Do not use, republish, in whole or in part, without the consent of the Author. TheTAZZone policy is that Authors retain the rights to the work they submit and/or post…we do not sell, publish, transmit, or have the right to give permission for such…TheTAZZone merely retains the right to use, retain, and publish submitted work within it’s Network

I wrote the following tutorial on Google Adwords strategy for a customer (https://home.mods4.net), and decided to cross post it here, as it may be useful for any budding intrepreneurs out there. You can change the figures/keywords shown here to suit your actual project and budjet, but the thoery remains constant…

Introduction

For each site I wish to promote I create 2 adword campaigns – one called whatever_hi and another called whatever_lo.

The _lo campaign contains very specific keywords (eg “Renault Clio Modification”) that are very low in terms of cost per click (CPC) but also have less predicted traffic. The _hi adverts contain more generic keywords (eg “Car Parts”) that have a much higher CPC but are more commonly typed into Google (so more traffic).

_lo Ads

The very specific keywords in the _lo campaigns should always generate an advert to us. They represent the best chance of a sale because the browser is searching for EXACTLY what we provide. To ensure that this is the case I set the budjet for _lo campaigns artificially high, at £100/day, so that we never lose potential sales on these keywords.

However, Google estimates that the _lo campaigns are likley to generate less than £10 of (well qualified) clicks per day, so even if there were 10 times the normal daily rate of searches on these keywords we would still capture all of them.

_hi Ads

The _hi campaigns contain common (fiercly competitive, which increases the CPC) keywords. These keyords generate a lot of traffic, but require a lot more clicks/actual sale. This is because hundreds of people may type just “subaru” into Google before there is one who both owns the car and who is looking to modify it.

That said, we still need to advertise to people who just type “Subaru” into Google, because any of these searches may be from a potential customer, but from a return on investment (ROI) perspective the larger the proportion of our budjet that can be spent on the _lo ads the better.

Budjet Considerations

So we pay for our _lo ads first, and then we buy as many _hi ads as we can afford from whats left of our budjet afterwards. There will therefore be a continual tweaking process (especially to start) to make sure that we are within our budjet.

If we exceed budjet on a given day we can reduce the _hi budjets for the following day as neccecary. When the daily budjet of a _hi ad is reached Google simply stops showing it till the next day.

[The customer] has suggested a £200/day budjet, so I have also set £100 each on each live _hi ad (Home and Subaru). We will ammend this figure as we see how much we are spending on their respective _lo ads.

Do not use, republish, in whole or in part, without the consent of the Author. TheTAZZone policy is that Authors retain the rights to the work they submit and/or post…we do not sell, publish, transmit, or have the right to give permission for such…TheTAZZone merely retains the right to use, retain, and publish submitted work within it’s Network

Do not use, republish, in whole or in part, without the consent of the Author. TheTAZZone policy is that Authors retain the rights to the work they submit and/or post…we do not sell, publish, transmit, or have the right to give permission for such…TheTAZZone merely retains the right to use, retain, and publish submitted work within it’s Network

[code]Soda_Popinsky has very kindly allowed this tutorial of his to be hosted on the TAZ.
[/code]

[u][b]Ad Blocking without Third Party Software[/b][/u]

Summary:

Hardening IE to prevent users from downloading malicious material from untrusted sites, while blocking pop ups and ads as well.

What this will do is configure Internet Internet Explorer to allow scripts and such to run on certain, trusted sites. This benefits the work enviroment to prevent users from visiting and downloading malicious material onto their computers, but allows them to use company web applications that require scripts.

1. Open Internet Explorer -> Tools -> Click the Security Tab

You should see 4 security zones. This is where you will outline the policys regarding certain types of sites. The globe represents the internet, and is where most of the action will happen.

2. Click the globe, press custom level below.

You will see options to enable, disable, or prompt to accept certain types of scripts. These include .net components, activex, downloads, MS virtual machine, Java, and javascripts.

Google definition of active x:

[quote]Set of platform independent technologies developed by Microsoft that enable software components to interact with one another in a networked environment, like the Internet. In addition to adding functionality within the browser (for example, by enabling Microsoft Word to be opened in a browser) Active X components can be exploited by malicious mobile code.[/quote]

Basically, it’s through these scripts that brower hijacks and popups are allowed. With these functions denied, pop ups and hijacks simply don’t work. Looking at the custom options for the internet, It’s your decision what you should allow and not allow. If your office is rampant with spyware, then consider disabling a lot. If you don’t want your users to download anything at all, then you have the option to block that as well. This should help slow things like kazaa from entering your network.

If you were to leave the settings as they are now, then your users wouldn’t be able to access the web applications with scripts to do their jobs. If your company’s site relies on java and flash, then you need to allow that do run their scripts.

1. Click the trusted sites icon (green icon with a check)
2. Click Custom level below

You will be in the same window as before, but these settings won’t change the settings of the other zone. This zone represents sites you trust, the last one represented the rest of the sites on the internet. Change the settings accordingly to allow more functionality to the sites your users need to use for their job. Warez and porn obviously not included. Once this is done-

1. Click the sites button above the custom level button
2. Uncheck the https:// option if necessary, and add the URL’s to the sites you trust.

