Switched On Tech Design

Author: sotech

  • How to protect Debian from the Shellshock exploit

    Shellshock is quite a serious security hole found a couple of days ago in Bash; to check whether your Debian server is vulnerable run the following in a terminal:

    env VAR='() { :;}; echo Shellshock vulnerable!‘ bash -c “echo Bash Testing”

    If your system is vulnerable, you will see:

    Shellshock vulnerable!

    Bash testing

    If it is not vulnerable, you will see:

    bash: warning: VAR: ignoring function definition attempt
    bash: error importing function definition for `VAR’
    Bash testing

    If you are vulnerable, you can update bash by running the following:

    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade bash

    Once the update has finished, run the code to check your vulnerability again and it should be sorted.

  • How to protect Ubuntu against the Shellshock exploit

    Shellshock is quite a serious security hole found a couple of days ago in Bash; to check whether your Ubuntu server is vulnerable run the following in a terminal:

     

    env VAR='() { :;}; echo Shellshock vulnerable!‘ bash -c “echo Bash Testing”

     

    If your system is vulnerable, you will see:

     

    Shellshock vulnerable!

    Bash testing

     

    If it is not vulnerable, you will see:

     

    bash: warning: VAR: ignoring function definition attempt
    bash: error importing function definition for `VAR’
    Bash testing

     

    If you are vulnerable, you can update bash by running the following:

    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade bash

     

    Once the update has finished, run the code to check your vulnerability again and it should be sorted. NOTE! Only the currently-supported versions of Ubuntu will get the bash update – if you are running anything older (e.g. 13.04, 13.10 or anything older that isn’t a still-supported LTS release) you will need to update your Ubuntu install to have the above work.

  • Debian: How to see what has recently been upgraded or updated through apt-get

    Forgotten what it was you last updated, or want to check what someone else has been updating? There’s a log file for that, and it’s located at:

     

    /var/log/apt/history.log

     

    To view it, run:

     

    less /var/log/apt/history.log

     

    Looking for an older logfile? They’re kept, too. To see the other log files available, view the directory using ls:

     

    ls /var/log/apt/

     

    It should look something like:

     

    history.log  history.log.1.gz  history.log.2.gz  history.log.3.gz  history.log.4.gz  term.log  term.log.1.gz  term.log.2.gz  term.log.3.gz  term.log.4.gz

     

    One further note – This will show the most recent things done with apt, not just upgrades.

  • Thunderbird and Google Apps or Gmail – wrong password message despite correct password being entered

    This is a frustrating issue – you have youreslf a shiny new Gmail or Google apps account, but for some reason when you try to add the account to Thunderbird it complains about your password being incorrect:

     

    Configuration could not be verified – is the user name or password wrong?

     

    After double checking that the password is indeed correct, the most common cause we have found for this is that IMAP is disabled in your gmail settings. Log into your gmail via a web browser and click on the gear in the top right, then select:

     

    Settings -> Forwarding and Pop/IMAP

     

    Once you are in the Forwarding and Pop/IMAP tab, scroll down until you see:

    IMAP Access

     

    Hopefully the radio button for Disable IMAP is selected. If so, select “Enable IMAP”, save your settings and try again. Hopefully that ends your frustrating login attempts!

  • ZFS on Linux: Zpool import failed

    We upgraded a Proxmox box today which was running ZFS and ran into this rather scary looking error:

     

    zpool: ../../lib/libzfs/libzfs_import.c:356: Assertion `nvlist_lookup_uint64(zhp->zpool_config, ZPOOL_CONFIG_POOL_GUID, &theguid) == 0′ failed.

     

    Zpools would not import and zpool status did not work. Resolved (so far, anyhow, still testing) by running:

     

    apt-get install zfsutils

     

    Another good reason to have test environments…

  • How to auto mount samba or cifs shares in OS X Mavericks

    After mounting your shares using Command+K in Finder, go to:

     

    Settings -> Users and Groups -> Click on the lock to allow changes

     

    how-to-automount-samba-shares-os-x-mavericks-01

    Select “Login items” at the top, click on the plus symbol, then find your server on the left pane:

     

    how-to-automount-samba-shares-os-x-mavericks-02

    Click on the samba/CIFS share you wish to automount, then select “Add”; you should now see it in the list:

     

    how-to-automount-samba-shares-os-x-mavericks-03

    In theory, to hide the Finder window which opens when it is mounted you select the “Hide” tickbox on the left side of the share name. This doesn’t seem to work, however! Click on the lock to prevent further changes, restart and you should see your shares automount on boot.

