Journal on n3s0 || journal

Ways To Prioritize DNS Over mDNS On Macbooks With .local Domains

Wed, 06 May 2026 01:00:00 -0600

Notes on how mDNS is prioritized on the .local top-level domain.

C13 to NEMA 5-15P Type Power Cords

Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Notes for reference regarding C13 connectors to NEMA 5-15P inlet on power cords.

Using .local As A Top Level Domain

Tue, 05 May 2026 15:00:00 -0600

Notes on .local as a top level domain and why it’s a bad idea.

Master Lock Model M530

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 07:25:01 -0600

Notes for this lock are not complete. But, by all means read away!

Summary

The lock I purchased was the Master Lock Model M530 DF to be more specific.

I found the Master Lock Model M530 going to the padlock aisle in a Home Depot and I thought I’d pick it up to see what it’s all about. Just by looking at it and watching videos of it online in the past I could tell that I could gut (take apart) the lock. So in essence I walked away with a little puzzle. I took it home. Played with the keys for a little bit, picked it, researched it, took it apart, etc. This is my lock library entry with all of the information related to the Master Lock Model M530 providing my findings and information about the M530 itself.

Master Lock No. 1

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 07:25:01 -0600

Notes on this lock are not complete. But, by all means read away!

Summary

Now to start with the lock that broke me into this hobby of lock picking. I thought I would pick up a Master Lock No. 1 brand new for the purposes of adding some of the more common locks to this collection. Mostly because I don’t have keys to the other Master Lock No. 1 padlock I have. One thing I will say is there is a difference between a padlock that is new in the packaging and one I’ve let sit in the garage for a few years.

Quito: Control One Container from Another

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:40:47 -0600

Summary

This is my write-up for the Quito: Control One Container from Another challenge provided by SadServers. Where those up to the challenge work though troubleshooting why a container cannot start an Nginx container. I enjoyed this challenge because it reinforced some of the nuances related to container daemons.

Scenario

Scenario: “Quito”: Control One Container from Another

Level: Medium

Type: Do

Access: Email

Description:

You have a running container named docker-access. Another container nginx is present but in a stopped state. Your goal is to start the nginx container from inside the docker-access container.

Gained An Achievement On SadServers

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:17:01 +0600

I normally don’t like to boast about achievements on this site. Granted, this isn’t really boasting. But, I was going through some SadServers challenges and I decided to look at my Dashboard. Come to find out. I’ve been granted the SadServers Advanced badge. Which is something I’m proud of.

Bask in thy glory! But, not for to long.

Anyway. I also wanted to take a minute to thank this site for giving me the ability to troubleshoot a variety of real world scenarios of issues that may come up in my career. It’s been great!

Cario: Time for a Timer

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 18:40:47 -0600

Summary

Another SadServers scenario in the books! This one was run because not everyone within Enterprise environments touch the host firwalls for servers. I configure the firwall on servers. But, not with iptables. This was a good challenge thaat could potentially help people see why it’s important to not make mistakes configuring your host firewall rules. Apart from that. I enjoyed reviewing the configurations to see how things worked under the hood as well.

Oaxaca: Close an Open File

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 18:40:47 -0600

Summary

I may have killed process before I closed the file. Mostly due to not reading. But, with this challenge I definately learned a better way of handling files that processes refuse to close. So this was a win for me.

This challenge from SadServes expects the solver to close the file without terminating the process. It even punishes us if we terminate the process instead of following directions. So, remember to read the directions. There are other things to be learned from this. But, read on and we’ll get there.

How To Move Saved Game Data From PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 22:31:45 -0500

Summary

Although the PlayStation 5 has been out for a while. I’m usually pretty slow to join the party on the latest and greatest consoles. This note discusses moving some save data from the PlayStation 4 to the PlayStation 5.

Data Transfer

There are a few methods to transferring data from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5.

Transfer using a USB device.
Transfer using the local network with a PlayStation Plus account.

I’ll get to both. But, for now. I’m going to post here the USB method. Pictures will be added to this note later.

Adding Locksmithing, Lock Picking & Safe Cracking

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 07:25:01 -0600

A little disclaimer before I start on this. Just in case someone gets the knee jerk reaction that I’m doing all of this illegally. When the reality is I’m doing this to educate myself and others.

I do not post content related to picking locks or cracking safes that I either don’t own or have the owner’s permission to do either.

With that out of the way. Lock picking has been one of those hobbies I put down and pick up frequently. It was more fun when my grandfather was still alive because he would challenge me telling me I couldn’t pick this or that. When he died. Without someone to challenge me. I put down the hobby for a while.

Cracking The Vaultek LifePod 1.0 (VLP10-BK) Safe

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 07:25:01 -0600

Summary

I have a Vaultek LifePod 1.0 (VLP10-BK) safe I bought a few years ago to store valuables or keep firearms away from children. Not to mention keep away from those who may attempt to steal the firearm or use it for other reasons. I like to be careful with things that could be potentially dangerous towards life and limb.

Well, one day I decided to roll the PIN for the safe for security reasons. But, after I set the PIN. I got to running a few errands and guess what. Dumbass (me) forgot the PIN. So, it’s been sitting with pick protection turned on so not even the key works on it.

Formatting External Hard Drive Using Disk Management On Windows 11

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:01:05 -0600

Summary

Decided to provide notes on some other aspects of system administration that not everyone knows how to do. But, everyone definately can do on their Windows workstations. I move back and forth between Linux and Windows machines frequently with flash drives and don’t always eject the drive safely. I either use these flash drives for one off cases or as installation media for various operating systems.

Sometimes with this constant switching back and forth. I run into situations where the external media gets corrupted somehow. When this happens I need to fix it by starting off from scratch on the external media. One method; on Windows, I use is PowerShell to wipe and reformat the volumes on the disk. Another method is a mixture of both PowerShell and the Disk Management tool. (Sometimes I like a visual)

Upgrade Netbox On Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS Using Git

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 08:08:15 -0600

Summary

A big part of maintaining applications like Netbox is upgrading them as new features, bug fixes, and security patches come out. I will be walking through how to upgrade the application using the Git method provided in the documentation.

Of course before you perform an upgrade to any application. I recommend reading the release notes or even the issues associated with that release. Although the Netbox community is pretty good at releasing stable versions. Doing the proper homework is advised.

Migrate Netbox from Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS to Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 08:08:15 -0600

Summary

In this article I will be working through migrating Netbox from Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS to Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS. Given that the world is all containers and microservices. I like to install some applications manually to make sure I fully understand how it should/could be setup outside of a containerized environment.

Not to be one of those “back in my day” people. But, it’s likely others would just deploy the container into production. Not hand build it on it’s own virtual server. This doesn’t mean I’m not going to create my own container image and document it. I don’t see a whole lot of people prefer VMs for their applications anymore.

Logoff Existing User Sessions In Linux

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 10:25:01 -0600

Summary

One aspect of user administration on Linux servers is logging out user sessions if needed. Either stale user processes or people that no longer need to be logged in. Knowing how to do this is not always imperitive. But, it’s useful for a few one off scenerios.

Logoff User

I’ll get into logging off a user in a minute. But, for now I should probably discuss how to check who is logged into the system.

Changing A Linux User Password Using passwd(1)

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 10:25:01 -0600

Summary

This is a brief note on how to change a user password on Linux systems. This is one of those basic administrator tasks done on most systems.

Change User Password

To change a users password the passwd(1) command using the username of the user being updated. This will require elevated privileges to do successfully.

Below is the command used to change the user password. Replace <username> with the target username.

Commands To Review User Activity On A Linux System

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 07:25:01 -0600

Summary

This is a living document of different methods for reviewing user activity on Linux systems. There are many methods to review things like this. So, as I learn more. This document will be updated if it proves useful. Hopefully it will be useful to others as well.

last(1)

One command to review user activity is the last(1) command. The last(1) command shows a listing of the last logged in users. This can be useful to check who, when, from where, and how a system is being logged in as. This will also show you the duration the users were logged in. Along with those who are logged in currently.

Setup & Use acct(1) Service On Debian/Ubuntu

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 07:25:01 -0600

Summary

Wanted to make a note on a gem within the Linux space that some Linux administrators may not know about. The acct package; psacct package on RHEL, provides tools for monitoring user activity and process resource usage on Linux systems. Just enable the accounting service and use the commands within the toolset to check on account activity.

This is useful for autiting user activity for exmployees and processes for various reasons. Some for the purpose of monitoring for malicious activity. Which is helpful when a security audit needs to be performed. Some for just reviewing what actually gets used on the system. It can be helpful during the troubleshooting process to see if the user did anything to cause the problem that was reported.

Adding A User On Linux With adduser(1)

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 10:30:01 -0600

Summary

In this note I’m going to discuss adding a user to a Linux system using the adduser(1) command. This provides a friendly front end for creating a new user. Where with the useradd(1) command. I would need to type out a longer command. The adduser(1) command creates a user with everything you would expect to be created for a new user in a shorter command. This is useful for new users that aren’t running a service.

Adding A User To A Group On Linux

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 10:25:01 -0600

Summary

Using usermod(1)

One command I use the most is the usermod(1) command. I generally just append group membership; using the -a flag, to give the user another group as opposed to making it their primary group.

usermod -aG <group> <username>

Verify Group Membership

It’s good to verify group membership after adding a user to a group. This can be done using the id(1) command. This will show effective user and group IDs assigned to the user.

Create A User Group On Linux Using addgroup(1)

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 10:25:01 -0600

Summary

This note discusses using the addgroup(1) command to add groups to Linux systems. Which is coupled with the adduser(1) command as a friendly front end for adding users and groups to Linux systems. Groups are useful when you have multi-user systems and don’t want to have to worry about adding users to things like OpenSSH configuration manually. You can just append the group(s) to a user and they’ll be able to perform the operations they need to.