If you work for Microsoft, then add Microsoft.com. If you do business with Amazon, then add Amazon.com to the list. Be sure to include all the sites your users will need to use. The same process is used for the intranet zone.

The Privacy Tab
In the internet options window, navigate to the privacy tab. This panel will allow you to adjust cookie handling for certain sites. Adjusting the slider will give you information about each setting. You can also click customize, and have it block all cookies. Under this tab, there is an edit sites option. You can allow your trusted sites in here as well, to accept cookies. Unfortunately, you have to add them again manually, as they aren’t imported from your other trusted sites.

Manual Ad Blocking

I don’t think I recommend this for office environments, but on an individual basis, this helps. Open the host file for your Windows OS, found in one of these places:
Win 98 or ME c:\windows
Windows 2K c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc
Windows XP c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc

You will be editing a system file here, so the obvious warnings apply. Open the “Hosts” file with notepad. Mine looks like this:

[code]# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost
[/code]

What this file does is associate a word with an IP. When you type http://localhost in your browser, it redirects it to your local address, “127.0.0.1″.
if you added the entry:

[code]63.146.109.212 antionline[/code]

Then by typing http://antionline in your browser would lead you to antionline.com (63.146.109.212).

This file can be used to redirect ads. These entries

[code]127.0.0.1 63.236.18.118
127.0.0.1 mjxads.internet.com[/code]

Will block the ads on Antionline.com. mjxads.internet.com is the home of the flash ads, and the IP is for the gif ads that replace them if scripting is disabled. The Ads are redirected to 127.0.0.1, and never appear in the browser. You can handle ad servers on a case by case basis, adding them to the host file. Some anti-spyware software looks at the host file, so I would be careful when running it, and adding entries to the host file. When you see this file, you might see some entrys that have been added by spyware as well. Remember, this is a system file, so the obvious warnings apply when editing it.

All suggestions, complaints and whatever are welcome.

Do not use, republish, in whole or in part, without the consent of the Author. TheTAZZone policy is that Authors retain the rights to the work they submit and/or post…we do not sell, publish, transmit, or have the right to give permission for such…TheTAZZone merely retains the right to use, retain, and publish submitted work within it’s Network

Code: Select all

Soda_Popinsky has very kindly allowed this tutorial of his to be hosted on the TAZ.

Sources (I used them a lot)
http://www.mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/
http://hjt.wizardsofwebsites.com/

What Hijack This is for, is to search key area’s of your computer that are commonly used to change your browsers settings. It doesn’t scan them, it shows you everything, and it’s your decision what can stay and what can go. Most of the entries Hijack This will come up with are legit, so it can make Hijack This somewhat tricky. You have to determine what stays and what goes.

Download Hijack this

http://209.133.47.200/~merijn/files/HijackThis.exe

If you have used ad-aware, spybot, or any other spyware removal software since your last boot, reboot your computer. Open it, click ”config” in the bottom right of the window.
edit- Because of malware restricting access to the site, merjin moves the download links around.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

It should look like this when you run it:

http://www.mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/begin.png

Main settings:
Basic configuration Make sure safe mode and backups are turned on, as well as processes. Safe mode and backups will help you if you screw up.
Ignore list:
Used to help clean up your results. When you scan, you can ignore results you know are legit and they will be moved here.
Backups
When you fix entries in Hijack This, they will appear here as backups, given that you’re setting is turned on.
Misc Tools:
Generate Startup Log – I’ve never used it, but it does what it says. Shows you autoexec.bat and other things that boot up with your pc.
Uninstall
Check for update – I didn’t even know that existed until now…

The process!

Click scan in the bottom left corner, if you don’t see it, click back in the bottom right corner.
Should look like this:

http://www.mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/fix.png

A whole bunch of crazy lookin’ files will appear in the box above. About now, you have to start using common sense. If you see something like:
R0 – HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page =

http://www.somekindapornsite.com/

Where the website shown is something you want nothing to do with, then check it. Basically, you just need to look for entries that look funny, google them, and see if they are commonly listed as a hijack or spyware.

Here is a section from http://hjt.wizardsofwebsites.com/

Two Letter Codes
After the running processes, the list of entries found by Hijack This begins. Each entry starts with a 2-letter code to say what it is. According to Hijack This’ Info, heres what each code means:
R – Registry, StartPage/SearchPage changes
R0 – Changed registry value
R1 – Created registry value
R2 – Created registry key
R3 – Created extra registry value where only one should be
F – IniFiles, autoloading entries
F0 – Changed inifile value
F1 – Created inifile value
N – Netscape/Mozilla StartPage/SearchPage changes
N1 – Change in prefs.js of Netscape 4.x
N2 – Change in prefs.js of Netscape 6
N3 – Change in prefs.js of Netscape 7
N4 – Change in prefs.js of Mozilla
O – Other, several sections which represent:
O1 – Hijack of auto.search.msn.com with Hosts file
O2 – Enumeration of existing MSIE BHO’s
O3 – Enumeration of existing MSIE toolbars
O4 – Enumeration of suspicious autoloading Registry entries
O5 – Blocking of loading Internet Options in Control Panel
O6 – Disabling of ‘Internet Options’ Main tab with Policies
O7 – Disabling of Regedit with Policies
O8 – Extra MSIE context menu items
O9 – Extra ‘Tools’ menuitems and buttons
O10 – Breaking of Internet access by New.Net or WebHancer
O11 – Extra options in MSIE ‘Advanced’ settings tab
O12 – MSIE plugins for file extensions or MIME types
O13 – Hijack of default URL prefixes
O14 – Changing of IERESET.INF
O15 – Trusted Zone Autoadd
O16 – Download Program Files item
O17 – Domain hijack
O18 – Enumeration of existing protocols
O19 – User stylesheet hijack

