OpenSSL: Creating Digital Certificate Tutorial

Here is the way to - HOWTO - create a Digital Certificate using OpenSSL software.
First of all install OpenSSL on you PC, and add its bin file to your executables path.

Create your Own CA
Then create some directory to be your CA directory (let's call it demoCA)
Now create the following 3 directories in demoCA (requests, certs, and keys) and create the following to files (database.txt, and serial.txt) and open serial.txt and write 01 in it. Also don't forget to copy the file openssl.conf there too.
Now you need to create your CA key:
"openssl genrsa -des3 -out keys/ca.key 1024"
Create a master certificate based on this key, to use when signing other certificates:
"openssl req -config openssl.conf -new -x509 -days 1001 -key keys/ca.key -out certs/ca.cer"

Create the Digital Certificate
Generate private key for the certificate:
"openssl genrsa -des3 -out keys/foo-key.pem 2048"
Create a certificate request:
"openssl req -new -key keys/foo-key.pem -out requests/foo-req.csr"
Sign the certificate by the CA:
"openssl ca -policy policy_anything -config openssl.conf -cert certs/ca.cer -in requests/foo-req.csr -keyfile keys/ca.key -days 3650 -out certs/foo-cert.cer"
Convert the certificate format to x509 to be used by Windows Internet Explorer
"openssl x509 -in certs/foo-cert.cer -out certs/foo-cert-509.cer"

Note1: For windows users replace all "/" with "\"
Note2: You can get openssl.conf from anywhere, just google for it.
Note: This is how to use a self signed certificate on a Netscreen firewall

Tags: Security, OpenSSL, PKI, Encryption, Gr33n Data

The Boring Shows

The two most popular satellite channels in the middle east now are MBC2 "http://www.2onthenet.com" and One TV "http://www.onetv.ae"; however they started lately to have some boring shows such as The Early Show, The Insider, Oprah, 60 Minutes, The View, 48 Hours, etc... The problem with these shows that they are so American and keep on getting news on people we dont't know and issues we don't care about. May be people like them in their countries, but I am sure that no one here watches them.

Anti-Windows

My computer suffered from weird symptoms lately, I couldn't restart, hibernate nor shutdown (just press the power off button), when pressing the well known "Alt+Ctrl+Del" button it didn't respond, many applications couldn't be opened etc.
Here you are a nice joke I heard lately "Computers are like Air Conditions, both of them do not function well when you open the Windows".

HOWTO Reinstalling Thunderbird

When you try to reinstall Thunderbird and want it to use an older version profile (Mails, Addresses, Messages Filters, etc). You just want to create a new profile (Mozilla Thunderbird >> Profile Manager) then choose "Create Profile", then press next and enter whatever name you want then press on choose folder and choose the folder your previous Thunderbird installation used to use. And here we go.

Zamalek Links

Zamalek is one of the best football clubs in Egypt and the Middle East. These are some links for Zamalek Fans:

• http://www.zamalek.tv/
• http://www.zamalekfans.com/
• http://www.zamaleknews.com/
• http://www.zamalek.com/
• http://www.zamalek-sc.com

Salec to supply, install, and maintain the network infrastructure equipment and security for the Egyptian Universities Network (EUN)

Saudi Egyptian Logistics and Electronics Company (Salec, Egypt) was awarded a contract valued at more 15 million EGP to supply, install, operate and maintain the network infrastructure equipment and security for the Egyptian Universities Network (EUN) and national research institutes. The project is aimed at linking Egypt’s 16 universities and 9 research institutes together with the Egyptian National Scientific and Technical Information Network (ENSTINET), EUN, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), and Bibliotheca Alexandria by installing the latest technology networking based on (IPV6 + MPLS) and IP Network security solutions. Salec was selected because it reached the best price performance ratio required by the ministry, Salec went to the bid with its Partners Juniper Networks for the Routers, Firewalls, and IDPs; Foundry Networks for LAN Switches. It was the only bidder using Juniper/Foundry equipments while the seven others were using the same competitive brand of equipment. Salec, Egypt: http://www.salec.com

Islamic Links

I am currently adding some Islamic web links to my home page, so if any one has more links to be added please contact me, especially if {he she} has ones in other languages than arabic. http://www.geocities.com/tarekamr20/islam.htm#Links

Linux USB to Serial to Console NetScreen Firewall

I have Linux installed on my laptop, and the laptop does not have serial port that's why I am using a usb2serial in order to console any external devices. So here is the configuration I done on my Ubuntu linux 5.04 in order to console NetScreen firewall (this can be used with many other devices as well).

First of all I installed minicom then configured it as follows:
Ctrl+A then press Z then O, then choose "Serial port setup", then press A and configure " Serial Device : /dev/ttyUSB0" then press enter and press E and configure "Bps/Par/Bits: 9600 8N1" then press enter and save setup as default and exit and here we go.

Tags: Computers, Linux, Ubuntu, Gr33n Data

The murder of Humanity

Yesterday Al Qaida division in Iraq has committed a dirty crime by murdering the Egyptian ambassador in Iraq. And once more it has been proven to the whole world that the Salafys or Wahabys claims to be muslims; however the are far away from Islam - the religion of peace to all humans.

MySQL Cheat Sheet

Some useful MySQL Commands http://www.geocities.com/tarekamr20/articles/mysql.txt