A repository of information technology questions and answers

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Limiting users who can login via RDP

1 minute read    1727 visits.

If you only want some members of the Administrators group to have RDP access, you can adjust this in Local Security Settings

Setting up an SSHD failover daemon in Ubuntu

1 minute read    3535 visits.

A simple article on how to create a failover SSH server on a Ubuntu system, allowing you to connect on an alternative port of the original SSHD fails

How to enable USB write protection in Windows 10

1 minute read    1230 visits.

Introducing an unknown USB device into a network can cause a host of security headaches. Take away the threat in Windows 10 in just a few short steps.

Resetting Oracle VM 3.x Agent Password

1 minute read    3302 visits.

To facilitate the initial discovery of the Hypervisor part of the setup requires that we set the password for the root user and for the ovs-agent.

Building a Solaris 11 IPS Server

2 minute read    1641 visits.

Maintaining a copy of the Solaris distribution is a good way to ensure all your systems have access to updates and software packages.

Troubleshooting NetWorker authorisation errors

1 minute read    5829 visits.

This article provides a list of possible causes and resolutions for error messages that are related to NetWorker server authorization issues.

Downloading the CloudBoost encryption keys

1 minute read    2967 visits.

Always download your Cloudboost Encryption keys at your earliest possible time as there is no way to retrieve them after a system failure.

Gaining root access to VBA via ssh

1 minute read    2962 visits.

This post provides the steps necessary to log into a VBA through SSH and load the dpnid key to ensure all the commands are run correctly.

Private and public key pairs for SSH

3 minute read    2187 visits.

SSH has a key management capacity and related agents.When configured with public key authentication, your key proves your identity to remote SSH hosts

SSH configuration and security best practices

2 minute read    3014 visits.

Here is a list of processes and configurations that you can use to tighten and enhance SSH security with regard to remote host access

Configuring OpenSSH on Solaris 8

1 minute read    3116 visits.

Solaris 8 doesn't come with the SSH and SFTP like features, to enable these we have to install and configure third party packages

Changing the Oracle VM Manager User Password

1 minute read    4356 visits.

The Oracle VM Manager user lets you log in to the Oracle VM Manager Web UI. This article provides the steps required to change the admin password.

Troubleshooting NSR tunnel

3 minute read    1991 visits.

The NSR tunnel resource enables NetWorker clients and storage nodes to communicate with a NetWorker server over a firewall

Avamar System default passwords

1 minute read    9184 visits.

This article provides a list of default passwords for an Avamar grid. If you have not already, consider changing the defaults for security reasons.

NetWorker in a Firewalled environment

1 minute read    3319 visits.

Default service ports for NetWorker are TCP 7937-9936. hey are randomly chosen by the configured port range by EMC portmapper.

How to reset MySQL root password

2 minute read    2773 visits.

Have you forgotten MariaDB root password? You don't know how to recover it. Not to worry, use these steps to reset MariaDB root password.

How to reset MariaDB root password

1 minute read    2457 visits.

Have you forgotten MariaDB root password? You don't know how to recover it. Not to worry, use these steps to reset MariaDB root password.

How to allow root login on Solaris 11

1 minute read    3437 visits.

After your installation of Solaris 11 has completed, you will not be able to login directly to the console as the root user

Using AIDE to ensure Linux server integrity

4 minute read    3060 visits.

AIDE provides an additional layer to your server security not by keeping intruders out but by notifying you as the sysadmin of a possible intrusion.

Restricting Access to SSH Connections

2 minute read    2968 visits.

A set of direcetives that are under used are the AllowUsers, AllowGroups, DenyUsers and DenyGroups to restrict user and groups remote access with SSH.

Securing SSH on Solaris 10

2 minute read    3030 visits.

It is strongly recommended that sites abandon older clear-text login protocols and use SSH to prevent sniffing of sensitive data off the network

Recovering from a lost root password under Linux

1 minute read    3259 visits.

This article provides a quick procedure on how to recover a lost root password frm virtually any version of Linux which uses the GRUB boot loader.

Turn On/Off Apache Directory Listing

1 minute read    2581 visits.

To enable the directory browsing in Apache server, we need to add the directory option in apache configuration file.

Changing Avamar Passwords

1 minute read    6022 visits.

Changing only the passwords for the operating system users does not sufficiently prevent someone from logging in to Avamar server nodes.

Solaris UADMIN commands

1 minute read    3110 visits.

The uadmin command is tightly coupled to the system administration procedures and is not intended for general use

Restricting SFTP users with chrooted access

1 minute read    2700 visits.

