Top 6 Security Tips
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
The hardest part of keeping your PC secure is having to deal with the consequences of not keeping your PC secure. In this article, I have given you a handful of vital security tips and techniques that are sure to keep your system locked up tight.
1.Block Malware
One of the most important things you should do on any computer you use is make sure it’s running antivirus software. There are many free options available and many others that charge a nominal fee. Some things to look for include real-time protection and frequently updating virus definitions. These updates are typically very small, so they don’t consume many resources while downloading and installing, but they make sure your system is protected from the latest malware making the rounds.
To see a list of trustworthy programs, click Start, Control Panel, System And Security, Action Center, and then click the Find A Program Online button in the Virus Protection section. While you’re here, if it’s not already on, make sure to enable the Network Fire-wall by clicking Turn On Now.
2.Permanently Delete A File
Getting rid of sensitive files on your PC is a vital security task, and dragging them to the Recycle Bin is not sufficient.Even emptying the Recycle Bin won’t permanently destroy the file; a determined hacker could still recover it under the right circumstances. To eliminate those files once and for all, you’ll need a third-party application, like WebMinds’ Easy File Shredder ($29.95; www.easyfileshredder.com). This util-ity lets you rest easy knowing that nobody will be able to re-cover files you’ve shredded. It also protects your whole disk drive and lets you shred files on USB drives and SD cards.
3.Secure Your Wi-Fi Network
Your Wi-Fi network most likely extends beyond the walls of your home or business, so unless you want anyone nearby to have access to your PCs, notebooks, or devices, you need to enable your router’s security protocols. Most routers today support WPA (Wireless Protected Access) or WPA2 encryption. WEP (Wire-less Encryption Protocol) is a much older and more vulnerable technology, but use it if you have no alter-native. Typically, enabling these protocols involves log-ging into your Router’s setup utility using a browser and the router’s IP address. Consult your router man-ual for specific instructions. Then you’ll choose your desired security type (WPA2 is preferred) and input a password. With the wireless network protected, any device that connects will need to input this password to get onto the network.
4.Enable User Account Control
User Account Control, or UAC, is the security scheme that notifies you anytime a program or user attempts to make
changes to Windows settings or installs something. To access this control, click Start, Control Panel, System And Security,
and then click Change User Account Control Settings from the Action Center section at the top of the window. The safest
settings are Always Notify and Default, so choose either of these two. Dragging the slider to the bottom two settings is only recommended for users who run applications not certi-fied for use on Windows 7.
changes to Windows settings or installs something. To access this control, click Start, Control Panel, System And Security,
and then click Change User Account Control Settings from the Action Center section at the top of the window. The safest
settings are Always Notify and Default, so choose either of these two. Dragging the slider to the bottom two settings is only recommended for users who run applications not certi-fied for use on Windows 7.
5.Keep Up To Date
Security on computers is a moving target, which is why it’s imperative to keep your PC up to date by turn-ing on automatic updating. Click Start, Control Panel, System & Security, and then click the Turn Automatic Updating On Or Off hyperlink underneath Windows Update. Choose the Install Updates Automatically op-tion.
6.Change Your Passwords
Passwords are the keys to your digital identity, and if you use a single password for all of your banking, email, social networks, and more, then you’re putting yourself at risk. Pick three or four passwords, and make them difficult to guess by including letters, numbers, and a combination of upper- and lower-case characters. Passwords of eight characters or more
are generally more secure than shorter passwords.
are generally more secure than shorter passwords.
Changing the Startup tone in Windows 7
Tuesday, 12 March 2013
Hi Guys, Do you want to change the start-up tone in Windows 7 then you are at the right place. Follow the steps given below to change the default tone to your favorite tone.
Step 1:
Choose your favorite tone with a time duration of less than 10 sec. I suggest you to choose a tone less than 10 sec because normally the windows start-up time will be less than 15 sec so the login tone should not overlap the start-up tone.
Choose your favorite tone with a time duration of less than 10 sec. I suggest you to choose a tone less than 10 sec because normally the windows start-up time will be less than 15 sec so the login tone should not overlap the start-up tone.