Ways To Lock And Unlock Linux User Accounts

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 08:25:01 -0600

Summary

In this note I will be going through a few ways to lock and unlock Linux user accounts. This is useful for the sake of making sure accounts can be put in time out of they misbehave.

passwd(1)

One method is to use the passwd(1) command. Using the -l option will lock the password of the named account. It disables the password by changing it to a password that matches no encrypted value. It will add a ! to the beginning of the password. But, it doesn’t add that to the original password. I tested this out and it wouldn’t log me in.

Installing Go

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0600

Notes on installing the Go programming language on multiple operating systems.

Workaround For Issue With Shared WAN Ports After FortiOS v7.4.8 Upgrade

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 09:00:27 -0600

Summary

This may be one of those nuanced scenarios. But, I have serviced a location that requires I utilize the shared copper/fiber WAN ports. Basically after upgrading it to FortiOS v7.4.8 a bug with the shared WAN ports not checking to see if the optic port is being used. Which is a pretty big boo boo on my part for not finding that bug sooner.

In brief. The solution for this is to setup automation within the firewall to switch over to the shared fiber port when it starts up. It will check for the event LOG_ID_SYSTEM_START (ID 32009). It will wait 10 seconds. Then it will run a command that will switch it over to the SFP.

Check & Switch The Medium Of Shared WAN Ports On Fortigate

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 08:30:27 -0600

Summary

I’m jotting down this note after experiencing an issue after upgrading to FortiOS v7.4.8. The shared ports wouldn’t detect the active port; which in this case was the fiber medium. After troublshooting it. It seems as though it’s a bug where the active link isn’t properly detected.

There are features provided within the FortiGate 80F & 90G linups that provide shared ports on the WAN connections. This is to allow more options to be used for certain service providers.

Simple Residential Network Design (Fiber To The Home)

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 03:00:00 -0600

Design a simple home network with a fiber provider.

Upcoming Projects In 2026

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 08:20:10 +0600

What Have You Been Up To?

Yes. I’m alive. I’ve just been focusing on some things in my personal life. Not too many problems come up that I feel I may see again. So, I haven’t been writting How-tos. Mostly just reading and being present with my family.

I tend to go through spurts of energy where I can focus on writing. But, there is also writters block.

I have written a Go application; that isn’t ready for release, that will probe FortiGate APIs for firmware version, make, and model information. Then it will update Netbox with that information if the platform and device type is available. It’s maturity isn’t close to showing to the rest of the world. But, for now. It does the job I need it for.

02-2026 Reading Update

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:18:01 +0600

Reading updates for 02-2026.

Apply New Kubernetes Pod/Deployment Configuration

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 11:25:27 -0600

Overview

Applying configuration to kubernetes pods/deployments is a pretty big part of administering these environments. Whether you are making minor/major changes to the configuration of your deployments. It’s usually good to know how to update the configuration and rollout those changes.

In some cases. A Helm chart fixes this by rolling all of the necessary changes out for you. But, if you’re not using helm charts. This is the page for you.

List Kubernetes Resources Using Get Commands

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 11:25:27 -0600

Overview

One thing to note is if you manage multiple name spaces. You’ll want to use the -n or --namespace with the namespace name to see those resources. Otherwise you will look in the default namespace for these resources. Which understanding what’s in your default namespace is important.

Get Pods

kubectl -n lab get pods

kubectl get pods

Get Deployments

kubectl -n lab get configmaps

kubectl get configmaps

Get ConfigMaps

kubectl -n lab get configmaps

kubectl get configmaps

Restarting Kubernetes Deployments To Apply Config

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 11:25:27 -0600

Overview

When you make changes to a kubernetes pod or deployment. You need to rollout these changes by hand. Which includes restarting that particular resource.

kubectl rollout restart

There are other options available in the documentation for the command. But, I generally run into what we’re going to see here. If I run into more. I’ll probably create an article catered to that scenario.

Restarting Kubernetes Deployments

Restart a specified kubernetes deployment within a certain namespace. In this case it’s the lab namespace.

Starting A Shell On A Kubernetes Pod

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 11:25:27 -0600

Overview

I’ve been navigating through Kubernetes infrastructure so I figured I would post some content related to accessing interactive shells within Kubernetes pods. This is useful for troubleshooting. Whether that’d be for the networking for the container or the application.

Getting Pods

The following command will list all pods in the lab namespace.

kubectl get pods -n lab

Output looks something like this. This output shows the name of the container, how many containers and replicas are ready, current status, restart count, and the age of the container.

Configure A Static IP Address On FortiGate Interface

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 00:25:27 -0600

Overview

I will provide the configuration necessary to configure a static IP address on a FortiGate interface. Part of this entails the discussion of interface roles and what you can use them for.

Discussion On Interface Roles

Fortinet uses interface roles to categorize the usecase for an interface and determines how it handles security policy and traffic based on that.

LAN: Used to connect to a local/private network of endpoints. (Default role for new interfaces.)
WAN: Used to connect to the Internet. In FortiOS 7.4.8, when WAN is selected. The Estimated Bandwidth setting is available. But, the following are not:
- DHCP server
- Create address object matching subnet.
- Device detection.
- Security mode.
- One-arm sniffer
- Dedicate to extension/fortiap modes
- Admission Control
DMZ: This is used to connect to the DMZ. When selected the following are not available:
- DHCP Server
- Security Mode
Undefined: Interface has no role. The following are not available when this option is selected:
- Create address object matching subnet.

Configuring WAN Interfaces

Configuring WAN interfaces with a static IP on FortiOS is pretty seamless. Generally when you sign up for Internet service categorized for business you can request a static IP address for extra cost.

SANs Holiday Hack Challenge 2024: Snow-maggeddon

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 00:38:40 -0600

Writeup from what I’ve completed for SANs Holiday Hack Challenge 2024: Snow-maggedon.

Lacey, WA

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 03:09:15 -0600

Lacey, Washington, is a city in Thurston County, located near Olympia, with a population of approximately 57,000. Known for its extensive parks and outdoor activities, Lacey offers a blend of urban amenities and natural beauty, making it a popular place for residents and visitors alike.

Seattle, WA

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 03:09:15 -0600

Seattle, Washington, is a vibrant city known for its stunning waterfront, iconic Space Needle, and rich cultural scene. It is a major tech hub, home to companies like Amazon and Microsoft, and offers a diverse range of outdoor activities, coffee culture, and music festivals.

Bremerton, WA

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 03:08:15 -0600

Bremerton, a beautiful city just a short ferry ride from downtown Seattle, offers a vibrant downtown Harborside area with the Kitsap Conference Center, two hotels, dining, cafes, and the Port of Bremerton Marina. Explore the Bremerton Creative District, Quincy Square, Puget Sound Navy Museum, Boardwalk and Harborside Fountain Park. Stroll across the Manette Bridge for more cafes and shops. A few blocks north, you’ll find the scenic Evergreen Rotary Park.

Edit DNS Client Using systemd/resolved.conf File

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 09:44:02 +0600

Notes for setting DNS configuration in the systemd resolved.conf file.

Obtain Information Of Devices Connected To A Cisco Switch Using CDP

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 08:50:01 +0600

Notes on obtaining a list of connected devices using CDP neighbors on a Cisco Switch.

Obtain Information Of Devices Connected To A Cisco Switch Using LLDP

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 08:49:01 +0600

Notes on obtaining a list of connected devices using LLDP on a Cisco Switch.

Troubleshooting PoE Not Supplying Power To Ports On FortiSwitch

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:25:27 -0600

Summary

Recently I experienced a bizzare issue where a FortiSwitch wasn’t supplying POE power to anything you plugged into it. Whether that be a wireless access point or other PoE devices were plugged in the switch would not supply power. Essentially the access points at this particular site went offline randomly with a log stating they left. Just grew some legs and dipped. Error logs were quiet as well.

This is what I can remember from that issue along with ways to fix it.

Configuring VLANs On FortiSwitch Port From FortiGate

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 00:25:27 -0600

Overview

This is one of those things I have to do every day that I wanted to add to this site. There is the quick and easy way; through the GUI, and cli way. Both of which are pretty easy.

In this post I’m going to focus on configuring VLANs on a FortiSwitch port from a FortiGate firewall. With the Fortinet networking stack you can FortiCombine firewalls, switches, APs, etc. under the FortiGate. Over a Fortilink “LAG” interface you trunk your VLANs to that interface and set Native and Allowed VLANs to each individual port.

sslvpnct-sh

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 12:10:15 -0600

SSL VPN Connectivity Test (Bash)

Summary

I enjoy testing and reporting when I complete my work. It’s a fundamental stage before you provide the end result. There are tests for connecting to and testing SSL VPN connectivity beforehand.

This script targets SSL Client VPNs for test it’s test cases. Weather you’re renewing the TLS certificate or just testing that routing is working as expected. This script will perfrom the test. If the output is piped into a file. There you will have it. You’ll be able to display to your peers that the VPN was working as expected when you’ve finished the maintenance.

fortigate_exporter

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 12:07:15 -0600

What is fortigate_exporter?

The Prometheus FortiGate Exporter is a repository I forked from the prometheus community. Due to lack of TLC from the maintainer or provided documentation from Fortinet. It’s been abandoned/archived. I’m working on reviving it on my repository as best I can considering I have access to that documentation. (for now)

It collects metrics from FortiGate firewalls using their APIs so they can be added to Prometheus and visualized in any manner you see fit.

subnetcalc

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 12:06:15 -0600

What is subnetcalc?

Command line application for calculating subnets and referencing useful data related to networking. I usually have one of these references on my wall just in case I forget. So, I thought I’d bring it with me wherever on my computer.

The subnet calculator feature in this application does the following:

Provides the network address
Shows the broadcast address
Shows the range of usable addresses
Shows the CIDR notation
Shows the subnet mask
Displays list of subnets within the subnet provided.
Indicates that it’s a classful address
Provides a first and last IP address in the subnet.

I have marked features that aren’t finished as incomplete.

randfile

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 10:05:15 -0600

What is Randfile?

Randfile is a Go commandline application that ingests a directory path and picks a random file. This is a small project. But, it has its place in my setup.

For my purposes this is for learning and randomly picking a wallpaper PNG or JPEG and outputting its full path for Sway or i3wm.

Build from Source

Clone the randfile repository.

git clone https://github.com/n3s0/randfile.git

Build the application.

go build

Move the application to wherever you wish. I’ll work on making installation a little easier at some point. Just need to learn how.

Some Updates To This Website - 2025-10

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 00:17:01 +0600

Showcasing some of the updates to this website.

Library

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 03:08:15 -0600

Library

Current reading list of books that I’m currently reading for have read. I’m not making recommendations or providing my reviews on this page.

This list is divided into two sections. Currently Reading or Read. Links are provided for each books individual card go to Hardcover slugs/pages for them.

I will explain how I compile this list in a later post. So stay tuned; for those playing along at home. I make no commissions through these links so purchase them at your hearts content.

fgpm-exporter

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 15:08:15 -0600

What is FortiSwitch Port Map Exporter (fgpm-exporter)?

Command line application written in Go developed to generate CSV or spreadsheets of FortiSwitch port configuration using the FortiGate APIs.

Some backstory for this. I noticed from the FortiGate you cannot export an existing port mapping for the switches. Exporting in a CSV format is useful when you’re running cable or need to replace the switch.

Project Layout

You can find the directory structure with explainations below.

Edit Interface Metrics Using Windows PowerShell

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 10:08:01 +0600

Changing the interface metric on Windows so you can use wireless and Ethernet.

Managing Multiple Kubernetes Clusters

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 11:25:27 -0600

Summary

Wanted to notate some things I learned about Kubernetes clusters and how to switch between multiple. I manage a few either in “production” or within a lab environment. So I needed to confirm that I’m not setting things up on the wrong cluster.

Contexts

Contexts are mentioned regarding the connection to different clusters. Kind of like a connection string in MySQL or Postgres. Like the connection strings for MySQL and Postgres these would contain all of the necessary information to connect to a Kubernetes cluster. Stored in YAML format.

Fortinet: Set HA Active-Passive FortiGate Cluster Back to Primary

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 15:25:27 -0600

Notes for setting an HA active-passwive FortiGate cluster back to original state.

Notes: RFC 1918: Address Allocation for Private Networks

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 12:12:17 -0600

Some notes from reading through the RFC 1918 document

Show Routing Table On FortiOS

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 15:25:27 -0600

Notes for showing the routing table on FortiOS.

Some Thoughts On RFCs and IPv6

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 01:30:01 +0600

Wanted to briefly notate some things about RFC6598, RFC1918, and some thoughts about IPv6.

Troubleshooting Response Validation Failed. SAML Response Rejected Error on FortiGate Firewalls

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 15:22:27 -0600

Notes for troubleshooting some SAML errors Response Validation Failed.

Cisco: TDR Cable Diagnostic On Cisco Switch Port

Sun, 15 Jun 2025 16:49:01 +0600

Discussion on how to test the cable connection on Cisco switch ports.

Troubleshooting Nautobot As A Docker Container -- Compose Not Found

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 00:33:01 -0600

Some notes on troubleshooting a nautobot install on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS as a docker container.

Negate Rules on ForiGate Policies.

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 16:25:27 -0600

Notes for setting up negate rules on FortiGate policies.

Fortinet: Add An Address External Resource To FortiGate

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 15:25:27 -0600

Notes for adding an address threat feed to a FortiGate.

Fortinet: Troubleshoot Certificate File is Duplicated for CA/Local/Remote/Crl cert

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 15:25:27 -0600

Notes for troubleshooting certificate import errors like the one in the title.

Checking TLS Certificates Using OpenSSL

Sun, 12 Jan 2025 10:25:01 -0600

Notes for checking TLS certificates using the OpenSSL command.

Learning Google Cloud Platform & New Fortinet Articles

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 08:00:00 -0600

Journal entry 01-07-2025

Fortinet: Reset & Restore Port Statistics On FortiSwitch

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 02:41:27 -0600

Notes for resetting and restoring port statistics on FortiSwitch ports.

Fortinet: Check Port Statistics On FortiSwitch

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 01:41:27 -0600

Notes for checking port statistics on FortiSwitch ports.

Updates on TDR & Other Thoughts

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 08:00:00 -0600

Journal entry 01-04-2025

First Journal Entry Of The Year 2025

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 16:02:01 -0600

Journal entry 01-02-2025

GCP: VPC Network With Custom Subnets and Firewall Rules Using Gcloud Shell

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 16:02:01 -0600

Notes for creating a VPC network with custom subnets using gcloud shell.

certchecker

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 03:08:15 -0600

What is certchecker?

Certificate checker is a command-line application written in Go that can perform an ad-hoc check to web servers. This check will return basic information about the web servers certificate. More importanly, if it’s expired. For now this is the beginning stage of the application. But, the overall vision is to have an app that will iterate through a list of servers and provide this data in various reporting formats. Such as email, pdf, txt, csv, etc.

Install And Setup swaylock-effects On Ubuntu

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:25:01 -0600

Summary

To make my setup a little more enjoyable I like to make it look more pleasing to the eye. With this comes trying different methods to install software that accomplishes this.

With that being said I like to install software that adds more effects that aren’t necessarily the defaults. I found something called swaylock-effects. Which is a fork of the swaywm/swaylock Github repository.

mortie/swaylock-effects

It took a little while to install this because there is no Ubuntu package. But, with a little dependancy hell I was able to compile it and it works really well for not being updated for 4 years.

Generating A QR Code For Easy Access To Wireless

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 21:13:01 -0600

Notes for adding wireless networks using QR codes.

Randomize Wallpapers For Sway Using Python

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 16:50:00 -0600

Notes for randomizing backgrounds in Sway using Python.

Little Note on Ansible Deployments To OpenBSD

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 00:17:01 +0600

Journal entry 10-21-2024

Announcements, Writters block, and Some Accomplishments

Sun, 20 Oct 2024 16:49:01 +0600

Just a little announcement, writters block, and an accomplishment for the day.

Ubuntu Update Playbook: CHANGELOG

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 01:19:04 -0600

Docs for my Ansible playbook that updates Ubuntu Servers.

Ubuntu Update Playbook: FAQ

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 01:19:03 -0600

Docs for my Ansible playbook that updates Ubuntu Servers.

Ubuntu Update Playbook: Usage

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 01:19:02 -0600

Docs for my Ansible playbook that updates Ubuntu Servers.

Ubuntu Update Playbook: Setup

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 01:19:10 -0100

Docs for my Ansible playbook that updates Ubuntu Servers.

FortiSwitch Cable Diagnostics

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 01:41:27 -0600

Notes for performing cable tests on FortiSwitch ports.

Bilbao: Basic Kubernetes Problems

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 00:07:47 -0600

Summary

This is my writeup for the Bilbao scenario for Sad Servers.

Scenario

Level: Easy
Type: Fix
Tags:
- kubernetes
- realistic-interviews

Description

There’s a Kubernetes Deployment with an Nginx pod and a Load Balancer declared in the manifest.yml file. The pod is not coming up. Fix it so that you can access the Nginx container through the Load Balancer.

There’s no “sudo” (root) access.

Test: Running curl 10.43.216.196 returns the default Nginx Welcome page.

Boot To Single-User Mode On A Juniper SRX

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 12:30:01 -0600

Notes for booting to Single User Mode to enter recovery mode on a Juniper SRX.

Juniper: Root Password Recovery In Recovery Mode

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 12:20:01 -0600

Notes for changing Juniper password in recovery mode.

Juniper: Configure U-Boot To Enable Singe-User Mode Boot

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 12:10:01 -0600

Notes for configuring u-boot to enter single user mode.

Update on Subnet Calculator, Ubuntu Desktop Praise, & Network Notes

Sun, 13 Oct 2024 02:49:01 +0600

Update on subnetcalc, Ubuntu Desktop praise, & Network Notes

Taipei: Come a-knocking

Sat, 12 Oct 2024 12:56:01 -0600

Summary

This is my write up for the Taipei port knocking challenge.

Scenario

Below is the scenario provided by SadServers.

Level: Easy

Description

There is a web server on port :80 protected with Port Knocking. Find the one “knock” needed (sending a SYN to a single port, not a sequence) so you can curl localhost.

Test:

Executing curl localhost returns a message with md5sum fe474f8e1c29e9f412ed3b726369ab65. (Note: the resulting md5sum includes the new line terminator: echo $(curl localhost))

Bata: Find in /proc

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:56:01 -0500

Summary

Today I’m going to do a little run through of Bata: Find in /proc. In this we check the /proc directory for any stored secrets that are hidden.

Description

Below is a general description provided by SadServers.

Level: Easy
Type: Do
Tags: bash

Description: A spy has left a password in a file in /proc/sys. The contents of the file start with “secret:” (without the quotes).

Find the file and save the word after “secret:” to the file /home/admin/secret.txt with a newline at the end (e.g. if the file contents were “secret:password” do: echo “password” > /home/admin/secret.txt).

Show Configuration On Juniper

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 13:10:01 -0600

Notes for showing the configuration on Juniper.

Show Current JunOS Version

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 17:23:01 -0600

Show the current JunOS version and other information. This was done on a Juniper SRX220.

Configure Hostname On Juniper

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 16:49:01 -0600

Configuring The hostname on Juniper.

Revert To Factory Configuration On Juniper SRX220

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 16:49:01 -0600

Notes for reverting a Juniper SRX220 to factory configuration.

Updates On Personal Development

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 07:49:01 +0600

Some updates on personal development

Site Updates & Learning About ISC DHCP EOL Date

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 07:49:01 +0600

Site updates and learning about ISC DHCP EOL date.

Playing With Wigle... Amongst Other Things

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 16:49:01 +0600

Journal entry 09-24-2024

Geneva: Renew an SSL Certificate

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:56:47 -0600

Overview

This is my run through of the Geneva scenario on Sad Servers. Let see how we do.

