The Mad Hacker

Protect your Ubuntu

2012-10-25T10:53:00.001-04:00

Datamation has a nifty article on Protecting Ubuntu. Touching on a number of topics such as Java exploits and Linux Malware.

Follow it here.

Splash Data's "Worst Passwords of 2012"

2012-10-25T10:42:00.002-04:00

Splash Data has released their list of "Worst Passwords of 2012". Splash Data has compiled their list of passwords based on databases of stolen passwords by hackers. Let's take a look at the first 25:

1) password (unchanged)
2) 123456 (unchanged)
3) 12345678 (unchanged)
4) abc123 (up 1)
5) qwerty (down 1)
6) monkey (unchanged)
7) letmein (up 1)
8) dragon (up 2)
9) 111111 (up 3)
10) baseball (up 1)
11) iloveyou (up 2)
12) trustno1 (down 3)
13) 1234567 (down 6)
14) sunshine (up 1)
15) master (down 1)
16) 123123 (up 4)
17) welcome (new)
18) shadow (up 1)
19) ashley (down 3)
20) football (up 5)
21) jesus (new)
22) michael (up 2)
23) ninja (new)
24) mustang (new)
25) password1 (new)

Each year hackers and their programs get more and more complicated, however they tend to stick to easy targets (yea I would too). If your passwords are on this list, I would probably recommend that you change it.... like last week.

The best types of passwords have a mixture of letters, numbers, special characters, capital letters. I recommend a password of at least 16 characters, is easily memorable, still look like mashing on the keyboard to others, but has meaning, only to you.

Take this for example, take one of your favorite songs and choose a line or two of it that you have memorized. Then take the first letter of each word and you have a pretty secure password. But lets not stop there. Capitalize those letters at random, maybe change a letter or two with a number/special character (such as s = 5 or s = $), or possibly add at random special characters / numbers to your password. Here is an example:

Journey - "Don't Stop Believin"

Just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world
She took the midnight train goin' anywhere
Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit
He took the midnight train goin' anywhere

40jA$tgliAlwsttmtgA/\jAcbbAri5dhttmtgA?/

Using this method I've created a memorable 40 character password that can have meaning to only me. Not only is this password long, but it also looks like mashing on the keyboard. This makes for a very secure password. Now this isn't the only method of making passwords, you can take this tweak it and make it your own, such as adding something about the website your using it on.

Disclaimer: Do NOT use this password ANYWHERE, because I have created it and posted it on the web it is no longer secure. However this method is tried and true.

Source [MaximumPC]

Motorola announces CLOUDBB Android-Powered desktop with 18.5in touchscreen.

2012-09-13T19:18:00.001-04:00

Motorola has announced a rather interesting computer based around Android in China that serves up some entertainment content. The HMC3260 has an 18.6in LED touchscreen that plays TV, movies, games, browses the web and hmmm..... oh yea.... runs Android Apps. Now its Spec time.....

Freescale iMX53 ARM Cortex at clocked at 1GHz
1GB DDR RAM, 4GB NAND Flash Memory
18.5in LED [1366x768 @ 60Hz, widescreen] Touchscreen Display
Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, with customized Android Launcher
TV and video client
Broadband internet via EuroDOCSIS and LAN (DHCP /PPPoE, etc.)

This is not the first android based desktop to hit the web, but its once in a blue moon that we see one form a big name such as Motorola. Speaking of which, coming from Motorola (a Google owned company) one would think to see a least Android 4.0 ICS on a device like this, so I wouldn't expect a lot from a device such as this.

There no word from Moto on availability or pricing, but if you wish to (page is in Chinese) you can find more info at the source link below. I for one, love the idea of Android one day becoming a common place on the desktop, but Android 2.3 Gingerbread isn't it.

Source: [Motorola]

Hey Apple.... that new Nano you got there.... it looks a bit familiar.