Step 2:
If the tone is in WAV format then don’t do any change in it. Otherwise convert the tone into WAV format. Use the below link to for online sound format conversion.
If the tone is in WAV format then don’t do any change in it. Otherwise convert the tone into WAV format. Use the below link to for online sound format conversion.
Step 3:
Rename the sound file to 5080.wav Eg: If the tone is funny.wav then rename the file to 5080.wav.
Rename the sound file to 5080.wav Eg: If the tone is funny.wav then rename the file to 5080.wav.
Step 4:
Now go to drive where you installed the windows, usually (C:\). Go to the specified folder Windows>System32.
Step 5:
Find the dll file named imageres.dll in the System32 folder. Copy the imageres.dll file and paste it in the desktop.
Note: Also try to copy the dll file in some other location for backup. If something goes wrong you can use it.
Step 6:
Download ,install and run the dll editor software from the below link.
Step 7: Download ,install and run the dll editor software from the below link.
In the dll editor software go to File>Open and open the imageres.dll file which is present in the desktop.
Step 8:
Expand the folder WAVE>5080 and select the file 1033 present in it.
Expand the folder WAVE>5080 and select the file 1033 present in it.
Step 9:
Go to Action>Replace other resource.
Step 10:
Select Open file with new resource button and select the sound file which you named as 5080.wav
Select Open file with new resource button and select the sound file which you named as 5080.wav
Step 11:
Enter the Resource Type as WAVE, Resource Name as 5080 and Resource Language as 1033 and then click Replace.
Enter the Resource Type as WAVE, Resource Name as 5080 and Resource Language as 1033 and then click Replace.
Step 12:
Now save the file (File>Save). You will see two dll files placed in the desktop, one will be the original copy and other will the newly created one(imageres.dll).
Now save the file (File>Save). You will see two dll files placed in the desktop, one will be the original copy and other will the newly created one(imageres.dll).
Step 13:
Copy the newly created file and go to the System32 folder. Now rename the imageres.dll file to imageresold.dll which is present in the System32 folder and paste the newly created dll file.
Note: You can’t delete the imageres.dll file which is present in System32 folder so renaming works well.
-Hope that this will teach you a good trick in Windows 7.Your valuable feedback is needed to improve ourselves.
With Regards,
Ramachandran Pragasam.
With Regards,
Ramachandran Pragasam.
Speed up your Android device by Overclocking it
Monday, 11 March 2013
There are few different methods available to speed up your Android device by Overclocking it.
Overclocking is an act of telling the processor to run at a faster speed than it was initially intended to.
Severe overclocking can cause stability issues, and in very extreme cases, damage the CPU,but usually you can gain 10 to 15 per cent extra speed without any problems.
The most common app to overclock your device is SetCPU, but the developer android app developers has recently released an easy app without lots of complex settings.
Your ROM/Kernel will need to support overclocking for the app to work.
You will see two sliders:
The top is the max speed that the device’s CPU will run at , and the bottom is the minimum.
Reducing the max and min frequency can help save battery,but going too far will make the device laggy.
Try increasing the max by a small amount, then pressing the Menu button and settings and run the performance Test.
If all goes well,you can then try increasing the max speed some more.
List of Current Working Devices:
Samsung Galaxy S / S2
Sony Ericsson Xperia Family
Huawei U8800 (IDEOS x5)
Milestone 1
LG Optimus One / 2X
LG GT540
Samsung Galaxy S / S2
Sony Ericsson Xperia Family
Huawei U8800 (IDEOS x5)
Milestone 1
LG Optimus One / 2X
LG GT540
-Hope this article much valuable for Android users.
View Sites blocked by Firewall
Sunday, 10 March 2013
Hi buddies , this time I’ll teach you on how to view a site that you really want to access in your company or college ,but unfortunately it has been blocked by their firewall.
Not only that, can also view website when its server was gone down, or imagine some content that was published on a website ,which was then taken down a few days later for some reason.
Now, Let us assume that your college or company has blocked access to the ‘Why this Kolaveri Di ‘ wikipedia page, but you really want to access it.
