Troubleshooting Graphics Issues with Kali Linux 2019.2 on an Inspiron 11 3180 (AMD A6-9220e Radeon R4)
It's time to refresh Kali on the systems I take down to DEF CON each year and I was surprised to see Kali didn't "just work" out of the box on my inspiron 3180 like it has in the past. In troubleshooting the issue it appears that there is kernel issue that can cause graphical issues like freezing, flickering and black screen in Linux kernel 4.19 (used by Kali 2019.2).
Extract an APK From Android Devices using ADB
While working on a side project I had a need to extract an APK from my Android phone. This post briefly describes the process on how to do that.
Equipment used: Samsung phone with Android 9, Laptop running Ubuntu 18.04
Golang Implementation of AWS STS Auth Using Kerberos + ADFS
We leverage kerb-sts to authenticate developers to use the Amazon AWS API/CLI. kerb-sts is cross-platform and uses kerberos tickets generated as part of MS AD Domain authentication that Devs use to login to their workstations anyway. This use of kerberos makes it easy to track the identity of users across the environment.
Last week I ran into a rare instance where kerb-sts stopped functioning. 'Something' had changed in our environment which I could not easily determine and that left me in a bind. While I was able to figure out and solve the problem I realized that I needed to improve my depth of understanding around kerberos/ADFS and AWS STS, so I wrote a tool that attempts to perform this authentication in Golang.
If you want to cut to the chase and see the code, head on over to gkerb-sts to take a look
Golang w/SQLite3 + Docker Scratch Image
While deploying a containerized application I made my first foray into docker scratch images. The application is written in Golang and leverages CGO to interact with SQLite databases which posed a small complication.
Curious redirect to HTTP after upgrade to NextCloud 15.02
While trying to get NC Talk to work I upgraded my Next Cloud server to 15.02 and got side tracked troubleshooting an interesting issue: why are my logins now being silently redirected to HTTP instead of HTTPS? I might not have noticed this as quickly if I hadn't disabled HTTP on the box years ago.
Edit: Updated on Feb 7 with new information
Navigating the registration process for the OSCP's PwK Course
I've signed up to take the Penetration Testing with Kali Linux course from Offensive Security and want to make a few notes for other would-be course takers on the process to get registered.
Recovering from a botched attempt at a side by side encrypted Ubuntu installation
I found some time this week to upgrade my laptop to Ubuntu 18.04 (from 16.04). To ensure I could still 'go back' if necessary I went down the path of installing a second hard drive to setup a dual-boot configuration. There's only one problem with this approach: the Ubuntu 18.04 GUI installer doesn't give users the ability to setup a second encrypted ubuntu installation side-by-side with an existing one, even if the target is a new disk.
This set me down a path of adventure and discovery!
Minikube + Cilium on Ubuntu 18.04
We're investigating Kubernetes network overlays at work and I am spinning up sample environments to try things out. One that stands out so far is Cilium due to the fine-grained access controls that can be enforced. They have instructions for how to deploy on Minikube, but it took some finangling for me to be successful with my deployment configuration (Ubuntu 18.04 Server running Minikube 'local' without vagrant).
To cut to the chase, skip to the end to see a deploy script that deploys everything in order.
How to Develop a Thunderbird 60 Add-On (2018)
I've had an idea kicking around in the back of my mind for the last few months to create a Thunderbird extension that will indicate if an email sender's domain was recently registered and alert me. With the poor state of Thunderbird add-on documentation it is a real struggle to get started with anything beyond the most basic 'hello-world' extension. This time I decided to double-down and fight my way through to develop a working (Alpha quality) plugin that accomplishes my design.
If you are thinking about developing an extension for Thunderbird 60 and would like some pointers, read on for my choppy journey through Thunderbird extension development. Hopefully one or more of the pointers will save you time
Private Docker Registry 'x509: certificate signed by unknown authority'
While setting up a new private docker image registry with certificates signed by an internal certificate authority this week we ran into an issue getting our docker nodes to communicate:
Error response from daemon: Get https://private.registry.tld/v2/: x509: certificate signed by unknown authority
Following the guidance on self-signed certificates from Docker did not directly address the issue.