A Sysadmin's Notes

Fast Network Discovery

2025-12-12T10:25:00.001-05:00

The Need for Speed in Network Scanning

In network administration and security testing, quickly identifying active hosts on a subnet is a frequent requirement. While advanced tools offer comprehensive analysis, sometimes a simple, command-line solution is needed for rapid inventory and troubleshooting. The goal is efficiency and minimal overhead.

The ipsweep.sh script, available on GitHub, is designed specifically for this purpose. It provides a lightweight, effective method for performing a ping sweep across a local network using only standard operating system utilities.

How This Script Accelerates Scanning

This specialized Bash script speeds up network discovery by utilizing parallel execution. Rather than checking network addresses one by one in sequence, the tool performs concurrent ping requests to every potential host within the specified subnet simultaneously. This method significantly reduces the time required for a complete network sweep.

Key Functions and Benefits:

* Parallel Execution: By running checks in the background, the script drastically cuts down the total time required for the sweep, allowing for near-instantaneous discovery of live hosts.

* Active Host Identification: The core function uses the standard ping command to send ICMP requests and identify which IP addresses are actively responding on the network.

* Automatic Hostname Resolution: A critical utility feature is the inclusion of a reverse DNS lookup (nslookup) for every active IP. This translates cryptic IP addresses (e.g., 192.168.1.109) into human-readable hostnames (e.g., My-Workstation or router.local), greatly improving the utility of the scan results.

* Low Dependency: The script relies only on utilities that are standard across most Unix-like environments (Linux, macOS): bash, ping, and nslookup.

Getting Started: Deploying the Script

To integrate ipsweep.sh into your toolkit, follow these straightforward steps:

1. Obtain the Script

The script can be obtained by cloning the Git repository:

git clone https://github.com/2bitninja/ipsweep.git

2. Prepare for Execution

Navigate to the repository directory and ensure the script has the correct permissions:

cd ipsweep
chmod +x ipsweep.sh

3. Execute the Scan

Run the script by supplying the first three octets of the target subnet (e.g., for the range 10.0.0.1 to 10.0.0.254):

./ipsweep.sh 10.0.0

The script will output a clean, two-column list detailing the active IP addresses and their resolved hostnames:

These are the active IP Address for 192.168.1

IP Adress Hostname
==========================
192.168.1.1 router.asus.com.
192.168.1.104 Samsung.
192.168.1.128
192.168.1.136
192.168.1.137 Joel.
192.168.1.143 MacBook-Pro.
192.168.1.169
192.168.1.211
192.168.1.36

Summary

ipsweep.sh is a valuable, minimalist tool for network auditing and troubleshooting. Its combination of speed, simplicity, and automatic hostname resolution makes it an efficient utility for anyone needing to quickly map out the active devices on a local network.

For further details and to view the source code, please visit the repository:

View the ipsweep repository on GitHub

Simplifying Tenable Administration: A Menu-Driven Utility for User Management

2025-12-10T17:49:00.011-05:00

Managing a robust security infrastructure often means interacting with multiple administrative interfaces, and Tenable environments (Nessus and Tenable.sc) are no exception. Performing routine tasks like resetting a password or simply managing user access can become repetitive, especially in environments without seamless directory integration.

Crucially, when an administrator or standard user account gets locked out, gaining back immediate access can be a critical, high-stress scenario. This script offers a rapid solution for those situations.

To streamline these common administrative headaches, I developed the Tenable Utility, a simple, menu-driven Bash script designed to centralize and automate essential user management tasks for both Tenable.sc and Nessus.

Core Features of the Tenable Utility

The Tenable-Utility.sh script provides a clear, numbered menu system to execute privileged commands against your Tenable installations.

1. Quick Lock/Unlock: Quickly unlocking an administrator or standard user account.

2. Password Resets: Reset a Tenable.sc user's password to a known default value.

3. Add/Remove Users: (Nessus only) Add a new Nessus user or removing an existing one

Getting and Running the Script

Because this script performs administrative actions directly on the backend files of Tenable products, it must be run with the appropriate permissions.

Requirements:

- Tenable.sc and/or Nessus installed on a Linux or macOS system

- Root or sudo privileges.

Installation and Usage

1. Clone the Repository

> git clone https://github.com/2bitninja/Tenable-Utility.git
> cd Tenable-Utility

2. Grant Execution Rights

> chmod +x Tenable-Utility.sh

3. Execute and Select Options

Run the script using sudo. This will launch the interactive main menu

> sudo ./Tenable-Utility.sh

When executed, the script will display a menu that allows you to choose from various administrative options related to Tenable.sc and Nessus.

Menus

Tenable.sc User Management

After running the script, you'll be presented with a menu. Pick an option to perform the corresponding task:

------------------------------------------------
What do you want to do?
1. Unlock admin account | 4. Lock admin account
2. Unlock all accounts | 5. Lock all accounts
3. Unlock one account | 6. Lock one account

7. Reset user password | 8. Manage Nessus accounts
9. Exit program

Nessus User Management Menu

If you select option 8, you'll enter the Nessus User Management menu where you can manage Nessus user accounts:

Nessus User Management
1. Add user | 3. Change password
2. Remove user | 4. Exit

Conclusion

The Tenable Utility offers Tenable administrators a fast, reliable, and convenient way to handle crucial user management and operational tasks. Instead of navigating complex UIs or recalling lengthy command syntax, you can execute necessary changes from a single, simple menu.

If you are looking to simplify your daily administrative routine, check out the repository today and integrate this utility into your toolbox!

Tenable-Utility on GitHub

Feel free to check out the script, use it, and let me know if you have any suggestions for improvements!

Reset Admin account on Security Center (Older versions)

How to Reset a Nessus Scanner

Automating Verification for Nessus Scans

2025-12-10T16:31:00.002-05:00

The Challenge of Scan Verification

As vulnerability managers and security engineers we rely on credentialed scans to provide accurate visibility into our environment. An uncredentialed scan is essentially a surface-level check, missing most critical vulnerabilities that require authenticated access (like missing patches or insecure configurations).

When managing Tenable environments (Nessus or Tenable.sc), confirming that every asset in a large scan successfully ran with credentials is a critical, yet highly inefficient task. Since the definitive check demands manually reviewing Nessus Plugin ID 19506 (Nessus Scan Information) for the credentialed=true value on every host, this drill-down approach is simply too time-consuming.

The Solution: check-scans.sh

To solve this problem and reclaim time, I developed a simple Bash script called check-scans.sh.

This script automates the verification process, allowing vulnerability managers to confirm scan integrity quickly and efficiently without having to manually sift through the user interface.

The Script's Core Utility

The primary purpose of check-scans.sh is straightforward: verify that scans were conducted with credentials.