All you have to do is:
STEP 1: Start your browser and connect to any popular search engine of your choice.
STEP 2: Search for the blocked webpage that you wish to access.
STEP 2: Search for the blocked webpage that you wish to access.
Within the search results that get displayed, look for the relevant blocked webpage that you wish to access and click on its CACHED link below it or next to it to access its cached copy.
On google, in case you do not see the CACHED link below the search results, then you need to move your mouse over the instant preview button next to the search result and then on the right handside preview space, the CACHED link will appear.
It is also possible to view a cached copy of a site by mentioning its URL this way:
Eg: I need to view www.thehindu.com
Then I search as cache:www.thehindu.com
This will automatically display the most recent cached copy of The Hindu home page.
I’ve used it……..but HOW IT WORKS ?
All popular search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and others ,spider the entire Internet,recording all metadata details and keywords that appear on all pages.
All popular search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and others ,spider the entire Internet,recording all metadata details and keywords that appear on all pages.
This recorded metadata and keywords of all pages are then used to determine a page’s quality and rank in search results.
Along with this ,most search engines also take a snapshot of all webpages on Internet and store a cache copy of them.
And this becomes an extremely usefull one for us, and it is a simple but clever trick of fooling local firewall, bypassing any basic filters ! Of course, I use this to watch a cached copy of a site, which has been blocked by my college’s Sonic Firewall.
Google’s Cloud Print
Saturday, 9 March 2013
The hardest part of keeping your PC secure is having to deal with the consequences of not keeping your PC secure. In this article, I have given you a handful of vital security tips and techniques that are sure to keep your system locked up tight.
The Cloud print service from Google makes it possible for PC users to wirelessly print to a networked printer from smartphones,
laptops, and tablets capable of supporting Google services, such as Gmail or Google Docs and even the Google Drive, which makes us to experience the Software as a Service(SaaS) of the Cloud.
laptops, and tablets capable of supporting Google services, such as Gmail or Google Docs and even the Google Drive, which makes us to experience the Software as a Service(SaaS) of the Cloud.
Unlike Apple’s AirPrint, which works over the local Wi-Fi network and currently requires an AirPrint-compatible printer, Cloud Print sends your print jobs via the internet.
To get started, you’ll need to Connect your printer to Google Cloud Print.
To get your own Google Cloud Print, follow these simple steps.
To get started, you’ll need to Connect your printer to Google Cloud Print.
To get your own Google Cloud Print, follow these simple steps.
STEP 1: DOWNLOAD GOOGLE CHROME
Google Cloud Print supports a number of flavors of Windows, including XP, Vista, and Windows 7. No matter which version of Windows your rig is rocking, you’ll need to have Google’s zippy Chrome browser installed on your PC in order to leverage Google Cloud Print. You can find it at www.google.com/chrome. The computer on which you install Google Cloud Print needs to be connected
to the same network as the printer you want to print from. Before moving on to Step 2, open Chrome and turn on your printer.
You will also need a Google account
to continue, which you can create at www.google.com/accounts.
to the same network as the printer you want to print from. Before moving on to Step 2, open Chrome and turn on your printer.
You will also need a Google account
to continue, which you can create at www.google.com/accounts.
STEP 2: GET SIGNED-UP
Look for the wrench icon in the top-right corner of the Chrome window.
Click it, and from the menu that opens up, select Options. This will open the Options pane. From the Options pane, click the tab
labeled Under the Hood and scroll to the bottom of the available options (image G).
Click the button marked—you guessed it—Sign in to Google Cloud Print.
Now, sign in using your Google Account credentials.
Click it, and from the menu that opens up, select Options. This will open the Options pane. From the Options pane, click the tab
labeled Under the Hood and scroll to the bottom of the available options (image G).
Click the button marked—you guessed it—Sign in to Google Cloud Print.
Now, sign in using your Google Account credentials.
STEP 3: PRINT A TEST PAGE
If everything goes according to plan, you’ll be rewarded with a window telling you that the operation is a success.
That same window has a button prompting you to print a test page.
Give it a click. In doing so, Chrome will open a new browser window that prompts you a second time to Print a test page.
