What You Need to Know to Delete Files & Directories on the Linux Command Line

The Linux command line can be a great place to work when you know what you’re doing. But when you know what you want to do, but just can’t work out the syntax or decipher the often less-than-helpful errors to get it done, it can be infuriating. So, I’ve decided to write a series of short posts explaining some of the basics for people who just want to get in, do a job, and get out, without having to spend hours learning every nuance and arcane switch.

In today’s installment we look at what you need to know to delete files & directories (a.k.a. folders).   Read more →

How to Upgrade OpenSSH and Disable SSLv3.0, TLSv1.0, & Weak Encryption for PCI Compliance

Since June of 2015 Trustwave and others have begun failing e-commerce sites that previously had been passing their monthly PCI security audits.  Apparently it’s no longer ok to let people access your site who are running IE 10 and older, Android 4.3 and older, OS X 10.8.4 and older, or a long list of others.  While this software may not be THAT old, it’s old enough that it doesn’t work with the latest security protocols & ciphers, and so when you lock-down your site to support only the most secure stuff, you’ll end up blocking those folks on older platforms from visiting your site. But what can you do? Unless that minority of visitors on older technology is bringing in enough revenue to justify the cost of not being PCI compliant (if that’s even an option with your payment processor), it has to be done.  (Unfortunately, these people who try to visit your newly locked-down site will usually just get a generic error page from their browser saying the site couldn’t be found, so they’ll never know that the site is alive and well and they just need to update their software! Oh well…)

So, if you want to pass your PCI certification and keep Trustwave’s TrustKeeper PCI Manager (among others) happy, how can you do it? Here’s what worked for me…   Read more →

How to install 3rd Party RAID controller drivers in VMware ESXi 6.0

I recently had to install VMware ESXi 6.0 on a server sporting an Areca RAID controller. Since Areca supplies VMware drivers on their site, and this is a well-established name-brand controller, you may expect it to be easy to get it working. It isn’t exactly easy, since VMware doesn’t natively support this controller, but I did get it working, and since this same basic procedure could be adopted for other models/brands/situations, I wanted to post how I did it, since I couldn’t find anyone else on the internet at the time who had useful instructions for someone who hadn’t done it before (or with this version of VMware).

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How to Forward Ports on a Watchguard Firebox

Firewall appliances can be notoriously confusing to set up when it comes to something that should be relatively simple, that’s one of its most commonly performed tasks, like port forwarding. Perhaps the most confusing box I’ve come across is the Watchguard Firebox XTM21, which works great once you decipher the confusing way it expects you to configure it. Here’s what always works for me if I want to, say, forward all traffic coming in on port 41000 to an internal machine at IP address 192.168.1.5. (I’m sure this procedure (or something like it) applies to other similar Watchguard models as well.)  Read more →