2012-09-13T11:04:00.003-04:00

As shown in the picture (from BGR) the Apple's new iPod Nano looks a bit like the Nokia Lumia. Hmmmm..... maybe another lawsuit coming soon?

Safari For Windows is Abandoned By Apple, Leaving Users Vulnerable With No Warning

2012-08-09T11:48:00.000-04:00

"The lack of confirmation kept us from writing up a definitive post on this last week, however I think it’s now safe to finally report that Safari for Windows is officially dead. Apple released its newest operating system on July 25th, and along with it came Safari version 6, a full point ahead of the most recent Windows release. Since then Apple has removed any reference to Safari for Windows from its website, and is more or less acting like it never happened."

Read more here.

Justin Kerr [Maximum PC]

Left 4 Dead 2 Linux Port Runs Better on Linux.

2012-08-06T09:30:00.002-04:00

"On a high-end test system with an Intel Core i7 3930k processor, 32GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 graphics card, Valve managed to run the Linux port of L4D2 at 315 FPS."

Read More Here.

[H-Online]

Woah.... I see what you did there, Microsoft........

2012-07-24T14:41:00.001-04:00

It appears that M$ may be snooping in to your text messages and possibly video calls on Skype. But thats not all, read more here: http://goo.gl/nSdLE

Anonymous declare's war on pedophiles

2012-07-17T22:22:00.001-04:00

‘Anonymous’ hacker group declares war on pedophiles [video]

Anonymous a few days ago declares war on the pedophiles if the internet. The op dubed Operation PedoChat aims to eradicate them from the internet.

Minecraft Server Script

2012-06-07T13:01:00.001-04:00

So I've created a Minecraft server in which will go live in about a week or two, and for easy management just by logging on to my server via ssh I have created a script to help out. It is far from a 1.0 release but the current beta is stable.

Here is the pasetbin link: http://pastebin.com/dCysXi94

The Hacker Manifesto

2012-04-07T17:54:00.000-04:00

With all the stuff happening on the net today from Anonymous, and Lulzsec, to PIPA and SOPA. I figured it was a good a time as any to reiterate the great, famous, and immortal words from our "Mentor".

The Hacker Manifesto

+++ The Mentor+++

Written January 8, 1986

Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager Arrested in Computer

Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after bank Tampering"...

Damn kids. They're all alike.

Bud did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's techobrain, ever take a look

behind the eyes of a hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces

shaped him, what may have molded him?

I am a hacker, enter my world...

Mine is one that begins with school... I'm smarter than most other kids, this

crap they teach us bores me...

Damn underachiever. They're all alike.

I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time

how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it

in my head..."

Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.

I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does that I

want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed up. Not because it doesn't like

me... or it feels threatened by me... or thinks I'm a smart ass... or doesn't like teaching

and shouldn't be here...

Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike.

And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing though the phone line

like heroin though an addict's veins, an electronic pulse it sent out, a refuge from

the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found. "This is it... this is where I belong..."

I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from

them again... I know you all...

Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike.

You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we

hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did slip though were pre-chewed and

tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that

had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water

in the desert.

This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud.

We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if

it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call

us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin

color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build

atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us

believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by

what they say and think, not by what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you,

something that you will never forgive me for.

I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop

us all... after all, we're all alike.

via [http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/manifesto.html]

[mentor] your words will stand the test of time, they have become immortal. As we move on... new, young inspiring hackers will find and read these words, adopt, and live by them. We are legion.

