Tag: free

Stanford Javascript Crypto Library (SJCL) JavaScript encryption

I found this while looking for a means to do some simple encryption in Javascript for a browser based application. With open-source support for AES and other protocols, it is quite robust and fast.

As a bonus, it is packaged as a webjar and available in Maven Central:

<dependency>
<groupId>org.webjars.npm</groupId>
<artifactId>sjcl</artifactId>
<version>1.0.6</version>
</dependency>

REFERENCES:

Install Splunk on Ubuntu

Splunk is a popular enterprise level tool for log collection, analysis and management. While you can obtain an enterprise license, most functions are available in the free community edition.

Setup is very easy:

  1. Download and move the .tar.gz file to the appropriate server (i386 vs. amd64)
  2. sudo dpkg -i splunk*.deb
  3. Start the server:

    sudo /opt/splunk/bin/splunk start

    The first time you run after installation or update you will have to accept terms.

  4. Access the admin screen:

    http://HOSTNAME:8000

    login (admin/changeme)
    change password

  5. Go to Settings/Forwarding * Receiving
    – add new (port 9997)
  6. Open firewall port (if enabled):

    sudo ufw allow 8000
  7. Now to start as a service…

    sudo /opt/splunk/bin/splunk enable boot-start

Competitors:

REFERENCES

UML tooling

Love it, or hate it, eventually every software developer has to create some documentation. UML (Unified Modeling Language) diagrams are a common, but sometimes neccesary evil, in this line of work. While there are many commercial packages (Rational Rose, for example) available for enterprise use, it’s often easier to use one of the many free offerings available.

Install free “recognized” SSL certificates for Apache2

Once you have your server running with a self-signed certificate you might find it useful to have a “real” certificate that does not warn users.

Many of the CA’s provide test certificates that are generally valid for 30-60 days, I’ve recently discovered StartSSL, that generates free certificates that are valid for a full year.

  1. Generating keys and certificates….

    NOTE: this process is rather involved and is documented better elsewhere, here’s what I needed to remember to get the keys and certificates.

    • save ssl.key (private)
    • save ssl.crt (pem encoded)
    • get file from control panel: sub.class1.server.ca.pem
  2. Make sure that you move all three files to the /etc/apache2/ssl/ folder on the server.
  3. Edit the config file…
    sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl.conf

    Modify the values related to the keys and certs…

    SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/ssl.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/ssl.key
    SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/apache2/ssl/sub.class1.server.ca.pem

  4. Reload the config and restart…

    sudo service apache2 reload
    sudo service apache2 restart
  5. Test it out…
    https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=YOURDOMAIN.COM

REFERENCES:

Install Splunk Universal Forwarder on Ubuntu

After a while it can get tedious to access and review server logs via the command line. There are several tools available that can provide the same information in a graphical manner. Recently I’ve migrated to Splunk as there are both Enterprise and Free versions available.

  1. Of course, you’ll need a Splunk server installed first, as the forwarder is really just another (lighter) instance that will forward the log information to a central location.
  2. Download the system appropriate installer from:
    http://www.splunk.com/download/universalforwarder
  3. Check to see if you are running 32 or 64 bit OS.uname -aIf you see i686 you are 32 bit, if x86_64 you are 64 bit!
  4. Download, you’ll likely need a different version:sudo dpkg -i splunkforwarder-6.1.3-220630-linux-2.6-intel.deb
    or
    sudo dpkg -i splunkforwarder-6.1.3-220630-linux-2.6-amd64.deb
  5. Enable auto-start on reboot:cd /opt/splunkforwarder/bin/

sudo ./splunk enable boot-start

    1. Start the server:sudo service splunk start
    2. Set the password:

      The default ‘admin‘ password is ‘changeme‘ so we need to change it immediately to do anything else, or we will see errors in future steps.

      sudo /opt/splunkforwarder/bin/splunk edit user admin -password YOUR_NEW_PASSWORD -auth admin:changeme

    3. Set the server:sudo /opt/splunkforwarder/bin/splunk add forward-server YOUR_SERVER_ADDRESS:9997

      NOTE: if you get prompted for a splunk username/password you likely skipped the above step. Remember – the forwarder is a new ‘light’ installation of the server and as such has it’s own users!