Select a printer or a service and click Print (image H).
That same window has a button prompting you to print a test page.
Give it a click. In doing so, Chrome will open a new browser window that prompts you a second time to Print a test page.
Select a printer or a service and click Print (image H).
STEP 4: EXPERIENCE THE CLOUD PRINT NOW
Now that you’ve set up Google Cloud Print on your home computer, you’re ready to start printing on the fly from your smartphone or other Internet-connected mobile device.
Grab your mobile computing device of choice and navigate to Google Docs(or Google Drive). Select a file.
From the menu bar at the top of your Google Docs interface, click the Option button (located to the left of the Refresh button), and then tap the Print link.
Doing so will open a new browser window that reflects the same printer options as were offered on your networked computer back at home (image I).
To print your Google Docs file, select a printer, set your print options if need be, and watch as Google Cloud Print does its thing.
Provided you left your computer at home on with Chrome up and running, your print jobs will be sent from mobile device back to
your computer.
If you turned your computer off before leaving home or the office, turn it back on when you return and open Chrome.
Your documents will be sent to the printer of your choice in short order.
Grab your mobile computing device of choice and navigate to Google Docs(or Google Drive). Select a file.
From the menu bar at the top of your Google Docs interface, click the Option button (located to the left of the Refresh button), and then tap the Print link.
Doing so will open a new browser window that reflects the same printer options as were offered on your networked computer back at home (image I).
To print your Google Docs file, select a printer, set your print options if need be, and watch as Google Cloud Print does its thing.
Provided you left your computer at home on with Chrome up and running, your print jobs will be sent from mobile device back to
your computer.
If you turned your computer off before leaving home or the office, turn it back on when you return and open Chrome.
Your documents will be sent to the printer of your choice in short order.
Use Web Messengers instead of Instant Messengers
Friday, 8 March 2013
Hi guys, I’ve seen many colleges and companies, don’t allow Instant messengers to be installed in your systems due to security, privacy and confidentiality reasons and installations are strictly blocked by their system administrators.
But if you are like me and cannot live without chatting with your friends even for a few hours, then a very good alternative is to use something known as Web messengers.
Almost all Instant messengers have an online web interface that allows you to chat with your friends from within your browser itself without the need to download and install any instant messaging application on your machine.
There are also third party web messaging tools available that are compatible with all popular instant messaging platforms.
Some of the most poplular websites thtat allow you to continue chatting with your friends using just your browser are:
Google Talk : http://www.gmail.com
http://www.google.com/talk
MSN Messenger : http://www.webmessenger.live.com
Yahoo Messenger : http://www.messenger.yahoo.com/web
IMO : https://imo.im/
eBuddy : http://www.ebuddy.com
Here IMO and eBuddy supports MSN , Skype , Yahoo , Google , Facebook , AIM , ICQ , Jabber and many others.
All you need is to go to the site and select your network and get logged in.
Reset lost password in Ubuntu-Precise Pangolin
Thursday, 7 March 2013
Have you lost your admin password, here is a simple way for you to recover it.
This works till the latest Precise pangolin (12.04) version of Ubuntu.
- By default the first user’s account is an administrative account, so if the UI is prompting you for a password it’s probably that person’s user password. If the user doesn’t remember their password you need to reset it. To do this you need to boot into recovery mode.
- Boot up the machine, and after the BIOS screen, hold down the left Shift key.
- At the boot menu (GRUB), hit the down arrow until you select the 2nd entry from the top (the one with the recovery mode in the description) and then hit Enter.
- Using the arrow keys scroll down to either root or netroot and then hit Enter.
- You should now see a root prompt, something like this:
root @ubuntu:~#
At this stage it is possible that ,you might have setted-up a read-only filesystem. You have to remount it with write permissions:
At this stage it is possible that ,you might have setted-up a read-only filesystem. You have to remount it with write permissions:
mount -rw -o remount /
Now we can set the user’s password with the passwd command. (In this example I will use badhri as the example, you need to substitute whatever the user’s username is):
passwd badhri
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
root @ubuntu:~#
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
root @ubuntu:~#
Type in what you want the new password to be at the prompt. After it’s successful reboot the machine and the user will be able to log in with their new password.
