The DMZ

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MechMK1

7:15 AM

Good morning. I slept like shit and feel tired. Yeah!

2 hours later…

MechMK1

8:50 AM

Some poser: "You know, Metal actually has incredibly deep lyrics that you are just too ignorant to understand"
Meanwhile Alestorm: "We are here to drink your beer, And steal your rum at a point of a gun. Your alcohol to us will fall, 'Cause we are here to drink your beer"

ALESTORM - Drink (Official Video) | Napalm Records

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1 hour later…

MechMK1

9:59 AM

Q: How fast can hackers change their IP address?

What is the speed and frequency that hackers can bypass rate limiting continuously in a website using login with an SMS OTP? The rate-limiting activates if the same IP address triggers SMS OTP more than x times.

network ip

Answer: Very

Journeyman Geek

OVER 90000!!!!!!

(actually if you had an IP block and a DHCP server... whenever you damned well felt like it?)

MechMK1

If you had an IP block, you probably didn't even need DHCP

Just assign yourself the IP. Who would stop you?

Though then the IP block itself could completely be removed. A real attacker wants to hide among legitimate IPs, so that blocking a whole range becomes infeasible

Conor Mancone

10:58 AM

@MechMK1 That's how real men roll!!!!

(I have no idea what that means ...)

1 hour later…

MechMK1

12:14 PM

@ConorMancone It means I am a real man and not a wooden puppet anymore! Wooooo!

MechMK1

12:41 PM

Man I wish xkcd would stop making one COVID-19 comic after another. I want to have something on my mind other than "hurr durr virus time hurr durr"

Fire Quacker

Wireguard is 1.0. Think about that.

MechMK1

Man I hate VPNs these days

Even legitimate VPN software for legitimate VPN uses just makes my brain want to skip forward for a minute

But before you keep reading my terrible opinion, a word from our sponsor: █████ VPN

Don't you hate it when hackers steal your data? Use █████ VPN and everything is safe.

Look at your ISP: They know everything about your life. Just use █████ VPN and they'll all fall into eternal despair.

Your neighbor can hear you every night when you rage because you're shit at CS:GO. Use █████ VPN and your neighbor will die immediately.

Do you have erectile dysfunction? Use █████ VPN and your wife will be happy to know you are a failure at computers as well as in bed.

Fire Quacker

So, as someone who works in IT, whenever people talk about VPNs and anonymity, it's like, "Oh. I guess you can use it for that also."

Corporate VPNs are extremely handy

MechMK1

To me, for the longest time, VPN meant "Connect to a remote internal network" and not "wOaH sToP h4x0rZ fr0m sTeALiNg uR d4taz"

Fire Quacker

Yeah, that's where I'm still at

MechMK1

12:50 PM

If you offered me to prevent WWII or prevent fraudulent VPN companies, man we wouldn't be making these jokes right now

Fire Quacker

When I gave a couple users VPN access recently, they started asking whether it would let them be anonymous

Yeah, not what this is for

MechMK1

@FireQuacker It was the opposite here. When I started my job, the IT guy was like "Well, here's your VPN client. You're a hacker, so I assume I don't need to explain what it does and doesn't do"

Fire Quacker

I mean, technically, I could set it up to route all the traffic through our office, but why? Then I'd have to start logging the usage way more 😈

MechMK1

We use a split VPN setup, where all traffic to internal systems goes through the VPN, and all other traffic goes through whatever external internet connection there is

Fire Quacker

Right

MechMK1

12:55 PM

With the added side effect that I am not rate limited by the VPN

Fire Quacker

If you did move all traffic through your VPN, then (depending on your country) you'd have to start considering what sort of traffic your employees might send through the VPN and whether their usage could get you in legal trouble.

And that's where all the logs come in...

MechMK1

Man, I hate when VPN companies who claim your internet will get faster if you use a VPN

Fire Quacker

Maybe if they block ads by default?

MechMK1

@FireQuacker Luckily, it's all in the same country

@FireQuacker Doesn't improve raw throughput.

