Don's Pages and my Music

Friday, March 30, 2012

MailHops Addon for Thunderbird and Free Trace Route Tools to Analyze E-Mail Headers To Show the Route Taken to get to You


This Thunderbird Addon, adds a "Map" link, to your E-Mail Headers. The Map link, will do a Trace Rout from the Sender to you and show the results on a Map. There were no Instructions on how to use this Addon, anywhere that I could find. So, it took me a few minutes to figure it out. That was a Pain!:O But, once I figured it out. It is easy and fast to use. You don't have to use "View - Headers All" in Thunderbird to see and use the Map link, unless you want to. But, there is a + or - link in the Top Left Side of the Header. And you will have to click on the + to see the Map link (if the + is showing, that is). Otherwise, if the - is showing. Just look for the Map link in the Header. Also, below are some links to some Online E-Mail Header Trace Rout Tracing Tools. But, you have to copy and paste your Headers into the Tools to Trace them. So, I didn't try them, since I use Thunderbird and MailHops is faster and easier to use...

Don

MailHops 0.6.3

by Andrew Van Tassel

MailHops maps the route an email took to get to you. Displaying the senders location in the mail headers box. Click on the sender location to view a map of the mail route.

Go there...
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunderbird/addon/mailhops/

Free Trace Route Tools to Analyze E-Mail Headers To Show the Route Taken to get to You...
MailHops Thunderbird - Google Search
MailHops :: Add-ons for Thunderbird
MailHops :: Versions :: Add-ons for Thunderbird
Free Tool Analyses Email Header To Show Route Taken
Email Header Analyzer, RFC822 Parser - MxToolbox
E-Mail Header Analyzer - Analyze e-mail header lines
Tracing Emails - Mail Parse - Parsing and Tracing Mail Headers - MailParse
MailHops API
Thunderbird Add-on | MailHops API

Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to create images, animations, and interactions. - Processing.org

Processing.org

Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to create images, animations, and interactions. Initially developed to serve as a software sketchbook and to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context, Processing also has evolved into a tool for generating finished professional work. Today, there are tens of thousands of students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists who use Processing for learning, prototyping, and production.

  • » Free to download and open source
  • » Interactive programs using 2D, 3D or PDF output
  • » OpenGL integration for accelerated 3D
  • » For GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows
  • » Projects run online or as double-clickable applications
  • » Over 100 libraries extend the software into sound, video, computer vision, and more...
  • » Well documented, with many books available

To see more of what people are doing with Processing, check out these sites:

» Processing Wiki
» Processing Discussion Forum
» OpenProcessing
» CreativeApplications.Net
» O'Reilly Answers
» Vimeo
» del.icio.us
» Flickr

To contribute to the development, please visit Processing on Google Code to read instructions for downloading the code, building from the source, reporting and tracking bugs, and creating libraries and tools.


Read More and Download...
http://processing.org/

Don't Miss The Processing Wiki; it complements the main site, processing.org. The wiki includes code documentation, reference material, code samples, and more. Please have a look around.
http://wiki.processing.org/w/Main_Page

I Played with this App for a Couple of Hours. I like it quite a bit. First, I copied some Example Code from here, http://processing.org/learning/basics/. Then, I Combined "Wave Gradient" and "Clock" and made a Hypnotic "sketch" of moving lines and Colors. The Processing App it's self, told me where my errors were (some duplicate code that was in both examples). And it highlighted them too. So, I just deleted them until there were now more errors. Then my new creation ran perfectly, when I hit the Play Button. The result was a Hypnotic Video of Moving lines and Colors. That seems could Hypnotize me, if I stared at it too long!;) Processing can save your work as an Applet, (which saves your work in an HTML file). Check mine out here, http://bishopco.homeip.net/applet/ Or you can save your work as an Application, (which saves it as a real Application). Then I noticed the Movie Maker App. It can take a whole folder of Images and add an audio file, to make a Quick Time Movie. It works well and is pretty fast at Processing the images into a Movie. I did notice the no matter which size that I selected (using images of different sizes, heights and widths). That, some images came out looking "Fat" (I was too wide, wider than normal). I tried all Compression settings (Animation, JPEG, PNG) and also "Original Width" and the Default (640x480). But seemed to get the same results with all settings. So, I wouldn't want to make a Music Slide Show of People with this App. Not unless there is a way to fix this. Also, the shortest "Frame Rate" you can select is 1 second. The Default is 30 Frames Per Second. Which makes sense for Video. But not for a Slide Show. The Pics went by in a flash! I wanted to make the Pics stay up longer, so that I could fill the entire time of my song. But, you will just have to have more images, to make this work (since 1 second is the longest you can make them stay up). Still, it's a really cool Application with allot of Possibilities...

