Month: March 2008

BB&T Bank tracking it’s users

Post author By Eric
Post date March 27, 2008

Check out the homepage of Branch Banking and Trust, it’s got invisible tracking voodoo from Doubleclick/Google.

This is the unadorned BB&T website. No visible external advertising or mention of Doubleclick at all.

The first thing you’ll notice is the two warnings displayed by noscript in the upper-left corner. Remember this was supposed to be blank white space. Doubleclick doesn’t appear on other pages and it sure as hell doesn’t appear in the online banking. Just being on the homepage is bad enough because of the enormous database owned by Doubleclick about nearly all Internet users. Through their advertising network Doubleclick can track me from website to website. Then of course they can also identify me when I go to login to my bank. BB&T now has detailed information about it’s customers provided by Doubleclick.

From the BB&T Privacy Notice

BB&T also gives itself permission to share the information it has about me to other companies that do marketing for the bank, i.e. Doubleclick.

In addition, we may disclose the information we collect about you described above to companies that perform marketing services on our behalf and to financial institutions for the purpose of jointly offering financial products and services to you, such as mortgage life insurance.

Tags branch banking and trust, doubleclick, firefox, google, noscript, tracking

hopkinsville

Vehicle warranty scam

Today I received a very interesting scam demanding that I buy an extended warranty because my “vehicle’s factory warranty has expired or will soon expire”. Turns out Dealer Warranty Services has already caught the attention of Missouri’s Attorney General. The AG’s website lists 23 complaints. The Better Business Bureau lists 37 complaints in the last 36 months, with 31 complaints resolved

Why anybody would send these ~~people~~ dirtbags money I have no clue.

Tags dealer warranty services, dirtbags, scam

gentoo

Maintenance: 3/17/2008

Post author By Eric
Post date March 18, 2008

Upgrades

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating world dependencies     ... done!
[ebuild     U ] sys-apps/man-pages-2.78 [2.76] USE="nls" LINGUAS="-cs% -da% -de% -es% -fr% -it% -ja% -nl% -pl% -ro% -ru% -zh_CN%" 0 kB
[ebuild     U ] sys-libs/com_err-1.40.6 [1.40.4] USE="nls" 3,977 kB
[ebuild     U ] sys-libs/ss-1.40.6 [1.40.4] USE="nls" 0 kB
[ebuild     U ] sys-fs/e2fsprogs-1.40.6 [1.40.4] USE="nls -static" 0 kB
[ebuild  NS   ] sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.24-r3  USE="-build -symlink" 82 kB

Total: 5 packages (4 upgrades, 1 in new slot), Size of downloads: 4,058 kB

Misc.

The Ethernet tap is installed and operational. I’m deciding whether to install Snort.

Tags ethernet tap, snort

Computing

Pictures

Post author By Eric
Post date March 14, 2008

Hooray! The Ethernet tap is finally complete.

The tap in all of it’s glory.

I originally wanted to install a fake switch next to this warning but I gave up on it. Just so it would be finished and I could start using it.

Only four wires are really important so that’s why I didn’t bother with unnecessary copper. The diagram is rather difficult to read, but I made it work anyway.

Tags ethernet tap

Computing

All Your Data Are Belong To Me

Post author By Eric
Post date March 13, 2008

The Ethernet tap is all complete. I used a 5″x2.5″x2″ project box from Radio Shack and cut the holes in it with a box cutter. Filed down the rough edges so the keystone jacks fit firmly in their holes then a little super glue to hold everything in place. Just for some superfluous decoration I’m gonna put a unconnected switch in the box and a sticker that reads “Warning: Turning off power or pressing Reset switch could lose contents of hard drive. If you must restart this system, please get help or use Ctrl-Alt-Del…” :P hehe

Here’s the parts list for everything I’ve bought so far

1 RadioShack Project Box	3.69
4 RJ45 Keystone jacks		18.24
1 Economy UTP Stripper		4.49
2 Linksys LNE100TX NICs		39.98
  Discarded Ethernet cable	1.00
1 RJ45 crimper			64.05
8 RJ45 jacks 0.40 each		3.20

Total				134.65

All of the above I bought locally from Radio Shack, OfficeMax, and Randolph-Hale Electronics. I’ve already tested the wiring in the tap and I know I can get traffic to go across it but I haven’t yet dared try to sniff with it. Until now I haven’t had a solid frame to prevent unnecessary stress or bending on the wires.

Tags ethernet tap

gentoo

Maintenance: 3/17/2008

Post author By Eric
Post date March 11, 2008

Upgrades

These are the packages that would be merged, in order: 

Calculating world dependencies  .  ... done!

[ebuild     U ] app-misc/pax-utils-0.1.17 [0.1.16] USE="-caps" 0 kB
[ebuild     U ] sys-apps/which-2.19 [2.16] 0 kB
[ebuild  NS   ] sys-libs/db-4.3.29-r2  USE="-bootstrap -doc -java -nocxx -tcl -test" 0 kB
[ebuild     U ] dev-lang/python-2.4.4-r9 [2.4.4-r6] USE="berkdb gdbm ncurses readline ssl -bootstrap -build -doc -examples -ipv6 -nocxx -nothreads -tk -ucs2" 0 kB

Total: 4 packages (3 upgrades, 1 in new slot), Size of downloads: 0 kB

Physical Changes
In preparation for getting my Ethernet tap wired up I bought two more NICs and installed them. The server now has three total. I made sure I bought the Linksys LNE100TX model so that all three cards use the tulip driver.

Tags ethernet tap, lne100tx, python, tulip

Computing

crimp

Post author By Eric
Post date March 10, 2008

I taught myself how to terminate ethernet recently. The crimper and rj45 jacks I bought from Randolph-Hale Electronics. So far I’ve only had one failed cable after making several. I thought I was going to need a cable tester but now it seems I can do without it.

Then, on Friday, I decided that I was going to build an Ethernet Tap.

ethernet tap

An Ethernet tap is a series of four RJ45 keystone jacks that are wired up to intercept all traffic that passes through it. The two jacks in the middle will each see half of a full-duplex connection. Obviously, two NICs are required to listen to both sides of the connection but I can try merging the separate capture files later. After getting this device built the next step will be reconfiguring the network topology in the office. Right now the router and server sit on opposite sides of the room but if the router and switch flip flop it might work.

Tags ethernet tap, rj45

gentoo

Maintenance: 3/3/2008

Post author By Eric
Post date March 3, 2008

Upgrades

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating world dependencies  .  ... done!
[ebuild  NS   ] sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.23-r9  USE="-build -symlink" 285 kB

Total: 1 package (1 in new slot), Size of downloads: 285 kB

Physical Changes
The case that the server sits in has a lot of gapping holes on the backside which I tried to cover today. Used some spare backplates to cover unused slots and taped over a large hole where a missing piece is supposed to fit. Unfortunately, I can’t cover the space where the motherboard ports stick out. The cover I have doesn’t fit the installed motherboard. With warmer weather coming, I’m concerned about spiders and other varmints getting in and making a nest.