‘Anonymous’ hacks Chinese government, protest freedom and civil rights

2012-04-07T16:20:00.001-04:00

‘Anonymous’ hacks Chinese government, protest freedom and civil rights:

Notorious hacker group “Anonymous” on Thursday claimed responsibility for attacks on several government Web sites in China. The group has launched various Internet attacks on the country over the past week in response to what it believes to be strict and unfair laws. “All these years, the Chinese Communist government has subjected its People to unfair laws and unhealthy processes,” the group wrote on one Chinese website. “Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible, today websites are hacked, tomorrow it will be your vile regime that will fall.” The group goes on to warn that further attacks are on the horizon. “So expect us because we do not forgive, never. What you are doing today to your Great People, tomorrow will be inflicted to you. Nothing will stop us, nor your anger nor your weapons. You do not scare us, because you cannot afraid an idea.” Anonymous also acknowledged the Chinese people directly, telling them to remain optimistic, “Don’t loose hope, the revolution begins in the heart.”
Read

via [BGR]

0x10c: Minecraft Developer Notch’s Next Game Will Be A MMO Space Epic

2012-04-04T20:00:00.001-04:00

0x10c: Minecraft Developer Notch’s Next Game Will Be A MMO Space Epic:
In the world of indie gaming, Minecraft is undoubtedly in a league of its own. The sandbox game has already sold more than 5 million copies and has spawned its own subculture of fan sites and clones. Now, the game’s creator Notch (nee Markus Persson), has announced his next project called 0x10c: a multi-player space game set in 281,474,976,712,644 AD. Besides the usual space battles, trading and mining we have come to expect from these kinds of games, 0x10c will also feature a fully functioning emulated 16 bit CPU that will control your spaceship and which will be fully programmable by the player.
As if having a programmable computer at the core of the game wasn’t enough, 0x10c has what must be one of gaming’s geekiest premises: the reason it is set in 281,474,976,712,644 AD is due to the simple fact that in 0x10c’s parallel universe, the space race never ended and that a computer bug in a new “deep sleep cell” introduced in 1988 caused a large number of people to sleep for 0×0001 0000 0000 0000 years instead of the planned 0×0000 0000 0000 0001 years.
For now, only the specifications of the 16 bit processor are available and Notch hasn’t released any screenshots yet. Just like he did with Minecraft, though, he plans to release early beta versions as they become available. One major difference with Minecraft is that 0x10c will feature a recurring monthly fee, as all the physics and in-game computers will continue to run in the cloud, even when the players themselves are not online. Users will have the option to play the game in a single-player mode as well, though, which won’t have recurring fees.
In a way, this feels like the natural next step up from Minecraft. While Notch’s first game was built around mining and “crafting” tools (with some multi-player options thrown in for the hardcore fans), this new game takes this concept further by offering users a bigger world to play in and even more customization options through the built-in programmable computers. It’s worth noting that users will also be able to share their programs, which will surely give rise to a whole new real-world ecosystem around the game and, as Notch himself acknowledges, maybe even viruses.

via [TechCrunch]

[How-To] Kindle Fire 6.3 update Root

2012-03-30T03:11:00.000-04:00

So the other day Amazon released an update to the Kindle fire, and what a surprise it breaks root..... shocker. There is a very simple way to regain root an re-install the TWRP recovery that I found on XDA.

DISCLAIMER..... This assumes you have ADB and fastboot working and installed. If you do not know what ADB and fastboot are, then stop reading now.

fbmode.zip - http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1414832
twrp2 - http://teamw.in/project/twrp2/79
su - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8699733/kindlefire/su
fastboot + adb for your OS of choice.

unzip fbmode.zip

adb push fbmode /data/local/fbmode
adb shell chmod 755 /data/local/fbmode
adb shell /data/local/fbmode
adb reboot

Your kindle will "get stuck" on the kindle fire screen, but really it's just in fastboot mode.

fastboot -i 0x1949 boot twrp-blaze-2.0.0RC0.img

Your device will now boot into twrp recovery, and flash the firefirefire bootlaoder. When done it will prompt you to reboot. Upon reboot you will get stuck on the "yellow triangle" screen of firefire fire.

fastboot oem idme bootmode 5002
fastboot reboot

Once in recovery
adb shell mount system
adb push su /system/xbin/su
adb shell chown 0.0 /system/xbin/su
adb shell chmod 06755 /system/xbin/su

Lets disable the root check before rebooting

adb shell mv /system/bin/check_rooted /system/bin/check_rooted.bak

adb shell idme bootmode 4000
adb reboot

If you need to install (or reinstall) Superuser head here, or pick it up in the Play Store (formerly known as the Android Marketplace). This method worked for me, your mileage may vary.

