26 march 2024
The other thing I've been working on is a Pwnagotchi. It's quite easy to set up, just a Raspberry Pi flashed with custom firmware & a screen really. It did take a little while to get it going though.
Working out how to share ethernet to it via USB, configuring SSH & the display all took a little while. Once that was done, it was pretty much ready to go. I took it around the city & it ate a bunch
of Wi-Fi handshakes. I've also managed to get it to tether to my phone using Bluetooth so I can manage it from my phone.
Programming & web access has made huge leaps on iOS, mainly due to the iPad Pro & the fact that both the iPhone & iPad now support USB-C. I was able to SSH into the device, transfer files using FTP &
view the device's webpage all from my iPhone, which used to be an impossible dream.
Currently, I'm trying to get custom plugins working, but that is proving somewhat difficult. All the files are in the right places, & the config file has all the right options selected, but the
plugin just won't show up. There is another way to add plugins, by having the Pwnagotchi download them using Git. I'm going to try that next. Hopefully I can get this first plugin working which will
act as a proof of concept for future plugins I may wish to install.
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15 march 2024
It's been a while. To be honest I had a fair amount of trouble trying to get back into tilde using SSH and all.
Since I last posted, I have done a lot of more physical hacking & tinkering projects. The biggest of all being the Flipper Zero. I've had a lot of fun building boards for it & hacking into things.
For instance, using an NRF24 to gain access to a Logitech keyboard (mine of course) & using the Devboard flashed with Marauder to deauth & crack the password for (my own) Wi-Fi network. That second
one can't all be done on the Flipper. You need to pass the handshakes the Marauder gets to Wireshark, & then to Hashcat. A really cool process nonetheless.
The Flipper Zero is also great for exploring security tags & cards. I deal with a lot of different types as a part of my work & it is cool to be able to store & emulate them on the Flipper, or
distinguish what protocol a reader uses. The elusive thing has been encrypted HID iClass cards. There is an app that can now work with them, but it requires hardware that is fast becoming hard to
find. The easiest & most compact piece of hardware is now almost impossible to find, and I am unsure of which other readers, SIMs & SAMs will work.
I have a bunch of other stuff I have been making & doing, but I'll save that to give me a reason to come back.
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27 july 2022
I consider myself to be a jack of all trades, and definitely a master of none. I think this is due to my inability to stick with something for long enough.
I have basic to somewhat advanced knowledge in all sorts of things. For example, I am proficient in HTML, CSS, SQL, Python, Javascript, some kind of C,
a bit of SwiftUI, a tiny bit of AWS knowledge, basic Windows Server knowledge and I'm sure many other things.
The problem is that most of this knowledge is just surface level, and I can never think of an idea that will let me use my knowledge and learn more.
I think the answer is that I just need to think about projects I can start which are directly related to my work and use one of the above systems/languages
to accomplish it. Out of all of those, I feel like the most interesting things to me are Python, Javascript and SwiftUI.
I guess I'll have to report back soon.
Sidenote: My goodness the blog looks bad. I thought the colour I picked months ago looked good, but it definitely does not. Will definitely need to take a look at
fixing up the look and feel of the blog.
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22 july 2022
Just a quick venting session.
I had a client that was having issues printing to their printer. "Used to work." "Don't know what I did." and all that.
It didn't take long at all to find the issue. Somehow, the client had deselected the printer port in the printer properties.
Before fixing this, I thought I'd give the printer troubleshooter a test. I remember it to be almost completely useless.
Other than restarting the print spooler, it does basically nothing. These thoughts were confirmed when it finished and told me
"Windows Troubleshooter couldn't fix the problem." How difficult is it to check that the printer has a port selected?
And for bonus points that the port actually has something at the other end. Other than spooler, paper and jam issues I am sure
this is the next big one. Someone playing around in settings that they don't understand.
This further cements my feelings that the Windows Troubleshooters are completely useless.
