Search Results

Search found 1287 results on 52 pages for 'eric davidson'.

Page 3/52 | < Previous Page | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12  | Next Page >

• Looking for a short book on C# 2010 for experienced programmers

  - by Gaz Davidson

  Hi I'm an experienced programmer (C++, Java, Python, C, Objective-C, and others) and need to take a crash course in C# for my current job. I've never done any C# programming before though have read a bit about the syntax etc, I'm looking for a guide that quickly introduces advanced topics so I can get a handle on the language and begin hacking ASAP. Does anyone know of such a book? Amazon and Google are drawing a blank. Thanks in advance!

  Read the article

• JavaOne 2012 session slides: "Dev Berkeley DB & DB Mobile Server for Java Embedded Tech"

  - by hinkmond

  The latest JavaOne 2012 slides are available on the Web. Here's the presentation that Eric Jensen and I did on "Developing Berkeley DB & DB Mobile Server for Java Embedded Technology". Enjoy! See: Click here for the slides in a new window It was fun to present this talk at JavaOne 2012 with Eric. We had some good questions from the audience. Let me know in the Comments if you have any further questions. I'll pass all the good questions to Eric and keep the bad questions for myself. Hinkmond

  Read the article

• DBA in Space

  - by Neil Davidson

  Every now and then, you come across an idea that makes your heart jump and your skin tingle. That happened to me a few months ago, when Richard and Anthony pitched a small group of us an idea. "It's called DBA in Space", Richard said. I don't remember the rest of the pitch. "DBA in Space" is one of those phrases that's so simple, remarkable and clear that it sticks and it sticks hard. Sure, lots of people have done much hard, gritty work over the past few months to make it happen. Sure, there's...(read more)

  Read the article

• Good DBAs Do Baselines

  - by Louis Davidson

  One morning, you wake up and feel funny. You can’t quite put your finger on it, but something isn’t quite right. What now? Unless you happen to be a hypochondriac, you likely drag yourself out of bed, get on with the day and gather more “evidence”. You check your symptoms over the next few days; do you feel the same, better, worse? If better, then great, it was some temporal issue, perhaps caused by an allergic reaction to some suspiciously spicy chicken. If the same or worse then you go to the doctor for some health advice, but armed with some data to share, and having ruled out certain possible causes that are fixed with a bit of rest and perhaps an antacid. Whether you realize it or not, in comparing how you feel one day to the next, you have taken baseline measurements. In much the same way, a DBA uses baselines to gauge the gauge health of their database servers. Of course, while SQL Server is very willing to share data regarding its health and activities, it has almost no idea of the difference between good and bad. Over time, experienced DBAs develop “mental” baselines with which they can gauge the health of their servers almost as easily as their own body. They accumulate knowledge of the daily, natural state of each part of their database system, and so know instinctively when one of their databases “feels funny”. Equally, they know when an “issue” is just a passing tremor. They see their SQL Server with all of its four CPU cores running close 100% and don’t panic anymore. Why? It’s 5PM and every day the same thing occurs when the end-of-day reports, which are very CPU intensive, are running. Equally, they know when they need to respond in earnest when it is the first time they have heard about an issue, even if it has been happening every day. Nevertheless, no DBA can retain mental baselines for every characteristic of their systems, so we need to collect physical baselines too. In my experience, surprisingly few DBAs do this very well. Part of the problem is that SQL Server provides a lot of instrumentation. If you look, you will find an almost overwhelming amount of data regarding user activity on your SQL Server instances, and use and abuse of the available CPU, I/O and memory. It seems like a huge task even to work out which data you need to collect, let alone start collecting it on a regular basis, managing its storage over time, and performing detailed comparative analysis. However, without baselines, though, it is very difficult to pinpoint what ails a server, just by looking at a single snapshot of the data, or to spot retrospectively what caused the problem by examining aggregated data for the server, collected over many months. It isn’t as hard as you think to get started. You’ve probably already established some troubleshooting queries of the type SELECT Value FROM SomeSystemTableOrView. Capturing a set of baseline values for such a query can be as easy as changing it as follows: INSERT into BaseLine.SomeSystemTable (value, captureTime) SELECT Value, SYSDATETIME() FROM SomeSystemTableOrView; Of course, there are monitoring tools that will collect and manage this baseline data for you, automatically, and allow you to perform comparison of metrics over different periods. However, to get yourself started and to prove to yourself (or perhaps the person who writes the checks for tools) the value of baselines, stick something similar to the above query into an agent job, running every hour or so, and you are on your way with no excuses! Then, the next time you investigate a slow server, and see x open transactions, y users logged in, and z rows added per hour in the Orders table, compare to your baselines and see immediately what, if anything, has changed!

  Read the article

• What Counts For a DBA: Fitness

  - by Louis Davidson

  If you know me, you can probably guess that physical exercise is not really my thing. There was a time in my past when it a larger part of my life, but even then never in the same sort of passionate way as a number of our SQL friends.  For me, I find that mental exercise satisfies what I believe to be the same inner need that drives people to run farther than I like to drive on most Saturday mornings, and it is certainly just as addictive. Mental fitness shares many common traits with physical fitness, especially the need to attain it through repetitive training. I only wish that mental training burned off a bacon cheeseburger in the same manner as does jogging around a dewy park on Saturday morning. In physical training, there are at least two goals, the first of which is to be physically able to do a task. The second is to train the brain to perform the task without thinking too hard about it. No matter how long it has been since you last rode a bike, you will be almost certainly be able to hop on and start riding without thinking about the process of pedaling or balancing. If you’ve never ridden a bike, you could be a physics professor /Olympic athlete and still crash the first few times you try, even though you are as strong as an ox and your knowledge of the physics of bicycle riding makes the concept child’s play. For programming tasks, the process is very similar. As a DBA, you will come to know intuitively how to backup, optimize, and secure database systems. As a data programmer, you will work to instinctively use the clauses of Transact-SQL DML so that, when you need to group data three ways (and not four), you will know to use the GROUP BY clause with GROUPING SETS without resorting to a search engine.  You have the skill. Making it naturally then requires repetition and experience is the primary requirement, not just simply learning about a topic. The hardest part of being really good at something is this difference between knowledge and skill. I have recently taken several informative training classes with Kimball University on data warehousing and ETL. Now I have a lot more knowledge about designing data warehouses than before. I have also done a good bit of data warehouse designing of late and have started to improve to some level of proficiency with the theory. Yet, for all of this head knowledge, it is still a struggle to take what I have learned and apply it to the designs I am working on.  Data warehousing is still a task that is not yet deeply ingrained in my brain muscle memory. On the other hand, relational database design is something that no matter how much or how little I may get to do it, I am comfortable doing it. I have done it as a profession now for well over a decade, I teach classes on it, and I also have done (and continue to do) a lot of mental training beyond the work day. Sometimes the training is just basic education, some reading blogs and attending sessions at PASS events.  My best training comes from spending time working on other people’s design issues in forums (though not nearly as much as I would like to lately). Working through other people’s problems is a great way to exercise your brain on problems with which you’re not immediately familiar. The final bit of exercise I find useful for cultivating mental fitness for a data professional is also probably the nerdiest thing that I will ever suggest you do.  Akin to running in place, the idea is to work through designs in your head. I have designed more than one database system that would revolutionize grocery store operations, sales at my local Target store, the ordering process at Amazon, and ways to improve Disney World operations to get me through a line faster (some of which they are starting to implement without any of my help.) Never are the designs truly fleshed out, but enough to work through structures and processes.  On “paper”, I have designed database systems to catalog things as trivial as my Lego creations, rental car companies and my audio and video collections. Once I get the database designed mentally, sometimes I will create the database, add some data (often using Red-Gate’s Data Generator), and write a few queries to see if a concept was realistic, but I will rarely fully flesh out the database since I have no desire to do any user interface programming anymore.  The mental training allows me to keep in practice for when the time comes to do the work I love the most for real…even if I have been spending most of my work time lately building data warehouses.  If you are really strong of mind and body, perhaps you can mix a mental run with a physical run; though don’t run off of a cliff while contemplating how you might design a database to catalog the trees on a mountain…that would be contradictory to the purpose of both types of exercise.

  Read the article

• What languages are the kids of today actually programming in? Does anyone have real data?

  - by Gaz Davidson

  Back in the 80s colleges were teaching Pascal because it is easy to learn, while myself and many others like me were learning BASIC because it was not only easy to learn but accessible and also fashionable (for an extremely liberal definition of fashion) It has just occurred to me that empirical data on the actual programming languages kids are choosing to use should be a good indicator of which language would be the ideal first choice for educators. Please note that this question is not "what do you think is a good programming language for kids?"

