pyScout - threaded port scanner with heuristic protocol identification

In 2007, while attending a training event in Chicago, NYC, or Washington D.C., (my memory is fuzzy as to which), I began to learn Python.  I needed a project, and since I'd always wanted to tinker with the inner-workings of a port-scanner, I decided to write one in Python.  While this may not be the most novel utility to code, it afforded me the chance to learn Python and scratch a curious itch I'd always had.  As I began work on this simple port scanner, the thought occurred to me to incorporate something most other port scanners don't do: application/protocol/service identification.  Seemed like a good idea at the time.  There were a couple of others out there, but none that really incorporated both a high-speed port scanner and protocol identification.  SO, I decided to write such a beast.  Thus, pyScout was born.

As I began working on a pen-test for a client today, I was dusting off the old pyScout 0.0.3 code, and I realized that the C&C components were largely broken, but not badly.  I made a couple of minor changes and decided to put it up on Google Code so that others might benefit from the project.  If you'd like to browse the repository, you can, or you could check it out from SVN and use it.

If anyone would like to contribute to pyScout, feel free to drop me an e-mail or reply to this post.

Poor-man's Bells

One of the things the Queen and I have been trying to do is get everyone on the same schedule and to have a family routine around that schedule... I stole a page from the monastic play-book and setup bells to ring at 0900, 1200, 1500, 1800 and 2100.  I had tried to find a simple little program that would let me do this, but there were none that didn't either cost $20USD or suck emensely, so I cooked-up a quick little batch file I run on our media-center PC:

@echo off
net use t: \\lnx-dc1\shared
t:\bin\nircmd.exe mutesysvolume 0
t:\bin\nircmd.exe setsysvolume 32768
"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" --qt-start-minimized --no-repeat t:\sounds\bells.wav vlc://quit
net use t: /delete /y

So, all I do is have this little script execute via the Windows Task Scheduler at the desired times, and it works like a champ!

My thought was that the 0900 bell would be our official "start of the day" bell, the 1200 bell would be lunch time, 1500 would be mid-day, and 1800 is dinner.  At 2100, its time to head for bed.  One could easily use this method to create school bells for their home-school (to mark breaks, and such) or to mark the passage of the Liturgical Hours, etc...  And, its totally free.  I used NirCmd and VLC as well as a WAV of bells I found on-line.

python: XML-RPC over SSL

For quite some time I have been looking at writing a simple management agent that is cross-platform, extensible and secure.  My primary interest is that there are often times where I would like a means of performing some task on a remote system, without the necessity of actually connecting to those systems.  My thinking on this little project really got ratcheted into high-gear when I was studying for one of my recent certifications, wherein I was studying the architecture of an enterprise management platform.

For my part, I have the framework of the server in place, and will be fleshing-out the bits to transport and execute arbitrary plugins/modules and configurations.  Once that's done, the sky is basically the limit.

LastPass

If you haven't switched over to LastPass, you need to, and NOW.  This is the coolest password manager I've ever seen.

vSphere on Windows 7

Whew! Running the vSphere client on Windows 7 was getting to be a bit of a dire need... got it sorted with some help from the interwebs.