[vi-tech-testers] Re: Functions or packages people would like included?

  • From: Mobeen Iqbal <mobeeniqbal@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: vi-tech-testers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 16:07:57 +0100

Hi Mike. many thanks i'll add it to the list.

Mo.


On 26/07/2014 16:01, Mike Ray wrote:

One of the first things I always have to do when I install Talking Arch
is install cower by getting it with wget and building it.

If it could be included it would circumvent that step.


On 26/07/2014 13:03, Rill wrote:

The infamous but very useful dd command in Linux can be used to wipe a
disk or partition by zeroing it out. People say "dd" stands for "disk
destroyer". I use it to write Raspberry Pi images to sd cards, but get
confused and you can mess up your hard drive. For the uninitiated,
part of the command line is if=what you want to write and of=where you
want to write it. The one letter difference could get you in trouble
very quickly if you are not paying attention. Smile.
Rill

Mobeen Iqbal wrote:

Hi Mike.

hmm, an interesting point! something like the wipe utility could be a
candidate for inclusion unless people know of a better program? to be
honest i've never wiped a drive in linux, though i'm sure there are a
number of utilities around. i'll put it on the list for
inclusion/testing, many thanks for the suggestion keep them coming!

Mo.


On 26/07/2014 10:36, M F Mason wrote:

Hello Mo,

I was wondering whether it might be a good idea
to include any tools dealing with such areas as:

Drive Cleansing, File Shredding, and System Clean-up.
for example,
if I look at the Acronis TrueImage user guide I see something like
the following:

Acronis True Image Home contains utilities for secure destruction of
data on an entire
hard disk drive, individual partitions, as well as for erasing
individual files and eliminating
user system activity traces.

When replacing an old hard drive with a new, higher-capacity one,
one may unwittingly leave on the old disk lots of personal and
confidential information
that can be recovered, even if one has reformatted it.
The Acronis DriveCleanser provides
for the destruction of confidential information on hard disk drives
and/or partitions
with the help of techniques that meet or exceed most national and
state standards.
You can select an appropriate data destruction method depending on
the importance of your confidential information.
The File Shredder provides the same capabilities for individual
files and folders.
Finally, the System Clean-up wizard ensures elimination of all your
activity traces;
while working with a PC, you leave thousands of bytes of evidence
showing your actions
(records in various system files) that you don't even know about.
This could include user
names and passwords, as well as other personal information that
could be used to steal your
identity if it fell into the wrong hands. This utility wipes them
completely from the disk drive.

Given that I know little or nothing about Linux,
I have no knowledge whether similar kinds of utilities exist.

Just some thoughts,

Many thanks,

Mike.

At 02:00 26/07/2014, you wrote:

Hi.

2 excellent suggestions. in terms of irc clients, what's better?
xChat or Irssi? i've not used either but is there 1 people would
prefer over the other?

Mo.


On 25/07/2014 22:00, M Lakhani wrote:

Yep agreed.
Also, something like xChat or similar irc client would probably
aid collaboration.

HTH
Muzz

Sent from my iPhone


On 24 Jul 2014, at 16:48, Rill <starbasecafe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'm wondering if nmap would be a good candidate for inclusion. I
use it a lot.
Rill

Agent Orange wrote:

All great ideas Mo.

The reason why I suggest a password recovery tool, as well as
(or in preference to) a password reset tool, is that for folks
who may have implemented EFS (Encrypting File System) on their
Windows machines, resetting a Windows account password using one
of these third party tools will be likely to render files
encrypted with EFS on that account unreadable (unless they have
had the foresight to back up their encryption keys, and even
then it can be problematic).

Of course, no harm in having both password recovery and password
reset options.

On the subject of disc encryption, I've been thinking about my
own data security recently. Having spent quite a lot of time
researching EFS, I am reluctant to use it. In one way this is a
pitty as it is readily available on all modern versions of
Windows, is easy to implement, and provides transparent,
on-the-fly encryption and decryption. Unfortunately, it's exact
operation on Windows 7 is poorly documented by Microsoft, and
there are doubts about its efficacy because of weaknesses in the
NTLM hashes used to protect the Windows account password, which
is used as the basis for the file encryption key.

This has lead me to look at the recently defunct TrueCrypt and
other solutions like DiscCryptor as possible alternatives to EFS.

TrueCrypt, despite having been officially closed down by its
developers, might still be a viable encryption option. An
independent security audit paid for from crowd funding and
carried out by iSEC Partners has reported no significant flaws
or backdoors, and a new team is being assembled to take the
project forward under a new name. Version 7.1a together with all
documentation is being temporarily hosted elsewhere and can
still be obtained. This is a well understood tool with excellent
documentation.

DiscCryptor has virtually no documentation to support it, though
it has a loyal band of enthusiastic reviewers who commend it.
Unfortunately, the lack of documentation makes it difficult to
determine how it would work in different scenarios, such as when
using disc imaging.

So not really certain as yet which way I will go, but at
present, probably leaning towards TrueCrypt.

Anyway, my point is that both of these products advise the
creation of a rescue CD before applying the encryption. In the
case of TrueCrypt, I believe it is a generic rescue CD which
could be used to rescue files encrypted with TrueCrypt on any
machine. In the case of discCryptor, I believe the ISO is
tailored to each specific installation.

This would make TrueCrypt a better candidate for inclusion in a
live rescue CD than DiscCryptor.

This is all a very long-winded way of asking whether it might be
feasible to include a TrueCrypt rescue tool?

I know that Image For Windows, which is an disc imaging package,
has included a Linux version of TrueCrypt in its Live Linux boot
CD. I do not know which Linux distro is used in the Image For
Linux live boot CD, but it is a sort of command prompt type
environment, where the Image for Linux interface looks and feels
very much like CloneZilla.

Sorry for the ramble and if you made it this far, thanks!

Phil







-----Original Message-----
From: vi-tech-testers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vi-tech-testers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Mobeen Iqbal
Sent: 18 July 2014 10:10
To: vi-tech-testers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vi-tech-testers] Functions or packages people would
like included?

Hello phil.

Many thanks for the suggestion! Yes i totally agree, the only
thing that we have to bear in mind is this might end up as a dvd
release. I will be looking at ophcrack over the next few days. I
will also be looking into including an MBR repair tool, file
recovery tool, windows password reset tool, and possibly some
network troubleshooting tools if people want them. If anyone has
any other suggestions, please don't hesitate to respond.

Thanks for reading,

Mo.



Agent Orange <agentorange@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Mo,

Probably getting ahead of myself here, but one tool which it
might be useful
to have on a Linux rescue CD is a Windows password recovery tool
such as
Ophcrack. You can already download and burn Ophcrack as a Live
CD ISO which
boots into a desktop GUI version of Linux, but of course it
doesn't talk so
useless at present. There is another version which runs under
Linux/Unix
but not sure whether it would run under Arch.

See this link:

http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/

Phil


-----Original Message-----
From: vi-tech-testers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vi-tech-testers-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Mobeen Iqbal
Sent: 16 July 2014 20:23
To: vi-tech-testers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vi-tech-testers] has anyone tested
the new
image?

Hello Everyone.

Its been rather quiet on here to say the least. Has anyone apart
from Rill
had a chance to test the new image? the next stage is going to
be compiling
a list of packages or functions that people would like to see
from a live
rescue CD version of linux, and documenting the various programs
chosen for
a specific task. but of course, a list isn't a list without
people's
feedback/comments, so please keep your feedback coming.

thanks for reading,

Mo.

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