December 2012 - Roundtable

What do you think of this book?
by Kevin McGregor 12 Dec '12

12 Dec '12

At work there's a copy of the second edition of SAMS' "Maximum Security". ( http://www.amazon.com/Maximum-Security-Anonymous/dp/0672313413) Is there any value in this book? Or should I just let it get recycled?

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Check available entropy in Linux
by Bill Reid 12 Dec '12

12 Dec '12

http://rackerhacker.com/2007/07/01/check-available-entropy-in-linux/

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system loses time
by Trevor Cordes 12 Dec '12

12 Dec '12

I have another system (not the same one with RTC problems). It loses about 1s every 1m in system time!! ntp is running, configured the same way I have 20 other boxes that work just fine. Right now the system thinks it's 6:38pm when the actual time is 20:14pm. It lost that much time since I last ntpdate'd Dec 7! ntpq shows some weird values: #ntpq ntpq> lpeers remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset jitter ============================================================================== ntp1.sscgateway 209.87.233.53 3 u 5 64 377 46.645 5757133 6180.03 time.netspectru 132.246.11.228 3 u 62 64 377 40.248 5755927 6235.07 backup.relay.mt 132.246.11.227 3 u 14 64 377 40.161 5756937 6165.72 74.3.161.36 140.142.16.34 2 u 46 64 377 49.971 5756303 6236.14 However, the above indicates ntp is finding peers that it can sync with. The last message in /v/l/m about ntp is from the restart: Dec 7 14:38:32 firewall ntpd[25512]: peers refreshed Dec 7 14:38:32 firewall ntpd[25512]: Listening on routing socket on fd #26 for interface updates Dec 7 14:38:33 firewall ntpd[25512]: format error frequency file /var/lib/ntp/drift Dec 7 14:38:33 firewall ntpd[25512]: 0.0.0.0 c016 06 restart Dec 7 14:38:33 firewall ntpd[25512]: 0.0.0.0 c012 02 freq_set kernel 0.000 PPM Dec 7 14:38:33 firewall ntpd[25512]: 0.0.0.0 c011 01 freq_not_set Dec 7 14:38:39 firewall ntpd[25512]: 0.0.0.0 c61c 0c clock_step +5.921205 s Dec 7 14:38:45 firewall ntpd[25512]: 0.0.0.0 c614 04 freq_mode Dec 7 14:38:46 firewall ntpd[25512]: 0.0.0.0 c618 08 no_sys_peer Dec 7 14:42:07 firewall ntpd[25512]: 0.0.0.0 c628 08 no_sys_peer This seems to match up with what my other systems look like. Though the kernel 0.000 PPM is a bit weird. no_sys_peer seems entirely normal though it sounds bad. I also don't get why ntp isn't barfing out like it normally does after it goes out more than 1000s. Any ideas on a) fixes for this board losing time, and b) having ntp do what it's supposed to. I have wiped out the /v/l/ntp/drift file as a precaution that maybe the drift was wrong (it was leftover from a previous board). Ntp doesn't seem to be updating this file anymore, and I have verified it's ntp:ntp 644. In all my years I've never seen such a chronically chronologically challenged chronometer.

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by Gilbert E. Detillieux 12 Dec '12

12 Dec '12

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by Gilbert E. Detillieux 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

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Re: [RndTbl] ssh's dying
by Michael Sierks 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

I haven't experienced this issue and I have been running on 3.X kernels for probably a year or over. Whenever they were first released though I am not running Fedora. Trevor Cordes <trevor(a)tecnopolis.ca> wrote: >On another 3.x bug note, after upgrading most of my systems to 3.x kernels >(and distros), I've noticed that the rate of dropping ssh connections has >gone through the roof. Actually, they aren't dropping, they are freezing! >Keypresses aren't being echoed and the only thing I can do is escape with >~. to manually kill ssh. > >With normally 20 always-open ssh sessions to 20 different comps, I'm >probably losing 1-3 a night. Normally (pre 3.x, pre-Fedora 16) I'd lose >maybe 1-3 a week, and they'd die, not freeze. > >The ssh is: >openssh-5.8p2-25.fc16.i686 >kernel-3.6.6-1.fc16.i686 > >Anyone else seen this with a 3.x kernel? Any workarounds, perhaps with >keep-alives I should check? My iptables are all setup to strictly try to >keep ssh's alive at all costs. >_______________________________________________ >Roundtable mailing list >Roundtable(a)muug.mb.ca >http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable

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ssh's dying
by Trevor Cordes 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

On another 3.x bug note, after upgrading most of my systems to 3.x kernels (and distros), I've noticed that the rate of dropping ssh connections has gone through the roof. Actually, they aren't dropping, they are freezing! Keypresses aren't being echoed and the only thing I can do is escape with ~. to manually kill ssh. With normally 20 always-open ssh sessions to 20 different comps, I'm probably losing 1-3 a night. Normally (pre 3.x, pre-Fedora 16) I'd lose maybe 1-3 a week, and they'd die, not freeze. The ssh is: openssh-5.8p2-25.fc16.i686 kernel-3.6.6-1.fc16.i686 Anyone else seen this with a 3.x kernel? Any workarounds, perhaps with keep-alives I should check? My iptables are all setup to strictly try to keep ssh's alive at all costs.

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pertec
by Adrian Stoness 06 Dec '12

06 Dec '12

hi random but aww does anyone here have a pertec tape drive spare? looking for one to play around with. i have a controller i would like to play around and learn how to use i'm a random DEC inthusist who feels like hes the only one on the parries from what i can tell and may have an old copy of unix on rl02 disk pac thought might be rsx11m+ or something simlar not sure my 11/03 is accting up also a member of skullspace and i can't spell worth a dam

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Shaw DHCP weirdness or attack?
by Trevor Cordes 05 Dec '12

05 Dec '12

Starting Nov 29 04:16:10 I start seeing a new error in my /v/l/messages from dhclient (the DHCP client for my Shaw internet connection): Nov 29 04:16:10 pog dhclient[1271]: parse_option_buffer: malformed option dhcp.fqdn (code 81): option length exceeds option buffer length. And it repeats every 30-39s for hours, then sometimes stops for a while. Sometimes skips a day but then starts up again. Is someone trying a known DHCP buffer overflow attack on my Shaw segment or is this something legit that Shaw is passing out that linux doesn't understand? I know what fqdn means, though why it should exceed buffer limits is beyond me. Can others check their logs and see if they're getting this too? There was 1 other weird dhclient error before this started: Nov 27 06:52:55 pog dhclient[1271]: parse_option_buffer: malformed option dhcp.uap-servers (code 98): option length exceeds option buffer length.

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ATX power supply
by Kevin McGregor 05 Dec '12

05 Dec '12

Does anyone have a spare ATX power supply? Mine seems to have a problem. Specifically, when I run the CPUID Hardware Monitor, it reports these voltages: [image: Inline image 1] The numbers for -12V concern me. :-) The columns are Current/Min/Max, respectively. So if you have a power supply that's taking up space that you'd like to reclaim, please let me know and bring it to the next MUUG meeting. As it happens, I'll be bringing some valuable (I hope) hardware items to the meeting as free giveaways. I sure hope there are some takers! Kevin P.S. If the image inserted above doesn't show up due to filtering en route, the -12V reading is around -6.21V. I'm using the system as we speak, so I guess the -12V line doesn't do much that I regularly rely on, though I have experienced some system oddness lately which may well be explained by this.

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