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Protect your Site Against Questionable Redirects and Frames
After reviewing statistics for my topsite blog directory, I observed traffic from a website that uses redirects and frames to exploit my website with questionable advertisements (porn). Here is the format: http://????????.com/go/?/301??/http://www.topbloglists.com. I inserted the "?" as substitutes.
Obviously, I felt my site was being hijacked and I was miffed. But this was not the first time this happened to me.
Approximately two months ago, I emailed the webmaster three times requesting their members NOT be allowed to employ links that use frames to create banner-like ads above my pages. I never received a response to my emails, but the activity did stop until today.
Luckily, I found this script to deal with the issue. Place it within the . Here is the script's source along with a post on questionable linking.
Obviously, I felt my site was being hijacked and I was miffed. But this was not the first time this happened to me.
Approximately two months ago, I emailed the webmaster three times requesting their members NOT be allowed to employ links that use frames to create banner-like ads above my pages. I never received a response to my emails, but the activity did stop until today.
Luckily, I found this script to deal with the issue. Place it within the . Here is the script's source along with a post on questionable linking.
Shell Based Random Number Generator
I observed a a few searches in my metadata stats for a shell based random generator. I know Korn, Bash, and Z Shell shells support a RANDOM variable. Depending on the shell, I will use a print and/or echo command to output its value. The pseudo-random generator outputs an integer between 0 and 32767 - yes, a very limited range. Here are a few examples for these three different shells.
Korn Shell
# ksh
# echo $RANDOM
23508
# echo $RANDOM
22618
# echo $RANDOM
1864
# echo $RANDOM $RANDOM
4958 29989
# print $RANDOM
30418
# print $RANDOM
4992
# print $RANDOM $RANDOM $RANDOM
29436 27342 12946
Seed the sequence of numbers
# RANDOM=100
# print $RANDOM
12662
# echo $RANDOM
23392
# RANDOM=100
# echo $RANDOM
12662
# echo $RANDOM
23392
Bash Shell
# bash
# echo $RANDOM
3107
# echo $RANDOM
7897
Z Shell
# zsh
# print $RANDOM
32274
# for i in {1..10}
for> do
for> print $RANDOM
for> done
10740
12659
9498
2798
3541
10384
21216
15221
22157
15198
Seed the sequence of numbers
# RANDOM=`date '+%H%S'`
# echo $RANDOM
12488
# echo $RANDOM
5266
Korn Shell
# ksh
# echo $RANDOM
23508
# echo $RANDOM
22618
# echo $RANDOM
1864
# echo $RANDOM $RANDOM
4958 29989
# print $RANDOM
30418
# print $RANDOM
4992
# print $RANDOM $RANDOM $RANDOM
29436 27342 12946
Seed the sequence of numbers
# RANDOM=100
# print $RANDOM
12662
# echo $RANDOM
23392
# RANDOM=100
# echo $RANDOM
12662
# echo $RANDOM
23392
Bash Shell
# bash
# echo $RANDOM
3107
# echo $RANDOM
7897
Z Shell
# zsh
# print $RANDOM
32274
# for i in {1..10}
for> do
for> print $RANDOM
for> done
10740
12659
9498
2798
3541
10384
21216
15221
22157
15198
Seed the sequence of numbers
# RANDOM=`date '+%H%S'`
# echo $RANDOM
12488
# echo $RANDOM
5266
Setup Mail Client on UNIX-based System
In the last post, a mail server setup was demonstrated. This post will demonstrate the setup of a mail client. Again, the setup of mail client is fairly straightforward. Here is the run.
On the client side, ensure the /var/mail directory is present.
# ls -l /var/mail
If not, create it.
# cd /var
# mkdir mail
Now modify the client's /etc/vfstab file
# vi /etc/vfstab
esoft:/var/mail - /var/mail nfs - yes -
:wq!
Now mount /var/mail
# mount /var/mail
Verify the /var/mail is actually being shared from the mail server
# cd /var/mail
# df -k .
On the client side, ensure the /var/mail directory is present.
# ls -l /var/mail
If not, create it.
# cd /var
# mkdir mail
Now modify the client's /etc/vfstab file
# vi /etc/vfstab
esoft:/var/mail - /var/mail nfs - yes -
:wq!
Now mount /var/mail
# mount /var/mail
Verify the /var/mail is actually being shared from the mail server
# cd /var/mail
# df -k .
Finding Open Files with lsof Command
When a file is in use by a process, it is possible to delete the file - OR at least it may appear that is the case. The filename is no longer visible via the ls command, but it is there until the process using it exits.
