The OFFICIAL programming thread

Hog

David Dodda

How I Almost Got Hacked By A 'Job Interview'

I was 30 seconds away from running malware, Here's how a sophisticated scam operation almost got me, and why every developer needs to read this.

Kind of insidious. Being a coder, having to run a private project on my machine to do a pre-interview test would not be suspcious to me. I’m guessing the compressed time frame was deliberate on the part of the fuckers.

Edit: I do a heck of a lot of experimentation and am regularly installing things that in turn install hundreds of packages from the internet, any one of which could have been compromised. I also use Emacs which is almost an operating system and I similarly use a bunch of tools that could likewise have malware inserted. So I spent some time setting up a containerised dev environment that had limited access to my host system and home folder but could still access specific ssh keys and passwords for specific tasks as necessary from the host. Fuck me, it was painful getting everything to work seamlessly but it really made you think about what had access to what and what damage could easily be done. And even with all that I’m still not 100% safe.

Jam

Here’s a chance for Hog and/or Gators to help me out!

We manage a number of systems on a governmental network and gradually they are seeking to manage everything for “security reasons.”

There are three problems with their approach:

We lose revenue when we turn over management to them.
We have 4-hour response times whereas they are lucky to repair outages in a week or a month.
The end users are dissatisfied with internal support as it truly sucks.

The users and our Contract Manager will go to bat for us, but here is where I can use some help.

They use Trellix and Ivanti to manage Windows systems, but they are helpless when it comes to Unix or Linux.

We are going to develop “anything but Windows” solutions in the future but this takes time.

Probably a question for Hog . . .

If we want to run native Windows 10 or Windows 11 systems in a Linux environment, what do you feel is the best way to begin testing.

This is a dark site, so no cloud solutions will be entertained, of course.

Virtual Assistant suggested:

Running Windows Applications on Linux

You can run native Windows applications on a Linux system using several methods. Each method has its own advantages and limitations.

Wine is mentioned .

Virtualization using VirtualBox or VMWare were suggested.

We are somewhat familiar with VMWare, but have no experience with Linux.

It’s high time we learned.

Ideas?

Gators1

Gators consulting would be happy to help for a low low six figure fee. Our offshore employee earning a low low $1 wages is an expert in Linux stuff.

Gators1

Big AWS outage today. Didn’t affect my group fortunately, but the number of companies that had outages showed how few are using multiregion strategies to ensure uptime. Also I might have mentioned this before, but I live like 5 miles from US-EAST-1 and got a ping of like 3 on a game hosted there. Not today obviously.

US-EAST-1 is humanity’s weakest link…

Jam

@Gators1 said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

Big AWS outage today.

When Kyle or I hear “AWS,” we think Automatic Warning System

Automatic Warning System is a railway safety system invented and predominantly used in the United Kingdom. It provides a train driver with an audible indication of whether the next signal they are approaching is clear or at caution. Depending on the upcoming signal state, the AWS will either produce a ‘horn’ sound, or a ‘bell’ sound. If the train driver fails to acknowledge a warning indication, an emergency brake application is initiated by the AWS; if the driver correctly acknowledges the warning indication, by pressing an acknowledgement button, then a visual ‘sunflower’ is displayed to the driver, as a reminder of the warning.

The trains are running fine.

I checked.

AWS must mean something else here.

Maybe American Welding Society?

Hog

@Jam said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

Here’s a chance for Hog and/or Gators to help me out!

We manage a number of systems on a governmental network and gradually they are seeking to manage everything for “security reasons.”

There are three problems with their approach:

We lose revenue when we turn over management to them.

We have 4-hour response times whereas they are lucky to repair outages in a week or a month.

The end users are dissatisfied with internal support as it truly sucks.

The users and our Contract Manager will go to bat for us, but here is where I can use some help.

They use Trellix and Ivanti to manage Windows systems, but they are helpless when it comes to Unix or Linux.

We are going to develop “anything but Windows” solutions in the future but this takes time.

Probably a question for Hog . . .

If we want to run native Windows 10 or Windows 11 systems in a Linux environment, what do you feel is the best way to begin testing.

This is a dark site, so no cloud solutions will be entertained, of course.

Virtual Assistant suggested:

Running Windows Applications on Linux

You can run native Windows applications on a Linux system using several methods. Each method has its own advantages and limitations.

Wine is mentioned .

Virtualization using VirtualBox or VMWare were suggested.

We are somewhat familiar with VMWare, but have no experience with Linux.

It’s high time we learned.

Ideas?

Wine (if it works) or virtualization are both the options. The first will be more integrated with the host Linux system (maybe not a concern at all) the second doesn’t give you much advantage over just running Windows unless there’s another reason to run Linux on the host.

Best way is to just get in and try it / start using Linux but I don’t know enough about your scenario to make an intelligent contribution.

Hog

@Gators1 said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

Gators consulting would be happy to help for a low low six figure fee. Our offshore employee earning a low low $1 wages is an expert in Linux stuff.

