Dan Kaminsky has (quite rightly) been hitting the press a lot in the weeks since 8 July when he announced the work done to fix a flaw he had discovered in DNS. The vulnerability itself was new, but its impact (cache poisoning) was not. Indeed, we’ve known about the dangers of poisoned DNS caches for …
Category: networks and networking
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2008/08/10/trusting-dns/
Jun 20 2008
backtrack 3 released
Any half decent sysadmin will routinely test the security of his or her own systems. A good, and sensible, sysadmin will follow up those tests with an independent security audit by a professional company – preferably one which is a member of a recognised industry body (such as CREST). Finding the holes in your security …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2008/06/20/backtrack-3-released/
Mar 01 2008
ssh through http proxy
On a mail list I subscribe to I have recently been involved in a discussion about the restrictions sometimes placed on users of WiFi hotspots or hotel networks (to say nothing of the restrictions placed on corporate networks). Some of the suggested solutions involve tunnelling ssh connections over http(s). Other solutions assume that the network …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2008/03/01/ssh-through-http-proxy/
Jan 19 2008
another vulnerability in the home hub
The guys at gnucitizen have posted details of another vulnerability in the BT home hub (and related Thomson routers). This vulnerability allows a remote attacker to reconfigure the router using the UPnP functionality which is turned on by default. UPnP is an authenticationless protocol designed to allow local devices to reconfigure the router – typically …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2008/01/19/another-vulnerability-in-the-home-hub/
Dec 30 2007
reflashing the BT home hub from a linux PC
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I found several references to successful reflashes of the BT hub to a genuine Thomson 7G image on a variety of sites. None of those sites gave instructions as to how to do this if you run a linux PC. So I have documented how I did it …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2007/12/30/reflashing-the-bt-home-hub-from-a-linux-pc/
Dec 15 2007
homehubblog goes off-line
Some of my earlier posts have referred to the “homehubblog”. The author of that blog seems to have had his domain name stolen from under his feet. The address given now links to an estate agent site. I know that there are robots out there just waiting to pounce on domains which come up for …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2007/12/15/homehubblog-goes-off-line/
Dec 15 2007
leaving BT Broadband
My contract with BT has now expired and I am shortly to move my ADSL connection to one of the Entanet resellers (TitanADSL). All the Entanet resellers I have read about get good reviews. I picked TitanADSL because they offer additional webspace and mySQL databases on top of their broadband service. With luck my IP …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2007/12/15/leaving-bt-broadband/
Nov 25 2007
more on the BT home hub
I last wrote about the BT Home Hub (HH) nearly a year ago. Looking back, I spent an unreasonable amount of time trying to get BT “support” to even bother to read, let alone understand, my problems. Eventually I gave up in disgust. Here I was fortunate because I had substituted a genuine Thomson ST780 …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2007/11/25/more-on-the-bt-home-hub/
Feb 08 2007
update on the Reg about BT and the GPL
I knew this one would run….. The Register notes that BT believe they have done enough to comply with the GPL by publishing the code here. But the Free Software Foundation remains unconvinced. In my view BT should respond more positively and work with the foundation to meet the requirements of the GPL. We’ll see.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2007/02/08/update-on-the-reg-about-bt-and-the-gpl/
Jan 22 2007
BT home hub and the GPL
I mentioned the Home Hub Blog in an earlier post. That author of that blog (amongst others) has been trying to find a way to unlock the Hub so that it can be used on ISPs other than BT itself. Unfortunately, BT seems to have tied the beast down (and ties it further with each …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2007/01/22/bt-home-hub-and-the-gpl/
Jan 17 2007
another update to correspondence with a corporation
Since my last post at the end of last year I have been testing my ST780 with a variety of alternative VOIP providers whilst at the same time trying to get BT to sort out my connection. I also lodged a formal complaint about the appalling level of technical support with the BT complaints department …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2007/01/17/another-update-to-correspondence-with-a-corporation/
Jan 02 2007
BT home hub
In my searches for more information about the BT Home Hub and its configuration I have come across a couple of good sites. The Home Hub Blog is an interesting collection of notes about the author’s attempts to unlock the Hub so that it can be used on other ISP’s networks. This is the reverse …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2007/01/02/bt-home-hub/
Dec 31 2006
update to correspondence with a corporation
BT support finally called me back again today (two days late, but hey) and again attempted to transfer me immediately to the Broadband Talk support department. Before I allowed them to do so, however, I made certain that the person I was talking to fully understood my problem. I believe she did. But she confirmed …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2006/12/31/update-to-correspondence-with-a-corporation/
Dec 30 2006
DMT for linux
I have just found a rather nice tool for querying my Thomson DSL modem. It is rewrite of a tool originally written for windows by A. Matthoefer. The author of the linux version is Timo Boettcher. The tool compiled cleanly and worked first time with my ST780WL. It should work equally well with the BT …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2006/12/30/dmt-for-linux/
Dec 29 2006
correspondence with a corporation
Recently I have been experiencing a small problem with my BT broadband connection. I should point out that in general my experience wth BT’s broadband offering is very good. Whilst not the cheapest around, the quality and reliability of the connection are better than I have heard reported from friends and colleagues with other ISPs. …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2006/12/29/correspondence-with-a-corporation/