michael-herbst.com Research and projects

Tor and Tor Browser update scripts

A while ago I setup a github account in order to contribute a BugFix to the dealii Finite Element software I am using for my PhD project. Since then not very much had happened to the account until I decided to add the repository update-scripts in which I plan to maintain the scripts I use to update some 3rd party software on my LinuX machines.

Currently not very many applications are supported. Pretty much only Tor and the Tor Browser, both applications from torproject.org. Since both are updated fairly often, the packages of my distribution (Debian) are not recent enough. Especially the Tor Browser is installed on pretty much all my machines: It is really easy to use and perfect if one just needs to do some quick checks on the internet. So I decided to develop scripts that automatically download, cryptographically check and install the current Tor Browser to the user's HOME directory. If you are interested to use or contribute to this project, feel free to download it below or visit the project page on github.

Link
update-scripts repository

Automatically encrypt root mails sent off-site

Motivation

Especially for server's which are required to run 24/7 it is absolutely crucial that one stays updated on the machine's status. E.g. using programs like the smartd daemon of smartmontools provides a good method to detect ageing hard disk long before failures actually occur. Like many other …
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Posted on Fr 14 Februar 2014 in System Administration.
Tags: cryptography root-encrypt and monitoring
SSH through SSH SOCKS Proxy

Setting up a SOCKS Proxy using ssh

Port forwarding in ssh is really great. Next to local and remote forwarding there is also dynamic port forwarding that essentially turns the ssh server into a SOCKS Proxy server. This means that you can actually route all the traffic of a local …
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Posted on Di 08 Oktober 2013 in System Administration.
Tags: Proxy ssh
LinuX, SSDs and disk encryption

Last week I updated the OS on my SSD-only laptop to Debian Jessie and I thought that would be a good opportunity to finally set up full-disk encryption(FDE) on that machine as well. Against my usual policy I did not do so initially fearing the possible performance drawbacks from …
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Posted on So 15 September 2013 in System Administration.
Tags: cryptography SSD and disk encryption

Motivation

Setting up a SOCKS Proxy using ssh