NetworkJew

WiFi Protected Setup not so Protected after all

Network Jew — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:40:26 +0000

Every WiFi-certified router that ships these days must have WPS (WiFi protected setup) in order to meet the certification guidlines put forth by the WiFi Alliance. WPS allows you to easily connect your device to a WiFi router through the use of either a button or a 8-digit pin, usually harcoded to the router itself, and typically printed on a sticker on the device itself.

Unfortunately, the manner in which WPS was implemented is not secure at all. Without getting too technical, the problem lies with how the 8 digit PIN is verified by router. Instead of checking the entire 8 digits, it checks the first four, then the next four. Well, you have a 1 in 10,000 chance of guessing the first four digits, which in a brute force attack doesn’t take an unreasonable amount of time.

In fact, using the open source tool, REAVER (http://code.google.com/p/reaver-wps/), you can EASILY crack the WPA password of your (or your neighbor’s) router very easily. I”m sure that Windows and Mac tools to perform this attack will be released soon.

The kicker is that in order tobe certified, WPS has to be enabled BY DEFAULT by the manufacturer, even if you’re not using it or aware that it exists.

You should go into your WIFI router’s configuration pages and disable WPS as soon as you can. It is highly insecure, and you run the risk of strangers eavesdropping on your network traffic if you don’t. Certainly, if you’re in a corporate environment you need to do this ASAP. For the average home user, you’ll need to weigh the risk, but if it was me, I’d disable it right now.

My favorite Gmail Search trick

Network Jew — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:29:28 +0000

One thing I hate is having unread messages in my mailbox. Its espeically bothersome if you have an iPhone, as the little new mail number icon on your homescreen will constantly be incrementing, and at some point becomes a useless number. Sometimes, you get so many messages but don’t necessarily want to read all of them. Often you get the idea from just the subject and the sender. Rather than going through and checking each one and selecting mark as read, here’s a little trick to easily select only the unread messages. In the search box for gmail type:

is:unread

Now, only the unread messages will show up. Simply click the select all box at the top and choose mark as read, and BAM, they’re all read. If you’re like me, you may have multiple pages of these to go through. After you clear one page, the next should show up automagically.

Security Researcher shows how to iPwn an iPhone.

Network Jew — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 04:10:06 +0000

Great article and video demonstrating, what I consider, a pretty serious security flaw in IOS. Apparently, in an attempt to speed up mobile Safari, Apple created a vulnerability allowing the browser to run unsigned code. Looks like, in the video, that he managed to get meterpreter, from the popular Metasploit kit, downloaded onto an unjailbroken iPhone and own it.

Click here for more

How to turn your Optiplex GX520 into the Ultimate Hackintosh

Network Jew — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:20:21 +0000

For years, I’ve had OSX running on my old Dell Optiplex GX520. First I started with Tiger, then I eventually was able to get Leopard running up to version 10.5.8. however, that was as far as I could get it working. Most troubles upgrading kept coming from the GMA950 Video. Thankfully, someone at InsanelyMAC, posted a guide recently on how to get this machine all the way up to 10.6.6 Snow Leopard. So, make sure you have a valid license, then hit up the link to get your Mac on.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=233396&start=0&p=1612453&#entry1612453

Inserting Images in HTML Gmail Signatures

Assistant NetworkJew — Fri, 21 May 2010 13:10:17 +0000

One of the only flaws with gmail is the lack of support for html signatures, or signatures that you can put images in. Now, with the help of Google Labs and some minor tweaking, you can easily accomplish this much wanted and needed feature.

Step 1: Go to Gmail Settings –> Labs and enable “Canned Responses” as well as “Inserting Images.”

Step 2: Compose a new message in Gmail and create a signature just like you would compose any other email message. Be creative!

You can either upload logos and icons from the computer or use ones that are already on the web. I suggest the former style as that will permanently embed the image into your email signature.

Step 3: Once your happy with the formatting and layout of your new “HTML signature,” go to the Canned Response menu and Save – give some logical name like “Personal” for a signature that you want to attach to your personal emails.

Now whenever you are composing a new message in Gmail or replying to an existing message, just select the relevant signature from the Canned Responses drop-down and it will be inserted inline as in this screenshot.

The Windows Key in Windows XP

Network Jew — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:11:25 +0000

Many people often wonder what that funny looking key is on their keyboard with a little flag on it. It’s referred to as the “Windows Key”, or “Windows Logo Key” or “Start Key” and you can use it to perform many shortcuts to help improve your productivity.

Pressing the Windows key by itself, brings up the start menu, and from there you can navigate up and down the start menu with your keyboard arrow keys, and press enter on the program you want to launch. No more mousing around!

There are several other Windows key combinations you can perform as well, by holding down the Windows Key and pressing another key:

Windows Logo+BREAK (Display the System Properties dialog box)
Windows Logo+D (Display the desktop)
Windows Logo+M (Minimize all of the windows)
Windows Logo+SHIFT+M (Restore the minimized windows)
Windows Logo+E (Open My Computer)
Windows Logo+F (Search for a file or a folder)
CTRL+Windows Logo+F (Search for computers)
Windows Logo+F1 (Display Windows Help)
Windows Logo+ L (Lock the keyboard)
Windows Logo+R (Open the Run dialog box)

Augmented Reality Port-o-Potties

Network Jew — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:59:30 +0000

These were seen at the SWSWi kickoff party. Here’s a great way to keep the lines down at the port-o’s. There were projectors and sensors attached to the port-o-potties, so you could see how long people have been in there and who’s sitting or standing. Too much info?

