BSFlite is a rather small and minimalist client for AOL®’s Instant Messenger™ service. Instead of having a full screen console interface, BSFlite employs a command line interface that allows your fingers to do all of the work without needlessly sifting through windows.

It runs on various systems and almost all flavors of UNIX/Linux including Mac OS X.  Something like this is ideal for those who are still resisting the occupation of window managers and graphical applications over all.

Hard core Unix geeks stick to command line and still use ELM/Pine for mail and newsgroups to keep up with the world.  If you fit this category, BSFLITE is for you!

• Download BSFLITE here.

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So I came across the command dmidecode.  Simply type the following as root to get your system’s model type:

# dmidecode -t system

SMBIOS 2.3 present.

Handle 0x0100, DMI type 1, 25 bytes.
System Information
        Manufacturer: HP
        Product Name: ProLiant DL380 G4
        Version: Not Specified
        Serial Number: XXXXXXXXXXX
        UUID: XXXXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX
        Wake-up Type: Power Switch

Handle 0x2000, DMI type 32, 11 bytes.
System Boot Information
        Status: No errors detected

As you can see above, I’ve X’d out the Serial # and UUID to protect the identify of the server. The rest simply states what you’re looking for…HP DL380 G4.

The following is what you can use with exchange for ’system’ with a -t argument:

  bios
  system
  baseboard
  chassis
  processor
  memory
  cache
  connector
  slot

So to find out, the memory allocation per slot just type dmidecode -t memory.

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Applying chattr against certain files on the system can be very helpful such as locking down the /etc/shadow file or other configuration files.

To make file httpd.conf write protected so no one can modify it, type the command:

chattr +i /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

The above command will not allow anyone including root to write to it, modify it and even delete it from the system. In order for root to write to it, it would have to use chattr again to remove the read-only flag.

To remove the read only and allow writes, type:

chattr -i /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Peace.

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The Linux version is called xclip.

xclip is a command line interface to the X11 clipboard. It can also be used for copying files, as an alternative to sftp/scp, thus avoiding password prompts when X11 forwarding has already been setup.

Tools like this can improve your productivity by avoiding many unnecessary and tedious things.

• Download here.
  

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Well here it is…in this article I’ve listed several methods to use a serial console on Linux.

By the far the easiest way is to simply type the following:

screen /dev/ttyS0

If the above fails for some reason, add the following line to your /etc/inittab file:

S0:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L 115200 ttyS0 vt102

Then, once again type:

screen /dev/ttyS0 115200

You can also use minicom if the above fails.  If you don’t have it, install it via yum install minicom or apt-get install minicom depending on what Linux platform you’re on.  Once you have it installed, type minicom. Then select the port, speed and /dev/ttyS0 as COM1.  Save the configuration file and you’re set.

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To display some sort of banner to the users before they login to your server via SSH, make the following changes:

# echo "This is system xyz.com, all activity is monitored!" >> /etc/ssh-banner

Open the sshd config file located at /etc/ssh/sshd_config and add or edit the line that starts with “Banner”:

Banner /etc/ssh-banner

Simply restart sshd service and that should do it!

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Many of us don’t realize that SSH is beyond just connecting between two devices.  For example, it can be setup as a proxy server, use various services in an encrypted tunnel, reverse proxy, secure backup/restore and so much more.  In this article, I’ve listed over 50 different tools that either manages or makes use of SSH to extend it’s usability beyond it’s original purpose.

