Back when coding was fun

There was a time when doing a project meant fun, rather than “completion-within-a-deadline”; there was a time when mere curiosity taught me a lot more than the will to learn, and “work” was`nt quite referred to by that term.

I don`t know why but i associate almost every song i hear with a person i know, an event in my life; sometimes even food and aroma.

One look at my first project while listening to one of my favorite songs during high school, brought back loads of old fond memories. C++ was the first language i had ever learnt. And my high school project was a simple, yet elegant Library Management System(along with ol` pal Aju). I had learnt a lot during the course of doing that project and it had taken us around 3 months to complete it. I remember checking the internet back then for ideas i could implement; but remember not liking any i had come across(maybe its `cause my googling skills were`nt half as good back then, dunno). However, the resource i had used to the fullest was the Turbo C++ Documentation. By the end of high school i had gone through all the documentation in Turbo C++ about graphics programming. Minimize resource requirements, Maximize Output. That seemed to work all the time.

Now, i never really was interested in graphics or the GUI aspect of programming(i still am not); i`d done the GUI part in the Library Management system just for the kick of it. And now, its been ages since i`ve coded that way.

College was a place where i was overwhelmed by the technologies and the limitless possibilities around me; and i started utilizing them – one by one. During my first year, i played and experimented with a lot of technologies around me; there were people who could clear half my doubts, books and magazines to double them up again. It must have been the most productive part of my life where i actually enjoyed getting to know stuff so much. From here, later on, spawns my ambition to work in the area of Information Security.

As time passed on, i got my hands on a handful of projects, doing them was fun at the beginning but then my attitude towards programming started changing slowly. I regret saying this, but from then on projects started becoming mere endeavors to learn something somehow AND put it on my resume. I resent saying that, but that is the truth.

All of this sudden realization, thanks to a song and one of my most prized pieces of high school code.

Now, i`ve decided to work on a web application(GUI again), just for the hell of it. I know i`ll learn loads, but thats not the point anymore.

`coz this time its for the fun in it.

Download videos from securitytube.net

It was a Sunday morning `n i was at home. I had to get on a train back to the hostel at noon; a lot of pending work undone, i had to download those videos from www.securitytube.net pronto.

I usually download videos put up on youtube using www.keepvid.com ; its a really good site which gets the job done – nice and easy.

However, videos from securitytube could`nt be downloaded this way; so here are a couple of ways to do it(thnkx to Anirudh and ideamonk)

Method 1 :
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Viewing the source of the page in which the video is being played, and searching for “.mp4″ gets you the actual location of the video. All you have to do is use a download manager to download from that location. I use firefox, and i used the download manager which came with the addon named “DownThemAll!” for this purpose.

Method 2 :
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In case you are using linux, then the videos get buffered into the /tmp directory. Mostly, they`ll begin with the name “Flash” to be followed by a few other numbers and characters. Just copy them to a different location AFTER the video finishes buffering.

Hope this helps!!!

Buffer overflows; the way i see it

Towards the beginning of this month, i was part of a team that had taken part in the CIPHER 5 capture the flag competition; due to lack of experience and preparation we had failed to fare well in it; we came out 22nd out of 32 worldwide.

However, buffer overflows was a topic i did not manage to cover fully during the preps for the competition; so i continued my work on it even after the it. My work is mainly on the Linux distro named DVL – Damn Vulnerable Linux(you mite wanna google it out if you have`nt heard of it);  its a linux distro based on backtrack which has got vulnerable apps of many various kinds which are excellent for practice. It was referred to me by Marcus J. Carey, a security auditor who has helped me in numerous occasions.

Now, i don`t pretend to be an expert on buffer overflows; i`d rate myself intermediate. However, i`ll mention a few guidelines you could follow which might help you at exploiting overflows. SO, here are the references(please let me know if there are better ones)
1. Try reading `bout buffer overflows on wikipedia.
2. Video tutorials on “Assembly programming in Linux” which`ll explain the basics of memory management and assembly programming on an Intel x86 system by Vivek Ramachandran.(1-7 is enough). Neat work.
3.Video tutorials on “Exploiting buffer overflows” by Vivek Ramachandran(1-5). Neat again(but a bit slow).
4.Try reading “Smashing the Stack” ; an excellent article by aleph1 which was published in the Phrack magazine.

Now, once you are done with all that you could try out DVL(i used DVL 1.4); i`d suggest you go through the challenges in the -

/dvl/exploitmes_package_04/

directory before going through the others. After going through all the above tutorials the challenges in that directory should be a breeze.;-) However, if you still find trouble there are a nicely written tut`s in that directory itself. I strongly advice you not to go through them in the beginning.

So what am i upto now? Well, i`ll let you know when i`m done with that…

P.S. if you wanna know how to download videos from www.securitytube.net , read this.