    4. Enable some monitors on the box:Some common services and log locations to get you started…
      Apache2 HTTPd
      sudo /opt/splunkforwarder/bin/splunk add monitor /var/log/apache2 -index main -sourcetype Apache2
      Tomcat7
      sudo /opt/splunkforwarder/bin/splunk add monitor /opt/tomcat7/logs -index main -sourcetype Tomcat7
      MySQL
      sudo /opt/splunkforwarder/bin/splunk add monitor /var/log/mysql -index main -sourcetype MySQL
      Postfix (SMTP)
      sudo /opt/splunkforwarder/bin/splunk add monitor /var/log/mail.log -index main -sourcetype Postfix
      Squid3 (Proxy)
      sudo /opt/splunkforwarder/bin/splunk add monitor /var/log/squid/access.log -index main -sourcetype Squid3
      sudo /opt/splunkforwarder/bin/splunk add monitor /var/log/squid/cache.log -index main -sourcetype Squid3

      SonarQube
      sudo /opt/splunkforwarder/bin/splunk add monitor /opt/sonar/logs -index main -sourcetype Sonar
      PM2
      sudo /opt/splunkforwarder/bin/splunk add monitor /home/{user}/.pm2/logs -index main -sourcetype PM2
      NPM
      sudo /opt/splunkforwarder/bin/splunk add monitor /home/scott/.npm/_logs -index main -sourcetype NPM
  1. (OPTIONAL) Verify configuration by opening file at the following:sudo su
    vi /opt/splunkforwarder/etc/apps/search/local/inputs.conf
    exit
  2. You now should be able to log into your server and see new data flowing from the forwarder.

    NOTE: this requires you to enable ‘receiving’ of data on the port specified above, usually 9997.

REFERENCES:

Free website uptime monitoring

Regardless if you host your own websites, or pay to have them hosted elsewhere, up-time, availability and network performance metrics are important to your visiting guests.

Here are two free services that I’ve found useful for monitoring, notification and reporting.

BTW, you can even use these to watch competitors or sites that you frequent.

RabbitMQ setup on Ubuntu

In my past enterprise experience, I’ve worked a lot with IBM WebSphere MQ, as I’ve evolved to open source, I’ve found RabbitMQ to fill my messaging needs as an implementation of AMPQ. While I’ve added Ubuntu installation instructions here, server and API implementations are available for most programming languages and operating systems.

NEW WAY:

sudo apt-get install rabbitmq-server

OLDER RELEASES:

sudo wget http://www.rabbitmq.com/rabbitmq-signing-key-public.asc

sudo apt-key add rabbitmq-signing-key-public.asc

sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rabbit.list

NOTE: this file will probably be empty, just add the following line (for Ubuntu 11.04 and earlier)


deb http://www.rabbitmq.com/debian/ testing main


sudo apt-get update
sudo aptitude install rabbitmq-server

REFERENCES:

JavaScript Code Quality (#2)

About a year ago I wrote a post regarding JSLint usage for code quality of JavaScript. There is now,for a while actually, an open-source fork of that code that allows for greater configuration.

Oddly, there are two separate sites, but I believe that they have the same content:

Firefox Beta and Aurora Release Channels

With the recent rapid release cycle (currently every 6 weeks) for Firefox, it’s a good idea for developers and testers to use the upcoming release versions before they are released to the general public.

For Windows users, you can download and install an appropriate version from:
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/

On Ubuntu, it’s a little more difficult, but rather straight-forward:

  1. Open a new Terminal window
  2. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-next
  3. sudo apt-get update
  4. sudo apt-get install firefox

REFERENCES:

That’s all…. Happy Testing!

NoMachineNX – SSH Remote Desktop for Linux/Unix

I’ve used a variety of means to connect to remote machines. Long ago, PCAnywhere was common place, later replaced by VNC and Windows Remote Desktop (RDP). As I’ve migrated nearly all of my work to Ubuntu, I’ve found that VNC is generally too slow, and SSH alone only gives access to my command line environment. NX over SSH allows for efficiently visual access to my entire desktop and all accessories remotely, regardless of my client system.

Setup on the server/host system only takes a few minutes, but is only available on Linux and Solaris. Installation of SSH on the host is required first.

Setup of the client is even easier, and is available for Linux, OS/X and Windows.

NOTE: A “NX Free Edition” is available for use.

REFERENCES: