Essential Wireless Hacking Tools

Article by Daniel V. Hoffman from www.ethicalhacker.net, mentioning the following topics:

• Finding Wireless Network
• Attaching
• Sniffing data
• Protecting
  

There are many more articles on this website. I am definitely checking it out later.

http://www.ethicalhacker.net/content/view/16/24/

Doppler Effect related

Java applet demonstrating motion of a sound source and breaking sound barrier at Vsource/Vsound = 1: http://lectureonline.cl.msu.edu/~mmp/applist/doppler/d.htm

I found this visualization to be really useful in understanding the concept

New WEP cracking record

60 seconds to crack WEP of a wireless network (read article here)! I remember back in 2005 when I've heard about WEP cracking for the first time when FBI's agents publicly demonstrated the cracking process. They broke the protection in 3 minutes by sniffing RF packets for long enough to be able to decode the key. Now, 60 seconds is an improvement!

That's another reminder to be aware of vulnerabilities of WiFi. And as one of the reasons, unless situation really requires it, I am trying to stay away from enabling my wireless network. I keep it disabled almost all of the time unless someone with a laptop comes to my place and specifically asks for access. The main reason is to prevent some sneaky grandfathers who live in my building from breaking into my network. ---> see pic on the right.

FBI demo: read it on Slashdot
I think they've used Air Snort or some other tool or a combination of them, I cannot recall now.

Critical Windows XP path for WiFi (not automatically updated)

As suggested by linksys.org and originally by Wi-fiplanet.com. It enhances support for WPA2.

The patch can be downloaded from here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917021

Remembering Names

Yet another cool life tip from 43folders.com - remembering names

Nanotech: New World record - SFU beats MIT's smallest book published in 2001

Previous record: MIT: 5 x 5 mm
New record: SFU: 0.07 x 0.1 mm

read here

Online Organizer

Now, that's the online tool I was looking for. Stikkit.com is an organizer, really easy and intuitive. Nothing needs to be installed, meaning you can use it anywhere where there's internet. What I found useful is the support for various email keywords. Forwarding your friend's email to your Stikkit account's address and adding a few words will automatically tag and format the note.

Trip planning demo

Password "recovery" in Windows

to be finished

Easy password reset in Linux (using Grub)

Another passwd reset post: link

It's being almost a year since I've finished university. Back then I've had a dual boot system on my laptop, using Linux and Windows XP 50/50 percent of the time. Since then I went for a Eurotrip with my friends and moved to Vancouver exploring numerous local mountains and the beautiful land of BC and coastal US. It's been a good four to six months before I've decided to log back into my Linux partition only to find out that I forgot the password that I have changed during one of the last exam days, when I was pushing as much of academic stuff into my head as possible. The only thing that I forgot to do is to memorize the pass. I have tried all the possible combinations that I thought I remembered, but no luck. So, I let it go deciding to come back and recover it later, when I conquer Spanish classes and some training at work that I was busy with on my spare time.

Later in the previous sentence happened to be another four or so months. I've had enough of Linux at work and didn't feel like spending more precious time at home installing something not so user friendly and adapting it (i.e. building/compiling entertainment soft) for home entertainment. I like Linux, don't get me wrong, but it's still sometimes a pain in the butt when something does not work when you need it soon and you know you can do it much faster just by rebooting back to Windows.

In any case, recently I have registered for Wireless Communications course through online program at Stanford, and began spending much more time at my home's laptop than before for obvious reasons. A quick search in the newsgroups has revealed that changing Linux's password is a matter of a few minutes! Even the learning part was trivial, requiring just a few logical steps.

I have tested this on my Ubuntu distribution. From the links below, it looks as even a fewer steps are required for SuSE.

1. Reboot the computer
2. At Grub loader's menu, select the usual line you are using for starting Linux and hit 'e' to edit it.
3. In the appeared boot steps menu, edit the line that contains kernel reference, adding 'init=/bin/bash' to it.
4. Hit Enter to finish editing the line and 'b' to boot to Bash shell.
5. Now, assuming that you don't have RW access, type the following in Bash: 'mount / -o remount,rw'.
6. Use 'passwd' to change root's password, or 'passwd lomtik' to change password for user named lomtik.
7. You are good to go. Reboot and use the newly set passwords!

Now I can say: "Esto es muy fácil!" with a smile on my face : )

Cell Phone Hacking

Recently I have become really interested in cell phone modifications. Here is an interesting video: http://www.break.com/index/cell_phone_hack.html

Cool Tools

Here is another set of useful online tools that I came across this past week. First - somewhat randomly, unusually for me by following a commercial link.

1. QIPIT - Online jpg scanning tool with email and fax capabilities. It allows taking a pic of a document, whiteboard, notes, etc and sending it, already scanned (color and b/w) to email or a fax number. This tool has proved to be really useful the same day. JPG has been emailed to copy@qipit.com with email of a friend who the doc was supposed to be delivered to. Qipit scanned it and delivered both to my friend and myself as a backup in PDF format. PDF files are also stored on the server. Check it out: www.qipit.com
2. ScanR. Similar alternative for mobile phones, which I have not tested yet: www.scanR.com
   http://www.getjar.com/products/6744/scanRScanCopyandFax
3. RDM++ - remote desktop via cell phone. I did not like the idea of third party server storing info about your computer, but that's their implementation (I might be wrong as I have not spent too much time on their website). I'd look for something else. Nevertheless, here's the link: http://www.shapeservices.com/en/products/details/rdmhow
4. GMaps. Really cool mobile tool for your cell phone. That's what I was thining of building myself one of these days. I'll definitely come back to it later and check it out. http://www.getjar.com/products/6949/MobileGMaps

Easy online sync tool to backup and synchronize your files

Wicked! Check out this flash demo first: http://www.getdropbox.com/u/2/screencast.html

So far they are in private beta: http://www.getdropbox.com/

GUI Design

As suggested by my friend Alex S.: "it's about user interface design, and it's one of the best articles I've ever read" http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/

Homemade Nuclear Fusion Reactor

I just came back from the club, partying it up with a some friends from work. A few pages were still open on my laptop that I was planning to shut down for the night. Being all myself, I didn't want to just close it, and gave it a few more minutes of attention. Here is what I came across.

Home made fusion reactor by a 17 year old. "Pumps, deuterium source, neutron bubble dosimeter? Check." http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/03/high_school_stu.html
Full report: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/mar/radioactive-boy-scout


...and if you need to get some deuteruim gas for your next fusion experiement ; ), check out "deuterium oxide" following this link: http://unitednuclear.com/chem.htm, from which you'll be able to get "pure deuterium gas" for just $10!