There is no need to memorize all of these, just read through them so you are familiar with what HJT detects.
Legitimacy Check

In the following sections, you will be asked to “check if a url is legitimate”. This means deciding if it is a URL that user would want to visit, or if it is a likely hijacker. URLs that you recognize such as Google, Yahoo!, a news website, or a ISPs website are clearly legitimate items. They do not need to fixed. If you do not recognize an item-go the URL. If the site has unending popup traps, or is in the domain of a known spyware (eg coolwwwsearch.com, gator.com, new.net, etc) is not a legitimate item. Most hijackers are sponsored search engine/portal sites. Usually they are pretty easy to detect. If it is a portal site with tons of links packed into one page, with categories such as gambling, insurance, computers, and adult, you can bet its a browser hijacker that should be fixed. If it is a search engine with the words “Pay Per Click” anywhere fix it. If it is a search engine with several or many entries for it in the R* section of Hijack This, you can also bet that its forcing itself on the user. If your not sure, ask the person if they use that site or not.
R – Registry, StartPage/SearchPage changes
Any entries whos 2 letter code begins with R should be checked to see if the URL is legitimate. Throughout this tutorials I will say “check if its legit”. To do this, use the “Legitimacy Check” rules at the top of this tutorial.
R0-Advanced Info
R1-Advanced Info
R2-Advanced Info
R3-Advanced Info
F – IniFiles, autoloading entries

Basically anything beginning with “F0″ is bad and should be fixed. F1 entries can be good or bad. Google the filename to find out what it is.
F0-Advanced Info
F1-Advanced Info
N – Netscape/Mozilla StartPage/SearchPage changes

Items that start with N are related to Netscape. These are similar to the R entries. Follow the rules for deciding if a URL is legitimate. Netscape homepages are not hijacked as often as IE though.
N1-Advanced Info
N2-Advanced Info
N3-Advanced Info
N4-Advanced Info
O – Other, several sections which represent:

O1 – Hijack of auto.search.msn.com with Hosts file
01 entries are entries in the HOSTS file. HOSTS is a way of redirecting a URL to an IP. It can be used for ad blocking, speeding up internet access, or Hijacking. If multiple URLs point to the same IP address, fix them all (UNLESS THAT IP ADDRESS IS 0.0.0.0 OR 127.0.0.1). This shows up a lot
O1 – Hosts: 216.177.73.139 auto.search.msn.com
O1 – Hosts: 216.177.73.139 search.netscape.com
O1 – Hosts: 216.177.73.139 ieautosearch
They should all be fixed, see how it redirects all searches to 216.177.73.139 (type that IP in your browser for an example of non-legit page).
O1-Advanced Info

O2 – Enumeration of existing MSIE BHO’s
The Browser Helper Object. Can’t browse with em, cant browse without em. These are sort of plugins for the browser. Each has a unique, identifying number and a filename. Use TonyKlein’s BHO list to check if each one is good or bad http://www.spywareinfo.com/bhos/ After a few logs, you will start to recognize which BHOs are safe (such as MSN Radio and NAV Antivirus). Note: any BHO with ClientMan Or Clien~1 in the filename should be fixed. Sometimes spyware tricks you into thinking its legit by using a safe-sounding filename. Check each BHO carefully!
02-Advanced Info

O3 – Enumeration of existing MSIE toolbars
03 entries are toolbars in web browsers. Most are harmless, but many bad hijackers add toolbars to the browser. If it is named “Yahoo Companion” or Google Toolbar, or something of the sort, its probably legit. You can find out what a Toolbar is at TonyKlein’s list
http://www.spywareinfo.com/toolbars/
Any toolbar with a random-seeming filename should be fixed.
O3-Advanced Info

O4- Enumeration of suspicious autoloading Registry entries
Startups from the registry. Despite the name-many legit programs show up here. Ignore entries that you recognize to be from a legit program. Use this website to find out what the rest of the entries are.
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startu…tartup_full.htm
04-Advanced Info

O5 – Blocking of loading Internet Options in Control Panel
There is only one entry here, and it should be fixed. This entry stops the Internet Options from showing in Control Panel. It is used by Hijackers to hide themselves
05-Advanced Info

O6 – Disabling of ‘Internet Options’ Main tab with Policies
Internet Explorer restrictions. Unless you have used a security program to lock your browser settings, fix these. You won’t know if the user has done this or not. You can ask them, but if they have a lot of spyware, its safe to say that they should be fixed.
06-Advanced Info