It targets the operational need to ensure that the foundational data used for patching and risk analysis is reliable. If Plugin 19506 is missing or shows credentialed=false, the script flags that asset, pointing you directly to the hosts that require re-scanning or troubleshooting.

How to Implement and Run the Script

The script is available in my GitHub repository. It requires minimal setup, making it easy to integrate into your existing workflow.

1. Getting the Script

You can find the source code and usage details here: https://github.com/2bitninja/check-scans

To get the script, clone the repository and navigate into the directory:

git clone https://github.com/2bitninja/check-scans.git

2. Prepare for Execution

Make the script executable:

chmod +x check-scans.sh

3. Running the Check

Due to the nature of interacting with the Nessus/Tenable installation directories and files, you will need elevated privileges (e.g., being in the tns group or using sudo) to execute it successfully.

Execute the script:

sudo ./check-scans.sh

The script will handle the heavy lifting, giving you an immediate, verifiable result of your credentialed scan coverage.

Conclusion

Operational efficiency in security is often achieved through small, focused automations. By leveraging a simple script like check-scans.sh, you eliminate a manual administrative burden, ensuring your security team can maintain a high standard of data quality for all vulnerability assessments.

Feel free to check out the script, use it, and let me know if you have any suggestions for improvements!

How does this version look? I focused on explaining the technical necessity and the workflow benefit.

How to Reset Passwords for Tenable.sc

2025-05-06T16:26:00.013-04:00

Accidentally locked yourself out of your Tenable.sc (formerly Security Center) admin account? Don't worry! This post walks you through the steps to reset your password on version 5.11 and newer. If you're running an older version, you can find instructions in my previous blog post. We'll cover how to reset the password, unlock your account, and clear any pesky login failures.

Important Security Note: Directly modifying the database should be done with caution. Ensure you have a backup of your Security Center configuration before proceeding.

Reset the admin account password

root@earth# /opt/sc/support/bin/sqlite3 /opt/sc/application.db "update userauth set password = '943807ff8e7f4735e2a4774f0cf9ceec1044889088737759ef1f329beb40de00107446dffa66fdcc3d557c1b5109800b8f5083cd4e6cd018c5739135f9ceeb12', salt = 'e+xmTMivzO0Jmyl3XLcDIKcnXOWaKYzWCRRJu2ebr41K8sHJjtYy7JGJwR3IfohbFLUHWzVlivXtt8Dn/ok2tg==', hashtype = 2 where username='admin';"

This command resets the 'admin' user's password to 'password'. It's essential to log in and update this password right away. You can also use this command to reset the password of any other Tenable.sc user by replacing 'admin' with their username. This command does not unlock the account.

Clear Login Failures

root@earth# sqlite3 /opt/sc/application.db "update userauth set failedLogins='0' where username='admin';"

This command resets the count of failed login attempts for the 'admin' user or anther specified user.

Unlock the admin Account

root@earth# sqlite3 /opt/sc/application.db "update userauth set locked='0' where username='admin';"

Use this command to restore access to a locked 'admin' account. Note that this action only unlocks the account; the password remains the same.

After running these commands, you should now be able to log in to your Tenable.sc administrator account. Keep in mind that the password has been reset to a specific, secure value behind the scenes. For security, your very first step after logging in should be to change this password through the Tenable.sc interface. If you run into any problems or have more questions, please leave a comment below.

Note: A better way of doing account actions on Tenable.sc (security center), and Nessus is on this blog post: Simplifying Tenable Administration: A Menu-Driven Utility for User Management

Taming Runaway tmux Sessions and Keeping Your Scans Smooth

2024-12-04T17:25:00.000-05:00

This post tackles a common issue encountered during vulnerability scans with Tenable.sc (formerly Security Center). It addresses the problem of lingering tmux sessions that can hinder login attempts and system responsiveness.

The Problem

Recently, a critical plugin (21745) triggered on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL 8) system during a Tenable.sc scan. The scan user account wasn't locked out, but SSH login attempts hung indefinitely despite system logs showing a successful login. A reboot temporarily resolved the issue, but it kept reoccurring.

The Culprit: Unclosed tmux Sessions

Tenable.sc leverages tmux, a terminal multiplexer, to manage multiple connections during a scan. When a connection is established, tmux typically creates a session. The problem arose when these tmux sessions weren't being automatically closed after the scan completed. This led to a situation where the scan user ended up with thousands of orphaned sessions, causing login issues.

Fixing the Runaway Sessions

1. Automatic Cleanup

Edit the system-wide tmux configuration file ( /etc/tmux.conf ).
Add the line set -g destroy-unattached on to the configuration file. This instructs tmux to automatically terminate any sessions that are not actively in use.
To implement this change:

scanuser@remotesystem> sudo echo "set -g destroy-unattached on" >> /etc/tmux.conf

2. User-Specific Control (Optional)

This approach allows tmux usage only for the designated scan user ( scanuser ).
Create a custom shell script ( /etc/profile.d/custom.sh ) with the following content:


[ "$USER" != "scanuser" ]
 then if [ "$PS1" ]
   then parent=$(ps -o ppid= -p $$)
        name=$(ps -o comm= -p $parent) 
        case "$name" in (sshd|login) exec tmux
        esac 
 fi 
fi

This script checks the current user and only allows tmux execution if the user is "scanuser" and the parent process is either "sshd" (SSH daemon) or "login" (login shell).

Understanding the Tools

tmux: An open-source terminal multiplexer that allows managing multiple terminal sessions within a single window. You can split your terminal into different panes, detach from sessions, and reattach later, similar to the "screen" application.

Tenable Plugin 21745: This is an informational plugin that gathers and displays information from other plugins, triggered in this instance due to potential login failures.

Additional Resources

Tmux Cheat Sheet & Quick Reference: https://tmuxcheatsheet.com/
A beginner's guide to tmux: https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/introduction-tmux-linux

By implementing these solutions, you can ensure that your Tenable.sc scans run smoothly without encountering issues caused by lingering tmux sessions.

Free Google Training & Certification Exam

2024-10-25T11:24:00.003-04:00

Google is offering free training for US or Canadian military veterans or service members looking to transition into a tech career. This program is designed to help you leverage your military experience and skillset to succeed in the tech industry.

Key Program Benefits:

Free Training: Attend a two-day virtual training event to learn the fundamentals of cloud computing and Google Cloud Platform.
Certification Vouchers: Receive a voucher to take the Cloud Digital Leader certification exam, valued at $99.
Expert Guidance: Learn from Google Cloud experts and veteran Google employees.
Networking Opportunities: Connect with other veterans and industry professionals.