  Read the article

• What Counts For a DBA – Depth

  - by Louis Davidson

  SQL Server offers very simple interfaces to many of its features. Most people could open up SSMS, connect to a server, write a simple query and see the results. Even several of the core DBA tasks are deceptively straightforward. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to perform a basic database backup or run a trace (even using the newfangled Extended Events!). However, appearances can be deceptive, and often times it is really important that a DBA understands not just the basics of how to perform a task, but why we do a task, and how that task works. As an analogy, consider a child walking into a darkened room. Most would know that they need to turn on the light, and how to do it, so they flick the switch. But what happens if light fails to shine forth. Most would immediately tell you that you need to consider changing the light bulb. So you hop in the car and take them to the local home store and instruct them to buy a replacement. Confronted with a 40 foot display of light bulbs, how will they decide which of the hundreds of types of bulbs, of different types, fittings, shapes, colors, power and efficiency ratings, is the right choice? Obviously the main lesson the child is going to learn this day is how to use their cell phone as a flashlight so they don’t have to ask for help the next time. Likewise, when the metaphorical toddlers who use your database server have issues, they will instinctively know something is wrong, and may even have some idea what caused it, but will have no depth of knowledge to figure out the right solution. That is where the DBA comes in and attempts to save the day. However, when one looks beneath the shiny UI, SQL Server has its own “40 foot display of light bulbs”, in the form of the tremendous number of tools and the often-bewildering amount of information they can present to the DBA, to help us find issues. Unfortunately, resorting to guesswork, to trying different “bulbs” over and over, hoping to stumble on the answer. This is where the right depth of knowledge goes a long way. If we need to write a SELECT statement, then knowing the syntax and where to find the data is not enough. Knowledge of indexes and query plans is essential. Without it, we might hit on a query that “works”, but we are basically still a user, not a programmer, because we have no real control over our platform. Is that level of knowledge deep enough? Probably not, since knowledge of the underlying metadata and structures would be very useful in helping us make sense of any query plan. Understanding the structure of an index makes the “key lookup” operator not sound like what you do when someone tapes your car key to the ceiling. So is even this level of understanding deep enough? Do we need to understand the memory architecture used to process the query? It might be a comforting level of knowledge, and will doubtless come in handy at some point, but is not strictly necessary in most cases. Beyond that lies (more or less) full knowledge of SQL language and the intricacies of every step the SQL Server engine takes to process our query. My personal theory is that, as a professional, our knowledge of a given task should extend, at a minimum, one level deeper than is strictly necessary to perform the task. Anything deeper can be left to the ridiculously smart, or obsessive, or both. As an example. tasked with storing an integer value between 0 and 99999999, it’s essential that I know that choosing an Integer over Decimal(8,0) will likely offer performance benefits. It is then useful that I also understand the value of adding a CHECK constraint, to make sure the values are valid to the desired range; and comforting that I know a little about the underlying processors, registers and computer math. Anything further, I leave to the likes of Joe Chang, whose recent blog post on the topic offers depth by the bucketful!  

  Read the article

• Command does not execute in crontab while command itself works just fine

  - by fuzzybee

  I have this script from Colin Johnson on Github - https://github.com/colinbjohnson/aws-missing-tools/tree/master/ec2-automate-backup It seems great. I have modified it to send email to myself every time an EBS snapshot is created or deleted. The following works like a charm ec2-automate-backup.sh -v "vol-myvolumeid" -k 3 However, it does not execute at all as part of my crontab (I didn't receive any emails) #some command that got commented out */5 * * * * ec2-automate-backup.sh -v "vol-fb2fbcdf" -k 3; * * * * * date /root/logs/crontab.log; */5 * * * * date /root/logs/crontab2.log Please note that the 2nd and 3rd execute just fines as I can see the date and time in log files. What could I have missed here? The full ec2-automate-backup.sh is as follows: #!/bin/bash - # Author: Colin Johnson / [email protected] # Date: 2012-09-24 # Version 0.1 # License Type: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, Version 3 # #confirms that executables required for succesful script execution are available prerequisite_check() { for prerequisite in basename ec2-create-snapshot ec2-create-tags ec2-describe-snapshots ec2-delete-snapshot date do #use of "hash" chosen as it is a shell builtin and will add programs to hash table, possibly speeding execution. Use of type also considered - open to suggestions. hash $prerequisite &> /dev/null if [[ $? == 1 ]] #has exits with exit status of 70, executable was not found then echo "In order to use `basename $0`, the executable \"$prerequisite\" must be installed." 1>&2 | mailx -s "Error happened 0" [email protected] ; exit 70 fi done } #get_EBS_List gets a list of available EBS instances depending upon the selection_method of EBS selection that is provided by user input get_EBS_List() { case $selection_method in volumeid) if [[ -z $volumeid ]] then echo "The selection method \"volumeid\" (which is $app_name's default selection_method of operation or requested by using the -s volumeid parameter) requires a volumeid (-v volumeid) for operation. Correct usage is as follows: \"-v vol-6d6a0527\",\"-s volumeid -v vol-6d6a0527\" or \"-v \"vol-6d6a0527 vol-636a0112\"\" if multiple volumes are to be selected." 1>&2 | mailx -s "Error happened 1" [email protected] ; exit 64 fi ebs_selection_string="$volumeid" ;; tag) if [[ -z $tag ]] then echo "The selected selection_method \"tag\" (-s tag) requires a valid tag (-t key=value) for operation. Correct usage is as follows: \"-s tag -t backup=true\" or \"-s tag -t Name=my_tag.\"" 1>&2 | mailx -s "Error happened 2" [email protected] ; exit 64 fi ebs_selection_string="--filter tag:$tag" ;; *) echo "If you specify a selection_method (-s selection_method) for selecting EBS volumes you must select either \"volumeid\" (-s volumeid) or \"tag\" (-s tag)." 1>&2 | mailx -s "Error happened 3" [email protected] ; exit 64 ;; esac #creates a list of all ebs volumes that match the selection string from above ebs_backup_list_complete=`ec2-describe-volumes --show-empty-fields --region $region $ebs_selection_string 2>&1` #takes the output of the previous command ebs_backup_list_result=`echo $?` if [[ $ebs_backup_list_result -gt 0 ]] then echo -e "An error occured when running ec2-describe-volumes. The error returned is below:\n$ebs_backup_list_complete" 1>&2 | mailx -s "Error happened 4" [email protected] ; exit 70 fi ebs_backup_list=`echo "$ebs_backup_list_complete" | grep ^VOLUME | cut -f 2` #code to right will output list of EBS volumes to be backed up: echo -e "Now outputting ebs_backup_list:\n$ebs_backup_list" } create_EBS_Snapshot_Tags() { #snapshot tags holds all tags that need to be applied to a given snapshot - by aggregating tags we ensure that ec2-create-tags is called only onece snapshot_tags="" #if $name_tag_create is true then append ec2ab_${ebs_selected}_$date_current to the variable $snapshot_tags if $name_tag_create then ec2_snapshot_resource_id=`echo "$ec2_create_snapshot_result" | cut -f 2` snapshot_tags="$snapshot_tags --tag Name=ec2ab_${ebs_selected}_$date_current" fi #if $purge_after_days is true, then append $purge_after_date to the variable $snapshot_tags if [[ -n $purge_after_days ]] then snapshot_tags="$snapshot_tags --tag PurgeAfter=$purge_after_date --tag PurgeAllow=true" fi #if $snapshot_tags is not zero length then set the tag on the snapshot using ec2-create-tags if [[ -n $snapshot_tags ]] then echo "Tagging Snapshot $ec2_snapshot_resource_id with the following Tags:" ec2-create-tags $ec2_snapshot_resource_id --region $region $snapshot_tags #echo "Snapshot tags successfully created" | mailx -s "Snapshot tags successfully created" [email protected] fi } date_command_get() { #finds full path to date binary date_binary_full_path=`which date` #command below is used to determine if date binary is gnu, macosx or other date_binary_file_result=`file -b $date_binary_full_path` case $date_binary_file_result in "Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64") date_binary="macosx" ;; "ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV)"*) date_binary="gnu" ;; *) date_binary="unknown" ;; esac #based on the installed date binary the case statement below will determine the method to use to determine "purge_after_days" in the future case $date_binary in gnu) date_command="date -d +${purge_after_days}days -u +%Y-%m-%d" ;; macosx) date_command="date -v+${purge_after_days}d -u +%Y-%m-%d" ;; unknown) date_command="date -d +${purge_after_days}days -u +%Y-%m-%d" ;; *) date_command="date -d +${purge_after_days}days -u +%Y-%m-%d" ;; esac } purge_EBS_Snapshots() { #snapshot_tag_list is a string that contains all snapshots with either the key PurgeAllow or PurgeAfter set snapshot_tag_list=`ec2-describe-tags --show-empty-fields --region $region --filter resource-type=snapshot --filter key=PurgeAllow,PurgeAfter` #snapshot_purge_allowed is a list of all snapshot_ids with PurgeAllow=true snapshot_purge_allowed=`echo "$snapshot_tag_list" | grep .*PurgeAllow'\t'true | cut -f 3` for snapshot_id_evaluated in $snapshot_purge_allowed do #gets the "PurgeAfter" date which is in UTC with YYYY-MM-DD format (or %Y-%m-%d) purge_after_date=`echo "$snapshot_tag_list" | grep .*$snapshot_id_evaluated'\t'PurgeAfter.* | cut -f 5` #if purge_after_date is not set then we have a problem. Need to alter user. if [[ -z $purge_after_date ]] #Alerts user to the fact that a Snapshot was found with PurgeAllow=true but with no PurgeAfter date. then echo "A Snapshot with the Snapshot ID $snapshot_id_evaluated has the tag \"PurgeAllow=true\" but does not have a \"PurgeAfter=YYYY-MM-DD\" date. $app_name is unable to determine if $snapshot_id_evaluated should be purged." 1>&2 | mailx -s "Error happened 5" [email protected] else #convert both the date_current and purge_after_date into epoch time to allow for comparison date_current_epoch=`date -j -f "%Y-%m-%d" "$date_current" "+%s"` purge_after_date_epoch=`date -j -f "%Y-%m-%d" "$purge_after_date" "+%s"` #perform compparison - if $purge_after_date_epoch is a lower number than $date_current_epoch than the PurgeAfter date is earlier than the current date - and the snapshot can be safely removed if [[ $purge_after_date_epoch < $date_current_epoch ]] then echo "The snapshot \"$snapshot_id_evaluated\" with the Purge After date of $purge_after_date will be deleted." ec2-delete-snapshot --region $region $snapshot_id_evaluated echo "Old snapshots successfully deleted for $volumeid" | mailx -s "Old snapshots successfully deleted for $volumeid" [email protected] fi fi done } #calls prerequisitecheck function to ensure that all executables required for script execution are available prerequisite_check app_name=`basename $0` #sets defaults selection_method="volumeid" region="ap-southeast-1" #date_binary allows a user to set the "date" binary that is installed on their system and, therefore, the options that will be given to the date binary to perform date calculations date_binary="" #sets the "Name" tag set for a snapshot to false - using "Name" requires that ec2-create-tags be called in addition to ec2-create-snapshot name_tag_create=false #sets the Purge Snapshot feature to false - this feature will eventually allow the removal of snapshots that have a "PurgeAfter" tag that is earlier than current date purge_snapshots=false #handles options processing while getopts :s:r:v:t:k:pn opt do case $opt in s) selection_method="$OPTARG";; r) region="$OPTARG";; v) volumeid="$OPTARG";; t) tag="$OPTARG";; k) purge_after_days="$OPTARG";; n) name_tag_create=true;; p) purge_snapshots=true;; *) echo "Error with Options Input. Cause of failure is most likely that an unsupported parameter was passed or a parameter was passed without a corresponding option." 1>&2 ; exit 64;; esac done #sets date variable date_current=`date -u +%Y-%m-%d` #sets the PurgeAfter tag to the number of days that a snapshot should be retained if [[ -n $purge_after_days ]] then #if the date_binary is not set, call the date_command_get function if [[ -z $date_binary ]] then date_command_get fi purge_after_date=`$date_command` echo "Snapshots taken by $app_name will be eligible for purging after the following date: $purge_after_date." fi #get_EBS_List gets a list of EBS instances for which a snapshot is desired. The list of EBS instances depends upon the selection_method that is provided by user input get_EBS_List #the loop below is called once for each volume in $ebs_backup_list - the currently selected EBS volume is passed in as "ebs_selected" for ebs_selected in $ebs_backup_list do ec2_snapshot_description="ec2ab_${ebs_selected}_$date_current" ec2_create_snapshot_result=`ec2-create-snapshot --region $region -d $ec2_snapshot_description $ebs_selected 2>&1` if [[ $? != 0 ]] then echo -e "An error occured when running ec2-create-snapshot. The error returned is below:\n$ec2_create_snapshot_result" 1>&2 ; exit 70 else ec2_snapshot_resource_id=`echo "$ec2_create_snapshot_result" | cut -f 2` echo "Snapshots successfully created for volume $volumeid" | mailx -s "Snapshots successfully created for $volumeid" [email protected] fi create_EBS_Snapshot_Tags done #if purge_snapshots is true, then run purge_EBS_Snapshots function if $purge_snapshots then echo "Snapshot Purging is Starting Now." purge_EBS_Snapshots fi cron log Oct 23 10:24:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28214]: (root) CMD (root (ec2-automate-backup.sh -v "vol-fb2fbcdf" -k 3;)) Oct 23 10:24:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28215]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab.log;) Oct 23 10:25:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28228]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab.log;) Oct 23 10:25:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28229]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab2.log) Oct 23 10:26:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28239]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab.log;) Oct 23 10:27:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28247]: (root) CMD (root (ec2-automate-backup.sh -v "vol-fb2fbcdf" -k 3;)) Oct 23 10:27:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28248]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab.log;) Oct 23 10:28:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28263]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab.log;) Oct 23 10:29:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28275]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab.log;) Oct 23 10:30:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28292]: (root) CMD (root (ec2-automate-backup.sh -v "vol-fb2fbcdf" -k 3;)) Oct 23 10:30:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28293]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab.log;) Oct 23 10:30:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28294]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab2.log) Oct 23 10:31:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28312]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab.log;) Oct 23 10:32:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28319]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab.log;) Oct 23 10:33:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28325]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab.log;) Oct 23 10:33:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28324]: (root) CMD (root (ec2-automate-backup.sh -v "vol-fb2fbcdf" -k 3;)) Oct 23 10:34:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28345]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab.log;) Oct 23 10:35:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28362]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab.log;) Oct 23 10:35:01 ip-10-130-153-227 CROND[28363]: (root) CMD (date >> /root/logs/crontab2.log) Mails to root From [email protected] Tue Oct 23 06:00:01 2012 Return-Path: <[email protected]> Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 06:00:01 GMT From: [email protected] (Cron Daemon) To: [email protected] Subject: Cron <root@ip-10-130-153-227> root ec2-automate-backup.sh -v "vol-fb2fbcdf" -k 3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Auto-Submitted: auto-generated X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh> X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/root> X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/usr/bin:/bin> X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=root> X-Cron-Env: <USER=root> Status: R /bin/sh: root: command not found