Don


Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to create images, animations, and interactions.
Processing.org
Processing
Flickr: Processing.org
Download \ Processing.org
processing is an open source programming language and environment - Google Search
processing - An open source programming language and environment for creating images, animation, and interactions - Google Project Hosting
Voronoi Bookshelf Development | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Hero_Design_Voronoi_Bookcase | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Voronoi Bookshelf Development | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Voronoi Bookshelf Development | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Hero_Design_Voronoi_Bookcase-6 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Audioreactive Experiment #1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Create Tools - Processing
The Product » Soundmachines
Basics \ Processing.org
WaveGradient \ Learning \ Processing.org
Clock \ Learning \ Processing.org

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Autonomous Paintball Sentry Guns



Airsoft Sentry Gun Version 4


Video Link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMBojjc6sVg



Autonomous Paintball Sentry Gun

i
Make your own, custom AUTONOMOUS SENTRY GUN!

A Microcontroller Contest Finalist and Runner Up Winner.

This instructable is out-of-date. For the most recent version of the tutorial, see the website . Cheers!

This sentry gun autonomously tracks, aims, and shoots at targets, using:
-An airsoft or paintball gun
-A webcam to find targets
-A computer to process the video feed and aim the gun
-Servo motors to physically aim the gun and squeeze the trigger
-A sturdy tripod base
-A microcontroller to interface between the computer and the servo motors
-Lots of camo paint
The end result is a paintball/airsoft spewing robot, that can turn the tides of any match.

Video if it in action here .

Want to build your own?
You're in luck! All the help and information you will need is here, and the software is free and open-source. Lots of people have already used this system in their own sentry guns, with successful results.
So go ahead, make your own, and soon your own backyard will be no-man's land, too!


P.S. take pictures during the project, and when you are finished, send me a picture, and a description of your project, and I will feature it on the Successful Projects page of my website. Thanks!

Step 1Parts List

i
          Airsoft / paintball gun, or other 'projectile dispenser'
$30   Webcam
$25   Arduino (or equivalent)
$27   3 Servo motors (pan, tilt, trigger) $9 ea.
$10   Assorted screws, nuts and bolts
$9     Wood/metal for construction
$5     USB A to B cable
$2     Some 22 gauge solid wire
$2     Servo battery box
$110 TOTAL

Also, you will need a laptop or computer to run the sentry gun program. $250 for a cheap netbook, if you don't have anything else...

Step 2Arduino

Read More...
http://www.instructables.com/id/Autonomous-Paintball-Sentry-Gun/?ALLSTEPS


Welcome to Project Sentry Gun, home to the most versatile sentry gun on the web!
Now in use on six continents!

This sentry gun autonomously tracks, aims, and shoots at targets, using:
  • An airsoft or paintball gun
  • A webcam to find targets
  • A computer to process the video feed and aim the gun
  • Servo motors to physically aim the gun and squeeze the trigger
  • A sturdy tripod base
  • A microcontroller to interface between the computer and the servo motors
  • Fully open-source code
  • Lots of camo paint
 The end result is a paintball/airsoft spewing robot, that can turn the tides of any match. 

      

Read More and See the Rest of Bob's Site...
http://projectsentrygun.rudolphlabs.com/home

Sentry gun controller-board upgrade

posted Mar 29th 2012 12:01pm by
filed under: weapons hacks

This open source sentry gun controller board builds on a great concept by getting rid of the Arduino board. The previous version was an Arduino shield, but this upgrade keeps all of the cool features by rolling the necessary parts into one smaller footprint.

The image above doesn’t quite convey the scope of the project. Go take a look at the feature from last year which used the shield version of the controller.

Read More...
http://hackaday.com/2012/03/29/sentry-gun-controller-board-upgrade/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+hackaday%2FLgoM+%28Hack+a+Day%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher


Project Sentry Gun - Tutorial #4: The Sentry Controller (Standalone)


Video Link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qdBASlWQTaQ


Here's another one with impressive targeting abilities, made by www.zero-op.com made in 2008...


Zero-Op Systems was founded in 2007 with the intent to provide exciting technologies in the field of robotics and computer vision.

