August 5, 2024
• 8 min read
I recently picked up a Yubico YubiKey 5C NFC, a small yet powerful security key that adds an extra layer of protection to my logins. This versatile device supports various security protocols, including FIDO2, U2F, OTP (One-Time Password), and smart card (PIV). Major tech companies like AWS, GitHub, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, and Apple all support security keys for their login processes, highlighting their importance in modern cybersecurity.
One of the standout features of the YubiKey is its adherence to open standards, making it easy to integrate with various products and services.
Read more →July 17, 2024
• 10 min read
I still have every single hard drive I’ve ever used in every computer and laptop I have ever owned. I’ve always been a bit paranoid of doing anything with them, so for the past decade or so I’ve had a shoe box overflowing with all manner of disks rotting in my closet. However, a friend is spilling up a file server, and I’d want to donate some disks to them to get them started.
Read more →January 24, 2024
• 3 min read
If you work in security or you like to pretend you work in security, you must’ve heard about BusKill. Every infosec has one of those because it’s so cool pretending to be a 133t hacker and their threat model definitely requires an immediate shutdown of the computer, else the nefarious actors (APT21, APT22, APTsqrt(69)) will retrieve their bloated python scripts. And nobody want to lose their scripts.
But just in case you think it might be interesting to have a way to shut down (and lock, if it’s encrypted) your laptop in case somebody snatches it from your hands, keep reading because I have a solution that doesn’t involve paying those BusKill people your hard-earned pennies.
Read more →January 12, 2024
• 2 min read
The USBGuard software framework helps to protect your computer against rogue USB devices (a.k.a. BadUSB) by implementing basic whitelisting and blacklisting capabilities based on device attributes.
Basically, USBGuard prevents all unauthorized USB devices from connecting to your machine.
Start by installing it, if you’re running Ubuntu, Debian or other Debian-based distros:
1 $ sudo apt install usbguard Or, if you’re running Fedora:
1 $ sudo dnf install usbguard Make sure all USB devices that you want to be allowed by default to connect to your system are plugged in (don’t worry about the built-in USB devices, like your laptop webcam or Bluetooth module, they get whitelisted automatically), and generate the default policy:
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