Geneva: Renew an SSL Certificate

Little more information about the challenge.

Level: Easy
Type: Fix
Tags: ssl

Description

There’s an Nginx web server running on this machine, configured to serve a simple “Hello, World!” page over HTTPS. However, the SSL certificate is expired.

Create a new SSL certificate for the Nginx web server with the same Issuer and Subject (same domain and company information).

Pesky Roku Behavior

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 16:49:01 +0600

Pesky Roku behavior…

Subnetting Reference

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 14:26:26 -0600

Subnetting reference.

Some Thoughts On Tracking Packages

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 16:49:01 +0600

Journal entry 09-19-2024

So, You Lost Your Mouse Pointer In Windows 11?

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 14:40:01 +0600

Some fun troubleshooting why someone’s mouse pointer magically disapeared in Windows 11.

Github Pages Deployments and Playing With ChatGPT

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 16:49:01 +0600

Journal entry 09-16-2024

Computer

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 15:12:45 +0600

Troubleshooting DHCP Server On Linux Using Tcpdump

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 14:40:01 +0600

Some fun with TCP Dump.

Showing Databases In MySQL

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 09:44:02 +0600

SHOW DATABASES;

SHOW SCHEMAS;

+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| mysql              |
| performance_schema |
| sys                |
| testdatabase2      |
| testdb1            |
+--------------------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)

SHOW DATABASES \G

*************************** 1. row ***************************
Database: information_schema
*************************** 2. row ***************************
Database: mysql
*************************** 3. row ***************************
Database: performance_schema
*************************** 4. row ***************************
Database: sys
*************************** 5. row ***************************
Database: testdatabase2
*************************** 6. row ***************************
Database: testdb1
6 rows in set (0.01 sec)

SHOW DATABASES LIKE 'test%';

+------------------+
| Database (test%) |
+------------------+
| testdatabase2    |
| testdb1          |
+------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

show databases like '%schema';

+--------------------+
| Database (%schema) |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| performance_schema |
+--------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Viewing A Users MySQL Permissions (GRANTS)

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 09:44:02 +0600

Notes for viewing MySQL grants from MySQL Client.

Automate Adding A VLAN To Multiple Cisco Switches

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 11:28:01 +0600

More notes and code while I play with the Python Netmiko library.

Ubuntu Linux Crisis & General Troubleshooting Tools

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 12:20:02 -0500

List of tools used for troubleshooting.

Using Netmiko To Automate VLAN Configuration On A Cisco Switch

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 12:18:01 +0600

Summary

I’ve been looking for ways to make my job easier in regards to configuring Cisco devices. I think I figured out a way and it works great!

I will be putting the link for this script found in one of my respositories below.

n3s0/scripts/cisco_add_vlan.py - Dead Link

This is a Python script I wrote that will add a VLAN to a switch with the name net-mgmt. This is kind of similar to Ansible. But, it takes less time to put everything together in my opinion. You do a little configuration, run it, and off it goes.

Bucharest: Connecting to Postgres

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 18:40:47 -0600

Scenario

Should anyone want to do this challenge. You can do so at the following link.

Bucharest: Connecting to Postgres

Level: Easy

Type: Fix

Description: A web application relies on the PostgreSQL 13 database present on this server. However, the connection to the database is not working. Your task is to identify and resolve the issue causing this connection failure. The application connects to a database named app1 with the user app1user and the password app1user.

Migrating Sticky Notes To Another Windows 10 Workstation

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 10:33:00 -0600

Recently I came across an issue where someone needed to add their Sticky Notes to their new computer and I learned how. Sticky notes are still used pretty frequently and with the volume of sticky notes they had. They weren’t about to copy and paste them.

Sticky notes are located in the following path. We can go to these paths in File Explorer or a command terminal on the Windows device.

Rosario: Restore a MySQL database

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 09:56:47 -0600

Notes from running through the Rosario scenario from SadServers.

Planning The Specs For A Small MySQL Database Administrator Lab

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 11:11:00 -0500

Summary

This is the first revision for the virtual machine specifications of a MySQL Database Admnistrator lab. A small group of servers that allows someone to learn things like single node managment, clustering, and a simple data warehouse on the MySQL platform.

The key learning points I would like to touch on with these specifications are:

Three node MySQL InnoDB cluster deployment and managment.
MySQL database replicas
Building data warehouses
MySQL database design
MySQL database backups and testing
MySQL server hardening
Performance monitoring
Performance tuning

Notes On Design

I’m utilizing Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS because it’s common and people have probably used it before. MySQL is available on multiple Linux distros. So if there’s something else you’d like to use. Go for it.

Planning The Specs For A Small MySQL Database Administrator Lab

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 11:11:00 -0500

The key learning points I would like to touch on with these specifications are:

Three node MySQL InnoDB cluster deployment and managment.
MySQL database replicas
Building data warehouses
MySQL database design
MySQL database backups and testing
MySQL server hardening
Performance monitoring
Performance tuning

Notes On Design

Obtaining A Cisco Devices Hostname Using The Netmiko Python Library

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 08:36:08 +0600

Summary

So I’ve wanted to poke and prod at network automation for a while. But, didn’t know where to start. I’ve automated some tasks in the past with Ansible playbooks. Which are useful as a standard use case. I’m just branching out to other things.

This is a little script that utilizes the Netmiko Python library to obtain the hostname of the device. In another post I plan on using this data as areporting header for a script that collects data about Cisco devices.

Using A SQL Script For Initial MySQL Database Setup

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 15:25:01 +0600

Simple MySQL script I wrote for the initial setup of application databases.

Install & Setup PostgresSQL on Ubuntu Server

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 09:34:05 -0500

Summary

Noting some installation and setup for PostgreSQL on Ubuntu Server.

Install

The command for installing the PostgreSQL server package from the repos can be found below.

sudo apt install postgresql -y

I will walk through setup soon.

Resources

PostgresSQL 15 Documentation

Moving PostgresSQL 15 To Custom Directory On Ubuntu Server

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 09:34:05 -0500

Notes for moving PostgresSQL 15 on Ubuntu Server to a custom directory.

Install & Setup MySQL on Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 14:54:09 +0600

Notes for installing and setting up MySQL on Ubuntu Server

Configuring Fabric Automation For Service Restarts On FortiOS

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 09:12:09 -0500

config system automation-trigger
    edit "Daily Service Restart Schedule"
        set trigger-type scheduled
        set trigger-hour HOUR
        set trigger-minute MINUTE
    next
end

config system automation-action
    edit "Restart WAD Service"
        set description "Restarts the WAD service"
        set action-type cli-script
        set script "diagnose test application wad 99"
        set accprofile "super_admin"
    next
end

config system automation-action
    edit "Restart IPS Monitor Service"
        set description "Restarts IPS Monitor service"
        set action-type cli-script
        set script "diagnose test application ipsmonitor 99"
        set accprofile "super_admin"
    next
end

config system automation-stitch
    edit "Daily Service Restart"
        set description "Restarts the WAD service daily on the firewall."
        set trigger "Daily Service Restart Schedule"
        set status enable
        config actions
            edit 1
                set action "Restart WAD Service"
                set required enable
            next
            edit 2
                set action "Restart IPS Monitor Service"
                set required enable
            next
        end
    next
end

Moving MySQL Server To A Custom Directory On Ubuntu Linux

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 09:12:09 -0500

Notes for moving MySQL to a different directory on Ubuntu.

Creating A VLAN Trunk Interface Using CLI On FortiGate

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 10:58:56 +0600

Notes for creating a VLAN interface on a FortiGate firewall using cli.

Simple Veeam Backup & Replication License Usage Reporting Using PowerShell

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 11:34:45 +0600

Summary

I’ve been doing some poking around with Veeam Backup & Replication PowerShell modules lately. I wrote a quick and dirty script that will allow me to email the license usage to myself when I need it.

The idea behind this is to place it on each Veeam Backup & Replication instance with a scheduled task that will run ever so often. As time goes on I’ll improve this. But, it beats spending money on the Veeam Service Provider Console. If you’re required to report your licensing to Veeam. Either this or VSPC is useful.

FortiGate Troubleshooting Cheetsheet

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 00:25:27 -0600

Overview

Why build a cheetsheet?

Cheetsheets are good to come back to when you’re in the thick of troubleshooting. Here I will be providing commands that have helped me throughout the years of working with FortiGate firewalls and where these commands can be useful.

This is document is meant to be updated frequently as the need arises.

Memory Conserve Mode

I go over some troubleshooting tid-bits that are still relevant today related to Conserve Mode. Link can be found below.

Saint John: what is writing to this log file?

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 18:40:47 -0600

Scenario

Should anyone want to do this challenge. You can do so at the following link.

Saint John: what is writing to this log file?

Level: Easy

Type: Fix

Description: A developer created a testing program that is continuously writing to a log file /var/log/bad.log and filling up disk. You can check for example with tail -f /var/log/bad.log. This program is no longer needed. Find it and terminate it.

Test: The log file size doesn’t change (within a time interval bigger than the rate of change of the log file).

Installing Zabbix Agent 2 on Ubuntu 22.04

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 16:03:17 -0500

Notes for installing the Zabbix Agent 2 agent for Zabbix 6.4.

Backup & Restore MySQL Using MySQL Dump

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 14:43:22 -0500

Little post because I caught myself looking this up a little more then I usually do. Thought this would be a good time to jot some things down for it.

There is a useful command for backing up your mysql databases called mysqldump. This will pull all of the entries from the database and generate a little script for use. You specify the database and away you go.

This can also be useful for performing camparisons on previous backups to see what data is missing. If you perform regular backups that is.

SadServers: Tokyo: can't serve web file

Sun, 05 Nov 2023 18:40:47 -0600

Summary

Should anyone want to do this challenge. You can do so at the following link.

Tokyo: can’t serve web file

Scenario

Level: Medium

Type: Fix

Description: There’s a web server serving a file /var/www/html/index.html with content “hello sadserver” but when we try to check it locally with an HTTP client like curl 127.0.0.1:80, nothing is returned. This scenario is not about the particular web server configuration and you only need to have general knowledge about how web servers work.

