The 1 thing that’s missing in 2FA

Wikipedia, Twitter, GitHub, Trello, …
Hundreds, if not thousands of websites require multi-factor authentication, or at least offer it as a complementary security measure.

WordPress, Roundcube, Kanboard, Nextcloud, …
Hundreds, if not thousands of web applications offer multi-factor authentication by default or as a module/plugin.

And yet, there is one thing that none of all these 2FA developers/implementors have thought of. And since I don’t have the time, nor the desire, to submit a bug report for each of these thousands of applications and websites, I’m just going to say it here. Kudos to all developers who read this, realize that I’m right, and implement this.

IF AND WHEN SOMEONE REACHES MY 2FA FORM AND CANNOT COMPLETE IT, I WANT TO BE NOTIFIED!

If someone reaches the 2FA form, this means that they have correctly entered my password.
If someone cannot complete the 2FA form, this means that they probably do not have my phone or 2FA device.
So it is very probable that someone who cannot complete the 2FA challenge IS NOT ME.
This means that someone who is not me has managed to correctly enter my password.

This means that very probably my password has been compromised, and I must change it. NOW!

So, if the above is too much text for you, let me summarize below:

IF SOMEONE CANNOT COMPLETE MY 2FA CHALLENGE,
THEY HAVE PROBABLY ALREADY COMPROMISED MY PASSWORD,
AND I NEED TO KNOW ASAP!

And actually, I’d even prefer to know if they reach the 2FA form and don’t try to complete the challenge. Because if I want to log in, I go all the way, and I don’t abandon between password and 2FA.

Check the ACL!

I just shot myself in the foot using Access Control Lists.

# ls -l ./somefile.txt
-rw-r-----+  1 root  www  893  Apr 4 00:44 ./somefile.txt
# getfacl ./somefile.txt
user::rw-
user:www:--x  # effective: ---
group::r-x    # effective: r--
mask::r--
other::---

In the above example, the file inherited the default ACL from the parent directory.

I’m not even going to tell you how long it took me to figure out why the web server couldn’t access the file…

If you can’t find it: check those ACL!

And if you want to drive your colleague crazy:

# setfacl -m u:george:--- /some/random/commonly/used/file

PF cheatsheet

Cheatsheet for the PF firewall (*BSD, macOS/iOS, Solaris, QNX/BlackBerry).

Read More

Reprocess mbox file

Say you’ve found an mbox file somewhere, and you’d like Postfix to reprocess the messages it contains, to have them imported into your regular mailbox.

Then you may want to copy this script:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

# Script to reprocess an mbox file.

################################################################################
#
# Copyright (c) 2021 Rob LA LAU <https://www.ohreally.nl/>
#
# Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
# modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
#
# 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
# this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
#
# 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
# this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
# and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
#
# 3. Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors
# may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
# without specific prior written permission.
#
# THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
# AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
# IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
# DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
# FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
# DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
# SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
# CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
# OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
# OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
#
################################################################################

import mailbox, os, subprocess, sys

if len(sys.argv) < 3:
	print('Usage:')
	print('  %s recipient@example.com /path/to/mbox/file' % sys.argv[0])
	sys.exit(1)

recipient = sys.argv[1]
mbox = sys.argv[2]
if not os.access(mbox, os.R_OK):
	print('mbox file is not accessible')
	sys.exit(1)

for message in mailbox.mbox(mbox):
	proc = subprocess.Popen(
		['sendmail', '-i', recipient],
		stdin = subprocess.PIPE,
		text = True
	)
	proc.communicate(message.as_string())

Save that script as ~/bin/resend_mbox.py, make it executable, and execute it as follows:

# ~/bin/resend_mbox.py george@example.com /var/mail/root

Obviously, you replace george@example.com with your own email address (don’t spam poor George, please), and /var/mail/root with the path to your mbox file.

JWPlayer errors

Error Code 224002: This video file cannot be played

Error Code 224003: This video file cannot be played

Error Code 232011: This video file cannot be played

A few of the more common web video player errors, but they tell you nothing.

If you search the internet for these errors, all you find are generic bullshit ‘solutions’: clear cache, disable all extensions, disable hardware acceleration, etc. So, here’s the actual list of JWPlayer error codes: Player errors reference. Get you some real answers.

By the way, the meaning of the above errors:

• Failed to decode the associated resource (224002),
• Failed to play the associated resource because it is not supported by this browser (224003), and
• A manifest request was made without proper crossdomain credentials (232011)
  (The manifest is a file that contains the URLs for the various segments that make up the entire video.)

What it comes down to, is that JWPlayer just sucks a lot, especially if you use a proxy. Let’s hope that with the growing acceptance of HTML5, with built-in video support, projects like this will go the same way Flash players did.

Counting annotations in a PDF

Suppose that you wrote a book, and your publisher sent you a PDF of the final proof to review and correct, before the book is printed. Then you may want to know how many notes you’ve added to the document when you’re done.

$ env LC_CTYPE=C tr -d '\000-\011\013\014\016-\037' < FILENAME.pdf | grep -E '^<</Type /Annot /Rect \[[0-9\. ]+\] /Subtype /Text' | wc -l

It’s that simple…

And if you’d like to know how many terms you highlighted, all you have to do is replace /Text with /Highlight.

$ env LC_CTYPE=C tr -d '\000-\011\013\014\016-\037' < FILENAME.pdf | grep -E '^<</Type /Annot /Rect \[[0-9\. ]+\] /Subtype /Highlight' | wc -l

Inline notes are of subtype /FreeText.

And to count all your annotations, regardless of type, just delete the subtype altogether.

$ env LC_CTYPE=C tr -d '\000-\011\013\014\016-\037' < FILENAME.pdf | grep -E '^<</Type /Annot' | wc -l

Open your PDF in less to see what other interesting things you could do with grep; pipe the file through tr to get rid of the control characters.

$ env LC_CTYPE=C tr -d '\000-\011\013\014\016-\037' < FILENAME.pdf | less

FreeBSD jails: a complete example

FreeBSD jails are a great way to separate and compartmentalize processes, which enhances the security of your system. A jail is an enhanced chroot: it prevents an attacker who manages to compromise a service from gaining access to the rest of the system.

This post documents the setup of 2 jails that serve data to the outside world, and communicate between each other (through a Unix Domain Socket, not a TCP socket).

Read More