| by Scott Kilroy

Increase Your Linux Experience 10 Folds with These Distros Sample

The moment an individual hears the word ‘Linux’, his mind starts thinking about the codes and complexities. Are you also one of these? If yes, then the time has come to bust the myth. Gone are the days when Linux was traditionally used just by the code…

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| by Scott Kilroy

What You Need To Know About Linux

The first acquaintance with Linux is not always successful. Beginners are scared away by the fact that this operating system has thousands of modifications.Therefore, it is confusing and inconvenient to use. There is a lot of information available onli…

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| by Arround The Web

Top Open Source Video Players for Linux

Wondering which video player you should use on Linux? Here’s a list of top open source video players available for Linux distributions.

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| by Scott Kilroy

Special offer for Linux Notes from DarkDuck readers

Do you know where you spend your next holidays?If you have not decided yet, or if you want to change your plans, Linux notes from DarkDuck has a great offer for you.Cyprus is a small island in the Mediterranean which you can enjoy all year round. …

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| by Scott Kilroy

How to map network drive on Ubuntu 9.04/9.10

This tutorial expalins how to map a network drive in ubuntu 9.04/9.10.This is very useful if you are trying to map your windows machine/another linux machine drive on to your system. (…)Read the rest of How to map network drive on Ubuntu 9.04/9.10 (225 words) © ruchi for Ubuntu Geek, 2019. | Permalink | No […]

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| by Scott Kilroy

Mate-Optimus – MATE Desktop applet for controlling NVIDIA Optimus graphics cards

NVIDIA© Optimus(TM) technology intelligently optimizes your notebook PC, providing the outstanding graphics performance you need, when you need it, all the while extending battery life for longer enjoyment. (…)Read the rest of Mate-Optimus – MATE Desktop applet for controlling NVIDIA Optimus graphics cards (56 words) © ruchi for Ubuntu Geek, 2019. | Permalink | No […]

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| by Scott Kilroy

5 of the Best Linux Writing Tools

Writing is not an easy task, and therefore any assistance provided by a useful app can be very much appreciated, and even totally relied upon. The apps included here needed to satisfy only three criteria to make it to this list: they had to be compatib…

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| by Scott Kilroy

How To Share Files Anonymously And Securely: Linux Alternatives to Google Drive

The ability to share files regardless of the physical distance and almost instantaneously is one of the greatest characteristics of the Internet. With 4.3 billion Internet users at the beginning of 2019, the amount of data transferred over the Web is a…

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| by Scott Kilroy

A Collection Of The Ultimate Web Browsers For Ubuntu

Web browsers are vital if you’re going to have any sort of online experience on your computer. There are hundreds of choices out there, as well as the standard browser which will come pre-installed on your computer, but that’s often not the best choice…

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| by Scott Kilroy

Install Leafpad on Ubuntu 19.04

Leafpad is an open source text editor for Linux, BSD, and Maemo. Created with the focus of being a lightweight text editor with minimal dependencies, it is designed to be simple and easy-to-compile. Leafpad is the default text editor for LXDE Desktop environment. (…)Read the rest of Install Leafpad on Ubuntu 19.04 (108 words) © […]

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| by Scott Kilroy

Linux productivity: Why it’s needed and the top 10 apps

People choose Linux for a variety of reasons, be it as hobby machines, trying out new things, or due to professional requirements. It’s becoming easier than ever to use a Linux OS, with positive news coming out every day, such as Chromebooks being able…

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| by Scott Kilroy

Intro to Git

If you’re new to Git checkout https://www.linuxtechi.com/learn-git-command-examples-linux-part-1/ it’s a good starting point.

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| by Scott Kilroy

Upgrading ubuntu 18.10 to ubuntu 19.04

Ubuntu 19.04 will be supported for 9 months until January 2020. If you need Long Term Support, it is recommended you use Ubuntu 18.04 LTS instead. (…)Read the rest of Upgrading ubuntu 18.10 to ubuntu 19.04 (249 words) © ruchi for Ubuntu Geek, 2019. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: […]

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| by Scott Kilroy

10 Reasons To Change Windows For Linux In 2019

Probably many have already heard about the growing opposition of these two operating systems. The most popular Windows is gradually losing ground in the face of free software — GNU / Linux. Is this justified? Of course, I am not talking about the redis…

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| by Scott Kilroy

Getting copy and paste to work in vncserver

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| by Scott Kilroy

Stop image hotlinking on NGINX

If you think it’s possible that someone is linking to images hosted on your site add the following to you nginx config file # Stop deep linking or hot linking location /images/ { valid_referers none blocked www.linuxconsultant.org linuxconsultant.org; if ($invalid_referer) { return 403; } } Or if you want to be a wiseguy and replace the hotlinked image with something else # Stop deep linking or hot linking location /images/ { valid_referers none blocked www.linuxconsultant.org linuxconsultant.org; if ($invalid_referer) { return […]

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| by Scott Kilroy

Linux For A Slow Laptop

Image by slgckgcThere are old laptops in each house that can no longer function fully. Using standard operating systems, for example, Windows or Linux becomes almost impossible. However, you can still use the old laptop effectively.Now many distri…

