Kernel modules permit enabling hardware features on a given system. For example, if we need to read from a particular filesystem from a hard drive, we need to load a particular kernel module. Or use a specific network card, a sound card or sound device, a video display, etc. This is mostly done automatically in […]

How to load and unload kernel modules in Linux

How to upload a FreeBSD custom image on DigitalOcean
Due to DigitalOcean not releasing ready to use images for FreeBSD 13 at this time, and since I opened a ticket a couple of months ago without a strong positive message from DigitalOcean supporting FreeBSD 13, I’ve decided to make use of their custom image upload service and give it a go. I must say […]

Monitoring Systems (One)
Monitoring systems or how to get lost in fierce madness. There are many solutions to monitor systems and most of them have some kind of web interface to operate. Choosing the right tool for any job is a tedious task and for a newbie like me it is a bit harder, specially for a sensitive […]

How to install the ELK stack on CentOS 8
The ELK stack stands for Elasticsearch, Logstash and Kibana. These three pieces of software are very useful since each brings a powerful capability that in combination is just great to use. Elasticsearch is a search and analytics engine. Logstash can process data from multiple sources. Kibana allows to visualize data in a graphic manner. These […]

Abandon Linux. How to install iocage to manage FreeBSD Jails
The iocage program is a python 3 piece created to manage FreeBSD Jails leveraging the underpinning ZFS file system on FreeBSD. As already explained on previous articles the FreeBSD operating system offers an OS-level virtualization system called Jails. And as described on past articles it can benefit administrators and developers alike. This is a simple […]

How to install sudo in FreeBSD
Sudo is a very useful application. It allows a regular user to perform tasks only reserved to the root account. There is lots of documentation about sudo and there is even a book about it called “Sudo Mastery”. If you need to investigate deep on this, buy it. Why do you need this? Well… Everyone […]

How to configure Apache HTTP with a TLS reverse proxy backend on FreeBSD
A few weeks ago I published a how to guide to configure Apache HTTP as a reverse proxy. On that ocasion I was following what the average guide on the internet does on Linux. A front end server with Apache HTTP on calls a backend server where the real site is sitting. Many backend calls […]

The root account
Users. What the hell you mean by “root”? Are you a Windows user? I bet you have the user account badly configured. By default Windows is installed under the Administrator account. And nobody bothers to change this and add a second account. That second account should be an underprivileged one. If you own the computer […]

List of Speculative Execution Vulnerabilities
Vulnerability CVE Exploit name Public vulnerability name Firmware changes Spectre 2017-5753 Variant 1 Bounds Check Bypass (BCB) No Spectre 2017-5715 Variant 2 Branch Target Injection (BTI) Yes Meltdown 2017-5754 Variant 3 Rogue Data Cache Load (RDCL) No Spectre-NG 2018-3640 Variant 3a Rogue System Register Read (RSRE) Yes Spectre-NG 2018-3639 Variant 4 Speculative Store Bypass (SSB) […]

How to install ModSecurity 3 on FreeBSD
A couple of years ago I wrote a guide on how to install Modsecurity on FreeBSD. Now the program is on its third iteration so a new article is needed. Or so I think. In this article I’ll be covering Modsecurity 3 applied to protect Apache HTTP. If you find the articles in Adminbyaccident.com useful […]
