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Hacking VLAN switched networks

Bypassing VLAN security on networked switchesThere isn't much vlan info on the net in terms of specifics and I had to learn all about it because I needed to log in to a switch that was on a different vlan. With the help of the Ettercap developers NaGA and ALoR I figured it out.

Originally Posted: 3/30/2004

Hacking

PHP Session File Hacks

What they say about kung-fu is true..

It can be attained by anyone through hard work over time. You can become as good as the amount of work you put in. Here's a short look at a basic technique that I use. Simply reverse engineering the source code and taking notes along the way...

static void php_session_send_cookie(TSRMLS_D)
  if (SG(headers_sent)) {
          if (output_start_filename) {
                  php_error_docref(NULL TSRMLS_CC, E_WARNING, "Cannot send session cookie - headers already sent by (output started at %s:%d)",
                          output_start_filename, output_start_lineno);
          } else {
                  php_error_docref(NULL TSRMLS_CC, E_WARNING, "Cannot send session cookie - headers already sent");
          }
          return;
  }

  /* URL encode session_name and id because they might be user supplied */
  e_session_name = php_url_encode(PS(session_name), strlen(PS(session_name)), NULL);

PHP

Wget Trick to Download from Restrictive Sites

Before
wget 403 Forbidden After trick
wget bypassing restrictions
I am often logged in to my servers via SSH, and I need to download a file like a WordPress plugin. I've noticed many sites now employ a means of blocking robots like wget from accessing their files. Most of the time they use .htaccess to do this. So a permanent workaround has wget mimick a normal browser.

Linux

Windows Optimization – Intense Part II

If you ever wanted to know the best way to defragment and speed up your Windows-Based PC, I mean you really wanted to know, here is the 2nd part to my article on Windows Speed Optimizing that details the process I have found works really well. Definately not a quick process, and certainly not the best ever, just my best ever and one that you only have to do once to get the benefits. This article has a lot of incredibly useful (and FREE) tools I recommend, which you can grab and use without reading the article..

Windows

Questions I Ask Web Hosting Companies, Before Buying

The following is a transcript of a chat I had with a company called tektonic, and at that time I was looking for a cheap linux host to use for some redundancy/failover operations. I generally contact a new hosting company like this every few months.. I like to have options available in case of some kind of failure or network attack, so it's always a good idea to have a few ace linux servers in your back pocket.

If you've read any other articles on AskApache, you can see a certain obsession towards optimization, speed, and security -- so that is the purpose of the following questions.

Hosting

An AskApache Plugin Upgrade to Rule them All

apache-server-statusSo my blog as been rather quiet for almost a year now, and very few updates if any have been released for my Password Protection PLugin, my Google 404 Plugin, and definately not for my AskApache CrazyCache plugin, which I will be releasing last... So for all of you who've helped me out by sending me suggestions and notifying me of errors and sticking with it... Just wanted to say sorry about that, and thanks for all the great ideas.. Well, I've been sticking with it as well believe it our not. I manage to get free days once in a while, and then its time to jam.

WordPress

If you can crash your daemon, you likely have a security problem

Tons of awesome tips and tricks using netcat. Port redirector, nessus wrapper, capture exploits being sent by vuln scanners, etc. This is very useful for doing stuff like redirecting traffic through your firewall out to other places like web servers and mail hubs, while posing no risk to the firewall machine itself.

Security

Pen-testing Security Tools

While testing the exploitability of your target and mapping out vulnerabilities it is important to gain access inside the targets defenses so that you can establish an internal foothold like a owned box or switch. This is so you can use a tool to discover the packet-filtering being used, and literally map out the firewall/IDS rules. Needless to say that really provides you with a lot more complete vulnerability assessment to help discover more weak spots in the system.

Security

Actual Htaccess Files from My Server

#### No https except to wp-admin -
# If the request is empty ( implies fopen or normal file access by a php script )
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^$ [OR]

# OR if the request if for wp-admin or wp-login.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(wp-admin|wp-login.php).*$ [NC,OR]

# OR if the Referer is https
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^https://www.askapache.com/.*$ [NC]

# THEN skip the following rule, basically all this does is force https or badhost to be redirected
# BUT because of the above 3 rewritecond's, this won't break poorly written admin scripts
RewriteRule .* - [S=1]

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} =on [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.askapache.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule .* https://www.askapache.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9} /(wp-admin/.*|wp-login.php.*) HTTP/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule .* https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

Htaccess