Hirusha Adikari

Well, first of all, I am the general folk and this is from some research I did in my free time. Everytime time I google a drug, I get bombarded with these weird abbreviations and terms. I'm writing this to both remember stuff more and improve my understanding further. This post is more of an index for my future self incase I forget something (which I definitely will!).

Note that in this post, whenever I use the term "drug", I refer to medicine / medicinal drugs.

This post is to help you learn the basics of everything so you can see the full picture. If you have no idea what you're doing or if you're new to Linux, this post is for you. There are a billion different misconceptions, misunderstandings, and incorrect interpretations of concepts related to Linux, and in this post, we'll debunk them. I'm disappointed by the fact that nobody has written something like this before. There are plenty of YouTubers and content creators who post multiple videos a week, but none of them talk about this stuff. Absolutely pathetic! This guide will assume you're a Windows user. If you're a macOS user, you shouldn't have made it to my blog.

Note that I'll only be touching the surface of everything with very brief descriptions to keep things simple. The goal here is to help you see the full picture, not to master everything.

Due to the graphic imagery, this article was published in my wordpress website. Click here to open this post. This is still al work in progress and will potentially take weeks or months to complete. Therefore, do expect minor inaccuracies.

If you are just getting into the field of cyber security, you will quickly notice this one tool called "Metasploit" popping up everywhere. Metasploit a very popular tool among penetration testers, and is developed by Rapid7. In fact, learning the basics of Metasploit is considered so important, that Rapid7 even made their own vulnerable virtual machine called Metasploitable for students to learn and play around with. If you were to look for books about Metasploit, you will easily be able to find hundreds... Among these, the Metasploit Cookbook (Amazon, PDF) is an excellent resource and is something that I can recommend personally.

With all the "snake oil" hype surrounding metasploit, it can be hard to know where to begin from and this article is to guide you through the basic, common concepts and to help you get up and running.

Also, at the very end, I'll share a hot take about Metasploit - one that many will probably agree with, but some definitely won't.

For those who don't find the default Debian installer ("d-i") frustrating, you also have the option to install Debian using the Calamares installer. Additionally, there's a lot to configure post-install. To avoid all of this trouble, you can use the Debian Live installer, which uses Calamares.

By default, Calamares configuration in Debian Live enforces some password policies to prevent users from entering weak passwords. This is a very important feature, but I find it too complicated for virtual machines and testing scenarios. Therefore, in this article, let's see how to disable it and use a simple password.

If you don't like big tech companies prying their eyes on your data, you might want to self host all the services either locally on-premise or on a cloud server (a Virtual Private Server or a Dedicated Server).

When you are doing this, yes, you are safe from the eyes of big tech, and you actually get to have some privacy. HOWEVER, you will be in charge of your own data security. Therefore, hardening your server is essential to keep your data secure from bad actors and sometimes even automated scanners.

In this article, let's see how to do just that. This guide focuses on Debian 12 (not Ubuntu, since it's Canonical's bloat). Let's get started.

If you've ever dragged a window quickly on Windows 10 and suddenly found all your other windows minimized, congratulations—you've just encountered Aero Shake.

If you are a Windows LTSC user, you don't have Microsoft Store to installation applications. Most applications can be installed separately without an issue. However, apps like WhatsApp Desktop requires you to install them via the store.

In this tutorial, let's see how to install apps that are only available in microsoft store without store.

This is my first time (well, actually the second time) playing with Metasploitable. Please note that Metasploitable2 is what I'll be working with in this post. Let's look at the easiest ways to exploit it and also cover how these vulnerabilities can be fixed. Let's get started!

Whether you are setting up a computer for yourself or someone else, it's always better to have the user's files on a separate disk (or at least a partition) for easy recovery and management. Doing this also allows directories (like Desktop) to be shared among multiple operating systems if you dual boot.