-Hope this is much useful for Linux Lovers……
( WARNING: Never try this for cracking any admin’s password).
( WARNING: Never try this for cracking any admin’s password).
Some unfamiliar Google products
Wednesday, 6 March 2013
Google provides a lot of services and products online,which keeps on increasing according to current trend and needs. Google also had discontinued from various products and tools, due to lack of support, or due to lack of popularity in the market.
But there remains some products that are worthy, though they remain unfamiliar or less popular among people. Here, I list a few of them:
1.AngularJS:
A JavaScript framework, used to reduce the amount of JavaScript needed to make web applications.
2.Dart:
A programming language developed by google and introduced as an opensource. It was mainly developed to replace JavaScript, and to have a much flexible language to get implemented in large scale projects, and also with an intention that it should become an universal client side script.
3.Map Maker:
Lets you update Google Maps & Google Earth data of over 200 countries with relevant information. You can add new places, edit details of existing places or review information submitted by other users. The changes made by you will be reviewed by moderators — once approved, they will get added and accessible to anyone in the world.
4.Google Currents:
It is a mobile app available for iOS and Android devices, to get updated with various news channels and magazines.
5.Building Maker:
Web based building and editing tool to create 3D buildings, much useful for engineers and house designers. Its important feature is that, the created one can be imported and get integrated to Google Earth.
6.Moderator:
It is an open forum by Google where anyone can initiate a discussion about anything. Once you submit a question or start a topic, other users vote if the question or idea is good or not. Visitors can also post comments or questions in the discussion, which can also be voted upon, marked as useful or flagged as inappropriate. You can share an entire discussion or a specific comment via email, Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus to elicit more responses.
7.Go:
a compiled, garbage-collected, concurrent programming language developed by Google. Its syntax is similar to that of C. It supports Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, OpenBSD,Plan 9, and Microsoft Windows operating systems.
8.Schemer:
Its a Google service that allows you to make a list of activities to do around you (according to your interests). You can add friends (called accomplices) to your schemer account and it will automatically find and recommend common activities that you and your friends can do. You can also browse schemes recommended by people for various places and add those to your list.
9.SketchUp:
Modeling application to sketch simple 3D structures for integrating into Google Earth. It Supports Mac OS X, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.
10.Page Speed:
Used to analyse and have an online insight on our website’s speed, and to get suggestions to improve our page speed. It also provides a score for better analysis.
11.Visigami:
Image search application screen saver that searches files from Google Images, Picasa and Flickr. It Supports Mac OS X Leopard.
12.Google Mars:
Imagery of Mars using the Google Maps interface. Elevation, visible imagery and infrared imagery can be shown. It was released on March 13, 2006, the anniversary of the birth of astronomer Percival Lowell.
13.Google Moon:
NASA imagery of the moon through the Google Maps interface. It was launched on July 20, 2005, in honor of the first manned Moon landing on July 20, 1969.
14.Google Sky:
Internet tool to view stars and galaxies, can be used via browser version of “Google Sky”.
15.Zygote Body:
It is used to render manipulable 3D anatomical models of the human body. Several layers from muscle tissues down to blood vessels could be made transparent to allow better study of individual body parts.
16.Scholar:
This is a customized search for articles, theses, books, court opinions and other documents. It can help you with locating the entire document on the web if available, and articles are ranked according to quality of content, the author and how often has it been used as a reference in other documents. It holds almost all IEEE, Elsevier, Springer papers, useful for students under research and projects.
17.Google Insights for Search:
Google Insights for Search is a service by Google similar to Google Trends, providing insights into the search terms people have been entering into the Google search engine.
18.Google Refine:
Tool for data cleansing and processing.
19.Trendalyzer:
Data trend viewing platform to make nation’s statistics accessible on the internet in an animated, interactive graph form.
20.Google Trends:
Graph plotting application for Web Search statistics, showing the popularity of particular search terms over time. Multiple terms can be shown at once. Results can also be displayed by city, region or language. Related news stories are also shown. Has “Google Trends for Websites” sub-section which shows popularity of websites over time.
