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Serverauditor – SSH Shell / Console / Terminal

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Serverauditor is a mobile SSH client for many UNIX and related interfaces, including FreeBSD. Serverauditor is available for iOS and Android, and as a desktop version Chrome plugin.

serverauditorServerauditor is the most popular and innovative mobile SSH client, ever. Easily manage UNIX or Linux servers on the go with Serverauditor on your mobile device. And by now, Serverauditor has hit over a MILLION downloads.

App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id549039908

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.server.auditor.ssh.client

Official website: https://serverauditor.com/

Linux, FreeBSD servers infected to run like Windows bot

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A malware with the code name “Mayhem” has recently been found infecting Linux and FreeBSD servers throughout the world.

Malware dubbed Mayhem is spreading through Linux and FreeBSD web servers, researchers say. The software nasty uses a grab bag of plugins to cause mischief, and infects systems that are not up to date with security patches.

Andrej Kovalev, Konstantin Ostrashkevich and Evgeny Sidorov, who work at Russian internet portal Yandex, discovered the malware targeting *nix servers. They traced transmissions from compromised computers to two command and control (C&C) servers. So far they have found 1,400 machines that have fallen to the code, with potentially thousands more to come.

“In the *nix world, autoupdate technologies aren’t widely used, especially in comparison with desktops and smartphones. The vast majority of web masters and system administrators have to update their software manually and test that their infrastructure works correctly,” the trio wrote in a technical report for Virus Bulletin.

“For ordinary websites, serious maintenance is quite expensive and often webmasters don’t have an opportunity to do it. This means it is easy for hackers to find vulnerable web servers and to use such servers in their botnets.”

Miscelaneous news updates (arab-bsd, pf, cyphertite, PC-BSD)

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Below a number of links to interesting FreeBSD (related) projects and resources.

ArabBSD

ArabBSD is a new FreeBSD related project, working to create an Arabian FreeBSD operating system:

ArabBSD is a project which aims to provide infrastructure for the most reliable and secure operating system FreeBSD. We aim to have our own Arab Operating System developers soon starting from the analysis of FreeBSD infrastructure,  block diagram formulation and call for research groups within each field.  Anyone who is interesting in operating systems and their news can join us. They will keep up with OS. OS is about everything in life containing all the types of programming. You can develop in the kernel and you can use this Operating System as a virtual environment for your project.

10 years of pf presentation

Henning Brauer has made his presentation from BSDCan 2011 available. Weighing in at 82 pages, he gives a detailed overview of what happened to the packet filter firewall (pf) in the last 10 years.

Interview with Kris Moore (PC-BSD)

PC Perspective‘s John Davis interviewed Kris Moore recently. They talk about PC-BSD’s hardware support, performance, games and the future. The full interview can be read here: Interview with Kris Moore, Founder and Lead Developer at PC-BSD.

There’s also an interview on Distrowatch by Jesse Smith on OS design elements. Jesse interviews Jenny Rosenberg and James Nixon (iXsystems). Read the full interview here:  In the eye of the beholder.

cyphertite

cyphertite is a high-security scalable solution for online backups that can be installed on FreeBSD. The project is looking for testers and feedback. cyphertite features include:

  • client-based system
  • IPv6 support
  • compresses and encrypts all data before transmission
  • deduplicates using fixed-size pieces of data called “chunks”
  • all network traffic is encrypted using openssl certificates and keys
  • realm deduplication i.e. only backs up a file once if it is on N computers that share the same user account
  • incremental backups for shorter backup window and smaller metadata files
  • local cache database of chunks already sent to server avoids unnecessary encryption and network traffic
  • pay according to storage space used, not per client machine
  • demonstrable privacy of client data with open source client

cyphertite.com | Install cyphertite | Configure cyphertite

The Unix Method of Development Management

This is a mp3 recording of William Baxter’s NYCBUG presentation on The Unix Method of Development Management

Spanish video on PC-BSD

Sergio Ligregnio’s presentation on PC-BSD (in Spanish).


FreeBSD quick news and links (week 35)

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Some FreeBSD related links and updates below:

New NVidia FreeBSD drivers 256.53

NVidia has updated its graphics drivers for FreeBSD. Some of the changes are:

  • Fixed a bug that prevented XvMC from initializing in most cases.
  • Added support for xorg-server video driver ABI version 8, which will be included in the upcoming xorg-server-1.9 series of releases.
  • Fixed a bug that caused extremely slow rendering of OpenGL applications on X screens other than screen 0 when using a compositing manager.
  • Fixed a regression introduced after 256.35 that caused stability problems on GPUs such as GeForce GT 240.
  • Fixed a slow kernel virtual address space leak observed whenstarting and stopping OpenGL, CUDA, or VDPAU applications.
  • Fixed a bug that left the system susceptible to hangs when running two or more VDPAU applications simultaneously.

BSD License Generator

One shouldn’t have to change too much text when adapting the BSD license, but for the lazy there a BSD License Generator.

Benchmarking HAProxy – Ubuntu vs FreeBSD

“HAProxy on Ubuntu, or HAProxy on FreeBSD? I couldn’t find any real benchmarks comparing the two out in the wild, so I decided to do my own.”

More: Benchmarking HAProxy – Ubuntu vs FreeBSD

Installing pfSense on a Nokia IP120 firewall

“I was recently toying with an old Nokia IP120 firewall and discovered that pfSense would run quite well on this old hardware.”

Here’s how to do it: Installing pfSense on a Nokia IP120 firewall

FreeBSD Stable Release Install Guide

There’s already the excellent FreeBSD Handbook, but here and there you can find other useful guides, for instance the FreeBSD Stable Release Install Guide.

Up to date, Step by Step, How-To, Instructional Guide to Installing FreeBSD from scratch, Specifically written with background information covering the why and how the different components are used together to create a home or small enterprise network for the new-be and inexperienced FreeBSD computer hobbyist. Not a General reference type of document, but a true learning aid containing details unique to the stable version of FreeBSD your installing: a1poweruser.com

The history of Unix on the PC: Exploring lesser-known variants

“When someone discusses the Unix operating system on a PC, many modern computer users think of Linux, a Unix work-alike first released by Linus Torvalds in 1991. Linux is a relative newcomer to the field; Unix and Unix-like operating systems have been released for Intel x86-based systems as far back as 1979. This article covers some lesser-known Unix variants for IBM PC-compatible systems, both those that survive today and the ones that were not long-lived or commercially successful:

The history of Unix on the PC: Exploring lesser-known variants