For example, let's say Sysadmin1 runs a sniffer process in the background to capture and save packets to a file. The capture file starts growing bigger over time. Instead of killing the process, he/she simply deletes the capture file, thinking this will recover the disk space. It doesn't. Believing everything is well, Sysadmin1 goes home.
Now Sysadmin2 shows up and notices the box is running out of disk space. Naturally, the admin wants to figure out what’s rapidly consuming disk space. The easiest way for the SysAd to locate the growing file is to use the lsof command.
Another instance the lsof would be helpful is when a filesystem refuses to unmount due to open files.
Here are a few practical examples of using the lsof command.
To list all the open files on the var filesystem:
# lsof +D /var
To list all open files in your current directory only:
# lsof +d .
To list all open Internet files:
# lsof -i
To list all files currently open by user joe:
# lsof -u joe
To list all files open by syslog-ng (this is a great quick way to find
logs!):
# lsof -c syslog-ng
To list all files open by pid:
# lsof -p PID
Note: There are additional parameters you can add to the command to narrow the listing to include or exclude types of files and much more!
# lsof -help
Post provided by Mary M. Chaddock
For example, let's say Sysadmin1 runs a sniffer process in the background to capture and save packets to a file. The capture file starts growing bigger over time. Instead of killing the process, he/she simply deletes the capture file, thinking this will recover the disk space. It doesn't. Believing everything is well, Sysadmin1 goes home.
Now Sysadmin2 shows up and notices the box is running out of disk space. Naturally, the admin wants to figure out what’s rapidly consuming disk space. The easiest way for the SysAd to locate the growing file is to use the lsof command.
Another instance the lsof would be helpful is when a filesystem refuses to unmount due to open files.
Here are a few practical examples of using the lsof command.
To list all the open files on the var filesystem:
# lsof +D /var
To list all open files in your current directory only:
# lsof +d .
To list all open Internet files:
# lsof -i
To list all files currently open by user joe:
# lsof -u joe
To list all files open by syslog-ng (this is a great quick way to find
logs!):
# lsof -c syslog-ng
To list all files open by pid:
# lsof -p PID
Note: There are additional parameters you can add to the command to narrow the listing to include or exclude types of files and much more!
# lsof -help
Post provided by Mary M. Chaddock
FEATURE_ERROR_USER_OPEN_NO_ACCESS
As I do practically every morning along with millions of others around the world, I logged into my Yahoo.com email account to check mail. To my chagrin, I was unable to login, and to make matters worse, my user ID/password combination wasn't recognized by the system. My first thoughts were "CAPS LOCK," or forgotten (which I rarely do) password , or hacked, or TOS violations (on what basis??) or corrupted cookies – who the heck knows. Then I decided to have my password recovered to an alternate email address (gmail), but I was still darn sure I knew my password. For “you know what and grins,” I made an attempt to recover it. But my user ID wasn't even recognized by the system. Here is the message I received after entering my user ID and answering a question about ever using a credit card or not.
----
Sorry That You're Having Trouble Signing In
We know that not being able to sign in can be frustrating, so we'll try to make this as quick and easy as possible. To get started, enter your Yahoo! ID and let us know if you've ever used a credit card with Yahoo!.
FEATURE_ERROR_USER_OPEN_NO_ACCESS
----
I wasn't too sure what the aforementioned cryptic error message was all about but it didn't look promising.
So I decided to recreate the email account, maybe there was a simple glitch in the system. No joy because it's not available. Someone else is using it - Yes, it's ME!
After traversing Yahoo’s help pages for awhile, I finally found the customer care form and submitted my problem. I let them know the account was tied to my PAID Yahoo MyBlogLog Account (for meta data and stats) and I was NOT spamming or using the account for any illicit activities, so I asked them to please explain why my account has disappeared into the ether.
After all that, I tried logging in again but no joy.
So now I decided it was time to Google for the answer. Here is what I found from Yahoo's answers via the Google index.
“the solution for this problem is to go to the yahoo! India web page and try logging in through that ..........”
So I brought up the yahoo.co.in homepage and grudgingly logged in. Whoa! It worked.
----
Sorry That You're Having Trouble Signing In
We know that not being able to sign in can be frustrating, so we'll try to make this as quick and easy as possible. To get started, enter your Yahoo! ID and let us know if you've ever used a credit card with Yahoo!.