Hack your Iphone/ iTouch into a Vonage Softphone

Network Jew — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 05:31:25 +0000

Vonage is a great service. Its relatively inexpensive, and they’ve got some great features, like Simu-Ring, email notifications, etc., I had always thought that in order to use the Vonage service one needed to use one of their hardware solutions, or pay extra for a “softphone” – a software based SIP phone, with an additional phone number, and monthly charge. Wouldn’t it be great if you could fire up any SIP software based phone of your choice and still get dial tone from your Vonage account? Well, thanks to a nifty little hack, you can.

The first thing you need is your Vonage web account information. Once you have it, enter the following into your web browser, making sure to replace the parts in bold with your account information.

https://im-config.vonagenetworks.net/config?&login=USERNAME&password=PASSWORD&type=1003

You’ll end up with a page full of mostly useless information. however, you want to copy down the following entries as they relate to your account:

ProxyUserName=username
ProxyUserPassword=FAB16g93E7a
ProxyDomain=a.vonim.com
ProxyPort=10000

Now that you’ve got the secret information, you have two choices depending on whether your iPhone is jailbroken or not.

1) If your phone is NOT jailbroken, go the the App Store and grab the free FRING application. Once you’ve set your free Fring account up , go to More then Add-ons
Select SIP, then Other

Fill out the fields as follows:
User ID = ProxyUserName
Password = ProxyUserPassword
Proxy = ProxyDomain:ProxyPort

(mine was a.vonim.com:10000)

Now save those settings and try making a SIP call. you’ll notice that your calls appear to come from your Vonage line. Neat!

2) If you phone is Jailbroken, get on Cydia and install the free SIPHON aaplication. Install it, then go to your iPhones settings menu and open up the settings for Siphon. Enter your username and passsword that you got from the webhack above. For server, enter the Proxydomain:Proxyport. (mine was a.vonim.com:10000) There’s all sorts of other settings you can make if you’re a real SIP guru. Close the settings, fire up Siphon and start dialing.

Be sure whenever using either softphone to include the area code when dialing.

Enable Background Tasks on Iphone 3GS

Network Jew — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:41:04 +0000

If you’re like me, the greatest limiting factor on the Iphone is its inability to run more than one application at a time. In Apple’s infinite wisdom, they apparently decided that battery life and performance were more important than actual usefulness and productivity. One of the best benefits to Jailbreaking your Iphone is the ability to run applications in the background. So the next time you’re listening to Pandora , and you decide you want to check movie times or hit up ebay, you can just send Pandora to the background, where it will continue playing your music until you return to it and close it. Nifty. You should know that this is a HACK – not supported by Apple, and applications for the iPhone are not necessarily written to support being run in the background. That being said, here’s how to make it happen:

1) Jailbreak your Iphone 3GS (if you haven’t, click here for instructions)

2) Once you have Cydia installed, open it, and search for Backgrounder, and install it. Make sure you get the 3.0 version.

3) Close Cydia, reboot your iphone and launch Backgrounder. Once you reboot, its actually already running. Read the “how to use” and the Release Notes, as well as Known Issues.

4) there are no “settings” or configurable options for Backgrounder on the 3GS. To keep a program running in the background, simply hold down the home key until Backgrounding Enabled appears. the app will go away, but if you’re streaming music it will continue to play. OPen and close the app as usual to continue to keep it running. When you’re ready to fully close the app, repeat the enable process- hold down the home key until Backgrounding Disabled appears briefly. The app is now closed.

5) Some things to be aware of:

If you open too many apps simlutaneously you can crash the apps or the iPhone itself. I try to limit to 1 or 2 apps running in the background only.
There’s no easy way to tell what applications are open in the background without using another utillity like SysInfoPlus, which you can also grab through Cydia.
I’ve read that there are issues with apps that use voice control like Skype running in the background.

How to JailBreak the Iphone 3GS

Network Jew — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:01:04 +0000

I decided to wait a week after getting my 3GS to attempt jailbreaking it. I wanted to be sure that I had a good feel for the device’s quirks before throwing any third-party software at it and creating more. That being said, jailbreaking the 3GS turned out to be a pretty simple process. I did it on the mac, but it works just as well on the PC.

Grab the latest version of Itunes before you start and be sure you’re on Iphone 3GS 3.0 software ONLY. I can’t say whether this will work with updates beyond that.

1) go to http://purplera1n.com Click on the link for your OS, and download either the Windows EXE or the Zipped Mac app.

2) Connect your Iphone 3GS via USB to your computer. Cancel any sync activity. Launch the appropriate app for your system.

You shoudl see one of these two windows, depending on your OS:

3) Click “Make it rain”, and let the Jailbreak commence…

Your Iphone should go into Recovery Mode at this point, and after a couple minutes, reboot itself. At that point, you’re done. One my phone, it actually got stuck rebooting. I had to perform a reset by holding power and home at the same time.

4) After it reboots, you should have a new app called Freeze. Run it, and it should install Cydia – the jailbreak software repository.

5) Enjoy your new found freedom.

Some cool things you can do with your jailbroken iPhone 3Gs:

Run background apps
Hide unwanted app icons (stocks, youtube, weather..)
Tether
SSH into (and from) your iphone
Run unix/bsd command line tools with MobileTerminal
Customize the look of your iPhone
Use Qik for live video streaming
Unlock your iPhone for another carrier