  Read the article

• How to mount read-only filesystem as read-write?

  - by Eric

  this is my problem. I have a USB drive which somehow was set as read-only. I want to set it as read write then format it. sudo chown -R eric /dev/sdb Seems to go through, but when I view the drive in Nautilius it says Error mounting: mount: block device /dev/sdb1 is write-protected, mounting read-only mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1, missing codepage or helper program, or other error In some cases useful inf.o is found in syslog - try dmesg | tail or so. Thanks in advance!

  Read the article

• Security Alert for CVE-2011-5035 Updated

  - by Eric P. Maurice

  Hi, this is Eric Maurice again.  Oracle has just updated the Security Alert for CVE-2011-5035 to announce the availability of additional fixes for products that were affected by this vulnerability through their use of the WebLogic Server and Oracle Container for J2EE components.  As explained in a previous blog entry, a number of programming language implementations and web servers were found vulnerable to hash table collision attacks.  This vulnerability is typically remotely exploitable without authentication, i.e., it may be exploited over a network without the need for a username and password.  If successfully exploited, malicious attackers can use this vulnerability to create denial of service conditions against the targeted system. A complete list of affected products and their versions, as well as instructions on how to obtain the fixes, are listed on the Security Alert Advisory.  Oracle highly recommends that customers apply these fixes as soon as possible.

  Read the article

• Pre-rentrée Oracle Open World 2012 : à vos agendas

  - by Eric Bezille

  A maintenant moins d'un mois de l’événement majeur d'Oracle, qui se tient comme chaque année à San Francisco, fin septembre, début octobre, les spéculations vont bon train sur les annonces qui vont y être dévoilées... Et sans lever le voile, je vous engage à prendre connaissance des sujets des "Key Notes" qui seront tenues par Larry Ellison, Mark Hurd, Thomas Kurian (responsable des développements logiciels) et John Fowler (responsable des développements systèmes) afin de vous donner un avant goût. Stratégie et Roadmaps Oracle Bien entendu, au-delà des séances plénières qui vous donnerons  une vision précise de la stratégie, et pour ceux qui seront sur place, je vous engage à ne pas manquer les séances d'approfondissement qui auront lieu dans la semaine, dont voici quelques morceaux choisis : "Accelerate your Business with the Oracle Hardware Advantage" avec John Fowler, le lundi 1er Octobre, 3:15pm-4:15pm "Why Oracle Softwares Runs Best on Oracle Hardware" , avec Bradley Carlile, le responsable des Benchmarks, le lundi 1er Octobre, 12:15pm-13:15pm "Engineered Systems - from Vision to Game-changing Results", avec Robert Shimp, le lundi 1er Octobre 1:45pm-2:45pm "Database and Application Consolidation on SPARC Supercluster", avec Hugo Rivero, responsable dans les équipes d'intégration matériels et logiciels, le lundi 1er Octobre, 4:45pm-5:45pm "Oracle’s SPARC Server Strategy Update", avec Masood Heydari, responsable des développements serveurs SPARC, le mardi 2 Octobre, 10:15am - 11:15am "Oracle Solaris 11 Strategy, Engineering Insights, and Roadmap", avec Markus Flier, responsable des développements Solaris, le mercredi 3 Octobre, 10:15am - 11:15am "Oracle Virtualization Strategy and Roadmap", avec Wim Coekaerts, responsable des développement Oracle VM et Oracle Linux, le lundi 1er Octobre, 12:15pm-1:15pm "Big Data: The Big Story", avec Jean-Pierre Dijcks, responsable du développement produits Big Data, le lundi 1er Octobre, 3:15pm-4:15pm "Scaling with the Cloud: Strategies for Storage in Cloud Deployments", avec Christine Rogers,  Principal Product Manager, et Chris Wood, Senior Product Specialist, Stockage , le lundi 1er Octobre, 10:45am-11:45am Retours d'expériences et témoignages Si Oracle Open World est l'occasion de partager avec les équipes de développement d'Oracle en direct, c'est aussi l'occasion d'échanger avec des clients et experts qui ont mis en oeuvre  nos technologies pour bénéficier de leurs retours d'expériences, comme par exemple : "Oracle Optimized Solution for Siebel CRM at ACCOR", avec les témoignages d'Eric Wyttynck, directeur IT Multichannel & CRM  et Pascal Massenet, VP Loyalty & CRM systems, sur les bénéfices non seulement métiers, mais également projet et IT, le mercredi 3 Octobre, 1:15pm-2:15pm "Tips from AT&T: Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Database, and SPARC Enterprise", avec le retour d'expérience des experts Oracle, le mardi 2 Octobre, 11:45am-12:45pm "Creating a Maximum Availability Architecture with SPARC SuperCluster", avec le témoignage de Carte Wright, Database Engineer à CKI, le mercredi 3 Octobre, 11:45am-12:45pm "Multitenancy: Everybody Talks It, Oracle Walks It with Pillar Axiom Storage", avec le témoignage de Stephen Schleiger, Manager Systems Engineering de Navis, le lundi 1er Octobre, 1:45pm-2:45pm "Oracle Exadata for Database Consolidation: Best Practices", avec le retour d'expérience des experts Oracle ayant participé à la mise en oeuvre d'un grand client du monde bancaire, le lundi 1er Octobre, 4:45pm-5:45pm "Oracle Exadata Customer Panel: Packaged Applications with Oracle Exadata", animé par Tim Shetler, VP Product Management, mardi 2 Octobre, 1:15pm-2:15pm "Big Data: Improving Nearline Data Throughput with the StorageTek SL8500 Modular Library System", avec le témoignage du CTO de CSC, Alan Powers, le jeudi 4 Octobre, 12:45pm-1:45pm "Building an IaaS Platform with SPARC, Oracle Solaris 11, and Oracle VM Server for SPARC", avec le témoignage de Syed Qadri, Lead DBA et Michael Arnold, System Architect d'US Cellular, le mardi 2 Octobre, 10:15am-11:15am "Transform Data Center TCO with Oracle Optimized Servers: A Customer Panel", avec les témoignages notamment d'AT&T et Liberty Global, le mardi 2 Octobre, 11:45am-12:45pm "Data Warehouse and Big Data Customers’ View of the Future", avec The Nielsen Company US, Turkcell, GE Retail Finance, Allianz Managed Operations and Services SE, le lundi 1er Octobre, 4:45pm-5:45pm "Extreme Storage Scale and Efficiency: Lessons from a 100,000-Person Organization", le témoignage de l'IT interne d'Oracle sur la transformation et la migration de l'ensemble de notre infrastructure de stockage, mardi 2 Octobre, 1:15pm-2:15pm Echanges avec les groupes d'utilisateurs et les équipes de développement Oracle Si vous avez prévu d'arriver suffisamment tôt, vous pourrez également échanger dès le dimanche avec les groupes d'utilisateurs, ou tous les soirs avec les équipes de développement Oracle sur des sujets comme : "To Exalogic or Not to Exalogic: An Architectural Journey", avec Todd Sheetz - Manager of DBA and Enterprise Architecture, Veolia Environmental Services, le dimanche 30 Septembre, 2:30pm-3:30pm "Oracle Exalytics and Oracle TimesTen for Exalytics Best Practices", avec Mark Rittman, de Rittman Mead Consulting Ltd, le dimanche 30 Septembre, 10:30am-11:30am "Introduction of Oracle Exadata at Telenet: Bringing BI to Warp Speed", avec Rudy Verlinden & Eric Bartholomeus - Managers IT infrastructure à Telenet, le dimanche 30 Septembre, 1:15pm-2:00pm "The Perfect Marriage: Sun ZFS Storage Appliance with Oracle Exadata", avec Melanie Polston, directeur, Data Management, de Novation et Charles Kim, Managing Director de Viscosity, le dimanche 30 Septembre, 9:00am-10am "Oracle’s Big Data Solutions: NoSQL, Connectors, R, and Appliance Technologies", avec Jean-Pierre Dijcks et les équipes de développement Oracle, le lundi 1er Octobre, 6:15pm-7:00pm Testez et évaluez les solutions Et pour finir, vous pouvez même tester les technologies au travers du Oracle DemoGrounds, (1133 Moscone South pour la partie Systèmes Oracle, OS, et Virtualisation) et des "Hands-on-Labs", comme : "Deploying an IaaS Environment with Oracle VM", le mardi 2 Octobre, 10:15am-11:15am "Virtualize and Deploy Oracle Applications in Minutes with Oracle VM: Hands-on Lab", le mardi 2 Octobre, 11:45am-12:45pm (il est fortement conseillé d'avoir suivi le "Hands-on-Labs" précédent avant d'effectuer ce Lab. "x86 Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure with Oracle VM 3.x and Sun ZFS Storage Appliance", le mercredi 3 Octobre, 5:00pm-6:00pm "StorageTek Tape Analytics: Managing Tape Has Never Been So Simple", le mercredi 3 Octobre, 1:15pm-2:15pm "Oracle’s Pillar Axiom 600 Storage System: Power and Ease", le lundi 1er Octobre, 12:15pm-1:15pm "Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure for SPARC with Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c", le lundi 1er Octobre, 1:45pm-2:45pm "Managing Storage in the Cloud", le mardi 2 Octobre, 5:00pm-6:00pm "Learn How to Write MapReduce on Oracle’s Big Data Platform", le lundi 1er Octobre, 12:15pm-1:15pm "Oracle Big Data Analytics and R", le mardi 2 Octobre, 1:15pm-2:15pm "Reduce Risk with Oracle Solaris Access Control to Restrain Users and Isolate Applications", le lundi 1er Octobre, 10:45am-11:45am "Managing Your Data with Built-In Oracle Solaris ZFS Data Services in Release 11", le lundi 1er Octobre, 4:45pm-5:45pm "Virtualizing Your Oracle Solaris 11 Environment", le mardi 2 Octobre, 1:15pm-2:15pm "Large-Scale Installation and Deployment of Oracle Solaris 11", le mercredi 3 Octobre, 3:30pm-4:30pm En conclusion, une semaine très riche en perspective, et qui vous permettra de balayer l'ensemble des sujets au coeur de vos préoccupations, de la stratégie à l'implémentation... Cette semaine doit se préparer, pour tailler votre agenda sur mesure, à travers les plus de 2000 sessions dont je ne vous ai fait qu'un extrait, et dont vous pouvez retrouver l'ensemble en ligne.