In a nutshell users will be tied-down to a specific directory which they will not be able to move from, thus prevention from seeing you entire system

Restoring original Solaris file permissions

1 minute read    3126 visits.

In the event of drastic file permission or ownership changes, it is possible to restore the original permissions of the file(s)

Using SSH login without password

1 minute read    3196 visits.

An article outlining steps needed to be able to use the SSH to access a remote system without supplying a password each time that you connect.

Solaris Basic Audit Reporting Tool (BART)

2 minute read    3309 visits.

BART is a great little alternative to Tripwire or AIDE. While not so robust or full featured, it does what you need it to do with very little impact.

Clearing Password History in Solaris 10

1 minute read    3484 visits.

To ensure the security of passwords on Solaris systems, you need to edit the /etc/default/passwd file to enforce password length and complexity.

Enforcing password complexity on Solaris

4 minute read    2893 visits.

Solaris 10 is the first version of Solaris to provide a complex set of variables for controlling password strength.

SSH Cheat Sheet

5 minute read    1080 visits.

This post provides me with a reminder of the syntax for the most useful SSH features I use whist auditing systems.

Disabling SELinux in Oracle Linux 6

1 minute read    3021 visits.

In this post, we walk through steps you can follow to check the status of SELinux and also disable it in OEL 6, if it is enabled.

2 Security tweaks to enhance Webmin

2 minute read    928 visits.

Out of the box webmin works great, with these two tweaks we can enhance the security of this web-based sysadmin tool.

How to reset a lost Webmin password

1 minute read    471 visits.

If you've lost your admin password to access webmin, then use the 'changepass.pl' utility to simply reset your webmin password.

Resetting default username and password for NMC

1 minute read    3419 visits.

The following procedures given details on resetting the NMC Administrator password to the default value on Solaris, Linux and Windows systems.

Giving 'scp' go faster stripes

1 minute read    3008 visits.

Transferring files with scp isn't the quickest option, but if it's the only one there's a simple way to make it go a little quicker.

Sun StorEdge SE99x0 default passwords

1 minute read    2457 visits.

This post simple provides a list of the default passwords for the Sun Storage SE 99x0 arrays and Hitatchi Data Systems (HDS) Storage systems.

Solaris Secure by Default

1 minute read    2992 visits.

This project changes the default configuration of the Solaris OS such that ssh is the only network-listening service.

Solaris Security Toolkit (JASS)

1 minute read    2952 visits.

The Solaris Security Toolkit simplifies and automates the process of securing Solaris OS systems and is based on proven security best practices/

Solaris IP Filtering

1 minute read    3024 visits.

IPF provides stateful packet filtering capabilities by IP address, network, port, protocol, network interface and traffic direction.

Solaris Auditing

4 minute read    3889 visits.

Solaris auditing helps to detect potential security breaches by revealing suspicious or abnormal patterns of system usage.

Cryptographic Services Management on Solaris

2 minute read    3287 visits.

The Solaris Cryptographic Framework provides cryptographic services to users and applications through user-level and kernel-level commands.

Locking down your Solaris system

2 minute read    2692 visits.

With later releases of Solaris, if you want to, you can manually lock down your system using the netstat, svcs and svcadm commands.

NetWorker lockbox password management

1 minute read    5728 visits.

NetWorker 7.5 provides a lockbox service that allows NetWorker application modules to securely store and retrieve passwords over the network.

Solaris password truncated to 8 characters

1 minute read    607 visits.

Why is my long password truncated to 8 characters, classed as weak, doesn't have enough different characters or classes — Hmmm! go figure.

Deleting Windows temp files

3 minute read    2695 visits.

Any file under the Windows Temp folder is safe to delete. But that isn't the only place that temporary files are stored on Windows computers.

Securing access to a Solaris system

3 minute read    3079 visits.

This document details some of the focus areas for security and provides suggestions to make it strong.

sadmind daemon vulnerability

1 minute read    2740 visits.

In its default configuration sadmind uses a set of clear text Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) to authenticate between two machines.

A simple Disk Wipe procedure on Solaris

1 minute read    3733 visits.

Overwriting a disk with the format command is usually enough for most purposes, because it greatly reduces the chance that any data can be recovered.

Sun EEPROM Security

1 minute read    2862 visits.

On Sun workstations and servers you can interact with the boot EEPROM (NVRAM) at any time by holding down the STOP (L1) key and pressing the "a" key

NIS+ Credential Setup

2 minute read    3358 visits.

To gain authorisation to change NIS+ databases you need to create your security credentials for the NIS+ principals