Hello again!

I'm getting horrible at this whole blogging thing, but I've actually gotten into the habit of going out more often. It's good for me, but it doesn't give me much time to update this blog. I'm not gone for good though, and I actually have something pretty cool for you guys now. You know how I've been hacking things like the authui.dll to change my logon screen and whatnot for Windows 7? Well I've found a way to take screenshots from the login or lock screens. It requires a few files but it's pretty easy, and it's REALLY convenient if you want to show off your styles/hacks/whatever.

Okay first you need to sign into an account that has or can elevate to administrator privileges. Now you need to download Pstools and a screenshot utility. For convenience, I use the CLI (command line) screenshot utility, boxcutter. Extract the files from both archives somewhere easy to navigate, as you'll be accessing them from command line. I created a folder in my C drive called "Tools", so the location would be easy to navigate to, since it's simply C:\Tools. Run cmd as administrator, and change directory to the files you've downloaded. The command to change directories is "cd" without quotations, so for me the command would be "cd C:\Tools", again without quotations. The next command you enter is "psexec -dsx cmd.exe" without quotations. Now you either log out, or lock your screen, whichever you prefer. Hit keys Alt+Tab, and a command prompt should open. Now change directories back to the folder with boxcutter. After that, enter the command "boxcutter -f" without quotations. Boxcutter will take a full-screen screen shot for you, and save the picture to the clipboard. From there you can log in and paste the image into an image editor like Photoshop or GIMP or Paint.

Check it out, here's my login screen:

Dieting!

So I know that this doesn't really stick to the tech theme of my blog, but I just need somewhere to organize my thoughts. About a week ago, I started dieting. All I ever drank was soda, but I've completely cut that out of my diet. From now on it's only water, fruit/vegetable juice, and green tea. I've started eating a lot of vegetables, and oats, and I'm sticking to wheat bread instead of white. I'm taking fish oil tablets (great for the heart and metabolism), and working out a lot. I recently got Georges St. Pierre's Rush Fitness videos and I'm really excited to try those out. Once I'm back in shape, I intend to start training in Mixed Martial Arts again. I've been a lot more productive lately, and it feels great.

Google Hacks.

Okay so we all know that Google indexes websites to use in their search engine, right? But did you know that Google also indexes some pages and files that expose massive security flaws in servers? For example, try to search for this little gem in Google:

intitle:"Index of" pwd.db

The thing is, this isn't rare at all. With a few simple Google searches you can find THOUSANDS of servers and websites, just begging to be exploited. Check this out: There's this guy, Johnny. He hacks stuff. You can find his website at http://johnny.ihackstuff.com/. He works for an awesome organization called Hackers for Charity. If you check it out, you should leave a small donation so that these guys can get shit done. They do a lot of good, really. Anyways, Johnny has an awesome list of these Google searches, which you can find here. With these search phrases, it is literally TOO easy to hack some of these websites. Please note that I take no responsibility for any actions you may take, using this knowledge. I am merely sharing this with the internet because I think it's cool, and because some of you might think to check how secure your websites really are. I am in no way stating that I have hacked any of these websites, nor am I encouraging you to do so. Anyways, feel free to check these out, because I thought it was pretty cool. And like I said, if you dig what Hackers for Charity is doing, you should definitely donate something.

Hello, hello.

I've been incredibly inactive lately, and I apologize for that. I'll be sure to read up on all your blogs momentarily, to see what I've missed.

Life has been a bit hectic lately, but it's slowing down so I'll be sure to post and check your blogs more often.

So here's what I'm up to currently: Reading and applying a series of reverse engineering tutorials found here. Tuts4you is actually a great website, with lots of awesome tutorials involving reverse engineering.

If I catch on quickly enough, I'll start uploading my cracks.

After I've gained sufficient knowledge of reverse engineering, I might look into the development of malware, purely for educational purposes.

Killing Floor.

In case any of you have never played, Killing Floor is a FPS co-op game built on the Unreal Engine. The point of the game is simple: Fight back the swarms of zombies that are attacking. There are various elements of the game that seem like they've been stolen from other zombie concepts, IE genetic engineering gone wrong, and different mutations of zombies like in the L4D/2 games. However, it puts enough of a twist on these characteristics to make them at least a bit original. The downside I see in this game is that there's no campaign, so after a while it gets a bit stale, but according to Steam I've played about 80+ hours of it and I'm still having a great time. The problem with the steam version is that it runs about $20, and definitely is not worth it. I recommend either waiting for a Steam sale (I think I got KF for about $9, which is a much more accurate price), or pirating. While the latter solution will prevent you from connecting to steam servers, there are cracked servers that should allow you to connect. Check here for a list of some of those servers. My favorite aspect of the game is the perks feature: Different areas of specialization as you would see in any military setting such as medics or demolition experts. A complete and comprehensive list of these perks and their many attributes can be found here on the Killing Floor Wiki. My favorite, if anyone was wondering, is support specialist. With their specialty in shotguns and welding, they make a very formidable and useful team mate. One trick I love using is sitting in a room and welding the door shut. When you do this, the zombies that are coming for you will all gather at the door and work together to break it down. Usually by the time the door breaks down, you can have a group of 10+ zombies. The shotgun works well for taking out multiple zombies at a time (depending on their health/mutation) so two shots could take out all or most of these 10+ zombies, especially if you use well-aimed headshots (their heads are much weaker than their bodies). Today I successfully hacked all of those perks up to level six. If anyone is interested in how to do this, just let me know. If you have Steam and want to add me, my profile can be found here. I own a few games but typically only play Half Life 2: Death Match and Killing Floor. If you choose to pirate Killing Floor and want to play with me on a cracked server, you can shoot me an IM on AIM (xmrlinuxx).

Windows Recycle Bin

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've posted anything useful, so I better get on the ball, eh? Here's something I think is really awesome: Recycle Bin... In the system tray!

If you're anything like me, you like minimalism, and you hate having a cluttered desktop. I keep nothing at all on my desktop. Everything is tucked away nice and neat. Including my recycle bin. The problem is, by removing the recycle bin icon, I was trading efficiency for aesthetics. How could I empty my recycle bin to conserve space, without having to go through the tedious process of showing and hiding it again? I found two solutions!

Minibin: Starts with Windows. Allows opening and emptying of the recycle bin. Configuration options.

SysTray Recycler: Starts with Windows. Can open/empty recycle bin. Shows total filesize of files within the recycle bin. Can clean temporary files. If CCleaner is installed, it can be launced from SysTray Recycler. Configuration Options.

In my opinion, SysTray Recycler is preferable. It's the one I stuck with. But I've shown the two programs to many friends, and a lot of them are beyond satisfied with both. I hope you all find this helpful. :)

And of course, as I end every post: If you can think of any system file hacks that you want (.exe or .dll) for appearances let me know!

Eyyyyyyyy

So I haven't been blogging much lately. I really need to fix that. I've just been a bit busy. Anyways, I'm about to go back and re-hack everything since my Windows updates broke all of the old hacks. While I'm at it, does anyone have any suggestions? Any system files you want hacked? Keep in mind I'm limited to the functionality of Resource Hacker and my very limited knowledge of ASM and usage of OllyDbg.