Fortinet: Some System Troubleshooting Tid-bits

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 11:17:40 -0500

Notes for troubleshooting Fortigate firewalls.

Obtaining Support Data For HPE (Brocade) Fiber Channel Switches

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 11:17:40 -0500

Providing some notes for submitting data to HPE using the supportsave command. Sometimes when you have issues with their Brocade Fiber Channel switches. If that’s failed hardware or SFPs they may have you utilize this command to submit logs and data to help them troubleshoot.

This could change as time goes on. But, they host FTP and HTTP servers for submitting this data. The supportsave command will collect the data needed and send it to whatever IP address you send to. But, to make things easier. With an open support case they’ll provide the credentials for sending the information.

Starting A New Jekyll Site Using The Jekyll Container Image

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 11:31:35 -0500

Some workflow updates for the blog. A simple Hugo Podman/Docker container for writting content with docker/podman-compose.

Deploying Your Hugo Blog Development Server Using Podman/Docker Compose

Fri, 13 Oct 2023 11:05:44 -0500

Some workflow updates for the blog. A simple Hugo Podman/Docker container for writting content with docker/podman-compose.

Using The IISRESET Command To Reset IIS & Obtain Its Status

Fri, 13 Oct 2023 09:22:16 -0500

Some brief notes on how to reset Internet Information Services (IIS) on Windows client/servers. Before executing the command(s). This operation will need to be performed with Administrator/elevated privileges.

Resetting or restarting the IIS service will

The default behavior for iisreset is the equivalent to the /restart switch.

iisreset

The following output can be expected from the command above.

Attempting stop...
Internet services successfully stopped
Attempting start...
Internet services successfully restarted

Should the need arise for using the /restart switch. The following command can be used. This will have the same output.

Listing, Reading, & Decompressing GZip (GNU zip) Files

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 09:48:55 -0500

For a little background on GNU zip. GNU zip is a file format and application commonly used for compression and decompression. This is generally the default compression method for logging archives in GNU based Linux distributions. The initial release of GNU zip was October 31, 1992 and created by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.

Below are some ways to get help with GNU zip. The first one is to view the man page for gzip.

Verify Nagios Configuration Using CLI

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 13:34:29 +0600

Quick note for verifying Nagios Core configuration via commandline.

Creating Policy Address Objects Using CLI On FortiOS

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 23:58:03 +0600

Notes for creating policy address objects on FortiGate firewalls using the CLI.

Appending An Address To An Address Group CLI On FortiOS

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 11:11:14 -0600

Appending addresses to address groups in FortiOS CLI.

Create Address Groups On FortiOS

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 10:50:25 -0600

A useful object category that FortiOS has available for policies are Address Groups. An IPv4 Address Group is an array/list of addresses that can be applied to firewall policies. This is useful if you have multiple servers that need the same filtering. But, limiting the administrator overhead is needed to manage policies.

The addresses will need to be created individually before adding them as a member of the address group.

Create Static Routes Using CLI On FortiOS

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 10:47:09 -0600

Some notes for the creation of Static Routes on FortiGate firewalls in FortiOS CLI.

Below creates a static route for the 172.16.128.0/24 that’s attached from the lab-vpn.

config router static
  edit 2
    set dst 172.16.128.0/24
    set device "lab-vpn"
  next
end

Create a blackhole route.

config router static
  edit 3
    set dst 172.16.128.0/24
    set device "lab-vpn"
    set distance 50
    set blackhole enable
    set vrf 0
  next
end

Creating QCOW2 Disk Images With qemu-img(1)

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 09:22:56 -0600

This is will be a short entry that contains notes for creating qcow2 disk images using qemu-img(1). For now I’m not going to focus entirely on their use and just creating them. This can be useful for scaffolding the disks you need for a KVM VM before its creation.

The create option is used to create a new image file.

Using the -f flag it specifies the format that will be generated for the VM. If this option isn’t specified. The qemu-img(1) command will pick a format.

FortiGate: Adding Policy Address Objects On FortiGate

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 13:55:09 -0600

Notes for adding FortiGate address policy objects.

Updating & Upgrading OpenBSD

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 17:34:03 -0600

These are some notes for updating and upgrading OpenBSD machines just in case I need them. I will make sure to update this as often as possible and provide the reference articles. Along with man pages.

If there are other posts I create for unconventional update methods. I’ll provide those in the references.

To the point. This post discusses updating the following.

Base operating system
System packages

Any additions I’ve missed? Say the word.

Add DHCP Server To VLAN Interface With DMZ Role On FortiGate

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 15:25:27 -0600

Summary

On FortiGate firewalls with 802.1Q VLAN interfaces. The DMZ role can be assigned to the interface. But, with this also comes a caveat. If this DMZ needs to have a DHCP server. It cant be configured through the web interface. So, it needs to be configured using the command line. Here I explore how to do do this.

Scenario

In this particular scenario there is a VLAN interface configured on port9 on a FortiGate VM named tl-app-01.

FortiGate: Showing DHCP Server Leases On FortiGates

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 08:50:46 -0600

Notes for showing DCHP server leases on FortiGate firewalls through CLI.

Adding A DHCP Server To A VLAN Interface With The DMZ Role On FortiGate

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 08:56:26 +0600

On FortiGate firewalls with 802.1Q VLAN interfaces. The DMZ role can be assigned to the interface. But, with this also comes a cavet. If this DMZ needs to have a DHCP server. It cant be configured through the web interface. So, it needs to be configured using the command line. Here I explore how to do do this.

In this particular scenario there is a VLAN interface configured on port9 on a FortiGate VM named tl-app-01.

Updating NTP Servers on Cisco Switches

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 16:03:14 -0600

Wanted to briefly write a note for updating the NTP server on a Cisco switch. This is generally good if moving to on premise NTP servers is something I’d like to do someday.

Currently this is the configuration for the NTP server in the configuration.

!
ntp server 192.168.0.200
!

configure terminal

Remove the NTP server configuration from the switch. In this case it’s pointing to the IP address 192.168.0.200. This will need to be removed so the switch doesn’t have any old configuration.

Rolling Back Microsoft 365 Office Using Click2Run

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 19:57:15 -0600

This applies mostly towards Microsoft 365 or Office 365 installs.

Like with all software. Microsoft Office has it’s days where it doesn’t like to play nice. So, when something breaks - as a result of fate or no QA - Office needs to be rolled back to the previous version. Software is software. It’s going to break. But, hopefully this will be useful should issues pop up as a result of an update.

Ubuntu Server Inital Setup & Config Baseline

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 15:59:15 -0600

Notes for my Ubuntu Server baseline.

Console Serial Connections To Cisco Devices On Nix

Fri, 09 Dec 2022 19:57:04 -0600

Summary

This is just some notes for connecting to the console port on Linux. This is a running post where I will be adding new methods for connecting to the console port on Cisco devices or any device that supports a serial console.

Finding The Console Port

Finding the console port is pretty easy. But, I’m going to list it here just for reference.

sudo dmesg | grep -i tty

The output should look something like this.

Skipping fsck Manually Upon Boot to Speed Up Ubuntu Server Install

Fri, 09 Dec 2022 16:06:44 -0600

Summary

A friend of mine pointed something my way for speeding up the process for installs. So I remember it in the future. I’m notating it.

He found that casper(7) hides the fsch(1) bits so it will check the file system or disks upon boot. This can have it’s use in some scenarios. But, on VMs and installing stuff over IPMI out of band management interfaces - that only have 100/10 mbps cards - it can make the installation process pretty slow. So, this is pretty useful.

Disable & Remove Cloud-Init On Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 14:54:48 -0600

Summary

Cloud Init is configured and installed on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS by default. In fact. It’s been available since 18.04. It can be used to configure things like authorized keys for SSH, generate private keys, etc. For my preferences. It’s annoying because I never use it. So I generally disable the service.

Added is an option for uninstalling it from the system completely. Should that be what’s desired.

Disable Service

Disabling the service is the easiest way. Especially if you’re considering its use in the future. I generally disable Cloud Init because it shaves off of the servers boot time a little. Not to mention I don’t use it at all.

OpenBSD Initial Virtual Private Server Baseline

Sat, 03 Dec 2022 22:46:04 -0600

Summary

These are just some notes for common steps I perform after adding a server to a Virtual Private Server provider. Intended to act as a baseline. Documented so I have the steps for future use.

Apply Updates

Update the packages on the server.

pkg_add -u

Apply any available patches.

syspatch

Accounts

Update the password for root using the passwd(1) command. On VPS providers they have one generated automatically.

passwd root

Create a group for the user.

Personal VPN Setup Using Wireguard, OpenBSD, and Vultr VPS

Sat, 03 Dec 2022 17:01:37 -0600

Summary

It’s been a minute since I’ve posted. But, here you go. New post with some personal infrastructure. In the future I’ll lay out some of the personal infrastructure I have and use.

There are plenty of options on the Internet for VPN providers. Many good ones in fact. But, I would rather have control of things like that. I’ve been kicking around the idea of having my own Private Cloud for years. But, never put real thought into it. Finally after noodled through options for this I think I have what I need, set it up, and I use this from day to day. On my cell phone and my personal laptop.

Troubleshooting MongoDB & My Failure to Read Documentation

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 00:27:24 -0600

I recently experienced an issue with MongoDB where I failed to read documentation. This also provides some of the notes related to troubleshooting what was actually wrong. So, I decided to include the things needed to help troubleshoot it.

The short answer to this. MongoDB requires the use of the AVX instruction set. Stands for Advanced Vector Extensions. AVX are extensions to the x86 instruction set architecture for microprocessors from Intel and AMD.

Updating & Upgrading Ubuntu

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 22:56:04 -0600

Summary

This post provides a brief overview on how to apply updates on Ubuntu.

To apply updates to systems with the Ubuntu OS. You need to use their package manager named apt or the Advanced Package Tool. This application provides a command line interface for handling packages for Ubuntu systems.