1. Sshguard -  Sshguard monitors services through their logging activity. It reacts to messages about dangerous activity by blocking the source address with the local firewall. Sshguard employs a clever parser that can transparently recognize several logging formats at once (syslog, syslog-ng, metalog, multilog, raw messages), and detects attacks for many services out of the box, including SSH, several ftpds, and dovecot. It can operate all the major firewalling systems, and features support for IPv6, whitelisting, suspension, and log message authentication.
2. PAC -  PAC provides a GUI to configure SSH and Telnet connections, including usernames, passwords, EXPECT regular expressions, and macros. It is similar in function to SecureCRT or Putty. It is intended for people who connect to many servers through SSH. It can automate logins and command executions.
3. csshX -  csshX is a tool to allow simultaneous control of multiple SSH sessions. csshX will attempt to create an SSH session to each remote host in separate Terminal.app windows. A master window will also be created. All keyboard input in the master will be sent to all the slave windows.
4. tlssh -  tlssh is like SSH, but based on TLS. With tlssh, users log in using client certificates, never usernames or passwords.
5. libssh -  libssh is a C library to access SSH services from a program. It can remotely execute programs, transfer files, and serve as a secure and transparent tunnel for remote programs. Its Secure FTP implementation can play with remote files easily, without third-party programs other than libcrypto (from OpenSSL) or libgcrypt.
6. Digmia Enterprise SSH -  DSSH was written as a direct replacement for the OpenSSH client. It adds SSH over SSH tunneling capabilities (for example, to log in to a network hidden by a firewall), scripting support (using BeanShell), an advanced agent (which allows storing of passwords) and “su -” interactive logging for machines that have disabled direct root login. All of this was done to enable automated scripting and logging to many machines based on a few simple rules.
7. SSH Keys exchange -  SshKeysExchange is a Korn shell script to create, exchange, and remove ssh keys between hosts within seconds rather than minutes. This tool is also included in DynDNSToolKit and oraToolKit project.
8. CocTunnel -   CocTunnel is a simple SSH manager.
9. Config::Model::OpenSsh -   Config::Model::OpenSsh is a graphical configuration editor for OpenSSH configuration files (e.g. /etc/ssh/sshd_config, /etc/ssh/ssh_config, or ~/.ssh/config). Other user interfaces (curses and terminal) are also available. Programmers can choose to use the Perl API to modify or validate OpenSSH configuration. This program is based on Config::Model.
10. MindTerm -  MindTerm is a complete ssh-client in pure Java. It can be used either as a standalone Java application or as a Java applet.
11. bcvi -   Bcvi is a tool that works with SSH to provide a secure “back channel” for sending commands back from the server to your workstation. For example, using bcvi and a shell alias, you can log into a server and type “vi filename”. Instead of running vi in the terminal window, on the remote server, bcvi will send a message back to your workstation, where a listener process will invoke gvim (a GUI version of vim) and pass it an scp://… URL for the remote file. Bcvi has a plugin architicture that allows you to add support for any process you want to launch on your workstation by running a command on the server.
12. sshdfilter -  sshdfilter automatically blocks ssh brute force attacks by reading sshd log output in real time and adding iptables rules based on authentication failures.
13. keychain -  keychain helps you to manage ssh keys in a convenient and secure manner. It acts as a frontend to ssh-agent and gpg-agent, but allows you to easily have one long running ssh-agent process per system, rather than the norm of one ssh-agent per login session.
14. Meerkat -  Meerkat is an easy to use SSH tunnel manager built specifically for the Mac. It includes features such as application triggers, automatic reconnection on system sleep and network change, Growl integration, Bonjour support, command line and AppleScript integration, and much more.
15. OmniSSH -  OmniSSH is a program that is used to execute a command or upload files on many servers in a cluster in a parallel, reliable, and well-documented fashion.
16. lshell – lshell lets you restrict a user’s shell environment to limited sets of commands, choose to enable or disable any command over SSH (e.g. SCP, SFTP, rsync, etc.), log user’s commands, implement timing restrictions, and more.
17. Orion SSH2 – Orion SSH2 is a library that implements the SSH-2 protocol in pure Java. It allows one to connect to SSH servers from within Java programs, for remote shell and command execution, local and remote port forwarding, local stream forwarding, X11 forwarding, and file transfer using SCP and SFTP.
18. chain-ssh – This package provides a tool for ‘chained’ SSH access to remote hosts via a number of proxy hosts. It can be used for ssh, scp, and as a transport for rsync.
19. secpanel – secpanel provides a GUI for managing SSH connection profiles. It supports handling of ssh-agents and the generation and distribution of public keys. It integrates SFTP using different file browsers and can use different X terminals.
20. ccgfs – ccgfs is a transport-agnostic network filesystem using FUSE. Transport is arranged by helper programs, such as SSH. The PUSH transport mode acts like a “reverse” NFS and makes it possible to export a filesystem from a firewalled host without defeating the security model.
