Category Archives: EN

Anything that does not fit into other categories …

Migrating data from 2 TB SSD to 4 TB SSD with iODD ST400 drive enclosure

Linux is my main system, but I prefer using NTFS for various use cases and in fact some use cases require something like NTFS. The ST400 is the successor of several Zalman-rebranded iODD devices which bring a similar feature set. … Continue reading

Posted in Administration, EN, Linux | Tagged , | 7 Comments

NATO’s open door policy

Now, while any small town club is able to reject applications for membership and scholarships are tied to preconditions — and ignoring for a minute that NATO even refused to talk about Russia’s security interests, including its unwillingness to accept … Continue reading

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Undocumented MSVC

Some ongoing research. For obvious reasons I can only share results and tools, but not actual sample data.

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FIDO2 für Kreditkarte (Sparkasse). Aber nicht mit Linux!

Im letzten Jahr hatte ich eine Kreditkarte bei der Sparkasse beantragt — Mastercard war das einzige was im Angebot war, aber gut. Also beantragt und direkt nach Erhalt einmal benutzt. Schon der zweite Versuch ging in die Hose, da aufgrund … Continue reading

Posted in DE, IT Security, Meinung | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Floating point precision … printf-VS2013-vs.-later-VS-version edition

As developers we probably all know that floating point precision can be an issue1. It can haunt us in various ways. Generally when we talk about precision, though, we probably don’t have in mind printf as the first thing. This … Continue reading

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Enabling RSA (with SHA-1) again in OpenSSH server

The sshd version that ships with Ubuntu 22.04 seems to have abandoned RSA authentication. Well, that’s not true. It’s about the hash algorithm used by the “old” protocol by the name ssh-rsa, which is deemed insecure by today’s standards. RSA … Continue reading

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Bash training I gave some years ago

This is a Bash training I gave some years ago, which I had — however — prepared on my own time. Some parts may be outdated. Others may need some touching up, but in general I think it can be … Continue reading

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That trick I learned with the Visual Studio debugger

Alright, I’ll admit it it: I am in team WinDbg. Sure, I’ll happily use WinDbgX — the “Preview” version of the “new” WinDbg which has been in preview for ages now — but I always was a bit unhappy with … Continue reading

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IDA and Hex-Rays decompiler keyboard shortcut cheat sheet

Find it on GitHub: assarbad/some-latex/releases/tag/v1.0-ida-cheat-sheet LaTeX source can be found in the repository itself.

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Reminder to self: IDA load all sections

Just a reminder to myself. Edit cfg/pe.cfg inside the IDA installation folder to configure the PE loader to load all sections: // Always load all sections of a PE file? // If no, sections like .reloc and .rsrc are skipped … Continue reading

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ASR rule “Block Win32 API calls from Office macros”

Microsoft says it’s fixed. It may be, but I think there’s more to it than meets the eye. Colleagues of mine noticed that, aside from shortcuts disappearing, Defender also started acting up on TortoiseProc.exe from TortoiseSVN. Notably, checkouts would fail … Continue reading

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dumbin.exe, editbin.exe, lib.exe …

They’re all just slim wrappers around the actual link.exe, not using a common DLL or so, but actually invoking: dumpbin.exe simply invokes “link /dump” and failing that “link.exe link /dump” editbin.exe simply invokes “link /edit” and failing that “link.exe link … Continue reading

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What does adding masm targets do under the hood

If in Visual Studio when you right-click a C/C++-project in the Solution Explorer, you choose Build Customizations…, the following dialog will be presented: If you check the item for masm, the following changes will be done to your .vcxproj file: … Continue reading

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Certum Open Source Code-Signing certificate

In the past I used a variety of code-signing CAs. But for a few years now I am using Certums affordable offer for Open Source developers. Let’s assume you already have their latest hardware and merely want to renew or … Continue reading

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PowerShell

Within the last two years or so I have started to use more and more PowerShell scripting at work and for my private administration tasks on Windows. The thing I find coolest about PowerShell is that you can tap into … Continue reading

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FLOSS-Developers gone bonkers?

So as I understand under the hashtag #StandWithUkraine some idiots have started supply-chain attacks, targeting Russian and Belarussian targets. I’ll leave the exercise to find the respective repos on GitHub to the inclined reader. Has everyone gone bonkers now? Aside … Continue reading

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George F. Kennan, 1997-02-05

A fateful error Excerpt: The view, bluntly stated, is that expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-cold-war era. An op-ed by George F. Kennan in the New York Times from 1997-02-05. This … Continue reading

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Chomsky before the invasion started

Noam Chomsky: on the Pandemic, Ukraine crisis & Climate Change

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Signing my code from within a (Windows) VM

My main workstation runs Linux. It has for quite some time now. I had some issues getting 3D acceleration passed through using my AMD GPU and VMware Workstation, but finally got it to work. However, this time it’s about signing … Continue reading

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Running IDA 7.x/8.x inside Crossover 21/22

For a few versions I had issues running IDA Pro in Crossover with IDAPython enabled. Prior to the starting issues, everything worked fine, e.g. in the IDA 6.x version range. Please note that the setup of IDA Pro also succeeded … Continue reading

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