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| by Arround The Web

New Fedora package: ntfs-3g-system-compression

If you have a Windows 10 installation, you might not be able to read all files on its NTFS partition. Under certain conditions, Microsoft compresses system files with new compression algorithms which the ntfs-3g driver can’t currently read. Files are displayed with question marks when listed using ls, and you’ll see Input/output error or unsupported … Continue reading New Fedora package: ntfs-3g-system-compression

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| by Scott Kilroy

Addressing Security Issues on Linux Home Computers

Linux is known for being a safe and secure operating system, but it’s not impervious to attacks. As Linux gains more market share and becomes an option that large companies choose for their systems, malware creators turn their attention to creating cod…

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| by Scott Kilroy

9 Best Linux-Based Security Tools

Information security specialists and sysadmins need to be sure their networks are sealed against malicious attacks. This is why the practice of penetration testing is commonly employed, to sniff out security vulnerabilities before malicious hackers. Home Linux users should also be wary about the security of their systems. There are a huge variety of tools for accomplishing this, but some stand out in the industry more than others.

In this article, we are going to highlight 9 of the best Linux-based security tools, which every pentester should be familiar with. Note this is only a list of some of the most widely used tools – if you’re interested in the latest security news, you can regularly read this website, which covers a lot of great infosec topics. Most of the tools on this list are also bundled with Kali Linux (specially designed for information security professionals, but not for home users or Linux newbies), but you can check out this literally massive list of all things related to hardware, security, programming, and other computer-related fields of interest to infosec people.


Nmap

Nmap is one of the most popular tools for network mapping. You can discover active hosts within a network, and a wide range of other detection features. Nmap has functions for host discovery, port scanning, OS detection, app versions, and other scripting interactions.

Nmap is great for both beginners and veterans alike, and is compatible with a wide range of operating systems, including most of the popular Linux distros.

UnicornScan

Unicornscan is an infosec tool used for data correlation and information gathering. Basically, it offers complex, asynchronous TCP and UDP scanning, which is useful for finding remote hosts. Furthermore, it can reveal the software driving the hosts.

Unicornscan also features TCP banner detection, custom data sets, SQL relationship output, and a handful of other functions useful to the cause.

Fierce

While similar in function to Nmap and Unicornscan, Fierce is more useful for corporate network scanning. As a network mapper and port scanner, Fierce is able to discover non-contiguous IP space, and hostnames on the network.

Fierce can be used to employ tests against a selected domain, allowing you to garner valuable information. It has the ability to change DNS servers for reverse lookups, can scan entire IP ranges and Class C scans, as well as brute force attack methods with custom dictionaries.

THC Hydra

An explicit brute force hacking tool, THC Hydra is used for brute force cracking remote authentication services. It supports over 50 protocols, including CVS, FTP, HTTP/S, IMAP, IRC, LDAP, MS-SQL, and obviously many more. As an infosec tool, it is incredibly useful for testing network password security – though of course, it is a favourite of blackhat hackers as well.

THC Hydra can launch parallel brute force attacks, and is considered one of the fastest tools for the job. It also supports custom modules, and is available for a wide range of operating systems.

John the Ripper

As a multi-platform cryptography testing tool, John the Ripper allows sysadmins to simulate brute force attacks on a network. Its main strength is in its ability to test encryptions such as SHA-1, DES, Windows LM hashes, and many others commonly found on Unix systems.

John the Ripper will also automatically change decryption methods, depending on the algorithms it detects. Aside from dictionary-based brute force attacks, the tool can also allow you to define custom letters, run automatically with crons, and it is compatible with most operating systems and architectures.

Kismet Wireless

A tool for analyzing and sniffing wireless LAN networks, as well as intrusion detection. Kismet Wireless is compatible with nearly all types of network cards, and the sniffing mode can work on 802.11a/b/g/n.

It can scan for wireless encryption levels on any given AP, allows for channel hopping, and has a network logging feature. Additionally, the tool can run natively on Windows, Linux, and various BSD systems.

Metasploit Framework

Infosec specialists familiar with the Ruby programming language should highly appreciate Metasploit Framework, being a Ruby-based tool. It is used for the development and execution of exploit attacks against remote targets. It’s also extremely powerful with a ton of features.

Metasploit Framework is able to evade detection on remote hosts, for starters. Secondly, it has network enumeration and discovery, can work from an MFSconsole, and scrape data. It is available for Windows and Linux.

Netcat

As a network exploration tool, Netcat is fairly popular in the infosec and sysadmin industries. It’s primary function is for checking inbound / outbound network data, as well as port exploration. This sounds simple, but its potential is unlocked when used in combination with Perl, C, and bash scripts.

Netcat features TCP/UDP port analysis, reverse and forward DNS analysis, a UDP/TCP tunneling mode, and more. There are also forks of the tool which have additional features, for example OpenBSD Netcat, which has TLS support.

OpenVAS

From the same development team that wrote the famous Nessus tool, OpenVAS is a fairly powerful pentest tool. It’s more like a toolbox, rather than an individual tool. It comes with over 50 network vulnerability tests, and you can write your own security plugins to the platform. Basically, it can scan anything you can dream of related to network vulnerabilities.

Some of OpenVAS primary features include simultaneous host discovery, full integration with SQL databases, results exporting in various formats, and the OpenVAS Transfer Protocol. It is available for Linux and Windows.


This post is written by Robert Dale

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