Problem: you need to manage a Cisco device via console, but the only box you have available is your non-macpro-mac, i.e. you don’t have a console port available. Solution: manage it via USB.

Step 1: Procure a USB to Console Cable

It should look something like this. You can get them most anywhere.

Step 2: Download and Install the Driver

Here is the project, and here is the download link.

Step 3: Find the Port On Your System

[bash]ls /dev/tty.*[/bash]

One will have a name starting with PL. That’s your guy.

Step 4: Connect Using Screen

Now you just connect to it (think of this step as using Hyperterminal in Windows)–the only difference is here you’re using screen, giving it the terminal to connect to, and the speed (9600).

[bash]screen /dev/tty.PLXXXX-XXXXXXX 9600[/bash]

Boom, you’re in. ::

I often have to explain to other IT people (and even too many in infosec) why I prefer OS X as my primary operating system. If you lack the time to make a complete argument, one shortcut to giving strength to your position is to give a list of well-known security professionals that have made the same decision.

So here’s the beginning of this list; if you want to add someone to it, you can do so in the following ways:

1. In the comments below
2. Email it to me at daniel@dmiessler.com
3. Tweet it to me with #macsec appended

And here are the people I know of off the top of my head (no particular order):

• Martin Roesch
• Mike Poor
• Taylor Banks
• Johannes Ulrich
• Chris Hoff
• Rich Mogull
• Jeremiah Grossman?

I know there are a bunch of others I’ve known and can’t remember at the moment. That’s where you come in. ::

Being in Information Security, I understand that knowing what’s going on is the first step to being secure. The way this translates to networked computers is knowing who they’re talking to.

And for this task I use Little Snitch to both monitor and control what applications are able to reach out from my OS X system.

In addition to being able to control what apps can do what (rule manager seen above), what I most like about this application is being able to roll over the menubar icon to see what apps are currently sending or receiving on the network.

So imagine you’re just writing something locally on your system, and you see that your Little Snitch menu bar icon is lit up (meaning something’s talking on the network).

You simply touch the menubar icon with your mouse and the window seen above appears to show you exactly what application is talking on the network.

This is invaluable. Nothing is more annoying to a good security person, or even a good sysadmin, than not knowing what on your system is putting packets on the wire. Little Snitch gives you this visibility, and if you’re running OS X I’d highly suggest you check it out. ::

[ Little Snitch | obdev.at ]

From the command line:

[bash]defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE[/bash]

[ For OS X Users... ]

First, enable US, US Extended, and Unicode Hex Input through the Input Menu tab of the International pane within System Preferences:

Now you can just hold down the ⌥ key from within any text-entry field and type the 4-character unicode designations for the following characters:

⇧ – 21E7
⌥ – 2325
⌘ – 2138
⌃ – 2303
⌫ – 2328
 – F8FF or ⌥⇧K

::

When you create a screenshot (or “screen capture”) in OS X it’s dropped onto the desktop as a PNG file with name of “Picture 1.png”. And the next one you create drops “Picture 2.png”, etc.

This is cool, but it gets annoying over time–especially if you make a lot of them. The problem is that you can’t just collect them in another folder because as you move them OS X will start over with “Picture 1.png”, and when you go to move them again you’ll be writing over your old ones.

I’ve solved this using two methods (out of curiosity, mostly):

• OS X Automator
• Ruby

Automator

OS X Automator is extremely useful for these types of challenges. Here are the steps on this one:

1. Start with a Finder search and pick out the file names and types you’re looking for
2. Rename the files to something unique
3. Move the files where you want them
4. Save the automation as an application
5. Run the task whenever you need it, or run it automatically as an iCal event

Ruby

[ruby]#!/usr/bin/env ruby

ScreenCapture Cleanup : Keep your OS X desktop tidy by organizing your screenshots

require ‘fileutils’

Set the text to append to the Screen Captures

timestamp = date

Start on the desktop (that’s where OS X drops Screenshots)

Dir.chdir(‘/Users/daniel/Desktop/’)

Append the date to make the files unique

Dir.glob("Picture*.{png}").each { |pic| File.rename(pic, timestamp + pic) }

Move them to the Screen Captures directory

Dir.glob("Picture.{png}").each { |pic| FileUtils.mv(pic, "/Users/daniel/Documents/Screen Captures/") }[/ruby]

The Ruby method is more elegant, I think, and I hate using GUIs when I don’t know exactly what they’re doing. Plus it’s easier to change quickly.

Executing the Script Automatically

There are three main options here:

1. Schedule through iCal : this will happen at that point in time on the calendar
2. Enable via Folder Action : whenever something is added to that folder
3. Using launchd : this is kind of like cron for UNIX, only less user-friendly

For iCal just add the Automator script as a file attached to an alert. For Folder Actions, just enable Folder Actions for a given directory and attach your Automator task to it. Either way, now you have a cleaner desktop with less chance of borking up your screenshots. ::

It’s kind of annoying that ls --color doesn’t work in OS X. Fortunately you can get the same effect by adding the following to your .bash_profile :

export CLICOLOR=true

Edit: Evidently you can do this with the -G switch to ls as well. Thanks for the tip, Joel.

dscacheutil -flushcache

With this release of VMware Fusion we’re now approaching what virtualization should be. Check out these features:

• Improved Unity functionality so that you can run your Windows apps right on your Mac. Now includes Linux Unity support
• Mapping and mirroring folders between Windows and OS X, e.g. Pictures, Documents, etc.
• Vastly improved performance and less resource usage
• Full support for all major guest operating systems
• Keyboard and mouse keyboard mapping
• Automated snapshots for a “Time Machine”-like backup experience for virutal systems
• View Windows content with Leopard’s QuickView
• Dock and Status bar notifications for guest applications

Links

[ VMware Fusion | vmware.com ]