Pierow’s Prattle

Wikihow has an article describing a method for reducing the total number of combinations for a Master Lock® combination lock from 64,000 to 80.

“…there are 64,000 possible combinations on a standard 40 digit Master Lock. With this method, however, you can quickly narrow that down to 80 combinations, a workable number to try if you’ve got the time and the inclination to give it a shot…”

Designer Mark Campos has turned the instructions into an easier-to-follow visual guide.

Philosecurity.org has posted a real copy of an American citizen’s DHS Travel Record retrieved from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol’s Automated Targeting System (ATS). This was obtained through a FOIA/Privacy Act request and sent in by an anonymous reader.  The document reveals that the DHS is storing the reader’s:

• Full credit card number and expiration

• IP address used to make web travel reservations

• Hotel information and itinerary

• Full Name, birth date and passport number

• Full airline itinerary, including flight numbers and seat numbers

• Cruise ship itinerary

• Phone numbers, including business, home & cell

• Every frequent flyer and hotel number associated with the subject, even ones not used for the specific reservation

[Article on Philosecurity.org]     [PDF of the original document]

Missed a presentation from Defcon or just want to see some exploits in action?  SecurityTube may be just what you’re looking for.  It’s a collection of computer security videos ranging from presentations and theory to how-to.

[Link]

Jaroslaw Lupinski has built a device that will generate magnetic signals to spoof a magnetic stripe reader – you know, the things that open doors and allow you to pay for your groceries.  Instructables has a write-up on a similar device using an iPod but Jaroslaw’s device will allow you to change the data on the fly.  Combine this with Stripe Snoop and you’ve got quite a powerful combination…

[Link]

Okay, so it’s only got a 2.8″ screen and that hardly compares to the 10″ screens that most modern netbooks are sporting these days.

Hunter Davis has a video along with step-by-step directions for using OpenZipIt to turn the Zipit Z2A Wireless Messenger into a a netbook with Audio, Mouse, etc.

The Zipit Z2A is available from Amazon for $49.99.

[Link]

Whether you’re posting an item for sale on Craigslist or trying to avoid stalkers while dating online, sometimes you need a telephone number that you can use for a temporary time period and then throw away.  Enter inumbr.  You choose a telephone number from a list of major cities and have that number forward to another telephone number or to voicemail.  After a pre-set period of time, the number disconnects and (allegedly) is never reused.

[Link]

If you’re using Firefox’s built-in password management, you should also be using its master password feature to protect your saved passwords from prying eyes.  But what happens if you lose your master password?

Since the master password prevents anyone from accessing your saved passwords, you won’t be able to access any of your stored credentials.

That’s where the Nagareshwar Talekar’s free, open source tool FireMaster comes in.  FireMaster is a command line tool designed specifically to recover your master password from Firefox.

[Link]

FettesPS has posted an article detailing a technique to extract the SIP credentials used with a Vonage account for use with the FRING iPhone application.  Naturally, this could also be used for other SIP applications as well.  Essentially the technique boils down to downloading your configuration settings via a specially crafted URL:

https://im-config.vonagenetworks.net/config?&login=USERNAME&password=PASSWORD&type=1003

Keep in mind that this definitely violates your terms of service and could result in the suspension of your Vonage account.

[Original Article]

Rex Hermogino has posted the music video he submitted for the Vespa Video Challenge held 2 years ago.  The task was to create a homemade video that talks about the benefits of riding a Vespa scooter.  Fun & Funny.  Enjoy.

[Link]

I-Hacked has an article describing the process for cracking Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA and WPA2) encryption using the additional processing power of video cards with CUDA support.

[Link]