One thing that the maintainers warn about is it’s not suited for scripting. They recomend that users utilize the apt-get and apt-cache commands for that kind of thing.

Installing Request Tracker (RT) on Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 21:09:04 -0600

Summary

Note that these are notes from walking through a basic deployment. There will be quite a bit of jumping around and troubleshooting. Along with troubleshooting with no discussion. No worries. I’ll update it.

These are my notes for installing Request Tracker (RT). An enterprise-grade issue tracking system developed by Best Practical.

Below is the Best Practical website for RT. They provide a demo if anyone wants to test it out.

Moving Back To Hugo

Fri, 16 Sep 2022 10:30:22 +0600

So, it’s been a while since I’ve just talked or thought “out loud”. But, it’s been about five years since I’ve been in school. So, I’m considering taking my notes from school and posting them on here.

This includes the assignments that I’ve completed, notes from the text books I still have, and personal labs I did in my spare time.

This is something they encouraged while I was in school. But, I didn’t think I’d need it. There are times I move back to that stuff for sure. But, I thought that since I was over and done with some of that stuff that I would never use it.

Setup OpenSSH Client To Use Lagacy Key Algorithms For Old Cisco Switches

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 14:37:20 -0500

Summary

This is an old thing I came across. But, useful to know all the same. This post discusses some issues with devices such as Cisco routers, switches, etc. where the key exchange algorithms and host key algorithm types are weaker and/or riskier key algorithms. These algorithms are considered legacy options that may need to be specified when connecting to the host.

Making It Work as Unintended

If OpenSSH encounters a legacy Host Key or Key Exchange algorithm on the server it’s connecting to. The client will refuse the connection not allowing you to connect to it.

Switching to New DNS Server(s) On A Cisco Switch

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 14:37:19 -0500

Summary

This post contains some notes for switching a Cisco switch over to a different DNS server. Specifically, I will be adding, removing, and testing within the process of moving over to new DNS server infrastructure.

In the case of switching over to another name server. Generally when you’re getting rid of infrastructure you need to remove the old configuration so there aren’t any future issues. Plus having a clean configuration is always good.

Configure DNS Server(s) & Search Domains For Name Resolution on Cisco Switches

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 14:37:18 -0500

Summary

Notes for configuring DNS servers and search domains for name resolution on Cisco switches.

Configure Search Domain

Connect to the console or login remotely to the switch using SSH. Go into the configuration prompt using the following command.

configure terminal

Configure the domain name or search domain that will assist the switch with resolving hosts in the domain it resides in. This is useful if full name resolution is needed without having to type out the fully qualified domain name for the device every time.

Configuring NTP Client from CLI on VMware ESXi 6.7

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 14:37:17 -0500

Summary

This post contains notes for configuring NTP on ESXi 6.7.

Configuring NTP Client

SSH to the ESXi server using ssh and open the /etc/ntp.conf file using the vi command.

vi /etc/ntp.conf

Add the local NTP server with the server option and the IP address of the server at the bottom of the /etc/ntp.conf.

server 192.168.0.50

The full file output should look like this. One thing to note is that multiple server entries can be added to the configuration file.

Saving Running Config to Startup Config On Cisco Devices

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 14:37:15 -0500

Summary

This is just a some notes on how to copy the running configuration to the startup configuration on a Cisco device. This could bean anything from a Cisco Router, switch, etc.

Notes will provide the commands and the output of what these commands do.

Copying Run to Start

The following command can be used to copy the running configuration to the startup configuration on a Cisco device.

copy run start

Configuring DNS Using esxcli On VMware ESXi 6.7

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 14:37:14 -0500

Summary

Needed to add some DNS configuration to some ESXi 6.7 servers in a lab. I’ve never done this. Nor did I have access directly to the console at the time. So, I decided to SSH into the console and use the esxcli command to do the work.

Another post related to a different scenario where you move to different name servers can be found below.

VMware ESXi 6.7: Changing DNS Servers Using esxcli

In this case, I’m starting from no DNS configuration at all or have removed the current configuration already.

Changing DNS Servers Using esxcli On VMWare ESXi 6.7

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 14:37:13 -0500

Summary

Needed to change DNS servers from one to the other within my lab on ESXi 6.7. Needed to do this because I’ve been isolating network resolution to my local network as opposed to pushing that traffic to the Internet itself.

Before I was using Cloudflare’s DNS resolvers for name resolution. To add another layer DNS resolution is now done through local caches and resolvers. Traffic for name resolution is also blocked from going out to the Internet for every host on the network except for the local DNS resolver.

DHCP & DNS Operations Using PowerShell/CMD On Windows Clients

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 10:14:38 -0500

Summary

Just some notes. I have my days where I do this a lot. But, just in case I don’t and forget down the road. Might as well have this available.

These are generally useful when I’m troubleshooting DHCP issues and IP issues on Windows workstations. I haven’t provided any output. But, if I feel it’s needed. I will soon.

Note: Most commands will need to be executed as Administrator. With the exception to commands that are used to gather information. Depending on policy. Adminstrator privileges may still be needed.

Configuring Calendar Permissions On Exchange Server 2013

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 10:23:04 -0500

Overview

This article will provide a brief overview on how to Get, Add, and Set Calendar permissions in Microsoft Exchange 2013. If you would like a reference to an overview of what the permissions do, I have referenced a cheat sheet below for you.

Microsoft Exchange 2013 - Calendar Permissions Reference

This article will mostly focus on doing this through the Exchange Management Shell. PowerShell Cmdlets used in this article can be found below. It will give you some brief commands that you can use to set the permissions. But, it will not go into to much detail on what the Cmdlets will do.

Error Saving to USB Storage On PlayStation 4

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 22:31:45 -0500

This article discusses some troubleshooting fun I had with a Play Station 4 a couple of days ago. Turns out for some reason it didn’t want to save to the external USB 3.0 Seagate 1 TB HDD that I decided to use for a backup. It was on my TODO list for a while because I plan on replacing the disk with something larger. Yes, I plan on providing notes for that as well. I sure don’t want to spend the extra coin and upload all of that data to the cloud using Play Station Plus.

Configuring An Access & Voice VLAN On A Cisco Switch Port

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 13:28:01 -0500

Summary

This article goes through configuring a VLAN on a switch port on a Cisco switch. These are just notes intended for future use in case I forget how to configure this.

Switch Configuration

After signing into the switch. Go into the terminal configuration prompt. Once you finish entering this, you should see (config) in the prompt.

configure terminal

Access the configuration prompt for the interface. Once you enter this you should see (config-if) in the prompt.

Sysadmin Pain: When Percona and MySQL Community Repos aren't Synced

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 11:31:14 -0500

Just thought I’d talk a little bit about some Sysadmin pain that I’ve come across. Might prove beneficial in the future. Not complaining. This is more of a “don’t do what I did” article. I’ll probably provide more of these as I run into issues.

Percona Xtrabackup is a wonderful tool for conducting backups on MySQL servers. Especially when users come up with one off issues where they weren’t paying attention and found themselves deleting a mound of data by accident. It’s fine. That’s what we have backups for right?

Percona MySQL: Installing on Oracle Linux 8.6

Wed, 25 May 2022 21:10:14 -0500

Summary

Notes for installing Percona MySQL on Oracle Linux 8.6.

Setting Up Percona MySQL Repository

Installed the latest release Percona MySQL repository using DNF.

dnf install https://repo.percona.com/yum/percona-release-latest.noarch.rpm

Below is the desired output when the repository is installed.

Last metadata expiration check: 1 day, 5:09:24 ago on Tue 24 May 2022 04:08:51 PM CDT.
percona-release-latest.noarch.rpm                                                           31 kB/s |  20 kB     00:00    
Dependencies resolved.
===========================================================================================================================
 Package                           Architecture             Version                   Repository                      Size
===========================================================================================================================
Installing:
 percona-release                   noarch                   1.0-27                    @commandline                    20 k

Transaction Summary
===========================================================================================================================
Install  1 Package

Disable the current MySQL module that comes in the default packages.

Bash FTW: Scripting For Blog Draft Templating

Wed, 25 May 2022 20:42:41 -0500

This will be a short post. I wrote a little Bash script to assist with creating new drafts for this site. Nothing special. But, it will save me some typing.

Site has a specific file name format. So, instead of manually typing in the same command I do every time I created a script named draft that formats everything needed to make a new draft for this site. I think it’ll come in handy.

SELinux: BookStack v22.04

Wed, 25 May 2022 00:40:53 -0500

Summary

This article discusses the SELinux; involving security contexts, and file permissions that allow BookStack to function as expected and securely. Primarily in a way that doesn’t require disabling SELinux.

Yes, permissive mode is still disabling SELinux.

I should also note that this article can be best applied to Linux Operating Systems that reside within the following families.

RHEL
Oracle Linux

This post will not just go through file contexts but also the file permissions for the application when it’s in the webroot.

SELinux: APPLICATION NAME

Tue, 24 May 2022 15:39:04 -0500

Consider this to be a series on how to “properly” configure SELinux and possibly file permissions for various applications. Mostly web applications. This series of posts is intended to provide a reference for those who would rather utilize SELinux as opposed to just putting it into permissive mode or disable it completely.

These posts will not provide information on how to install the applications the permissions are being set for. It will only provide permissions for the file system and SELinux that I have notated while installing the application that is being discussed. This site provides a search engine. So, if people need to find the SELinux configuration that suites a particular application they can do so. Otherwise this can be requested and I’ll work it out then later post.

ISO 15765-2 (ISO-TP) Notes

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 23:58:00 -0500

These are just some notes from reading about the ISO 15765-2 or ISO Transport Layer (ISO-TP) CAN-Bus protocol. May want to check on this post often if it’s useful. I plan on updating it frequently with what new information I find out about it. But, for now. I will provide what notes regarding the protocol that I have now.