Agenda

Attend the Cloud Digital Leader Training Even
Dates: November 7-8, 2024
Time: 10 AM - 6 PM EST
Location: Virtual

Exam Prep Sessions
Dates: November 15 and/or November 22, 2024
Time: 1 PM - 2:30 PM EST
Location: Virtual

Go to the link below to register for the class

https://rsvp.withgoogle.com/events/google_cloud_launchpad_for_vets

Don't Miss Out!

Login hangs for scanning account

2023-10-19T06:54:00.008-04:00

The Problem

I ran into this issue the other day. Tenable.sc (formerly Security Center) was reporting a hit on plugin 21745 for a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL 8) system. I checked on the account used on the systems for scanning and it wasn't locked out or anything. When I tried to SSH into the system with the credentials, it would just hang. The system logs showed "login successful". When I rebooted the system was able to login normally again, but the problem would come back eventually.

The Cause

When the Nessus scanner connects to a system, it's scanning, it makes several connections to the host. Each connection starts a TMUX session. The problem is the TMUX sessions where not being closed after the Nessus scanner disconnected from the system. It turned out that the account used for security scanning had around 2,000 TMUX sessions running.

The Fix

Add "set -g destroy-unattached on" to the /etc/tmux.conf file.

scanuser@remotesystem> sudo echo "set -g destroy-unattached on" >> /etc/tmux.conf

This will append this line "set -g destroy-unattached on" into the /etc/tmux.conf configuration file. This will auto close sessions not being actively used.

Anther Fix

Set system wide rules for TMUX on the effected systems so only the account used by the Nessus scanner will have use of the TMUX terminal multiplexer. /etc/profile.d/custom.sh


[ "$USER" != "scanuser" ]
 then if [ "$PS1" ]
   then parent=$(ps -o ppid= -p $$)
        name=$(ps -o comm= -p $parent) 
        case "$name" in (sshd|login) exec tmux
        esac 
 fi 
fi

Defs

TMUX is an open-source terminal multiplexer for Unix type systems. Multiple terminal sessions can be accessed simultaneously by splitting the terminal into different screens. Can also detach remote sessions and reattach later, similar to what the screen application can do.

Tenable Plugin a plugin is a script deployed by the Nessus scanner to check for security vulnerabilities. In this case plugin 21745 is an info plugin, it displays info from other plugins. This plugin is triggered (displayed) whenever a login failure occurs.

Manually Update Nessus Plugins in Linux (Updated)

2023-04-07T10:19:00.000-04:00

I had an issue the other day with one of my Nessus Vulnerability Scanners which is being managed by Security Center. In Security Center the status of one of the Nessus scanners showed "Plugin Out of Sync". I tried to push the plugins to the Nessus scanner from the Security Center, but I was getting a status error of "Connection timed out". So basically I was getting a latency issue on the connection. The Nessus scanner and the Security Center are in different states, so this may be why there is so much latency. I just built this Nessus scanner, so there were just too many plugins to be pushed over the wire by Security Center. To fix this issue, I just manually copied the plugins to the Nessus scanner. Then I manually loaded the plugins into the Nessus scanner. After I did this, I have not had this issue again.

Manually updating the Plugins can sometimes fix error or scanner status of "Protocol error". These instructions work on Nessus 5x and 6x, when managed by Security Center 4x or 5x.

Follow the instructions below to manually install plugins for the Nessus scanner on a Linux server. To do this on a Windows computer go here.

1. Login to the Nessus scanner.

root@earth> ssh nessus

2. Stop the Nessus service.

root@nessus> service nessusd stop

root@nessus> systemctl stop nessusd

3. Remove the scanner from Security Center.

4. Reset the scanner

root@nessus> /opt/nessus/sbin/nessuscli fix --reset
Resetting Nessus configuration will permanently erase all your settings and causes Nessus to become unregistered.
Do you want to proceed? (y/n) [n]: y
Successfully reset Nessus configuration.

5. Connect the Nessus scanner.

root@nessus> /opt/nessus/sbin/nessuscli fetch --security-center
nessud can now be started, SeccrityCenter will upload the plugins

6. Manually copy over the plugins file.
Copy the file tar.gz file from Security Center to or download latest plugins from Tenable.

Note - In Security Center The plugins are located here: /opt/sc/data/plugins

7. Load the plugins into Nessus.

root@nessus> /opt/nessus/sbin/nessuscli update plugins_file.tar.gz

* Update successful. The changes will be automatically processed by Nessus

8. Start the Nessus service

root@nessus> service nessusd start

Or for Redhat 7

root@nessus> systemctl start nessusd

9. Login to the web interface for Nessus and wait for the bar to complete.

root@nessus> firefox https://localhost:8834

10. Login to the web interface for the Security Center. Add the Nessus scanner back and verify connectivity.

You're done.

If you have any questions or comments please post them below.

Related posts
Manually Update Plugins for your PVS
Reset Admin account on Security Center

Setup SSH Keys with Agent

2023-03-07T20:46:00.003-05:00

This guide for setting up SSH Keys with an SSH Agent for auto-logging into Linux based systems. Why set up SSH keys, why not just use your password? SSH Keys are considered more secure than using passwords to access systems, because user accounts are authenticated by the server without ever having to send your password over the network. If the passwords are not transmitted then they can't be intercepted. This works by identifying yourself to an SSH server using public-key cryptography and challenge-response authentication. When you set up an SSH agent then the agent will handle the challenge-response authentication for you.

This guide is not for installing or setting up a SSH server. You must have the sshd service running on your system in order to follow along with this guide. All the examples are take from a Red Hat system. In the following examples, earth is the name on the local system and moon is the remote system.

Create you key pair

The ssh-keygen command will generate a public and private keypair. The keys will be stored in the users home directory by default, this is the path ~/.ssh/. The basic command looks like this: ssh-keygen -t [dsa|rsa] The -t sets the type of keys used. In the example below I create a rsa key pair. This command also sets the passphrase, think of this like setting a password. Make sure you remember the passphrase because you will use this instead of the password for logging into the remote system (moon).

man@earth> ssh-keygen -t rsa
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/man/.ssh/id_rsa): Press [Enter] key
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/man/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/man/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:dfhjodfnk
04:be:15:ca:1d:0a:1e:e2:a7:e5:de:98:4f:b1:a6:01

It is import to protect your private key, so don't share it.

Note- Do not leave the passphrase blank. Doing this is a bad security practice, because this defeats the purpose of having the extra security of SSH keys. This will make the system less secure. If you have done this just rerun the command and add a passphrase.

Install Public Key on Remote Host

You install the public SSH key by copying or appending it to the authorized_keys file on a remote host. This file is also located in the users home directory, ~/.ssh/. For most systems you can use the ssh-copy-id command, which I cover in Method 1. I will show a work around if the ssh-copy-id command is not available, in Method 2 & 3.