By the summer of 2008 we have succeeded in creating several successful prototypes of our paintball sentry gun, The Mercenary. The future of Zero-Op Systems will be based around providing innovative products to the fields of Paintball, Military Training, and Computer Vision.

We pride ourselves on doing things never seen before in the professional market.

Go there...
http://www.zero-op.com/about

Meet the Mercenary


Video Link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_wtt_wueP0&feature=player_embedded


This is Cool Tech and Amazing to me! Amazing, that kids these days can build this kind of stuff, at home! Cool and kind of Scary too... If people can build things like this at home. Then, just imagine what the Military has now, that they are not telling US about!:O

Don


Autonomous Sentry gun controller-board upgrade
Sentry gun controller-board upgrade - Hack a Day
Project Sentry Gun - Tutorial #4: The Sentry Controller (Standalone) - YouTube
Autonomous Paintball Sentry Gun - Hack a Day
Autonomous Paintball Sentry Gun
Processing.org
Automated Paintball Sentry - Hack a Day
Autonomous paintball sentry gun - Hack a Day
Meet the Mercenary - YouTube
sentry-gun-control-board.png (PNG Image, 1819 × 774 pixels)
Automated Paintball Sentry - YouTube
Featured Successful Projects - Project Sentry Gun
Arduino Sentry Gun - YouTube
SentryGun53 - YouTube
Airsoft Sentry Gun Version 4 - YouTube
Airsoft Sentry Gun Version 4 - YouTube
Project Sentry Gun
Video's - Project Sentry Gun
Sentry Gun Version 5 - Targeting - YouTube
Project Sentry Gun
Zero-Op Systems - Battle Tested Computing Solutions
Zero-Op Systems - Mercenary - Battle Tested Computing Solutions
Zero-Op Systems - Media - Battle Tested Computing Solutions

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Face to Face with Duqu malware - Duqu is a computer worm discovered on 1 September 2011, thought to be related to the Stuxnet worm.

Blackouts all over the USA. Every time we have a Thunder Storm... Hmmm I wonder???

Don

Face to Face with Duqu malware

Face to Face with Duqu malware

Once again we discuss about Stuxnet, cyber weapons and of the malware that appears derivate from the dangerous virus. The international scientific community has defined a Stuxnet deadly weapon because been designed with a detailed analysis of final target environment supported by a meticulous intelligence work that for the first time in history has embraced the world of information technology.

The agent was designed with the intent to strike the Iranian nuclear program and even more clear is who has always opposed such a program, U.S. and Israel first, and consider also the technology skill necessary to develope a weapon with the observed architecture is really high.

Extremely important two factors af the event:
1. the choose of control systems as target of the malware.
2. the conception of the virus as an open project, a modular system for which it was designed a development platform used to assemble the deadly cyber weapons in relation to the final targets.

Regarding the second point, it has been discovered a platform behind Stuxnet called “Tilded Platform“, used also for the development of Duqu malware, and that make possible the development of a set of reusable tools, a true innovation that make possible the composition of ever new and enhanced agents with modules developed to fulfill specific functions against clearly defined targets.

As previously stated Duqu has some interesting features such as:
  • Modularity of its structure.
  • In isolated instances of the malware, unlike Stuxnet, it would not seem to be equipped with modules for SCADA systems attack. It is only able to steal information from the host system.
  • The malware, such as Stuxnet has characteristics that demonstrate innovative techniques behind its development. We suppose that a team of specialists with high technical skills has been engaged to project the most innovative cyber weapon.
According the ENISA Duqu Analysis there are important differences between Duqu and Stuxnet. The 2010 Kaspersky analysis [Gostev 2011] concluded that Stuxnet consists of the two parts:

1. A component responsible for the propagation of the malware (a carrier platform).
2. A separate module targeting Programmable Logic Controllers (an attack module).

According to Kaspersky, the carrier platform of Stuxnet could be reused, for example with a different attack module. But, unlike Stuxnet, DuQu can also be reconfigured remotely to install new malware payloads and to direct attacks at new targets.