FEATURE_ERROR_USER_OPEN_NO_ACCESS
----
I wasn't too sure what the aforementioned cryptic error message was all about but it didn't look promising.
So I decided to recreate the email account, maybe there was a simple glitch in the system. No joy because it's not available. Someone else is using it - Yes, it's ME!
After traversing Yahoo’s help pages for awhile, I finally found the customer care form and submitted my problem. I let them know the account was tied to my PAID Yahoo MyBlogLog Account (for meta data and stats) and I was NOT spamming or using the account for any illicit activities, so I asked them to please explain why my account has disappeared into the ether.
After all that, I tried logging in again but no joy.
So now I decided it was time to Google for the answer. Here is what I found from Yahoo's answers via the Google index.
“the solution for this problem is to go to the yahoo! India web page and try logging in through that ..........”
So I brought up the yahoo.co.in homepage and grudgingly logged in. Whoa! It worked.
Split XML Records with Perl Script
A colleague, Mahlon Anderson, and I were thinking of ways of splitting up a fairly large XML file, which had approximately 27K records in it. I wanted to split this file into smaller ones, each having about 250-300 records, because my former web host service kept complaining about constant CPU quota overloads during uploads. A Perl based splitter script quickly came to mind.
With the web host service, I had plenty disk space and plenty bandwidth but limited CPU usage. Apparently, I didn’t notice that sticky point in the fine print while signing up for the service.
A different splitting implementation was later used as the permanent solution, but here is Mahlon's "quick and dirty" XML Perl splitter-- printed with his permission of course.
# vi split.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl
$file = @ARGV[0];
open(_FH, "_FH)
{
if($count == 0)
{
$filename = $file . "_part_" . $files_counter;
open(FH2, "> $filename") or die "Unable to open file: $filename\n";
$count++;
}
if (grep //, $_ )
{
$count++;
}
print FH2 $_;
if ($count == $max_records + 1)
{
$count = 0;
$files_counter++;
close(FH2);
}
}
:wq!
# ./split.pl bigxmlfile.xml
With the web host service, I had plenty disk space and plenty bandwidth but limited CPU usage. Apparently, I didn’t notice that sticky point in the fine print while signing up for the service.
A different splitting implementation was later used as the permanent solution, but here is Mahlon's "quick and dirty" XML Perl splitter-- printed with his permission of course.
# vi split.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl
$file = @ARGV[0];
open(_FH, "_FH)
{
if($count == 0)
{
$filename = $file . "_part_" . $files_counter;
open(FH2, "> $filename") or die "Unable to open file: $filename\n";
$count++;
}
if (grep //, $_ )
{
$count++;
}
print FH2 $_;
if ($count == $max_records + 1)
{
$count = 0;
$files_counter++;
close(FH2);
}
}
:wq!
# ./split.pl bigxmlfile.xml
IT Certification Self-Help Portal
I found this technical self-help website, uCertify.com, very interesting and wanted to share it with some of the readers. The company has been online since 1999. They are offering PrepKits which are interactive software programs that help you learn, track your progress, identify areas for improvement and simulate the actual exam. I sampled a few of their demo quizzes, but I mainly focused on their database kits because I am thinking about an Oracle certification in the near-term. On my initial run through, I found the practice test questions to be relevant and comprehensive, not just some cheesy Q&A effort.
I downloaded their Oracle 10G kit and obtained a key for it. It was a quick download via VDSL and was extremely easy to setup. I did not have any problems obtaining a key from uCertify. For the premium version, I took a couple of its timed practice tests along with its timed final. I thought the final test was a bit more difficult than the practice tests which was probably by design. Also, I noticed there was a “learn” function for each test question, which was accompanied by a thorough explanation. Frankly speaking, I needed to use a “RE-learn” function on some of the questions. :) There was also a means to create your own tests, add your own questions, provide immediate feedback, tagging, print, review questions, and make notes online – this flexibility was a nice surprise.
One last thing, per their website, they say if you do not pass the certification on your first attempt, they will refund your money. Yes, I was looking for an asterisk after this statement and was pleasantly surprised not to find one.
Here is what you get with the sample version.
30 questions total (this includes the quiz questions)
30 diagnostic test questions
Create tests
22 study notes
Articles, HOWTO's, and study tips
Progress report
Here is an example of what you get with the premium version, which may vary from kit to kit.