Method 1 - Use The ssh-copy-id Command

The easiest way to install the public key to a remote SSH server is use the ssh-copy-id command. To use the command type "ssh-copy-id <remote host>". This command appends the public key to the authorized_keys file on the the remote host. If the file doesn't exist it will be created.

In the example below "moon" is the name of the remote host.

man@earth> ssh-copy-id moon
Now try logging into the machine, with "ssh 'remote-host'", and check in:

.ssh/authorized_keys

to make sure we haven't added extra keys that you weren't expecting.

This the best way is to copy over the public key because ssh-copy-id will create .ssh/authorized_keys file if it doesn't exist. The command also appends the public key to the authorized_keys file, whereas other methods may overwrites the file. This allows the account to use keys from more than one system.

Note- This method will not work on some systems, such as Solaris 10.

Method 2 - Manually Copy the Key File

This method uses the scp command to copy the public key to the remote server. Before the ssh-copy-id command came about, this was way it was done. The key file will fail to copy to the system if .ssh/authorized_keys doesn't exist. If this happens just login with your password and create the file and try again. The main downside to this method is that it overwrites the authorized_keys file.

man@earth> scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub moon:~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Alternately you can get around this by doing this instead. The command below mimics what the ssh-copy-id command does. It creates the .ssh directory if it doesn't exist and appends the contents of the key to the authorized_keys file.

man@earth> cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh man@moon "mkdir -p ~/.ssh && cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Method 3 - If You Automount Your Home Directory

If your home directory automounts across a lot of servers then you can just append the contents of the public key to the authorized_keys file. This method can be a lot faster then other methods. For example if you have 100 hosts you need to connect to, you just need to run the command once to connect to all of them. Instead of running 100 copy commands you just run one. Again this will only work if the hosts your connecting to automount the same home directory that the SSH kays are on.

You can copy it over with the cat command.

man@earth> cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

The other methods will still work if you prefer them to this one.

Setting up the SSH Agent

At this point when you login to a remote host you now get prompted for the SSH passphrase instead of the password. To automate the login process it is recommended to setup an SSH Agent. Luckily setting up an SSH Agent is easy. The agent holds the passphrase for the user and then presets the passphrase when prompted.

There are some considerations you need to consider when running an SSH Agent. If a GUI is installed on the system, such as gnome, then the window manager may run the agent for you. This is by far the easiest way to setup an agent. If the system window manager handles SSH keys then you get prompted with a GUI text box for a passphrase the 1st time you try to SSH to a remote host. If you enter the passphrase the GUI will run the SSH Agent for you system wide for the user currently logged into that account. This lasts until the system is rebooted or the user logs out.

You can also run the agent from within a terminal or shell. When you run an agent from the terminal it will only work from that terminal and not system wide like does if the GUI manages the agent.

To start an SSH Agent in a terminal run the commands show below.

man@earth> eval `ssh-agent`
man@earth> ssh-add
Enter passphrase for /home/man/.ssh/id_rsa:
Identity added: /home/man/.ssh/id_dsa (/home/man/.ssh/id_rsa)

Note- Add these commands to the .bashrc file to start an agent automatically when you open a terminal emulator.

If you use VNC, just start your VNC server session in the same terminal you used to starting your agent. This way all your terminal emulators launched in your VNC session, will use the same agent.

SSH Agent Management

One issue with agents is that sometimes you end up running a lot of agents. This is because the agent doesn't stop running when the terminal closes. You need to run the command below and kill any agents that you are not using.

man@earth> ps aux | grep agent

If there is more than one agent running then you should kill the additional ssh-agent.

man@earth> pkill ssh-agent

This will only kill agents owned by the user running the command in.

One way to kill your ssh-agents is to add a kill statement to the .bash_logout file.

Reference Section
Manpage ssh-copy-id

Free Blockchain training

2018-12-14T15:09:00.002-05:00

I found some free training on Cryptocurrency or Blockchain technology. This training is from the people who bought us the Ethos wallet. Go to there site and checkout there free wallet and training.

Tape Format Script for Tape Pickup

2018-12-13T09:57:00.000-05:00

The other day my co-worker showed me how to send our tapes offsite. Apparently you need to format the list of tapes in a certain way. So you can input the info to the Iron Mountain site for pickup. He was going though several steps to change the format in Excel. I told myself there has to be a better way, so wrote a script shown below.

First you need to put all the tapes in a list. I put the tape list in the file called list shown in the example below. Then I run the script, I created (tape-input.sh). I take the output and paste it into the web portal.

list

U00010L5
U00011L5
U00012L5
U00013L5
U00014L5
U00015L5
U00016L5
U00017L5
U00018L5
U00019L5
U00020L5
U00021L5
U00022L5
U00023L5
U00024L5
U00025L5
U00026L5
U00027L5
U00028L5
U00029L5
U00030L5 CAT

tape-input.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Created to format the tapes numbers to add to the web portal
echo -e "Packaged by man, $(date|awk '{print $2" "$3" "$6}')"

cat list |sed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/, /g'| perl -pe 's{,}{++$n % 3 ? $& :"\n"}ge'

man@earth> ./tape-input.sh
Packaged by man, Dec 13 2018
U00010L5, U00011L5, U00012L5
U00013L5, U00014L5, U00015L5
U00016L5, U00017L5, U00018L5
U00019L5, U00020L5, U00021L5
U00022L5, U00023L5, U00024L5
U00025L5, U00026L5, U00027L5
U00028L5, U00029L5, U00030L5 CAT

I take the output and paste it into the Iron Mountain web portal for pickup.

I hope this helps someone out. If you have any questions please ask below.

Fix RPM Database finding for UEFI file types

2018-11-21T11:22:00.000-05:00

I ran into an issue the other day when was hardening a server. I couldn't change the file permissions on a few files to what the RPM database says is the default. This was in regard to the /boot/efi files or UEFI file types.

This is the check: rpm -Va

The security rule: RHEL-07-010010 "The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that the file permissions, ownership, and group membership of system files and commands match the vendor values." Basically the the check is to ensure the files have the default file permissions or less.

Also works for Red Hat 6
RHEL-06-000516, RHEL-06-000517, RHEL-06-000518, RHEL-06-000519

The Fix

Add the line below to /etc/fstab

UUID=#### /boot/efi vfat umask=0177,shortnames=winnt 0 0

Unmount and mount /boot/efi

root@earth> umount /boot/efi
root@earth> mount /boot/efi

Some other reference materials.
Could not change permission for /boot/efi/EFI/redhat/grub.conf
Why do /boot/efi content always show up in rpm -Va output in UEFI enabled system?

