Welcome message in Linux

A student of mine had a question how he can modify the welcome message in Linux when you login on TTY or through SSH.

So I though to posted it out here.

Place your welcome text in /etc/motd. Default this file is emtpy.

HotPatch 2 Groupwise 8 and HotPatch 3 for Groupwise 7

Today I noticed that Novell has release HotPatch 2 for Groupwise 8. If you look on download.novell.com you will see a explication mark behind the patch, indicating there is a security issue.

If you look in the readme of Groupwise 8 in the security second it will say:

Novell GroupWise WebAccess is vulnerable to weaknesses within the session management mechanisms that could potentially allow an attacker to gain access to an authenticated user’s account.
Affected versions:
GroupWise 7.0 up to 7.03 HP2
GroupWise 8.0 up to 8.0.0 HP1
(Novell bug 472979, CVE-2009-1634)

Novell GroupWise WebAccess is vulnerable to a cross-site scripting (XSS) exploit via unfiltered style expressions, which could potentially allow an attacker to send a message with an HTML file that contains malicious scripts, which could redirect a user and/or forward data & requests to a malicious site.
Affected versions:
GroupWise 7.0 up to 7.03 HP2
GroupWise 8.0 up to 8.0.0 HP1
(Novell bug 472987, CVE-2009-1635)

A vulnerability exists in Novell GroupWise WebAccess in the that way it blocks scripting. Exploitation of this vulnerability could potentially allow an attacker to gain access to an authenticated user’s mailbox and forward data & requests to a malicious site.
Affected versions:
GroupWise 7.0 up to 7.03 HP2
GroupWise 8.0 up to 8.0.0 HP1
(Novell bug 474500, CVE-2009-1635)

A vulnerability exists in Novell GroupWise WebAccess that could allow an attacker to use Javascript to deface the login page, which could potentially prevent users from logging in to WebAccess.
Affected versions:
GroupWise 7.0 up to 7.03 HP2
GroupWise 8.0 up to 8.0.0 HP1
(Novell bug 484942, CVE-2009-1635)

A vulnerability exists in Novell GroupWise Internet Agent, in the way it processes certain SMTP requests. Exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to arbitrary code execution with SYSTEM privileges.
Affected versions:
GroupWise 7.0 up to 7.03 HP2
GroupWise 8.0 up to 8.0.0 HP1
(Novell bug 478892, CVE-2009-1636)

A vulnerability exists in the Novell GroupWise Internet Agent, in the way it processes email addresses in the SMTP protocol. Exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to arbitrary code execution with SYSTEM privileges.
Affected versions:
GroupWise 7.0 up to 7.03 HP2
GroupWise 8.0 up to 8.0.0 HP1
(Novell bug 482914, CVE-2009-1636)

Bug 501443 – Notify connects to the wrong mailbox, bypassing authentication in unique configurations.

And in the readme of Groupwise 7:

501443 – Notify connects to the wrong mailbox, bypassing authentication in unique circumstances

So if you don’t applied this hotfixes, it’s possible that other people connect to your mailbox thourgh notify. How? I don’t know.
But I sure don’t want this to happen!

UMTS USB Dongle in OpenSuse 11.1

Lately I ordered a UMTS usb dongle from KPN for my OpenSuse 11.1 notebook.
As you all probely know, for Microsoft you just plug the USB stick in and maybe you have to install some additional software and it works.
With Linux this is different. In OpenSuse 11.1 we can use NetworkManager to connect to the Internet.

Fist challenge I had was to let OpenSuse recognize my USB UMTS USB stick as a modem and not a Mass Storage Device.
After some googeling I found a post on de OpenSuse forums to fix this.

But actually, I solved my problem with a ONDA MT503HT (MF628) using usb_modeswitch.
The software is ready in my OpenSuse 11.1 64 bit, just a little editing on the /etc/usb_modeswitch.conf file and everything is OK, even the built in MicroSD card reader.
Comment out the section “Option GlobeSurfer Icon (aka “Vodafone EasyBox”)” and enable the section “ONDA MT503HS (most likely a ZTE model)”.

Of course some tweaking is needed on the side of /etc/wvdial.conf and, if you don’t want to run usb_modeswitch in a console (as a root), you have to create a new rule for udev.
For example, create the rule with:
touch /etc/udev/rules.d/75-onda-MT503HS.rules
and then insert in the file this string:
SUBSYSTEM==”usb”, ATTR{idVendor}==”19d2″, ATTR{idProduct}==”2000″, RUN+=”/usr/sbin/usb_modeswitch”

This fix from Acez works great. Now NetworkManager recognizes the UMTS dongel. Now you have to set the right APN name.
This is a site where almost every provider is listed.

Now I can Blog anywhere!

Performance CIFS/NCP on Windows 7

Last week I got a email from Alex Peeters. A couple of months ago he followed the N3089 who I gave.
Alex did some testing with CIFS and NCP performance on Windows 7 what is quite interesting. I’m glad that I can publish his results.
Nice job Alex, keep up the good work!

From Alex:

I’ve been reading, testing and tweaking file transfer performance on different WAN links.

My test:

Use a WAN link with a 1 GB throughput and a high latency of 15 ms. I’ve measured the time it takes to copy a 580MB file from the server down to the workstation. From that i have deducted the actual throughput. The server is an HP Proliant DL380G5.

Test 1A: NCP

Server: NetWare 6.5 SP 7 with a 1GB NIC.

Client: Windows XP 100 MB NIC with a Novell Client

Actual throughput: 21.04 Mb/s

Test 1B: NCP

Server: NetWare 6.5 SP 7 with a 1GB NIC.

Client: Windows 7 Beta 100 MB NIC without Novell Client

Actual throughput: 22.56 Mb/s

Test 2A: CIFS on NetWare

Server: NetWare 6.5 SP 7 with a 1GB NIC.

Client: Windows XP 100 MB NIC without Novell Client

Actual throughput: 24.16 Mb/s

Test 2B: CIFS on NetWare

Server: NetWare 6.5 SP 7 with a 1GB NIC.

Client: Windows 7 Beta 100 MB NIC without Novell Client

Actual throughput: 65.16 Mb/s

Test 3A: CIFS on Windows 2003

Server: Windows 2003 with a 1GB NIC.

Client: Windows XP 100 MB NIC without Novell Client

Actual throughput: 21.09 Mb/s

Test 3B: CIFS on Windows 2003

Server: Windows 2003 with a 1GB NIC.

Client: Windows 7 Beta 100 MB NIC without Novell Client

Actual throughput: 64.44 Mb/s

It seems to me that M$ has done something to Windows 7 that makes it outperform NCP. I have read something about SMB2 but I’m not sure how that would fit in my test results.

Is there a way I can tweak my OES2 server (NetWare of Linux) or Novell Client to match the CIFS performance on NCP?

How to change the Hostname in OpenSuse 11.1?

In previous versions changing the hostname was simple.
You just went into Yast | Network Devices | Network Settings. There you had a tab
called DNS/Hostname and there you could change the hostname and domain name.

By default networkmanager is enabled in OpenSuse, so when you go into Yast you will
get a messages saying you can’t change any properties because networkmanager is controlling them.

So how can we change the hostname than?

Simple, change it with your favorite text editor in the file /etc/HOSTNAME.

Here you can change it in something like pc1.wilmsenit.nl

You have to reboot the pc to apply the changes.