The ramblings of a computer geek
If you want to use OpenSSL on Microsoft Windows, there are a number of packages provided that allow you to do this, in this example we’ll use Shinning Light Production’s OpenSSL MSI Package. Step 1 – Download and Install OpenSSL Download the installer from: https://slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html, I used Win64 OpenSSL v3.3.3 Light, but there may be … Read more
A simple BASH script that you can run as a CRON job to check if a particular string is present in a file, and if not it sends you an email to say the file no longer has a particular string. And the email send just uses sendmail (assuming that is installed and configured). You … Read more
Sometimes it can be handy to connect into an IMAP(s) server to verify it is working as expected, or to view emails via a command line interface. In this example I’m connecting to a Microsoft Exchange 2016 Server with IMAP enabled, specifically IMAPS, so running on port 993. Connect and Login Firstly we need to … Read more
It used to be easy to flush the cache, but recent changes to the DNS Client on Microsoft Windows 10 (and 11) have made this more difficult, you used to be able to run an “ipconfig /flushdns” or failing that restart the “DNS Client” service, but these don’t appear to work any longer. However you … Read more
The Nissan LEAF provides limited information via the normal information systems in the car as to what is going on with the drive train and more specifically the battery. However, there is an phone app that is available for Apple IOS and Android called “LEAFSpy Pro” that can provide you with detailed information; something that … Read more
Sometimes you have some kit that is just old and isn’t supporting the recent (and secure) key algorithms. If you connect from a client without the correct set of ciphers available, so the client and the server can come to some agreement on a mutually supported cipher set, you’ll see an error such as: If … Read more
I had a need to be able to show up a row if a date in that row had fallen out of compliance, e.g. list of assets, with a “Last Patch” date on it. If the “Last Patch” date is more than X days (e.g. 90 days) before today, then show it up. At the … Read more
Had an issue where we had a client that couldn’t access a particular site, in this case we wanted to determine what encryption ciphers a particular website was offering on its HTTPS server, SSLScan which is a Linux tool available on Ubuntu and other distributions can help, for example:
Recently Broadcom have moved all VMware customers over to their support portal. Broadcom have a “Site ID” for each customer, so they created one for everyone migrated from VMware. The missing bit was how you get that Site ID, you need this so you can request access to your support and product entitlements. Step 1 … Read more
Although you shouldn’t be working around certificates which are very old or no longer meet modern standards e.g. TLS 1.3 etc. if like me you need to access something using TLS 1, you can use Firefox and change the configuration. Use the URL: about:config Then set: security.tls.version.min (from 2/3 to 1), then attempt to access … Read more