The attack module of DuQu, found together with the detected samples was a general purpose keylogger (enriched with some additional spying capabilities) able to perform a reconnaissance in any organization. However, according to Symantec, the aim of DuQu is to infiltrate organizations operating in industrial environments. This conclusion is based on the fact that the majority of the detected threats were found in industrial infrastructures, and because of the connection to Stuxnet code. Unlike Stuxnet, DuQu is an intelligence gathering tool, apparently aiming to prepare the ground for attacks such as Stuxnet. It should be emphasised, however that there is no direct evidence for the intentions behind DuQu

But if Duqu has no components to attack SCADA systems or similar, why create in us so much worry? Remember that we defined modular Duqu? Well this is the feature I think that should cause us to jump from the chair. To date we have isolated versions of malware orphan of those components to attack specific critical systems, but it is reasonable to assume that the same Duqu is a work in progress project. The ability to compose its structure at different times using modules designed specifically for precise goals, makes this unique and formidable.

What occurred in the Stuxnet case has raised media attention demonstrating the total inadequacy of the defense systems of critical infrastructures across the world. Many, too many, the SCADA systems around the world, achievable in an easy manner and easily attacked by evil-minded because they are un protected, exposed on the web for maintenance purpose, and configured with the factory settings easily available even with simple searches on the web. Also for that SCADA systems deployed without security and isolated from the Internet there is a concrete risk to be infected using USB memory sticks.

While in recent weeks, the Iranian government declared definitively defeat the threat Stuxnet in the last month there are many news published on the web related to malware Duqu.

The mistery of Duqu sorce code
The first one was related the identification of the mysterious language used in the DuQu virus. Researchers at Kaspersky Lab requested the help of international experts after failing to figure out the language on their own.
Thanks to help from programmers has been discovered that the language, which DuQu used to communicate with C&C (command & control) servers, is a special type of C code compiled with the Microsoft Visual Studio Compiler 2008.

Despite the long period of study conducted on the agent the component of the source written in C remained a mystery. It's a vital part for Duqu used to communicate with C&C servers, download additional payload modules and execute them on infected machines.

The code was C code compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio Compiler 2008 using options 01 and Ob1 in the compiler to keep the code small optimizing execution time and size of the source code.

The use of object-oriented C dialect, generally called “OO C, to write the event-driven code in the malware reveals that authors who coded this part of DuQu were probably old-school programmers, their style is uncommon for malware and is more commonly found in professionally-produced commercial software created ten years ago, according Costin Raiu, director of Kaspersky Lab's global research and analysis team.
Another important factor in choose of C language instead other more powerful like C++ it the necessity to grant portability of the agent that maybe must be compiled with several standard compiler in different environments. This requirement indicate us that the agent could be used to attack other platforms, not necessary Widows based.

Obviously when you create such a complex espionage tool, you take into account that maybe some day you will run it on servers, maybe you will want to run it on mobile phones or God knows what other devices, so you just want to make sure your code will work everywhere,” Raiu says.

The Duqu evolution
News of these days is that a new variant of Duqu has been isolated, the event confirm the hypothesis made on the evolution of the malware, a work still in progress that will propose in the next year several instances customized to attacks specific targets. The variant found was designed to evade detection mechanism of antivirus products and other security systems. Vikram Thakur, principal security response manager at Symantec, announced that the new Duqu Driver has been identified, let's remind that the module is used for loading the malware's encrypted body stored on the systems. The driver is called mcd9x86.sys and it was compiled on Feb. 23.

What is changed in the new driver?
The source code appears to be reshuffled and compiled with a different set of options and it also contains a different subroutine for decrypting the configuration block and loading the malware's body. A similar operation has been already observed in October 2011. Of course also the references to C&C server are changed because all old structures were shut down on Oct. 20, 2011.

Unfortunately the addresses of this server are not known because principal security firm don't have the full Duqu body but only the loader in the form of the driver, the loader does not contact the C&C directly, it only loads the main body which is stored in encrypted form.

What we expect from the future?
Surely we will confront with new and dangerous cyber threats that can offend the military and also private sector. Agents such as Stuxnet and Duqu are children of an ambitious and complex project that wants to be able to provide an "evolutionary" threat. Prepare to have to deal with new modules and new features designed to attack specific targets.

Let me raise serious doubts on the immediate effectiveness of preventive measures against this new generation of cyber weapons because the industry in general is still too vulnerable. Possible evolutions of malware could cause serious damage to infrastructures that use the systems in question.

The only way to emerge unscathed from this awkward situation is a close collaboration between industry, leading manufacturers of control systems and governments, hoping that security will become a requirement in the design phase.

Submitted By : Pierluigi Paganini
About the Author : Pierluigi Paganini, Security Specialist
CEH - Certified Ethical Hacker, EC Council

Go there...
http://thehackernews.com/2012/03/face-to-face-with-duqu-malware.html