  • Asus DSL-AC68U Dual Band AC-1900 modem router review – Part 01

    Welcome to Part 01 of our Asus DSL-AC68U modem router review! This is Asus’ latest effort and it sports a pretty impressive spec sheet;

     

    • Wireless router + ADSL modem
    • Dual CPUs to assist with range and stability
    • USB 3.0 port – printer sharing, file sharing, 3G/4G internet dongle
    • Asus AiCloud – Asus’ home cloud solution
    • Asus AiRadar – universal beamforming for A/B/G/N/AC wifi signals
    • Wireless A,B,G,N and AC – 1300MHz theoretical max speed on 5GHz AC
    • 3x external, removable antennas

     

    If you are looking for just a wireless router and don’t need the ADSL portion, try the Asus RT-AC68U. The DSL-AC68U follows Asus’ recent industrial design;

     

    asus-dsl-ac68u-modem-router-review-11

    Quite striking if you ask us! Taking a look at the rear:

     

    asus-dsl-ac68u-modem-router-review-3

     

    On the left hand side we have – in clockwise order – the USB 3.0 port, ADSL connection, power connector, power switch and recessed reset switch:

     

    asus-dsl-ac68u-modem-router-review-4

    On the other side we have four gigabit ports:

     

    asus-dsl-ac68u-modem-router-review-5

    Decorative ASUS logo in the center:

     

    asus-dsl-ac68u-modem-router-review-7

     

    The right side is totally button-free, and the left holds a Wi-Fi on/off and WPS button:

     

    asus-dsl-ac68u-modem-router-review-8

    Moving to the top, we have the three antenna ports:

     

    asus-dsl-ac68u-modem-router-review-6

     

    And in the box, three adjustable antennas:

     

    asus-dsl-ac68u-modem-router-review-10

     

    Other goodies in the box include an Ethernet cable (not pictured), splitter and telephone line:

     

    asus-dsl-ac68u-modem-router-review-12

     

    …and a compact power brick:

     

    asus-dsl-ac68u-modem-router-review-13

    The compact size of the power brick is definitely appreciated, particularly in this day and age of having many, many electronic devices plugged into power boards! Now a side view showing the built-in foot and device profile:

     

    asus-dsl-ac68u-modem-router-review-9

     

    But back to the spec sheet. The DSL-AC68U can hook up to either an ADSL/ADSL2/2+/VDSL or fibre/cable through a WAN port; appealing to those who may have access to both over the life of the product. Certainly a feature which could be appealing for those who are currently on an ADSL exchange but are looking at having fibre installed to their home in the next year or two.

     

    The Dual CPU feature involves one dedicated CPU for the ADSL/VDSL and one for Wi-Fi networking; Asus claim that this assists in achieving maximum throughput for both as they are no longer vying for the same CPU time.

     

    The AC1900 claim is not achievable with a single Wi-Fi connection; it adds the 1300MHz theoretical maximum of Wireless AC with the 600MHz theoretical maximum of Wireless N. Wireless AC is appearing in more and more mobiles, tablets, laptops and desktops so it makes a lot of sense to consider a Wireless AC modem/router if wireless speeds matter to you at all. We have found that it can result in greatly improved network performance, particularly when you have multiple people streaming media or files simultaneously.

     

    Asus claim that their AiRadar feature improves just about everything about your Wi-Fi – range, stability and speed. The beamforming benefit isn’t just restricted to AC, either – the older A/B/G/N standards receive it as well.

     

    The USB 3.0 port can be used to share a 3G or 4G dongle’s internet connectivity, a USB drive or a printer. USB 3.0 here is definitely a plus for those with Wireless AC clients and USB 3.0 hard drives/flash drives – you stand a chance of actually seeing the benefit of the faster USB standard thanks to the potential 1Gb+ Wi-Fi speeds.

     

    asus-dsl-ac68u-modem-router-review-2

     

    Stay tuned for part 02 of our review, where we look at the rest of the features and Asus’ ASUSWRT web interface!

  • Where does XQuartz install to on OS X Mavericks?

    If you’re trying to find XQuartz for an application (e.g. Inkscape) you should find it in:

    /Applications/Utilities/XQuartz

    Note that for Inkscape you will need to click “Browse” to get to Applications/Utilities, it probably won’t load into the list it presents you with.

  • Site redesign

    We’re updating the look of our website, so things may look a little odd here and there until it’s done! Will update once complete.