Ooohh, a fat pay raise!

Gators1

@Hog said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

@Jam said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

Here’s a chance for Hog and/or Gators to help me out!

We manage a number of systems on a governmental network and gradually they are seeking to manage everything for “security reasons.”

There are three problems with their approach:

We lose revenue when we turn over management to them.

We have 4-hour response times whereas they are lucky to repair outages in a week or a month.

The end users are dissatisfied with internal support as it truly sucks.

The users and our Contract Manager will go to bat for us, but here is where I can use some help.

They use Trellix and Ivanti to manage Windows systems, but they are helpless when it comes to Unix or Linux.

We are going to develop “anything but Windows” solutions in the future but this takes time.

Probably a question for Hog . . .

If we want to run native Windows 10 or Windows 11 systems in a Linux environment, what do you feel is the best way to begin testing.

This is a dark site, so no cloud solutions will be entertained, of course.

Virtual Assistant suggested:

Running Windows Applications on Linux

You can run native Windows applications on a Linux system using several methods. Each method has its own advantages and limitations.

Wine is mentioned .

Virtualization using VirtualBox or VMWare were suggested.

We are somewhat familiar with VMWare, but have no experience with Linux.

It’s high time we learned.

Ideas?

Wine (if it works) or virtualization are both the options. The first will be more integrated with the host Linux system (maybe not a concern at all) the second doesn’t give you much advantage over just running Windows unless there’s another reason to run Linux on the host.

Best way is to just get in and try it / start using Linux but I don’t know enough about your scenario to make an intelligent contribution.

Ummm…in consulting you get the money up front before giving a solution. Then never ever admit you don’t understand the client’s use case. Just make up some bullshit and take the money and run.

Lob12

@Lithu THIS THREAD IS IN THE WRONG SECTION @Lithu

Lob12

@Lithu

Hog

@Hog said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

Best way is to just get in and try it / start using Linux but I don’t know enough about your scenario to make an intelligent contribution.

Making this a separate reply because an edit might be missed:

Best way to --> get familiar with and learn Linux <-- is to get in and try it / start using it. Not sure it’s a great idea to learn with something that is critical or that could have financial and legal implications because you are contractually responsible for supporting it.

Gators1

@Hog said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

@Hog said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

Best way is to just get in and try it / start using Linux but I don’t know enough about your scenario to make an intelligent contribution.

Making this a separate reply because an edit might be missed:

Best way to --> get familiar with and learn Linux <-- is to get in and try it / start using it. Not sure it’s a great idea to learn with something that is critical or that could have financial and legal implications because you are contractually responsible for supporting it.

WTF dude??? If he gets sued then we can charge him double!!!

Hog

@Gators1 said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

Big AWS outage today. Didn’t affect my group fortunately, but the number of companies that had outages showed how few are using multiregion strategies to ensure uptime. Also I might have mentioned this before, but I live like 5 miles from US-EAST-1 and got a ping of like 3 on a game hosted there. Not today obviously.

US-EAST-1 is humanity’s weakest link…

Me:

Slpr

@Hog said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

@Hog said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

Best way is to just get in and try it / start using Linux but I don’t know enough about your scenario to make an intelligent contribution.

Making this a separate reply because an edit might be missed:

Best way to --> get familiar with and learn Linux <-- is to get in and try it / start using it. Not sure it’s a great idea to learn with something that is critical or that could have financial and legal implications because you are contractually responsible for supporting it.

Let me ask you this, you’re old enough, have you ever even build your own kernel?

So long Slpr

Hog

@Slpr said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

@Hog said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

@Hog said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

Best way is to just get in and try it / start using Linux but I don’t know enough about your scenario to make an intelligent contribution.

Making this a separate reply because an edit might be missed:

Best way to --> get familiar with and learn Linux <-- is to get in and try it / start using it. Not sure it’s a great idea to learn with something that is critical or that could have financial and legal implications because you are contractually responsible for supporting it.

Let me ask you this, you’re old enough, have you ever even build your own kernel?

So long Slpr

Nah, the biggest thing like that that I ever attempted was writing my own language, parser and compiler in Rust. Didn’t finish it (I mean, it worked but was missing half the features I wanted) but I learned a lot doing it.

Jam

@Hog said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

@Hog said in The OFFICIAL programming thread:

Best way is to just get in and try it / start using Linux but I don’t know enough about your scenario to make an intelligent contribution.

Making this a separate reply because an edit might be missed:

Best way to --> get familiar with and learn Linux <-- is to get in and try it / start using it. Not sure it’s a great idea to learn with something that is critical or that could have financial and legal implications because you are contractually responsible for supporting it.

It’s not going to be used to keep a plane in the air.

It’s a voice/data retrieval and transcription system.

The idea (if we can make it work) is to isolate the Windows O/S from the network.

Something like this may work:

https://www.xda-developers.com/docker-wine-weird-container-run-windows-programs-on-linux/

It’s going to be a learning curve.

Will dig deeper.

The potential need just surfaced today.