Articles by: Anonymous

A quick way to get secure hashes of all yer goodies

A glance at the underground sites shows a growing number of rootkits in development. Combine this with known, unpatched vulns, like the iSync mrouter privs escalation vuln, and I’m feeling naked without a tripwire.

Ed. Note: A tripwire application hashes a set of files and then looks for the files to change. Hopefully alerting you when that happens.

How the … do I keep JBoss happy?

I’m having trouble finding troubleshooting information for the default JBoss installation on OS X Panther Server. Either no one is using it or no one but myself has had any trouble with it!

Ed. Note: This is a rather clever way of defeating the dreaded QuickTime registration dialog. However it does require access to the package before deployment. It also is a good example of some of the things that pre and post-install scripts do within packages.

Here at my University I deploy the QuickTime updates not via SoftwareUpdate but with rsync, cron, and the QuickTime.pkg. You can edit the preflight script inside the package where you find the following text.

"# Marketing (aka Amy Fazio) sez we don't need to bring up the registration dialog anymore
# but let's just comment it out for now in case they change their minds. - duano! 3/16/04
# ... see, QT BRB did change their minds on this. Putting it back until Gibson - duano! 3/17/04
# Putting it back in again for Legal reasons (QT5Pro users need to know they're gonna lose functionality)."

Delete the dialog crap underneath and there you go.

tbone

Is there a way to add your own time server to the pop-up menu in the Date & Time preference pane?

I’ve tried entering the IP or DNS name into the preference pane, but it won’t remember it in the menu (when you select a different server it forgets the name of my own server).

Alexander

The MacEnterprise.org (formerly MacOSXLabs.org) group will be presenting a Wireless Security Webcast on Tuesday, October 26 at 1:00 pm EDT. Tommy Hann, a Senior Consulting Engineer at Apple, will be presenting on wireless security standards and how to leverage them in Panther.

For the case study we have Terry Simons from the University of Utah presenting on his experience in deploying an 802.1X network on his campus, including authentication and other commonly overlooked issues.

For more information on how to watch this WebCast, please visit the MacEnterprise.org website:

http://macenterprise.org/

Note that the broadcast ID needed to view the webcast has changed to ‘macenterprise‘!!

A package installer for the Silva CMS system on OSX.

The package maker is looking to get feedback from people running OS X Server on how the package installer works.

If you are interested in an easy to deploy Content Management System, this may be for you.

Is your iDisk a little poky and just not quite big enough?

Build yourself an iDisk locally on your server! Use Backup.app to back up your Mac systems to your own file server. See the detailed Solo .Mac article here.

Ed. Note: While the article walks you through doing this on a FreeBSD box, the methodology will help you to do this on your own server. The biggest sticking point is the DNS, since you’ll need to co-opt the iDisk DNS records. The article has you just stomp on the entire apple.com domain, which is probably a bit ham-fisted. Instead just create a host record in /etc/hosts for the specific address that you want.

The MacEnterprise.org (formerly MacOSXLabs.org) group will be presenting a “ADmitMac” WebCast

Tuesday, September 21 at 1:00 pm EDT. Paul Nelson, V.P of Engineering at Thursby Software Systems, will be presenting on ADmitMac, a tool that integrates Macintosh machines into Microsoft networks.

For the case study we have Michael Perbix, a Telecommunications Specialist from the Lower Merion School District, presenting on his experience in integrating their mostly-Mac environment with an existing Active Directory infrastructure using ADmitMac.

For more information on how to watch this WebCast, please visit the MacEnterprise.org webcast web page:

http://www.macenterprise.org/webcasts/webcasts_next.html

Note that the broadcast ID needed to view the webcast has changed to ‘macenterprise’!!

Jeff Greene
macenterprise.org (macosxlabs.org)
Webcast Coordinator

If you ordered an X-Server without a video card, but need one here’s a down-n-dirty tip:

If you have an old B&W PowerMac lying around, swipe the video card from it and use it in the upper slot. It works fine, won’t void your warranty and gives you the basic functionality you need to manage the beastie!

Ed. Note: I think most Apple PCI video cards, note not AGP, should work in the Xserve, but nice to know of a specific example. Having said that….running it headless isn’t hard to do, either.

The MacEnterprise.org (formerly MacOSXLabs.org) group will be presenting a “FileWave” WebCast on Tuesday, August 17 at 1:00 pm EDT. Ben Forsyth, Head of Development and Technology at FileWave (USA), Inc., will be presenting “FileWave” – a powerful software deployment and management solution, and “Asset Trustee”, a hardware and software gathering and reporting solution.

For the case study we have Brent Hayward, the Information Systems Manager for the Urbandale Community School District in Urbandale, Iowa presenting how he manages a Mac OS X deployment seamlessly using FileWave to distribute/upgrade system or application software to any computer without user intervention.

For more information on how to watch this WebCast, please visit the MacEnterprise.org webcast web page.

– Justin Elliott
macenterprise.org WebCast Coordinator & Co-Chair