21. Ganymed SSH-2 for Java – Ganymed SSH-2 for Java is a library that implements the SSH-2 protocol in pure Java (tested on J2SE 1.4.2, 5, and 6). It allows one to connect to SSH servers from within Java programs.
22. pssh – pssh provides parallel versions of the OpenSSH tools that are useful for controlling large numbers of machines simultaneously. It includes parallel versions of ssh, scp, and rsync, as well as a parallel kill command.
23. remote-ssh-access – remote-ssh-access is an application for creating handy SSH client shortcuts. It allows varying remote SSH keys, SSH protocol versions, remote target hosts, and remote commands for automated processes.
24. Kippo – Kippo is a medium interaction SSH honeypot designed to log brute force attacks and, most importantly, the entire shell interaction performed by the attacker.
25. sslh – sslh lets one accept both HTTPS and SSH connections on the same port. It makes it possible to connect to an SSH server on port 443 (e.g. from inside a corporate firewall) while still serving HTTPS on that port.
26. ssh-multiadd – ssh-multiadd adds multiple ssh keys to the ssh authentication agent. These may use the same passphrase. When run without arguments, it adds $HOME/.ssh/identity and $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa.
27. SSHatter – SSHatter uses a brute force technique to determine the how to log into an SSH server. It simply tries each combination in a list of usernames and passwords to determine which ones successfully log in.
28. classh – classh is yet another wrapper around ssh for running commands on a number of hosts concurrently.
29. sshutout – sshutout is a daemon that periodically monitors log files, looking for multiple failed login attempts via the Secure Shell daemon.
30. Tunnel Manager – Tunnel Manager is a program that manages regularly used SSH tunnels. It supports both SSHv1 and SSHv2 tunnels and can be configured to manage the keys in your ssh-agent.
31. sshdo – sshdo issues remote commands or puts or gets files to multiple hosts sequentially. Hosts are read from stdin (one per line). sshdo will use SSH key agent, if available, to avoid repetitive password entry.
32. Cluster SSH - Cluster SSH opens terminal windows with connections to specified hosts and an administration console. Any text typed into the administration console is replicated to all other connected and active windows. This tool is intended for, but not limited to, cluster administration where the same configuration or commands must be run on each node within the cluster. Performing these commands all at once via this tool ensures all nodes are kept in sync.
33. FastSSHer – Provides fast connections to Linux/Unix hosts over the SSH protocol. You don’t need to remember the IP address, hostname, login, or password. Just select a server from the list and press “Connect”.
34. Dropbear SSH – Dropbear is an SSH 2 server and client that is designed to be small enough to be used in low-memory embedded environments, while still being functional and secure for general use.
35. SSHMenu – SSHMenu is a GNOME panel applet that makes starting up a new terminal window with an SSH connection to a remote host just a click away.
36. spread – spread provides SSH based Unix mass administration. It distributes commands or files from one central administration server onto classes of hosts.
37. mpssh – mpssh is a program that can execute commands on many machines via SSH and get nicely formatted output.
38. yessh – Yessh is a bash program that uses the SSH client. It provides fast connections to Linux/Unix hosts. Just type the name you have chosen for a host, and yessh will connect you via SSH.
39. ssh-curse – intended to be a simple but enhancing GUI for using SSH on the terminal.
40. SSH Askpass Keyring – SSH Askpass Keyring is an alternative ssh-askpass utility with support for the gnome-keyring.
41. shmux – shmux is a program for executing the same command on many hosts in parallel.
42. yaSSH – The yaSSH software package is a fast, dual-licensed implementation of SSH. It will include an SSH client, a client library, a server, and a server library. It is focused on speed, limited memory requirements, a simple API, portability, and use in an embedded setting.
43. SSH Filesystem – SSH Filesystem uses the SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), which is supported by most SSH servers. It is based on Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE), and hence root privilege is not required for mounting a remote filesystem. No setup is necessary and it is very easy to use.
44. sshpass – Sshpass is a tool for non-interactivly performing password authentication with SSH’s so called “interactive keyboard password authentication”. Most users should use SSH’s more secure public key authentication instead.
45. Autossh – Autossh is a program to monitor and automatically reestablish SSH connections.
46. Proxytunnel – Proxytunnel is a program that connects stdin and stdout to a server somewhere in the Internet through an industry standard HTTPS proxy. It’s mostly used as a backend for OpenSSH’s ProxyCommand, and as a proxy backend for Putty. It can also be used for other proxy-traversing purposes.
47. SSH Factory - SSH Factory is a set of Java based client components for communicating with SSH and telnet servers.
48. sshfp – sshfp generates DNS SSHFP records from SSH public keys. sshfp can take public keys from a knownhosts file or from scanning the host’s sshd daemon.
49. SSH Enchanter – Enchanter is a small library that helps you script SSH sessions in a manner similar to Expect.
50. MySecureShell – MySecureShell is a secure FTP server that uses SSH. It is easy to install and manage.