How to lookup UUIDs
https://liquidat.wordpress.com/2007/10/15/short-tip-get-uuid-of-hard-disks/
https://liquidat.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/uuids-and-linux-everything-you-ever-need-to-know/

Six Fee Computer Books

2018-11-08T13:55:00.000-05:00

I like getting free stuff, so when I got and email from Jason Cannon and his website Linux Training Academy I had to share it. Jason Cannon is offering six of his books for free through Amazon.com until this Saturday. To get the books you need an Amazon account with the US or UK store. The books are in the kindle format, which can be read on your computer or tablet if you don't have a kindle.

These books are absolutely free! Just click on the book to download it from Amazon's US store. Use this link for Amazon's UK store.

Prices of the print versions
$24.99   Linux for Beginners
$24.99   Linux Administration
$14.99   Shell Scripting
$14.99   Command Line Kung Fu
$19.99   High Availability for the LAMP Stack
$24.99   Python Programming for Beginners
$124.94 Total savings

I found out about this because I'm on a mailing list that Jason Cannon and his site put out. Further instructions on how to get the free books can be found on his website.

If your looking for more free books checkout my other posts:
Free Python Books
Free Books

Remotely Login & Run Commands on ILOMs

2018-11-06T16:45:00.003-05:00

Logging into Oracle's Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) to get info can be a real pain, so I wrote this script to do it for me. Normally one would use use Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) or Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), but due to security concerns I was not able to use either of these options. Even with the latest firmware installed the ILOMs would not support modern security practices. So I was forced to find anther way. I needed to write a script that would wait for a prompt and then fill it in for me. Expect an extension to the Tcl scripting language is great for this kind of stuff, but I decided to use HERE which is even easier.

In order to make this work I created the user mancnt on the local system and on all the ILOMs. I also created a SSH key and setup an SSH agent on the local system and then I copied the key over to the ILOMs. If you don't know how to setup SSH keys check out my last post on how to do it "A Better Way to Setup SSH Keys". You will also need a file containing the hostnames of the ILOMs you want access. In the example script below I use two such files, lsILOMb and lsILOMc, one for the blades and one for the chassis.

#!/bin/bash
#
# This section is for the ILOM blades
HERE-ILOM(){
ssh $1 2>/dev/null <show /SP/network macaddress
HERE
}
# This section is for the ILOM Chassis
HERE-ILOMc(){
ssh $1 2>/dev/null <show /CMM/network macaddress
HERE
}

# To get IP address from hostname
Ping-to-IP(){
ping -c1 $1 |grep PING|awk '{print $3}'|sed -e 's/(//' -e 's/)//'
}

# Main section
ps aux|grep manacnt|grep -v grep |grep agent &>/dev/null || echo "Need to have an agent running"

# Section for ILOMs on Oracle Blades
for s in $(cat lsILOMb)
do echo -e "$(Ping-to-IP $s),$(HERE-ILOM $s),Embedded Linux,$s"
done

# Section for ILOMs on Oracle Chassis
for s in $(cat lsILOMc)
do echo -e "$(Ping-to-IP $s),$(HERE-ILOMc $s),Embedded Linux,$s,FALSE,ILOM,N611"
done

So the script generates a comma-separated values (CVS) file, which contains the IP address, MAC address, OS, and hostname. I then give this file to the network security people.

Example output: 10.0.1.20,00:10:e0:40:c2,Embedded Linux,server-ilom

If you have any questions feel free to ask them below.

Free Python Books

2018-10-11T12:16:00.000-04:00

Hello, I ran across some free books on Python and I thought I would share them with you. These books are written by Al Sweigart, who has made the books available under the Creative Commons License. So the books are free and legal for you to read and download. Click on the image of the book to go to the site hosting the free book.

The link below is the main site the books are on and there are also some free videos. There is also some online courses as well.
http://inventwithpython.com/

You can also get some free Python from Amazon as well. Use this link, to to see a list of Python books sorted by price, from low to high. These are kindle books that can also be read online with the kindle cloud player, if you don't have a kindle.

(Updated) Free Cryptocurrency Payed Directly to Your Wallet

2018-08-15T12:34:00.000-04:00

There are many sites that offer free cryptocurrency. Many of these sites are called faucets. Faucet websites give tiny amounts of cryptocurrency in exchange for showing you adds. The main purpose of faucets is to promote the coin there offering. Many of these faucets make you come back repeatedly before you can withdraw the funds to your cryptocurrency wallet. I have found some faucets that payout immediately to your wallet, no more waiting. Using these websites will not make you rich, but free money is free money and the ads on the sites I'm showing are not excessive.

So far I have only found a few faucets that pay directly to your wallet. If you know of any addition faucets please post them below.

This is an update to this blogs previous Free Cryptocurrency Payed Directly to Your Wallet post. There are a few faucets from the previous post that are no longer working, but perhaps in the future they will work again. The Most of the Waves coin faucets are the still working. I have added more faucets to this list, which include new faucets for these coins: ZenCash, Minexcoin, Denarius, and Bitcoin Green.

ZenCash (ZEN)
ZEN is a major coin so getting coins coins from a ZEN cash faucet is a big deal.

http://getzen.cash/

This faucet pays from 50000 to 150000 Satoshis every 20 hours. The only issue is that now you need to have an account on the site and that is a real pain.

Link to the ZEN web wallet: https://myzenwallet.io/

Waves (WAVES)
The Waves faucets are managed by the Waves stacking or mining pools. This is to promote the Waves coin and to encourage you to lease Waves coins with them. One interesting thing about the Waves coin is that it is a Proof of Stake (PoS) coin, meaning that holding the waves coin in the Waves wallet will earn you more Waves coin. But unlike other POS coins you can only stake by leasing the coin out hte coin to the pool.

Freewaves
You will get some Waves coins and the option to get some random tokens. This faucet can be used every hour per IP address.

WavesDrop
You will get some Waves coins and the option to get some random tokens. This faucet can be used every hour per IP address.

FountainPerpetua
You will get some Waves coins and the option to get some random tokens, usually Mercury (MER) tokens. This faucet can be used every hour per IP address.

Link to the Waves web wallet: https://wavesplatform.com/
The Waves wallet is a multi coin wallet and has a built in exchange.

MinexCoin (MNX)

The coin also has a banking feature called "MinexBank"where you can earn interest by "parking" there coins.

xdeathwing
This faucet pays out every 6 hours. This is tracked via your IP address. There are no ads on the site and the payout is really fast. One nice feature of the coin is that you can park it and earn interest.

MNX doesn't have a web wallet, so you will have to install a client on your computer.

Denarius (DNR)
This coin can be mined (POW) and staked (POS) and the coins can be put into a Master Node.

xemplarsoft
This faucet pays out 0.002 every 24 hours. The site seems to track your withdraw from the faucet via your router's IP address and not your wallet address. The site also works through a VPN. There are no ads at the monument.

