Cardboard Box

Examine x509 Certificate

2009-06-24T13:12:00.002-04:00

I've noted uses of the "openssl" command before. Here is another.

A quick way to examine a certificate in plain text.

openssl x509 -text -in cert.pem

Convert Seperate Key/Cert Files to PFX

2009-06-04T11:21:00.003-04:00

The reverse of the process of extracting the key/certs from a PFX can be achieved via the following:

openssl pkcs12 -export -in [certificate.crt] -inkey [private.key] -out [package.pfx]

Recover MySQL Root Password

2009-04-20T09:46:00.004-04:00

To recover the password for the root account on a MySQL server use the following steps. Essentially, it can be done by restarting the daemon without the grant tables.

1. Stop the currently mysql daemon
# /etc/init.d/mysql stop

2. Start the daemon without the grant tables
# mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &

3. Login to mysql as the root user ... it will have a blank password
# mysql -u root

4. Reset the root account password
mysql> use mysql;
mysql> update user set password=PASSWORD("NEW-PASSWORD") where User='root';
mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> quit

5. Stop & restart the daemon
# /etc/init.d/mysql stop
# /etc/init.d/mysql start

I found this tip here.

Content-Disposition Header

2009-04-10T15:18:00.005-04:00

In situations where you want a file linked to from within a website to present a 'Save As' dialog rather than simply displaying the content ... you can inject a Content-Disposition header into the HTTP connection to prompt the browser to do so. I recently had a situation where I was linking to an uncommon file extension through a reverse-proxy and Internet Explorer 6 wanted to include extra URI information in the 'Save As' file name. You can force the saved file name with this header as well.

In PHP, the header is introduced as follows...

header('Content-type: text/plain');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=myfile.ext');

Additional information, and my source for this information, can be found here.

Upper To Lower To Upper Case Command Line

2009-03-25T11:31:00.004-04:00

Nice trick to pipe command line data through to convert it's alpha characters to upper or lower case. Most people dont even realize the 'tr' command exists on most linux/shell releases.

From UPPER to lower: tr [:upper:] [:lower:]
From lower to UPPER: tr [:lower:] [:upper:]

Example: ls /directory | tr [:lower:] [:upper:] | sort

Mount ISO (.iso) In Linux

2009-01-22T16:44:00.003-05:00

To mount an ISO (.iso) on a Linux system...

mount -t iso9660 -o ro,loop /path-to-file/file.iso /path-to-mount-point

In many cases you will not have to specify the "-t iso9660" as most Linux distributions will auto detect that. The "ro" in the "-o ro,loop" tell this system to mount it ISO read-only.

Enable Syntax Highlighting In Vim (vi), Mac OSX (Leopard)

2009-01-15T10:57:00.003-05:00

To enable the syntax highlight feature of Vim on a Mac OSX (Leopard) system, edit the /usr/share/vim/vimrc file and add the "syntax on" config.

To do this from Terminal.app...

sudo vi /usr/share/vim/vimrc

...add a new config, "syntax on" and then save and close the file.

Remotely Reboot Windows XP

2009-01-12T15:35:00.001-05:00

Using a remote desktop client to connect to a Windows XP box will not provide you with the option to reboot or restart the remote machine. To do this from the command line, open a command prompt (Start->Run->Cmd.exe) and use the command:

shutdown -r -t 0

...to open a gui interface to manage the reboot:

shutdown -i

Web Based Design Tools

2008-12-28T17:17:00.002-05:00

Some great online tools for a web designer or content creator. I frequently use the Image Optimizer to cheat some load time off my site's images.

http://tools.dynamicdrive.com

Mac Keyboard Shortcuts For Symbols

2008-12-27T17:45:00.007-05:00

Mac OSX keyboard shortcut combinations for many common symbols.

™ (trademark) = Option + 2
£ (pound) = Option + 3
¢ (cent) = Option + 4
∞ (infinity) = Option + 5
§ (section) = Option + 6
¶ (paragraph) = Option + 7
• (dot) = Option + 8
€ (euro) = Shift + Option + 2
° (degree) = Shift + Option + 8
¥ (yen) = Option + y
÷ (division) = Option + /
± (plus/minus) = Option + =
≥ (greater than or equal to) = Option + >
≤ (less than or equal to) = Option + <
√ (square root) = Option + v
π (pi) = Option + p
≈ (approx.) = Option + x
∆ (delta) = Option + j
∑ (sum) = Option + w
Ω (ohm) = Option + z
µ (micro) = Option + m
© (copyright) = Option + g
® (registered) = Option + r
† (dagger) = Option + t

Convert PFX to Separate Key/Cert Files

2008-12-23T12:24:00.009-05:00

Using openssl to extract key and certificate files from a .pfx

To extract the private key...

openssl pkcs12 -in [name.pfx] -nocerts -out [private.key]

To extract the certificate...

openssl pkcs12 -in [name.pfx] -clcerts -nokeys -out [certificate.crt]

To decrypt the private key...

openssl rsa -in [private.key] -out [decrypted.key]

Strip Leading Zeros In Shell

2008-12-04T13:46:00.011-05:00

Nice trick to strip leading zeros from an IP address at the command line.

(ie turn 002.203.017.001 to 2.203.17.1)

echo 002.203.017.001 | awk -F"." '{print int($1)"."int($2)"."int($3)"."int($4)}'

HTTPS PUT w/Basic Authentication Via Curl

2008-11-10T10:00:00.010-05:00

Need to use a secure HTTP PUT over SSL using Basic Auth?

curl -T test.txt -u https://[hostname]/[uri]

Add a -v to see that connection with verbose output.

Flush DNS Cache, Mac OSX (Leopard)

2008-09-19T10:45:00.004-04:00

As a DNS admin, I frequently need to flush my local DNS cache in order to confirm that a change I made on a DNS server worked. To do this on a Mac OSX (Leopard), open your Terminal.app and run the following command...

dscacheutil -flushcache

Home & End Keys, Mac OSX (Leopard)

2008-09-02T13:22:00.005-04:00

Using Terminal.app on Mac OSX (Leopard) to connect to an Linux system and work in Vim is a bit of hassle when it comes to the Home and End keys. To remap these such that the 'End' key will take you to the end of the current line and 'Home' the beginning, remap the keys in Terminal->Preferences->Settings->Keyboard to the following...

End: ctrl + [, [, 4, ~ it should look like this \033[1~

Home: ctrl + [, [, 1, ~ it should look like this \033[4~

This tip and others were found here.

Web Based Color Scheme Generator

2008-01-15T10:04:00.001-05:00

Whenever I'm building a web based tool, the aesthetic design part is usually what slows me down the most as it takes me a while to find the "look" I'm going for. I was therefore happy to find a very simple web based color scheme generator that created color schemes that I liked ... http://www.hypergurl.com/colormatch.php

URL Snippet (Perl)

2006-02-17T11:20:00.002-05:00

Perl snippet of code to URL encode or decode a string.

URL Encode:
$str =~ s/([^A-Za-z0-9])/sprintf("%%%02X", ord($1))/seg;

URL Decode:
$str =~ s/\%([A-Fa-f0-9]{2})/pack('C', hex($1))/seg;