  Read the article

• Using FiddlerCore to capture HTTP Requests with .NET

  - by Rick Strahl

  Over the last few weeks I’ve been working on my Web load testing utility West Wind WebSurge. One of the key components of a load testing tool is the ability to capture URLs effectively so that you can play them back later under load. One of the options in WebSurge for capturing URLs is to use its built-in capture tool which acts as an HTTP proxy to capture any HTTP and HTTPS traffic from most Windows HTTP clients, including Web Browsers as well as standalone Windows applications and services. To make this happen, I used Eric Lawrence’s awesome FiddlerCore library, which provides most of the functionality of his desktop Fiddler application, all rolled into an easy to use library that you can plug into your own applications. FiddlerCore makes it almost too easy to capture HTTP content! For WebSurge I needed to capture all HTTP traffic in order to capture the full HTTP request – URL, headers and any content posted by the client. The result of what I ended up creating is this semi-generic capture form: In this post I’m going to demonstrate how easy it is to use FiddlerCore to build this HTTP Capture Form.  If you want to jump right in here are the links to get Telerik’s Fiddler Core and the code for the demo provided here. FiddlerCore Download FiddlerCore on NuGet Show me the Code (WebSurge Integration code from GitHub) Download the WinForms Sample Form West Wind Web Surge (example implementation in live app) Note that FiddlerCore is bound by a license for commercial usage – see license.txt in the FiddlerCore distribution for details. Integrating FiddlerCore FiddlerCore is a library that simply plugs into your application. You can download it from the Telerik site and manually add the assemblies to your project, or you can simply install the NuGet package via:       PM> Install-Package FiddlerCore The library consists of the FiddlerCore.dll as well as a couple of support libraries (CertMaker.dll and BCMakeCert.dll) that are used for installing SSL certificates. I’ll have more on SSL captures and certificate installation later in this post. But first let’s see how easy it is to use FiddlerCore to capture HTTP content by looking at how to build the above capture form. Capturing HTTP Content Once the library is installed it’s super easy to hook up Fiddler functionality. Fiddler includes a number of static class methods on the FiddlerApplication object that can be called to hook up callback events as well as actual start monitoring HTTP URLs. In the following code directly lifted from WebSurge, I configure a few filter options on Form level object, from the user inputs shown on the form by assigning it to a capture options object. In the live application these settings are persisted configuration values, but in the demo they are one time values initialized and set on the form. Once these options are set, I hook up the AfterSessionComplete event to capture every URL that passes through the proxy after the request is completed and start up the Proxy service:void Start() { if (tbIgnoreResources.Checked) CaptureConfiguration.IgnoreResources = true; else CaptureConfiguration.IgnoreResources = false; string strProcId = txtProcessId.Text; if (strProcId.Contains('-')) strProcId = strProcId.Substring(strProcId.IndexOf('-') + 1).Trim(); strProcId = strProcId.Trim(); int procId = 0; if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(strProcId)) { if (!int.TryParse(strProcId, out procId)) procId = 0; } CaptureConfiguration.ProcessId = procId; CaptureConfiguration.CaptureDomain = txtCaptureDomain.Text; FiddlerApplication.AfterSessionComplete += FiddlerApplication_AfterSessionComplete; FiddlerApplication.Startup(8888, true, true, true); } The key lines for FiddlerCore are just the last two lines of code that include the event hookup code as well as the Startup() method call. Here I only hook up to the AfterSessionComplete event but there are a number of other events that hook various stages of the HTTP request cycle you can also hook into. Other events include BeforeRequest, BeforeResponse, RequestHeadersAvailable, ResponseHeadersAvailable and so on. In my case I want to capture the request data and I actually have several options to capture this data. AfterSessionComplete is the last event that fires in the request sequence and it’s the most common choice to capture all request and response data. I could have used several other events, but AfterSessionComplete is one place where you can look both at the request and response data, so this will be the most common place to hook into if you’re capturing content. The implementation of AfterSessionComplete is responsible for capturing all HTTP request headers and it looks something like this:private void FiddlerApplication_AfterSessionComplete(Session sess) { // Ignore HTTPS connect requests if (sess.RequestMethod == "CONNECT") return; if (CaptureConfiguration.ProcessId > 0) { if (sess.LocalProcessID != 0 && sess.LocalProcessID != CaptureConfiguration.ProcessId) return; } if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(CaptureConfiguration.CaptureDomain)) { if (sess.hostname.ToLower() != CaptureConfiguration.CaptureDomain.Trim().ToLower()) return; } if (CaptureConfiguration.IgnoreResources) { string url = sess.fullUrl.ToLower(); var extensions = CaptureConfiguration.ExtensionFilterExclusions; foreach (var ext in extensions) { if (url.Contains(ext)) return; } var filters = CaptureConfiguration.UrlFilterExclusions; foreach (var urlFilter in filters) { if (url.Contains(urlFilter)) return; } } if (sess == null || sess.oRequest == null || sess.oRequest.headers == null) return; string headers = sess.oRequest.headers.ToString(); var reqBody = sess.GetRequestBodyAsString(); // if you wanted to capture the response //string respHeaders = session.oResponse.headers.ToString(); //var respBody = session.GetResponseBodyAsString(); // replace the HTTP line to inject full URL string firstLine = sess.RequestMethod + " " + sess.fullUrl + " " + sess.oRequest.headers.HTTPVersion; int at = headers.IndexOf("\r\n"); if (at < 0) return; headers = firstLine + "\r\n" + headers.Substring(at + 1); string output = headers + "\r\n" + (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(reqBody) ? reqBody + "\r\n" : string.Empty) + Separator + "\r\n\r\n"; BeginInvoke(new Action<string>((text) => { txtCapture.AppendText(text); UpdateButtonStatus(); }), output); } The code starts by filtering out some requests based on the CaptureOptions I set before the capture is started. These options/filters are applied when requests actually come in. This is very useful to help narrow down the requests that are captured for playback based on options the user picked. I find it useful to limit requests to a certain domain for captures, as well as filtering out some request types like static resources – images, css, scripts etc. This is of course optional, but I think it’s a common scenario and WebSurge makes good use of this feature. AfterSessionComplete like other FiddlerCore events, provides a Session object parameter which contains all the request and response details. There are oRequest and oResponse objects to hold their respective data. In my case I’m interested in the raw request headers and body only, as you can see in the commented code you can also retrieve the response headers and body. Here the code captures the request headers and body and simply appends the output to the textbox on the screen. Note that the Fiddler events are asynchronous, so in order to display the content in the UI they have to be marshaled back the UI thread with BeginInvoke, which here simply takes the generated headers and appends it to the existing textbox test on the form. As each request is processed, the headers are captured and appended to the bottom of the textbox resulting in a Session HTTP capture in the format that Web Surge internally supports, which is basically raw request headers with a customized 1st HTTP Header line that includes the full URL rather than a server relative URL. When the capture is done the user can either copy the raw HTTP session to the clipboard, or directly save it to file. This raw capture format is the same format WebSurge and also Fiddler use to import/export request data. While this code is application specific, it demonstrates the kind of logic that you can easily apply to the request capture process, which is one of the reasonsof why FiddlerCore is so powerful. You get to choose what content you want to look up as part of your own application logic and you can then decide how to capture or use that data as part of your application. The actual captured data in this case is only a string. The user can edit the data by hand or in the the case of WebSurge, save it to disk and automatically open the captured session as a new load test. Stopping the FiddlerCore Proxy Finally to stop capturing requests you simply disconnect the event handler and call the FiddlerApplication.ShutDown() method:void Stop() { FiddlerApplication.AfterSessionComplete -= FiddlerApplication_AfterSessionComplete; if (FiddlerApplication.IsStarted()) FiddlerApplication.Shutdown(); } As you can see, adding HTTP capture functionality to an application is very straight forward. FiddlerCore offers tons of features I’m not even touching on here – I suspect basic captures are the most common scenario, but a lot of different things can be done with FiddlerCore’s simple API interface. Sky’s the limit! The source code for this sample capture form (WinForms) is provided as part of this article. Adding Fiddler Certificates with FiddlerCore One of the sticking points in West Wind WebSurge has been that if you wanted to capture HTTPS/SSL traffic, you needed to have the full version of Fiddler and have HTTPS decryption enabled. Essentially you had to use Fiddler to configure HTTPS decryption and the associated installation of the Fiddler local client certificate that is used for local decryption of incoming SSL traffic. While this works just fine, requiring to have Fiddler installed and then using a separate application to configure the SSL functionality isn’t ideal. Fortunately FiddlerCore actually includes the tools to register the Fiddler Certificate directly using FiddlerCore. Why does Fiddler need a Certificate in the first Place? Fiddler and FiddlerCore are essentially HTTP proxies which means they inject themselves into the HTTP conversation by re-routing HTTP traffic to a special HTTP port (8888 by default for Fiddler) and then forward the HTTP data to the original client. Fiddler injects itself as the system proxy in using the WinInet Windows settings  which are the same settings that Internet Explorer uses and that are configured in the Windows and Internet Explorer Internet Settings dialog. Most HTTP clients running on Windows pick up and apply these system level Proxy settings before establishing new HTTP connections and that’s why most clients automatically work once Fiddler – or FiddlerCore/WebSurge are running. For plain HTTP requests this just works – Fiddler intercepts the HTTP requests on the proxy port and then forwards them to the original port (80 for HTTP and 443 for SSL typically but it could be any port). For SSL however, this is not quite as simple – Fiddler can easily act as an HTTPS/SSL client to capture inbound requests from the server, but when it forwards the request to the client it has to also act as an SSL server and provide a certificate that the client trusts. This won’t be the original certificate from the remote site, but rather a custom local certificate that effectively simulates an SSL connection between the proxy and the client. If there is no custom certificate configured for Fiddler the SSL request fails with a certificate validation error. The key