All credit goes to pokey9000 for the exploit, and jcase for the guide.
via [XDA-Deveopers]

Google Drive, My Thoughts and Predictions

2012-03-28T16:11:00.002-04:00

Just the sound of Google releasing a cloud storage solution makes my mouth start salivating like no tomorrow. A free Dropbox like sync, but from Google and baked into android; sign me up. However, there are several different features Drive needs to have if Google wants to be the de facto standard in cloud storage.

1) Like Dropbox and several others, Drive needs to be 100% cross platform. I don't just mean supporting Linux/Windows/Mac/Android/iOS, but must be cross architecture as well. That means x86/x64, ARM, PowerPC. I to this day still use a Powermac G5 for any and all media editing.

2) Encryption, Encryption, Encryption. I said it 3 times so it must be important. Encryption should be enabled by default, however I believe that we should be given the option to take away the keys from Goolge. One thing I can't stand about dropbox is that, yes my files are encrypted, and that gives me a tad bit of peace of mind, however they hold all the keys. I don't like the idea that any Dropbox employee with the right credentials can look at all my stuff. We need to be able to take control of our data.

3) Seamless sync. On the desktop, a simple app and "home" folder (Drive Folder) much like Dropbox with selective sync. However in Android, it needs to be baked right in to the OS, and by baked in I mean by mounting a "virtual" sdcard as your Google Drive. No syncing required, with the option to selective sync some files for off line access. But when you select a file to sync, It gets placed on the actual sdcard, but only viewable in the "virtual" drive. Think Google Music Beta (Now Google Play Music).

4) Open APIs. One of Dropbox's key to success is their open API's. This allows third party developers to (such as DropSync) to develop with the service. Without this I wouldn't be able to sync my tablet/phone the way I want to. This will also allow developers to integrate their application to Google Drive.

5) Touching back to point #1, Chrome OS integration. Drive needs to be as seamless as possible, like the way it should sync with android. Currently Chrome OS is kinda useless, face it, its useless even as just a browser. But bring seamless Drive sync in (and letting us use a windowed environment, a file system, and local apps) and you have a win.

6) FREE Drive Space. Box.net gives 1GB, Dropbox 2GB with various ways to get more free space, iCloud 5GB, and Windows SkyDrive a whopping 25GB. Google Drive needs to meet or exceed these numbers. I would be happy with 10GB, but really come on Google, you can give us more. Google gives us 7.6GB for email, 1GB each for picasa and docs, and an unknown amount for Play Music (I have about 14K tracks there totaling to about 90GB), so by going with those numbers, I'd say google has about 125-150GB of storage space dedicated to each user, for free. So when I look at that number, I would love to see 25-50GB of space free. Matching and/or exceeding Micro$oft. And of course the option to have more space for a small fee.

So this is more of a wish list than anything else, but at the same time, Google should already know every thing I touched on here. Thus, also all predictions. From what I hear from across the net, we'll see something more and know more sometime in April. I for one, can't wait.

The Dude abides......

Update: According to GigaOm's own Om Malik, his strong sources say that Google Drive could arrive sometime as early as next week [gigaom].

Google?

2011-07-27T02:36:00.004-04:00

Google Search - Check
Google Mail - Check
Google Calendar - Check
Google Docs - Check
Google Photos (Picasa) - Check
Google Reader - Check
Google Blogs (Blogger/Blogspot) - Check (http://mad-hacker.blogspot.com/)
Google Analytics - Check
Google AdSense - Check
Google Contacts - Check
Google Maps - Check
Google Music Beta - Check
Google Talk - Check
Google Tasks - Check
Google Voice - Check
Youtube - Check
Google Chrome - Check
Google Android - Check
Google cr48/Chromebook - NOT CHECKED!!!!!
- All I need is one of these suckers that is cheap enough, with a cheap and plentiful data plan and I'll be living in the clouds.

