SysAdmin Blog

The ports tree of the upcoming OpenBSD 4.5 release contains Lighttpd (cache) 1.4.21, which unfortunately has a couple of bugs (cache).

Fortunately the OpenBSD port just patches the example config file, so updating it to 1.4.22 is quite easy:

• Download lighttpd-1.4.22.tar.gz to /usr/ports/distfiles
• go to /usr/ports/www/lighttpd
• in Makefile, change DISTNAME to lighttpd-1.4.22
• run "make makesum" to update distinfo
• build and install

Wireshark's (cache) mergecap can only write files to 2GB (no LARGEFILE support).
The error usually is:

mergecap: Error writing to outfile: Less data was written than was requested

A post on the Ubuntu bugtracker (cache) has a workaround: simply write to stdout and pipe the output into a file:

mergecap -w - *.pcap > merged.pcap

Been playing with warprancid (cache) recently.

It's a RANCID plugin that can run anything as long as it creates a RANCID output file.

I somewhat extended the concept by adding a second parameter to the wraprancid script call, so I can now pass ssh user names in addition to the wraprancid script name. Then wrote a few lines that log in to a system via ssh and dump any output into a rancid temp file.

On the remote host I have another script that just goes through a couple of files and types them out with a small header. I'm now using this to capture various config files on our hosts into RANCID. It's certainly not the best way to do something like that, but it reuses existing infrastructure and it's definitely better than no version control.

On the last day, I started off by listening to some of the lightning talks, and then:

• Christian Louis -Sicherheit bei VoIP-Systemen, eine Einführung (cache): as the title suggests, a quite high-level overview on security protocols in common VoIP implementations. Mildly interesting.
• Emmanuel Goldstein - Protesting in the new Millenium (cache): uhm, don't remember much of this talk, although I was in the room all the time.
• Dan Kaminsky - MD5 To Be Considered Harmful Someday (cache): another Dan-Kaminsky-the-rockstar - show, with a few novel ideas on how to make use of MD5 collisions. Went out early, because (again) I couldn't stand his presentation style, which makes every normal sentence sound as if something important was just said.
• phar - Secure Instant Messaging (cache): some infos on IM security (and attacks on AIM), and thoughts on how to improve instand messaging security for business applications
• Fravia - How to find *anything* on the Web (cache): This was more or less the same talk as he held on 19C3, with some additional information. Unfortunately, the presentation style was very unorganized - and at the same time, he would have enough material for a half-day session. Fortunately, there's all the info on his searchlores.org website (cache), with the 21C3 workshop data here (cache).
• Major Malfunction - Old Skewl Hacking: Infra Red (cache): some funny stuff on infra red devices like garage door openers, and on how to hack hotel room TV appliances through additional IR signals not present on the standard remote.
• Frank Rieger, Ron - Security Nightmares 2005 (cache): The traditional session with remarks on last year's predections and new stuff from the patented security nightmare crystal globe. Quite funny and entertaining, as always, but a bit light on content.
• Tim Pritlove - Closing Event (cache): yes. we've all been there, see you next year.

First up, Jahresrückblick (cache). Room started filling up half an hour before the lecture already, but is not quite full yet. I'll probably skip the last half hour, as I'd like to go to the DAVIX workshop (although I don't have a PC laptop to actually actively participate).

The wireless network is much improved over the last time I was at the congress (3 years ago), but still getting sketchy when rooms fill up. Not a real surprise with the amount of machines around ;)

I noticed there's a lot more women in the attendance compared to previous years. I'd hope that's because there's a growing interest in the congresses' topics, but maybe it's just because more aging geeks bring their girlfriends...

I don't really remember a whole lot from day one, as I was very short on sleep yesterday. Was in a couple of talks, but don't remember a whole lot. Most of them were not very deep.

Gadi Evron held a moody speech about incident response on a global scale (cache) - not much seems to have changed there from my days in the ISP world. Informal networks and personal connections still get things done, not any kind of defined communication infrastructure. Europe is still behind in that regard, and there is no accepted forum of european network operators.

Didn't miss the Dan Kaminsky show (cache) at the end of the day. The talk was actually quite good, a rehash of the "DNS bug", with interesting tidbits about how response was coordinated.

Took a plane from Stuttart at 0620h, registered early in the morning (before the huge registration line built up, see below for an impression of the first few metres). *yawn*

My DECT phone is registered at extension 5881.

Today I had another go at encrypting the Windows boot partition on my laptop with Truecrypt. I had prepared to do the usual loop with saving the Truecrypt MBR and add it to Grub as chainloader so I could get back the system selection menu.
Imagine my surprise as my Opensolaris Grub menu showed up right after I entered my password in the Truecrypt preboot auth, no additional configuration required.

Today, I changed my RIPE DB entry and removed myself from the FreiNet NOC role account handle for FREINET-MNT...

Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 16:06:52 +0200 (MEST)
To: ripe-notify@freinet.de
From: RIPE Database Notifications <unread@ripe.net>
Subject: Notification of RIPE Database changes

Dear Colleague,

This is to notify you that some object(s) in RIPE database
which you either maintain or are listed as to-be-notified have
been added, deleted or changed.

The update causing these changes had the following mail headers:

> From:     Alexander Bochmann <bochmann@FreiNet.de>
> Subject:  UPDATE AB54-RIPE
> Date:     Thu, 17 Jun 2004 16:06:29 +0200
> Reply-To: netmaster@FreiNet.de
> MsgId:    <20040617140629.GC1041@FreiNet.de>

For assistance or clarification please contact:
RIPE Database Administration <ripe-dbm@ripe.net>

--
OBJECT BELOW MODIFIED:

person:       Alexander Bochmann
address:      FreiNet GmbH
address:      Loerracher Strasse 5a
address:      D-79115 Freiburg
phone:        +49 761 496 1799
fax-no:       +49 761 496 1790
e-mail:       bochmann@freinet.de
nic-hdl:      AB54-RIPE
notify:       ripe-notify@freinet.de
mnt-by:       FREINET-MNT
changed:      nipper@xlink.net 19950804
changed:      wb@xlink.net 19960729
changed:      mlelstv@xlink.net 19980729
changed:      werner@xlink.net 19991119
changed:      maier@xlink.net 20010327
changed:      bochmann@freinet.de 20011109
source:       RIPE

REPLACED BY:

person:       Alexander Bochmann
address:      Marie-Curie-Strasse 8
address:      D79100 Freiburg
phone:        +49 761 39913
fax-no:       +49 761 381534
e-mail:       ab@st.gxis.de
nic-hdl:      AB54-RIPE
notify:       notify@gxis.de
remarks:      if you have any questions concerning
remarks:      3rd party objects referencing this
remarks:      handle, please contact <support@freinet.de>
mnt-by:       FREINET-MNT
changed:      nipper@xlink.net 19950804
changed:      wb@xlink.net 19960729
changed:      mlelstv@xlink.net 19980729
changed:      werner@xlink.net 19991119
changed:      maier@xlink.net 20010327
changed:      bochmann@freinet.de 20011109
changed:      bochmann@freinet.de 20040617
source:       RIPE

---

Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 16:08:50 +0200 (MEST)
To: ripe-notify@freinet.de
From: RIPE Database Notifications <unread@ripe.net>
Subject: Notification of RIPE Database changes

Dear Colleague,

This is to notify you that some object(s) in RIPE database
which you either maintain or are listed as to-be-notified have
been added, deleted or changed.

The update causing these changes had the following mail headers:

> From:     Alexander Bochmann <bochmann@FreiNet.de>
> Subject:  UPDATE FNNC1-RIPE
> Date:     Thu, 17 Jun 2004 16:08:26 +0200
> Reply-To: netmaster@FreiNet.de
> MsgId:    <20040617140826.GB21629@FreiNet.de>

For assistance or clarification please contact:
RIPE Database Administration <ripe-dbm@ripe.net>

--
OBJECT BELOW MODIFIED:

role:         FreiNet NOC
address:      FreiNet GmbH
address:      Loerracher Strasse 5a
address:      D-79115 Freiburg
address:      Germany
phone:        +49 761 496 1799
fax-no:       +49 761 497 1790
e-mail:       netmaster@freinet.de
admin-c:      MN758-RIPE
tech-c:       AB54-RIPE
tech-c:       FW8
tech-c:       RL6-RIPE
tech-c:       MA1225-RIPE
tech-c:       DAGO-RIPE
nic-hdl:      FNNC1-RIPE
notify:       ripe-notify@freinet.de
mnt-by:       FREINET-MNT
changed:      bochmann@freinet.de 20000418
changed:      bochmann@freinet.de 20001206
changed:      bochmann@freinet.de 20020924
source:       RIPE

REPLACED BY:

role:         FreiNet NOC
address:      FreiNet GmbH
address:      Loerracher Strasse 5a
address:      D-79115 Freiburg
address:      Germany
phone:        +49 761 496 1799
fax-no:       +49 761 497 1790
e-mail:       netmaster@freinet.de
admin-c:      MN758-RIPE
tech-c:       FW8
tech-c:       RL6-RIPE
tech-c:       MA1225-RIPE
tech-c:       DAGO-RIPE
nic-hdl:      FNNC1-RIPE
notify:       ripe-notify@freinet.de
mnt-by:       FREINET-MNT
changed:      bochmann@freinet.de 20000418
changed:      bochmann@freinet.de 20001206
changed:      bochmann@freinet.de 20020924
changed:      bochmann@freinet.de 20040617
source:       RIPE

Ok. Spectacular failiure. No more computers today...