The idea behind these blog posts come from reading “The Car Hackers Handbook: A Guide For Penetration Testers”. Plus, I don’t know a whole lot about CAN-Buses. But, I’m curious about them. So, why not put together some notes and post here as I learn?

Install BookStack v22.04 on Oracle Linux 8.5

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 08:17:14 -0500

Note: There are improvements coming to this article soon.

Summary

This post contains notes from installing BookStack v22.04 on Oracle Linux 8.5.

Some other things to note about this post. This is not a tutorial. These are notes for setting up an application. It doesn’t assume that this is the right way to setup the application. In fact, I don’t even configure TLS on the web server that it’s being hosted on. Anyone following this will need to do it themselves.

Resetting the TCP/IP and WinSock Stacks on Windows Systems

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 11:03:02 -0500

Summary

This post contains notes for resetting the TCP/IP and WinSock stacks on Windows Systems. Doing so can generally be a good troubleshooting step when you’re having issues with network connectivity and network interfaces.

The need for this can stem from a corrupt or misconfigured TCP/IP or WinSock stack.

Before performing the commands in this article. An Administrator CMD or PowerShell prompt will need to be opened.

Reasons For This

There are some valid reasons for needing to do this.

Basic USB Media Operations (Clearing, Partitioning, and Formatting) In PowerShell

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 10:39:32 -0500

Summary

Full notes are unfinished. Though, the information will be useful in the future. I’m posting and will update as I see fit.

Article discusses notes for “wiping”, partitioning, and formatting USB drives using PowerShell. Pretty easy to do.

Obtaining USB Disks

Obtains the disks and outputs a table of what’s currently on the system. Need to check for the DiskNumber of the drive that needed to be cleared and reformatted.

PowerShell: Notes on Execution Policy Bypass Methods

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 11:14:22 -0500

Overview

This will be updated as time goes on. But, this is a collection of notes I’ve accumulated for bypassing the execution policy in powershell I could certainly go through the process of making the exectution policy more permissive. But, sometimes when you run scripts. Bypassing the execution policy is the way to go.

The Execution Policy in PowerShell is used to curcumvent arbitrary PowerShell scripts from running on a workstation. Though, there are multiple ways to bypass this. I generally stick to a couple because I’ve never had to move to the other methods. Other methods will be listed regardless.

Getting the Default Execution Policy In PowerShell

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 11:11:32 -0500

Overview

My notes for obtaining the Execution Policy for PowerShell.

Get The Execution Policy

Not a whole lot is needed for this command. It’s main purpose is to check the configuration of the execution policy. The Get-ExecutionPolicy Cmdlet will provide the current status of the execution policy.

Get-ExecutionPolicy

Below is the output as an example.

RemoteSigned

If review of the execution policy for the different scopes is required. The -List flag can be used. This will list the ExecutionPolicy set for the various policy scopes for review.

Deleting User On Microsoft 365 Using PowerShell

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 11:01:22 -0500

Deleting Microsoft 365 User

Notating some commands I use for deleting a user in Microsoft 365. This is generally done by connecting to it using Connect-MSOnline first.

I will provide notes on how to do that in a future post.

One thing that I’ve learned about Microsoft 365 licensing is the tenant owns a quantity of the licensing they’ve purchased. The number of consumed licenses increases/decreases as users are added/removed. There is no affect on the total quanitity of licensing owned by the organization when a user is removed from a tenant portal. I note this and will note it in another post that discusses AccountSkus when it’s created. There is no need to unset the license before hand.

Creating New User On Microsoft 365 Using PowerShell

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 13:21:44 -0500

Overview

This post provides my notes on how to add a new user to the Microsoft 365 portal using PowerShell.

References for this article can be found in the references section.

Adding A User

Before starting, needed to login using the Connect-MSolService Cmdlet.

The following command will add a new user profile to the Microsoft 365 portal. Little more explaination is provided after the code snippet.

New-MsolUser -DisplayName "Jane Doe" `
	-FirstName Jane `
	-LastName Doe `
	-UserPrincipalName "JDoe@example.com" `
	-UsageLocation US `
	-LicenseAssignment example:O365_BUSINESS

Little overview of what the command above does. First of all. It creates a new user instance using the New-MsolUser Cmdlet. Note that this is pretty close to bare minimum for what you can do with this Cmdlet. But, with that it sets the following.

Jekyll Requires Webrick Gem on Ruby 3.0

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 14:32:30 -0500

Overview

Jekyll on Ruby 3.0 requires the webrick gem to be added to the Gemfile. If the site doesn’t, Jekyll will fail to generate and serve the site. Below is the error that I’m discussing.

bundle exec jekyll serve
Configuration file: /home/example/testing/myblog/_config.yml
            Source: /home/example/testing/myblog
       Destination: /home/example/testing/myblog/_site
 Incremental build: disabled. Enable with --incremental
      Generating...
       Jekyll Feed: Generating feed for posts
                    done in 0.844 seconds.
  Please add the following to your Gemfile to avoid polling for changes:
    require 'rbconfig'
    if RbConfig::CONFIG['target_os'] =~ /(?i-mx:bsd|dragonfly)/
      gem 'rb-kqueue', '>= 0.2'
    end
 Auto-regeneration: enabled for '/home/example/testing/myblog'
                    ------------------------------------------------
      Jekyll 4.2.1   Please append `--trace` to the `serve` command
                     for any additional information or backtrace.
                    ------------------------------------------------
/home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/jekyll-4.2.1/lib/jekyll/commands/serve/servlet.rb:3:in `require': cannot load such file -- webrick (LoadError)
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/jekyll-4.2.1/lib/jekyll/commands/serve/servlet.rb:3:in `<top (required)>'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/jekyll-4.2.1/lib/jekyll/commands/serve.rb:179:in `require_relative'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/jekyll-4.2.1/lib/jekyll/commands/serve.rb:179:in `setup'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/jekyll-4.2.1/lib/jekyll/commands/serve.rb:100:in `process'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/jekyll-4.2.1/lib/jekyll/command.rb:91:in `block in process_with_graceful_fail'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/jekyll-4.2.1/lib/jekyll/command.rb:91:in `each'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/jekyll-4.2.1/lib/jekyll/command.rb:91:in `process_with_graceful_fail'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/jekyll-4.2.1/lib/jekyll/commands/serve.rb:86:in `block (2 levels) in init_with_program'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/mercenary-0.4.0/lib/mercenary/command.rb:221:in `block in execute'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/mercenary-0.4.0/lib/mercenary/command.rb:221:in `each'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/mercenary-0.4.0/lib/mercenary/command.rb:221:in `execute'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/mercenary-0.4.0/lib/mercenary/program.rb:44:in `go'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/mercenary-0.4.0/lib/mercenary.rb:21:in `program'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/gems/jekyll-4.2.1/exe/jekyll:15:in `<top (required)>'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/bin/jekyll:25:in `load'
        from /home/example/.gems/ruby/3.0/gems/ruby/3.0/bin/jekyll:25:in `<main>'

Solution

To fix this the webrick gem needs to be installed. This can be done by entering the following command.

Creating, Migrating, and Resetting Migrations on Laravel Framework

Sun, 06 Mar 2022 15:29:50 -0500

Overview

Something that I tend do is forget how to crate migrations in the Laravel PHP Framework.

Migrations within Laravel act as version control for your applications database. They can also act as a database agnostic method in which the database schema can be configured.

This is also useful should there be the need to make a small change to a database for a database table.

Migration Generation

Migrations can be built manually. But, there’s actually a better method. The artisan command can be used to create the migration file. Which acts as a scaffold or template for the base for the file.

Setup For Swaywm on Fedora

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 12:11:20 -0500

Overview

Decided to give Sway another try. It’s certainly been a while. Sway is intended to be a replacement for the X11 window manager i3wm. It’s just the Wayland version.

When I tried it when I did. I didn’t quite mind it. Only gripe I really had was how the graphics performed and that it was noticeably different as far as i3wm was concerned.

Here I will provide a repo for my configuration files for my Sway environment on Fedora. I will also go over my process for installation and configuration. Troubleshooting hurtles I go through will be documented and discussed.

Thinking Out Loud Regarding Content

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 15:20:10 +0600

Some casual noodling of thoughts about school program funding and notes related to my school work.

Showing Wireless Profile Keys In Plain Text Through CLI/PowerShell

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 16:18:30 -0500

Summary

Just remembered something that I had to do a while back where I needed to access a wireless network and I didn’t know the Key for it. I didn’t know the wireless key and the person I was requesting access from didn’t know either or forgot.

Luckily, they had a machine that had a Windows operating system installed. Sure, I could crack the PSK for the wireless. But, why make it hard when the Windows machine was connected to the wireless. This method is generally less painful.

Configure A Range Of Interfaces On A Cisco Switch

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 16:49:01 +0600

Discuss how to configure multiple Cisco IOS ports with the interface range command.

MySQL Server Connection Refusal

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 11:04:50 -0500

Overview

Sigh… It’s always DNS…

This post goes through some troubleshooting fun with MySQL. Thought I’d share. Recently came across an issue where a workstation couldn’t connect to a database through its ODBC connection. The server got angry and would refuse connection from the workstation with an error stating it’s not allowed to connect to the MySQL server.

Whelp. That wont do. Let’s go through the problem and get to the solution.

Under The Wire: Cyborg

Sat, 22 Jan 2022 08:08:05 -0600

Solutions for Under The Wire Cyborg

Install and Configure Jekyll on OpenBSD

Sun, 19 Dec 2021 11:04:50 -0500

Overview

These are some notes from some fun I had while installing and configuring Jekyll on OpenBSD 7.0-current. The installation wasn’t bad. I just want to document for future use.

I use Jekyll for building static sites that are hosted on and off the Internet. The best part about it is it’s useful and it’s free. Some themes you have to pay for. Others you don’t have to pay a dime to use. They’re the low low cost of free.

The Python Challenge Write Up

Sat, 18 Dec 2021 18:11:04 -0500

Notes and PoC code for The Python Challenge.

