Tag: hack

Quicker WEP Crack

September 01, 2009 by Jason

I don’t want to make you any more paranoid about PC security than you already are (and yes, they are out to get you), but a report in Engadget suggests that a pair of Japanese students can hack WPA encryption, used on most Wi-Fi enabled devices, in around a minute. They have come up with a fancy new algorithm that, for the moment at least they’re keeping to themselves. It beats the previous record by some 10 – 15 minutes, making it a potential threat to Wi-Fi users. Details of the crack are due to be announced next month at a conference in Hiroshima, so it’s not in the wild yet, and even if it does escape, most users can protect their files by switching their WEP to AES (Advanced Encryption System) mode, or using the (so far) still secure WPA 2 system.

Use tough passwords but make them easy to recall

August 06, 2009 by Jason

You can see whether your current passwords you do use more than one, right? are rated “strong” by using Microsoft’s online Password Checker. I bet you’ll be unpleasantly surprised by the results.

The three keys to strong passwords are length, randomness, and use of different types of characters. Each additional character multiplies the potential combinations a brute-force attack must try.

Random passwords use upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. When at least three of these four categories are used, an eight-character password should suffice in most instances. According to the FrontLine security site, such a password would take a century or more to crack by a hacker using a single PC. The eight-character standard is also the minimum the Microsoft Password Checker deems “strong.” Of course, the more characters in your password, the safer you’ll be.

If you wish to create your own password, use a sentence or phrase you can recall easily and then tweak it for each account. Read More»

Gmail flaw shows value of strong passwords

August 06, 2009 by Jason

The disclosure of a back door allowing bad guys to repeatedly guess Gmail passwords should remind us all to protect our accounts with long and strong character strings.

There’s a straightforward way to protect your online accounts  use signin phrases that are easy for you to remember but hard for others to guess.

The latest vulnerability affecting Gmail accounts was recently revealed by security researcher Vicente Aguilera DĂ­az in a posting on the Full Disclosure security list. (Aguilera previously revealed a Gmail flaw known as session-riding, which Google subsequently fixed, as reported by WS contributing editor Scott Spanbauer)

According to Aguilera’s new security alert, Google allows anyone with a Gmail account to guess another Gmail user’s password 100 times every two hours, or 1,200 times per day. No “captcha” keeps hacker bots from guessing passwords in this way. Worst of all: If a hacker controls, say, 100 Gmail accounts, 120,000 guesses can be made per day. Because Gmail accounts are free, many hackers control far more than 100 accounts, of course. Read More»

40 productivity tips for Firefox

April 17, 2009 by Jason

1. Auto-complete websites
Go to the address bar (Control-L) and type the name of the site without the “www” or the “.com”. Press Control-Enter, and it will automatically fill in the “www” and the “.com” and take you there. For .net addresses, press Shift-Enter, and for .org addresses, press Control-Shift-Enter.

2. Turn your bookmarks into keywords
Right-click the bookmark and then select Properties. Put a short keyword in the keyword field, save it, and now you can type that keyword in the address bar and it will go to that bookmark.

3. Speed up your downloads
Download Manager Tweak Extension adds extra functionality to the existing Download Manager to help you download faster.

4. Search faster
To search with lightning speed just highlight the word or phrase with your mouse and drag the highlighted text into the search bar. Firefox will then automatically load up the search in a new tab, so you can stay informed faster. Read More»

0-Day Exploit for Critical Firefox Vulnerability

March 27, 2009 by Jason

The release of proof-of-concept exploit code for an unresolved critical bug that allows for remote arbitrary code execution on the latest stable version of Mozilla Firefox has put developers on alert. A fix will be included in the 3.0.8 version of the browser, which is scheduled for release in a few days.

The vulnerability is described on SecurityFocus as a “Boundary Condition Error” and allows an attacker to execute potentially malicious code by calling a malformed XML file from a Web page. Parsing a specially crafted “root” XML tag in an XSL file results in a memory-corruption error.