O7 – Disabling of Regedit with Policies
Restricted registry access using Windows System Policies. Fix this, unless you are using a computer where it may be there on purpose eg. lab/shared/school systems.
07-Advanced Info

O8 – Extra MSIE context menu items
Extra right click options. If you don’t recognize it, search google. “Browser Pal” should always be fixed. Programs such as popup blockers or google toolbar often show up here.
08-Advanced Info

O9 – Extra ‘Tools’ menuitems and buttons
Extra toolbar buttons. If you don’t recognize it as a legit program-search google. A simple search will usually reveal if its spyware.
09-Advanced Info

O10 – Breaking of Internet access by New.Net or WebHancer
Winsock Hijacks. Using old versions of Spyware removers can cause these problems! Spybot can usually fix them, or a specialized tool such as LSPFix.
O10-Advanced Info

O11 – Extra options in MSIE ‘Advanced’ settings tab
Extra Advanced Options group in IE Adds another group of options in the Advanced section of IE’s Internet Options, which are stored in the registry. CommonName does this.
O11-Advanced Info

O12 – MSIE plugins for file extensions or MIME types
Internet Explorer plugins. Usually pretty harmless. Used by programs like Acrobat Reader.
012-Advanced Info

O13 – Hijack of default URL prefixes
Default Prefixes. Eviiil-always fix these. The default prefix (Stored in the registry) adds itself to the beginning of any URL where you did not enter the prefix. Default Prefix should be http://.
O13-Advanced Info

O14 – Changing of IERESET.INF
Reset Web Settings Follow the rules for checking if a URL is legitimate.
O14-Advanced Info

O15 – Trusted Zone Autoadd
Unwanted trusted zone site. This could be bad, but not many hijackers use them. The common one is free.aol.com. This entry can be fixed.
O15-Advanced Info

O16 – Download Program Files item
ActiveX Controls These are downloaded when you play an online game, use iPix, etc. If it is from a known game site such as Yahoo or Pogo, or the Macromedia site, its legit. Other items you can search for to find out. I usually just do a quick check over these items. Always fix them if they seem to be dialers, adult, or casino software.
016-Advanced Info

O17 – Domain hijack
Domain hijacks always include an IP address, do a WHOIS on the IP address. If it comes up with a legitimate owner (like an ISP or college) leave it. Otherwise, fix these entries.
O17-Advanced Info

O18 – Enumeration of existing protocols
Extra Protocols. These don’t show up very often, but Google will tell you what they are. I have seen LOP and CommonName use them.
O18-Advanced Info

O19 – User stylesheet hijack
Style sheet hijack. I have only seen 1 hijacker use this. If the filename is default.css, it can probably be fixed. You may want to tell the person not to fix it if they are using a custom CSS file in their browser (these are often used by colorblind, or vision disabled users).
O19-Advanced Info

Don’t remove things you aren’t sure of. If you need help, post your log in the adware section of AO and some of us can help you decide what to remove.

All done

Do not use, republish, in whole or in part, without the consent of the Author. TheTAZZone policy is that Authors retain the rights to the work they submit and/or post…we do not sell, publish, transmit, or have the right to give permission for such…TheTAZZone merely retains the right to use, retain, and publish submitted work within it’s Network

Welcome to the world of Linux. Correctly referred to as GNU/Linux, it is a full Open Source Operating System with its kernel, and there are many different distributions of it. Each of those distributions (or ‘distros’) are different flavours of Linux – some bring a different GUI desktop environment (so that it looks completely different on-screen – see KDE and Gnome), others have certain applications which others do not (for example: some bring the Instant Messaging application Kopete while others bring Gaim), the choice of package manager varies between them (like APT or Yum), and many other configurations. You can find more information on Linux at Wikipedia.

Today, we shall be using a distro called Mandriva, and its 2006 release. I have chosen it as this tutorial’s distro because it is very easy to use, brings a wide range of applications, and works brilliantly out of the box (or the ISO, in this case!) – all in all, it is highly suitable for those trying Linux for the first time. Click here to download Mandriva-Linux-Free-2006-DVD.i586.iso. This ISO is a DVD image file, and once it has finished downloading, burn it using one of the methods described on LinuxISO.com – although if you do not want to wade through all that information, just download the free BurnAtOnce to burn it to a DVD+R/DVD-R. Each individual step in this tutorial begins with a hyphen -.

-Now we can begin the installation. Go to the machine you would like to install Linux onto; the best thing to do is not to dual boot (have Linux and Windows on the same computer), because that will make the process more complicated and it may be frustrating for a new Linux user. So, backup everything on the target computer, and then insert the DVD into the drive. Restart the computer, and then as the computer starts up, you will see a screen like the one below. You should press the button advised for the “Boot Menu” or to “Change The Boot Order”. In my case, this is the Esc key.

-Then, select CD-ROM/DVD drive from the list that pops up, and after the computer begins reading the disc you should see a screen like the one below.

-Then, select your language and accept the agreement.

-Now the keyboard selection screen will come up. If the one you use does not appear, you can find it by clicking the “More” button and selecting it from the list.

