Month: December 2014

Python Script for Searching ExploitDB

Posted on by jra

biblical_apologetics_degree_wide

So I was looking to cleanup my Twitter favorites list and starting with the oldest one that was dated from 2011, it was from an article for using a Python script for searching the local ExploitDB instance on Backtrack.So of course it peaked my interest and click on the source link directed me to a parked domain. Common problem with Open Source tools. After performing some Google-Fu, I found a copy and downloaded it to my Kali instance and of course it didn’t work as the path for the ExploitDB path has changed.

 

So after a trivial change of pointing it to the correct path, bingo, it works.I have created a ‘Kali‘ repo on my Github if you want to grab it and I’m probably going to be making some updates to it over time.

Christian Apologetics – Interpretation of Facts

Posted on by jra

biblical_apologetics_degree_wideFrom Van Tils Apologetic by Greg Bahnsen:


As Van Til goes on to say, if one does not begin with some such general truths (universals) with which to understand the particular observations in one’s experience, those factual particulars would be unrelated and uninterpretable -i.e., “brute”. In a chance universe, all particular facts would be random, have no classifiable identity, bear no predetermined order or relation and thus be unintelligible to man’s mind.

I recently ran across what I consider a good use case for applying this principle of Christian apologetic’s; On the Reformed Theology G+ forum someone posted the following question: Do you accept the idea of objective morality? If so, what is your criteria for morality that isn’t subjective (open to interpretation)?

Christianity asserts that it is the law of God as revealed in the Bible. This is not a subjective response as it’s an assertion of worldview and is not bound in a single subject or a few peoples opinion. We can also not treat the question of morality as say the shooting average of Lebron James. The rules of interpretation of shooting averages facts do not conflict with opposing worldviews, but of a basic understanding of mathematics.

When we interpret the facts of morality we are dealing with transcendence in that the object is not bound by space or time. For the non-theist that believes everything is essentially ‘matter in motion’ this is antithetical to his presuppositions for which he interprets reality.

So it’s not simply a matter of providing an argument that isn’t open to interpretation, but comes down to how one interprets the facts for which they are observing. And the method of interpretation is driven by their presuppositions.

Automating VirtualBox Snapshots

Posted on by jra

biblical_apologetics_degree_wideI depend a lot upon VirtualBox for my security-related research and testing. That being the case I make a lot of changes to my VirtualBox VM’s and losting a given state and not being able to rollback to last known good state would be very bad. Yes, you can take snapshots manually via the GUI or even by the means of the CLI. When you have over 20 VM’s that you manage this can be pain in the butt.

This is where scripting comes in, so I built some simple Bash scripts to automate this process and have it run hourly via Cron.

 

 

The first script simply outputs to STDOUT a list of all the VirtualBox VM’s in the system:

[bash]
vboxmanage list vms
[/bash]

This will simply produce the name and registration number of each VM you have defined on the system.

Now to automate the snapshot process we simply craft something like:

[bash]
for i in `vmlist | awk ‘{print $1}’ | perl -pi.orig -e ‘s/\"//g’`
do
echo "Creating snapshot for $i"
vboxmanage snapshot $i take $i-`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`
done
[/bash]

This will create a snapshot for each VM with the snapshot name of each VM followed by a date/time stamp. Put this script in your crontab and your good to go.