Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The History of Cryptography


A very mysterious and interesting history of Cryptography, started in 2000 B.C. in Egypt. When hieroglyphics (designating or pertaining to a pictographic script, particularly that of the ancientEgyptians, in which many of the symbols are conventionalized, recognizable pictures of the things represented) were used to decorate coffin or chambers inside the kingdom which represents the life story of any deceased.


The intention of hieroglyphics technique was not much about hiding the message, rather it was used to make life story seem more noble, ceremonial, and majestic. 


 "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns" are the best examples of these ciphers, you can also have a look on "National Treasure" Where Nicholas cage is resolving a secret of a historical treasure by decryting a map.


Encryption methods evolved from being mainly for show into practical applications used to hide information from others.


Pretty old, A Hebrew cryptographic method required the alphabet to be flipped so each letter in the original alphabet was mapped to a different letter in the flipped, or shifted alphabet.


The encryption method was called Atbash which used to hide the true meaning of message. Let's go through an example to learn it quickly.


An Atbash cipher for the Latin alphabet would be as follows:
 Plain:  abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
 Cipher: ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA


An easier, simpler and faster way of doing this is:
 First 13 letters: A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
 Last 13 Letters:  Z|Y|X|W|V|U|T|S|R|Q|P|O|N


For example, in Atbash, the letters "nlmvb" indicate the word "money".


Stay tuned, I will resume this article tomorrow.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Backtrack 5 KDE startx Failed To Load Error and Solution - Bug#23 fix.



I've downloaded Backtrack Linux version 5 KDE desktop 64 bit. To start a graphical interface I' typed startx command. But it failed with the following error message:

BackTrack Linux 5 64bits Vmware Workstation Installation
BackTrack Linux 5 64bits Vmware Workstation Installation


How do I fix this problem and install Backtrack Linux version 5 KDE desktop on my hard disk?

Backtrack Linux is a penetration testing and security auditing Linux distribution. You can run it from Live CD or install it on the hard disk. This is well known bug[1] in Backtrack Linux v5 KDE 64 bit.

You would need to apply following code at root@root console.

Code:
rm /root/.kde/cache-root/icon-cache.kcache
rm /root/.kde/cache-root/plasma_theme_Volatile.kcache
rm /root/.kde/cache-bt/icon-cache.kcache
rm /root/.kde/cache-bt/plasma_theme_Volatile.kcache

Type the following command to start KDE desktop:

#startx

Backtrack 5 KDE Linux Deskop Screenshot

However this is a partial solution only, on every shutdown or restart you will have to remove cache files again.

To fix the issue permanently, install BackTrack on your VMware workstation or HDD, and execute the following commands on command prompt.

Code:
apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
prepare-kernel-sources
cd /usr/src/linux

Reboot BackTrack 5 to verify the changes.

References:
Bug#23 - StartX doesn't work in KDE 64 bits.

Started playing with Backtrack 5..., o0ps forget to include my one of the mates name who is involved with me in this learning... Name - Siddesh Motiwale ;)

Wednesday, April 18, 2012