One easy way to get a DNR wallet is by joining their Discord. If you chose to use the wallet from there Discord server beware the address changes, so check it before you use the faucet. If you are active on the Denarius Discord server they sometimes payout free coins to there members, this is commonly called rain. I was able to get 10 coins on the coins birthday, which I put in a shared Master Node. Click on the word Discord for the Discord invite.

The Coinomi wallet supports this coin, and you can get it for your android or apple device.

Bitcoin Green (BITG)
This is a Proof of Stake (PoS), so if you stack the coin it will earn you more coins.

bitgfaucet
This faucet is often always dry. You can claim every 12 hours.

They have wallets you can install on your computer.

Faucets listed below have stopped working but might come back in the future.

Bytecoin (BCN)

The Bytecoin faucet was managed by bytecoin.org the developers and maintainers of Bytecoin.

Freebytecoin

This faucet can be used once an hour per IP address. They have recently switched to a manually payout system so you will not get the BCN instantly. You will however get the payout in a timely manner.

WAVES (WAVES)

WavesGo
This was the best and most reliable Waves faucet, when it was working. In the past you got some
Waves coins as well as some WavesGo (WGO) tokens. This faucet used work once hour, per wallet address. Did at one time work though a VPN.

Conclusion
Remember this will not a get rich, so don't put a lot of effort into getting the coins. Faucets are just meant to promote the coin. Many coins are switching to Airdrops as there main way to promote a their coin. Sometimes the faucets will stop working or are under maintenance, so if it is not working try again later. I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions or comments please post them below. If you know of any faucets that payout to your wallet, and are not to a site connected CoinPot or Faucet Hub, please let me know.

Wallet Tip
Use a webwallet if you don't have many coins that are worth a lot of money. If you start to collect a lot of valuable crypto then switch to client wallet or a hardware wallet. If you end up needing to install the a lot of client wallets on your computer. Then install it on a external or removable storage device, because some of these wallets can get very big and and take a lot of space on your local hard drive. If you fill up your hard drive your computer, the computer can get slower or even crash (stop working).

My ZenCash wallets address
znaBJT8amzTdGLhk985QvZnN1QbF8G3M5NH

My Waves wallet address
3P9nJZ9PSb8yR8pueB4WbBtLvD4raDi6Ah8

My Minexcoin wallet address
XYupxVDW4yWD2nG6eS68YLhKSq76DnLsHi

My Bytecoin wallet address
28ExGFyTXTPdCHYqPqkNasMjTYHpnHFgG7KAAEcQpKkYKoX1UzLzHdsgjykcu8CuQRG9SxEoSH7YxCHJVp7Ui9es3WSjGDt

How to setup Claymore on EthOS

2018-06-22T16:40:00.002-04:00

Today I’m showing you how to setup the Claymore dual miner on EThOS. Ethos is Linux based operating system specially designed to mine cryptocurrency. In the examples we are going to dual mine Callisto (CLO) and SmartCash (SMART), but Claymore can be used to mine any number of coins. The reason I make this video was because EthOS has changed the what configuration files you can use. The local.conf or remote.conf files are still the most important files for mining on EthOS, but we used to be able to supplement these files with stub files. I go over the new way to do things now that the stub files are no longer an option. Now we have to use the flags option to this in local.conf. I also go over some advanced settings.

Below I have included the a copy of the file I used in the video. Remember to replace my info with your info.

Example files Local.conf
---------------------------------
globalminer claymore
stratumproxy enable
proxywallet 0x33496bf2654acbdbe501accc9393790707e89ad3
proxypool1 stratum+tcp://lb.geo.callistopool.eu:8001
poolpass1 x
proxypool2 stratum+tcp://clopool.pro:2561
poolpass2 x

dualminer enabled
dualminer-coin keccak
dualminer-pool
stratum+tcp://us-mine.smartcash.cc:3008
dualminer-wallet SaMXJJ4CjFRDVwJceAEQfE2QfUMKuRpiGt
dualminer-poolpass1 x

claymore=flags -eworker trio -dcri 8,8,8 -colors 1 -allpools 1
--------------------------------------
To add failover pools for the 2nd coin edit this file: /opt/miners/claymore/dpools.txt

Links to more info
Main Page http://ethosdistro.com/
EthOS knowledge base http://ethosdistro.com/kb/
SmartCash (SMART) https://smartcash.cc/
Callisto (CLO) https://callisto.network/

Turn a list into a CSV file

2018-05-18T10:19:00.001-04:00

Hello today I'm showing you two simple ways to turn a list into a comma separated (CSV) output. This is helpful if you need to import the output into a spreadsheet. You can do this one of two ways, with a BASH for loop or with SED.

We are going to use list.txt which is a small list of solar objects for this example.

list.txt

earth
moon
mars
venus
saturn

BASH Script

for s in $(cat list.txt)
do echo -en "$s, "
done

-note - if you don't want spaces or commas use "$s" instead

man@earth> ./BASHscript
earth, moon, mars, venus, saturn,

SED Script

cat list.txt | sed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/, /g'

As you can see the SED statement is much shorter.

man@earth> ./SEDscript
earth, moon, mars, venus, saturn,

I hope someone out there finds this useful. If you have any questions or comments please post them below.

Free Books

2018-03-26T18:19:00.000-04:00

We all love free stuff, right? So in this post I list some sites that I found that offer free books. It is also important to protect the rights of content creators, so I'm only listing free books that are totally legal to download. If you know of any sites that offer free books please provide a link in the comments below.

Free Novels
Free Books from publisher BAEN
Lots of totally free books books on the BAEN website from may different publishers and genre types.

LibriVox
Free public domain audio books. These books are several different languages. Librivox is a non-commercial, non-profit and ad-free project. They get most of their texts from Project Gutenberg, and the Internet Archive hosts their audio files (for free!).

Project Gutenberg
This a site that hosts free ebooks in many in the public domain. They also have ebooks in several different languages

Verkaro Audiobooks
This site has many free audio books. they used to be called LiteralSystems.org. The books span many different genre.

ManyBooks
This site has over 33,000 eBooks to choose from. These books are in many different genres.

Internet Archive
This site is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

BookBub
"BookBub features limited-time offers for the best free books in over twenty genres, from both top-tier publishers and critically-acclaimed independent authors. These free ebooks are available on all devices, including Kindle, Nook, iPad, and Android. Check out some of our current selections" - https://www.bookbub.com

Google
Believe it or not, Google has a lot of free books on there site. Though some of the books are just excerpts of books for sale.

Free IT text books
DevOps books
This is a absolutely free collection of free It professionals or people who want to get into IT.

Free PDF Books
Free technical books and lectures in PDF form.

