hardware, Politics, Soapbox, Software, technology

I hope everyone is having a Super Tuesday!

March 3, 2020March 21, 2020 | be3n

I got out to vote a little later than i hoped and encountered a longer line than i have ever before (at least from voting). Only 55 minutes, nothing like some lines i have heard about. I got to play with the new electronic voting system. “It’s not connected to the internet” was the response that i received when inquiring into the device security. I have high confidence of the paper trail on these units, but I imagine that these machines do some sort of tabulation. Unless we actually count the paper ballets, it is those tabulations that we are expected to trust. These tabulation are trivial to manipulate if the devices are tampered with. “Don’t worry, it’s offline” dissuades none of these fears. Here are some pictures i took. Not pictured are the 2 broken units that were taped off at my precinct. Also, i was told that they should not have allowed me to take these pictures. i don’t know if that is true, but they did not seem to mind at the time. (i wasn’t wearing that shirt at the time)

super tuesday - electronic voting - bernie

hardware, Soapbox, Software, technology

Finally retiring my last legacy windows box!

February 7, 2020March 21, 2020 | be3n

This particular ancient server has stood as the glue holding several ancient record keeping systems together. Today marks the last day that it was operating. I supported this computer for almost it’s entire lifespan. This Dell ran consistently for over 10 years with very little trouble. Now your watch is over.

I have been retiring or upgrading unsupported systems all year. it’s to know that all the critical systems are up to date. Let this be yet another warning if you are running Windows XP, Vista, 7, or 2008 Server (or anything earlier), you should upgrade immediately if you are online in any capacity. Same goes for macs older then 10.13 (High Sierra). Seriously, don’t let it become a problem.

Status update:

Data Transfer - Home Stretch

After almost 10 days of non-stop transferring, we have finally (almost) reached the bottom. This makes it almost 16TB transferred. It is almost time to plug the Drobo into the Synology and start using that 16TB volume as a backup!

Status update:

My ancient Drobo array is only maintaining 25MB/sec transfer while still operating in its usual capacity. I had estimated that i’d see rates as low as 35MB/sec. This is only one folder and it alone will take 2 days to transfer. See you on the other side.

iPhone, Security, Software, technology, Web

New security updates overtake jailbreak advantages.

March 30, 2019April 1, 2019 | be3n

There are just so many privilege escalation fixes in the latest iOS 12.2 update. I finally removed the jailbreak from my primary device and updated. Privilege escalation is when an unprivileged or user process (like an app from the app store or even a web page*) gets root or even kernel authority. This is when bad turns to worse because it can do and see anything with any of the device’s data or sensors. Since even the big trusted apps have been caught tracking or stealing data, I simply couldn’t leave myself unprotected any longer.

I’ll still of course keep a development device jailbroken on 12.1.2 for all of the reasons. It was a wonderful experience, only slightly beta. I appreciate all the hard work by everyone in the scene. I think i am going hate seeing the home bar again the most.

* web pages are often sandboxed separately from the app itself. Some might argue that a webpage would first have to escape the sandbox before it could escalate privileges. this is true, but i would respond that sandbox escape is just another form of privilege escalation, only one level down. There are also over a dozen webkit fixes in this update.

hardware, iPhone, Software, technology

Open source artisanal iOS Jailbreak released using only grass fed locally sourced exploits.

February 26, 2019April 22, 2025 | be3n

A long time in the works, this is the first completely open source jailbreak to be released for an almost current version of iOS (11-12.1.2). This is an interesting jailbreak. It is semi-tethered, but unlike previous jailbreaks, this can at least be untethered from the device itself. Using Cydia Impactor, you can side load the unc0ver app and install the jailbreak directly from the app. it also allow the easy rejailbreak upon reboot or battery drain. Great work all around despite the remaining bugs and instability (it is still beta. Huge thanks to the efforts of @pwn20wnd and @sbingner). To be honest, there are very few tweaks and apps that are ready for iOS 12, but i am excited to see the tradition of jailbreaking continue. I have cydia again! For the first tine since I closed down my own cydia repo. C’mon developers, do you thing!

In truth, i never got it going on my phone, only my iPad. I get a crash on my phone immediately after this dialogue comes up. It took a few passes to get a picture (this one extracted from a screen record). Not sure exactly what went wrong, but “Unexported kernel task port” is my best clue. With my phone cashing as soon as it becomes untethered, i am never actually able to run Cydia. On my iPad, instead of rebooting, it resprings. either way, it is very hard to read the final message.

UPDATE: This problem was resolved in b38.

revolution, technology

6 Years ago today I mined my only bitcoin block!

January 5, 2019January 4, 2019 | be3n

I am working to preserve the Radeon 5770 that did it. Eventually it’s destined for a shadow box hanging on the wall. I mined the block just after the network halving of payouts so it worked out that I was pooled with thousands of other miners. sometimes I miss slushpool.

Original Post

hardware, Software, technology

My laptop is dead. long live my laptop…

January 3, 2019January 4, 2019 | be3n

I am restoring my laptop to an iMac temporarily because I need it’s data and I don’t trust my backup being the only place that information exists. hopefully i’ll have this all resolved next week.

art, Culture, hardware, Internet, Raspberry Pi, Recreation, retro, revolution, Science, Security, Software, technology, Travel, Wi-Fi

Back to reality after another amazing DEFCON!

August 15, 2018August 15, 2018 | be3n

I met a pile of incredible people. Bought some amazing toys (for science), some i’ve even got working. Saw some talks and demos. Talked to some of my heroes and listened to even more. I saw Ladar Levison talk about epoxying your ports and adding thermite to your hard drives. I played with the ECU of a fake car! now i just have finish building the DarkNet Badge! enjoy my pictures. The hat data is still being analyzed. I’ll try to build something out of it eventually.