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HOWTO: Apache Name-based SSL-enabled Virtual Hosting

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:34:53 -0600

I want to do virtual hosting of SSL-enabled virtual hosts on the same Apache server as my other non-SSL-enabled virtual hosts. I don't want to assign more than one IP address to the server and all of my virtual hosts will be within the same domain (e.g., example.com).

BACKGROUND

When Apache processes a request for a name-based virtual host it receives the request from the browser, which includes the Host header (e.g., Host: www.example.com). Apache uses the Host header to determine which name-based virtual host to route the request to. It works this way regardless of the connection type, HTTP or HTTPS.

Anyone looking for a domain?

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:40:16 -0600

I have a few domains I no longer need. Fill out the form if you want one or more of them.

ANNOTATABLE.COM ANNOTATABLE.NET ANNOTATABLE.ORG	BLURBIS.COM BLURBIS.NET BLURBIS.ORG
HEALTHYTACTICS.COM HEALTHYTACTICS.NET HEALTHYTACTICS.ORG	MENURANDOMIZER.COM MENURANDOMIZER.ORG

Personal Password Management Survey

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:49:38 -0600

My next computer security video will cover personal password management. In anticipation of that I decided to do an anonymous survey to see how folks manage their passwords. I don't claim that it's statistically accurate or that it reveals anything conclusive. It's a sampling of people from Facebook, Twitter, and work.

49 people from all over the place took the survey.

-----
When asked to rate themselves on their management of passwords:
6% said less than OK
49% said OK
45% said better than OK

-----
When asked about their approach to using passwords:
57% said they use a different password for each class of service (one for commerce, one for banking, one for social services, etc.).
24% said they use a unique password for each service.
19% said they use the same password for everything.

Automated backups of MySQL databases

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:35:02 -0700

Unless you have intelligent backup software that can do something smart to backup your databases, restoring a backup of a running MySQL server is like restarting your database after a hard system crash, it's a crap shoot. Since I don't have any fancy backup software that can help I decided to use mysqldump to create a snapshot of my database server and write it out to a compressed SQL file. Then my (dumb) backup software can continue to be used and I will be able to recover easily if my server dies.

Here's the quick and dirty script:



#!/bin/sh

#

# This script automates a call to mysqldump

# and sends the output to a file in a backup

# directory. The script is set up to keep

# seven days of history.

#

# Before you can run this script you must

# set up a MySQL user that can perform the

# backup. This user must have permission to

# SELECT and LOCK TABLES. The user should not

# be permitted to access MySQL in any way other

# than through the local socket. Here's how the

# user should be created:

#

# GRANT SELECT,LOCK TABLES ON *.* TO 'SomeUser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'SomePassword'

# FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

#

# This script should be owned by root and only

# root should be able to read, write, and

# execute it. (i.e., chmod 700)

#



Upgrading MySQL from version 3.23 to 5.0.x
Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:46:20 -0700
I recently had to upgrade a moldy old MySQL database server from version 3.23 to 5.0.x. Instead of stepping from 3.23 to 4.0, then from 4.0 to 4.1, and finally from 4.1 to 5.0.x I decided to use mysqldump.


I ran the following command on the old database server:

/path/to/mysqldump -u root -p -h oldserver.example.com --opt --all-databases > bigdump.sql



Then all I had to do was move the bigdump.sql file over to the new server and run the following command:

/path/to/mysql -u root -p -h newserver.example.com < bigdump.sql



Now all that is necessary is to flush the privileges so that users can access the databases. I logged into MySQL:

/path/to/mysql -u root -p -h newserver.example.com mysql
  



The problem with security questions
Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:56:14 -0700
In this video Software Architect, Steve Moitozo, addresses the problem of providing secure answers to "security questions" on Web sites? He's written about this issue in the past in Death to the Secret Question and thought it would be helpful if I addressed it here in video form.






  



Gaming Social Networks
Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:30:00 -0700
Brad Ward's post shows how easy it can be to game a social network. I suspect this kind of gaming is already going on in various other types of groups within social networks like Facebook and MySpace.
  



