Setting up a Non-Root User on Backtrack 4

Traditionally one of the most dangerous practices surrounding UNIX is using the root account as your normal user account. This is the default under Backtrack and here's how to fix it so you only use Root when you need to:

1. Open a Konsole session.

2. Type: adduser username.

3. You will be asked a series of questions along with setting your password.

4. Once the account is created, type: cp -rf /root/.kde* /home/username.

6. Type: chown -R username:username /home/username to overwrite any of root's perms that may have copied over.

5. Edit the /etc/group file with your editor of choice and add username to the admin and audio groups.

6. Logout and back in with the new account and you should be good to go.

Step #4 will copy all of the application menu's that have links to the Backtrack programs so you don't loose them. Enjoy.

Turbo Mode SSH Logins

If your like me and have to logon to multiple Linux/UNIX systems by means of SSH, manually entering a password for each logon session can be a pain. The procedure below will enable you to run all of your SSH sessions password free.

We will use what is termed as public-key SSH authentication and the first thing that we need to do is to generate our public/private keypair. Open a shell prompt and type in the command:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa

This will produce the output of:

Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/monk/.ssh/id_rsa):

Just press through all of the prompts. This creates two files, ~/.ssh/id_rsa and ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub. To use this keypair on a server try this:

$ ssh server "mkdir .ssh; chmod 0700 .ssh"
$ scp .ssh/id_rsa.pub server:.ssh/authorized_keys2

You will be prompted for your password after each command and you'll need to substitute "server" with the actual hostname of the system that you want to connect to. After running these two commands you will not be prompted for a password.

There have been security concerns raised over the safety of this, but you have the same problem with passwords. Someone would have to compromise your account and gain access to your private key. I would also recommend incorporating a mandatory access control system on the private key such as Apparmor or SELinux, but that will be the subject of another post.

Holy Meditations

My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises. (Ps 119:148)


Perhaps one of the most neglected disciplines in the Christian life these days is that of Meditation. I believe that very few Christians have been taught how important it is to pay close attention to what they think about.
Consider the following:


Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Death is not Natural

City of God - Book 13 - Part 6

Of the evil of death in general, considered as the separation of soul and body

Wherefore, as regards bodily death, that is, the separation of the soul from the body, it is good unto none while it is being endured by those who we say are in the article of death. For the very violence with which body and soul are wrenched asunder, which in the living had been conjoined and closely intertwined, brings with it a harsh experience, jarring horridly on nature so long as it continues, till there comes a total loss of sensation, which arose from the very inter-penetration of spirit and flesh.

And all this anguish is sometimes forestalled by one stroke of the body or sudden flitting of the soul, the swiftness of dying which with violently painful sensation robs of all sensation, yet, when it is piously and faiithfully borne, it increases the merit of patience, but does not make the name of punishment inapplicable. Death, proceeding by ordinary generation from the first man, is the punishment of all who are born of him, yet, if it be endured for righteousness' sake, it becomes the glory of those who are born again; and though death be the award of sin, it sometimes secures that nothing be awarded to sin.

I frequently hear non-Christians say something to the effect of death, "Death is the natural process of life. We are born, we live, and then we die. That is just how the cycle of life works." What I hope to show by the apologetic of Augustine who is using the foundation of the Scriptures, is that there is nothing natural in relation to death, but is the result of the curse of the fall of our first parents(Gen 3:17-19). We can see by the exposition above provided by the great church father Augustine, that he describes the various pains involved in the strokes of death that will afflict us both. By both I mean both the elect and the reprobate. Notice the union between body and soul that is destroyed at the onslaught of death. Before they were knit together like a fish in water, similar to the union between man and life, apart from being grafted into Christ all is lost.

The second paragraph to Augustine's exposition is the hope that all those redeemed by Christ have and there can even be peace in the midst of the bonds of death for the Christian. For only for the Christian has our eternal mediator destroyed him who had the power over death(Heb 2:14).

Westminster Shorter Catechism Flash Cards

Here is a nice PDF that has flash cards that you can print out to memorize the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which I'm currently memorizing.

Facebook Privacy - Not Really

Spylogic has a pretty disturbing article on Facebook's use of a new API to share users public information with other websites such as Pandora and Microsoft Docs among many others to join I'm sure.

What this makes this even more scary is that developers can hold onto your data forever whereas before it was limited to 24 hours. George Orwell's 1984 does not sound too crazy after all even in 2010. Take the example below; if you copy and paste the URL into your web browser and replace the string, 'jandrusk' with the first part of your Facebook ID you will see some general information about your Facebook account. Not a big deal until you realize you don't even need to be logged onto Facebook to acquire this information! That means anyone on the trustworthy Internet can pull this information.