These drive-by types of attacks have become the weapon of choice for many of today’s malware distributors. Cross-site scripting (XSS) weaknesses are used to inject rogue exploit-serving IFrames into legitimate pages. These exploits target vulnerabilities in popular software such as Adobe Reader, Flash Player, or the browsers themselves. Read More»

Kill Download Waiting Time for Rapidshare

February 24, 2009 by Jason

Recently we had written about a free download for rapidshare free users, which lets you download more than one file simultaneously with out any time lag in between.

Its been some time now Rapidshare has removed CATPHA ( entering the code shown in the image to download file). But another very annoying thing you see while downloading any file from rapidshare is the annoying download time before getting the download link.

Today, we will tell you a simple hack which lets you kill the rapidshare download timer and lower it down to zero with in a second. After the timer is zero you will see the Download Link immediately to download your file.

Let’s see how can you make the rapidshare download counter to zero instantly with in a second.

1. Copy the rapidshare link of the file to be downloaded in the address bar
Read More»

Free Password Protect Files Program For Windows

February 14, 2009 by Jason

One of the most important feature which almost every windows user wants in windows is to protect the private files with password. Many people keep some of the very sensitive files on their hard drive and other portable drives which they don’t want other to see.

Androsa (Password Protect Files Via Ghacks.net) is a free password file protector to protect your confidential documents or any other file with a secret password. It lets you lock any file in windows with a secret password.

When ever you password protect any files with this program it will convert the file into an encrypted file which can be opened only with software and de-protected by entering the correct password. You can select among different encryptions method at the time of password protecting your files with this program.

Let’s see how simple you can password protect any program with this software. Read More»

How to Boost performance by a good partitioning scheme

February 05, 2009 by Jason

Although a PC used for writing doesn’t need to be a high-performance computer, its performance can be improved by a good partitioning scheme. The biggest boost comes from my Paging partition on drive H, which is found on my second physical disk. I use this partition to boost performance in the following ways:

Move the paging file there. A well-known method for improving performance on a Windows-based computer is to move the paging file (pagefile.sys) from its usual location on drive C to its own separate partition on a separate physical drive.

Keep the Paging partition small (4 GB). By default the initial size of your paging file is 1.5 × RAM and its maximum size is 3 × RAM. So if your computer has 1 GB of RAM, which is pretty good for a desktop productivity computer, then setting your Paging partition to 4 GB gives you more than enough room for your paging file without wasting disk space that could be used for other purposes like storing data. Read More»

Ten ways to Tweak your Linux Boot Process

January 16, 2009 by Jason

Linux rarely needs to be rebooted. But when it does, it’s often slow to boot. Fortunately, there are ways to speed things up. Some of these methods are not terribly difficult. (although some, unfortunately, are). Let’s take a look.

1. Disable unnecessary services

Depending upon the use of the machine, plenty of services won’t be needed. Using Linux just for a desktop? Then you won’t need sendmail, httpd, and many other services. If your server is only a Web server, you can shut off many services as well. To do this, you can go to the Administration menu and take a look at the Services entry. Just deselect all of the services you don’t want to start.

2. Disable unnecessary kernel modules

If your desktop is wired to the Ethernet, you don’t need to have a wireless kernel module loaded. This task is a bit more difficult and will require a kernel recompilation, which is not the easiest task to undertake. To do this, you will need the kernel sources. Then, follow the standard steps for compiling a kernel. The difference is that you’re going to go through your system and disable all of the modules you don’t need. Read More»

Top Ten secret hidden vista tips

December 21, 2008 by Jason

These are some uncommon but very useful tips tricks & hacks for windows vista to enhance the user experience in windows vista.

Enable Auto-Logon in Windows Vista (Warning: Security Risk)

a) click Start and type ‘netplwiz’ or click that name on the Start menu
b) in the GUI window that comes up, uncheck the “Users must enter a username and password to use this computer” box
c) click ‘Apply’
d) in the new dialog box that opens type the name of the account you want to auto-logon by default (if the account is not normally passworded then it blank)
e) click OK and exit.

Remove ToolTips From Showing When You Mouse Over Something

a) start > run = “regedit”
b) HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced
c) set “ShowInfoTip”=dword:00000000
d) exit and reboot Read More»