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WPAD Server Fiddler Extension Source

2016 Aug 5, 3:18

I've put my WPAD Fiddler extension source and the installer on GitHub.

Six years ago I made a WPAD DHCP server Fiddler extension (described previously and previously). The extension runs a WPAD DHCP server telling any clients that connect to connect to the running Fiddler instance. I've finally got around to putting the source on GitHub. I haven't touched it in five or so years so this is either for posterity or education or something.

PermalinkCommentsdhcp fiddler network security wpad

Let's Encrypt NearlyFreeSpeech.net Setup

2016 Feb 4, 2:48

2016-Nov-5: Updated post on using Let's Encrypt with NearlyFreeSpeech.net

I use NearlyFreeSpeech.net for my webhosting for my personal website and I've just finished setting up TLS via Let's Encrypt. The process was slightly more complicated than what you'd like from Let's Encrypt. So for those interested in doing the same on NearlyFreeSpeech.net, I've taken the following notes.

The standard Let's Encrypt client requires su/sudo access which is not available on NearlyFreeSpeech.net's servers. Additionally NFSN's webserver doesn't have any Let's Encrypt plugins installed. So I used the Let's Encrypt Without Sudo client. I followed the instructions listed on the tool's page with the addition of providing the "--file-based" parameter to sign_csr.py.

One thing the script doesn't produce is the chain file. But this topic "Let's Encrypt - Quick HOWTO for NSFN" covers how to obtain that:

curl -o domain.chn https://letsencrypt.org/certs/lets-encrypt-x1-cross-signed.pem

Now that you have all the required files, on your NFSN server make the directory /home/protected/ssl and copy your files into it. This is described in the NFSN topic provide certificates to NFSN. After copying the files and setting their permissions as described in the previous link you submit an assistance request. For me it was only 15 minutes later that everything was setup.

After enabling HTTPS I wanted to have all HTTP requests redirect to HTTPS. The normal Apache documentation on how to do this doesn't work on NFSN servers. Instead the NFSN FAQ describes it in "redirect http to https and HSTS". You use the X-Forwarded-Proto instead of the HTTPS variable because of how NFSN's virtual hosting is setup.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} !https
RewriteRule ^.*$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

Turning on HSTS is as simple as adding the HSTS HTTP header. However, the description in the above link didn't work because my site's NFSN realm isn't on the latest Apache yet. Instead I added the following to my .htaccess. After I'm comfortable with everything working well for a few days I'll start turning up the max-age to the recommended minimum value of 180 days.

Header set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=3600;" 

Finally, to turn on CSP I started up Fiddler with my CSP Fiddler extension. It allows me to determine the most restrictive CSP rules I could apply and still have all resources on my page load. From there I found and removed inline script and some content loaded via http and otherwise continued tweaking my site and CSP rules.

After I was done I checked out my site on SSL Lab's SSL Test to see what I might have done wrong or needed improving. The first time I went through these steps I hadn't included the chain file which the SSL Test told me about. I was able to add that file to the same files I had already previously generated from the Let's Encrypt client and do another NFSN assistance request and 15 minutes later the SSL Test had upgraded me from 'B' to 'A'.

PermalinkCommentscertificate csp hsts https lets-encrypt nearlyfreespeech.net

Tweet from David_Risney

2015 Aug 4, 3:06
Enjoying this inspirational cord cutting Ars article: http://arstechnica.com/staff/2015/08/i-finally-kicked-cable-tv-to-the-curb/ …. Can I use HBO Now subscription with HBO Go app on Xbox One?
PermalinkComments

Retweet of paulcbetts

2015 Mar 15, 9:55
@DrPizza Holy shit, they finally caved and added the search bar to the ribbon
PermalinkComments

Retweet of doomquasar

2015 Mar 8, 11:53
We finally did what we should've done forever ago: filled a party bag with restaurant names so we never have to decide again.
PermalinkComments

Results of the Grand C++ Error Explosion Competition

2014 Jan 28, 4:58

tgceec:

After much deliberation, the winners of the Grand C++ Error Explosion Competition are finally selected. There are two different award categories. The winners of the first category are those submissions that produced the largest error with the smallest amount of source code. These entries contain a…

PermalinkCommentshumor technical c++ programming coding

Microsoft will pay up to $100K for new Windows exploit techniques

2013 Jun 21, 4:29


Good news everyone! Of course Microsoft employees are not eligible but that’s probably for the best.

PermalinkCommentssecurity exploit money microsoft technical

iPod Godfather Tony Fadell Finally Reveals His New Product: A Thermostat. No, Really. | TechCrunch

2011 Oct 25, 5:37
An original iPod guy has a new company that makes... wait for it... thermostats. Weird. Well they look cool anyway.
PermalinkCommentstechnical

RFC 6068 - The 'mailto' URI Scheme

2010 Oct 5, 2:54The mailto URI scheme finally gets its own RFC.PermalinkCommentsmailto uri url mail email technical rfc reference encoding

draft-nottingham-http-portal - The Network Authentication Required HTTP Status Code

2010 Oct 4, 2:05Proposed 428 HTTP error code for hijacking proxies to indicate to the client the user needs to login to the network etc. Glad to see this one's finally happening.PermalinkCommentshttp http-status captive-portal hijack proxy authentication technical rfc reference

CyanogenMod-6.0.0 RC1 | CyanogenMod

2010 Jul 14, 3:40Finally get Android 2.2 onto my G1!PermalinkCommentsandroid phone g1 google hack technical cellphone todo

