MotomaSTYLE

And where does this come from?

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Do you know where this came from:

"All of you are finished.

You shall forever kneel in my shadow,

and forever live your life in this cursed land.

You will never enjoy seeing the sun rise with joy.

You will never enjoy seeing the relief of watching the sun set.

You will now live in darkness and die in darkness.

Miserable clods, weep in your misfortune.

Despair will become your bread,

and death will become your peace."

Anyone?

Decompilation gets real...scary

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Ilfak Guilfanov of DataRescue Inc (the people behind IDA Pro) has posted an entry on his Hex Blog titled Decompilation Gets Real. In it he announces the beta testing of a tool which, when given a binary file, produces accurate and well formatted C code. The immediate consequence of such a tool is the further reduction of the level of knowledge which a would-be hacker must have. Since compilers and assemblers have a distinct optimization fingerprint, it should not be long before automated tools, build from this code regeneration tool, will provide reverse-engineers and crackers with the ability to quickly and efficiently scrub through code for security weaknesses; buffer overflow, format string attacks, and any number of other exploits will be trivial to discover.

The speed and easy in which Guilfanov is able to go through code is what scares me. Take a look at the Decompilation Demo.

LogMeIn Hamachi

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Ever wanted to access files on your home computer from work? Wish you could host a online game with your buddies, but hate the hassle of dealing with routers and firewalls? Desire a little more security in your web-browsing?

LogMeIn Hamachi is a robust tool for establishing VPNs on the go. It provides a simple interface for intermediate and advanced users to build fully encrypted VPNs across the Internet. Available in both free and professional versions, it is easy to use and it looks good too.

The installation was a snap. After following the 5-minute walk through, I had a VPN up and running, allowing me to access my Windows File Sharing and RDP connections immediately.

Visual Studio 2005 Express

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0400

I would just like to once again express how unequivocally pleased I am that Microsoft has produced free versions of their Visual Studio IDE, aptly titled Visual Studio Express. A product such as this is a boon to both the software megalith and individual developers alike. It allows would-be developers the freedom to explore the options at hand, without the moral dilemma of pirating software.

I'll shut up now, Motoma

Eve

Thu, 24 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

While stomping around the cDc blog, I came across the Eve. Eve is a network traffic analyzer which gifts its users with a 3D visual representation of the network traffic as it is happening. To be honest the moment I read this a little part of me screamed for joy. I rushed through the site and downloaded the trial version.

I fired it up. Immediately I was present with a myriad of floating cube and flashing orbs zapping back and forth. I gasped; had technology finally caught up with the Hollywood hackers of yesteryear?

Roughly five minutes in, the novelty wore off. Aside from looking pretty, what was the point of this program? Where is my traceroute? What about filters? The ability to 'traverse' your 'network traffic' in 'real time' is an outrageous exaggeration. The interface provides you with a meager amount of useful information; mouse over a node to see its IP address, memorize the packet color scheme and you can tell if you have TCP, UDP, or ICMP traffic. The placement of nodes in the three dimensional view has no correlation to any particular aspect of the network. In fact, the only useful feature I could find was the 'Stats Graph' which, ultimately, is a toned down version of the Networking tab in the Windows Task Manager. To add to the debauchery, the program crashed twice, with two different errors.

The site states: "By allowing admins to visually inspect network traffic they quickly become accustomed to typical network activity, notice flow patterns and spot bottlenecks or trouble spots." SCAM! This is nothing more than a marketing gimmick to pawn off crappy software to wannabe hackers and kids who think that running this program will make people think they are sexy. In the end, Eve would be better off if it followed the path of the Sonar program for xscreensaver.

Matasano Port Forwarding Interceptor

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Do you ever find yourself in a protocol sniffing situation where you wish you had the ability to sneak a peak at a TCP stream as it happens? Do you find Wireshark--while certainly a powerful and robust tool--too clunky for quick protocol analysis? Do you have a need to intercept, pause, modify, and resend TCP streams? If so, the folks from Matasano have released the perfect tool for you!

Introducing the Matasano Port Forwarding Interceptor! Simply run the tool from a command line and it builds you a lightweight proxy, allowing you to read, record, pause, intercept, and modify a TCP conversation mid-stream. The tool is simple to use; you picking your remote and local addresses and ports, the tool will bring up two windows--one for viewing and halting traffic, one for editing local and remote traffic. The tool is really simple to use, easy to understand, and it gets the job done.

You can read the full introduction to the tool from Matasano's website: http://www.matasano.com/log/1693/matasano-pfi-as-seen-on-tv/

Windows Live Mail

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Windows Live Mail...I want to like you, but you just don't work the way I want.

Where is my ability to connect to IMAP servers with TLS (Note: not SSL)? Where is my ability to sync with Google Calendars?

Your interface is so juicy, but you lack the functionality I need to be productive.