CT or T?

what is it that gets you truly hooked onto a game?

is it the gameplay, or it the money you make, or the graphics or maybe it`s the thrill of playing it over a network.

i`ve played different kinds of racing games over LAN. maybe i sound primitive when i say this, but i started playing CounterStrike over LAN pretty recently. i did`nt like the game when i played it at first; it seemed like just another “running-`n-gunning” game. it took me about 3 months to actually figure out that i was wrong. in fact, i don`t think i`ve been “off-the-mark” by such a large margin my whole life. CS is a game based on not just your aim, but on strategies, team work and above all – practice.

and there are loads of great videos on the internet which show players at their best competing against each other; the most inspiring of them showing a 15 year old(15 yrs old when the video was taken i.e.) named J. Gilbert winning entire rounds all by himself… the video release`s named “n0thing but headhshots”. i don`t know if its put up on youtube though…

i`ve tried playing the original Counterstrike, the one that came after it(Condition Zero; my favorite), aand the one that came after it(Source; dint like it much). Sad thing is, almost all of the tech fest`s host the gaming contests with the original Counterstrike; so practicing on the second version of the game is pretty much useless.

Q. why i dislike the original counterstrike…?
A. the guns look like toys; those who use ‘maverick’ seem to have a HUGE advantage(hardly any recoil).

Q. why i hate CS source…?
A. gotta admit; the game`s more realistic(u get dizzy if you get flashed by a flashbang PLUS the bots present more of a challenge) but it has a LOT of awful features too. the guns sound bad and the sniper zoom is horrible!

well, if you have`nt played CS over LAN till now, then do it ASAP!!! its one game you just can`t afford to miss in a lifetime.

i won`t pretend to be an expert in the game, but a word of advice to newbies. if you wanna be the best around, work on more than just your “aim”. have a favorite weapon(better being an ace on one weapon than a jack in using all of `em), and a favorite pistol. working on knife rounds can help you find an appropriate mouse sensitivity.

ENJOY!!!

And oh, almost forgot. a few troubleshooting tips for those connecting to other computers via a wireless ad-hoc connection. make sure you have your firewall disabled PLUS if you have VMware installed, you have to disable the networks created by it(there should be two of `em).

hackthissite.org

the first webpage based hacking site i`ve worked on; and certainly among the best. this one offers you sections which test your skills on a variety of levels like….

um… on second thought, i think its best that you check out the site for yourself, without me playing spoiler…

i`ve finished all of the basic and javascript missions, few realistic,extbasic and logic missions and fewer application missions. have`nt touched the stego or the Irc missions(oopsi! gotta set straight!!!)

and at last ubuntu`s starting to look pretty darn good….!!!

i`ve never really liked the orange and brown combination which comes by default in an ubuntu machine. its unique, but dull and boring. even nvidia drivers can`t improve the looks very much as its just the desktop effects which get enhanced.

surfing the internet, checking out themes for ubuntu was interesting; there were LOADS of cool ones. the desktop i`m using right now is NOT my creation in its entirety; its got bits of different themes here and there. still its taken me a lot of surfing around to make up my current desktop – so i might as well brag about it and put up pictures of it on the internet .

so, wht do ya thnk?

you`ve heard about ambigrams, have`nt you…?

another hobby of mine`s  from Dan Brown`s other bestseller Angels and Demons; if you`r thinking “ambigrams”, then you are spot on!! For those of you who don`t know, ambigrams are words which read the same even after a 180 degree flip. try googling on them; they`re an interesting read.

That`s about my hobbies…. will let u know if i start another one…

well…. tried writing in reverse….?

my hobbies keep on fluctuating… till my 12th grade i had the usual ones; stamp `n coin collection, bus-ticket collection   , reading and drawing(not that i`m very good at it; i just am not patient enough). i think that Dan Brown`s The Da Vinci Code could well be among the last novels ive read. however, thats where i come across reverse-writing. I tried it out; only to realize that i was actually pretty good at it . Initially, I thought that being left-handed could explain why i could write in reverse with ease. But, later i found that a few of my friends who were right-handed could accomplish the task with a little bit more of effort.So, guess i was wrong there!!!

an intro to the coolest linux distro EVER….

one fine day i decide to take my work a little bit more seriously; and i google “security distro`s”. i come across a slackware variant known as “backtrack”. on further reading i get to know that it`s currently rated #1 among security distro`s and that it was created from two pre-existing distro`s named “WHAX” and “Auditor”.

i did something which any guy my age would do.

i downloaded the live CD image of the distro; burned a CD and booted it up. i had no idea what was in store for me. it offered various boot options and  i chose to use the KDE 3.5 interface which it offered. on further snooping around, i found that the number of tools in backtrack3 topped 150.

it was overwhelming.

then i did something not many guys my age would be crazy enough to attempt alone.

i started working on the tools one-by-one. being just 19 years old and having only the very basic idea of networking and OS architecture; i set off. it was`nt easy as my foundations were weak; in most of the cases i just did not have one. the first tool i came across was netcat. now, i`ve decided to release tutorials on the tools i`ve mastered. they`re no shortcut. but they`ll help you on what exactly to learn; thus helping you use these tools in a faster and more efficient manner than i did(hopefully ). these tutorials assume you have a basic idea on networking and OS`s like linux and its variants.

the tutorials`ll be put up soon enough…