21.Zeitgeist:
Collection of lists of the most frequent search queries. Gives weekly, monthly and yearly lists, and topic and country specific lists.
22.Google Squared:
Takes a category and creates a starter ‘square‘ of information, automatically fetching and organizing facts from across the web.
23.Google Tasks :
Keep track of what you need to do. Your task list stays up to date no matter how you access it. It’s a simple list that’s with you everywhere you go.
24.Jaiku:
Create your own microblog and connect with your friends.
25.reCAPTCHA :
A captcha system that uses successful decoding to helps digitize books for online use.
26.Textcube :
Korean blogging platform.
Does your Browser uses Sandboxing ?
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
There are a plenty of browsers available now. But people go only for the best one of the big three: Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome.
But which is best among them ?, stays as an ambiguous question.
Each browser has its own mechanism for its efficient performance.
But Google stands as an highlighted one when coming to security and for a safer browsing.
Google’s Chrome browser is safe for its two reasons:
1. First, it’s the only browser to use sandboxing as its primary defense mechanism. This method combines a JavaScript virtual machine with an OS-level sandbox to prevent successful attacks against the browser’s rendering engine from affecting a user’s file system.
2. Second, Google updates the Adobe Flash and Acrobat Reader modules itself. So if you’re running the latest version of Chrome, you’re running the latest, most secure versions of Flash and Acrobat Reader available.
But we’re just getting started. JavaScript vulnerabilities—including blatant attacks that rely on a user’s cooperation to work—can just as easily affect your browser.
If you’re using Firefox, grab an extension called NoScript, which will allow you to disable a page’s plugin elements (including Java Script and Flash!) by default, unless you trust the site enough to give them a go.
Click Here to install : noscript.net
Chrome doesn’t have an add-on for the same feature, but you can disable Java Script by default in the browser’s Under the Hood settings section.
And if you want to specifically allow a site’s JavaScript to function, just click the associated X icon in the browser’s address bar to set up site-specific trust.
A sneak peek into Facebook server
Monday, 4 March 2013
Data centers—how they’re designed and what hardware they run—are generally deeply guarded secrets within a corporation.
Indeed, a particularly efficient data center is considered a competitive advantage.
But secrecy isn’t an objective of Facebook’s Open Compute Project.
There are six basic server types at Facebook, but the two frontline machines are the web server and the memcache server.
The web server is the first machine you connect with when you visit Facebook.com, and it does a lot of heavy lifting and database lookups.
These boxes run Linux and Apache.
Currently, these machines uses Intel Xeon rigs running dual 2.66GHz six-core Xeon X5650s.
These boxes also have a surprisingly low amount of RAM in them: just 12GB of unregistered DDR3.
Once the web server has done your lookup, data is pulled from dual Opteron-based memcache servers running Memcached, an open-source memory-caching system.
These machines are engineered for cost-efficiency.
As such, they run dual octo-core 2GHz Opteron 6128 procs in G34 sockets.
The machines feature 72GB of DDR3/800 RAM to help feed your profile page as quickly as possible.
The next iteration of the memcache servers are expected to double with 144GB RAM.
Since neither server type performs any heavy-duty local storage functions, Facebook opted for the cheapest hard drive available— in this case, a 250GB WD Caviar Blue drive—to boot the OS and store log files.
While the machines may lack a bit in the specs department, when you gang them together, their cumulative firepower is impressive.
Facebook won’t disclose exactly how many machines it uses for running.
- But Every day a truck arrives with 13 racks of new computers in it.
- Each rack holds 90 servers.
- Once that truck is unloaded, another truck will pull up with another 13 racks.
- Each day, four trucks arrive.
- This happens every day of the work week all year round, just to keep up with the demand.
The amazing thing is that Facebook’s servers are only a small part of the secret sauce in the company’s new data center.
Advances in cooling, server design, and backup power make Facebook’s Pineville facility perhaps one of the most energy-efficient data centers on the planet.
Best sources to learn PHP
Sunday, 3 March 2013
Hi friends, Are you searching for best tutorials or books to get started with PHP ?