for this to work is that a custom certificate has to be installed that the HTTPS client trusts on the local machine. For a much more detailed description of the process you can check out Eric Lawrence’s blog post on Certificates. If you’re using the desktop version of Fiddler you can install a local certificate into the Windows certificate store. Fiddler proper does this from the Options menu: This operation does several things: It installs the Fiddler Root Certificate It sets trust to this Root Certificate A new client certificate is generated for each HTTPS site monitored Certificate Installation with FiddlerCore You can also provide this same functionality using FiddlerCore which includes a CertMaker class. Using CertMaker is straight forward to use and it provides an easy way to create some simple helpers that can install and uninstall a Fiddler Root certificate:public static bool InstallCertificate() { if (!CertMaker.rootCertExists()) { if (!CertMaker.createRootCert()) return false; if (!CertMaker.trustRootCert()) return false; } return true; } public static bool UninstallCertificate() { if (CertMaker.rootCertExists()) { if (!CertMaker.removeFiddlerGeneratedCerts(true)) return false; } return true; } InstallCertificate() works by first checking whether the root certificate is already installed and if it isn’t goes ahead and creates a new one. The process of creating the certificate is a two step process – first the actual certificate is created and then it’s moved into the certificate store to become trusted. I’m not sure why you’d ever split these operations up since a cert created without trust isn’t going to be of much value, but there are two distinct steps. When you trigger the trustRootCert() method, a message box will pop up on the desktop that lets you know that you’re about to trust a local private certificate. This is a security feature to ensure that you really want to trust the Fiddler root since you are essentially installing a man in the middle certificate. It’s quite safe to use this generated root certificate, because it’s been specifically generated for your machine and thus is not usable from external sources, the only way to use this certificate in a trusted way is from the local machine. IOW, unless somebody has physical access to your machine, there’s no useful way to hijack this certificate and use it for nefarious purposes (see Eric’s post for more details). Once the Root certificate has been installed, FiddlerCore/Fiddler create new certificates for each site that is connected to with HTTPS. You can end up with quite a few temporary certificates in your certificate store. To uninstall you can either use Fiddler and simply uncheck the Decrypt HTTPS traffic option followed by the remove Fiddler certificates button, or you can use FiddlerCore’s CertMaker.removeFiddlerGeneratedCerts() which removes the root cert and any of the intermediary certificates Fiddler created. Keep in mind that when you uninstall you uninstall the certificate for both FiddlerCore and Fiddler, so use UninstallCertificate() with care and realize that you might affect the Fiddler application’s operation by doing so as well. When to check for an installed Certificate Note that the check to see if the root certificate exists is pretty fast, while the actual process of installing the certificate is a relatively slow operation that even on a fast machine takes a few seconds. Further the trust operation pops up a message box so you probably don’t want to install the certificate repeatedly. Since the check for the root certificate is fast, you can easily put a call to InstallCertificate() in any capture startup code – in which case the certificate installation only triggers when a certificate is in fact not installed. Personally I like to make certificate installation explicit – just like Fiddler does, so in WebSurge I use a small drop down option on the menu to install or uninstall the SSL certificate:   This code calls the InstallCertificate and UnInstallCertificate functions respectively – the experience with this is similar to what you get in Fiddler with the extra dialog box popping up to prompt confirmation for installation of the root certificate. Once the cert is installed you can then capture SSL requests. There’s a gotcha however… Gotcha: FiddlerCore Certificates don’t stick by Default When I originally tried to use the Fiddler certificate installation I ran into an odd problem. I was able to install the certificate and immediately after installation was able to capture HTTPS requests. Then I would exit the application and come back in and try the same HTTPS capture again and it would fail due to a missing certificate. CertMaker.rootCertExists() would return false after every restart and if re-installed the certificate a new certificate would get added to the certificate store resulting in a bunch of duplicated root certificates with different keys. What the heck? CertMaker and BcMakeCert create non-sticky CertificatesI turns out that FiddlerCore by default uses different components from what the full version of Fiddler uses. Fiddler uses a Windows utility called MakeCert.exe to create the Fiddler Root certificate. FiddlerCore however installs the CertMaker.dll and BCMakeCert.dll assemblies, which use a different crypto library (Bouncy Castle) for certificate creation than MakeCert.exe which uses the Windows Crypto API. The assemblies provide support for non-windows operation for Fiddler under Mono, as well as support for some non-Windows certificate platforms like iOS and Android for decryption. The bottom line is that the FiddlerCore provided bouncy castle assemblies are not sticky by default as the certificates created with them are not cached as they are in Fiddler proper. To get certificates to ‘stick’ you have to explicitly cache the certificates in Fiddler’s internal preferences. A cache aware version of InstallCertificate looks something like this:public static bool InstallCertificate() { if (!CertMaker.rootCertExists()) { if (!CertMaker.createRootCert()) return false; if (!CertMaker.trustRootCert()) return false; App.Configuration.UrlCapture.Cert = FiddlerApplication.Prefs.GetStringPref("fiddler.certmaker.bc.cert", null); App.Configuration.UrlCapture.Key = FiddlerApplication.Prefs.GetStringPref("fiddler.certmaker.bc.key", null); } return true; } public static bool UninstallCertificate() { if (CertMaker.rootCertExists()) { if (!CertMaker.removeFiddlerGeneratedCerts(true)) return false; } App.Configuration.UrlCapture.Cert = null; App.Configuration.UrlCapture.Key = null; return true; } In this code I store the Fiddler cert and private key in an application configuration settings that’s stored with the application settings (App.Configuration.UrlCapture object). These settings automatically persist when WebSurge is shut down. The values are read out of Fiddler’s internal preferences store which is set after a new certificate has been created. Likewise I clear out the configuration settings when the certificate is uninstalled. In order for these setting to be used you have to also load the configuration settings into the Fiddler preferences *before* a call to rootCertExists() is made. I do this in the capture form’s constructor:public FiddlerCapture(StressTestForm form) { InitializeComponent(); CaptureConfiguration = App.Configuration.UrlCapture; MainForm = form; if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(App.Configuration.UrlCapture.Cert)) { FiddlerApplication.Prefs.SetStringPref("fiddler.certmaker.bc.key", App.Configuration.UrlCapture.Key); FiddlerApplication.Prefs.SetStringPref("fiddler.certmaker.bc.cert", App.Configuration.UrlCapture.Cert); }} This is kind of a drag to do and not documented anywhere that I could find, so hopefully this will save you some grief if you want to work with the stock certificate logic that installs with FiddlerCore. MakeCert provides sticky Certificates and the same functionality as Fiddler But there’s actually an easier way. If you want to skip the above Fiddler preference configuration code in your application you can choose to distribute MakeCert.exe instead of certmaker.dll and bcmakecert.dll. When you use MakeCert.exe, the certificates settings are stored in Windows so they are available without any custom configuration inside of your application. It’s easier to integrate and as long as you run on Windows and you don’t need to support iOS or Android devices is simply easier to deal with. To integrate into your project, you can remove the reference to CertMaker.dll (and the BcMakeCert.dll assembly) from your project. Instead copy MakeCert.exe into your output folder. To make sure MakeCert.exe gets pushed out, include MakeCert.exe in your project and set the Build Action to None, and Copy to Output Directory to Copy if newer. Note that the CertMaker.dll reference in the project has been removed and on disk the files for Certmaker.dll, as well as the BCMakeCert.dll files on disk. Keep in mind that these DLLs are resources of the FiddlerCore NuGet package, so updating the package may end up pushing those files back into your project. Once MakeCert.exe is distributed FiddlerCore checks for it first before using the assemblies so as long as MakeCert.exe exists it’ll be used for certificate creation (at least on Windows). Summary FiddlerCore is a pretty sweet tool, and it’s absolutely awesome that we get to plug in most of the functionality of Fiddler right into our own applications. A few years back I tried to build this sort of functionality myself for an app and ended up giving up because it’s a big job to get HTTP right – especially if you need to support SSL. FiddlerCore now provides that functionality as a turnkey solution that can be plugged into your own apps easily. The only downside is FiddlerCore’s documentation for more advanced features like certificate installation which is pretty sketchy. While for the most part FiddlerCore’s feature set is easy to work with without any documentation, advanced features are often not intuitive to gleam by just using Intellisense or the FiddlerCore help file reference (which is not terribly useful). While Eric Lawrence is very responsive on his forum and on Twitter, there simply isn’t much useful documentation on Fiddler/FiddlerCore available online. If you run into trouble the forum is probably the first place to look and then ask a question if you can’t find the answer. The best documentation you can find is Eric’s Fiddler Book which covers a ton of functionality of Fiddler and FiddlerCore. The book is a great reference to Fiddler’s feature set as well as providing great insights into the HTTP protocol. The second half of the book that gets into the innards of HTTP is an excellent read for anybody who wants to know more about some of the more arcane aspects and special behaviors of HTTP – it’s well worth the read. While the book has tons of information in a very readable format, it’s unfortunately not a great reference as it’s hard to find things in the book and because it’s not available online you can’t electronically search for the great content in it. But it’s hard to complain about any of this given the obvious effort and love that’s gone into this awesome product for all of these years. A mighty big thanks to Eric Lawrence  for having created this useful tool that so many of us use all the time, and also to Telerik for picking up Fiddler/FiddlerCore and providing Eric the resources to support and improve this wonderful tool full time and keeping it free for all. Kudos! Resources FiddlerCore Download FiddlerCore NuGet Fiddler Capture Sample Form Fiddler Capture Form in West Wind WebSurge (GitHub) Eric Lawrence’s Fiddler Book© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2014Posted in .NET  HTTP   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