-At the Security screen, simply press “Next” – the default settings are good enough. Then click “Next” on the screen after it, which tells you that accessing Microsoft partitions will only be available to root (the “administrator”).

-To keep things simple, we will choose to either “Use free space” (if you have nothing on your hard drive) or to “Erase entire disk” (to delete everything on your hard drive if there is content there).

-If you are feeling particularly adventurous, you can choose the “Custom disk partitioning” option.
Note: If you would not like to do this, please continue to the next step.
Select “Custom disk partitioning”, click “Next”, and you will be taken to the screen below. First of all, we will set up the Primary partition – this is the one in which we will place our root folder (/). Click on “Journalised FS” to set it up.



Set the size to be almost all of your hard drive, but make sure you leave a bit of space at the end – the rule I use is that the size of the remaining space should be the size of your RAM. So, in my case, I’ll leave 1GB of space. As the “Filesystem type”, select ReiserFS. The advantages of ReiserFS over other formats like ext3 is that, because of its advanced journalling techniques, it is considerably faster. Leave the mount point as root “/” – this is the highest level in the Linux filesystem; you can think of / as the C:\ of Linux.



Then, select the free space on the right of the / partition, and click on the green “Swap” button.



Allow the Swap partition to take up all of the remaining space, and leave the other default setting. Click “Ok” when you have finished.



This will take you back to the partition overview. If you are satisfied with your creation, click “Done”, and then “Ok” to write the changes to disk.

-The installation will format the hard drive, and you will soon be shown the screen below. In my opinion, it is best to tick the “Copy whole CDs” checkbox, because if you need any of the files on the DVD to install more applications in the future you will have to scramble franctically around you room looking for the DVD – not a good idea.

-Choose not to use any supplementary media at the next screen.

-And now, select the groups of packages you would like to install! Feel free to experiment with these, or if you prefer, select packages manually by ticking the “Individual package selection” at the bottom of the screen (although the group installs are perfect for our needs).

-The installation will now begin. This may about 20 minutes, but it all depends on your computer’s specifications – so I recommend you go fetch a coffee and some biscuits.

-Once the package installation has finished, you will be presented with the first “System configuration” screen. This is the root password one. For this, I advise you to choose an alphanumeric password which is impossible to remember and which you must never write down – especially if you’re security-conscious!

-At the next screen, type in your name, username (this will default to your first name), and password for the normal user.

-At the following screen, most if not all the hardware should be properly configured. If it is not it will be in red text – so select “Configure” on the right. From here, select the details as your computer’s specifications dictate. Hang in there, we’re almost done!

-I recommend you update your computer at this point, but this isn’t a necessity – it can be done later on.

-That’s it! Now choose “Reboot” to view the pièce de resistance!

-When the computer boots, the boot loader will come up. Choose “linux”.

-When Mandriva finishes loading, you will be shown the login manager screen (kdm). Enter your details and press the Enter key.

-Presto! There’s Mandriva, running the K Desktop Environment (KDE). Isn’t it beautiful?

Now, on to learn how to use a few applications – please excuse me if this seems slightly patronising!

-We’ll start with our beloved Mozilla Firefox web browser – simply click the Firefox icon on the menu bar, or go to Mandriva (star) -] Internet -] Web Browsers -] Mozilla Firefox. Click on the picture below for an overview of its main features.

-Kontact is an excellent email manager (with KMail integrated into it) – and it is so easy to use that it’s actually quite comforting. To set up an account, go to “Tools -] Configure KMail…”, and just fill in your details. You can click on its icon on the menu bar or go to Mandriva -] Internet -] Mail -] Kontact.

-An application you cannot live without – Kopete allows you to keep in touch with your friends and family through Instant Messaging, and the variety of protocols it supports is outstanding. You must try it! Accessable via the menu bar or Mandriva -] Internet -] Kopete.

-And the most successful Open Source word processor, OpenOffice.org Writer, is also preinstalled! Found in the menu at: Mandriva -] Office -] Wordprocessors -] OpenOffice.org Writer. It is extremely easy to use, and in my opinion the whole suite is more than just a rival to Microsoft Office – it is better than it.

Please play around with the other applications, because there are just so many available for Linux that browsing Sourceforge.net is actually quite good fun, and you will soon discover both the power and easy-of-use of Linux. Enjoy!

Do not use, republish, in whole or in part, without the consent of the Author. TheTAZZone policy is that Authors retain the rights to the work they submit and/or post…we do not sell, publish, transmit, or have the right to give permission for such…TheTAZZone merely retains the right to use, retain, and publish submitted work within it’s Network

Code: Select all

This paper is the work of The Master Jedi Pimpsor AKA thehorse13, who has kindly consented to it being hosted here on the TAZ.

Preface:
============
I had to work on a bunch of Apache on Win32 hosts. Typically, this is against my religion, however, I did it anyway.

While doing it, I went looking for some info on simply redirecting all traffic over HTTPS. I found all the info but some was in different places. I took a base tutorial and made some changes to it so that it had more clarity and also explained how to redirect traffic over HTTPS. Since this is not an original work, all references are cited.