Here I provide you some best sources where you can find splendid tutorial sites and books that makes newbies to feel easy.
TUTORIAL SITES:These sites gives beginners a good intro to the language and makes you to understand well with live demos and free source codes to test it ourselves.
Also much useful for developers who need to make their projects more lively and scintillating.
BOOKS :
Google these books now and start learning. I suggest you to download free ebooks if you find.
Head First PHP & MySQL
MASTERING PHP 5
PHP Cookbook
PHP Bible
PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy
PHP for Absolute Beginners
Professional PHP5
Beginning PHP, Apache, MySQL Web Development by WROX
Best Sources to learn Blogger
Saturday, 2 March 2013
Are you searching for best tutorial sites for getting into Google’s Blogger…
Here are my suggestions for you :
1. Before entering into blogging, my best advice is to learn “Google Blogger For Dummies” book completely to understand what blogging is about.
2. Best tutorial for Blogger:
2. Best tutorial for Blogger:
Google’s Blogger Guide : This guides you on how to create,publish,post and edit the blog.
BloggerBuster.com : A must read tutorial on how to build your blog entirely. Gives you a brief guide on various topics needed for a blogger.
What Everybody Ought to Know About Session Hijacking
Friday, 1 March 2013
When comes to hacking, most of the people think that they are safe now and are aware of many hacking techniques like phishing , key-logging and other amateur hacking tricks.
But many would have fallen into a trap called Session Hijacking which they would have never realized so far…..
What is Session Hijacking?
Websites are prone to Session hijacking when it uses any login system for authentication.
Sessions are usually created on the server side of the web, to hold a status whether a user is currently logged in to the site and he is currently active.
This provision is generally given to all sites by web developers. But, the intruders use this technique for their favour.
Sessions generally uses cookies to save its information. Cookie is a piece of text stored on user computer by websites visited by the user.
This stored cookie is used by webserver to identify and authenticate the user while login.
So, if this cookie gets stolen by hackers and injected into their browser, they can imitate our identity to web-server and enter our Email account easily. This is called Session Hijacking or Cookie stealing hack of an user ID in a Web application.
Session Hijacking too can be done in Network level which is explained below …
How does an attacker go about hijacking a session in a network ? The hijack can be broken down into four broad phases.
1.Tracking the connection :
The attacker will wait to find a suitable target and host. He use a network sniffer to track the victim and host or identify a suitable user by scanning with a scanning tool such as nmap to find a target with a trivial TCP sequence prediction.
This is done to ensure that because the correct sequence and acknowledgement numbers are captured, as packets are checked by TCP through sequence and/or acknowledgement numbers.
These will later be used by the attacker in crafting his own packets.
2.Desynchronizing the connection
A desynchronized state is when a connection between the target and host is in the established state; or in a stable state with no data transmission; or the server’s sequence number is not equal to the client’s acknowledgement number; or the clients sequence number is not equal to the server’s acknowledgement number. To desynchronize the connection between the target and host, the sequence number or the acknowledgement number (SEQ/ACK) of the server must be changed. This can be done if null data is sent to the server so that the server’s SEQ/ACK numbers will advance; while the target machine will not register such an increment.
The desynchronizing is preceded by the attacker monitoring the session without interference till an opportune moment, when he will send a large amount of ” null data” to the server. This data serves only to change the ACK number on the server and does not affect anything else. The attacker does likewise to the target also. Now both the server and target are desynchronized.
3.Resetting the connection
Another approach is to send a reset flag to the server and tearing down the connection on the server side. This is ideally done in the early setup stage. The goal of the attacker is to break the connection on the server side and create a new one with different sequence number.
The attacker listens for a SYN/ACK packet from the server to the host. On detecting the packet, he sends an RST to the server and a SYN packet with exactly the same parameters such as port number but a different sequence number.
The server on receiving the RST packet, closes connection with the target, but initiates another one based on the SYN packet – with a different sequence number on the same port. Having opened a new connection, the server sends a SYN/ACK packet to the target for acknowledgement.
The attacker detects (but does not intercept) this and sends back an ACK packet to the server. Now, the server is in the established state.
