Category Archives: EN

Anything that does not fit into other categories …

safeboot=DsRepair

Posted on 2025-01-05 by Oliver

So, recently I was asked to help out with an IT problem a friend had. The issue was as follows: Windows Server 2016 ended up booting into safe mode after some botched update … or so … The details weren’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Administration, EN | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Why it isn’t “useless” to defragment SSDs

Posted on 2025-01-04 by Oliver

Has anyone tried searching for information on how to defragment stuff and run across a snarky remark that defragmenting on an SSD is pointless? Well, I have. One time too often, it turns out. So I am sitting down to … Continue reading →

Posted in /dev/null, EN, Linux, Rant | Leave a comment

Broken love: letting my IDA maintenance period run out next year

Posted on 2024-09-12 by Oliver

With IDA 9.0 Hex-Rays says they are switching to a subscription only model. This was already threatened to existing customers before — roughly two or three years ago — and of course it is being sold with totally great benefits … Continue reading →

Posted in EN, Reversing, Software | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Tomorrow it will be decided if I agree with Victoria Nuland

Posted on 2024-06-19 by Oliver

… and her infamous line “Fuck the EU”. Why? Because tomorrow the decision will be made whether the EU introduces surveillance for what’s meant to be private communication. Originally the voting was supposed to be done today (2024-06-19). More information … Continue reading →

Posted in EN, Human Rights, IT Security, Opinion, Privacy | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Reminder to myself

Posted on 2024-05-05 by Oliver

env GIT_CONFIG_NOSYSTEM=true GIT_CONFIG_COUNT=0 GIT_CONFIG_GLOBAL=/dev/null git … can be used to suppress reading the configuration file. Useful with this error: BUG: refs.c:2083: reference backend is unknown error: git-remote-https died of signal 6 … which is caused by a particular configuration option.

Posted in EN, VCS | Tagged | Leave a comment

The end of international law?

Posted on 2024-04-15 by Oliver

Well, I guess the inaction of the UNSC in the case of the Israeli bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus emboldened Ecuador to raid the Mexican embassy. I wonder if future historians — provided there will be any — … Continue reading →

Posted in EN, Opinion, Peace | Leave a comment

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

Posted on 2023-12-18 by Oliver

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

Posted on 2023-07-10 by Oliver

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 →

Posted in EN, Opinion, Thoughts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Undocumented MSVC

Posted on 2023-07-02 by Oliver

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

Posted in EN, Reversing, Software | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted on 2023-01-27 by Oliver

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 , | 8 Comments

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

Posted on 2023-01-25 by Oliver

As developers we probably all know that floating point precision can be an issue . 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. … Continue reading →

Posted in C/C++, EN, Programming | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted on 2023-01-24 by Oliver

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 →

Posted in EN, Software | Tagged | Leave a comment

Bash training I gave some years ago

Posted on 2023-01-23 by Oliver

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 →

Posted in Bash, EN | Tagged | Leave a comment

That trick I learned with the Visual Studio debugger

Posted on 2023-01-23 by Oliver

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 →

Posted in C/C++, EN, Programming | Tagged , | Leave a comment

IDA and Hex-Rays decompiler keyboard shortcut cheat sheet

Posted on 2023-01-22 by Oliver

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

Posted in EN, Reversing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Reminder to self: IDA load all sections

Posted on 2023-01-20 by Oliver

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 →

Posted in EN, Reversing, Software | Tagged | Leave a comment

ASR rule “Block Win32 API calls from Office macros”

Posted on 2023-01-19 by Oliver

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 →

Posted in Administration, EN, IT Security | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

dumbin.exe, editbin.exe, lib.exe …

Posted on 2023-01-05 by Oliver

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 →

Posted in EN, Programming, Reversing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

What does adding masm targets do under the hood

Posted on 2022-12-05 by Oliver

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 →

Posted in C/C++, EN, Programming | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Certum Open Source Code-Signing certificate

Posted on 2022-11-10 by Oliver

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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