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With most of these ssh tricks, you can use your imagination to extend it to whatever you need to get done.  Ultimately, it’s executing commands on remote server which practically can be exchanged with anything you find useful.

Transferring Files and Backups

Transfer /home directory from remote host to local server using ssh and tar:

$ ssh user@remotehost "tar cvzf - /home" | tar xvzf - /home

Similar as above but using scp to recursively copy /home from remote host to local server:

$ scp -r user@remotehost:/home /home

Transfer a local file to remote server:

$ cat /home/mynitor/testfile | ssh user@remotehost "cat > /home/mynitor/testfile"

Compare a file on remote server with local host:

$ ssh user@remotehost.com "cat /tmp/remotefile" | diff - /tmp/localfile

SSH Proxy and Port Forwarding Tricks

Tunnel all your browser traffic through your SSH server:

$ ssh -D 9999 user@yourserver.com

Setup SOCKS proxy to use with Chrome.  Save the following to a shell script and run:

function remotebrowse() {
    export SOCKS_SERVER=localhost:9999
    ssh -fNTD 9999 remotehost
    google-chrome --user-data-dir=/tmp/chrome $1 &
  }

Launch a local x11 session for a given application.  Simply use the following command then run whatever X application:

$ ssh -X user@remotehost.com 'xterm'

Use a local server through a proxy server:

$ ssh -f -N -L 1521:destinationhost.com:80 servertoproxyfrom.com

Tunneling VNC over ssh:

$ ssh -L 5900:localhost:5900 user@yourserver.com

Jump off one box into another:

$ ssh -t gatewayhost.com ssh destinationhost.com

Forward connections using server A to get to server B. You can use this method to get to any application such as smtp, pop3, mysql, oracle etc.  Just translate the port number:

$ ssh -L 3306:serverB.com:3306 user@serverA.com

Reverse SSH Tunneling. Concept is you want to get from a server at work or public IP into your home server or a server behind a firewall.   Say your destination server is 192.168.136.3, source server is mynitor.com.  Then ssh back to localhost to get to the home server.

$ ssh -R 3333:localhost:22 user@mynitor.com
$ ssh localhost -p 3333

Log in without appearing in lastlog/w and who output.

$ ssh -T user@hostname.com

Miscellaneous Tricks

Play a wav file on remote server:

$ ssh user1@local_server 'play /home/mynitor/2pac.wav'

Outputting your microphone to a remote computer’s speaker:

# dd if=/dev/dsp | ssh -c arcfour -C username@host dd of=/dev/dsp

Setup password less SSH access to another server:

$ ssh-keygen
$ cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh user@remotehost "cat - >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys;chmod 644  ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

- The 644 will make sure your default umask isn’t creating a file with 664 perms. Otherwise, ssh server will reject your login attempt.

There is so much more. Once I gather up more of these, it will be included in an updated and more complete version of this article. Add away your tips and tricks!

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# mkdir /tmp/flash
# mount /dev/sda1 /tmp/flash

Before you disconnect it, unmount first:

# umount /dev/sda1 /tmp/flash

All set.

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Some examples:

try for 30 minutes
     cd /tmp
     rm -f data
     forany host in xxx yyy zzz
           wget http://${host}/fresh.data data
     end
end

If any element of the script fails, all running process trees are reliably cleaned up, and the block is tried again with an exponential backoff. You might think of this as exception handling for scripts.   This shell is probably a good starter for newbies out there that find shell scripting a bit cryptic.  ftsh makes it more readable and easily understandable.

• Download it from here.

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