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06 june 2022
Time has passed and it has mostly been the same old thing. Doing all sorts of little things moving projects forward.
A very interesting development has been the app called WorldWideWeb by the Iconfactory. It's an extremely lightweight web
server for iOS, iPadOS & MacOS. You point it at a folder, then it hosts said folder, allowing your devices to access it It's a
great step in pushing the abilities of the iPad. Swift, Python, Javascript, HTML, SSH, and all sorts of other things are now
accessible and programmable from the iPad. I never really have the drive or killer idea to push me through the creation of an
app/service/site, but it is really cool to be able to tinker on the go with all sorts of different technologies.x
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14 may 2022
I really enjoy going into the city on the weekend with just my iPad Pro. It has really come into its own as a fully functional
computer. Really anything I need to do on it is possible. The only issue is that basically all backpacks are designed with a
15-17 inch thick laptop in mind. The backpacks I have are way too big for a tiny 11 inch iPad. I'm thinking of looking at a
hydration pack as my little weekend backpack. Just enough to fit the iPad, some accessories etc.
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13 may 2022
I just had my first experience with Windows 11, setting up a computer for a client. The onboarding process is quite good,
especially for your standard consumer. Different options for what you want to use the computer for etc. (only downside is
needing a Microsoft account, but I'm past crusading against that at this point)
There are some cool ideas littered around, but I'm not sure I'm ready to install it on my home PC. One issue is Microsoft's
insistence on pushing you to Edge, even if the site doesn't work. You only get a 30 day exemption to run the site in IE mode
before it reverts you & you have to do the same thing again.
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12 may 2022
Poking around a completely text based interface has got me interested in following the "100 Days of SwiftUI" course again.
When it comes to programming languages I am definitely a jack of all trades, but master of none. The basic principles of
programming are firmly ingrained, and the languages I am decent at include Javascript, Python, SQL & HTML/CSS etc.
SwiftUI has been interesting for a while but I wasn't able to get very far when I last tried (in 2020 on a dying 2013 MacBook
Air, which now has a dead logic board). Since then, it has become possible for Swift Playgrounds on iPadOS to do a lot more
in terms of creating and running Swift code.
I blitzed through the first few days which were all about variables, constants, arrays and all that basic stuff. I do like
how transferrable the basic ideas are (especially with a syntax light language, no semicolons) between languages.
The biggest problem I have is not learning the language, but finding & sticking with an idea, then bringing it to fruition.
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10 may 2022
Yesterday I found the wonder that is Blink for iOS. It's simple to set up and allows me to get into my session
much quicker than PuTTY on my PC. It also has some bizarre, but at the same time great features. Like a facecam
(for video tutorials I assume, or perhaps for vain people) & access to location data from your device.
It works pretty much identically to working at a computer, which is really cool.
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09 may 2022
I'm sure the things I've learned/relearned as a part of joining this community seem pretty small fry to most people here.
It's just a slow journey of learning where everything lives, what commands to use (I found out 'byobu-info' brings back
the helpful home page) and the ways you can use them.
I have managed to slightly automate the connection process because messing around with the PuTTY settings each time was
starting to get annoying. I can now reliably log in and navigate without getting lost.
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06 may 2022
There's a bit of a learning curve to this whole thing. The home page, Byobu & all the keyboard shortcuts.
I think I am slowly getting it. Still floundering a bit, especially when the F keys don't do what the wiki says they should.
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04 may 2022
In all my time on the internet I have never really used a terminal or SSH. The terminal has always just been the place to do those specific things that you can't do with a GUI.
It's cool to see that there are still communities that use things like plain text & Gopher. In the past day or two I have learned how to create an SSH key, set up PuTTY to work with said key,
& changed settings/html files inside a terminal. All things that have for most people been superseded by Squarespace & Graphical User Interfaces. It's cool to go back to a bit of technology I never really grew up with.
(My first operating system was Windows 95)
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