Category Archives: Technical

General Technical information

DB2 – the secret database

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Certainly, according to the Winter Corporation’s 2005 survey, the largest OLTP (On-Line Transaction Processing) databases in the world are hosted on DB2. The volume prize goes to the Land Registry at 23.1 TB and the prize for the number of rows goes to UPS – 89.6 billion; both run on DB2.

via DB2 – the secret database • The Register.

DB2 has always ruled in the mainframe environment: on that platform it has no peer. In 1996 (ten years ago!) IBM made all the right technical moves to expand the use of DB2 down to the mini and even the PC markets. DB2 was produced in three versions. These have had various names over the years – UDB (Universal DataBase) was often used but it now being gently dropped by IBM. The most useful names I’ve come across are:

• DB2 for z/OS (Mainframe)

• DB2 for iSeries (AS400 as was)

• DB2 for LUW (Linux, UNIX and Windows)

Dated 18 January 2006.

IBM Parallel Sysplex

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In computing, a Parallel Sysplex is a cluster of IBM mainframes acting together as a single system image with z/OS. Used for disaster recovery, Parallel Sysplex combines data sharing and parallel computing to allow a cluster of up to 32 systems to share a workload for high performance and high availability.

via IBM Parallel Sysplex – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Critics slam SSL authority for minting certificate for impersonating sites

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Critics slam SSL authority for minting certificate for impersonating sites.

Over the past year, security experts have proposed a variety of alternatives to the complex web of trust now used to manage the net’s ailing SSL system. Among them is the Convergence project devised by researcher Moxie Marlinspike. The system, which would have flagged counterfeit certificates used to snoop on some 300,000 Gmail users, has already won the qualified endorsement of security firm Qualys. Google, meanwhile, has said it has no plans to implement Convergence in its Chrome browser.

Half of Fortune 500s, US Govt. Still Infected with DNSChanger Trojan

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Rasmussen said there are still millions of PCs infected with DNSChanger. “At this rate, a lot of users are going to see their Internet break on March 8.”

via Half of Fortune 500s, US Govt. Still Infected with DNSChanger Trojan — Krebs on Security.

Given the Conficker Working Group’s experience, shutting down the surrogate DNS network on March 8 may actually be a faster — albeit more painful — way to clean up the problem.

Offensive Mobile Forensics

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There are many different locations containing interesting data on iOS devices. Data often resides in SQLite databases, the chosen format for local storage on mobile devices. The next best place to find sensitive information is in plist, or property list files – these are the primary storage medium for configuration settings in iOS, and they are also a fantastic source of sensitive information. User credentials are often stored here, instead of inside the KeyChain where they should be. Rounding out the top three data sources are binary or binary-encoded files, such as the device’s keyboard cache and pasteboard. Although storage locations commonly change with the release of new iOS firmware, it is fairly simple to poke around the general area and find what you’re looking for.

via Offensive Mobile Forensics.

Similarly to the configuration files for iOS, the XML files storing preferences for Android applications commonly include user credentials and other sensitive information.

Two LVM VolGroup’s, same name, one is system disk – what to do?

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It’s a lot easier to rename the “old” volume group if the old drive is the only one connected to the system.

Using your first FC4 installation CD and with only the old drive installed, boot into rescue mode (boot: linux rescue), but don’t search for or mount the FC installation. At the command prompt, you will probably need to active the lvm like this:

lvm vgscan

lvm lvscan

lvm vgchange -a y

lvm pvscan

lvm lvscan

The last two commands should list your volume group(s) and logical volume(s). Now use vgrename to fix the problem:

lvm vgrename VolGroup00 whatever_you_want_to_call_it

Note that all lvm commands need to be preceded with “lvm” in rescue mode.

via Two LVM VolGroup’s, same name, one is system disk – what to do?.

Jailbreaking exemption to DMCA is about to expire, EFF would rather it didn’t

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Jailbreaking exemption to DMCA is about to expire, EFF would rather it didn’t — Engadget.

Back in 2010, the US Copyright Office added a set of anti-circumvention exemptions to the DMCA, effectively making it legal for smartphone users to jailbreak and/or root their devices. These exemptions, however, were never made permanent and now, they’re about to expire. The EFF doesn’t want this to happen, which is why it’s decided to launch a campaign dedicated to the jailbreaking cause. With this initiative, the EFF is hoping to convince the Copyright Office to renew its exemptions and expand them to a wider range of devices, including tablets and video game consoles.