Hacker 10 – Security Hacker

Month: February 2011

  • How to find out your router IP address in Windows

    How to find out your router IP address in Windows

    There are many router models out there and the one that your ISP gives to you sometimes does not include the router IP address, they come with an auto installable kit instead.

    Entering a router IP address into your web browser toolbar will take you to the router interface, this is very useful to change the router default settings and others.

    A router IP address can not be changed, this is embedded into the hardware by the manufacturer, a router of the same brand and series will use the same IP, which means that it is not secret, anyone using the same router as you and in range, could connect wireless to your router interface and modify the settings, you should always change the default router password.

    Step 1 to find router address:

    Open Windows run and type cmd.exe OR command.com, alternatively, if you can’t find Windows run search for cmd.exe OR command.com

    Command prompt cmd Windows
    Command prompt cmd Windows

    Step 2 to find router IP address:

    At the Windows command line prompt type ipconfig you will now see your computer Internet IP, IPv6, MAC address and router IP address.

    The router IP address is the IP written right after where it says “Default Gateway” , you can notice in the picture that there are two default gateways, this is because the router is wireless and has more than one connection port, the RJ45 ports belongs to the wired ethernet connection (in this case empty) and the other port is a default router gateway belonging to the Wireless connection.

    ipconfig find router IP address
    ipconfig find router IP address
  • Hide data inside JPEG images using SteganPEG

    Hide data inside JPEG images using SteganPEG

    With SteganPEG you can hide files inside JPEG images without altering them to the human eye, being JPEG one of the most common file formats that exist that will reduce suspicions when you upload it to a website, facilitating covert communications, flickr is an example of a website that can be used to share secret stego messages embedded in pictures with nobody noticing.

    You can password protect your files, even if someone analyses the image they will still need to know the passphrase to see the data although there is no mention of encryption being used to cipher the file, this is still better than nothing and enough for low security needs, another nifty feature of this open source stego software is that it shows you how much space remains available on a picture to hide data inside it.

    The hidden data you insert inside the JPEG is compressed first, you can hide any kind of file, text, images inside images or executables but the bigger the file the more difficult it will be to fit in inside the JPEG.

    This steganography software only supports DCT based Baseline Sequential JPEG images, the most widely used JPEG compression, when you download SteganPEG you also get the source code and can look at or modify it at your own discretion.

     

    SteganPEG open source steganography
    SteganPEG open source steganography

     

    Steganography vs. Cryptography

    While cryptography ciphers your data and makes it available to only those with the right passphrase, steganography hides your confidential files making it impossible for someone to investigate and try to extract something whose existence is not obvious.

    Steganography does not use cryptography per se, it uses the spare bits that files have and use them up to hide data inside them, it is possible to detect and extract that data with specialist steganography detection tools that is why high security steganography software will also include encryption.

    For those living under oppressive regimes and subjected to strict communications monitoring, and those living in places where they must hand over their encryption password to the authorities to avoid punishment, steganography is the ideal covert communication method, it has long been used by spies from worldwide agencies, Russian spies in the US in 2010 used steganography software to post photos on the Internet with embedded messages hidden in them.

    Get SteganPEG from Softpedia

  • List of programs to digitally sign PDF documents offline

    List of programs to digitally sign PDF documents offline

    A digital signature consists of a mathematical scheme to establish the authenticity of a digital message or document and protect it from tampering, it normally uses PKA (Public Key Algorithms) to digitally sign the message or document.

    A digital signature uses asymmetric cryptography and it provides with more security than a handwritten signature because it attests to the identity of the signer as well as the integrity of the document, the slightest change in the document will make the digital signature verification process to fail.

    Offline software to digitally sign documents

    PDFStudio Pro: Paid PDF managing software for Windows, Mac and Linux, the main function of this program is to create and interact with PDF documents but it has the capability of digitally signing them. Digital signatures can be created or imported from an existing stamp, PDFStudio can batch process multiple PDF, optimize, add watermarks, annotate and password protect in between many other things, and all round very complete PDF editing program.

    PDFStudio Pro digital signing documents
    PDFStudio Pro digital signing documents

    JSignPDF: Open source freeware program to digital sign pdf files with a visible a digital signature, image or description. It supports batch processing although only via command line, JSignPDF timestamps the document and allows you to choose the hash algorithm and certification level. JSignPDF can be used as a standalone application or as an add-on in OpenOffice.org, you will need Java installed in your computer to use it.

    JSignPDF free digital signature software
    JSignPDF free digital signature software

    Portable Signer: This free open source application based in Java, and platform independent (works in Linux, MAC and Windows) will digitally sign your PDF documents using standard X.509 certificates, the signed documents are read only. This program to digitally sign documents is made available by the Municipality of Vienna (Austria) and its signature block complies with Austrian e-government rules.

    PortableSigner-PDF-digital-signatures
    PortableSigner PDF digital signing software

    PDFsigner: Windows PDF signing software that creates digital signatures using standard X.509 certificates and it also verifies digital signatures to make sure that a document has not been tampered with. Its digital signatures are visible with most PDF readers and there is support for smartcards and signing documents in bulk, the interface is very intuitive and easy to use even for novices.

    PDFSigner digital signing software
    PDFSigner digital signing software
  • Use JPEGSnoop to discover if a digital photo is real or fake

    Use JPEGSnoop to discover if a digital photo is real or fake

    It is very hard to know by just looking if a digital picture has been altered with a graphical editor or it is being presented on its original and raw format. Digital cameras embed all kind of metadata in the pictures they take, data about data found in the digital photographs inside EXIF (Exchangeable image file format).

    JPEGSnoop is a tiny portable open source program that goes beyond extracting EXIF metadata, this free application can indicate the quality of the JPEG image compression used by the camera saving the file, JPEGSnoop uses the fact that each digital camera has different and specific compression quality levels when taking a picture and it compares that unique pattern against its large database of compression signatures reporting what digital camera or graphical editor was used to generate the image, being able to determine if a photograph is truly original or it has been edited with a graphics editor like Photoshop, software graphical editors unique compression signatures are included too in JPEGSnoop database.

    JPEGsnoop reports countless of other details, EXIF / IPTC metadata, Huffman table decode, quantization table matrix (chrominance and luminance), chroma subsampling, JPEG saving settings, JPEG resolution settings, RGB histograms, etc. People who do not need that technical wealth of information about a digital picture can just skip it and look at the EXIF data instead, which normally includes basics like location, model of camera used and date and time.

     

    JPEGSnoop digital photo forensics
    JPEGSnoop digital photo forensics

    JPEGSnoop can open .jpg, .thm (thumbnail), .avi, .dng (digital negatives), .pdf, .mov and extract embedded JPEG files from within them. If the photograph is corrupted and can no longer be viewed JPEGSnoop will try to recover the photograph thumbnail if there is one. This application can be of great use for home users wondering if that famous celebrity in the digital picture is a fake or real photo and it will also be of use for digital image forensic experts and amateur photographers alike.

    There is other software capable of retrieving photographs metadata but JPEGSnoop stands out from the crowd by being the only one I know of able to tell you if the picture was edited with a graphical editor.

    Visit JpegSnoop homepage