301 test questions
3 full length practice tests
105 study notes
Create tests
Unlimited free upgrades for a period of one year from the date of purchase
24x7 technical services
100% money back guarantee
Articles, HOWTO's, and study tips
Provide discounts on all future purchases
The sample version did give me a decent idea of what the tests were all about. Their PrepKits are designed to help you certify on vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Adobe and a few others.
By the way, this is NOT a paid post.
If you are interested in a free, fully functional certification kit of your choice, leave a helpful non-anonymous UNIX-related HOWTO comment here and I will choose a winner after about two weeks. This is a $10 to $100+ value depending on the selected kit.
Update from uCertify: Your readers can use our discount code given on your Blog and get 10% discount on the uCertify PrepKit of their choice. Please use the following Discount code: ESOHUB
I downloaded their Oracle 10G kit and obtained a key for it. It was a quick download via VDSL and was extremely easy to setup. I did not have any problems obtaining a key from uCertify. For the premium version, I took a couple of its timed practice tests along with its timed final. I thought the final test was a bit more difficult than the practice tests which was probably by design. Also, I noticed there was a “learn” function for each test question, which was accompanied by a thorough explanation. Frankly speaking, I needed to use a “RE-learn” function on some of the questions. :) There was also a means to create your own tests, add your own questions, provide immediate feedback, tagging, print, review questions, and make notes online – this flexibility was a nice surprise.
One last thing, per their website, they say if you do not pass the certification on your first attempt, they will refund your money. Yes, I was looking for an asterisk after this statement and was pleasantly surprised not to find one.
Here is what you get with the sample version.
30 questions total (this includes the quiz questions)
30 diagnostic test questions
Create tests
22 study notes
Articles, HOWTO's, and study tips
Progress report
Here is an example of what you get with the premium version, which may vary from kit to kit.
301 test questions
3 full length practice tests
105 study notes
Create tests
Unlimited free upgrades for a period of one year from the date of purchase
24x7 technical services
100% money back guarantee
Articles, HOWTO's, and study tips
Provide discounts on all future purchases
The sample version did give me a decent idea of what the tests were all about. Their PrepKits are designed to help you certify on vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Adobe and a few others.
By the way, this is NOT a paid post.
If you are interested in a free, fully functional certification kit of your choice, leave a helpful non-anonymous UNIX-related HOWTO comment here and I will choose a winner after about two weeks. This is a $10 to $100+ value depending on the selected kit.
Update from uCertify: Your readers can use our discount code given on your Blog and get 10% discount on the uCertify PrepKit of their choice. Please use the following Discount code: ESOHUB
System
Unix
Administration
OpenSolaris
Windows
oracle
tutorials
Troubleshoot POP3 Mail Server with Telnet
I am finally getting an opportunity to write a post. I have been so busy with upgrades lately and had to put off writing for awhile.
The other day I had a number of users complaining about not being able to fetch mail to their mail client, MS Outlook. As usual, I attempted to duplicate the error. The error message was reporting unable to connect to the mail server. At that point, I decided to telnet the Post Office Protocol or POP3 port, 110, via the command line interface. Sure enough, I had a problem.
Note: The “before and after” command line examples are only for illustration purposes.
# telnet server 110
Trying 192.1xx.xx.xxx...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused
I started thinking there was a problem with the inetd.conf file. After reviewing the file, I noticed the pop3 service was commented out. The appropriate change was made and inetd was restarted. Problem resolved.
# telnet server 110
Trying 192.1xx.xx.xxx...
Connected to server.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK connected to pop3 on 3429
By the way, you can check out other popular port services, too.
# telnet server 6667
# telnet server 25
The other day I had a number of users complaining about not being able to fetch mail to their mail client, MS Outlook. As usual, I attempted to duplicate the error. The error message was reporting unable to connect to the mail server. At that point, I decided to telnet the Post Office Protocol or POP3 port, 110, via the command line interface. Sure enough, I had a problem.
Note: The “before and after” command line examples are only for illustration purposes.
# telnet server 110
Trying 192.1xx.xx.xxx...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused
I started thinking there was a problem with the inetd.conf file. After reviewing the file, I noticed the pop3 service was commented out. The appropriate change was made and inetd was restarted. Problem resolved.
# telnet server 110
Trying 192.1xx.xx.xxx...
Connected to server.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK connected to pop3 on 3429
By the way, you can check out other popular port services, too.