Ars Colloquium: the official ACTA treaty draft and your reactions

2010 Apr 21, 6:47"After years of secrecy (and the occasional leak), a draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) treaty has finally been released by negotiators. We've delved deep into the treaty, highlighting its numerous problems. Indeed, there's a lot not to like about the treaty: Internet disconnections, anticircumvention prohibitions, and even the ability for rightsholders to get injunctions if they can show infringement is imminent."PermalinkCommentsarstechnica acta privacy internet todo government politics piracy technical

Client-side Cross-domain Security

2010 Mar 31, 7:54"Summary: Exploring cross-domain threats and use cases, security principles for cross-origin requests, and finally, weighing the risks for developers to enhance cross-domain access from web applications running in the browser."PermalinkCommentstechnical msdn microsoft security xss XMLHttpRequest web browser

draft-hoehrmann-javascript-scheme-01 - The javascript resource identifier scheme

2010 Mar 3, 6:15Finally giving the javascript URI scheme its own IETF doc.PermalinkCommentsjavascript ietf url uri scheme reference technical

ASCIImeo, Videos in Text - peter nitsch.net

2010 Jan 18, 3:22"Today I finally launched ASCIImeo (asciimeo.com)...In a nutshell, it renders Vimeo videos in different textmode’s." Now if only it did the audio as midi. Try outPermalinkCommentsvideo ascii humor text

Netflix CSRF - Stolen Thoughts

2009 May 3, 10:36

Looking at the HTTP traffic of Netflix under Fiddler I could see the HTTP request that added a movie to my queue and didn't see anything obvious that would prevent a CSRF. Sure enough its pretty easy to create a page that, if the user has set Netflix to auto-login, will add movies to the user's queue without their knowledge. I thought this was pretty neat, because I could finally get people to watch Primer. However, when I searched for Netflix CSRF I found that this issue has been known and reported to Netflix since 2006. Again my thoughts stolen from me and the theif doesn't even have the common decency to let me have the thought first!

With this issue known for nearly three years its hard to continue calling it an issue. Really they should just document it in their API docs and be done with it. Who knows what Netflix based web sites and services they'll break if they try to change this behavior? For instance, follow this link to add my Netflix recommended movies to your queue.

PermalinkCommentstechnical stolen-thoughts csrf netflix security

Platonic Ideals in Anathem and The Atrocity Archives

2009 Apr 7, 11:58
The Atrocity ArchivesThe Jennifer MorgueAnathem

This past week I finished Anathem and despite the intimidating physical size of the book (difficult to take and read on the bus) I became very engrossed and was able to finish it in several orders of magnitude less time than what I spent on the Baroque Cycle. Whereas reading the Baroque Cycle you can imagine Neal Stephenson sifting through giant economic tomes (or at least that's where my mind went whenever the characters began to explain macro-economics to one another), in Anathem you can see Neal Stephenson staying up late pouring over philosophy of mathematics. When not exploring philosophy, Anathem has an appropriate amount of humor, love interests, nuclear bombs, etc. as you might hope from reading Snow Crash or Diamond Age. I thoroughly enjoyed Anathem.

On the topic of made up words: I get made up words for made up things, but there's already a name for cell-phone in English: its "cell-phone". The narrator notes that the book has been translated into English so I guess I'll blame the fictional translator. Anyway, I wasn't bothered by the made up words nearly as much as some folk. Its a good thing I'm long out of college because I can easily imagine confusing the names of actual concepts and people with those from the book, like Hemn space for Hamming distance. Towards the beginning, the description of slines and the post-post-apocalyptic setting reminded me briefly of Idiocracy.

Recently, I've been reading everything of Charles Stross that I can, including about a month ago, The Jennifer Morgue from the surprisingly awesome amalgamation genre of spy thriller and Lovecraft horror. Its the second in a series set in a universe in which magic exists as a form of mathematics and follows Bob Howard programmer/hacker, cube dweller, and begrudging spy who works for a government agency tasked to suppress this knowledge and protect the world from its use. For a taste, try a short story from the series that's freely available on Tor's website, Down on the Farm.

Coincidentally, both Anathem and the Bob Howard series take an interest in the world of Platonic ideals. In the case of Anathem (without spoiling anything) the universe of Platonic ideals, under a different name of course, is debated by the characters to be either just a concept or an actual separate universe and later becomes the underpinning of major events in the book. In the Bob Howard series, magic is applied mathematics that through particular proofs or computations awakens/disturbs/provokes unnamed horrors in the universe of Platonic ideals to produce some desired effect in Bob's universe.

PermalinkCommentsatrocity archives neal stephenson jennifer morgue plato bob howard anathem

Nintendo GDC keynote: Wii Storage, new Zelda, world domination - Ars Technica

2009 Mar 25, 1:03Finally more storage for all those virtual console games I download: "What is going to interest gamers, however, is the expanded support for storage on the Nintendo Wii. The new update for the Wii Menu allows you to download and launch content straight from an SD card, and there is now support for SDHC cards, meaning you can cheaply add as much storage to your system as you'd like. A game was shown launching from a memory stick, with only a short loading time."PermalinkCommentsnintendo wii videogame storage

Internet Explorer 8 Released

2009 Mar 20, 6:18

Our Fearless Leader reveals IE8 at MIX09. Photo by DBegley.IE8, the software I've been working on for some time now, has finally been released at MIX09.

As I mentioned previously, I worked on accelerators (previously named Activities) in IE8. Looking at the kinds of things I blog about on the IE Blog, you might also correctly guess that I work on the networking stack. Ask me about what else I worked on during IE8 development. The past few months were very busy for me and I'm happy this is finally out.PermalinkCommentstechnical internet explorer ie8

Back From Vegas

2009 Feb 28, 2:21

Penn and Teller StageSarah and I met up with Jon, Scott, Jesse, and Grib in Las Vegas last weekend and we had a fun time.

PermalinkCommentspersonal2 monorail vegas penn-and-teller
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