Safari Books Online
Safari books online is the place to get Oreilly IT books. It is not exactly free, but you can get a free trail.

I hope this info will hope some get some free and legal books. Don't forget there is also the public library. Please fee free to post any additional info on free and legal books below in the comments.

Free Dev Ops Tech Books

2018-03-13T14:51:00.000-04:00

Below is a link for some free to some free IT books. Just go to the link and pick the book or books you want and down load the PDF. Feel free to share and read.

Free Dev Ops Books

Free Cryptocurrency Payed Directly to your Wallet

2017-12-28T15:46:00.000-05:00

There are many sites that offer free cryptocurrency. These sites are called faucets they give tiny amounts of cryptocurrency in exchange for showing you adds. Many of these faucets make you come back repeatedly before you can withdraw the funds to your cryptocurrency wallet. I have found some faucets that payout immediately and/or directly to your wallet, no more waiting.

So far I have only found the one faucet for Bytecoin and a few related faucets for the Waves coin. Using these websites will not make you rich, but free money is free money and the ads on the sites are not excessive. One interesting thing about the Waves coin is that it is a Proof of Stake (PoS) coin, meaning that holding the waves coin in the Waves wallet will earn you more Waves coin.

Faucets rules
All of the the Faucets listed below will allow you to withdraw once per hour. All but one of the faucets below track you using your IP address. In order to withdraw more then that you will need more then one external IP address. The WavesGo faucet tracks you via the waves wallet address, so for example if you have 2 Waves wallet address then you can withdraw 2 times an hour.

Bytecoin (BCN)

The Bytecoin faucet is managed by bytecoin.org the developers and maintainers of Bytecoin.

Freebytecoin

This faucet can be used once an hour per IP address. They have recently switched to a manually payout system so you will not get the BCN instantly. You will however get the payout in a timely manner.

WAVES
The Waves faucets are managed by the Waves stacking or mining pools. This is to promote the Waves coin and to encourage Proof of Stake (PoS) mining of the Waves coin.

WavesGo
This is the best and most reliable Waves faucet. You will get some Waves coins as well as some WavesGo (WGO) tokens. This faucet can be used once hour, per wallet address. Will work though a VPN.

Freewaves

You will get some Waves coins and the option to get some random tokens. This faucet can be used every hour per IP address.

WavesDrop
You will get some Waves coins and the option to get some random tokens. This faucet can be used every hour per IP address.

FountainPerpetua
You will get some Waves coins and the option to get some random tokens, usually Mercury (MER) tokens. This faucet can be used every hour per IP address.

Wallets
If you want to withdraw BCN or Waves from the faucets you will need a wallet.

Go to the Bytecoin website for a list of Bytecoin (BCN) wallets.

Waves Lite wallet

The Waves Lite wallet can also can also be used to hold Bitcoin, Ethureum, Litcoin, and Zcash. The wallet also has a builtin exchange called DAX. The DAX exchange can be used to sell the tokens you get. The wallet is also needed to do Proof of Stake pool mining.

Exchanges
Many exchanges will not except small payments to there exchange wallets. Bittrex will not except the tokens or the Waves coin from the faucets as the payment amount is to small. The HitBTC exchange will except the BCN and Waves faucet payouts, but the free tokens from the Waves faucet be lost.

Current Bytecoin (BCN) and Waves prices

Sometimes the faucets will stop working or are under maintenance, so if it is not working check back later. I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions or comments please post them below. If you know of any faucets that payout to your wallet, and not to a site like CoinPot or Faucet Hub, please let me know.

My Waves wallet address
3P9nJZ9PSb8yR8pueB4WbBtLvD4raDi6Ah8

My BCN wallet address
28ExGFyTXTPdCHYqPqkNasMjTYHpnHFgG7KAAEcQpKkYKoX1UzLzHdsgjykcu8CuQRG9SxEoSH7YxCHJVp7Ui9es3WSjGDt

Manually Update Plugins on a Nessus Scanner (Windows)

2017-04-04T11:49:00.003-04:00

I had an issue the other day with one of my Nessus Vulnerability Scanners which is being managed by Security Center. In Security Center the status of one of the Nessus scanners showed "Plugin Out of Sync". I tried to push the plugins to the Nessus scanner from the Security Center, but I was getting a status error of "Connection timed out". So basically I was getting a latency issue on the connection. The Nessus scanner and the Security Center are in different states, so this may be why there is so much latency. I just built this Nessus scanner, so there were just too many plugins to be pushed over the wire by Security Center. To fix this issue, I just manually copied the plugins to the Nessus scanner. Then I manually loaded the plugins into the Nessus scanner. After I did this, I have not had this issue again.

Manually updating the Plugins can sometimes fix error or scanner status of "Protocol error". These instructions work on Nessus 5x and 6x, when managed by Security Center 4x or 5x.

Follow the instructions below to manually install plugins for the Nessus scanner on a Windows computer. For Linux computers click here.

1. Login to the Nessus scanner.

2. Open PowerShell or the Windows command line (CMD) as privileged user.

3. Stop the Nessus service

# net stop "Tenable Nessus"

4. Remove the Nessus scanner from Security Center

5. Reset the scanner

# …\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus>nessuscli fix --reset

6. Connect the Nessus scanner

# …\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus>nessuscli fetch –security-center

7. Load the plugins into Nessus

# …\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus>nessuscli update plugins_file.tar.qz

8. Start the Nessus scanner

# net start “Tenable Nessus”

9. Login to the web interface for Nessus and verify that the configuration is complete.
https://localhost:8834

10. Login to the web interface for the Security Center. Add the Nessus scanner back and verify connectivity.

Your done.

Related posts
On this Blog

Turn off BEEP in BASH

2017-03-20T17:25:00.000-04:00

Sometimes your on a computer that has speakers and if your on the termial it keeps beeping. This can be annoying if all your doing is using the tab key to use auto complete. Who ever thought that making the terminal beep was a good idea? Anyway below are some ways to get ride of the beeps.

In /etc/inputrc file add the line below.

set bell-style none

Put the line below in a profile. If you want to set it globally but in /etc/profile, otherwise set it in bash_profile, .bashrc, and/or .profile.

setterm -blength 0

This will make the beeping sound go away for good. If you have any questions or comments please post them below.

How to clear Nessus Plugin 42873 on Security Center

2017-03-15T10:29:00.002-04:00

I use Security Center with Nessus scanners from Tenable to do vulnerability scanning on my servers. Sometimes the scanner finds hits on itself, such as a hit on plugin 42873 "SSL Medium Strength Cipher Suites Supported" on the Security Center. Below I show the steps needed to disable 3DES on Security Center..

To disable 3DES within Security Center do the following:
1. Open the file /opt/sc/support/conf/sslciphers.conf

2. Search for DES-CBC3-SHA

3. After the colon that precedes the above string, add an exclamation mark which is the signal to disable the given cipher.

4. The whole string should look like :!DES-CBC3-SHA:

Once complete, restart the SC service and complete a rescan and this vulnerability should be remediation.

To clear the other part of this hit, make sure the server is using SSL ciphers have encryption key length of over 112 bits.

Reference Plugin 42873
https://www.openssl.org/blog/blog/2016/08/24/sweet32/

Rename & Combine Audio Book files into one audio book.

2017-02-20T23:26:00.001-05:00

I like to listen to audio books and I get them them from places such as Audible, books on CD, the library or LibriVox. The issue is that all these places present the files to you in different ways. You can get one big file or a lot of small files. They all use different naming conventions which can make organizing your books difficult. To play my audio books I use the iBooks app from Apple and the Audible app form Audible, on my iPod Touch. Apples iBooks app works well but is missing some features that the Audible app has such as the bookmarking feature. The Audible app is really bad at playing books that are broken up into several files. The app will play the files out of order or show each file as a separate book.

So to fix the issues described above I recommend that you rename and/or combine all the files from one book into one file. Below I show the BASH script I wrote to fix this issue. I wrote and tested this script on a Mac. This script will also work on Linux and UNIX operating systems. After the files are combined the finder didn't show the right length for the audio book but when I imported the file into iTunes everything displayed right and the file worked fine.

The script below shows how to combine several MP3 files into one file. I put a comment after each command explaining what it is doing. If you have any questions about the script below ask it in the the comment section below.

script-book

Put contents of files here

#!/bin/bash
# This script was created on 20170216
# This script was created to combine MP3 files form audio books into one file.
# usage ./script-book bookname
#
if [ -z "$1" ]
  then
    echo -e "Please rerun the script with desired file name at the end \n 
              Example: ./script-book bookname"
    exit 1
fi

# The if statement checks for $1 variable.

# If no variable is present then the gives error message and exits 

for s in $(ls |grep .mp3|egrep -v '(png|jpg)'|awk '{print $NF}')
# egrep removes pictures
# $NF gives the last column in the file name. This removes the spaces in the name.
do mv *$s $1$s
# This renames the files
cat *$s >> $1.mp3
# Cat combines the files
rm *$s
# Removes old files
done
ls -lh

In order to make the script work, copy it into the same directory the audio books files are located in. In the example below the script is called script-book and the ls command shows the script in the same directory as the audio book files.

man@earth> ls
The Hot Gate 001.mp3 The Hot Gate 021.mp3 The Hot Gate 041.mp3
The Hot Gate 002.mp3 The Hot Gate 022.mp3 The Hot Gate 042.mp3
The Hot Gate 003.mp3 The Hot Gate 023.mp3 The Hot Gate 043.mp3
The Hot Gate 004.mp3 The Hot Gate 024.mp3 The Hot Gate 044.mp3
The Hot Gate 005.mp3 The Hot Gate 025.mp3 The Hot Gate 045.mp3
The Hot Gate 006.mp3 The Hot Gate 026.mp3 The Hot Gate 046.mp3
The Hot Gate 007.mp3 The Hot Gate 027.mp3 The Hot Gate 047.mp3
The Hot Gate 008.mp3 The Hot Gate 028.mp3 The Hot Gate 048.mp3
The Hot Gate 009.mp3 The Hot Gate 029.mp3 The Hot Gate 049.mp3
The Hot Gate 010.mp3 The Hot Gate 030.mp3 The Hot Gate 050.mp3
The Hot Gate 011.mp3 The Hot Gate 031.mp3 The Hot Gate 051.mp3
The Hot Gate 012.mp3 The Hot Gate 032.mp3 The Hot Gate 052.mp3
The Hot Gate 013.mp3 The Hot Gate 033.mp3 The Hot Gate 053.mp3
The Hot Gate 014.mp3 The Hot Gate 034.mp3 The Hot Gate 054.mp3
The Hot Gate 015.mp3 The Hot Gate 035.mp3 The Hot Gate 055.mp3
The Hot Gate 016.mp3 The Hot Gate 036.mp3 The Hot Gate 056.mp3
The Hot Gate 017.mp3 The Hot Gate 037.mp3 The Hot Gate 057.mp3
The Hot Gate 018.mp3 The Hot Gate 038.mp3 The Hot Gate 058.mp3
The Hot Gate 019.mp3 The Hot Gate 039.mp3 The Hot Gate 059.mp3
The Hot Gate 020.mp3 The Hot Gate 040.mp3 script-book

Note- Make sure the script is executable before you run the command as shown below. Alternately you can also run the script by bash before the command if you don't know how to make the script executable. Example: bash ./script-book bookname

In the example below the I show how to execute the script and show example output. This shows that the script combined the files listed above and named the file TheHotGate and removed all the old unneeded files.

man@earth> ./script-book TheHotGate
total 447744
-rw-r--r-- 1 arich staff 219M Feb 20 11:34 TheHotGate.mp3
-rw-r--r-- 1 arich staff 624B Feb 20 11:33 script-book

I hope this helps anyone who is having a similar issue.

Links to places to get audio books.

LibriVox

Audible

A Sysadmin's Notes

Fast Network Discovery

The Need for Speed in Network Scanning

How This Script Accelerates Scanning

Key Functions and Benefits:

Getting Started: Deploying the Script

1. Obtain the Script

2. Prepare for Execution

3. Execute the Scan

Summary

Simplifying Tenable Administration: A Menu-Driven Utility for User Management

Core Features of the Tenable Utility

Getting and Running the Script

Requirements:

Installation and Usage

Menus

Tenable.sc User Management

Nessus User Management Menu

Conclusion

Automating Verification for Nessus Scans

The Challenge of Scan Verification

The Solution: check-scans.sh

The Script's Core Utility

How to Implement and Run the Script

1. Getting the Script

2. Prepare for Execution

3. Running the Check

Conclusion

How to Reset Passwords for Tenable.sc

Reset the admin account password

Clear Login Failures

Unlock the admin Account

Taming Runaway tmux Sessions and Keeping Your Scans Smooth

The Problem

The Culprit: Unclosed tmux Sessions

Fixing the Runaway Sessions

1. Automatic Cleanup

2. User-Specific Control (Optional)

Understanding the Tools

Additional Resources

Free Google Training & Certification Exam

Agenda

Login hangs for scanning account

The Problem

The Cause

The Fix

Anther Fix

Defs

Other useful links

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Create you key pair

Install Public Key on Remote Host

Method 1 - Use The ssh-copy-id Command

Method 2 - Manually Copy the Key File

Method 3 - If You Automount Your Home Directory

Setting up the SSH Agent

SSH Agent Management

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