# telnet server 6667
# telnet server 25
Permanently Remove Data on UNIX Hard Drives
It is fairly common for companies to dispose of their obsolete hard drives. However, most of them want to ensure all data is shredded from the hard drives. Finding a Windows-based wipe program was fairly easy, but finding a UNIX-based program took a little more searching. BCWipe is a program that will wipe a UNIX-based hard drive clean. The BCWipe website claims their multi-platform UNIX version is intended to give you a confidence that your deleted files cannot be recovered by an intruder. BCWipe repeatedly overwrites special patterns to the files to be destroyed.
Note: Most likely you will have to compile the source code for your particular platform architecture.
BCWipe for UNIX offers the following wiping schemes per their site.
1. US DoD 5220.22-M standard (7 passes with verification)
2. User-defined number of passes
3. Peter Gutmann's 35 pass scheme
BCWipe for UNIX is designed as a multi-platform solution. Here is their supported list of various UNIX flavors.
Linux 2.0-2.6
FreeBSD 3.0-4.6
OpenBSD 2.8
Solaris 8-10
Digital UNIX 4
SGI Irix 6.5 (wiping block devices was not tested)
IBM AIX 5
HP-UX 10, 11
Here is the download link for 30 day evaluation.
BCWipe Download
Note: Most likely you will have to compile the source code for your particular platform architecture.
BCWipe for UNIX offers the following wiping schemes per their site.
1. US DoD 5220.22-M standard (7 passes with verification)
2. User-defined number of passes
3. Peter Gutmann's 35 pass scheme
BCWipe for UNIX is designed as a multi-platform solution. Here is their supported list of various UNIX flavors.
Linux 2.0-2.6
FreeBSD 3.0-4.6
OpenBSD 2.8
Solaris 8-10
Digital UNIX 4
SGI Irix 6.5 (wiping block devices was not tested)
IBM AIX 5
HP-UX 10, 11
Here is the download link for 30 day evaluation.
BCWipe Download
Using Z Shell Brace Expansion to Create Test Files
Here is a convenient way of creating test files using the powerful Z Shell. I have been using this shell for a short while, and I am quickly becoming a fan of it. I used it to support transfer speed tests. To support these tests, I created a specified number of files that varied in size (1MB, 5MB, 10MB, 50MB, 100MB, 500MB, etc). Here is a straightforward one-liner mkfile example of creating 50 x 12MB files and a few others using zsh’s brace expansion.
# zsh
# mkfile 12m {1..50}.tst
# ls -l
total 122960
-rw------T 1 root other 12582912 Feb 18 20:04 1.tst
-rw------T 1 root other 12582912 Feb 18 20:04 2.tst
-rw------T 1 root other 12582912 Feb 18 20:04 3.tst
-rw------T 1 root other 12582912 Feb 18 20:04 4.tst
-rw------T 1 root other 12582912 Feb 18 20:04 5.tst
...
Other examples...
# touch {1..5}.testfile
# ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:07 1.testfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:07 2.testfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:07 3.testfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:07 4.testfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:07 5.testfile
# touch {6..10}.data
# ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 1.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 10.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 2.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 3.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 4.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 5.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 6.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 7.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 8.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 9.data
# ls -l {1..5}.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:26 1.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:26 2.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:26 3.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:26 4.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:26 5.data
# zsh
# mkfile 12m {1..50}.tst
# ls -l
total 122960
-rw------T 1 root other 12582912 Feb 18 20:04 1.tst
-rw------T 1 root other 12582912 Feb 18 20:04 2.tst
-rw------T 1 root other 12582912 Feb 18 20:04 3.tst
-rw------T 1 root other 12582912 Feb 18 20:04 4.tst
-rw------T 1 root other 12582912 Feb 18 20:04 5.tst
...
Other examples...
# touch {1..5}.testfile
# ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:07 1.testfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:07 2.testfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:07 3.testfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:07 4.testfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:07 5.testfile
# touch {6..10}.data
# ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 1.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 10.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 2.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 3.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 4.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 5.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 6.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 7.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 8.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:30 9.data
# ls -l {1..5}.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:26 1.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:26 2.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:26 3.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:26 4.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 0 Feb 18 20:26 5.data
Troubleshooting the "su: No shell" error
The other day we had a problem with a system account. At first we did not notice the “su: No shell” error on the console (headless server) but after a few reboots it was fairly evident. The message gave us enough feedback to determine the substitute user or su command was having a problem with a particular account. To ascertain which system account, we invoked a sequential step-through of the startup scripts.
