In the last article I gave a quick overview of the hardware tokens and the yubikey. Today we will go more in details and we will see how to set and use GPG keys on the yubikey. Continue reading “Hardware-based authentication: Yubikey configuration”
Hardware-based authentication: Yubikey overview
In this article series, I am going to explain what is an hardware based authentication and how to configure one of the most famous (the yubikey) to work with your accounts and hold your ssh /gpg keys . Continue reading “Hardware-based authentication: Yubikey overview”
Setup data disks on Azure VM and Fix broken FSTAB
This is a quick guide on how to configure extra data drives to ubuntu/linux machine on azure, to get automatically mounted on startup using the shell. Also i will explain how to fix the boot process in case you mess up with the fstab file and the VM will not boot anymore. Continue reading “Setup data disks on Azure VM and Fix broken FSTAB”
MongoDB optimization
Databases are like religion. Everyone believe to withhold the ultimate best solutions… These ordered collection of data that are in the core almost all (if not all) complex systems. Even Simple website like this, have thousands of entries in a sql like database, and they never creates problems, until … one rainy day they do became slow, unresponsive, resource hungry… and that is where the pain start. Today I will give some hint on how to try to optimize a MongoDB database, by looking at its stats(). Continue reading “MongoDB optimization”
Bit Coin Wallet Collider
Ahh BitCoins! Welcome to the world of crypto currencies, where everything is decentralized and where making money is as easy as find a solution to a crypto-problem… Continue reading “Bit Coin Wallet Collider”
PC boot process – Extra: TPM with Luks / Bitlocker
In this quick article I want to extend the previous article on booting process and discuss few missing technologies that can play some role in the startup process. Those are not strictly required to your PC to work, but you may are already using them for example if you enabled encryption. Continue reading “PC boot process – Extra: TPM with Luks / Bitlocker”
PC boot process – Compatibility mode and secure boot
This is the last article of the “PC booting process” series and i want to quickly present few missing concepts that you may incur related to this topic. Again, my task is not to make you an expert, but just to give you a good understanding on what is happening when you push your “on button” on your pc. So let’s start from where we left… Continue reading “PC boot process – Compatibility mode and secure boot”
PC boot process – UEFI with GPT
In the previous article, I presented the boot process of BIOS based system with MBR disk. Today we will move forward and we will see the changes introduced with UEFI and GPT disks. I also have another article in plan where I will discuss mixed versions, secure boot and TPM. Anyway.. Let’s continue from where we left. Continue reading “PC boot process – UEFI with GPT”
PC boot process – BIOS with MBR
Aahhh the PC boot process! This magic sequence that transform your pc from a useless piece of metal and plastic in a fastastic machine capable (in the right hands) of opening any door around the world! Have you have wondered how this happen? well in this article (and in the next one) I want to explain in details how the PC boot process works. In particular we will start from MBR (still used in some older system).. and in the next we will move to UEFI. Continue reading “PC boot process – BIOS with MBR”
Hardware hacks and SuperMicro motherboards
If you follow up the security news, have definitely heard about the latest hack where SuperMicro was involved. So lets see what it happened there… Continue reading “Hardware hacks and SuperMicro motherboards”