SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and it an old implementation of a crytographic protocol. TLS, or Transport Layer Security, is a new one. They are both used to have privacy in the communications between different parties. They are used to secure email, web browsing, instant messaging, etc These protocols work in a complex way […]

A brief introduction to SSL/TLS certificates

Live monitoring with Netdata
Netdata is a real time monitoring software that allows administrators, developers and architects have a visual representation of a system’s performance live. In short, porn for system’s tuners and other masochists but also a great tool to check system’s behaviour under load giving all members of a team to look at their part while the […]

How to enable SSL on Apache on FreeBSD
On this guide you will read about a simple way to enable Apache’s TLS connections on your web server. Aside from useful it secures the connection from the client to the server and prevents unwanted tinkering. Anyone on the need of SSL (nowadays TLS) will benefit from this article but particularly will do those in […]

List of Speculative Execution Vulnerabilities
Vulnerability CVE Exploit name Public vulnerability name Firmware changes Spectre 2017-5753 Variant 1 Bounds Check Bypass (BCB) No Spectre 2017-5715 Variant 2 Branch Target Injection (BTI) Yes Meltdown 2017-5754 Variant 3 Rogue Data Cache Load (RDCL) No Spectre-NG 2018-3640 Variant 3a Rogue System Register Read (RSRE) Yes Spectre-NG 2018-3639 Variant 4 Speculative Store Bypass (SSB) […]

How to work with Nessus scan results
Working with Nessus scan results is easy. How do I know that? Because I’ve worked with this tool for some time and although I do not know every corner of the things I’ve been doing some scans and solving quite a few deffects on systems that were labeled as ‘production ready’ when they clearly weren’t. […]

Abandon Linux. Rolling back the entire OS is possible.
When I was writing an article on updating FreeBSD from the 11.2 version to the new major release number 12, I was trying to add something extra for those who may read some of the information I publish. FreeBSD as a UNIX operating system has similar functionality to the old school UNIX ones such as […]

How to install ModSecurity 2 on FreeBSD
WARNING: A newer version of ModSecurity is available. The article to install ModSecurity 3 on FreeBSD can be found here. Will be published on March 1st, 2021. If you find the articles in Adminbyaccident.com useful to you, please consider making a donation. Use this link to get $200 credit at DigitalOcean and support Adminbyaccident.com costs. […]

How to install OSSEC agents on Windows
On a recent post I published about how to install an OSSEC server on Ubuntu I explained how this solution can help secure an infrastructure by deploying agents which report back to a central server. This is the second part of this server-client story. On this guide you will read about setting up agents and […]

Linus on ZFS
Disclaimer: What you are about to read may contain inaccuracies. Feel free to discuss them somewhere else. This is also my opinion and as such it may change through time, maybe tomorrow, next month, next year, next decade or never. I do also make very few reviews (if any) of what I write here so […]

Nessus vulnerability scanner
Nessus is a very well known vulnerability scanner used by many large and small companies to assess their systems and correct the issues found in them. Cybersecurity teams and specially auditors, make heavy use of tools like this in order to follow up the state of infrastructure and environments. Having a tool like this saves […]