This is tutorial only discusses how to get HTTPS setup with Apache for Win32. It’s nothing more.

Enjoy.

APACHE for Win32 with SSL support v 1.3
_
Original document found at:

http://www.thompsonbd.com/tutorials/apachessl.php

Version 1.2 (Up from 1.1 thanks to Mike Young)
Version 1.3 (TheHorse13)
_
_
1. Assumptions
This tutorial assumes that you already have Apache2 installed and working on a Windows server. I have Apache 2.0.52 installed on Windows Server 2000.
_This guide also assumes that you have a standard SSL cert. If you have a supercert, you’ll need to add additional lines to your virtual host in httpd.conf and ssl.conf to deal with the intermediate cert. For more information on what a SuperCert is, please see SGC SuperCert – 256-bit ssl encryption from thawte
_
TIP: Backup your existing httpd.conf file before you begin. If you run into issues, at least you can revert back to the original.
_
2. Needed Files
These are not necessarily the most up-to-date, but they worked for my install so I have included them here. You will need to download both Apache_2.0.55-Openssl_0.9.8a-Win32.zip and Openssl-0.9.8a-Win32.zip
Unzip both of these files to seperate folders.
_
Links:
======

http://brandleadershipmarketing.com….9.8a-Win32.zip

http://brandleadershipmarketing.com….9.8a-Win32.zip

_
3. Setting Up OpenSSL
Copy the files ssleay32.dll and libeay32.dll from the OpenSSL folder to WINNT\System32. Double check that you make sure you copied the dll’s and not the lib’s. Both of these DLL files will be located in the unzipped Openssl-0.9.8a-Win32 folder.
_
Copy mod_ssl.so from the unzipped Apache 2.0.55-Openssl 0.9.8a-Win32\modules folder into the \modules folder of your production Apache server’s path.
_
You also need to download openssl.cnf into the same folder where you unzipped Openssl-0.9.8a-Win32. Windows will remove the .cnf and will make this file look like a dialup icon. Just ignore it. Just make sure you have the file in the right place.
Download ssl.conf and place it in the Apache2/conf directory.
_
Links:
======

http://www.thompsonbd.com/tutorials/files/openssl.cnf

http://www.thompsonbd.com/tutorials/files/ssl.conf

_
4. Creating a test certificate
Open a command prompt. Navigate to where you unzipped Openssl-0.9.8a-Win32.
_
openssl req -config openssl.cnf -new -out my-server.csr
_
You can replace my-server.csr with whatever you want aslong as the extention is .csr. When asked for “Common Name (eg, your websites domain name)”, give the exact domain name of your web server (e.g.

www.my-server.dom

). The certificate belongs to this server name and browsers complain if the name doesn’t match.
_
openssl rsa -in privkey.pem -out my-server.key
_
This removes the passphrase from the private key. You MUST understand what this means; my-server.key should be only readable by the apache server and the administrator. You should delete the .rnd file because it contains the entropy information for creating the key and could be used for cryptographic attacks against your private key.
_
openssl x509 -in my-server.csr -out my-server.cert -req -signkey my-server.key -days 365
_
This creates a self-signed certificate that you can use until you get a “real” one from a certificate authority. (Which is optional; if you know your users, you can tell them to install the certificate into their browsers.) Note that this certificate expires after one year, you can increase -days 365 if you don’t want this.
_
TIP: Sometimes certs will have the suffix crt or cer. If this is the case, you can either rename the certificate file with the .cert suffix to match the lines in this guide or you can change the conf files to reflect whichever certificate suffix came with the certificate file. For example, if Windows sees the suffix cert, it won’t assign the nifty certificate icon to it. It only sees crt and cer as certificate suffixes and will only assign the icon to these suffixes.
_
Create a directory in the Apache folder name Apache2/conf/ssl and move my-server.key and my-server.cert into it.
_
5. Configuring Apache and mod_ssl
Open the httpd.conf file and locate the LoadModule directives.
Add:
LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so
_
After </IfModule> add
SSLMutex default
SSLRandomSeed startup builtin
SSLSessionCache none
In the VirtualHost directives add
<VirtualHost

www.my-domain.com:443

>
SSLEngine On
SSLCertificateFile conf/ssl/my-server.cert
SSLCertificateKeyFile conf/ssl/my-server.key
</VirtualHost>
_
TIP: To redirect all traffic to the console to the SSL automatically (otherwise, you will get pages served up on both http and https), add these lines beneath </VirtualHost>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}/ [R]
_
Then be sure to uncomment the following module:
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Open the ssl.conf file and set the correct ServerName (

www.my-domain.com

) and DocumentRoot. You will place the location of the secure material in the ” ” after DocumentRoot. So if your secure webpages are on your D: drive, in the folder called secure, the line should look like
DocumentRoot “D:/secure”

Provided that you haven’t made any typos, you should now be able to restart Apache and get SSL pages served up without issue. You can also remove both the zip files and the folders where you extracted Apache_2.0.55-Openssl_0.9.8a-Win32.zip and Openssl_0.9.8a-Win32.zip once you’re sure that everything is working the way you want. However, I recommend keeping the Openssl directory in the event you need to cut certs and such in the future. As for the Apache zip, all we did was pillage the mod_ssl.so file compiled for Win32 so that download is of no use.