Evil Facebook Query

So the bottom line is if your concerned about privacy on the Internet you better off just going to be communicating on stones or papyrus paper. Let the reader beware.

Does God Exist?

One of the best defenses on the Christian faith that I have ever heard was this one by Dr. Greg Bahnsen.

The Word of God: Its two parts — the Law and the Gospel

By Theodore Beza (1519-1605)

That which we call The Word of God: Its two parts — the Law and the Gospel

On this subject we call the "Word of God" (for we know well that the Eternal Son of God is also so named) the canonical books of the Old and New Testament; for they proceed from the mouth of God Himself.

We divide this Word into two principal parts or kinds: the one is called the "Law", the other the "Gospel". For, all the rest can be gathered under the one or the other of these two headings.

What we call Law (when it is distinguished from Gospel and is taken for one of the two parts of the Word) is a doctrine whose seed is written by nature in our hearts. However, so that we may have a more exact knowledge, it was written by God on two Tables and is briefly comprehended in ten commandments. In these He sets out for us the obedience and perfect righteousness which we owe to His majesty and our neighbours. This on contrasting terms: either perpetual life, if we perfectly keep the Law without omitting a single point, or eternal death, if we do not completely fulfil the contents of each commandment (Deut. 30:15-20; James 2:10).

What we call the Gospel ("Good News") is a doctrine which is not at all in us by nature, but which is revealed from Heaven (Matt 16:17; John 1:13), and totally surpasses natural knowledge. By it God testifies to us that it is His purpose to save us freely by His only Son (Rom. 3:20-22), provided that, by faith, we embrace Him as our only wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1 Cor 1:30). By it, I say, the Lord testifies to us all these things, and even does it in such a manner that at the same time he renews our persons in a powerful way so that we may embrace the benefits which are offered to us (1 Cor 2:4).

The similarities and the differences between the Law and the Gospel

We must pay great attention to these things. For, with good reason, we can say that ignorance of this distinction between Law and Gospel is one of the principle sources of the abuses which corrupted and still corrupt Christianity.

The majority of men, blinded by the just judgement of God, have indeed never seriously considered what curse the Law subjects us to, nor why it has been ordained by God. And, as for the Gospel, they have nearly always thought that it was nothing other than a second Law, more perfect than the first. From this has come the erroneous distinction between precept and advice; there has followed, little by little, the total ruin of the benefit of Jesus Christ.

Now, we must besides consider these things. The Law and the Gospel have in common that they are both from the one true God, always consistent with Himself (Heb. 1:1-2). We must not therefore think that the Gospel abolishes the essence of the Law. On the contrary, the Law establishes the essence of the Gospel (Rom 10:2-4); this is what we shall explain a little further on. For both set before us the same God and the essence of the same righteousness (Rom 3:31), which resides in perfect love to God and our neighbour. But there is a great difference in these points which we shall touch on, and especially concerning the means of obtaining this righteousness.

For, in the first place, as we alluded to before, the Law is natural to man. God has engraven it in his heart from creation (Rom 1:32; 2:14,15). When, a long time afterwards, God made and exhibited the two Tables of the Law, this was not to make a new law, but only to restore our first knowledge of the natural law which, because of the corruption of sin, was little by little becoming obliterated from the heart of man (Rom 7:8-9). But the gospel is a supernatural doctrine which our nature would never have been able to imagine nor able to approve without a special grace of God (1 Cor. 1:23; 2:14). But, the Lord has revealed it, firstly to Adam shortly after his sin, as Moses declares (Gen 3:15), afterwards to the patriarchs and the prophets in increasing degrees as seemed good to Him (Rom 1:2; Luke 1:55,70), until the day in which He manifested Jesus Christ in Person. It is He who has clearly announced and accomplished all that is contained in the Gospel (John 15:15; 6:38). This Gospel God still reveals today and will reveal it until the end of the world by the preaching instituted in His Church (John 17:18; Matt 28:20; 2 Cor. 5:20).

City of God Progress

City of God by Augustine of Hippo




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UNIX Quick Reference Cards

UNIX Quick Reference Cards

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UNIX Security Model

I put together a UNIX security model diagram with an application called XMind. In the coming weeks I will be blogging in more detail on each of these areas and components and will be using as my guinea pig, Ubuntu 9.10 to see how much work is necessary to conform the system to the model. Please return for more UNIX geeking out.