  Read the article

• Weird Ubuntu Desktop Boot Partition On External Hard Drive

  - by Magnitus

  I have a Thinkpad with Windows 7. Last time I installed an Ubuntu/Windows dual boot, Windows was never same after and regularly got corrupted so this time, I installed Ubuntu on a separate external hard drive. I took a 500 GB external hard drive and used Windows to shrink the partition on it to 400 GB, freeing 100 GB to install Ubuntu. Then I modified the booting priority of my computer to boot from the external hard drive if present. Then, I installed Ubuntu desktop on the external hard drive using a DVD, picked the most simplistic partitioning scheme I could get away with (didn't go auto as it didn't include the external hard drive as a choice) and voilà. Fast forward some time and I'm trying to refresh my understanding of Linux partitions to install a bunch of servers, so I'm looking at the current partitioning scheme on my external hard drive and find the boot partition puzzling... sda is my integrated hard drive with Windows 7. sdb is my Ubuntu desktop external hard drive. Running parted on sdb, I get this: (parted) print Model: WD My Passport 0740 (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 500GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 1049kB 393GB 393GB primary ntfs boot 2 393GB 500GB 107GB extended 5 393GB 425GB 32.8GB logical linux-swap(v1) 6 425GB 500GB 74.6GB logical ext4 At this point, I'm wondering why the ntfs partition is flagged as "boot" and not my ext4 partition which is the partition that contains / (and by extension, /boot since it's not on its own separate partition). Looking at mtab only confirms what I already know: eric@eric-ThinkPad-W530:~$ sudo cat /etc/mtab /dev/sdb6 / ext4 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0 proc /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0 sysfs /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0 none /sys/fs/cgroup tmpfs rw 0 0 none /sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl rw 0 0 none /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw 0 0 none /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw 0 0 udev /dev devtmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0 devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620 0 0 tmpfs /run tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,size=10%,mode=0755 0 0 none /run/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=5242880 0 0 none /run/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0 none /run/user tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=104857600,mode=0755 0 0 none /sys/fs/pstore pstore rw 0 0 systemd /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd cgroup rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,none,name=systemd 0 0 gvfsd-fuse /run/user/1000/gvfs fuse.gvfsd-fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,user=eric 0 0 /dev/sdb1 /media/eric/My\040Passport fuseblk rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions,blksize=4096 0 0 My lack of understanding concerning this is not vital to anything (this is only my development desktop partition), but somehow annoys me. Any insight that could shed some light on this would be welcome.

  Read the article

• Slides and links for Looking at the Clouds through Dirty Windows :-)

  - by Eric Nelson

  Tomorrow (Friday 23/4/2010) I am delivering a session at the Cloud Grid Exchange in London at SkillsMatter (A top training company and superb supporter of development communities). To be perfectly honest – I’m more interested in attending than presenting as the sessions and speaker line up look great. But in the middle of all that I will be doing the following (rather cheekily named) session: Looking at the Clouds through dirty Windows Many developers assume that the Microsoft Windows Azure Platform for Cloud Computing is only relevant if you develop solutions using Microsoft Visual Studio and the .NET Framework. The reality is somewhat different. In the same way that developers can build great applications on Windows Server using a variety of programming languages, developers can do the same for Azure. Java, Tomcat, PHP, Ruby, Python, MySQL and more all work great on Azure. In this session we will take a lap around the services offered by the Azure PaaS and demonstrate just how easy it is to build and deploy applications built in .NET and other technologies. The session will be a mix of slides and demos – currently I plan to demo .NET and Ruby on Rails running on Azure – but I may flex that depending on how the morning sessions go and who turns up. Looking at the clouds through dirty windows View more presentations from Eric Nelson. Links: Getting started: Details on how to sign up for FREE to try out Windows Azure http://bit.ly/azure25  Getting started with Windows Azure UK Site http://bit.ly/startazure UK Azure Site http://bit.ly/landazure UK Community http://ukazure.ning.com Examples of Azure and none .NET technologies: http://ukinterop.cloudapp.net Restlet based, using Windows Azure Storage http://rubyukinterop.cloudapp.net Rails based clone using Windows Azure Storage (down at time of posting) http://rubysqlazure.cloudapp.net Simple rails using SQL Azure http://bookingbug.com Real world “Ruby on Rails on Azure” (Work in progress for conversion to Azure) Domino’s Pizza migration of Java/Tomcat on Solaris to Java/Tomcat on Windows Azure Main Azure Interop site http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsAzure/interop/: Eclipse Tooling http://windowsazure4e.org Java support http://www.windowsazure4j.org/ Rails on Azure skeleton project for Visual Studio http://code.msdn.com/railsonazure Azure Runme utility for spawning processes http://azurerunme.codeplex.com Feedback www.mygreatwindowsazureidea.com

  Read the article

• Security Alert For CVE-2010-4476 Released

  - by eric.maurice

  Hello, this is Eric Maurice again. Oracle just released a Security Alert with a fix for the vulnerability CVE-2010-4476, which affects Oracle Java SE and Oracle Java For Business. This vulnerability is present in Java running on servers as well as standalone Java desktop applications. Its successful exploitation by a malicious attacker can result in a complete denial of service for the affected servers. While only recently publicly disclosed, a number of Internet sites have since then reproduced details about this vulnerability, including exploit codes, which may result in allowing a malicious attacker to create a denial of service condition against the targeted system. Oracle therefore strongly recommends that affected organizations apply this fix as soon as possible. Please note that a fix for this vulnerability will also be included in the upcoming Java Critical Patch Update (Java SE and Java for Business Critical Patch Update - February 2011), which will be released on February 15th 2011. Note that the impact of this vulnerability on desktops is minimal: the affected applications or applets running in Internet browsers for example, might stop responding and may need to be restarted; however the desktop itself will not be compromised (i.e. no compromise at the desktop OS level). Oracle therefore recommends that consumers use the Java auto-update mechanism to get this fix. This will prompt them to install the latest version of the Java Runtime Environment 6 update 24 or higher (JRE), which includes the fix for this vulnerability. JRE 6 update 24 will also be distributed with the Java SE and Java for Business Critical Patch Update - February 2011. For More Information: The Critical Patch Updates and Security Alerts page is located at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/alerts-086861.html The Advisory for Security Alert CVE-2010-4476 is located at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/alert-cve-2010-4476-305811.html More information on Oracle Software Security Assurance is located at http://www.oracle.com/us/support/assurance/index.html Consumers can go to http://www.java.com/en/download/installed.jsp to ensure that they have the latest version of Java running on their desktops. More information on Java Update is available at http://www.java.com/en/download/help/java_update.xml