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I have used this to lock down NT4 servers for a while now. I wrote it about two years ago. From what I’ve seen out there, this how to is still very good to use. Hope someone else can use it. Keep in mind that Windows shares will no longer work if you implement this giude. It is meant for a server that has a single specific purpose, like a bastion host or the like.

1. Install NT as a Stand-alone server – DO NOT JOIN A DOMAIN
2. Apply all current Service Packs and hot fixes
3. Ensure no other network applications are running on the machine (e.g.
IIS)
4. Implement strong passwords for admin account
5. Disable Guest account and DO NOT create any user accounts
6. Set password protection on screen saver – don’t choose a screen saver
that’s graphically intense
7. In Network Control Panel:
- uninstall all services
- uninstall all protocols except tcp/ip
- disable the WINS tcp/ip client (’all protocols’ view on Bindings tab)
(These steps can be avoided if you skip networking install during NT setup
and manually install the adapter driver and tcp/ip afterwards – just double
check to make sure the WINS client doesn’t appear)
8. Disable the “TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper” in the Services control panel
9. Disable the “WINS Client (TCP/IP) in the Devices Control panel
10. Remove the OS/2 and POSIX sub-systems (see below for details)
11. Ensure NTFS is in use for all partitions
12. Set permissions such that only the Administrator, Creator Owner, and
System accounts have any rights to any files (in other words, remove the
‘Everyone’ rights).

To disable and remove the OS/2 and POSIX subsystems, do the following:
To manually remove OS2 and POSIX completely:
• Delete the winnt\system32\os2 directory and all sub-directories.
• HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\OS/2 Subsystem for NT – Delete all sub-keys
• HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
Manager\Environment\Os2LibPath – Delete
• HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
Manager\SubSystems\Optional – Delete OS2 Values
• HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems – Delete
all entries for OS/2 (and POSIX if you wish)
The OS/2 and POSIX sub-system will be gone after reboot. And it goes without
saying that registry hacking is dangerous.

Here are some other registry hacks that are useful:

Display legal Notices at logon by editing the following keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Cu
rrentVersion\Winlogon
Key name: LegalNoticeCaption
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value: Legal Notice!
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Cu
rrentVersion\Winlogon
Key name: LegalNoticeText
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value: This system is for authorized users only! Unauthorized use is subject
to prosecution.
All activity on this machine is being logged.

Hide the name of the last user to logon:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Cu
rrentVersion\Winlogon
Key name: DontDisplayLastUserName
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value: 1

Do not use, republish, in whole or in part, without the consent of the Author. TheTAZZone policy is that Authors retain the rights to the work they submit and/or post…we do not sell, publish, transmit, or have the right to give permission for such…TheTAZZone merely retains the right to use, retain, and publish submitted work within it’s Network

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I’ve had some good feedback on my W2K RADIUS doc, so here is another one I wrote for the Linux platform. I personally use this one and love it!

Installing Cistron radius on a Linux platform

1.Download the software from

ftp://ftp.radius.cistron.nl/pub/radius/

Download the file : radiusd-cistron-1.6.6.tar.gz

2.From the directory where you downloaded the software, unzip the software with the following command: gunzip radius-cistron-1.6.6*

3.Now you must untar the file with the following command: tar –xvf radius-cistron*

4.This creates a directory radius-cistron-1.6.6. Type cd radius-cistron-1.6.6/src From this directory, type cp Makefile.lnx ./Makefile When prompted cp: overwrite ‘./Makefile’? type y.

5.Type make

6.Type make install

7.Type cd ../redhat From here you need to edit two lines in rc.radiusd-redhat. Type vi rc.radiusd-redhat Use the arrow keys to move the cursor down to the line RADIUSD=/usr/sbin/radiusd. Place the cursor on the s of sbin and hit the i key. This will allow you to insert text. Add local/ and hit the Esc key. Move down to the next line and edit the line RADRELAY. Again, move the cursor on the s of sbin, and hit the i key. Type local/ and hit Esc. To save you changes, type :wq and hit enter. If you make any mistakes, type Esc and then type :q! which allows you to quit without writing any changes to the file.

8.You now need to copy this file to another directory. Type cp ./rc.radiusd-redhat /etc/rc.d/init.d/radiusd

9.Now type cd /etc Type vi inittab In this file there is a line id:x:initdefault where the x is a number representing the default run level of the system. This number tells us which directory to install radius as a service. Remember the number, and type :q to quit.

10.Type cd rc.d/rcx.d where x is the number from the inittab file. In this directory, type ln /etc/rc.d/init.d/radiusd S27radiusd (The first two characters are LN, but they must be lower case.)

11.The configuration files for radius are stored in /etc/raddb There are two files that you need to edit, users and clients. First, edit the clients. This file controls what servers are allowed to attach to the radius server for authentication. There are a couple of default entries already in the file. If you are running the radius server on the vpn server, then keep the client localhost, but change the testing123 to a different key. When you setup the vpn server, make sure you give it the server address localhost, and the new secret key.