Google Music Beta

2011-06-15T20:01:00.001-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I recived my invite to Google Music Beta. Then sat on it until today when I decided, let the uploading commence! Now the big wait as my 12k+ library is uploaded, which is approx. 90GB in size. With my upstream rate of 4Mbps it should take about a week..................or two to fully upload all of my music. Hopefully my ISP doesn't shut me down in the process. Stay tuned for a review.

If you want to know a little more while my music is uploading go here.

What Is Dudeism?

2011-06-11T19:19:00.002-04:00

As many of you may not know, I am a Ordained Dudeist Priest. No not the kind you are thinking of, you sick creeper, I mean the kind where we "take it easy" and "abide". Let me tell share with you a little more about it.

"While Dudeism in its official form has been organized as a religion only recently, it has existed down through the ages in one form or another. Probably the earliest form of Dudeism was the original form of Chinese Taoism, before it went all weird with magic tricks and body fluids. The originator of Taoism, Lao Tzu, basically said "smoke ‘em if you got ‘em" and "mellow out, man" although he said this in ancient Chinese so something may have been lost in the translation." ~ [via dudeism.com]

Still with me, good... want more... awesome. Read more here, it will tie it all togeather.

The Final Storm abides.......

Samsung Galaxy Indulge Headphone Fix

2011-05-03T16:48:00.003-04:00

Letting anyone with a Galaxy Indulge know that: even though your headphone jack may seem to be broken, it is not! If you can see even a little bit of your headphone connector sticking out, it's not in all the way. It requires a little bit of force to get it fully in there, and you will actually hear a "click".

I thought I had some broken hardware on my hands until I discovered this. Hope it helps someone.

Full review coming soon!

Paul Baran, Founding Father of the Internet, Dies at 84

2011-03-29T15:44:00.000-04:00

The reason you're reading this right now is in part because of Paul Baran, one of the pioneers of the modern day Internet. Baran was born on April 29, 1926 in Poland before his family relocated to Philadelphia in 1928. He passed away over the weekend at the age of 84 due to complications arising from lung cancer, and though he will be missed, his legacy lives on every time you hop online.
In 1959, Baran received his Masters degree in engineering from UCLA and immediately began work at RAND Corporation. It was there that he and two others came up with the idea of packaging data into discrete bundles called "message blocks" to be sent around a network in a system known as "packet switching."
According to The New York Times, Baran's big idea was to build a distributed communications network, one that would be nearly impervious to disruption because it would contain redundant routes for messages if a particular path failed or was destroyed. He approached AT&T with the idea in the mid-1960s but was told his system would not work.
Not only would his idea work, but the government proved it in 1969 when it built the Arpanet, essentially an early version of the Internet based on Baran's ideas. Even today, the Internet is still based in part on packet switching.

You can read much more about this brilliant man here.

via Maximum PC [Paul Lilly]

Podcast coming soon!!!!

2011-03-22T17:30:00.000-04:00

Great news!!! Bxtreme and I (Final Storm) are starting a podcast. We will be covering everything tech and trendy, and of course some hacks. It will be a monthly podcast being released at the first of every month, starting sometime in 2011. Sorry for the exact first release date, we are still in the starting stages; getting the website up, setting up our machines to actually do the podcast, and laying down a set format of the podcast. As for the name, we are throwing a few ideas around, but nothing is set in stone. Can't wait to start, and any feedback will be taken with serious consideration.

