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I received a message from (not) my bank “Bank of America” about some recent account activity in (not) my account.

The link leads here:

http://nycompsonline.com/_vti_logs/_vti_logs/onlineest/onlineest/bankofamerica/onlinebankingsitekey/

which lead me to this search, which reveals all sites compromised by this toolkit:

http://www.google.ca/search?q=%22Please+complete+all+of+the+information%22+%22(it+is+the+last+3+or+4+digits+AFTER+the+credit+card+number+in+the+signature+area+of+the+card+)%22&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&hs=i43&filter=0

The answer to this is the apostrophe is missing, and so is the question mark. There are no tricks in the letters, which I will show below.

Whats wrong here

AAA
BBB
CCC
DDD
EEE
FFF
GGG
HHH
III
JJJ
KKK
LLL
MMM
NNN
OOO
PPP
QQQ
RRR
SSS
TTT
UUU
VVV
WWW
XXX
YYY
ZZZ

Did you know that 80% of UCSD students could not find the error above? Repost this with the title “what’s wrong here”, and when you click “post “, the answer will be really obvious.

Letters are represented by different numbers in a computer;  Not normal numbers but hexadecimal representation. The letters start with A being represented by 65 in decimal, or 41 in hex. Knowing this, we know that if there is any trickery such as using the number zero for the letter O, or using \ / instead of the letter V, it will come up in the hex dump. Any nonsequential number signifies a deviation from the pattern, and the trick.The following is the AAA->ZZZ part of the hex dump. Note the following:

• 0a is the newline character
• When reading, remember to read from right to left for each chunk below. If you wanted the combination ABCD, you would read it BA DC
• Since this is hex, 49 is not followed by 50, but rather 4a (then 4b, 4c, up to 4f, then 50). Use the google calculator above if you need help

0000010 0a0a 4141 0a41 4242 0a42 4343 0a43 4444
0000020 0a44 4545 0a45 4646 0a46 4747 0a47 4848
0000030 0a48 4949 0a49 4a4a 0a4a 4b4b 0a4b 4c4c
0000040 0a4c 4d4d 0a4d 4e4e 0a4e 4f4f 0a4f 5050
0000050 0a50 5151 0a51 5252 0a52 5353 0a53 5454
0000060 0a54 5555 0a55 5656 0a56 5757 0a57 5858
0000070 0a58 5959 0a59 5a5a 0a5a

The above has been clipped from the entire message. Here we can see without a doubt, that the letters are sequential right from 41 to 5a, or A to Z with no surprises such as \/ (5c 2f) instead of V.

Also note, the letter L in lower case is 6c. 6c does not appear where one would expect to see i, which is 49.

Other possibilities include finding things such as KKK. While the KKK is wrong, I don’t think this is the point of this exercise.

Please can we put the constant questions to rest?

For further information, have a look at this hex / character table.

This nifty little trick allows you to manually enter http requests over https:

openssl s_client -connect www.pcfinancial.ca:443 -state

This command takes place of telnet “www.google.ca 80″ in that openssl negotiates all the key junk for you, and allow you to hack test https webservers.

I recently purchased an ExtremeView xv3300 from EFTA.us. I highly recommend their service: Shipping was fast and prices were great. To link it in with my current mythtv system, I needed to build/buy an irblaster, and hook it up to lirc to blink the codes to the set top box. Then I needed to configure my capture card to record channels 2-70 from local cable tv, and 80+ from the s-video input and the satellite set top box.

(continue reading…)

While I was in Germany, I began to enjoy water with bubbles in it (”Soda Water”). In my previous trips to Europe, I hated the stuff, but this time it really grew on me. Before my course started, I was invited out with a really nice German family from Munich. In their house, they had a machine to turn tap water into bubbly water.

I had to get myself one of these machines! In Germany, they are relatively cheap and the cartridges of CO2 are refillable. This is not the case in Canada. The cartridges are expensive, and each company has their own style of doing cartridges. Clearly this wouldn’t do.

(continue reading…)

GPS Logging of my Germany trip is complete (enough). Version 1 is available at:

http://www.muzik.ca/gpsdata/parse.php

The XML files were logged by the Sunset GPS Tracker (mentioned previously) running on my Windows Mobile (yuck!…well actually it works quite well) and a Hollux GPSlim bluetooth receiver. While in Germany, I had the receiver on my person very often, and I logged many of the trips I did. The log took a way-point every 5 seconds (so you can calculate how quickly I was going by the difference in the waypoints!). “Parse.php” takes the xml file (actually a .gpx file), and extracts the coordinates and puts them on a google map.

Unfortunately it will crash your browser if you have too many points (~300) on your current viewport. Some of my files have lots of way points (5000+), so you still need to choose which leg of the journey you wish to see (0-300 is the default starting position). On my list of todos is to discard “duplicate” points (that is a point within a short distance from its previous point). Also todo is to be able to name a journey (rather than 2007-05-14_…gpx, name it “Trip to Hann-Munden).

When time permits

Block Brute Force with IP Tables

AstralSin’s Blog - Not-so Daily blog from The Astral Sin

http://zenhabits.net/2007/03/recipe-best-soup-ever/

Alles touristen und non-technischen looken peepers! Das machinkontrol is nicht for gefengerpoken und mittengrabben. Oderwise is easy schnappen der springenverk, blowenfus, undpoppencorken mit spitzensparken. Der machine is diggen by experten only. Is nicht fur geverken by das dumpkopfen. Das rubber necken sightseenen keepen das cotton-picken hands in das pockets. So relaxen, und vatchen das blinkenlights.