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9-30-04
A couple of weeks ago I
mentioned a handy little tool called Unhide from http://www.cc.nctu.edu.tw/~u8811016/. In that piece I mentioned that some
antivirus programs might see it as a “hacking tool” and delete it and used some
other files as examples (LeakTest, KillCMOS and AnalogX Proxy). Several readers wanted to know
what those were and where to find them if they’re so useful, so this week I
offer you not only those tools but several nifty little software gadgets that
can be quite useful in certain situations.
AnalogX Proxy is a variation
of Internet Connection Sharing available in 98SE and above and doesn’t really
fit in this group, but if you want to check it out you can do so at http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/proxy.htm.
All of the tools I’m going
to mention have legitimate uses but in the wrong hands can be misused, just as a
car or firearm can be. That doesn’t
make cars and firearms bad things necessarily, but I want to say up front that
they can be used maliciously and I in no way endorse doing that. After all, I wouldn’t want to induce
anyone to do anything questionable, pun intended ;)
LeakTest is a tool to test
your firewall’s egress defenses.
Basically you download the file from http://www.grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm
and run it. If your firewall
software pops up to warn you that leaktest.exe is trying to access the Internet
then it passed the first test. Next
you want to rename the file to something like msimn.exe or iexplore.exe, which
are Outlook Express and Internet Explorer respectively. Then run it again and if you get another
pop up warning you’re good. If not,
you are vulnerable to trojans that disguise themselves as known
programs.
If you’re using Black Ice as
your firewall you can ignore these results. According to the GRC site Black Ice just
locked out the LeakTest IP address rather than actually fix their egress
monitoring.
KillCMOS is nowhere near as
scary as it sounds. All it does,
when run from a bootable floppy disk, is reset the BIOS to default values. Some home users get password crazy and
set passwords for everything, including access to the BIOS settings. Since they rarely need to go into the
BIOS setup (this is the area you access by hitting F1 or <DEL> or whatever
when prompted on your boot screen) they often forget the password. As long as you can boot into Windows
without entering a password during the early hardware level boot sequence you
can use this tool. It’s available
from http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/13/7/13-7-60.shtml.
Jellybean Keyfinder, which
I’ve mentioned in the past, will display the CD Key for your Windows and Office
installs. This is invaluable if
you’ve misplaced your original CD jewel case or Windows book. You can download this from http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml.
The Unhide that I mentioned
as the lead for this article pales in comparison to Win9x PassView from http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/win9xpv.html. This utility works only with 95, 98 and
ME but it displays every user name and password stored on your computer,
including web site logins and network shares. If you have all your passwords stored
and you’re about to format and reload your PC this tool is
priceless.
If you wonder where you’re
kids have been surfing, wonder no more.
IndexView from http://www.exits.ro/index-dat-viewer.html
will list every single web page your PC has visited since the OS was
installed. Most users think that
clearing the History and deleting the Temporary Internet files will cover their
tracks but now you know better ;)
Lastly I give you a couple
of utilities that will recover deleted files. PC Inspector File Recovery from http://www.pcinspector.de/download.htm#file_recovery
will aid you in getting those pictures or important documents back that you may
have inadvertently deleted.
Restoration from http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html
is a little easier to figure out.
As with everything else I’ve listed they’re both free tools and are nice
additions to any software toolbox.
With all of that stuff you
can now feel qualified to wear those geek T-Shirts that say things like “Got
Root?” and “Hacker” ;)
Remember, with great power
comes great responsibility. Make me
proud…
Kevin Mefford,
Editor
In an article sure to stir
up some 'net buzz, eWeek is profiling
companies that went from Windows to a
Linux distribution and then BACK
to Windows:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1651187,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
In
case a 40GB iPod just doesn't cut if for you anymore, Toshiba is
releasing a
60GB player, which is enough space to store every song
you've ever heard
(well, almost):
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5384553.html
Since
our teenagers are being deprived of the ability to send messages
from
everywhere, AT&T is introducing a dedicated messaging device:
http://news.com.com/AT38+Wireless+unveils+messaging-only+handheld/2100-1039_3-5383368.html
New
optical storage technology will soon allow you to put a terabyte
(that's
1000GB) of information on a DVD-sized disk:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996447
Copy
us in on the good stuff ;-)
Matthew Dattilo
www.thepcgurus.com
Do you have PostIt notes stuck on your monitor? Did you write something important on a scrap of paper and forget where you put it?
Why not just jot a note and
leave it on your PC’s desktop? You
can do that with StickIt, an unpretentious little
program that lets you place notes on your desktop so you'll be sure to remember
appointments and to-do items. The notes will stay where you left them, even
after you reboot your computer. You can select from a wide range of backgrounds;
and as you might expect, you can place the notes anywhere on your desktop. It’s free: http://www.singerscreations.com/AboutStickIt.asp.
Subscribers’ Bonus site: http://www.infinitecat.com/infinite/cat1.html
Art
Maley
I’ve warned of “phishing
expeditions” before, meaning email messages purporting to be from banks and
auction sites that attempt to trick you into divulging your account
information. These things are
flying around the web more frequently than ever and I wanted to pass along a
couple I got just yesterday.
Directed at CitiBank
customers:
“Recently there have been a
large number of identity theft attempts targeting CitiBank customers. In order to safeguard your account, we
require that you confirm your banking details.
This process is mandatory,
and if not completed in the nearest time your account may be subject to
temporary suspension.”
Directed at Citizen’s Bank
customers:
“Technical services of the
Bank are carrying out a planned software upgrade. We earnestly ask you to visit the
following link to start the procedure of confirmation of customers’
data:”
Both of these emails were in
HTML format and clicking anywhere in the body of the message takes you to the
bogus website. The Citizen’s Bank
link goes to a URL run through China United Telecommunications Corporation. The CitiBank link goes to The
Netherlands.
Both sites look exactly like
the original pages and even spoof the text URL displayed in the Address field of
the browser, but once you put in your login information your accounts are pretty
much toast.
No reputable company will
EVER ask for you to confirm any data via an email message. Ignore these messages or, even better;
forward them as attachments to reportphishing@antiphishing.org.
Naturally, being a national television program available in 50 million homes pretty much guarantees that it will work for them, especially given one of the officials from the site was featured in a live phone conversation on air this week.
Personally I wonder if this
actually works for average users and, with our sub-5000 subscriber list, I think
we would be “under the radar” enough to be considered average users. Therefore I propose a
test.
I’ll ask five of my friends
to help me by participating and if any readers either want to try for one of the
players or just want to help out by participating, send me an email. I’ll try to match readers wanting the
iPods with those just wanting to help in the experiment and contact each of you
individually to let you know what emails to list as contacts or which email to
watch for as the person trying to get the free
player.
Keep me updated on your
success and, if everything works I’ll post the URL of the site. Regardless, I’ll report back in a few
weeks on my own progress.
Q: Hash, are you saying that something like
Roxio isn't necessary even
though it came with my computer? Do you mean
in the newsletter that I
could bypass the whole thing and put something on a
CD just using XP?
A: Yes, that is exactly
what I was saying in the newsletter. You don't
need additional software
like Roxio to burn items on a CD in Win XP.
Insert a blank CD in the
drive. Go to My Computer or Windows Explorer.
Double Click on the CD
Drive icon. Drag and drop or Copy/Paste the
items to the CD Drive. Under the CD Tasks you will see "Write
Files to CD". Click on that and it will burn your CD.
Try it.
It's easier to do than to explain. If you need step-by-step
direction,
in XP just click on START - Help and Support and type in
"Write files to
CD" in the search box. It will give you the directions.
Hash
hash@ucanweb.com
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