15 best Android tablets in the world

2011-03-19T15:53:00.008-04:00

If you're looking for a tablet and don't fancy an iPad, then Android is the way to go: while Windows tablets are on the horizon, Android ones are here, they work and they've usually been tweaked to include finger-friendly interfaces too.

We've gone from zero Android tablets to stacks of the things in a very short space of time, and inevitably some are better than others.

via http://www.techradar.com [Gary Marshall]

Movies: 3D Hype

2011-03-18T09:55:00.004-04:00

3D technology has been around for a fairly long time. Sure, it's not "true" 3D, but it certainly is amusing to an extent. What I mean by this, is the 3D technology used in movies is simply a way of tricking your brain into thinking your seeing something on more than two plains.

Enough what 3D really is, how about its application? In my oppinion, 3D really has not done much justice to movies. There are two reasons for this: technology and the way it's used. The technology itself is a bit under-developed. Have you ever watched a 3D movie and felt dizzy? Or did your eyes become blurry after watching a full 3D movie?

I think that it's rediculous that someone would use this technology while trying to relax and be entertained while watching a movie. Being entertained (wheather it be from movies or games) should be fun and not painful/uncomfortable.

However, the technologies' limitations are not the only problem with 3D. It's the way 3D is being used that really irritates me. Directors use 3D to pull off cheap "stunts" that they seem to think are entertaining. I'm talking about your classic, "actor throws dagger through the screen" type of stunt. Sure it's kind of cool and can sometimes be used to shock the audience if done correctly, but this is SO OVERUSED. It's incredible how many times this is used. It seems like (for some movies), this is the only reason 3D was used for in the first place.

I think 3D should be used to emmerse the viewers into the movie experience and should not be used soley for shock-value. Some movie do this correctly, and I am so happy they are out there! One such example is TRON. You can have your oppinion on the movie itself, but the 3D in the movie wasn't used for cheap gags like they were in movies I had seen previous to TRON. Also, I think its only fair to mention that TRON was my first 3D movie since My Bloody Valentine 3D. The reason is that the movie left such a bad impression of 3D movies on me, that I didn't think 3D was really worth seeing anymore.

There is still hope! The concept of 3D entertainment is now going beyond stereoscopic techniques. The Nintendo 3DS is using "lenticular" lenses as a way of providing stereoscopic 3D results. But will this still hurt my eyes? Not entirely sure yet, but it's a nice step in the right direction by providing 3D effects without the glasses!

Here are my final thoughts. 3D today can be used by a director to enhance movie watching. But many times, 3D is just abused and makes a movie's effects cheesy. But maybe this is your thing! Your only a sucker for paying for 3D movies if you keep watching them and your always disappointed. It's not for everyone yet, and for good reason. I do think that 3D has a future in movies, as well as other forms of media/entertainment. The 3DS is one such example. It definitely gives me glint of hope for the future 3D technology.

Zorin OS 4

2011-03-15T17:36:00.000-04:00

Many people coming from Windows try Ubuntu Linux as their first Linux distribution. But Ubuntu itself, while very good, may not always be the best choice. There are many Ubuntu derivatives and it’s possible that one of those can sometimes be a better bet for those seeking to ease their way into a comfortable Linux niche. Zorin OS is an Ubuntu derivative designed to help make the transition from Windows to Linux as easy as possible.

via desktoplinuxreviews.com [Jim Lynch]

How to Recover From an Email Disaster

2011-03-10T16:30:00.000-05:00

We've all done it before: hit the wrong button or pressed "send" too early and dispatched an email with disastrous results. Here are the most common gaffes and what to do the next time your electronic correspondence lands you in the doghouse.

via gawker.com [Brian Moylan]

Does IPv6 Even Work?

2011-03-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

With the free pool of IPv4 address space now exhausted, transitioning to IPv6 is set to become increasingly important. IPv6, however, isn't without its own set of challenges; and implementing it isn't as easy as simply flipping a switch.

via enterprisenetworkingplanet.com [Sean Michael Kerner]