Windows 10 will not connect to WPA2 Enterprise after November update


I updated my laptop recently to find that my wifi connection stopped working. I run a pfSense machine which runs a FreeRADIUS server to handle authentication (with a goal of avoiding Microsoft's wifi credential sharing nonsense) and it looks like a recent MS update causes that to stop working.


How to fix the broken Tilde and Back-Tic keys in VMware Fusion


I installed VMware Fusion Pro recently and tried to use the Tilde key in debian, ubuntu, kali and windows Virtual machines without success. When I would try to type the ` or ~ keys I would get < and >, which was infuriating when working at a linux command prompt.

In digging around I eventually found a way to resolve the issue, I just wish it was easier.


Brew Update Error: Failure while executing: git stash pop --quiet


After updating to OS X El Capitan (Mac OS 10.11) I tried to update brew and got a couple lovely errors:

Error: The /usr/local directory is not writable.
Even if this directory was writable when you installed Homebrew, other
software may change permissions on this directory. Some versions of the
"InstantOn" component of Airfoil are known to do this.

You should probably change the ownership and permissions of /usr/local
back to your user account.
  sudo chown -R $(whoami):admin /usr/local

 

-- And this one --

 

Error: Failure while executing: git stash pop --quiet


Error: Failed to build gem native extension for ffi on Mac OS X


I'm starting a new ruby project to run my LED Lightboard using this gem from github. After following the instructions to add the dream-cheeky-led gem to the gemfile I ran bundle and found this error:

/Users/rioncarter/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.4/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:456:in `try_do': The compiler failed to generate an executable file. (RuntimeError)
You have to install development tools first.
    from /Users/rioncarter/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.4/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:587:in `try_cpp'
    from /Users/rioncarter/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.4/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:1067:in `block in have_header'
    from /Users/rioncarter/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.4/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:918:in `block in checking_for'
    from /Users/rioncarter/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.4/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:351:in `block (2 levels) in postpone'
    from /Users/rioncarter/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.4/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:321:in `open'
    from /Users/rioncarter/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.4/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:351:in `block in postpone'
    from /Users/rioncarter/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.4/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:321:in `open'
    from /Users/rioncarter/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.4/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:347:in `postpone'
    from /Users/rioncarter/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.4/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:917:in `checking_for'
    from /Users/rioncarter/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.4/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:1066:in `have_header'
    from extconf.rb:16:in `<main>'

extconf failed, exit code 1

Gem files will remain installed in /Users/rioncarter/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.4/gems/ffi-1.9.10 for inspection.
Results logged to /Users/rioncarter/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.4/extensions/x86_64-darwin-14/2.1.0-static/ffi-1.9.10/gem_make.out
An error occurred while installing ffi (1.9.10), and Bundler cannot continue.
Make sure that `gem install ffi -v '1.9.10'` succeeds before bundling.


BB10, QNetworkAccessManager and TLS 1.2: watch out


This will be quick: I just wasted several hours troubleshooting why QNetworkAccessManager was not connecting to one of my webservices. Apparently the version of Qt that ships with Black Berry 10 does not support TLS 1.1 or 1.2, which really rains on my parade. You can see the enumeration of supported SSL protocols here and how it tops out at TLS 1.0.

For reference, this is the error message I was getting. I don't know why it doesn't contain any useful information:

INFO        "Error: Connection closed status: "

QT 5 supports TLS 1.2, so I hope that we get that goodness in the platform before it gets completely androidized.


New Cordova project fails to build in Visual Studio 2015: Could not create the Java Virtual Machine


I've been playing around with Visual Studio's cross-platform capabilities over the last couple days and decided to try a 'raw' Cordova project to see if it fits my needs better than the other options I've explored (Xamarin, ionic). Visual studio abstracts most of the complexity away which is nice most of the time, but what if you run into a problem?

In my case I ran into a few cryptic error messages when I tried to build and run my Cordova app on a real Android device from within Visual Studio:

MSB3073 The command "platforms\android\cordova\clean.bat" exited with code 1.

Could not create the Java Virtual Machine.

A fatal exception has occurred. Program will exit.

(As it turns out, these messages aren't super helpful. The resolution lies in further troubleshooting)


Default ionic project template in Visual Studio 2015 produces white screen on device


I'm in the process of creating a cross-platfrom utility application for mobile devices and wanted to avoid having to rewrite the UI for each platform (BlackBerry, iOS, Windows Phone, Android). In looking for cross-platform solutions, I ran across ionic which builds on Cordova to produce a native-like experience.

I'm using VS 2015 and installed the ionic tabs template from the online gallery. While the sample application that gets generated runs fine in Ripple, I just see a white-screen when running on my Android device. The best part is that there are no error messages even when I run in Debug mode. Fun.

Fortunately the solution in my case was pretty straight forward.


Metasploit Unleashed: Figuring out why snmp_enum doesn't work


In an effort to retain the what I learned in the Adaptive Pen Test class I took this year at Black Hat I'm going through the Metasploit Unleashed online course. I hit a snag on the first 'hands-on' lab (snmp_enum) which caused me to take a couple hour detour into snmp troubleshooting-land. It was pretty annoying so I'm posting my solution here in the hope that it will be useful to others.

This is the error I was seeing in Metasploit: Unknown error: Errno::ECONNREFUSED Connection refused


Black Hat: Adaptive Penetration Testing Course Review


This is the first year that I've been able to make it to Black Hat (3rd to DEF CON, starting a couple days). I took a Training put on by the Veris Group titled "Adaptive Penetration Testing". Here's how the course describes itself:

Practice and real world application is critical to learning how to effectively conduct penetration tests. Adaptive Penetration Testing is an immersive course that will provide practical experience and a solid framework for conducting in-depth security assessments. The majority of this course is spent in a fully operational lab environment, overcoming the real-world obstacles faced in today enterprise networks. We will cover tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) successful penetration testers use to provide comprehensive and efficient security assessments in a variety of enterprise environments. Methods presented are based on TTPs consistently being refined by our penetration testers' operational experience. 


Trackpad does not work in Windows 10 - Acer E3 111 C0WA


I rushed ahead and upgraded my Acer E11 NetBook to Windows 10. During the upgrade I selected the option to wipe everything out. After the upgrade it wiped out everything (including drivers) and the trackpad stopped working. Getting it working again was a bit less than trivial.