, if your computer is connected to the Internet, it will automatically attempt to retrieve track information from the freely-available MusicBrainz service. Sound Juicer is free and open source software and an official part of the GNOME desktop environment starting with version 2.10.

Sound Juice Features include:
* Automatic track tagging via CDDB
* Encoding to ogg / vorbis, FLAC and raw WAV
* Easy to configure encoding path
* Multiple genres
* Internationalization support

eBook - Free PC Security Handbook

"The Essentials of Information Security Kit: Includes a Free PC Security Handbook - 2nd Edition eBook"

Download this kit to learn everything you need to know about Information Security.

The Essentials of Information Security bring together the latest in information, coverage of important developments, and expert commentary to help with your Information Security related decisions.

The following kit contents will help you get the most out of your Information Security research:
* PC Security Handbook - 2nd Edition
* Research Report: How the Major Mobility Platforms Compare in TCO and Security
* Virtualization Maturity and Experience Breed Success
* Securing Your Journey to the Cloud

Download your free copy of "The Essentials of Information Security Kit: Includes a Free PC Security Handbook - 2nd Edition eBook" -- here

Media Streaming Server In Ubuntu Linux - GNUMP3d

GNUMP3d is a streaming server for MP3s, OGG vorbis files, movies and other media formats.

GNUMP3d designed to be:
* Small, stable, portable, self-contained, and secure.
* Simple to install, configure, and use.
* Portable across different varieties of Unix, the GNU Operating System, and Microsoft Windows platforms.

GNUMP3d Requirement:
You need to have apache installed and configured for GNUMP3d to work
For Apache installation and configuration - here

GNUMP3d Installation:
Downloaded the GNUMP3d source code - here
GNUMP3d installation should require no more than the following:-

tar -zxvf gnump3d-3.0.tar.gz
cd gnump3d-3.0
make install