In the end, it appears that a third party application used to manage NIS+ had locked and changed the account’s shell to something unknown (by design) due to multiple login failures. The account was restored to its original shell.
# su - esofthub -c "myscript"
su: No shell
View locked account
# niscat passwd.org_dir | grep esofthub
esofthub:*LK*:1005:10:esofthub test:/home/esofthub:/bin/sh.locked:13933::::::
Modify with third party application
After the modification
# su - esofthub -c "myscript"
Visit Ucertify's challenge winners' blogs: Ax0N and armando
For Files Only
If you are using the files repository and no third party software to manage your user information, modify the /etc/passwd file.
View locked account
# less /etc/shadow | grep esofthub
esofthub:*LK*:13933::::::
# less /etc/passwd | grep esofthub
esofthub:x:1005:10:esofthub test:/home/esofthub:/bin/sh.locked
Modify the account manually or admintool
# vi /etc/passwd
...
esofthub:x:1005:10:esofthub test:/home/esofthub:/bin/sh
...
:wq!
Change shell to C shell or any other shell if so desired
# passwd -r files -e esofthub
Old shell: /bin/sh
New shell: /bin/csh
Or
# admintool &
After the modification
# su - esofthub -c "myscript"
Visit Ucertify's challenge winners' blogs: Ax0N and armando
In the end, it appears that a third party application used to manage NIS+ had locked and changed the account’s shell to something unknown (by design) due to multiple login failures. The account was restored to its original shell.
# su - esofthub -c "myscript"
su: No shell
View locked account
# niscat passwd.org_dir | grep esofthub
esofthub:*LK*:1005:10:esofthub test:/home/esofthub:/bin/sh.locked:13933::::::
Modify with third party application
After the modification
# su - esofthub -c "myscript"
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For Files Only
If you are using the files repository and no third party software to manage your user information, modify the /etc/passwd file.
View locked account
# less /etc/shadow | grep esofthub
esofthub:*LK*:13933::::::
# less /etc/passwd | grep esofthub
esofthub:x:1005:10:esofthub test:/home/esofthub:/bin/sh.locked
Modify the account manually or admintool
# vi /etc/passwd
...
esofthub:x:1005:10:esofthub test:/home/esofthub:/bin/sh
...
:wq!
Change shell to C shell or any other shell if so desired
# passwd -r files -e esofthub
Old shell: /bin/sh
New shell: /bin/csh
Or
# admintool &
After the modification
# su - esofthub -c "myscript"
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Dump Sybase Database to File
I had a reader ask me offline how to transfer a legacy database to another instance of a database management system (DBMS) on a separate server/workstation. The reader was trying to extract historical statistics via a test database (on a test server) without affecting the production database. I recommended dumping the entire database to a flat file and then writing (tar) the file to tape. I was uncertain if my response answered the reader's initial question but this is one way I dealt with a relatively small database (less than 50 megabytes) a few years ago. By the way, the sequence below assumes the receiving Sybase database was appropriately named and sized when it was created.
Login into production DBMS
1> use master
2> go
1> dump database yourdb to "/tmp/mydatabase.dat"
2> go
1> quit
2> go
Archive flat file to tape (assumes a tape drive is attached)
# cd /tmp
# tar cvfp /dev/rmt/0 mydatabase.dat
Move tape media to receiving server/workstation (assumes a tape drive is attached)
# cd /tmp
--This should extract mydatabase.dat to the /tmp directory
# tar xvfp /dev/rmt/0
# chmod 777 mydatabase.dat
Login into your test server DBMS
1> use master
2> go
1> load database yourdb from "/tmp/mydatabase.dat"
2> go
1> online database yourdb
2> go
1> quit
2> go
Other Sybase posts
Login into production DBMS
1> use master
2> go
1> dump database yourdb to "/tmp/mydatabase.dat"
2> go
1> quit
2> go
Archive flat file to tape (assumes a tape drive is attached)
# cd /tmp
# tar cvfp /dev/rmt/0 mydatabase.dat
Move tape media to receiving server/workstation (assumes a tape drive is attached)
# cd /tmp
--This should extract mydatabase.dat to the /tmp directory
# tar xvfp /dev/rmt/0
# chmod 777 mydatabase.dat
Login into your test server DBMS
1> use master
2> go
1> load database yourdb from "/tmp/mydatabase.dat"
2> go
1> online database yourdb
2> go
1> quit
2> go
Other Sybase posts
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