Hey! Listen! This post is part of a series on using OpenWrt. Check them all out! Date URL Part 2024-02-06 Beryl travel router with OpenWrt OpenWrt revisited 2016-04-28 OpenWrt upgrade process OpenWrt upgrade 2015-08-26 OpenWrt with OpenVPN server on TP-Link Archer C7 Initial post 2015-02-15 OpenWrt with OpenVPN client on TP-Link TL-MR3020 Initial post Introduction Typically, when a new version of OpenWrt is released, I completely wipe the router and start over. However, with the recent release of 15.05.1, I wanted to perform an in-place upgrade while preserving all of my data. ...

Introduction Put on your tinfoil hats, boys and girls! Today, we’re talking about security, encryption, and GPG! PGP vs OpenPGP vs GPG PGP Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) was a program created to encrypt/decrypt data in 1991 by Phil Zimmermann. Zimmermann formed PGP Incorporated, which was acquired serveral times and is now owned by Symantec. Fun fact - in 1993 the US government charged Zimmerman with “munitions export without a license”. At the time, cryptography systems with keys over 40 bits were considered a weapon, and since PGP used 128 bit keys, Zimmerman was in violation of the law. However, Zimmerman was able to circumvent this by publishing the entire source code of PGP in a physical book (that could be scanned with OCR and recompiled into source code), since the export of books was protected by the First Amendment. Today, PGP is no longer considered a weapon, but still cannot be exported to a specific list of individuals/countries. ...

Hey! Listen! This post is part of a series on using OpenWrt. Check them all out! Date URL Part 2024-02-06 Beryl travel router with OpenWrt OpenWrt revisited 2016-04-28 OpenWrt upgrade process OpenWrt upgrade 2015-08-26 OpenWrt with OpenVPN server on TP-Link Archer C7 Initial post 2015-02-15 OpenWrt with OpenVPN client on TP-Link TL-MR3020 Initial post Introduction I’m not going to spend any time talking about why you should be using a VPN, or how a VPN works. If you’re here, you know that already. If you need a refresher on the different types of VPNs, see below. ...

Hey! Listen! This post is part of a series on using your own router with Verizon FiOS. Check them all out! Date URL Part 2016-08-22 Verizon FiOS Router Maintenance Charge Maintenance Charges 2015-07-11 Use your own router with Verizon FiOS Initial Post Introduction At the new house, we have Verizon FiOS. If you’re not familiar, FiOS is a FTTP (Fiber-to-the-Premises) multimedia service that offers phone service, internet, and TV. If fiber is strung in your area, Verizon taps into the fiber line on the telephone pole and runs it to your house. Verizon will then install a box on your property called the Optical Network Terminal (ONT), that converts the fiber signal into a copper signal. ...

Update: LUKS2 is out, use it instead! LUKS2 was released in 2018, you should double-check the documentation for it before you blindly follow this guide. 🙃 Introduction Since TrueCrypt is no longer under active development, I’ve decided to wipe my external drives and re-encrypt them with LUKS and dm-crypt. These are standard Linux tools that are available by default in most distributions. I’ve used LUKS and dm-crypt in the past, when I installed Arch Linux on my laptop. Here, I’ll be performing a similar procedure, but without LVM. ...

Hey! Listen! This post is part of a series on using OpenWrt. Check them all out! Date URL Part 2024-02-06 Beryl travel router with OpenWrt OpenWrt revisited 2016-04-28 OpenWrt upgrade process OpenWrt upgrade 2015-08-26 OpenWrt with OpenVPN server on TP-Link Archer C7 Initial post 2015-02-15 OpenWrt with OpenVPN client on TP-Link TL-MR3020 Initial post Update: Multiple posts Originally, this series consisted of three posts with basically the same content, but small improvements each time. The original links are below: ...

Ever since TrueCrypt disappeared a few days ago, there has been a lot of speculation as to what happened. There are plenty of theories on r/netsec, r/linx, and r/crypto. Even Bruce Schneier doesn’t know what’s going on. There is a theory that the developer threw in the towel, however, the most popular theory going around is that the NSA/FBI/other-three-letter-organization was involved and this is TrueCrypt’s warrant canary. Because they would not legally be allowed to divulge the fact that they were being forced to backdoor their software, they decided to suggest alternatives known to be backdoored, knowing that users would understand the secret message. ...

Recently, I posted three articles of a four-part series showing how to encrypt an external drive with TrueCrypt on Fedora 20. As-of today, May 28th, TrueCrypt may not be secure after-all. The truecrypt.org website now redirects to truecrypt.sourceforge.net. A warning is displayed that reads, “WARNING: Using TrueCrypt is not secure as it may contain unfixed security issues” and it directs users to alternative encryption packages for Windows, Mac, and Linux. ...

In March, I cancelled my subscription to Dropbox over privacy concerns. Seems like that was a good idea. Dropbox just announced that they’re adding Dr. Condoleezza Rice to their Board of Directors. I don’t have to tell you why this is a terrible idea. See the official petition here, and my letter to Dropbox customer service below. To whom it may concern, I have been a paid subscriber to Dropbox since 2010, and have loved every minute of your service since day 1. However, with recent revelations about the NSA, I’ve been growing increasingly worried about storing my data in the cloud. Before my subscription renewed in March, I removed all of my files and downgraded to a free account. Originally, I had planned to re-subscribe once I decided how to encrypt my data locally before uploading. ...

I dropped Dropbox! Well, not entirely. I’ve been a Dropbox user since Day 1. I remember when their service was first introduced. Cloud storage was just coming out and it was so convenient to be able to access your data anywhere. I quickly outgrew the 2GB free limit, earned a few extra GB through DropQuest, and then decided to start paying for their storage. For the past few years, I’ve been paying $99/yr for 100GB of space. Honestly, I have never had a single problem with Dropbox since I first started using it and I would recommend it to anyone in a second. ...