And who the fuck uses a VPN but no adblocker?

Fire Quacker

I used to work for a marketing company (in a non-marketing role). There was this thing they would do where they would simplify a concept to help all the normal people understand. But the simplified explanation would often be more flattering.

MechMK1

1:01 PM

my problem is that very often the marketing departments would just do a thing without consulting the "technical" departments for correctness at all

Fire Quacker

I could kind of see that here. The VPN company blocks ads which speeds up page loads. But talking about DNS blocking ad domains is complicated, so let's just say we make your Internet faster, m'kay?

MechMK1

This is how we got the infamous H&K Cover

Try to spot what's wrong with this picture

Or this beautiful animation on how to apply thermal paste:

zippy.gfycat.com/ContentSpitefulAfricanclawedfrog.webm

Fire Quacker

Are the bullets too big for the gun?

MechMK1

@FireQuacker No, the cartridges (aka. the "whole bullet") are loaded the wrong way

Fire Quacker

@MechMK1 Oip! That's one way to apply thermal paste, I guess...

MechMK1

1:05 PM

The part of the cartridge that is exposed should be the tip of the bullet, but they loaded them butt-forward, so to speak

Fire Quacker

@MechMK1 In the magazine? That was my second guess, but the lighting wasn't good.

I see

I didn't know you could even do that. Don't you have to really shove to get them in backwards?

MechMK1

Funnily enough, the first time I ever loaded a gun I put the magazine in the wrong way :D

@FireQuacker No, it's actually really easy to do that

In fact, it might actually be easier to get them in the wrong way

Fire Quacker

Well, why won't somebody just invent keyed bullets and magazines to make it impossible?

MechMK1

@FireQuacker Such a thing exists, it's called "clips"

Yes, "clip" and "magazine" are not interchangable

Here you can see a clip. The cartridge rim snaps into the clip, making sure there's only one way for it to go in.

Fire Quacker

> What is a clip? A short sequence of TV or radio. Or perhaps a newspaper of magazine clipping. A clip is something small. Smaller than—say—a magazine. What is a magazine? A magazine is a full publication, sometimes 100 or more pages.

From writingexplained.org/clip-vs-magazine-difference

Believe it or not, that article is trying to describe those terms in the context of firearms.

MechMK1

1:10 PM

What the fuck!?

Ah, they try to make this a mnemonic

That a clip is smaller than a full magazine :D

That's pretty clever. I like the fact that someone wrote this down for non-firearms people

> While not all guns use clips, all guns, with the exception of revolvers, have magazines.

WRONG

Fire Quacker

@MechMK1 Yeah, I thought it was a little funny. My perception is that there is a very small overlap between writing enthusiasts and gun enthusiasts.

MechMK1

@FireQuacker This could be. And it's a bit sad when someone tries to get things right and then gets a wrong source

Not all firearms need to have a magazine.

Exhibit A:

There are also single-shot rifles, which don't have magazines either. you can only load a single round into them

Like the .950 JDJ, where the bolt is effectively a blunt weapon on its own due to sheer weight

Fire Quacker

Huh. You'd think they would have thought of that. I'm pretty sure I saw a break action shotgun on a BBC miniseries, so there's got to be some representation in the Great Literature.

MechMK1

Especially since break-action shotguns see widespread use among clay pidgeon shooting and hunting

Fire Quacker

Right

MechMK1

1:24 PM

Probably the guy tried to simplify things for the average person

Fire Quacker

Well, it's not like gun nuts actually read books, so nobody's going to call out the errors that are made based on this article

MechMK1

Au contraire

Gun nuts do read books, just very specific books about specific things

Ian Reacts to Salty Comments About Obsolete Bolt Action Rifles

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Just look at that bookshelf

It's all about guns

I actually sent the guy an e-mail telling him why not all guns except revolvers have a magazine :D

MechMK1

2:26 PM

Q: How to approach non-authorized App?

I'm doing testing on the app, if we take only login url as a starting point. What to look for? What tools would be of use? What would you do in my position?