12.To add users, edit the users file. To add a user, you need to add the following two lines:
Userid Auth-Type = Local, Password = “password”
Service-Type = Framed-User

13.To start and stop the service, cd /etc/rc.d/rcx.d where x is your run level. Type ./S27radiusd start/stop to start or stop the service. You will need to restart the service after changes are made to the clients or users files in /etc/raddb.

If anyone has interest in setting LDAP on W2K, just send me a message. I had the joy of setting that up about 6 months ago. Like anything else I do, I document the hell out of it.

Hope this helps

Do not use, republish, in whole or in part, without the consent of the Author. TheTAZZone policy is that Authors retain the rights to the work they submit and/or post…we do not sell, publish, transmit, or have the right to give permission for such…TheTAZZone merely retains the right to use, retain, and publish submitted work within it’s Network

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OK, since I had to do this, I figured that other people out there could use this info. My doc explains how to setup RADIUS on W2K server.

How to activate radius on Windows 2000
Environment: W2K AD controller (RADIUS SERVER) and W2K server stand-alone (no AD)

During the Windows 2000 server installation, request the installation of “Networking Services” (in addition to the other services installed by default). If you did not do that during installation, you can do it anytime… “My Computer”, “Control Panel”, “Add/Remove Programs”, “Add/Remove Windows Components”, “Networking Services”.
Run “Start”, “Programs”, “Administrative Tools”, “Internet Authentication Service” which is the Windows 2000 RADIUS server.

While in “Internet Authentication Service”, Select “Remote Access Policies” and right click “Allow access if dial-in permission is enabled” and select “properties”. Enable “Grant remote access permission” and then select “Edit profile”. Select “Authentication”, and then enable “Unencrypted authentication (PAP/SPAP)” Disable the other methods.

While still in “Internet Authentication Service”, Click once on Internet Authentication Service (local) Select “Action” and “Register Service in Active Directory”

NOTE: To specify authentication and accounting ports, right click Internet Authentication Service (local) and choose properties. Click the RADIUS tab and then enter the appropriate ports. By default, IAS lists the ports for RADIUS before and after the RFC was issued (1812,1645 and 1813,1646)

While still in “Internet Authentication Service”, Select “Remote Access Logging” and “Local File”. On “Settings”, enable “Log Authentication Requests…”. On “Local File”, select a monthly log file, in IAS format (or whatever you’d prefer).

Click on the “Clients” folder and choose “Action”, “New Client”. Provide a “Friendly” name like “SmartGate” or whatever. Leave Protocol as RADIUS. Click “Next”. Choose either IP or an FQDN (DNS Config is required).
Leave Client-Vendor as RADIUS Standard. Leave the checkmark out of “Client must always send the signature attribute in the request”. Enter your shared secret and then confirm it.

Before leaving be sure the service is running by clicking once on “Internet Authentication Service (Local)” Then chose “Action” “Start Service”

Create a user with the MMC and be sure that you grant RAS access to the user. This is done by right clicking on the user, then choose properties. select the “dial-in” tab and select “Allow Access”.

NOTE: Windows 2000 RADIUS uses the User Logon Name, not the name you enter in First Name/Last Name on the “General” tab.
Drop to a command prompt and do a “netstat -an” to be sure that UDP is listening on the proper ports.

CLIENT SETUP:
Follow the setup for RADIUS in the documentation.
NOTE:
Be sure to check the remote access accounting tab. Remove any accounting restrictions or adjust it to meet your remote access policy.

Anyway, hope this helps someone else out too.

Do not use, republish, in whole or in part, without the consent of the Author. TheTAZZone policy is that Authors retain the rights to the work they submit and/or post…we do not sell, publish, transmit, or have the right to give permission for such…TheTAZZone merely retains the right to use, retain, and publish submitted work within it’s Network

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OK, enough people have asked me about Linux file permissions so I figured I’d write a short tutorial on how they work. It is *very* simple. Here we go…

Type this command at the console anyplace in the directory tree

#[Crack-Monsta@Localhost Acid]ls -ld

This will return something like this:

drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 4096 Nov 20 09:05

The first letter indicates a directory and tells you that the owner has Read Write and eXecute rights. Now, lets take this apart to see how this works:

If we break this up, from left to right you get this:

d rwx r-x r-x
directory Owner perms Group perms Everyone else perms

The “-” indicates that the right is turned off. So, we can say that the owner has full rights while the group and everyone else has read and execute only because the “-” tells us that the write permission is turned off.

CHANGING PERMISSIONS WITH CHMOD
================================

For some reason people are afraid of this command. You’ll see someone do a chmod 777 on a file and you wonder to yourself, “What the hell is that all about?”. It’s easy. Each permission is assigned a value as follows
r (read) = 4
w (write) = 2
x (execute) = 1

So in chmod 777 you are giving full rights to the owner, the group and everyone else. Still confused? Look at this table below

chmod 777 files — rwxrwxrwx
chmod 755 files — rwxr-xr-x
chmod 644 files — rw-r–r–
chmod 000 files — ———

So it is all just a matter of simple math to assign or revoke perms. That’s it. Now, isn’t that simple?