  Read the article

• Security Alert for CVE-2010-0886 and CVE-2010-0887 Released

  - by eric.maurice

  Hi, this is Eric Maurice again! Oracle just released a Security Alert to announce the availability of fixes for two vulnerabilities (CVE-2010-0886 and CVE-2010-0887) affecting Oracle Java SE and Oracle Java For Business. Both vulnerabilities only affect Java when running in a 32-bit web browser. These vulnerabilities are not present in Java running on servers or standalone Java desktop applications and do not impact any Oracle server based software. The first vulnerability (CVE-2010-0886) affects the Java Deployment Toolkit (version 6 update 10 through 19) on Windows only. The second vulnerability (CVE-2010-0887) affects the Java Plug-in (version 6 update 18 and 19) on Windows, Solaris and Linux. Both vulnerabilities may allow an attacker to run commands on the user's system with the privileges of the user, whose system may have become compromised by visiting a malicious web site. Oracle rated the severity of both vulnerabilities with a CVSS Base Score of 10.0 because many Windows users grant themselves administrative privileges. However, on other platforms, or for Windows users with limited privileges, the CVSS Base Score is only 7.5, because a successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities cannot result in a full compromise of the affected system. Users can quickly determine if they are running vulnerable versions of Java by pointing their browser to http://www.java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml. Java SE users can visit http://www.java.com and download the most recent release of Java SE to address these vulnerabilities. Because of the criticality of these vulnerabilities, and the publicity they received as a result of their disclosure before the availability of a fix, Oracle recommends that all customers and Java users update their Java installation to the most recent version (6 update 20). For More Information: The advisory for the Security Alert for CVE-2010-0886 and CVE-2010-0887 is located at http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/security/alerts/alert-cve-2010-0886.html

  Read the article

• June 2012 Critical Patch Update for Java SE Released

  - by Eric P. Maurice

  Hi, this is Eric Maurice. Oracle just released the June 2012 Critical Patch Update for Java SE.  This Critical Patch Update provides 14 new security fixes across Java SE products.  As discussed in previous blog entries, Critical Patch Updates for Java SE will, for the foreseeable future, continue to be released on a separate schedule than that of other Oracle products due to previous commitments made to Java customers.  12 of the 14 Java SE vulnerabilities fixed in this Critical Patch Update may be remotely exploitable without authentication.  6 of these vulnerabilities have a CVSS Base Score of 10.0.  In accordance with Oracle’s policies, these CVSS 10 scores represent instances where a user running a Java applet or Java Web Start application has administrator privileges (as is typical on Windows XP).  When the user does not run with administrator privileges (typical on the Solaris and Linux operating systems), the corresponding CVSS impact scores for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability for these vulnerabilities would be "Partial" instead of "Complete", thus lowering these CVSS Base Scores to 7.5. Due to the high severity of these vulnerabilities, Oracle recommends that customers obtain and apply these security fixes as soon as possible: Developers should download the latest release at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html    Java users should download the latest release of JRE at http://java.com, and of course  Windows users can take advantage of the Java Automatic Update to get the latest release. In addition, Oracle recommends removing old an unused versions  of Java as the latest version is always the recommended version as it contains the most recent enhancements, and bug and security fixes.  For more information: •Instructions on removing older (and less secure) versions of Java can be found at http://java.com/en/download/faq/remove_olderversions.xml  •Users can verify that they’re running the most recent version of Java by visiting: http://java.com/en/download/installed.jsp   •The Advisory for the June 2012 Critical Patch Update for Java SE is located at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/javacpujun2012-1515912.html

  Read the article

• Take Advantage of Oracle's Ongoing Assurance Effort!

  - by eric.maurice

  Hi, this is Eric Maurice again! A few years ago, I posted a blog entry, which discussed the psychology of patching. The point of this blog entry was that a natural tendency existed for systems and database administrators to be reluctant to apply patches, even security patches, because of the fear of "breaking" the system. Unfortunately, this belief in the principle "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" creates significant risks for organizations. Running systems without applying the proper security patches can greatly compromise the security posture of the organization because the security controls available in the affected system may be compromised as a result of the existence of the unfixed vulnerabilities. As a result, Oracle continues to strongly recommend that customers apply all security fixes as soon as possible. Most recently, I have had a number of conversations with customers who questioned the need to upgrade their highly stable but otherwise unsupported Oracle systems. These customers wanted to know more about the kind of security risks they were exposed to, by running obsolete versions of Oracle software. As per Oracle Support Policies, Critical Patch Updates are produced for currently supported products. In other words, Critical Patch Updates are not created by Oracle for product versions that are no longer covered under the Premier Support or Extended Support phases of the Lifetime Support Policy. One statement used in each Critical Patch Update Advisory is particularly important: "We recommend that customers upgrade to a supported version of Oracle products in order to obtain patches. Unsupported products, releases and versions are not tested for the presence of vulnerabilities addressed by this Critical Patch Update. However, it is likely that earlier versions of affected releases are also affected by these vulnerabilities." The purpose of this warning is to inform Oracle customers that a number of the vulnerabilities fixed in each Critical Patch Update may affect older versions of a specific product line. In other words, each Critical Patch Update provides a number of fixes for currently supported versions of a given product line (this information is listed for each bug in the Risk Matrices of the Critical Patch Update Advisory), but the unsupported versions in the same product line, while they may be affected by the vulnerabilities, will not receive the fixes, and are therefore vulnerable to attacks. The risk assumed by organizations wishing to remain on unsupported versions is amplified by the behavior of malicious hackers, who typically will attempt to, and sometimes succeed in, reverse-engineering the content of vendors' security fixes. As a result, it is not uncommon for exploits to be published soon after Oracle discloses vulnerabilities with the release of a Critical Patch Update or Security Alert. Let's consider now the nature of the vulnerabilities that may exist in obsolete versions of Oracle software. A number of severe vulnerabilities have been fixed by Oracle over the years. While Oracle does not test unsupported products, releases and versions for the presence of vulnerabilities addressed by each Critical Patch Update, it should be assumed that a number of the vulnerabilities fixed with the Critical Patch Update program do exist in unsupported versions (regardless of the product considered). The most severe vulnerabilities fixed in past Critical Patch Updates may result in full compromise of the targeted systems, down to the OS level, by remote and unauthenticated users (these vulnerabilities receive a CVSS Base Score of 10.0) or almost as critically, may result in the compromise of the affected systems (without compromising the underlying OS) by a remote and unauthenticated users (these vulnerabilities receive a CVSS Base Score of 7.5). Such vulnerabilities may result in complete takeover of the targeted machine (for the CVSS 10.0), or may result in allowing the attacker the ability to create a denial of service against the affected system or even hijacking or stealing all the data hosted by the compromised system (for the CVSS 7.5). The bottom line is that organizations should assume the worst case: that the most critical vulnerabilities are present in their unsupported version; therefore, it is Oracle's recommendation that all organizations move to supported systems and apply security patches in a timely fashion. Organizations that currently run supported versions but may be late in their security patch release level can quickly catch up because most Critical Patch Updates are cumulative. With a few exceptions noted in Oracle's Critical Patch Update Advisory, the application of the most recent Critical Patch Update will bring these products to current security patch level and provide the organization with the best possible security posture for their patch level. Furthermore, organizations are encouraged to upgrade to most recent versions as this will greatly improve their security posture. At Oracle, our security fixing policies state that security fixes are produced for the main code line first, and as a result, our products benefit from the mistakes made in previous version(s). Our ongoing assurance effort ensures that we work diligently to fix the vulnerabilities we find, and aim at constantly improving the security posture our products provide by default. Patch sets include numerous in-depth fixes in addition to those delivered through the Critical Patch Update and, in certain instances, important security fixes require major architectural changes that can only be included in new product releases (and cannot be backported through the Critical Patch Update program). For More Information: • Mary Ann Davidson is giving a webcast interview on Oracle Software Security Assurance on February 24th. The registration link for attending this webcast is located at http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=280304&s=1&k=6A7152F62313CA09F77EBCEEA9B6294F&partnerref=EricMblog • A blog entry discussing Oracle's practices for ensuring the quality of Critical patch Updates can be found at http://blogs.oracle.com/security/2009/07/ensuring_critical_patch_update_quality.html • The blog entry "To patch or not to patch" is located at http://blogs.oracle.com/security/2008/01/to_patch_or_not_to_patch.html • Oracle's Support Policies are located at http://www.oracle.com/us/support/policies/index.html • The Critical Patch Update & Security Alert page is located at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/alerts-086861.html

  Read the article

• Where to purchase an unlocked HTC Incredible or EVO 4G

  - by Eric

  Hello, Is it possible to buy an HTC EVO 4G (preferably), or the Droid Incredible (second choice) from a vendor whereby the phone is unlocked without a cellular plan? I just want to get a phone to test my Android app on over the built-in WiFi (for now). Please advise. Finally, does anyone know of a phone coming out in the next couple of weeks that is faster (hardware-wise) than the EVO 4G? Thank You! Eric

  Read the article

• Hardware Mediaplayer display

  - by Eric Audio

  I'm looking for a keyboard or just a little display to attach on my keyboard or something like that, what will show me the music tracks i'm playing in windowsmedia player, itunes, etc. I did some research and the only thing I found are gaming keyboards, but i'm not shure if these show my music tracks. So my question: Does somebody knows a keyboard who show the music tracks or just a little display? Bye, Eric