Ruby 3.0 Installation On OpenBSD

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 00:23:26 -0500

Overview

This post goes through installing Ruby 3.0 on OpenBSD 7.0-current. This is here for reference so it’s easier in the future. Should there be changes to the ruby30 package, I will create another post for it.

Note that when you install packages, you will need to do so with elevated privileges. You can utilize doas(1); assuming you have it configured, or you can use su(1) and type in your root password to do so.

New Blog For Programing Projects

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 18:09:46 -0500

Decided to start another blog catered to my programming projects.

Moving Back To the Hermit Theme

Sat, 11 Dec 2021 14:18:59 -0500

So, I’ve decided to go back to the old Hugo theme; Hermit. Though, I know this was the original theme for this blog. I’m going back to it and I’ve decided to fork it. Original credit for the roots of the Hugo theme will always go to the original author. You may check the theme of this blog to provide more insight.

I’ll be working on updating the theme; as many others have, so I can get a feel for building and improving other peoples code. At some point, I plan on auditing the original code base for Track3/hermit. Plan on making changes that I find are improvements from the original design. These commits will be tracked to the forked github repository n3s0/hugo-hermit. This is all because the original code base hasn’t recieved much love. I don’t see much benefit to everyone else should someone else wants to use it as another project and I offer to take ownership of the repo. Track3 made an aweseome theme. He deserves the credit for it.

Remove All AD Group Memberships Except One Using PowerShell

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 14:14:49 -0500

Overview

Decided to post another fun one that I found on the Internet somewhere. I don’t remember the source. But, this has helped a lot. Some companies decide to keep users around. It’s the way it is. Managers need to see who is or was sending them email at the time they were terminated.

Another reason for this to have some piece of mind. You know that should for some reason that account gets enabled again, they wont have access to anything that you don’t designate.

Remove All AD User Group Memberships Except One Using PowerShell

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 14:14:49 -0500

Overview

Another reason for this to have some piece of mind. You know that should for some reason that account gets enabled again, they wont have access to anything that you don’t designate.

Troubleshooting Mailbox with BadItemsLimit Errors In Exchange (Unrecommended)

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 16:48:37 -0500

Overview

Sometimes when you export a mailbox they fail due to corrupted items in the mailbox. Although this method isn’t consider a best practice, it can get the job done. Ideally you would want to remove the bad/corrupted items in the mailbox and proceed with exporting. For whatever reason you can increase the BadItemLimit for the export request to get the job done. You can generally fix these items using a MailboxRepairRequest.

Exporting Exchange Mailbox to PST File Using PowerShell

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 16:37:56 -0500

Overview

This article provides a Cmdlets for exporting a mailbox for an Exchange server. It also provides Cmdlets for viewing export requests. This can be useful in a number of ways. Say that you want to keep/archive mail of a user that has left the company. This is a good way to keep the data just in case there’s a need for it.

Note that in order to export to a file share, you will first need a file share. The Exchange Trusted Subsystem security group will need permissions to the shared folder you’ll be exporting to. These permissions include Read for imports, Read/Write for exports.

Blue Team Labs Online - Security Operations

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 00:27:44 -0500

Overview

Some fun looking through the Security Operations category on Blue Team Labs Online. Allowed me to obtain some notes for common things that I already do on a day to day basis. Along with some things that may be useful in the future to reference.

Phishing Analysis

Scenario

A user has received a phishing email and forwarded it to the SOC. Can you investigate the email and attachment to collect useful artifacts?

Moving Away From The Hermit To Terminal Theme

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 10:58:23 -0600

Moving away from Hermit theme to the Terminal theme.

Deleting Local User Accounts In Windows 10

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 10:17:09 -0500

Overview

This article will go over deleting user accounts properly in Windows. That means deleting the user accounts home directory and the accounts user account in the registry.

There are two ways you can do this. But, for now I’ll cover the easiest way using the GUI.

This can also be used to clean up Active Directory accounts that have signed into the workstation. If users no longer sign into the workstation and you only have one available, it isn’t sensical to keep all of those accounts on the workstation. Remove them.

Some Fun With Date and Get-Date For File Generation

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 11:04:10 -0500

Overview

Just going through an overview of how posts are named on this site. Meaning the file name. This is mostly for my own benefit. But, if it helps others organize their own sites, cool beans.

The site names the file names for posts using the date and time in the format "%Y%m%d%H%M%S". This is so I don’t have any duplicates. I will admit, this is a random post. This will not provide any other explaination to justify why other than I like it this way. It’s managable for now.

How I Setup vim-plug

Sun, 25 Jul 2021 00:51:33 -0500

Overview

Here I will be discussing my favorite Vim pluggin manager, vim-plug. I’ve been using it for years and I forget how to install it every time. So, I’m going to document how I set it up. Only distro that I install Vim on is Linux/BSD. I don’t really use it on Windows. So, that isn’t going to be included. The author of the Vim plugin will provide a method for it though. I will only do so if I decide to use it in Windows some day.

qBittorrent: Log Files Reference On Windows 10

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 08:57:51 -0600

Notes regarding the file path of qBittorrent log files on different OS.

Hugo Container Required An Update

Sun, 25 Apr 2021 00:30:26 -0600

Notes on some updates to this site. Had some issues with the gitlab-ci.yml file so it didn’t deploy as expected.

Playing With The Windows 10 Sticky Keys Bypass

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 13:18:17 -0600

Notes on setting up, executing, and cleaning up the Sticky Keys bypass in Windows 10.

When Printing Freezes Google Chrome

Wed, 07 Apr 2021 13:54:43 -0600

Notes for troubleshooting Google Chrome when printing causes it to freeze.

CyberWarrior CTF

Sat, 20 Mar 2021 23:40:51 -0500

Summary

This is my writeup of CyberWorrior CTF. This is an ongoing CTF with various challenges for Reversing, Forensics, Binary Exploitation, OSINT, General, etc. As you complete challenges, you’re rewarded points and challenges get harder and harder as you take on more.

Below is the link to the challenge.

https://ctf.cyberwarrior.com/

I will be providing all the challenge categories provided in their own sections within the writeup. With that explained, let’s get started.

Adding Shared Calendars to Microsoft Outlook

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 09:01:05 -0600

Overview

This article is a brief article on adding Calendars to Microsoft Outlook. This scenario is generally after you’ve been granted permission to a users Calendar folder.

Process

Below is the process for adding a shared calendar to Outlook. You will need to know the name of the shared calendar before you proceed and confirm that permissions have been assigned.

Open Microsoft Outlook.
Click on the Calendar tab in the lower left-hand corner of the application.
In the Home tab at the top of the application, click on “Open Calendar”.
Click on Open Shared Calendar…
You can do two things from the “Open a Shared Calendar” form.

Type the email address of the shared calendar. Click OK.
Search for the calendar using the “Name…” button. This will open the Global Address List (GAL) so you can search through the users. Once you select the approprate user, click OK.

Conclusion

The newly added Shared Calendar will now be in the “Shared Calendars” category. Just check the box and you’ll see it. If there are any questions, please let me know.

Uninstall Headaches With Webroot Secure Anywhere

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 12:01:50 -0600

Notes for troubleshooting Webroot Secure Anywhere when the uninstaller doesn’t fully uninstall.

Branching Out Into Different Content

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 22:09:46 +0600

Some thoughts regarding the content for this site and if more can be offered.

SANs Holiday Hack Challenge - KringleCon 3: French Hens!

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 00:38:40 -0600

Notes from doing SANs Holiday Hack Challenge - KringleCon 3: French Hens.

Vulnhub - PWNED: 1

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 23:03:30 -0600

Overview

Notes for my completion of the Vulnhub machine PWNED: 1 by Ajs Walker. Description

Below is the description provided by the author of the VM.

VM name: Pwned
Difficulty: Easy
DHCP: Enabled
Goal: 3 flags

This works better with VirtualBox rather than VMware.

Below is a link to the Vulnhub machine.

PWNED: 1

Enumeration

Started out with enumerating services on the VM with an Nmap scan. Looks like the server is hosting an FTP and web server. SSH is available on the VM as well. Looks like this is a Debian/Ubuntu box.

picoCTF 2019

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 15:50:15 -0600

Writeups and notes from Hack The Box.

Windows: NTFS & Share Permission Reference

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 14:27:59 -0600

Notes on NTFS & Share permissions just in case I need a reference.

Hack The Box: Invite

Sun, 08 Sep 2019 15:56:15 -0600

Notes from gaining entry to Hack The Box.

Costmetic & Naviation Updates

Tue, 30 Jul 2019 23:55:17 +0600

Some updates for Cosmetics and Navigation for this site.

Under The Wire Writeups

Sat, 20 Apr 2019 08:08:05 -0600

List of solutions for the Under The Wire Wargames.

Install & Watch Binary Defense's Artillery Work In A Azure Ubuntu VM

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 04:16:17 -0600

Summary

This tutorial shows how to setup Artillery on Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS. Installation can be achieved on most Linux/Unix distributions though. Binary Defense has also developed support for Windows systems. Which is awesome! Artillery was created by David Kennedy and is maintained by his company Binary Defense.

Below is a link to Binary Defense’s Artillery repository.

Binary Defense - Artillery

Artillery has a couple of great features. For those who don’t understand the gist of what what Artillery is, it is a honeypot. Which does the following.

Blog Using Static Site Generator & Theme Update

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 17:17:32 -0600

Announcement and notes for moving this blog to a Static Site Generator. New theme too.

Over The Wire Writeups

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 05:52:26 -0600

List of solutions for the Over The Wire Wargames.

Over The Wire: Bandit

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 05:52:26 -0600

Notes from doing the Over The Wire Bandit wargame.

New Blog 2019

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 16:49:01 +0600

Announcing the start of a new blog.

Santa's Business Card: SANS Holiday Hack Challenge 2016

Thu, 08 Dec 2016 16:27:44 -0600

Writeup/report for Santa’s Business Card: SANs Holiday Hack Challenge 2016

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

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Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

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