Netfuture: The future is networked

Category: Open Source

  • Upgrade ejabberd to the latest TLS security [UPDATE#2, 2014-06-05]

    Upgrade ejabberd to the latest TLS security [UPDATE#2, 2014-06-05]

    ejabberd is a very fine XMPP server. However, it has very few options to configure its SSL and TLS security settings away from the very weak OpenSSL defaults. The TLS Interposer makes securing TLS used by ejabberd a breeze.

  • Upgrading Apache 2.2 OpenSSL security with TLS Interposer

    Upgrading Apache 2.2 OpenSSL security with TLS Interposer

    Undoubtedly, you will have heard about the weaknesses of old SSL and TLS protocol versions and ciphers. Web browsers have been updated; but the server administrators are left alone: For stability reasons, many run long-term support editions such as Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Even without that, most will stick to the reliability of Apache 2.2, hesitant…

  • Eliminate BEAST, CRIME, Lucky13, RC4, SSLv3 weaknesses from binary/legacy applications

    Security is hard. Security that works with a variety of platforms under a flurry of circumstances with an endless choice of applications is practically impossible. SSL and TLS, the Internet security workhorses, try to achieve this feat … and fail from time to time. While some software has been updated, not all of it has.…

  • TimeMachine corruption: Use btrfs 🙂

    I do run TimeMachine backups from my MacBook to my Linux server, which is very convenient. However, I sometimes close the MacBook while the backup is going on and walk away. I believe this is the cause for the TimeMachine corruptions that I have once in a while. Even though I tried fixing these TimeMachine…

  • Simple versioned TimeMachine-like backup using rsync

    Over many years, I have dealt with scripts that do backup versioning, i.e., maintain multiple backups. Due to their flexibility, they have been complex to understand and configure. Here is a simple rsync-based tool with a different focus: The experienced systems administrator who wants to keep his system’s complexity down.

  • Using passwordless PostgreSQL login with ownCloud

    I like PostgreSQL and ownCloud, but I do not like passwords, especially if they have to stored in plain text in a widely readable configuration file. So, I wanted to use PostgreSQL peer authentication with ownCloud as well.

  • teachPress Enhancements for Publication Management (Updated)

    TeachPress is a WordPress plugin for managing courses (which I do not need here) and publications with support for BibTeX and referencing publications from posts. The teachPress BibTeX database already contains most of the information about the publications in a structured format. So instead of manually replicating the information in a post, I decided to…