Estimated Relative Impact on Resources
Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:37:59 -0700
Problem: I need to explain the relative magnitude of one project in comparison of another.
Possible Solution: Estimated Relative Impact on Resources (ERIR)
I came up with the idea to use the estimated number of person hours, money, number of people involved, and an educated guess as to the riskiness of the project to calculate a number. I call the calculated number the "Estimated Relative Impact on Resources" because it's an estimate, it's useless without comparing it to other projects therefore, it's relative, and it's designed to show the impact on the resources of an organization. When this formula is used for multiple projects (probably applied by the same person who uses the same basis for assigning the estimates) it can provide some idea as to impact of one project on an organization's resources in relation to another project.

  



Checkwashing Countermeasure... A Pen!
Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:01:10 -0700
I less than four minutes a crook can steal your check, selectively erase your writing, and make the check out to himself for any amount. That's checkwashing and it's preventable. 
Most pens use dye, not pigmented ink. The uni-ball® 207™ uses ink with certain color pigments that bond with the paper fibers in checks making it very hard to "wash" the ink off. This pen, and others like it, could be a simple defense against the threat of checkwashing, which is simple and fast to do. The use of a pen like this, combined with the habit of properly filling in all the blanks on each check, and routine audits of bank statements will help you defend against checkwashing.

  



E-petitions Don't Work
Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:01:15 -0700
Imagine being frustrated about a new tax and going into the basement to scream. Great, you've had a little therapeutic outlet but unless the people who levied the tax are in your basement it will not change anything.



I'm just as irritated as the next guy when it looks like an injustice might be perpetrated through the passage of a new bill or some court ruling. I want to do something and I want to be efficient when I do it.



At first blush the e-petition seems like a great way to influence the powers that be. Get thousands of people who agree with you and have them all sign it, but there are a number of problems with it.
  



Inline MP3 Audio Player Insertion with JavaScript
Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:08:17 -0700
Using simple JavaScript it is possible to automatically insert inline audio players after hyperlinks to MP3 files. If multiple player types are desired simple CSS can be used to control the visibility of the players.


  



Consolidating Quality Attribute Scenarios
Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:39:03 -0600
One of the steps in a Quality Attribute Workshop is to consolidate the raw quality attribute scenarios that have been gathered. A helpful question to apply to each scenario when evaluating it for consolidation is, "Can this be abstracted  without losing the essence of the scenario while at the same time covering more scenarios?"
  



Understanding Software Architecture
Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:08:19 -0600
Software architecture is a discipline focused on the quality attributes of a system, the "ilities". While functional requirements and constraints are important to understand, the software architect is primarily concerned with the quality attribute requirements. The Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University uses the following definition of software architecture.
The software architecture of a program or computing system is the structure or structures of the system, which comprise the software elements, the externally visible properties of those elements, and the relationships among them.

  



Greylisting for your telephone
Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:45:00 -0600
Greylisting is "method of defending e-mail users against spam. A mail transfer agent (MTA) using greylisting will "temporarily reject" any email from a sender it does not recognize. If the mail is legitimate, the originating server will try again and the email is accepted. If the mail is from a spammer it will probably not be retried since a spammer goes through thousands of email addresses and can not afford the time delay to retry."
Why not apply a similar technique to your telephone? It could be done without much effort in this day of caller-id. Imagine if you had a device that, when plugged into your telephone line, would allow you to automatically answer the phone for unknown numbers and give the caller a message. The message could be generic or it could be instructions to do something specific. You could be program the device with a list of white listed (allowed) telephone numbers as well as blacklisted (denied) numbers. The device could give a different message based on whether the number is in the blacklist or simply unknown. If the calling number is on the white list the device does nothing, allowing standard telephonic devices to continue operating.

  



Extracting distinct e-mails from a large text file
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:51:10 -0600
perl -wne'while(/[\w\.\-]+@[\w\.\-]+\w+/g){print "$&\n"}' BigFileContainingEmails.txt | sort -u > output.txt