The target is oblivious to the conversation and has already switched to the established state when it received the first SYN/ACK packet from the server. Now both server and target are in desynchronized but established state.
This can also be done using a FIN flag, but this will cause the server to respond with an ACK and give away the attack through an ACK storm.
This results due to a flaw in this method of hijacking a TCP connection. When receiving an unacceptable packet the host acknowledges it by sending the expected sequence number and using its own sequence number.
This packet is itself unacceptable and will generate an acknowledgement packet which in turn will generate an acknowledgement packet, thereby creating a supposedly endless loop for every data packet sent.
The mismatch in SEQ/ACK numbers results in excess network traffic with both the server and target trying to verify the right sequence. Since these packets do not carry data they are not retransmitted if the packet is lost.
However, since TCP uses IP the loss of a single packet puts an end to the unwanted conversation between the server and target on the network.
The desynchronizing stage is added in the hijack sequence so that the target host is kept in the dark about the attack.
Without desynchronizing, the attacker will still be able to inject data to the server and even keep his identity by spoofing an IP address. However, he will have to put up with the server’s response being relayed to the target host as well.
4.Injecting the attacker’s packet
Now that the attacker has interrupted the connection between the server and target, he can choose to either inject data into the network or actively participate as the “man in the middle”, and pass data from the target to the server, and vice versa, reading and injecting data as he sees fit.
Illustration:
- Ram opens a telnet session to Noor and starts doing some work.
- Badhri observes the connection between Ram and Noor using a sniffer that is integrated into his hijacking tool. Badhri makes a note of Ram’s IP address and his hijacking software samples the TCP sequence numbers of the connection between Ram and Noor.
- Badhri launches a DoS attack against Ram to stop Ram doing further work on Noor and to prevent an ACK storm from interfering with his attack.
- Badhri generates spoofed packets with the correct TCP sequence numbers and connects to Noor.
- Noor thinks that he is still connected to Ram.
- Ram notices a lack of response from Noor and blames it on the network.
- Badhri finds himself at a root prompt on Noor. He issues some commands to make a backdoor and uses the sniffer to observe the responses from Noor.
- After covering his tracks, Badhri logs out of Noor and ceases the DoS attack against Ram.
- Ram notices that his connection to Noor has been dropped.
- Badhri uses his backdoor to get directly into Noor.
-Hope this article gave you a clear idea on session hijacking.
Thank you.
UEFI or BIOS ?
Thursday, 28 February 2013
- The first bit of code that runs when you hit the power button, the PC’s Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) is responsible for checking hardware and their conditions, and then finally passing control over to the operating system.This has been the same for a long time.
- But there’s a new alternate now finally. Called Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). As we know, newer is not always better, let us compare both technologies and determine which is better.
INTERFACE:
Just click check-in the interface yourself……….
Now…have I to tell you which is Best interface….?
FEATURES:
- The BIOS is written in Assembly, cannot be translated to another CPU architecture, runs in 16-bit real mode, and can only address 1 MB of RAM.
- UEFI, on the other hand, is written in C, supports both 32-bit and 64-bit, and even has network access. UEFI also promises faster boot times over the BIOS, although we have yet to see it .
PARTITION LIMIT :
- The BIOS would likely continue to be supported if not for its most glaring problem: its inability to support partitions beyond 2TB (2.2TB to be specific).
- UEFI, on the other hand, will support up to 9.4ZB, or 9.4 billion terabytes.
EASE OF USE:
- The BIOS has been with us so long, you’d think that most of us could drive it in our sleep. Unfortunately, it’s not always that easy and every board maker has its own BIOS interface.
- UEFI’s graphical interface promises greater ease of use, and, indeed, Asus’s drag-and-drop interface for boot devices is evidence of that. Still, some UEFI settings are as difficult to decipher as those in the BIOS, but it’s only going to get easier and better from here.
Change is difficult for many. It’s like making the switch from Office 2003 to Office 2010, and its impossible now to work with its older version.
In the same way, UEFI is the future and we’re only at the beginning stage.
In the same way, UEFI is the future and we’re only at the beginning stage.
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