  Read the article

• April 2010 Critical Patch Update Released

  - by eric.maurice

  Hi, this is Eric Maurice. Today Oracle released the April 2010 Critical Patch Update (CPUApr2010),the first one to include security fixes for Oracle Solaris. Today's Critical Patch Update (CPU) provides 47 new security fixes across the following product families: Oracle Database Server, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Collaboration Suite, Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise, Oracle Life Sciences, Retail, and Communications Industry Suites, and Oracle Solaris. 28 of these 47 new vulnerabilities are remotely exploitable without authentication, but the criticality of the affected components and the severity of these vulnerabilities vary greatly. Customers should, as usual, refer to the Risk Matrices in the CPU Advisory to assess the relevance of these fixes for their environment (and the urgency with which to apply the fixes). 7 of the 47 new vulnerabilities affect various versions of Oracle Database Server. None of these 7 vulnerabilities are remotely exploitable without authentication. Furthermore, none of these fixes are applicable to client-only deployments. The most severe CVSS Base Score for the Database Server vulnerabilities is 7.1. As a reminder, information about Oracle's use of the CVSS 2.0 standard can be found in Note 394487.1 (My Oracle Support subscription required). Note that this Critical Patch Update includes fixes for vulnerabilities that were publicly disclosed by David Litchfield at the BlackHat DC Conference in early February (CVE-2010-0866 and CVE-2010-0867). 5 of the 47 new vulnerabilities affect various components of the Oracle Fusion Middleware product family. The highest CVSS Base Score for these vulnerabilities is 7.5. Note that the patches for Oracle WebLogic Server are cumulative and this Critical Patch Update therefore also includes a fix for a vulnerability (CVE-2010-0073) that was the subject of a Security Alert issued by Oracle on February 4, 2010. Customers, who have not applied the previously-released patch, should apply today's Critical Patch Update as soon as possible. As stated at the beginning of this blog, it is also noteworthy to highlight that this Critical Patch Update provides 16 new fixes for the Sun product line. With the recent close of the Sun acquisition both security organizations have worked diligently to align Sun's previous security practices with Oracle's. Java users know that Oracle released a Critical Patch Update for Java SE and Java For Business earlier this month (in accordance with the Java patching schedule previously published by Sun Microsystems). Please note that for the first time, the Java advisories included CVSS Scores to help assess the severity of the new vulnerabilities fixed with the advisory. The rapid inclusion of the Solaris product lines in the Critical Patch Update and the extension of Oracle Software Security Assurance to Sun technologies are evidence of the flexibility of Oracle's security assurance programs. These should also result in tangible security benefits for the users of the Oracle hardware and software stack (such as a predictable patching schedule for all Oracle products).

  Read the article

• February 2011 Java SE and Java for Business Critical Patch Update Released

  - by eric.maurice

  Hello, this is Eric Maurice again. Oracle released the February 2011 Critical Patch Update for Java SE and Java for Business today. As discussed in a previous blog entry, Oracle currently maintains a separate Critical Patch Update schedule for Java SE and Java for Business because of commitments made prior to the Oracle acquisition in regards to the timing for the publication of Java fixes. Today's Java Critical Patch Update includes fixes for 21 vulnerabilities. The most severe CVSS Base Score for vulnerabilities fixed in this CPU is 10.0, and this Base Score affects 8 vulnerabilities. Out of these 21 vulnerabilities, 13 affect Java client deployments. 12 of these 13 vulnerabilities can be exploited through Untrusted Java Web Start applications and Untrusted Java Applets, which run in the Java sandbox with limited privileges. One of these 13 vulnerabilities can be exploited by running a standalone application. In addition, one of the client vulnerability affects Java Update, a Windows-specific component. 3 of the 21 vulnerabilities affect client and server deployments. These vulnerabilities can be exploited through Untrusted Java Web Start applications and Untrusted Java Applets, as well as be exploited by supplying malicious data to APIs in the specified components, such as, for example, through a web service. 3 vulnerabilities affect Java server deployments only. These vulnerabilities can be exploited by supplying malicious data to APIs in the specified Java components. Note that one of these vulnerabilities (CVE-2010-4476) was the subject of a Security Alert released on February 8th. Finally, one of these vulnerabilities is specific to Java DB, a component in the Java JDK, but not included in the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). As usual, because of the severity of the vulnerabilities fixed in this Critical Patch Update, Oracle recommends that Java customers apply it as soon as possible. The Critical Patch Advisory provides more details about the vulnerabilities addressed in the Critical Patch Update as well as instructions on how to install the fixes and where to get them. Home users should use the Java auto-update mechanism to install the latest version of the Java Runtime Environment 6 update 24 or higher (JRE), which includes the fix for this vulnerability. For More Information: The Critical Patch Updates and Security Alerts page is located at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/alerts-086861.html More information on Oracle Software Security Assurance is located at http://www.oracle.com/us/support/assurance/index.html Consumers can go to http://www.java.com/en/download/installed.jsp to ensure that they have the latest version of Java running on their desktops. More information on Java Update is available at http://www.java.com/en/download/help/java_update.xml

  Read the article

• Security Alert for CVE-2012-4681 Released

  - by Eric P. Maurice

  Hi, this is Eric Maurice again! Oracle has just released Security Alert CVE-2012-4681 to address 3 distinct but related vulnerabilities and one security-in-depth issue affecting Java running in desktop browsers.  These vulnerabilities are: CVE-2012-4681, CVE-2012-1682, CVE-2012-3136, and CVE-2012-0547.  These vulnerabilities are not applicable to standalone Java desktop applications or Java running on servers, i.e. these vulnerabilities do not affect any Oracle server based software. Vulnerabilities CVE-2012-4681, CVE-2012-1682, and CVE-2012-3136 have each received a CVSS Base Score of 10.0.  This score assumes that the affected users have administrative privileges, as is typical in Windows XP.  Vulnerability CVE-20120-0547 has received a CVSS Base Score of 0.0 because this vulnerability is not directly exploitable in typical user deployments, but Oracle has issued a security-in-depth fix for this issue as it can be used in conjunction with other vulnerabilities to significantly increase the overall impact of a successful exploit. If successfully exploited, these vulnerabilities can provide a malicious attacker the ability to plant discretionary binaries onto the compromised system, e.g. the vulnerabilities can be exploited to install malware, including Trojans, onto the targeted system.  Note that this malware may in some instances be detected by current antivirus signatures upon its installation.  Due to the high severity of these vulnerabilities, Oracle recommends that customers apply this Security Alert as soon as possible.  Furthermore, note that the technical details of these vulnerabilities are widely available on the Internet and Oracle has received external reports that these vulnerabilities are being actively exploited in the wild.    Developers should download the latest release at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html   Java users should download the latest release of JRE at http://java.com, and of course   Windows users can take advantage of the Java Automatic Update to get the latest release. For more information: The Advisory for Security Alert CVE-2012-4681 is located at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/alert-cve-2012-4681-1835715.html  Users can verify that they’re running the most recent version of Java by visiting: http://java.com/en/download/installed.jsp    Instructions on removing older (and less secure) versions of Java can be found at http://java.com/en/download/faq/remove_olderversions.xml   

  Read the article

• HTML5Rocks Live, Episode 1

  HTML5Rocks Live, Episode 1 In this episode of HTML5Rocks Live, Boris, Eric and Paul join us to show some great new libraries and performance tips. Please leave your comments on our plus page at goo.gl In the first chapter, Paul shows how to use some of Chrome's new developer tools to understand how things are rendering and get improved performance. In the second chapter (21:25), Boris shows off his new device.js library to help make development of mobile web applications and sites easier. Eric closes the hangout (40:00) and talks about his new file system API polyfill that uses indexed db as it's back end. 02:15 Scroll Effects Demo goo.gl 23:04 - Media Queries Site goo.gl 24:15 - WURFL goo.gl 26:40 - Boris' Device Library goo.gl 29:28 - Device.js Demo goo.gl 33:25 - Bug to add touch-enabled media query to Chrome, please star goo.gl 35:00 - Chrome's DevTools for Mobile Development 38:56 - Paul Irish's Touch Demos goo.gl 40:43 - File System API Book goo.gl 43:10 - Eric's idb.filesystem.js goo.gl 44:27 - idb.filesystem HTML5 File System Demo goo.gl 47:33 - HTML5 Filesystem Playground goo.gl From: GoogleDevelopers Views: 12239 221 ratings Time: 52:29 More in Science & Technology

  Read the article

• fail2ban Error Gentoo

  - by Mark Davidson

  Hi All I've recently setup a new VPS running Gentoo (My first time using the distro so please forgive me is this is a really easy one) and as I've done with other servers installed fail2ban. Setting it up to block the host via iptables, on too many unsuccessful logins with ssh. However I'm getting a strange error that I can't quite solve. When I start fail2ban I get these lines in the error log 2009-11-13 18:02:01,290 fail2ban.jail : INFO Jail 'ssh-iptables' started 2009-11-13 18:02:01,480 fail2ban.actions.action: ERROR iptables -N fail2ban-SSH iptables -A fail2ban-SSH -j RETURN iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport ssh -j fail2ban-SSH returned 100 If I try and force a ban these errors show up in the log and the host is not banned 2009-11-13 11:23:26,905 fail2ban.actions: WARNING [ssh-iptables] Ban XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX 2009-11-13 11:23:26,929 fail2ban.actions.action: ERROR iptables -n -L INPUT | grep -q fail2ban-SSH returned 100 2009-11-13 11:23:26,930 fail2ban.actions.action: ERROR Invariant check failed. Trying to restore a sane environment 2009-11-13 11:23:27,007 fail2ban.actions.action: ERROR iptables -N fail2ban-SSH iptables -A fail2ban-SSH -j RETURN iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport ssh -j fail2ban-SSH returned 100 2009-11-13 11:23:27,016 fail2ban.actions.action: ERROR iptables -n -L INPUT | grep -q fail2ban-SSH returned 100 2009-11-13 11:23:27,016 fail2ban.actions.action: CRITICAL Unable to restore environment My versions are as follows Linux masked 2.6.18-xen-r12 #2 SMP Wed Mar 4 11:45:03 GMT 2009 x86_64 Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5504 @ 2.00GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux net-analyzer/fail2ban-0.8.4 net-firewall/iptables-1.4.3.2 If anyone could shead some light on these errors that would be great, I did wonder if it was a problem with iptables or some kernel modules but I can block an IP if I do. iptables -I INPUT -s 25.55.55.55 -j DROP so makes me think its something a bit more unusual. Thanks a lot in advance

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12  | Next Page >